One Idiot

You must have thought, the name of the post is weird. Or may have thought about the bollywood movie "3 idiots" starring Amir khan, R Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Kareena Kapoor, Boman Irani etc. But hold on..

It is said that,

A Picture can tell a Thousand words.

Now if a picture can tell a thousand words then imagine how much a video can tell??

Following is the link to the YouTube video, named "One Idiot" made by IDFC Foundation. The video is so much entertaining and educating that I couldn't resist sharing it to you guys.

It's a 33 minute video, very straight forward, educating on the subject of wealth, half the dialogues in Hindi and half in English.

Here is the link-

https://youtube.com/watch?v=vU1l1TB7GzI



Warning - this video may change your life.. 😉

Watch it and enjoy.

Sumit
The POWER is when,
You use ODDS
To get EVEN.

 

3 Important Aspects of living - DIET

This post is in continuation with
1) 3 most important aspects of living
2) No. 1 Misconception about great health

So till now, we have learnt about ageing, anti ageing, the language of exercise, misconceptions about exercises etc.

Out of the 3 pillars of our life, the #1 pillar, that is health is divided in to 2 parts-

Exercise and diet, until now we have learned basic things about the exercises, also you must have read what do I do when I fall ill?, if not then do read.

So now comes the diet part. We will definitely learn more about exercises, but exercises and diet go hand in hand so let's learn some basic things about the diet.

One of the advantage of learning about the diet is to become free from the misconceptions about the diet, like many people or organisations make big claims about their crash diet course, follow our diet plan and lose this much pounds or lose inches etc. Many times there person following these crash diets do achieve the targeted weight loss or weight gain or inch loss or fat reduction, whatever.. But his or her body sustains to much fatigue and many times fall ill and in the process of recovery from the illness returns to the point where he or she started and realises the waste of money, time, mental piece etc. Or even if he or she doesn't fall ill, sooner or later reverts to the original condition, wiping out any achievements in weight loss or gain or inch reduction etc.

If you really want to achieve the good physique then you must understand how your body works, how to feed it, how to keep it healthy. You yourself should care about your body, if you don't care about your body then how can anyone else care? How can you hand over your body to someone else just like that?

The hard fact is the people running the slimming centres are not doing it for charity. They are doing it for money, the slimming centre is their business. They are doing it because people think they need it and hence approach them. Slimming centre people themselves must be aware of the fact that they are not actually helping people becoming healthy but its a tough world out there, if they don't show results quickly, their customers will go to the next slimming centre which gives quick results in whatever way possible. And there will always be a next slimming centre, if not there now then sooner or later it will be there.

People generally go after INSTANT GRATIFICATION, that is we want instant reward for our actions, if there is no instant reward then we get discouraged and start finding other instantly rewarding options. But we must remember what investment legend Warren Buffett said-

You can not get a baby in one month by making nine women pregnant.. Some things just takes time...

You must be thinking why I am quoting investment legend in the post about diet? This is because there are some basic rules or we can say models which are common to all fields. And delayed gratification is one of them. We will talk about these models also known as mental models in future posts for sure.

So back to the topic, as the second world war was ending researchers at the University of Minnesota began a legendary experiment on psychology and physiology of human starvation. The subjects were 36 people with different body types. They were semi starved, given a diet of 1600 calories per day of typical European diet consisting of whole-wheat bread, potatoes, cereals and considerable amounts of turnips and cabbage and a little amounts of meat and dairy for 24 weeks. Only 17% calories coming from fats, what todays nutritionists will consider low calorie and very low fat diet.

What happened to these people is very interesting, it is also a lesson for is to understand the working of our body. It will crack the assumption of the proponents of crash diets to lose weight, or the weight loss advice which simply neglects the presence of hunger.

As per the study-

The men lost an average of a pound of body fat a week over the first 12 weeks, but averaged only a quarter-pound per week over the next 12, despite the continued deprivation. And this was not their only physiological reaction. Their extremities swelled; their hair fell out; wounds healed slowly. They felt continually cold; their metabolism slowed.

More troubling were the psychological effects. The men became depressed, lethargic and irritable. They threw tantrums. They lost their libido. They thought obsessively about food, day and night. The Minnesota researchers called this "semi-starvation neurosis." Four developed "character neurosis." Two had breakdowns, one with "weeping, talk of suicide and threats of violence." He was committed to the psychiatric ward. The "personality deterioration" of the other "culminated in two attempts at self-mutilation." He nearly detached the tip of one finger and later chopped off three with an ax.

After the period of starvation ended, they were allowed to eat more, but then again in controlled manner, groups were formed to assess the effect of increased calories intake, one group was allowed to eat as much as they want, the people of this group ate huge amounts of food, they consumed up to 10,000 calories per day. They recovered their weight and fats very rapidly. And after 20 weeks they amassed 50% more body fats than what they had at the beginning. Researchers call it 'Post Starvation Obesity'.

Ok, so the simple thing is that it is often harmful to go for instant results. It is not good to neglect our hunger, if we starve ourselves then our bodies physiological response will be the stronger, unsurmountable feeling of hunger. That is why I always say, our body is a Complex Adaptive System, our body wants to survive and reproduce, and it prompts us to do whatever is necessary. So we must first ensure and fulfil what it wants and provide it in suitable ways.

As you must have understood from the University of Minnesota experiment, weight reduction or inch reduction is not a one time job. Whoever followed crash diets, his or her body thinks there is deficiency of food in its environment, so the bodies response to this situation is a strong feeling of hunger, day and night, so that the person can eat as much as possible. Along with this our body also reduces our metabolism rate, that is the rate of chemical reactions happening in the body which are responsible for repair, growth, heat generation etc. Our body starts saving more and more calories we consumer and amassing it as fats under the skin and around vital organs(which is dangerous). This response remains for extended periods of time after the crash diet or the starvation has ended.

So how to do it then? You must be asking.😉

As I have just said, it can be done by understanding our body, it's needs and fulfilling those needs in a proper way. Maintaining a healthy body is not just a one time job, it is a way of living life, exercise and diet are part of a healthy lifestyle, so the earlier you incorporate them in your life the better. Further just incorporating exercise and diet is not enough, you must know why and how they work otherwise you may damage your own body.

You must have heard many times in the ancient scriptures about the rules of life, the basic rule is-

Know thyself...

Or Atm-Gyaan...

This rule is there in almost every holy scriptures all around the world.

So you must understand how your body works, what it needs, and you must supply what your body needs. This is the basis of the right diet.

What nutrients our body need?

The nutrients we need can be classified as follows- (as you are reading this blog,I assume that you are not illiterate, you must have gone through school, where you must have learned the basic nutrients our body needs, so this is just the revision.)

1) Carbohydrates- (Also known as Carbs)
These are the polymeric form of sugars (the sugar we use for sweetening the food is chemically known as sucrose), when sugars gets attached to each others forming a chain, it is called polymer. The sucrose is a dimer, that is made up of 2 sugar molecules.

The biggest source of carbohydrates is the grains, tubers etc. As you just read, carbohydrates are the polymeric form of sugars. They must be broken down in to individual units before they can be used by various cells of our body or even the absorption by our digestive system is only done when they are broken down in to individual units. Depending on the complexity of their molecule, they take different amount of time to get broken in to individual units of sugars by the action of digestive juices. As they get broken down, they get absorbed by the digestive system. Depending on the time they take for digestion, carbohydrates are classified as Fast carbs or Slow carbs. Fast carbs generally have individual units of sugars present in them, for example fruits have individual units of sugars present in to them, so they get absorbed in to our blood readily and can be used directly as an energy source directly, without the need of any chemical processing. While slow carbs are digested slowly, therefore they provide a sustained stream of carbohydrates to the blood for hours after consumption. Wheat provides slow carbs while rice is a source of fast carbs. Some instant energy drinks contains fast carbs, they readily get absorbed by the digestive system and provide instant energy. But my thinking is that, use of such instant energy drinks should be avoided because they mask the real problem, that is fatigue, why we had fatigue and felt the need to consume instant energy drink? Further they also reduce the bodies own stamina to avoid fatigue.

Anyways, The excess carbs are converted in to a polymeric form known as glycogen by the liver and are stored by the liver, these reserves are used whenever required. The famous hormone Insulin governs this process and keeps the required level of sugars in our blood stream.

Carbohydrates are used as a primary source of energy by our body. Carbon dioxide, water and energy are the aerobic oxidation products of carbohydrates. (Aerobic means- with oxygen) When anaerobic oxygen happens, then lactic acid as an added product is formed, which is mainly responsible for muscle fatigue.

Our brain can only use sugars as an energy source. Almost all other cells can use fats as an alternative source of energy.

Almost all the food items we eat contains carbohydrates, so there are generally very rare chances of lies consumption. Rather patients having high blood sugar needs to control the intake of carbohydrates.

My purpose of writing here is to tell you the normal working of our body, if your body is not working normally because of some reasons, then you have to find those reasons and bring it to the normal. Many times we ourselves knowingly or unknowingly interfere in the working of our body thereby resulting in to a disease.

As Warren Buffett says-

Whenever you find yourself fallen in to a pit, the first thing you should do is, stop digging..

Again I am quoting this greatest capital allocator on earth because many psychological rules are applicable in any field of our life.

2) Minerals-
Our body needs different kind of minerals like calcium, zinc, iron etc. for various activities in the body. For example calcium is needed in the construction of bones and cartilages in the body, then iron is needed in carrying and storage of oxygen, other minerals are part of different hormones which govern different chemical reactions in the body or they even participate in certain chemical reactions occurring in our body.

As you go towards artificial ways of living like eating food grown on chemical fertilisers, grown from hybrid or genetically modified seeds, drinking RO purified water etc. makes our diet deficient in minerals. (when you start increasing the yield of crops by forcing them to yield more by some ways like hybridizing or genetically modifying or application of enzymes etc one must ensure the supply of all nutrients in right proportion which is seldom done, usually what farmers does is, they supply only the yield increasing nutrients through chemical fertilisers, and not the other nutrients which have less effect on the yield of crop, this scenario makes the yield more in quantity but less in quality, that is less in nutrient content.)(RO filters filters out all the dissolved minerals in the water, making it pure but simultaneously reducing the mineral content.) Drinking water is the biggest source of calcium apart from dairy and meat products. (RO also filters out all the pathogens from drinking water, thereby reducing the ingestion of pathogens, resulting in to less infections, resulting in to less action for immune system, resulting in to weak immune system, such people quickly catch infection when they consume normal water.)

The more you are closer to the nature the less are the chances of mineral deficiency and catching of infections.

3) Fats-
Fats or vegetable oils or various kinds of animal oils are fats. They have very high calorific value, almost double the calories than carbohydrates. They are used as an energy source and a kind of protective covering to insulate our body from atmospheric temperatures and physical shocks. Some Viral organs like kidneys, liver etc. also have a covering of fatty tissue (adipose tissue) to protect it from mechanical shocks.

Fats cannot be used by brain cells (neurons). Mainly fats are burnt by our skeletal muscles for their energy needs. The muscle repair and growth mechanism mainly used fats as a source of energy, this is a very long lasting process and consumes large amount of fats.

Muscles performing aerobic activity also starts burning the fats when supply of carbohydrates starts diminishing. (aerobic activity means, repeated movements, like cycling, walking, jogging, aerobic exercises etc.)

Now a days we eat to much of fast food or snacks, which are very rich sources of fats. There is a good news for the readers of this blog- You have very less chances of fats deficiency ever happening in your life...😊

This is because educated people are generally ingesting much more amount of fats than they can metabolize. Therefore fats starts accumulating over the vital organs(which is very dangerous), below the skin, in the blood, the cholesterol level increases which is a kind of low density fat, ask this resulting in to various diseases like- obesity, fatty liver, heart disease, heart attacks, choked blood vessels, joint pain(as they are unable to bear increased body weight, psychological stress because of their looks, you can imagine others..

So as far as carbohydrates and fats are concerned we educated people don't have to worry about their deficiency. Rather we need to keep check on their intake or make sure, they get metabolised in our body as soon as possible.

Fats play a major psychological role in our diet. Fats give us the satisfaction or the feeling of full stomach. That is why we feel full very quickly while eating deep fried food items.

4) Vitamins-
Vitamins are vital amines, amines means proteins, vital means very necessary. Three are special kind of proteins which are necessary for normal functioning of our body. They act as special molecules necessary to bring about certain biological reactions in our body. They act as catalyst for different biological reactions, our they are part of different hormones our enzymes. There are different sources for different vitamins.

There are two classes of vitamins- water soluble and water insoluble. As the name suggests, the water soluble vitamins are soluble in the water while water insoluble are not soluble in the water. Just remember that there are two classes of compounds, polar and nonpolar, polar have positive charge at one part of the molecule and negative on the other part of the molecule. While nonpolar do not have any charge on any part of their molecule, that is they are neutral. Polar compounds can dissolve in polar compounds only, for example water is polar and sugar is polar therefore sugar dissolves in water, similarly salt is pillar so it dissolved in water, but oil or fats are nonpolar so they don't dissolve in water or water don't dissolve in oil or fats, but different fats or oils may dissolve in each other.

Similarly, water soluble vitamins are double in water while water insoluble vitamins are soluble in fats or oils. We can ingest vitamins in dissolved form only, so the simple logic is we get water insoluble vitamins through oil or fat containing food and water soluble vitamins through water containing food. Simple isn't it?

These water soluble vitamins can't be stored in our body. The excess quantity is continually lost through urine. Therefore we need to ingest these vitamins every day.

Whereas fat soluble vitamins are stored in the fat tissue to some extent. And they are supplied to the place where needed in dissolved state in the fats.

Water soluble vitamins are B group of vitamins and vitamins C. Vitamins C is present in mainly citrus fruits, like lemon, orange etc. While B group is present in most of the raw fruits and vegetables. I said raw because this B group of vitamins degrade quickly at moderately high temperature. Therefore no B vitamin is present in the cooked food.

There is one another source of vitamin B- there are millions of bacteria living in our intestines, these are friendly bacteria, they digest some amount of food which we can't digest, and convert it into useful and absorbable products. One of such product they make is vitamin B. These useful bacteria gets killed when we consume antibiotics. At such times we quickly develop vitamin B deficiency. We must need to take vitamins B complex pills or eat more raw fruits till those useful bacteria are grown again.

5) PROTEINS-
Protein is the most important nutrient, proteins are the building blocks of our body. If we consider the total amount present in the body then protein comes just after the water. Proteins are there in every cell of our body, DNAs and RNAs of cells which contains all the hereditary information are made up of proteins, the antibodies that our immune system makes are special kind of proteins, all hormones are also made of proteins, all receptors (sensors of our body) are made up of protein molecules. Proteins are everywhere in our body. Our muscle fibres because of which we can do various movements are made up of proteins. Our heart muscles are also made up of proteins. We burn the fats in the structure made up of proteins. Proteins can also be used as a source of energy.

So as we are now aware of the importance of proteins, let's get to the sources of proteins-

We hear a lot about the protein content of different ingredients of food or the protein content of the different food items itself. But there is one more parameter related to the nutritional value of this protein content. Even if a particular food item we eat have protein content then it is not possible to our digestive system to digest all the protein content in the food we ingest. Further there are different kinds of proteins our body needs, apart from these proteins, there are other proteins present in the food, some of which we can convert in to usable proteins, others we can do nothing about. There are also some proteins which are readily absorbed in our body and used directly without any processing.

Amino acids are the basic units of proteins. Proteins are made up of combination of different amino acids. We need the amino acids in a particular ratio. So the food items can be ranked our evaluated with this amino acid composition and digestibility.

Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score (PDCAAS) is a method of evaluating the protein quality based on both the amino acid requirements of humans and their ability to digest it. The PDCAAS rating was adopted by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations/World Health Organization (FAO/WHO) in 1993 as "the preferred 'best'" method to determine protein quality.

Now I think we have learnt which are the nutrients needed by our body and what function di they perform.

Now let's discuss about how to get them -

How to formulate the best diet for yourself?

You have to formulate your own diet for yourself because you yourself have to eat it, taste it, bear with it, enjoy the nutrition it provides our not provides, and stick with it. You can also change it as per your requirements our taste. The 'taste' and 'satisfaction' are a very important parts of the diet as we have learnt about what happened to the subjects of University of Minnesota. So it is vicarious learning for us.(learning from others experience). We must not do the mistakes done by others.

Now you must have understood that proteins are the most important nutrient our body needs. This is the clue to formulate the best diet you can. We have to formulate our diet around the protein, because the food items containing proteins generally have vitamins(because vitamins are a special types of proteins), fats, minerals, carbohydrates etc. Therefore we don't need to worry about the other nutrients. (in case you are an athlete and taking sports supplements, like whey protein isolate, then you must take other ingredients in your diet) But for a normal person who is doing exercises for maintaining good health sticking with the protein is a good idea.

The easiest way to formulate your diet is search the internet for protein content of your favourite items, which are readily available. And make a list starting from the food item with highest proteins(also consider protein digestibility, because some items like pulses have low digestibility, like pulses generally have around 50% digestibility, that is only 50% of the protein available in some pulses gets digested, while raw egg have 93% protein digestibility.)

My take is I prefer eggs and meat, their digestibility scores are around 70% to 90%. But the other days I like eating peanuts, or dishes made with peanut, cheese, other dairy products etc.

For a normal human protein requirement per day is around 50gm, but for persons doing workout our for athletes the protein requirement can be 1.4 to 1.6 gm per kg of body mass. But with such people, some protein is also used as a source of energy, therefore the total protein requirement can go as high as 2.2 gm per kg of body mass.

Our bodies adaptive response-
There is one interesting thing about the food we like- Our brain have a mechanism which decides our liking for food items. Our brain accesses our need of nutrients, it also assesses the nutrient content of various food items. Whenever there is deficiency of certain nutrients in our body, our brain automatically develops liking towards the food items which have those nutrients. It prompts us to consume those items and rewards is with the feeling of pleasure and happiness when we consume those food items.

Because of this process even if we don't like certain food items because of their taste, once we consume them in sufficient quantity so that our brain registered their nutrient content, we start liking it whenever we need those nutrients. Generally we need proteins in large quantity so we like those food items which have more protein content.

So even if you don't like certain protein rich food items, just east them for a while and you will start liking them. To give my own example,I never liked egg in my childhood but when I started exercising and studying I understood that chicken eggs are the most complete source of all the nutrients, if eaten in raw form then we get all the above nutrients and they are readily absorbed in our digestive system and then in blood and then used where needed without any chemical processing by gastric juices or liver.

Order of eating-
Other important thing is whenever we feel hungry, it is the sign that our gastric juices are ready. Our stomach secrets acid which is necessary in the breakdown of proteins in to the amino acids which are then absorbed in the intestine. The supply of this acid is the most when we are hungry and gets consumed as did is digested. Therefore if we eat protein rich food items of our diet in the beginning then, they get digested easily and with more efficiency, and the items we eat in the later part of the lunch gets competitively less quantity of acid for digestion. Therefore you should arrange the eating order of food items accordingly.

Water-

Water is the most essential ingredient our body needs. It imparts flexibility to our body cells, it performs the function of carrier of nutrients, it is the medium of digestion, it is the medium for almost all chemical reactions happening in our body, it performs the role of temperature regulation, it performs the role of medium for excretion (urea and other waste compounds formed in the body are excreted via urine in the form of aqueous solution.) Without water we can't live for long, in the deserts we can't even live for one day without water.

Water management system of our body-

Our body is expert in the water management. It had sensors sensing the water content of the body, prompting us to drink water through the feeling of thirst.

There is a hormone called Vasopressin, which regulated the water reabsorption in the kidneys.(our blood is first ultra filtrated, the resulting aqueous solution contains too much quantity of water and some other nutrients which have small molecule size, like salts, some proteins, glucose, vitamins B other than urea and creatin, out of these compounds the useful one's are reabsorbed when the solution goes through a long capillaries along with water.) The quantity of water to be reabsorbed is decided by the concentration of vasopressin in the blood. More the vasopressin, more the reabsorption of water and concentrated will be the urine. That is why we see dark coloured urine when do not drink enough water or conversely we excrete water white urine when we drink excess water.

How much water you should drink and when?

It is a debatable topic of how much you should drink water in a day. Some prescribe drinking large quantities of water, even prescribing large quantities of water while having lunch.

But I am of the opinion that by drinking large quantities of water, you are overloading the reabsorption mechanism of kidneys which reabsorbs the nutrients from the ultrafiltrate. Secondly you are not using the mechanism of water retention, that is the secretion of vasopressin hormone. As you must have understood that our body is an adaptive system. So it responds to the situation of abundant water by getting rid of it as soon as possible. Therefore the person who has habit of drinking more water will be in trouble if he don't get water for some time, because his body will quickly excrete the water because of the habit. You can experience this condition easily, just drink a lot of water about one and half day and then stop drinking it. You will urinate a lot even after you have stopped drinking water and will soon start feeling sleepy or energyless in just one to two hours. You can quickly recover from this condition on drinking water and again feel normal.

So I am of the opinion that drink as much as water as you feel like drinking and when you feel thirsty. Because our body knows what it needs and when it needs. Just listen to your body.

How much water should we drink while having a meal?

A simple point is, water reduces the concentration of food along with gastric juices. Chemical reactions usually have higher speeds at higher concentrations, some reactions can only take place above certain reactant concentrations only. Therefore it is necessary to keep the concentration of reactants high so that the chemical reaction can take place easily. And digestion of food involves various chemical reactions. So think about it yourself.

Another point is, water reduces the concentration of any water soluble compounds, reduced concentration means less osmotic pressure(osmotic pressure is the tendency of dissolved compounds to move from higher concentration towards lower concentration.)

Further water occupies space in the digestive system until it gets absorbed. So this place is unavailable for the food which results in less consumption of food itself.

That is why I am of the opinion of ' Do not drink water from half an hour before having the meal to an hour after having the meal(may be one or two gulps after the meal to clean the throat and food tube.)'

How many times in a day should one eat?

Some people say you should eat something every two hours.

I think it is better to eat two to three times a day. Some special operations commandos only eat once in a day. Trust me I have tried it without any bad effects, for first few days you feel hungry but then your body adjusted with it. But it looks odd and everyone notices it. So I eat three times a day.

You may say that gym trainers, fitness trainers told us that you need high amount of nutrition so you must eat after every two hours. But it doesn't really matter how many times you eat, what you eat and how much you eat, how much you digest, that really matter. Our body adjusted with house many times we are eating. If we are eating after every two hours then if we skip one meal then we start feeling weak and hungry, but if you are eating only once or twice per day and still following your workout then you won't notice any change in your energy level even if you are 2 to 3 hours late in having your meal or even skip a meal.

Your body develops endurance, which is very important to good health.

I have seen many gym goers drinking energy drinks and protein drinks, eating energy bars while doing their workout, our even drinking a lot of water. I don't understand what is the use? On one hand you are doing exercises to increase your strength, toughness, stamina, endurance, and then on the other hand you are trying to help the supporting systems. If the supporting systems are not strengthened along with your muscles then how can your muscle perform when the need arises?

Think about it..

See you later..

Till then have a great day, also have a great diet...😊

Sumit
The POWER is when,
You use ODDS,
To get EVEN.

The magical language or is it really magical !!!

It's a pleasant Sunday morning and my one and half year old son is roaming around the house looking to do any mischiefs, playing around. He just finished his breakfast. He is happy because he loves the company of his mom and dad, and we are happily watching him roaming pleasantly while having our breakfast.

All this understanding is perfect, there is no doubt about it. Yet to understand it neither of us have spoken a single word. Isn't it amazing!!! Isn't it magical!!!

As usual my mind started wandering,
How can this happen? A perfect understanding without a word?
To understand this phenomenon let's try to find out any similar examples-
1) Yesterday I called my cars service centre to know about my cars maintenance plan. The telephone operator picked up my phone and said, "Good morning, Concord motors..."

In just four words what I understood is much more than what these words meant. From her tone of voice I understood that, this lady liked me calling her office, this lady thinks I am important, this lady had respect for her job, she really wants to help me out, she is confident that she will help me out. Apart from those four words wishing me good morning, confirming to me that I have dialled the right number, she said five more sentences just through her tone of voice. It was a pleasant conversation and I got the required information.

2) A few days back I have called an office whose telephone operator have said the exact same words, that is, good morning, ------ office, but from this telephone operators tone I understood that, I have bothered her, she is annoyed, she is not interested in listening me, she would have been glad if I haven't called. Turning our conversation in more like a war situation.

In both the examples, same words have been said but entirely different message is transferred.

3) There is one more example everyone just have seen, in the school or college days everyone have seen someone who never said that he or she loves a particular person but every one knows that he or she loves that person.

What is this magical language? How and when did we learn it? Can it be used to improve our day to day life?

We can see this language at work predominantly in the case of animals. Animals understand each others attitudes or even our attitude through this language. I always loved animals and my wife always hated animals. She always wonders how a neighbourhood cats always comes to me whenever hungry despite she is being the kitchen in charge!

This is called body language. We don't learn it. Or rather we don't need to learn it because we are bourn prewired with it. In computer language terms this language software is a default part of our operating system. That is why human baby can understand when his or her parents are angry, before learning any language. Or the baby's mother understands when her baby is hungry or angry or happy or what are her baby's likes.

Every animal uses this language. We too used it from ancient times. We have evolved from animals to human just recently. And we have invented the languages more recently. If we consider the lifetime of the whole life form on earth then after a long night we have invented languages just this morning and the morning is yet to finish. I hope you have understood how recent the invention of language is. Before that our ancestors were totally dependent on body language only. They used to convey the message only through gestures or some basic sounds like groan, moan, crying may be, hissing, humping etc. So this became a default and universal language of communication.

This body language is still a predominant language. 80% of the information we convey is still through the body language when we communicate face to face and that is why face to face communication is a very effective way of communication.

Who knows thousands of years from now human baby may bourn prewired with English or other languages too..😊

So now the most important question remains-
How we can use it to improve our day to day life?
As I said I love animals, there are always 3-4 cats living in my house, every cat had a different personality or rather every animal, just like we humans have, these cats are living with me since my birth, so I had a lot of time watching their activities, how they grow, how they behave, how do they communicate with each other or with humans or with other animals etc. And let me tell you, observing them is a kind of my hobby, it's a fun activity, especially when kittens are involved. Through observation I came to know that like us cats can also make faces, you just need to have a proper look at their face. So the fact is we live together happily despite having very different personalities our the language barrier.

Now you must be thinking why I am telling you all this instead of telling you how to improve our day to day life, so I am coming to it.

When I grow up naturally I got attracted towards girls, but as I approached I came to know girls speak something else and they want something else, or rather they don't even know what they want, and if I am saying something directly, then the girl is ignoring all what I said and concentrating on what is the hidden meaning of what I said. I always speak directly, I am a straight forward person and I was getting mad at what was happening.

If you are a man then you must have experienced it, that it is very difficult to understand a woman, you must have pondered over questions like what a girl wants? Or what a woman wants? Same thing for woman as they try to find out the hidden meaning.

So, a very difficult problem. I was thinking about it, laying on the bed, obviously cats around me, one licking herself clean, one asleep, one just starting at me lovingly simultaneously making the love sound.(those who have pet cats and who allow them to sit on the lap or close to our body can only understand this love voice, a kind of soft grrr grrr like breathing sound) I was thinking it I'd much easier to understand the cats, they are much simpler than humans, but what if humans are also simple to understand? If there is noise which is making the understanding unclear? What if the language we speak itself is the noise? It can be because despite knowing the language,I couldn't understood a girl. So I thought about giving it a try. And to my surprise,I was right, the next day was just amazing. There was no misunderstanding between me and any girl, I just blew up their mind. It is just that simple, trust me. Just remove the noise.

Now you must be thinking am I only thinking about girls? No, but yes at the beginning, then there was not that much need. And trust me, getting a life partner is a part of the happy life. All living organisms are here on earth to reproduce and keep their race alive and growing. It gives us an internal feeling of completeness, achievement, happiness, content if we find a right partner and have a healthy offspring. That's the reason that old folks always want to see their grandsons our grand daughters, three want to make certain that their genes are transmitted to next and then to the next generation. That is the reason we give best facilities to our children, we want them to succeed more than we did.

This is the main part of life and happiness, then again these are side effects of knowing and using this language. For example- this is the universal language, you can speak it with anyone, any gender, any country, even any animal. And you can convey your message quickly and efficiently, clearly.

There are many books written on the subject of body language, they claim to teach you the body language, they claim to give you highly effective tips, but none of them points that you already know the language. You just need to be aware about your capability. Every human or even every animal on earth comes prewired with this language.

Just remove the noise and everything becomes crystal clear. But watch out from those who are faking, who are lying in this language.

Try using this language and tell me your experiences..

See you soon..

Till then have a nice day..

Sumit
The POWER is when,
You use ODDS,
To get EVEN.

What do I do when I get ill?

Two days ago, I fell ill, cough, cold, fever etc. The usual combination. Friends, relatives who knew I am not well, keep asking me whether I went to a doctor or taking medicines? Also wishing me to get well soon etc. I was irritated every time to explain how I handle my illness. To avoid loving arguments I even lie to them that yes I went to doctor and taking the prescribed medicines. This have happened several times in the past.

This post is inspired by those well-wishers.

So to cut the suspense, let me tell you clearly, I don't visit doctor if I fell ill. I use some common sense to treat myself. I am doing this for more than 15 years. In those 15 years I must have fallen ill more than 10 times. My process of treating the illness worked every time. And trust me there is no painful treatment, rather a much pleasurable treatment. It doesn't involve eating bitter medicines, getting a bitter mouth, feeling of weakness etc.

To understand how do I do it, let's first understand some basics about our body-

We are complex biological organisms. (you must have heard it several times in this blog that our body is a complex adaptive system 😊) We already have everything built in our body required to survive. It also have the mechanism to fight with any biological attacks.

If you have ever observed how you or anyone falls ill, you must have seen, 3 distinct phases-

Phase #1 - The person first goes through some kind of physical hyperactivity, or sleep deprivation or drastic change in climate or food intake, may be cycles of these, resulting in to he or she experiencing fatigue. (In short the person does something extra than normally does or gets less sleep than normal or both.)

Phase #2 - The person starts coughing and/or sneezing, his or her nose starts running, headache, he or she feels irritated.

Phase #3 - Increased body temperature or fever, muscle pain, other symptoms associated with fever.

Ever observed these three phases? Identification of these phases is important in treatment. Questions still arise, why these three phases? What happens in the body during these phases?

To answers these two questions we must know how our IMMUNE SYSTEM works?

Scientifically we are classified as JAWED VERTEBRATES. Which means we belong to the class of organisms having jaws and vertebral column to support our back.

One of the other characteristics of these jawed vertebrates is they have very sophisticated IMMUNE SYSTEM. This immune system protects them from the attacks of any pathogens.(Pathogens are any organisms which infect our body, including viruses.)

Their immune system works in the form of layered defence. One can easily understand the nature of this layered defence by comparing it with defence forces of any developed nation.

Our immune system has 3 layers of defence. The force and specificity of counterattacks increases with each layer.

1st layer of defence - PHYSICAL BARRIERS

This is our first line of defence. We have our skin covering all of our body, which performs the function of a physical barrier, just like any nation have it's border, a fencing of barbed wire etc. preventing any unauthorised entry physically.

Our whole body can't be completely sealed from it's environment, it must have openings for different purposes, just like any nation has airways or railways or roads or ports so that people and goods can pass through. But any nation employees guards to keep check against any unauthorised entry of person or goods. Similarly we have mucus in our nose which traps any incoming pathogens or any foreign particles thereby preventing them from entering into lungs, where they can do much more damage but at the same time it allows air to pass through, moisten it, adjust the temperature of incoming air to body temperature. Our stomach has gastric acids and protease (protease is an enzyme used in the digestion of proteins, this enzyme breaks down complex protein molecules into smaller basic units) which kills any incoming pathogens. Our eyes gets flushed with tears containing antibacterial our antifungal enzymes. Our genitourinary tract is also flushed with acidic liquids, which prevents the growth of any pathogens by creating a harsh environment.

2nd layer of defence - INNATE IMMUNE SYSTEM-

This is the second line of defence, whenever the first line of defence is successfully breached by any pathogen, the innate immune system comes in to action.

Just like any alert citizen of a nation raises an alarm when he sees any crime in action or recognises any criminal, there are some receptor cells spread all over our body which recognise any pathogen roughly or recognise any bruise or damage and sends out distress signal, thereby activating the innate immune system. (this is just like a citizen recognising a thief in general or a terrorist in general, the citizen can't recognise him by name and his abilities etc.) These receptor cells do it by identifying an antigen(a specific molecule), which are generic to a group of pathogens.

This is followed by release of histamine, which increases the blood flow in the affected area, resulting in some swelling along with permeability of membrane of blood capillaries to white blood cells. (white blood cells are our soldiers, basic units of our immune system, we will learn more about them soon) These white blood cells eat or kill the pathogens. The distress signal also causes some generic response, this response is a quick response and it is non specific response. Just like police responding to an alarm and visiting the scene of crime to assess the situation setting up roadblocks to prevent escape of criminals.

For example when there is an infection through nose, as the cells in the mucus membrane(inner lining of nose) send out distress signal it immediately responded with coughing or sneezing to force the pathogen or foreign particles out of the body, if that doesn't work then the mucus membrane starts secreting much more quantity of mucus to keep the pathogen or foreign particles trapped, preventing it from reaching the lungs where it can cause much more damage. (Our respiratory tract is the most vulnerable to infections, because we are constantly breathing in air and this respiratory tract is always in moist state. Therefore mostly the symptoms of infections starts with runny nose, throat pain, cough, sneezing, these are the responses of our innate immune system. Though we eat food many times a day, our gastric acids and protease enzymes are very effective in killing any incoming pathogens.)

Some pathogens also use this response of our body to spread themselves in the air through coughing and sneezing so as to find a new host.

3rd layer of defence - ADAPTIVE IMMUNE SYSTEM

If the pathogen attacking our body successfully breaches our first two layers of defence then the ADAPTIVE IMMUNE SYSTEM comes in to action.

This works in a specialised manner. It mounts specialised attacks on the pathogens, specifically tailored for a particular pathogen.

This layer of immune system is made up of white blood cells (Leukocytes). They are the soldiers of our body. They are expert in different kind of killing techniques, they can distinguish between our own cells and the pathogens, they can even locate compromised cells, they can remember any pathogen (how to recognise him, tactics used by the pathogen, easiest way to kill them, how to find them etc.), they are deadly, they are intelligent, they are loyal.

There are different types of leukocytes, some are killers (they kill the pathogen by engulfing them and digesting then, in short they eat them or after engulfing they inject free radicals formed as an intermediate in the process of oxidation in to the pathogen, thereby killing it).

There are marker cells which produce some compounds, which are recognised by killer cells, which gets attached to the pathogen thereby marking it for destruction by killer cells. Just like a spotter illuminating the target with laser to guide a laser guided missile towards the target.

Some create antibodies which kills the pathogens.

Some are memory cells which remembers the pathogens and helps in tailoring the attacks for a particular pathogen. Because of these cells it is possible for adaptive immune system to mount a faster and stronger attacks each time when attacked by the same pathogen again. These memory cells are the basis for vaccination. These memory cells make our immune system adaptive. That is why we can cope up with the adaptations of the pathogens.

Then some are natural killer cells, they kills the compromised cells of our own.(when viruses attack our body, they get into our cells and transform it into a photocopying machine, to make copies of themselves. Just like a computer virus. Therefore our cells which are infected by viruses don't remain ours anymore, they became a production facility for the viruses, therefore they must be killed to stop the viruses from multiplying. These are called compromised cells.)

Whenever need arises these leukocytes multiply themselves, they grow their number as per the requirement. All the nutrients available in the body are diverted to the immune system so that required number of leukocytes can be produced and keep them in working condition. Just like soldiers need food to remain alive and operational. This results in less or almost no nutrients for normal muscle maintenance. This causes muscle pain, as any damage to the muscles because of our day to day activities is not repaired.

Some leukocytes keeps patrolling the whole body in search of any remaining pathogen or foreign bodies and destroy them.

You must have noticed that this is a form of chemical warfare. The obvious thing is that, the rate of chemical reactions is proportional to the temperature. Therefore some cells of our immune system sends out chemical signals to our hypothalamus (lower part of our brain, just above our inner part of mouth, this part is responsible for various hormonal control mechanisms and temperature control of our body). These chemical signals prompts the hypothalamus to raise the temperature set point of our body.(hypothalamus acts just like a thermostat of the air conditioner)

When this set point is raised, all our body starts preserving heat by contracting the blood vessels near the skin, making us shiver thereby producing heat by muscle movement and thereby achieving the new set point temperature. We recognise this condition as FEVER. The third phase of illness.

When all the pathogens are neutralised, the set point is again set to normal, then we lose the excess heat by sweating and become normal.

This is how our immune system works.

Now what happens when we visit a doctor?

We tell him about the symptoms like running nose, cough. The doctor never tells the patient that, just bear with it, and you will be fine soon. Because he is afraid of losing his customer also as Warren Buffett's says, "Never ask a barber, if you need a hair cut."

So he gives you medication to suppress the innate immune system response.

If a patient goes to doctor in the 3rd phase complaining about fever. Doctor gives him some Paracetamol (Acetaminophen) which reduces the body temperature and the patient feels good. Now you must have understood that doing this is not a good idea.

There are so many types of pathogens infecting human that any doctor cannot pinpoint them by mere observation of symptoms. He needs to do pathological tests to pin point the pathogen. (But our immune system already knows it.)

Pathological tests can only identify infections when the infection grows more than a certain limit.

This means that going to the doctor many times causes interference in the working of our own immune system. Which makes us more vulnerable to the attack.

So the basic question arises, how to help our own immune system, how to make it strong at the times of infections?

Hint- the answer is already given above.

I have told you above that at the time of attack our leukocytes starts growing in number and to do it they need nutrients, proteins mainly. I have also told that this all starts with sleep deprivation or hyperactivity, which results in more proteins demand which is when unfulfilled, the person becomes vulnerable to the attack. Therefore sleep is also a necessity for our immune system to work properly, sleep also conserves proteins.

It is very necessary to spot the 1st phase and start taking more proteins and more sleep till you feel normal. If you are in the 2nd or 3rd phase then also you will need to do the same. That is protein rich, easy to digest diet and sleep till you get fine.

Now how do I do it?

Now how do I get those proteins?

The cheapest, easy to digest, easy to ingest, easily available source of protein for me is raw eggs. Generally we know it in advance when we are going to fall ill, so we have sufficient time in our hand to act and get normal without ever needing to go through 2nd and 3rd phase. I just gulp down more than 10 whole raw chicken eggs and sleep. And repeat the cycle till I get normal. I prefer whole raw eggs because they have all the nutrients in right proportion. Raw eggs are readily digestible rather they contain the proteins which are readily usable without any further processing, more than 90% of the protein available in the egg gets absorbed in our body.

For those who think they don't like raw eggs, they just need to do it 2 or 3 times and they will start liking them. This is because our brain subconsciously assesses the nutritional value of what we eat, it automatically makes us feel pleasure when we eat nutritious food. So when we gulp down just the whole raw eggs, our subconscious registers it and make us like it afterwards. Our liking doesn't depend on the taste. Otherwise people would have hated liquor.😊(liquor manipulates our brain in different way, that we will discuss some other time)

One may consume whey powder if available, it is generally available in the market in tasty flavoured form so no question about the taste here. But with whey, you have to take a light meal to get carbohydrates, fats, vitamins etc. I have tried it with good results.

Now one last question remains..

What about the uncomfortable feeling of running nose or cough or fever?

About the running or choked nose -
Very rarely or both nostrils are choked at the same time, one is slightly open. You just have to figure out which one is more open than the other and then sleep on the opposite side, the slight open nostril will start opening up. A few hours later that nostril will start closing up and the other will start opening up, at that time you should also change your side. Once you understand this cyclical functioning of nostrils you won't find any trouble following it.

Keep your mouth shut, breathe only through your nose. The cough won't cause much trouble then.

In case of fever, get more quilts so as to aid your body achieving the new set point, but if you're experiencing dizziness, severe headache then you need to reduce your body temperature by keeping damp cloth on forehead our taking Paracetamol etc. But this seldom happens.

Also you can divert your mind by thinking about how your body is fighting against the infection, your body has became a battleground now, you must help your soldiers to survive, how bloody the battle is, millions of pathogens are being killed, millions of your own leukocytes are also being killed, there is a do or die situation. Observe the changes in your body.

This is how I am doing it for more than 15 yrs. If you don't understand it then don't do it.

Hope you can get something useful through my experience.

Do write your thoughts and experiences. I will be happy to read..

Have a nice day..

Sumit
The POWER is when,
You use ODDS,
To get EVEN.

Why does technical analysis fails?

If you are a stock market trader or ever been in to share market investing, you must have heard about technical analysis, price charts, support level, resistances level, retracement, stochastic, moving average, Japanese candle sticks chart etc. You must have also met technical analysts our given technical calls about various scrips listed on stock exchanges. Or you may have also attended courses on technical analysis. Almost all broking firms now a days offer their live technical analysis platforms to the traders, then there are also some specialised technical analysis software providers. There are various indicators, tools, wave theories, retracements like Fibonacci retracement, pivots point calculator built in to such software.

You must have handed over their impressive hit rate and the profit which could have been earned through their calls. All this sounds like science, isn't it?

Technical analysis is a science indeed, that is why it sounds like science. 😊

But still more than 90% of the average people who use technical analysis or follow the technical analysts recommendations lose their money. It looks like technical analysis is failing.

As per the definition of science, science shouldn't fail, if it fails then it doesn't fit in to the definition of science.(Science is a knowledge about the nature of things or about the behaviour of things which when applied by anyone in same conditions gives the same results.)

To understand how it fails we have to first know what is technical analysis? How it works? Does it have any limitations?

The basis of technical analysis is mathematical series, and some ratios. Series means a logical sequence, for example 1, 2, 3..... is a series, similarly, 1, 3, 5, 7... is a series of odd numbers, similarly, 1,2,3,5,8,13,21... is the famous Fibonacci series, it is made by starting from 1, 2 and then adding previous 2 numbers to get the next number. We all have studied these series in school but many of us didn't understood what are these series or what is their use. We study these series because they govern naturally occurring phenomenon. Naturally occurring phenomenon generally fit in to one of such series. For each series there is a ratio between each pair of numbers which is repeated again and again in the series and in nature too. These ratios govern any naturally occurring phenomenon.

Price movement of a particular scrip or the market as a whole is also governed by some rules represented by such series or ratios or wave theories.

Rather one can say that mob psychology is governed by some scientific rules. Because prices of the shares rises when people are entering in the market or scrip, thereby creating demand or doing the opposite thereby creating supply. The price of anything depends on the difference between the demand and supply. And this entry or exit of group of people can be predicted with the rules of mass psychology our mob psychology or herd mentality of humans. The science of technical analysis is based on these rules. They help in predicting the future price movements.

Basically what they predict is the psychology of humans.

Irrespective of whether you're in the stock market or not, you feel like participating in the stock market when the market is recording new peaks. Anyone can logically say that the right time to enter in the market is when the prices of the shares are depressed, that is when the market is at its low. But still anyone can check exchange data that, activity and participation of public in the market rises as the market rises. People participating are not dumb but still they have that strong inner drive which is forcing them to participate in the market when market is at top. Such kind of drives are called as biases, which makes us predictable, which makes us our behaviour fit in to some scientific ratios, formulae, wave theories, series etc.

This is the basis of technical analysis. Technical analysis provides different tools for different conditions. From the above discussion you must have understood that it is a science.

LIMITATIONS-

Now comes the most important part, the limitations of technical analysis-

Till now you must have understood that technical analysis is an art and science of predicting the behaviour of people. This is the base of technical analysis, and various tools are provided to do the same. But use of these tools and the results of technical analysis depends on the knowledge and experience of the technical analyst. But it happens in the ideal condition.

There is one more aspect in the technical analysis, it is the mental condition of the analyst.

This mental condition is the key thing or the game changer in the technical analysis. All humans have different tendencies, which are called biases. These are constantly there prompting one what to do in a particular condition, technical analysis predicts these behaviours, but the analyst himself or herself is also a human being, he or she also have the same biases.

I have learnt technical analysis,I thought its a great skill necessary in the market, but when I used to study any random unknown scrip,I used to give perfect recommendation for my client or friends but it was not working with my favourite companies, or it was not working when anyone already had any position in it and told me this fact. Then I started to find out, why this thing sometimes works perfectly and why not other times? Then on thinking I came to know that my biases used to prompt me to see the logic I wanted to see. For example, if I was holding a particular company I like and it is going down from my purchase price then despite the technical charts showing me a downtrend I was busy finding the support levels from where it can bounce back. To earn the money from market one must follow the trend, that is why the famous saying of chartists- TREND IS FRIEND.

Same thing happened when clients our friends asked me what to do about their loss making position and that they were reluctant to bear the loss or where to average.

I have seen this same thing happening with almost all technical analysts I know. They can only give good recommendations only when they are isolated from any emotional attachment. That means it is very hard to find a technical analyst who is earning money constantly through his own technical analysis.

One of my college friend was a technical analyst in one of the leading brokerage firm, once up on a time he gave technical calls with 100% accuracy for full 3 months. His record was so impeccable that he asked for pay hike 5 times in those 3 months and got the pay hike every time. After that period, the pressure to perform increased so much that his hit rate fell down drastically, just like the German flying ace Red Baron in world war one.

This happens because the analyst himself has his biases, and he is searching for the herds bias where he himself is the part of the herd. There is a very thin line between being separate from the herd and being the part of the herd. This thin line is often crossed without anyone knowing about it. Even if a technical analyst managed to stay isolated from the herd, he can't stay isolated for long.

This is the main cause of failure of technical analysis.

As far as I am concerned,I believe in developing the conviction in a company to invest and grow wealth. This conviction helps me in loading up more when the time is rough for the company and benefiting as long as the compounding machine is intact and working. And to do this I analyse the company on fundamental basis, plus the attitude of the management, if there is an intelligent manager at the top then its better, if there are good plans for more profitability, the execution ability of the management, there are many other things, or sometimes different combinations of things. Basically it boils down to your conviction. Where you can develop your conviction is a personal thing, but one thing is sure that, one cannot earn money from stock market on borrowed conviction.

I hope I have contributed something to your betterment. Your comments and views are welcome.

See you soon.

Till then have a nice day.

Sumit
The POWER is when,
You use ODDS,
To get EVEN.

No. 1 Misconception about great health

This post is in sequence with 3 Most Important Aspects of Living.

So we learnt some basic things about how our body works and our body is a COMPLEX ADAPTIVE SYSTEM.

The #1 Misconception about good health is that it requires lifting heavy weights for hours per day in the gym.

Many times I hear things like Arnold Schwarzenegger exercises more than 14 hours per day, Sylvester Stallone also does the same. A simple question arises, if they are doing exercises for 14 hours a day then how they are doing other tasks, when they are shooting their super hit films? Do they live in the other planet where day consists of 48 or 96 hours? Or on the pole may be, where day is for 6 months..😉

There are many more misconceptions, for example the classic one, ' the more you sweat the more you lose fats'. I don't believe it, how people pay attention to such crap!!

You must have heard and believed the first misconception, But the reality is far from it. You will get it when you keep reading this post and do some of your own research. For now don't think over this misconceptions and try to understand what I am saying.

The exercises can be divided as I) Strength building exercises  II) Stamina building exercises.

Strength building exercises will develop your body in to a nice muscular one, while stamina building exercise will develop your body in to a lean one. Strength building exercises will make you able to lift the heavy furniture if any need arises, or even one side of your car or bike for a while if the need arises while stamina building exercises will make you able to go on trekking whole day long or run a marathon.

My take is to achieve both. What's the use of the bulky muscles if you can't run or jog for a while or do some emergency tasks like riding a bicycle for a while or trekking. Or what's the use if you can't move your furniture but can jog whole day long?

The mid point of both results in to a lean, chiselled body. And combine it with the third part of exercise. III) Flexibility improving exercises (YOGA).

Do you know that what will result if we combine all three? In the jungle we see such combination resembling to such body as Monkey...😃
If we keep the fun part aside, these 3 ingredients results in to a body of a Super Elite Commando, ready to take on anything. (well such commandos have more than just the body, like combat skills, weapons training etc.). If you want such kind of body then you will have to do both or rather three kind of exercises. Don't panic, you don't need to spend more than six or seven hours per week, all exercises combined, trust me. Or you may do other combinations of exercises as per your wish. But if you are not doing it for body building competition or something like that then I suggest you to combine all three. It will make you much younger biologically.

I have told you in the previous posts on ageing and anti ageing that exercise is a form of induced catabolism. That is exercise brings about breakdown of the muscle fibres. But this breakdown encourages repair and growth, that is Anabolism, provided your body have enough supply of nutrients. The nutrients part is equally or rather more important than the exercise part. We will come to that later. If we first understand that the use and importance of nutrients then I think we will give the deserved importance to that part.

To grow our strength or stamina we must understand the three phases we pass in between two workout sessions.

Phase 1) Induced catabolism-
When we do the exercise, our body or body part bears stress, somewhat more stress than it is capable of, so the body or body part get somewhat damaged depending on the intensity of exercise. Even in the case of aerobic exercises, our body retains some strain, fatigue. Some of the muscle fibres break down. We feel pain, but at the same time some pleasure inducing chemicals are also released in the brain. Therefore we feel good and fresh after doing our workout. Sometimes this chemicals which is called Dopamine gives a high like that of some drug, known as Runners high. This is a form of the mechanism of the body to adapt with the increased stress and strain. Then as our workout is over comes the next phase.

Phase 2) Anabolism -
As we finish our workout our body assesses the situation, i.e. the damage to the muscles, bones, available quantity of proteins, minerals, vitamins, fats, carbohydrates in our body, their intake through food we take etc. And then does it's calculations to strike the best balance between the available raw material, required repair of the damage and building the biggest strength or stamina required to avoid future damage when same exercise is done again. It releases the required quantity of different hormones (Growth hormones) which brings about this process and also some of these hormones prompt us to take rest. Our body can perform these operations very well when we are asleep, therefore we feel sleepy, we sleep more time than usual. We never consciously realise this but its body does it regularly and is expert in doing it. It is like a best engineer when it comes to repairing and building our body.

This process of repair and building requires time. The amount of time required depends on the availability of raw materials, that is proteins, vitamins, minerals, fats, rest etc. The more the availability of of raw materials the faster the process. Therefore diet has a huge role to play when health and exercises are concerned.

This process of Anabolism requires a lot of energy. When different energy sources are compared, fats have the highest energy density (that is they provide the highest amount of energy per gram weight when burnt with oxygen) compared with sugars, carbohydrates, proteins etc. Therefore fats are used as a energy source for this Anabolism. This is one of the advantage of Anabolism or rather advantage of doing the exercises. And we have already learnt that reduction in fats means reduction in biological age of our body. In other language you look younger. (You can get a simple evidence of this process when you are doing your workout regularly. In the morning when you wake up just touch the muscle you worked out yesterday and you will find it warmer than rest of your body. Check it out, and feel it yourself.)

This Anabolism phase lasts for up to 48 hours or sometimes more if the damage done is more or less availability of nutrients or both. After this phase is complete, comes-

Phase 3) Sustain
As our body finishes the Anabolism phase, if again it is not subjected to exercise or induced catabolism, then it enters in to a relaxed sustain phase. That is nothing is done, no more Anabolism or catabolism. It just stays as it is. This phase may range from 1 day to 7 days, children or the beginners have less sustenance time than the trained.

During this sustain phase, body needs nutrients to maintain the extra muscles and supporting systems.(supporting systems are respiratory system, blood circulation system, temperature control system etc.) As we grow our strength out body's maintenance requirement also increases proportionately.

If your aim is professional body building or you are a professional athlete then you may skip this stage and return to Phase 1 and cycle it between phase 1 & 2. But for those who just want to maintain a good health efficiently can cycle through these three phases. This is the reason that most trainers formulate a workout program which involves training one set of muscles only once a week.

But what happens if the cycle of these phases is not repeated?

Phase 4) Catabolism -
As this sustain phase is passed without any use of the increased strength our body's adaptive nature kicks in.

Remember I told you, our body is a "COMPLEX ADAPTIVE SYSTEM".

As our body grows extra strength or stamina to adapt to increased demand, in the same way our body loses any extra strength or stamina which is not used for a particular amount of time. Our body does it to reduce the maintenance requirement. So after the sustain phase or body starts the catabolism process to reduce any excess capacity. Soon or muscle mass gets reduced to normal, bones lose calcium, blood vessels reduce their diameter, the size and strength of our heart decreases, fats start depositing under our skin, we start looking fat, wrinkles develop on our face etc. In short we start ageing.

Conclusion-
The myth of need of hours of exercise per day for good health is busted.

You only need to train your one group of muscles only once per week. That means only 5-10 min of exercise per muscle group per week. Good, isn't it? (But don't forget to alot time for stretching and warm up exercises before you start your main workout, otherwise you may get injured.)

Otherwise how come great actors with great physique like Daniel Craig, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Statham, Matte Damon, Sylvester Stallone of Hollywood and Sunil Shetty, John Abraham, Akshay Kumar from India can manage to spend hours on movie sets out travel around the world for movie shootings and movie promotions, screenings etc. Many of the actors mentioned above have their businesses and investments to manage too.

There is much more to know. But lets stop and digest what we just read for now. I also have other things to do.

See you soon.

Till then have a nice day.


Sumit
The POWER is when,
You use ODDS,
To get EVEN.

3 most important aspects of living -

Yesterday, at the end of my lecture under workers education program, a couple of workers asked me about my philosophy of life, any suggestion for them.. As the time for lecture was already over I gave them short answers and promised to go in to the details next time for sure. The topic of lecture had nothing to do with philosophy of life.

This incident cranked up my thinking process. This blog samanyabuddhi.blogspot.com is made for the same purpose, that is to spread what I have learnt and experimented till date. Why everyone should do all the hard work that I did while learning? and we have this platform for blogging provided by the Google to leverage and multiply my learning. Many successful and unsuccessful personalities knowingly or unknowingly contributed to my knowledge or experiences. So it is not possible for me to mention everyone. But I am going to mention the prominent ones as I will go through.

Before you get bored let's come to the point- my philosophy for life (and this blog too), revolves around the 3 pillars-

1) Health
2) Wealth
3) Happiness

All three are interdependent, we can not chase one and ignore others or we can not chase two and ignore the other one. All three must come together to live a meaningful life, or some may say successful life. We can say these three pillars support our life. If one is weak our life collapses, or if there is imbalance in the dimensions of each pillar then we can not live a balanced life.
We must work on all three at a time to get the best out of life. It is not that difficult, once you start, you will start getting the results and you will do more efforts automatically. This is a positive feedback loop. Like a snowball rolling down a mountain, your life will get bigger and bigger. The more you will get results the more will be the motivation.

To achieve this snowball effect, you must start now-

So here we go, one at a time..

1) HEALTH

Wise people say that, "Health is Wealth". It is true, if you are not healthy then you cannot enjoy your wealth or you will have to put a lot of conscious efforts to stay happy. Good health is the foundation for lasting wealth and happiness. Many studies have shown that healthy people receive more salary than weak people. Healthy people are perceived as leaders. The proof is, is there any physically weak actor doing a role of hero in super hit movies? Or which actors do you like? For examples the actors who played the character of James Bond like Daniel Craig, Pierce Bronson, Sean Connery etc.

Second advantage is that, a healthy mind resides in a healthy body. Generally weak and fearful people do illegal or unethical things, simply because they are trying protecting themselves from any imaginable attacks. While healthy people just know that they can deal with anything thrown at them so they just relax and concentrate on something important.

Now enough about the advantages of being healthy, there are lot of them coming to my mind, it will take month to write them down, and probably you also know many advantages and want to be healthy, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this blog.

Let's now think about how to become and stay healthy-

I recommend you to read my post, How to become Happy?? Then also read the post on Ageing and Anti ageing, then the language of exercise. These posts will give you the basic idea about how to become healthy.

I suppose that you have read the above posts. Now I will take you still deeper in the subject of health -

This pillar of health have 2 elements -

A) Exercise & B) Diet

This Exercise part is again divided in to two broad catagories-

I) Strength building exercise II) Stamina building exercise

Our body have muscle and bones arrangement, where muscle provides the force and bones act as lever and together they help us doing movements. These muscles which helps in the movement of our body are called as skeletal muscles. (they are attached to the skeletal or bones)

There are different muscles other than skeletal muscles, like our heart is made up of cardiac muscles, our digestive system also has muscles which does the movement necessary to mix the food with digestive juices and to push the food forward in to the digestive system. That is food is pushed from mouth to stomach to small intestine to large intestine and then out.(in between it gets digested)

Exercise has to do with working on skeletal muscles and cardiac muscles. Rest of the muscles also get strengthened as a side effect of exercise, because of increased demand from them and also the effect of growth hormones secreted by the glands in our body because of exercise.

Our muscles are made up of muscle cells. Muscle cells are made up of muscle fibres. These muscle fibres are made up of proteins.
There are 2 types of muscle fibres in our body - red and white. Red muscle fibres provide us stamina, that is they help us do repetitive movements like cycling, jogging etc. While white muscle fibres provide us explosive power, that is large force for small duration. For example lifting a heavy object. White muscle fibres produce their power without using oxygen, they develop fatigue very soon, where as red muscle fibres produce power with the use of oxygen, they can do the repetitive action for extended periods.

The ratio of this red muscle fibres to white muscle fibres is fixed for every individual genetically. But we have choice to develop the type of muscle fibres we require with the help of exercise.

To develop white muscle fibres we must do exercises which include lifting heavy weight with minimum repetitions. On the contrary to develop red muscle fibres we must do the exercises which include lifting medium weights with more repetitions. Cycling, jogging, trekking, circuit running, swimming also develops stamina.

I hope you understood the difference between I) strength building exercises and II) stamina building exercises.

Red muscle fibres also helps in producing explosive power but white muscle fibres can not work for extended periods. Red muscle fibres have this stamina because of their ability to store oxygen. Generally they can store oxygen required for the time of 6-7 seconds. After that if they don't get their oxygen trey start producing the energy without oxygen, thereby producing lactic acid resulting in to fatigue.

Further it is also useful to understand how our muscles get their oxygen -

Everyone knows muscles get there oxygen through blood. But there is much more going on. Oxygen rich blood is pumped from the heart through big blood vessels known as arteries. These arteries then go on branching and as they branch their diameter is reduced, also their wall thickness goes on reducing, this branching continues until the size of the blood vessel becomes more or less hair like. These hair sized blood vessels are called as capillaries. The oxygen and carbon dioxide transfer happens through these blood capillary walls. (carbon dioxide is generated in almost all the cells of our body when different constituents of the food we eat are burnt with oxygen to get the energy for doing required activities) These blood capillaries have very thin walls and are flexible to facilitate this oxygen and carbon dioxide transfer process.

These blood vessels and blood capillaries have network all over our body and they supply this oxygen rich blood to each and every cell of our body including muscle cells. They go through muscle bundles, but as I said these capillaries are flexible. So when our muscle is in relaxed condition, these capillaries remain open and are filled with oxygen rich blood, at this condition, oxygen from the blood is taken by muscle cells and carbon dioxide is given to the blood. So instead of oxygen now the blood contains carbon dioxide and muscles now have oxygen for approximately 6 seconds requirement. Now when these muscles are contracted to do some movement or activity, these blood capillaries gets compressed or squeezed, but o the one side, our heart is pumping the blood with a pressure (this pressure is known as blood pressure) while at the other side there is less pressure, so almost all the blood from the squeezed capillary goes to the low pressure side (out from the muscle bundle), there these capillaries starts converging, their diameter starts increasing, their wall thickness also increases, these blood vessels now has blood which is not under much pressure, therefore to prevent it from going backward, these vessels have non return valves at places, these blood vessels are known as veins. Veins contains the blood under low pressure so the walls of the veins are thinner than the arteries. Every time a muscle is contracted, blood is pushed in to these veins, these veins lead to heart. They are connected to the upper right compartment of the heart where this carbon dioxide laden blood is collected, this blood then pushed in to lower right compartment of the heart because of the arrangement of non return valves and movement of the heart. From this lower right compartment, blood is sent to the lungs.

Now in the lungs the blood vessels again gets divided in to small capillaries which are present near the inner membrane of the lungs. There are large number of air pockets in the lungs. These pockets provide huge area of oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange membrane, through which carbon dioxide from the blood is released in to air contained in the lung and oxygen from the same air is taken up by the blood. Because of the movement of our chest muscles and a diaphragm which is present just bellow our lungs, this carbon dioxide laden air is exhaled out through nose and mouth and then normal air from atmosphere is inhaled for the next breathing cycle.

Now these capillaries again converge and take this oxygen rich blood to the upper left compartment of the heart. This blood then goes to the lower left compartment of the heart through the arrangement of non return valves and movement of the heart. Then this oxygen laden blood is pumped by the lower left compartment to the whole body. (Including itself, as our heart muscles can only use the oxygen provided by the blood running through them in the capillaries. The heart attacks is meany times caused by blockage in this blood supply system to the heart muscles. Because of which our heart muscles also known as cardiac muscles do not get the needed amount of oxygen.)

This circulation of blood goes on till our death. This is how our muscles get their oxygen. You must have understood now why our muscles starts aching when kept contracted. Many times it is very painful to keel a muscle contracted for just a minute. It is because muscles do not get oxygen in contracted condition, blood can only flow through them inside capillaries when muscles are relaxed. Cyclical movements helps in blood circulation. Muscle contraction pushes the blood towards the heart and make room for oxygen rich blood coming from heart. Many times people who has to sit in front of computer for extended periods because of occupation have swollen feet. Or after long journeys we have swollen feet. The remedy is to get up and take a small walk after each hour or even less if possible.

The blood gets this ability to carry oxygen or carbon dioxide because of red blood cells and red blood cells get it because of haemoglobin (an iron containing protein).

Therefore whenever you do your work out, your muscles start healing and growing, grown muscles also have more oxygen demand, this means more haemoglobin in the blood, more powerful heart, more blood pumping capacity of heart, more capacity of lungs is needed.

And you know that our body is a COMPLEX ADAPTIVE SYSTEM.

Therefore to adapt to all this increased need our body responds by increasing all these supporting capacities. More muscle fibres are build up, more blood capillaries are formed, existing blood vessels increase their diameter( you must have seen professional body builders or actors with lots of visible veins all over their body), the size of the heart and strength of the heart also increases, each pulse becomes more powerful, so heart can now pump more blood with more force with each heart beat. As our skeletal muscles develops new and stronger muscle fibres and new network of blood capillaries, same thing happens with our heart.

All these changes are useful when we do heard work or exercise. But what happens to this increased capacity when we are not doing any hard work? At this time our heart rate falls much lower than normal simply because it can fulfil the requirement of body very easily when not doing hard work. Some sportsman has pulse rate as low as 30 per minute. That is less than half of the average human. Many divers have so much increased breathing capacity that they can hold their breath for up to 5 minutes while diving. Can you imagine doing it?

Our body is a superb piece of genius engineering of nature.

Respect it.

You must be saying we didn't touched the strength building and stamina building exercises much. We will do it in the next post. I think knowing our body and how it functions is important to get the full advantage of exercise.

Next post will be coming soon. Stay tuned..

And have a nice day..


Sumit
The POWER is when,
You use ODDS,
To get EVEN.

Is it really good to save income tax??

Yesterday evening I receied a call from an old friend Arun. Arun knew I have interest in personal finance and financial wellbeing of people (though I do not have any formal education in the subject). He asked me he is interested in investing his money in the share market. He said he had exhausted all the tax saving instruments, so now don't know where to park his money. Though he have invested a lot of money in the tax saving instruments he is not satisfied with the returns. (good for him, because "Need is the Mother of Invention".)

Truly speaking Arun wasn't thinking about share market as an investment option, rather he found it as a biproduct while he was searching for more tax saving instruments. Arun was also asking me is there any more tax saving instrument available? Or how do I save my income tax.

Arun's condition represent the condition of most of the middle class employed population of India. As the tax filing due date approaches, people line up at life insurance companies offices or buy some Equity Linked Savings Schemes or life insurance products or pension plans or any other instruments which give income tax rebate. Some smart people do it in the beginning of the financial year itself, they do it systematically so as to avoid the last moment rush. The agents get most of their commission in the last month of tax due date selling such instruments.

After doing all this people brag to their colleagues and friends how much tax they saved. They are so happy with their achievement.

Charley Munger (Warren Buffett's right hand at Berkshire Hathway) says "Invert, always Invert."

So let's Invert,

Arun is saving taxes, that is governement must be losing taxes. Can it be true? I don't think so, why would government lose it's income to favor some life insurance company? I don't know the answer so lets Invert,

Suppose government is losing the tax money, then where the money is going? These tax saving instruments generally buys government bonds or bonds issued by governement undertakings or some other government approved bonds for investment purpose at a fix return rate which is around the same as doing bank fixed deposits.

Where is this money used?
Used as capital by government undertakings or for funding governemnt projects.

Why these projects are undertaken?
To provide the infrastructure for the growth of the nation.

How do the returns are generated?
Through the profit of the undertakings, for example toll collection on highways or express ways or sale of the electricity produced at hydroelectric powerstations etc.

Are you getting the point?
Government is not losing the tax money. Government is just getting a loan on a low interest rate when you buy a tax saving instrument. And if you pay the taxes without saving, then government is getting the money anyways.

So now we understood that we save tax or not, governemnt gets the money it wants. Government wants money to fund the projects and to maintain the armed forces ready for defence or for administrative expenses etc. How the government spends the money is not our topic of discussion here.

So the question still remains, whether it is good to save tax or simply pay it?

The answer is very simple, just look at how much your money will grow if you save in tax saving instruments and how much your money will grow in other investments vehicles minus the tax paid.

If you don't have any idea about how to grow your money more than tax saving instruments then tax saving instruments may be a good choice for you. But otherwise you may consider other options.

Let's see two examples to compare and understand when you save tax,

Suppose,
You have ₹ 1,00,000 as taxable income, you have to pay 10% tax on this income, that is ₹ 10,000. If there is a tax saving investment option which gives you the exemption of this 10% tax so you invest all this ₹ 1,00,000 in this instrument. This instrument gives you tax free return of 8% per year but has a lock in period of 5 years. Therefore after five years you are having ₹ 1,46,932 (calculated with cumulative interest of 8% per year) tax free in your hands.

In second condition,
You have ₹ 1,00,000 as taxable income, you have to pay 10% tax on this income, that is ₹ 10,000. You pay this tax and invest the remaining money, that is ₹ 90,000 in an investment instrument which gives you a tax free return of 12% per year but has a lock in period of 5 years. Therefore after five years you are having ₹ 1,58,610 (calculated with cumulative interest of 12% per year) tax free in your hands.

In the second condition you are having ₹ 11,678 extra at the end of the 5 year tenure.

Both are very typical examples in India. Anyone can get the returns stated in the second example with little efforts. (efforts like study and research)

Now suppose what will happen if you change the interest rate in second example to say 15% cumulative over 5 years with the starting sum of ₹ 90,000??

At the end of 5 years you will get ₹ 1,81,022, that is ₹ 34,090 extra compared to the first case. Stock market indices like NIFTY or SENSEX gives around the same returns over long term.

The difference among the above cases widens as the tenure increases.

If we replace 5 years by say 10 years the amounts will be-
1) ₹ 2,15,892
2) ₹ 2,79,526
3) ₹ 3,64,100
The difference between 1st and third condition is now around ₹ 1,48,000

If we do it for 30 years-
1) ₹ 10,06,265
2) ₹ 26,96,392
3) ₹ 59,59,059
Now the difference between first and third condition is a whooping ₹ 49,52,194.
(in the first condition, our starting amount is ₹ 1,00,000 while in second and third it is ₹ 90,000)

I hope, now we understand what a little difference in interest rate can do in the long run.

I am not recommending anything to you. The decision is up to you. My goal here is just to stimulate your mind for the good.

Hope I have achieved my goal of stimulating your mind. Think about it and take wiser decisions.

Do write your thoughts and insights on the subjects in the comments section. Better ask a question rather than staying in the darkness. Get some sunshine of knowledge.

See you soon.

Till then have a nice day..

Sumit
The POWER is when,
You use ODDS,
To get EVEN.