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30 June, 2014

How to burn fat faster without spending longer in the gym...


How to burn fat faster without spending longer in the gym...
Many people point to a lack of time as the reason why they can't stick to a regular exercise routine. That's why books such as 8 Minutes in the Morning or The Slow Burn Fitness Revolution have become so popular. They promise to help you get in shape in less time and with less effort.
One simple way to cut down on the time you spend in the gym is to increase the density of your workout. Workout density is a measure of the amount of work performed in a specific time period. Don't worry if it sounds too complicated. Increasing workout density is actually quite easy when you use supersets.
Most weight-training routines require that you perform one set of a given exercise, rest for a minute or two, then return to the same exercise. And it's this rest period between sets that takes up a lot of time.
With supersets, you move quickly from one exercise to another, with little or no rest between. In other words, rather than resting between sets, you perform an exercise for another muscle group.
Depending on who you talk to, you might also hear supersets called compound sets or staggered sets. They're all variations on the same theme.
Supersets usually involve several sets of two exercises for opposing muscle groups, such as the biceps curl and triceps dip. A compound set is a superset for the same muscle group (such as two back-to-back exercises for your biceps).
With staggered sets, you do an exercise for one muscle group and then, with little or no rest, perform an exercise for a muscle group (usually a smaller one) in a different part of the body. As an example, you might alternate squats with dumbbell curls.
One of the main benefits of a weight-training routine that includes supersets is that it raises your metabolic rate in the hours after exercise. Studies also show a shift in substrate oxidation, which means that you're also burning more fat.
So, one of the ways to make sure your metabolism stays elevated after exercise is to keep your rest periods between sets relatively short.
If you find it hard to fit weight training into your day, try increasing the density of your workout by using supersets or staggered sets. It's a very simple way to boost your metabolic rate and burn fat faster without spending longer in the gym.

Belly fat and how to beat it...
Of all the e-mails I get sent every day, by far the most common - from men and women alike - are questions about how to lose stubborn belly fat.
A pot belly... love handles... the spare tire... call it what you will. It seems to be the area of your body that you'd really like to do something about.
Belly fat
Not only is a firm, flat stomach the ultimate symbol of sex appeal, researchers have found that losing abdominal fat is one of the most important steps you can take to stay healthy for life.
Most people realize that excess fat is unhealthy, but the key is where the fat is distributed. People with apple-shaped bodies (fattest in the abdomen) have a greater risk of heart disease and diabetes than those with pear shapes (fattest in the hips, buttocks, and thighs).
What is inflammation and why should you care?
Most doctors will tell you that the best way to avoid a heart attack is to lower your cholesterol. What they won't tell you is that routine cholesterol tests identify less than half of all patients who are at risk for heart disease.
In other words, a patient can receive a "normal" cholesterol reading one day and still suffer a heart attack the next. The truth is that many cardiologists believe we should be looking beyond cholesterol.
As scientists delve deeper into the fundamental causes of heart disease and other illnesses, they are starting to see links to an age-old defense mechanism called inflammation - the same biological process that causes the redness, swelling and pain if you cut a finger
One way to test for inflammation is to measure levels of C-reactive protein in the blood. Elevated levels of C-reactive protein are linked with a higher than average risk of heart disease.
What's interesting is that higher C-reactive protein levels are linked with body fat, especially the belly fat stored around your waist. Fat in the midsection is stored deeper inside your body, in and around the liver and other organs. It's called visceral fat. Fat in the hip and thigh region is mainly stored just under the skin. This is called subcutaneous fat.
It won't surprise you to learn that the best way to lose abdominal fat is to eat right and exercise regularly. And there's a growing body of research showing that the fastest way to burn off the fat from your belly is with a combination of weight-training and aerobic exercise.
Belly fat is stored energy. To get rid of the fat, you have to burn more energy (calories) than you eat on a regular basis. Abdominal exercises like crunches and sit-ups won't burn as many calories as a properly designed fat-burning exercise program In other words, hundreds of sit-ups won't make much difference to the appearance of your waist and stomach if your abdominal muscles are hidden under a layer of fat.
The truth is, getting six-pack 'killer' abs has almost nothing to do with training. It has everything to do with low body fat. I still believe that developing the abdominal muscles is easy. The hardest part is getting your body fat low enough for your abs to show.

Day with little children in Fun park

This is the cutest love story. Straight out of fairy tales but as real as it can be. Yesterday what I witnessed was truly inspiring. It was the best ever kind of beginning of wedding celebrations.
First read the love story and how and where it started here. Tango brought them together. I have known my friend/client/ lawyer for years now. She is absolutely inspirational in every which way. In fact, the whole family is inspirational.
Yesterday, their wedding celebrations began. They took children of two orphanages to a fun park. The whole fun park was booked only for these children from morning till afternoon on Sunday morning. There were more than 1000 children, enjoying unlimited rides, food, cold drinks etc.
What an incredible idea. People spend so much on weddings. The kind of pure laughter and joy I witnessed yesterday, I had never seen before. The whole family and their friends were involved. Everyone was taking rides and eating with children. Her dad was keenly looking after each and every small detail being well taken care of. Her mom was enjoying rides with kids. Her old grand father was super happy and excited and taking ride in a cart to see everyone. The bride and groom were taking rides with children. If we all do things like these, world will be such a happy place.

First there was a great Puja ceremony. A stage was set up. Below bride (on right) with her mom, groom and sister.


After pooja, they took blessings from everyone.






See how cutely they are sitting, with folded hands and doing pooja with utmost sincerity. I must add, all the children were so well behaved, so neatly dressed and the best part- they enjoyed so much. 









There was very big food stall where lunch was served. It was one of the best meals I ever had. Pure vegetarian and with lots of happy faces around.




Truly inspired and motivated. God Bless the whole family with a world of happiness. 

29 June, 2014

Going together to a milonga

It was a private milonga and we went together. He was in no mood to dance but we just wanted to spend time together. How is your weekend going? Mine is super busy.



28 June, 2014

Ideal shoe for workout


When we talk about injuries, shoes have considerable importance. Why otherwise, would we wear different shoes for different activities. Tennis shoes, Cricket shoes, dance shoes, jazz shoes, running shoes, aerobic shoes, cross training shoes, we have so many different shoes. What is the difference and why do we need so many shoes? How does right workout shoe help in preventing injury?
During a good workout, we have impact on our joints- ankles, knees, spine etc. Hence, besides working out on the right surface, we must wear shoes which provide us ample cushioning. These shoes should be light weight and breathable. They should also provide good arch support. In aerobics or studio workout, unlike running, we have lateral movement. Here chances of twisting the ankle are high. Hence, these shoes should also have ankle support. Achilles tendon is the thickest tendon of the human body. It is in ankle and is very prone to injury. To avoid that, choose shoes with good ankle support. When we talk about cushioning, choose shoe with good fore foot cushioning as well as the heel. Yet the shoe should be flexible. Sometimes, it is a good idea to consult a podiatrist (foot doctor), who can asses your posture and alignment. We all have some kind of imbalance. Our feet might be over pronated or over supinated. To fix these, they recommend, special customized shoes. Big companies these days do offer to customize your shoes as per your needs.
Good studios have special spring wooden sports flooring. These are expensive. The studio owners expect that you bring your clean studio shoes inside, which carry no dust particles that can scratch their wooden floors. Good sports brands also have scratch proof soles with good grip that prevents skidding. Also these soles have special features that specially help you to pivot on forefoot.
These days we also have smart running shoes. We have shoes that come inbuilt with ipods and heart rate monitors. These record your calories burnt, etc.
Having said all the above, there is another completely contrasting study and observation. The marathon runners from Kenya are known to run bare foot. They have no injury and their joints are pretty strong. Another study revealed that body does get adjusted to the impact. We have a normal mechanism that protects the feet and legs by distributing the forces exerted by impact with the ground. Flatter feet with low arches tend to roll more. Over the last four decades manufacturers have been designing ever-more sophisticated shoes, which they claim can help those with less-effective natural shock absorption. Is it a marketing gimmick or does it actually have any significance? When it comes to the question of whether customized footwear prevents injuries, the evidence is so sparse that some consider it to be a myth. Surprisingly, there is no evidence for the theory that running on hard surface is bad for joints.
I would only say that each human body type is unique. What may be good for me may not work for you and vice a versa. We need to be cautious of injury and think about out body type instead of either aping a strong and conditioned marathon runner or getting swayed by the marketing gimmicks of a good brand. See what works best for you and choose judiciously. Do not choose a shoe because this article tells you to or you read some marketing advertisement or even because your friend wears it and praises it. Try on own. Your body talks to you the best. Listen to your own body.
The ideal type of running shoe is unknown, but those who are not getting injured should stick with the type they already have, and only try different models if they are getting hurt. In the meantime the best advice for anyone starting out seems to be to try on lots of shoes and to choose the ones that are most comfortable. Don’t blame physiotherapists, coaches and specialist shoe-shop assistants who give advice. Turn on your sensors and listen to your body.

Workout in summers


Contrary to popular belief, summers are an ideal time to workout and lose weight, if need be. One can deal with the heat by making educated adjustments and with the proper precautions, one can manage to stay cool and energetic while avoiding heat-related problems. 

You sweat more in summers as sweat is the natural cooling system of the body. It needs to be understood that when you sweat, the fluid evaporates from the skin’s surface, carrying away excess body heat. In an indirect way, sweating from hard exercise helps you lose weight and by increasing your BMR (Basal metabolic rate). Its major role is to assist in thermoregulation – to prevent the body from overheating. When you sweat, you lose water weight, and in summers one has to be wary of dehydration especially while excercising. While you may lose as much as 2 kilos during a workout, you will gain it all back as soon as you drink water after the session. Weighing yourself before and after exercising will tell you how much fluid your body requires.  

Workout should be done in a moderate to low intensity levels. Some suggestions are:Running
Swimming
Light weight training
Yoga stretching
Pilates
Beat the heat:
Heat-related illnesses like exhaustion in heat cramps and stroke can be easily handled, by adjusting the time of exercise – earlier in the morning or late evening if exercising outdoor. If working out in the gym or indoors one can do it any time.

Listen to your body while working out. If feeling heated, dry or very tired, stop and rest. It’s never a good idea to push yourself in extreme heat situations.
Always hydrate yourself before, during and after the session of exercise. While exercising for longer periods the body requires more water to remain hydrated – water can be replaced by sugar drinks as well for more energy.

What are power workouts?

Power workouts are high intensity and sometimes high impact workouts involving propulsion. They help you to burn more calories faster as they escalate the heart rate and make you sweat more. They are full body workout, involving push, pull, leap, hop and jumps. As the name suggests, these are powerful workouts and do require good strength and fitness to do it. In less time, you achieve more.
Most of your average bodybuilders know absolutely nothing about dynamic, or explosive-rep, training, ultra-low reps or the proper exercises to use for assistance work. 
Power strength training is designed with competitive powerlifters in mind, but it will be equally effective for beginner lifter who needs to use a full body workout or for bodybuilders at any level who have only trained with repetition workouts to this point. The bottom line, however, is that it’s a good all around routine for anyone who wants to focus on strength and power alone.
Other power workouts- power yoga, power pilates, power kickboxing, power aqua workout, power bosu workout, power tabata workout.
They are more effective in the sense that they give more and better results in less time. But of course, we need to be more diligent and be training with a qualified trainer to avoid injuries. The workouts need to be customized and monitored.

 Power Yoga- it is dynamic. It has more flow. It holds the asana for less time. Hence it is not static and flows into other with speed. It is more repetitive. Hence, builds the heart rate and burns more calories. It is like cardio workout.
Power pilates- again flows. More strength required for the core abdominal muscles to do more advanced pilates excercise like V hold, swan dives etc.
Power kickboxing- sometime anaerobics- using powerful leap, hop, jump, skips, along with jab and kicks. It using the larger upper body and lower body muscles very efficiently.
Power bosu- totally utilizes to propulsion moves. rebounding on bosu. it also uses the core. It is specially targeted at proprioceptive neuro muscular fascilitation. The balance and coordination is improved considerable.
Power tabata workout- it is explosive workout and uses the outbursts of energy. it is super challenging, super high intensity workout with limited rest intervals.
Power aqua- instead of gentle aqua aerobics, this requires powerful strokes inside the water. You work against the resistance and bouyancy of water, which helps you to loose weight faster in safe and effective way.

27 June, 2014

Foods to beat summer heat


Summers are here. Today I want to share a simple, basic, unheard of, unique food that helps to beat the heat in the body. It keeps you cool, helps to get rid of acidity, excessive heat, prickly heat, bleeding nose etc in the summer time. This age old wonder has been told to me by my mom. It is called Gond Katira/Gum Katira Sap. It has high protein, thiamine, folic acid, riboflavin and niacin.

Sattu

Sattu is a mix of powdered gram and barley mixed with ice cold water and jaggery. Old timers point out that sattu has been regarded as an energy drink and antidote for heat stroke since long.

Tukham malanga seeds are soaked in water overnight and consumed the next morning mixed with lassi or milk.

Squash made from the bael fruit also helps. The pulp is extracted and soaked in water overnight. It is ready to strain and serve the next morning. Bael is reputed to cool the system, stimulate appetite and prevent or counter stomach upsets due to heat exhaustion. Lime is another essential refresher in summers.

 Kacchi lassi is both refreshing and cooling. I remember as kids, dad used to bring home mangoes for us and always ask us to have kacchi lassi (milk and ice) later. He used to say it makes blood purer.

Among foods, onion and mint remain popular for their anti-heat qualities. Consuming onions takes away a lot of heat from the body. Chutney made from mint leaves prevents dehydration. I ask my clients to make a drink of mint, coriander, black salt, black pepper and lime juice. Add chilled water to it and store it in bottle. Keep sipping on it the whole day.

Chutney made from the petals of the rhododendron flower is supposed to have a cooling effect. Rhododendron syrup is also very popular for its cooling effect.

Children are particularly prone to heat stroke and excessive exposure to heat can cause serious disorders. So during summers, they should definitely be given these things. Aam panna (Drink made from mangoes) also helps.

26 June, 2014

Social media

Social media has become so powerful. Today, companies and individuals employ companies and individuals specifically for social media marketing. There is facebook, twitter, pinterest, instagram and so many other sites. If you have a company or a even a blog or as an individual, one has to manage so many accounts just so that your presence is felt.

I have 3 websites to manage and this blog.
www.fitnesolution.com
www.delhimilonga.com
www.newdelhitango.com

I am on instagram. I have 0 posts and 193 followers currently. I am staying cautiously away from it.

Social media has created a new kind of voyeurism — in which you can look into the carefully curated windows of the rich, famous and stylish — and a new kind of lifestyle envy.
Everyone's life seems perfect on social media and that is a problem.
In fact, sometimes overexposure on social media is only disgusting. Everyone posts only happy moments on social media- the perfect couple, the crazy party, beautiful dresses. Lives look better and happier on internet. People want to flaunt their fulfilled relations. But it is all partial/fake/hidden/made up truth. We decide what we want to portray to our audience. We create an image and want to live up to that image.
Who posts pictures of cleaning up the mess after the party, the fight you had with your spouse, the dress you craved to buy but seemed out of your budget?
Is life really this perfect? The social media only triggers our envy buttons. We live a real life but witness a very fake or partial truth life. We watch happy pictures of others only when we are lonely and not doing anything special ourselves, when we are idle, thinking what to do. When we are having a good time, we do not log on to see other people's lives. This magnifies our dissatisfaction with our own life. It creates yearning to portray our life as perfect. Perfect home, designer clothes and shoes, perfect relationship with all 32 teeth shining with big bright smile, fun times, exotic holidays . You do not want to feel like a loser. You also want to portray happy and fulfilled life.
I use my websites to promote my work. I use this blog to pen down my thoughts.
I am very cautious of not getting swayed by other's partial truths and glossy pictures. I think honest and true relationships can never happen in the periphery of social media. They are too personal. If you have the need to flaunt your relationship, you should take a reality check.
Remember, when you feel lonely, empty, lacking and useless while watching glossy pictures of others on internet, remind yourself life is beautiful- You are living the moment. Engage yourself in more useful and constructive things than hollow ones where the need is to flaunt. Be creative, constructive and passionate. The best moments of life are the ones that are really lived and not captured in status updates.

Kurti review

 I liked this understated, simple, cool, chic look in white. 
My review: It is from W. It is very nice cotton fabric.
I can team it up with leggings of many different colors - Red, pink, grey, green. Today I chose blue.
Totally met my expectation. Delivered on time. Packaging was great. I recommend it completely.

Chappals are from Clarks. They are so soft and comfortable. They are better than fit flops.




23 June, 2014

Dancing solo on Poema- Canaro



Dancing solo on Poema- Canaro
www.delhimilonga.com
www.newdelhitango.com

Aerial silk ab crunches and straddle



www.fitnesolution.com
Personal fitness trainer from Delhi, Kiran Sawhney demonstrates aerial silk ab crunches
Do personal fitness training in Delhi
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El dia- Tango workshop in Cervantes

It was a Tango workshop in Institute Cervantes. It was el dia and there were so many participants to attend this workshop for beginners. See my last year pictures here. It was interesting to see the enthusiasm of the participants.
















21 June, 2014

My teacher, my Guru

Meet my Guru Goura Prema Devi. She teaches me aerial silk. Her company is called Nataya Nectar. She is divine, diva. If I am ever 1/10th as good as her, I will consider myself to be successful. 



Dinner date at Taj Vivanta

We have both been working very hard. Today, over the weekend, we decided to go for nice, quite, romantic dinner date. He chose Taj Vivanta.
My review about the place
10/10. It is excellent place. 
Excellent food, great service, fabulous ambience. Lavish spread of buffet- light, delicious, well presented. Price not high at all- Rs.1200/- for a buffet. Considering, it is Taj, the price seemed cheap.
We came back really happy. 


What I wore: Sheath dress from Ritu Kumar. Previously worn here.



Review of a suit

Review of a suit:  It is available on flipcart here.
This suit is by Biba
It is priced at Rs. 3299/-
My review: It is a bad copy of tree of life of Rahul Mishra. It has an uneven hemline which makes it look even more tacky. The silhouette is very unflattering. Overall effect is What the hey!


In comparison, if you want the hues of creams and white for summers, my take is the one below.


It is from Anita Dongre's collection. Available here. 
I find it subtle, chic and classy. The fit and the silhouette are super graceful.