Blog

Take Action on Time

Let us imagine a situation that could happen to any one of us. One night when you are sleeping with your family, you would hear loud noises outside. Let us say that noises are clearly suspicious that say some malicious activity is going on. Now they would be loud enough that most us would wake up to take notice. One of the family members, let us say either wife or husband shakes up their other half and tries to confirm whether they are also hearing the noises from outside. In spite of hearing loud noises, if somebody says that they do not hear any noise, there could be many reasons for this.

Like.

  • Why to take risk,
  • Why to get involved
  • What if we get into some trouble
  • Scared to take on the people outside
  • What if the people attack us
  • What if I get hurt
  • We don’t have the strength and courage to face the situation outside

Simple to say it is the fear of unknown. Also it is a natural and most common attitude we show when we are in an unfamiliar situation. Nobody cares until they are affected , negatively impacted. People generally wake up to the reality only when they get into trouble or when they are in the middle of tornado.

It is the same situation as a frog in the boiling water. You put a frog in a bowl of water and keep heating it. The water gets hotter and hotter. Frog jumps out of the water only when the water is so hot that it realizes that it is going to burn to death. Sometimes it could happen that frog looses its strength due to the heat build up and may not be able to jump out of water in the nick of time. This could result in death.

We generally have this kind of attitude towards things in life that are most valuable and worth fighting for like health, fitness, well being, relationships, doing meaningful tasks that makes us alive, sharing and offering our services to others etc. We do not take preemptive actions to take precautions or to strengthen ourselves to deal with unexpected situations in life. We keep postponing and keep ignoring various signals only to find ourselves in a irreparable position at a later stage.

~Praveen Jada

*Do read the Disclaimer

Fitness Mindset

How do we develop the mindset of not quitting and seeing it through the end? For instance in gym, we develop that strength and stamina based on the number of repetitions we are willing to do after we enter the state of pain. It is the attitude and the perspective that helps you in sticking to your path when the going gets hard. This principle is valid in gym and in life as well.

Most people are not willing to put in that extra work for well being because of the self limiting beliefs and excuses. We justify and build a solid story behind the sorry excuses we give to ourselves and skip the stuff that is supposed to be done.

You would realize that you can observe more opportunities and possibilities once you let go of your ego, then accept your mistakes to learn from them and grow. This is what I did in my earlier days of my fitness journey, where I tried to define my own rules when it comes to exercising, diet and supplementations. Some of them worked and most of my practices did not. When I started to read expert books and watched hundreds of videos online, I realized that there is a huge science behind health and fitness in general. Everything written in the books or said in the video might not work, but we need to take one relevant thing at a time , try it, practice it and test it for a while. If it works then continue with it, else try something else. But everything needs time and effort for us to see the results and take a decision. So this is a process, and a journey which is not always exciting. Hence perseverance and patience is required.

Finally it all comes down to doing the best I could do even on my worst days.

Focusing on today and doing your best with the best of your abilities would develop confidence and respect towards ourselves. Why? Simply because we are trying our best to keep our word and stand by our decision. Whether it is you being present fully with your family, playing with the kids, giving full effort in gym and giving 100% at work. In this way you are fulfilling all your objectives to the fullest without diversions which only increases the value you are adding to your life daily and building the blocks for your future wellbeing.

For developing this attitude, you need to keep doing things that you find difficult or disinterested. Most of the activities in life which are hard or painful are the ones that are absolutely essential for us to grow to the next level or improve our standard of living. They help us to change and grow. When we try to intentionally include certain activities like yoga or meditation or even strength training or training for a marathon or starting a new exercise regime, they will test our will and ability to focus to learn new skills. They will also test our determination to learn new things and willingness to stay consistent to see results.

Integrity plays a huge role in staying true to yourself and being accountable. We need to keep checking how mush of the self-talk are we actually realizing in life. Integrity defines your identity and the value you give to the promises you made for yourself. Integrity is doing what is right and adhering to decisions you made. It is doing the right thing even when it is difficult, even when no one is giving credit, even when it is boring and painful, even when you are opposed and criticized by majority.

Your integrity influences your collaborations with others. The kind of trust established in a relationship is defined by your integrity. It could be simple daily tasks like respecting alarm early morning and waking up. Not missing a workout. Taking your kids to school on time. Not missing a deadline in office. Being present at important family events that matters. It is walking the talk and talking what you practice.

Perspective is important . They way you value various things in life defines your level of success or happiness or even achievements. When you face challenges and difficulties, instead of saying I don’t want to get into this, if you say I could do this, I will try my best, it builds your confidence because you ventured into unknown territory and tried something new. Just changing the perspective towards the natural events of life could bring in more possibilities to grow and achieve more in life.

~Praveen Jada

*Do read the Disclaimer

Rules for Body Building and Lifting Weights

Following the advice of genetically elite lifters, competitive body builders is misleading. Many top competitors have excellent physiques in spite of what they do, not because of what they do. Of course I am not saying that people who look great and also have super strength do not train hard to have a admirable physique. For most of the top level athletes in any field, fitness models and competitive body builders – their superior genetics do play a role in make them the champs in their own areas. They nurture and stimulate their natural genetic gifts through effort, discipline and consistency to attain that top position their respective arena.

Try to avoid Overtraining

There’s a difference between optimum work capacity and maximum work capacity. There’s often an overemphasis on methods to stimulate growth, but an under-emphasis on rest and recovery.

It isn’t very sexy to be talking about rest and recovery, but most of the time the non-sexy details are the most relevant for producing results.

Under-training allows you to keep showing up. Consistency is more important than intensity. Furthermore, consistency is the building block of intensity – not the other way around.

Real success is less about “giving it all you got” and more about being able to show up every training day in a performance-readiness state.

Try not to train to failure in every set

It is hard to recover if you go to muscular failure in every set. Yes, may be keep a specific limited sets for muscular failure, but not every set.

If you want to complete all the sets planned in a good form, then do not over stress and over strain the muscles in every set. This means picking a weight that challenges your target muscles for the reps indicated, but avoids taking you to failure.

Plan the rest between the sets and also between the training days

You have to balance adequate training stimulus with adequate recovery, both within workouts and between workouts:

  • Not enough workouts per week = not enough stimulus.
  • Not enough recovery within and between workouts = overtraining and not enough time to complete an adaptive response.

“Inter” workout recovery has a lot to do with proper program design. “Intra” workout recovery has more to do with training within optimal work capacity zones and seldom pushing muscles into maximum work capacity zones.

Establishing a consistent training pace and natural workout flow are important. And this has as much to do with intra-workout recovery as it does with the specified training stimulus of exercise selection, sets, and reps.

Obviously, it takes a lot more time to recover from a set of high-rep squats or lunges than it does to recover from a set of concentration curls, but using the clock to gauge intra-workout recovery just makes no sense. And neither does following some written-down instruction to rest for a specified time between sets. Assigning rest times between sets according to the clock or timer is like throwing darts at a dartboard while blindfolded.

Determine how long to rest between sets subjectively

Your rest between sets should be self-monitored according to the concept of “subjective determination of performance readiness.” After you’ve completed a working set, ask yourself this question:

“Can I do my next set with equal or greater intensity than the previous set with proper form?”

This is about subjective self-assessment. And you’re only going to get proficient at this subjective determination of performance readiness by practicing it regularly each and every workout, until how long you rest between sets becomes just another instinctive element to your training.

If you’re training for muscle development, then NEVER artificially force shorter rest times. You rest for as long as you need to rest in order to resume your next set with the same level of applied efforts. And only YOU can determine that.

As far as “inter” workout recovery, it has everything to do with making sure you don’t consistently push your body beyond optimum workout capacity in any given workout. Not training to failure and not artificially forcing shorter rest times are two ways to ensure this.

There is no need to necessitate workouts that last longer than 60 minutes, with 45-60 minutes being the sweet spot for many lifters. The only exception could be leg workouts, which may extend a bit beyond 60 minutes because leg work requires longer rest periods between sets.

You can design programs that are anywhere from three days per week to six days per week, depending on where you are in terms of current conditioning for muscle-building workouts and current work capacity.

Emphasize ranges and planes of motion over how much you can lift

Too often, training experts overemphasize musculoskeletal concerns while completely ignoring neuromuscular input that directly affects fiber recruitment. This mistake often leads to worshipping certain exercises and overemphasizing them at the expense of other valuable exercises that would contribute to muscle growth.

Think more about horizontal vs. vertical forces and their gradients, and ground to ceiling vs. ceiling to ground gravitational forces.

Take chest work for example: A cable crossover has a ceiling to floor gravitational force in a vertical plane. A seated pec dec flye has a horizontal plane of motion, while a standard dumbbell chest press takes place in a vertical plane but with pressing from ground to ceiling rather than ceiling to floor like the cable crossover.

Surf the rep curve

Throughout the week, hit every target body part not only from a variety of angles, but from a variety of rep ranges that influence muscle recruitment and hypertrophy.

We know there are many rep ranges that influence muscle hypertrophy.

Rep ranges of 6-8, 8-10, 10-12, 12-15, and 15-20 have also been shown to grow muscle. Muscle fibers are recruited for action in various ways and not just via progressive overload of weight. Volume matters as well, as does neurological patterning through high-rep training that invites a muscle fiber to the recruitment party.

And while reps of 8-15 are considered the sweet spot when training for size, it’s not complete by any means. If you really want to grow, then surf the rep curve of all these ranges listed above.

Practice tweaking the program and avoid plateaus

Training tweaks can make a world of difference in muscle fiber recruitment and overload.

Consider that subtle variations in hand position or grip width can alter fiber recruitment for you in positive or negative ways. An obvious example is how a reverse-grip pulldown invites a very different neurological pattern and fiber recruitment stimulus than a wide-grip pulldown. And both of these movements allow you to vary hand width spacing to determine what grip width works best for you.

Other broad examples are training with dumbbells instead of a barbell, or using a cable variation or machines instead of free weights. All of these tweaks can offer different muscle stimuli and establish new lines of neurological patterns, as long as you’re also sticking to the principle of “surfing the rep curve.”

A more subtle variation for building muscle is replacing the barbell bench press with the dumbbell bench press with feet up on the bench. These two tweaks produce a joint stress transfer.

Dumbbells also requires more stabilization, which means the dumbbell flat bench press is more effective for pec development than the standard bench press. You may not lift as heavy with this tweak, but that shouldn’t matter if your goal is muscle growth.

It’s not how much you lift, it’s how you lift it. Tweaks can also be mentally stimulating because you get to feel what variations work or don’t work, and practicing training tweaks keeps you more mentally engaged as well.

Don’t tweak too much

Bouncing around from one workout to the next with no program structure isn’t tweaking.

They do random workouts from this expert, or that champion, or that celebrity, and they end up all over the place. There’s no sound overall structure and this is reflected in their lack of results.

Keep in mind that a collection of exercises doesn’t automatically translate into being an effective workout. Similarly, a collection of random workouts doesn’t automatically translate into being an effective program either.

You wouldn’t read a book and expect to understand it all by starting at page one, then jumping to page 86, then going to page 12. Proper exercise sequencing, workout tactical implementation, and overall program design should all demand the same considerations to logic.

~Praveen Jada

*Do read the Disclaimer

References:

Some excerpts taken from expert fitness coaches articles

Life is a Series of Decisions and Choices, Put the Best Effort

Life must be led in such a way that makes us respect ourselves. Our life’s lessons and events must be worth sharing for inspiring others. And our life’s quality in future totally depends on the choices and decisions we make today.

When we look back our life, we must try not to have many regrets and repents like I should not have done that, I should not have bought that, I should not have behaved that way, I should have taken a better decision, I should not have said those things, I should not have done certain things for momentary satisfaction and instant gratification.

Everyone takes decisions in a given situation based on resources, possibilities, knowledge, support and maturity one has at that moment at that stage of the life. Many times we may not be able to control the outcome of our decision which we experience after a certain period of time , may be years after. This outcome could be positive or negative. We need to be fully prepared to take full responsibility for our decisions and actions.

So do not make everything about the end result, rather focus on the process and journey we take after making a decision. We may not be able to control the result of our decision as it could be dependent on many external factors which are out of our control no matter what we do. But we sure can control ourselves, our mindset, our reaction, our attitude and the way we handle the repercussions of our past decisions .

When we are confronted with situations in life where we need to take a decision. Decision involves action to be taken which could be physical or mental. Action could be of many forms like talking to someone, changing something or someone or ourselves, buying something, marrying someone, to quit a job, start a business and so on.

Our experiences, our knowledge, our maturity, our rationality, our discipline, our self-control, our future planning, our self-image , our beliefs and values, our support system plays a huge role in the decision making process. This actually influences that consequences of the decisions we made.

The process of decision making at any point of time involves effort as we need to assess and evaluate the possible outcomes of our decisions. For this we need to have a fair idea of our future life. We need to have a clear understanding of what we value in life what are inconsequential and unnecessary.

Our intention must be to make the best possible choice and take best possible decision using all the resources we have at hand. Later on in life, irrespective of the kind of aftereffects of our past decisions, we must not reflect back and see a better choice in our hands which could have earned a better result for us. The decision must be calculated and well thought out which must be a matter of pride in future.

~Praveen Jada

*Do read the Disclaimer

Be Wary of the Depth You Could Fall

If we are not careful to stay in our roots and stay grounded , if we are not strong in our standards and values in life, then we may find it difficult to adjust when we have to drop down a bit due to an unexpected event in life. When we reach a certain financial height, there would be less chances for you to go higher but you have a long deep way to go for sure if something goes wrong.

Hence we cautious and plan for the failures. When something does not go as planned and you hit a roadblock, our moral strength and values in life would keep us stable so that we do not hit rock bottom.

~Praveen Jada

*Do read the Disclaimer

Be Like A Warrior in The Battle For Brain Health

  • Anywhere you go someone or something will be lurking around to shove bad food into your throat. It not only makes you unhealthy but it is highly likely that it could lead to metabolic disorders which has sever consequences on quality of life.
  • Food industry hires neuroscientists and evolutionary biologists to trick you, attract you and make you addicted and also to find our sweet spots and the pleasure centers in brain. They work on how to activate those evolutionary default human behaviors with the color, the enhanced sweetness and by the even the crunch or crackle of the food we eat. This is an open crime committed by very large responsible organizations as they are mainly targeting children in the early age using various marketing techniques in media.
  • World is filled with addictive substances, food, facilities and entertainment options. Internet, social media, video games, food, sugar, alcohol, smoking, drugs, all these things which look normal in our everyday lives would make you dysfunctional and could have adverse negative effects on brain if you are not fighting continuously daily.
  • If you are not a warrior, you are trapped and hooked involuntarily and unconsciously .
  • Alzheimer’s starts in your brain decades before you have any symptoms . Sugary food and junk food is major cause of Alzheimer’s.
  • Depression is one of the major brain related problems in the world. Medications used for various mental health issue increase other side effects which are even more addictive in nature.
  • Obesity is a national crisis or we can say it is an epidemic health issue that is directly responsible for 30+ healthy disorders like diabetes, cancer, high lipids, high BO, Alzheimer’s etc. All these lifestyle diseases are a result of poor choices, temptations and bad habits.
  • As your weight goes up function of your brain goes down.
  • Know the truth and identify there is a problem. This will set you free.
  • People are out there to make money at your expense and your family’s expense.
  • Reading these facts make people anxious and cynical. Feeling anxious is fine because it make you think.
  • Sugar, sugary food, refined foods are your enemies and they are slow poison.
  • You can have all the unhealthy habits and improper lifestyle and keep going in life. It is normal and majority of the people lead lives this way. Being just disease free is starkly different from being strong, fit, vital and peak performer in areas you wish to be. For this you have be in constant battle like a warrior.
  • If you have an unhealthy brain then you can have a bad memory, low energy, low mood, irritability, anxiety, stress, worry, short attention span, brain fog, impulsive, bad decisions, insomnia, high blood pressure, high BP, weight issues, sexual dysfunction, disinterested in leading a healthy life.
  • You lose some battles and it is fine. Don’t beat yourself so much. But overall war is important. Being a warrior and being resilient is important. Staying in the field and standing up is important.
  • For brain health it is important to have optimum blood sugar levels, good fat percentages,
  • You should have low c-reactive protein, this is inflammation marker.
  • If you have bad brain health you may not be who you want to be like performing various roles and responsibilities efficiently with control.
  • Alcohol is not a healthy food and all the researches which say certain amount of alcohol is good to you in moderation are bogus. Don’t do it daily. May be you can have once in a while or weekly at max.
  • Smoking is bad for your brain.
  • Eat healthy natural food, be calorie conscious, low glycemic carbs, high protein, high healthy fats .
  • Have some Physical exercise. If possible do strength training, HIIT, cardio.
  • 7 to 8 hours is a good sleep is required.
  • Avoid anything that hurts your hormonal balance like being obese, stress, sugar foods, processed food.

As a general advise you may supplement with Optimum dosage of

  • Vitamin D3,
  • B complex, 
  • Iron,
  • Folate,
  • Omega 3 fatty acids (EPA+DHA),
  • Acetyl-l-carnitine,
  • Coq10,
  • Choline
  • Magnesium

~Praveen Jada

*Do read the Disclaimer

References:

Information gathered from my experience and experts articles / videos / research papers

Benefits of Mustard Oil

• Mustard oil has been a staple in India from centuries. It is extracted from mustard seeds. It has a strong smell and has numerous health benefits.
• Mustard has a balanced profile of mono, poly and unsaturated fats, has Omega 3 fatty acids, rich in vitamin E, minerals and antioxidants.
• Mustard oil has anti-inflammatory properties which is good for heart health, improves blood circulation, preventing cancer, aids digestive health, improves respiratory health.
• It has therapeutic benefits when applied to skin and hair. Due to its anti-microbial properties it could keep away certain skin and hair related infections.
• It has a high smoking point and well suited for Indian cooking.

~Praveen Jada

*Do read the Disclaimer

Habit is NOT about ‘SHOULD I’ Rather It is More about ‘AM I’

Sub consciously we create foundations and thinking patterns which we can also call our stories in our childhood because of many experiences. We start having these experiences in life right from our birth and many create our mindset even before we become conscious thinkers. Basically majority of the sub-conscious beliefs are formed in our early formative years from 0 to 7 years.

Our mind creates a story for every experience we have in our life. Our Stories create our beliefs. Our beliefs create what we value or not in our life. Our values are our inner compass and tells us which direction to go and what kind of choices or decisions we make. Then Our values create our identity. What we identify ourselves with creates our self-image. Our self-image determines what we are capable of (or not) doing and what we deserve (and don’t) in our life.

If we want to change our habits for good, then the questions we need to ask ourselves should not be ‘open ended’ but they need to be ‘close ended’. Habit forming is associated with our self-image or identity which are again interlinked with our beliefs, values.

If you are a vegetarian then you don’t eat meat, that’s it. Vegetarian is your identity. You do not take any time to take a decision. If you are a devout religious person who do not eat beef, then you don’t do it. You do not think and evaluate if you can eat beef or not here. You just do not eat it because you identify yourself with certain religious practices. In these scenarios people do not invest any energy or time in taking decision at all. It is a clear choice to make as your identity is linked to the habit. You have this habit of not eating meat because you are a vegetarian or certain  religious person, this is your identity. Your belief is not to eat meat due to some genuine reasons stipulated by your religion. You value these reasons. Hence these values define your identity.

We call certain behaviors and actions as habits as we do them without putting much effort to decide whether to do or not. These are basically repetitive patterns we develop when we encounter an experience many times. Our brain develops these involuntary reflexes to take action when we face similar situations. Brain does this to save energy for other tasks which need mental and physical energy.

For example in order to avoid sugar in your diet, you may not be able to strictly follow this change unless it becomes a habit. Avoiding sugar and sugary foods in front of us becomes a mental torture every time we see them, unless we invest less time in making a decision to eat it or not to eat.

  • What’s the belief that is needed here? – Sugary foods and junk foods are unhealthy and may cause harm in the long run. This could also mean that we believe that physical and mental health is key yo a quality life.
  • What is the value here? – We value our Health and Wellness. We value a healthy lifestyle. We value good habits.
  • How do we identify ourselves? – We value a healthy and fit lifestyle. Hence, we identify ourselves as a healthy and strong person. This also leads to a mental self-image of a fit, strong and healthy personality.

Let me show you the slippery slope we get into once we do not believe in right values.

  • Unless we believe that junk processed food is harmful to us, unless we value our health, we do not identify ourselves as a healthy person who has strong reasons to remain hale and healthy.
  • If we do not identify ourselves as a healthy fit person, then health is not one of our values to cherish, then we also believe that physical and mental health are not as important to us. This creates a mental self-image of a mediocre person with a casual attitude towards life. You justify this limiting self-image of yourself by feeding all kinds of reasons like it’s not worth it, what’s the use, it may not bring a huge difference in life, I am all happy well and fit even with the current sedentary lifestyle.
  • We create a false story for ourselves and give all justifications and excuses for not having the discipline to lead a healthy life. Then we start actually living the self-deprecating story we formulated in our minds – that we don’t deserve to be fit, strong, healthy, then we validate by giving a proper reasons for our excuses.
  • Finally we submit to our limiting thoughts sub-consciously, that it is fine to be how we are right now or you justify that it doesn’t matter whether you lead a healthy disciplined lifestyle or not.

~Praveen Jada

*Do read the Disclaimer

Endeavor is to Optimize Our Performance

We are humans and our endeavor should be to improve and optimize human performance. We can optimize human performance by constantly challenging ourselves physically and mentally keep growing and becoming stronger. We can achieve this using physical exercise, healthy diet and right amount of rest and recovery. We need to be in peak performance condition whether you are a shopkeeper, manager, day laborer, a teacher or a professor, a politician, athlete or a body builder . No matter what you do you would be in a stable and balanced state only if you are fit and healthy.

~Praveen Jada

*Do read the Disclaimer

Be Happy To Make Others Happy, Be Healthy to Make Others Healthy

Try to make yourself happy, then only you can make others happy. You become happy, satisfied and fulfilled if you do what you love feel passionate for every day. You will be excited to do the work if you don’t care about the income, if you don’t care about the failures, roadblocks , if you want to wake up early and hustle no matter what happens to you, whether you are down with fever, or cold whatever the health problem you want to pick yourself up and do the work that is needed for you to meet your standards for that day.

Only then you can make others happy, add value to other’s lives. You need to fill yourself with happiness to share happiness. If you are unhappy, if you envy, if you do not like your life and what you do for living, then there is no way you can inspire others and expect positive aura around you. When you don’t have the positive vibes around you, you only attract pessimism, cynicism and you get into conversations with people who fire your negative views and thoughts . This takes you further down the slippery slope.

Be inspired and keep inspiring people. Do the best you could to keep yourself selfless every day. Even if it does not matter to anybody, it matters to you. It will not go for a waste.

Prepare for that single moment in life. For that single moment in life, you will be so prepared that you will amaze everybody when it matters, that single event that changes your life for good. That single moment that defines the work and effort that you dedicated all thorough out your life.

Do not give up and keep going. There is no way that a honest, selfless intention would not have any effect in some part of this massive world. Just keep believing in your vision and keep pushing yourself to do everything possible to contribute consistently. It will be worth it one day.

~Praveen Jada

*Do read the Disclaimer

We Can Pursue Our Job and Passion Together

There are many famous and well reputed people who did do their mundane and mediocre jobs and still pursued their passions simultaneously.

Do not keep cursing your job for not giving you the time to pursue your passions or interests or hobbies. However lifeless your current job is, be grateful for having it and offer your best services. It is your job that is providing you and your family to live a decent life. Without a job, it is even possible that you will not be even thinking about your passion.

Only very few people in this world will find a find a job in an area that they are passionate about. Very few people will have the guts to pursue their passion as their mission which produces income. Very few people will have the courage and risk taking ability to go through the uncertainties and rigors of realizing their dream without even financial security. In fact it is these people who are inspirational and worthy of applause. They most probably feel alive everyday as they are generating income by working on something that they love and feel passionate about.

Now, rest of people must stop complaining. This will not help you or anyone around you. In fact this is self-sabotaging and could negatively impact your performance in your company and spoil the job in hand.

Nobody is stopping you from doing something in the area of your interests. If you have a dream project or passion to do something, nothing is blocking you from taking some small actions daily. Why are you not taking simple and small steps which moves you an inch closer towards your goal.

In fact when compared to those minor section of people who take a massive action and risk everything to pursue their passions, you are well positioned in a job that has secured you and your family. And at the same time you can allocate some time to work on your ambition. This relatively is a safer situation and gives you an opportunity to take small consistent steps towards your personal aspirations and to realize them.

~Praveen Jada

*Do read the Disclaimer

Develop Strength and Stamina for a Reason

One of the biggest challenge that people face when it comes to improving the health is they can’t get over with who they were and where they are right now. Most people will not accept that fact that THEY CAN DO IT. Even after seeing so many facts, real life people achieving some of the greatest and unbelievable feats in life just by following healthy lifestyle we do not get the will to do it for ourselves.

Because we just want to resist the pain, we don’t want to improve through struggle, we don’t want to experience discomfort every day to enjoy the benefits and amazing fruits of our hard work in long run. Generally in life or with health, if we resist something it tends to persist.

We are fascinated towards a great physique because it says a lot about self-improvement, it is about self-discipline . If one does not have all these enviable trails like determination or commitment one would not last this process. If a person is having a great physique which is worth taking notice of, it did not occur naturally to them. It needs a lot of mental strength, discipline, focused diet and food, resisting the temptations, hard and painful work and more over it is about learning, trying different things, failing and starting over, being patient to see results. It is also kind of meditative. With physical fitness and strength, there are always a plateau we hit, so we need to keep improving and adding new things to the routine so that our body learns and adopts to new movements and gains new strength.

It is like going into a space which puts you though difficulty and pain and going through it again and again. This creates new circuitry and neurons in the brain which develops this attitude naturally.

And after a while it becomes a lifestyle. If people really stick to it and be consistent, the same persistence extends to rest of the activities and aspirations that one has. Because of this transformed mindset, you will be able to venture into the areas that you are passionate about more efficiently, you would be able to face your fears and take them head on and overcome the obstacles. Gradually you will start witnessing the success and positive results in your ventures because of this mindset. 

The effort that you put is kind of investment for your future. This investment not only serves you with your health in future but also with other areas. Whatever happens, this investment is for sure going to give dividends.

Building a reasonably good physique for me is not about showing off or not for self-satisfaction. For me I always thought that it helps me in achieving my ambitions. Which is helping people to improve their well being, improve their lifestyle all around. It builds a kind of credibility and integrity. When I speak to someone they look up to me and I need to lead by example. Whether it is about food or exercising or general lifestyle or relationships, When I say that I have read certain exercise and nutrition certification books, I took time and effort to experiment on my body , and then show the outcome in the form of myself.  It is about being authentic and not faking it for financial benefits.

~Praveen Jada

*Do read the Disclaimer

Be a Game Changer

I want to be a game changer. It feel it would great to be a game changer in improving people’s lifestyle. I feel if we are not giving something and not adding some value to other people’s lives in our lifetime, then we cannot expect something exceptional happening to us in our lifetime.

The more you are tested the stronger you become and more you learn from those testing experiences. Have some compassion and try not to judge anyone immediately because we are all different and have different mentalities and perspective of world.

Morning routine is one of the most important aspect in anyone’s life. Whatever you do in the first few hours of the day will impact the rest of the day. So have a disciplined and consistent morning routine. Try to improve daily physically or mentally or emotionally or spiritually.

It hits like a bomb when we realize that time is ticking and we have to acknowledge every moment. So gratitude is so much needed in everybody’s mentality and if everybody aspires to give something and add value to other’s lives, we would have a better society that thrives on human bonding.

I wanted to contribute to make people healthier. Healthier from inside out. In current society with this fast paced lifestyle, most of us give second priority to the valuable things like health, fitness, relationships. Because we have technology, Nano technology, stem cell replacement and so on , with all this at our disposal we will be able to add years to our life provided we have money. But I do not believe quantity cannot compare with quality when it comes to health and family relationships. It is the quality of life we have that allows us to do things that we want to do life long, it is the quality of time with memorable moments we spend with our loved ones daily that matters, not the number of times we go out for vacations or weekend outings to compensate the time we missed out during the entire week or year.

For once in our lives, how good it would be if get addicted and get a boost of naturally high every day. For once we can say addiction is good for us. Yes you can get addicted to fitness and physical exercise daily. In turn you get a high, for the next 5 to 6 hours due to natural good hormonal release. To top it all, when you fuel your body with all the good food throughout the day,  you will experience the optimum performance of the body and the mind.

~Praveen Jada

*Do read the Disclaimer

How I Healed My Lifestyle Disorders Naturally

I was having few lifestyle disorders myself. Purely because of the activities I did daily. I am a normal person like any other IT professional performing all necessary tasks like travelling to office, sitting in front of the computer for 8 to 9 hours and working, returning to home. Meanwhile I did not put much focus on what I eat and how am I sleeping.

First one was that I faced was Repeated Stress Syndrome. It is a disorder characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain in some parts accompanied by fatigue. It is caused due to repeated stress on certain parts due to performing activities like driving, stress, sedentary lifestyle, improper ergonomics etc.

My left shoulder plate and my left quadricep just above the knee were affected. First it started with shoulder. My doctor diagnosed this problem and suspected that I might be affected due to regular driving with wrong posture and may be due to stress as well. So at that time the doctor prescribed me some pain killers and physio therapy. Nothing has helped me. Just to put things in perspective, at that time I was not into health and fitness stuff. I was not going to gym or playing any sport regularly. So my lifestyle was basically going to office and travelling to home by 2 wheeler for more than 2 hours daily. I can say I was largely sedentary with average eating habits.

Nothing has helped me. It continued for a while and then my right thigh was affected with Fibromyalgia. Then I again went to a different Orthopedist. This time the doctor has simply asked me to take rest and gave me some pain killers. I did not go to office for a week and nothing improved.

I basically got frustrated as it was interfering with my normal life. I was not able to continue with work or going out with friends or doing anything. It was irritating as I cannot sit for long or stand for long.

One day I was researching about this disorder and most of the articles said that it cannot be completely cured. We can alleviate the pain and suffering by going  to physio therapy, massage therapy, exercising, taking healthy food. After giving it a good thought, I realized that two common recommendations that I can achieve are exercising and changing diet.

So I did some research on some strengthening exercises for shoulder, neck and legs which I can do at home itself as I was not going to gym. I also had a healthy diet as much as I could. This started showing results and there was a reduction in pain. Basically my condition improved.

Now I would like to move on to one the most common and biggest problem of all men today. It is hair fall and white or grey hair. So I don’t know why but at almost the same time, I started having white and grey hair. You people know of many reasons for hair fall or white hair, it could stress, improper lifestyle, no exercise, unhealthy food, vitamin imbalance, it could be also genetics and age dependent as well. Not to the extent that one can notice that I have white hair but one can notice if you are close enough. At least my close ones were able to notice these white hairs. I did not worry much about them and left it that way. Hang on to this point and I will come to this part later.

Next I would like to touch upon some minor respiratory issues. By birth I have a deviated septum in nose. This results in breathing issues like most of the times one of the nostrils could be closed, I could easily fall prey to respiratory allergies and infections like common cold. And due to Bangalore’s worsening air quality, from past 2 years I am experiencing Bronchitis may once or twice an year.

I believe that all of the problems I mentioned above are basically lifestyle issues rather than blaming them on external uncontrollable factors. And I am sure that these are all a result of my decisions and my way of living. To cut the chase, my repeated stress syndrome is completely cured. No sign of it now. My shoulder and quadriceps are stronger than ever now. No medication used.

I do not have a single white hair now. All white hair turned black. At a certain stage my close ones noticed it and was amazed to see few white hair turning black from hair follicle.

Next my respiratory system is stronger than ever now. I can feel the general improvement in my immunity. Me getting infected by common cold and Bronchitis has been reduced for sure. Even if I get them, I would recover from them quicker.

I realized our body and its systems are completely dependent on our lifestyle choices and our daily habits. Just by having some physical activity or exercise, eating healthy most of the times, getting enough rest – just by following best practices in these 3 areas of life itself can have a huge positive impact on our overall health. Along with this if we take appropriate dosage of supplements like multivitamins, Omega 3, Vitamin D3, K2, B12 then we optimize of physical and mental well being naturally to higher standard.

~Praveen Jada

*Do read the Disclaimer

Do Something Daily You Hate To Do But Makes Your Stronger

Do something every day you hate to do. Do something that is painful, uncomfortable and tests you physically or mentally. That makes you strong physically and mentally. If you keep doing things that you are strong, then you keep doing it without accounting for deviations or variations that challenge your strengths.

If you like running there is nothing great at just running, if you like cycling nothing great about just cycling, if you are writing nothing great about just keep on writing. Be great at it, challenge your strengths and be great at them. What is your contribution in that field, how did you make a story for yourself in that area, how you are special in pursuing your passion.

Lead by example, you cannot give excuses when you determine to do something in your life. Stick to the routine, do it no matter what happens and no excuses. Integrity is important and never say something that you did not do or followed.

Having high integrity is important. We know many doctors who smoke or drink or even unhealthy lifestyle, we know actors who does great characters in movies but not worthy in real lives, we definitely know people around us who talk something and do something, would not be on time, may not show up when it is required and so on. People respect when we have integrity , when we walk the talk and talk the walk.

~Praveen Jada

*Do read the Disclaimer

References:

Some excerpts from motivational talks and videos