Conscious eating - inexpensive way to fight flab

Few days back I stumbled upon an article with quite a thought provoking heading - "A moment on lips, lifetime on hips". It said that whatever we eat, it just takes three hours to get it converted into fat tissues in your body.

Though I am not a part of diet police (something like fashion police ;) ) but i do believe that one need not starve oneself from all the temptations, it's just a matter of getting little conscious in the quantity of what we are eating and when we are eating. Though this is the universal truth and common sense but we all know how rare common sense is :).

We don't even realise that a single plate of humble bhelpuri(so called low fat snack) garnished with peanuts  can give us half of our daily required calories. And then by end of day, one just says .....today I just had bhelpuri and no lunch! Villains like bhelpuris exist in ample around us. We don't have to defriend them but just have to control the frequency of meeting them :). Aim should be to restrict the entry of such villains in house. For me as soon as I get back from office, all of sudden I start feeling very very hungry and then my hand just goes into one of the drawers/containers of kitchen and I devour whatever I can get  my hands on. To prevent this I have started keeping healthy alternatives like bananas, almonds or may be good old pal milk in kitchen. Easier said than done but I am trying !


Maintaining a log of what you eat is something which gives you control.You might have to maintain it physically initially but after a while your mind gets tuned to it and you can maintain the virtual log in your brain. To help you there are sites like http://caloriecount.about.com/, http://www.livestrong.com/ and many other. These will help you maintaining the log and you can actually track your progress.

As they say everything has it's pros and cons.When people start following calorie count specific sites, they start to count calories in every damn thing. On lunch tables they would start ranting about the calories contents of each and every thing. As obvious they become a laughing stock:-) So guys you have to strike a balance! Count the calories for you and not for others :-)

Happy calorie counting ...and stop eating as if there will be no tomorrow.

Shimla ...old memories

When it comes to writing about places , Shimla finds a special place in my heart.The obvious reason for this bias is number of years of my life which were spent there. I was born and brought up in Shimla and lived quite a considerable part of my life there.



View of Nabha Estate..the locality where i spent my childhood

For a current Shimlaite , my article might seem as If I am writing from some time warped zone because current Shimla is not even 1% of it's glorious gone by era.The degradation has been exponential in last two decades but I want to remember my Shimla as it used to be years back.Let people call me time warped!

Shimla is not called "Queen of Hills" for nothing.This moniker gets a big endorsement when one gets to see shimla hill from a distance at night. The lights scattered in the hills look line a crown of swaroski crystals trying to outshine one another.




Sparkling at night. Courtesy Internet.

Life in Shimla used to be mostly on foot. One could spot only few local vehicles owned by government  or mighty and rich.Children would hike to their schools .They could cross cart road without any fear of oncoming vehicles.Believe it or not -  Cart Road had one solitary traffic police guy !
I used to hike around 4 km daily to my school from Nabha Estate to Mall.I think that at that point of time I never realised the importance of that route.Now when I sit and think back into time ,  realise that there were so many historical buildings which I used to cross - Iconic railway station ,Gorton Castle(AG office),railway board building  and GPO.All are marvels of wonderful colonial architecture.

Railway Board buildig

Railway station

Gordon Castle

Mall road was a place where people used to follow the unsaid discipline.You would not find any shabbily dressed person and there would be no bumper to bumper traffic of people.In the afternoons you would find group of retirees hanging out on ridge.Some would be sipping their cuppa coffee in the coffee house.The coffee house walls were adorned with big black and white photos of Nehru depicting his visit to coffee house.It was  quite a cool hangout joint for intelligent and not so intelligent conversations:-).

Indian Coffee House

I remember doing one of my school plays in magnificent gaiety theatre. What a magnificent building it is. This is the only building untouched and still an epitome of gloious past.

Gaiety Theatre

On Sunday afternoon one would come across groups of children who used to be on their weekly outing.Shimla had/has quite a number of prestigious boarding schools.Trip to Mall road would be incomplete without Horse ride on the Ridge and a softy(ice cream in cone) treat from Embassy.Embassy was the only eatery where you could double coloured softy!Quite a novelty in those days.



The Mall

Horse riding at "Ridge"

Nearby places like naldera, sankat mochan ,kufri were the ones for sunday picnics with family.These places used to be so clean and pristine.Devouring the yummy home cooked food  those were the days when eating out was not very common ) in the shadow of pine trees or cedar trees followed by long sessions of hiking used to be high points of picnics.


Naldera

Sankat Mochan Temple

Shimla has changed a lot over the time.I really wish if people both the natives and tourists can become more sensitive to this beautiful place and help retain it's old glory

 

Barot....Hues of green and blue

A serpentine road cutting through thick cedar forest and rain lashing already green forest, making it more verdant.Giving you company throughout is River Uhl gurgling and  making it's ways through rocks and hills. This is a road to quaint sleepy village called Barot in Himachal Pradesh.

Layers of hills merging into horizon....

There are only three dominant colours in this valley....green, blue and white and that too in their purest forms.This is a place straight out from Artist's easel.It has all the elements like water,snow ,forest all in one place.Any coordinates in this place will give you amazing views .You will see layers and layers of mountains merging into horizon.This almost seems surreal till you come across one or two occasional group of shepherds.

Small hamlet perched on hill

On the way one will come across hamlets perched on hills.Not to miss the the cultivation done in form of wide big green stairs.This seems like a green heaven in lap of hills.I noticed that there are some hills just having a single house.While looking at them , I was just trying to contemplate the hardships and struggles these villagers have to undergo each and every day.Life can be quite a challenge in these hamlets which get cut off completely  from urban civilization in winters.

Mighty Uhl River

Throughout your journey you will be tempted to stop at each and every turn  and enjoy the breathtaking landscape.The more you travel further the more closer you keep on getting to mountains.Finally you reach Barot.This is the place which was put on map in 1927 by Britishers.They tamed Uhl river here only and made a small water reservoir and also laid the foundation of trout farming for locales.Its amazing to know that this dam was built almost 90 years back and that too in such a inaccessible and remote place.Britishers laid a track for haulage trolley so as to carry people and material from villages/towns to this area .This trolley is still in operation .I bet if God can send back any of it's creators  today to see this trolley , they will die hundred deaths.It is in such a state of neglect!It could have been very well made it's way into heritage property but alas...

Log hut

Anyhow coming back to Barot. This is strictly for those travelers only who are seeking just solace and peace of mind and not looking for any glamorous type of holiday. There is a lone log hut which is a pwd resthouse where you can park yourself for a night or two and venture out into the wilderness of Barot and nearby places.
As far as eating out options are concerned ,if you are lucky you can savor the taste of quintessential kidney beans and rice in a sole dhabha(a small basic eatery) in market.Market boasts about 10 shops and to my utter surprise , I could spot a beauty parlour too. Beauty knows no bounds ;-)

A short journey to Barot left an everlasting impression on me and left me asking for more.....I want to go there again and again. By the way this area is also called trekkers paradise ...may be next time I will stick to that way of exploring...

Passion and compassion

Somebody gave me a reference of book "Alive in the death zone".It's a book about  Mr. Lincolon Hall who reached the summit of Mt Everest and then faced some difficulties while descending. He was left for dead at the summit.This book depicts the miraculous survival and rescue of Mr. Hall.Ironically he lost his battle to cancer after 5-6 years of his miraculous rescue.

While I was reading the book , I got more and more intrigued with Everest and the people who climb it. I searched on Internet and found that there are around 200 climbers who have lost their lives in quest of Everest.Bodies of some climbers lay preserved in nature's deep freezer as it is!

Mr Hall could have been one more addition to this number if it was not for one compassionate group of climbers who gave up their summit dreams and risked their own lives to rescue Mr. Hall.There was a other group also who feigned ignorance and did not pitch in for help and kept following their route to summit.

This story left a mark on my mind and heart.I am just thinking why  people can not be passionate and compassionate at the same time.Though Everest is not everybody's forte but I think common people like us also come across our own types of  Everests in day today life. We see lot of people day in day out who just follow their passion so vehemently.Some follow it ruthlessly like the climbers who were more worried about their summit rather than helping Mr. Hall. Some do it with compassion just like the guys who gave up their aim of reaching summit for helping Mr. Hall.

Passion and compassion have to go hand in hand else passion transgresses into boundaries of evils and craziness..

Start...

Well I am a late bloomer in this already hustling bustling bloggers' world.I must say it was a tough task naming the link of my blog.I must have tried 1000 words but nothing was available! I know it was quite frustrating but at the same time quite amusing.There are people like me in this world who think like me.
Finally I decided to give name "initialthots" and bingo...it was available .

Here I start my journey.......