Festivals of fitness

The most exciting time of the year has already begun. And while the whole world gets ready for the fun and frolic, for most of us, the fear of putting on weight and, thus getting side-tracked from fitness goals, also starts to creep in. At the same time, who wants to hear the word ‘diet’ during this time of the year? No one! So, how can one find the middle ground?

Here are some festive eating dos and don’ts.

Do: • Practice portion control

Take a little of all you want and leave the rest for tomorrow.

• Make it from scratch

Made with fresh ingredients and lots of love, a cake made at home digests differently than a cake bought from a shop. You also have the advantage of playing around with healthier ingredients like natural sugar over refined sugar, better quality oil or fat over refined oils and trans fats, cacao over cocoa, and several others.

• Adopt circadian fasting

You can enjoy it all and still fast according to the circadian rhythm, the most natural and doable way to give your body a break—simple 12-hour fasting from sunset to sunrise. If finishing your meal close to sunset feels too early (because most parties begin late), maybe extend your fast the next day and only break it when you experience true hunger. If you wake up feeling heavy and bloated, it means your body could not complete its detoxification process and is still in elimination mode.

This happens when we eat late night meals. In such cases, honour your appetite and do not stuff yourself with breakfast. Instead, continue fasting until your real hunger kicks in. Drink plain water during the fast, and break the fast with lemon water and fresh whole fruits.

ENJOY YOURSELF, BUT SMARTLY. MAKE YOUR GATHERINGS MORE ABOUT BONDING WITH LOVED ONES AND LESS ABOUT FEASTING.

• Add some physical activity

Make sure you are not sedentary. You do not have to go to the gym, but stay active and move at the least. You could also include a four-minute workout called Tabata, a High-intensity Interval Training (HIIT) that needs no equipment. If you cannot do Tabata, because it requires a certain fitness level, then aim for 10,000 steps a day, do a couple of Surya Namaskars, or try bodyweight exercises. If you have celebrations planned in the evening, try to be active during the day and plan a morning workout. Workouts do not have to be for an hour; they could even be for 15 minutes, 20 minutes, or 30 minutes.

A week before the concert, the then principal of the college decided that “rock was the work of the devil” and cancelled the concert. So, a few students from St. Xavier’s and Farhad Wadia from Mirage, booked Mumbai’s iconic and now-shuttered Rang Bhavan as a replacement venue. They charged ₹20 as the entry fee, taking cash at the gate, and paid off the ₹15K band fee for Rock

Machine, ₹8K for Mirage, as well as the lights and sound for the gig.

The first edition of The Independence Rock Festival, a two-day music festival that was held annually at Chitrakoot Grounds and Rang Bhavan, Mumbai, since (till 2013), was born.

Iconic debut

“That day, at 6pm, there was a queue from Rang Bhavan to Metro Cinema. We had 4,800 people who bought tickets, besides the 200-300 people who jumped the wall to atten d the concert,” says Farhad, who was 23 years old then.

Today, nin e years after its last installment, Farhad, who moved to the US in 2013, and hence had to forgo organising the I-rock festival, is breathing rock back into the Indian indie scene, with the 28th edition of Independence Rock, now called Mahindra Independence Rock in Mumbai, which will play on November 5 and 6, 2022.

“I always thought that I would settle