Tag Archives: Yoga

Fitness on a Time and Budget Crunch

Health & Fitness, , , , , ,

It’s now seven months since the advent of the piglet, and my clothes are telling me that it is time I started on a fitness program. Sigh! I really enjoyed my months of pregnancy where I ate what I pleased and had minimal exercise. Unfortunately, all that self-indulgence is really showing up now :( .

The months of juggling work + home – self is also showing its results. Instead of the usual smiling, relaxed Nishita, I see a frowning, snapping harridan who can’t stand the sight of herself in the mirror. Something just has to be done.

Unfortunately, I am short on budget (no gym) and short on time (again no gym), so I am trying to structure some efficient workouts on my own, and since I am a rank amateur when it comes to physical fitness, I really would appreciate some pointers, help, and advice through your comments. Please help me guys!!

So, this is my plan. I am going to re-start the Couch to 5K program. I am so unfit now that I am going back to basics and starting from Week 1. The Couch to 5K program should get me doing something 3 times a week. If I can add one day of swimming to the program, then I should not be too bad in terms of exercise.

Once I get a bit stronger, I would also like to mix it up with some interval training (the Nike Training Club app kicks butt), and if my budget permits try to enroll for a spinning/yoga class depending on timing, availability, and my fitness goals at the time. I want to do some yoga to stretch out my arms and reduce my RSI and upper-back pain issues. The spinning classes of course will intensify the calorie burn. I am looking at early 2013 for enrolling in these classes because that’s when the most competitive deals are floating around. But, let’s try to focus on the interim for now…

When it comes to food, I’ve been a bad girl. My life has been super-stressed lately and as always I have turned to junk food for comfort eating. I’m trying to restrain myself a bit more and try to focus on the quality of the food I eat. I hope to get back to using MyFitnessPal and start on some good eating habits to up my quantity of fresh fruits and vegetables, and cut the quantity of white foods – sugar, salt, simple carbs. Juicing seems to be an easy and pain-free way of getting my fruits and veggies, and I have made a tentative start of having a juicing dinner 2-3 times a week. Any more is just too painful for me :( .

Hopefully, putting my goals on paper (or rather the web), will compel me to stick to them. I also plan/hope to do regular updates on my progress/lack of it, although I probably won’t be doing hard numbers.

What tips/tricks do you use to stay on top of your fitness goals?

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Challenging Myself in Different Ways

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You guessed it right (partly). Yes, I am signing up for another reading challenge. This one is the Orbis Terrarum challenge hosted by Bethany.

The Orbis Terrarum Reading Challenge

The Orbis Terrarum Reading Challenge

According to the rules of this challenge, I need to read 8 books written by authors from 8 different countries. This sounds absolutely cool because my reading is generally restricted to American, British, or Indian authors. I rarely venture out of this comfort zone, so I am hoping to diversify my reading by taking on this challenge.

Bethany also has options where bloggers can run mini-challenges (related to Orbis Terrarum), and I am seriously thinking about taking this on. This will be the first time I host anything on my blog, and I am really kicked about the idea I have for the mini-challenge. If I eventually decide not to host the mini-challenge, it will only be because of the lack of time or because all mini-challenge slots are full, or because…well, so many reasons really :) . Anyway…this is a heads-up from me regarding this.

I have yet to plan my reading for this challenge. I will probably take it as it comes and just enjoy the different books I will end up reading.

Apart from reading, I am thinking of challenging myself in some other ways as well, and one of them is fitness. This January, I gave up my Gold’s Gym membership because I was finding it too boring and expensive to boot. Basically, I had enough of lifting weights and just wanted to do something different and more outdoorsy.

Last year, I had taken on and successfully completed the Couch to 5-K plan. In the process, I realized I love jogging outdoors. This summer I decided to expand on the Couch to 5-K plan by going for the One-hour running plan. I am much more confident about my fitness this time around and am super-excited to get going.

For the upper body, I decided to try out the 100 pushups challenge.
The challenge is to train yourself to be able to do 100 consecutive pushups. That is, 100 pushups without a break. Old back and knee injuries prevent me from doing complete pushups but I am planning to do partial ones; even that will be challenging for me as I have stopped weight-training for months now.

Slowly, I am planning to add yoga and swimming to add some diversity to my fitness plan. Yoga and swimming are activities I enjoy doing, so it is absolutely no challenge at all.

The only challenge is finding the time to do it all, and balance work, life, and family throughout.

Well, let’s see how it goes. Looking forward to a summer of travelling through books (Orbis Terrarum), and pushing myself a little harder than I normally do while exercising.

Tagged Again…

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…by Amrit of the The Midnight Sun. He has tagged me for the 8 wonders meme. Here are my responses:

8 TV Shows I Love to Watch:

None, I don’t watch TV at all. If I had to pick something it would be True Blood on HBO and award shows.

8 Favorite Places to Eat:

  • Little Italy
  • Herbs & Spice
  • Ginseng
  • Coffee Day (for the great capuccinos and small eats)
  • Cascade (Chennai)
  • Duchess (Chennai -not sure it is still around. It used to be my fave joint once upon a time)
  • Corner House (for the great ice-creams and milkshakes)
  • Nanking

8 Things That Happened Yesterday:

  • Tons of work
  • Rained a lot
  • Updated my blog
  • Started working on this meme :)
  • Spoke to my mom
  • Made a new week resolution (yes, I make resolutions each week)
  • Taught the snubnose a new song (Vande Mataram – we are being very patriotic this week)
  • Surfed on the net a lot

8 Things I Look Forward To:

  • My project release
  • Reading “The Graveyard Book” by Neil Gaiman
  • The weekend
  • Travelling to Mumbai for my friend’s wedding
  • Everyone in my house getting healthy again after the viral fever bout
  • Restarting my workouts again
  • Diwali
  • Seeing Kaminay

8 Things I Love About Winter:

  • Days starting later
  • Cuddling up with the snubnose
  • Cups of hot tea
  • Wearing smart jackets, sweaters, and shawls
  • Not sweating
  • Not getting tanned
  • The rains
  • Staying at home

8 Things on my Wish List:

  • Time to relax and chill out
  • Meet up with old friends scattered across the globe and just catch up in person (instead of just Facebook and chat)
  • Take yoga classes and become super-flexible
  • Wish I could be more photogenic (really wishful thinking, I know…but I always cringe when I see my photos)
  • Stick to exercise routines
  • A bigger house (or maybe less junk in my present house)
  • Someone with super good taste will magically revamp my wardrobe
  • Win a contest on radio/TV/anything

8 Things I’m Passionate About :

  • Books
  • Writing
  • Blogs
  • Fashion
  • Travel
  • Great coffee and conversations
  • Friends
  • Family

8 Words or Phrases I Use Often:

  • Yabba (only tams can understand this one :) )
  • OK, fine! (when I am giving in to somebody)
  • da (again a Tam-specific slang)
  • cool
  • Too much
  • Actually (which I am really, really trying to curb :( )
  • Simply superb

8 Things I Have Learned From My Past:

  • You cannot change anybody’s bad habits or behaviors, it has to come from within them. Stop trying and getting frustrated
  • Not being a topper at school does not mean you cannot be a topper outside it
  • Not to be too trusting and naive about people. Have an open mind but don’t open your heart to others fully until you are sure about yourself and them
  • Being around negative people can be very draining, be kind to yourself, avoid people who enjoy making you feel bad about yourself
  • Some things about your life cannot be changed, they must be endured gracefully
  • Health and peace of mind are the 2 most important things. Everything comes later
  • Holding petty grievances is tiring and affects you badly. Forget about things, move on…
  • You are changing all the time. What once worked for you may not be good for you any longer. Recognize that fact and keep evolving

8 Places I Would Love to Go or See or Visit:

  • France (Paris and the south of France)
  • Italy
  • Himalayas (I have never been north of New Delhi, and I am just dying to go)
  • Eastern states of India
  • New York
  • Maldives
  • South Africa
  • Brazil

8 Things I Currently Need or Want:

  • A new hair-do
  • A great party (I”m still not satisfied after last month’s shenanigans)
  • A relaxing massage
  • Some alone time
  • Nice shoes
  • A faster computer, which does not hang when I open 2 Firefox tabs
  • More healthy dining options in the food court near my place
  • More fun in my life!

Whew! that was tiring. I really had to stop and think for some of these…

I am not tagging anybody specific for this one. If you like this meme, feel free to use it on your own blog, and link back to me. I would love to read your answers.

Great new Yoga Site

Fun Links, Health & Fitness, ,

Since I will not be continuing to attend the awesome Yoga classes at work, I looked through the web searching for some good yoga classes that I can take that are close by to my house.

Gold’s Gym (which is right across the road) offers what seems to be a decent Ashtanga yoga class. I am planning to take a couple of trial classes. But what really bothers me is the timing. 6:00 AM to 7:00 AM is really not my workout time. That’s the time I set aside for :

  • Boiling the milk
  • Drinking my juice
  • Having bath
  • Waking up my daughter
  • Getting her ready to school – milk, bath, breakfast
  • Getting myself ready to work

and so on…

OK…this post is not about my morning routine…but you get the picture, a 6:00 AM yoga class just does not fit into my morning routine.

So, while ruminating on how to accommodate yoga (I really don’t want to give it up as I have come a long way and it has become an integral part of my fitness routine), I came across this site –
http://www.yogadownload.com/
.

This site allows you to download a variety of yoga videos that you can then do at home at your convenience. You have to pay for some of the more advanced videos. However, you can also download a few 25 minute sessions for free.

I am not sure how much these videos will substitute for an actual hour’s class with an instructor. Not to mention the fact, that it is very difficult for me to get a room to myself to play the videos and do the moves.

However, something is better than nothing, right ?

So, a lazy, rainy weekend afternoon might just catch me doing yoga instead of simply blogging about it :)

Body Talk Dance Classes

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In my earlier post, I had mentioned that the snub-nose’s teachers had suggested that she might enjoy going to dance classes as she is totally into music and dancing.

Well, today I took her to her first dance class conducted by Body Talk – a dance program that is specifically aimed at children. The class is based on techniques derived from yoga, martial arts, and dance, and are conducted every Saturday at Neev, Indra Nagar- the snub nose’s school.

Body Talk

Body Talk

Since, this was her first class, and she was feeling a little shy, I stayed back to watch the class with her and make her feel more comfortable.

I came away thoroughly impressed with the way the class is conducted. It is simple enough for children to follow, but provides a platform for children to express themselves and their thoughts through various body movements.

The snub-nose was also pretty intrigued, and although she was too shy to jump in to the fray straightaway, I could make out that this activity was very interesting for her. And in fact, towards the end, she was quite happy jumping around the room, running with the rest of the kids.

She is the smallest child in the program, and that made me a little hesitant. But the teacher promised me that I could just enroll her for 4 classes, and if she enjoys it, then we can go on.

Based on today’s activities, I am quite optimistic that she will go on to enjoy herself here….

The best thing about the program – she came home, had a hearty lunch, and was so tired, she dropped off to sleep like a stone :)

Yoga n Fitness Updates

Health & Fitness,

I was walking across the hall to get something when I happened to look at myself sideways at my reflection in the glass.

Who was this person who was standing so straight? I couldn’t believe that this was my normal, slouchy me. Could six months of yoga have eliminated a lifetime of poor posture?

I kept a watch over my posture, and realized YUP ! There is some difference. I only slouch now when I am tired, or when I am lugging my heavy, cumbersome laptop around.

I am now all the more motivated to continue with yoga :)

And I need to rethink how I carry my laptop around. Looks like the standard company-issue bag may just not be the right way to go. Anybody have any suggestions on good laptop bags / the best way to carry them ?

I tried carrying it using a backpack, but it really strains my back. I now carry it using a bag that I sling across my shoulder. But are there any other better options out there ? Must check this out further…

Nishita Kumar’s New Avatar – Yogini

Health & Fitness, , , , ,

I have done the aerobics, and I have done the weights, and I have done dancing, and swimming…I have practically tried every fitness trend there is on the planet. The one similarity amongst all the workouts that I did was the focus on two singular aspects – burning calories, and fitting into jeans I have outgrown.

Well, this time, I decided to do something different… I am on to yoga – hatha yoga to be precise.

What is hatha yoga ? I don’t think I can explain it better than this link below:

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-hatha-yoga.htm

Note: This form of yoga is not the famous Bharat Thakur’s form of yoga, which is credited to have helped Kareena get her size 0 figure.

I have been practising hatha yoga for the past three weeks now, and I just cannot believe the differences I see in my posture and flexibility. I always used to be extremely stiff, even though I could climb up and down a step a million times or even cycle like mad for half an hour, I could never be able to do some basic stuff like touching toes without bending your knees. Now, I can do that for almost a minute… for me, that is a huge improvement.

I also cannot believe that I am enjoying the sessions so much. Earlier, I used to drag myself to the exercise room for aerobics, but here, I look forward to the hour when I can go for yoga class.

If you are interesting in getting into yoga yourself, you can use this awesome Patagonia coupon code to help you save on some apparel.

I still love swimming, and it is something that I could do everyday. However, the uncertain weather really throws a spanner in the works, and I am never able to get into the groove of things. Yoga has no such issues. The even better part, this is being conducted within our organization, so I don’t even have any commute issues.

This time, if I quit exercising, I really have no excuses :)