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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.

21/01/201215/04/2017

If you have a son…

.. you might find this useful. Mum to mum — a list of skills you need to master. Oh I’m not talking about stuff like patience and endurance, you’ll never have enough of those anyway. I’m talking of real, practical things. Read on..

1. Learn to fill air in cycle tyres. It’s a backbreaking task and the air refuses to stay inside whizzing out as soon as you remove the wretched pump.

2. Learn to assemble a thousand tiny pieces to make a robot/train/building. Or else you can hide away such toys as soon as they’re discovered under that innocent-looking wrapping paper.

3. Learn to get comfortable with transformers (car to robot, robot to car, car to robot, robot to car… over and over and over again) and beyblades (you’ll be made to fix the darned thing again and again and will be dragged into matches till you’re feeling like a spinning beyblade yourself).

4. Learn to differentiate between a Saurapod and a Tyranosaurus and make up stories about them.

5. Learn to take complaints in your stride..
– From the security guard: Your son was racing the lift.
– From the neighbour: Your son broke my potted plant.
– From the other neighbour: Your son messed up my rangoli.
– From the aunty in the next building: I got hit by your son’s football.
– At a birthday party: Your son tripped the girls, burst the balloons, brought down the streamers, licked the cake.

6. Detach yourself from worldly goods. You really don’t know how long that gorgeous clock you got for the kids’ room will last or how long the pelmets will hold or when the sofa will breathe its last.

7. Enroll in a gymnastics class so you can balance on that tiny stool on a table on the bed to get down the clothes he tossed up on the fan/cupboard.

8. Get earplugs. Whether he’s playing computer games, watching television or out in the playground he’ll give out periodic war cries that can be pretty unsettling for the unsuspecting mum.

9. Get a laptop. You already have one? Well get another one unless you’re fond of endless tussles over computer time for sooner rather than later the brat will get hooked onto those games.

And finally the biggest, toughest one..

10. Have another son because boys play with boys…ONLY.

Edited to add: A word of caution — if you do risk point No 10, you’ll have twice as much of 1-9. That’s FYI.

19/01/201215/04/2017