Wellbeing

QI want to reduce my tummy in two months. I have also recently started to go on walks. What more can I do to lose weight?

AIt’s good that you have started going on a daily walk. Ensure that it is brisk and makes you huff and puff.  There is an exercise, if done regularly, that could help: it’s called the ‘plank’. Lie face down and lift yourself with your hands. Stay in that position for one full minute. This exercise needs to be done for only one minute every day for the first two/three weeks. Thereafter, it can be increased in duration to two minutes. Start eating more fruits and vegetables, reduce your consumption of saturated fats (ghee, butter, whole milk, cheese, chicken skin, fatty meats, bakery foods, deep fried foods) and increase your water consumption.

Parul Dube

QI am 17 years old and my hair is greying. Please help!

AFollow a diet rich in protein. Consume milk and its products and lentils, and, if you are a non-vegetarian, fish and chicken. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables — spinach, black chana, banana, apples, brinjals, nuts and grapes. Food rich in iron, calcium and phosporous is good for hair. Eat a teaspoon of curry leaf chutney every day. Curry leaves, when consumed, are known to arrest greying. Grind together some curry leaves along with a clove of garlic, some mint leaves, a small piece of ginger, and salt to taste.
Apply the following hair oil twice a week: take 100 grams of coconut oil, 100 grams of olive oil, 100 grams of almond oil and a tablespoon of castor oil.  Heat and add 25 curry leaves, 4 or 5 peppercorns, and 3 cloves of garlic. Remove the oil from the fire, cover and let it cool.  When cool, bottle and use. Don’t colour your hair, you are too young for it.

Dr Blossom Kochhar