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Ways to become “mindful”

meditation

Learning to focus the mind can be a powerful antidote to the stress and strains of our fast-paced on-the-go lives. The ability to pay attention to what you’re experiencing from moment to moment — without drifting into thoughts of the past or concerns about the future, or getting caught up in opinions about what is going on — is called ‘Mindfulness’.


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This basic mindfulness meditation exercise is easy to learn and practice.

  1. Firstly, sit on a straight-backed chair, or cross-legged on the floor.
  2. Focus on an aspect of your breathing, such as the sensations of air flowing into your nostrils and out of your mouth, or your belly rising and falling as you inhale and exhale.
  3. Once you’ve narrowed your concentration in this way, begin to widen your focus. Become aware of sounds, sensations, and ideas.
  4. Embrace and consider each thought or sensation without judging it as good or bad. If your mind starts to race, return your focus to your breathing. Then expand your awareness again.

The effects of mindfulness meditation tend to be dose-related — the more you practice it, the more benefits you usually experience.

A less formal approach can also help you stay in the present and fully engage in your life. You can practice mindfulness at any time or during any task, whether you are eating, showering, walking, touching a partner, or playing with a child. Here’s how:

  • Start by bringing your attention to the sensations in your body.
  • Breathe in through your nose, allowing the air to move downward into your lower belly. Let your abdomen expand fully. Then breathe out through your mouth. Notice the sensations of each inhalation and exhalation.
  • Proceed with the task at hand slowly and with full deliberation.
  • Engage your senses fully. Notice each sight, touch, and sound so that you savour every sensation.
  • When you notice that your mind has wandered from the task at hand, gently bring your attention back to the sensations of the moment.

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The Brain-boosting foods

mixed-nuts-kernels

We are very well aware that what we eat affects our body. Not-so-surprisingly, it also affects our mood, the brain functioning, our memory, and even our ability to think, handle stress or simple daily tasks.

Maintaining weight and staying fit shouldn’t be the only goal, but we also need to make sure we eat the right foods so that our body functions at its best and our organs stay healthy too. I would now like to throw some light on the high-powered organic engine of our body- The Brain!

Our brain regulates innumerable complex functions in our body and is constantly working even when we sleep! It stores an incredible amount of information in the form of images, texts and concepts.

We need to ensure that we constantly supply the fuel that our brain needs for its round the clock functioning. The best fuel for our brain is- Glucose, which is obtained from the carbohydrate-rich foods that we consume- Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, etc.

Apart from this main driving fuel, our brain also requires certain specific nutrients just like our heart, lungs or muscles do, to run efficiently.

Nutrients like Vitamin E, iron, folate, essential fatty acids (EPA and DHA), vitamin C, B12, zinc, etc. play a vital role in our cognitive functioning.

Let’s have a look at the foods are particularly important to keep our grey matter happy-

1) Nuts-

Nuts, especially walnuts and almonds, are extremely good for the brain and nervous system. They are packed with omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids, vitamin B6, and vitamin E. Our brain is made up of 60% fat and low levels of good fats in food and body can contribute to depression, Alzheimer’s, and dementia. Vitamin E has been shown to prevent dementia by protecting the brain from free radicals.

2) Fatty Fish-

The active form of omega-3 fats, i.e. EPA and DHA, occur naturally in fatty fish like tuna, salmon, mackerel, sardines, herring, etc. Make sure you do not fry these fish as Omega 3 gets destroyed at high temperatures. Steaming or grilling is the best method to cook fish.

DHA is an essential during pre and postnatal brain development. In infants, DHA is needed for the growth of brain cells and other brain structures. It has not only shown to improve memory but also prevents the age-related memory loss. Greater incorporation of DHA into cell membranes prevents the brain, especially the neurons from oxidative stress.

3) Dark Green Leafy Vegetables-

Vegetables like collard greens, spinach, broccoli are good sources of B complex vitamins, beta-carotene, iron, folic acid, fibre, etc. These nutrients protect against free radicals and excavate the heavy metals that can damage the brain.

Folic acid is linked to lowering the levels of homocysteine ( a non-protein amino acid) in the blood, which otherwise may trigger the death of nerve cells in the brain.

4) Avocados-

This creamy treat is a rich source of MUFA, omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids. It also comes with many antioxidants of its own, including vitamin E and Vitamin C, which protects the body and the brain from free radical damage.

5) Sunflower and Pumpkin seeds

They are packed with Vitamin E and contain a rich mix of protein, omega fatty acids, and B complex vitamins. These seeds also contain tryptophan, which the brain converts into serotonin to boost mood and combat depression.

We can sprinkle them on top of our salad or consume directly as a snack… well, I would say, a Brain-boosting Snack!

6) Berries:

These are antioxidant powerhouse which protects the brain from oxidative damage due to the free radicals which can prevent premature ageing, Alzheimer’s and dementia. The flavonoids in the berries also improve the nervous impulse transmission, improve memory, learning, and all cognitive functions.

7) Dark Chocolate:

Here’s a good news for the chocolate lovers! The flavonols in chocolate improve blood vessel functioning, which in turn ensures smooth flow of blood to the brain thereby improving our cognitive functions and memory. Chocolate also stabilizes our mood and eases our pain (goes without saying). Hey, but not to forget, moderation is the key! 2 pieces of 70-80% dark chocolate are more than enough to keep our mood and the brain cells happy.

It’s a list of simple foods that are easily available and we do consume these on and off. We can now pay a special attention to them and consume them more often to keep our Brain super-healthy!

 

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“#FitBy40: To lose 40 KGS by the time I turn 40”


Arjun-Narayan

He led a sedentary lifestyle for several years until one day he realized that he had crossed the barrier of being unhealthy. Here is Arjun Narayan’s inspirational story in his own words.

I couldn’t believe my ears when the guy at the Levi’s store said, “Sir, a 32” size jeans would be perfect for you”. I was shocked because I always wore a 44” jeans until recently!

My normal day would start pretty late. If early, I would begin my day at 8 AM or even 9 AM depending on how late I slept the previous night. I had absolutely no grip on my meals, the greasier and tastier the meal – the higher the chances that I would go for it. I led sedentary lifestyle and walked less than 2,000 steps a day. Dinner times would be erratic and could be as bad as 2 AM. Beer cans would get opened for the smallest event that called for a celebration. All in all, it was as bad as it could get. I also stated that I probably get a zero for a quiz about nutrition or what protein was, what carbohydrates are as my knowledge on this was absolute zilch.

Before a doctor could ask me to get the situation under control regarding my health, I wanted to take charge. Another thing that kept bothering me was, I could never purchase a ready to wear trouser from the market as most brands did not cater to a 44” waist size.

I decided to hire a personal gym trainer. My story was similar to many out there who join the gym to lose weight. I was regular at the gym for a period of three months, but I did not shed a single gram of weight.

When I analysed to check what was I doing wrong– I realised, despite working out in the gym there was absolutely no discipline on my diet. While, I was battling the dilemma on how to rectify the situation, I bumped into these two statements in an article – ‘Weight Loss is 80% diet and 20% exercise’ and ‘Abs are made in the kitchen’. These statements made me think about this entire weight loss program in a different way”. Now, I knew that I had to get a personal coach who can advise me on diet and be by my side if I wanted this weight loss exercise to get anywhere”.

I had been following Vishal Gondal on Twitter for about 2 years and I knew about GOQii. What made GOQii interesting was the ‘services’ component to the business in addition to the product. I never evaluated any other option as I knew it had to be GOQii. Any other band would not solve the problem as I would have the data – but the bigger concern was not knowing what to do with the data.

In Jan 2016, I took up GOQii and came up with a project for myself #FitBy40 and the goal of the project was to lose 40 KGS by the time I turn 40 (which is this month). By the 9th month – 5th September to be precise, I had lost 36 KGS! I started my GOQii journey at 115.1 KGS and by September I was at 79 KGS.

Today, diet and exercising is my pet topic. I get up at 5:30 AM and on bad days it is not later than 7:15 AM.

I attribute my success to my GOQii coach Kruti Jain. While, I have been extremely sincere and diligent about the entire process, she is the one who gave me the direction.

In the beginning she started advising me on what kind of a meal would be ideal for me, and it gradually started building from there. As I started seeing the results, I was motivated to push harder.

Now I can hold fitness sessions for an hour to a group of people and tell them how they can get a grip on stuff and the best part is that it is practical and doable. A year ago, I would have felt that this would be impossible to achieve – but trust me it is very doable. Today, people come up to me and say that I am an inspiration to them and it feels so good and if I have to look back, I don’t think I could have achieved any of this without Kruti’s assistance.

A normal day in my life ‘today’ looks like this:

My day starts with 2 hours of tennis / an hour in the gym and then I go for a swim in the evenings or for a walk. A newly opened restaurant in town doesn’t excite me anymore. What excites me is going for a run on the treadmill and running for 45 minutes or playing tennis for 2 hours. What excites me even more is going to a readymade garment store and trying out new trousers as my waist size is now down to 32″ from 44″. The last I had worn a 32″ jeans was probably in 1999 or so or maybe even earlier.

What does Coach,Kruti Jain have to say about her player Arjun Narayan?

Arjun came on board with a goal of bringing his weight down to 70 kgs (ideal body weight). He further specified the goal by saying that he would like to get to a 2 digit weight, i.e, 99 kgs within 5-6 weeks (about 10 kg loss)

Achieving such a goal would’ve required drastic dietary modifications and intense workouts. I explained to him the challenges expected on this path and tried convincing him to choose a rather easier and sustainable path of correcting the lifestyle which will automatically lead him to his health goal. He did agree to this but, only in words (for the sake of it).

As a coach, I helped him understand the nature and the nutritive quality of different foods, the trick of balancing meals, healthy snacking, and the impact of foods or lack of food / nutrients on our behaviour and food choices (cravings). These are just a few points to mention but our discussions went beyond the basics.

On the workout front, he chose his activities on his own as doing something of your interest is what keeps you going. I only helped him change and modify the workouts when his body got used to these activities.

According to me, what helped in this case was the player’s strong determination to get to his goal. He was religious in monitoring his progress and kept revising his plans and targets. Not only that, if the progress wasn’t as expected for a particular week, he had me reason it out & find out the limiting factors.

If I asked him to slow down (workouts) or to not be so strict on the diet front (to avoid its negative impact on his health), he would try to understand the “Why?” in detail and argue if not convinced. You just couldn’t stop or slow him down because he could only see the goal and the distance in between them.

Lifestyle before I came on board as his coach:

Diet: He was already following a low fat, high protein diet which was helping him lose weight.

Workout: 1- 1.5 hr of Tennis/ walking everyday

How I helped?

  1. Tried educating him about the negative impact of such diets on health (only proteins or only salads for meals)
  2. Improve satiety quotient of the meals by adding fibre and complex carbs
  3. Balance meals (right proportions of carbs, proteins, fibre& micro- nutrients)
  4. Snacking on nutrient dense foods to avoid deficiencies
  5. Satisfy taste buds without guilt (indulgence on a weekly basis, but in controlled portions)
  6. Deal with cravings and avoiding them
  7. Change the workout at the right time or modify them so that the rate of weight loss does not fall (combination of workouts like swimming/ tennis/ walking/ gym cardio).

These changes helped him sustain the diet and lose weight at such a rate (1.5 kgs/ week)

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Having achieved my goals, I can now proudly declare that my lifestyle has become active

Abhinav Sharma...

He had a hectic work life that left him with little or no time for exercise or any form of fitness regime. It was all work and no play for him. His sedentary lifestyle got the better of him. As a result his eating habits were erratic with no control on what was being eaten. The net result of all this was he had gained weight apart from being unhealthy. The best part was that this 31 year old young man was aware of his issues and was keen on rectifying the situation. And, adapt a healthy lifestyle for a better future. However, he knew he had to make an effort to achieve his goals. Abhinav Sharma’s story in his own words on how he achieved his active lifestyle and health back.

Here is story in his own words

I work in the travel industry and have a very hectic work life due to which I led a very sedentary life style with no activities of any sort. I realised I was becoming nothing more than a couch potato and wanted to change. I tried to gym but could not sustain it. I then started looking for other solutions. I was looking forward for some options which I could follow and better my lifestyle. During the process of my research I came across GOQii. I got to know its features and one of the main things that attracted me was the unique human touch along with technology.

I came on board GOQii as a beta player two years ago. Personalised coaching attracted me and that was also the motivating factor. I knew that if I had to achieve my goals I would need someone to motivate and push me constantly. As soon as I came on board GOQii, I got Shimpli Patil as my coach. She took me through the GOQii ecosystem and explained the whole process which I found very interesting. Then she educated me about real fitness and how you could achieve an active lifestyle and your health goals by taking small steps initially and then gradually increasing the process. She also told me about water intake and also how in the office and while I am travelling I can keep myself active. And finally, she improved my dietary and nutrition habit. I learnt how a good and balanced diet plays an important part in fitness and overall health.

I did exactly what my coach asked me to. It wasn’t easy at all for me to bring about the changes, follow a routine. I would get tired easily but, I was sure I wasn’t going to give up. Soon, walking for 30 minutes became 45 minutes and then an hour. I then added strength training to my fitness and I gradually started walking the path of a healthy and active lifestyle thereby clocking 10,000 steps daily to the current 12000 steps daily. After a year of being on GOQii, I participated and successfully completed the 100 km Oxfam Trailwalker in November 2015.

Now my daily routine includes regular exercising- basic free hand exercise as suggested by my coach and after that I leave for office around 8:30am and in between office hours I take breaks, go for a walk and use the stairs now instead of taking elevators thereby also increasing my step count.

Along with moving and achieving my daily step count I also overhauled my diet. My diet now includes salads, veggies, lentils and fruits. Now, I know about good and bad foods, which is the right diet for me etc. My water intake increased to 3 litres from a mere one litre earlier.

My initial health goals when I came on board GOQii was two pronged. Firstly, to achieve a healthy lifestyle and secondly control my weight. Due to my hectic and erratic work schedule I gained lots of weigh.

Having achieved my goals, I can now proudly declare that my lifestyle has become active but, I still need to achieve more. My weight is also under control thanks to the changes in my diet. I am glad that I am now a part of the GOQii active family. Going for active Sundays here in Delhi and I have met so many like-minded individuals from GOQii family and it only inspires me further. A big thank you to my coach who has been constant source of motivation at every juncture of my journey be it in good times or when I have been low.

Infact, Shimpli has been my motivator for the participation in the 100 km Oxfam Trailwalker. At first when she told me about it and asked me to participate, I did not believe her. I did not think I could achieve my goal of completing 100 km within 48 hours. My first thought was it is really impossible to do that but, my coach told me that it is possible. I then participated in 2015 after a year f achieving some fitness levels.

Oxfam Trailwalker was an eye opener. I met so many personalities and people both young and old and watching them be so fit and walk so much was inspiring and motivating at the same time. My biggest question to myself was.. if they can do it why can’t I? That environment was conducive for someone like me to share my experience and listen to others too. Overall it was truly an outstanding experience.

What does coach Shimpli Patil have to say about Abhinav Sharma?

 

When I had my first interaction with Abhinav, he described himself as a ‘Lazy Person’. He had some really good health goals in mind to achieve but lacked motivation and the right push to achieve them. After a quality chat with him, I explained to him why it was important to achieve those health goals and how we could work together towards achieving these.

Abhinav was convinced and decided to go for it. Time was a challenge for him but, he was ready to realign his schedule in a way which could fit an exercise routine in the morning. He took the time to regularize his daily regime but, yes he could pull it off gradually. Jogging, core exercises, body weight exercises. We moved ahead step by step. The best thing about Abhinav was, he never said NO and when I added extra exercises to his routine. He paced up and he decided not to put a full stop and keep at it.

It is not exercises alone that we worked towards, he also brought about dietary changes wherein I introduced him to the concept of pre and post workout meals, some mid meals (to cut the large gaps between meals) and he learned to keep his dinner light yet balanced. With these wondrous dietary changes along with regular workout routine, there was no doubt he could reach his goals. After few months he noticed a drop in his inches (Fat loss), increase in stamina and endurance while he jogged and ran. He kept feeling better each day.

One day, after having shared his progress with me, he asked me now what next? And I immediately said ‘Let’s Walk 100 km within 48 hours’. ‘You are all set’, I said and he was dumbstruck for few seconds. I made him believe that ‘HE COULD DO IT’ and should have confidence in himself. He decided to take up this incredible challenge. And, guess what he completed it gracefully.

“When you have the will, you can achieve anything that you want!” That’s what Abhinav has proved.

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