Gymming Brain, Jogging Mind, and that Body
#DEP Book Project, Prompt Exercise and Healthy Eating Tips and Recipes
“Today is your day to start fresh, to eat right, to train hard, to live healthy, to be proud.” – Bonnie Pfiester
Study on Pancakes
They kept piling up.
Intolerant gut, Flare episodes, sedentary work schedule, and me — oblivious.
The only advantage was to meet Doctors in the corridors (in my workplace), who would glance at me and shout,” Go, run the treadmill once”.
Some days I would oblige, and on others, Pain came in handy.
This continued for long, until my skeletal system refused to take the burden of those badly cooked fatty pancakes.
This called for an immediate remedy and it was Gym beckoning!
A few days into my exercise routine and entering the food regimen, I realized weight loss was more a mental exercise than a physical and it is the food that goes in which controls the weight, and exercises are basically aimed at toning our body.
That One Day: Calibrating my Brain
“When you practice something with conscious mind and then continue practicing the same even with sub-conscious mind, You Master it.” ― honeya
As advised by the in-house Dietician, I was cooking all my four meals with Sunday designated as ‘Cheat Day’.
And one of the reasons I enjoyed cooking on Saturdays was that I cooked what I loved to eat and did not adhere to the prescribed food chart.
That Saturday, a fortnight into my weight loss regime, I cooked some Chinese herb rice and honey glazed lemon chicken, which I loved to cook and more loved to eat.
I longed to taste the preparation, but it was past 7:30 pm and my stipulated time to have dinner was over (as advised by my dietician); so I munched on some chicken sandwich.
I had a detailed conversation with my foodie brain to leave the Rice-n’-Chicken for now, which would serve to be an excellent Sunday lunch, the next day.
But it was hard to come by. The stubborn, arrogant cranial mass romped the whole night, eating into every sensible cell that existed and like that truant freedom-loving girl refused to budge.
I realized this was the make-or-break night for me and if I passed the test, the rest of the ride would find the freeway.
The fight continued till the wee hours when my tired, famished body could tame my ravenous brain as I found sleep taking over my painful eyes.
Surprisingly, the lunch next day tasted nothing like it should and my craving for cheat food vanished in a way I hardly noticed.
David won his battle against Goliath.
Let’s Sweat:
“You know, there’s endorphins in laughter, as there are endorphins in running in the park” — Marlo Thomas
Yes, there are. Endorphins released during exercise can single-handedly lift your mood, and give you that energy rush that keeps you active the day long.
It can be easily achieved by healthy individuals through high/low-intensity aerobic exercise. A perfect way to attain that mind-body-health balance.
But, I am limiting my discussion here to people who are not healthy enough to take up regular aerobic exercises.
All is not lost, as the below-mentioned workouts are as effective when made part of your daily routine, which works for an aerobics-barred person like me to maintain my weight, much needed to give relief to my wobbly spine.
Exercise:
“For me, exercise is more than just physical — it’s therapeutic.” — Anonymous
It is important to note here that ‘maintaining weight’ is not synonymous with ‘maintaining health’.
Going overboard with exercises that tax your body or slashing food to go size-zero should be practiced with some caution and proper expert opinion.
We all are born with a body type and structure. It is wise to identify and create a routine that keeps us alert, energetic, and healthy in holistic ways.
Since my writing endeavour has an underlying pain reality, I will now pen down some exercises that can do wonders to a physically suffering body. I have also observed that a good workout session can wish away temporary depression.
Bodyweight Training(BWT)
The best way to stay in shape and injury-free, BWT is especially recommended for people suffering from chronic pain. It is where you use your own body weight to provide resistance against gravity.
This format includes simple abilities like pushing, pulling, squatting, bending, twisting, and balancing. Movements such as the push-up, the pull-up, and the sit-up are amongst the most common bodyweight exercises.
However, the form of exercise that best handles chronic back pain is Pilates.
They are the most difficult types of exercises to adopt but once there, work best for the core, responsible for overall strength, balance, posture, and gait including weight loss.
Weight_Training
This includes exercises with dumbbells and exercise machines readily available in any gym.
We all have our areas of strengths and weaknesses, but it is advised that anybody embarking on this type of training schedule should adhere to Circuit_training which is designed to look into the whole body, for better and long-term results.
Sufferers of chronic pain should use lesser weights (Preferably within 5 kgs, especially for women), to start with and proceed to higher weights as per body need and expert advice.
Yoga
If you are new to training with acute or chronic pain, Yoga sits the best.
From simple breathing exercises to isometric stretches, Yoga invigorates and brings to life every fatigued cell and restores the spirit.
Surya Namaskar or Sun_Salutation, for advanced individuals, is a good way to stay in health and shape, when learned and practiced correctly.
Diet:
Don’t dig your grave with your own knife and fork.-An old English Proverb
Nothing spells more real as you are what you eat.
The internet space is thronged with food blogs, and health blogs for ready reference, but caution should be practiced while adopting any method. It is vital to understand we are unique in our body types and body needs and there cannot a one-fits-all way to it.
A special mention for Food_Allergy here is imperative, as many of us don’t realise or tend to ignore discomfort-creating foods unless they need a serious call for help.
No discussion on food for me is complete without discussing autoimmune conditions, where food plays a vital part as a major number of auto-immune cells reside in our gut.
In my quest to find the right food for my rather sensitive gut, I caught hold of a groundbreaking book by Anjum Anand, where she compiled recipes inspired by ayurvedic cooking, Eat-right-for-your-body-type.
You will find a host of healthy recipes with detailed explanations of the ‘whys’ of ingredient usage, translating into ‘the science of living wisely and well’.
In Conclusion:
The saying goes, ’Practice what you preach’ and numbers are often needed to provide credence to your words.
Just to keep the record straight, my first attempt at weight reduction resulted in going down by 27 kilos (59 lbs) in 8 months, after which I have maintained a healthy weight as per my BMR ratio, barring bouts of inflammation where my weight tends to vary.
And all this makes me a little sad. As writers trying to churn out original articles with some eyeballs, I missed on an interesting title here.
If I had not declined the proposal to model for the Gym (I was attending then) with my before/after videos, as a shy, introvert, this article could have read: My Days Of Modelling!
Tchk. Tchk.
- Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/.
Thank you Lady Dr. Gabriella Korosi Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles Sharing Randomly, and DEP Book Project for this mighty endeavour.
Thank you to everyone who pays a visit for encouragement and inspiration.
