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 44 - Open Sesame

Looking for natural ways of supplementing calcium through your diet? Consider Sesame.

Til (Seasame) is a rich source of calcium. Roast til seeds and make it into a powder. Sprinkle the powder into curries or any of your food preparations. This is a simple, natural and inexpensive way to get the required calcium. Being a natural product, this can be absorbed by the body without any rejections.

Til Oil is also excellent for massages and for easing joint pains. Apply warm oil on your joints. Leave for about 15 minutes and then take bath after a good workout. You will feel the difference.

Related : Oil Baths, Provision List

What is Vivafive?

Vivafive is for VALUE investors in Health. It is a structured plan of over 40 simple lifestyle changes for busy professionals based on Ayurvedic principles of BALANCE between the 5 elements of life.

Nothing that I am going to say is something that I have invented. But all of them are from my direct experience and practice.

The site has come from a deep desire for sharing my experience in a structured manner for other's benefit.

Related: INSTRUCTIONS on following the Vivafive Plan.
Related: GRATITUDE, without whose support this site would not have happened.

Sutra 39 - Oil Pulling

Pour a tablespoon of sesame oil in your mouth and swish it around for about 5 minutes until you feel that it has become less viscous. Spit it out and after 5 minutes, brush your teeth. It is especially good for respiratory problems and if you are suffering from bad breath. It is also a great way to save your teeth and avoid gum decay.

I also recommend that you switch to an Ayurvedic tooth powder and give up using a tooth paste altogether, if you can. Applying the powder over your gums and around the teeth in a nice massage pushes out the toxins from in between the teeth and in the gums. This massage is much more effective than brushing with a paste. You can brush plainly afterwards.

Value Investing in Health

Many of my friends are fascinated by the wealth made by legends like Warren Buffet. They know that his style is called 'value investing', where he invests for the long term in a limited number of stocks.

Why not invest in health by making the right choices about health and fitness, just like smart investors. Many ignore health, giving in to the temptations of the tongue and the mind. They choose to be a little indisciplined. They ignore the warning signs. They don't give the things that body requires.


Value investors don't do that. They are willing to make sacrifices in the short term for a sustained long term return. Good lifestyle is like that. The patience and rigour certainly pays good dividends.

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 33 - Give your body a chance

"When you are sick of sickness, you are no longer sick" - Chinese Proverb.

In spite of all the drugs you take, it is your body that heals itself. The drugs relieve the discomfort caused by the symptoms. If you are in habit of reaching out for drugs at the first sight of a health disturbance, it is likely that you will have more frequent illnesses or chronic diseases. The reason is that the body's natural ability to deal with diseases is compromised.

The body being a machine is prone for an occasional breakdown. Even the best doctors and health freaks will experience an occasional health disturbance. Next time you get a small health breakdown, give the body a chance to recover on its own. Drink more fluids, skip heavy meals and rest your digestive system.Announce a shutdown and take rest. You may experience physical discomfort or a fever. Allow it to be. Overtime, you will realise that the body can deal with diseases as long as we don't confuse its natural intelligence (also called immunity).

Like me, if you spent more than 20 years consuming all kinds of drugs, it may take a few years before the body can find its balance. But you should start somewhere.

Related: Antibiotic Resistance Could Bring ‘End of Modern Medicine’
Related: Fevers in Children
Related: Fast

Sutra 43 - Millets

Include millets like Ragi, Bajra and Jowar as part of your staples at least thrice a week. Called miracle grains, they are packed with energy and are an excellent source of minerals, vitamins and fibre. Regularly alternating rice/wheat with millets is an excellent way to maintain health. Include these as part of multi grain atta as well for good results.

As millets are rain fed and don't require extensive irrigation, they are not only economical, but also help the environment by reducing the dependencies on only few staple food grains.

Here is a link to the millet cookbook

Sutra 20 - Eat Local

Do in Rome as the Romans do is true for health as well.  There is an increasing desire to import health foods from around the world. People are looking for the elusive seaweed from Australia or a berry from Africa or an oilseed from Greece to restore their health. But this may always not be a wise thing, but just a passing fad. The local cuisine of the place that you live, including the local vegetables, fruits, millets and grains are well suited for that place and would have stood the test of time.

Ayurveda recommends eating food that is available within the vicinity of the place that you live to be healthy. This automatically ensures that you eat freshly available seasonal fruits and vegetables that can be easily digested and absorbed by the body to convert into energy.

Sutra 19 - Silence during meals

Food is supposed to nourish the body, intellect and the soul. Distracting yourself during a meal by talking, watching television or while reading a newspaper can lead to poor digestion and acidity.

Saying a grace before food or respecting the food we eat as a culture had a health significance. Focusing on the food, its taste and chewing every bite helps the body to produce the right amount of enzymes to help break down and absorb food better.

Eating food with your family in silence is not an ‘uncool’ thing, but a great way to health for the entire family.


"Let food be thy medicine, and let thy medicine be food." - Hippocrates

Pancha Bootha or the Five Elements of Life

The secret of wellness is in

• Proper Breathing
• Proper Hydration
• Proper Food
• Proper Exercise
• Proper Rest.

Ayurveda calls it the balance of the 5 elements or Pancha Bootha. The five elements of life mentioned in the Ayurvedic texts are Air, Water, Earth, Fire and Space. Ayurveda suggests that these elements need to be in balance for the proper expression of life.

Vivafive has been designed to get the balance back into your life. The critical aspect of this plan is that you need to work on all five aspects of your health. You cannot ignore one in favour of another. Even if you are good at 4 and leave away one, it can cause an imbalance. All diseases are an expression of this imbalance. Get the balance back and the disease disappears.

Sutra 12 - Create a support group

Being a lone ranger in your journey to health can be arduous. Enroll the support of your family and friends in the journey to health. You can start with removing the clutter inside the refrigerator and in the kitchen shelves. Remove the packed, canned, bottled, preserved foods one by one. Replace them with loads of fresh fruits, nuts, sprouts, vegetables and oils that revitalises the body and spirit.

Join with friends in the apartment for a yoga session in the terrace or a joint workout. Have a pact with your co-workers to go for a healthy meal break instead of a fast food break. Surprise your guests by offering fresh juices for a beverage. Build a culture of health around you.

A simple way to do this is to promote one post from this every weekend among your community.