Eat Healthy, Stay Healthy #ApneTareekeSeHealthy

In my previous blog post I had shared few ways that I follow to stay healthy. Where I had discussed how your health is impacted by what you eat. In this article I will be sharing a few more diet related tips that I follow, and I believe those tips will help you eat healthy and stay healthy. Before moving on, lets answer a few questions...

Do you manage to eat on time everyday?

Do you manage to get a proper diet?

All the different types of food that you eat throughout the day, are they really impacting your body in a positive way?

Eating is essential for your life, but on the same scale we also have to consider the facts likes under-eating and over-eating. Weight loss is a very popular concern for almost everyone of us out here but at the same time there are people who skip meals due to work load or any other reasons, which is the reason why my very first question asked you that do you manage to eat on time?

There are some people who skip their meals, eat late or eat very little. The reason to bring this point out in the very beginning of this article is to explain you that eating sufficient food and eating it on proper time are very important for your health. As the very old proverb says, "Breakfast like a king, Lunch like a Prince and Dine like a Pauper". One should have a heavy breakfast in the morning, normal amount of food during the lunch and a very minimum amount of food during the dinner.

And the reason for that is very simple, whatever we eat during the breakfast helps us survive throughout the day. Having a heavy breakfast never lets you go down on energy anytime during the day. Throughout the day you keep doing some or the other work which also helps you digest the food quickly during the day. but at night things are not the same as you go to sleep after eating and a lot of unwanted stuff gets stored as fats in your body.

Along with eating on time it important to manage a proper diet. A proper diet in simple words can be defined as those foods on your platter which supply more nutrients to your body. I would suggest you to include things like multi-grain dishes, oats, sprouts, salads, milk and other dairy products like cottage cheese, curd and yogurt that provide good amount of protein to your body and at the same time help in improving the digestive system.

At the same time if you fail to maintain a proper diet and don't manage to eat healthy food, try to make sure you don't fill those blank spaces with junk food. This is the point where the third question comes into picture. You should be able to differentiate between what kind of food is healthy for your body and what is not. Which types of food will add positive value to your body and which will add a negative value.

To explain the concept of the positive and negative values let me take an example. Eating a proper diet food gives proper nutrition to your body and helps in making your body better physically in a healthier way, but at the same time if you eat a lot of junk food then your body has to spend a lot of energy in digesting it and at the end of the day you don't get much nutrient value out of that food. So indirectly in this way your body moves in a negative direction in terms of a healthy physical growth.

I don't want you to stop eating every delicious food, but at the same time I want advice to you on the fact to eat only that much amount of junk food which your body can easily digest. If you eat healthy today, you will stay healthy tomorrow.

I am joining Saffola #ApneTareekeSeHealthy initiative and sharing my ways of being healthy in association with BlogAdda

Stay Healthy, Stay Wealthy #ApneTareekeSeHealthy

On every new day we are progressing towards a better and a successful life. Over the years we worked hard overcoming all the hurdles of life and still today we are fighting hard to overcome any challenge that the our life has got to offer us.

But during all this did we ever think of the fact how our day to day life is impacting our health?

With technology moving faster and we getting socialized in very small worlds, did we ever do justice with our body by spending out some time to maintain it and keep it fit?

Okay, lets face it. Your heart is answering it 'NO' but your mind is trying to convince it to say 'YES' by giving a lot of excuses. Excuses are something every human being is good at giving, but let me tell you the truth. Our health is as important as our successful career, trying to ignore your health concerns by giving excuses won't really help you. Because if this continues, sooner you will see that day when your life itself won't give you any chances to give excuses. 

Well, I don't want you to see such a day. And if you start implementing whatever you take after reading this article, I'm sure you will never ever find yourself with any serious health concerns.

Here are some of the ways that I keep on my checklist and follow them regularly to stay fit and healthy.

Keep yourself Hydrated

Drinking water flushes out almost all the unwanted things that your body takes in from food and air. Drinking sufficient amount of water will not only help you stay healthy, but will also help you maintain a glow on your face. The reason why proper hydration is on top of my list is because this is the easiest think you can do to keep yourself healthy, other points that will be shared below may have a few constraints with respect to each individual's day to day life, but drinking sufficient water is the easiest thing I believe anyone can do.

Eat Healthy, Stay Healthy

All the major health concerns of your life are surrounded around the fact that what you eat and supply as an input to your body. Eat on time and try to maintain a proper healthy diet if possible. If you miss out on a good diet then at least try to avoid oily and junk food.

Do proper exercises

Exercises help your body to achieve physical fitness. Also it keeps the blood circulating throughout the body helping you stay fresh and energetic all day. If you can't find time to go to a gym and do a proper workout, at least make sure you go for jogging or simply just walk around your residential or business complex. That will also help you a lot.

That's it, I hope this article will help you. I have a short video to motivate you, make sure you watch it and do let me know your ways about staying healthy in the comments section below. 

Stay Healthy, Stay Wealthy.

I am joining Saffola #ApneTareekeSeHealthy initiative and sharing my ways of being healthy in association with BlogAdda

Eat Better, Live Better #ChhoteKadam

Food is the basic and the most essential need of our life. And when it comes to the love for food, foodies like me are someone who are just born to eat. Love for food is something that exists in almost every person on this earth, but on the other hand love for food sometimes decreases our love towards our health and we end up compromising with our health just because we do not take care about what we are eating.

Eating affects our health in many ways, overeating sometimes invites multiple diseases and these diseases end up affecting our body organs. The important body organs such as the Heart, Liver, Kidneys, Stomach, Intestines, etc. get affected in hundreds of ways. But the fact is that our body can still function once if something goes wrong with the organs such as Kidney, Liver or the Stomach, but if something goes wrong with our heart then it becomes very difficult for us to survive. In this post I will be sharing a few points that you need to implement on your daily diet plans to keep your heart healthy.

Cut the level of sodium in your diet

Eating a lot of sodium can contribute to high blood pressure, a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Reducing sodium is an important part of a heart-healthy diet. Although reducing the amount of salt you add to food at the table or while cooking is a good first step, much of the salt you eat comes from canned or processed foods, such as soups and frozen dinners. Eating fresh foods and making your own soups and stews can reduce the amount of salt you eat.

Look for a High Protein Diet

Proteins are the building blocks of your body, they help you gain muscles and give a shape to your body that is muscular rather than loaded with fats. A high protein diet helps you maintain a healthy heart.

Limit unhealthy fats

Fats are necessary for a human body but also there are some fats which are not healthy for a human body, there is no way you can separate the healthy or unhealthy fats from the food you eat but you can cut down those food items from your diet which contain excessive amount of fats. Excessive fats gets deposited in the veins which leads to reducing the size of veins and hence the volume of blood that can flow through them decreases.

Eat more vegetables and fruits

Vegetables and fruits are good sources of vitamins and minerals. Vegetables and fruits are also low in calories and rich in dietary fibre. Vegetables and fruits contain substances found in plants that may help prevent cardiovascular disease. Eating more fruits and vegetables may help you eat less high-fat foods, such as meat, cheese and snack foods.

I am joining the Saffolalife #ChhoteKadam initiative in association with BlogAdda and follow these small steps for a healthy heart.

Book: The Story of a Suicide

“Suicide doesn’t end the chances of life getting worse, it eliminates the possibility of it ever getting any better.” 

– Unknown

The Story of a Suicide

An act where a person kills himself intentionally is how the dictionaries define the word 'Suicide'. But in reality this word has got a very deeper meaning which relates to that person's personal, professional of medical life. We do read a lot of things either on the newspaper or over the internet about various cases of suicide, we also do feel sad for the person who went through this act, but sometimes the reasons why someone committed a suicide are never understood by us. 

Failure in scoring good marks, end of relationship, failure to get the desired jobs, sexually abused or bullied by someone are some of the very common causes why people are committing suicides these days. And the most horrifying thing is that out of all the cases of suicides, majority of them are about youngsters. The years of a youngster's life where he or she is in the age of 13-19 years is the most crucial time where there are thousands of new thoughts which enter and exit in his or her life. Few thoughts are positive and motivating to do something great in the future but on the other hand there are also a few thoughts which are negative and leads someone to that way in their life where at some point it really becomes difficult to come back to the normal life. And at the end those paths lead to thoughts that make that person feel that there is nothing more left for him or her in this life and then the end is something really bad which gives rise to more problems rather than solving the older ones.

For a common person it is really difficult to understand what is going on in the mind of that person who is thinking of committing a suicide, even a suicide note can only help you know the reason of suicide but the reasons what made that person take this step are difficult to understand. Things would have been different if the people who were close to that person could have caught the signs of things going wrong in that person's life and would have tried to understand what is it that is making things difficult for that person in his life.

A life can be saved if we try to feel the same what is going in that person's mind and to help people understand it, here is a web novel "The story of a Suicide" by Sriram Ayer. This novel basically shares different stories about the characters Hari, Charu, Sam and Mani. Various chapters of the novels throw light on various problems that are face by the youngsters these days and what makes them take this unnatural step. The best thing that I liked about the stories in the this book is the way the thoughts and feelings are expressed about that person and how they differ from a common person's perspective. The way of looking forward in life is very different when you see from the eyes of a person who is about to commit suicide and from the eyes of people living around that person.

The best part about that novel is that the stories in that novel have got something that everyone can relate with in their life. I was reading that novel and that helped me relate to the suicides of one of my batch mates of my college. 

In 2004, I was in my First year of Graduation at the SNDT College of Mumbai. It is a girls only college and since I was from Ahmedabad, I used to stay in the hostel of that college. There was a girl in the Final year of her Graduation who was repeatedly abused and bullied by the boys of an entrance exam coaching classes that she used to attend. Like me even she was from a different town. I don't know much about her performance in studies but I had seen her many times in the college's drama group and other council activities of the college. One of my friend who knew her said that she was a very nice girl by her behavior, she was kind and helpful. She had problems with a group of boys who studied in the same coaching classes. The problems started when one of those guys threw a paper airplane on her and she complained about it to the administrative office of the coaching classes. This incident caught her in the eyes of those boys and they used to bully her, snatch her hair, throw paper balls or water drops on her whenever they saw her outside. She complained several times but since this issue happened outside the premises of the coaching classes, the head of the coaching classes told her that this was her personal matter and they cannot do anything. She was an innocent girl and she preferred ignoring things will end everything. Since it was her final year and she wanted it to pass on easily, she avoided asking the police for help. 

Days passed, she started ignoring things but still the boys did not stop. One day there was a bet between the boys about a challenge that who will get her Dupatta (a long scarf that Indian girls wear), there is a lane near the hostel covered with trees and people are rarely found there. It is said that the boys chased her there and snatched her dupatta, due to this she fell on the ground and one of the boy came to her and wrote his name with a sketch pen on her forehead. This was the end of her tolerance and she took this incident very deep in her heart. After two days she committed suicide by hanging herself on the fan of her room.

People say that the boys were taken into judicial custody and were left on bail since there was no proof found in investigation about the boys. That girl did not share about this incident with anyone and tolerated everything by herself due to which it became difficult to prove that this was the only reason she attempted to kill herself. Also there was no suicide note found on the basis of which the police could take any action. 

After knowing about here story I tried to imagine what would have I done if the same things happened to me. I once saw a movie where a girl was ragged and bullied by the seniors of her college and that made me very emotional. Just imagine the level of torture that girl faced everyday for no reasons. It is really difficult to understand what was going on in her mind but at the same time things would have been different if the coaching classes took some serious action on those boys or if she shared the same with her family. 

According to me suicide is not end of problems, in fact it is the start of several problems. I feel that she could have spoken to police or her family so that things could have been got under control. Giving away her life for those boys is meaningless, there is her family who lived for her but after her suicide they lost someone whom they loved very much. 

Such situations are make things very difficult in life, but at the same time we should also understand that such problems are being faced by several other people as well, and instead of giving up one should raise her voice to stop such things. I request every youngster to share your problems with your friends and family rather than thinking to end your life. There is always a sunrise after a very dark night. Don't give yourself up in the darkness, stay strong and fight for your problems. One day you will surely realize that suicide was the worst solution to your problem.

Last words,

I feel that the message that the author is trying to give to this society by the help of this web novel is a great way to stop people for committing suicides. It will be a great thing if we come up with similar ways that can motivate people and give them stop them from giving away their lives. 

I would appreciate if the readers share this message with everyone they know, let's take a step forward, after all we are saving lives.

My Ideal Yatra at Manali

“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” 

– Ibn Battuta

To travel is the best thing to do in this world. It helps you create new memories, explore new places, meet new people and discover new traditions and cultures. A Yatra (Journey) is never the same for everyone no matter if different people visit the same place or the same place is visited many times by the same person. There is always a new story written in the traveler's mind after a wonderful Yatra. If you ask what an ideal Yatra means to me, then my answer will be a journey that helps leave all my problems behind and enter that place with a new start as if God has gifted me another birth the moment I kept my step at that place, and enjoy each moment of that journey as if there is no tomorrow.

Every traveler has got some wonderful memories and some really great experiences. The mixed feelings of happiness make every traveler a storyteller and in this blog post I will be sharing the story of my Ideal Yatra.

My Ideal Yatra to Manali

Manali is a place which may be in the bucket list of millions of people in this world. This place has its own charm, no matter how you come, you will always leave happy from this place. I went there with my school friends in the month of February in 2010.

Day 1: We started our journey on 4th February early in the morning in Paschim Express. The travel in Indian Railways has always been amazing and we enjoyed a lot during our journey from Mumbai to Chandigarh.

Day 2: We reached Chandigarh in the evening. Everyone enjoyed a lot but at the same time everyone also felt tired after a very long journey. We took a stay for a few hours atone hotel in Chandigarh. We had our dinner there and then we started our journey to Manali at 11 pm in the night. Everyone took very less time to get asleep, I woke up again at 4 am in the morning, things were dark outside but I still enjoyed the journey listening music all the way.

Day 3: We reached our hotel in Manali at 8 am in the morning. Everyone had their breakfast and went for some rest. We had our lunch at 2 pm and then we visited the very famous Hidimba Devi Temple. The view of mountains covered with snow was something that made me feel like I was in heaven. Later we visited a Shawl factory at Manali and then we got back to the hotel, had our dinner and enjoyed a small camp fire in the gardens of the hotel.

Day 4: The most awaited day of the trip was here. We were about to visit the Rohtang Pass, for people who don't know about it, it is a high mountain pass on the eastern Pir Panjal Range of the Himalayas. The journey from Manali was about 50-60 kilometers, on the way we took a halt to wear those big jackets, gloves and boots that will help us survive the temperature which was below zero during those days. We had a great time playing with the snow, have a hot cup of Maggi Noodles and drinking hot coffee. We came back to our hotel at around 5 pm in the evening and by that time everyone caught cold. We took a rest, had our dinner and had played cards before going to bed.

Day 5: Another adventurous day was waiting for us, this was the day that no one can forget in their lives. River rafting and Paragliding. There is one river which continuously flows through the route of Manali, we went a little higher and then we started our river rafting from there. The experience was great, we came back to hotel and then we went again for Paragliding. Paragliding is something that made me feel scared before, but later it became one of the best memories I recorded on any trip.

We went for shopping in the evening, everyone purchased jackets for their friends and relatives. Manali is also famous for its wooden block art work and all of us purchased many things such as key chains, showpieces, etc.

Day 6, 7 and 8: Finally it was time to say "Goodbye Manali". We went to Chandigarh via vehicles and then took a train to come back to Mumbai.

This was all that I could share in short about my journey. Thanks for reading it, do share your memories of an Ideal Yatra in the comments section below. And if you are planning for an Ideal Yatra, Book the tickets of your favorite Airlines at Yatra.com and capture some great memories with your friends and family.

Fun, Freedom and Confidence with the all new Datsun redi-GO

If you are someone who loves exploring new places then the ability of driving does the work of adding wings to you. Driving is one of my most favorite hobbies and this hobby turns into a passion when you have a perfect car that can provide you a comfortable and smooth driving experience no matter if you drive it on a road with potholes or a road with which is flawless and best for driving. 

The all new Datsun redi- GO is the new cross design hatchback in town and it is one of those urban cross that offers you Fun, Freedom and Confidence while driving. Compact cars have been one of my favorites from a long time and this car offers you much more than the other cars available in the market. The Datsun redi-Go is about to launch in this month and here are some cool features that it has got to offer you.

The Yukan Design

Datsun have come with some different design for this crossover. This design makes the car a little wider in shape, the car is also a little taller compared to the heights of other hatchbacks which makes the redi-GO more spacious and comfortable inside the car. 

The elegant Exterior design

The structure of the car makes it more spacious and the exterior design gives it a sporty feel. The D Cut Grill adds a bold and classy look to the car. The Datsun redi-Go comes with a ground clearance of 185 mm which will allow you to avoid all the obstacles coming on the way while you are driving. Also the heightened stance puts your head and the shoulders above the normal level allowing you to enjoy a wider view of the road and the surroundings.

And how can someone hate those daylight running lamps that can catch everyone's eyes on your car while you are driving it and this is something for which I would love to buy this car.

The Spacious interior

Sometimes a compact car fails to provide a complete comfortable journey if you travelling a longer distance with 4 or 5 people in the car. The Datsun redi-GO comes with a bigger space between the two seats at the back allowing a comfortable seat for a person who is sitting in the middle. Also the large 89 CC compressor comes with a high cooling capacity and the integrated central air conditioner makes sure that every person sitting in the care enjoys the same cooling effect throughout the journey.

The Advanced Technology car systems

The system of the car comes with a Drive computer and Shift indicator which displays instantaneous mileage, distance, speed and fuel readings along with guidance of shifting gears. This helps you a lot if you are a starter or a learner in driving. The 5-speed manual transmission allows you to smoothly shift between the gears. And a perfect audio system at the centre with a USB and CD option will make the journeys even more enjoyable.

The Smart and Efficient Performance

The Datsun redi-GO comes with a 799 CC engine that provides a fuel economy of 25.17 km/L and the i-SAT technology automatically adjusts the spark timing in response to fuel quality and power requirement. The car allows you to take a U turn at a radius of 4.7 meters and that is again a big advantage when you are travelling on roads which are not much wider that can allow you a big turn.

Safe, secure and reliable

The seats and the steering wheel are designed in such a way that they can absorb force and making the car more safer for young drivers.

My opinion about this car is that it is a best buy for you if you live in a city like Mumbai where the roads are not too great for driving. The car is a best option for a person who has just started driving. At a price tag starting from approximately 2.5 lakhs in Indian currency, this car is the best option in terms of cost and fuel efficiency.

Here is a short promo for you to have a glimpse of the car.

Fun. Freedom. Confidence. The ultimate Urban Cross - Datsun redi-GO - the capability of a crossover with the convenience of a hatchback.

Image courtesy: https://www.datsun.co.in/redi-GO.html

Role of a Perfect Husband #ShareTheLoad

A women is always expected to do the household chores such as washing clothes, cleaning utensils, taking care of her child, cooking food and also keeping things ready for her husband. Things may change but the tag of being a homemaker will always remain with women no matter even if she earns more than the male earner of her house. But the best part of women is that, even after doing all that, she will always greet you with a smile on her face. And this is why she is called a 'Woman'.

Gender inequality has many drawbacks and the major drawback of it is that it brings limitations to what kind of a life does a woman wishes to live. Due to workloads a woman is the one who wakes up early in the morning before everyone else and then she spends her half of the time in order to make things easier for others. This is a story that happens in every house and due to this a woman has to sacrifice all her personal plans for the betterment of her family. Well, that was not the reason why a woman took birth, even she has her own life to enjoy. Even she likes going out to work and feels the same tiredness what her husband feels after returning home from her job, but still she has to step into the kitchen to prepare the dinner for her family. 

In my last article I shared some ways that can help us teach some good values to the next generation kids so that they don't turn out to be gender stereotypes in future. In this article I will be throwing light on how can a husband's behaviour towards his wife help to teach some good values of gender equality to their children.

A mother can make her children learn to do things on their own and that can help to establish gender equality for household chores in the future, but a husband's attitude towards her wife can mentally shape many things in their child's mind which can leave good or bad impression for a woman depending on how a husband behaves with his wife.

The theory is simple that a child learns the same what he or she sees in his/her parents. If I child sees his father disrespecting his mom, even he may do the same thing with his wife in future. But he sees his father supporting and loving his mom, he may also support his wife in future. 

So the role of a father and a husband turns out to be very important if we are looking forward to teach gender equality values to the kids of next generation. And here are the values that husband should inculcate so that his child may respect his woman equally in the future:

1. Stop giving orders to your wife and try to do your work on your own.

If your son watches you working then surely he himself will learn to do his work on his own.

2. Forgive her if she does a mistake and start to find a solution for the mistake with a smile.

Generally husbands try to scold and slap their wife if she does a mistake, but this is wrong. Even she is a human and can make mistakes, if you start hitting her then this will not leave a good impression about the relations between a man and a woman in his mind.

3. Give her a holiday.

No matter if your wife works out or if she is only a housewife, even she gets tired and needs a break. Give her a holiday and take her out for shopping or a movie. Your child will learn to respect the work she does.

4. Work together as a family.

There may be times when the workload on your wife may be more. Come together as a family and help her in her work, this will maintain the happiness in your family and also your child may get to learn many things from both of you.

5. Always be there for her.

There may be good and bad times in your family, support her equally all the time. Your child will learn to do the same with his partner in the future.

 I am taking part in the #ShareTheLoad Challenge with Ariel and Akshara at BlogAdda.