How I became a Loser !

Are you the kind who is struggling to lose weight? Are you constantly concerned about the excess fat on the body? If you answered yes to either of these questions, you are a lot like me. I came to the USA about 5 1/2 years ago. The first year was exciting. The new lifestyle, the independence; life in general was quite overwhelming. The year passed and little did I realise that I was heading towards a weight issue. Well, I had to react, and fast. Luckily for me, I have had an active life. Although I was never an athlete, I always tried to play a lot of games and be involved with sports, while in school and college. At home, there were always several chores to do, and that helped me sweat it out. So the body was ready for the physical work. It was the mind that needed to be cajoled. Not merely at exercising but also at following an appropriate diet. I had to lose the weight, but also in the right way. I could never starve myself to shed some pounds. That just wasn't me. I had to up my metabolic rate and balance it out with a healthy meal plan.

The first couple of years, involved me just doing a lot of cardio-vascular exercises. Working out on the stepper and the elliptical were not that hard. Initially I tried to completely cut out the high calorie foods. But that didn't work out. All I did was just build up the craving, and then pig out. So, I decided to give into temptation but do it via portion control. It seemed to work. So, I was eating proper meals everyday, doing a lot of exercise, and trying to exercise portion control with the bad foods. Still, things were not satisfactory. There needed to be a change in the plan. As a reader, you are bound to think that I should have probably enrolled myself in one of those weight loss schemes or just hired a personal trainer to help me out. Well, being a grad student on a meagre salary, that just wasn't possible. And also, I preferred learning this the hard way. I felt it would provide me with some important experiences for life. Anyways, I needed to change my exercise routine. Several websites will tell you that doing the same activity daily would make the body just get used to it and eventually you wouldn't be burning that many calories as you initially did. Hence I decided to start running. In the beginning running half a mile at 5 mph was an ordeal. I just wasn't enjoying running since I couldn't do it very well. I yearned to be like some of those people who could run for miles on the treadmill. I knew my stamina needed to be built up. So I joined the group fitness sessions at the K-State Recreation Center, popularly known as 'The Rec'. The kickboxing classes, the step aerobics classes. They all helped. They were tough, but I had made up my mind to push myself. Slowly I could notice an increase in stamina. Soon running a mile at 6mph was not that hard.

I also figured out that other than just good ol ' cardio, I had to get some strength training into my schedule. Strength training is said to help increase the Basal Metabolic Rate, so you burn more calories even while resting. With respect to my meals, I almost always skipped breakfast. Lunch and dinner were my big meals. One day, while browsing the web, I encountered this phrase; "Eat breakfast like a King, lunch like a Queen and dinner like a Pauper". There was a ton of truth to this. My diet need some major overhauling. I began to eat fruit and drink a smoothie/eat yogurt for breakfast. I made sure I ate a fairly big lunch. Dinner was reduced to cereal. This worked like a charm. Losing the fat, finally happened. My running still didn't satisfy me. I wanted to run more. So I decided to reduce my speed and pushed myself to run atleast 2 miles. Slowly I graduated to running 2.5 miles and then finally could run a 5K. The speed needed some improvement. 6 mph has been my maximum so far. That is when I made a decision to train myself to run a 10K. My training has been quite intermittent. The most I have run is 4 miles. But I am certain I will reach my target fairly soon. My diet is also undergoing a small change. The aim is small meals, several times a day, with each meal being less than 500 calories. I haven't been that successful at implementing it so far. There is still more weight to lose, but I am somewhat happy with the progress I have made. I have set my sights on getting into shape to be able to run a marathon. But that is sometime in the future. I will encounter some plateaus in my exercise routines for sure, but I know that I can overcome them. For now I just want to revel in the present!

Bon Appetit !

Anyone with even a vague knowledge of me will definitely agree if I say I am something of a "foodie"!! Although not in the exact sense of the term, I must emphasise that I display an awful lot of zeal when it comes to eating. I am definitely adventurous with respect to vegetarian food but when it comes to devouring varied species from the animal-kingdom I do possess some boundaries. However I can recount maybe a couple of experiences in the past, where I have ventured, both knowingly and unknowingly beyond that realm. Some of the restrictions that I exercise are, that non-vegetarian food be cooked very well. I think its a better option too, health-wise, what with e-coli doing the rounds (do they thrive in meats ??) . Also, sea-food is mostly limited to fish, shrimp, crab and lobsters. Calamari, I have eaten once. But I am quite averse to tasting clams and mussels. That mental block is attributed to some of the stories I have heard from my mother, who by the way is extremely picky about non-vegetarian food and therefore is the odd one in my family of extremely carnivorous people. With that little introduction out of the way, let me proceed. Oh and just in case, a disclaimer, before you read on. If my blog appears to be offensive to you, especially because of my comments on certain foods, please remember, that it is purely unintentional and merely my manner of expressing my feeling. In any case I apologise for the same.

A few months back I was on a holiday, with my family, to Malaysia and Singapore. My mother is extremely familiar with Malaysian and Chinese food and she cautioned my dad and I to be judicious about what we sampled. Foods known to her, were ok. Strange new foods, were to be eaten at our own risk. I abided by that rule for most of the trip, until the last 2 days. My dad, who is not a big risk-taker, atleast when it comes to food, stuck to eating Indian food during the entire trip. He was happy eating sambar, rasam, chicken curry, fish fry, biriyani and the like. So it happened one evening, after shopping, that we decided to stop at a food mall for dinner. I must mention that I have never seen a larger array of South-Asian and South-East Asian eateries in one place before. My mom and I decided to get some food from a Chinese place. I picked an extremely appetizing-looking fried-noodle item, with my mom choosing a coconutty-noodle dish. Whilst my order was being prepared, I went over to the Indian eatery to pick up some biriyani, as usual, for my dad. As the waiter, was serving up the biriyani, I happened to glance at the menu on the Chinese restaurant next door. Right there, in bold letters, calling out, was this dish of "Pig-Organ's Soup". There was also a picture right next to it, just in case the 3 words didn't express enough already. You could see chopped up pieces of different organs, cooked I hope, floating around in boiled, lightly seasoned water !! Once again, my reaction is something similar to what a vegetarian with no knowledge of meat, would think about me enjoying a dish of yummy chicken curry, maybe ! I hope you guessed by now, that my large appetite, became something of a memory. So I trudged along to hand off the biriyani to my dad and hoped to wash away that bad moment, with the yummy fried noodles. But no matter what, that image of the soup still lingered over my mind's eye. Still, the optimist that I am, I eagerly walked up to pick up my food tray and what do I see. The yummy fried noodles is on the side and right in front of my eyes, is this big bowl of steaming soup. Floating around in it, were weird pieces of meat !! So I guess you all must have figured out what eventually happened. The yummy fried noodles, no longer appeared to be yummy. My folks were nice enough to taste the soup and deem it fit to eat. But nothing helped. The chicken biriyani didn't do it for me either. So that's how I lost my appetite that day and ended up drinking fruit juice for dinner.

Keep in touch !

Over the past few months, I have been hooked onto Orkut. It started off with a friend sending me an invite about 2 years back. I wasn't really keen on being a member then and thought that it was one of those sites, where if I join, my inbox would be bombarded with spam on a daily basis. Anyways, I created a profile, uploaded my picture, and then my profile lay dormant for several months. But during the last 6 months, a frightful frenzy of activity from my friends, caused me to keep up. Have you ever felt, how during certain phases in life, like when at school or college, we make good friends with whom we hang out and spend a lot of time. However as time passes and we move away from them, and all contact is gone, it soon becomes a case of "Out of Sight, Out of Mind". But when you somehow meet them again, you tend to wonder, "How did I even forgot this person? I knew him/her so well. " I must mention that I do a good job of keeping in touch with friends, as long as its possible. Nevertheless a few have managed to slip through and then all knowledge of that person is gone. Orkut has allowed me to sync up with exactly those kinds of people. Just in case you are wondering, I am not campaigning for Orkut. It is just that I have beem amazed at how it all works. For example, I had a friend who left school when she was in 7th standard, with whom I used to hang out with quite a lot. Over the past 15 years I have remembered her, maybe, a few times and wondered where she is, but that was the end of it. A few weeks back, I get a friend request from her and she emails me asking if I remember her. It was such a pleasant surprise ! Childhood, for several of us, has been extremely wonderful and joyous. Hence getting back in touch with someone who was part of life back then, floods the mind with so much nostalgia and that is such a pleasant feeling.

Weekend Update

Its only Monday and here I am, ready for the weekend already ! The past weekend had been pretty busy. Friday was spent playing Poker, as usual at Praveen's place. For the first time, Sunil won a game !! He was pretty excited about it. He usually is in the top 3 but this is a first for him. Saturday morning had to wake up early to get some chores completed. It was mostly a rainy, cloudy dull day. Weather for some reason has an effect on my morale. A nice sunny day and I am chirpy, chatty and enthusiastic. On the other hand dull weather makes me sleepy and lazy. I suppose it is the case with a lot of people. I spent most of Saturday afternoon watching TV. In the evening had to go to some friends' place for dinner. We were 5 of us who had been invited and the evening was spent chatting, eating good food followed by more chatting. Please visit Sunil's blog for a lucid description of the evening ! Lol !! After dinner I came back by 10 PM, and started watching InsideMan. The main reason I rented it is because people mentioned 'Chhaiya Chhaiya' being the title song. I was surprised to find almost the entire unedited version being played. Wonder what prompted them to choose that song !!! Nevertheless the song is one of my favorites. The movie however was quite blah ! Although the director has built up a good tempo for most of the movie, the ending is a big letdown. Its basically disappointing fare except for the few shots of Clive Owen's visage (would have liked him better without the stubble). After watching the movie, I went over to a friend's for her birthday. Desis, especially students, have this habit of creating a ruckus on someone's birthday !! It always happened while I was a student and am sure it will be carried on like it is some sort of revered tradition !! Why ever !! However there seems to be some enhancements to the tradition. Candles on the cake are old-fashioned ! Apparently the trend nowadays is to smear cake onto the head of the person celebrating the birthday, and then top it off with some more cake and a lighted candle. All this will be accomplished by the freeloaders attending the birthday party a.k.a friends, while the birthday girl/guy co-operates, hoping and praying that the lighted candle does not burn any hair on the head. In total, it was fun and I managed to eat some cake before I got home.Sunday was spent visiting my uncle, aunt and cousins. I always have a good time when I visit them. The good time includes yummy food, loads of gossip and a lot of fun !! The rest of the day as usual was spent in front of the TV. Overall, it was a nice weekend and here's hoping that the next one is gonna be even better !!

Four of a Kind !

Due to a sudden impulse generated at around 2 AM tonight, brought about by extreme luck at a Poker game, I decided to start blogging. I know this first line sounds odd; so allow me to fill you in. Of late, I have been thinking about blogging, inspired by several friends who are active bloggers. However, I always held myself back, citing reasons such as lack of content or creativity or just plain laziness. Hoping that this surge of enthusiasm will last me through to the final word, I will elaborate on my comment about the Poker game. It being a Saturday night, I got together with my friends to play our usual game of Poker. Every Poker game is a 'full-house' of 11 people, but due to the absence of a chip donor and 3 others, we had to play with a reduced number of chips per person and just 7 people in all. The first game went on as usual and I managed to pull through to the end (the top 3) with a few decent wins, and a sizeable amount. The second round of games started off slow, and one of the aggressive betters started off by winning a big hand. Thinking that I was doomed, especially since I've lost to him several times in the past, I was quite apprehensive about the future of my plays until the unexpected happened !!! A new round started, and I looked at my cards to discover a pair of Kings. Thrilled, but unfortunately unable to express myself, I bet as I thought wise. The flop revealed spades and the chance of a flush was looming. But I decided to take my chance and continued to play with the presence of a King in the flop. Hoping that no one has better than 3 Kings, I began betting aggressively. One of the players was already all-in due to lack of funds to bet further. The other player was also betting huge amounts with a pair of 9's. The turn card revealed another 9 and she was in with 3-of-a-kind too. I still had a better chance of winning the pot, until the river card happened.Lo ! it was another King. Amazed at my luck and deciding to capitalize on it, I decided to slowly lure the other player into the game. She was high on the occurrence of a full-house, but little did she realise, the wonder that I possessed. I bet and she bet and finally she was all-in. When it was time to claim the pot, I did so without further ado, revealing the Four-of-a-kind that I had with me. No one expected it and this was a first time in our Poker games. I am still quite surprised with those cards, and if you play Poker you will understand my excitement. I must add that I ended the second game by winning it all.However in the end the magic belonged to those 4 Kings !