Tulika, Author at Obsessivemom

07/02/201215/04/2017

Just another day

I have a problem. All you blogger pals have so much so interesting to say that each time I come to the comp my head bursting with my new post I end up getting hooked onto you guys and the post just dies. It’s a bit like when you meet friends after a long time, everyone talks together and it’s tough to get in a word because you want to talk as well as listen. And when you come away you realise you have a host of things that you forgot to tell everyone. Hmmm.. it’s fun, actually. And on second thoughts… not a problem problem.

I went to the gym after two days.. Sunday being a self declared holiday and Monday — sick leave.. not me.. Hrit decided to remind me of my OM status by falling ill. His old demon, wheezing, struck with a vengeance. It’s comes in a flash and goes ever so slowly. I was caught unawares as he’d been doing very well since we moved to Pune almost two years back. I’d given away our nebuliser to a friend with a sick child. So there I was running around to borrow one and trying all kinds of syrups, I’d actually forgotten which ones worked best. God knows I tried everything including a host of home remedies which normally did wonders for him but Sunday night nothing worked. He slept fitfully, coughed continuously and kept saying, “Mama I can’t breathe”.

I’ve never felt so helpless.

He’s much better now, though the cough will take some time to go.

At the gym we had a lady-trainer who took a dance-aerobics session. Like I’ve said many times over dance is my Waterloo. However, I was NOT going to let anything get in the way of my pizza this time. So while the other girls/women danced I kept to the beat and did my own version — more aerobics than dance but who cares as long as the kgs are dropping.

Today’s weight: 70.2kgs. I’m happy.

And now I’m off to search the web for fancy dress ideas. Hrit is an astronaut and Naisha is planet Venus this Monday. Help will be much appreciated. Crafty, creative people.. MM .. if you’re reading this help!

03/02/201215/04/2017

Breakfast like a king

Friends bear with me this month. I am going to sound like an obsessive fat fighter rather than an obsessivemom.. just for these four weeks. I need those two kgs off.
Exercise has always been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. Whenever I’ve stopped I’ve faced bad bad consequences like oodles of weight gain or high cholesterol. So since exercising is a given, it’s the food I’m focusing on. While dinner is mostly soups.. check out today’s yummy low fat breakfast.

1. Whole masoor dal cutlets with coriander and mint chutney (which turned out hot enough to blow your brains away).

2. A slice of brown bread

3. Carrot, cucumber and beetroot slices on the side.

All made by moi.

Now for the recipes.

Caution: If you’re not the cooking type you might find this mind-numbingly boring.

The cutlets are a hand-me-down recipe from my mum, who has struggled harder than me to keep me slim. Here it is for those who are interested. Do remember I’m NOT a good cook and bear with my hit and trial ways.

1. Soak whole masoor dal overnight.

2. Crush to a powder whole garam masala – Green cardamoms, large cardamoms, cloves, peppercorns, cinnamon.

3. Boil the dal with the crushed spices and salt. You can add in a bay leaf too. The water should be just enough to cook the dal. Don’t add too little or you’ll burn it, which I’ve done often enough. If you add too much, simply let it boil away. You can also add bread crumbs to dry it up. Mash the dal to get a dough-like consistency. Mum used to grind it in the mixer but I’m too lazy to do that. Mashing it in the pressure pan works well enough.

4. Add chopped onions, green coriander, green chillies and you have a nice batter for your cutlets. Make balls and fry. It can also be used as a sandwich filling… any day healthier than those potatoes. FYI: It’s totally awesome if fried properly in oil.. but if you’re on a weightloss trip a tiny bit of oil is not bad either.

The chutney is another staple these days. It replaces sweet ketchup at breakfast and oily pickles at lunch. You can even add it to curd to give it flavour. I put in coriander leaves, mint leaves, a bit of garlic and loads of chillies. Then I realised I’d forgotten the sour factor.. so added some amchur (dry mango powder), tasted it, then squeezed in half a lemon too. It ended up fine.

That was the breakfast.

Before I forget…

Weight as on 3.2.12 – 70.6 kgs.. Down 500 gms. Yay! Yay! The weekend’s here and I’m in a state of high alert. I don’t want the weighing scales tipping the wrong way on Monday.

02/02/201215/04/2017

Souper time

What with weightloss being the flavour of the month it’s soup-time. The Husband has been on a bread-soup diet almost whole of this week. Since I’m not much of a cook I made do with the Knorr ones for a few days. Now, however, I’m trying homemade ones.

I have one simple recipe that goes for all my soups… boil, blend, add salt, pepper, cumin powder, season with butter and cumin seeds and done. Any inputs to this basic recipe will be very welcome. The Husband would sure be grateful. Yesterday it was carrots and tomatoes, which the kids loved but The Husband found ‘too sweet’. Today I tried tomatoes with a bit of beetroot. Doesn’t it look great? The Husband liked it but the kids didn’t. Sigh.. It’s so difficult to please everyone.
Any ideas on other vegetable combinations I could try?

Carrot, beetroot soup

For the record: Current weight as on 2.2.12 — 71.1kgs There I’ve let out the biggest secret of my life. Shocked you, did I? Well let me tell you it’s the bones. When I’m 60 kgs I’m like thin. So 65 would be super. For this month I’m looking forward to entering the 60s.

01/02/201215/04/2017

More sweat

Been a week since I last got here… my reading list is full of interesting sounding posts but before I get distracted I just have to get this one done.
The gym’s holding a contest and I’m too much excited :-). Obviously it’s got to do with weightloss. There are three categories.. maximum weightloss, maximum fatloss and maximum muscle gain. The last one’s of course, for the men.. none of the women want to end up with muscles, though a muscular Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2 looked pretty wow. Anyway why worry about the unachievable? I have to remember I’m 40 years old (more actually but one is allowed to let a few years slip what with old age memory loss). And so I registered for the weightloss category.. actually everyone is expected to.
It’s been a while since I obsessed about my weightloss. Not achieving my year-end target kind of took the edge off things. That pizza never did happen… sigh.
I was not really kicked about the contest initially.. me not being the winning type. Mum tells me when I was a kid and, the perfectionist that she is, when she would try to motivate me saying, ‘Beta run fast you have to come first’… the only thing I’d ask was ‘Can I please come second?’ Nothing much has changed over the years.
However today at the gym, the trainer was so excited he got me all charged up. ‘We’ll kick 5 kgs maam.. this month.” he told me. Oops.. that was my annual target, man. He proceeded to hand me some quick weightloss tips. “Boiled food, warm lemon water in the gym, no sweets and no bakery products other than brown bread.” What no biscuits with the morning tea.. Marie, rusks.. gosh those are my true blue pals.
Seeing my rather lost expression he made a concession, “Okay one week you eat what you’re eating.. but the last three weeks we’ll go all out.”
So what say people? I should go all out na? My target.. not winning the contest but losing just two kgs. And then ….pizzzzzzzaaaa.
Anyone joining me??.. in the weightloss plan not the pizza.

23/01/201215/04/2017

Preventing Child abuse

I’ve often wondered how to introduce the whole idea of child abuse to the twins. As they grow up they’re learning to play on their own and there are times I’m not with them… at playdates, birthday parties or even somedays when they’re playing down with their friends. I am no longer around ‘all the time’ like I used to be. And so they need to be taught to look out for themselves.

Here’s a video a friend put up on FB. Thought I should share it.