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Saturday, March 26, 2016

Inside out...

I remember sharing notes about nutrition with parents and students of my Dance institute.
It was when I saw a few hardworking and talented students of mine gorging on Junk food before class started, I felt the need of raising the topic.
Today when parents of young kids taking up sports as a serious co curricular activity are getting serious about their nutrition requirement for optimum performance, I was concerned for students of performing arts not taking enough care of their eating patterns...
Unless one got serious about being professional performers or torch bearers in this profession which is largely visual and energy based, things weren't going to look up.
So I always make it a point of giving a pep talk about clean eating in class whenever there is a new admission.
With my personal tryst with fitness and clean eating, experience has taught me that what we eat shows on out face on our bodies and in our energy... Rujuta Diwekar has been instrumental in this awareness along with my eternal inspiration and source of wisdom, my Guruji.
The pointers which I presented in front of the parents of prospective seekers of performing arts as a serious part of their lives were as follows...

1) Eat fresh
We have a famous saying applicable to most Indian households...
Food is best when it's from pan to plate....
Hence TAAZA is best...
Fresh also means Raw. All seasonal fruits and vegetables and freshest produce when purchased less frequently from the market has lower standing time on the fridge and is cooked well before it starts wilting is the right way to go...
I admire my mom who picks up fresh stock of vegetables while her way back from office to home, and cooks it right away for dinner.
She gets another fresh stock from the market while she gets back from her morning walk and cooks it right away for breakfast n lunch...
This is such a perfect way to make sure the food is great to taste and even more so in terms of freshness....
I understand that urban working women may not have enough time to do this however it's never too late to start in our own small ways....

2) Eat Local
There was a time when I was bonkers about the exotic looking bell peppers, fragrant herb, asparagus, broccoli, mushroom varieties and corn that were foreign but new to us. However with time and research on the same I realised that what counts is the travel time of farm to mouths and carbon foot print is of serious concern in this day and hour.
Why leave our very own Mango, Jackfruit, Guava, Chickoo, Green Grapes and Sitaphal and run frantically buying Dragon fruit, Pink grapes, Kiwi, Passion fruit, Berries, Californian Apples and cherry tomatoes? Our Ber or Bor variants are good enough with ample nutrients in  them.
When the demand of local produce increases, Indian farmers will be encouraged to come up with desi crops and the import load will reduce making the economy better at sustainability, profit and ecologically balanced better...
It is okay to munch on desi matar instead of ordering Edamame beans which are exorbitant...
Both would give us proteins.
Our very own millets pulses cereals and grains are as good or even better than the plush Quinoa which is considered the saviour of many people trying to eat healthy...

3) Eat Clean
Anything that comes out of a bag, can or tetra pack is a shortcut.
I am talking about processed food here. By minimising the packaged food in our diets we are allowing minimum exposure to harmful chemicals and additives that may enter our body through products from a packet.
This includes all biscuits, cookies, cakes, chips, instant noodles, processed butter cheeses etc.
We are fortunate to have options... Home cooked rules all the time...

4) Eat home cooked meals
Home made white butter, ghee, laddu, chiwda, kheer, roti subzi, Dals, rice, kachumbar, raita, chutney is fantastic. We can have it without guilt.
Til Gul ladu in sankrant, halim/aliv or dink/methi ladoos for new lactating mothers or for everyone to have in winters, aam panna or kokun sharbat and morawla in summers, home fried bhajiyas ( once in a season) during monsoons - all of this is with a well thought over purpose and with a scientific reason.
Anything which is home cooked, fresh and when moderately consumed in synchronisation with the season is always good for us.

Quick snacks.
1) Soaked or dry almonds with dates or khareek ( dry dates)
2) Walnuts with raisins
3) Cashews with jardalu/khubani/apricots
4) Pistas with dry anjeer

This fruit and nut combo is great as a pre energy consuming activity

Quick meals
1) boiled sprout chat
2) banana roti roll with ghee
3) dates roti roll with ghee
4) roasted chana and jaggery
5) roti subji roll with salad shreds for crunch and a hint of fresh chutney ( wraps or franky- homemade and fresh)

Add on fillers,
1) cucumber/ carrot/ radish sticks with or without a yogurt dip.
2) Homemade Chiwda
3) Chaas with or without masala
4) fruit of choice ( I find grapes, bananas and apples great to eat and least messy while travelling)

Post hectic energy consuming activity
One must be careful to include good protein sources like paneer, sprouts, dal, egg whites or poultry  (for non vegetarians.) in their post activity meal.

With proper awareness and commitment to CLEAN eating sky is the limit when it comes to what one can achieve.
I now understand that food cannot be labelled or measured in terms of just the calorific value... It lends much more to our bodies than calories.
It is nutrient dense vibrational energy source... This is called life force energy or Prana.
Freshest raw produce vibrates at a higher frequency
Cooked food next to it....
Stored, stale or packaged food contains least energy and hence isn't much beneficial to our overall well-being...
When I now feel like having a bowl of soup... I just don't open up and pour it off from a packet but I start from scratch... Steaming boiling blanching.... Whatever it takes....
It is all worth the effort....
After all our body is a Divine gift to us and it's our utmost and ultimate responsibility to take good care of it.
Don't we all notice how fresh we feel after eating a bowl of freshly cut watermelon or shredded tossed salad.... Yes it's pure vibrating energy food that's nourishing every cell from within.

So next time before class starts, for your own sake, Don't open a bag of chips or a pack of biscuits, it's not going to make any good. Open up your tiffin and eat.
Eating clean is the only way to go.
It will 100 percent show on our face and the energy we exude... The freshness, the glow, the skin, the smile... Say it all...

The above points are written considering that all of us lead or intent to lead a relatively active lifestyle and undertake at least some physical activity or exercise per day.
Cheers to moving more and eating clean....

Tasmay Shree Guruve Namaha.

- Prajakta Sathe

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