Basics of Good Health

This is the Holy Month of Ramadan. This is the month of observing restraint. It is also an oppurtunity to restructure and renew one’s life as well as priorities. During this month, I traditionally pick one special topic and do minute research on it. This time, I picked fitness and health. Below are my findings which I hope will be helpful and meaningful to atleast a few of you.

First of all, my notion about health: getting your daily allowances of the required nutrients(internal) and having good skin coupled with a dynamite body/physique (external). My research flowed along these lines.

Aside from the essential nutrients like vitamins and other minerals, the food we eat consist of three basic components. These are Carbohydrates, Fat and Protien. The best thing you can give your body from among these three is protien. Protien helps in building muscles and regeneration. So that is definitely something you would need. Next is carbohydrates. The energy that we constantly require to do work is obtained from carbohydrates. So this would seem good. But there is a catch. Carbohydrates are converted to energy for your body only on a as-needed basis. If you do not use up enough energy (exercise?) the excess carbohydrates will be converted to fat. Which is bad, bad, bad! This brings us to Fat. As the name suggests, this is something that we should do without. I shouldn’t have to explain why. You have – in all probability – have already read a lot about the ill-effects of excess fat.

So, here’s my suggestion for maintaining a balanced diet: At the risk of sounding grandmotherly, I cannot stress enough that you “Eat a lot of Fruits and Vegetables”. This is not as bad as it sounds. At least one meal a day can be predominantly constituted of fruits and vegetables like: Apples, bananas, grapes, orange-juice, salad consisting of cucumbers, carrots and lettuce. These should provide you with enough nutrients. Plus they are fat-free and extremely tasty. What else could-you ask for.

Then I suggest you drink lots of cool/cold water. It has been proven that the body expends energy in trying to warm the water. It takes up about 96 calories of energy for a person who drinks the proverbial 8 glasses. Moreover, water flushes out the impurities and intoxicants from your body. Another good reason is that most of your body consists of water. Enough said.

Now to the external aspects. For me, the zenith of a good body is Brad Pitts amazing body in Fight Club, Snatch, Troy etc. (see pic). But before someone can even dream of achieving something similar, he has to know a lot. Like, Brad had gone on an intensive diet that saw his total body fat reducing to around 5%! You would have to be insanely committed to achieve something like that! But anyway, no harm in trying huh? Achieving a body somewhere in the vicinity of Brad’s six-pack touting frame is enough for me.

Here is how it can be achieved. The basic info you have to arm yourself with is that our body consists of muscles covered by fat. When we exercise, the fat gets converted to energy and is expended or absorbed by the muscles. But there are two kinds of exercise: Aerobic and anaerobic. Aerobic is where you perform exercises like running, swimming and cycling (Cardio). Here, the fat is burned while you exercise. Anaerobic exercise is when you do exercises like wight training that directly affects your muscles by toning it through resistance training. In this case, the fat is burned hours after the exercise.

Here is how I would go about it. I would do a series of weight training like bench-presses, push-ups, curls, etc. to tone muscles. Various exercises can be done to tone muscles from all over your body. This brings the required shape and depth to your muscles. But if there is a coat of fat covering your body, these muscles won’t be visible. So, we have to get rid of the fat. The best way is a combination of a fat free diet and lots of cardio work-out.

I hope this article has shed some light into the intricacies that go into achieving that fab abs and gorg pecks. A lot, lot more information can be unearthed at this great site: EXRX.

Questions will be welcome….

The other side of the coin

You might have already read a similar post. But why is Islam a hidden target in the fight against anti-terrorism? I know I’m treading dangerous waters here but I have to get it out of my system. Many people still believe that Islam is a religion of violence. Nothing is farther away from the truth.

Today marks the 6th year since the outrageous attack on the WTC took place. As you will no doubt already know well, this offence to the human race was commited by a ‘muslim’ organisation by the name of Al-Qaeda under the leadership of Osama Bin Laden. But his views are not those of a proper muslim. I should know. I am a muslim. Islam is never a religion of spite and vengence. The Islam I know (and most muslims all over the world follow) is a religion of peace and harmony. It promotes an environment where all people can live in total respect for each other.

The acts of the so-called muslim Osama Bin Laden stems from a religiously fanatic fundamentalism that is rare. A few radical leaders are all that is needed for any religion to commit acts of terror. No religion is free from fundamentalism. Such radical thoughts should be banned from the very roots that it springs from. Attacking a nation on these grounds will only create more of such radical fundamentalist leaders.

I implore each and every reader to realise that just because there are a few rotten tomatoes, we don’t stop eating tomatoes all together. Similarly, just because these so-called ‘muslims’ are rotten, not all muslims are the same. So, next time you see meet a muslim and wonder, “Is he a terrorist?”, please remember that these muslims are also peaceful and caring individuals who wouldn’t even dream of supporting a terrorist act let alone commit one.

The Indian Engineer

The making of the Great Indian Engineer is not an easy task. It is a collaboration of many disciplined and restrained efforts. It involves patience, suspension of reason, lotsa money and a will made of an alloy of titanium and diamond. Although an Indian engineering grad will look normal to the outside world, there will be 10 centuries worth of wisdom and knowledge between his years. We are trained never to let the world know of our amazing abilities lest we be labelled as the definitive Indian geeks.

An Indian Engineer’s training to take on the world starts as soon as he enters the college premises for the first time. He is made to feel a false sense of security by the seniors until the parents accompanying them have left the college compound. Then he is given a lecture by his seniors on words he never knew existed – like ****** ***, ****** and even ******** – and rules are laid down, which each and every new student will inadvertently follow letter for letter. This is the first and (usually) only legitimate class that actually takes place for the next four years!

After that, everything else learned is through self discovery. Life governing Philosophies are learned step by step from “Thy toothpaste is thy entire hostel’s toothpaste” slowly making its way up to “Thy undergarment is thy neighbour’s undergarment”. Privacy, to an engineering student, is only something that can be had in the toilet, and that too separated by a thin, hole-ridden wooden (make-shift) door with negligible sound (and smell) proofing.

Classes occur rarely and when they do, except for a few uninitiated ‘day-scholars’ and an unfortunate professor, the class will be empty. The teachers serve little purpose other than to act as scarecrows to keep the children away from the staff rooms. Innocent love-birds are seen chirping at every nook and cranny of the college campus. Studies are non-existent for the entire length of each semester.

The only time he studies – and this is what sets an Indian Engineer widely apart from other kinds of engineers – is on the day before the final University Semester examinations. In fact, some engineers are gifted with an abundance of skill such that even this last minute studying is rendered redundant and needless. That being said, I have seen some of the brightest students in the world in these Indian engineering colleges. The way their brain absorbs information will put even a sponge to shame!

Nights in a hostel are all about partying. Walk through the corridor of an Engineering students hostel at night and you will inadvertently -> hear sounds of gunfire (Counter Strike), listen to loud and deriding wise-cracks, ‘clinging’ of paper-glasses accompanied with all involved students yelling “cheers!” and see different colored smoke as if the hostel was on fire or something. But you will also see one or two students sitting alone with their books not minding any of the distractions on offer as if they were some social outcasts.

But no matter what happens, when the 4 years of engineering are up, the ordinary Indian boy that went into the college will emerge as The Great Indian Engineer with companies ranging from Wipro or TCS to Yahoo! and AMD fighting over them. This is the story of The Indian Engineer.

The First Post

How do you approach your first post? I have always found that the first posts are the hardest. I am not implying that I’m a serial blog-starter. It’s just that this is my third bl… ok, ok fourth blog. And the thing I have found the hardest in flagging-off a spankin’ new blog is the very first post. Don’t believe me? Let me explain…

The first post is where you write down your resolutions for the blog. And just like any other kind of resolution, this one too is invariably broken. In fact, in two of my previous three blogs, I made such heavy resolutions that even a priest would have been proud of me. But I broke almost all of them in the very next post!

The first post also sets the tone for what the blog will (or aspires to) become in the future. As you might have guessed by now… no luck for me there too. You know you screwed up big time when you read through your past posts and wonder if you were on two tanker loads of dope when you wrote such horrible sh*t! That feeling was fortified when I found out that my blog traffic was less than -1! How the hell does that happen?

But then a voice inside my head chided: “That’s what happens when you try to imitate others. Be yourself and be original!” Come to think of it, that voice sounded like Kevin’s conscience from ‘Wonder Years’. Anyways, I thought enough was enough. I’ll start a new blog. But this time, this time, I will let my imagination do the talking. No emulations. Just me, me and more me!

I have both made resolutions as well as set the tone (slightly, at least) for the blog already. “What is different this time” you ask? Well, this time, I know these resolutions will be broken. And you know what? I don’t care. I’m me and this blog will be me. See you around.