Visiting India, Part 1

The medium-sized city of Navsari has the best food

(Click to enlarge even more)

Thieves looting before the sun rises, a monkey hanging out on an electrical wire, driving in the opposite direction of traffic on the highway, and spices so strong you would have thought Columbus could have smelled his way here instead of trying to follow a map.

Yup. This is India.

I last went to India with my family in the summer of 2002 for six weeks. We spent the first week sight seeing the cities of Mumbai and New Delhi with the remaining five weeks living at my paternal grandparents' rural home in the state of Gujarat. Despite it being the hot and humid monsoon season, a language barrier, and being far from the comforts of home, I found the vacation fun.

This time around I was there for three weeks with my parents at the start of the cold season. Again we stayed at my grandparents' home - we don't go anywhere else - but it was different. Since the doors remain locked, only to be opened when a relative may visit, the house has not aged well. However we didn't have any problems with it as you'll see in these two posts.

I could recount the entire trip except that would exceed well over what I'd like to write. Rather I want to share my experiences and what I learned over the course of my stay. Visiting after ten years gave me a much different perspective than I can remember.

To better group my thoughts from this trip I'm dividing this excursion into two posts. In this first part I'll be discussing a wide range of items regarding food and exercise/fitness. In the second post I'll do a general look at the environment, people, and any changes I took notice of since my last trip.

Food

The food was great. For us it largely meant produce cooked at home as opposed to eating at restaurants or street shops. Restaurants have become very generic highway stops commonly referring to themselves as "hotels." You'll find terrible restrooms, so-so/bad service, and a menu full of Punjabi dishes & Chinese-inspired ones. If you plan on going to India I suggest avoiding any place situated off a highway that has shirt-and-tie service.

What I do suggest is finding small street shops. The food has a more authentic taste, the people are friendlier, and the prices are better.

Fast food: real samosa
Not the knockoff kind you find here in restaurants

During this time at home the only vegetable in season was a type of spinach. Hence our diet consisted of different beans, beets, tomatoes, eggplant, and potatoes eaten with sorghum* flat bread. Because the vegetarian meals were surprisingly satiating we ate meat less often. The meats we did eat were chicken, crayfish, shrimp, and goat all of which had a denser texture, but less volume compared to the meat found here in the US. The same held true for the vegetables and fruits - they were comparatively smaller.

*In the Indian grocery stores here it's listed as "juwar" flour but isn't that great.

Looking at foods between the two countries, here it's all about quantity and size. Our produce looks completely cracked out on steroids. I found everything in India had a better taste. Here the quality costs us extra: organic foods are the norm there. Additionally it helps that each dish is cooked in the deliciousness that is peanut oil.

Half the size garlic

The best food there was the raw milk provided to us from our neighbors. The cow was fed grass, vegetables, and bean peels leading to a fresh rich milk. Daily right after dawn our neighbor would provide us a quart of milk that we used to make our morning chai. Just enough of it remained for me to drink a cup later with my afternoon lunch. Drinking chai again with the usual American grocery store milk I've noticed it's thinner as well as giving the chai a bitter taste. It's only palatable after adding a heavy dose of sugar. Not only that but the milk leaves my mouth tasting and smelling rancid.

The biggest surprise was after we returned home I noticed a meal never satiated my hunger and it caused me to use the bathroom more frequently. When I spoke with my dad he said he had the same problems plus a strange itching feeling on his skin. Physically I see my skin produces more oil and that my hair smells within 24 hours. I really believe these weird symptoms are due to the food here. Add to the fact that my mom's acid reflux and dad's gout didn't act up a single day there but immediately began irritating them again upon returning to the states, it makes you think.

While in the US we are fortunate to have an abundance of food, high standards of practice, and an excellent process that delivers it from the farm to the plate, it's somewhat questionable on the quality front. What I really do enjoy is the availability of fruits. Because none were in season this time of the year, the few that were available to us were expensive (based on the locals' income). Season or not, the amount of fruits here are a real treat. The pomegranate I ate here tasted as good as the one in India showing that not everything comes in second place in terms of quality. 

Lastly, despite many homes owning a half-sized refrigerator few use them to store items for an extended period of time. Instead the norm is to consume an item of food the day it is received [meat & dairy] or within 3-4 days [vegetables]. This is one of the more valuable lessons I learned and think is imperative to put into practice. For something such as milk it's not possible to purchase everyday and I don't expect anyone to do so, but aim to refrigerate/freeze foods less. Make the effort to go to the grocery store each week putting a maximum shelf life of 5-6 days on fresh produce. Combine that with eating local and in season produce will make your health better than most people.

Exercise & Fitness

While I was away I did about five or six workouts using a combination of isometrics, bodyweight exercises, and a stalk of sugarcane. I let my mood dictate if I wanted to exercise but it also helps that I planned accordingly before I left - two months straight of hard sessions. In reality there was no need to train on vacation because three weeks of little-to-no exercise wasn't the end of the world.

Also just as important to exercise, or even more so, is recovery. Down time from exercise does the body good both physically and mentally. Naturally being on vacation it's a relaxing experience but the absence of electronics really let us unwind. The only piece of technology we used was a phone. Add the warm weather into the mix, it made for a pleasant atmosphere. Even with hard beds we had to use the sleep was particularly restful.

As for the people, muscle mass appears to be in short supply and winged scapulas in excess - I saw more people with them than without. What makes it worse is all the gluteless guys wear tight jeans. The jeans I wore there split completely down the middle from squatting down and they weren't even tight on me. But despite individuals being thin this shouldn't be confused with weakness because the people who do hard labor are strong at what they do. For instance, I saw a woman carry a 70 lb. gas tank on her head and walk roughly the distance of two city blocks. I think if any of us tried that our necks would snap.

If I had to guess why people in that region carry low muscle mass I would attribute it to the less amount of food they eat. Quantity of food is not as readily available for families as it is here. A household rations their portions sparingly due to their low income. Other individuals who aren't skinny just lack adequate resistance training to build bigger muscles. While there aren't barbells or similar equipment readily available I saw a ton of other stuff in the area that could be used as resistance - namely stones of various sizes. I know in other states of India that stones are used in training (pehlwan).

What's crazy is that if the Indian population took up barbell squatting (and had better upper body strength), they just might wreck everyone else in squats. I saw people in deep squats for just about anything you can imagine - squat to eat, squat to go to the bathroom, squat to relax/hang out, squat to clean, squat to wash clothes, hell I even think I saw guys squat to urinate on the sides of the road. Indians do not mind an ass-to-grass squat. They actually find it comfortable. I'll add that while they do squat deep without knee problems, they squat into an extremely lax position with a pelvis tuck and a slight forward lean.

Squatting becomes a daily affair when this is your toilet
(But don't worry, we had an American style toilet in the adjacent bathroom)

Being back, I feel more sluggish. I have no idea why. Chalk it up to the weather, food, beds, or a combination of factors. I have to make more of an effort here to maintain strength and body composition as opposed to there. The first few days back home I felt stronger than when I left. Of course that quickly waned and I started to feel stiff, lethargic, and weaker in subsequent days. Luckily by starting to lift again that's no longer the case. Just as I did in India I'll make sure to pay attention to how I feel to structure my workouts.

There's still a lot more to cover in the second half. With that said it will be posted sometime in January. Enjoy the holidays and have a happy New Year's Eve everyone!

I'll see you in 2013.

Related content,

• Web Album: Pictures from the Trip
• Web Album: Pictures of Food from the Trip
• Visiting India, Part 2: General Overview

What to Eat

Stuff that makes sense is usually a good choice.

Have a good weekend.

Quitting Fast Food

McTurtle

Everyone has certain habits. Some are good, some are bad, and some are neither of the two. I'm sure most of us would like to eliminate the bad habits.

And it's possible to get rid of them. As far as I've experienced, there are two ways to quit a bad habit.

#1: The Bad Experience

An aversive experience will leave an impression on you. My high school motorcycle & auto shop teacher told us after he had a throat surgery years ago the doctor told him he had to quit cigarettes or he would die. From that day forth he didn't touch a cigarette.

My personal story is getting a harsh case of food poisoning in elementary school. I was addicted to McDonald's but I think god believed I had my fill of it and decided to set me straight. The only details I can recall are feeling horribly ill and the doctor telling my mom and I that another kid came in with McDonald's food poisoning. It was enough for me to never eat it again.

These stories are a bit extreme. No one wants to go through a terrible situation to quit a habit.

#2: Time Off

Going cold turkey works if you can shake the initial withdrawal jitters. I've done it twice and only once it was a conscious effort.

One summer I decided to not eat fast food for a year. I can't remember what compelled me, but I did it. It went fine; I just didn't eat fast food for a year.

When the year was up we got Pizza Hut for dinner and man it tasted disgusting. I feel I was conditioned to fast food and breaking away from it returned my palate to its own sense of normalcy.

Time away from a habit works wonders. The initial period can be difficult, but if you can do it for a year then you have a significant amount of control over the habit rather than it controlling you.

It becomes easier as time goes on.

Holiday Damage Control

Turkeys: Robots in disguise?

Since people gorge on copious amounts of food during the holidays, Carter Schoffer brings you tips to reduce guttus maximus this Thanksgiving.

"In order to hedge against the unfavourable body comp effects holiday meals have, there are a few easy to follow strategies you should employ. These being -

• Exercise or perform a physical activity an hour or two prior to the meal. This can be a resistance training bout, cardio bout, long/brisk walk, playing with the kids (if you have any) or some "fun" with your significant other.

• Consume a protein shake (just a scoop of a milk protein blend with some water will suffice), a few fish oil caps and a piece of fruit (pear or apple) about an hour before your meal. This won't "spoil" your meal as it won't be all that filling but it will put a dent in your cravings while still allowing you to eat enough to be satiated. It will also go a long way toward blunting the blood sugar / insulin response.

• Eat your veggies first. This works along the same lines as the above bullet point. Be sure to have a good large serving or servings. Again you'll still be able to enjoy the other foods but eating the veggies first places priority on good nutrition while blunting gluttony.

• Go for a walk or perform some other form of physical activity after the meal, before passing out on the couch.

• Consume a cup of green tea (2 bags) before and after the meal.

• Optionally if you've had experience with ephedrine in the past you may wish to take 16-24mg with the green tea 30 min or so before the meal. This is completely optional and I don't exactly recommend you do this. The reason why you would wish to do this is because it will upregulate your metabolism while also giving you an artificial energy kick to get the exercise / physical activity done. Furthermore, it's a mild anorectic. Other less aggressive "fat burners" may also be useful."

Have a good time everyone.

This, not that

Some things aren't always great and we don't like them. Nothing wrong with that, but we often enough don't realize there may be an alternative to it. (with the exception of women, zing!)

Here are an easy 5 I suggest taking a look at.

1) Front squat: It's not so much the exercise that people have trouble with, but the grip set-up.

Elbows up with wrists bent back and sticking your chest out isn't convenient for some. Luckily, all you need is 2 kitchen towels to work around that. And yes I'm aware that this trick has been around for a while.

Just put one in each hand and fold it around the bar to keep it hugged in. This allows you to keep the bar balanced on your shoulders without excessively bending your forearms and wrists.

Straps are shown, but towels work fine.

2) Crunches: Overused and overrated with many people doing them wrong. The best part is that our replacement exercise is simple and effective.

Enter the dead bug. The section of that article titled "The Dead Bug Series" describes how the exercise is performed, but here's a video of a modified version.

Between the two, you should be able to understand how it's done.

3) Oatmeal: I'm not a fan of oatmeal and neither do a lot of other people I know. But, the mushy baby vomit-like oatmeal most people are familiar with is made from rolled oats.

Another type of oats is steel cut oats which have a completely different texture. If you think the typical oatmeal from rolled oats is gross, then this is definitely more up your ally.

4) Running: Unless you're training for an event or sport, why focus your energy on half of the body? Crank it up by doing a full-body effort session.

If you lift twice a week, end your workouts with a "finisher" which could be a number of things. Tabatas are popular. Do 20 seconds of an exercise then follow it by 10 seconds of rest and repeat for a total of four minutes.

5) The Wasteful: You know all the unproductive things you do, coughFacebookcough. Oh heavens, I must be coming down with something.

But seriously, take some time out of the day to do something that isn't fully immersed in technology like reading, meditating, or laying down and doing some calm easy thinking.

Even 10 minutes is better than nothing. It can go a long way.

There you have it. 5 tidbits that hopefully help you all out.

Maybe if I think of another 5 I'll write another post like this again someday.....eh, maybe not.

Who knows.

How ya feeling?

Or the lack of feeling?

A thousand apologies to my readers (assuming I have any). I know I haven't updated in the last 2 weeks, but well, I've been a bum. It happens. Additionally, most recent posts have been on the less than useful side so I'll change that.

That's beginning with this post and hopefully more next week. I've recently noticed I assume everybody knows certain simple concepts and notions, but in reality they don't. You'll see what I'm talking about in the weeks to come.

I had a big "duh" moment 2 weekends ago. I completely forgot not everyone connects what they eat with how they feel.

Ack! I wanted to slam my head through a wall for missing something so obvious. This is true from children to adults. Food is taken for granted and we don't see it as the fuel for our bodies.

Remember the saying "you are what you eat?" All the dumb jokes aside - like you're nuts if you eat nuts - it's true.

Anyone familiar with Super Size Me? Excess of processed foods left Morgan Spurlock feeling horrible. While none of us consume McDonald's for 3 meals a day - I hope not - it still shows how food can affect mood.

Analogy? Sure thing.

Say you have a car that needs to get going as efficiently as possible. Would you fill it with the cheapest low-grade fuel there is? Or would you want it up and running like the fine machine it is using quality gasoline?

If it's not fueled properly (your body) then it won't run well. If it's operating poorly, who would be happy with that? People get frustrated by a slow computer, so imagine how your body is making you feel.

Quality foods contribute to better health. Vegetables, lean meats, nuts, seeds, fruits, you know what I'm talking about, the good stuff.

Eat good, eat happy.

Someone's sad for a banana.

Eat with your tongue, not your eyes

Lobster bean bisque.

A couple of weeks ago, I was watching Jimmy Kimmel Live, and he had as his guest, chef Gordon Ramsay (host of Hell's Kitchen). During the show he said,

"I think children become fussy because they eat with their eyes only."

He served his kids lamb brains on toast, but didn't tell them before they ate it. He told them after the meal, and they were pretty mad with him.

But, those are pretty good words to keep in mind.

Our eyes are used to see.

Remember that.

Eat with your tongue, not your eyes.

And this isn't just for kids.

Grocery store tips, plus tricks of a clever mom

Those better be frozen vegetables she's grabbing.

The majority of us have gone to the grocery store, no question about it. We need food, and other necessities. But, are you getting the most bang for your buck?

I remember my barber once jokingly say, "Times are rough." We were only talking about how even if an electronic is powered off, it still uses some electricity if it's plugged in (you can call PSEG if you don't believe me).

But still, anything helps when all is said and done.

So, I'll share some advice, tips, and tricks I've learned online and by tagging along to the grocery store with my mom.

1. Buy the Sunday paper and clip coupons for the love of god. It isn't difficult, and I was thoroughly thrilled to see a 55 cent coupon for almond milk this past weekend.

2. If you don't already, apply for your store's discount card. There are all types of savings by using it at every purchase, in addition to coupons with your receipt.

3. I've heard this one a lot. For food, shop around the perimeter of your store. There are occasions you need to go down an aisle or two for household items, which is fine and dandy, but don't travel through junk food land.

4. Nearly expired bread is cheaper bread. Just freeze it and defrost in the microwave.

5. Wait for it. Yes, I'm talking about sales. Got a big ol' tin of olive oil over the weekend, which cost less than the smaller container. Weird, right?

Here are a few of my mom's tactics.

6. Move quick. Get what you need and that's it. If you don't know what you need, then you may be more inclined to purchase "extras." Usually, I don't need a list, but it helps if you're going to buy a lot.

7. Look for the young teenage cashiers. Apparently, my mom tells me they're more inclined to scan any coupon or give you sales that may not be registering when an item is scanned. (more on this in the following points)

8. Use any coupon. The above said young teenage cashier will possibly accept an expired coupon or one that may be for a product, but doesn't meet the conditions, such as must buy 2 or buy so so to get half off. Hey, a coupon's a coupon.

9. Argue/debate. I've seen plenty of cashiers screw up way too many times. It's your money, don't get suckered.

10. Check the receipt immediately after your purchase. I don't know how my mom does it all in her head, but she does. See if the total is correct, if all deductions were taken off for the proper amount, and they didn't double scan anything accidentally.

Got your own tricks? Comment and share them with everyone else you sneaky person.

So, what are you waiting for? Get to shopping!

Food Adventures: Eggcellent marketing

Oh the deceit!

Real quick, some of you may notice the change from "shopping adventures" to "food adventures," mostly cause I thought it would be better to include other areas of interest besides the grocery store.

Now, for those of you who go grocery shopping, go take a look at the eggs. Most of them are probably marked "vegetarian fed eggs" or "100% vegetarian diet."

That's cool, right? That's what I thought a while back.

After I read the nutrition chapter in Never Gymless, it occurred to me I was quite ignorant, or maybe gullible (both I suppose).

Commercial chickens are fed soy, corn, and grains, which you would assume to be normal, but that's far from the truth.

The normal diet of a chicken is insects, plants, and seeds.

So, we see the egg industry is advertising unfriendly animal practices as a good thing that is somehow beneficial to your health.

This is similar to if we made a lion follow a vegetarian diet.

He doesn't seem too happy.

Tsk tsk, shame on you people. Such trickery is not appreciated.

Even organic-labeled eggs are marked as vegetarian. The grains are organic, but quite pointless when the chickens aren't suppose to be eating them in the first place.

From the 6-10 different types of eggs available for purchase, only 2 had no vegetarian diet label on them.

Next time you're about to buy eggs, take a quick look at what's on the packaging.