Mr. Janak Thakkar’s typical day is atypical, to say the least. He is a fit, 60-year-old businessman from Mumbai, who has been exercising regularly for more than three and a half decades. His health goal is to lead a life devoid of health complications and he works towards it every single day. Everything about his real journey to good health (and life, in general!) is nothing short of inspirational!
Mr. Thakkar started exercising at the age of 25 and has never skipped a day’s workout since then. Wondering how he does it all? Let see what a day in his life looks like:
A day in Mr. Janak’s life
Mornings are, self-admittedly, his favourite part of the day. He loves how he is able to connect with nature through the serenity of the sunrise, the chirping of birds and the natural beauty of it all.
5:30 to 7:00 am: He wakes up at 5:30 am in the morning and starts with his morning exercise at 6 am. His routine involves 25 minutes of cardio, followed by a drink that’s usually hot water mixed with haldi and sometimes ginger or cinnamon.
7:00 to 8:30 am: Yoga and pranayama.
8:30 to 9:00 am: He freshens up and goes on to have a healthy breakfast, which usually includes a fruit and nut smoothie, or sandwiches accompanied by a cup of tea. After this he takes his daily capsule of Nutrova Kerastrength. He starts his workday at 9 am.
11:30 am to 1:30 pm: Eats a bowl of fresh fruits. Lunch is at 12:30 pm and well-balanced: it usually includes protein (like chana and sprouts), carbs (from rotis) and a bowl of raw veggies. Post that he takes a fish oil capsule and then a 15-20 minute power nap before resuming work.
4:00 to 6:00 pm: A short break from work with a cup of tea with some biscuits, after which he closes for the day at 5 pm and goes for an evening walk. If he is unable to go out for some reason, he makes up for it with a little yoga and stretching. After this, he eats a bowl of fresh fruits again and takes his probiotics supplement.
7:00 to 10:00 pm: He has an early dinner at 7 pm. He prefers a protein-rich dinner as well. After dinner is his recreational time where he spends time with family and attends his music class (few times a week). At 10 in the night, he ends the day and goes to sleep. He maintains a proper sleep cycle, where he sleeps for seven to eight hours every night (“without fail”!); this helps his body rest and recover, so he can begin afresh the next day.
Weekends
He is especially fond of weekends because that’s when he gets to spend quality time with his family, who are otherwise busy during the week. He also takes some of his free time to go out and socialise with his friends. He mostly travels during weekends as well.
Mr. Janak truly personifies the saying “early to bed and early to rise makes a person healthy, wealthy and wise”.
Good health, in Mr. Janak’s words
He believes that health has a different meaning for different individuals; for him, though, it’s a beautiful sanyog (balance) between a healthy diet, exercise and supplements. According to him, a healthy lifestyle provides guidance to the energy and all of the nutrients in our bodies. Eating a proper, nutritious meal gives him the energy to optimally channelize the effects of all the exercise and supplements.
Mr. Janak’s advice to those who are about to begin their own journey to good health:
“We have to spend some time on our body for it to be healthy. We can start small at first and then increase. For instance, I started with half an hour of exercise and have now reached 1-1.5 hours everyday.”, says Mr. Janak. “The key, however, is patience because the results take time, but once that happens there will be no looking back”, he adds.
When it comes to exercise, specifically, he advises combining different forms of exercise, to help optimise the results. For example, he does cardio and yoga every day. While cardio helps him stay fit, he believes it also makes his body rigid, restricting the flow of energy and oxygen through the body. Yoga, on the other hand, helps him stretch, which smoothens said flow. He says, “cardio and yoga go hand in hand”.
How he stays positive during stressed times
With all that’s going around, it can be hard to stay positive, both personally and professionally. For him, it gets quite worrisome at times due to his business, so he tries to stay positive through yoga and pranayama, which he believes also helps him stay mentally fit (science would agree, based on yoga’s proven benefits).
To sum up, he advises all to lead an active, healthy lifestyle and stay consistent, because good health opens ways for happiness.
We hope that this story inspired you a little to start your own journey to good health. :)
Are you on a health journey that you’d like to share? Because we are looking for inspiration! Please feel free to reach out to us, we’d love to feature you. Until then, stay healthy!
Leave a comment