My health journey and thanks to my wife!

 
 I'm a vegetarian. I don't eat much street food or packaged food. So I expected to be healthy. So imagine my shock when I learned that I was pre-diabetic when I went for annual health checks a few years ago. That triggered my interest in learning more about food and improving my health.  My wife is also very interested in health and food and she was game for it. Thus began our research and experimentation with food.  The first change we made was to try slow carb diet. It did improve my markers a little bit. Then I had to move to Boston and got busy and food habits went back to the old ways.

In my next test, I discovered that not only was I pre-diabetic, but I had unhealthy cholesterol levels. This prompted us to work on our diet again, this time with more focus. We learnt more about seed oils and how they are dangerous. We changed oils to healthier ones and reduced the oil consumption. We improved our diet to add more salads, more beans and lesser rice. With all these changes, I'm happy to report that my blood markers have returned to normal levels.

Now if you read the above it might seem like simple changes. But the most important thing is to be consistent. For that, I'm super grateful to my wife. She took upon herself to integrate these changes into our life. She cooked the meals daily with fresh and healthy ingredients. Cooking meals daily from scratch three times a day is grinding work. Without her efforts, it wouldn't have been possible. I'm taking this chance to express my gratitude for her unsung and invaluable efforts!

Growing lettuce indoors

Too many simple carbs: 

As a person of south indian origin, rice is our staple food. Our family used to  eat everything with rice. Also being a vegan, we our meals were mostly carb loaded. As you know having too many simple carbs is dangerous. It is the main cause of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. This inspired us to improve the meals we had. Long story short, we tried reducing the amount of rice by having more salads. Once we found great dressings like this olive oil vinaigrette, olive oil sesame seed dressing and maple vinaigrette it was not tough to make the switch. 

Getting organic greens a hassle: 

The fact that we are eating the lettuce and spinach raw, we decided it is better to have these organic. We had some trouble having these things available in store. If we buy a lot of supply, something the green were getting damaged too. 

Can we grow it ourselves ?

So we were inspired to try growing lettuce ourselves. We figured that should be economical too. The only problem was that we live in a cold place, so we can't really grow it outside. The only solution was to grow it indoors if we want to grow it. 

We didn't have the experience before, but was still excited to give it a try.   

The setup: 

It seems to grow it indoors, the light we from the windows is not sufficient. So we need to buy a grow light for that. I bought a Mars Pro Sp 150 light. It was a good light with the accessories to hang it easily. 

Next I headed over to the home microgreens store to buy the soil, containers and seeds for growing. They have very helpful videos about how to plant and grow lettuce. These videos were very helpful to me in getting started. We planted them in a tray with holes in them (planting tray) and put them in another regular tray (watering tray). This way we can water it in the tray under and the roots from the top tray will absorb it. The seeds germinated in three days. We turn on the light around 7 am in the morning and then turn it off when we go to sleep around 10 PM at night. We water it once a day in the watering tray. After three weeks the lettuce was well grown and is ready for harvest. 

Results: 

I grew it in a small container to see how it grows. You can see the results for yourself below.  It grew very well and now we are planning to grow in bigger containers so that we have enough supply for our fresh salads. Not only lettuce, we also want to  grow herbs like cilantro, basil and mint. 

Conclusion: 

Once the initial setup is figured out, I am pleasantly surprised how easy it was to maintain them. If any of you are considering it, hope this shows how easy it is. Let me know if you grow something indoors or outdoors! 

Interview with a half-marathon runner

Image via WikipediaMy current cubicle lifestyle is not giving me enough exercise.  So I tried joining a gym and even went to it a few times ;) But then my friend who used to take to the gym got transferred and I was unable to go the gym due to the car addicted society here. So when I saw that my cousin Shiva (@nitturis )  was running 15 Kms a day and even completed a half marathon, I was interested. I though this would be a perfect anti-dote to my exercise starved body. So I  had an interview with him regarding how he got started up and when kept him going .

A: What was the motivation for getting started? 

Shiva (S) : I was overweight, and even more by brother's son who was just 15 yrs old was even more overweight. So initially my aim was to make him lose some weight and I thought, even I am not fit. So it will help me too. So that was the motivation for it all 

A: So how did you get started. What did you do before getting started? 

S: The main thing is to run. Initially the idea should be to complete a particular distance, say 5 KM. And then start running. Don't worry if you are not able run continuously, just focus on completing the distance. Stop if you have to - for some time but still complete the distance. If you are tired, walk for sometime. Initially, on the first day you may feel very tired and you will feel a lot of pain. But next day, don't ignore, just run. And from the third day, surely you will feel better and it will not be that painful. Also a good advice for a starter is that you should not expect any results for 3 to 4 months

A: Is there anything which we have to do after a run?

S: Yes you can do a few things so that you will be fit for running the next day. Basically to prevent cramps, you can do some stretching exercises. You can do yogasanas for stretching yourself. Well, actually the surya namaskars fit the bill perfectly. It will stretch you and you will become fit also. 

A: What are the dietary suggestions you have?

S: You have to drink more water as you will be dehydrated easily. You have to take more juices. Drink juice without ice and without sugar. If you need to sweeten it, try to use some honey. Also try to avoid rice at night and eat rotis. Also avoid coffee as it will decrease your stamina. Add more proteins into your food. If you are a vegetarian like me, dry fruits are good source of proteins in your diet.

A: Any other general advice for being to run successfully?

S: It all boils down to your motivation level. Aim for a 10K run. Join a running club. Get some company so that you can motivate each other. Buy an iPod, so that you will not feel bored to run. Always try to run. Also maintain good sleep  habits. Actually the sleep will come by itself because you will have been tired.Also have the right attire. Sweat shirt and shorts would be ideal. 

Thanks to Shiva for the interview. It has given me a good feel of what it takes to run.

So if any of my readers are also runners and have some tips for me or queries which I can ask my cousin are most welcome.

2010 Resolutions - Progress Report

It has already two months into the new year so I thought it would be good to review my new year resolutions and take them forward. So let us establish some ratings to determine how I am doing.

Distinction: Exceeds Expectations

A - 90% objectives met

B - 50% objectives met

C- 20% objectives met

D- 10% objectives met

E - 0% objectives met

Health: In the category of my health, my progress has been very bad. My resolutions were to wake up at 6 in the morning daily, exercise and run daily and drink a smoothie daily.. but bad to say I haven't been implementing anything consistently. So the report is D because I have some days done that inconsistently. I am thinking of joining a running club and then take it forward from there. I have identified a club near my place but in US without a car it is impossible to go anywhere. So I think it would take more than a month for this to be implemented. Regarding waking at 6 and drinking a smoothie, I am sleeping late so I think I will just take it light for now. But I hope to make progress on it.

Career: In career my resolutions were not to multitask, have 0 issues and to join another degree. To be frank, these are not big resolutions at all. I am unable to stop multitasking and I haven't done much development in these three months to see if they have issues at all. Regarding joining another degree, I am in the process. Though it is not 100% met, this will be rated B

Relationships: So I wanted to strengthen existing relationships with more emphasis on sharing. I am a very independent person and sharing doesn't come naturally to me. I am a voracious reader and I feel that I have something valuable to share like interesting articles or useful information, but I don't send emails to people which are the best methods for communication. Also, I feel that I don't communicate heart-fully and connect well. And regarding my reluctance to share, I think my friend Rajesh, points out in his blog on why smart people are reluctanct to share because they feel that what they know is obvious knowledge or just background thinking. To quote him

Two things:

1. The point that what is obvious to you is not obvious to many other people who are not at the same level of expertise so it is worth sharing them.

2. Not noticing what’s in your “background thinking.” It may be in your background thinking but it’s not in the background thinking of everyone else. So, once you notice this, you can easily package this knowledge and share it.

Read more: http://www.lifebeyondcode.com/2009/12/26/why-some-smart-people-are-reluctant-to-share/#ixzz0h57fjqLz
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike

So noticing that I decided that I will share more in the coming time, but I am yet to follow up on that. So still have a lot to do here, and I feel that I can do more in communicating empathetically. Basically lot of scope for improvement and regarding progress, I am sharing more on twitter and my retweets have also gone up. I would give myself only a C, because I have to go forward a lot before, I can feel that I am sharing well. I think this has to happen in real life also. I am reluctant to give advice or say something even what I know because I feel that it is so obvious. I think I have to take part more in the conversation because then I will know what I know and what I can add. Hopefully I can do that more in the future.

Finances: 30 L...That is the magic figure for this year. I didn't know how I would get that much when I wrote it for then, my onsite was not confirmed but now, I am in US earning more than what I could in India. But still, the amount will not come to that which means I should have some other ways of earning too, but at this point I am not excessively bothered about that as money is just a return for the value I provide. So I am concentrating on increasing my ability to create value and share value and then this would just be the side effect. So I think it would meet 50% of desired value. So I will give it a B

Personal: Only this I would say is progressing well in expectations. I have written 12 posts in this year and of them only one I think is outright useful post and most of others have been sharing myself which would have ofcourse helped the reader. And regarding writing story, i have written something, but I have to polish it more. If I don't get time to polish it I will publish by end of this month as it is.

Regarding books, hopefully I will get time to read some classics as I miss my library in India. So this is also a B

So basically, I have to catchup a lot in health, relationships. Career and personal goals are going well but can be better.

Will write a next progress report May 1st week. Till then, take care.

Give me any suggestions that you feel will help me.

If you have resolutions, may be it is a good time to review the progress.