Favourite 3 Idiots Moments

While watching the movie 3 idiots for atleast the 10th time I tried to write down the quotes/dialogues which make this movie memorable for me:

1. Us din hamne human nature ke baare me kuch seekha -

Jab dost fail hota hai, tab dukh hota hai,

Par jab dost first aata hai, tab ZYAADA dukh hota hai !!!!

2. Can you tell us how an induction motor starts?

Brrrm.. Brrrrm Brrrrrrrrrrrm.. !!!

3. Dono taangein tudvaake pairon pe khada hona seekha hai sir, Aap apni naukri rakh leejiye, main apna attitude rakh leta hoon.

4. Tu to meri pen le gayi - the guy who played the Chatur character did so much justice to the role he should be known as the 4th Idiot !! :)

P90 Progress Report

24th June 2011 - P90 day 10 - Sculpt 1-2
Adichu pudichu 10 days out of nearly 20 - quite bad but I hope holding on is going to help make it more regular.

Weight had gone down a bit in between, but today back to 59.something. Funnily fat percentage is significantly down to 27% ( it was 28.8% a couple of weeks back!)- wonder what I did? !!!

27th June 2011 - P90 day 11 - Cardio 1-2 + Abs 100 (Fingers crossed for the rest of the week :)).
I really love this cardio routine.. can feel it getting just that little bit easier!! Sculpt routine probably because of disliking the push-ups and lunges a bit, my brain does not feel like I should move onto Sculpt 3-4 anytime soon ;).

28th June 2011 - P90 day 12 - Sculpt 1-2
I've been using a 1 kg weight upto now. Started the 2 kg weight, but like i suspected it is a bit too much for most of the exercises, especially the lifting type ones. Using it for the curls and wherever else possible without straining my back.

29th June 2011 - P90 day 13 - Cardio 1-2 + Abs 100
I don't quite believe what happened today - was interrupted in the morning after my power yoga routine because of an unexpected guest.. was feeling a bit disgruntled all day. Managed to actually get around to it before dinner and finished the rest, even managed a bit of a warm-up by running behind Shehan as he cycled outside :).

30th June 2011 - P90 day 14 - Sculpt 1-2 + Abs 100
Just felt like adding the abs as I had time ;). Doing 2 kg weights for about 3-4 and 1 kg for the rest.

1st July 2011 - P90 day 15 - Cardio 1-2 + Abs 100

Good going this week.. hope it continues !

3rd July 2011 - P90 day 16 - Sculpt 1-2
Making up on Sunday instead of Saturday

5th July 2011 - P90 day 17 - Cardio 1-2 + Abs 100
Missed a day, but better late than never? !

6th July 2011 - P90 day 18 - Sculpt 1-2
18/30 days in the last month - decent!

7th July 2011 - P90 day 19 - Cardio 1-2 + Abs 100
8th July 2011 - P90 day 20 - Sculpt 1-2 + Abs 100

Attacking the Exercise Monster yet again!

Everytime I "re-start" my exercise schedule, I ask myself - When I feel so good and energized after just a couple of days of exercising, why do I need to push myself to get back to it everytime?

Obviously there is no easy answer - there are a million excuses - from lack of time on some days, to my painful varicose problems on others, but even if a bit irregularly at first I am going to stick to it. The wonderful P90 is one of the best schedules I have ever come across - you really see an effect in abdominal weight and firmness within a couple of weeks of doing it. This time I am going to actually see it through for 90 days and see if it has any miraculous effects on my "abs".

One of my collegemates had posted on FB about this same routine, and I immediately pounced on the idea to have a partner of sorts :). Even if we're not synchronizing our schedules, just having some accountability, having someone to tell - Hey I managed to get to it today! - is a really good booster to trying to keep to some sort of, if not perfect routine.

So this time I am 5 days into it (last time I stopped at 2 weeks with my varicose pains) and keeping fingers crossed. Apologies to anyone reading this - I know I am sounding like a stuck record and being very repetitive, but I am just putting my accountability all over the internet :).

Exercising.. oh why so hard... ?

Back from a vacation in Chennai.. the most exercise I did was sitting through a power cut i think - I am so Bangalorean now that just sitting without the fan in Chennai is enough to pour down with sweat !!

I found that my weight is down to an even 59 kgs but fat is at 29.8% !!! Horrors - all the non-veg food in Chennai, even with trying to eat reasonably less quantities of rice seems to have settled in my system :(.

Trying to get back to my exercise regimen from yesterday, but this damn varicose problem is just killing me.. my legs are paining nearly all the time.. cramps in my calves on and off, not yet unbearable but I know it's getting there.. anyone who knows any specific exercises for this problem please do let me know.. am trying to do Viparit Karani which seems to be the most advised one, but not seeing any major results - maybe I'm not regular enough :(. Just doing the regular exercises for all my problems - I also have starting signs of cervical spondylosis which is a family ailment and have some neck exercises I'm supposed to do for this - need so much dedication that I just get tired of the routine after a few weeks :(.. Aaah I just need to buckle up and get to it - I know cribbing doesn't help but it feels good to vent instead of going and exercising like I should be ;).. okay okay I'm going now!

And I'm done!

With trading in futures and options for good !!!

Have been dilly-dallying in the last couple of months.. made major losses within the first couple of months (have been at it since Nov), and then was just hanging in there hoping to make atleast some of it back before exiting - atleast that's the mantra I've been chanting to convince myself it's not just madness. But everytime I reduce my losses, I once again seem to lose nearly that exact same amount if not a little more and go back to the same total humongous amount.

Told myself that at the end of this month I find my losses to be still close to or more than what it was, I would stop. So here I am, reiterating that as of tomorrow when I will square off my last remaining open position, mostly at a loss too - THIS IS IT. I will get back to dealing only in stocks, also after doing enough research and not taking anyone's recommendation blindly.

And by the way this is not completely of my own doing, but because of using an Active Trader Service which specializes in a call-and-trade option, which I had thought meant I would get recommendations which I could decide on and call the broker, but it basically means a broker from their end will call you 20 times a day with seemingly do-or-die calls, and you will repeatedly keep getting pulled into it unless you have the will power to say no.

Do they have a Traders Anonymous I wonder ?!

Throw a tantrum or get taken for granted..

Or of course choose a middle path I suppose.. but that was definitely not an option for me today.
Went to pick up some of D's uniform stuff which is bulk-made for their school by Adidas.. should have expected a distributor type of outlet instead of a posh retail one.. but I guess that was just the first stumbling block..

Got the shoes, socks without much ado.. last on the list was a white t-shirt.. now clothes - especially the children's are something I am very particular about - if I'm paying for something new, it should look new.. I pride myself on being able to spot any marks or issues with what I'm buying.. This guy brought out a t-shirt from his godown - without any packing material on it - checked my daughter's size and gave it to us. I of course had to give it the once-over - it was a white t-shirt after all - and found some dust marks on it. When this happens in a standard shop, I ask for a different piece in the same style and take it if it's there or leave it behind. In this case I didn't have an option of not taking anything, so the guy was trying his best to palm off the piece on us, excusing the dust marks as having come from his hands which were dusty!! According to him, he had just 2 pieces in that size - one was taken that morning and this was his last remaining.

I totally lost my cool - told him if he was supplying the whole school how could he make an excuse of not having stock of pieces. When a couple of hundred children of the 1st standard would ask for that size, he would have just 2 of them handy - nice try, but no way it was true. Also they started issuing the stuff on 9th April, so not that we had gone at the end of the time (end of May) when this excuse might have actually made sense.

As if to prove his point, he took my hubby to the godown which was a bit counter to his case, as they apparently found a piece of that size. There was also a further sarcastic exchange when he cautioned me about taking the t-shirt out of the packing to check the size, as he wouldn't be responsible for it being dirty, and I responded that I had faith in the cleanliness of my hands unlike his!!

Phew.. at the end of it all the thing that most surprized me was hubby's rejoinder that we can't "afford" to behave like that and that there would have been a more polite way of getting things done.. also about how the guy was obviously uncomfortable being at the receiving end by a woman... Now I'm usually on the other end of the bargain - pacifying hubby against getting irritated - believe me - I am usually polite, but this situation just seemed to push all my buttons (maybe in trying to be more patient with my children I don't have much left over for anyone else) - because the guy at the outlet was totally taking us for granted and I ended up getting all the more irritated with hubby for not being "supportive" ! Also has to do with having been naive and non-confrontational and taken for granted in such transactions for much of my life, and having come out of that mould with great difficulty.

Did feel a little bad later though as I know people who deal with customers all day have a tough time of it, but why should I be at the receiving end of their frustration? I hope that I was just standing up for myself, and not being petty :(.

Wow that felt good to get off my chest.. !!

P90 - week 1

My long awaited (by me ;)) exercise chronicle begins at last. I'd been hearing a lot about this exercise routine called P90X from a friend of mine on Facebook, until finally I decided I really must find out more about it and see if I could attempt it. From the description of it, I found that it might be a bit extreme for someone totally out of touch with exercising for quite a long time, so on looking around for options, found the much toned down version P90 - it's basically a 90 day routine, by which you should be able to see some results if it's working for you.

Start Date: 28th March 2011
Weight: 58.7 kgs
Fat % : 28.1%

The routine is very varied and one type of exercise usually only lasts a maximum of 2 minutes, so it definitely never gets boring. The suggested schedule is a sculpt routine, alternated with cardio and abs routine with one day of rest in a week. The trainer Tony Horton really connects well to the audience, and keeps your attention for the reasonably short 30 or 40 minute routines.

After 6 days of working out, I find my weight to be up to 59.1, but fat % reduced to 27.8 ! Maybe i'm building muscle and losing fat, atleast i hope so ;). Not following any major diet schedule, because my intention is not really weight loss as I have usually not had a problem with being within the appropriate weight range(except at one point when my daughter was 2 years old, and finishing all her leftover food started pushing my weight upwards!!). The main result I'm hoping for is a general toning and increase in stamina, and of course a significant reduction of tummy fat !