Pacing, puris for brunch and books!

I usually don't post on Saturdays, but I simply HAD to share this:

I headed to the gym for pacing practise. I am working on speeding up my running. So I made puri-aloo for breakfast and dashed out after snacking on a granola bar. I promised myself puris for breakfast if I did well!! And here's proof:

5k in under 40 minutes!!! Progress!!!!

 I came back home to enjoy my breakfast and find my flipkart parcel waiting for me:

Pure joy!!!

Remember at the beginning of 2012 I vowed to begin reading again. My reading habit really slackened after the baby. But I have managed to read some fine books this year! My book preferences are usually fiction by Indian writers. And NO, I don't mean the Five Point Someone types. A bit heavier fiction on the lines of Amitav Ghosh (most recent) or David Davidar is to my taste :) Sorry, hope I did not bore you guys!

But as I said I just had to creep in here and share. How is the challenge going guys? Yes I ate puris for brunch and then Semiya (Vermicelli) Upma for dinner, which is not exactly diet food. But I have also been fighting major sugar cravings and gas problems :(

And oh! the Progress Pictures page is finally updated. Thanks, Smitha! I needed that push!

Weekend Update - resting, socialising and mental therapy!

The heading pretty much sums up the weekend for me. My I-dont-feel -too-good days last week were the result of the hormones at play. I took 4 full rest days, not bothering with exercise and by last night the guilt was just eating away my brains. Also my body seems to have settled so much with the idea of "exercise" that I find it is unable to cope without physical exhaustion! I was finding it so hard to fall asleep these last few days, that I lay awake much after the Scientist and Chittu had dozed off. But  I finished up reading "The Sea of Poppies, by Amitav Ghosh" and really loved the book.  The amount of research that must have gone into writing that book was phenomenal. It sounded so authentic and so real, it might not have been a story, after all!

 

Anyway, that apart, my mental fog has cleared up now, and the reason could be  a. that I sized up and did an 8k run this morning or b. that the monthly cycle is over. I really struggled this time, I don't know why!

 

Sunday morning was spent cooking an elaborate meal for some guests :) And Sunday evening was spent socialising with the Scientist's colleagues. I had enough leftovers to see me through the morning today, and less cooking on Monday morning, truly makes life simpler. Don't you think?

 

On the SBD front, I am doing pretty ok, I guess. I am not 100% abiding.  I took my tea with sugar, until this morning when I used splenda, and decided the tea was not palatable. I have stayed mostly grain free - rice & wheat included, except for yesterday's roti. Sugar made its way into my hot cocoa and also in a laddoo I ate. I have wavered a bit.Or may be more than a bit.  But I AM trying to stay as focussed as possible. It sure is hard to say NO to sugar when every cell in my body is demanding it! Its like an addiction I guess. But I am trying to fight it off! With exercise picking up again this week, I think the relatively stricter food habits will show good results. I am going to try to sustain this as long as I can. I know I will never have a perfect food day or a perfect body or a perfect anything. There will always remain something to be desired. But it sure is fun to get better everyday, right? I've long ago left the person behind who always sought out an all or nothing philosophy! Either I did it all or I did nothing. But now I'm aiming to find a mid ground and be more forgiving to myself when I don't be as perfect as I expect. I try to see the next minute as a new opportunity, when I need not gobble up all that candy we brought home from the US. Did anything I just said make any sense?

 

Phew! What a start to a Monday morning! One week to Diwali. What plans?

 

Whirlwind weekends are back?

When I said I was going to take the power yoga in my last post on friday, I was really hoping I'd not find an excuse to skip it. So even though the Scientist was home early, I decided to suck it up and just go for the class anyway. I was sweating by just doing breathing exercises. Power Yoga. More power to it. That reaffirms my belief that:

1. the hardest thing about working out is getting your butt out of the door

2. you NEVER regret a workout - EVER

 

So, upon return I was a happy hen and settled for dinner with someleft over carrot soup and dosas. The baby slept early, and even though going for a movie was an enticing prospect, we had to skip it , for the Bangalore Bundh was underway, already!

 

Saturday was the official Bandh and the city wore a deserted, almost eerie look with no buses, most shops shut down and gloomy weather. The Scientist was not sure that I would be safe running outdoors and advised that I stay in bed and under the sheets. Wow. Glorious!

 

And so Saturday was spent mostly at home. We ventured out bravely in the evening to  Lalbagh which is really close to us. But the rain gods promptly sent us back home. It was raining. I was fighting pakoda cravings and wondering what to do with the available time. My blogger, facebook and gmail pages were refreshed atleast 1 million times in about half an hour and I was beginning to crib about being bored, when I remembered that old me who was obsessed with books and reading. With the toddler, sometimes I don't really get my reading in. And I found the habit wearing away, and the pile of unread books just growing. I resolved that this year I would reignite my reading habit and have read a couple of books. I had started on the Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh. But that was a couple of months ago. So I fished out the book and got reading whilst it was raining outside. Romantic, no?

 

Sunday morning I woke up battling with guilt for not doing the long run I had lovingly planned. I had dance class at 9 and had just about an hour. So I laced up and went off to my running venue. I got 6 kms in and plenty of pretty sights too! Not to mention the cool weather even around 7.30 a.m. I really love Bangalore for that one reason. I got back home, showered, quickly refueled on a sandwich and scooted off to dance class. Go me!!! After being in there for 15minutes, I rediscovered my love for it. I feel grateful to have a guru and being able to dance with no objections from people or my body :-)

 

I got back, made a quick lunch and napped with the toddler, promising him an evening outing, if he woke up early. He did and were off to Ramakrishna Mutt, for our dose of spirituality and got some books for the toddler. I read the exact same book in my childhood and loved, loved it. I can't believe life has come a full circle.

 

As a reward for being a good girl, we finished up an early dinner, outside. I really love to eat out. Once we got home, the Scientist remembered that he had to collect his glasses from the specs makers. I suggested we walk and we did! Guess, what? I finished the week making up my total weekly mileage of 21 kms (18 run and 3 walked). I feel accomplished and totally ready for this week!

 

How was yours?

 

 

By The Water Cooler: Contest Entry

Of late, I've been able to catch some time with the world outside home and the little one. That means, if I'm not feeding or cuddling the little fellow, or wiping his poop or throw-up or putting him to sleep or preparing his feed, I have been reading a lot of blogs which talk of other mom's doing all or some of the above. One of those spaces which I have grown rather addicted to and really really fond of is this. To say the least, I love the tone of the writing and am waiting for an outing to the book shop to purchase a copy of her first book - Bringing Up Vasu- That First Year.Well, I can dedicate an entire post to how fabulous her way with words is, but then I really think that would in no way match the experience of reading her writing, first hand. This post is primarily, my way of wishing her luck on the launch of her next book, which is titled the same as this blog post, and secondly an entry to the contest she is hosting. (You will find the details here.)

I did not notice until now, that as I typed all of the above, I was lying on my stomach, sprawled on the bed. Yayyy! Finally. Nearly five months after that cesarean. Phew!!!

Here is my entry :

While I was pregnant with Chittu, and doing the 9 to 6 grind at work, I was inevitably faced with numerous nosey colleagues, who were always willing to make seemingly polite inquiries about my pregnancy, unrelenting opinions about how a natural delivery is so much more preferable, as if they were so sure that I had already entered into a secret agreement with my gynac to have surgery, and stupefying advise on good foods, bad foods, hospitals and such related details which really I was not interested in soliciting from them. I had a tough time handling the inputs, commands and demands I was getting from relatives, and that was BAD enough.

I am not a sociable person. Usually when I smile at my co-workers, it does not mean - Hi there. How are you? Who are you married to? Native place? Children?School? College? Residence? Breakfast? Lunch menu? Dinner plans? Nope. Sorry. None of that. It just means - Hi. Good morning. Period. But really, almost nobody got that. 

So as I walk into the elevator:

Colleague1 (Female. Shiny diamonds on ears, nose, neck and fingers): Hey. Morning. How are you?

Me: Smile back. Fine. Thank you.

Colleague 1: (Quirky, silly smile): So which month now?

Me: 7

Colleague 1 (elevator door opens to our floor): Really? You don't look like that?

Me: (Smile back again) Silence. I got a meeting at 9.30. Excuse me.

Colleague 1 (to herself, dejected): Oh! But the interview ain't over yet.

Me (to myself, pleased) ; Rush to desk with very very serious expression on face. Escape! Ah. This should be a good day. Lucky me.

Later before lunch at the wash room:

Colleague 2( best friend and confidant of Colleague 1, possibly majority partner in Gossip gang) : You will here only for delivery no? Your mother's place is in bangalore no?

Me: Ummm....no..I am going to Chennai. (tries very hard to show expression of finality, and would have rushed out of wash room had it not been for the little fellow in the belly making me want to pee atleast once every half hour.)

Colleague 2 (very happy about new piece of information collected and cannot wait to share with remaining members of gossip gang): Oh Chennai... Which hospital?

Me ( wondering if person occupying the loo currently is laying eggs and hatching them and trying to change subject of conversation): Not decided yet... Is not this year very hot here in Bangalore?

Colleague 2: Ya. I know. Bangalore is just getting hotter every year. It must be very difficult for you na? That too, you are pregnant! But you should decide on the hospital fast, no? When is your due date? From when do you plan to go on leave?

Me (almost fainting from the volley of questions just encountered and nearly suffocating in the smell of the horrible odonil fragrance): I think I can hear my phone ring...

Sometime later, as I am furiously typing out a draft agreement, Colleague 3, in the sales department on the first floor, who is presumably feeling left out of my pregnancy banter that is making great lunch time discussions in the office, for no special reason at all, saunters by my desk to drop a file. This is what ensues:

Colleague 3: So? All set to become a mother?

Me: Ermmmm... (Stupid smile.)

Colleague 3: Arey! You are feeling shy and all?

Me (mumbling in the head): Well it's a private feeling, you see. And I am not specifically interested in discussing my impending motherhood with you, dear complete stranger. (Still stupidly smiling)

Colleague 3 (waving excitedly to colleague 1) Arey! Your necklace is very beautiful Kahan se liya? Golda?

Me: Extremely relieved about the end of that conversation, goes back to typing furiously, as if there were no tomorrow.

I never got this - This assumption of the right to being informed about everybody else's private life. I usually cringe about making personal inquries. I have not even made friends with my neighbour. Well that's me! Usually, I am very comfortable being left alone. I don't appreciate small talk. I'd rather just be mumbling to myself or even be left alone, doing really nothing. But these people won't let things be, and so as I am waiting for an autorickshaw to return home after work, the last of the gossip girls, accosts me, yet again:

Colleague 4: Oho!You also go home by auto every day? Where do you stay?

Before she could proceed with - Oh! How much does it cost you all the way home? Oh! Hundred Rupees? Is that not too much? How you come in the morning? You don't know to drivea? But it is not safe to travel in auto when you are pregnant... and such comments on my safety, security and finance policy, I jumped into the first auto that came my way, to spend the next hour happily with no people people who utterly disregard the right to privacy.