Tonight, the nest is empty. The baby bird has flown away. He'll return tomorrow morning. His mom and dad are missing him. I'm sure he's having a wonderful time with his best friend. Rian's first sleepover tonight is at Shayona's house. My baby's growing up!
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Friday, October 12, 2012
Rian and Reading
Rian has been going to Champion School since Jan 2011. The main reason to select this school was their claim that they can get 3-year old children to read. Before Rian went to school at 2 and a half years, he had his A to Z and his 1 to 10 down pat already, so we thought this is a good school fit for Rian with his natural inclination towards reading and books.
Sure enough by his third birthday Rian knew the phonics for all alphabets and was reading single vowel words. The school has encouraged and moved Rian (along with other kids) to higher level for reading. At 4 years and 3 months, Rian reads a lot, flawlessly. We encourage him a lot at home and read every day with him, and extra reading on weekends. He loves it and keeps asking for more and more.
Every 4 weeks we get a different set of books from the library. Every library trip Rian decides which books he's done with and okay to return, and which ones he wants me to keep and renew. I just love this interaction with him about books and library and his curiosity for new things. Big thanks once again to Daddy for fueling his curiosity - else Rian's natural selection is always just train books :D
Here's a page from a level 4 book about Submarines that Rian read without hesitation. This is grade 1-2 reading by school standards.
His favorite Mausami aunty picked a kite gift for him and Rian read all the assembly instructions himself. Here's a video on youtube.
May you keep this love for reading always...
Sure enough by his third birthday Rian knew the phonics for all alphabets and was reading single vowel words. The school has encouraged and moved Rian (along with other kids) to higher level for reading. At 4 years and 3 months, Rian reads a lot, flawlessly. We encourage him a lot at home and read every day with him, and extra reading on weekends. He loves it and keeps asking for more and more.
Every 4 weeks we get a different set of books from the library. Every library trip Rian decides which books he's done with and okay to return, and which ones he wants me to keep and renew. I just love this interaction with him about books and library and his curiosity for new things. Big thanks once again to Daddy for fueling his curiosity - else Rian's natural selection is always just train books :D
Here's a page from a level 4 book about Submarines that Rian read without hesitation. This is grade 1-2 reading by school standards.
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| Page from a level 4 book about submarines |
His favorite Mausami aunty picked a kite gift for him and Rian read all the assembly instructions himself. Here's a video on youtube.
May you keep this love for reading always...
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Rian's world of trains
Rian's most favorite thing in the world is trains. I've mentioned this earlier on the blog. Ever since his third birthday though, the craze has gotten more intense. Cely had gifted him a Geotrax train set, and with it came a Geotrax DVD with 4 stories. This is one of his favorite things to watch on TV (the first TV craze was watching Lightning McQueen in Cars, and the latest one is watching Lego trains). The occasional trips with Cely via VTA were the highlights of his week and his love for Cely. In April this year, Rian learnt how to ski and one of the motivations for him was to get a Lego train. This would combine his love for Legos with his love for trains. Lego City 7938 became a major hit with Rian and has been one of our best bribes to him. Accessories started flowing in, Rian got tracks, flexible tracks, switching tracks and his train set spanned our family room floor all the time. Andrea gave him the Emerald night and Rian was overjoyed.
In summer this year, Rian transitioned to longer school hours. For a year and a half from Jan '11 to June '12, Rian went to school from 8:30am to 11:30am. In summer school this year, Rian stayed from 8:30am to 3pm. It was hard for Rian to fall asleep at school, without Cely, without us. One of the main bribes we used again was his playtime with his trains - you sleep at school, you get to play with your trains. Rian understood it and gets to play with the trains 90% of the days now.
From the day Rian grasped the concept of "what will I be when I grow up", it has always been something to do with trains. First it was a monorail conductor. Disney monorail was his favorite after visiting Disneyland around his third birthday. He stayed at the "I want to be a train conductor" status quo for a long time. One day Cely told him the person who controls the train is actually the "train operator", so off Rian went around, telling everyone that now he wanted to be a "train operator".
Night time stories just before bed were a good time to expose Rian to new concepts. Rian always wanted to hear train stories. They get a bit repetitive for parents after a while. One day Rian asked Daddy (or maybe Daddy convinced Rian to hear) about how trains are built. Off went Daddy describing the design process. On the following night when it was Mumma's turn, a sequel to "how are trains built" followed. Slowly, Rian grasped the concept that the "train engineer" was an important person and he got to design trains the way he wanted. We started reading in various kiddie train books that the "train engineer" was the one who operated the steam trains. So Rian's latest is "I want to be a train engineer when I grow up".
Last night, Rian impressed me again - which is the main reason I'm writing this post. We were coming back from his swim class. Rian loves the fish aquarium in his swim school, I think it's a perfect addition in a swim school. Here's the conversation as I remember it:
Rian: Mumma I will have some fishes my train.
Me: Oh, like the fish aquarium in swim school?
Rian: Yes, and there will be many fishes. And there will be one big fish.
Me: Wow, very cool! What color will be your fishes?
Rian: Any colors, they can be anything. Mumma, I will ask my train conductor what his favorite color is. If the conductor likes red, I'll have red fishes. I can have any color like red, pink, orange.
I was stunned to hear this fellow wants to have fish of a color that is someone else's favorite color! What do you say to that? Good thinking Rian, you are already thinking about how to make others feel loved! Definitely Dad's traits again ;-)
In summer this year, Rian transitioned to longer school hours. For a year and a half from Jan '11 to June '12, Rian went to school from 8:30am to 11:30am. In summer school this year, Rian stayed from 8:30am to 3pm. It was hard for Rian to fall asleep at school, without Cely, without us. One of the main bribes we used again was his playtime with his trains - you sleep at school, you get to play with your trains. Rian understood it and gets to play with the trains 90% of the days now.
From the day Rian grasped the concept of "what will I be when I grow up", it has always been something to do with trains. First it was a monorail conductor. Disney monorail was his favorite after visiting Disneyland around his third birthday. He stayed at the "I want to be a train conductor" status quo for a long time. One day Cely told him the person who controls the train is actually the "train operator", so off Rian went around, telling everyone that now he wanted to be a "train operator".
Night time stories just before bed were a good time to expose Rian to new concepts. Rian always wanted to hear train stories. They get a bit repetitive for parents after a while. One day Rian asked Daddy (or maybe Daddy convinced Rian to hear) about how trains are built. Off went Daddy describing the design process. On the following night when it was Mumma's turn, a sequel to "how are trains built" followed. Slowly, Rian grasped the concept that the "train engineer" was an important person and he got to design trains the way he wanted. We started reading in various kiddie train books that the "train engineer" was the one who operated the steam trains. So Rian's latest is "I want to be a train engineer when I grow up".
Last night, Rian impressed me again - which is the main reason I'm writing this post. We were coming back from his swim class. Rian loves the fish aquarium in his swim school, I think it's a perfect addition in a swim school. Here's the conversation as I remember it:
Rian: Mumma I will have some fishes my train.
Me: Oh, like the fish aquarium in swim school?
Rian: Yes, and there will be many fishes. And there will be one big fish.
Me: Wow, very cool! What color will be your fishes?
Rian: Any colors, they can be anything. Mumma, I will ask my train conductor what his favorite color is. If the conductor likes red, I'll have red fishes. I can have any color like red, pink, orange.
I was stunned to hear this fellow wants to have fish of a color that is someone else's favorite color! What do you say to that? Good thinking Rian, you are already thinking about how to make others feel loved! Definitely Dad's traits again ;-)
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Tod phod bites
This Saturday morning, we decided to stay at home and consolidate our old electronics. Daddy was also playing with Rian to put together his broken Lego City train, 7938. After ~2hrs of repairs, Daddy is happy that Rian's toy is back and fully functional. Rian is also happy and playing with Daddy. Then Mumma spins the question to Rian: Are you happy now that your train is all fixed? Daddy repeats the question to Rian (sometimes the batteries of his listening ears are weak!). Rian replies with super tod phod answer in clear crisp words: Daddy, you are happy because of your work. I'm happy because of the love!
Daddy and Mumma are standing there, speechless! True, this is a moment that has taken our breath away!
Daddy and Mumma are standing there, speechless! True, this is a moment that has taken our breath away!
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Alaska: Day 1 to Day 4, Denali National Park
6 years ago we thought first about going to Alaska. We wanted to see the glaciers before they all melted away, that was the excuse ;-) Plans changed swiftly and life's other pleasures like having our first own home and setting it up, getting pregnant and having Rian, etc. took over. We always thought about Alaska though. Very often. Over the years I had accumulated random tidbits from everyone about Alaska in my GoogleDoc for the place. I would come back to it once in a while but nothing made much sense to me. I had no idea what the geography looks like, when to go, etc. We knew for sure that we didn't want to take a cruise. The interiors are beautiful and we wanted a sampler. This summer we put a stake in the ground: one fine day Amit agreed to 10 days off in August when Rian's school has a 2-week break, and I just went ahead and bought our air tickets. Other things just kinda sorta fell in place. We're kinda lucky in that sense :-)
Packing has become very different for us now. Earlier we would fret and start assembling stuff into bags a week in advance. Now, with Evernote, we just build our lists without actually putting things in bags. We save the last 3-4 hrs of the day before we fly, and finish packing. For this 10 day trip, we had to pack for all seasons: summer, winter, and rain. We ended up with 2 checked bags of 50+ lbs each. Our handbag itself weighed 17 lbs. Almost 10 lbs of that weight in checked bags was milk for Rian. I'm a big fan of the aseptic containers for Horizon Organic 1% plain milk, even I chug a couple of them once in a while. We also carrier along our Deuter carrier, since we had plans to do some non-trivial hikes with Rian on our backs. We also needed to carry our car seat for the 10 day drive vacation, and we decided to take the bigger, safer car seat for that. For one day in Denali National Park, we also needed to carry a car seat/booster on the shuttle bus, so we also carried a second booster seat for Rian. So basically we had LOADS of luggage!
We had great flights in the middle of the day. We spent two whole days: day 1 and day 10, flying in and out. Rian almost never runs out of energy. What I've realized is that we need to conserve our energies, and that does not happen with red-eyes or bad flights. The time we think we'll spend at our destination then sometimes gets spent in a lot of stress. Instead I've just opted to pay a few more $$ and get the best flights, so everyone remains happy. As Amit's new mantra gets more and more ingrained in our brains, here it is for all to see: The first and most important thing in life is to be happy. The second most important thing is love. The third most important thing is trains :-) and Rian is in giggles by the third one :D
All of us had a good hearty breakfast at home and left ~10am to get to the airport. We chose flights from Oakland this time around, and decided to park close to the airport. Left over food from Thursday and before made for some nice frankies - rolls of veggies and chapati, along with my fav peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches. Our cook Ranju aunty had made us some amazing cauliflower stuffed paranthas and some spinach theplas, for lunch and dinner. Our halt at Seattle was short and sweet. The service in Alaska airlines was very good. They allowed a gate check-in of the backpack (and inside it nestled tightly was the booster seat), so there was least damage to it. 20-30 mins before touchdown, the landscape came into view, and it was mesmerizing. We could spot glaciers, snow-capped mountain peaks, rivers, everything. It was truly breathtaking.
We arrived in Anchorage and got a nice big car, a Dodge Avenger. Can't believe this is economy/compact, as Amit managed to fit ALL of our luggage into its trunk! Tired, we started our drive to Talkeetna, as we had decided not to spend any time in Anchorage. We had paranthas and theplas on the drive for dinner, so we skipped any halts and drove straight to Talkeetna. The drive was amazing. There were trees everywhere. The road was just carved in the middle of the forest. Lush green surrounded us. There were hardly any services/shops once we left Anchorage city. A stunning sunset caught us by surprise - two suns in reflection!
Rian was a little tired by the two flights and the long drive, but he was on his best behavior. Daddy entertained him through the 2 hr drive from Anchorage to Talkeetna, while being the driver. I guess Amit's creativity is challenged and increased when he's driving ;-)
When we reached our BnB in Talkeetna, we were super thrilled! Talkeetna Chalet BnB had 2 new cabins outside, and we loved the aroma of fresh wood. Everything in the cabin was new and untouched. The BnB owners had taken extra care to make Rian's bed as well, so everything was ready for us when we reached at 10:30pm local time. We were an hr behind Pacific time, so were all exhausted with our internal clocks still ticking 11:30pm, but the wonderful cabin truly reinvigorated all 3 of us. We slept happily in our new home for a night.
We chose to have a hearty hot breakfast in the main house. Rian was thrilled with the options and inspite of his cold (tail end of it) ate well, much to our delight. Maybe he was just hungrier and not too happy with last night's dinner options. Our plan was to do flightseeing Mt. McKinley and land on a glacier close to the summit. The day was cloudy and the owners called K2 aviation for us, and found out the obvious - no flightseeing today. We still drove down to their office. On the way there, Rian saw an old broken down train and he was ecstatic, asking us about the Denali Star. Here we made our first plan switch. Within 15 mins, I got tickets on the phone for Amit and Rian from Talkeetna to Denali National Park on the Goldstar class on the Denali Star. The smiles on his face were priceless.
Since I had a little time in Talkeetna, I rented a bike for an hr and did some TP. I saw the Mt. McKinley peak quite by chance. After picking up some yummy desserts for all 3 of us from a local cafe, plus some groceries, I started driving to Denali NP. Amit and Rian had a wonderful ride, and Rian even managed to catch a nap.
We all reunited at the Denali National Park visitor center. The visitor center has life size exhibits of wildlife found in Denali NP. Rian's instant favorite were the "Dall sheep". He enjoyed saying the word "Dall" and insisted they ate "daal" and said "daaaaaaaaaal". He'd burst into instant giggles. We saw an 18min film called "Heartbeats of Denali NP" in the theatre there. The landscape is ever changing. We were lucky to be visiting when the park had fall colors in bloom. Everywhere around there were hues of yellow, orange, and red.
The park ranger guided us about trails around the visitor center, and invigorated, we decided to try a small flat 2mi "roadside trail". True to it's name, it ran along the road and it was a perfect warm up for us. The weather was chilly and cloudy. Rian loved the Pringles chips with jalapeño and cheese. Rian now insists on using Daddy's camera to take pictures. It's so cute to see him go "Daddy that is so beautiful, give me the camera, I want to take a picture!" Thanks to him, we have a few pictures of the two of us together now.
We had dinner just outside the NP, at the infamous "Salmon Bake" restaurant. It's a local favorite, and fresh fish n chips, Salmon etc are their specialties. The much needed beer was reward for a 2hr 2mi trail :D By the time we finished dinner, it got super windy. We checked into our hotel "Denali Bluffs" where we planned to stay for 3 nights. We had an awesome view from our hotel room, we could see mountain peaks bathed in the setting sunlight. Sunset was close to ~9:45pm, so not too late, and gave us a long enough day to explore the place.
Rian had a long day and was ready to sleep. But he needs the room to be dark and quiet for him to fall asleep. We too fell asleep with him then. This became a routine. I would enjoy almost 8-9 hrs of sleep every night and wake up refreshed. Amit would usually be up an hour before me and had his iPad as companion. Once we were both up, we would get ready, bathe, and lay out everything for Rian. We would wake him up, and take him straight into the shower. I learnt how to give Rian a shower without getting myself wet and inside the tub. I'd just make him stand in the shower for a few mins under the hot water. When he was ready, I'd put the shampoo and soap on him. In the last few months, I had taught Rian how to clean himself, and he's enjoy another few mins under the hot water. A quick brushing session afterwards had us out the door in 30 mins after Rian woke up. By then, we'd be famished, so we'd walk in for breakfast. We didn't offer Rian his early morning milk, and so he was hungry at the breakfast, most mornings. He would eat a hearty breakfast, and then after ~2hrs or so I'd give him his morning milk as a mid-morning snack. This helped us save time in the morning tremendously.
We had buffet breakfast at the Denali Bluffs hotel on Day 3 and Day 4. There were 5-6 limited options and it seemed overpriced, but it was convenient, and Rian liked the options. There was lots of fresh fruit and I was happy too. Amit was okay eating there for 2 days, but needed variety on the third day. Day 3 was planned for exploring Denali NP on our own, and the first order of the day was drive to mile 15 inside the Denali NP. After mile 15, no private vehicles are allowed on the park road (there are some exceptions) and we need to take a shuttle or tour bus to go further inside. Our plan was to park at mile 15 and do the 2 mile Savage River trail. It was a wonderfully sunny day, but the wind from the previous night had not stopped. It was super windy and chilly, but the sunshine was the saving grace. Amit's luck in parking got us the last spot in that teeny parking lot.
Rian truly enjoyed the hike. He had a hiking pole in one hand and the bubbling Savage River along the trail entertained him. It was a flat trail and Rian had no troubles complying. The trooper walked all 2 miles :-) We took numerous photo stops, and some scenic detours to play with the water. A woman showed us some wild blueberries which were safe to eat, so we happily plucked some and ate. Rian also took a wonderful photo of Amit and me together. He started asking for Daddy's big camera every time he saw something nice. He'd go: Mumma this is so beautiful. Daddy give me the camera, I need to take a picture. The Canon 7D with the 70-200mm L series lens on it is almost 3.5lbs. Learning to hold it correctly, steadily, not dropping it, then focusing and taking a picture - Rian did an amazing job!
At the end of the 2mi trail though, Rian was wiped. He was done with hiking for the day. Amit and me were just getting warmed up and excited. We had a picnic lunch of bananas, theplas, some biscuits, and some Gatorade. After another mini break at the visitor center, we started the 5mi Mt. Healy Overlook trail which has 1700ft elevation gain. It was already 3:30pm though, so we were running against a clock. We would have to take Rian up on our back in our Deuter II carrier. Rian was kinda sorta happy with the ride. He was being carried after a long time, so this was exciting for him. The trail climbed gradually at first, and my layers of clothing came off quickly. Rian too started fidgeting around as the adjustment was not perfect - he was riding too high. Despite that, we were having fun. We were doing what we loved most, and we were doing it with Rian. This is what we had seen couple in Zion/Bryce do 2+ years ago, and had always dreamed of doing it - exploring National Parks with Rian on our backs.
The views on the trail were stunning. As we gained altitude, we could see the village and visitor center become super teeny. The railroad and rivers were shimmering in the distance down below. The wonderful sunny weather was a perfect complement. The temperatures were in upper 50s or lower 60s so in short it was perfect weather for a hike of this kind. We could also see the peak while hiking up, which makes it seem so much closer than it actually is! Amit thinks it would be a cool idea for our shoes to have a built-in mileage counter. Unfortunately though we were slow, and the trail was not very populated. Since we wanted to have a good sit-down dinner after our on-the-go picnic lunch, it made sense to turn back even though the peak was in our sights. When we smelled foul odor like a human or animal poop, it was the final straw and we turned back, after a mini snack break. We also had an early morning 9:30am shuttle to catch the next day.
Amit worked really hard on the hike. He fielded most of the strenuous climb, and then the steep descent as well. He was actually faster with Rian on his back, than me walking all by myself. By the top, we were joking that we had earned our beers for tonight already! Dinner was in another popular place outside the park - Prospectors Pizzeria, which had 49 Alaskan beers on tap. After a super long wait and way too many beers, we enjoyed our yummy, well-earned pizza. Rian was introduced to root beer and he giggled as he drank his beer which looked dark black just like Daddy's beer selection.
So far, we had no schedules in the plan. But Day 4 had us sitting in a shuttle bus inside the park at 9:30am. This was no easy feat, given the fact that our breakfast was getting done only by 10-10:30am on previous days. We tried to sleep early so Rian would get good amount of sleep. We rushed through breakfast, and we ran through the parking lot to finally make it to the shuttle. We were in the shuttle queue at 9:25am! Usually Amit and I are not last minute people. We show up 15mins in advance, to avoid stressing me out. This time around, the surroundings seemed to have relaxed me and I was like: ya, they won't leave exactly at 9:30am, we'll definitely make it over-confident. When the registration lady could not find my shuttle booking, for a whole 30 seconds, I was super tense. All said and done, we started off day 4 as planned.
We had looked into options of exploring this park. Due to various reasons, they do not allow private vehicles beyond mile 15 in Denali NP. After mile 15, we can take shuttle buses or tour buses. Shuttle buses are supposed to be hop-on hop-off kind of buses, but in reality due to the heavy volume of people, hardly anyone gets off the bus. If you get off, you need to be in line to get onto the next bus, which may or may not have availability. With a 4 yr old we did not want to take that chance - we might be waiting at one of the stops for upwards of an hr. Anyways, so it was decided that we will stop with the bus and leave with the bus. Which means = no hikes asides from the main destination. The park road is unpaved beyond mile 15, and top speed of shuttle buses often does not exceed 25-30 mph. The round-trip of 66 miles takes 8 hrs, with planned stops, rest stops, and wildlife stops. So we decided to go only till Eielson visitor center. There are 2 more stops after that: Wonder Lake and Kantishna. Eielson it was for us.
The shuttle bus had us wearing seat belts at all times. Also, car seat laws applied in the shuttle. This was the most painful part. For this journey, for one single day out of all 10, we carried a small booster seat for Rian, as we did not want to lug around his huge car seat into a shuttle bus. It turned out to be a wise decision. The height of the booster allowed Rian to see clearly out of the window. Also since it was just a booster, when we had a wildlife stop, Rian could easily see out of the window by standing on top of his booster. We saw many wild animals in their natural habitat, undisturbed by the presence of the shuttle buses. It turns out the animals are used to the sound of buses, but they are not used to the human voice. So whenever we saw wildlife, and the bus stopped to take a look, everyone was requested to be super quiet so we do not disturb the animals. Almost everyone in our bus complied, except understandably the kids, and so we had good viewing experiences. The caribou was most commonly seen. We also saw many grizzly bears, some black bears, and Dall sheep. The joke that Rian carried home from that day was: which is the scariest animal in Denali National Park? The cari-booo!!
We saw wonderful fall colors on this ride into the park. The bus driver was very chatty and informative and jovial. The landscape changes from the Taiga to the Tundra, almost barren. The colors are vivid in this time in August. Lucky us :-) Lunch was a picnic sandwich picked up at our hotel gift shop, and some of Ranju aunty's yummy theplas, plus lots of junk food. We were advised to eat in the bus, rather than outside, as it was better to NOT leave crumbs outside for wildlife. We took rest stops at Teklanika river stop, Polychrome pass, Toklat river, and reached Eielson visitor center just after 2pm. Mt. McKinley is supposed to be visible on this famed drive to the park's interior, and inspite of being a sunny day, Mt. McKinley (or Denali as the locals call it - the 'high one') was just being bashful. Amit renamed it the 'elusive one'.
Rian's favorite animal was the Dall sheep. Apparently Denali NP was formed for the protection of Dall sheep. These were seen high in the mountains and very easy to spot as they were in herds, and totally white against the mountains which were brown or green. Rian got a chuckle from Daddy's jokes - Dall sheep eat 'daal' and say 'daaaaaallll'... He was amazingly good during the whole 8 hr bus ride from 9:30am to 5pm, except a few cranky phases. All the animals and the junk food we carried kept him busy and entertained.
We finally got off the bus and were eager to walk. A whole day of sitting didn't sit well with us, so we decided to do a short hike, the horseshoe lake trail. The closest parking was right next to a railroad crossing, and Rian's luck was such that we saw a big train carrying coal pass by. He stood there, mesmerized, and a smile plastered on his face :-) Rian's favorite fruit through the trip was a banana. Every evening Rian would ask for a banana, and it gave him instant energy. Even before heading to a restaurant I would give him a banana, knowing the wait times would be 30-45 mins. It helped tremendously. Without naps, he was prone to tantrums and lack of energy. The sugar kept him going. The horseshoe lake trail was all downhill first, so Rian enjoyed it. On the way back, there was some resistance during the steep steps, and I was almost regretting not bringing our Deuter II carrier. There were many mini steps to climb. Suddenly we made it a counting game and Rian was engaged. The little guy climbed 237 steps!!! Proud of him :-)
We wrapped up dinner in 'Salmon Bake' again. I forget where Daddy had gone for ~15-20 mins, but Rian and me were seated upstairs. It was fairly uncrowded. I discovered there was a free popcorn machine, and Rian was overjoyed with it. So much, that he started dancing and I totally encouraged him. We were seated in a booth, so Rian was standing on the sofa and I was singing for him, and he broke out into super cute dance moves :-) Here's the video on youtube. A perfect ending to a long day, with some very good Alaskan beer! For the complete set of 239 images from these first 4 days, see Alaska 1 - Denali NP.
Packing has become very different for us now. Earlier we would fret and start assembling stuff into bags a week in advance. Now, with Evernote, we just build our lists without actually putting things in bags. We save the last 3-4 hrs of the day before we fly, and finish packing. For this 10 day trip, we had to pack for all seasons: summer, winter, and rain. We ended up with 2 checked bags of 50+ lbs each. Our handbag itself weighed 17 lbs. Almost 10 lbs of that weight in checked bags was milk for Rian. I'm a big fan of the aseptic containers for Horizon Organic 1% plain milk, even I chug a couple of them once in a while. We also carrier along our Deuter carrier, since we had plans to do some non-trivial hikes with Rian on our backs. We also needed to carry our car seat for the 10 day drive vacation, and we decided to take the bigger, safer car seat for that. For one day in Denali National Park, we also needed to carry a car seat/booster on the shuttle bus, so we also carried a second booster seat for Rian. So basically we had LOADS of luggage!
We had great flights in the middle of the day. We spent two whole days: day 1 and day 10, flying in and out. Rian almost never runs out of energy. What I've realized is that we need to conserve our energies, and that does not happen with red-eyes or bad flights. The time we think we'll spend at our destination then sometimes gets spent in a lot of stress. Instead I've just opted to pay a few more $$ and get the best flights, so everyone remains happy. As Amit's new mantra gets more and more ingrained in our brains, here it is for all to see: The first and most important thing in life is to be happy. The second most important thing is love. The third most important thing is trains :-) and Rian is in giggles by the third one :D
All of us had a good hearty breakfast at home and left ~10am to get to the airport. We chose flights from Oakland this time around, and decided to park close to the airport. Left over food from Thursday and before made for some nice frankies - rolls of veggies and chapati, along with my fav peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches. Our cook Ranju aunty had made us some amazing cauliflower stuffed paranthas and some spinach theplas, for lunch and dinner. Our halt at Seattle was short and sweet. The service in Alaska airlines was very good. They allowed a gate check-in of the backpack (and inside it nestled tightly was the booster seat), so there was least damage to it. 20-30 mins before touchdown, the landscape came into view, and it was mesmerizing. We could spot glaciers, snow-capped mountain peaks, rivers, everything. It was truly breathtaking.
We arrived in Anchorage and got a nice big car, a Dodge Avenger. Can't believe this is economy/compact, as Amit managed to fit ALL of our luggage into its trunk! Tired, we started our drive to Talkeetna, as we had decided not to spend any time in Anchorage. We had paranthas and theplas on the drive for dinner, so we skipped any halts and drove straight to Talkeetna. The drive was amazing. There were trees everywhere. The road was just carved in the middle of the forest. Lush green surrounded us. There were hardly any services/shops once we left Anchorage city. A stunning sunset caught us by surprise - two suns in reflection!
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Rian was a little tired by the two flights and the long drive, but he was on his best behavior. Daddy entertained him through the 2 hr drive from Anchorage to Talkeetna, while being the driver. I guess Amit's creativity is challenged and increased when he's driving ;-)
When we reached our BnB in Talkeetna, we were super thrilled! Talkeetna Chalet BnB had 2 new cabins outside, and we loved the aroma of fresh wood. Everything in the cabin was new and untouched. The BnB owners had taken extra care to make Rian's bed as well, so everything was ready for us when we reached at 10:30pm local time. We were an hr behind Pacific time, so were all exhausted with our internal clocks still ticking 11:30pm, but the wonderful cabin truly reinvigorated all 3 of us. We slept happily in our new home for a night.
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We chose to have a hearty hot breakfast in the main house. Rian was thrilled with the options and inspite of his cold (tail end of it) ate well, much to our delight. Maybe he was just hungrier and not too happy with last night's dinner options. Our plan was to do flightseeing Mt. McKinley and land on a glacier close to the summit. The day was cloudy and the owners called K2 aviation for us, and found out the obvious - no flightseeing today. We still drove down to their office. On the way there, Rian saw an old broken down train and he was ecstatic, asking us about the Denali Star. Here we made our first plan switch. Within 15 mins, I got tickets on the phone for Amit and Rian from Talkeetna to Denali National Park on the Goldstar class on the Denali Star. The smiles on his face were priceless.
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| R |
Since I had a little time in Talkeetna, I rented a bike for an hr and did some TP. I saw the Mt. McKinley peak quite by chance. After picking up some yummy desserts for all 3 of us from a local cafe, plus some groceries, I started driving to Denali NP. Amit and Rian had a wonderful ride, and Rian even managed to catch a nap.
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| B |
We all reunited at the Denali National Park visitor center. The visitor center has life size exhibits of wildlife found in Denali NP. Rian's instant favorite were the "Dall sheep". He enjoyed saying the word "Dall" and insisted they ate "daal" and said "daaaaaaaaaal". He'd burst into instant giggles. We saw an 18min film called "Heartbeats of Denali NP" in the theatre there. The landscape is ever changing. We were lucky to be visiting when the park had fall colors in bloom. Everywhere around there were hues of yellow, orange, and red.
The park ranger guided us about trails around the visitor center, and invigorated, we decided to try a small flat 2mi "roadside trail". True to it's name, it ran along the road and it was a perfect warm up for us. The weather was chilly and cloudy. Rian loved the Pringles chips with jalapeño and cheese. Rian now insists on using Daddy's camera to take pictures. It's so cute to see him go "Daddy that is so beautiful, give me the camera, I want to take a picture!" Thanks to him, we have a few pictures of the two of us together now.
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| P |
We had dinner just outside the NP, at the infamous "Salmon Bake" restaurant. It's a local favorite, and fresh fish n chips, Salmon etc are their specialties. The much needed beer was reward for a 2hr 2mi trail :D By the time we finished dinner, it got super windy. We checked into our hotel "Denali Bluffs" where we planned to stay for 3 nights. We had an awesome view from our hotel room, we could see mountain peaks bathed in the setting sunlight. Sunset was close to ~9:45pm, so not too late, and gave us a long enough day to explore the place.
Rian had a long day and was ready to sleep. But he needs the room to be dark and quiet for him to fall asleep. We too fell asleep with him then. This became a routine. I would enjoy almost 8-9 hrs of sleep every night and wake up refreshed. Amit would usually be up an hour before me and had his iPad as companion. Once we were both up, we would get ready, bathe, and lay out everything for Rian. We would wake him up, and take him straight into the shower. I learnt how to give Rian a shower without getting myself wet and inside the tub. I'd just make him stand in the shower for a few mins under the hot water. When he was ready, I'd put the shampoo and soap on him. In the last few months, I had taught Rian how to clean himself, and he's enjoy another few mins under the hot water. A quick brushing session afterwards had us out the door in 30 mins after Rian woke up. By then, we'd be famished, so we'd walk in for breakfast. We didn't offer Rian his early morning milk, and so he was hungry at the breakfast, most mornings. He would eat a hearty breakfast, and then after ~2hrs or so I'd give him his morning milk as a mid-morning snack. This helped us save time in the morning tremendously.
We had buffet breakfast at the Denali Bluffs hotel on Day 3 and Day 4. There were 5-6 limited options and it seemed overpriced, but it was convenient, and Rian liked the options. There was lots of fresh fruit and I was happy too. Amit was okay eating there for 2 days, but needed variety on the third day. Day 3 was planned for exploring Denali NP on our own, and the first order of the day was drive to mile 15 inside the Denali NP. After mile 15, no private vehicles are allowed on the park road (there are some exceptions) and we need to take a shuttle or tour bus to go further inside. Our plan was to park at mile 15 and do the 2 mile Savage River trail. It was a wonderfully sunny day, but the wind from the previous night had not stopped. It was super windy and chilly, but the sunshine was the saving grace. Amit's luck in parking got us the last spot in that teeny parking lot.
Rian truly enjoyed the hike. He had a hiking pole in one hand and the bubbling Savage River along the trail entertained him. It was a flat trail and Rian had no troubles complying. The trooper walked all 2 miles :-) We took numerous photo stops, and some scenic detours to play with the water. A woman showed us some wild blueberries which were safe to eat, so we happily plucked some and ate. Rian also took a wonderful photo of Amit and me together. He started asking for Daddy's big camera every time he saw something nice. He'd go: Mumma this is so beautiful. Daddy give me the camera, I need to take a picture. The Canon 7D with the 70-200mm L series lens on it is almost 3.5lbs. Learning to hold it correctly, steadily, not dropping it, then focusing and taking a picture - Rian did an amazing job!
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| F |
At the end of the 2mi trail though, Rian was wiped. He was done with hiking for the day. Amit and me were just getting warmed up and excited. We had a picnic lunch of bananas, theplas, some biscuits, and some Gatorade. After another mini break at the visitor center, we started the 5mi Mt. Healy Overlook trail which has 1700ft elevation gain. It was already 3:30pm though, so we were running against a clock. We would have to take Rian up on our back in our Deuter II carrier. Rian was kinda sorta happy with the ride. He was being carried after a long time, so this was exciting for him. The trail climbed gradually at first, and my layers of clothing came off quickly. Rian too started fidgeting around as the adjustment was not perfect - he was riding too high. Despite that, we were having fun. We were doing what we loved most, and we were doing it with Rian. This is what we had seen couple in Zion/Bryce do 2+ years ago, and had always dreamed of doing it - exploring National Parks with Rian on our backs.
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| R |
The views on the trail were stunning. As we gained altitude, we could see the village and visitor center become super teeny. The railroad and rivers were shimmering in the distance down below. The wonderful sunny weather was a perfect complement. The temperatures were in upper 50s or lower 60s so in short it was perfect weather for a hike of this kind. We could also see the peak while hiking up, which makes it seem so much closer than it actually is! Amit thinks it would be a cool idea for our shoes to have a built-in mileage counter. Unfortunately though we were slow, and the trail was not very populated. Since we wanted to have a good sit-down dinner after our on-the-go picnic lunch, it made sense to turn back even though the peak was in our sights. When we smelled foul odor like a human or animal poop, it was the final straw and we turned back, after a mini snack break. We also had an early morning 9:30am shuttle to catch the next day.
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| W |
Amit worked really hard on the hike. He fielded most of the strenuous climb, and then the steep descent as well. He was actually faster with Rian on his back, than me walking all by myself. By the top, we were joking that we had earned our beers for tonight already! Dinner was in another popular place outside the park - Prospectors Pizzeria, which had 49 Alaskan beers on tap. After a super long wait and way too many beers, we enjoyed our yummy, well-earned pizza. Rian was introduced to root beer and he giggled as he drank his beer which looked dark black just like Daddy's beer selection.
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| O |
So far, we had no schedules in the plan. But Day 4 had us sitting in a shuttle bus inside the park at 9:30am. This was no easy feat, given the fact that our breakfast was getting done only by 10-10:30am on previous days. We tried to sleep early so Rian would get good amount of sleep. We rushed through breakfast, and we ran through the parking lot to finally make it to the shuttle. We were in the shuttle queue at 9:25am! Usually Amit and I are not last minute people. We show up 15mins in advance, to avoid stressing me out. This time around, the surroundings seemed to have relaxed me and I was like: ya, they won't leave exactly at 9:30am, we'll definitely make it over-confident. When the registration lady could not find my shuttle booking, for a whole 30 seconds, I was super tense. All said and done, we started off day 4 as planned.
We had looked into options of exploring this park. Due to various reasons, they do not allow private vehicles beyond mile 15 in Denali NP. After mile 15, we can take shuttle buses or tour buses. Shuttle buses are supposed to be hop-on hop-off kind of buses, but in reality due to the heavy volume of people, hardly anyone gets off the bus. If you get off, you need to be in line to get onto the next bus, which may or may not have availability. With a 4 yr old we did not want to take that chance - we might be waiting at one of the stops for upwards of an hr. Anyways, so it was decided that we will stop with the bus and leave with the bus. Which means = no hikes asides from the main destination. The park road is unpaved beyond mile 15, and top speed of shuttle buses often does not exceed 25-30 mph. The round-trip of 66 miles takes 8 hrs, with planned stops, rest stops, and wildlife stops. So we decided to go only till Eielson visitor center. There are 2 more stops after that: Wonder Lake and Kantishna. Eielson it was for us.
The shuttle bus had us wearing seat belts at all times. Also, car seat laws applied in the shuttle. This was the most painful part. For this journey, for one single day out of all 10, we carried a small booster seat for Rian, as we did not want to lug around his huge car seat into a shuttle bus. It turned out to be a wise decision. The height of the booster allowed Rian to see clearly out of the window. Also since it was just a booster, when we had a wildlife stop, Rian could easily see out of the window by standing on top of his booster. We saw many wild animals in their natural habitat, undisturbed by the presence of the shuttle buses. It turns out the animals are used to the sound of buses, but they are not used to the human voice. So whenever we saw wildlife, and the bus stopped to take a look, everyone was requested to be super quiet so we do not disturb the animals. Almost everyone in our bus complied, except understandably the kids, and so we had good viewing experiences. The caribou was most commonly seen. We also saw many grizzly bears, some black bears, and Dall sheep. The joke that Rian carried home from that day was: which is the scariest animal in Denali National Park? The cari-booo!!
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| A lone caribou |
We saw wonderful fall colors on this ride into the park. The bus driver was very chatty and informative and jovial. The landscape changes from the Taiga to the Tundra, almost barren. The colors are vivid in this time in August. Lucky us :-) Lunch was a picnic sandwich picked up at our hotel gift shop, and some of Ranju aunty's yummy theplas, plus lots of junk food. We were advised to eat in the bus, rather than outside, as it was better to NOT leave crumbs outside for wildlife. We took rest stops at Teklanika river stop, Polychrome pass, Toklat river, and reached Eielson visitor center just after 2pm. Mt. McKinley is supposed to be visible on this famed drive to the park's interior, and inspite of being a sunny day, Mt. McKinley (or Denali as the locals call it - the 'high one') was just being bashful. Amit renamed it the 'elusive one'.
Rian's favorite animal was the Dall sheep. Apparently Denali NP was formed for the protection of Dall sheep. These were seen high in the mountains and very easy to spot as they were in herds, and totally white against the mountains which were brown or green. Rian got a chuckle from Daddy's jokes - Dall sheep eat 'daal' and say 'daaaaaallll'... He was amazingly good during the whole 8 hr bus ride from 9:30am to 5pm, except a few cranky phases. All the animals and the junk food we carried kept him busy and entertained.
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| A second much larger group of Dall sheep |
We finally got off the bus and were eager to walk. A whole day of sitting didn't sit well with us, so we decided to do a short hike, the horseshoe lake trail. The closest parking was right next to a railroad crossing, and Rian's luck was such that we saw a big train carrying coal pass by. He stood there, mesmerized, and a smile plastered on his face :-) Rian's favorite fruit through the trip was a banana. Every evening Rian would ask for a banana, and it gave him instant energy. Even before heading to a restaurant I would give him a banana, knowing the wait times would be 30-45 mins. It helped tremendously. Without naps, he was prone to tantrums and lack of energy. The sugar kept him going. The horseshoe lake trail was all downhill first, so Rian enjoyed it. On the way back, there was some resistance during the steep steps, and I was almost regretting not bringing our Deuter II carrier. There were many mini steps to climb. Suddenly we made it a counting game and Rian was engaged. The little guy climbed 237 steps!!! Proud of him :-)
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| P |
We wrapped up dinner in 'Salmon Bake' again. I forget where Daddy had gone for ~15-20 mins, but Rian and me were seated upstairs. It was fairly uncrowded. I discovered there was a free popcorn machine, and Rian was overjoyed with it. So much, that he started dancing and I totally encouraged him. We were seated in a booth, so Rian was standing on the sofa and I was singing for him, and he broke out into super cute dance moves :-) Here's the video on youtube. A perfect ending to a long day, with some very good Alaskan beer! For the complete set of 239 images from these first 4 days, see Alaska 1 - Denali NP.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
My weight loss journey
This post is long overdue. Many reasons for publishing this post which was in draft form for a while (draft from May 2011):
The journey
Transformations don't happen overnight. For me, this journey started after my marriage, in small steps, and the biggest change came after 7 years in the form of Weight Watchers.
I've forever been a fat person. In strict BMI calculation sense, I've been "overweight" all my life. Thankfully never went into the "obese" category. I was absolutely happy with my body most of the times. Mom always encouraged me to sit and study, and I was always the last person in my sports class to finish the 100m running race -- no big deal. Everything worked out great till my post graduation M.Tech. finished in IITB. In Jan '02, I was engaged to the most wonderful man :-) and had a job in hand.
The 10 month stay in my first job in Bangalore was where my first big weight gain happened, ~10 pounds or so. It happened slowly, with free food at work, and almost 12-14 hrs every day being a "common" theme. Food was rich and tasty, and cooked outside. This was a complete change to hostel food which tasted horrible, and mom's food which used to be cooked at home, so still very healthy in comparison. My first brush with "working out" happened in Bangalore at a local club with a lovely lady teaching in her home terrace. This was a step class, and I absolutely loved it. I went almost 3-4 times a week on weekday mornings. In the Diwali of 2002, I took a break to be with parents for one final Diwali before getting married. Mom went overboard in cooking wonderful stuff, and I too had one too many of her delicious items. The Mamata who got married was way different from the Mamata who got engaged. After coming to the US in Jan '03, I didn't change much. 5'4" at 155 lbs, +/- 2-3 lbs was the norm for me. I was a size 12 forever, and pretty happy with it.
My hubby is a wonderful person. He loves to hike and ski and play tennis. You get the idea - handsome dude who likes to stay active. Then he ends up with this woman who'd rather drive than walk :-) He never pushed me hard, although he slowly started nudging me to invest in the activities he loved. In 2003 I tried skiing for the first time, and absolutely hated it. I had no balance, a heavy body, and no muscles.
After I got back, I signed up with Curves, a local gym meant for women. I started enjoying the workouts, and was motivated with the little achievements I had - a few inches lost here and there. I never lost pounds though, and so I quit Curves. Keep in mind I only did their workout part, and never bothered to look at what or how much I was eating. I always thought I eat healthy and I do not need to change that. I now admit I was too lazy to count calories.
In summer I tried hiking with Amit and loved it. We tried to go up to Half Dome but either Amit over-estimated my enthusiasm or under-estimated the great dome. We did well though, for starters, and noted our mistakes. Over the next 3 years I enjoyed our small hikes here and there, but I was always the last person in the group :-) We started playing badminton on and off too, and a swim here and there.
The motivation
I joined VMware in Feb '06, and met a wonderful person called Craig Williams, and he started a 3-days a week workout program class "vFit Bootcamp". It was tough, but very very fun. This was my first brush with "real" workout and training. Some things pushed me to go 3 days every week. Craig also had incentives like if we did 15 of 18 classes, we'd get a t-shirt etc. I loved those small goodies, and also wanted "check marks" in my "attendance record". I guess the child in me enjoyed these. Never once though did I pay attention to what I was eating, again. Just assumed I was always eating (and drinking) healthy. No weight loss. No inches loss. I did gain muscle though, and increased my endurance. I could sustain an hour long workout, and I did a few 5k jog/walks.
After working out with Craig for ~3 months, I attempted Half Dome again, and this time around we did it. We reached the top. This was a big big achievement for me. We packed well, and we covered 17 miles with 5000 ft elevation gain in 12 hours. Vidyut, Snehal and Sudarshan accompanied Amit and me on this trip. On the way down though, due to bad form, I hurt both my knees.
Numerous doctor visits followed, with lots of physical therapy, and cortisone shots, some of which helped. We also bought a townhome later that year, and got busy with setting up the nest.
In spring of '07 I attended an informational lecture and workout series by our clinic PAMF, a class called "Taking charge of your body". This helped me understand that there is a big component of health which comes from good food, and perhaps I'm missing these items. I started making small changes in my diet. For starters, I started having more fruits. I remember clearly, I was a total fan of grapefruit back then :-) Those 6 weeks started a journey of introspection for me. I started to have a concept of making choices in food.
The final panic
Finally in Oct '07 I had knee surgery on my right knee for lateral release of the patellar muscles. My recovery has just begun, with physical therapy, when we discovered I got pregnant. It was not in our plan right after knee surgery to have a baby. OTOH somehow I felt motivated by this little being inside me to start becoming a better mom. I started taking my physical therapy very seriously. Unfortunately I ran into insurance issues and could not take any more physical therapy. This was a scary period, and Amit helped me understand I needed to supplement it with personal training. I remember very clearly when I went for my first session with Maria, I marked on the form that I was not pregnant, and a week later I was seeing her and telling her I was pregnant. That was funny in some sense. Maria decided to focus on strengthening my back, and helping my knee recover by strengthening my leg muscles.
A whole lot of good advice started flowing in once friends and family knew about our pregnancy. The most helpful piece came from my OB about how much weight I needed to gain. Her words were very clear: You’re 157 pounds. Even if you don’t gain a single pound, I would not be worried. I knew I had to be super careful. Amit’s mom agreed to come and stay with us for 5 months, mainly so that I could have nutritious home-cooked food while I was nurturing a little being inside me. I don’t recall any crazy “pregnancy cravings” and did not have too many incidents of over eating. Amit also started working for a start-up at that time, so having her with us helped me tremendously for all the planning, the baby shower, and the baby registry. It’s a blessing to have her in our life. I continued seeing my personal trainer Maria once a week. I also started walking with Amit’s mom in the evenings after dinner. I joined an aqua aerobics class in a nearby 24 hour fitness gym. I also kept working almost till the week I delivered Rian, in an effort to remain active. With all these little things planned out, I was happy to gain only 16 pounds due to pregnancy. I continued with my personal trainer and aqua aerobics till my delivery week. Three weeks after Rian was born, the scale again read 157 pounds, and I was happy. After Rian was born, I didn’t continue with personal training or aqua aerobics. The only workout I had was feeding Rian :-) and taking care of his schedule of sleep and food. I used to enjoy an occasional walk with mom or Amit, but didn’t invest any time in workout till I had finished breastfeeding (~8 months).
The workouts
After Rian turned 9 months old, I joined our on-site office gym in April 2009. My three previous workout experiences had been in a group setting: step class in Bangalore, vFit bootcamp with Craig, and group-ex with 24 hr. Personal training was too expensive, and served its purpose when I needed it, but I needed to find a longer-term sustainable solution. I started off with gym and found some classes to attend. I was not very regular in the beginning.
Two friends helped me keep my workout routine. Parul had her second daughter 5 weeks before Rian was born. Anjali’s son was born 4 months after Rian. When these ladies were done breastfeeding, they too joined the gym. Together, we started motivating each other to keep our gym class schedule. If I was feeling low and lazy on days, Anjali or Parul or both would make sure I got up and out of my chair. The trio of us became fairly regular to the gym group-ex classes. Even our managers knew we spent lunch hours at the gym. Lunches became working lunches where were grabbed food at our own desk. The rest of the day became super efficient, with no time to waste and chit-chat. Stress level at work also slowly started reducing, even though we had less time to work, since the body was feeling better, physically and mentally.
Once we got into the groove, our workouts became very intense. We were hitting hard with at least 3 times a week, and sometimes 5. Most of our classes were an hour long. Spinning was the toughest to sustain. Joleen didn’t give us breaks. Osnat was merciless in the bootcamps. Melinda made us breathless in her classes. There was no compromise. No pain, no gain. It took us sheer willpower to get up from our seats, and go to the gym, change and get to class on time. Having invested those 15 minutes and brain power, there was no compromise for that one hour of workout time. That became our “me time”. At the end of the workout, we were sweaty, messy, and exhausted.Slowly, we started seeing results. Actually, let me rephrase: Anjali started seeing results in weight loss. Anjali had been skinny to begin with, but had 40 or so pounds from her pregnancy. She worked out two classes back to back two days a week, and at least one class every other day – 7 hours of workout in 5 working days. By the end of 2010, Anjali was fitting into her pre-pregnancy jeans already.
Parul and me were definitely feeling fitter, gaining muscle, and our clothes were fitting better. But the scale would not budge. In November, Parul made aggressive changes to her diet: she started having a super-light salad for lunch, 5 days a week. She also started staying away from sweets and other cravings. By end of December 2009, Parul started seeing a big change in the scale and was pleased with the results.For me, both Anjali and Parul’s success motivated me to start moving the scale. But I did not have Anjali’s energy for such intense workouts or Parul’s perseverance to a strict diet. In the first week of Jan 2010, I happened to see an invitation for Weight Watchers at Work. This was a weekly one hour meeting on Tuesday mornings in our office for an hr. The 19-week commitment was ~$200. The way I saw this was: the most successful weight loss program of America is coming to my office, and all I need to do is invest an hour every week. They were offering two free meetings for trial. At the end of two Tuesdays, I had my doubts, but I was committed to giving this a shot. I signed up.
Weight Watchers: My biggest break
I used to believe it is not easy to count calories, especially for Indian food. Then this meeting came along, and had a simplistic way of calculating Points from calories, fat gms and fiber gms. To an engineer, it made sense. Eat overall less calories, more fiber, and less fat. The math was simple on paper: to lose a pound of weight, I had to lose 3500 calories. If my target was a week, it translated to losing 500 calories every day. Eat 250 less, and burn 250 more. This had me sold.The essence of the program is simple: based on your current weight, you are allocated a certain number of Points that you can eat daily. In addition to the daily allowance (which expires every day btw), you get a few Weekly allowance Points that you can use on planned splurges like birthdays, dinners outside, or those devilish snack attacks. As long as you stay within your Points allowance, you are guaranteed to lose weight. It’s a no brainer!
I started making efforts to participate in the program whole-heartedly. This unleashed a new me who became crazy about calorie research. After the first 4 weeks (1/12/10 to 2/9/10 – Amit’s birthday), I had calculated the Points values for all my veggies that my cook made regularly, rotis, desserts, and I had lost 6.6 pounds. I was very proud of my progress, and it became a cycle. My leader said I really worked the program scientifically. Counting and keeping score really works in weight management. Regardless of the yardstick you use, the basic rule is to keep a log of how much you eat, and reduce your intake to reduce your weight.
As Amit called it, these are my KPIs plotted over time :-)
Motivational quotes
- If you fail to plan, you plan to fail- Knowledge is power
- When I would do less than 20 reps, and I'd crib to myself that I was cheating, Craig would always remind us "Hey, it's not cheating. You did 15. Think of all those people who are still sitting on their office chairs".
Lessons learnt
Information overload is a very real problem in the age of Google today. My mantra was to stick to two or three sites, and figure out the rest by personal experience.
The first person I'd like to acknowledge is me, myself. I took the initiatives to make my life healthier. But this was a road I could not have traveled alone.
My husband was my forever companion, motivator, and for months he had to hear about points non-stop :-) Thank you darling for all your patience and for always believing that I have the potential.
VMware as a company - for having all the right people, right equipment, and right motives behind opening an on-site gym, hiring fabulous instructors, and stocking healthy food.
Craig Williams who conducted the first ever vFit VMware Bootcamps and was always so encouraging.
Maria Kyong, my first and only personal trainer so far. She helped me keep fit throughout my pregnancy, helped me recover from my knee surgery.
My friends Anjali and Parul who dragged me to the gym every single day. It can be hard, and the comfort of my office chair is far better than the squats that I had to look forward to. Day in and day out, these ladies made sure I got up at class time, and I went with them.
My bff Mausami for being such a wonderful and positive person. She's almost like having my “friend Amit” at work, forever ready to hear my woes and cheer me up. A big hug to you, honey.
Gym instructor Joleen Butler for being a tough nut, not giving up on us, and constantly asking us to give her "8 more". Roxy for being the second toughest and so lively at her age. Melinda for being so energetic and full of life.
My WW leader Carol Spinney. She's been a lifetime member and maintaining for 25 years. She gives me motivation that I can be among the 20% of members who keep maintaining their goal weight.
My WW meeting members. Thank you Jesse, and Doreen and everyone else for your wonderful tips and ideas. I may not have the motivation or need to go to meetings regularly now, but whenever I need a dose of inspiration, I know where to find you.
And last but not the least...
A before and after picture
- I want to remember for myself what I went through, my thought process, my actions. This is kind of a "lessons learnt" post. If in future I ever "slip" and need inspiration, I'm setting something up to help myself.
- I truly hope it will help others like me find motivation. For years I was in denial about my body. Once I opened my mind to the change, change became me.
- This is part of Rian's blog because Rian makes me want to be a better mom, a fitter mom, a more healthy mom. Children are a mirror of their parents' habits and I want to set very good ones for Rian.
- I am also kinda superstitious about these goody goody posts and believe somehow that I'll jinx my efforts, so never posted a word about my weight loss while I was trying to lose weight. Now that I'm 10 months into maintenance, I feel this is worth sharing.
- After the fact discovery of this 3min+ TED talk: Keep your goals to yourself.
The journey
Transformations don't happen overnight. For me, this journey started after my marriage, in small steps, and the biggest change came after 7 years in the form of Weight Watchers.
I've forever been a fat person. In strict BMI calculation sense, I've been "overweight" all my life. Thankfully never went into the "obese" category. I was absolutely happy with my body most of the times. Mom always encouraged me to sit and study, and I was always the last person in my sports class to finish the 100m running race -- no big deal. Everything worked out great till my post graduation M.Tech. finished in IITB. In Jan '02, I was engaged to the most wonderful man :-) and had a job in hand.
The 10 month stay in my first job in Bangalore was where my first big weight gain happened, ~10 pounds or so. It happened slowly, with free food at work, and almost 12-14 hrs every day being a "common" theme. Food was rich and tasty, and cooked outside. This was a complete change to hostel food which tasted horrible, and mom's food which used to be cooked at home, so still very healthy in comparison. My first brush with "working out" happened in Bangalore at a local club with a lovely lady teaching in her home terrace. This was a step class, and I absolutely loved it. I went almost 3-4 times a week on weekday mornings. In the Diwali of 2002, I took a break to be with parents for one final Diwali before getting married. Mom went overboard in cooking wonderful stuff, and I too had one too many of her delicious items. The Mamata who got married was way different from the Mamata who got engaged. After coming to the US in Jan '03, I didn't change much. 5'4" at 155 lbs, +/- 2-3 lbs was the norm for me. I was a size 12 forever, and pretty happy with it.
My hubby is a wonderful person. He loves to hike and ski and play tennis. You get the idea - handsome dude who likes to stay active. Then he ends up with this woman who'd rather drive than walk :-) He never pushed me hard, although he slowly started nudging me to invest in the activities he loved. In 2003 I tried skiing for the first time, and absolutely hated it. I had no balance, a heavy body, and no muscles.
After I got back, I signed up with Curves, a local gym meant for women. I started enjoying the workouts, and was motivated with the little achievements I had - a few inches lost here and there. I never lost pounds though, and so I quit Curves. Keep in mind I only did their workout part, and never bothered to look at what or how much I was eating. I always thought I eat healthy and I do not need to change that. I now admit I was too lazy to count calories.
In summer I tried hiking with Amit and loved it. We tried to go up to Half Dome but either Amit over-estimated my enthusiasm or under-estimated the great dome. We did well though, for starters, and noted our mistakes. Over the next 3 years I enjoyed our small hikes here and there, but I was always the last person in the group :-) We started playing badminton on and off too, and a swim here and there.
The motivation
I joined VMware in Feb '06, and met a wonderful person called Craig Williams, and he started a 3-days a week workout program class "vFit Bootcamp". It was tough, but very very fun. This was my first brush with "real" workout and training. Some things pushed me to go 3 days every week. Craig also had incentives like if we did 15 of 18 classes, we'd get a t-shirt etc. I loved those small goodies, and also wanted "check marks" in my "attendance record". I guess the child in me enjoyed these. Never once though did I pay attention to what I was eating, again. Just assumed I was always eating (and drinking) healthy. No weight loss. No inches loss. I did gain muscle though, and increased my endurance. I could sustain an hour long workout, and I did a few 5k jog/walks.
After working out with Craig for ~3 months, I attempted Half Dome again, and this time around we did it. We reached the top. This was a big big achievement for me. We packed well, and we covered 17 miles with 5000 ft elevation gain in 12 hours. Vidyut, Snehal and Sudarshan accompanied Amit and me on this trip. On the way down though, due to bad form, I hurt both my knees.
Numerous doctor visits followed, with lots of physical therapy, and cortisone shots, some of which helped. We also bought a townhome later that year, and got busy with setting up the nest.
In spring of '07 I attended an informational lecture and workout series by our clinic PAMF, a class called "Taking charge of your body". This helped me understand that there is a big component of health which comes from good food, and perhaps I'm missing these items. I started making small changes in my diet. For starters, I started having more fruits. I remember clearly, I was a total fan of grapefruit back then :-) Those 6 weeks started a journey of introspection for me. I started to have a concept of making choices in food.
The final panic
Finally in Oct '07 I had knee surgery on my right knee for lateral release of the patellar muscles. My recovery has just begun, with physical therapy, when we discovered I got pregnant. It was not in our plan right after knee surgery to have a baby. OTOH somehow I felt motivated by this little being inside me to start becoming a better mom. I started taking my physical therapy very seriously. Unfortunately I ran into insurance issues and could not take any more physical therapy. This was a scary period, and Amit helped me understand I needed to supplement it with personal training. I remember very clearly when I went for my first session with Maria, I marked on the form that I was not pregnant, and a week later I was seeing her and telling her I was pregnant. That was funny in some sense. Maria decided to focus on strengthening my back, and helping my knee recover by strengthening my leg muscles.
A whole lot of good advice started flowing in once friends and family knew about our pregnancy. The most helpful piece came from my OB about how much weight I needed to gain. Her words were very clear: You’re 157 pounds. Even if you don’t gain a single pound, I would not be worried. I knew I had to be super careful. Amit’s mom agreed to come and stay with us for 5 months, mainly so that I could have nutritious home-cooked food while I was nurturing a little being inside me. I don’t recall any crazy “pregnancy cravings” and did not have too many incidents of over eating. Amit also started working for a start-up at that time, so having her with us helped me tremendously for all the planning, the baby shower, and the baby registry. It’s a blessing to have her in our life. I continued seeing my personal trainer Maria once a week. I also started walking with Amit’s mom in the evenings after dinner. I joined an aqua aerobics class in a nearby 24 hour fitness gym. I also kept working almost till the week I delivered Rian, in an effort to remain active. With all these little things planned out, I was happy to gain only 16 pounds due to pregnancy. I continued with my personal trainer and aqua aerobics till my delivery week. Three weeks after Rian was born, the scale again read 157 pounds, and I was happy. After Rian was born, I didn’t continue with personal training or aqua aerobics. The only workout I had was feeding Rian :-) and taking care of his schedule of sleep and food. I used to enjoy an occasional walk with mom or Amit, but didn’t invest any time in workout till I had finished breastfeeding (~8 months).
The workouts
After Rian turned 9 months old, I joined our on-site office gym in April 2009. My three previous workout experiences had been in a group setting: step class in Bangalore, vFit bootcamp with Craig, and group-ex with 24 hr. Personal training was too expensive, and served its purpose when I needed it, but I needed to find a longer-term sustainable solution. I started off with gym and found some classes to attend. I was not very regular in the beginning.
Two friends helped me keep my workout routine. Parul had her second daughter 5 weeks before Rian was born. Anjali’s son was born 4 months after Rian. When these ladies were done breastfeeding, they too joined the gym. Together, we started motivating each other to keep our gym class schedule. If I was feeling low and lazy on days, Anjali or Parul or both would make sure I got up and out of my chair. The trio of us became fairly regular to the gym group-ex classes. Even our managers knew we spent lunch hours at the gym. Lunches became working lunches where were grabbed food at our own desk. The rest of the day became super efficient, with no time to waste and chit-chat. Stress level at work also slowly started reducing, even though we had less time to work, since the body was feeling better, physically and mentally.
Once we got into the groove, our workouts became very intense. We were hitting hard with at least 3 times a week, and sometimes 5. Most of our classes were an hour long. Spinning was the toughest to sustain. Joleen didn’t give us breaks. Osnat was merciless in the bootcamps. Melinda made us breathless in her classes. There was no compromise. No pain, no gain. It took us sheer willpower to get up from our seats, and go to the gym, change and get to class on time. Having invested those 15 minutes and brain power, there was no compromise for that one hour of workout time. That became our “me time”. At the end of the workout, we were sweaty, messy, and exhausted.Slowly, we started seeing results. Actually, let me rephrase: Anjali started seeing results in weight loss. Anjali had been skinny to begin with, but had 40 or so pounds from her pregnancy. She worked out two classes back to back two days a week, and at least one class every other day – 7 hours of workout in 5 working days. By the end of 2010, Anjali was fitting into her pre-pregnancy jeans already.
Parul and me were definitely feeling fitter, gaining muscle, and our clothes were fitting better. But the scale would not budge. In November, Parul made aggressive changes to her diet: she started having a super-light salad for lunch, 5 days a week. She also started staying away from sweets and other cravings. By end of December 2009, Parul started seeing a big change in the scale and was pleased with the results.For me, both Anjali and Parul’s success motivated me to start moving the scale. But I did not have Anjali’s energy for such intense workouts or Parul’s perseverance to a strict diet. In the first week of Jan 2010, I happened to see an invitation for Weight Watchers at Work. This was a weekly one hour meeting on Tuesday mornings in our office for an hr. The 19-week commitment was ~$200. The way I saw this was: the most successful weight loss program of America is coming to my office, and all I need to do is invest an hour every week. They were offering two free meetings for trial. At the end of two Tuesdays, I had my doubts, but I was committed to giving this a shot. I signed up.
Weight Watchers: My biggest break
I used to believe it is not easy to count calories, especially for Indian food. Then this meeting came along, and had a simplistic way of calculating Points from calories, fat gms and fiber gms. To an engineer, it made sense. Eat overall less calories, more fiber, and less fat. The math was simple on paper: to lose a pound of weight, I had to lose 3500 calories. If my target was a week, it translated to losing 500 calories every day. Eat 250 less, and burn 250 more. This had me sold.The essence of the program is simple: based on your current weight, you are allocated a certain number of Points that you can eat daily. In addition to the daily allowance (which expires every day btw), you get a few Weekly allowance Points that you can use on planned splurges like birthdays, dinners outside, or those devilish snack attacks. As long as you stay within your Points allowance, you are guaranteed to lose weight. It’s a no brainer!
I started making efforts to participate in the program whole-heartedly. This unleashed a new me who became crazy about calorie research. After the first 4 weeks (1/12/10 to 2/9/10 – Amit’s birthday), I had calculated the Points values for all my veggies that my cook made regularly, rotis, desserts, and I had lost 6.6 pounds. I was very proud of my progress, and it became a cycle. My leader said I really worked the program scientifically. Counting and keeping score really works in weight management. Regardless of the yardstick you use, the basic rule is to keep a log of how much you eat, and reduce your intake to reduce your weight.
As Amit called it, these are my KPIs plotted over time :-)
 | |
| Mamata weight loss KPI |
The meetings were very helpful. I got many good suggestions for food substitutions. I never knew egg whites are so tasty and filling, and an omlette containing spinach, broccoli, tomatoes, onions, egg whites, with ketchup and whole wheat toast bread can keep me going from 8am to 1pm! I discovered sandwich thins when the burger craze came in. Every week the meetings deal with one topic, and it helps to maintain the focus. My challenge was the “eating out” week, and I got many good suggestions from my team members.
Monday through Friday I diligently hit the gym.
Motivational quotes
- If you fail to plan, you plan to fail- Knowledge is power
- When I would do less than 20 reps, and I'd crib to myself that I was cheating, Craig would always remind us "Hey, it's not cheating. You did 15. Think of all those people who are still sitting on their office chairs".
- I remember instructor Joleen would make us do lunges and squats and bring us to a point where we would literally cry. And then she would say “Now give me 8 more!”
- Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels
- Success comes in CANs
What helped
- Friends
- Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels
- Success comes in CANs
What helped
- Friends
- Having an easily accessible gym at the workplace, with good group-ex offerings
- A very supportive husband who never pushed, but always gently nudged. The initiative has to be born within me and come from inside.
- A super cute healthy baby who made me want to be a better mom
- The taste of initial success, and its immediate benefits on my improved health and happiness
What did not help (Challenges)
- A very supportive husband who never pushed, but always gently nudged. The initiative has to be born within me and come from inside.
- A super cute healthy baby who made me want to be a better mom
- The taste of initial success, and its immediate benefits on my improved health and happiness
What did not help (Challenges)
- Feeling too guilty about missing workouts. Later I discovered that the negative energy just made me feel worse and eat even more. It’s alright to miss once in a while and bounce right back when you get a chance.
- Eating too fast. The brain needs 20 mins to register the food that goes into our stomach.
Hindsight
It is always easy to go back and criticize the past. That is not my intention here. Looking back at life now from this current healthy perspective, and absolutely loving my healthy new body, I wish I had done a few things differently. Here's a short list: It is always easy to go back and criticize the past. That is not my intention here. Looking back at life now from this current healthy perspective, and absolutely loving my healthy new body, I wish I had done a few things differently. Here's a short list:
- Eating too fast. The brain needs 20 mins to register the food that goes into our stomach.
Hindsight
It is always easy to go back and criticize the past. That is not my intention here. Looking back at life now from this current healthy perspective, and absolutely loving my healthy new body, I wish I had done a few things differently. Here's a short list: It is always easy to go back and criticize the past. That is not my intention here. Looking back at life now from this current healthy perspective, and absolutely loving my healthy new body, I wish I had done a few things differently. Here's a short list:
- I had no job for the first 6 months after marriage. I wish I had picked up basic cooking skills to make healthy food at home, and gotten into a routine of it. Mom always kept me away from the kitchen, and in her place, she was right - it gave me more time to study. Getting into routine is important so it gives you speed. I still take an hour to make a sabji, or 10 rotis.
- In those jobless days, I wish I had taken up simple things like walking for an hr in the afternoons. Yes it was cold in winter/spring, and I had jackets on till July, and I loved my afternoon 3 hour naps after eating loads of rice, but looking back I think there was a window of opportunity which I should have explored.
- A friend commented I am good at google search and research/planning for vacations, etc. I should have investigated in some weight loss program. I had all the time in the world back then. America's most successful weight loss program would have been easy to discover.
Lessons learnt
Here are some take-aways from the "Taking charge of your body" class that the instructor Karen shared with us. Reviewing them now, while writing this blog post – all of this makes a whole lot of sense. I assimilated this same information from my Weight Watchers meetings over time:
Here are some take-aways from the "Taking charge of your body" class that the instructor Karen shared with us. Reviewing them now, while writing this blog post – all of this makes a whole lot of sense. I assimilated this same information from my Weight Watchers meetings over time:
Eating in a Sensible WayEating in a Sensible Way
* Eat smaller portions. Be observant of plate size. Share portions in restaurants or order smaller portions or half portions.
* Remember intuitive eating -- eating when you are hungry and stopping when you are just full. To practice, get out your food record, and keep one for several days to fine tune your intuitive eating.
* Don’t underestimate the value of eating three regular meals. If you are over hungry at any meal, you may need a small, healthful snack to fuel your body, and to keep yourself from being over hungry at a meal, and then overeating as a result. Eating regular meals and snacks can also help diminish food cravings.
* Make sure that breakfast is part of your day. Skipping breakfast means that you will most likely eat high calorie, not so healthy foods in the late afternoon or in the evening after dinner.
* Do not eat while you are working. You need to be conscious of what you are eating when you are eating-- especially to tune into hunger and satiety. You need to appreciate what you are eating to get enjoyment from the food you eat and to perhaps less, instead of more.
* Read labels to make healthier choices. How big is the portion, and how much are you eating? What kind of fat are you eating? Are you balancing high fat foods with eating plenty of low fat foods? How much sodium is in a product? What about the quantity of sugar? Are you eating foods which will contribute fiber? Are you eating plenty of whole grains?
* Are you eating the same foods all the time or are you varying the foods you are eating so that you are eating a wide variety of foods helping you to get all of the nutrients your body needs to carry you through your day?
* Plan ahead. You cannot eat something if it is not in your cupboard or refrigerator? Be sure you have plenty of healthful foods around?
* Portion control. Do you need to get out the measuring cups to see how much you are really eating? What about measuring foods like rice and pasta and grains? What about the size of your plates? What about the portions you are getting in restaurants? Resign from the clean plate club!!
* Eat more high volume, low calorie, nutrient rich, fiber rich foods such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains? How wonderful the tastes are.............
* Eat low-fat or non-fat dairy products -- they supply so many healthful nutrients.
* Eat lean portions of meat, fish, and poultry. Be aware of portion sizes with cheese.
* Go for healthy fats -- more fats higher in monounsaturated fats. Be aware of foods high in saturated fat and trans-fat which increase your blood cholesterol levels.
* Eat responsibly..........pay attention to your first wave of hunger and be ready with a food supply to diminish your hunger and to avoid overeating.
* Keep food records. Note what you are eating and how it compares to the recommendations in the food guide pyramid. Track hunger and fullness. Note any emotional eating and find alternatives to eating emotionally.
* Be a good role model for your children. Have family meals.Using Your BodyUsing Your Body
* Keep exercise records.
* Wear a pedometer. Take note of how many steps you are taking a day, and try to increase that amount each day.
* Walk with a buddy, or with your radio, or just enjoy the beautiful out-of-doors.
* Make a date with yourself for your exercise; put it on your calendar.
* Participate in a variety of exercises --it means less wear and tear on various parts of your body.
* Enjoy what you do for your physical movement. That makes doing those activities all the easier.
* Be a good role model for your children.
* Don’t set your expectations so high that you set yourself up for failure.
* Exercising most days is really helpful, and then it just becomes part of your day.
* Little things count such as walking up steps and parking farther away from the store.
* The first ingredient on the list should be a “whole” grain such as “whole wheat” or “whole rye”.
* “Wheat” and “enriched wheat” refers to refined white flour.
* “100% whole grain” means no refined flour
* “Made with whole grain” means that the food may be made with either a little or a lot of whole grain
* “Whole grain” can mean that only 51% of the flour is whole grain. 51% is the minimum amount that a food needs to carry the health claim that “whole grains may reduce the risk of heart disease”.
* “Good source of whole grain” means that there may be as little as 8 grams of whole grains per serving.
* “Excellent source of whole grain” means as little as16 grams of whole grain per serving.
* "Multigrain” means that the food contains several different grains; it may not contain any whole grain.
* Oat bread usually has little oats in it.
* Healthy sounding names such as Harvest Wheat, Crunchy Oat, Honey Wheatberry bread often contain little or no whole grain.
* Fresh-baked, “whole grain” breads and bagels at bakeries and delis may just have a sprinkling of whole grains.
* Hard white wheat is a new variety of wheat that can be finely milled, including the bran and germ, to produce whole wheat flour. It contains the fiber and nutrients but has the taste and texture of white bread. Products made with this flour are still only 30% or less whole wheat.
* Stone ground does not necessarily mean whole grain. There is no FDA definition of “stone ground”.
My personal lessons
When you’re trying to lose weight:
1. There is no substitute for hard work. To lose weight, you have to eat less and move more. Basic science does not change. Yes you will be hungry and tired and fatigued, but no pain, no gain. There are ways to cope with the hunger, and these are lifetime changes you need to make – choose more veggies and fruits over bread and butter.
2. Make lifestyle changes. Fad diets do not last and do not help, long term or short term. Make meaningful, small changes one at a time, and stick with them.
3. Do it before you say it. TED talk about keeping your goals to yourself. It just made a lot of sense to me.
4. Track, track, track. Note down every single morsel of food that you put in your mouth. If it’s more than 25 calories, it goes in your tracker (food diary). If you eat 25 calories extra every day, you will gain 2.57 pounds at the end of the year :-)
5. Be consistent with your workouts. Try to go for 30 mins every day. It may just be a walk or elliptical/treadmill.
6. Drink lots of water. When I workout, I drink way more water through the rest of the day. I’ve often noticed (not surprisingly) these are the days when I feel less hungry and have fewer snack attacks. On weekends, I carry my Nalgene bottle everywhere. My cars are stocked with water bottles.
7. Find healthy snacks that you love. Go bananas over bananas. Seriously. I spend 5 mins every morning packing fruits (yes, plural) into my lunch box. A banana is now a part of my weekend pack for me. Two easy peel cuties are part of my every day lunch box. A cup of blueberries is my preferred morning snack after coffee and before breakfast. A bowl of watermelon fills my desire for dessert after dinner.
8. Do not keep yourself hungry. Eat regular snacks at 2 hr intervals, and keep it limited to small portions. In anticipation of a large buffet if I skip my breakfast, I end up eating breakfast + lunch + extra calories by the time it’s lunch hour.
9. Every bite of food counts. Eat when you’re hungry and stop when you’re full. Every extra bite you eat goes to “waist”!! Less calories, more fiber, less fat, more protein, less carbs.
10. Do not swear off “untouchable foods”. The mind just makes you want them more, some sort of forbidden pleasure. Everything in moderation.
11. Handle your stress. We all have sources of stress from work, kids, food, spouses. (5) will help to handle some of it. Practice relaxation breathing. Get a therapist if it gets extreme.
12. Go easy on the alcohol. This packs in a lot more calories than we can imagine. There’s a reason alcohol containers and wine bottles do not have nutrition information :-) In my 30s I do not need to drink till I drop, I have many fond memories of doing that in my 20s!
13. Friendly competition helps. This is what drives me to group-ex classes – I push myself looking at someone better than me. It keeps me challenged and focused.
14. Learn from others. Loads of personal lessons learnt come from observing other skinny people practice their discipline with food and exercise. The next time you see a skinny woman (you know), ask her the secret of her size. More than likely she is a workout junkie or a hiking freak or bikes to work.
15. Learn to control food. Do not let food control you. A slip once a while is forgivable, but make it a planned slip, and indulge in what you want to eat rather than what’s in front of you.
16. Keep temptation away. I once had a t-shirt: Lead me not to temptation for I can find it myself. If you are a sucker for ice-cream, don’t keep any in the freezer! We go to Krispy Kreme for donuts almost every other week, but we buy single serve donuts and consume them in the shop. They never come home with us.
17. If you fall, get up and walk again. Everyone makes mistakes. Acknowledge your slip-ups, account for them, and treat every day as a new day. So you had a huge piece of cake – no biggie. Go out for a quick walk, and load up on water and salads for dinner.
18. Move around more. If you work 8 hours in an office chair, find excuses to get up from your chair every half an hour. Walk up and down stairs and get right back. Walk to your colleagues’ desk instead of using the phone or IM.
19. Find healthy hobbies. Tap into your inner hiker and ignite the love of outdoors in your kids.
20. Keep it real. Weekly weigh-ins help a lot to keep me accountable. Some weeks are bad, and I am aware of my increased weight. I still go for the weigh-in to keep myself in check, and face my fears.
When you’re trying to maintain:
1. Find active hobbies. Be it dancing, hiking, swimming or skiing. Cover all seasons to keep yourself engaged and interested.
2. Enjoy the food and especially the treats. Savor the flavors. You’ve earned it.
3. Have a fitness goal in mind every year – some crazy activity like running a half marathon or doing an overnight hike. That will keep you going to the gym regularly. Even planned beach and other vacations are motivations for me.
4. Take the time to dress and shop for good clothes. Appreciate how far you’ve come and love your new form.
* Eat smaller portions. Be observant of plate size. Share portions in restaurants or order smaller portions or half portions.
* Remember intuitive eating -- eating when you are hungry and stopping when you are just full. To practice, get out your food record, and keep one for several days to fine tune your intuitive eating.
* Don’t underestimate the value of eating three regular meals. If you are over hungry at any meal, you may need a small, healthful snack to fuel your body, and to keep yourself from being over hungry at a meal, and then overeating as a result. Eating regular meals and snacks can also help diminish food cravings.
* Make sure that breakfast is part of your day. Skipping breakfast means that you will most likely eat high calorie, not so healthy foods in the late afternoon or in the evening after dinner.
* Do not eat while you are working. You need to be conscious of what you are eating when you are eating-- especially to tune into hunger and satiety. You need to appreciate what you are eating to get enjoyment from the food you eat and to perhaps less, instead of more.
* Read labels to make healthier choices. How big is the portion, and how much are you eating? What kind of fat are you eating? Are you balancing high fat foods with eating plenty of low fat foods? How much sodium is in a product? What about the quantity of sugar? Are you eating foods which will contribute fiber? Are you eating plenty of whole grains?
* Are you eating the same foods all the time or are you varying the foods you are eating so that you are eating a wide variety of foods helping you to get all of the nutrients your body needs to carry you through your day?
* Plan ahead. You cannot eat something if it is not in your cupboard or refrigerator? Be sure you have plenty of healthful foods around?
* Portion control. Do you need to get out the measuring cups to see how much you are really eating? What about measuring foods like rice and pasta and grains? What about the size of your plates? What about the portions you are getting in restaurants? Resign from the clean plate club!!
* Eat more high volume, low calorie, nutrient rich, fiber rich foods such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains? How wonderful the tastes are.............
* Eat low-fat or non-fat dairy products -- they supply so many healthful nutrients.
* Eat lean portions of meat, fish, and poultry. Be aware of portion sizes with cheese.
* Go for healthy fats -- more fats higher in monounsaturated fats. Be aware of foods high in saturated fat and trans-fat which increase your blood cholesterol levels.
* Eat responsibly..........pay attention to your first wave of hunger and be ready with a food supply to diminish your hunger and to avoid overeating.
* Keep food records. Note what you are eating and how it compares to the recommendations in the food guide pyramid. Track hunger and fullness. Note any emotional eating and find alternatives to eating emotionally.
* Be a good role model for your children. Have family meals.Using Your BodyUsing Your Body
* Keep exercise records.
* Wear a pedometer. Take note of how many steps you are taking a day, and try to increase that amount each day.
* Walk with a buddy, or with your radio, or just enjoy the beautiful out-of-doors.
* Make a date with yourself for your exercise; put it on your calendar.
* Participate in a variety of exercises --it means less wear and tear on various parts of your body.
* Enjoy what you do for your physical movement. That makes doing those activities all the easier.
* Be a good role model for your children.
* Don’t set your expectations so high that you set yourself up for failure.
* Exercising most days is really helpful, and then it just becomes part of your day.
* Little things count such as walking up steps and parking farther away from the store.
* The first ingredient on the list should be a “whole” grain such as “whole wheat” or “whole rye”.
* “Wheat” and “enriched wheat” refers to refined white flour.
* “100% whole grain” means no refined flour
* “Made with whole grain” means that the food may be made with either a little or a lot of whole grain
* “Whole grain” can mean that only 51% of the flour is whole grain. 51% is the minimum amount that a food needs to carry the health claim that “whole grains may reduce the risk of heart disease”.
* “Good source of whole grain” means that there may be as little as 8 grams of whole grains per serving.
* “Excellent source of whole grain” means as little as16 grams of whole grain per serving.
* "Multigrain” means that the food contains several different grains; it may not contain any whole grain.
* Oat bread usually has little oats in it.
* Healthy sounding names such as Harvest Wheat, Crunchy Oat, Honey Wheatberry bread often contain little or no whole grain.
* Fresh-baked, “whole grain” breads and bagels at bakeries and delis may just have a sprinkling of whole grains.
* Hard white wheat is a new variety of wheat that can be finely milled, including the bran and germ, to produce whole wheat flour. It contains the fiber and nutrients but has the taste and texture of white bread. Products made with this flour are still only 30% or less whole wheat.
* Stone ground does not necessarily mean whole grain. There is no FDA definition of “stone ground”.
My personal lessons
1. There is no substitute for hard work. To lose weight, you have to eat less and move more. Basic science does not change. Yes you will be hungry and tired and fatigued, but no pain, no gain. There are ways to cope with the hunger, and these are lifetime changes you need to make – choose more veggies and fruits over bread and butter.
2. Make lifestyle changes. Fad diets do not last and do not help, long term or short term. Make meaningful, small changes one at a time, and stick with them.
3. Do it before you say it. TED talk about keeping your goals to yourself. It just made a lot of sense to me.
4. Track, track, track. Note down every single morsel of food that you put in your mouth. If it’s more than 25 calories, it goes in your tracker (food diary). If you eat 25 calories extra every day, you will gain 2.57 pounds at the end of the year :-)
5. Be consistent with your workouts. Try to go for 30 mins every day. It may just be a walk or elliptical/treadmill.
6. Drink lots of water. When I workout, I drink way more water through the rest of the day. I’ve often noticed (not surprisingly) these are the days when I feel less hungry and have fewer snack attacks. On weekends, I carry my Nalgene bottle everywhere. My cars are stocked with water bottles.
7. Find healthy snacks that you love. Go bananas over bananas. Seriously. I spend 5 mins every morning packing fruits (yes, plural) into my lunch box. A banana is now a part of my weekend pack for me. Two easy peel cuties are part of my every day lunch box. A cup of blueberries is my preferred morning snack after coffee and before breakfast. A bowl of watermelon fills my desire for dessert after dinner.
8. Do not keep yourself hungry. Eat regular snacks at 2 hr intervals, and keep it limited to small portions. In anticipation of a large buffet if I skip my breakfast, I end up eating breakfast + lunch + extra calories by the time it’s lunch hour.
9. Every bite of food counts. Eat when you’re hungry and stop when you’re full. Every extra bite you eat goes to “waist”!! Less calories, more fiber, less fat, more protein, less carbs.
10. Do not swear off “untouchable foods”. The mind just makes you want them more, some sort of forbidden pleasure. Everything in moderation.
11. Handle your stress. We all have sources of stress from work, kids, food, spouses. (5) will help to handle some of it. Practice relaxation breathing. Get a therapist if it gets extreme.
12. Go easy on the alcohol. This packs in a lot more calories than we can imagine. There’s a reason alcohol containers and wine bottles do not have nutrition information :-) In my 30s I do not need to drink till I drop, I have many fond memories of doing that in my 20s!
13. Friendly competition helps. This is what drives me to group-ex classes – I push myself looking at someone better than me. It keeps me challenged and focused.
14. Learn from others. Loads of personal lessons learnt come from observing other skinny people practice their discipline with food and exercise. The next time you see a skinny woman (you know), ask her the secret of her size. More than likely she is a workout junkie or a hiking freak or bikes to work.
15. Learn to control food. Do not let food control you. A slip once a while is forgivable, but make it a planned slip, and indulge in what you want to eat rather than what’s in front of you.
16. Keep temptation away. I once had a t-shirt: Lead me not to temptation for I can find it myself. If you are a sucker for ice-cream, don’t keep any in the freezer! We go to Krispy Kreme for donuts almost every other week, but we buy single serve donuts and consume them in the shop. They never come home with us.
17. If you fall, get up and walk again. Everyone makes mistakes. Acknowledge your slip-ups, account for them, and treat every day as a new day. So you had a huge piece of cake – no biggie. Go out for a quick walk, and load up on water and salads for dinner.
18. Move around more. If you work 8 hours in an office chair, find excuses to get up from your chair every half an hour. Walk up and down stairs and get right back. Walk to your colleagues’ desk instead of using the phone or IM.
19. Find healthy hobbies. Tap into your inner hiker and ignite the love of outdoors in your kids.
20. Keep it real. Weekly weigh-ins help a lot to keep me accountable. Some weeks are bad, and I am aware of my increased weight. I still go for the weigh-in to keep myself in check, and face my fears.
When you’re trying to maintain:
1. Find active hobbies. Be it dancing, hiking, swimming or skiing. Cover all seasons to keep yourself engaged and interested.
2. Enjoy the food and especially the treats. Savor the flavors. You’ve earned it.
3. Have a fitness goal in mind every year – some crazy activity like running a half marathon or doing an overnight hike. That will keep you going to the gym regularly. Even planned beach and other vacations are motivations for me.
4. Take the time to dress and shop for good clothes. Appreciate how far you’ve come and love your new form.
Helpful links
- http://www.weightwatchers.com. Like them on Facebook to get daily recipes and tips. One of my favorite sections is reading about Success Stories from others.
- Dave's blog (WW CEO). He writes as a WW user, not as their CEO and is always very down to earth.
- Hungry Girl newsletters. I like the daily dose of advice and healthy "swaps" that she offers. WW on Facebook also has a feed into the HG dailies. The name made me actually stay away from this website for quite a while :-) but when fellow WW members started sharing the swaps in our meetings, I quietly signed up to experience this.
- Wiki weight watcher. When I was new to the WW program, I had a big excuse: I don't know the values of items of food that I eat outside. Tada, problem solved by one of the WW meeting members. Thank you Jesse, you rock!
Acknowledgments
The first person I'd like to acknowledge is me, myself. I took the initiatives to make my life healthier. But this was a road I could not have traveled alone.
My husband was my forever companion, motivator, and for months he had to hear about points non-stop :-) Thank you darling for all your patience and for always believing that I have the potential.
VMware as a company - for having all the right people, right equipment, and right motives behind opening an on-site gym, hiring fabulous instructors, and stocking healthy food.
Craig Williams who conducted the first ever vFit VMware Bootcamps and was always so encouraging.
Maria Kyong, my first and only personal trainer so far. She helped me keep fit throughout my pregnancy, helped me recover from my knee surgery.
My friends Anjali and Parul who dragged me to the gym every single day. It can be hard, and the comfort of my office chair is far better than the squats that I had to look forward to. Day in and day out, these ladies made sure I got up at class time, and I went with them.
My bff Mausami for being such a wonderful and positive person. She's almost like having my “friend Amit” at work, forever ready to hear my woes and cheer me up. A big hug to you, honey.
Gym instructor Joleen Butler for being a tough nut, not giving up on us, and constantly asking us to give her "8 more". Roxy for being the second toughest and so lively at her age. Melinda for being so energetic and full of life.
My WW leader Carol Spinney. She's been a lifetime member and maintaining for 25 years. She gives me motivation that I can be among the 20% of members who keep maintaining their goal weight.
My WW meeting members. Thank you Jesse, and Doreen and everyone else for your wonderful tips and ideas. I may not have the motivation or need to go to meetings regularly now, but whenever I need a dose of inspiration, I know where to find you.
And last but not the least...
A before and after picture
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| Mamata before WW |
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| Mamata 7 months after joining WW, a new birthday |
Onto my next quest
Because there is always something to improve :-) when you’re a perfectionist. For 2011, I’m in pursuit of happiness!
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
It's been so long
From September 14, 2011 to April 10, 2012, this little kiddo of mine has grown up literally by leaps and bounds. There are so many moments that I'd like to pen down, but somehow just don't get around to. Sometimes I feel I need to choose between my photos and my blog. Maybe I should give a shot to both, since I'm doing neither ;-) Let me bargain with myself, then I'll at least do one regularly :D
I've been fairly regular albeit late with my photo updates. Stealing from those, here are some highlights of Rian's past few months.
In August and September last year, Rian picked up roller skating. Thanks to Shayona for a wonderful third birthday gift. Then came Rian's first bicycle (he's had a Kettler tri before), and Ansh dada was really instrumental getting us hooked. Dilip ajoba visited us for a little bit. Rian enjoyed the summer with Aaji and her yummy good food. Rian's obsession with Lego's started catching on. Rian also has a basketball hoop now. Rian loved the ~3hr bike trip we took with him, with his bike towed behind Dad/Mom's bike. Rian started getting A+ stickers at school for reading. He started his ice skating lessons with Daddy on Wednesday mornings. Kudos and lots of hugs to Daddy for taking the time on Wednesday mornings. Rian enjoyed his gymnastics classes too, and loved showing off to Aaji and Ajoba.
In October, Rian enjoyed trying to watch the blue angels. It was a wonderful day in SF via public transport. Just as the blue angels were about to fly in, the fog rolled in :-( We'll try again, next year. Ocktoberfest in SF was thoroughly enjoyed by Dilip Ajoba and Aaji. Rian went to Monterey Bay Aquarium again, with Aaji and Ajoba. Amit became our family photographer instead of Picture People, and he did a wonderful photoshoot for us in Memorial Park. Pumpkin patch and Halloween fun were next. Rian was Buzz Lightyear this year. Daddy started telling him the Toy Story story and "worked" on him to get him ready.
November weekends were special with Diwali parties. Rian never once disappointed me, and totally got the "Indian dress" funda this year. We have some wonderful photos captured with him. His most favorite Aatya made a trip here. We visited Oakland Zoo with Aatya, and also went wine tasting in Sonoma for a whole day.
In December, we got the surprise of our lives when Rian performed in his winter program. My little poodles seems all grown up now. Ms. Lida was so proud of Rian, he practiced and practiced to get all his songs and movements down perfect! Rian visited Winter Wonderland in Great America, it was a festival of lights. Really felt like Diwali in India. The end of the year was made special with a first time cruise experience. 7 days to the west Caribbean was a very good trip. Rian loved it a lot, and kissed a sting ray too! Kudos to Daddy's patience again.
January was relatively slow and relaxed. We got into the habit of reaching Rian's school on time. 8:35am and Rian was always there. We pretty much focused on that. Rian tried skiing in Tahoe once in February but did not like the experience so much. We had a wonderful trip to New York in February, spent some quality time with Rian's cousins.
The reason behind making this post was to document another significant "first" for Rian. Last weekend Rian went skiing with us, for 3 days. Ansh dada came with us too, and Rian was very excited with Ansh dada's skiing. On the first day, Rian skiied with Daddy for a couple of hours. On the second day, Rian was in ski school all day long, from 9am to 3:30pm, good job my poodles. On the third day, Rian was a rockstar on the slopes, and totally having fun!! Unbelievable - the transformation that has happened in this 3 yr 9 month old boy... Touch wood!
November weekends were special with Diwali parties. Rian never once disappointed me, and totally got the "Indian dress" funda this year. We have some wonderful photos captured with him. His most favorite Aatya made a trip here. We visited Oakland Zoo with Aatya, and also went wine tasting in Sonoma for a whole day.
In December, we got the surprise of our lives when Rian performed in his winter program. My little poodles seems all grown up now. Ms. Lida was so proud of Rian, he practiced and practiced to get all his songs and movements down perfect! Rian visited Winter Wonderland in Great America, it was a festival of lights. Really felt like Diwali in India. The end of the year was made special with a first time cruise experience. 7 days to the west Caribbean was a very good trip. Rian loved it a lot, and kissed a sting ray too! Kudos to Daddy's patience again.
January was relatively slow and relaxed. We got into the habit of reaching Rian's school on time. 8:35am and Rian was always there. We pretty much focused on that. Rian tried skiing in Tahoe once in February but did not like the experience so much. We had a wonderful trip to New York in February, spent some quality time with Rian's cousins.
The reason behind making this post was to document another significant "first" for Rian. Last weekend Rian went skiing with us, for 3 days. Ansh dada came with us too, and Rian was very excited with Ansh dada's skiing. On the first day, Rian skiied with Daddy for a couple of hours. On the second day, Rian was in ski school all day long, from 9am to 3:30pm, good job my poodles. On the third day, Rian was a rockstar on the slopes, and totally having fun!! Unbelievable - the transformation that has happened in this 3 yr 9 month old boy... Touch wood!
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