The pandemic has made all of us keenly aware of our health and overall welfare. Last week, YFLO Kolkata hosted Luke Coutinho, the celebrated holistic lifestyle coach, for a session titled ‘Holistic Health and Wellbeing’, at ITC Royal Bengal.
The session started with an overview of what holistic well-being broadly entails. Luke emphasised on the importance of getting to the root of problems to solve them more comprehensively. Such as, if one has sleeping problems, it is important to explore where it might be stemming from and if there are any other issues that’s interconnected with it. Throughout the length of the conference, however, he repeatedly emphasised that everybody has different needs and different “ideal” routines that would suit them better than an overarching schedule.
When it comes to food, having the rainbow diet can help as it is crucial to have balanced meals. “The colours on your plate mean that there is diversity of micronutrients. The more colour you have, the healthier you will be,” he said. He also highlighted the goodness of Indian food, especially because we are more suited to them. Luke stated that depriving yourself of food while dieting that leads to cravings, does not work.
With incessant travelling and partying becoming a trend, he also went on to mention that we must evaluate whether these activities are really making us happy and are actually needed and where we should be drawing the line. Moreover, he also mentioned how social media can become destructive if we become a “slave to it”.
The session ended with the enthusiastic audience asking their questions which ranged from how to plan the diet for children (it is different for everyone other than a few basics which applies to almost every child, such as less sugar) to tips to fix sleep cycles.
“It’s always good to be back. We have a lot of patients from Calcutta and it’s been good to connect with them face to face after the pandemic. Physical meets are always better because you can see them and interact more. I like spreading awareness, because what I learn from my patients every day, I think it should be shared. That is the best preventative medicine,” said Luke.
Pictures: B. Halder
What they liked:
“My brand is focused on wellness and Luke is right at the forefront of it. All the women here are taking steps to take good care of their health and it’s really great to see that” — Neha Garodia, founder and CEO, Goodness
“It was awesome! I really loved listening to Luke and he is one of my favourites. I am a regular at YFLO conferences and this one was great as always” — Jyoti Agarwal, owner, Refinery 091
“After Covid, we all realised that immunity plays such an important part and Luke is at the forefront of it. He is someone who focuses on various aspects like food, exercise, emotions, in a very accessible way. And he talks about small wins, which is something that is much easier to do than following a long list. Since a lot of us follow him on social media and we were inspired by him, we wanted to get him to YFLO, to give the members a chance to interact with him” — Soni Jain, chairperson, YFLO Kolkata