I have surprised myself this past month. And proudly so. Well, not entirely but then I always forget to acknowledge the good and harp on the bad stuff.

So first up, I attended all but one yoga classes that I had scheduled for February. Yes, it was just
twice a week and she came home but even then I did have reasons and/or excuses to cancel. But except one class that we just couldn't reschedule, I followed through. 

Result: I started out completely frigid which freaked me out a great deal. I am usually flexible (atleast, used to be )  but months of doing nothing meant I couldn't even touch my toes! Good news is by the last two classes I was beginning to feel limber. Much! So yeee me!

Secondly, I like that I have returned to this space every once in a while and let out what I am thinking. I have a follow-through problem which I am working on so I feel good that I have come this far.

After the yays comes the nays.

Eating has been terrible this past month. Because of the chilly mornings I have been getting out of bed as late as at 9AM. Which meant running around wildly to reach work and skipping breakfast. SO AWFUL! It wasn't everyday but most days. Then my lunch-service lady was being irregular as well. So overall, terrible.

I also got over-ambitious and added 30 minutes of walking everyday which fell flat in three days. Literally. By the third day my knee was killing me and as it would be, I fell face first on the pavement and that was that. I had to cancel two Yoga sessions and rest my knee a bit but my takeout was that I probably shouldn't do physical activities on a day-to-day basis until strengthen my knees. 

This brings me to the plan of action for March.

BIG step! I have hired a personal trainer after great deliberation for almost two weeks.

After a LOT of deliberation I took the leap. Wish me luck. I will share my plan if it helps you.

Since I slacked in the eating department I am not counting getting back as a goal. So my eating right goal in March is NO COLA!

Its been three days and its Cola 1- Me 2. 

My weight as on 28th Feb is 67.9KGS. 

Good luck, me!

In an earlier post  I had talked about how all good intentions of getting healthy are usually met with stronger than steel excuses that are sometimes are worth taking a deeper look into but mostly they just plain lazy excuses. Period.

Its been six years since I have been on this whine. I noticed my overweight at 55. Today I am 67. What I consistently done in these 6 years is whine and worry about this. What I have not done is an honest to god effort. And the top two excuses were...*drumrolls*

TIME  AND  PLACE.

Time: There are 24 hours in a day. My dermat pleaded me to just do thirty minutes of brisk walking promising results good results not just for my skin but overall wellbeing. Thirty minutes from twenty four hours! Can I give you some more good news? This doesn't have to be everyday. Thrice a week is all she asked for. Its not it. But its a start.

Let me break it down further: there are 1,00,800 minutes in a week. One lakh and eight hundred!

And all we need are just 90 minutes. Ninety.

If we cannot manage even this much then its all just sham isn't it?

Place: Not everyone has the means to pay for a gym membership. Gym memberships cost more than my monthly rent these days. And lets say you do manage to get the membership, there is no guarantee you'd actually get there. Ask me, I cringe at the thought of how much of my hard-earned monies have gone to waste over the years out of sheer laziness.

And let's say you are this awesome soul who dedicatedly reaches the gym everyday. Gyms nowadays are seeing so much traffic that the common slots like early morning or early evening are terribly crowded that you end up waiting around for a couple of hours to use 45mins. Everyone may not have that kind of time to accomodate this.

Basically, what I am trying to say is, excuses will be in plenty. But if the intention is there, there is a way.

If there is even a small part of you that relates with this then please let me tell you, its not worth it. The worrying and whining when actually not making an honest effort...all you'll gain is depression and more weight. Its all I think about and its all I feel guilty about day in and day out. That's no way to live. I am making an effort. I could use some motivation from you.

Try this. Start with two sets a day. See how far you can go by end of month.

START.

Let me know how it goes.

Love

S

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