Managing ideal body weight is a mind game; everyone can achieve it

Jeevan Dhara exercises will help you get an ideal weight, says our guest author Sanjay Mittal, . This is Mittal’s first of the five-part series on how to manage weight. 

Everything in Nature always desires a fine balance. A flying bird senses its weight and maintains only that much so that it can fly. Overweight birds and flying are an oxy-moron. A leaf does not become too big or heavy. Otherwise It will fall from the branch. The branch will not become so thick or heavy so as to break off from the tree. And the tree’s trunk only gains so much girth and height so as to be balanced by the roots in the soil.

But what about human beings? Many seem to be exploding with excess kilos! Records show that 42 oer cent Americans are obese. Closer home, in Delhi, the National Family Health Survey found that 4 out of 10 adults are overweight or obese.

So why should humans be overweight and not shed the extra ounces? Further on, how can we get the right body weight without looking at the weight scale or  mirror or our friends telling you that we have excess kilos?

These were questions that interested me for some time. In my quest for answers, I took a radically different approach, viewing this as an engineering problem of mass, gravity, energy and volume. An approach which helps to get easy and precise answers, beyond just calorie counting and using the weighing scale.  It was indeed thrilling and satisfying to invent a new approach by getting the mind to focus on detecting what should be your right weight. Then further increasing the envelope to encompass biophysics along with biology.

Have you seen any over-weight animals or bird

The approach basically entails training your mind to first judge how heavy you are. Then by reflex, doing those simple exercises and making lifestyle changes which keep you fit. And finally, having food which gives taste and energy for efficient physical and mental work. This will come from nutrient rich dishes like the Protein Delight, which I had described in detail in my blog.

Sprouted pulses and raw salads work best for the body

Using these beneficial ideas, I have created exercises which I call  Jeevan Dhara- 4.  I then used this in our fitness unit and found they work well, very well.

So here is the first of the radical steps. This is formulated as an engineering problem, but I will make it as simple as possible for everyone to understand.

It’s your mind which controls your body. You need to work against gravity to judge your weight and then the mind propels your body to take the desired action. The ultimate goal is to achieve the fine balance of desired weight.

In my long drives in North India, I used to observe that the physical build of people wou change immensely as one entered the mountain areas. If you enter Himachal after driving through Haryana and Punjab or enter Uttarakhand driving through UP, you would sense that being in the mountains somehow made the people slimmer.

So let us now get GRAVITY into the picture. Human weight has a lot to do with gravity, the force which attracts you to the earth. Weight is a measure of the force of gravity pulling down on an object. It depends on the object’s mass and the acceleration due to gravity, which is 9.8 m/s² on Earth. The formula for calculating weight is F = m × 9.8 m/s², where F is the object’s weight in Newtons (N) and m is the object’s mass in kilograms.

I could immediately reason that it was the very act of daily climbing up and down the slopes of the mountains against the gravitational pull of the earth for work or to go to school that makes inhabitants slim. In calculations of Physics, the work done by walking up on an incline is much more in terms of energy consumed, that is, calories burnt than walking on the plains. We, of course, feel it as we huff and puff on inclines.

Living in hills gives a good opportunity for natural gravity workouts

However, the key here is getting mentally aware that your body weight and shape should be such that you can conduct your physical activities with ease. In fact, this is the way of life in the hilly regions. In case you don’t comply, you cannot function. Further on, your food habits, both in terms of what you eat and the amount you eat should be such that working against gravity should be easy. Ultimately, working alongside/against Gravity will shape your body and your weight.

Jeevan Dhara STEP 1: Some basic workouts against gravity to sense your weight and then make lifestyle changes. 

The first part of Jeevan Dhara exercises to get the right weight is a mind game. As I walk or run sometimes, I think of our ancestors just a hundred years ago. For them, it was about climbing trees to gather fruit, walking fast to reach destinations as vehicles were not available, or running to tackle animals or enemies, all essential for survival. I look at the trees and leaves which do not put in a gram extra of weight, because in doing so they would become unhealthy and upsetting the balance sought by nature.

The key thought while doing these exercises is to judge your weight and, further on, keep inspiring yourself to max up with ease. It is not just about burning calories during exercise, but also about using your mind during the exercise to guide you to have the right sort of food to do the exercise and get the correct weight.  These precede any other form of weight control exercises you may be doing and the idea is NOT to replace your current exercise program.

For getting around the optimal weight:

Stair Climbing: Judge your weight as you go up and down the stairs. We will actually burn high calories doing this. The bigger objective is a mind game. As you climb up, focus on your breathing and think of how you can make this easy. Of how you can get the ideal weight whereby going up and down the staircase becomes your primary goal. You can target climbing up and down three flights, five flights or ten flights of stairs, depending on your current exercise level.

Stairs are a good way to get gravity awareness

Skipping:  Again we are moving up and down on earth in relation to THE gravity. You can do it with a rope or without a rope. It is a calorie burner. The more you do, the more calories you burn. However, the bigger goal remains judging your weight doing this and inspiring yourself to get there to do it easily. Even if you can only do 5 or 10 skips, keep the mind focused. And if you have the ability, then go for the full monty of 30-50,100, 200 skips or more.

Sit ups:  Do these as per your ability. Judge your weight and implore yourself to get the right weight to do these with ease. It’s a mind game, after all.

Walking and jogging:  These happen to be my favorites and also the most natural exercises any human being should be doing as part of life. Everyone should do these for at least 30 minutes daily, even if you do Yoga, Gymming or any other form of exercise.  Besides the calories you burn while walking, the other aspect of judging our weight becomes simple.

One must target 8,000 or more steps daily

Here we can add the X factor of a gravity workout by raising our feet and bodies just a little more as we walk or run. This will add to the calories being burnt as well as get your mind to model your muscles to a slimmer future self.

You can even look at the birds in the sky who can only fly as long as they are not overweight. Otherwise the flapping wings would get overburdened and birds would become sluggish or too fat to fly.

We may be creatures of the tech age, condemned to be at the desk, working on computers and enjoying  heavy trans fat loaded food, watching TV on thick sofas.

But, getting around to have the optimal weight is just a mind game!.

One  thought should ring in your mind as you think of food, the source of your energy. Tell yourself that —

Now, talking about food, my definition of a hearty and satisfying meal has got upgraded. I am going to eat something tasty but healthy. Eat what will make me mentally agile and fit enough to climb stairs, walk, run and do situps and sleep well, as well as work with energy.

This is your life changing moment!

So even as you do enjoy the luxuries of the 21st century, get your mind into action. Think of the energetic persona you will be, as a person who can do any workout, using Gravity as your ally. As a bonus you will remain comparatively disease free.

Have this predominant thought while  eating: Your mind will start thinking that it will be a smart thing to eat less calories, less fried, less trans fats and more fiber and protein. Your hand will stop from taking the extra beer, extra pastry, extra soda or the extra fried puri.  You can try more smart dishes I wrote about earlier here.

Your final target should be that after eating you should have the ability to walk, run, climb stairs or do sit ups.

If your mind tells you that you can, then you are in the right zone, on the way to achieve your desired fitness goals.

A smart mind knows that consuming extra unwanted calories will make you less amenable to Gravity based workouts. Let this smart mind rule over the body!

This was the first part of Jeevan Dhara 4, the exercise to get the right body weight. Simply how your mind recognises your weight and how it should get into positive action. There are four more exciting levels to it.

♦ Shedding of excess in a time bound manner.

♦ Getting the right nutritious and tasty food

♦ Getting high stamina and energy 24/7

♦ Finally maintenance

Before we go to the next part, you should try the mind control aspect and master it. You can always contact me for help, if needed.

To sum it up—weight is a measure of your mass and gravitational force on your body. Workouts against the gravitational pull will make you judge your weight and can be used to invigorate the mind into action.

Weight control becomes simple!

The author is an engineer from the Delhi College of Engineering (now DTU). He likes making modern eco-friendly buildings and
works as a realtor also. He has written two books. The second one, 2040:The battle for life, is slated to be released soon. He
spends considerable time researching about gravity biomechanics along with his team and runs a fitness company.
He can be contacted at [email protected]