Letter to a Stranger - 1

This one is inspired from Monika's series (like this one)...



To the "Dude" who was standing behind me at the ATM,

Don't judge the person ahead of you in line, just because I took a little more time than normal and because you felt unable to spend that extra 2 minutes in your overwhelmingly busy schedule. And you probably assumed that since I'm a woman I "obviously" will take more time. Have you never tried to withdraw a large amount of money and found that the number of notes are too much, which means swipe again, enter again and wait for the notes again. And then do it again one more time for the remaining amount.

Maybe you never have to withdraw that type of cash, cos you're a cool dude and you can drop in at the ATM anytime, but I was withdrawing it for my dad who likes to take it as one large sum every month. And I had already visited one ATM that was out of order, and was probably in more of a hurry than you were as I was on the way to pick up my son from school too.

So dude, chill! And don't try to put across your point by sarcastically throwing a "Finished?" at me as I'm leaving.



Mon, this is a brilliant idea, I totally needed that out of my system!!

A short(?) recap

And well I'm at it again, berating myself every other day for never being able to stick to that much needed exercise schedule. And if one more person sees me and says "Why do YOU need to exercise?" I will really tell them :)!! I mean, have you seen my post-C-Section (that's one excuse long gone!) paunch ?!

So to amuse myself, and hopefully you too, (and find material for that Day 4 post ;)) I thought I should make a list of home exercise schedules that I tried, and somehow or the other didn't work for me.

1. P90 - This is one of the easiest ones from Beachbody (yeah you read that right ;)). They have a really well known one called P90X, but I wanted to start from the basic version and work my way up. Overall, it was quite a good option. Short, simple exercises, with a good set of stretching thrown in. The neck stretches especially were very good for my cervical spondylosis issues, never needed to do my therapeutic stretches when I did this. Did this on and off for a month, stopped, restarted etc etc. It basically gets a bit repetitive and boring after a while, of course you are supposed to progress to the next step that I never did ;).
2. P90X - The real mean version of the one above, it's raved about by most exercise enthusiasts who've tried it. Longer routines, so a bit more difficult to fit in, not to mention the intensity is about a quadzillion+ more than what I can ever manage! Tried it for all of 1 day, and then went back to endless loop of above.
3. Turbo Jam: Dancey routine from Beachbody, nice for a change, but did not like the lesser amount of stretching. Didn't feel it was great for my knees.
4. Turbo Fire: Much faster, much dancier version of above. I have two left feet. Enough said.
5. Leslie Sansone's Walks: This is a very nice set of videos, totally approachable, very simple set of steps, seems ideal for someone like me. The 1 mile walk is only about 20 minutes long, so great to fit into any day. Why I still didn't manage to stick to it - NO IDEA!!!!

Other than these I have tried the gym, power yoga etc at various times of life, but even with being a SAHM I am not keen on getting into something where I will have to devote exactly that same hour every day, doesn't work for me as a zillion things seem to come up that need my attention exactly between 11 and 12 on that very day. 

So here I was, again at square one, and I finally decided to start somewhere and went and joined a yoga class that functions along with my daughter's karate class - this way I'm anyway going to be there so no time lost - Wish me luck!

And yes, if anyone wants to partner up and join me in trying one of these schedules, I'd love to do that too ;). After all 23rd time may be lucky I guess!

This post is for Day 4 of #marathonbloggers. Do check out our FB group if you would like to make one post every day in the month of December.

It's a new year !

And Resolution time of course ;) I usually refrain from making resolutions as I never manage to keep them :O but there are some this year which I (hopefully!) am already on the path of:

1. No new clothes in 2012 - Overflowing cupboards, 4 unstitched blouses and 3 salwar-kameez materials that lie inside taunt me everytime I take out clothes to wear. I keep giving away clothes (3 times last year) and yet it's like an Akshayapatra and clothes are always falling out. I usually try to limit wastage in stuff like water/electricity/groceries/even LPG consumption that I thought it's time I included this area of my life too. So - also to be announced to all family members who might feel the need to buy me any - no buying or being gifted clothes this year.

2. Finding my abs - That's a more fun way to put it than to talk about losing flab ;). My second child is now going to be 4 years old and having been pregnant is no longer an excuse (even to myself) for the state my abs (hidden under layers) are in! Have been checking out lots of Home Exercise programs (mostly from Beachbody) and I'm quite comfortable with the starting levels of P90 as well as Turbo Jam. Going to attack both these, either in separate cycles or as a combination - done with 1 week of TJ already, wish me luck to keep at it !! This one is also important because my family has a history of neck and back problems, some of which I'm already facing, and regular exercise is sooo important.

3. Organize Organize Organize - this has so many levels to it it's scary. From accounting to remembering to check if my maid has washed the tiffin boxes for the next day, on some days I have no clue where to start. I've tried making checklists, but then forgotten to look at the checklist :X. So here I go with setting reminders for everything I can think of, and hoping that's going to be better than my previous attempts. The hitch is to actually perform the action as soon as the reminder comes, or I am capable of forgetting within 10 mins :(.

4. Green green green :) - this is something I've been trying to do in 2012 with composting and kitchen gardening, so hope to keep at it. I have started using an organic detergent for clothes washing, but my experience is that to try a do-or-die approach for this stuff will drive me and everyone around me a bit crazy. So if i can't get that stain out, I still reach for the Cuffs-and-Collars! Until the time I can effortlessly use organic means I will just try to progress a step at a time :).

5. Schedule Schedule Schedule ;) - this could be part of point 3 but this one is aimed more towards my time spent with the children. Somedays when I'm feeling tired or watching something interesting on TV :O I feel lazy to read that bed-time story or to sit and play that game with the kids. And then feel really bad about it afterwards. So I'm hoping to have a loose time-table for the way we spend time. D atleast is old enough to know what a time-table means so we can have lots of fun setting it up, and then she knows what to expect :).

This list is getting dangerously long, so I think I should stop here for now and keep the rest for next year ;). Bye Bye Bye !

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!