Your Project For 2022

Life is difficult with the third year in the pandemic. How do you ensure you remain successful, professionally relevant and agile? By making yourself your project for 2022.

The fragility of the professional employment scenario has been exposed rudely during the pandemic. Anyone not giving their 200%, gets into a precarious zone. While falling ill, getting the virus may seem out of your control, the number of sick days or comorbidities you can avoid is within your control. The healthier your immune system is, the less your chances of collapsing because of the virus and being absent from work. I am listing down five sure-shot strategies that worked for all senior management professionals I treated, and they have stayed on top of their health and work during the pandemic. So here goes:

1. Assess. When you begin a project, you assess your resources and market. Here, you are your project. Assess your current health situation. Are you feeling lethargic, low energy, tired after eight hours of sleep? Are you overweight? Do you have lifestyle conditions like hypertension or high lipids? If your answer is yes to any of the above, course correction and intervention is required. Clinical assessment by getting a preventive health check up becomes the first step in having clearly evidenced goals to follow.

2. Plan. Once you are aware of your health hiccups, it is easy to plan and stock up. Remember that any of the above health issues can lead to comorbidities if you get infected. Getting rid of these also helps you recover faster and protect yourself from side effects of a mutating virus. For example, fluctuating hypertension can damage kidneys and the mutating virus can damage them further. So don’t wait for your kidney reports to be abnormal, hypertension is in itself a trigger for you to take charge. Your plan should incorporate a holistic manner of becoming healthy. The main tenets of your plan then need to be: ruthlessly eliminate foods and habits that harm you (read processed); stock up on healthy options (read vegetables); take out 30 minutes in the morning and in the evening for physical activity.

3. Execute. As any operations professional knows, the best-laid plans go awry if execution is shoddy. So the tenets of your plan can be executed in fixing a meal plan. A light breakfast, a medium quantity of lunch and a light dinner. Nothing in between except for green tea, chamomile or herbal teas. It is important to eat smaller quantities simply because you have a sedentary job and don’t need much food. Light breakfast options are: a bowl of fruits with nuts; a small bowl of poha; one egg and one toast; one roti and three tablespoons tofu/paneer bhurjee. Keep quantities small. Lunch needs to be one bowl mix vegetables, cut salad, one roti or 6 tablespoons rice, one small bowl yellow moong dal. Your body does not need more than this. If you are eating out or want variety, you can have stir fried Chinese greens, 5 tablespoons of steamed rice and a small portion of tofu or fish. Again, be mindful of quantities. Between lunch and dinner is the most dangerous cravings time. Have a herbal or green tea at 5 PM with 10 almonds, a small bowl of fruit. Dinner needs to be early by 7 PM. If you eat light through the day you will be hungry by 7 PM. You can repeat what you had for lunch at dinner or you can make it even lighter by having only carbohydrates/proteins and vegetables. Sample meal examples are: one piece of chicken breast with two bowls of vegetables; 5 tablespoons boiled quinoa or brown rice with a large cup of vegetable broth/soup; 100 gm grilled or pan fry fish with a large portion of salad with extra virgin olive oil.

4. Move. The execution of food is the most difficult to streamline. Once you have streamlined it as per the above, 80% of your impediments are out of the way. What is left now is moderate exercise, to release pre-existing toxins blocking absorption of nutrients. For busy professionals, just 30 minutes of walk in the morning and evening at a moderate pace is good enough to start shedding weight, reducing blood pressure, making liver and kidneys healthier to release toxins and getting mental agility back. The miracle of walking cannot be emphasised enough. However, walking for one hour a day at a stretch doesn’t give the same benefits as walking twice a day for 30 minutes each. This is essential because throughout the day you are sitting and your body needs to release the toxins via twice a day movement.

5. Hydrate. This is the final one and most often not followed. To release toxins, absorb nutrients, and hence increase immunity, the presence of consistent water intake is required throughout the day. Drinking 1 L of water at one time is not advisable. Consume 250 ML of water every two hours to keep your digestive system and your brain cells hydrated to release toxins and absorb nutrients.

Follow the five-step approach in 2022 and within 60 days, watch your body and mind transform into a powerhouse of energy, leanness and high output. Wishing you all a very happy 2022!

About the author: 

Rachna Chhachhi is a holistic nutrition and yoga expert, and author of four bestselling health books: Restore, You Can Beat Cancer, Alive! and Shuddha. Follow her on @RachnaRestores on Instagram and Twitter.