How to make your health & fitness goals for 2020 more meaningful, achievable and sustainable

It’s that time of the year again when people start thinking about the new year and what they hope to accomplish. Fitness and health goals are always a top favourite for most on the personal front.

Whether it’s losing weight or cutting back on that sweet tooth you been calling an “occasional indulgence”- we’ve all been there at some point.

January flies by for most as the adrenaline of achieving the new goal and the excitement of the swanky new gym membership or the latest Fitbit you purchased holds promise of that elusive dream body you’ve been thinking about for a while now.

However as February and March roll by the Fitbit remains for many a bitter reminder of the steps you haven’t taken, the sleep you haven’t had and the calories you haven’t burned and then of course “life” takes over and fitness and health take a backseat.

Why this scenario plays out so often and regularly is something I’ve given some thought to and wanted to share with you.

I’ve taken examples of two possible goals better health (long term) and within that Weight loss (a more short-term goal) and. Please remember these are just two among many different goals that you could set.

Setting Meaningful goals
Better overall health instead of “weight loss” alone
Weight loss alone may be a very transient goal, it’s important to look beyond it. Don’t get me wrong- weight loss as a goal perfectly fine provided it is building up to something bigger.
What happens when you lose that weight? Do you still have the motivation to continue with the clean eating and exercise knowing that you are at your goal weight? Many people get complacent at this stage and end up putting back all the weight they lost and more.
Better overall health is something you can work towards your entire life it is a goal that will keep evolving as you age and go through different life phases. It could be trying reign in health markers like cholesterol, or blood sugar or reversing PCOD.
A healthy person is likely to be in their healthy weight range in any case.
Even if weight loss one of your health goals instead of saying “I want to lose weight” why not be more specific and decide what your goal weight is. So, if you are currently 75Kgs and would like to be 65Kgs your goal could be to lose 10Kgs of weight in the next 12 months. Not only is this measurable but you have something specific to work towards.

Set goals that are meaningful and measurable rather than vague and superficial!

Setting goals that are Achievable
Better overall health in the long run instead of fad diets and shortcuts to lose weight quickly.
Making some small doable lifestyle or nutrition changes and adding a new habit every month or two will slowly build up to a healthier lifestyle over time. You could start with something as small as drinking two extra glasses of water every day. You could try finish your dinner by 7pm, or you could aim for 6-7 hours of sleep at least 5 days a week.
Quantifying your weight goal is a great start, however you want to be sure that it is an achievable target. Trying to lose 10 Kgs in a year can easily be broken down to a 1kg a month factoring in various barriers like festivals, social occasions that are unavoidable etc. but trying to lose 10 Kgs in 2 months may be too aggressive for you (and unhealthy). Your fitness goal is not meant to stress you out. Setting unachievable targets and beating yourself up for not reaching them year end is a completely avoidable and unnecessary.

Set goals that you can achieve with a some effort rather than impossible goals that you cannot fulfill and beat yourself up over.

Setting goals that are Sustainable
Better health for the rest of your life instead of losing weight for one year and putting it back on after another year.
If you can set a goal that is meaningful and achievable you have half the battle won and are almost certainly going to be able to sustain it.
If you’re aiming to lose a certain quantity of weight you can steadily lose 1Kg a month you are unlikely to feel deprived, burned out or fatigued. This makes it easier to sustain the positives changes you have made to achieve the weight loss and maintain it.
On the other hand, if you crash diet and go crazy with 2 hour workouts 6 days a week you’re likely to either injure yourself or get burned out with the effort it takes to follow this aggressive lifestyle change. Many just give up and go back to their old habits with a vengeance.
With ‘better health’ the goal may keep changing or evolving over the years and goes beyond physical health. What I’ve seen that really makes it sustainable is when people eventually start taking responsibility for their lifestyle choices. If you are going to depend on a nutritionist to keep telling you what to eat you will fail the moment you stop going to the nutritionist, however if you use the nutritionist expert advice as a starting point and eventually educate yourself about food choices, quantities etc you can use the initial guidance as a jump-start to continue on your healthy journey. Once you understand proper form and technique from a trainer you can plan your own exercise schedule. Combine multiple exercise forms that complement each other.
In my experience the people who tend to sustain are the ones who eventually take an active interest in their health and fitness rather than those who expect the trainer or nutritionist to do the thinking every time.

Think long term set goals you can sustain for life.

Basically Meaningful, Achievable and Sustainable!
Questions? DM me on Instagram @transformpilatesstudio

News Article: Slowing down aging

Recent article in Times Of India regarding slowing down aging will less dependency on drugs:

“Our studies have shown that we could prevent about 82% of heart attacks, about 70% of strokes, over 90% of Type-2 diabetes, and over 70% of colon cancer, with the right dietary choices as part of a healthy lifestyle. The best drugs can reduce heart attacks by about 20 or 30%, yet we put almost all of our resources into promoting drugs rather than healthy lifestyle and nutrition”, Walter C Willett, professor at the Harvard School Of Public Health told TOI.

He told TOI that this diet needs to be combined with stress management techniques (including yoga and meditation), moderate exercise (such as walking), and social support and community (love and intimacy).

“In short — eat well, move more, stress less, and love more,” he said.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Anti-AGEnts-Eat-play-love/articleshow/47651295.cms

Maggi: Tasty bhi unhealthy bhi!

Watching the new channel debates over the last few days one would think that its been a pretty slow week new-wise or the newswala’s have had their head in the sand for a while. They were debating about the whole Maggi noodles fiasco. Looking shocked and betrayed (seriously, some of the anchors should be nominated for a filmfare award) that their beloved Maggi was found to contain 17 times the permissible limits of lead. Along with that ofcourse the entire can of MSG worms was also opened, lots of chest beating and dramatic statements like “can we ever trust Maggi again?”
I only had one question watching the whole tamasha; did you really ever think that Maggi noodles was healthy??
Seriously? At best best Maggi can be passed off as quick relief food when you’re in college and there’s no time or you’re running on your last 100 bucks of pocket money, or you’re a single working person who really couldn’t be bothered to whip up a three course meal after a long day at work. It CANNOT under any circumstances be eaten as a healthy alternative to regular home cooked food.
Some of us have even convinced ourselves that we can ‘make’ Maggi healthy by adding lots of chopped carrots and beans or paneer or egg (I’m going to admit I was guilty of this too)… but really who are we kidding here? If the basis of the dish is maida and taste maker that’s full of chemicals, preservatives and sodium that’s close to half your recommended daily sodium intake no amount of veggies is going to change that!

For those among my friends who say chalta hai…once in a while..the kids like it. Let me ask you, would you knowingly give your kids harmful chemicals once in a while? I think not. Might as well get off the high horse while you’re at it and let them also play with those cheap Chinese toys that contain lead based paint…same thing right?

OK down to the basics. Here is what Maggi contains that Nestle`has actually listed (the hidden gems like lead we can let the food administration guys find out for us).

Wheat Flour: Aka maida, refined wheat flour. Maida is made from the starchy part of the wheat grain, stripped of fiber maida contains very little nutrition and is typically bleached using flour bleaching agents like benzoyl peroxide.
Edible Vegetable oil: commonly considered healthy (most of us use vegetable oil for cooking), they are highly processed and involves pressing, heating, various industrial chemicals and highly toxic solvents. (will be blogging about this soon!)
Salt: Now interestingly it seems that in India sodium levels are not mandatory to mention on the packaging of foods, however the order in which the ingredients are listed is a good give away. Manufacturers are required to list the them in order of quantity. Salt is number 3 on the list of ingredients here- need I say more?

Wheat Gluten: This is the protein in wheat, its what makes the wheat dough sticky. Not too bad unless you suffer from non celiac gluten sensitivity (probably the most under diagnosed condition for most people, but that’s a topic for book by itself)

Mineral: Calcium carbonate and guar gum- calcium carbonate is commonly used in food as an anti caking agent, acidity regulator. Not good in large quantities. Guar gum: used to improve shelf life

Tastemaker:
Hydrolysed groundnut protein: This ingredient is basically the substitute for MSG. it provides the umami (savoury) flavour of the tastemaker that we all just love. it also contains glutamates …yes you heard me. so while Maggi can technically say no added MSG it does contain naturally occurring glutamates via this route! This is pretty much what keeps you coming back for more it is highly addictive and targets the same taste receptor that MSG targets.if you have eaten nachos, kurkure, lays…cant stop at one..its the umami!
Mixed spices: (onion powder, corriander, Chilli powder, turmeric, garlic powder, cumin, aniseed, fenugreek, ginger, black pepper, clove, nutmeg, cardamom): dehydrated onions and coriander I suppose, so it can last forever!
Noodle powder:(wheat flour, edible vegetable oil, salt, wheat gluten, calcium carbonate, guar gum) sugar, edible starch,
Edible vegetable oil
Acidifying agent (330): enhances the activity of anti-oxidants but is not an anti-oxidant by itself, used as a flavour enhancer, emulsifier and prevents foods from reating to metals like jams, soft drinks etc.
Potassium chloride: Used commonly as a salt replacement, flavour enhancer…you see where I’m going with this!
Colour(150d) -Caramel color- this ones debatable- while some say its ok, if it is prepared using ammonia it is carcinogenic
Flavour enhancer (635): Similar to the Hydrolysed protein targets that umani taste we love, typically used in foods that contain MSG
Raising agent (500ii) Sodium Hydrogen Carbonate- raising agent

The only conclusion I can come to is if I’m putting 400 calories of something into my body it had better provide me with better quality nutrition than Maggi.  Some real food maybe?

If you have something to add or say about this article I’d love to hear your thought.  Head on over to the comments section!

Easy ideas to on how to include healthy foods to your diet

Flaxseeds
Unless you’re living under a rock you’ve probably ready enough about flax seeds and how they are a healthy source of omega 3’s for vegetarians. Consuming whole flax seeds is a bit pointless since it just passes through your body without giving you much benefit, freshly ground flax seeds is what you want to consume. Flax seed oil is good too provided it is not heated and fresh (it tends to turn rancid pretty fast).
Add flax seeds the next time you make Chutney powder (molaga podi/chutney pudi)
Sprinkle freshly ground flax seeds on your oatmeal porridge, smoothie, yogurt, raita

Karipatta/ Curry leaves
Now this ingredient is commonly used across Indian cuisine however I mostly end up picking it out of my sabzi or curry and placing it aside to be thrown later (which defeats the any nutritional purpose of adding it to the dish).
Karipatta is known to help in
-Lowering cholesterol
-Controlling blood sugar levels
-Preventing graying of hair, helps treat damaged hair
-Treating skin infections because it has anti fungal properties and has strong anti-oxidants that leave your skin looking healthier
-It’s good for digestion
-Cures diarrhea and,
-Is a great source of both iron and folate (folic acid helps your body absorb the iron in your food)

When you buy a fresh bunch of karipatta wash it and let it dry out for a day or two. it will start to look crispy as it dries out. Once it dries out remove the leaves from the stalk and pop it in a spice grinder and blitz it till it to form a powder. (how fine you grind the leaves is up to you)
Now you can bottle this powder and sprinkle it over your dals, sabzi, sambar, butter milk etc. you will consume it without having to chew through the leaves. Now you can include this wonder food in your diet and enjoy its many benefits.

Karipatta Chutney

This is my MIL’s recipe which I love but there are lots of different recipes for the same on the internet, just google it!

Ingredients:

One small bunch of karipatta

2 tsp oil

1 tbsp urad dal,

1 tsp channa dal,

4 to 5 dry red chillies

1/2 tsp whole black pepper

tsp jaggery powder

2 pieces Hing OR 1/2 tsp if using powder. (I like to use the crystal hing (brand SSP) rather than the powder for this recipe

1 small lime size ball of tamarind (can replace with amchur powder)

Salt to taste

Method:
Fry urad dal, channa dal, karipatta, red chilli, black pepper in oil till light brown.
Put all of the above ingredients in a grinder along with salt, jaggery, tamarind/amchur and grind into into a fine paste. Add water to adjust the consistency to a thick paste.

Talk to me! Do you like this post? Let me know if you have any other healthy ingredients that you are trying to add to your current diet…do you have any special karipatta or flax seed recipes? Would you like me to feature any particular food ingredient in a future post?