Anuradha Sridharan

  Apart from  laziness  and  lack of consistency , the third challenge that most of us face when it comes to achieving our health goals is Procrastination . Imagine this situation - you woke up at 7 AM, made yourself a nice, hot cup of coffee. Your mind tells you that you need to head for a brisk walk. But you are too occupied with scrolling through the social media feed that you tell yourself - "I'll step out around 9 AM". 9 AM comes and you are in the kitchen making breakfast. The brisk walk reminder triggers in your head and you tell yourself - "There's so much work to do now. I can't step out for a walk. Maybe, I'll go in the evening".  It is 4 PM. You do want to finish that brisk walk but one of these three situations pan out. It is lightly drizzling. And your family demands some hot bajjis for an evening snack.  It has been a tiring day and you just want to lie down and scroll through the Instagram feed It is still too hot and you don't wan...

 Immunity is the buzzword these days, with brands leveraging this magic word left, right and center. Be it their marketing campaigns, advertisements or even the product line variation, brands are exploiting this word big time, given that there is no regulation controlling the use of this important word in the present pandemic situation. A candy loaded with synthetic colors and sugar using the word Immunity must be the biggest joke of 2020. Take a look at the Ingredients list - the first two ingredients are Sugar and Liquid Glucose. Each recommended serving (2 jellies) contain 2 tsp of sugar.  Whether this product provides immunity or not, the added sugar will deplete whatever immunity is already present in the child. The product emphasizes on added Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) and Zinc (zinc sulphate) as the sources of immunity. For a serving size of 2 jellies, as per their nutrition facts table, Vitamin C - 20 mg  Zinc - 1.35 mg A single medium sized guava (100 gm) would gi...

  For the past few weeks in the Online Minimalism Workshop (OMW) that I'm attending, the topic of discussion is Money. One of the questions that I'm asking myself is " What is my relationship with money? ". I'm grateful that this question was triggered, thanks to OMW. Each individual's relationship with money is influenced by multiple factors - upbringing, childhood experiences, personal values and beliefs, the influence of family, relatives, neighbors and many more. Even when two people, for example, siblings who have experienced similar upbringing and childhood can have different perspectives and a different approach towards money. If they are brought up in an environment where money was less, they can either feel deprived or feel more responsible. The attitude they adopt will decide their relationship with money in their 20s and 30s. For me, my attitude with money is more on the lines of RESPECT and RESPONSIBILITY. Having grown up in a middle-class househol...

    A few weeks back, I ran a Q&A on Insta Stories - " What are the challenges/obstacles you face in achieving your health goals? ".  One of the common challenges mentioned was laziness. I had written a detailed post on 20 ways to overcome laziness . The other important challenge that many had mentioned was " Lack of consistency ". Whenever we fail at being consistent with a habit, we perceive it to be a lack of motivation at a surface level. Yes, motivation is extremely important, especially the intrinsic one, where you feel a strong urge/desire from within to pursue the habit. Apart from intrinsic motivation, there are deeper factors to think about. (1) Not enough clarity on the Why Why do we want to wake up early? Why do we want to work out in the morning hours? Why do we want to quit junk food? Why do we want to sleep on time? The answer is not simply about staying fit and healthy. Go deeper and figure out your reasons. I wrote about my reasons on why I wan...

  10 tips for effective time-boxing Around a month back, I shared in this post that I plan my day in 15-min time slots. I have received a couple of DMs on how to go about doing it. I spoke with someone in detail last evening on the same topic and I felt it would be useful to share my strategy and a few tips for those who would like to follow a similar time-boxing strategy to manage their time. Disclaimer - Nothing listed below is carved in stone. I'm a human and I do tend to deviate at times from whatever I had planned.    I don't follow any rigid schedule during weekends and festival days. This helps me to demarcate weekends and weekdays more clearly, given the current pandemic situation.     (1) Identify the days and timings to plan depending on your working days/sleep schedule etc. I plan my regular weekdays (Mon-Fri) in 15-min time slots from 6 AM to 10 PM.       (2) Take a paper (or a digital calendar) and split the time into time slots that...

  Ever since the lockdown started in March, I haven't really been doing my weekly meal planning or sticking to a meal template as I had shared earlier. I plan only for the very next day's breakfast and lunch. Dinner would mostly be leftovers (from the same day's breakfast or lunch) or a simple khichdi/dosa. Since March, I have been keeping track of the dishes I have cooked in a Google Keep note on my phone. Over the past few days, I have converted it into a Master Menu List. The spreadsheet lover that I am, I have been meaning to make this comprehensive list for quite some time. This master menu list is helpful in multiple ways: Helps me to track the recipes I have tried recently and their respective sources (blogs, videos etc) Gives me a quick inspiration when I run out of ideas Helps me to identify dishes that I can cook with less effort Gives me clarity on what my family members like to eat The spreadsheet by itself may not be of much use to you, as this depends on your...

     Information comes to you at the right time. There is no need to have FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). Over the past couple of years, I have come to believe in this statement strongly. And my experiences are reinforcing the truth behind this statement. Sometime around 2004-05, one of my senior colleagues and I were discussing past lives, life after death, etc. She said to me, "I'm gonna give you a book, which I found to be very interesting. Give it a read over the weekend. But I want you to return it on Monday". I obliged and borrowed the book from her on a Friday evening. For some reason, I couldn't connect with the material and I was prioritizing other activities that weekend. I didn't go past the first two chapters and I returned the book to her on Monday, saying it was too heavy for me to absorb. A few days back, a friend and I were having a conversation on a similar topic. She didn't mention this book though. The title of this book came up in another Whats...