Steam Cooking with Sarai

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 34 - Eat when hungry

"One-quarter of what you eat keeps you alive. The other three-quarters keeps your doctor alive" - Egyptian Proverb

Throughout this week, wait for your body to ask for food. When you feel hungry, your body is ready with the enzymes for digestion. You will notice a small warmth build up in your stomach in preparation for the digestion.

Over time we have 'trained' our body to eat at timely intervals without respecting its ability to complete the digestion process. When you eat when you are not hungry, it takes longer and the food that you eat does not get digested properly.

Do not stay hungry for a long time though. As you become more aware, you will notice a marked improvement in your digestion and even start losing weight as metabolism improves.

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 23 - Avoid Coffee after 4 PM

Coffee interferes with your sleep cycles and can leave you tired and with less focus, the next day. Avoiding coffee or sugars after 4 PM ensures that the body can prepare to wind down. If there is work pressure and you need to stay awake, make sure you drink warm water with some lemon instead of coffee.

Another simple trick to increase your alertness is to stretch your ears with your hands. This helps to increase circulation around your forehead and increases alertness.

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.