Don'T Lose Your Mind, Lose Your Weight

by Rujuta Diwekar

So what are the fundamental steps towards adopting a healthier lifestyle? Here goes. Step 1 Wake up closer to sunrise. Ideally: wake up a little before sunrise so that you can witness the peace that every dawn brings. It’s not called ‘awakening’ for nothing. Don’t just leave this activity to when you are at hill stations. Dawn brings hope and energy for not just the day, but for life. Sunrise provides us with the vitamin D that we need to maintain healthy bones, gives us the ‘me time’ to clear our head, and cleanses our body of the tamas or the sloth of the night. Let’s get real: ok, sunrise is great. But if this sounds way out of reach, just wake up an hour before you are used to. If you are waking up post noon, start with waking up 2 hours earlier. Waking up even 30 minutes earlier gives us much needed time to workout, exercise. Step 2 Eat within 10 minutes of waking up. Ideally: eat meal 1 within 10 minutes of waking up. And obviously you can’t start with tea, coffee or a cigarette. If you can’t bring yourself to eat a big meal, start with a fruit. Absolutely any fruit is great. Keep it fresh, not frozen. Don’t add salt, sugar, chaat masala, etc to it. And of course, don’t squeeze it into a juice. Let’s get real: 10 minutes sounds like a big deal? Ok, eat within the first 30 minutes of waking up. But make sure that you are not reading your paper, checking your B-berry, giving instructions on the phone, etc while doing this. If you workout first thing on rising, eat a fr...