Nikitha“A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor’s book.” — Irish Proverb
Since May, the time I have started tracking my sleep, Oct was the only month when I prioritised sleep over everything else. It was good to start sleeping for 8 hours consistently every night as against 5-6 hours of sleep. One of the critical factors which definitely impacts the healing process is sleep. So it was the right thing to do even though a lot of other things took a back seat in my life.
Another key theme which prevailed in October was about me obsessing over Ayurveda. I read a couple of books and learnt the biggest mistakes I was making with my diet. Sadly, I have not concluded my diet plan yet but I hope to do it soon after meeting an expert in the field. Ayurveda is not just about the food but also practising a few cleaning rituals. A few of them which I picked up are oil pulling and tongue scraping ( 8 times) daily and Abhyanga once a week. I have been postponing these activities all this year. After picking them up in October, I realised how simple they were in reality and it was just me who had been complicating them in my head.
Review of October
1.Reading Bhagavad Gita
You will be surprised if I told you that it takes less than 3 minutes to read one sloka, its translation and purport and I have been postponing this forever. This month, I realised that just by spending 3 minutes daily, I can finish reading Bhagavad Gita in a few years. That’s the impact of tiny habits. Just by reading one sloka a day, gives you the space to ponder over the concept. I started with chapter 2 again and it talks about how soul is impermeable. It kind of helped me gain a new perspective towards death. Must read for anyone who is not able to make peace with the concept of death.
2.Food
After analysing when and how I break my healthy food eating targets, I found two main culprits. The first one is the one I mentioned in the last post of my husband making up with me with chocolate. He is not entirely to be blamed because I noticed that on a few days when I feel too low, I just go for a chocolate for the immediate elevation in good feelings. It is a very difficult habit loop to break. The second one is how I can’t eat dal without fryums/papad. I just find the meal lacking without it. In order to deal with the second one, I stopped eating dal temporarily. The permanent solution would be to fry the papads in an oven oil free which I am yet to experiment.
3.Cooking
My parents gifted an oven for the festival. I started experimenting with different oil free items I can make in that and it has been absolutely fun. My husband approved all the recipes I made so far. I am looking forward to learning how to bake cakes and cookies but I am afraid it is going to be difficult as I want to go sugar free and gluten free.
4.Writing
I am glad that I could meet the target of writing 5 articles in October. There were a few more articles which I started writing but I am yet to edit them.
Plans for November
After one and half years, I finally took a 9 day break this month. I just want to laze around and experience what life feels like when I am not productive all the time. I took a Netflix subscription to explore what binge watching feels like. To my surprise, I have conditioned myself so strongly over the years that I can’t allow myself to watch a series or movie unless I can feel engaged or relate to the subject. If not I feel extremely guilty when I do that. The only exception is when I watch it with my husband because he is a movie lover and it was one of our first bonding activities.
1.A2 Cow Ghee
After I started doing oil pulling each morning, the sensitivity of my teeth has reduced and I am able to enjoy lemon drink and oranges without having to worry about not being able to eat anything else after that. The next in line habit I want to build is to use cow ghee for lining my gut in the morning. According to Ayurveda, it helps in cleaning up the gut and improving metabolism.
2.Improve Metabolism
In my research a few ways which I found to increase metabolism are doing a cardio intense exercise the first thing in the morning. When you have not had food for more than 12 hours, your body goes into ketosis mode when you exercise in the morning. I will either play Badminton, go for a run or do skipping to tap into this.
The major challenge I notice with this habit is that I can either prioritise sleep or exercise. Prioritising both could be tricky. Mastering this could take time.
Apart from that I want to educate myself more on the science of metabolism as that plays a major role in weight loss. I have been planning to do this course for a very long time and hoping to do it this month.
How was your October? What are your plans for November?
If you are looking for building new habits or breaking old habits but struggling to start doing them on your own, I am taking in new entries this month. I will guide you on how to build or break habits using techniques of Neuroscience, Neurolinguistic Programming and Cognitive behaviour. You can register for the same here.
Happy November!