Fitness - Your Body Can Sprout With Energy

For years you have been eating pulses such as moong, chowli, channa, masur, etc. You probably soak them overnight in water before cooking them the next day. It is a good practice because soaking them in water makes them less gaseous. Interestingly, we Indians have always followed such healthy practices without really knowing why except that we learnt them from our parents. The west has discovered these means only recently!

Soaking is only the beginning. You can take it one step farther once you realise what the mighty pulse contains. It is literally pulsing with energy! It is Nature's energy treasure chest packed with proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. And the best way to free this healthy treasury is to sprout the pulse. You are already aware that your body needs glucose to make it energetic. When you sprout a pulse, you help it to break down all the treasures it contains into easier-to-digest components. Thus, starch turns into glucose, proteins into amino acids, And since you have already done half the work of breaking it down for your body, it sings with instant energy when fed with this digestible fuel. It's like the process of refining crude oil into petrol to be used as fuel­energy for your car.

Sprouting enhances the pulsing-with-life-quality of the moong, for example. It destroys or neutralises potentially hazardous acids-e.g. phytic acid - that may otherwise retard the release of vital minerals for your body; it breaks down saturated fats into free-flowing fatty acids; it converts proteins into amino acids that generate hormones and build up your muscle tissues; and facilitate easy bowel movements. Sprouting is a pre­digestive process. By giving your body pre-digested, food, you help it to use its energy in absorbing all the nutrients, including vitamins instead of using that same energy in breaking down the 'crude' pulse and refining it.

When you eat sprouts, you are easing your body's functions, just as a busy cook may find it quicker to use pre-cooked food.

What can you sprount? Almost any pulse, grain or seed.

Pulses: moong, channa, peas, soyabeans, chowli, masur, matki, etc.

Grains: wheat, maize, ragi, bajra, barley, etc.

Seeds: methi, coriander, pumpkin, mustard, til, etc.

Easy sprouting: If you need a measure of how much you should sprout, calculate approximately one-fourth cup of pulses per person. Wash thoroughly to remove any chemicals, and then soak them overnight in water in a large vessel so that they have ample scope to expand. The next morning, drain the water and rinse them in a large strainer - the kind you use for your tea. Keep them moist in the vessel. Rinse them this way every day. They will begin sprouting on the third day. Now, you can even store them in the refrigerator, but continue rinsing them daily in the strainer. Some pulses like channa may take longer to sprout than say, moong. So as to ensure that you always have them handy, you can turn a comer of your kitchen into a mini-sprout farm. The best way to eat them is in their raw sprouted form. You can have them in salads, as garnish over soups and sabzis, with parathas. Or you can make your own special bhel by adding to them, boiled potatoes, raw onions, tomatoes, coriander leaves and herbal chutney.

By now, you must be enchantingly bewildered! Here you were thinking that we would finally lead you to a diet. When, going by what we've written before, we seem to be encouraging you to eat more often! You are dam right, we are! It is healthier to eat more meals of the right kind than to leave long gaps. This way you are encouraging your body to become more energetic and ensuring that it has plenty of the right fuel to help you exercise and bum excess fat. You are also ensuring that fat never creeps back - because where all along you had helped fat to reach victorious heights, now you are stopping it from invading your muscle-tissue country! Now, you are an ally of your body's smart cells and, believe us, they are great friends!

Feed Your Body's Smart Cells

Call us romantics. But do you know what we like to think? That every time a warrior in the Mahabharat shot an arrow from his bow, it was not to kill. Rather, it was a metaphorical act - to trigger off a quiverful of new ideas and let them cleave through the air thick with outdated notions. It was to allow clean, invigorating thoughts to shaft through the excess 'fat' and generate fresh, positive energy into the field of life. To restore, to rejuvenate, to bring back a balance, a rationality, to make new patterns of peace with a surging vibrancy into an almost-forgotten art called living.

So, when we write about how carbohydrates give you energy, proteins build your muscle tissue, about why fats are stored for life-survival situations, it is not to drive you into an eating laboratory where you measure out in test tubes the required quantities to be swallowed like medicine. It is to allow the arrows of health-filled facts to sink into your mind, to give you new perceptions, to show you how your body treats the food you eat and how it extracts the maximum nourishment for itself. To tune you into your inner receptors and awaken your mind and spirit, so that with this awareness you gather all these strands of information and insights and shape them to suit your individuality and taste.

So that you are entranced enough to bring little changes into your eating habits. Little changes that neither annoy nor disrupt your daily life. Little changes that make big differences. Little changes that ultimately reap immeasurable benefits over a lifetime.

You can do it by appealing to the smart cells in your body. For, these smart cells generate a continuous cycle of complex actions and reactions. They act as a think tank in your body and bless it with a natural ability to crave for food that maxi mises its efficiency and reject that which minimizes its capabilities. These smart cells are the genius that keep you alive.

These cells are not difficult to please. They do not expect you to peer at labels and calculate the mgs or mls that are good for you.

All they expect you to do is to eat a wide variety of natural, wholesome food. And to simultaneously synchronize it with the taste that is mapped on your tongue.

You can start your great exploration into, the wonderland of food by forgetting such terms as 'carbohydrates, proteins, etc. They are only alphabets of a language called Nutrition. You don't need to recite your alphabets daily to read a book. Besides, in this life-sustaining book of nutrition, there are only a few words that are easy to understand, to remember and inculcate into your daily vocabulary of living.

They are:

Fresh vegetables
Cereals
Pulses
Fresh fruits

They are the sinews of your fitness philosophy.

They activate and nurture your body's smart cells. They are found in great abundance in the supermarket of Nature and all you have to do is to select a wide range and store them in your larder and refrigerator. You don't need butter or ghee or sugar - they only retard your smart cells by smothering them. Thus limiting or arresting your growth potential. Instead, if you eat nourishing foods and exercise, you can reach heights ­physically, mentally spiritually - that you had never dreamt were possible earlier. Not only because you increase your efficiency, but because, this way, you maintain it. And as you develop a greater under- standing, you will find a shift in your thoughtscape. For, you will want to eat to live, to derive the best from life. You will realise that all along, you were living to eat and erecting barriers to your growth.

Bodyweight Training Is Best Way To Burn Fat & Build Muscle

Bodyweight training is one of the best ways to burn fat and build muscle. Unfortunately, most people think (or are led to believe) they should have a room full of equipment or an exclusive gym membership in order to better their physique. They completely overlook the fat burning and muscle building ability of bodyweight training. I trust this article opens your eyes to the possibilities of using the gym you were born with!

Heads up: at the end of the article I'm going to explain to you one exercise that simultaneously builds muscle and burns fat.

It's happened to all of us at one situation or another (even me). We look in the mirror one day and we observe we are softer and fatter. While we weren't looking in the mirror, our muscle tone and power has decreased, and our waistline has enlarged. This is when most would say, "It's time to hit the gym".

Now, just a moment. I concur, it is time to do something about your build. But signing up for a membership at a gym does not have to be the answer. As a matter of fact, you can begin burning fat and increasing muscle mass right away to improve your physique.

As we take a closer look, keep in mind all of the useful and important information that we have learned so far.

Let me show you how bodyweight training can improve your physique in as little 15 minutes a day...

Instead of going to the gym, you may or may not end up going to, begin by adding a bodyweight workout program to your daily schedule. Come on, it is painless to find 15 minutes to workout. And 15 minutes is all you need to do to begin increasing your general confidence and looking better. Clearly, I'd like to see you workout even more, but let's keep it easy at 15 minutes for now.

So, you get up in the morning and do 15 minutes of bodyweight calisthenics. By the way, you'll find this more invigorating than swilling down a dozen donuts cup of coffee. Do this every day. Yes, every day, and you will see improvements in your appearance within a few weeks.

Now, I can hear some of you say, "I thought you were only to workout every other day, or 3 times a week!"

This is correct, if you are trying to increase your body weight and muscle rapidly, such as a professional bodybuilders that wants increase his weight for competition. Bodybuilders need that extra day to mend from the vast amount of training they achieve. But you are only doing 15 minutes of bodyweight exercise. This allows you 1,440 minutess to mend between bodyweight training sessions. This is more than enough.

Now, if you do this every day for a week, you do 1 hour and 45 minutes of working out. Do you think 1 hour and 45 minutes will begin to increase your muscles and burn off mega fat? You bet it does!

Now, for the skeptics that think bodyweight exercising is too "painless", or that you can't get a great muscle building, fat burning workout in 15 mintues, remember, I promised to show you a exercise that you can start doing right away.

Here is how you do it...

Stand under a chin up bar with your feet shoulders width apart and arms at your sides. Bend your knees and squat down, place your hands on the floor in front of you. Kick your feet back so you are in the up right position of the push up. Execute a push up. Jump your feet forward under your body... then explode up and grab the bar with palms facing you. Execute a chin up. Drop down and repeat.

Do this for a few minutes and your entire body will feel it, from your muscles to your hearrt and lungs, and you burn a lot of fat. Try to do as many as you can for a full 15 minutes, and I promise you'll have a new appreciation for bodyweight exercise.

I hope this article has opened you eyes to the fantastic possibilities of bodyweight training. If you need to strenghten, tone your muscles and burn fat, begin altering your physique right away with your own bodyweight. Make a consistent effort every day and you'll meet your goals.

Fitness - Your Smart Cells Clock

You could have learnt at your grandmother's knee that a healthy body is one that gathers food, digests what it requires and throws out the waste. It is a simple philosophy drawn from common sense. If you look around you, you will see that Nature has organised our planet to perfection. We have days and nights for all earthly creatures to work and sleep, animals who prey on other animals, animals that eat plants, the four seasons. Our entire world functions in cycles, Since we are Nature's children, our bodies too ought to be working in similar rhythms. For years, scientists and psychologists researched and analysed - trying to figure out if we functioned in a set pattern. After all, women have menstrual cycles. So, was it possible that the human body operated in some' kind of health rhythm blueprinted by Nature?

And sure enough, they stumbled on to a great discovery.

Our smart cells had a biological clock which they followed with precision! They had optimum time-spans for the bodys three functions - taking in and digesting food; absorbing and using the fuel; ridding our body off its wastes. What stunned these researchers was that the tireless smart cells could manage all three functions at the same time, but cannily also concentrated on one function more intensely during a certain period. And the marvellous smart cells living cycle ,slowly came to light just as a photograph emerges from a negative, in this way:

Noon to 8 p,m. : eating and digesting

8 p.m. to 4 a.m. : absorbing and using

4 a.m. to noon: eliminating wastes.

It was one more feather in the health expert's cap. Until then they could tell us what we should eat - Now they knew when we should eat to optimise our body's efficiency.

Common sense showed the way - that we could eat only when awake. But the living-cycle theory explained why if we stayed off food, our hunger would rise and then diminish even if we didn't eat.

That is because the body system would switch to the next function.

Common sense dictated that it was during sleep that our body-having nothing else to e expend its energy upon- used the time to rejuvenate and rebuild itself. The living cycle explained why a good night's sleep is far more refreshing than an afternoon nap. That is because the smart cells operate best in absorbing and using food at night.

And it was the living cycle that finally explained how the smart cells set aside a certain time for ridding the body of wastes.(Which is we have a furry tongue in the morning and also need to empty our stomachs soon after waking

After a late night of partying and feasting, have you woken up with a dull feeling? That is because you've eaten at a time when the body wants - to busy itself in absorbing and using the food. Instead, you've sent it off its normal track and forced it to 'eat' and digest - throwing its natural living cycle out of gear. Since its eliminating time has been postponed, you may find yourself constipated!

It figures from the timings of the natural living cycle that breakfast is not necessary to start the day. It is a time when the smart cells are busy vacuuming and cleaning up your insides. However, if you do feel hungry due to an old habit, eating fresh fruits or drinking fresh fruit juice would satisfy your hunger. Since the body can digest them easily, you don't tie up its energy in digestion.

According to health experts, the digestion of food demands more energy than running or cycling! Which is why, after a heavy meal, you feel sleepy. Your smart cells engage them - selves in the digesting process, using all their energy, leaving you with very little for doing anything except sleep. They also require loads of energy to clean up your system.

Obviously, you don't want your day's energy to be diverted purely for digesting food and eliminating wastes, important through they are for your health. Hence, constantly feed your smart cells with high-energy, fatless and sugar- free food like vegetables, fruits and sprouts to enable you to have tons of energy left over for your work and leisure.

Fitness - Is Non-Vegetarian Food Unhealthy

If you are a pure non-vegetarian, you will probably raise a hue and cry at the thought of turning vegetarian! But the truth is that meat of any kind is tough on your smart cells. If Nature intended you to be a non-vegetarian, she would have equipped you with claws, and sharp pointed teeth to tear into any flesh; given you acidic saliva to digest the animal protein; a round stomach with the capacity to produce plenty of hydrochloric acid, fewer intestines to shorten the process of digesting the meat so that you could expel it before it putrefies inside; a liver that could dispel more uric acid than it does.

Instead, we have hands with moveable fingers that can delicately pluck and peel fruits; blunt teeth and molars that crush and grind; alkaline saliva to digest plant protein; a stomach that produces small quantities of hydrochloric acid; more intestines that hold on to the food and give time for your smart cells to extract the required nutrients, a liver that can expel small amounts of uric acid.

Look around at your circle of friends. If you find one of them is suffering from gout, you can be sure he is a heavy red-meat eater. You can almost bet that he eats salami or sausages for breakfast, a steak for lunch and meat for dinner. Then, one day, after a leisurely weekend of imbibing an overdose of scotch-on-the-rocks and liberal helpings of cold cuts as hors d' oeuvres, and a plate piled with Mutton Moghlai, he would have slept feeling well-dined and content. Only to be jolted awake with his big toe pounding with pain. The gout had struck!

What happened? His prolonged meat-eating habit had put an overload on his liver. The excess uric acid had no place to go in his system, so it turned into crystals and settled in the joint of his big toe - and, pow! (What does his doctor recommend? To stay off meat and eat only vegetables, at least until the inflammation recedes.)

The onset of gout is only one side of the unhealthy coin. Meat is so high in indigestible fat content that it clogs up your arteries and can lead to a heart problem. It gives you no energy because though it contains carbohydrates, its also has undigestible animal protein and a high content of fat. That's the reason you feel heavy after a meaty meal. In fact, your smart cells sweat working overtime to digest the meat and use up all the carbohydrates and energy in knocking the meat into digestible shape!

Meat also has neither fibre nor healthy plant protein. The animal protein is tough on your smart cells and turns toxic - turning your insides into mess. You get indigestion, bad breath and a heartburn. The toxies load your immune system and also make you vulnerable to disease.

Lastly, look at your mental make-up. When you see a plump goat, do you get that predatory gleam in your eye that makes you stalk and kill it? Or if you've been to a sea-food restaurant which has a large aquarium filled with lobsters and are asked to pick one for dinner haven't you turned away with a shudder? Okay, you might argue, I don't see the live specimen when eating it.

Of course, you don't. You are just habituated to eating meat. But, remember, ultimately meat is dangerous to your health. However, if you just cannot do without it, we suggest avoid red meats - beef, mutton, pork ­completely and go in for lean meats like chicken and fish. This way, at least you won't be overstraining your smart cells while satisfying your taste buds. Even a chicken cooked in an oil-less masata, however, has enough fat to knock your smart cells out and make you put on weight. So, cook your chicken curry the previous day and refrigerate it overnight. The next afternoon skim the thick layer of fat that has coagulated on the surface and then heat it before serving. This way, at least, you are reducing your fat intake, Along with your non-vegetarian dish, pile your plate with plenty of vegetables so that you don't gorge on the meat alone. And eggs? They are not really worth including in your meals, for the yolk is high in fat and cholesterol. Which means that eating only the white albumen is best. In any case, they contain enough sulphur to strain your liver and kidneys. So, if you must. have an egg only once in ten days so as not to 'eggsasperate' your taste buds!

The culture of eating cooked food is deeply embedded in us. But we cannot ignore the value of raw foods. Make sure that your thali has plenty of salad and sprouts. For, the time taken by the body to digest and absorb various foods is:

13 hours - raw vegetables, fruits, sprouts.

24 hours - cooked vegetables and pulses.

72 hours - non-vegetarian and fried food.

Next to the - raw state, steaming is best. So is boiling, provided you do it in minimum water. Deep frying damages the nutritional value and the oil makes you fat, and raises your blood cholestrol level. Finally, the word 'vegetable' springs from the Latin vegetus meaning fresh and full of life. It is what our scriptures called pranic shakti, meaning life-force, depicting strength and energy.

Do ring in these little changes in your lifestyle. The two Es - exercising and eating right - will promote more than health. When you feel good about yourself, you will enjoy healthy relationships, a richer life. Fine-tune your mental dynamics. Don't ask yourself "Will this taste good?" Rather, ask, 'Will this taste good to my body's smart cells?" In that question lies your best answer.

Your Fitness Lifestyle in a Nutshell

The idea is that you should have in your corner, a certain minimum level of fitness for the daily requirements of life. And, if you have taken heed and acted on it, you are already - or well on the way to getting - fit.

This is your fitness lifestyle at a glance.

Aerobics

Abdominals

Sensible eating and drinking

Weight-training

To elaborate briefly:

Aerobics: To obtain maximum cardiovascular benefits, lose tat and maintain your weight within acceptable healthy levels, aerobics, should, " be done five times a week. Each activity needs to be done at a certain pace within the required time-span. When you begin scoring 60 aerobic runs per week, you will be in the aerobically fit zone. Which means, your heart will be stronger and more efficient, you will lose excess fat and have a better body.

Abdominals: Excess fat, poor posture or slack muscles in the stomach exercises should be done at least three times a week to insure you against them.

Sensible eating and drinking: Fatless, sugar-free, low-salt food ensures that you maintain your weight-loss. It also protects your arteries from getting clogged by cholesterol which can lead to heart diseases, It is also an insurance against diabetes. Healthy eating habits should be a natural part of your normal lifestyle. Dieting should be avoided.

You should eat the food that gives you energy.

To shatter the myth that 'health food' is tasteless, we have devoted an entire section to demonstrate that it can be delicious and satisfy your taste-buds. Try out these recipes and create your own too.

Alcohol consumption should be zero or kept to an absolute minimum.

Weight-training: is partly health-oriented, partly for 'looking good' purposes. It strengthens your muscles and makes you strong enough to meet your daily needs. It increases the density of your bones which reduces the risk of you getting a fracture say, from a fall. It makes your joints more flexible so that you are less prone to catches or other injuries.

It also shapes certain stubborn spots like the thighs, arms, 'love-handles' at the waist, etc. by firming the muscles in those regions.

This is the fitness lifestyle in a nutshell. Aerobic and sensible eating are the foundation; abdominals the guarantee and weight-training the insurance with a premium.

The pay-ofts are tremendous.

You shed years from your life as you move around more briskly and with a lighter step.

You rarely feel fatigued at the end of the day. Your mental and physical reactions to stress are minimised. You learn to relax, and sleep better. Your temper is on a longer leash and you may regard humorously certain situations which had earlier made you snap. Your relationships improve because of your calmer moods. Even your consultations with your doctor turn into a cosier conspiracy where you and she/he are engaged in the common pursuit of tackling your medical problems that have sprung up. And all through this runs the thread of satisfaction - of achieving a sense of well-being, of being in control.

The fitness lifestyle does not make any great demands on you. All it asks is:

make time to look after your health.

keep your weight to reasonably healthy levels.

give up smoking - if you are a smoker.

Everything else is purely motivational, to inspire the spark in you. To inform, in the hope that knowledge aids you in making a start. So that you step out stronger, surer, healthier. And to make that beginnings, there is no time like now.