5 Summer Workout Must Have's

Every summer dons upon us with an escalating energy to get out, workout so that you look good to be envied for your beach body. That time of the year is on its anvil now and I can understand your rush of excitement to look good. But just for a moment let me warn you about spur of the moment enthusiasm in us, making many of us become oblivious to the harshness of the summer on our exercise schedule and thereby our coveted chiseled body. Here are 5 things you should keep at the back of your hand while working out in summer season.

1. Rehydration – Although 66% of your body is water rehydration in a continuous manner is mandatory. The first factor to take you down is being dehydrated during summer. Well your immediate reaction to this being drinking lots of water is not completely wrong. A study done to see the effect of drinking plain water on hydration of the body during workout was concluded that it is like filling up a bucket with a hole at the bottom. The rate at which water rehydrates the body is the same as it causes diuretic effect on it. Sweating coupled with humidity only adds to the problem. While rehydrating the body remember to add in sodium of about 50 – 60 mmols or 100 ml of water will have 1 gm of salt and 5 to 10 gms. of simple sugar or glucose added. The sugar source needs to easily absorbed in the circulatory system so it should be glucose. Always remember to drink at least 3 times of the fluid that has quenched your thirst e.g. If 200 ml of fluid has quenched your thirst then 600 ml of the same fluid should be ideally consumed to rehydrate the entire body. Drink at least 2 -3 glasses of 250 ml each of the fluid at least an hour before the exercise and about 200 – 250 ml during the workout. Post workout rehydrate with the same fluid at least 3 – 4 such glasses.

2 . Carbohydrate Loading – Your muscles are the major functional tissue to be utilized while working out. Major muscle groups like that of arms and legs and liver store in them a carbohydrate or chained glucose called glycogen. Glycogen is the emergency supply of glucose if the blood glucose gets replete. This means that in order to be ready for supplying glucose to the muscles the glycogen store should be adequate. Insufficient glycogen in the muscles is one of the major reasons of post workout pain, soreness for longer period, cramps while working out. A simple way to ensure this problem is taken care of is by loading your muscles with enough carbs pre workout. Ensure to consume as per your recommended diet plan a 3 hourly complex – simple carbs cycle. Complex carbs – whole wheat products, rye, red rice, millets, etc, simple sugars stick to seasonal fruits chose from all possible colors, dry fruits. Glycogen loading goes over for 18 hours so be sure you have had enough before workout. Make sure you consume 100 gm of carbs within the first hour post exercise this helps in the immediate carb loading in the worked muscle group instead of being distributed throughout the body.

3. Protein rebuild – Protein becomes essential for tissue wear and tear while workout as well as the insulin influencer in the body. Pre workout (around an hour) protein controls the sudden jump in the insulin secretion after consuming the carbs and regulates fat metabolism or breakdown. Protein also rebuilds lost muscle fibres post workout and supplies enough amino acids for tissue loss other than muscular.
10 – 15 % of your carb intake should be of high biological value proteins like low fat milk, casein products, whey products, egg white, soy milk. These have to be zero fat.

4. Suppressants – Caffeine is usually consumed pre workout but it harms the body completely to benefit from the workout. It acts as a dehydrant leaving the body far from rehydrating even with the fluid intake, it suppresses muscular pain hence not allowing the body’s natural indication for fatigue or exercise threshold making you workout for longer duration and stripping the body of its resources including excessive tissue loss. Fat is another such suppressant. Its intake pre workout slows gastric emptying leaving absorption of carbs and protein at a slower rate in the body and even slower replenishing of the required nutrients. It also causes sluggish effect on the brain.

5. Vitamin – Energy and metabolism influencing vitamins like B1, B2, B3, B12, are an essential lot that needs to be replenished through natural sources like carb and protein source. Vitamin A and E playing pivotal roles as antioxidants in curbing the free radicals stimulated by intense workout.

Wish you wellness,
Neha Wasnik
R.D
Related article -
http://wellnessandi.blogspot.com/2009/04/no-resistance-to-resistance.html
http://wellnessandi.blogspot.com/2009/03/fat-loss-or-weight-loss.html

Antioxidants : Lycopene up your heart

We all have heard and read a lot about antioxidants and their wonder effects on our body and stress. Medical researches over recent years have been talking a lot about one such antioxidant called Lycopene. What do we know about this stress buster other than its origin lies in tomatoes?

Lycopene like many antioxidants is a pigment present in the skin of fruits and vegetables rendering them their red color. Being a plant pigment it is not produced by the human body and needs to be consumed by eating the fruits and vegetable source of Lycopene.
Tomato, watermelon, red grape fruit are a few common sources of the antioxidant.

Research has time and again shown us that consuming Lycopene has taken to protecting from cardiac disease and prostate cancer. So exactly how does it help? Well the exact physiology of the wonder pigment remains to be understood however research has demonstrated that men who suffered from cardiac diseases or prostate cancer showed low amounts of Lycopene in their body fat whereas those who didn’t had more Lycopene in their body fat.

I know what your thinking if this antioxidant is suppose to protect us from heart disease and cancer how has it been seen in body fat ? Well the answer to that is simple Lycopene like many fat soluble pigments such as Vitamin A and D are absorbed in our intestinal tract with the help of fat. But this does not imply that excess of fat is needed for absorption of Lycopene. Lycopene helps in reducing the stress stimulating free radicals which breakdown fatty acids incompletely leaving them to form plaques on the arterial walls, causing artherosclerosis. Artherosclerosis is the deposition of LDL and other molecules in the blood on the plaques formed on the walls of the arteries leading to a block as we commonly know called cholesterol blockage.

Now the real fundamental information is how do you make sure you get your heart and organs Lycopene packed and plaque proofed? Well it is seen that fresh tomatoes and fruits possessing Lycopene aren’t best absorbed as compared to their cooked versions.
Tomato sauce, soup, ketchup, puree are enriched sources of Lycopene as the pigment is easily available from the crushed and cooked skin of the fruit. A red grape sauce has better chances of absorbing Lycopene in our body than just the mere fresh fruit. A tea spoon or half of olive oil or any vegetable oil helps enhancing the absorption in the body.
To help you understand better below are enlisted Lycopene amounts in fruits and tomatoes.

FOOD SOURCES OF LYCOPENE
Food Item - Lycopene in milligrams
Tomato Soup, 1 cup - 24.8 mg
Tomato or Spaghetti Sauce, ½ cup - 19.4 mg
Canned Tomatoes, ½ cup - 11.8 mg
Watermelon, 1 cup - 7.8 mg
Ketchup, 2 tablespoons - 5.1 mg
Fresh Tomato, 1 medium - 3.7 mg
Pink or Red Grapefruit, ½ cup - 1.8 mg
Source: USDA/NCC Carotenoid Database for U.S. Foods -- 1998 & Tomato Research Council
Wish you wellness,
Neha
R.D
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Wellness : Are you twittering with it ???

This post comes as a dedication to my tweetfriend Liliane as a voracious twitterer like me to enlighten our readers the benefits and ill effects of social networking on wellness.

Ever since the world has shrunk into a web of broadband, cable and data network it's almost a ritual to be a pius member of some social network portal. It has given us an oppurtunity to connect, explore and create possibilities we wouldn't have imagined more than a decade ago. While some have used the network to their immense benefit the rest have merely reduced to become its victims. Some may ask how has it influenced our wellbeing? Well here is a perspective to look into and wonder.

We all are well aware of how people struggle to lose weight, attain fitness, fight their illness, and worse try endlessly to look like their idols. The correct solution to every problem lays in the correct information. This has become very easy since people started networking throughout the globe on social sites like twitter, facebook, mysace, orkut, you name it and they were on it. These networks opened access to information from quacks as well as professionals and thus the road to health was embarked. In the meanwhile the social networking also helped in easing out loneliness and depression secondary to obesity and other lifestyle related illnesses. Sure enough chatting with people in support groups and online friends helps to motivate while on a regime. Wellness after all begins and ends with one's happiness. Defeating depression and finding a new way to living a healthy life at the same time was never as easy as click of a key. The social networks offer online consults with fitness trainers, dietitians, doctors, pharmacists and so on and so forth expanding your reach everytime you click on the right link. Although information acquisition isn't enough the guidance to a healthy lifestyle has been offered here too.

So one wonders where do people go wrong while networking on social sites? Its the differentiating information from a professional to that of a quack is the key. A professional would not try to sell to hard and fast his/ her services but would first educate you on health and its benefits. Winning the confidence of your client is more important than selling a service. Besides the wrong information going around people further took to extending their sedentary lifestyle a step ahead by constantly being glued to their computers or mobile phones leaving no time to actually get up eat right and exercise right. So the ill effects on wellness skipped a step and went straight to where it started - A Sedentary Life. As we say anything in excess is toxic and so is the case in relation with social networking and wellness.
Where you have a domain full of accurate information please use it don't abuse it. After all it helps to see someone benefit out of the information I as a professional have put out on the web rather than see the ill effects.

Wish you wellness,
Neha Wasnik
R.D
Related link - The Ultimate Self Blog http://www.the-ultimate-self.com/Blog/

3 Ways To Make Mother's Day A Success

All mothers have one thing in common their thankless job as a mother. To tell you the truth it’s the most difficult job on the planet so far and the most satisfying too. We are always dwarfed by our mom’s effortless ways to make our lives easy, but how can we make her day priceless? The other thing common amongst mothers is lack of health, I mean sure they are extremists when it comes to our health but they don’t pay that much of a heed to their own health. So there! its their health that you need to gift them to make it a priceless Mother’s Day. Trust me its something you ought to do for your mom anyway but give it a little more zing to it by these 3 ways and notice the happiness on her face instantly.

1. Healthy home cooked breakfast – There no better way to start any day than to have a nourishing breakfast. To top it all making a healthy breakfast for your mom and having it with her on Mother’s Day… isn’t that just sweet? Here’s what is the express way to cook a healthy breakfast :
Mom’s Day breakfast – Begin with 1 cup herbal green tea with sugar substitute (sucralose derivative only). 1 glass of fresh grapefruit juice / cranberry juice / orange juice (no added sugar) and Egg white and bell peppers and spring onion and herbs frittata with 1 tsp of olive oil and 2 slices of toasted whole wheat bread or rye bread and ½ oz feta cheese. Finish it with 2 whole fresh figs or peaches.

2. Wellness treatments – Gift your mother a few hours at a near by spa or wellness clinic where she could get herself a full body massage, a face and neck treatment for rejuvenation and skin tone, hair moisturizing and shampoo treatment, manicure and pedicure. Most importantly it should have a comprehensive body analysis other than blood test to avoid fasting period. These could be fitness assessment, heart check up, skin analysis etc. Include a yearly membership to a fitness centre where she can spend sometime of her day engaged in her health.

3. Shopping for future – Go shopping with your Mom to gift her a supply of health foods like fresh produce, low fat, sugar free and low sodium food items, year round gift certificate for health food restaurants in her neighborhood, coupons for buying health food from the mall or store, do not forget to add to your shopping cart with a health insurance policy just for her. Basically anything that takes her mind away from everything other than herself. Shopping is just another excuse for spending quality time with her and results into release of endorphins from the brain giving the both of you a feeling of happiness and fulfillment.

All of the above ways are not expensive things to afford given the cash crunch days that we all are facing. However no amount of money is enough to buy your mom the happiness she deserves, and she deserves only the best from you. Giving these gifts is actually a supplementary thing; what you will be giving her is a day with you and no gift is comparable to that, considering she has given her life to you.
Wish you wellness,
Neha
R.D
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Meal Plan according to my diet

This one is for those who asked for my diet and meal plan. Please do not follow all you read as I always say this is a customised meal plan for my requirements. However you can have the early morning nuts and fruits as I do.
Breakfast – 3 walnuts + 2 almonds
1 cup tea with 1 tsp sugar with
3 egg whites + ½ bowl whole wheat pasta or 2 whole wheat bread
or 1 bowl oats in 1 cup of skim milk with 1 tsp honey and nuts.
and 1 fruit
11. 00 am – 1 seasonal fruit
1.30 pm – 1 bowl Rice
1 bowl Thick lentil soup (Dal) / 1 breast peiece & 1 leg piece Chicken from
Gravy /Grilled Chicken
1 cup vegetable / spiced sprouts
1 cup salad (sometimes beans/ sprouts)

4 pm – 1 cup tea with whole wheat cracker
6 pm – 2 seasonal fruit or seasonal fruit juice without sugar or honey
9.15 pm – 2 Whole Wheat Indian bread (Roti) non greased
1 cup Thick lentil soup non spiced no oil (Dal )
1 cup vegetable
Almost to bed - 1 glass of water to hydrate for the next 8 hours

Water and fluids - 2.5 litres a day
Fat intake - not more than 4 tsp vegetable oil only

Wish you wellness,
Neha
R.D

Health By Request only...

Dear followers,
I have really loved writing Wellness and I for the past quarter. In just 3 months I have had such great comments from all your emails and I can't thank you enough. I am working on really good topics you would want to know and practice but you might have to wait just a wee bit more.
Since I am doing an appreciation round for you with this post I thought I might get to know what would you want me to write about? It could be a real life battle of someone you know or it could be some fun stuff for the upcoming summer round the corner or even spring season must do's or something special for Mother's Day to gift your mom. I promise no matter how many requests I recieve I will write about it and let you know exactly how to go around your curiosity.
So let those mails keep coming with request. You could make it easy for yourself by sending me a tweet on @nehawworldwide or leave a comment.
Wish you wellness,
Neha
R.D
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http://wellnessandi.blogspot.com/2009/04/no-resistance-to-resistance.html
http://wellnessandi.blogspot.com/2009/03/what-transpires-beneath-part-2.html