Stay NEAT and Eat Clean!

Playing with kids can be a fulfilling activity for our mind and metabolism

Walk with your waggy-friend for health and happiness

​ E=MC2 shifted the entire rationale of existence of this universe and the human body is no exception to Einstein’s epic discovery. Whether it is by running or strength training or sports exercise or doing nothing at all, we retain, lose or gain mass depending upon the how we use our energy. Mass sounds too Eintein-ish so let’s call it body weight. And I can see this article getting more attention now!
 
Homo sapiens are meant for movement. But our energy expenditure is not solely dependent upon how hard we train at the gym or how much salad we gobble down. We burn about 1.5 calories per minute just lying still while our body is busy performing basic functions. Apart from sleeping, exercising and eating (which are considered as the major calorie-burning activities of the day), every other activity in between expends energy too. And this energy has a name: Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis or NEAT. Even trivial daily activities increase your basal metabolic rate substantially have a positive and constructive impact on your daily NEAT.
 
Good things come in small packages
Working intelligently to leverage small efforts adds to up to big rewards. There is absolutely no excuse for not exercising, but if circumstances demand you to sacrifice your work-out, atleast work-around! There are plenty of little ways you can keep your muscles moving, active and burning calories.
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• Take the no.11 bus

I couldn’t help but translating a colloquial Hindi saying for using your legs to travel! Walk the talks; walk the phone-calls; walk to the grocery store; walk your pet; walk everytime and everywhere you can. Nothing can be more dynamic than walking. Even walking up to the kitchen to pour a glass of water instead of asking your house-help to, adds to the steps.

• Flight to Fight

We can see the quintessential ‘take the stairs for better health’ A4 printouts pasted proudly on lifts everywhere. We read it and yet press the button to our floor. Fight those lazy bugs biting your legs and take the flight up to your destination. The joy of adrenalin from this flight will be worth a million fights! 

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Farmer’s hold for holding up health

• Bear the Baggages

Shed the ones on your mind and lug the ones in hand. Ever heard of the famous ‘farmer’s hold’ exercise? Carrying your groceries or damages from your shopping spree can be an amazing NEAT regimen; and even better would be to walk with them. Who wants dumbells when you have a big shopping list and your car is parked half a kilometer away!

• Wash the weight away

The best way to prevent your favorite silks and sequins from getting annihilated in the washing machine: wash them yourself. Washing clothes not just makes your hands smell of soap but also gifts some nice muscle definitions to them!

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Cleaning up our messed up health

• Clean and Clear

You just heard from your parents-in-law and they are missing you like hell! If this cannot spring you into action then nothing can. It is just afternoon and you have exactly 4 hours to tidy up the house before they arrive. Unfortunately you will not find anything as persuasive a reason to spring clean your home as this one. Nevertheless, a little cleaning around can be made part of your daily routine to keep your muscles moving, if not exploding!

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Standing, whether in queues or for chopping vegetable, is always a blessing for your hams and quads!

• Kill it with kids

Kids can tire you. And they can even get you rid of your tyres! Kids goes synonymous to movement. Even playing a simple board game with children will make you move around in circles. So you can imagine if your child wants to fly frisbee with you today, you are going to return home feeling as if you just finished 20 laps in the pool!

• Let the Weight Wait

India is full of queues; and they can be oppressive to say the least. But what if waiting helps you burn calories, would you still crib about it? Don’t sit while waiting. Stand in the queue. Don’t  keep shifting your weight from one leg to another, that will seriously tire you. Stand erect with your spine straight. Talk to your fellow sufferers to kill time. I made a friend about 6 years ago standing in line to pay my electricity bill; the friendship is still going strong and I don’t hate queues anymore! You never know you too might bump into someone who turns into a friend for life. 

• Squat to Squander

If you have an Indian style restroom at home, you have already won half the battle! But if not, don’t worry, there are plenty of ways to make sure you are using your gluteus bundles to their maximum capacity. Squat to pick stuff from the floor, trash those hi-tech mops and squat to sweep and mop, wash and chop.

• With-Stand the Storm

If you do not have the sitting disease, then stand work. And if you it, get your butt up that chair and stand. Stand and chop vegetables; stand to teach your kids; stand to paint, to sing. Stand if you can at any instance and sit only if you cannot stand anymore. Standing strengthens your lower extremities and improves posture too.

• Cross to Chew

Eating can be a terrific calorie burning activity! Sitting cross-legged while eating keeps your pelvic muscles agile and flexible and has amazing benefits in improving digestion, increasing metabolism and even aiding in weight loss. 

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Blessing clean from your garden and staying NEAT with physical exercise

• Sprout in Action

Gardening is therapeutic. Not just for the mind but for the body too. Gardening involves a lot of physical labour and movement. A small terrace garden too can keep your muscles and mind occupied and incase you have a farm where you can grow your own food, you just hit a jackpot! Whoever said blessings never come in pairs doesn’t know about the benefits of gardening.
 
 
Are you the unfortunate couch potato syndrome patient?
The easiest thing to ever do is to do nothing at all. And it burns nothing at all.  Loving your couch with a platter of chips and cola infront of your home theatre can get your NEAT score plummeting in no time. Loving your body can be a better deal incase you don’t want to succumb to the epidemic of obesity. It eventually boils down to the straight fact that ‘if you don’t use it, you lose it.’ Simple everyday activities like the ones mentioned and so many more, keep your muscles in action, up your metabolism, keep them sustained and add to the treasure of your NEAT score. But this doesn’t give you the leverage to completely shun exercises. With good training, good food and substantial NETA you can gift yourself a strong, healthy and beautiful body.

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Good health is a journey to walk right up the aisle… step by step!