A husband who gives me the freedom to be and who supports my decision to not have babies
The ability to enjoy “me” time, guilt free, without wishing the husband was with me or feeling guilty about ignoring my “wifely duties”
Friends who make me feel special
Pepo, who fills our life with joy (she’s our cat, not our baby, in case you’re wondering! ;))
Being able to laugh at myself
Not feeling my age – no, I’m not that old, but a lot of people I knew were depressed when they hit their 30s; I was excited to turn 30! 😀
Taking responsibility for my weight and making sure I work out at least 3-4 times a week (yeah, that’s a big deal for me, BIG!)
A loving and supportive family, who have been there for me always. They may not have always supported all that I did, but they came around to my point of view anyways!
Being in a secure and happy place – I do have the occassional mood swing, but overall, I’m happy with who I am and where I am
So, what are you grateful for?
This list post is part of the SITS Content is King challenge.
Sometimes you need to enter into a fantasy world to relax. Last night, I turned off the lights, lit a lot of lamps and sat on the floor in the middle of the living room listening to the sounds of the Amazon rainforest. I felt so at peace as I was transported into the lap of nature.
A nutrition professor’s “unhealthy” Twinkie cake diet has created quite a storm lately. I saw a couple of tweets mention it yesterday, and then this morning, one of the blogs featured on Freshly Pressed on WordPress talked about the diet. In her post, Sweet Tooth, Sweet Life says:
“The man significantly cut his recommended daily calories…OF COURSE he’s going to lose weight!!!”
Mark Haub is a professor of human nutritionat Kansas State University who undertook this diet as a class experimentfor a month. When he saw the benefits of the diet, he continued it until he reached a normal body mass index.
While on the diet:
He shed 27 pounds in two months
His body mass index went from 28.8 (overweight) to 24.9 (normal)
His “bad” cholesterol (LDL) dropped 20% and his “good” cholesterol (HDL) increased 20%
He reduced the level of triglycerides, a form of fat, by 39%
Haub consumed less than 1,800 calories a day on the diet, about 800 calories lessthan a man of Haub’s pre-dieting size usually consumes — 2,600 calories. Such a drastic reduction may not be “healthy,” but then apparently, eating only junk, processed food is “unhealthy” too!
Another interesting fact — to control the number of calories he consumed, Haub avoided meat, whole grains and fruits. Once he added meat into the diet, his cholesterol level increased.
Haub had set out to prove that in weight loss, pure calorie counting is what matters most — not the nutritional value of the food.As the above markers show, his premise held up.
Haub says: “That’s where the head scratching comes. What does that mean? Does that mean I’m healthier? Or does it mean how we define health from a biology standpoint, that we’re missing something?”
Before his Twinkie diet, Haubb tried to eat a healthy diet that included whole grains, dietary fiber, berries and bananas, vegetables and occasional treats like pizza. But he says that there seemed to be a disconnect between eating healthy and being healthy. “It may not be the same. I was eating healthier, but I wasn’t healthy. I was eating too much.”
This indicates that what really matters is portion control and moderation, rather than total removal and denial.
“I just think it’s unrealistic to expect people to totally drop these foods for vegetables and fruits. It may be healthy, but not realistic.” — Mark Haub
To all the nay-sayers and people who are up in arms at this unhealthy diet, I say don’t look at what he ate, look at what he proved!
Will I go out and start buying processed junk and throw out the veggies and fruits? No! But the next time I feel like some indulgence, I won’t feel so guilty no more!
Here’s what I learnt from Haub’s breakthrough experiment:
Count. Your. Calories.
Reduce meat consumption.
Be aware of portion control — just because something is healthy, doesn’t mean you can eat it in huge quantities!
Junk doesn’t deserve the bad rep it’s got — consumed knowledgably, it ain’t gonna kill ya!
Of course, a much longer-term study will need to be carried out to find out what affects the lack of fruits and vegetables could have on long-term health. In the meanwhile, the next time you’re dieting, if you really feel like that packet of chips, reach out for it. Just be aware of the number of calories you consumed!
I do not love you as if you were salt-rose or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that never blooms,
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers.
Thanks to your love a certain fragrance,
risen darkly from the earth, lives darkly in my body.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride,
so I love you because I know no other way than this:
where “I” does not exist, nor “you,”
So close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
So close that your eyes close and I fall asleep.
If you have any artwork or photography to share, please leave a comment, a link back to your blog and your e-mail address, and I’ll feature it on an upcoming Friday Frame!
Diwali is the season for hosting card parties! It’s the one time during the year when almost everyone gambles – the amount of money you’re playing with doesn’t matter, it can be as little as Rs. 5, what matters is the spirit of the game.
We hosted our first card party last night, and it was a smashing success. Though I was hyperventilating at the thought of all that needed to be done and organized, I managed to get the living room clean and clutter-free in an hour, brought out candles and diyas, floated some flowers in an earthenware pot, and the house was set to welcome our friends.
The night passed by so quick as we played, laughed, talked, ate and made merry. Before we realized it, it was 3:00 am, and grudgingly, we decided that it was time to say goodbye.
Yesterday night, as I was squaring things up a bit post all the revelry, I realized that I love hosting parties and entertaining. It’s a warm feeling that you get when you have friends over, laughing and having a good time, and even better when you get Diwali gifts! 😉
I got this lovely Tibetan evil eye that doubles up as a door knocker:
and this rice husk wall hanging for prosperity and a brass diya that can be either displayed as a showpiece or used in the temple at home:
What do you enjoy most about hosting get togethers at home?
Diwali is my absolute favorite festival. I love the lights, diyas, colors…just about everything associated with the festival.
The almost two weeks leading up to Diwali (it’s on 5th November this year) feel like holiday season. I took a day off work just to go to the Blind School mela, an annual ritual for the husband and me. They have a variety of stalls selling the most beautiful and unusal stuff, ranging from furniture to lamps, pottery to jewelery, and clothes to knick-knacks. From there, we headed over to the potters market near Sarojni Nagar to buy diyas (small earthenware oil lamps) and idols of Ganesh and Lakhsmi. An entire day spent shopping, rounded off with dinner at Fez Dining, one of my favorite hangouts at Malcha Marg.
A potter at Dilli Haat
The atmosphere was festive, with people out doing their Diwali shopping and all the shops and malls and houses beautifully decorated with lights and lamps…I wish we could have at least 3 days off for the festival, but alas. All we get is the one day off for Diwali.
For those of you who don’t know much about the festival, here’s an overview of Diwali:
A still from Ramayana (animated 3D movie)
Diwali celebrates the victory of good over evil, light over darkness, and knowledge over ignorance, although the actual legends that go with the festival are different in different parts of India.
The Times of India summed up the modern meaning of Diwali as follows:
Regardless of the mythological explanation one prefers, what the festival of lights really stands for today is a reaffirmation of hope, a renewed commitment to friendship and goodwill, and a religiously sanctioned celebration of the simple – and some not so simple – joys of life.
Diwali is known as the “festival of lights” because houses, shops and public places are decorated with diyas (these days fairy lights). The lamps are traditioanlly lit to help the goddess Lakshmi (the goddess of wealth) find her way into people’s homes. They also celebrate one of the Diwali legends, which tells of the return of Rama and Sita to Rama’s kingdom after 14 years of exile.
It’s fun to see how celebrities dress up on Halloween. My absolute favorite celebrity costume this year was, yet again, that worn by Heidi Klum!
Dressed as an alien transformer in an armor made of red and purple plastic, with a flowing fuschia wig and two rows of sharply pointed false teeth, this gorgeous model transformed herself into an Alien Autobot.
Husband Seal, in a hugely muscular metallic silver suit, came dressed as the Silver Surfer.
This couple sure knows how to live it up and celeberate in style!
In The Raising, Laura Kasischke exposes the ugly face behind sororities and the duplicity and cunningness of the human heart, and of people caught up in events that lead to often unforeseen tragedies. With her very first sentence:
The scene of the accident was bloodless, and beautiful.
She manages to draw the reader into the world of young Nicole Werner and her boyfriend Craig Clement-Rabbits; of Craig’s roommate Perry’s attraction to Mira Polson, the professor of sociology, who takes a class on Death, Dying, and the Undead; and of Shelly, who finds her life ruined because she happened to be the first and only witness at the scene of the accident.
Moving back and forth between the past (the year of the Nicole-Craig love affair) and the present (post Nicole’s death), Kasischke brings to life Nicole as a young, virginal, all-American girl. But as you continue reading, you realize that not everything is pretty and pink — there’s a dark side to that innocence, that, in fact, that innocence is just a façade for something more sinister.
Kasischke’s plot development is superb. Initially, you find yourself thinking that this might be another vampire/ghost love story, and you do manage to guess the end once you’re about mid-way through. Nevertheless, Kasischke’s writing style keeps you moving relentlessly forward, and she has thrown in some interesting plot twists along the way.
