Ask Great Questions – Part 1

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Welcome back to a Success with Srini. Happy Friday morning to you today the first of April 2022. As I’m recording, happy Fool’s Day to you, I’m not going to fool around on this podcast for sure, I’ll be very precise, very direct to the point. And my whole goal is to deliver value. So let’s get into this. If you are a regular listener of this podcast, you heard me talk about the power of questioning. And in the past, in the recent past, I talked about how we, as humans, wake up in the morning with one key question, one dominant question on our mind. And we spend the rest of the day looking for an answer. And we do that for days and months and years, and sometimes the entire lifetime.

The majority for success, whatever the outcomes we have in our lives, can be traced down to the questions that we asked very early on. So everybody’s asking the question, that’s the truth. This morning, you woke up asking the question. Tomorrow morning, you’ll wake up asking a question. That is the truth. the question becomes is this? How can we ask empowering questions? We know, questions lead us to answers. But sometimes, you just can’t stop by asking once you have to keep on asking multiple times, numerous times sometimes. So we know questions will open up the doors to success. The point is how. And in my earlier, podcast episodes, I also mentioned that most of us, wake up in the morning, with a negative question. Why is this happening to me? Why is it that I’m the chosen one for all this pain, all this suffering? Instead of saying why we should be asking how now that I have this problem now that I’m put in the situation? How can I reinvent invent or whatever? How is a very powerful question to ask why is later if you have an opportunity to ask the question, but how opens up possibilities in the mind? Why can’t kinds of puts you into the corner of the room, not a good position to take, you need to be in the center of the room? So on the front of in the front of the room? So you need to start asking questions that start with the word how. So Socrates was known for asking questions, she spent her entire life asking questions.

If you see great philosophers, great coaches, great mentors, people who are known for greatness, you see, they were asking more questions than they were answering. If you even look into your own life today, and you go back in time, 3040 50 years, and you arrive at a point when you were three or four or five years old, the first five years of your life, you kept on asking questions, you will learn everything, by asking questions. The more you observed, the more questions you asked, the more questions you asked, the more you were an observer through questioning, as a kid, you were engaged in critical thinking, through questioning, you were inviting innovation into your life. Through questioning, you were developing confidence in yourself as a kid. And through questioning, you started communicating. This was you as a kid, all of us as kids, we did this. So what happened to us that we are not asking the right questions anymore? Why is it that we are stuck with one question? I need to somehow make money. I have to pay this bill. I need to get this promotion. I need to buy a house. These are the costs I need to get a visa or a green card or citizenship whatever. We asked that question and we keep on in that loop. We spend an infinite amount of energy and time just trying to find an answer. There is no quick answer to those questions. There is the effort needed. So in self-improvement in coaching in self-development, one of the biggest challenges is how do you help people to break this mindset. And mindset is an important critical component for any level of success in any field.

And as a coach, I struggled with it and I will time I meet somebody who has a tremendous amount of skills and talents but then they are in a wrong pattern in their thinking how How do I break this pattern? How do I rewire them mentally, so they can see a better version of themselves? challenges that I face. So my purpose of today’s podcast is that I want you to start thinking as if you are a five-year-old kid, you’re hurt, just wipe it off, you soak it, you don’t remember, you’re hurt. But as you’re playing, you’re playing as a kid, and you were hurt, all of us were hurt. As a kid, we fell down, and we never quit. We did not quit, we went back into the same game. We played the same way. We had the same enthusiasm. We had the same energy levels. Why is it that as grownups, we don’t value it anymore? What has happened to the inner child? Well, in self-improvement, and personal development, we know that the inner child is there. But why is it that we don’t activate the inner child in a meaningful way. Now, at this point, we have seen the world we have lived in enough we have enough experiences, we shouldn’t be activating the inner child. And ask those questions. See, if I could go back and ask those kinds of questions. I want to be the dominating the existing world. So my challenge to you is this. My challenge to you is, to ask questions to learn more, ask questions to observe more. Ask questions to critically engage in deeper conversations, ask questions so that he can become an innovator. Ask questions so that you can become confident as an adult. And all these things you did as a kid. That’s all for now, on this podcast, I don’t want to drag this out. You go enjoy your Friday. And I’m going to come back tomorrow. And we’ll pick up a new topic. And I’m going to expand on this.

Let’s call this today’s episode, or today’s podcast part one. And then we’ll come back to the model. And we’ll talk a little bit about how to ask great questions. And you heard me talk about Ben Franklin, also Benjamin Franklin, you start his day asking the key question, like, used to wake up and say, today is a day given to me? What will I do? What great things should I do? Or will I do it today? So that today is going to count in my life. And at the end of the day used to wrap up the day by saying I was given this wonderful day today. And Did I do anything meaningful? That would count very profound, very distinct questions. You asked that for the next 30 days, you tell me how your life is gonna change. That’s like taking full accountability for everything. Those two questions, full accountability of everything. Amazing. See, I keep saying this on this podcast, so much information. So much knowledge, so much wisdom is available, but we just don’t make the effort to just somehow seek. If you seek it’s there.

Okay, I want to stop here you go enjoy your Friday. I’ll come back and do part two of this podcast tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Create A Graph That Will Aid Your Weight loss Progress

Here is the complete transcript of the podcast

Welcome back to Success with Srini. As I’m recording the podcast today, it’s March 31 and a small celebration is going on on the site, which is officially complete. 90 days of this podcast started first of January, and March 31. Little beyond 90 days, but three months have been done. When we started the podcast, my mindset was like, the last time I did a daily podcast has survived. till February 22, I was thinking, if I could somehow complete the month of February, then I keep success. And here I am. March 31. Still going daily. So thank you for your support. Thank you for your comments. Thank you for your questions. Without you, this won’t exist. So as I’m recording, I’m expressing my deep, deep gratitude to you. I’ll keep it very small.

To the point today, I’m going to extend the part from yesterday, we talked about metabolism, weight loss, how to stay active. As we are progressing as we are aging, how to stay fit. That was the discussion yesterday, I want to extend the discussion a little bit further today. On this podcast, what we’ll do is we’ll talk a little bit about weight loss and things that can be done in little finer details of weight loss. And again, you may not be looking to lose weight, that’s perfectly okay. But then you will definitely walk away with some nuggets. And who knows when we will need all these things. So please stay along with me, this will be helpful to you also, even if you’re not looking to lose weight right now. The first and foremost, when it comes down to crafting a good body is to have a graph. So we built a graph by taking data points. So we measure everything that we are taking in I talked about this yesterday. So we measure every one calorie, every one calorie we’re putting into our system. And we have scales, we have digital scales, we are manual scales. So go get a scale, and start measuring everything that you are taking again, do that for a month, you don’t need to measure anymore, because you can look at food. And you can precisely say look at the quantity and you can predict the calories. So once you get to that stage, you don’t need to measure. But then at least do that for 30 days. Then measure your weight. And I do that every day, early morning, empty stomach, before I put any calories into my body, I measured my weight. So I do that for let’s say 30 days. So I measure my input for 30 days, I measure my output for 30 days. So incoming calories, I measure outgoing calories I measure, I also measure my weight.

Now when I do that, I’m creating the graph. A graph provides a visual representation of our progress. One, it’s very motivating. And the second is it also changes our habits. They wake up in the morning you measure weight. Every time you’re about to eat, you measure the calories. Every time you burn calories. Like you go exercise, you measure the calories. That’s the first tip. The second tip is you got to plan your meals ahead of time. People who cook their meals typically lose weight. So weight loss happens in the kitchen, not anywhere else. So, people who depend on outside food, struggle to lose weight. So you cook the food. So how do you cook the food, you cook the food ahead of time, you know what you’re cooking, you know you pack your lunch, your dinner, and every other meal in between. So if you’re eating six times a day, you pack six boxes the day before, the day before, not on the day before. When you cook that means you’re planning your time. But then you’re also planning the nutrition so you know exactly what kind of ingredients you’re using. And all that. The next one, you do the same thing with snacks. So there are high protein snacks, good nutritious snacks available, snacking, just taking stuff from the counter wherever from the store. Any kind of snack is not a good thing. Snacking from the vending machine is not a good thing. You got to have options. If you’re trying to lose weight. If you’re trying to stay fit, you got to have options so options are that are incredibly amazing snacks available that you can buy ahead in time if you have to, and you can plan those snacks into your day, and in time, the same way you do with meals.

Then comes drinking. I did mention this yesterday on the podcast, water, obviously, but then occasionally there is this need, to drink something beyond just water. I highly suggest water. But then people asked me, you know if I’m not drinking water, what should I drink? Well, there’s no option for you for losing trying to lose weight, you have to drink water. But then I don’t suggest diet drinks personally. But I do occasionally do diet drinks. So if the taste is an issue, add some lemon into the water, people tell me that they don’t want to drink water because they don’t like the taste of water. So add some lemon, add some, some leaves, some you know, the changes the taste, if if you want. But again, try to fall in love with water. I would avoid sugary drinks, I would avoid carbonated drinks. If you avoid, then you’ll see your overall calorie intake will drop. But then if there is an extreme need for something you’re not yet there, but you would like to then try diet drinks I don’t recommend but then I do it occasionally here and there in full transparency. But then you’re caught. One last thing I would like to add to this discussion is people who typically lose weight and stay fit. And they do that over a long period of time are those people who are constantly reading about weight loss, who are constantly watching videos on weight loss, who are constantly having discussions on weight loss. So highly suggest that you start reading, watching, and discussing weight loss as much as you can.

That’s all on this podcast for today. Hopefully, this is helpful. If it is do me a favor, rate it, write a review. Share it with your friends and family. And if you have a question for me, 888-818-0404 is the number you can always text me. You can also call me on the same number. And leave me a message with your question and I will use your question as a voice drop and record a podcast episode as soon as possible. That’s all for now. Wherever you are, be safe. And I’ll catch you tomorrow.
Bye now.

How To Stay Fit As You Age

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Welcome or welcome back to Success with Srini. Today’s podcast episode is for you if you are concerned about your health, the upkeep of your body. Specifically, if you are aging, and you’re looking for ways and means to get back energy and strength in the face of progressively stopping metabolism. So simply put, we all are aging or metabolism is slowing down, and what can be done to reactivate the metabolism because it’s necessary that it has to be kept high. So that we can burn more calories, we can feel good about ourselves, we can retain energy, and all of that. Now, everything that I’m sharing here is the result of multiple conversations I had been having with a friend of mine, I see his physical activity, I see what he does. But I see that whatever he’s doing is not adding up. He was asking me and I also suggested a few things to him. today’s podcast is based on that conversation.

Now. First, in order to understand how to make all the activities we do like running, or swimming, or walking all that whatever that activity is, it has to count, it has to make an impact. If not, then we’re just wasting time. I’ve seen people who walk for hours and hours and hours together without any impact. Other than they get tired, they’re getting exhausted. But then the calorie burn doesn’t really make a difference. They tried to lose weight, trying to become active, but they get tired. And in order to burn calories, you need energy. So at the end of every exercise for feeling tired, you don’t feel rejuvenated, you don’t feel fresh, then it’s the purpose is defeated. So to really understand how our system works, it’s very simple. If you really take any weight loss or any fitness weight loss, specifically, we take that discussion, it’s very simple, you’re putting in calories into the body and you’re burning calories. As long as your calorie burn is higher than the calories you’re putting in, you probably have a good equation going for you. The challenge is, what kind of calories you’re putting in, and what kind of calories are you burning the nature, the quality of those calories matters. So this is where eating right comes in. And this is where burning right comes in.

What I’m sharing this with you from a deep understanding of the topic, at least based on my work, which is I have had multiple clients come to me in my hypnotherapy practice trying to lose weight. So even though I’m not a fitness trainer, or I’m not a certified nutritionist or any of that, I had to study this. And not only for my clients but also along the way from my own self, where I needed to. I needed a better understanding because I was working out I was exercising. And at one point, I was climbing mountains. So it was necessary for me to understand this. So what I what I’m sharing here with you is something that I spent a lot of time in. So good calories coming in, good calories going out. Now, most of the transport people do is they do what is called bloodstream calorie burn. So they take some sugar, or they eat something high-calorie diet. And they think that if I just go and run if I just work out for about maybe 30 minutes I go run or walk, I can take those calories out of my body. Now you, Yeah, you could, and it does take away calories. But then there are so many things happening to just not as simple as saying, Okay, I did put in 500 calories, I’m going to burn those 500 calories I’m done. It doesn’t work that way.

See, if you’re simply putting calories into the system and trying to burn those calories away by some small little activities here and there. And your goal is to lose weight, let’s say. That means you’re not really burning the calories that are already there in your system in reserves. So you can swap the calories out, but then you will not feel energetic. You will not feel good about yourself. You will not retain anything in the body. You feel tired by engaging in an activity and you feel good maybe at the end thinking okay, I put in 500 calories this morning. I eat a lot of sugary stuff. And then I burned those 100 calories by walking or running. Yeah, I hit the numbers. But then what? The tired you’re exhausted Then you probably go back the same behavior tomorrow, at least I see this with my friend. So what has to happen here? The first and foremost is you got to understand your metabolism, you got to understand that you’re eating. And as we are aging, we need fewer calories to maintain our body weight. That’s the biggest lesson in this is the older we grow the lesser calories, we need to maintain our body weight. Now, of course, in whatever calories we do take in, we need to take in nutrients that will energize the body. So putting in the right calories is important. So you can’t build a taste for junk food and food that activates your taste palate and all that you need to be very understanding of the exact food that you’re eating, for lunch, or breakfast or dinner, whatever your schedule is. And you need to understand the kind of calories that are going into the system. That’s one part of understanding.

The second is as we age, we lose muscle. And protein intake becomes an important part I see my father now at eight years old, he doesn’t have a lot of muscle left on his body. So his bones are hitting, you know, any surface is weak, and you touch his body, it just the bones. And as he’s walking his feet doesn’t have enough cushion with the muscle. So it has difficulty walking also now important to have protein in the body, at least a significant part of the intake for intake has to be protein. Now doesn’t matter how you get the protein, it’s your personal choice plant protein or animal protein, all that your choice, but protein has to be part of the meal. And also seen specifically, in my friend’s case, most of the times people, they measure their burn, but they never measure their input. So when you’re eating food, or you’re taking in diet, your diet, if it’s not measured, you do not know how many calories you’re taking in. So one of the changes that you probably should make, and which I do now for the last couple of years, is a measure of the food that I eat. Of course from the outside, I do not measure but I’ve become so good at measuring food that I can look at the quantity of the food and can tell how many calories I’m taking in. So I have a log on exactly how much I’m taking in and how much I’m burning.

Now the log is maintained through my Garmin watch, my Garmin watch does keep track of the food that I’m taking in, I just didn’t put that manually. And then my Garmin watch also measures the number of calories and burning which it does automatically to sensors. So the process is very simple. I measure what I put in, I measure what I burn. Now, between measuring what you’re putting in and what you’re burning, there is in between these two activities is your habits. Let’s talk about habits for a second. Okay, one of the habits is to eat more frequently small little meals throughout the day. So the energy levels are completely distributed. So at any point in time, the energy level is going down, you have a meal, you have a meal, you have a meal, so it spread out throughout the day. So your energy levels are consistently maintained from the morning, you wake up to the time you go to the bed. Now, the second habit is to always eat low-fat proteins that are high-fat proteins but low-fat proteins. Now you have to do your own research on this where if you are taking in high-fat proteins, then the body has to work twice as hard to burn. So lean cut meat, beans, fish, all that is low-fat proteins.

Then I’ve also seen people one of the habits is to load up on complex carbohydrates and I see people not doing this and shift getting more calories from vegetables, fruits, and whole grains rather than getting those carbs from you to know other sources. Then comes drinking water and I see people trying to lose weight not drinking water because they don’t like the taste of the water or they’re busy somewhere doing something they don’t have access to water or if they drink water then they have to look for a restroom everywhere they go. I get all the excuses. I will suggest to people to even carry a pee bag hydration is an important aspect of weight loss and fitness, you got to drink water. Again, how much quantity how frequently those are all for a different day in a different discussion. But it’s important that you focus on hydration. Now along the way, there are some other lifestyle changes that need to happen. The foremost thing is you can’t simply step out of the house and walk for 30 minutes and come back because you saw that you already burned 500 calories on your smartwatch. And you realize that you put in only 500 calories last night or this morning. So because those 500 calories are already burned, now you feel good about yourself doesn’t work. That way, your body has to burn calories while you are static. The key is to hit the static state. So if I’m not moving anywhere, I’m idle and sitting, I still need to be burning calories. And to do that you need to strength train, you got to train for strength. So resistance training comes in, you got to go lift weights in the gym, you got to go to Pilates, or you need to work out how many times you have to work out six times every seven days, that’s the formula. And you have to work out a point where you’re huffing and puffing. To get to that state, if you’re not getting to that state, that means you’re not really burning. So you got to be also doing some level of aerobic activity, running, cycling, swimming, burning calories because your cardiovascular system has to be activated. Like it would not be activated. If you don’t get to the state of hope that’s clear. And if I have to take this discussion a little further, then sleep is an important part. Stress is an important part. And then this process has to be monitored through your doctor.

So before starting any physical exercise and getting into an active lifestyle, I suggest that you talk to your doctor, get the blood work done, get the baseline in place. And then once you start working out exercising, or running or whatever, then you also periodically get the blood work so you know how you’re progressing along the way. Now, this is something I have been sharing with my friend. And my idea of doing this podcast episode is not only that, I document this for all the listeners of the podcast. But when I’m recording this, my friend will be listening to it obviously. It also motivates me personally, because I’m not working out six times a week anymore. So this is in a way as I’m listening to myself speaking here, I need to go back and do what I’m preaching here on the podcast myself, even though I’m doing some bits and pieces here and there. But then I’m not far away from my friend in terms of age, in terms of my metabolism. Luckily, I’m gifted with a great metabolism. So I don’t, don’t do what, as much as somebody else has to do. But then if I don’t take myself seriously, this gift of this great metabolism is also going to go away and who knows six or eight months from now. But I’ve added 20 more pounds to myself. So not a good position to be in. I don’t want to squander this gift of metabolic them.

So hopefully, today’s podcast gives you some ideas and thoughts that motivate you to go out and work out. take yourself seriously when it comes down to your body and your physical health. Hopefully, it does. The bottom line is this strength training a Rubix at a sensible diet will help you maintain the necessary muscle mass so you can get better control of your weight. And you enjoy your progressive years from this point on. That’s all for now. Wherever you are, be safe and I will talk to you tomorrow. Bye now.