Obsessivemom

11/10/201430/10/2017

7 reasons why non-dancers should Zumba

The music is the awesomest

It fills your head completely.
Your ears ring with it hours after the session is over. No matter where you hear it even though you’re rooted to the chair or the ground (yeah we‘re talking self-conscious non dancers here) you’re dancing in your
head every bit as well as your instructor does.

You make the coolest friends

and that’s one of the most delightful outcomes. I mean how can you not bond with people with whom you’re making a fool of yourself, each day for an hour? It’s a partners-in-crime kind of bonding – the strongest kind.

It’s liberating …

..to not have to worry about who’s thinking what and about who’s watching. (Everyone’s too busy getting their steps right, anyway). Only my two-left footed friends will fully appreciate how wonderful this feels. Nowhere else in the world would I try the stuff I do in that Zumba room. Okay.. maybe ‘try to do’ would be more accurate but what the heck! it doesn’t really matter.

I totally adore this one.
‘Accidental solos’ 🙂
I do a lot of those.

It’s a no-pressure fun thing

This is no treadmill-crosstrainer routine so it’s not a predictable, same-same everyday kind of thing. It’s a new day everyday. And it’s not a dance either so there’s no ONE PERFECT way to do it.

You collect endorphins for the whole day

– that happy hormone that causes euphoria and tides you through stress. Wiki tells me that exercising releases endorphins. It adds that smiling, eating and gossipping also ‘do the trick’. Well Zumba takes care of the smiling bit (we do a lot of that, I might add) and gossipping in the dance breaks is the norm. Now if only I could grab a bite of chocolate along, life would so be complete.

Your stamina goes up like crazy

If you can stay moving on your feet for one full hour – not just moving moving but jumping, bending, lunging – well that’s stamina, right?

You might actually lose weight

but that’s such a side effect – a desirable one – but a side effect nonetheless.

Linking to Write Tribe’s super initiative ‘7 days of rediscovering your blogging grove’ where we blog seven days in a row according to a format. Today we had to do a list and you just read mine. The idea is inspired by Darren Rowse. Go read other fun checklists at the Write Tribe blog.

06/10/201415/04/2017

#Microblog Mondays – Chests and Breasts!

“I want to run at the Pinkathon too”, said H this weekend. I spoke about how I was participating in it here and H got all excited too.

“You cannot”, said I, “it’s for women only”.

“Why?”

“Well because the race is to generate awareness about breast cancer and only women get breast cancer so the race is for women only.”
“Why don’t men get breast cancer?”

“Because men don’t have breasts.”
“But I have a breast”, said H pointing to his….well chest.

Apparently this is something I’d overlooked, using the unisex ‘chest’ rather than ‘breast’ when talking to the kids and they ended up using them interchangeably.

“Ummm.. That’s your chest, not a ‘breast’ “, said I struggling to explain the difference.

After a long drawn out explanation H finally caught on. Then nodding his head wisely he summed it up – “Oh so women have breasts on their chests and men just have chests.”

Yeah right.

Linking to # Microblog Mondays hosted by Stirrup Queens.

Edited to add: Going by the comments that breast cancer was not so uncommon among men any longer I decided to pass on the information to H. Here’s what he had to say..
“So some men get it too?”
“Yes.”
“Do some men also have a uterus?”
“No, they don’t.”
“Can you tell me a few diseases that ONLY men get?”

I’m off now..

29/09/201415/04/2017

#Microblog Mondays – Of Friends and Fitting in

A few weeks back as the twins were recovering from viral fever, they sat down to craft gifts for their teachers. H came up with this tippy-tippy-top flower for his teacher. He spent some time painstakingly making and colouring it, no mean achievement given that he’s not such a pro at either.

He put it away safely in his cupboard waiting to get well so he could take it to school. Then his friend dropped by. He looked at the ‘flower’, examined it and asked, ‘What is this?’ I was waiting for H to proudly declare ‘I made this for my teacher’. To my complete surprise he replied, ‘Oh this? It’s just something my sister made. I don’t know why she left it in my cupboard.’

If only he understood what his
favourite author said!

He was embarrassed to admit he’d made it!!

I cannot tell how saddened I am.

Long long back when he was a toddler he asked me for a kitchen set. He loves to cook. He used to take it down to play. Then one day he told me, “I’ll play with my kitchen set only at home.” And then slowly he gave it up altogether.

Of course that might have been a sign of changing interests, which would have been fine. But this, seems like pure peer pressure. My son is growing up and trying to ‘fit in’ and I’m scared. Not that he might not fit in, but that he might lose himself while trying to do so.

A big talk is in order! Any ideas how to go about it?

Linking to # Microblog Mondays hosted by Stirrup Queens.

24/09/201415/04/2017

7 reasons being a bad cook is cool

I’m no cook. It was only after I had the twins that I tried any kind of cooking. I mastered the art of making the perfect bottle of milk (Hey it’s not easy okay, the temperature has to be just so and the amount of powder all measured and the water just that much). I learnt to dish out a mean Cerelac too.

As the kids grew so did my cooking repertoire. Stewed apples, soups, khichdis, kheers – I learnt them all moving onto idlis and dosas. Then a few years back, unable to find a decent cook, the entire chore fell to me. I went about it in a pretty scientific manner balancing out the carbs, proteins, vitamins and minerals. The only casualty I presume, was ‘taste’. But I persisted, to The Husband’s dismay and continued dissatisfaction.

That pretty much summed up our situation.

The kids of course knew no better since they’d been brought up on my cooking all along. They plied me with compliments as they crunched up cakes as hard as biscuits and happily ate up my lopsided chapatis.

Sometimes I wondered if N grows up to be a famous actress (which is her current ambition) and some inane paper like apna ToI asks her for a favourite dish and she says (with that world-weary air typical of celebrities), ‘I love ghar ka khana. Specially my mum’s watery lauki with her special burnt-aroma rice.‘ Would that be a cringe-worthy moment for me or one of pride?

Ummm… I’m not sure at all.

But I’m rambling. The thing is recently, fed up with the daily chore, I finally got a cook again and what bliss it has been. Check out the top seven reasons why being a bad cook works for me.

1. The most obvious one of course – you get to hire a cook and are free to do more reading or writing or just about anything else.

2. You are playing your part in boosting the economy by providing employment.

3. When you have a cook and the food is not so good, instead of going in defensive mode you can shake your head like the rest of the family and before anyone else can say it you pipe up, “Someone really needs to talk to the cook.” (without any intention whatsoever of doing it of course. You do not want to annoy her now, do you?) And when she does a good job you puff up your chest with pride and say, “It’s an art you know, finding the perfect cook.”

4. When you do make something decent it’s such happiness. Even after having made hundreds of dosas over the past years, when the batter spreads out perfectly and comes off without sticking It’s like a miracle unfolding. Watching that chapati puff up makes you feel like a total domestic goddess, each and every time.

5. Then there’s everyone else’s sense of awe and wonder when you land that perfect dish once in a long long while.

6. Your cool aprons always remain spotless because all you’ve done in them is mixed the salad.

7. You never take anyone else’s cooking for granted and hence are a favourite dinner guest at all your friends’ parties.

So are you the ‘cooking’ kind or the ‘get-a-cook’ kind?

22/09/201415/04/2017

#Microblog Monday – Run for a cause

I am not really a sporty person. I am definitely not a runner. So what made me sign up for the Pinkathon – a run to support Breast Cancer? Well to begin with I might not be sporty but I am pretty committed to the idea of fitness, actually ‘fun fitness’. What can be better than running/walking with a bunch of buddies for a good cause?

Another confession – running a marathon has long been on my bucket list. I never did it because I had this very embarrassing vision of everyone having wrapped and gone home while I trudged on to the finish line by the afternoon. Or worse still, falling down from fatigue while people around me ran on!

Here, I get to choose between a 3 km, 5km or 10 km run. I intend to go for 5kms, which is a very doable distance for me. This is really as close as I’ll ever get to running a marathon.

Yeah I’m looking forward to it. There’s still about two months to go so I have time to get my act together.

Wish me luck, people.

Linking to # Microblog Mondays hosted by Stirrup Queens.