5 easy ways to shed weight | Bi(e)tter Health tip

The big con about working in software is that this is a ‘s(h)itting’ job and we attract fats very quickly into our bodies. I fell to the gluttony trap and sedentary lifestyle and started feeling very heavy and dull. I was consuming lots of sugar which made me more inactive and lazy. Once I was not able to get down and touch my feet which triggered that I needed to do something about my body. Following is my before / after photo in which I had lost 16 kgs in 6 months. I talk about my process and tips I followed to be where I was in 5 steps.

Me Before / After

QUIT SUGAR

I quit Sugar for more than a year completely. I didn’t take an iota of sugar in my body in any way. No chocolate, no sweets, no cakes and not even home-made sweets. If I really got a craving, I would eat organic jaggery in my tea or anything else.

WORKOUT

I started to workout daily for at least 20 minutes. This automatically increased and I started doing more and more exercises on my own. Probably this is a mental thing and the body becomes accustomed to it as the time goes by. By the 5th month, I was doing 150 crunches a day which was uncalled for at my age of 38. We need to do reasonable exercises daily to feel good in some way. You can follow this app which is great in terms of giving balanced exercise experience.

DAILY CONSUMPTION OF HEALTH DRINK

Drinking a homemade health drink in the morning in an empty stomach eases out the metabolism. I didn’t believe this much before I started. I prepared this drink based on this Youtube tutorial and was consuming it everyday without fail. It really did wonders and I started to see the effect as time went by.

Preparation - Grind some fennel seeds, carom seeds, cumin seeds, flax seeds and some cinnamon and create a rough textured powder.

Consumption - Mix one teaspoon of powder in hot water and a little bit of lemon juice. Drink on an empty stomach to see the difference in a few days.

INTERMITTENT FASTING & DIET

I completely stopped eating at night. My schedule was to eat between 10am - 7pm. I stopped munching unnecessarily and resorted to eating less. Although my diet didn’t change much, I had completely stopped eating RICE. I was eating a lot of pulses, millets and fruits to compensate.

IMPROVED SLEEP SCHEDULE

For us software folks, it is very difficult to manage sleep. We work with people in different time zones and it becomes really difficult to avoid work at night. But when you have to lose weight, you need to tune your body for enough sleep. My sleep schedule changed to 11pm - 5am. I had never done this ever during my working career and it was a drastic change but I started feeling so much better. Although the change was disruptive, it helped me a lot.

So, those were the tips I used to shed my fat. I hope this helps people who are trying to do so and achieve results in due course.

Zindagi

Random creation while evening walk..

ज़िन्दगी कैसी है, तेरे मेरे जैसी है

बारिश की बूंदों की तरह नाज़ुक,

एक अल्फ़ाज़ में पूरे आयत के जैसी है;

मेरे सांस में तेरी हवा के जैसी है,

ये कुछ नहीं पर एक छोटी पहेली जैसी है।

ज़िन्दगी कैसी है, तेरे मेरे जैसी है

ग़म और खुशी के अश्क,

इसके वजूद में इंटो के जैसी है;

इनका बंधन एक नवरंग है,

ये तुम्हारे काले और सफेद जुड़े जैसी है।

ज़िन्दगी कैसी है, तेरे मेरे जैसी है

हर मौसम के हम है आशिक,

मेरा हुनर, मेरी रचना के जैसी है;

ये इन्कलाब मेरा मेरी ज़िन्दगी से चलता रहेगा,

कैसी भी हो, ये सच्चाई के जैसी है।

Qualified - A philosophical tribute to SSR

Image source: https://www.filmibeat.com/bollywood/features/2020/sushant-singh-rajput-had-great-interest-astronomy-used-to-star-gaze-from-his-living-room/articlecontent-pf310413-300154.html

Yesterday, a childhood friend messaged me on Whatsapp. "Bhai, my philosophy of life has changed. Now I don't need to run after success or making it big." This is what happens when someone famous dies an unnatural death and people start to realise the futility of their efforts in pursuing their dreams. These kind of situations trigger the unknown inside us and we start to ponder on our lives, goals and doubt on our capabilities.

Since my childhood I have seen lots of death. During adolescence, we used to cycle to school and there was a Hindu Samshan Ghat (Funeral place) en route and we used to encounter a death every few days. Also, we used to find dead animals like snakes, dogs etc. every now and then on the roads. You can imagine what impact will this have on kids who are growing up and learning about life. Even during my school days, there were couple of cases when there was news of unnatural death.

This incident of Sushant's death triggered an old incident which happened years back and I lost a close friend in that incident. I can very well relate to the pain of unnatural death and how depressing it can be for people connected to the passed soul. It hurts beyond belief and the brain is overflowing with only emotions. If you notice, I mentioned brain and not heart because scientifically the brain is wired to think and trigger any kind of emotions. That's what is the source of all emotions - our brain, our mind or our cerebral - whatever you may want to call it. That needs to be healthy.

I have seen few of his films and a very unique thing anyone might have noticed it that he gels so well with the character that you will hardly notice the real him. If you know about the upbringing in Bihar, children are always under pressure to perform in the competitive exams. I remember one of my teachers used to say - "IIT nahi nikale to zindagi kharab hai." This is a very general statement and is applicable in most cities in Bihar/Jharkhand. For a guy who cracked 11 entrance exams and got into one of the elite colleges, he was a Bihari parents' dream. And for someone to be connected to science and philosophy even after being surrounded by financial and social vultures, says a lot about the attitude. A person from Bihar can understand the depth of what I said just now because "papa ki maar se bahut dar lagta tha." For Bihari/Jharkhandi students, cracking a competition becomes the only goal of life when they get into their higher secondary as the state itself has very few opportunities to grow in life in THE RIGHT WAY.

Nevertheless, my point is that we already face a lot of hardships during our childhood, teenage and adolescence. But the one thing which keeps us going is curiosity. Curiosity to explore, to learn, to innovate and to do good. That keeps the child in us alive all the time. Anyone who is scientific in his brain has that child one way or the other. He knows that learning is the only way out to suffice the brain. So, what chokes that brain? The brain is choked when learning is compromised. That brain is choked when innovation is compromised. That brain is choken when philosophy is compromised. Who does that? Anyone who knows that he has the capacity to spoil my life will do that. The power, the greed, the avarice and the ignorance of the money minded Cassius kills the child in the mind. But the mind wants to be free. When the mind is unable to hold on to the string of life, it overcomes sanity and the unbearable happens.

I started following Sushant on Instagram after I saw his post that he has started to learn to build computer games. Doesn't that sound very ironical? A Bollywood celebrity trying to learn to make a game? But that shows the curious brain and will to keep going. But all this is overcome when the Cassius plays his game. And the mind succumbs to the will of others. It creates a rage inside the mind and a war of existence.

When someone makes a compromise, he/she kills a part of himself.

I have been thinking about the statement which I just mentioned for quite sometime. It is a life learning more than anything else. We should never rob someone of making a choice. It's the free will of existence. I think money, power and society makes you do that. It will make you oppress the freedom of someone's brain. Somehow, the same might have happened with the philosophical mind of SSR.

We know that Kaliyug will be only fortifying its existence as the days go by. So, we will need to strengthen our minds even more. May be he was too Educated to be in the coterie of dollar munching rats and his QUALIFICATION wasn't enough.

Let's celebrate the life of one of the finest actors and a science mate - Sushant Singh Rajput. Be well and may your soul get Mukti from the 'mrityu'lok we live in.

Photography - Exploring the Lens

So, I have been out for long time. I need to get back to my writing but innovation is keeping me involved more than ever.

Meanwhile, I have been learning photography myself and honestly, it is fun.

Sharing my Flickr here.

Hope you like them.

For Love!

So I have decided to move on and start my own studios.
Determinant Studios it is. :)

P.S.: I am looking for a partner to work with who has passion for creativity.