Fitness Project Week 1 - Start your day with a Banana/Dried fruit

As you all know I started my Rujuta Diwekar's Fitness Project from this Tuesday - 10th July 2018 as part of my Weekly Wonders.

Actually, I was supposed to write about week 1 guideline of this fitness project on that day itself but I got caught up in a few things.

Anyway, we all know how breakfast is very important for our physical well-being. A breakfast literally means breaking the fast that you've been on since your last meal of the day the previous night! But there's a little twist! You becoming Fit or Fat completely depends on what you eat immediately within the 10-15 minutes after you wake up.

So it's something more important even than the breakfast and this week's RD Fitness Project Week 1 guideline is all about it! It's about eating within 10-15 min after you wake up is literally going to make or break your fitness journey.

Why is it so important to eat something within 15 minutes of getting up?

When we sleep, in the night our blood sugar levels drop. When we wake up in the morning, our liver stores are almost all used up. So, our blood sugar level is low and it's our responsibility that we bring this to bring this up to an optimum level. Low blood sugar is also a reason behind we feeling "low" in the morning.

To make sure that the blood sugar levels don't drop beyond the limit, our body sometimes take to wasting or breaking our muscle down and you don't want that if you are trying to lose weight! To be able to burn fat effectively, we have to train our body to preserve lean tissue(muscles) and not waste it by breaking it down into glucose to keep our blood sugar up.

What happens in the night is out of our control because we are sleeping but when we wake up everything is in our control. So, we must EAT to keep our fat burning tissue(muscle) alive. We must eat real food, something that will lead to a slow, steady increase in our blood sugar levels. This is where INSULIN comes into action! Insulin is secreted by our body as a response to an increase in blood sugar levels, which facilitates our hungry cells to get the nutrients that it is craving for.

Why we should not start our day with tea or coffee as the first thing in the morning?

Any stimulant like tea or coffee which has caffeine in all varieties; with milk or without milk, with sugar or without sugar, white, green, purple, blue and cigarettes jolts the system out of slumber. It increases the blood pressure, heart rate, breathing rate and makes the body feel stressed and "Kicked"! We sadly mistake all this with feeling "Awake"! What really happens is, our body experiences stress because of the increase in its heart and breathing rate. So our body will respond by hampering fat burning.

In the morning, the heart and breathing rates are at its lowest as this is the reflection of a relaxed state of mind and body. To keep our system relaxed we need to give it real food which is easy on heart, lungs and stomach too!

The stimulants provided through tea or coffee increase the blood sugar levels but provide zero nutrition to the cells that have been starving for the last 9 to 10 hours or more, post-dinner.

Moreover, the cuppa can mask our hunger, so we go hungry for a long time without realizing it. Going hungry in the morning is a disaster for someone who is dreaming of having a sexy body. All it does is create a huge calorie deficit in the morning and then our body has no other option but to overeat to later to make up for the deficit.

All of us who just "don't feel like eating in the morning" are victims of slow metabolic rate and of a digestive system which is not functioning effectively. With sunrise the metabolism peaks and the cells demand nutrition. This is the time to eat and eat big. Those who are not used to eat something in the morning should start with a fruit. After that within an hour, have your breakfast. Anything that is healthy and fibre-rich.

Once our cells receive nutrition and the blood sugar comes to an optimum level then we can have our tea or coffee. The breathing rate, heart rate will still increase but our first meal or breakfast will now act as a buffer.

So the foundation of a great body is laid what we eat or drink(or not) within the first 10-15 minutes of waking up!

Source - Don't Lose Your Mind, Lose Your Weight book by Rujuta Diwekar.

Rujuta Diwekar Fitness Project guideline Week 1-

Start your day with a Banana or any fresh fruit OR soaked almonds OR soaked raisins and NOT with tea or coffee.

Note -

• Its ok to have chai or coffee 10-15 mins post this meal
• Have a glass of (only) plain water and then have this meal
• Eat this within 20 mins of waking up or post the thyroid pill if you are on one

Banana - for all those who have digestion issues or get sugar cravings post a meal. Buy fresh, local variety.

7-8 Soaked raisins with 1-2 strands of Kesar - if you have rated yourself as a person with terrible PMS or with low energy through the day.

4-6 Soaked & peeled almonds - if you have insulin resistance, diabetes, PCOD* or low fertility or poor sleep quality. Pick the mamra or the local variety of badam, its richer in nutrients. For PCOD - Switch to 7-8 raisins and 1-2 strands of Kesar 10 days before periods.

You can check out Rujuta Diwekar Facebook Page for more details on week 1 guideline.

My preference

I've been struggling with insulin resistance for years which resulted in my skin condition Acanthosis Nigaricans. I found out way way later that it's because of Insulin resistance. So, I've decided to go for soaked almonds. I'll occasionally go for banana and raisins as well if I feel so.

Writing this post gave me more insight into what I'm actually doing! It's an amazing feeling!

So excited about my journey with this RD Fitness Project.

Stay tuned!

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