Best Time to Exercise

Morning and evening are good times to exercise. Working with the biological clock increases the benefits of exercise. Exercising at night or in the afternoon is not advisable. After sundown, body's functions slow down and energy is spent in other activites like resting and repair. Exercising then will strain the body and will reduce the benefits of exercise. It will also harm the body as energy will now be required to cope with the increased activity. In the noon, energy is required to digest food. Exercise after 3-4 hours of a meal. Again, choose sustainable exercises and not a crash regimen at the gym.

Sunday Suryanamaskar

This is  a group of Bangaloreans who assemble to practice suryanamaskar in terraces of apartments or in parks on Sunday morning to practice surya namaskar or sun salutations - a set of 12 yogic postures.

Depending on the practice, there are groups that practice 6, 9, 12, 18, 27, 36, 54, 72, 96, 108 cycles of this amazing exercise.

The groups meet around 6 AM and the practice session with deep relaxation lasts from 30 minutes to 90 minutes.

Write to me to know more about this movement that is changing health around Bangalore. You don't need any special equipment - just a yoga mat and a few committed friends to alter health.

Sutra 47 - Steam Cooking

Steam cooking retains nearly 90% of the nutrients. I use a three tiered one, where I steam vegetables, soaked dals and rice in one go. It makes a complete meal. The vegetables taste better when steam cooked. You can buy stainless steel steam cooking vessels or even a full steam cooking unit with the electric stove built in. Steam has more heat than fire and cooks faster.

Pressure cooking takes away 50% of the nutrients. I will write more about charcoal or slow cooking in my later posts after I have experimented it myself.

If weekdays are a rush, make it point to eat steam cooked food over weekends.

Related : Award Winning Sarai Cooking System from ARTI

Sutra 46 - Coconut

Include coconut in your meals. Adding freshly grated coconut in your meals helps reduce weight, reduces bad cholesterol and prevents heart diseases.

Coconut oil is cholesterol free and can be used in moderation. It is better than animal/dairy fats or hydrogenated transfats.  Prefer FILTERED coconut oil instead of REFINED coconut oil. Refining removes many of its micro nutrients. I often get it fresh from a local mill where it is not treated chemically.

Tender coconut water is rich in minerals and can be had twice or thrice a week during summer months. 

Sutra 45 - Block time for exercise

Block an hour for exercise in your office calendar. Treat it the same way you would treat an official appointment. Often we compromise on our health but never miss an official appointment. Feel free to shuffle the calendar to make space for other priorities but never miss the appointment even on a single day.

Just like value investors taking charge and making time to manage their wealth, as a value investor in health, we need to take charge of our health. And the returns will come in terms of enhanced energy and liveliness for several years to come.

Tip: To make this effective, include one or two of your beat friends into the regimen.

Related : Yoga, Surya Namaskar

Sutra 37 - Don't manage your time, manage your energy!

A constant excuse for not caring enough for our health, our family and things that are important to us is - 'lack of time'. Philosophies of the East including Zen insist that one should maximise the amount of energy we give to a piece of work to get the maximum result. This is also what the Gita says. If you consciously participate in every waking activity, from brushing your teeth to writing an Email to answer a question to chewing food, you will soon see that you are doing more in less time.

On the contrary, if you are less attentive, our energies decrease, and it takes longer to meet the demands at the office or at home. The result is chronic fatigue and poor results. Like a famous person said, "A busy person is someone who has time for everything."

If you have some interesting insights about managing time better, please share it for others' benefit. Sharing is growing.

Sutra 31 - Avoid Dals at Night

Avoid protein rich food like dals or meat during dinner. They take a long time to digest and take a lot of energy that should otherwise be used for repairing your cells during your sleep.

Over a long period, this kind of eating can lead to lifestyle diseases.

You also may end up with a lot of undigested food, gas and toxic residues the next day. You can well avoid a lot of these uneasiness by opting to eat just plain rotis and cooked vegetables at night.

Sutra 24 - Yoga

Enroll for a course in yoga, if you have not done one earlier. With each stretch, it gently aligns your body's muscular, skeletal and nervous systems. It relieves pains, corrects postural problems, massages internal organs and stimulates the endocrine system. It reverses the effects of aging.

Hatha Yoga is one of the most sustainable form of exercise after walking. You can do it until your dying day.

Just 15-20 minutes every day can make a world of difference to your energy levels. To ensure motivation, ensure you have a group of friends and family with you, so that you can look forward to doing yoga every day.

Related: Surya Namaskar

Sutra 18 - Oil Baths

The best way for an oil bath, is to first wash your skin with a little water and then when the skin is still wet apply oil all over your body. Massage the oil gently all over your body. You can choose a simple locally available traditional oil (e.g. coconut oil or sesame oil or mustard oil).

After allowing it to be absorbed by the skin for a about half an hour, wash it away with Reetha powder or Soapnut powder. Do not wash away the oil with strong soaps and shampoos. Oil is the best moisturiser and a coolant. It can prevent colds in summers. The rubbing also increases circulation on the skin and prevents several skin diseases. Coconut oil has antifungal and antibacterial properties.  Coconut oil helps in healing the skin.

Sutra 17 - Surya Namaskar

Bid goodbye to expensive health club memberships. Here is one wholesome workout that you can do until your dying day - The Surya Namaskar or the Sun Salutations.

The set of 12 carefully designed postures align every joint in the body and corrects posture over time. As you train to bring your body's center of gravity to rest in the tip of your spine, you experience an amazing agility and freedom. Cardiovascular and Digestive functions improve.

The stretches strengthen the spine - the super highway for all your nerves. As every endocrine gland in the body is exercised - people with diabetes or thyroid dysfuntion report drastic improvement even within a few days of starting this.

The postures have to be coordinated with proper breathing for the fullest benefit. Do the sun salutation early in the morning facing the rising sun. The rays are a rich source of Vitamin D. Learn under the guidance of a yoga teacher.