My tryst with GM diet – Day 5

Day 5 was what I was waiting for. On day 5 one can have about 500g of beef and some tomatoes. I am not a beef eater so I replaced beef with chicken. This day was a breeze as I didnt feel hungry much because of a braised chicken breast breakfast.

For lunch I had a piece of bread along with chicken. This was a abberation from the original GM diet.

End of Day 5 weight : 59.8 . Total weight loss.. 2.5 kg.

MY OVERALL EXPERIENCE WITH GM DIET

The GM diet runs over 7 days but I had planned to do it only for 5 days as that is all the time I had before I was headed for a vacation. Moreover this was my first experience with any sort of diet. I didnot want it to be too harsh. I cheated on one of the days which didnot leave me too badly affected. 

In my opinion I would rate GM diet ( a 5 day course) as 7 out of 10 on toughness. I particularly found the 1st and 4th day testing. But 5 days just fly away and it is certainly doable. One doesnot need to be a purist and can do little aberration. One of the interesting observation that I had was how my appetite turned smaller by end of day 5. This itself should help me keep losing a bit of weight over the few days. 

My tryst with GM diet – Day 4

On day 4 of GM diet one can have banana and milk. In addition one can have GM wonder soup which is basically a vegetable soup of tomato, onion, cabbage , celery. There is a restriction on the quantity of banana & milk.  In one of the websites which I am following for my GM instruction, I found it is 8 bananas & 3 glasses of milk

This was really a tough day for me. I think Day 4 for me was as bad as day 1 or may be even worse. I absolutely donot like bananas and milk and I donot remember when I last consumed either. For people, who have no such handicap, day 4 shouldnot be that bad. Banana & milk makes one full and should be better than a veggie or fruit day. For me, however it was a different story.

For breakfast, I had one banana. Since, I am on a tough diet for last few days, the banana didnot taste that bad. And I actually thought that may be if I have it a little more frequently, I will develop a taste for it. Midday , I gulped down a glass of banana milkshake. Another first for me. This diet experience has been full of insights & surprises about my ownself. Its interesting how controlled hunger of few days can make even a fussy eater like me almost enjoy milk & banana which I wouldnt touch otherwise.

Lunch was the soup. I had one more banana and then no more of either banana or milk. I did have 2 more bowl of soup, one for evening snack and one for dinner.

Like I said this was the toughest day for me. I was grumpy in the late evening. By night , I was in a fullblown irritable mood  which hadnt happened yet in my GM diet.

End of Day 4, Beginning of Day 5 weight : 60.0. Thats another 0.4 kg movement downward. Cumulative weight loss 2.3 kg. This alleviates some of the madness I was going through the night before. And I have some good to look forward to now with day 5 being a meat day.

My tryst with GM diet – Day 3

On Day 3 of GM diet one has to have only raw vegetables and fruits. Fruits & vegetables like bananas & potatoes are excluded.

Alright I have a confession to make. I cheated on a weak moment. I had a decadent piece of chocolate cake today. I didnot seek it but how much can you resist it if it actually walks up to you !  My colleagues were having this cake and I was avoiding them true to my GM diet self. But Satan itself had descended on them and they lured me. I also had a small piece of roll which was made of wheat & rice flour and nuts.

Now that we are done with the confession, other than the above incident, I stuck to my GM diet. For breakfast I had one large apple. Lunch was steamed vegetables. I tried to throw in as many kinds as I could. So it was iceberg lettuce, red bell pepper, broccoli, mushroom, french beans, red cabbage & baby spinach. For the midday snack I had half a bowl of cucumber. Dinner was same as lunch.

I wasnt feeling too hungry today as I had anyways cheated on the cake. And man did it taste heavenly ! Though I could have done without it.

I took my weight on Day 4 morning. It is 60.4. So I did loose another 0.5 kg. The cumulative loss is  1.9 kg over three days which is not bad !

My tryst with GM diet – Day 2

Day 2 : Today was strangely better than yesterday. For breakfast, I had a bowl of potato curry. The GM diet recommends raw vegetables for Day 2 and one can have cooked potato with butter for breakfast. Midday snack was a big bowl of cucumber and then green tea as usual.

Lunch was cooked ladies finger & cauliflower. I am not too hung up on the raw veggie. Evening snack was carrots & lettuce. For dinner, I had steamed button mushrooms & 2 spoonfull of fried baby spinach. 

Day 2 was nothing like Day 1. Since I had cooked vegetable & salt, I didnot have any food cravings similar to yesterday. The only time I had a bout of craving was in the late afternoon when I appeased it with some green tea. Today I didnt have to take shelter in an early slumber. I was up till late and didnot feel less energetic than any other day. It is truly amazing how the body adapts and how quickly it adapts.

Beginning of Day 3 weight: 60.9 kg. No loss of intraday weight. Cumulative loss : 1.4 kg 

MY Tryst with GM diet – Day 1

I love food. Well I love food almost to the extent of living for food. I have never fasted or constrained myself beyond reasonable limits when it comes to food. 

With the above background I took the Herculean task of experimenting with GM diet for 5 days. I will try and do it for 7 days but I will be travelling starting the 6th day so not sure.

My starting weight : 62.3 Kg on Day 1

Day 1 : This day one is supposed to have only fruits. I started the day with half guava and 1 big apple. Phew ! I never had fruits for breakfast. I normally have toast & eggs or stuff like dosa (indian crep) for breakfast. I told myself, I will take this one meal at a time. Now that I had survived the breakfast, I will somehow try & make it through the lunch.  I had a cup of green tea (no milk & sugar obviously) in between. It helped a lot as the hot water makes one feel full. I kept having chunks of apples till the lunch time & beyond. In the evening at 5 pm, I had half a pomegranate. It already felt great that I was able to wield utmost self control in not giving in to a sandwich or chocolate at office. Now all I had to do was manage myself till the dinner time. Once home, I had another apple at 7 pm for my dinner. Now by this time, I was feeling light headed. Remember, I am used to having a lot of carbohydrate throughout the day. I donot watch tv much. But today, I switched on the tv, to distract myself from the apple that i was pushing down my throat. How much fruit can one have in a day anyways ? Then i did a smart thing ! I took a book and cuddled down in my bed. If you are asleep you cant be hungry ! 

Throughout the night, I had dreams of feasts. Yes I dreamt of FOOD. 

DAY 2: 6:00 AM. I wake up and I am feeling fresh. I am not feeling starved and that seems great. I should be able to manage today as well.

I take my weight: Its 60.9. I quickly do the maths in my head, it is 1.4kg. I am exhilarated !

 

15th July

1:15 am: I have boarded the flight. Its Swiss air and thankfully a direct flight to Zurich. Now I have to figure out how to spent the next eight hours before I land. That should not be really difficult considering the hour of the night. All I have to do is just go off to sleep. Sounds easy ? It isnt. I return to my book ‘The Danish Girl’.
I try some sleep and an up in another 4 hours. Some entertainment/TV and refreshment later its 6:20 am in Zurich. Within 20 mins I am out of the uneventful immigration and baggage collection. At the airport exit I donot have to search for my friend Nalini. We meet like we have just met yesterday as a matter of fact. No sentimental hugging and all which Nalini tried doing but I warded her off. She will kill me if she reads this but we will see when we come to that.
So I am still inside the airport and havent seen any of Zurich outdoor at all. We will be travelling about 30 mins to Baden which is the city near which Nalini lives. She lives in a village “Wettingen” which is 5-10 mins by bus from Baden.
We reach Baden and as we walk out of the station, we see small bakeries selling fresh bread and sandwiches. I buy myself a pretzel and smoked salmon sandwich. It is unimaginably delicious.

In the picture above I am with the salmon sandwich pack in my hand just right outside Nalini’s condo. I have already finished off the delicious pretzel.

Salmon Sandwich and iced tea ! With a breakfast like this to start the day, the rest of the day is bound to be amazing. I absolutely love smoked Salmon which I rarely get to eat in Delhi. Even if I find it in some upmarket restaurant it is exorbitantly expensive and not quite as it should be. Anyone reading my blog would have already made out how much food is going to be part of this tour or any tour as long as I am in it. Travelling for me is about the place, the book & the food. I usually find out a book related to the place I am travelling. This is my way to get totally submerged in the place I am travelling. This can get a little annoying for my cotravellers which is mostly my husband. The fact that I am at a very scenic place and I just want to sit there for hours and leaf through my book. And with an ipad handly, I want to probably write about it. On this tour I am armed with my kindle & ipad and the plan is to influence Nalini to buy a ipad for herself. I have already made her pruchase a kindle (wink). This way when I am playing games on my ipad on the train she will spare me the murderous looks in her eyes.

After the hearty breakfast, all I want to do is doze off which I didnt get to do on the flight. And yes I watch some tv. we had planned to go shopping in Zurich but all I care about right now is sleep.
I am loving this vacation already.

Few hours later at around 2 in the afternoon, I am all fresh and ready for some action !

We are at the Baden clock tower. There are small restaurants and shops around. Young mothers taking their babies on a stroll. Teenagers animately talking sitting on a bench. It is one idyllic town.

On our way to Zurich on the train I see the rolling hills and we travel along the river ‘Limmet’. The colour of the water is a shade of green and so it seems. I am puzzled because it doesnt look like there is algae, Could it be the reflection of the trees on the banks ? No the water itself seems green. I will need to figure this out.

This is McClean. At trainstations you pay and use the toilets. There are NO public toilets. duhh.. I miss US. I do not miss India as there are public toilets but you do not use it unless its a life threatening situation.
Nalini takes me to the shopping street in Zurich and row of stores like piaget, tiffany, prada, jimmychoo, Louivuitton. I have a nice time window shopping and wondering how can a simple shoe or a small scarf be so expensive. We go to a shopping mall which is more reasonable. I am still not sure I want to do ANY shopping here. I plan to come back next day.

This is the italian restaurant we stop to have some soup after all the walking and window shopping. The waiter is speaking in swiss german and he could be speaking in greek for all I could make out. Thankfully Nalini seems to understand and make some conversation in the local dialect. By now I have learned two words “Krutse” meaning “Hello” and “Danke” meaning “thanks”, The waiter hands us a menu again in german !! I look at it for 5 minutes and Nalini while she can understand german, I cant trust her to translate something as important as menu for me. After some time, it dawns on Nalini that she can let me know that we can request for an english menu. What a relief. This is an italin restaurant and I order a “Fish soup with Saffron”. Nalini orders “tomato soup with brod(bread)”. When she gets her soup she insists that the bread in the soup is meat/chicken and I have to try hard to really convince her otherwise. The fish soup is heavenly with prawns & mussels.

After the invigorating soup we stroll to the Zurich lake. Along the harbor is a beautiful park. There is a particular tree that catches my fancy. I will research it on the web and right some more of it. It was called ” Fusa silavitica”. I find a spot to sit and we sit there in silence chatting once in a while for about 30-40 mins. I wish could spend more time there.

THIS IS THE PICTURE OF THE DAY ! While we were sitting at the harbour we see this young man playing guitar. I can also faintly hear the strum of the guitar. There is this woman in the picture who dives in the water and swimming. And a fountain in the background.

We have a booking at Zeuhauskeller one of the most popular restaurants in Zurich both with tourists and locals. Its swiss cusine. Though I love fish and chicken and I am not a meat eater at all. I tried in the past but couldn’t develop a taste for lamb or mutton. Beef and pork is completely out of my way. However, may be this trip I will try the meat, how else do I sample their traditional cuisine ?
I later learn that Zeuhauskeller is housed in a building dating to 15th century! It has huge ceilings large gothic windows. On the walls are adorned spears, very old & very large rifles and armors. The interior is actually a huge hall which might have been some sort of ballroom in old days. The hall is filled with row after rows of basic wooden tables and chair. Nothing fancy here. The hall is full and there is a waiting outside and I am glad that we have a reservation. The waitress lead us a to a table which seats four. Two people are already on the table and we are to sit next to them and share the table ! So that there is maximum utilization of the chairs & tables.

Above is the picture of the menu. The delicacy of denmark is veal which is young calf’s meat. I decide to try that but then I change my mind. I do not think I am ready for meat yet. I choose the only fish meal that is on the menu.

I do not know what fish it is but it tastes delicate like Tilapia though cant say if it is the same. On the side are the veggies. It is very nice and hearty meal.

We walk back to the railway station which is a beautiful old building. As we are walking, we see some young men all dressed in identical t shirts except one who is dressed in white robe. I later learn that it is a swiss custom for the would be groom. I search some more for it on the web and learn that it could probably be some version of german polterabend( google this 🙂 ). This custom dates back to 1500s. It is some kind of bachelor party where the groom tries to collect money by selling knick knacks or may be asking for charity, around the town. The friends are all wearing fake moustaches probably to indicate that they are men of the world. I am told that the custom is symbolic to confirm that the groom is capable of earning and therefore taking care of his wife.

Europe Tour 14th Jul

11:01 PM

At last the vacation begins 🙂 . Reached the airport at 9:40 pm. Rysa & her daddy seemed little sad to see me off but they gave me a cheerful & affectionate hug 🙂 By 10:30 I am done with the security etc and all set to board only that the boarding doesn’t start before midnight ! The gentleman at the departure security chooses to think I am going for a conference even though the passport has a tourist visa stamp. After I clarify that I am traveling for vacation, he exclaims “alone?!”. I chuckle “yes!”. Let’s see if I see the same expression at Zurich immigration.
After security I wander around in search of some good food. How can my vacation start without a good meal?
Unfortunately can’t find much. Have to choose between ‘Daredevil sports bar’ and ‘chocola’. The bar seems to have good food but I don’t feel invited ( I get these sixth sense sort of feels about restaurant :p ) I settle for chocola with a humble mushroom sandwich & a coffee.
I have lot to look forward tomorrow morning when I land in Zurich. My dearest friend Nalini is going to take me shopping. And then for the evening we have a table reserved at one of the best restaurants in Zurich. I wonder what cuisine it’s going to be.
Three countries to visit and three books to read each related to one of the country. I have just started ‘The Danish Girl’ and can’t wait to get back to it!
Tomorrow will be another day !

My bucket list

Not in any particular order.. the list so far.. it will keep getting updated

1. Ride on  the most thrilling of roller coasters

2. Bungee jumping

3. Act in a theater

4. learn Salsa, Jazz  with Avi

5. Visit Denmark

6.  Broadway show

7. Cirque-du-soleil show

8. Trip to Egypt

9. Trip to Italy

10. Trip to Kashmir

11. A month long cruise in the Caribbean or pacific

12. Learn to Surf

How green was my valley ! – part 1

Not very long ago, there was a small town in the state of erstwhile Bihar. The town was the baby of Nehruvian dream of industrialized modern India. It was born immediately after independence , when the largest Asian fertilizer factory was set up there. When the factory was inaugrated in 1952 by the first Indian Prime Minister,  Jawahar lal Nehru, he had said that  he was not inaugrating a factory but that he was inaugrating a temple of modern India. The town was called “Sindri”. Folklore is that the name Sindri comes from the vermillion colour  “Sinduri ” . Indeed the soil was vermillion !

The houses with large lawns were well laid into wide streets. The town itself was carved out into small pockets with different house sizes. Most houses were small 2 bedroom, 1 bath about 1600-1700 sq ft but with lawns of atleast 400 sq yd or more. Then there were bigger bunglaws with 3 or more bedrooms , a servants quarter and a garage. Most houses didnt have car garages and most people didnot own a car. If they were lucky they had a scooter otherwise men were happy with their A-one brand  bicycles in black paint. It was rare  then to see a woman riding or driving.

The most beautiful place in the town was the Priyardarshini park,  often called as Seven lakes. This was a huge park with seven manmade lakes. The lakes were connected by land or sometime by small bridges. All the passages in the park were flanked by rows of beautiful trees blossoming with flowers in the season. There was a small children’s corner which had swings and slides. Every year on 1st January, almost the entire town flocked to the park for picnicking. Almost all the years that I was growing up in Sindri, I went to that park for new year’s picnic on 1st of January. Picnic had its own concept in those days. We would go out for picnic with my father’s office friends & family. Then the second time I would go out for picnic with my shcool friends & teachers. The third time I would go out for picnic with my friends from neighbourhood.

We had an officers clubs which had indoor wooden badminton court, snooker rooms, billiards room, a TT room, a swimming pool, an officer’s bar and a huge library. This club was sort of a highlight of the small town. Every Fridays & Saturday  movie shows ran in  its large asbestos roofed auditorium. This was the time in 80’s when the first television  was yet to set its foot in the town of Sindri.  Children would run in much before the 5:30 pm show time and secure the metal folding chairs with handkerchiefs for themselves and their parents. All of us had our special place in that large auditorium. My family always loved to sit  in one of the specific middle row in the left side of the aisle. We had a neighbour who always liked to sit somewhere in third or fourth row. I could never fathom then, why would someone want to sit anywhere other than the first row ? As soon as the movie rolled, the club canteen guy would spread the small stall of potato chops and mutton cutlets in his specific corner.  We children, would run with our allotted pocket money to grab the snack. It always was a tough decision to allocate the money even though there were only two items.  I have since tasted cutlets in the   finest of restaurants  but could never find anything even close to those delicious melt-in-mouth cutlets in brown paper bags.  Could this be  the exaggeration of my senses and fond childhood memories or were those cutlets really a masterpiece ? I will never be able to figure that out.

Oh my school ! The beautiful place where many a dreams were born ! The school was established and run by the management of the factory. The name was “Modern English High School”, but for some reason it was known as KG (short for kindergarten)  school. Nothing spectacular about the school, but when I think of those days everything seems magical. There was a time for few months  when we were in 6th Std. that our classroom didnot have desks & chairs. Probably the school had ordered the desks & chairs and were running short for few months.  We had huge rugs spread in the classroom and we all sat on the floor for the classes with our school bags on our sides. This would sound awful to most people. Poor kids !  But the poor kids had the time of their life ! We rolled on the rug and jumped around between the classes. We werenot really very happy when the new desks/chairs arrived for the class.

The factory like most PSUs started making losses and was finally shut down sometime around 2000.  The school doesnot run anymore and is now being used as a hostel for security forces. The club is run down and there is no swimming pool. The town wears a deserted look with overgrown grass & shrubs in once manecured lawns.

Where is that dream ? Where is that Sindri of joys and festivals ? Its alive in all its vibrant colours and throbbing in the hearts that were touched by it !

The heart dies !

I was watching a movie. I think it was called  “Breakfast Club”.   There are some moments in some movies which outweigh the rest of the movie. These moments of few seconds make the entire hour & half  of watching worthwhile. At one such moment in one such movie a dialogue was delivered “ One’s heart dies as one grows older“. I can vaguely remember what transpired before or after this.  This is what stayed behind of the movie.

I was in a mall browsing through clothes on sale. My two year old ran to a woman and hugged her with  utmost affection. That lady had given my daughter a hair cut few days back. I was astonished that my daughter could even recognize her. I was not the only one astonished. The hair stylist was equally taken aback with this show of affection. And then she remembered. My daughter giggled and showed her happiness on this chance meeting in  many ways.  How generous can young ones be with their love !

As we grow older we get more wordly-wise. But why ! With more wisdom shouldn’t our hearts be full of more love ? That makes me ask :  Are we any wiser ?