Lets Diet – Health is Wealth

Why do people Diet ? –

Some are at an unhealthy weight and need to pay closer attention to their eating and exercise habits.

Some play sports and want to be in top physical condition.

Others may think they would look and feel better if they lost a few pounds.

What does unhealthy body or lifestyle do to us ? –

Poor nutrition, Poor health, and Weight gain are the features.

Being overweight is a risk factor for a variety of chronic health problems including heart disease, diabetes, stroke, cancer, and depression.

Fortunately, losing weight can reduce your risk of developing some of these problems.

Your Overall health risk may be calculated by Body Mass Index – which is body mass divided by the square of the body height

People with a BMI of less than 18.5 are underweight.

A BMI of between 18.5 and 25 is ideal.

Somebody with a BMI between 25 and 30 is classed as overweight.

A person with a BMI over 30 is obese

Carrying this weight – what does it really mean

Once a fat lady was continuously complaining of paining legs, knees, waist and back ache. The doctor explained, just imagine if your ideal body weight is 60 Kgs and I give you 40 Kgs in a sack to carry with you through the day and night, how would it feel ?

The aim is Our Body should be fit, with no excess fat and not stress us out

e.g. pot belly stresses our lower back and knees,

Extra baggage adds unnecessary strain onto different parts and organs of our body, hence we should definitely not carry excess weight on our body

There are Zillions of ways to loose weight – and no one is perfect. The most popular ones in todays times are diet plans by Rujuta Diwekar, the GM diet and the Keto Diet. All give wonderful results, depending on which one suits you and the one you are able to keep up the pace with.

I will share about my favourite one – which I have used in times of great distress– it’s the closest to my heart - GM diet –

GM Diet was developed by the General Motors to help keep their employees stay in shape. This diet system involves the consumption of specific foods per day, in contrast to weekly schedules of other diets.

The GM diet plan help you reduce close to 2.5 Kgs to 7.5 Kgs in 7 days. Not only does it improve the mental and physical state of the person following the diet, it also helps to cleanse and detoxify your body.

Although the initial diet was all non vegetarian, the Richie’s vegetarian diet plan is:

Day 1 – Fruits

Day 2 – Vegetables and salads

Day 3 – Fruits & Vegetables

Day 4 – Milk & Banana

Day 5 – Proteins, Tomatoes & Lots of water

Day 6 – 1 cup rice & Vegetables

Day 7 – 1 cup rice & vegetables and fruit juices

Club this with 10 glasses of water every day

And VOILA ! You come out much lighter at the end of the 7^th day !!

Now comes the tricky part – its easier said than done. Some of the objections that may come are :

1.     Energy and enthusiasm. – When I am on a diet, I am unable to keep up same levels of energy and enthusiasm. For effectiveness of any diet plan – it should be supplemented by a regular exercise routine, as according to nutrition experts, the diet alone would leave the individual tired and weak. Through routine exercise of up to 10 to 30 minutes each day, the body’s metabolism would get regularized and you would be able to keep up with the diet requirements.

2.     Hunger pangs – What do I do when I have the urge to eat – when I just cannot hold myself back – A regular routine of morning yogasanas clubbed with few minutes of meditation keeps your focus in place and calms you down – so that you have less of those cravings. Not to forget, the diet asks us to eat more number of times in smaller portions – Don’t go hungry is the mantra

3.     No time – It is said that if you can’t take out time for yourself now, in future you will definitely have to take out time for hospital and doctors. And we don’t want to do that, Right ?

4.     No Supporting Actor – The diet plan is a push in the direction to motivate you, to make you realize that its possible. But that’s not the end. It’s a complete lifestyle change, which is difficult - Alone. So, try to get a diet buddy who plays along with you in this endeavor.

I have tasted my own medicine and I normally loose about 2.5 kgs at the end of the week of my diet which enthralls me to repeat this diet as and when I need it.

So, Don’t Think, When you know that you have excess weight, don’t let your body suffer, Adopt a healthier Lifestyle.

When you think of quitting, think about why you started.

Take Care of your body. Its the only place you have to live in.

My Tryst With Farming

Farming is a profession of hope. I always dreamt of becoming a farmer. I developed this fascination when I visited some villages while on a project in college. Getting out of the corporate world is like getting out of spiders’ web. So, to keep my passion alive, I had lots of pots and plants in my terrace. Big ones, small ones, green and purple, fancy pink flowers - All.

By virtue of the fact that I had worked with some of farmer based companies, I happened to get an opportunity to design a business plan for a farmer practicing organic farming. The only information that I had on organic farming at that time was the fact that organic vegetables and grains were available in malls and online platforms. It was then, that my research on Organic Farming started. The more I read, watched and heard on Organic farming, the more interested I became in exploring organic farming myself and thus decided to join a Zero budget terrace farming workshop.

I learnt, that the green revolution brought about high yield - by use of artificial fertilizers, pesticides and high yield crop varieties. It is interesting to note how the heavy use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides was leading to contamination of vegetables and grains. This lead to life threatening diseases like cancer. The bigger impact on the economy is that with passage of time, the use of fertilizers and pesticides is increasing in quantity, giving lesser yield and resistant pests, leading to high input costs, which are not being recovered by farmers, ultimately leading to suicides.

In contrast to this, the Zero budget natural farming uses natural fertilizers to make soil healthy, use natural replacements for pesticides, understand and use inter cropping, and no use of hybrid seeds to give much better yield as compared to the chemical farming. It uses the bacteria and living beings in the soil to bring about tilling of the soil and restore certain nutrients to the soil from the atmosphere. Along with that it uses Desi breed cow dung and urine to prepare concoctions which improve the fertility and nutrition levels of the soil.

So I decided to experiment it on my terrace. I was facing extreme pest attack on my plants and had tried all types of pesticides on them, without any results. It only got worse. Because of this, I had only ornamental plants on my terrace. No fruits or vegetables. Nothing to loose, I prepared the pot beds in accordance to what my teacher had taught me and prepared the soil and planted the plants. Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field. It is only when you get down to it, you realize the amount of skill and labor required.

Apart from my regular ornamental plants, I wanted to try out fruit and leafy vegetables as well. Without sowing a single wheat, you would not harvest thousand ones. So I explored online and bought a box of seeds of various types and put them in those pots. Although I forgot in which pot, I planted which seed, I watered them regularly and waited patiently for the sprouts to appear. I used to observe them everyday and wait for them to grow.  Every blade of grass has its Angel that bends over it and whispers, ‘Grow — grow!’ That’s exactly what I was trying to do. I wanted to harvest chilies, spinach, bitter gourd, beans, brinjal, tomatoes all. As was taught I started preparing the concoction as well, the enzymes to keep the plant healthy and the mulching to keep the soil moist and healthy with bacteria.

And in a week’s time, I saw those tiny green little sprouts coming out from the soil bed. I was exhilarated, in-fact over excited. I wanted to give them all the nutrition to make them healthy and grow fast. Consequently, I experimented and added all bright fruit peels, with their seeds to the pots – in anticipation of giving them more nutrients. To my utter dismay, in a week’s time, it collected enough flies on it to last a lifetime, which started getting into my house. It seemed irrepressible and I had no clue how to control this. Then I referred back to my notes of the training. It was specifically told not to put uncovered fruit peels on the pots since it would attract flies. I then covered my pots with another layer of soil and in a few days was able to control the disaster. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

In the process, I kept on observing the sapling grow along with the small creatures on the soil bed crawling here and there. I continued watering and giving nutrients to my plants and in another two weeks, I saw lush green spinach plant grow up to become a young one. I discussed on my farming group immediately and was suggested that I can start harvesting leaves and new ones will start growing further. My first baby, didn’t want to harvest it so soon. Like a proud parent, I used to look at them everyday and dote on them. And then, one day, I saw it! white at the base, it was a radish plant!!

As you sow, so shall you reap. As it is an exciting and fulfilling journey to see your own babies grow up, so is to see your plants grow up and bear the fruits of your hard work and love. It’s a slightly laborious but very interesting and relaxing activity, which bring you so much closer to the nature. All in all, its completely worth it to have a kitchen garden on your terrace to reap the fruits!