Natural Way of Living

Hurdles in Dr. Mantena's way of Living

2017-10-22T08:06:00.000-07:00

Well, Friends! It's been a very long that I updated any post on this blog due to other obligations. Some of my readers began to write me to post something in natural ways of living. I thank them for reminding, though I haven't forgotten it.

Today's blog post is not against Dr. Mantena Satyanarayana Raju's teachings or a criticism on what he is teaching; but the tussle I had gone through my life by following it. I faced certain difficulties in following them but didn't strike off saying it's not working. Rather I adopted and adapted his teachings as per my requirements. And I think every intelligent man should do that. Let us go into details.

1. Drinking 6 liters of water a day:

Weather you follow Dr. Raju or not you are well aware that he recommends drinking 5 to 6 liters of water a day. 1 to 1.5 liter of water as soon as you wake up, 1 liter again after an hour or so and the rest of 4.5 liters of water throughout the day.

This has great advantages. Your bowels move pretty well, you won't get dehydrated, feels light and healthy due to ample water levels in the body. Initially it did manage well. I used to drink 1.5 liters of water as soon as I wake up, 1 liter water an hour later and cleanse my bowels in 2 to 3 installments as he says. It was really a pleasure to have free bowel movements as he used to call 'sukha virechanam' a pleasant bowel movement. Off course only water is not responsible for this. The amount of fiber food you consume throughout the day is mainly responsible.

So far so good. The issue began when I changed my job. I used to do a sedentary work sitting in office when I began this. Later I changed the job where I need to travel on a bike most part of the day. In the mean time my yoga teacher has assigned me a task to take classes in the morning.

I remember Dr. Raju saying, drink this much water; what are you going to lose? It is absolutely inexpensive, you just have to pass urine when it comes. That's it. That is not it. Driving a vehicle in a city like Hyderabad and to stop and pass urine anywhere is not possible. You can't just pass urine on road sides. By the time you find urinals, you are going through hell of a time. A small bump on the road will show you the stars in the day light as the bladder is full. So I have to reduce the over a day quota of 4.5 liters of water to 2 liters. When I started taking yoga classes early in the morning, the morning quota of drinking 1.5 liters of water began to take my life. I had to travel around 12 kilometers to take the class. Your stomach should be absolutely empty for the practice of asanas. Though the bowels were clean, the bladder used to be full. I can't rush to urinals leaving the class in between. Then I reduced my water intake from 1.5 liters to 0.5 liters. What a sigh of relief!

I want to remind another popular dialogue of Dr. Raju with regards to bowel movement. He used to say, "look at the cows and buffaloes; how effortlessly they pass on the dung? Your bowels should also move that free and therefore eat plenty of vegetables having fiber." So as a sincere follower, I did. I included plenty of fruits, vegetables and sprouts etc in my regular diet. It was great and had no issues related to my work or yoga classes. The bowels were so free, I used to go to the toilet as soon as I wake up and come out within few minutes completing the job. The problem occurred when I once travelled from Pune to Hyderabad in a Bus. At 4 A.M. I woke up and as I said, the bowels started moving immediately. I went to the driver and asked him to stop the bus. He said, wait! I will stop at the next dhaba that appears. I said, I can't wait, so stop somewhere here in the corner. And I had to argue with him for few minutes to stop. He did it with great irritation. It was really an embarrassing situation. Once we had been to one of the relatives. By the moment I woke up and got ready to the toilet, somebody was already in. I waited for sometime holding the bowels and was a hell of a moment. I finally had to knock the door to bring him out and he came out with a fierce look in his eyes. Another embarrassment. These things happened at home also but as they are my family members it was not much embarrassing as they could understand my problem.

Then I came to a conclusion that I am not going to let this to happen again. It is good to have good bowel movement but too good is also not so good. There should be distinction between humans and animals. Animals do not have social obligations as we do. We need to follow certain norms to live in the society. We can't pass on urination or stool anywhere we want. I realized eating fiber is good but eating more than required is not good as you are inducing it like a medicine. So I moderated fiber intake and water intake to bring normalcy in my life.

2. Eating food without Oil, ghee, Salt, Sugar, Tamarind, Red chili powder and Masalas:

I basically started following Dr. Raju to reduce my weight. In one year of following his diet, I tremendously reduced my weight. From 96 kilos to 65 kilos was a great transformation. I mentioned all this in my previous blog posts. Apart from losing weight I gained a good health which took me away from visiting the doctors at regular intervals. The most valuable thing I got from following his diet is the development of interest in yoga for the sake of improved health. In this process I came across Iyengar yoga and found Smt. Zarna Mohan an experienced Iyengar Yoga teacher who was a long term student of Guruji BKS Iyengar. I will still be thankful to Dr. Mantena Satyanarayana Raju for this. He inspired me to change the food habits and the lifestyle which lead me to yoga. Iyengar yoga has brought me a tremendous change in the way of perception. It has taught me the art of living. Art of living is not the way of breathing as some people teach my dear friends. It is really the way you live, enjoying every moment of life. It can only be experienced and can't be explained.

Coming to the food recommended by Dr. Raju, I managed to avoid Oil, Sugar, Tamarind, Red Chili Powder, Masalas and salt to great extent for about 5 years or so. The trouble began when I changed the job or when I started travelling. Since the food I consumed at home and outside are totally in contrast, I tried to avoid food cooked outside during my work and travels by consuming fruits and juices. This continued for few months and began to notice a hindrance in my yoga practice. The person who is to practice intensely for 3 hours a day was not able to practice even an hour. Moreover I began to practice restorative asanas most of the time.

Once I had to travel to Pune for my yoga classes for a month. We were living in an Ashram called Christ Prem Seva Ashram. We struggled terribly with the kind of food we used to eat there. It was full of Salt, Sugar, Oil, Masala and everything Dr. Raju calls 'harmful tastes'. Somehow, we survived one month. Coming back home continued to eat our regular Dr. Raju's kind of food. I realized a strange change after coming home. I was immensely active and was able to practice 3 hours a day and attend classes of 1 1/2 hours a day in Pune with the kind of so called unhealthy food served in the ashram. And the same old story of tiredness and fatigue here back home.

I once visited my parents and had some food for dinner. My tongue got bruises and tears from my eyes for the amount of salt and red chili they added in the food. I shouted at them for eating so much of salt and red chili. My father came to me and said, 'Son, we have been eating this food since childhood and nothing had happened to us. We haven't added any extra salt and red chili in food but you have stopped eating it and therefore it happened.' One should be sensitive but this much that you can't eat anything is not correct.

Next year again we happened to visit Pune for the yoga classes. This time we decided to hire an apartment and cook our own food. I, my wife and three others hired a 3BHK flat and lived for a month with a condition that each day the food is cooked by one. This was great learning experience for us. Since some of them were inexperienced in cooking they used to seek tips from my wife. Keeping their interests, taste and our health in view, she used to suggest things slightly moderating the food that we used to cook regularly. It worked well. Friends also felt happy as the food served taste (little less though) began to relieve some of their minor issues like gastritis, acidity, constipation etc.) It was a great success as none of us found difficulty in eating as well as the health.

Back home, eating sprouts in the morning has become a great issue as it consumed lot of time to eat. With yoga practice and yoga classes in the morning and the job in the day had no time for eating sprouts anymore.

I was fed up with bottle gourd, snake gourd, ridge gourd, cucumber etc. which are regularly recommended vegetables of Dr. Raju. I ate those vegetables that I hated all my life for 5 years for the sake of health. There came a time where I used to get a sickly feeling on seeing these vegetables.

In the due course of time, I got the opportunity to travel with my yoga teacher for some workshops. She is one of the top class yoga teachers that Hyderabad has today. One interesting observation came to my notice over a period of 7 years of association with her. She used to eat every kind of food that is served to her without saying no but she used to eat only a very limited quantity. I have neither seen her getting tempted to a specific kind of food nor disliking any food. Apart from animal food and garlic, onion she used to eat almost everything. I once asked her about her diet and she said, "I have no specific diet as such. As Guruji said, eat food that your body can digest and practice to nourish the food you digested. That's it. I told her, but you don't eat much. She replied, One should respect the body and provide what it needs. Food is a necessity and the body tells you what it wants and how much. I used to eat just like any other person when young. This is what my body can digest now. I am 60 you know? with a smile.

The experience in Pune and with my teacher taught me that I should not go into extreme of anything. Going to an extreme will make difficulty in creating a balance. What I learned is that don't follow anyone blindly. You have your own intelligence. Explore and use that intelligence. If something happens to you by following somebody who is to be blamed? The person you are following or yourself? You should be responsible to your actions whether good or bad and nobody else.

So readers, please understand some of you might coincide with some of these difficulties of following Dr. Raju and some might not. That doesn't mean he is wrong in any sense. He is teaching what he feels is right and you follow what you feel is right.

By reading this don't think that I am going against Dr. Mantena Satyanaraya Raju or his teachings. I still admire and adore him for the kind of work he is doing. He always remain as a mentor to me. Thank you.

Till then keep watching the space for more updates.

Sugar - The Sweet, Slow Poison

2016-03-05T02:02:00.004-08:00

Today's update is about our sweet and lovely sugar. Let us first try to understand,

Why Sugar is so dear to us?

Sugar plays a very important role in daily lives of Indians. India is a country of colors and sweets. You cannot imagine a festival in India without these two. I may not be wrong if I say tons of sweets were sold during major festive days in one single day. Whether it is a festival, a birthday, marriage day, house warming or any other festive occasion the celebration is not complete without a sweet dish.

Many Governments in India are providing sugar as an essential household commodity under their public distribution schemes. It hits the national headlines as and when the sugar prices soar up. People get frustrated and curse the authorities for their failure in bringing the prices down. The Government immediately comes into action and import sugar from different parts of the country and supply to its people through public distributions scheme.

Let us analyze why sugar is so dear to Indian people. Indians are very fond of chai an Indian version of Tea. On an average an Indian drinks 4 cups of tea a day. It is a part of their daily intake. There are people who need chai even before they cleanse their bowels and some before brushing their teeth. Some people can't work in the office without having couple of teas during work hours. And tea without sugar? Yuck! is the reaction of every tea lover. Is it not?

Children don't drink milk or their health drinks without sugar. The manufacturers of health drinks come to the rescue of the mothers. Why do you worry our dear mothers when we are here. We are now providing the health drinks with added sugar. You don't have to add anymore. You simply serve them ready made. So the mother and child both are happy.

People prefer to drink soft drinks rather than the juices made of fruits. The reason, the kick one gets from added flavor and sugars in soft drinks. Soft drink companies are competing in providing the kick needed by the consumers bringing more and more flavors and sweetener. In addition to that our celebrity sports and movie stars come to their rescue by promoting these soft drinks.

If you give freshly prepared fruit juice to your children without adding sugar, they make faces while drinking it. It is no different for adults either. Even they prefer to drink juices made in the market. The juice makers in the market offer fruit juices adding sugar content in it.

Even the tooth paste and medicines are not left untouched by sugar. Remember these are apart from the sugar we consume in the form of sweets, desserts, chocolates, cakes, biscuits and other fast food, bakery and confectioneries.

In some parts of the country the food isn't considered complete without having a sweet or dessert after and some before meals. Sugar is so dear to us.

One man standing against the use of Sugar:

Amidst all this love for sugar, a man called Dr. Mantena Satyanarayana Raju stands up against it and claims that sugar is a sweet poison. Avoid sugar completely from your life. Don't give any room for sugar in your Kitchen if you want to lead a healthy life.

How dare is he? How can I enjoy life without eating all these sweets and desserts? How can I live without a cup of tea? How the children grow when they don't have their health drinks? Is he crazy? He must have gone nuts, is the prime reaction of people on Dr. Raju. He is trying to rescue people from health hazards and what he gets in return, the blame. This reminds me one famous quote by our yoga teacher Prashant S Iyengar during one of his classes in Pune. He said, "I am trying to make you sane and you are making me insane". This is completely true in case of Dr. Raju as well. He is trying to make people sane but people made him insane. If you ask a group of people to drink tea without sugar as Dr. Raju recommends it, then 9 out of 10 people would say that he is insane.

When something new is said, nobody is going to believe. So far the doctors have said to reduce the level of sugar consumption and that too after a person becomes a victim of sugar. This man Dr. Raju ask you to stop consuming sugar completely weather you have become a victim or not. His teaching is very clear prevention is better than cure. That is why he appears a villain in the minds of sweet lovers. But gradually people will understand in the due course of time and is already happening now. People following Dr. Raju is now increasing tremendously. The popularity of our facebook page on Dr. Mantena is a proof of that.

Let us now try to understand why Dr. Raju considers sugar a sweet poison. Before this let us try to know what World Health Organization says about sugar consumption and where do we stand in the list of sugar consumers of the World.

WHO recommends maximum daily intake of 25 grams of sugar. That's about 6 teaspoons of sugar a day. If you are taking coffee with sugar, you are already in a problem area, depending on how many cups a day you drink. But sugar is contained in plenty of foods that we consume. For instance, one tablespoon of ketchup has 4 grams of sugar, One can of Red Bull energy drink has 27 grams of sugar, a can of Coca Cola has 39 grams and a small bottle of Mounain Dew 27 grams. One pastry of Pop Tarts has 34 grams of Sugar, Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll has 55 grams. Looking at these facts, it seems very hard to stay within WHO limits.

Where do we stand in Sugar Consumption?

While writing this blog I was of the opinion that India might be standing upright in the list of sugar consumers in the World. I googled upon to find out the facts and it took me by surprise. India is listed among the least sugar consumers of the World. This information over internet put me in a bit of thought. How can it be in the bottom of the table when we consume so much sugar in our day to day life? I then tried to understand the lifestyles of people listed in high sugar consuming countries and India. On going through some of the data by World Health Organization I got these shocking revelations:

The United States of America remained the undisputed champion and number one in the list of 11 countries that consume most sugar in the World in a survey conducted by an international health Agency. Average American consumes 126.4 grams of sugar a day which is 5 times more sugar than WHO recommendation. It is then followed by Germany, Netherlands, Ireland, Australia, Belgium, United Kingdom, Mexico, Finland, Canada and Austria.

The country that consumes least sugar is China. Asian cuisine requires sugar to be put in majority of their dishes, opposed to Western cooking, where it is mostly reserved for desserts and drinks. This can make it harder for them to precisely monitor sugar intake. Still, there isn't a single Asian nation on our list of 11 countries that consume the most sugar in the World. It seems they don't have a problem with it.

The Indians need not cheer by not finding themselves on the list of most sugar consumers in the World. Majority of these countries listed above are consuming sugar in the form of soft drinks, colas, chocolate, cake and candies. It is still astonishing me as the consumption of all these items are also high in India. It took me some time to understand that India is a country with 70% of population in rural areas where you find a distinct lifestyle than urban India. I must say, rural India is thankfully untouched by Western lifestyle to great extent. It is this 70% saved India from being on the list of high sugar consuming countries. It doesn't mean they don't consume sweetener. The do but it's not the sugar. You will understand what they consume at later stage of this blog.

Is really Sugar a sweet poison?

Let us first analyze how the brown sugar cane turns into white table sugar. It needs heating process at different levels which removes the fiber completely. Any sugar minus fiber is not considered good for health. Many binding agents are added to make it firm, anti- oxidants to stop from melting, preservatives to safe guard from bacteria, soluble agents to melt in mouth or water, coloring agents to provide shining white color and many other chemicals during the process of manufacturing. You can watch the entire manufacturing process in youtube to know more in detail.

Excessive sugar in the diet is not the best idea when it comes to healthy living. Nonetheless, few of us are consuming sugar in moderate amounts and most of us are eating tons of it. In fact, worldwide we are consuming about 500 extra calories a day from sugar. Most people know that sugar is not good for them, but for some reason they think the risk of excess sugar consumption is less than that of having too much saturated and trans fat. Here are few things that may surprise you about sugar.

1. Leads to Obesity:

Is sugar a sweet old friend that is secretly plotting your demise? There is a vast see of research suggesting that it is. Science has now shown us, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that sugar in your food, in all its myriad of forms, is taking a devastating toll on your health.

More than terrorists America is terrified by the increasing number of obese people. The single largest source of calories for Americans come from sugar - specifically high fructose corn syrup.

Sugar is loaded into your soft drinks, fruit juices, sports drinks and hidden in almost all processed foods from sauce to cheese spread and now most infant formula has the sugar equivalent of one can of coca-cola, so babies are being metabolically poisoned from day one of taking formula. No wonder there is an obesity epidemic in this country. Today 32% of Americans are obese and an additional one-third is overweight.

Obesity is not a matter of concern for only the Americans but all the developed and developing nations across the World now. The problems of obesity rates dramatically increase in countries that are undergoing economical development. Rural workers moving to urban areas perform less physical labor and supplant traditional low fat diets that include local goods with processed diets that are high in fat and sugar.

As per WHO reports, China and India have relatively low percentages of overweight adults 28.9% and 16% respectively. But obesity and its potential complications are increasing there at unparalleled speed due to the growth of urban populations and an expanding middle class who can afford richer food in greater quantities than their rural counterparts.

2. Specifically promotes belly fat:

Adolescent obesity rates have tripled in the past 30 years and childhood obesity rates have doubled. Many of us are aware of the data that demonstrates just how literally big our future is looking, but beyond the studies and all the initiatives to curb childhood obesity, one needs to visit an amusement park, school or mall to truly see what is happening. A 2010 study in children found that excess fructose actually caused visceral fat cells to mature - setting the stage for a big belly and even bigger future risk of heart diseases and diabetes.

3. Damages your Heart:

A study in 2013 in the Journal of the American Heart Association displayed strong evidence that sugar can actually affect the pumping mechanism of your heart and could increase the risk of heart failure. The findings specifically pinpointed a molecule from sugar (as well as from starch) called glucose metabolite, glucose 6-phosphate (G6P) that was responsible for the changes in the muscle protein of the heart. These changes could eventually lead to heart failure. Approximately half of the people that are diagnosed with heart failure die within 5 years.

4. Kills you Silently:

Move over salt and hypertension, you have got competition. Sugar, as it turns out, is just as much of a silent killer. A 2008 study found that excess fructose consumption was linked to an increase in condition called leptin resistance. Leptin is a hormone that tells you when you have had enough food. The problem is, we often ignore the signal our brain sends to us. For some people though, leptin simply does not want to work, leaving the person with no signal whatsoever that the body has enough food to function. This in turn can lead to over consumption of food and consequently, obesity. Why the silent killer? Because it all happens without symptoms or warning bells. If you have gained weight in the past year and can't quite figure out why, perhaps you should look at how much fructose you are feeding your body.

5. Leads to Diabetes:

In the world of nutrition, it's hard to talk about sugar without talking about insulin. That's because insulin is sugar's little chaperone to the cells, and when too much of it is consumed or our insulin does not work (probably because we are eating too much of sugar) and the body revolts. This condition is called a diabetic condition or popularly known as sugar disease in India.

6. Sugar and alcohol have similar toxic effects on Liver:

A 2012 paper in the journal Nature, brought forth the idea that limitations and warnings should be placed on sugar similar to warnings we see on alcohol. The authors showed evidence that fructose and glucose in excess can have a toxic effect on the liver as the metabolism of ethanol- the alcohol contained in alcoholic beverages and similarities to the metabolic pathways that fructose took. If you think that your slim stature keeps you immune from fructose causing liver damage, think again. A 2013 study found that liver damage could occur even without excess calories or weight gain.

8. Sugar may sap your brain power:

When I think back on my childhood, I remember consuming more sugar than I probably should have. Children do love chocolates, candies etc. The Chocolate manufacturers make every effort to attract children by giving different flavors and colorful wrapper packing. A 2009 study found a positive relationship between glucose consumption and aging of our cells. Aging of the cells consequently can be the cause of something as simple as wrinkles to something as dire as chronic diseases. It is further found that excess sugar consumption leads to deficiencies in memory and overall cognitive health.

People know sugar consumption is not healthy for life but still falling prey to this silent killer. One of the reason is that we lack awareness of the quantity of sugar we consume as it is coming in various hidden forms. Before drinking a soft drink, tea or coffee no one knows how much sugar is added in it. Off course, you can ask the tea maker to reduce the sugar in your tea but there are many processed products we consume a day where you have no choice but to accept as it comes.

This article is an attempt to bring into light the hidden facets of sugar. Therefore, I started the blog on sugar in a friendly note and then tried to expose the hidden facts of this sweet friend called sugar which poisons our life slowly without our knowledge.

On a final note, it's important to point out that simple sugars from milk (in the form of lactose) don't display the same negative health effects that we see in the literature when reviewing sugar's effects on the body. Simple sugars from fruit are also less concerning given their high amounts of diseases fighting compounds and fiber.

So now you know and knowing perhaps can create action. You can do something about decreasing your overall sugar consumption without feeling deprivation or sheer frustration! That will be the focus of my next blog. Stay tuned.

Means and Ways to Quit Cooking Oil

2015-04-20T00:39:00.002-07:00

In the previous update, I tried to explain the dangers associated with cooking oil. It would be complete injustice to the viewers if I don’t tell the means and ways to quit oil. Here comes how:

1. Ever since the promotion of Sunflower oil has begun as healthy oil, people started consuming more quantity of oil. As a result of this, the oil producers gained their profits but the consumer remained on the losing side as always. I don’t think anybody in the World consume as much oil as the Indians do. Whether it is north or south, east or west; every part of India except remote villages, people love eating deep fried food items.

Quitting oil is not very easy as we are conditioned to it for a very long time. You need to gradually reduce. First thing that you must do to quit oil is to become oil conscious. Before eating any food, I would advise all the Indian men to watch how their favorite dishes are made. I said Indian men, because they hardly cook any food at home as it is termed to be the duty of women in India to cook food. The women though cook food can’t remain conscious because their husband and children do not like the food if they cook with less oil or without oil. If you observe how much oil your favorite samosa, kachori, puri, vada, bajji, jalebi, gulab jamun or any other snack or sweet consumes, you will understand how harmful it is. Observing once will not help; you need to regularly observe and think before you eat them. Not only the snacks and sweets you must consciously observe every food you eat. This horns the alarm in your mind to change your eating habits. This is the first step towards natural way of living. To take an example, observe all the top and popular chefs in India or around, you will find majority of them in perfect shape and sizes. The very reason is the level of consciousness they have on oil and other fatty products. They make healthy delicious foods for others but they don’t eat as we do. They are very particular and conscious about their food.

2. Secondly, for men or women who make their food at home need to understand how much fat one need per day. Twenty to thirty five percent of your calories should come from fat. The bad news is that most of us consume more than 40% of our calories from fats. This overload of fat can lead to obesity and heart disease; as well as high blood pressure, cholesterol and countless other health problems.

Most of the fats should come from good fats. Saturated fats and Trans-fats are best avoided but in any case should make up no more than 10% of your total calories.

Dietary cholesterol intake should be less than 300 mg a day, if you have high blood cholesterol levels you should aim for less than 200 mg a day.

If the oil is heated beyond a particular degree it leads to Trans fats and no food is cooked without heating beyond 300 degrees. Moreover if you are using 1 tablespoon of oil say 10 gm, you are directly consuming 10 gm of fats in your food. You will be surprised to know that 1 gm of fat contains 10 calories and now think how many spoons of oil you add in your food and how many calories you consume through oil fat just to claim appreciation from the husband and children? When you understand this calculation your consciousness will never allow you to add uncontrolled volume of oil just to get a taste in the food. I am adding a table to see how much fat you should consume per day.

Daily total calories	Calories from fats (20-35% Cals)	Daily total fat grams (20-35% Cals)	Daily Saturated fat grams (No more than 10% of calories)
1200 cals	240 to 420 cals	27 to 47 gm	13 gm
1500 Cals	300 to 525 cals	33 to 58 gm	17 gm
1800 Cals	360 to 630 cals	40 to 70 gm	20 gm
2000 Cals	400 to 700 cals	44 to 78 gm	22 gm
2200 Cals	440 to 770 cals	49 to 86 gm	25 gm
2500 Cals	500 to 875 cals	56 to 97 gm	28 gm
2800 Cals	560 to 980 cals	62 to 109 gm	31 gm
3000 Cals	600 to 1050 cals	67 to 117 gm	33 gm

3. 4. Instead of regular breakfast of idli, dosa, vada etc, try to eat tummy full of seasonal fruits available in the market and if you find them expensive make sprouts of moong, cow peas and chickpeas etc and eat them as breakfast. This will help you in avoiding oil for one meal a day. Sprouts are rich in proteins and potassium which makes you light and stronger.

4. There are number of Dr. Mantena Satyanarayana Raju videos available in market and even on you tube showing the means and ways to cook oil free and yet tasty foods. You can even visit my blog www.mantenaskitchen.blogspot.in . The best way to follow his style of cooking is to begin gradually. Instead of cooking every day, cook those recipes at least once in 15 days a month. Continue this for couple of months and then try to cook once a week and 4 days a month. Then gradually increase the number of days. Choose a specific day of the month as a ‘health day’ and eat sprouts in breakfast, phulkas with curries or salad cooked without oil in lunch and fruits in dinner. Gradually try to increase the number of health days in a month. At least make a beginning, the rest will follow on its own.

5. Instead of cooking many varieties of vegetables cook only one curry or salad a meal with rice or phulkas. Develop the habit of eating phulkas at night. This can help in the reduction of oil and you can happily consume them with one salad or curry without any difficulty. If you are cooking a dall and a curry for rice, serve the dall seasoning without oil.

6. If you have the habit of eating evening snacks, need to replace the snack items with fruits and juices. This is the most important favor you can do to your body.

7. Stop eating the food cooked outside your home and 50% of your job is done. You see a tremendous change in your body only by doing this. If you had to consume outside food out of compulsion I found the only best option is to have a plain meal or curd rice.

Following some of these tasks will bring goodies to your health. It may be difficult to follow but not impossible. Dr. Raju’s method is direct. He takes you to the abyss and says jump to find the God and my approach is little cunning which takes you to the abyss, shows you the path down and ask you to jump from the middle. Task is the same, approach is different.

Inspired from the life of Yogacharya B.K.S. Iyengar, I took his path and let tell you my dear friends, health never comes easy. You can’t buy health for money nor can you borrow it from someone else. It will neither come with medicinal pills or doctors. You need to earn it by penetrating your skin, bones, muscles, nerves and many known and unknown layers of the body and mind to gain good health. It demands lots of devotion, dedication and discipline.

I hope you enjoy this and keep watching the space for more updates. Good Luck!