Diwali Again!

This has been the third Diwali since I started writing this blog. Diwali for me has over the years become richer - in the sense- there have been more sweets, sweeter sweets, richer sweets and in larger quantities too and why yes the shopping bonanza.

This year, I was as usual skeptical about being surrounded by such temptations for the fear of gaining back what ever little I had lost by drastically reducing my eating after joining the new job.

The toddler kid was sick through the four days. First it was a bad chest cold and then some kind of a stomach infection that left him refusing food in totality!!! A sick child is usually enough to kill my spirits. And so I did enjoy a fair share of Diwali sweets, without over indulging.

On the shopping front, it was practically non-existent because we are still reeling under the effcts of what building a home does to one's bank balance :) So I happily wore the saree that the MIL had got for me and was done with that.

We however did a good round of temples in the neighbourhood, something that we have not done in a long-long time!!!

Back home, I know I should have started half marathon training again. The Auroville Half is slated for 9th February 2014 and I want to run it :) My runs have been reduced to weekend runs, and the gym has become a distant memory :( I do some home videos when I get time, but surely that is not enough!!!

How are you guys doing?

Ugh! I am tired to the bone, though I cannot see any other reason except for lack of sleep and am back to feeling like a bloated hot air balloon. The gas troubles seem to have become a permanent feature of my life! During the last week I had about 10 people living in my small apartment. Add to that overflowing availability of ghee laden laddoos, murukkus and other such condiments for the special Deepawali. I must confess that I did eat a small bit of the sweets. But everything was within reasonable limits of control. The only problem was that I ended up skipping eating during my usual snack time and am feeling like I might just burst right now.

 

After the awesome 12.5k run on Sunday, I did not get much by way of exercise on Tuesday and Wednesday. Monday evening was spent walking a lot in the mall. I returned to routine this morning with a 45 cardio session at the gym.

 

The temps had dipped this morning and my body was craving exercise warmth!In fact as I ran on the treadmill, I felt as if a small part part of me was just waking up and whispering a thankyou! I can only think of a warm bed into which I can cuddle up now and shall I dare say that I have another running event up in the corner - the Wipro Chennai Marathon is on 2nd December and I have signed up for the 10k. No tickets are booked. So I am not sure what exactly we might do. But whatever, I am still hoping to be able to do it.

 

The purpose was just to keep the holiday weight gain on tab, and hopefully there will be some use to all this running. I have not exactly weighed myself in thelast two days since I feel like a stone is distended from my abdomen.  But I did see a weight as low as 78.4 kg a couple of days ago!

I need to figure out the mechanics of my digestive system and get some relief soon. Hopefully I will back on the mend soon and can actively restart weight loss again. How was your Diwali, guys? Did you drown in the sugar syrup?

The great Diwali sweet making experiment!

This was my facebook status today:

the sweet making experiment is sooo over. Clearly cooking is not my forte!

What I might have forgotten to add is that: Only eating is!

Really after using up tons of butter, besan, sugar, ghee and maida, in my attempt to make something that atleast resembled a far far cousin of "seven cup cake" and "maida cake" , I just ended up with two platefuls of a sweet blob!!! Duh! My only hope is that somebody will actually eat it and will atleast save me of that effort.

For some reason, I feel so embarrased! I hate it when something I put so much effort into turned its back on me! In my old self, I would have cried about the disaster! But this time, I can't contol my laughter. I just find it so funny that I am so pathetic when it comes to cooking! Clearly my son and the Scientist have a helthy future ahead!

In other news the 12.5k is like day after tomorow!!!! Yikes. The yoga class I planned on attending today was cancelled. The gym seems to be closed!!! I might do a short run and some good stretching tomorrow in preparation for the big day. Hope I don't bungle up like last time.

Enjoy the festivities, guys. But I expect to keep blogging this weekend :)

Battling the eating demon

My aim at the beginning of 2012 was to get to goal weight by August 2012. My aim, right now is to get to goal weight by February 2013. I hope that I will actually make it, and not reschedule goal date, once again. Yes, I am getting there. But the fact remains that I am not yet there. Of course, physically I am working towards it. But when it comes to food - Oh wait a moment, The demon inside me awakes and simply takes over. No rationality including the fact that I very well KNOW that I cannot out exercise a bad diet helps EVER.

So what do I do to say no to the foods that put my eating out of balance? Just DONT bring them home. Period. Even if I bring the said foods home for the toddler who example likes rusk, I end up eating more of the said food than the toddler. And remember the Mysore Pak that I carried home from Chennai for the Scientist. I most certainly ate more of it than he did. In fact, even in the dead of the night, my brain was saying : Eat mysore pak. Eat mysore pak. As if I had never before in my life.

Not having the food around is the only way I can deal with this.

And oh, if the weighing scale shows a gain, I will stay off. But not if I'm maintaining. I trick myself into eating on the argument that I will run 10 kilometres and it will be a great secret that I polished off all that food! Obviously I am a lawyer!

And that relentless talking to myself. Lose weight. Lose weight. Lose weight. Seriously, I should have been drowned long ago in that thought! Thankfully its a metaphor and I only just started doing proper stuff about actually losing the weight. You see, thinking and doing are TOTALLY different!

So yes I have killed the mysore pak demon for now, and before Diwali rolls around bringing with it sweet festivity, I would hopefully be a few more pounds down! So, what plans for Diwali?

Diwali and the Eating Disaster!

Am back after Diwali of 2011. Besides being unable to believe its actually over, I am kind of grateful that the eating rampage I went on has finally come to an end. We were back in town the day before yesterday, and the amount of veggies I have eaten in the last two days put together, has given my digestive system a great relief.

While I did tell and cajole myself a whole lot about how I have eaten plenty of sweets all my life and how hard I worked to reach my Diwali goal weight, and therefore I should really stay away from those sugary atom bombs, all went in vain, and I have regained about two kilos. The only difference this time was that, after having eaten healthy for a consistently long enough period of time, the sweets I ate really made me feel sick. I did not enjoy it, but kind of fell in a compulsive eating trap.

There is no use fretting too much about it or punishing myself for the heinous crime. Hence I will just go back to my healthy eating ways and exercise.

I have been also thinking about keeping a food journal, and know that it will be very useful weight loss tool. Lets make that the goal of November 2011- keeping a food journal.

When I decided to take on a serious weight loss attempt  in September 2010, I chose to follow the South Beach Diet, because it appealed to me, for being able to lose weight while not starving myself. Although the last one year has been rather like a ping pong, I have managed to lose 15 kilos. The South Beach Diet is divided into 3 phases. You can read more about it here. Following the sugar attack I subjected myself to last week, I have restarted phase 1. I have modified the SBD to suit me, which means that basically I have made an Indian vegetarian version out of it. I have tweaked several standard recipes to make them SBD friendly. And I must admit that it has suited me well. I am not a qualified nutritionist or dietician. So I might not be right in what I do. But I can say this Indian vegetarian South Beach Diet way of eating has really helped to work away my sugar cravings, and has taught me to eat healthy. It has done me more good and no harm, and therefore I think I have finally found the diet that works for me.

As for exercise, following the fractured feet, I could not think of running or walking. And so I purchased an Elliptical, that has been a fine investment so far. It gives me luxury of getting a cardio work out at home. So I have no excuse of being not able to get out or hit a gym. With stretches before and after the elliptical work out, I manage to give about 25-30 minutes to moderate aerobic activity atleast 6 days a week. I want to rev it up a bit, but am going to wait for some time until that happens. More about that later.

That apart, I took a week long holiday for Diwali and spent quality time with the Scientist and Chittu, and with all the goodies and festivity, this Diwali was a rocking one!! How did you spend your diwali? Lemme know.