CHENNAI: Holistic lifestyle coach and author Luke Coutinho believes we have the tools for individual wellness built in ourselves and we only need to enable these habits. For the recent edition of Indulge Time Pass, journalist and author Kaveree Bamzai hosted the wellness expert to shed some light on finding the energy within. “I don’t heal anyone; my team and I, we enable people. Our bodies are built to fight the most severe viruses, but most of us can’t enable ourselves. People pay us for motivation, everyone knows what to do, they just don’t do it. If someone wants to lose weight in three months, I tell them you can start losing weight in a week, but are you willing to do what it takes,” he shares.
Sleep, he insists, is the numero uno factor that determines individual wellness and controls our body clock. “If you’re not willing to moderate your sleep, it won’t work. Most people sleep at different times every day, the body has a clock; it won’t support you if you don’t follow it; you won’t lose weight if you don’t improve your sleep. Our programmes are very educated, we don’t just hand out a diet plan, we teach them to understand how sleep helps you lose fat and how stress affects them etc,” he says.
A sustainable produce cycle, he emphasises, is a key factor in helping us improve our lifestyle. “I use food as medicine; farmers are important. They are providing us what we eat every day, and none of us want synthetic or hybrid items. I think most of us would love to depend on a sustainable food chain and acquire produce directly from the farmer. We are currently working on a platform to set this up and have involved many farmers. Our farmers just gave us a list of what grows seasonally and locally, and there’s so much to choose from. Like right now, citrus fruits such as pineapples, watermelons are ideal for consumption as they are rich in vitamin C,” he explains.
Veganism as a lifestyle choice might not be the ideal choice for all our problems and a sudden shift could damage our system, he explains. “I always go by data, I’m yet to see data which determines that vegans or vegetarians are healthier. I see sick vegans, I see sick non-vegetarians. I see some unhealthy people turn vegan, and they are so deficient, they have not supplemented their diets the right way. You need to transition slowly, especially if you grew up eating animal protein,” Coutinho insists.
He advises his clients to find a workout regimen that they can see themselves doing every day, be it dancing or walking. The difference between emotional and physical hunger must be understood to weed out binge-eating. “There’s a difference. If I start craving cupcakes and chocolates, and it’s a one-off craving I may give in to it. But it’s also important to be aware why I’m craving sugar, if I’m emotional or angry. If I think it’s raining outside and it’s the perfect weather for a hot chocolate I’m just going to do it. But coffee after coffee, cupcake after cupcake is just living mindlessly,” he says.
With a steady presence on Instagram, Coutinho helps his followers adapt a healthier way of staying connected to themselves. Exposure to social media has made it important more than ever before to consider regular periods of emotional detox, as there is a tendency to seek stimulation outside and not within. “If we are only connected outwards, everything that happens will affect you, you can be controlled by everyone. This happens if you’re not grounded inside and disconnected. You have to stay connected and know yourself. The problem today is everyone is trying to be good and perfect, but there’s lust, jealousy, anger and greed in all of us. We need to be in control of our emotions, if you’re not willing to change your environment no one can help you. If you’re too attached to the virtual world you’ll end up feeling empty and unhappy. Count your blessings and be grateful. And a grounding practice helps, it could even be prayer, or meditation but something that connects you to yourself, make it a habit,” emphasises Coutinho.