Its such a pity that so many of us are quiet freaked by the idea of being by themselves; rather, spending time with themselves. I don't know how being by yourself got such a bad rep! She who never needs a teeny bit of alone time just to pause or work thought bubbles, I salute. Me, on the other hand hanker for some me-time every now and then and get quiet cranky if not allowed, so if you know me, it is wise to just let me be. I promise you, its not about you.  

Over the years I have been carving out some rituals that allow me this tiny break every once in a while. Whether it is to watch that movie no one else wants to or just sit in a cafe and  jot down some thoughts or read a book... But my all time favorite ritual is bus rides! Drifting off in thought as thick as the traffic, is my ultimate favorite. No one but me and a moving bus! Which gets me to my ultimate pet-peeve: chatty co-passengers while sharing a ride. Shush you! Its me time. Its sacred. 

Alas, no one gets it.

But I just outdid myself in this department by taking a weekend trip, with me!

OK, I'll confess it wasn't intended that way. The boy and me have a penchant for quibbling right before every trip and we kept with tradition. Hah!

So after moping through all of Saturday, I woke up Sunday morning all huffy and gruffy and decided, sod this! I am making this trip by myself. So what if I can't sleep alone in my loud city apartment...let alone in a quaint cottage surrounded by forest atop a hill! I'll be fine.

And fine, I was! Better than fine. Way, way better.

BREAKFAST WITH A VIEW

THE PERFECT READING SPOT

READING WITHOUT INTERUPTIONS

I would love to know if any of you have you done anything like this. Do you think its weird and pitiful? How do you manage to snag some alone time?

Hope you had a terrific weekend.

Love

S

This whole 'I-want-to -make-a-change-but-won't-stop-making-excuses-yet-will-continue-complaining' drama did so much damage to my mental health that it just had to stop! So my no-whining policy for 2015 made way for a no-excuses policy.

Address and solve is my solution.

Here are a few of my classic ones and how I changed them...

1) TIME


Not a morning person? Very few are. But, come on, there are twenty-four hours in a day! 24. It isn't impossible to do a little investigation to test what time motivates you the most to get off your ass. The time of exercise should not only depend on convenience but also factor that you are aware of why you want to start exercising and feel motivated rather than drudge it along like some chore. After years of not doing zilch and then making excuses every morning, I finally got off my ass a bit and started squeezing in a workout at some point in the day. Thanks to the erratic persistence, I discovered that working out around 3/4PM is actually the best time for me. Morning gets me groggy and evenings make me too hyper to get sleep. I am lucky to have an office gym which is accessible at any time but is usually packed in the mornings and evenings. That's how I started working out at 3.30 and it worked out great for me. I don't feel lethargic, feel sharper after I am done, it gives me a good break from the work stress so far and I get brilliant sleep!

2) PAIN

This can not to be ignored at all. Knee and lower back pain has been a huge issue for years. I happened to mention it to my yoga teacher once and she asked me to modify some of the asanas that exert the back and taught me a new asana that really helped. If you suffer from lower back pain the Cat/Cow pose is really helpful:


For any knee related issues, first check your footwear and then please consult an Orthopedist pronto! My diagnosis was pretty simple: over-exertion. Meaning treadmill, yoga, jazz classes all done simultaneously and then stopped altogether took its obvious toll. Plus, in my case, lack of nutrition meant no repair to the damages incurred.

So, (b) Avoid over exertion as mentioned here. My doctor gave me the following exercises that help strengthen weak knees:

A colleague suggested wearing a knee cap through office hours and that helps too. If the pain gets too much I use Voveran Emulgel. Its really really good. It doesnt have the horrible stench of OTC pain balms and acts really really fast.


I have come to realise that there maybe some merit in investigating these excuses. They maybe our mind's way of announcing discomforts we fail to notice. So be kind to yourself. Identify and solve the problem. Make one change at a time. And it will all get better. Eventually.

Love

Here's the thing. I know me all too well. Its always hunky-dory in the beginning and soon enough the fizz escapes. Excitement flattens. And its back to meh.

But this time I am going far and abound to trap my sneaky conscience and motivate it to remain strong. And to do so, I would like to introduce, the Carrot!

Let me explain. I order to motivate my lazy-butt to stick to my healthy-me 2015 ambition I have decided to dangle a carrot as motivation. AKA as a reward. Yes, I am that bad. Sue me.

At the end of every target I achieve I will treat myself to an item I am lusting after. Something that I won't generally purchase on a whim...something decadent, something special. 

And even though I don't have a target as yet, greedy me has chosen the treat for my soul. The much lusted, much needed....Urban Decay Naked Eyeshadow Palette!

Now Urban Decay does not retail in India just as yet but if you are persistent enough in your lust and search, the (web) universe will answer.

BeautyBay is the only store that has the original pallete. Elitify stocks pallette 3 at the moment and Flipkart stocks a mini version of pallete 3.

The one I want is the original one. I am not a make up enthusiast but lately I have been focussing on grooming and this pallette is my ultimate desire for minimal indulgences.

Pancakes is not a food native to me. It does not remind me of cheery Sunday mornings of my childhood or my mother's house. I don't possess a secret family recipe. But somehow, pancakes have come to be my breakfast de choix of adult life, spelling comfort and decadence and luxury. I blame over-exposure to American sitcoms.

Anyhow, last year, when I had to go glutten-free for a few months, the biggest blow was not being able to eat pancakes on Sunday mornings. After tolerating lots and lots of whining, my boyfriend forwarded me one of those internet forwards about two-ingredient pancakes. I had seen those but was totally convinced that it won't work but I was WRONG. The concept is GENIUS!

Click on the image below to get the recipe. I have tried these and they kept me happy for a long long time. I would add:
a glug of vanilla extract, a pinch of salt and fry on a non-stick pan thinly lined with butter. So easy, so yummy! And quiet guilt-free. The banana adds so much sweetness and juiciness that you don't miss the syrup, at all!


But every now and then greedy me craves the real stuff. Fluffy, spongy cakes doused in maple syrup...*dreamland*

Now I don't believe in deprivation and support moderation instead. So in honour of pancake day, I am sharing my DIY dry-mix which is the fastest way to make the fluffiest pancakes that will brighten a dreary, hungover Sunday morning.

For my easy, effing cheap, chemical free ready mix you'll need:

500gm flour
3 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
4tbsp vanilla sugar

Put everything in a jar and tumble. Store normally; no need to freeze. These keep good for a month or two months happily. But why would you store these that long?!

Now, a lazy girl would dump a cup of dry mix, one egg, a cup of milk, a dollop of butter into a mixer jar and give it a few good whizzes. Give the whisk a stink eye. Open jar, check, add a glug of vanilla and whiz some more. That's it. Ladle mixture straight from the jar onto the non-stick pan lined with a little butter. Enjoy with syrup, custard, jam, nutella....ah, its endless!

Just promise me you won't feel guilty while enjoying these babies. Adopt moderation not deprivation and that is my key to guilt-free happiness.

Love
S

Tell me you are not one of those people. You know, the ones who will spend hours at work to address all client issues to ensure a spotless delivery, spend nights to plan every detail of that housewarming party to the point of perfection (read: theme toilet paper!) but when it comes to yourself, you will settle to live with the little issues of daily life. That nagging lower back pain, those sporadic bursts of acne and their never-leaving scars, the dry disgusting cuticles, dark, flaky lips...all ignored in the name of not being vain.

I am not self-involved. To top it, I am lazy as a cat. But what I have come to realize lately is that it is not okay to sit with abnormalities, however small they may be and then keep complaining. I am the queen of self-hate and this self-critical-hatred has really taken a toll on my stress levels. Which I didn't realise until I started addressing these problems and seeking a solution. And let me tell you, this has been the most liberating experience of my life!

Lesson learnt. Instead of whining, this year I have sworn to address the issues that are bothering me. I have already started on my ugly hand & feet syndrome. Regular mani/pedi + some good hand and foot cream could well be the simple solution. Next on the cards is the sudden breakout situation I have been deferring thinking its just temporary. Two years is not temporary. I know I had flawless skin till about two years ago, but maybe that has changed and it wouldn't kill to findout, would it?

The guiding principle of self-love 2015 is to embrace the fact that my body (shape, skin, hair, teeth, eyes...et all) is probably not the same it used to be...and that's normal. It is required of us to pay a little attention to our body every once in a while and address the nags and wear-n-tear it goes through for a healthy life.

Love

As a follow up to yesterday's resolution, here is what I found: Nice and Easy is way to make the big changes. Duh, right? But here's the thing...

In the last four years, whenever I have started to take some measures of weight-loss, it has all been pretty drastic and simultaneous. E.g. quit Cola, eat breakfast, quit sugar, eat better, do random HIIT on the treadmill for 45mins erratically, then do strength training, then force to get a jazz split and so on, then attend yoga classes in office three days a week. The consequence is pretty apparent: I am still unhealthy, unfit and overweight and have major knee and ankle issues for going so badly overboard and so irregularly.

When I did my nutrition counselling in December one of the most disturbing things I was told is that because of being under nourished my body was unable to repair all the wear and tear I had inflicted on it and today I stand a huge risk of some grave, permanent damage. She had asked me to stop all my activities, give my body some rest and start slow.

So after the aforementioned motivation, I went for a thirty minute walk yesterday. And today I had a one hour yoga class. Result?

A.) No massive body ache which has earlier been a deterrent to continuing on.

B.) It is so easy to commit when all you need is 30 minutes!

Yesterday, I could squeeze in the walk from office to the train station on my way home. Today I plan to do my groceries walking. The satisfaction of achieving a goal is a double plus along with the endorphin from cardio.

With yoga, I chose to spend a bit of money for at-home sessions just to ensure regularity. Like this morning, when the bell rang at 7.50, I climbed out of bed thinking who the hell...! My jaw dropped when I opened the door. I had totally, utterly, completely forgotten about the class and over slept. But here's the best part- after profusely apologizing for 2 mins it took me exactly 10 minutes to freshen up and get started!

I feel stupid to have overdone it all these years. For me, I know this is the way to go. I am lazy. Like disgustingly lazy. And while I am good at whining, I think I have gotten into a bad rut of all complain- no action.

So for now, slow and steady it is. Once I form the habit I would definitely kick it up a notch.