We are what we eat

In my younger years, when I used to live with my parents, I was quite ignorant about what I eat and how I spend my day. Most of my activities were backed up by my impulse energy. Most of what I ate was only to treat my taste buds which were quite biased to the processed food available easily in the nearest shop. Even after ample of failed convincing from my parents and grandparents, I never listened. The whole idea of routine bored me. Hence, I barely developed any good habits in my early ages. So, when I moved away from home for my higher studies, for many years I practiced wrong eating habits and irregular regimes. And, what was the result of all this lack of attention for me? Well, I became a pessimist, I lost interest from all activities I used to enjoy, I lacked energy, I had social anxiety, my hair and skin got effected, my BMI was nowhere near the mark, my hormone levels were uneven and I really started to feel like it’s the end of my world. The nutrition deficiency and a sedentary lifestyle took a massive hit on me and pulled me into the dark hole of sadness.

If you have seen the Batman movie, “The Dark Knight Rises”, you’d remember that scene where Bruce Wayne (Batman) is beaten hard by Bane (the antagonist); he breaks his back and leaves him wounded in a deep, dark prison. I felt like that, completely broken and unable to move. In my case, my own ignorance was the antagonist. For many days, I was unable to figure out what was wrong with me. Why was I not enthusiastic and energetic like before?

It took time but I finally understood what my body needs. I started paying attention to what is lacking from my daily habits. I started to follow some really helpful YouTube channels and Quora posts on health and hygiene. I was no more under the aegis of my parents or my loving grandparents. I had myself up. And, I realized it is every being’s prior responsibility to keep them fit and fine. As the Hindi proverb goes, “Jaan hai toh Jahaan hai” (If you have health, you can have the world”).

That was my wake up moment. And ever since, I love the new version of myself. I have been paying close attention to what I eat, how much I eat and maintaining the calorie cycle by balanced intake and burning. In this post, I would like to share some of the good habits which are essential for anyone. I understand that every person has disparate requirements according to their body type, daily schedule and medical conditions. So, the points which I mention here will be the generic habits which I think can be followed by people of all kinds and ages.

1.        Count the Calories

It is really important to know how many calories your body requires. An average person needs around 2000 kcals each day. But, it really depends whether you want to lose or gain weight or just stay fit. It is no hard to count the calories that we eat and burn. It is a matter of simple addition and subtraction. You can always check the amount of calories in the food that you are eating and regularize that accordingly. To find out how much your body requires, it is advisable to consult an Nutritionist or your Doctor. A cheaper way to find this out is to use apps such as HealthifyMe, where one can easily track their eating report.

2. Invest in a good pair of running shoes

Well, if your willpower is not attractive enough to make you wake up to the alarm in the morning and go for a run, get yourself a nice pair of shoes, not just to add it to your shoe collection but to inspire you to get up every morning to wear them and spend at least half an hour or more to religiously work out, go for a walk or practice yoga. There are so many options. I personally like to go for a 5 mile walk; it rounds about 10000 steps, enough to burn about 350 kcals. In case, I have a busy day, I cut it down to fewer steps and compensate the rest with work out reps such as push ups, crunches and planks. In Android Playstore, I find apps such as Fitbit and 30 days workout challenge beneficial in tracking my workout habit.

3. Keep a check on the source of your nutrients

Today, there’s a plethora of options in any marketplace. It is important that we know what we are buying and not falling for the advertising and promotional offers. It is really easy to quickly buy a packet of chips, processed, sugary foods, or pick up a happy meal on the way to your workplace from fast food chains. These foods are cheap, easily available and make us feel full for the day. But, even though these food satisfy the number of calories our body requires, they are not really a good source of the nutrients our body needs. So, it is necessary to keep a check on the source from where you get your protein, carbs and vitamins. I, being an ovo-lacto-vegetarian, go for foods such as green salads, fruits, customised smoothies, fresh juices, milk, curd, eggs, whole grains, nuts and seeds. They work for me in providing all that’s necessary for a healthy living.

4.  Breath in optimism, Breath out pessimism

Along with our physical essentials, it is also our duty to keep our mind free of unnecessary distractions. Most of our days’ time goes in screen staring, scrolling irrelevant feed, facing negative environment and sitting at one place. All this mostly leads to depression. So, it is advisable to take out some time of your schedule to dive into nothingness or being aware of your consciousness. Meditation makes your mind relax and free you from all the stress and sadness. It makes one live in the present and lose intangible loads of future worries and ghosts of the past, on which we have no control. A much needed tool to become more proactive.

5.        Water is my favourite drink

It is needless to say that how important water is for our body. Yes, just keep a bottle with yourself. A one litre bottle and drink it between every meal. A minimum of 2 litres is recommended but it is always good to go for up to 3-4 litres. Some benefits include lesser headaches, better digestion, detoxifying and glowing skin. Do you not want all that?  

Being healthy is not only about having a good body shape but also about having a good mind to generate constructive thoughts and not be pulled into a chain of negative thoughts. It is about being happy and energetic person overall.

Apart from all the enormous benefits one might achieve after following these habits, it is a really enjoyable process. It does not give any instant results. This is a time taking process and requires complete discipline. So, checking yourself in the mirror everyday might not make you notice any change but in few weeks or months, may be the mirror will itself will speak out and praise you and tell you who is the most beautiful of all.

Even if it doesn’t show any instant results, practicing it every day, makes you feel good for yourself and those who find it difficult to understand their purpose in life, feel more positive and figure out ways to get busy living.

And, just like Batman succeeds to jump out of the prison walls and rise above all his miseries, you can do it to by defeating your inner demons. For that, you have to follow the five habits mentioned above and be tough like a fighter.

I am joining Saffola #ApneTareekeSeHealthy initiative and sharing my ways of being healthy in association with BlogAdda.

Be a Miracle worker

Hello Reader, 

It was the time when Anna Hazare’s Anti-corruption revolutionary act was in full throttle and majority of our countrymen seemed to be greatly inspired by the entire buzz going on, watching the new-age Satyagraha happening full-house in Delhi, live on their television screens, supported by superstars, activists and yoga gurus. The amazing part about such acts is that a lot of attention seeking pseudo-nationalists and politicians of the opposition parties, wanting to steal the thunder, start to join these campaigns and set a perfect example for us to realize and understand the Hindi proverb “behti Ganga mein haath dhona”. 

They never kept up with their pre-election campaign manifestos but were present, with their full energies, orating strongly written speeches, at any little gathering organized in support of Anna Hazare and his Anti-corruption Movement.  It was happening in every state and every small and big city. Conducted by either the local opposition parties or the vocal youth groups, these little campaigns, in support of the bigger cause, were happening everywhere.

It was happening in my hometown too. I was there at that time and I too had witnessed the sudden rise of patriotism in everybody. The local opposition party leaders set public stages for themselves where, using loudspeakers, they were telling people how if they would have voted for them, the state would have been free of corruption and would have made an exponential growth and blah-blah. At the same time, corruption was also in its good health. A private construction company was given a contract to build the sewerage system for the entire city, which till date is not in working condition.  And the people, resilient and helpless as always, accepted it and were happy with what was served to them. Nobody bothered to question the local politicians about all the money spent on constructing the sewerage system. People were too indulged in the twenty-four-seven media coverage of the Anti-corruption movement which pushed them into living in a delusional, dreamy Utopian society.

What was left behind, after all the heat chilled down, was the same old bad condition of roads, broken sewerage, unhygienic disposal of the city waste on barren lands and complaints of the citizens, unspoken to the deaf government.

Many Indian cities still have open drainage system which runs in front of every house in highly populated residential colonies. The waste water flow of these drains are often stuck due to the collection of polythene bags and other non-decomposing waste items which are contributed by nobody else but the same people residing in these populated colonies.

So, before complaining and blaming everything onto the government and municipal workers, one should make sure that they themselves are not involved in such wrong practices. At home level, it is every citizen’s duty to look forward that the waste produced at their residence every day is being disposed properly because, cleanliness begins at home. We all want our houses to be clean; ourselves to be clean and even our inner soul to be clean then why do we dirty the outsides?

Often it is seen that the garbage collected every day is thrown out, on open barren fields because there is scarcity of big common dustbins.in every street. Open drainage adds to the dirtiness and welcomes germs, mosquitoes, flies and diseases like Malaria, Diarrhea, Dengue etc. creating a totally unhygienic condition for living. Whenever someone wants to spit, spits. Where ever someone feels to pee, pees. They are habitual of doing it; for them it’s as casual as drinking water.And swags, spitting chewing gums, would kick a can of coke with their toes on the road and crush it with their canvas soles. And then someone would say “Eww! Who wants to live at such a dirty place? You must visit ‘Merica, dude.” But, the swags won’t find cheap labour there, unlike here, where they would dirty the city all day and then numbers of poor sweepers, rag pickers and janitors would have to clean up all the mess.In train travels too, passengers often leave behind used or unwanted stuff on their berths before leaving and also, throw crushed plastic disposables, packets and bottles under their berths or out of the window from the moving train. Hypocrites are everywhere; culprits everyone. Nobody would step up to make a change, to stop someone from littering freely or for at least not dirtying the place. Those who actually and truly stand up are very few in number for cleaning such a big country. We need more volunteers for this good cause. And today sounds like a good day to begin. Are you in?

Well, let’s see what we can do at a basic level.

  1. Stop blaming the administration. Let us begin the work. We are equally responsible for it. 

 2. If there is scarcity of big common dustbin, try to contribute among your neighbours and buy one for everyone’s common use. 

 3. Don’t litter and don’t let litter. 

 Thanks to my young cousin, Shashank, for this one

  4. If you can’t clean, don’t dirty either. 

  5. Disposing the garbage properly. Organic wastes (vegetable waste, paper etc.) and Inorganic wastes(plastic, metallic objects etc.) should be separately treated. 

So, Volunteers, I hope you follow these steps regularly and we can hope for a clean, Swachh Bharat very soon. A great inspiration for us which I would like to mention is a group named ‘The Ugly Indian’ which is a Bangalore based community started with an aim of making our country cleaner by methods of spot fixing, repairing and following the motto: Stop speaking, Start Working. Kaam Chaalu, Muh Band. And after this initiative, a wave was spread all over the country and various small teams came up to clean and spot-fix their surroundings.

See what miracles can happen if we all unite for cleaning our mess ourselves. Here are a few before and after photos which portray the change, the beautification of the places which were ugly. These have taken place all over the country. 

Courtesy: The Ugly Indian

Our Prime Minister Mr.Narendra Modi has already waved the green flag for the Swacch Bharat campaign which needs the participation of each and every person of this country. And now, the Olympic relay flame of bringing the much needed change has been taken over by Millennium’s Super Star Mr. Amitabh Bachchan, who is going to lead us for this nationwide campaign, in association with Dettol and NDTV. Banega #SwacchIndia. You must all participate.

I would like to sum up this post with a poem.

Here to a cleaner India. Swag स्वच्छ भारत, स्वतंत्र भारत।

Step up for this noble campaign,

Keep your surroundings neat and smugly

And don’t let anyone ask again,

How can you live in a city so ugly?

Don’t let the swags drain your brain,

Shun the red spits, ban the litterati

And don’t let anyone ask again,

Is that a contemporary graffiti?

Wait for none, Plant the grain,

It will grow into a United Dustbin

And don’t let anyone ask again,
Where should I throw the napkin?

Come on, Volunteer, let’s begin this chain

For a healthy, Cleaner India, less Cynical

And then, don’t let anyone ask again,

How is it like to witness a Miracle?

-Ashish

Thank you Indiblogger

Dettol and NDTV

for this promt.

For a Cleaner India

Hello Reader, 

It was a Saturday night and I met my flatmates after a usual working week in which we hardly get a chance to see each other due to our mismatch in timings. So, we decided to have some fun and go for a drive to India Gate and roam around on the iconic roads of Delhi all night, in one of my flatmate’s new car.   

We parked our car and walked towards the historic War memorial, India Gate. You might know that India Gate was actually built in remembrance of the martyrs, who sacrificed their lives during the First World War in France and later, an inverted rifle on a black marble stone was placed in middle of the gate which is known as the ‘Amar Jawan Jyoti’, for the brave-hearts, who fought during the 1971 war. If you think about it that way, about why it was made and the important history behind it, you‘ll feel proud about our Army and by just standing there, facing the memorial, gives you Goosebumps and incepts a patriotic feeling.

It is fairly crowded most of the times and is surrounded by green grassy gardens, where people enjoy with their friends and family, go for picnics, eat and play around. What they forget to take care of is evident from the picture I have clicked and shared below. 

And all this in the time when movements like Swacch Bharat are getting so much popularity. We saw the popular ministers and actors posing on the TV screens with glorious smiles on the last Independence Day. Also, a strict circular was passed in all the government offices and educational institutes to repeat the same. And the enthusiastic pseudo-nationalists held brooms in their hands and went to their respective work places and swept the dirt around their offices and houses and then later, posed with victory gestures. Was all that only for a day? Is it not our duty to continue that even on the usual days? Yes, it is. But, I am quite sure that the plant pots placed on the staircase corners of almost every Government Building is still painted Maroon with Paan Spitting and littering. 

And spitting, littering, throwing wrappers and polythene bags anywhere will certainly not contribute to make India Cleaner. It is a very bad habit of majority of people in our country who just throw away the waste on the roads, on the railway tracks, platforms, in public buses, trains and near Historic monuments like India Gate. 

I had a similar experience at Wagha Border, in Amritsar, too. People show great enthusiasm and love for India when they rush, in volumes to watch the evening retreat and gather in the gallery and cheer the Soldiers, displaying their strength and ability. All the patriotic, Desh Bhakti songs are loudly played for everyone while the tired visitors (because of all the rushing and running),  kill their thirst and hunger by buying plastic water bottles and Samsosas, Patties and Chips from the BSF Stalls. But what they forget to do is throw away the empty bottles and packets into the many dustbins that are placed there. Also, at India gate, there are too many dustbins placed for everybody’s reach but why they are not effectively used is a question for which I have no answer. 

Yes, they live in this delusional world where they think they are the real country lovers attending retreats and monuments and cheering our soldiers but all that, I think, certainly goes into the dustbin if not those empty wrappers and bottles. If one cannot walk a few extra miles to put a light wrapper in a dustbin, then one’s show of patriotism is as important as that Chips packet, peacefully lying in front of India Gate (in the pic). Can we not put a little more effort to keep our country internally clean, for which our Army men shed their blood and sweat, protecting us from external dirt, day and night, being at places one can’t even imagine to survive? Are we so hopeless? Let’s not be, please.   

I, personally, want to raise my voice against this bad, immoral, improper and unacceptable habit of throwing away waste anywhere and everywhere. This is our Country, our Motherland, not an open dustbin. 

It is very simple to contribute to the garbage spread by the majority by adding more wrappers and bottles to it and reasoning it as “It’s already dirty, what difference will one more wrapper make?” It does make a difference but an unwanted one. 

So, speak up whenever you see someone casually littering around. 

And, join Montu on his campaign to speak up for what is wrong. 

http://www.abmontubolega.com/

What is #AbMontuBolega Campaign?

#AbMontuBolega campaign is an initiative taken by Strepsils India and Montu, a character played by the talented new actor Saqib Salim, who falls in different social problems and yet, always keeps silent. But, then there is a limit to keep mum . One day, you have to speak up. And that is what this campaign is all about. You can follow and know more about this campaign from these links:
Facebook 
Twitter.

Thank you IndiBlogger 
and Strepsils India for this prompt.

-Ashish

Tom and Harry's dilemma

Tom and Harry were best friends since they were sophomores. They had analogous hobbies and pursuits. They both loved listening to The Beatles and loved playing almost every two player game, their favourite being chess. Both of them ate together, drank together and peed together. While all of their other contemporaries hated coming to the classroom, they loved sitting in the first bench together and solving all the mathematics and physics problems before anybody else could even understand the question. Yes, they were very bright in studies, scoring almost similar marks. But they did shock everybody and themselves by scoring exactly equal score in the final year of their high school. Even the teachers were in a state of hysteria and were baffled to see this incredible level of coincidence. 

Further, they both joined college, the same one of course and to nobody’s surprise, chose the same major. It did not take much time for the college guys to make fun of this obscure congruity. They called them ‘homogenous homosexuals’ or in short Homo Homos. But they chided all the allegations and proved their orientation and affection towards females by falling in love with two different girls, Anna and Anna, twins, of course.

They both got married on the same day to the twin girls. Tom got married to Anna and Harry got married to Anna. After another year, they both had their babies (Not Harry and Tom together, mind you). Anna gave birth to Harry and Anna gave birth to Tom. Yes, Harry named his child Tom and Tom named his child Harry. Their children arrived into the world just by a small difference of 2.76 seconds. And that was probably why Tom and Harry cried when they (Tom and Harry) arrived. 

Their life went on peacefully and with no spot of indifference until they started noticing the indifferent behaviour in their children as they grew older. Although they looked alike, Tom’s Harry always seemed happier than Harry’s Tom. This started to bother Tom. He tried everything to make his child smile, but he showed no interest in Tom’s playful mockery to make him happy. He would turn his stoic face away and start crying. He would cry even louder in the night, waking up Tom and Anna. Tom felt helpless. 

He even went further to convince Harry to make his child unhappy as well and Harry being his good friend agreed to it too, but Harry’s Tom would not cry at all. He was a happy child, always smiling. Whenever he would giggle, everybody around would also smile, uncontrollably. 

Tom could not understand what was wrong with his Harry. The Doctors tried their best too, but could not find a proper solution. Doctors almost gave up and so did Tom until one day, when Harry found the missing piece in the mystery while Anna was feeding Tom. Harry found a red bottle lying on the kitchen shelf. After enquiring about it, harry took the red bottle and went up straight to his friend, Tom and explained him everything. 

Agreeing to Harry’s instructions Tom and Anna fed the magical content of the red bottle to their Harry, regularly. And soon, Tom’s Harry was as happy as Harry’s Tom. Now they both had one happy, smiling child. Laughter and Happiness echoed in both their homes. They were both similar again. They both had one Anna each. They both had a black sedan parked in their garage and a red bottle full of magical content in their kitchen shelves. 

-Ashish

Wondering what the Red bottle and its magical contents are? Read On: 

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Dabur Chyawanprash has anti-oxidant properties and helps to strengthen your body's internal defence mechanism - the immune system - thereby protecting you from day to day infections such as cough, cold etc.

Dabur Chyawanprash’s magnificent brew of Ayurvedic herbs strengthens the body’s natural defence mechanism by stimulating your NK cells* (Natural Killer Cells). NK cells assist in fighting with virus and bacteria in your body, thus giving us increased immunity from various infections .

Recent scientific studies conducted on Dabur Chyawanprash have proven its immunomodulatory and anti-allergic potential.

Thankyou IndiBlogger
and Dabur Chyawanprash 

#immuneindia

Image Source:
Cyanide and Happiness
Explosm.net
Link: http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lh6fm2XPPc1qz4ueh.png