Sunday, April 10, 2011

My challenge for new year


I have just finished a workout and feel fresh and energized after the shower. During the workout, a question was stuck in my mind. What will happen to my health program during the next two weeks? The biggest festival in Sri Lanka falls next week. It is called the Sinhala new year (or "Sinhala Avurudu") which is aligned with an astrologically significant event. Everybody goes on leave for at least one week and it's party season. Everybody wears a new cloth in the auspicious time and follows certain rituals in an astrologically determined time. The intention is to renovate relationships with family, relatives and friends whom you might not have met for quite a time.

Well...No festival is complete without exotic food. Sinhala new year too is celebrated with lot of sweets that are unique to the season. Some of them are unique to areas as well. The good (or, may be the BAD) thing is that everyone gets unlimited access to all these food during the whole season. Let it be home, office, filling station or may be even the gym (he he). Food is exchanged between households so that everyone tastes every flavor. People wait for this season to fill their appetite with this fascinating collection of foods. My favorite is "Mun Kevum" which is made with flour, sugar and oil; a deadly combination..he he. In each season I usually eat more than 100 of it.

The problem is the conflict with my usual food discipline which is a part of my health program. Lot of oily sweets means lot of fat. I really don't want to end up jeopardizing all my long term health achievements during a period of two weeks. However, missing the exotic food doesn't sound like a smart option too because this is the only period to have them. Tom Venuto's (visit http://www.burnthefatblog.com for his excellent health blog which greatly helped me in shaping my health program) "Christmas Challenge" came to my mind when thinking about this. Recalling it, his main point was something like "extra effort to burn the extra fat". This is apparently a smarter approach since it doesn't ask you to be a food fanatic during the party season. Rather the advice is to account for the extra fat intake during the burning phase. Simply put, one has to do more exercise during festival seasons. 

Ok...The ask is...More exercises please. I do not get intimidated by that because I enjoy most workouts. I need to plan for more workouts for the coming weeks. Usually I do workout for about 5 days a week. Now I have to target 7 days a week, and more than one session per day when possible (Aim for the moon, that way, even if you miss you'll still be amongst the stars! - W. Clement). One target of writing this article is to put more pressure on my self to stick to this discipline. Something in written form is more effective than a thought, isn't it? Even more effective is when you write it in a public place. Now I'm accountable. I think one more thing I can try is eating only the foods that I'm crazy about and keep my self away from others. It might help to keep the damage within accountable limits.

I'm ready for the season. I will pamper my taste buds with the exoticness of new year food and will stay more active to compensate. Welcome new year!!    

No comments:

Post a Comment