Saturday, April 24, 2010

Food can be a stress too.......


Stress is a modern "buzz word". Everybody talks about stress now-a-days and even small children are prone to stressful situations.

Common symptoms, or rather physiological effects of stress include Immunological suppression (frequent infections), food cravings, weight loss, constant fatigue, loss of appetite, anxiety, depression, mood swings or even skin irritations.

"Stress" becomes further more interesting because it can be experienced very very individually and uniquely by everyone of us. That is, what may be a very stressful situation for me, may not be a problem for someone else. What frightens me may not be as alarming to you.

Stress gets funnier to interpret as it can be altered in every consecutive similar situation you come across. To give a personal example, i was frightened and had sweaty palms and could feel my heart thumping in my body at the time i was supposed to deliver my 1st lecture in front of about 50 people. Now, i am a bit more seasoned and am a bit better off in dealing with this situation. So....... that thumping has gone away but still that nervousness may be there.

What i mean is, the situation is the same, but its interpretation by our body can change. So, we can actually learn to acknowledge stress and understand it to minimize it.

BUT IN A CATCH 22 SITUATION , FOOD WE EAT CAN BECOME A STRESS TOO...................


Think about the "food-stress" you are giving to your body when

1: you eat food you are allergic to

2: you are on a crash diet

3: you buy and eat FAD foods

4:you load yourself with lots of salty or sweet foods

5: you eat the tantalizing wadapav or pakodas

6:you smoke and think it is helping you to relax and take a break

7: you have alcohol and are sure it is helping you to unwind from the daily grill

8:you end up eating ready made dinner options...........................

The list can thus go on, but what we can do to atleast help our body to cope with and to eliminate the internal causes of stress is to

" BE WATCHFUL AND THINK ABOUT WHAT AND WHEN AND HOW WE EAT"

It may not be posible to eliminate the external stressors in our lives, but,

WE DEFINATELY HAVE THE POWER TO ALTER OUR EATING HABITS AND CHANGE OUR LIFESTYLE.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Hello !!!!

Hello to all my friends and supporters.
Its been a long time that i have been away and was not able to share with you thro' blogs.

But i would be very much around and back to communicating with all of you.
All this time that i was away, i have been reading and resting and taking time leisurely and to some extent recuperating.

Recuperating from an accident , which left my right arm broken into two pieces, and was then operated on. So was really dependent on my family to help me thro' .
This short communication is to let you all know that i appreciate your support, and felt really happy to know that many of you have been waiting for me to start sharing again.
This gives me the strength and the confidence to start all over again.

BUT, like always, i cannot leave before i share something with you all......

TRY THIS SUGAR CHALLENGE :
All of us know that eating a lot of sugar or sweets are not desirable for us. In fact anything too refined is bad. So, that puts sugar, salt and of course maida products in the "BAD" category.
But to try an experiment to make ourselves more "sugar aware", we can do a simple experiment. It is tough but not impossible.
Avoid all sugar for 10 days. Eliminate sugar from tea, coffee, say no to chocolates and desserts, refuse chocolate bars, ice creams, sweets and cola drinks. Shun honey and jaggery if possible too.
After 10 days, try eating 1 spoonful of white sugar........................
I can bet that it will be so overpoweringly sweet and unbearable that it can actually put you off sugar for quite a while.........................
GO AHEAD, TRY IT........... Let me know the Reactions and the Side- Benefits ( not side effect, as there won't be any!!!!!!)