Challenge Yourself 

fitness




There is always an excuse to start your journey the next week! Oh this Sunday for sure I will become a new person but almost always you suddenly realize its a Thursday and that Sunday never happened! 

Join me in this challenge from Sunday! Its a way you can kick start a healthy lifestyle. Eventually you can live without all these items! Why 21 days? It takes 21 days for form a habit! Hopefully if you follow this, by the end of the 21 days your body will naturally not crave these addictive substances! 

After the 21 days, try to follow this five days a week and slowly wean yourself completely!

Goodluck! (Please ask me any queries you may have!)

PVSD Post vacation stress disorder; there’s a cure!

fitness, Lifestyle

So you have had the most fabulous vacation, you ate the best foods and relaxed to your hearts content. Now that you’re back home, we are all too familiar with that horrid feeling of, ‘what have I done?’ ‘Did I really eat all that food?’ ‘I am going on a strict diet now’ ‘I am never eating again!’

At least I know I have been a victim of those traumatic post vacation feeling all too many times. Again, don’t do that to your body, it takes 21 days to form a habit and for your body to accept the new great changes you have made. So treating your body like a trash can for the duration of your holiday just doesn’t make sense!

We traveled to Nassau, Bahamas for 5 days which was the first holiday where I tried to stay true to my routine and thoroughly enjoyed myself, guilt-free.

Start your morning the same way by having that delicious morning smoothie.

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1 banana | 4 strawberries | handful of blueberries | 1/4 cup water

Then I used the beautiful setting to inspire a good work out because I’m the type of person who just cannot control my food intake during holidays! 😛

I started with a 5 minute jog in place.

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The resistance band is your best travel companion. It’s light, takes no space and allows for a killer workout! I used a band which resists 15lbs

Buy a resistance band

So this was my routine after 5 minutes of jogging.
3 sets of 12 bicep curls

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3 sets of 12 triceps

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3 sets of 12 shoulder press

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3 sets of 12 front rows
3 sets of 12 lateral raise

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 3 sets of 12 alternate extensions

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 3 sets of 20 squats

3 sets of 12 lunges

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3 sets of 12 side lunges

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3 sets of 20 sit ups

3 sets of 20 leg extensions

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Stretch it out and enjoy your day! Drink your protein! Take your multivitamins!

I ate lots of seafood and really enjoyed our vacation and best of all it felt great having none of those post holiday feelings! I successfully had no post vacation stress and this is just the beginning! 

If I can do it, believe me anyone can!

There is nothing called a full cheat day!

fitness, Lifestyle

My normal schedule in London begins with a fruit smoothie, I literally wake up dreaming of it. Followed by a 1.5 hour session with my trainer, Gary Ousby where we do HIIT (high intensity interval training).

Gary’s website

My point is that I am incredibly strict with myself during the week. I do not cheat and that really helps develop my self control in the subconscious level. I used to really look forward to the weekend as this were my cheat days! No training and eat whatever! The first two weekends I did just that but it made me feel like hell at the Monday morning training session! I wondered why!

Here’s the reality, you can’t just get off the wagon for 2 days and expect to jump right on after that! Yes, the human body is amazing but not that amazing! You are essentially confusing your body and that’s when it starts to store/crave the things that you are working so hard to eliminate. It’s up to you, which day do you food-cheat and which day do you train-cheat? 😛

So, maintain your intense training sessions and strict food plan during the week, give yourself the 6th day to rest your body. When you are giving your body a rest, keep your eating/drinking in check. On the 7th day, do something fun! Go for a walk, run with a friend, just do anything active which is not your regular regime. That night go to that new restaurant or eat that food you’ve been constantly craving! It’s all about that balance and really thinking about your body, keep it moving and constantly remind it that you won’t sabotage this new lifestyle as this time it is the real deal and not just another crash diet.

That’s exactly what I did today, I got a root canal and was very groggy from the numbness and pain. I realized that going outdoors during this beautiful weather in Great Falls,VA ( where i am on holiday now) would be the perfect pick-me-up! My sister and I went to the backyard and together we did a bit of running, core exercises, shared tips and played a game of basketball! It was so much fun, easy and a great way to spend time with my sister!

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It takes about 21 days to form a habit, imagine what happens inside your body when it tries to adapt to this amazing lifestyle for 5 days then gets thrown off! This analogy might put things in perspective, imagine you have a huge ugly blister on your arm and to heal it you ought to clean it with antibacterial wipes, cover it and absolutely no touching. So you follow that routine for 5 days then for the next 2 days you don’t do any of it and just let it be. Will it ever heal? Think about it! Just because we cannot see what’s happening on the inside it’s much easier to avoid it. Don’t avoid what’s inside, it is what’s keeping you alive!

Keep at it! Enjoy the transformation! Enjoy your cheat days, don’t let that temporary euphoric feeling ruin your permanent goal!

Training on the Bosu balance trainer

fitness

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I train for 1.5 hours five days a week and spend about 1 hour of each session doing exercises on the #bosu ball. You can use it both ways and jumping on it and working on it stabilises your core and improves overall muscular strength and balance. Give it a try! It comes with a cd with a host of exercises you can do with it! You will find muscles you never thought you had!!

Buy it now

Click to see sample exercises using the Bosu trainer

It’s painful but totally worth it!