DIET සාස්තරේ

It is an undeniable fact that lockdown has made us all ‘couch potatoes’. That’s why Rotaract Club of University of Colombo, Faculty of Management and Finance, went an extra mile to aid idlers like us, with Diet සාස්තරේ where two valuable sessions on quality nutrition and mental health were streamed via zoom and Facebook live on 11^th and 12^th of September, 2021. This initiative was conducted with the main objective of educating the community on the benefits and ways of how to maintain a healthy body and a wealthy mind.

Needless to say, our audience’s requirement was the assistance of a motivational or mentoring coach since our mental health is at its bottom state, thus Mr. Shuaib Jabbar, a renowned strength and conditioning coach was a suitable fit. The session kicked off with a kind reminder to all the participants to keep themselves muted, from the moderator, Rtr. Gimhan.

With a large number of heads turning up our guest speaker Shuaib Jabbar started the session in Sinhala saying, “නංගි කෙනෙක්ද අක්කා කෙනෙක්ද ඇහුවා මම සුද්දෙක් ද කියලා. මං සුද්දෙක් නෙමෙයි ඉපදුනේ ලංකාවේ, ජීවිත කාලෙම ඉඳලා තියෙන්නෙ ලංකාවෙ, So I’m more Sri Lankan than anybody else” reassuring that every detail discussed in the session would be relevant in Sri Lankan context.

Mr. Shuaib explained the fundamentals of the brain while emphasizing the importance of spiritual, mental and emotional health. He dragged our attention to admire the journey that will take us to our destination, through which he highlighted that progress is vital than being perfect. Our thrilled viewers were keen to know what grows muscles, to which he responded, “යකඩ ටිකක් ඉස්සුවා කියලා muscles එන්නෙ නෑ.”

“If two groups of people are tested by giving the same doughnuts and milkshakes but with 2 different descriptions, where one says it’s healthy, low calorie and the other says it includes all the calories. Later when their blood was tested what would be the result?” he asked the audience to gain the attention of the viewers, to which many correct answers flowed into the chat box unlike our university lectures, proving that we had an engaging audience. He specified that the group which had the description of unhealthy food had high blood sugar and high calories, while the other group indicated better health results comparatively. This was brought up to confirm the power of the brain.

Up next, was the Q&A session which helped the participants to clear their doubts and receive a proper understanding on the matters discussed during the session. Although questions kept flowing in, with the time not being in our favour it was a bit demanding to clear the doubts of all 250+ participants.

Just like that Diet සාස්තරේ marked a temporary halt leaving behind a motivated audience and adding value to a good Saturday evening.

Crowd’s favourite session, Diet සාස්තරේ Day 2 was purely based on managing proper nutrition. An outstanding professional rugby player in Sri Lanka who has reached heights in his profession, Mr. Shehan Pathirana being the guest speaker confirmed it would be another insightful session. Despite the SL vs. SA t20 match being played, an avid audience of 140+ participants were present, which we can think that Sri Lankans have lost faith in our cricket team.

The viewers were nourished with the knowledge on nutrition, starting from the basics to critical aspects like how to calculate calories required by an individual and manage calories. ‘How much calories should we intake?’ we never wonder the answer, instead, we rummage through the fridge and munch from time to time. It’s not gender, height, age or weight that decides the calorie intake, it’s the activity level. The use of graphics and presentation aids added more colour and gained the audience attention throughout the session.

The number of questions Mr Shehan Pathirana received were no match to the participants that were present. The two sessions that added excitement to the boring weekend during lockdown successfully wrapped up.

But beyond doubt, the quiz, which was next on the agenda was the most awaited moment of the participants. This one of a kind quiz, where the winner would take home a Rs 10,000 worth gift voucher from MUSCLE FACTORY, happened via the QUIZIZZ app. Due to the massive number of contestants, the quiz was managed in two rounds; a preliminary round and the final round. Isuranga Jayashan got all correct in all rounds after a super intense battle.

All good things must come to an end. So was Diet සාස්තරේ, which paved the path to a better physique, marked its conclusion solving burning questions of many.