Tips For Better Health

Weight is something the entire world today is obsessed about, every woman wants to be a stick thin insect, and every man wants to have a body rippling with muscles. People pick their own ways to get there, and some don't pick a way at all, just keep wanting it, but don't do anything to proactively achieve that. I belonged to the latter category pretty much all my life. I belong to a family, which completely lives to eat, and when I say eat, I am referring to food that has our mouth watering, but the body would be a lot better off, starving instead. Food also was my comfort zone all my life, it was the one thing that made me happy, or feel comforted, or just generally at ease. Pretty much everything in my life was forever related to food, be it celebrations or anxiety, or distress, my answer to everything in life was, and to a certain extent, still is, food. I ate, when I had nothing to do, and I ate junk.

I love physical activity, but the lifestyle did not always permit exclusive time for that. Setting aside time exclusively for exercising is not so much my thing, as is playing or running or cycling, things which have me outdoors, and breathing in fresh air. Last year when I began my quest for a fitter, healthier me, and also one, that could fit into clothes available in the market, a lot of things had to change, most importantly my attitude and mindset. I realise that, now, having come through almost a year since I started. I know a lot of people out there are working hard and desperately wanting a body to die for, mostly inspired by all that we see around us defined as beauty. Since coming to Melbourne, I am amazed to see new moms, flaunting modeling worthy waif like figures, and these are regular women I am talking about. In fact the other day, while walking down, I saw this gorgeous woman walking towards me on the side walk. She was a looker alright, with a really nice figure. After a while she turned to get into her car, and it was then that I saw her profile, and realised she was heavily pregnant. I was amazed at how these women manage to have pregnancies like Angelina Jolie, basically meaning, that there is only a baby bump and not a single ounce of weight added anywhere else on their body. Maybe its the genes, maybe its the lifestyle. But not everyone is that lucky, and a lot, or rather most Indian women do put on weight during pregnancy, and many don't have it just melting off their bodies, like the books say it would. For me nothing but sheer hard work worked.

Having reached halfway to where I need to be, I thought of sharing some tips, which have worked for me, and which I hope can aid, someone out there who needs to find a start.

• Diet and exercise and the corner-stones of health and fitness, anything else is a sham, and is likely to cause more harm to your body than help it.
• The goal should be to get fitter, healthier NOT just to lose weight or have specific measurements. THINK HEALTH, not weight, and you will get more than what you want.
  
• Only dieting or just exercising will not get you the that a combination of both would, and both are equally important when looking at health improvements. A strenuous workout followed by a bucket full of KFC will not end up giving you anything.
  
• Start small. Don't try a 2 hour workout routine on the first day, start by a simple 20-30 mins walk daily. Keep the walk focused on exercising your body, try and make it brisk, don't stroll. If you have not been actively exercising your body, warm it up, to get into a state where it can handle strenuous workouts, if you jump into something big, the chances of hurting stiff muscles or burning out is very high.
• Eat well, no need to starve, just eat healthy food, don't need a complete diet revamp, but think healthier. We all know the basic rules, like less fat, more vegetables, more raw foods. Keep that in mind while cooking or eating each meal. Pick the brown/wholegrain bread, reduce the oil you use to cook, mix up your grains, don't eat late at night, add fresh juices n salads to your meals. Its not easy to completely change your food-habits overnight, instead gradually introduce the healthier foods, and balance the quantity intake, of whats not quite that healthy and the only healthy way to eat is to balance. A certain amount fat is as needed by the body as are fresh fruits.
  
• Drink atleast 2-3 litres of water each day to get rid of all the toxins in your body.
• When eating, always think of the nutrition the food is giving your body. Even if it is chocolate, think of the cocoa in it, and how great it is for your body.
  
• Avoid processed food, no matter how low in fat it claims to be. Its not just about counting calories, its about eating things that make your body healthier and better, and enables it to be better at burning off calories. A low-fat pack of wafers is doing the body no good.
  
• Sleep is very very important. Especially once you start working out, which means your body is getting stressed and strained, going through wear and tear. It needs some extra hours of rest to recoup itself. 8 hours is what is called a good night's sleep, for a reason, let your body get that. If it does not get enough rest, the body gets fatigued and tiered, and that just reverses all the effects of your efforts.
• If you occasionally binge, or eat something, that makes you feel bad, don't let the feeling stay, walk it off. Just go for a walk, so that you burn off the calories, and get off the guilt. And if it is something that is unhealthy, balance it with a glass of fresh juice or a fruit or salad.
• There is loads of information on the Internet, read up, it helps you understand things and make better choices. Just saying, avoid sugar is no good, unless you know why. So read up and find out what you need to do, and why. That will also help you find alternatives for what you do, and keep you more flexible and the entire change easier to adapt to.
• Make exercising fun, not a chore, that will help you keep at it consistently. Pick up a sport, if gyms bore you, go to the gym for a change of pace sometimes, and also to find people to motivate you. Do what you have fun doing, not something that you need to do. And that is the only way you will see it making a long term difference.
• Whatever else you do, don't overwork or starve yourself, because it will hurt you more than help, develop your routine gradually, and by testing your strengths and weaknesses, so that you can make it a lifestyle change, rather than a short-term activity to attain a certain dimension or weight.
  

Every body, and every person is different, and so no one can help you, better than yourself. And there can be no generalisations. Find out what works for you, keeping the basic rules in mind, and then keep at it. Natural news is a site I have personally found very useful in helping me understand dietary requirements of the body and how to work on it. Hop over for a read if you like.

Personally I need to get back on top of my routine. Since I left Sharjah, I have been piling on the pounds, due to lack of exercise, and being nowhere close to the routine I had established. The diet has gone haywire too, with a lot of sweet chocolaty things making their way into my mouth. The stay in India could not have been without roadside Chinese, samosas and more. I think I ate up, upto 4 samosas at one go at times. Oh! I so crave those deep friend pieces of pure sin. And hence I am now paying the price of it all. I desperately need to get back into a healthy lifestyle again, and am working towards it, slipping off every other day, but trying alright. Hope these tips help you. And may I say I am no health/fitness/medical expert, and every bit in this post is based on my personal experience.

Morning Mix-Ups and An Old Man

Yesterday morning, I was out for my walk/fitness regime/couch25K program, as part of the DHs insistence that I do it in the morning, and don't pretend to work out in the evening, and be unavailable for family time. Good enough, though it kills me, I am trying to be up a little early, to go out for about twenty odd minutes of lumbering around, and then be back and feed myself off to glory. Yesterday, I had the podcast plugged into my ears, and off I went, and was about 7 or 8 minutes into the program when I hit a road crossing signal. I paused the podcast and waited for my turn to cross. When I got on the other side, I wanted to rewind the podcast just a teeny weeny bit, so that I could retrace some of it, and pffffff it went, back to the previous song on my playlist. What do you think I did, I tried to get it back to the point where I had left it, but could not. I had the option to re-start my walk/run, but the lazy me would never re-do 8 minutes, and so I though it would be best to just head back home, turned around and did just that. I was unhappy, because it felt like I had given up my sweet morning sleep for absolutely nothing!

As I was coming back, yesterday being Monday, I saw the garbage bins of all the houses lined up in front of them, all along the street. Not having the pressure of listening carefully to the instructions being screamed into my ears, and attempting to follow them, makes for a more observant me definitely. At one place I see a few bins lined up, an old man holding on to one of the bins, and bending down. I could not see him, but just his hand and him bending. I was at a bit of a distance at that point and thought, something must have fallen off the bin while he was placing it, and hence he is bending over to put it back in. I get closer, and by then the man is almost standing, and from what I see he is holding the bin for support, to climb up about 4 inches onto the sidewalk from the service lane. His fingers looked quite swollen, and his grip weak. And there he was standing for atleast 2-3 minutes, trying to climb just 4 inches!

Old people live on their own, that is the way things work over here. I see really old people, shopping at the supermarkets on their own, using public transport, going out for walks, driving around and everything. In India, it is not usual to see older people on their own, or being fit enough to manage life on their own. While it surprised me initially, I was amazed to see how fit these people were, living alone. And then I saw this man and it broke my heart. Wonder if he lives alone, or has someone back home, I could see that he was in pain, and it can definitely not be easy going on with life as usual, when it is so tough to just get on the sidewalk. The image stayed in my mind for a really really long time after I saw it. And it bothered me. How fragile are we, we are all heading towards old age, the inevitable death and yet we live our lives as if we are immortals. How hard would it be to be in the condition the old man was, old, fragile, in pain, maybe no one to care for him. How would it feel being unable to take care of yourself, go about your day? It kind of brought back to me the reason Lord Buddha gave up his royal pleasures, and riches, and went to meditate in the forest. How flimsy and superficial every material comfort and possession seems indeed, when we see pain and death.

Earlier such things did not register much with me, but becoming a mother has changed me in the way I think, feel, perceive, observe, react. And that is possibly the reason that old man stayed on in my mind for so so long, after I saw him. The GP tells me, that is the cycle of life, and we cannot alter it, and worrying about it only means losing the precious moments I have now. I agree, but just keep thinking how worthless it all might be if that is the way we are all meant to end up. And then again there is a purpose in our life, for which we are born, I am sure brooding and anxiously anticipating the future woes is not the purpose of it.

On a side note, having to take care not to step on fresh dog poop on the side walks in the morning just does not feel good, I am sure people with dogs can take care to clean up behind their pets, esp since there are NO strays here. A small dog ran into my legs today morning, and scared the living daylights out of me, it was just let loose, the gates of the house wide open. It was cute, but having a dog between my legs, unexpectedly does shock me, and I am anyways a bit wary of animals I don't know, though I love them and would never hurt them, but I won't go and cuddle them either, if their owners are not around, or I am not specially familiar with the creature, shows I have never owned a pet doesn't it? People with dogs, please take care of your pets, and their...errrr....stuff.

Bidding a Farewell

2009, to me was a year that came, and went, and I gladly bid good bye to it. No, it wasn't a horrible horrible year, but it was a year where bad things happened, to bring out the good, something like the hardest tests are needed to bring out a person's biggest strengths. I did find parts of me, that I had never known existed, I found a side of myself that I never knew could be there, and prove to myself that I can beat my worst vices with true determination. So that sounds like a year I should be proud of is it not? Maybe in due time I will be, for the strengths that showed, the true friends I found in the tough times, and yet all that remains with me is the test, the fear, the pain. So for now, 2009 does not go into my list of best years spent!

The end of the year however saw a dramatic turn of events. It was good, it was a revelation, and it was positive. We moved places, and I am happy being where I am. I found a spiritual channelisation, that I am trying hard to hold on to and keeping the flame alive within. I think I was long hankering for something strong and positive to influence me, and it finally came to me in the form of something that was relateable, and made perfect sense to me. Has it changed me completely? No, but I see something positive developing, which I hope to nurture and nourish as much as I can. It is strange to see, how in a way life has come a full circle, I am going back to the thoughts and lifestyle my grandmother stressed on, and its strange how those small teachings from childhood are re-surfacing with the new learnings, how every small tale I had heard is suddenly shining in new light in the new things that I am learning. I just hope that I don't let go this time.

The year also ended with the goofy gang landing up in a new place. A place that seems full of promise and niceness so far. Fortunately I have some friends here, and they have shown amazing support, so its been much easier settling in. Its different (yes indeed, like the Maggi ketchup), is all I will say about this place, till I do a detailed post on it, hopefully soon.

As a family, I don't think 2009 had a lot to offer to us. We are poorer by a house, and of course money. But then we get some, we lose some right? So I guess we are doing OK on that front. Else as a year 2009 was nothing exceptional, nothing exceptionally amazing happened, and it was only towards the end that the year turned around a bit for the better, besides ofcourse the BB having one of his worst illnesses till date, which just did not seem ready to go away.

So what do I take away from 2009? Hopefully better health, and left all the scary excess weight I was carrying, and I have left behind a wardrobe full of clothes that had become too huge for me to fit into. This is not the best photo to have as the first photo of the new year for this blog, but this is the best of 2009 for me, so here, I am sharing it with you.(I give in, and give you a typical before and after shot!)


Bye bye 2009. Though you will not be one of the best years of my life, I will always remember you, for what you gave me, just as you were leaving.

The Ring That Fits The Finger

is the one that makes me exuberant. My first ever diamond ring, the one the BG bought me, for my birthday four years back. Nothing fancy or expensive, but my first diamond jewelery none the less. I remember our after office sojourn to the Tanishq store to find the ring, have it resized and then finally my wearing it. Diamond happens to be my birthstone and I was so excited to wear it, and I imagined life to be better after I wore the ring. As they say, it is all in the mind. I wore it all the time, along with my wedding ring.

Then I conceived. The pregnancy involved a lot of eating, and complete bed rest. To say I ballooned up is putting it mildly. The fingers started swelling up, and I got the rings off my finger before they could get stuck. And that is the way they remained till date. I bought a couple of new larger sized rings, ones that fit my finger, and wore them. I got rid of all my pre-pregnancy clothes, convinced I would never get back to where I was. For a clothes' lover like me, that meant wardrobes full of clothes, some barely worn, some still awaiting their first appearance. My heart broke, in ways only I will know. More than a year after delivery, when my weight was not coming down, I gave up hope, I felt I was stuck in my huge form for life. I looked bloated, unhealthy and enormous to say the least. I am not giving figures here, but I am not the kind who would cry at gaining two hundred grams, here I was closing in on a century. I used to take the rings out of my safe once in a while, trying them on unsuccessfully, and mournfully returning them to their box.

Moved in to a new place, with central air conditioning, and yummy fattening food easily available, fast food joints at a few seconds walk from home, and I piled on some more pounds. The clothes I had stitched just before leaving India, fit a bit more smugly than when they were stitched. Things just went from bad to worse. I was tiered of being huge. My dreams of being a yummy mummy forever dashed, and trying to reconcile with the idea of being a huge, comforting pillow instead.

This year started on a new note. I found a new friend, Roop. If there is a guardian angel for each one of us, then mine, put me onto Roop. In the real world, I would never have been her friend, really. And we are as different as chalk and cheese in the most obvious ways, and yet there are the commonalities, in the more basic things in life, like principles, beliefs, thoughts. This world of blogs has given me such amazing friends, and she is one of the finest. Gradually she started urging me to do something about my weight. She helped and guided me to start, taught me how to work smart about it. Her own eating habits, and tips on cooking, made me more aware of my nutritional needs, and helped me get over my emotional eating habits. She was candid and genuine, and called a spade a spade to shake me out of my unhealthy, unfit slumber. And the process started working, like nothing else ever had, every time I got stuck, she showed me a new way to try. She motivated me to keep at it, and encouraged me to work harder. If there is one person who deserves appreciation for my efforts, as much as myself, it is her. The weight finally began to drop. "A" and Sraikh, gave me amazing inputs, having treaded the path themselves. It is amazing how they took the efforts to respond to each and every query I had, write in detailed replies, document all the information and share it with me. I love you guys, you rock. "A", actually made me a worksheet, and offered more help at every step, and she did it even without me asking. All my efforts have been based on advice from blogger friends and their encouragement.

It was beyond my wildest beliefs, when the scales started tilting downward. It had been so long, with only gains, that a drop was quite unbelievable. Even the BG did not take notice till the first five kilos were gone, and it changed the figure in the tens place.Then in May, my heart broke, when blood tests revealed somethings, which sent me into a pit of depression. I dreaded my very existence, and poured my heart out to Monika and Roop. They both actually supported me better than I could have imagined, Heard out my sorrow tales for days, till I snapped out of it, and knew that I am going to be good, and fine. And as I usually do, I emerged out of the ordeal stronger than I was before.

So over the last five months, the weight has reduced, the stats are shrinking, but more slowly than I would like them to. And as the weight melts I get motivated to work more for it, and I have so many wonderful people I can ask for help, whenever I feel something is not working for me. But there are always dampers. Like a relative who saw a recent photo of mine, and spent precious bucks to call me up and ask me if I have lost weight, because it seemed so in the photo, and expressed concerns, that I may in fact become thinner than her. Considering the fact that she is well into her fifties, this was really a corny statement. On the face of it, she always encouraged me to try and lose weight, and look good. But the reality became apparent with her call. I should remain the fat one, who she can shower sympathies on, and advice, but dare I actually lose weight. This incident totally got my goat. I had to actually mail her some fat bad photos of mine, to convince her that I am still enormous, and no threat to her beauty. That also made me more determined, and wiser about her true nature. So all in all good for me I say. Such strange people are the reason, I am not sharing my news with anyone, but the wonderful friends I have here.

I am yet far from my normal BMI, a long way off actually,have just managed to move into the overweight category from the obese, but atleast now I have hope that I will get there, the process has started, my efforts are showing results. And I am happy. The BG actually went out and bought me some diamond jewellery when I crossed one of the milestones, and we were both so happy, not just because I am losing weight, but because I am gaining health. Coming with a family history of cholesterol issues, high blood sugar problems, heart disease, excess weight can actually be a killer for me.

About the title of the post? Well, the diamond ring, fit back on my finger today(actually 2 days back, July 22nd). Ecstatic is what I am. Last night before sleeping, I felt my current rings almost slip off my my fingers, I was pleasantly surprised. Today morning I took them off, to keep them aside, so that I don't lose them. And just on a whim, I tried on my first diamond ring, and it slipped onto my finger. Slightly smug, but got there alright. And that has been the most sure shot sign of the fact that I indeed am getting thinner. Wish me luck, and hope that I reach the goal I have set for myself for the end of this year, not the final one, but just a reasonable one. The final weight goal, which will basically be my entry the normal BMI range is set for end of next year. Not a size zero, but a healthy body is what I am aiming for. And yes, the ring is back on my finger.