November Fitness Goals Update and December Goals

I had set an ambitious target of 300 miles in November and ultimately it turned out to be too ambitious. I ended up with 120 odd miles with only about 20 miles of biking in the 2nd half of the month. Failure teaches some important lessons and i realized that i needed to strengthen my muscles in order to push my body more. Hence, i am joining a gym close by to focus on strengthening my core. Will set incremental biking goals month on month till i reach a point where i can go after big targets.

Aftermath of Paris - What can i do?

When i heard about the Paris attacks, i was outraged. It reminded me of the painful memory of the mumbai attacks in 2008. I remembered how i felt a lot of rage when i saw the visuals on TV and how utterly helpless and powerless i felt. It has been 7 years and the world feels no safer than it did back then.

I put aside this feeling of helplessness and started reflecting on what is it that i can do, no matter how little it is. The one thing that i felt i could do immediately was pray - pray for the victim's families, pray that this does not scar them for life and pray that they get the strength to heal themselves, with time. I truly believe that prayers are powerful, especially collective prayers. The universe will figure out a way to transfer those prayers to the people who are in need of healing. And so i prayed.

But there is something else happening as well. Whenever any such terrorist incident happens, there is a lot of debate and a lot of discussions. There are tons of viewpoints exchanged, about religious terrorism, about religious beliefs, about politics and its impact, and so on. I have been part of these discussions earlier and i have observed many such discussions, and from my experience, these discussions have not played any role to help resolve the problem. On the contrary, the discussion often used to end up as an argument with the parties on either side claiming that they were right and the other party was wrong. Very often, this led to bitter fights, in person and in social media and generally ended up raising the overall temperature, for the parties involved.

How then does that ever help in making this world a better place? How does that end up help create a better future for our generation and for the generations after us? I have come to the conclusion that if at all there is a solution, that needs to come from the heart and not from the mind/intellect. In my heart, i can feel that there can be only one solution, and that too, a long term one. And that is to treat every single person in this world with true respect and compassion and to be tolerant of their beliefs and opinions. 

How would the world be, if every person in this world respects the other's viewpoint on religion - either the other person's belief in their god(s) or their lack of belief? How would the world be, if every child in school is taught about respecting and honoring the other person's belief? How much better would the world be, if instead of arguments and fights, there is a respectful discussion? 

I strongly feel, that governments around the world should come together and imbibe a common education methodology that is rooted in human values of love, compassion and tolerance for multiple sets of beliefs. The notion of 'I am right' and 'you are wrong' needs to give way to 'I may disagree but i respect your viewpoint'. Violence arises from the individual feeling emptiness, depression and lack of compassion, trust and respect from the world around them. And when every individual feels respected, would not the levels of violence come down? 

From a personal standpoint, what i can do? I am making a promise to myself, that no matter how much i disagree with any other views, i will respect the other person's viewpoints and beliefs. I will be compassionate with people who may hold completely opposing views from mine and rather than argue, i will look for the 2% chance that from their perspective, they may be right. This to me, feels so much more empowering than to hold on to the feeling of rage, helplessness and powerlessness. And hopefully, some day, the world will figure out a solution to its problems, through its heart.

Toastmaster Speech: CC04: How to Say It: Rishikesh Memories

Rishikesh – Rishikesh is the name of a small city in a state called Uttarakand in India. Most people know that as the Yoga capital of the world. It is known for its ashrams and by the famous visitors such as Prince Charles, John Lennon and more recently, Julia Roberts. My experience with Rishikesh, however has nothing to do with Yoga. It is different.

Dear Toastmaster, fellow toastmasters and guests, today I am going to share some of my beautiful memories in Rishikesh. I am going to transport you to the paradise that is Rishikesh.

When I was in delhi, my friend told me that Rishikesh is a great destination for river rafting. It sounded really exciting and I quickly signed up for the trip with close friends. When I landed in Rishikesh, I had no idea what to except. At Rishikesh, we came down the hill close to the river where a boatman arrived. He transported us across the river to the other side. On the other side, I was stunned to see huge tracts of sparkling white sand. It was soft, it was beautiful and it was incredibly scenic. The highlight of that place was that there was no mobile connectivity and no electricity. All night long, we listened to the soothing sound of flowing river.

In the morning, we headed for the rafting. It was a level 4 rafting with some seriously exciting rapids. The rapids had these rocks in different shapes and sizes jutting out. The waves were violent and we had an amazing time controlling the boat. The beauty however was in between the rapids. We had two large mountains on either side of the river and a clear blue sky on top. It was almost completely silent and the atmosphere was serene. It remains till date one of the most beautiful memories, rafting in Rishikesh.

Apart from rafting, we decided to walk up a trail. A trail in India is different from a trail in US. There are no maps. There is no name. And nobody knows where the trail leads into. As we started the trail, I remember the lush greenery. There were a variety of birds chirping. I could even smell the fresh mud on the trail. Once we reached the top of the trail, a spectacular sight greeted us. It was the sight of two waterfalls, one large and the other small. One was 30 feet tall and the other was 6 feet and both were separated by about 10 feet. We scrambled up the rocks and managed to climb the 6 feet falls. Even as the flowing current pushed us strongly, we resisted and absorbed the full beauty of the larger waterfall.

The other place that stands out in my memory is a place called Devprayag. It is a confluence of 2 rives – Alaknanda river and Bhagirathi river. Once they meet and join, they go on and merge into Ganges. Alaknanda river was muddy and looked brownish in color. Bhagirathi on the other hand was crystal blue similar to the pacific ocean. The huge waves colliding into each other was a sight to behold. It is just one of the few spectacular sights in Rishikesh.

Most people who visit Rishikesh tend to miss out on the other aspects apart from the Yoga centers. My wish is that each one of you who plan to visit Rishikesh take the time to explore the other aspects of Rishikesh. The natural grandeur of river ganga and the adjoining mountains. The scenic beauty of the waterfalls and the lush trails. The epic meeting of the hugely dissimilar rivers.  All these are a sight to behold and I hope that you will explore Rishikesh to its fullest. Thank you!

October Fitness Goals - Update!

10/29

I completed 150 miles of biking yesterday. More than the realization of my monthly goal, i am excited that i have been able to integrate biking as a part of my identity. Early on in the month, i took a picture of myself in a biking dress holding up my bike and put it as the screensaver in my mobile. When i am wearing the biking hat, i picture myself as some one who keeps pushing himself and does not stop till the goal is achieved. This constantly keeps reaffirming to me that i can push myself and keep getting outside of my comfort zone without listening to the negative voice inside my head that pops up now and again.

From Sep to Oct, i have moved from biking 70 miles to 150 miles. In November, am going for double of this - 300 miles! This definitely feels pretty much outside of my comfort zone and am excited to keep wearing my biking hat and going for it!

10/15

I had set a goal of 150 miles of biking for this month. I biked 15 miles today to touch the half way mark of 75 miles for the month! Excited to be on track :)

Toastmaster Speech - Why to pursue fulfillment instead of Happiness

Tweaked the earlier content and structure around fulfillment significantly. The objective of the speech is to persuade the audience towards a desired objective. I got some excellent feedback on what can work even better and i will re-post this speech again later after incorporating that feedback.

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Get to the Point – Why to pursue Fulfillment over Happiness

Many of us, nay All of us crave for Happiness. We almost always pursue actions with Happiness as the end goal and in some cases, we crave happiness in every single activity that we do. Whichever form or shape, the pursuit of happiness is a key criteria in any decision that we take. And more often than not, it also proves to be a limiting aspect in our living a full and rich life.

Dear Toastmaster and fellow Toastmasters, today, I am going to present to you an alternate choice to pursue instead of Happiness. That alternate choice is Fulfillment. I am going to give you three reasons on why one should pursue Fulfillment as opposed to Happiness.

I have always held on to this idealistic view that I need to be happy all the time and very often this thought has led to unhappiness. I have realized that more often than not, there are circumstances that we cannot control. At work, there will be activities that I may not enjoy doing. There are relationships that do not work out and instead lead to pain and sadness. Every single one of us will go through worries or sadness. And that’s the whole point. It is important to acknowledge that we are sad or worried at times. This is where fulfillment comes in. Fulfillment means to have an end goal or purpose and to stay true to that purpose. Fulfillment will allow you to fully embrace the range of emotions, when we realize that the blip that we experience is just that, a blip. The more we can embrace our full range of emotions, the more we can develop as a human being and connect better with fellow human beings.

Reason Number 1 – Fulfillment allows us to experience a full range of emotions that in turn develops our character and our connectedness with fellow human beings

I have always wondered what is it that kept people in trying situations going. I have always wondered why parents sacrifice so much for their children. I had a working mother and I have closely observed how even after a tiring day at work, she will continue to give 100% at home, sometimes to the point of exhaustion. Some parents virtually sacrifice their entire lives for their child. I have personally seen my uncle and aunt give 100% of their time tending to my cousin who is a 'special child', day in and day out. The daily activities and burden that they carry at their age is definitely not going to lead to happiness. But the feeling that they experience in being a full time parent, in living their values of service and love – That keeps them fulfilled. Fulfillment will present us with the power to keep going in trying circumstances, by leading a life of values

Reason Number 2 – Fulfillment presents us with the power to keep going in trying circumstances, by leading a life of values

Living a life of values has tremendous potential. For example, if our core value at home is that of a loving husband/wife/son/daughter, then we will go that extra mile in doing the 'boring and thankless tasks', even if we are tired. If personal development is a key value, then we will not worry about 'mundane tasks' or the 'quality of work' or whether the 'effort equals reward' and just focus on being extra productive at completing whatever task is assigned to us. If being a responsible citizen is part of who we are, then we will find that extra time to participate in community tasks that may not be particularly appealing (Cleaning Trash/Streets for example). We may not be happy when we are doing the activity but if we live our values that we identify with, we will feel deeply fulfilled at the end of it. And the Impact to the world around us will be significantly higher.

The more we associate ourselves with fulfillment, the more we get to expand our potential and make a difference to the lives of others.

Reason Number 3 – Fulfillment allows us to expand our potential and make a difference to others

Fulfillment is a very personal concept. It can mean different things to different people. For me, fulfillment is to lead a life of values with a clear sense of purpose and direction. My core values are centered around Family, Personal Development, Connectedness and Service. And I will measure my life by not around how happy I was but around how true I stayed to these values.

I want all of you to explore and introspect on the concept of fulfillment. Please take a few minutes and answer the following questions.

What are your values?

What makes you fulfilled?

What legacy do you want to leave behind in this world by leading a fulfilled life? 

Thank you!

Co-Active Coach

Re-posting my message to my friends and family on Co-Active Coaching!

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Dear friends and family,

Over the past year or so, I have been focused on exploring my own skills and interests and figuring out what makes me fulfilled and how best I can contribute. I have always enjoyed mentoring and was looking at means to help people, in my spare time on weekends. By chance, I came across a Coaching meet-up and long story short, I found myself enrolling in one of the top coaching programs - Coaches Training Institute (CTI).

Now Co-Active Coaching (the program at CTI) is not what I thought Coaching was. Coaching is not about an expert resolving one's issues through his/her expertise. It is also not counselling/healing by listening to their past and helping them cope up with the issues. At the core, it is about helping guide people resolve their problems on their own! It is quite an experience just having someone listen and guide you towards your goals with the best of intentions!

I am still in the process of learning the Co-Active Coaching from a skills standpoint, but what I found to be hugely powerful, is the idea that to be a coach, the intention to serve with all of one's heart is way more important than the skills that we hold!

And that is why, I want to announce to everyone that I am (already!) a Co-Active Coach and I am deeply interested in connecting with people who are interested in improving any aspect of their life.

I am happy to setup up free coaching session(s) (30-45 minutes) through Phone. Please message me (via face book) if you are interested in a sample session! Rest assured that the session will be entirely confidential.

All you need to do is identify at least one area of your life (Career, Family, Relationships, Health, etc.) that you really want to improve. It is ok if you have not identified a goal (as that can be the objective of the sample session). No matter how great or average the sample session, I am confident that you will gain something out of it!

Manoj

The Secret Ingredient

Many of us, nay All of us crave for Happiness. We almost always pursue actions with Happiness as the end goal and in some cases, we crave happiness in every single activity that we do. Whichever form or shape, the pursuit of happiness is a key factor in almost every decision that we consciously or subconsciously take. Unfortunately, we also also tend to avoid activities that may not lead to happiness. 

At work, we tend to focus on activities that interests or excites us while avoiding activities that are not. At home, we will relax by watching TV while our better half or parent will be cleaning up the kitchen and we will procrastinate on tasks such as cleaning up the house or clearing out the trash. The common answer given is that 'I don't like _____' (fill in the blanks). And as we did not enjoy it, it automatically meant that there was no happiness at stake.And on the odd occasion, where we actually did something we did not enjoy, it remained just that, an odd occasion :)

I was also that person who craved happiness above everything else, at work, at home and with friends. However, i realized that the pursuit of happiness very often led to unhappiness! For example, there was always that office work that was boring as hell, that i had to work on. And like it or not, i had to get the work done. With relationships, sometimes there are events that you cannot control, and that led to pain and unhappiness.

On the other hand, I also wondered what is it that kept people in trying situations going. I have always wondered why parents sacrifice so much for their children. This is true in almost every other household, especially in India. Some of them virtually sacrifice their entire lives for their child. For example, my uncle and aunt give 100% of their time tending to my cousin who is a 'special child', day in and day out. The daily activities and burden that they carry at their age is definitely not going to lead to happiness. And they hardly complain! So what keeps them going? 

That Secret Ingredient is 'Fulfillment'. I had heard this term before, but never bothered to understand it fully. I wanted to understand the difference between Happiness and Fulfillment and am thankful for the insight that i got from a mentor. Fulfillment is what keeps people going, even when the activity in itself or the outcome does not lead to happiness. Fulfillment, in turn is a derivative of being true to one's values. And when the objective becomes fulfillment instead of happiness, the possibilities are endless!

For example, if our core value at home is that of a loving husband/wife/son/daughter, then we will go that extra mile in doing the 'boring and thankless tasks', even if we are tired and we wont feel happy doing it. If personal development is a key value, then we will not worry about 'mundane tasks' or the 'quality of work' or whether the 'effort equals reward' and just focus on being extra productive at completing whatever task is assigned to us. If being a responsible citizen is part of who we are, then we will find that extra time to participate in community tasks that may not be particularly appealing (Cleaning Trash/Streets for example). We may not be happy when we are doing the activity but if we live our values that we identify with, we will feel deeply fulfilled at the end of it.

This may sound simple, but as i am realizing, this is a powerful shift. I would love to hear your views. What are your values? And what makes you fulfilled?  

P.S: I was deeply inspired to just write about fulfillment today and i realize that it may not be as structured or concise as i meant it to be. I am planning to convert this topic into a Toastmaster speech and will share the refined version shortly in this blog :)

Update on Sep Fitness Goals and Setting Goals for October

Quick update on the Sep fitness goals. I had posted a goal of 20 miles of jogging and 100 miles of biking. I finished on 10 miles of jogging and 70 miles of biking. Oddly enough, i do not feel any disappointment on missing out on achieving the goals. Am fairly happy with the progress made and am keen on building upon these goals in October.

For Oct, am going to focus only on Biking and am going to fix a higher target :) My target is 150 miles and am excited to go after this goal! The other thing that am going to do is get friends who are interested in biking to join me in my rides. Am going to have lots of fun this month for sure :)

Being Human

Being Human

When you are courageous enough to open up
And expose your vulnerabilities to others
You are being Human

When you peel off your outer layer
And share whats true within you
You are being Human

When you share your true dreams and desires
Without judging yourself harshly for past failures
You are being Human

When you admit to your failures and fears
And still stand up to try, try and try again
You are being Human

When you deeply and genuinely care
For other's success as much your own
You are being Human

When tears of gratitude overwhelms you
And you realize the power of love and service
You are being Human

Fitness Goals - September

I had earlier posted about doing specific activities on a daily basis. For this month so far, out of 9 days, i was out of town for 2 days and out of the remaining 7 days, i ended up exercising only on 4 days. I biked for a total of 15 miles on 3 days and jogged for 3 miles on the other day.

While, i will continue to strive to bike/jog on a daily basis, i also want to keep a target for the month. My Goal for this month is to complete minimum of 100 miles of biking and 20 miles of jogging by September 30. I also have a number of travel related plans on weekends where i will focus on Hiking.

I have to focus and really make the weekdays count. Excited for this month and hopefully will meet the goals!

My First Speech at Toastmasters - Humour Contest

I had wanted to join Toastmasters for a long time and finally got myself enrolled about a month back. At the end of the first session, the toastmaster for the day announced that there would be a humor contest (5-7 minute speech and evaluation) conducted within the club level 3 weeks from then. The winner of the contest would then proceed onto Area, City and so on. As the toastmaster asked for volunteers to enroll in any of the roles (Both for Speaker and Evaluator), i jumped in, confirming to him that i would be one of the speakers. 

I figured that it would be a great opportunity to get past my comfort zone and the earlier i jump in and actively participate, the faster would be my learning. Of course, i did not want it to be my first speech (The first speech is called Icebreaker - Its a speech to introduce yourself in 4-6 minutes) and wanted to quickly complete my Icebreaker speech in the next 2 weeks. As it turned out, the next 2 weeks' slot was already full and i had no real practice before the contest.

I took a long time in deciding the topic (virtually 2 weeks) as i was not sure whether the initial topics i was considering would appeal to a global audience (The group had Americans, Chinese, Koreans and Indians). Finally, a week before the contest, i decided upon a topic and within a few hours, had my speech ready. I spent the next few days rehearsing time and again in front of my wife (unfortunately she had no choice :)). 

I was a little nervous as i was not confident enough about my ability to deliver big on humour. As i started off, i grew more confident and actually ended up delivering my speech pretty well. There were quite a number of laughs and at the end, i got thumbs up from a number of folks. I felt fantastic and actually thought that maybe i could end up winning the contest. 

As it turned out, i finished second but honestly i was totally excited and happy that i had gotten through my first speech without any glitches. Post the session, i went around asking for feedback and figured out that the evaluation was not just on the content and laugh counter but also on body language and facial expressions (those were the areas that i have to work on). It felt great to receive really constructive feedback and just strengthened the positive vibe that i have towards toastmasters and specifically this club and its members.

Am sharing the speech below. As per the structure, the speech should have an opening, then the body or crux of the speech and a closing. It was 5-7 minutes long. (Hopefully it will bring a few smiles to your faces :))

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Impromptu Lying Syndrome!

Have you ever faced a situation where someone is talking to you and somewhere in the middle of the conversation, you mind just switches off (I call that going into La-La land).  You start nodding your head, you keep saying hmmm, hmmm and when you are interjected with a question, no matter what the question actually was, you say ‘Yeah – I agree’! or ‘Good for you’ or ‘Makes sense’. Makes sense - This was what I told a friend of mine, who wanted my advice on proposing marriage to a girl he had a crush on. As I later found out, he had known the girl only for one month and well it is safe to say that he ended up with egg on his face. Talk about bad advice!

Dear Toastmaster, my fellow toastmasters and guests, I welcome you all into my world of impromptu lying syndrome. Now what is impromptu lying – Simply put, I used to have very little attention span, but I lacked the courage to admit it and ask again and more often than not, Impromptu lying used to be the way out. Back then, I used to call it ‘The Great Escape’. I never used to think of it as a negative aspect of my personality until a few recent experiences forced me to re-think.

Last year, at work, I organized an event where my Business Unit head, a Senior Vice President came to address a large gathering of 1000s of our company’s employees. I felt really excited to listen to his vision for our practice. After the initial few minutes, he mentioned something about taking an idea from inception to execution. Ah Inception – Christopher Nolan, Leonardo DiCaprio, the concept of dream within a dream within a dream – What a bunch of geniuses! Suddenly, I woke up from my dream state and noticed that the audience was applauding. Post the event, my boss introduced me to the SVP and I complimented him on an enlightening and inspiring speech. My boss then proceeded to voice the following words ‘Manoj – I know you really liked the speech and probably will have the key points jotted in your head. Quickly publish the key insights from the SVP’s speech – We need to share it quickly with the other executives’.

That really did not help! Did it? Talk about getting into a soup!

Well, I somehow managed to speak to a few colleagues at work and put together the key insights but at home, it is an entirely different ball game. My wife has this habit of running me through the list of activities that she plans, for me, and that too late in the evening. She had this cousin, travelling down from Chicago and asked me to pick her up at the airport. She then added a number of details however my mind recorded them as Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah. As I started for the airport, my wife asked me whether I had planned for everything. As usual, Impromptu lying syndrome resurfaced and I scolded her for repeating every single thing to me again and again.

I was particular about being punctual and landed at the airport with my car 5 minutes in advance. As I entered the lobby, I saw her cousin walking towards me with a 2 year old kid. Oh my god – This is not that unmarried cousin, this is the cousin with a kid. At the same time, my message box popped up and I saw a message I had received from my wife – ‘ DO NOT forget to pick up the child seat from your friend and insert in our car’. There, I was, in front of my wife’s cousin, utterly speechless. Not because of what I needed to say to her. I can always come up with an excuse. But I knew, back home, I was dead meat! Then and there, I decided, I needed help. I needed to get rid of the impromptu lying syndrome and actually start to listen.

Well, I learnt quite a bit from these experiences.

A – Impromptu lying is a lot of fun when the people around you have to face the music not yourself

B – When you are presenting or conversing, never take the audience for granted – You never know when they take off into La-La land

C – You truly want to Listen, Start with your Wife and take help from Toastmasters

Thank you!

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P.S: I gave my icebreaker speech this week and it went off pretty well. Compared to the icebreaker speech, the humour speech was much more difficult to prepare and deliver but was a great learning experience. Hopefully, i will keep getting better and deliver many more speeches in the near future!

One more thing - It does not matter where you reside in, do join toastmasters if you want to get better at communication. And i guarantee you that you will have a lot of fun and learning in the process!

Insights on Changing Habits (Based on an e-book by James Clear)

I have the habit of reading up interesting blogs and specifically around self development. This week, I happened to come across a website by James Clear and as soon as I got into his website, I was directed to download a couple of free e-books. I downloaded one around Habits and it turned out to be one of the best posts that I have ever read about Habit change. I would strongly urge anybody interested in Habit Change to check his website (www.jamesclear.com) and read the e-book around transforming habits. For others though, hope you find my commentary and learnings from the book, useful.

James starts off by stressing on the importance of habits and routines as opposed to transformational change and focus on results that most of us obsess with. As opposed to the usual concepts of will power and motivation as fundamental cornerstone to change, James points to a 3 step (3Rs) process:

• Reminder
• Routine
• Reward

While this sounds counter-intuitive, when I reflected on some of the key changes that I have implemented (Eg: Fitness), having a clear reminder and following through as a routine has been more beneficial than my earlier approach of focusing on results and willpower (It has almost always flagged!). 

The other important point that James stresses is to start with small goals and get to achieving consistency as opposed to time bound and goal based approach. Again, this set me thinking as I have always struggled with consistency and have always been obsessed with pushing my limits. To be honest, after biking for 25 miles, I have only biked one more time in the last one week (covered around 10 miles) as I wanted to set aside sufficient time to push myself. Similarly, I have been jogging only once a week (3-4 miles with a friend) and procrastinating on other days saying to myself that anything less is not good enough. After reading this. am convinced to just jog/bike as often as possible (Even a few miles is fine) as cumulatively, this will strengthen the habit in the long run and lead to better and bigger benefits. 

To keep at the 3Rs approach, James stresses on envisaging a Habit as an Identity based Habit. For example, as opposed to focusing on weight loss as a goal, it is better to inculcate the thought that we are the type of person who works out/moves a lot. For beginners, it makes sense to buy a pedometer and just focus on taking more steps each day, while strengthening the identity of being somebody who moves more each day. This is an area that am going to focus on and build my habits around the type of identity/person that I want to become. It was a fantastic insight as more often than not, the identity that we develop automatically pushes us to act on certain things without relying on external motivation or additional willpower. 

James covers other key pointers as well, but to me, the top insights, illustrated above, is enough to make this e-book a Must Read! Now, over to Consistent and Continuous Action!

My Group Biking Experience

Last month, I decided to join groups that will push me to improve my fitness level, be it hiking or biking. I have been riding my hybrid bike for the last several months but it has always been short trips of 3-4 miles. I always knew that there are group biking sessions conducted by Performance Bicycle store in my area that accommodate beginners as well but I have always procrastinated on it as I felt that i was not there in terms of my fitness yet. This week though, I thought that I will just try it out, and even if I fall behind, it is fine and that my objective should be to complete the ride.

Woke up at 7 am. Did some stretching and then headed to the Performance Bicycle store that was 4 miles away. It felt fantastic to drive in Pleasanton given the phenomenal weather (25 degrees or so) and I hardly broke a sweat in reaching the place. I checked in and found that there were a total of 5 guys apart from me and all of them were semi-professionals. They informed me that it will be a 15 mile trip and that we will cover a few hills nearby but nothing really strenuous. I was totally kicked and reminded myself that as long as I stick with the group, I can push myself and get this done.

We started off and the initial 20 odd minutes went fine. We drove at a reasonable pace and there was not much breeze either. I just kept chanting to myself ' Am part of the Biking Pack' like a 100 times and was grinning ear to ear as I kept riding and thought to myself 'this was not as difficult as I thought it would be'. Soon, we reached close to a hill and the wind really started to pick up. I soon found myself behind and however much I pedaled, it felt that the bike just would not move forward fast enough. Soon enough, the entire pack went ahead and I could not even sight them in front of me.

The wind keep blowing and soon enough I felt like my energy was spent with every additional pedal I took. My legs started paining like hell and soon, I went from tired to exhausted. As I stopped and took a quick gulp of water, my mind went like 'This was way too soon - You just are not ready enough to be doing this as part of a group. Should u just quit? God knows how far up this hill is?' The other part of me went like 'No way u can quit -The whole objective was to complete this ride - Just keep pushing yourself. Don't worry about the group waiting - Just focus on taking one step at a time'. I decided to obey this thought and started chanting ' You can totally do this' over and over again and slowly inch by inch, pushed myself for what seemed like an eternity till I spotted the group ahead waiting for me. The climb was done and as I went up to them, they were pretty encouraging and brushed aside my apology of keeping them waiting for me.

I thought I was pretty drained out but what happened next was an incredible experience. We started the downhill ride and it went quickly from fast to ridiculously fast. The wind hit my face and I felt an incredible rush of adrenaline. In no time, the smile was back in my face and I felt totally refreshed. We continued like this for the next 15 odd minutes and I was thrilled to keep pace with the group albeit on a flat track. Soon enough, the next hill came up and I found myself left behind pretty quickly.

But by now, I had given up thoughts of quitting and pushed myself going on (pretty slowly though - The wind and the incline made the ride killing). I continued chanting 'You can totally do this' again and again and after what seemed like a long time, I again caught sight of the group waiting for me. They gave me 'High Fives' once i reached and commented that the downhill would make the experience totally worth it. And worth it, it was! It was one of the most blissful and incredible experience as we came down like the wind and once again I found myself totally refreshed and energetic.

We continued for some more time and the 3rd hill came along. This was much smaller and we got this done quickly and soon we headed back to the biking center. As we completed the ride, I was thrilled as I realized that I had achieved what I set out to do even though it was way more difficult than what I had imagined. It was incredible to have such a supportive group and I thanked each member of the group for their guidance (Performance Bicycle - Thank You!).

It was an incredible experience and even though I am nowhere close to the fitness levels of this biking group (and Bikers in general), am proud to have overcome my feeling of inadequacy and to have taken the all important first step. Now it is up to me to keep continuing this, keep pushing myself, keep overcoming the limitations that my mind keeps reminding me and hopefully one day, I can call myself a biker!

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!

Fitness Goals Update - June 2015 Update

June has been a fantastic month overall both in terms of diet and fitness. From a diet standpoint, i have continued to eat a vegan diet inspite of having strong cravings on a few days. It is still too early to talk about concrete benefits owing to giving up milk and milk based products but i have been experiencing moments of clarity compared to earlier. Also, i have been waking up much earlier than usual and that could also be due to easier digestion of the vegan diet. At this point of time, i definitely want to continue this diet for atleast the next 2-3 months.

From a fitness standpoint, i had multiple activities lined up this month. I wanted to do Surya Namaskar and Gym 5 days in a week as well as do hiking every weekend. I could not meet the goal of doing the exercises daily but ensured that i did surya namaskar 3-4 days in the weekday mornings and hit the gym 3-4 days in the evenings. I also covered one more peak in Pleasanton and that felt fantastic! While there is significant scope to improve my exercise routines, am pretty pleased with what i have done in this area in June.

July is a crazy month from a work perspective so i plan to adhere to the same goals that i had set in June. When this goes as well as planned, i will probably set stretch goals in August.   

Fitness Goals Update - June 2015 - Update 2

It has been a good week in terms of maintaining my diet and exercising. The best part of this week was that i scaled Mission Peak along with my wife and my best friends. It felt terrific to reach the top of the peak and while this is not a strenuous trek, i was happy to have made a good start. Hope to continue this trekking whenever i get a chance to, on weekends.

From a diet standpoint, while it feels good to be a vegan, i definitely do miss ghee and curd. Will continue this vegan diet for 2 more weeks and then decide on whether i want to be a Vegan for life or not.

Leadership

Leadership is not something that we look up to in others, but what we have to look within ourselves. Even if at times, we feel insecure, or inadequate, we have to believe that we are capable of becoming greater than what we are today. And the more control and responsibility that we take for our actions, the less we will need to blame others for the challenges/problems that come our way. I have realized that i need to take complete responsibility for my actions. Whatever situation that am in today, in whatever aspect of life is completely my own doing. And i will resolve to improve it, come what may. And I will strive to developing myself into a leader, day in and day out

Fitness and Diet related Goals in June - Week 1 Update

It has been a fairly interesting week to say the least. Over the last few weeks, there was little impact on my mood owing to the exercise/diet changes that i had made. However, this week, i found that my energy levels fluctuated a fair bit and i also experienced some mood swing (felt a lot of anger for little reason). However, the upside is that i kept the goals going and exercised for 4 days during the weekdays and trekked a bit during the weekend. I also explored alternative vegan options for milk/curd and have bought coconut milk that should do the trick for now. Need to keep this habit going and hopefully i will have a better handle on my emotions as well!

Fitness and Diet related Goals - June 2015

It has been more than 6 months since i moved to US and so far the changes have been great. Over the past few weeks especially, i have been far more successful in adhering to a few critical dietary and fitness related changes than i have ever been in the past.

I had long debated on going Vegan and decided to explore following a vegan based diet in May. Surprisingly, giving up coffee/tea and curd rice has been less difficult so far than what i thought it would be. Am yet to experience a really strong craving (recently took a friend to Ghirardelli in SFO and skipped the ice cream there) or a significant energy spike and maybe that is because it is still early days. So i have decided to continue this diet in June and explore how that will have an effect on my overall energy levels.

As regards exercising, early in the year, i had bought a hybrid bike to commute to my office that is fairly close by. While that has been beneficial, i have been having the feeling that i have a long way to go to improve my body flexibility especially given the nature of my sedentary workstyle. Over the past few weeks, i have been practicing one set of surya namaskar early in the morning. I have also been hitting the gym in the evenings and doing cardio and will be continuing these activities in June as well.

Hopefully, i will start experiencing more energy spikes in June! Excited to keep this going!