Transform your Stress into Happiness

Sitting at a coffee shop, I overhead two women at the table behind me. One was talking about how stressed she was at work. There were new responsibilities and endless deadlines. She concluded by saying, "I just want to be happy." The other woman was fed up with her spouse and just wanted to break free. "I can't just take it anymore", she said.

Probably if i could hear the conversation of everybody around, i would easily conclude that almost everybody is unhappy and same state of mind ..
On the way back home, i was deep in questions: Is it a coincidence? How come just everybody is under so much stress? Are we doing something wrong? Are we All doing something wrong? But how would that be Possible?

Then i asked myself a very easy question and the answer was even simpler.
Question: Who is responsible for the stress in your Life? 
Answer: Probably everybody around

Question: Who is responsible for the stress in your heart?
Answer: You

If you agree with the answers do read on because this article is for you.

Before we conquer Stress, it is very important for us to understand Stress.

Understanding Stress: Although many individuals manage stress relatively well, some individuals experience physical and/or psychological symptoms. There are times when stress, in limited amounts, can be beneficial and encourages an individual to meet a deadline or get a task done.

 However studies have shown, that individuals who experience excessive amounts of stress may increase the risk of developing various medical conditions. Examples of physical symptoms related to stress include fatigue, headache, gastrointestinal upset, muscle tension, episodes of dizziness, weight loss or gain, back pain.
More prolonged stress leads to heart disease, Stroke, High Blood pressure, Diabetes Mellitus and many more life threatening problems. 

Psychological symptoms related to stress include irritability, anger, depression, nervousness, and anxiety. In addition, many individuals experience sleeping problems.
Stress can also be suicidal or life taking.
And Above All. Stress Leads to Ageing .
The more i talk about stress the more painful it becomes.

So Lets talk of how to get rid of stress from our lives?
And if we cant get rid of that stress, lets talk of how to transform that stress into happiness.

Some Guidelines before we begin.
Managing Stress is an art. It comes by practice. Its like learning to ride a cycle. The more you practice, the better you become. And once you have mastered the art, it becomes second nature. This is where you can be of huge help to your life and to lives around you.

Some prerequisites:
1)  A fit and healthy body
Excess fat means excess toxins in your body. They will never let you feel happy and content

2)  Good Nourishment
Junk food, Alcohol and Smoking will make you feel better just for a few moments and then what will follow will be depression and unhappiness for days.

Techniques To Manage Stress
Now consider you are stressed. How do we deal with it methodically. You are just about to learn the most efficient way to throw unhappiness out of your system.

1) Step No-1
Close your eyes.
Raise your arms towards the sky and take a few deep breaths and
Smile. If you can smile in the face of Stress you have won the battle.

2) Step 2-
Drink a full glass of water.

3) Step 3: 
Relax, Deep Breathe and immediately think of something or someone that makes you smile.
It is this art to switch your mind from unhappy to a happy thought that will make you relaxed and peaceful.

This may take some time to master, but when you have accomplished this art. Nothing would ever hurt you again.

Swami Vivekanand once quoted: "Anybody can be calm in a cave. But stand in the middle of madness and be happy. If you are, then you cannot be moved."

After doing the above exercise, Use any of these below techniques depending on their availability at that moment of stress. you can use one or more tools .

Tools to transform Stress into Happiness:

Number 1)
Once a while visit a blind school or an orphanage or a old age home.
Spend time with people living there. Listen to them
You will feel an instant gratitude towards God. Instantly you will feel happy and peaceful.
This always works, Always!!

Number 2) 
The best way to transform stress into happiness is to help people around you. Your happiness grows by making others happy. This is the most ancient wisdom which nobody remembers now.
"Giving, opens the gates of Receiving".
Give out your time,  knowledge, old clothes, items in your house that you no longer use. Help people around you.
Counsel people and teach them how to Eliminate stress from their lives and yours will automatically disappear.

Number 3)
Read Comics or Story books of your liking
Think of all those books that made you feel happy. Keep them with you always.

Number 4) 
See Movies that make you laugh and make you feel happy

Number 5) 
Listen to Music and songs that you love to hear.

Number 6) 
Have a small temple in your house or a small corner where you allow God to be placed.
Visit a temple on regular basis.

Number 7) 
A memory Album
An album which has the pics of your childhood, your parents, your accomplishments, your dreams and everything that makes you feel better.

Number 8) 
Meditate regularly
Meditation is a practice where an individual focuses the mind on a particular object, thought or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state

Number 9) 
Chant the Holy name of God whenever your mind is full of pain and anxiety.

Number 10) 
A morning Jog or evening walk does great wonders to your state of mind

Number 11) 
A Hobby
Think about something that you always wanted to do but never found time.
Like painting, reading, trekking, learning a musical instrument, singing etc

Number 12)
A Pet
Love and happiness go hand in hand. There is no exception to this rule.
A dog for example will remove all the stress from your heart in just a moment.
Trust me, if you have this tool, you will not need the above 11 tools

Experiment and find the tool that works best for you. Remember, it take some efforts to work on relieving stress. Repeated use of tools will make you better and better.

The End Result:
Happiness will make you look younger, beautiful and bright.
People will start liking you and would want to spend time with you. You would be the ray of sunshine in everybody's life.

 Important Lesson:
People work 12 hours a day for years to earn a few lakh rupees per annum. But they don't spend time to nuture their relationships and expect to be happy with each other.
Spend quality time with others and yourself to be happy and rich in Life.
Best of Luck!!

                                          Written By                                                                                        

                                                 

                                       

                                          Dr Hitesh Bathija

                                     ( Medical Practitioner and Nutritionist) 

Millets in Meals

The practice of consuming millets as part of the daily diet is not new to India. They are the Store House of Nutrition. These lucky grains were sent down to us from our ancestors. Millets had been the major staple food in central India, southern India and hilly regions for centuries till the time of the Green Revolution. 

After the advent of high-yielding varieties of rice and wheat during the 1970s, millets got sidelined from our food basket. The reason for this is lack of awareness about the nutritional benefits, along with the tag of 'A poor man’s food'. Also, government pushed only rice and wheat in the subsidized public distribution system, rendering the cultivation of millets uneconomical.

Consequently, this resulted in high consumption of polished rice and refined wheat flour, which happen to be the main ingredients of foods consumed by the urban population. This trend, coupled with sedentary lifestyles, has led to a rise in obesity and other lifestyle diseases like diabetes, hypertension and heart disease, across age groups.

 A study published in The New England Journal Of Medicine says India has the world’s highest number of obese children (14.4 million) after China (15.3 million). 

Child Obesity on the rise in India

Children learn from their parents. If we eat healthy, they will also learn to eat healthy. Millets were part of our grandparents’ diet, it’s only in the past few decades that their consumption has reduced and consumption of junk food has increased. 
We need to embrace the goodness of millets. Parents need to understand the nutrition that their children need for their growth and development.

Millets are gluten free, anti-acidic and anti-allergic grains which are rich in fibre, protein, vitamins and minerals, iron, zinc, calcium, potassium, magnesium and phosphorous. Millets include Jowar, Ragi, Bajra, Nachani, Varai etc

Their high-fibre content helps in bowel movement and manages diabetes and obesity. Their high magnesium level is good for lowering blood sugar levels., while the potassium content keeps hypertension at bay,

Research validates the goodness of millets. In 2010,  a research paper published in the Journal Of Agricultural And Food Chemistry confirmed that all millets are rich sources of antioxidants, while another study in Nutrition Research concluded that millets may be useful in preventing cardiovascular disease as they are rich in phytonutrients like lignans.

Another advantage of Millets is its role in losing weight. Millets are complex carbs with high fibre content, which delays gastric emptying leading to a sense of fullness and therefore reduces hunger,

“In the hope of becoming fit, we start consuming whatever ‘superfood’ is trending in the West (wheatgrass, cranberries,  noodles, broccoli , to name a few), ready to spend a bomb, and indifferent to the goodness of our own food

The right cooking technique and a good recipe can lift any ingredient, says Arun Sundararaj, executive chef at The Taj Mahal Hotel in Delhi. “It is easy to include millets in the diet as they are very versatile. We can have millet pancakes for breakfast, millets can be prepared like rice, substituted for potatoes when cooked with gravy, and even make a great addition to bread. Millets also make a great bed for roasted vegetables and stews," he says.

The key to eating right lies in food diversity, not becoming a victim of a food fad.

 Comparison Between Millets and Big Cereals

Nutritional Components Comparison Between Millets and Big Cereals
All values are per 100grams of Edible Portion
Name	Proximate Principles				Vitamin-B				Minerals
	Protiens (g)	Fat (g)	Carbohydrates (g)	Energy (Kcal)	Carotene (ug)	Thiamine (mg)	Riboflavin (mg)	Niacin (mg)	calcium (mg)	Phosphorus (mg)	Iron (mg)
Rice	6.8	0.50	78.20	34.5	0	0.06	0.08	1.80	10	160	0.70
Wheat	11.6	1.50	71.20	346	64	0.45	0.17	5.50	41	306	5.30
Bajra	11.6	5.00	67.50	361	132	0.33	0.25	2.30	42	296	8.00
Jowar	10.4	1.90	72.60	349	47	0.37	0.13	3.10	25	222	4.10
Ragi	7.3	1.30	72.00	328	42	0.42	0.19	1.10	344	283	3.90
Arikelu	8.3	1.40	65.90	309	0	0.33	0.09	2.00	27	188	0.50
Varigalu	12.5	1.10	70.40	341	0	0.20	0.18	2.30	14	206	0.10
Sama	7.7	4.70	67.00	341	0	0.30	0.09	3.29	17	229	9.30
korralu	11.2	4.00	63.20	351	0	0.33	0.10	4.00	31	200	2.30

• 
  
• Explanation of the above Table: 
• 1) Each one of the millet has more fibre than rice and wheat.
• 2) Every millet has atleast twice the amount of Calcium compared to rice.
• 3) Iron content is so rich that rice is nowhere in the race.
• 4) All millet varieties show high antioxident activity.
• 5) Millets which is a rich source of Magnesium)can help reduced effects of migraines and heart attacks.
• 6) Millet is Gluten free and non-allergenic...must food for sensitive individuials.
• 7) Millet is a Miracle Grain with lots of fibre and low simple sugars.
• 
  

Conclusion:

Protein helps build muscles, cell regeneration, and induce a feeling of satiety- which can further help in your weight reduction diet. If you are looking to lose weight, add jowar instead of wheat in your diet and see it work wonders on your health and weight.
Jowar has a low glycemic index (62) compared to whole wheat (72).
Therefore Jowar is among the healthiest choices you can make for your daily carbohydrate intake.

Understanding Keto Diet

INTRODUCTION:

Keto diet also known as Ketogenic diet is a high fat and low carb diet. 

It involves reducing carbohydrate intake drastically and replacing it with fat. This reduction in carbs puts your body into a metabolic state called ketosis.

When this happens, your body becomes incredibly efficient at burning fat for energy. It also turns fat into ketones in the liver, which can supply energy for the brain.

Ketogenic diets cause massive reductions in blood sugar and insulin levels and therefore shifts the body’s metabolism away from carbs and towards fat and ketones. That is why by definition, Keto diet is not a balanced diet.

Normally carbs in food are converted into glucose which is then transported throughout the body, but if little carbs are available in diet (as in keto diet), then the liver converts fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies. These ketone bodies pass into brain and replace glucose as energy source.

An increase in ketone bodies in blood leads to ketosis.

Advantage of ketosis is that it reduces epileptic seizures, therefore keto diet is prescribed in patients suffering from epilepsy.

Another way of generating a state of ketosis in the body is by Fasting.

 TYPES OF KETO DIET:

1) Standard ketogenic diet (SKD): This is a very low-carb, moderate-protein and high-fat diet. It typically contains 75% fat, 20% protein and only 5% carbs.

2) Cyclical ketogenic diet (CKD): This diet involves periods of higher-carb refeeds, such as 5 ketogenic days followed by 2 high-carb days.

3) Targeted ketogenic diet (TKD): This diet allows you to add carbs around workouts.

4) High-protein ketogenic diet: This is similar to a standard ketogenic diet, but includes more protein. The ratio is often 60% fat, 35% protein and 5% carbs.

However, only the standard and high-protein ketogenic diets have been studied extensively. Cyclical or targeted ketogenic diets are more advanced methods and primarily used by bodybuilders or athletes.

FOODS INCLUDED IN KETO DIET:

1) Seafood. Fish and shellfish are very keto-friendly foods.

2) Low-Carb Vegetables like  green leafy vegetables, tomatoes, asparagus, broccolli, cucumbers.

3) Cheese and Peanut Butter.

4) Avocados, raspberries, and lemons are keto-friendly fruits when eaten in moderation.

5) Fatty Meat and dairy products.

6) Eggs

7) Coconut oil

8) Plain Yogurt and cottage cheese

9) Ice-cream

10) Dark Chocolates

11) Spirits like Gin, Vodka and Whisky

SOME BENEFITS OF KETO DIET:

1) Weight Loss: You lose weight without going hungry.

2) Cancer: The diet is currently being used to treat several types of cancer and slow tumor growth.

3) Alzheimer's disease: The keto diet may reduce symptoms of Alzheimer's disease and slow its progression .

4) Epilepsy: Research has shown that the ketogenic diet can cause massive reductions in seizures in epileptic children.

5) Parkinson's disease: One study found that the diet helped improve symptoms of Parkinson's disease.

6) Polycystic ovary syndrome: The ketogenic diet can help reduce insulin levels, which may play a key role in polycystic ovary syndrome.

7) Brain Injuries: One animal study found that the diet can reduce concussions and aid recovery after brain injury.

SIDE EFFECTS OF KETO DIET:

1) Keto Breath: Since ketones are released in breath, urine and sweat, people following ket diet can easily be recognised by the foul odour they emit.

2) Keto rash mostly occurs in the upper body. It includes itchy rash with redness. It is an uncomfortable and itchy condition which can be controlled with some precautions. It can be spotted on neck, chest and back.

3) Cramps due to reduced electrolyte levels in blood, as they are lost in urine.

4) Vitamin defficiency and fatigue.

5) Keto Flu which includes reduced alertness, giddiness, fatigue and loss of sleep.

6) Muscle Loss.

7) Kidney stones and constipation.

8) Joint pains due to increase in uric acid levels

9) Acidosis leads to erosion of bones which increase chances of fractures.

10) Cholesterol and Triglyceride levels in blood increase leading to heart disease.

11) Low carb diet leads to irregularities in heart beats e.g Atrial fibrillation.

12) Physical performance shows major deterioration.

13) Keto diet also aggravates gall bladder disease.

CONCLUSION: 

The ketogenic diet was originally formulated by doctors to help treat people with epilepsy, and it was found especially effective in children who didn’t respond to medication. Indeed, the keto diet has been found to reduce the frequency and intensity of seizures, which are common complications of this condition.

The keto diet has also been studied as a possible cancer therapy. 

Since it is not a balanced diet it is not recommended for the general population.

Yet if you wish to try your hand at the keto diet, run to your doctor first and get a precise meal plan from him.

And before you begin keto diet, remember:

1) ketosis can be harmful to a fetus, the keto diet should be avoided during pregnancy.

2) The keto diet is not for children or adolescents either, and a long-term complication can be growth retardation in children.

3) It should not be tried by people suffering from Diabetes mellitus, kidney problems and heart disease.

                              Written By                                                                                 

                       

                         Dr Neelima Bathija

                             (Gynaecologist and Infertility Specialist)