What is a true power lunch ?

Its chic to talk about having power lunches with your colleagues or boss, but how many of you really know what a power lunch really means? Is it just a concept or is it practically real too? Power lunch is not about having lunch amidst top CEOs or something that only C -segment people in Wall St, Mumbai, Honk Kong & London can do, it is what the meal consists of and that is energy boosting nutrients.

What's for lunch? - If you have your lunch anywhere around 2.30 pm onwards you're in for big troubles in life and that is an affirmation. A good powerhouse lunch should be scheduled between 12 pm - 1.30pm that is when your body needs its fuel and you get to enjoy your food too. The primary lookout for any power lunch is how well can you kick your now slowly slugging metabolism for the next 5 hours and not go into a drowsy spell. A colorful bowl of salad comprising of good amounts of deep reds/ purple and greens with an ounce of high protein ingredients like oily fish, lean poultry, eggs, soy, cottage cheese or lean cheese should be your first handsome course. The idea of a heavy salad is to fulfill the need of high fiber, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals in its organic raw form as much as possible along with a dosage of protein to balance the insulin secretion further. Do not go for any fat base dressing, stick to vino or vinegar variety. For a main course if you are into breads go for whole wheat or multi-grain and keep it lean, fresh as far as possible. If rice is on the menu for the day then make sure it is packed with a lot of veggies and lean meat or plant protein. This supplements the rice with high fiber and low glycemic index food that keeps the drowsy spells at bay. A good portion of meat or fish or other protein would be the size of a deck of cards which is either grilled or sauteed along with some veggies. Do not wash the meal with any fruit juice no matter how well its packed with vitamins and minerals it is but good food- wrong time- wrong reason.

Dissecting the power lunch - What is so powerful about the power lunch or a sample of it mentioned above? The low glycemic index foods that do not surge up the insulin levels in the blood there by regulating the slow and steady release of glucose to the tissues. This helps in many ways than just fat loss, it helps in slowing down gastric emptying and keeps you satiated for long. The metabolic push provided with the high fiber, high protein and adequately supplied antioxidants and minerals in the lunch boosts the body's energy for another 5 hours. Vegetables form the most important aspects in boosting the metabolic rate and not just the lean meat, fish or other protein, but the way the vegetables/ meat/fish are cooked are dominant in deciding the metabolic rate of the body too. Too much of fat or sugar while cooking could hamper the nutritional value and its content as well as slow down digestive process and metabolic rate. The more organic and light the ingredients of the lunch the more powerful it gets. The minerals & vitamins and phytochemicals in the salad that we mentioned are real role models to facilitate the entire working, digestion, assimilation of all nutrients of the lunch as a whole.

Hopefully you enjoy your lunch hour with a wholesome delicious meal. Bon Appetite!!

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Breakfast like a King

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By now everybody who is anybody knows that breakfast is the most important meal of the day as the saying "Breakfast Like a King" is been rubbed on your brain with every cereal box commercial. Usually the city goers breakfast like a pauper and eat dinner like a king unless of course you are one of those who take breakfast on the go over the subway or cab or bus or even your car. But why do you need this meal to be eaten like a king and more importantly what are the ingredients you ought to be taking in the healthiest breakfast? In this post we discuss the most essential nutrients of a breakfast and how every culture and cuisine can offer healthy breakfast.
The Perfect breakfast: No such thing as the perfect breakfast for all it really depends on your individual needs for nutrition. But having said that every breakfast must fulfill certain requisites of nutrients no matter what and that would be termed as perfect breakfast if at all that is what it is. The best breakfast is the one where you feel enriched, energized completely to survive you till pre lunch. It definitely must brighten your day as you step out into the world which means it should be delicious and yes healthy food can be as delicious as unhealthy food. 

Top Breakfast Nutrients: #1 Protein - It ranks number uno for a simple reason that this nutrient is much needed for your body to rejuvenate, rebuild and carry on the entire day's activity based on the first shot of protein and amino acids it can get. Proteins also give the metabolism a good kick start and balance the insulin secretion and hence fat breakdown.

#2 Carbohydrates - If you think healthy food has low carbs, think again. The perfect balance of protein with complex and simple carbohydrates is what gives your breakfast its title "Perfect". Complex carbs with the fiber content are much needed to keep the satiety and offer long lasting supply of glucose to the body which helps curb the hunger pangs and also stops the ping pong insulin secretion. Simple carbs like fructose and lactose (if not intolerant) offer the instant sugar that is needed to break the fast from the previous dinner.

#3 Iron & Vitamin C - Well they go hand in hand as Vit C helps in the absorption of iron should there be equal amount of calcium in the meal. Iron is best absorbed during the morning time usually in the first meal and also utilized in the body effectively. The RBC's hemoglobin needs iron for the uptake of oxygen molecules and the less the absorption of iron the less the oxygen carried in the blood. Iron is also required for various other enzymes and other cellular functioning. Vitamin C on the other hand comes handy whenever you can take it as its the top antioxidant to combat the daily free radical stress. Vitamin C is also essential for our skin, nails and immune structure as without it things may fall apart.

#4 Essential Fats - Omega 3 & 6 of fats are the most essential to help us fight stress, build our immunity and basic cellular structure, give our skin, hair their health as well as regulate hormones and enzymes. The protective agents that they play for our pulmonary, neural and cardiac organs goes without saying.

#5 Zinc & Vitamin B - Vitamin B is the basic nutrient we need to kick start our day with energy boost as its the vitamin that is responsible for energy generation, metabolism, DNA synthesis and structure, protein synthesis, hemoglobin and iron uptake, neural activity and enzyme activity. Zinc on the other hand is the mineral present in most enzyme structures and/ or helps to activate an enzyme in certain cases. It is also a good antioxidant and helps the repair of skin, hair and damages within the body. Zinc has been proven to be one of the most important minerals in the body for this same reason.


Healthy Breakfast Ingredients: Now that we know about the nutrients we must have in our breakfast it is equally crucial to know the food that actually bears these top 5 nutrients. These could be found in all cuisines and cultures.
Protein - Chicken, Egg whites (hen/duck), soy bean, tofu, black beans, kidney beans, lentils, cottage cheese, yoghurt, tuna, turkey, skim milk, millets.
Complex Carbs - Whole wheat, oats, oat meal, corn meal, rye, ragi (Indian millet), bajra / jowar (Indian millet), red rice, unpolished rice, lentils, sweet potato, vegetables.
Simple Carbs - Fruits, avocado, skim dairy, honey, squash.
Iron - figs, egg yolk, lean poultry, watercress seeds, spinach, brussel sprout, rice flakes, raddish / coriander greens, parsley.
Vitamin C - Berries, oranges, avocado, sprouts, lime, lemon, pomegranate, red / black grapes, collard greens, brussel sprouts, raddish greens, kiwi, horse raddish.
Essential Fats - almonds, walnuts, olive oil, rice bran oil, coconut oil, sesame seeds, salmon, tuna, figs, avocado.
Zinc - Banana, sweet potato, almonds, walnuts, lean poultry, fish, eggs, milk, sesame seeds, oats, fruits.
Vitamin B - unpolished rice, whole wheat, soy, oats, rye, bran, corn, fish, millets, egg yolk, skim milk.

Now that you know what ingredients you should be looking out for breakfast and how important are these ingredients especially to kick start your day and your metabolism, hopefully you will be eating breakfast like a king and not a pauper.

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Nutrition that defies signs of ageing

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Previously on Wellness & I blog we discussed in brief the diet requirement for anti ageing. In this post we come across precisely those ingredients we need to be looking out for to defy the signs of ageing early on in life. This will be a slide share post so make sure you get all the details and follow through in the lifestyle management program.

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The Weight Plateau Diet Abuse & Facts

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They say the universe has a great sense of humor, that sometimes making your dreams come true can seem like a nightmare. One such instance is that of a weight loss when people guide themselves into a diet and exercise without any professional help or some professional help and then the inevitable happens. WEIGHT PLATEAU.
Early Weight loss - The first 2 months of weight loss are the most glorious if done to the tee. First and foremost the body is just about adapting to a lower calorie daily intake and is shedding off water content from the body due to physical workout and adjusting the metabolic activity. Beyond the fact that the first 2-3 weeks of your weight loss is predominantly water loss and little fat loss. The easiest way to lose weight is to shed off the excess water which inadvertently happens in the first few weeks giving us the impression that we are shedding off excess fat. In the next few weeks after the body has acclimatized to the water loss, low caloric intake and workout it slowly begins to mobilize the fat deposits stored in the adipose tissue. But fat isn't so easy to come off without the right amount of push to the metabolism and insulin regulation. Earlier on in the first 2 months of weight loss you cut back slowly and unevenly, but even if you eat absolutely like the diet recommends your insulin would need sometime to balance its act with a lower carb diet than before. Lowering carbs in your diet takes the insulin lower making the body mobilize fat more easily. However any further lowering in the carbs and the fat breakdown leads to acidity and ketone bodies in the blood and thats a bad news for liver and kidneys.
Approaching the Plateau - Slowly and steadily your body over the weeks takes on the fat burning process seriously than before and it catches up with momentum and makes sure your metabolism is in full swing with your diet and more so even if you have an odd day with a meal you'll be covered for a day. There comes a point after 3 months or more when the fat has been reduced to a level where the metabolic activity has come on par or complacence with the body fat present and needs to be on a turbo charge to go on another overdrive. This is the time when the plateau weight approaches and gets stuck like a broken record for days on leaving you wondering what's going on? Many people question their entire effort upto now and conclude that this is how far they can go as far as losing weight is concerned. When you do reach a plateau in your weight it means that the effort you put in with workout and diet together is now equivalent to your metabolic rate and if more fat has to be burn out it needs a kick start to the current metabolism. To kick start your metabolism at an already higher rate needs some good professional intervention of radical short term dietary changes and workout changes.

Plateau breaker diet - A good plateau breaking diet will not last for more than 48 hours and will give enough protein, simple sugars with high fiber and vitamins, minerals as nutrients to energize the body while starving it of fat, sodium, sucrose to cause a shift change in the body's total caloric intake but more so to push it to burn the fat and excess carbs in the body due to the lack of energy from the total diet. The workout would involve a little more on the cardio and weight training intensity as compared to previous sessions. The idea is to force the body into an overdrive of metabolism and in order to do so the body should get acclimatized to intensified workout with a sudden change of diet which is on the lighter side of the usual low cal diet regime. The body has nowhere to go with a sudden drop in diet energy and increase in the intensity of the workout but to break out of the plateau without starving or alarming measures.

Health Contraindications & Abuse of Plateau Diet - Its a old bad habit of many people who realize how powerful a plateau breaking diet is to get out of the rut of the whole weight stagnation to abuse the diet. This diet is abuse on their own terms and or as prescribed or recommended by a professional dietitian. Abusing the diet more than once a month for covering up for all the bad food days while keeping your weight in check is not only a temporary way to weight loss but also very dangerous to your body internally. The diet is meant to give the body a sudden jolt of metabolic rate and therefore does not extend for more than 48 hours with enough care and counseling done before and after the time. This means the diet is not for all whenever and wherever, it is to be taken according to prescription only. The health contraindications for this diet are plenty beginning with hypoglycemia or low blood sugar, low blood pressure, if taken more often as twice in 90 days. This diet although very stringent gives you enough energy to survive for 2 days but not more and definitely not more frequently.

Down the rabbit hole & back - Getting habitual with abusing the diet will get into a vicious cycle of losing weight and gaining it right back. Besides that the amount of nutrient depletion and water depletion it causes over time. When you stay on this diet for long enough a cardiac problem, thyroid hormone dysfunction and liver dysfunction and don't get started about the skin, hair, eyes and bones.

To get the plateau breaker diet to work for your Weight Loss Program use it only under prescription and not on your discretion for better results and healthier life.

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Food & Fitness women can't do without

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They can do without their bags, shoes and latest cosmetic range or just girl night out but they certainly can't do without these foods & fitness must have for all season and every reason. By the end of this post you will have a bag full of combat kit to live with in order to stay as healthy and looking like sunshine as you were meant to be. First up we discuss some of the foods women can't do without whether they like it or not. Then we discuss some of the fitness tips and facts women must take seriously if they have any inclination to look good & feel great about themselves.

Must Have Foods for Women - Its a myth that women do not need as much protein as a man infact women would need it more for the constant damage and repair their bodies go through. To maintain hormonal balance, skin repair and rejuvenation, bone strength, lower body muscular strength, uterine tissue repair and rebuild. This makes a good high biological value protein diet imperative for the womankind. Food ingredients that women cannot say a no to are variety of fresh salmon, organic tuna, mackrel, bombay duck, fresh mussels, oysters, soy flour, soy milk, soy bean, tofu, organic eggs. These ingredients not only give sufficient good proteins and amino acids but also ample of minerals like zinc, manganese, selenium, calcium, Vitamin E. Especially soy that in addition to the mentioned nutrients also provides women with phytoestrogens called "isoflavones" that act like estrogen in the female body and help regulate the hormonal imbalance. Walnuts & almonds are another food items women should have on their daily check list as they contain the omega 3 & 6 fats as well as rich in fiber, riboflavin (Vitamin B3), zinc and vitamin E. Turmeric and nutmeg as in the form of powder is the very essential ingredient for a women's skin as well as immunity, turmeric is well known for its medicinal qualities of an antiseptic and preventing nerve degeneration. Nutmeg on the other hand has healing qualities to detox liver and skin. Aloe vera & green tea should be used daily by women, of course during pregnancy contraindications exists. Both are excellent in hormone regulation and detoxification. Oats are one of the best ways a woman can get high soluble fiber, vitamin b, zinc, manganese. What a woman wants from head to toe is glowing flawless skin, considering some of our environments being toxic that is a hard to get, unless you live in the Alps or Himalaya. But what we all can do is to consume a lot of food that combats toxicity in our body and the best ingredients are deeply colored fruits and veggies like berries, avocado, papaya, greens and to dress it well use only olive oil or rice bran oil.

Must Do Fitness for Women - After a list of essential must haves in food lets move over to how essential is fitness to a woman's health & happiness. Fitness routine for at least 25 minutes each day is a total must have on a woman's list as it acts like a shot of happiness and beauty all put together. Exercise like discussed in our previous post is endorphin releaser which stimulates and elevates mood and creates a general sense of well being. Although to be fully active it needs to be triggered everyday to last about 12 - 18 hours. Exercise also allows the body to prioritize nutrient supply in various parts of the body's functioning rather than letting it go to waste. Apart from strengthening your body it also helps regulate hormones, skin tone, bone health. A workout could be anything and not just inside the confines of a gym, you could go exotic dancing, classical dancing, beach sports, functional training, as long as you get stamina, strength and flexibility from it all. Never forget core strength training though and to give an example of the perfect complete body workout is 'SURYANAMASKAR' otherwise known as yoga regime of the entire body. It has 12 different positions and looks simple but is extremely tough while you do it. So get up and get going with your must have list and be the beautiful woman you were always meant to be and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

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