To Be Well With Wellness.

Wellness is the desire for all of us. We can have different measures for it. It’s important that we have a plan for our desires.

Wellness coaching is a tricky thing. There are numerous methods and recommendations towards a healthy life. Then how to choose a good one poses a challenge

The best way to do that is to set our own goals and try out what suits and works best for us.

That means, we need to be researchers. Look at recommendations and statistics, but test and evolve what’s good for us.

If I share my experience, I have found intermittent fasting as something really working. I consider Gin Stephens book ‘Delay, Don’t Deny’ as a good guide for it. She narrates based on own experiences, tests and trials.

Goals differ from people to people. I have set what could be considered as a very tough goal of acquiring six packs. That’s to look good.

Looking good is perhaps equally important like being healthy. Weight loss for many of us is looking good.

Personally, I don’t want to sacrifice much while going for the looking good and younger goal. One such sacrifice sought to be avoided is eating my favourite sweets.

Technically, internet fasting is okay when anything is eaten but confined only to the eating window. That perhaps take care of the sweet tooth. But there’s more to be done.

Losing fat, weight and toning up muscles need some extra bit of efforts. What if avoiding sugar and processed food help the task better. Well, worth giving a try.

So it’s worthwhile to look at diet, workout, and fasting to gain the best results.

For me they will be intermittent fasting as a lifestyle, some sensible eating during the window, exercises for weight loss and muscle building and swimming.

What we have to do is to select what work for realising the goal and make it the lifestyle.

Wellness Series: Our Food!

This is first of my wellness series blogs. Let me start with food, as people say we are what we eat. Of course, this is more aptly corrected to ‘when we eat’!

Those who are familiar with my belief and passion for Intermittent Fasting will understand better the meaning of when eaten.

This diagram is from a fitness friend who is a role model in fitness and working out. The picture shows how food is so important.

Again, some of you may remember that I am managing a whatsapp broadcast group and we are now almost 50 in numbers. And I intend to get certified as a wellness coach.

I have been advising my Intermittent Fasting Group to try Keto diet for significant weight loss. Perhaps a correction is required (as prompted by this diagram).

Carb, we thought is something to be avoided or kept minimum. But perhaps, if you exercise well you may need some good carbs for energy. Apparently net carb is total carbs minus fibre. Then go for the carbs mentioned in the diagram. For example whole grains for your traditional dishes, you can’t live without.

If you are building muscles and reach almost failure point in muscle toning workouts, please don’t ignore proteins. I have had some bad experiences when i didn’t eat the two eggs after a fairly strenuous workout.

And finally, the good fat is required. Please don’t take it as a license for offals, other tasty fat, red meat etc, but go for good oil and fat as suggested.

Always consult your doctor/ dietitian when making drastic changes to what you eat.

A Wellness Group, And It’s Working

We are a whatsapp broadcast group focusing on wellness through Intermittent Fasting.

Ours is a small group, making personal attention quite possible. As the originator of the group, I get myself trained as a wellness coach.

In just less than six months, the group is enjoying some positive results and we are looking forward to maximising the good that we have begun to experience.

By being a broadcast group, individual identity is private and only me, the coach has a global view. Feedback are shared within the group with identity kept confidential. This success sharing is the secret of greatness of the group and the best form of handholding to stay on course.

We have identified the following key success factors:

– Fasting is without any calorie intake. Best food during fasting other than water is black coffee without flavours like chicory etc.

– Minimum fasting period is 13 hours, usual 16 and ideal 24 hours at least once a week. Some people do something like three consecutive days, but no one in the group has reported anything more than 24 hours. After 13 hours energy requirement is from the stored fat. The longer the time after 13, the higher the consumption of stored excess fat.

– Autophagy (self eating) a Nobel Prize winning stage is the ultimate aim. At this stage body cleans damaged and defective cells and grow new good ones. Growth hormones generated and even reversal of ageing happens, in addition to curing/ preventing deadly things like cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

– Positive results reported by participants in the group include- improved energy levels, weight loss, blood sugar stability, improved concentration, less stress etc.

– Sustained Weight loss is not a key aim, but can be accelerated by going for Keto diet while eating. That’s mostly natural fat, moderate protein and low carbs.

– Exercise is recommended, and best done while on fasting window. High intensity interval training being the best form.

This is a group you would want to join. You can be a participant and share ideas with the group keeping personal identity and privacy intact. You get all the benefits of being in a genuine group.

If interested to join, please send your whatsapp number to mine: +91 9400056031.

(Suggestion, those with any conditions or medications, please consult the doctor before fasting, say more than 16 hours)

Hope to see more of you enjoying the benefits and privileges of this wonderful group.

Autophagy, the Watchword in Wellness.

Autophagy, a Greek word meaning self-eating is a Nobel Prize winning subject. Perhaps no other medical term is implying more positivity in wellness.

Benefits of autophagy are numerous. We have prevention or repair to many horrific things like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cancer, inflammation, heart health, diabetes and even aging.

I think I have the attention from you now.

Three ways are mentioned as inducers to autophagy.

1. Diet

2. Intermittent Fasting

3. Regular exercise (high intensity, interval)

Diet

High in natural good fat, moderate in protein ( too much protein inhibits autophagy) and low in carbs especially non fibre carbs.

Intermittent Fasting

Fasting, if possible every day (preferably) for a minimum of continuous 16 hours. When you eat during the eating hours, take a look at item 1 Diet

Preferably high intensity interval workout

High intensity is better than moderate and interval training is better to continuous and moderate workout.

Well, each one of the three can induce autophagy to an extent. How about doing all in an enjoyable way! Well like all good projects, team work ensures the best results. Hence my constant invitation to join our small broadcast group where even individual identities are kept confidential.

Personally, I am doing items two and three. I am bad on diet during my eating window. Most of it are carbs, that too non fibre like sugar based and starch.

Now I want to do good things with diet. One of the members in the group reduced weight by 14 kgs in about 6 months on diet and ketosis only. Perhaps this addresses the number one priority of a health buff- weight loss.

Incidentally, stress induces autophagy. I remember going through, while on a family holiday in Cancun, Mexico, something called hydro therapy, where stress was induced by methods like coming out of a hot sauna for a dip in ice cold water.

And we see politicians living longer threatening to cross 100 years. Well this one is only a casual observation.

But we need autophagy and all the allied benefits.

Best way is to do in a team. I welcome you again to join the whatsapp broadcast group set for this purpose. You don’t have to worry about other members knowing your contacts. In broadcast group, only the originator (me) has a total view.

Send whatsapp to my number +91 9400056031 or mail: jacobkurian@hotmail.com

We are 30 now and can go upto 50 so that I can still give individual attention.

Whatsapp Broadcast Group. Connected By A Theme

When I learned that many of my friends are interested in Intermittent Fasting to be healthy, I thought about forming a group to share information and for mutual support.

Whatsapp group is perhaps the easiest to manage such a requirement, but a regular group has it’s own limitations. For example, when a group is of members who are not otherwise connected, some may not be comfortable with giving personal details in the group.

A broadcast group is the solution. Here we can have upto 256 members and none of them need not know other members, except the person forming the group.

Accordingly I have started a broadcast group ‘Intermittent Fasting’ and happy to see many of my enthusiastic friends in it.

The only thing is that, I, as the originator or admin of the group, have to make sure that commonly beneficial feedback and updates are broadcast to every member of the group.

So far we have a collection of about 9 exclusive and greatly informative videos/articles. And these informations are making the program more valuable and taking it beyond just Intermittent Fasting.

The most interesting fact is that, out of the nine, only one is contributed by me. This shows how successful the group is.

I am happy to invite my friends who are interested in reading more on Intermittent Fasting, autophagy, keto diet etc., to join in this broadcast group. Send me your whatsapp number on my phone +91 9400056031 or mail: jacobkurian@hotmail.com. And let’s pool information and support each other.

Autophagy, the Science of Getting Rid of Unwanted Cells in the Body.

Everybody with excess fat in the body, wants to get rid of it.

I am one of them and now follow the intermittent fasting technique with some remarkable success.

When you are in such a program, one of the ways of getting better in it, is to share experiences and support each other, from among similar minded people.

I have a few of my friends supporting and sharing experiences, which is priceless.

Right now we are on a question of what would be the best food choice during the eating window of intermittent fasting.

And now I chance upon a write up on ‘Autophagy’ and there are some tips to get better in what we are doing.

We can’t do everything that’s written as good. But we can pick and choose our own individual routine and see if it works well.

I am now in the process of doing that. Hopefully we will have more interested friends in joining in the support group.

The idea is to get rid of excess fat and now the unwanted cells through the steps in autophagy, while aiming to loose weight, tone up and feel energetic and healthy.

All those who are interested in more information on Intermittent fasting and autophagy are welcome to join in, to share experiences and for mutual support.

Some Learning Experiences: Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting works. I lost 10 pounds in about 50 days on it. More significantly, there’s change to the waist area and signs of a V shape forming.

I follow the 16.8 format with fasting starting with dinner and ending with lunch next day.

What I do is to have a good lunch after 16 hours of clean fasting of just water and not even black coffee.

If I have to control something, it’s the binging on my favourite sweet items after lunch. But then, one needs to have good things in life.

The tip I want to give here is the suggestion to have fruits and vegetables as dinner. These get digested faster and go out of the system in about 6 hours.

That leaves the balance 10 hours without calories from food for the body need of fuel. Then the reserve fat may get accessed for energy. That’s one sure way of getting rid of the visceral fat.

Light dinner of vegetables and fruits gives opportunity to innovate. The picture has my dinner last night.

Green mangoes, carrots, cucumber, apple, peanuts, raisins, kiwi, green chillies, virgin coconut oil, lemon juice, pepper powder, rock salt and a sprinkle of jaggery.

Add ready to eat, spicy and dried shrimp🦐 to this and it becomes a lovely meal. But it takes longer to digest.

My Type of Light Dinner. Vegetable-Fruit Juice.

NutriBullet is star again. I am keen to share this as my new diet/exercise regimen is finally working.

Past mistakes were corrected after watching the videos of Dr. Jason Fung’s and Subah Jain’s presentations.

The 16.8 Intermittent fasting method was started on January 19, 2019 on prompt by my dear friend who sent me the doctor’s presentation.

There was immediate result of about 4 pounds knocked off within the first few days. But then it stood solidly put!

That’s when my niece sent me Ms. Jain’s presentation. And I started on it, which actually is complimentary to the earlier one.

Some of the differences were in how to eat during the 8 hour eating window, information on the time taken for various types of food to come out of the system and what to eat last before fasting.

Such last meal is recommended to be soup and salads which goes out of the system swiftly giving maximum healing hours during fasting.

This is my innovation for such light meal, thanks to NutriBullet. Today’s concoction has iceberg lettuce, carrots, raw mango, apple and kiwi fruit with water and ice. The raw mango gives the much welcome tinge of a pleasant sour taste against the sharply sour on its own.

This light meal, started a few days back, have another 3 pounds taken out of me. More importantly, the visceral fat seems to be going down and the tyre across the waist is flattening.

Ms. Jain recommends two more steps. I am already on one of it, wet pack. The second one needs some courage, but to be done (enema).

This works friends. I hope ‘big time’. And one big secret! One can stay on course easily when experiences are shared with friends and supported both ways.

Anyone interested in the video presentations, let me know. More importantly, come and join in the support program of sharing experiences, holding hands to stay on course and to celebrate success together.

NutriBullet, Friend of Nature

It was a gift from my daughter in London, that I am now a proud owner of a NutriBullet, my favourite appliance to fulfil my desire of avoiding processed food.

A fitness enthusiast must be aware of the benefits of clean nature, which our ‘Hunter-Gatherer’ background, demands and the modern day systematic poisoning, forces us.

Along came the success of the all natural wellness resort in Kerala by the best resort people in the country CGHEARTH.

‘Prakriti Shakti’ (nature’s power) even boasts of having no cooking range, stove or fire for cooking food for the inmates. Instead guests are served all natural food.

And the healing resort is full, even at daily rates of nearly $ 400.

Apparently, fresh fruits take about three hours to get out of the system, fresh vegetables six and solid food 18 hours.

That means, if your last meal for the 16.8 Intermittent fasting is solids, you don’t have any food free curing period in the system.

So I took my bullet out and made a smoothie of lettuce, cucumber, apple and kiwi fruit. This dinner is taking me well into the 16 hours before my lunch of solids. That’s 10 hours of healing time.

Of course, I FaceTimed my daughter and showed the NutriBullet in action.

On Intermittent Fasting Again

I am still on it, religiously on the 16.8 schedule seven days a week.

Not very easy, to go starving from dinner to next day lunch, but discipline is something I am accused of!

The good thing about this dinner to lunch is that you don’t make other people inconvenienced. That’s, people don’t generally join or call you for breakfast; but they do for lunch and dinner.

And as part of discipline, I do 12 Surya Namaskars with 45 minuets of Yoga in the morning and alternate on half hour swimming and strength training in the evening, six days of the week.

But the weight stays constant after an initial 5 pounds loss. Of course, I started to look at the mirror again as it has started looking better.

Then the idea of sharing experiences and learning from there and a friend suggested Facebook group.

Went there to join. The best and most popular one has Just one restriction ‘women only’.

Instead of crying discrimination, let me bask in the knowledge that I am in good company.