Month: February 2016

“Nothing can be compared to a refreshing Morning walk”

Despite waking up early, a morning walk would make you feel refreshed rather than tired.

Imagine walking out in the open amidst trees and greenery with a cool breeze caresses your face and fresh air filling your lungs.

The smell of fresh morning dew & soil beneath the grass lends a positive energetic feeling throughout the day & the clean oxygen supplied to the brain, helps increase memory.

A half hour walk each day can lower your weight and also a woman’s risk of heart disease by 40%.

It reduces diabetes, dementia, blood pressure, anxiety, depression & hypertension.

Brisk walking is an effective aerobic exercise that helps in the formation of Red Blood Corpuscles & sheds the dead cells from the body, providing a radiant and shining skin.

So make a morning walk your personal tonic to be Fab, healthy & beautiful!!

*Tomorrow’s preview: Learn if Saturday should be a change in routine.

“A healthy outside starts from the inside. So eat right.”- Delna Pooniwala.

Am sure if we humans were made transparent, I would look like an hourglass overflowing with fruits, nuts & chocolates.

Thankfully, we just display the benefits of our intake so these same fruits lend a glow and rejuvenate the skin. They add boost to your energy levels and helps your immune system fight against common colds and sore throats making you a healthier person. The folate or folic acid helps our body grow red blood cells which reduces the appearance of dark under eye circles.

Nuts are rich in essential nutrients like fibre, protein, minerals, monosaturated & polysaturated fatty acids and antioxidents that are all great for beautiful skin.

Chocolate are usually associated with obesity, acne, coronary diseases and diabetes, but as a normal healthy person, I associate a small portion of chocolates as an antioxidant, an anti aging remedy and a great stress buster and include it in my diet chart.

Every food has a lot of good and bad. However, you need to know what is right for your body as every person is an individual and requires a diet to be designed as per his own requirements and concerns.

“Treat yourself with juices & start your day with a glass of health”- Delna Pooniwala.

We may have often heard about consuming a vegetable juice in the morning & wonder if it was truly beneficial.

We are usually recommended 4 to 5 servings of vegetables daily to complete our nutritional intake. This does not usually happen and the body requires to be replenished so when you drink fresh-made green juice, it is almost like receiving an intravenous infusion of vitamins, minerals, and enzymes because they go straight into your system without having to be broken down.

Drinking your juice first thing in the morning can definitely give you a natural energy boost without resorting to stimulants like coffee and since the juice is already in an easily digestible form, it can help revitalize your energy levels within minutes.

“Your body is a reflection of your lifestyle” – Delna Pooniwala.

Have you observed the muscular structure of a construction labourer? His dark shoulders and back and arms are so beautifully well defined with well developed hard muscles. Or understand a ballet dancer’s slim light structure with elongated muscles full of delicacy.

Our body is always a reflection of what we live, how we live it, what we eat, the activity or sedentary lifestyle we lead and we need to counter react these issues, by developing an activity. If you are sitting all day, you may want to take up walking. If your joints have an issue, maybe swimming could be the answer. For some, who have soft body muscles, toning with weights could be an option.

It is necessary to identify what your requirement is and select a suitable activity accordingly, that you may truly like to incorporate into your day. If you enjoy something, you would be excited about it, make time and would be able to sustain regularity.

Do not think of it as an exercise- it could also be family bonding. You could possibly play badminton with your kids every night or go for beach yoga on weekends with your teenage daughter.

Just have fun and enjoy what you do because finally your happiness too would reflect through you.

“Surround yourself with those on the same mission” – Delna Pooniwala.

We all have people with different priorities around us. Some want to meet over a meal & they are the typical foodies & love trying out different types of cuisines and new restaurants. Some are crazy about movies and plays while others are on a health regime.

Decide what your ‘Personal priority’ is in the current phase of life and create an atmosphere that would help ‘you’ achieve your goal and not drag you down in life. You need to surround yourself with people who have similar priorities in life so that you can motivate one another.

This could be anything that you want to do. Learn Tango or swimming, lose weight or go shopping or just research on a particular subject.
You would love if you had like-minded people along with you.

So go on and set a mission!!

“Change is inevitable, but transformation is by conscious choice” – Delna Pooniwala.

Sometimes we look back at our old pictures and reflect back at the way we looked. Nothing remains the same. Situations change people change & it’s inevitable that we all change in every way – specially the way we look.

Part of this change is inevitable, but why not create a transformation.
Set yourself a target to look, dress & groom younger by every year. Teach yourself good practices that would help you in this endeavour. Sleep for a great undisturbed 8 hours. Limit yourself to gadgets and anything that works on battery or power. Convert 50% of your intake to natural raw foods. Avoid your car and walk out for at least one errand a day. Drink loads of fresh water & indulge in any activity.

If you take care of yourself, you would surely transform yourself into a new YOU.

“Friendship is essentially a partnership of better health” – Delna Pooniwala.

Most of my closest friends I have developed in all these years have been through the various gyms I have visited & I have always wondered why. I suppose Fitness and good health is my foremost priority in life and gym is the right place to find such like minded people.

It’s great to find people, who would help you, motivate you and at times bully you to achieve your goal & you would do the same for them. It’s a brilliant idea to go to the gym with a friend and commit yourself to a routine or make a gym buddy. Push the person to be regular at the gym & achieve more so that the behaviour is replicated and your friend would do the same for you too.

Always keep in mind that Gym friendship is a partnership for better fitness & health.

“Friday should be healthy Friends Day”- Delna Pooniwala.

Friday is always a great day. It almost feels like the weekend is near and you want to meet your friends and go out with them. But you could either have a healthy weekend or an unhealthy one.

Let me share something with you. When it comes to movies, some friends would actually opt to go to PVR because they serve great nachos & some would suggest Big cinemas as it has awesome burgers and fruit flavoured pop corn & Inox has great sandwiches. But why not go to enjoy the movie & each others’ company over steamed corn and maybe indulge in a cup of tea instead.

Convert your meetings into healthy ones rather than indulging in all those things which are full of fats and sugars & even if you do indulge, do it in moderation.

“It’s Thursday. Walk a little more. Add Thrill to the day.”- Delna Pooniwala.

Since we have crossed half the week, we require creating a slight weight loss today, so that we can indulge in some guilt free eating over the weekend.

Any kind of a cardio activity helps reduce weight quicker than other forms of exercise, as it burns maximum calories if done with the right intensity.

So swim a few more laps, or walk a mile more, play an extra round if you are linked with a sport or just add alternate high intensity cardio to your weight training routine, converting it into a kind of interval training. This would be fun too.

Always try and get a partner to come along with you to make your activity interesting and motivating. Share your health plan with your buddies so that they encourage you and stay on track and above all do things that Thrill you.

“It’s another Wellness Wednesday. So keep yourself in shape”- Delna Pooniwala.

Our week started with a smile on Monday & Tuesday treats. Let’s devote Wednesday to ‘Wellness’.

Do everything you can, that you feel could be termed as wellness.
It could be leaving the car & walking a bit or eating natural foods, making time for an activity, just going for a foot reflexology, moving around from your work desk in intervals, having fewer cups of tea or coffee, using the right posture or switching off your mobile by a certain time at night.

Wellness happens with tiny steps taken in all directions so never hesitate if the step is too small and enjoy your Wellness Wednesday.