Crave Healthy

Every person is so unique with a perspective of their own but when it comes to food cravings, every one falls into one of 2 categories. The ones who succumb immediately and the ones who take just a touch longer. The fact of the matter is, every one gives in at some point or the other. 

No one can be taught how to control their cravings, but I am just gonna share some of the things that I do to stay away from indulging in something. 

Be Proud - say "NO" - I feel so happy and proud to say "No" to my cravings. It feels awesome, not just the first time but every time. It sure does, the "No" means a lot more than just a refusal to something I like. It gives me a sense of power, a control and it feels like  "I own you", and trust me it feels awesome. The "No" might stop me from lingering with the taste of a delicious treat, but for how long does it linger, 2 minutes, 5 minutes, that's about it. But the "No" saves me from the guilt that follows which probably lingers in my mind for hours. So if someone offers me something I wouldn't want to eat, I never feel bad to say "NO". 

The little things - There are few things that I do to stay away from snacking. These little things might sound silly but trust me, they help. I drink a lot of water/ Green tea, the reason, water is good for everyone and water leaves my tummy full, so I don't feel I need to snack on something. Chewing a sugar free gum, I chew gum all the time cos when I am chewing one, I don't feel like spitting it out or snacking on something else. People have advised me that I could brush my teeth or have a mouth wash every now and then. This way my mouth feels clean and I wouldn't feel like snacking.

Don't Skip Meals  - I Never skip a meal, Like how they say, I always  "Roll Out of Bed and Into the Kitchen". I consider a good breakfast is a key to a healthy day. Let's say I sleep for 6 hours and then skip breakfast, the body has been fasting for almost 8 to 10 hours and it runs out of essential nutrients and by the time I get to work I am already craving for some sugar. And the first thing that I find would probably be Donuts, Muffins or Cookies. So I never skip breakfast or any meal for that matter.

What are the Triggers -  There are a few reasons why we indulge / give into our cravings. 

1. We are hungry and crave for a late afternoon snack. To avoid this feeling I always stack up my cube with some raw walnuts, almonds, green tea, granola bars, or some fruit. So whenever I am hungry I just don't go around searching for something to eat cos all I would end up finding is a bag of chips or a cookie. I have friends who stack up good eats in their cars so they can take a walk to the car and snack on something healthy.
2. We are depressed over something not feeling great and give in to some emotional eating. So when I am feeling low I just chew a gum and listen to music, take my mind off eating. If I could, I would go for a run or workout. Put my emotion off for a while and focus on work etc. 
3. The Others - people may just offer something that we are unable to resist. I have found this to be the easiest of things to do. I just say "No". But if all the above mentioned triggers go off at the same time,  I just indulge and deal with it, I make sure I over compensate by eating smaller portions and working out  intensely until I feel better about myself.

Treat yourself every once in a while - I have mentioned about this is in earlier posts as well. I used to, treat myself every once in a while, once a month or so. Gobble up all I would want to eat. This actually helped me in 2 ways. Firstly, I just had to put off my cravings until my next opportunity to treat myself and Secondly it helps my system burn more fat since the system assumes that I would be giving it the same amount of food the following days which I wouldn't be. So all the reserve fat gets used up. But these days I don't do this treating myself any more. Trust me, I don't crave for anything. All I crave for is healthy food/snacks. May be my body or may be my mind got used to it. Now anything that is healthy is what feels tasty to me

Fact - I would be lying if I said it was easy for me. It is tough, lets face it, but all I am saying is "it is doable". We just have to understand that it is extremely difficult to go for a run when it is cold outside or to workout when you all you wanna do is sit and watch TV. We seem to have to drive to workout or go for a run but we fail to a relatively simple thing like saying NO to our cravings. 

Running at 8.5 miles/hour for 45 minutes burns about 650 calories but munching on a bag of chips gets us 400 to 500 calories and a $**T load of sodium and fat in a matter of 2 minutes. It is just not worth it. 

Moreover, I take lot of pride in Eating Right and I love it. I live for myself, and I always do things that I wanna do and not something to please someone else at least when it comes to eating. 

All I can say is I started slowly but started to love what I was doing, I sure was taking control and I found myself Craving Healthy pretty soon. It feels amazing.

Aerobics, Aerobics and more Aerobics

I know what I am gonna write about, I surely do. But how am I gonna word it this time, there is a lot of information so should I just give all the facts around Aerobic exercises and be done with it or should I make it personal like my earlier posts. No reason but just wondering cos there are so many misconceptions/myths when it comes to workouts so if I were the reader, just facts wouldn't cut it for me. I would want a story to go around it, something that people can relate to, something that makes real sense. 

Cool then, this is what I am gonna do, I am gonna make it like a quick interview, me talking to myself, that sounds fun, I do that all the time anyways. I like to be interviewed and I also like to ask questions so this is my best chance.

Question 1: What are Aerobic Exercises?

Workouts that are performed over a longer duration of time to build your endurance are basically Aerobic Exercise.E.g., Running, Skipping, Climbing Stairs, Swimming etc., "Walking is just for lazy people". When you do an aerobic activity, as the name suggests, you tend to inhale more air which obviously means more oxygen. This oxygen in turn goes to the heart and then to the muscles thereafter. Oxygen in muscles help burn fats and carbohydrates in them, making the muscles leaner. 

More oxygen to muscles = More fat burnt = More fitter you get

Question 2: Lets say I am running, do you want me to run at good speed for 10 minutes or run slightly slower for 45 minutes.

I would prefer a longer run over a quick burst for 10-15 or even 20 minutes. Longer the better. Aerobic exercises are all about breathing more n more oxygen and the longer you are able to do it, the better it is for you as the oxygen that gets into your system helps you burn more fat. At the same time if you are stopping in between or slowing down drastically or walking a couple of miles in the middle of a run, you might as well stop. Aerobic exercises are all about endurance so try to sustain a decent pace through out your workout. Again, just because you only have 15 minutes don't stop, run 15 minutes that is way better than sitting on the couch. 

Question 3: Do you prefer a particular workout over the others?

No I do not, I am into a running and I love running outdoors, cos I love the fact that the climatic conditions are different, you get to run a new course and nothing is ever the same so I think it is easier to have a long workout without my mind playing tricks with me. But that does not mean Running is better than any of the others, it is just a preference. I would advice people to mix it up cos it keeps things interesting until you get hooked on to a particular workout.

Question 4. Its cold outside or may be its raining, and I don't feel like getting dressed up or driving to the fitness center, is there any way I can get some Aerobic workouts at home. BTW I do not have a treadmill or stepper or a swimming pool in my house. 

You could skip ropes, you could do jumping jacks, you could do just do some kicks and punches, you could do have your hands raised and just jump up and down or could just stand stretch up as if you were trying to touch the ceiling and come back touch the ground with your hands without bending your knees. Any of these, for say 30 minutes, is all you need to do. All these are as good as Running, Swimming or Climbing Stairs, trust me. These were all that I did before I got obsessed with running.

Question 5. The muscles in my hands are loose, Will all these aerobic workouts help me grow leaner stronger muscles. Or is there something else I could do to get leaner stronger muscles in my body.

All the aerobic workouts that I've mentioned, help you grow leaner stronger muscles but I believe every workout can be an aerobic workout too, even lifting weights. Lets say you wanna workout your biceps or triceps I would lift very light weights may be 3 pounds or so and do 300 reps (or more) if I wanted to grow leaner muscles. In simple terms, lifting heavy weights would be anaerobic and would help you build bulkier muscles. So in addition to your running or jumping jacks etc, you could lift light weights and work out specific muscles aerobically.

Question 6: I am running out of my questions, should I be asking something else. 

Yes "Is there anything more to Aerobic exercises than helping me build a leaner, stronger physique?" The answer of course is a "BIGGG YESSS". The benefits of Aerobic exercises do not end with just helping us build a leaner stronger physique. Technically, aerobic exercises can be termed as Cardio, which obviously mean strengthening  the heart. Heart is a muscular organ too and gets bigger and performs better with prolonged aerobic exercises. They pump in more blood per beat hence improving the blood circulation. If you have a good blood circulation, all your organs are supplied with more nutrients and hence they become stronger too. So do Aerobic Exercises 2 to 3 times a week "minimum". By the way, Playing a sport is the easiest and the most enjoyable way to achieve this. And all these workouts are simple ways to relieve all your stress.

Question 7: Is there anything else you think I should know.

Its Bruce Lee's Birthday today, I would like to quote what he said about working out, "I don't stop when I am tired, I stop when I am done" so Stop asking questions and get the $#$# up and start working out. 

What Next ???

There is this thought that lingers in my mind every now and then. I sure have had my struggles but have managed to pull myself through, all this while. I have to agree that this has been the most difficult of battles I've had to fight  and I am sure I am gonna have to wage this battle many more times in the years to come, just that the arena might be a different one each time. 

When everything seems to be going just fine, life springs in a beautiful surprise in the form of a "What Next ???" question. Life would be boring and monotonous with out these little challenges. Now that this question has come up again with my blogging (what should I write next) I thought it would be perfect to write about one of earlier "What Next" fights.

"What Next ? - The question that deserves some thought"

I started my workout and diet regime early 2007. Progress was slightly slow cos I was learning things the hard way, no proper direction but I was getting my workouts done and so was able to see that I was losing weight and was getting into some shape. Slowly but Surely. 

In a years time I had lost almost 40 pounds (18 kgs) . The fact that the weighing scale was reading 40 pounds less than what it used to, gave me a lot of motivation to keep going. I started to check my weight once a week then a little more often just to realize that there wasn't any change from last time. That was the moment when I was like "What Next", where am I headed next what do I do to keep this going. For some reason I was not convinced or happy with what I was doing, I needed a target a goal to work towards. 

I pondered over this for a bit, fought with myself cos a part of me was like " do what you are doing you are getting fitter everyday, why do you need a target etc" but I really really wanted something to work towards and Eureka there was the answer. I never thought I would even be contemplating about this but I was happy I did. So on a hot Summer afternoon in Alpharetta GA, I started my "Quest six pack abs". I always tell people not to set any targets and the whole intention is not to loose sight of the fact that all the fun is in the process of getting there. And it does not stop even after you get there as a matter of fact you never stop.

Quest Six Pack Abs

I was all rejuvenated again, started changing my workout routine towards this. Read a little more, altered my diet, lowered my Sodium intake considerably, little rice became no rice, lots of fruits, salads, lean meats became the name of the game. I started enjoying a little bit of cardio followed by strenuous workout for the abs everyday. 

Learnt that the abs are fast growing muscles unlike the biceps, shoulders etc. So I was happy that I could workout my abs how much ever I wanted without having to give them rest to recuperate. Also cos the abs are basically a combination of the muscles the upper abs, lower abs and the obliques my crunches and my leg lifts were the focused on working out all of them everyday. I started doing a lot of cycling crunches, stand up crunches, got myself a chin up bar and was doing my leg lifts suspending myself on the chin up bar. The lower abs are the toughest so suspending the body completely on the chin up bar while doing leg lifts helped me work them out better.

Started feeling great about myself got addicted to the "fire in my belly". Six months may be little less I started seeing a nice distinction of my abs for the first time, felt awesome. Then on there was no stopping, kept working on the abs increased my cardio a great deal and all this has only given me very distinct ab definition that anyone would love to flaunt. With a stronger core, the fitness levels have gone up like crazy. 

The answer to this simple question, "What Next?" gave me a great looking body, amazing fitness, great mental stability, a never say die attitude and a happier me. Now I feel it was worth every minute of time spent pondering over for an answer. 

Make the best of every opportunity to challenge yourself and trust me you will be happy you did. 

Nothing Sweet about Sugar

Its that time of the day again, had my thinking cap on for a bit, contemplating what I should be writing about and here I am all set to write about what I think is one of the most important aspects of a proper diet. 

Everyone is addicted to Sugar in some form or the other, and me in every form possible, there have been days when just plain sugar would be my snack. Obsessed is an understatement. To stop eating sweets, to me, was almost like saying "Dear Sugar, Since my life is taking a serious path I feel your company is just gonna slow things down for me, so it is high time we break up for good. It was great fun while it lasted, No Hard Feelings, please" ;)

But once I started my diet regime, I learnt and soon realized that Sugar can be very tricky. Sugary stuff (sweets, chocolates or any of that) do not really fill us up because they are empty calories (just a lot of calories with no nutrients). They leave us craving for more. So we end up eating more along with the regular food that we might eat over the day. Result, Excess calories, the saturated fats and all that not so good stuff just keep adding up and all we are left with is a bunch of fat molecules in the system.

I am gonna take a little detour right now. When I was having a chat about this topic, this lovely person insisted I write about triglycerides.  We spoke for a while and I got the relevance.

Hence the little detour... 

what are Triglycerides, what is its connection here ???

Triglycerides are also a type of fat similar to Cholesterol. Triglycerides like Cholesterol do not get dissolved in blood and get transported inside the body through the proteins we consume. "Soooo !!! fine, fine I am getting to what matters to us", in simple lay man terms all unused calories turn into Triglycerides. If we eat more than we burn we are just increasing the Triglyceride level in the body. 

What is the problem then, what if my Triglyceride level goes up why should I care, triglycerides are fat molecules that are not easy to burn and reduce. They need to be at a certain level and that's it anything more is just harmful and hard to reduce. More importantly, Triglycerides are part of the reason for high blood pressure and heart diseases.

So what are the things increase the Triglyceride level in the body

Excessive fats in the diet.

Eating sugary stuff, those low calorie sweeteners,  diet drinks can increase the triglyceride levels. I have read that even fruits, if had after a big meal, can increase the level of triglycerides in the system. 

Solution - Just a simple NO to sweets and when you eat more food make sure your workouts are more intense. Always have fruits at least an hour after your meal if not before. 

Drink a lot of water and sleep well. Lack of sleep the previous night supposedly increases your craving for sweets. 

Monitor what you eat, On the stuff you buy, read the nutrition facts for sugar levels and also check the ingredient list for sucrose, glucose, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, molasses etc and try to avoid foods that have them. 

I tried, but unfortunately there is no sweet way of saying that there is a "Nothing Sweet about Sugar". 

Fatigue the Mental Roadblock

It was Friday, the most beautiful day of the week. After a peaceful workday, picked up kids from school and had a fun ride back home singing, shouting "PUMPKINSSSSS" as we passed every pumpkin patch that was on the way, waving to the sun, the birds. Kids weren't too much into eating that evening so it was time to hit the park. Changed into something more comfortable and drove to the park wondering how kids have so much energy. Ran around kicking the soccer ball for a bit then the swing, the slide and trust me with a little assistance to hold monkey bars my 2 yr olds can hang from there and hold their weight with their own hands. Time just flies what feels like 2 minutes is probably an hour or even more sometimes. 

A tiring day for the kids so putting them to sleep was a piece of cake. Usually I start my run not before 9.30 pm but on Friday I was all set by 8.30 pm. So set myself up for a long run. I normally love to listen to the sound of the breeze, the sound of my shoes kissing the trail as I run but this time I felt like listening to some music. So turned the music on and started running towards east, its just me I guess, always love to start my run towards east, no particular reason :-). 

Wanted to take a longer course so skipped all my turns and kept running straight for a while and after about 30 minutes may be more took a right turn into a community and lost my way inside just kept running in circles for a while before I figured out the way and started my run back. By the time I reached my car, I had run for an hour and 45 minutes. and very good speed, felt awesome. I felt like I could just keep running may be for another hour or so. I had probably slept just for 3 or 4 hours the previous night but did not feel a thing. 

A little retrospect put things into perspective. I kinda realized that why they say its all in the mind. It sure is. This mind of ours is the reason for all the fatigue and tiredness, I swear. So I thought what we can do to have our control over it rather trick it and stop it from fucking up our efforts. The basic idea is to give your mind something to ponder when you do what you wanna do, provided you do not want its involvement there. 

• Music is a very good distraction. 

• Running a new course every time is a very good way to keep your mind guessing on whats to come. If not I at least make sure I run in a place that's lively, it helps too.

• I set myself higher targets. Every time I say to myself I am gonna run 15 miles before I start. I know it  does not matter if I stop at 5 miles or even less but I know I would have done those miles with ease. 

• I have also learnt to enjoy the beauty of your surrounding the sunshine, the creek, the breeze hitting my face, the moon, the stars when I don't listen to music I even talk to the sun and the trees just to keep mind occupied.
• Give yourself a day off just for your mind to recuperate and to let it look forward to your next run.

But in general there are a few things I do to conserve my energy over a longer period of time and sustain the momentum.

1) I make sure I exert minimum energy during a down hill and it is easy to try and accelerate and find yourself in trouble at the next uphill. So always conserve as much energy as possible during downhills. I lean backwards to stay balanced and to exert as less as possible. And avoid any exaggerated movement of my arms.

2) During an uphill, I accelerate, shorter and quicker steps help me keep up the momentum.

I try stay as low as possible and lean forward as I push myself uphill. I do these things even when I run against the wind.  I always remind myself that the next downhill is right around the corner. 

3) Running shoes, a good pair of running shoes make a lot of difference.

I also completed my first 15 mile run last night. Feels so awesome. The key I thought was I never let my mind dictate terms, just kept talking to myself saying things like I will do it etc.

I set myself very small targets the next block, or the next traffic light or intersection etc and tried to ignore all thoughts about how long I have left.

Before I started my run I made sure I emptied my bladder and had a couple of salted crackers as the sodium helps you with cramps. I did not carry water with me which I should have. But would have had more than a couple of sips anyway, so was able to manage.

If knew I was going to be running for a long time so I thought it would be better to avoid running smaller laps, I did not want to see the same things over and over again. I chose my trail such a way that I see something fresh and new with every step, helped a lot. 

Last but not least I just kept pushing myself. Having done so many things to get on the road for a run, I thought I should make the best of it and I am so glad I did.

I would like to wrap this up with a small quote "When you are lazy, getting out of the couch feels like an activity" so don't be, get out there and enjoy a good run my friends.

A Conversation - Worthy of a Post

After a busy morning at work and a quick lunch at my favorite Deli place I was able to find sometime to log in to facebook and check what was goin on with everyone. The new paranormal activity movie has the hit the screens and was happy to hear that it is scarier than ever, cant wait to get a glimpse.

And as I was gazing thro some photographs I like to see everyday, I had a message pop up from my brother from another mother. As always the conversation started when he said "thala" "implicitly means big brother" and I replied saying "yo smarty" the way we all used to call him in college.

This guy was my junior in college amazing personality and attitude. Fun loving person and a great human being. After general small talk he mentioned that he was going to land in the US soon for a project, I was thrilled and kinda looking forward to see him after may be 15 years or so.

I never expected the conversation to go down a seriously interesting course. After a brief pause "may be the smart guy was chatting with one of his girl friends on the other side" he mentioned that he had showed my transformation pictures and the blog to one of his friends and that his friend was very inspired. I was happy and said that I keep working out everyday and said that I had run little over 10 k in around 45 mins the previous night. He said he was really impressed and what not.

May be he was building up to ask me what he did, but little was I aware of what was to come. 

He said "I am happy that you are able to do all this and it is very inspiring but what is the whole point of doing all this". 

He added saying he understands that  its all about self respect and personality development but he mentioned that he feels something was missing.

He also said he would've liked if I put so much effort and be able to do something at a much higher level. And he said he thought all my hard work was being wasted.

I was surprised and thought about it for a second before I gave him any reply.

I gave a very simplistic reply, I said that it was the way I liked to treat myself. Instead of a drink or a fancy dinner I simply like to treat myself by giving my body and mind an intense workout. I also mentioned I liked to take my emotions to my workouts. 

Then as I was typing this response I thought a little deeper and I understood where it all started and why I was doing this. 

I then said I did all this to build a better next generation. I belive every change has to start from you. If me having seen my father skipping ropes every morning and doing some push ups could get the interest to do this, may be my girls will do something bigger when its their time. 

So I said I would keep pushing myself as long as I can and hope someday someone from my next generation takes it to the highest level and does something really big and noticeable.

I was so happy that he made me realize the whole perspective behind all this and I felt there could no bigger purpose. 

He then said he that it was the best thing he had heard anyone say and that he loved the perspective. It was one of the best conversations I've had and thought it was worthy writing about. Thanks a lot my brother Harish looking forward to see you soon. And thanks a lot my sweety who suggested I should be writing about this.

Lets all build a healthier tomorrow. Have a great day peeps !!!

Workouts 101

Before we start doing a certain activity there are so many questions that linger in our minds. I firmly believe that the answers to those questions will go a long way in helping us perform the activity better.

"INFORMATION IS WEALTH"

When it comes Workouts here are some things that I learnt, found  them to be interesting and thought they are worth writing about.

Workouts in general are categorized into 2 types. 

Aerobic :Workouts that are performed over a longer duration of time to build your endurance are basically Aerobic Exercise.E.g., Running, Skipping, Climbing Stairs, Swimming etc., When you do an aerobic

activity as the name suggests, you tend to inhale more air which obviously means more oxygen. This oxygen in turn goes to the heart and then to the muscles thereafter. Oxygen in muscles help burn fats and carbohydrates in them, making the muscles leaner. 

More oxygen to muscles = More fat burnt = More fitter you get

Well the benefits of Aerobic exercises do not end here. Technically, aerobic exercises can be termed as Cardio, which obviously mean strengthening  the heart. Heart is a muscular organ too and gets bigger and performs better with prolonged aerobic exercises. They pump in more blood per beat hence improving the blood circulation. If you have  a good circulation, all your organs are supplied with more nutrients and hence they become stronger too. Do Aerobic Exercises 2 to 3 times a week. Playing a sport is the easiest and the most enjoyable way to achieve this. 

Anaerobic : As the name suggests, it is opposed to aerobic activity. A high intensity - lesser timed workout does not consume air. Anaerobic exercises are activities done with for not more than 3 minutes to may be 5 minutes. These help in working out a specific muscle in the body to strengthen and build it. Quick Sprints, Lifting Weights, 3 minute crunches etc are some of the examples. Here you surely gasp for breath cos there is not enough oxygen as the workouts are intense. 

Now, Irrespective of the kind of workout, there are some things that are key to an effective workout session.

The most important aspects are 

• Posture - Maintaining the proper posture meaning holding the right position from start to finish
• Breathing - Breathing through the nose all the time (Unless you are swimming)
• Pace - Doing the workouts at good pace while holding onto the posture.
• Stretching - Do some basic stretches before any workout even before you go on a run do some stretching so you are able to hit the mark right away.
• Keep pushing yourself. When you are tired and feel like quitting, "FINISH STRONG".

Ultimately if you are not doing all of these you are cheating yourself.