Diet Plan Changes - August

I have been deliberating on whether i need to continue following a Vegan diet. While it has been hugely beneficial so far, there are dairy products such as Curd and Ghee that i believe are essential for overall nutrition. From a challenge standpoint, i have already proved that i could stick to a Vegan diet by following it for 100+ days. From an ethical/moral perspective, i do not feel that strongly about dairy or animal byproducts. Maybe, i might decide at a later point of time to go back to a full vegan diet, but for now, i am going to stick to the current diet and include curd and ghee into my diet plan.

There are a couple of areas that i could improve though. I have been regularly eating french fries and Popcorn regularly at office. I have also been buying and eating banana chips from a certain indian outlet. It seems a little hypocritical to blog about following a healthy dairy free diet while at the same time giving into certain cravings on junk food. So for this month, i am committing to completely giving up French Fries, Chips and Popcorn, both at office and outside :)

Apart from these changes, am going to continue with the 3 liters water intake. I have been juicing using my Nutri-Ninja blender and am going to eat more nuts (Badam/Pista/Mixed nuts) this month.

Hopefully, i will continue to see more positive changes in my health as i continue towards my goal of becoming fit, fitter and fittest!

Fitness and Health Progress - July

Overall, it has been a good month from a fitness standpoint. I have successfully continued being Vegan (100 days or so) and i have continued doing Surya Namaskar and hitting the gym regularly. There were some interesting observations that i derived from my experiences this month

Reading blogs in the morning has an impact - I browse through several blogs from leading self help gurus such as Steve Pavlina, Anthony Robbins and reading some of these blogs, especially early morning has helped me be positive put me in a positive frame of mind and geared up for the day

Drinking sufficient water - I cannot stress this point enough - Drinking 3 liters of water a day (This is tailored to your current weight) has helped regulate my moods and also helped me avoid the craving for coffee or tea

Need for group activities - I did a few hikes, a few alone and a few with friends and colleagues and the difference is clear; Doing an activity as a group clearly made me feel less tired and more motivated to push myself more; This is an area am going to focus more on, in the coming months 

Willpower is over rated - Compared to the previous month, when i was just hitting the gym with loads of energy, towards the end of the month, i kept questioning myself after coming back from office feeling drained; More than willpower, i used a simple tactic to get myself to go to the gym - I just changed into gym tracks and after that, well it felt stupid wearing them at home :); More than will power, smart tactics work!

This is how my final month tally looks like! I did fall short of the ideal but pretty pleased with where i am today compared to where i was a few months back!

Am re-thinking on some of these goals for next month. Will share them soon!

Progress so far - Mid July 2015

Overall, this month so far has been great from a fitness standpoint. Every single weekday, i have been doing Surya Namaskar and starting my day on a very positive note. Apart from the few days where i worked out of office late, i have been going to the gym and working out well. It is exciting that i have been able to break out of the lazy, couch potato lifestyle that i used to lead. Even though it is early days, i have never felt more confident about my ability to continue following these habits and i can visualize the benefits once i sustain this for the next few months.

On the other hand, i realize that i have been overly optimistic on my weekend goals. For one, after 5 days of continuous exercise, i realize that my body needs rest and resists the idea of hiking or biking. I did complete one hike in the nearby regional ridge and planning to bike quite a bit this Sunday. From a travel standpoint, i took one of my friends to Big Sur and loved the drive, all the way. Pretty sure that i will not be going anywhere else this month. Hence i need to be more realistic about my weekend goals and this will probably reflect in my goals that i will set for August :)

Hope to continue the trend and keep improving my fitness every single day!

My Daily Goals-Habits for July

While going through a number of blogs on self improvement, one idea that i observed commonly on new habit formation is the concept of setting and tracking new habits for 30 days. 30 days is not too big a deal to follow through on a particular goal and post 30 days, we can always re-evaluate the goal and decide whether it makes sense to continue the habit. Last month, I decided to write my weekday and weekend habits that i wanted to imbibe and was pretty happy with my progress in June. A couple of things that i did not do was to track them continuously on a daily basis or to share them with a larger audience. And yes, both of these points are also recommended by multiple self improvement bloggers. So here goes ! (Click Image to view the goals/habits)

By July 15, I will share an update and i hope to have made good progress on these habits. Will keep you all posted!