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February 3, 2015 By MANISHA GURAM Leave a Comment

Indulge: Eat Without Feeling Guilty!

food

Ever since I have started health counselling, I have met at least 8 out of 10 people who go through a guilt factor after having eaten foods that they love the most.. Some of these people literally hate themselves for having done that. For most of these individuals an outing/ family occasion/weekend/holiday means more worry about weight and less enjoyment.

Some of them miss meeting their friends and have stopped living their life because they don’t want to indulge while they are out.

Are you one of them?

If you are then, you must know that worry puts you and your body through stress and stress releases a hormone called cortisol which in turn promotes fat storage in our body. It increases the heart rate and breathing too. All of this can make one sick.

Cortisol makes you depressed and creates an imbalance in the biochemical reactions of the body. If you are worried about your health and weight, you must also be aware of the connection between the body and your mind. Our emotions share biochemical links with our digestive, nervous, endocrine and the immune system.

You must keep your negative thoughts and guilt away, else it will add up to stress. Your body will not be able to digest the food when you are very stressed! It’s like trying to stop a bull when he gets out of control. It’s just a’int going to happen. Everyone has one weakness in food it could be a brownie, an ice cream cake, cheese cake, Pizzas, burgers and the likes that can make you go off track. For me it’s the brownie cake and oh yes how can I forget Pizzas! If one keeps feeling guilty about these foods one in a way then guilt is going to take the pleasure out of eating.

I would say eating without guilt is the key to keeping yourself healthy. It’s about enjoyment, spending time with family and at the same time having a balance in everything you do. One should not worry unless you know you are eating extra everyday.

You must remember that there are no bad foods, there are just poor habits.

If you can form good habits over a period of time, eventually you will build a healthier you and start eating in moderation without guilt.

Here are some tips to eat guilt free and keep yourself in shape:

* Eat a bowl of salad before heading for a dine out as it will add on to the fiber in take, so while you enjoy family favorite, fiber will help you keep full for longer time.

*Enjoy your favorite food, savor it, eat mindfully, slow eating will automatically lead to portion control.

*Hydrate your body cells well, the craving for junk might be just that your body is thirsty.

*Moderation is the key.

*Don’t forget to add greens along with your favorite food.

*One meal or one food doesn’t make you healthy or unhealthy, worry is less healthier.

* Emotions are important, try to build good connect with people around you and contribute to the society, that will help you keep yourself positive and increase your serotonin levels. (The feel good hormone), in a way you are doing good to yourself while doing good to others.

*Remember a workout is not about just going to gym, it’s about doing what you love, it can be dancing, chasing dog,washing car,gardening, cycling, have a life out of weight loss.

*Sleep well it will help restoring mind and body.

* Emotional eating due to stress is a part of life, try to reduce it by getting into hobbies, if you are finding it difficult to manage, relaxation techniques like breathing,meditation and yoga will help,feel good about yourself,live this moment, try to focus on present.

*Try adding food instead of subtracting and starving yourself, eating at regular interval helps your body boost metabolism.

*Slurp your juicy favorite fruits in the first half of the day when you are going to party out.

*Try switching from beer/diet sodas to wine.

*Go walking when the weather’s nice and you are looking pretty, enjoy the wind that shall make you move.

*Share your meals with your partner/friend so that you don’t stuff yourself.

*Don’t worry if you overeat a little, make sure of regular exercise and balancing out meals.

I would say shed off the guilt and move on!

January 21, 2015 By Vrushali Athavle 1 Comment

What time is the best time to exercise?

Today, everybody is well aware of the importance of exercising. People want to come out of their sedentary and a very uncertain lifestyle routine due to constant travelling but, how and when to invest this 30 to 40 minute for exercise regime in such hectic schedules is a BIG QUESTION??

If you ask me, when is the best time to exercise, my answer would be in the MORNING, for several reasons such as

It boost’s your metabolism and keeps it elevated for several hours; meaning you are burning more calories all the day long
You psychologically feel healthy because you started your day in a healthy way which motivates you to make the remaining day healthy as well.
If you have a fixed exercise time in the morning, you are eventually motivated to develop the habit of sleeping on time to wake up on time.
Many a times it happens that people don’t find time to exercise. In such cases best thing to do is to sleep half an hour earlier at night then you usually sleep and wake up half an hour earlier in the morning and utilize that time to exercise. Research shows that people who exercise regularly have a higher quality of sleep and hence require less sleep.

But, friends this is not the end. If at all you miss exercising in the morning or many are not morning people and do not prefer to exercise in the morning, for them the next good time is in the evenings after office. Exercising in the evening can act as a stress reliever after a hectic day.

Due to erratic work schedules, keeping a fixed time for evening workouts can be difficult for some people and hence they end up missing the evening workout too. People end up saying Ohho, yet another day is over and I missed my workout once again. Can I go for a walk after my dinner? The answer is definitely YES but you have to take care that you keep a gap of 2 hours between your dinner and walk. The reason behind this is that, when you go for a walk immediately after your dinner, the blood flow is diverted towards your legs instead of stomach and then digestion is hampered which is not what we aim for.

A new interesting and fun part of exercise comes in when you have a large group working out with you. Start a healthy trend in your office. For some people, lunch time is the best time to exercise, especially in the office along with their colleagues. We do this at our workplace at GOQii . On the days, I am not able to exercise in the morning, I am not much worried as in the office we have developed this habit of working out together just before our lunch.

People who are still confused which time can be best, try to exercise in the morning for a few weeks, then try at noon and then evening. Find out for yourself which is the time you enjoyed the most and which time made you feel the best. Also consider the type of exercise and other daily commitments.

One day, you’ll reach a point where daily exercise comes as naturally as breathing. At that point, you may want variety. But, if you’re still at the point where exercise is hit or miss, scheduling it for the same time each day will help you make it a habit. Whether you choose morning, lunch time, or after work to exercise, make it part of your routine.

To conclude, any time is good time to be active , its just that you need to find out for yourself and be consistent till it becomes a habit for you.

January 16, 2015 By Aqsa Shaikh 3 Comments

Protein importance for muscles strength

Sometimes we wonder how to build up protein, one very important thing that crops up in every human’s mind in terms of muscle development is “weight training” which is in a way correct, weight training is very important to build those muscles but diet is equally important. Wight training — creates microscopic tears in your muscles.

The nutrients you eat determine how well your muscles repair these tears and, in turn, how much strength you gain. Apart from eating healthful food, you must get enough sleep and eat frequent meals for the greatest muscular strength. Do you know that your fitness is 70% of your diet and 30% of your workouts?

For an example you have your vehicle, a car but you don’t have its key… Will you be able to drive the car? Absolutely not… Similarly, here the weight training is the car, and the key is your diet, a perfect amount of protein is very necessary for your muscle development. The most important nutrient in muscle repair, which allows your muscles to become stronger, is protein.

The Amount of protein for a sedentary person would be Approx 0.5 to 0.8 Grams, and for a active person who do rigorous activities, he needs at least 1.5 to 1 gram of protein for 1Kg. Protein is a macro nutrient necessary for the proper growth and function of the human body.. Any excess protein is turned into energy by the body. A deficiency in protein leads to muscle atrophy, and impaired functioning of the human body in general.

Ideal sources for building strength are complete protein sources, rather than incomplete proteins, states the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Complete proteins contain each of the nine essential amino acids. Sources include milk, yogurt, eggs, cheese, soy products, poultry, fish and meat. For the best benefit to your strength, consume a source of complete protein within 30 minutes of finishing your workout

Some of the good protein options are:-

1-Turkey and chicken breast

2-Fish ( tuna, salmon, halibut )

3-Cheese ( Non-fat mozzarella )

4-Lean beef ( Low fat )

5-Tofu

6-Beans ( Mature soy beans )

7-Eggs ( Egg whites specially )

8-Yougurt, milk and soy milk

9-Nuts and seeds (Pumpkin and watermelon seeds, peanuts and almond )

So the next time you are going to prepare for your muscle build up, try to keep these things in mind. And keeping these things on track doesn’t mean that you avoid the other nutrients. They are equally important.

January 7, 2015 By Mitali Ambekar Leave a Comment

CARBOHYDRATES’- Seven Engines of POWER SUPPLY

Carbohydrates is the first source of energy to the body. It is one of the most important major nutrients, which also means we need it in major quantity. Thus, recommended to have about 60% in our daily food intake. It has one of the best advantages to our overall health.

Provides Energy: Our body requires energy to do even simple activity like moving from one place to another and carbohydrates helps us in that. So whichever the activity is walking, running, playing a sport, working in office or writing a blog –all require energy.
Elevates mood: Carbohydrates help you release Serotonin in our body which in turn will elevate your mood and give you the feel good factor. Remember the feeling when you have a spoonful of Dal rice or Hot phulka with vegetable when you are super hungry, exactly the same feeling. You feel relaxed and calm.
Muscle Recovery: Talking about muscle doesn’t mean only sports person require them. We all have muscles in our body that go through wear and tear with our daily activities too. Thus, we all need this wonder nutrient to recover our muscles, as they need to restore their deposits in form of Glycogen( stored form of glucose)
Helps prevent disease: The fibre that comes with this carbohydrates help us prevent many diseases like Diabetes, Hypertension, Heart problems , Constipation and many more.
Weight loss: This point may grab your attention, as it really helps in losing your weight indirectly. When we have the much needed carbohydrates, the body will not take up protein as a source of energy to work, thus avoiding muscle loss and in turn keeping the body’ metabolism high.

Carbohydrate intake-> Protein Sparing-> Muscle intact-> Metabolism high-> Burn more fat -> Weight loss.

One more reason being, the slow release carbohydrates helps in slow release of insulin in body, which in turn can avoid weight gain.

Good Memory: Glucose is the key brain fuel, which comes from carbohydrates and various studies have also shown that people who have a regular intake of carbohydrates have a better memory than the ones who avoid it.
Fuel for fitness: Sports person, runners, people doing regular exercises, they all need carbohydrates as the first source of fuel before, during and after the activity. As the body will use it the most and they can’t afford to lose muscle as a source of energy. If the body loses a lot of muscle, the joint strengthening is compromised leading to injury.

There are various such benefits of carbohydrates which we miss by avoiding them in our daily intake. Carbohydrates have a bad name in weight loss industry, as they say excess of it will make you put on fat, well anything of that sort happens.

So my suggestion is do not avoid carbs. It has such an important role to play in our healthy and fitter lifestyle.