The Hindu Business Line : Glow of health

I am 36, 5 ft 2 inches tall, weigh 65 kg and medium built. I am a senior bank manager in a slightly stressful job. My work requires me to sit hours in a chair. I do yoga and pranayama for 45 minutes daily. Is this exercise sufficient to maintain good health?

Milind Pharande

I advise one cardio activity - stationary cycling - to complete your exercise regime. The reason: it harnesses the largest, strongest muscles - the leg muscles - to pump life-giving oxygen into every cell efficiently. Twenty minutes of brisk cycling burns fat, strengthens lungs and heart, and boosts stamina.

Yoga asanas make the body limber, joints flexible; tone muscles and banish the banes of the deskbound - neck- shoulder stiffness, lower back ache, and headache.

Pranayama opens out respiratory channels and promotes mental freshness, concentration, alertness, calmness, and joy.

The three beautiful practices combine with potent positivity to increase your reserves where you can work harmoniously, willingly, and optimally without reaching the limits of your physical and psychological tolerance.

You needn't be deskbound. Some suggestions: Stand up to take telephone calls. Park your car a block away so that you walk to and fro. Pick a luncheon restaurant another block away.

Simultaneously, eat low-fat meals, drink 1-2 litres of water, and work meditatively in a spirit of service. Tip: after an encounter with an irate customer, sit quietly, and stop thinking about him/her. Breathe deeply, focusing at the breath-entry-exit point of your nostrils until you feel calm. Absence of disease is only the beginning, but it is the growing, glowing presence of ease, wellbeing, a sense of progress, worthiness and contentment that ultimately ensure vibrant health.

I'm 17, 5 ft 5 inches tall, and weigh 78 kg. I've recently gained this weight.

Can you suggest a diet plan and some exercises? I've started exercising since a week, but see no result. Also, I have pimples on my face.

Shubhangani Trehan

Please understand that your taste-buds are like students who've been poorly tutored! Confused, they make you eat oily food that brings on pimples. You need to retrain them. Let them experience what makes you feel nurtured and energetic, what makes your complexion glow and they'll catch on quickly. Give them a beautiful healthy range of stuff to eat and stick to these foods long enough to aid their familiarisation process.

Get on this exercise-diet plan:

Pre-breakfast: One fresh, juicy apple/guava; one glass of water.

Exercise: Jog on the spot on a cushion for 30 minutes continuously at the rate of 80-100 steps per minute. You don't have to raise your feet more than an inch from the cushion.

Drink two glasses of water. Breakfast: One bowl fresh, hot, low-fat upma/ any cereal; one glass toned milk. Pre-lunch: Say `No' to samosas, other fries in the college canteen. Have some buttermilk. Lunch: Carry one carrot and cucumber, and have them before a bowl of hot steamed rice-dal-curd or roti-sabzi-curd.

4 p.m. pangs: Don't succumb to pizzas and fizzy drinks. Drink flavoured milk/buttermilk with thorough enjoyment. Have a bowl of bhel without sev or puri. Tip: Adding sprouts makes it interesting.

6 p.m. study-time: Before sitting down to study, crunch into one whole-wheat, toasted, unbuttered, chutney sandwich loaded with tomatoes, cucumber, and onions. Wash it down with a cup of thin soup. Have this meal only after a brisk 42-minute walk or a 20 minute jog-on-the-spot.

Dinner: Start with one apple/guava. Halfan- hour later, tuck into two thin wholewheat rotis, a bowl of salad, and dal. Prebedtime, drink a glass of toned milk.

Remember, only willed discipline will whittle away fat and pimples. My husband is 34 years old. He has anaemia with a haemoglobin reading of 9.5. He takes iron tablets prescribed by the doctor. Could you list out a variety of foods that I could give him?

Manji

Here is a list of iron-rich foods: Juice of one kg apples. Best taken half-anhour before meals and pre-bedtime.

Apricots and almonds contain copper that makes their iron more available to the body. Bananas, black dates, and raisins stimulate production of haemoglobin.

Spinach, fenugreek leaves, and betel leaves. One betel leaf in the morning and one in the evening without any supari filling is hugely beneficial.

Red beet juice contains high levels of iron which regenerates and reactivates red blood cells.

Black sesame seeds soaked in warm water for three hours then ground, mixed with a cup of milk and sweetened with jaggery makes an iron-rich beverage.

Sunflower-seeds flour, one of the richest iron-sources, mixed with your regular whole-wheat flour gives iron-powered rotis. Bitter gourd, carrots, onions, tomatoes, fenugreek seeds, and lettuce are recommended too.

If possible, cook in cast-iron kadais. Finally, let him focus his mind on this simple affirmation several times a day: "I am grateful that my blood is rich in haemoglobin." Words that ring in our mind have a profound influence on the biochemistry of our body and, hence, our health.

The writer is co-author of the book `Fitness for Life'. Queries may be sent to life@thehindu.co.in

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