Something Fishy!!

Fish has been a savior for me while I am dieting. I love fish and it can be grilled, baked, fried (which I am avoiding ofcourse) or made into a curry with any veggies or even steamed.
I have been trying to eat lot of fish instead of chicken or red meat. I don't miss red meat at all nor do I miss chicken, atleast for now.
So I made pan grilled salmon and grilled some onions with it and served it with quinoa salad. It was very tasty and filling.
Today I cooked pomfret hirwa masala/fish in green curry (pomfret or pompano is a firm white fish which is delicious). The best part is I made the hirwa masala without anything fattening except for 1 tsp olive oil which I needed to fry the onions and tomatoes. I used spinach instead of coconut to give the curry a good texture. I served it with multigrain chapati's.
The meal was delicious and I was greedy for more. I had to stop myself as I have obviously realized anything in excess is not good. Well, I did eat an extra piece of pomfret I couldn't stop myself trust me I tried. I guess it's not bad as it was cooked in the curry so wasn't fried.
You can find the recipe here http://mykitchenshenanigans.blogspot.com/2013/04/fish-hariyalihirwa-masala.html

Hope the road to losing weight doesn't get monotonous and I am determined and honest.
I walk regularly but I guess I need to increase the intensity of my workout like start running or include some zumba or cardio in my routine as well.

The Desi Diet!

Well.. I am kind of craving some Indian/Desi food. Not that I want to eat anything in particular but I guess I am missing the spicy food. So before I go ahead and cheat and eat some bad Indian food from the restaurant and end up feeling guilty; I thought I should fix myself something good yet healthy!
So I thought for a while about what to cook.. I didn't want to make any roti's for myself. The thought of rolling just 2 roti's was boring. So I thought of making idli sambar.. yum!
Idli is a steamed south Indian delicacy made from rice or semolina and split black lentils. It is a staple breakfast food in south Indian homes and a popular snack in many restaurants. It is served with coconut chutney or with sambar (a spicy lentil and vegetable soup).

I looked up the internet if Idli was something I could eat and guess what? It's a big YES! I also remembered my dietician back in India (Yes go ahead and judge me...I have had my personal dieticians and it never really worked for me due to my lack of motivation) had added idli in my diet minus the chutney.
 I was thrilled and immediately soaked the lentils and other ingredients yesterday and I have idli batter and sambar ready today. I am not making the coconut chutney as coconut is high in fat so instead I can make a tomato-onion chutney but I will skip that too and just eat the idli's with sambar.

Idli is steamed hence the fat content is nil but yes it has carbs due to the use of rice/semolina but I  have read on the internet that the fermentation process breaks down the carbs to an extent. I am not sure if this is true but we use 2cups rice/semolina and 1 cup lentils to make more than 30 idli's so its not that bad. You will be full with 4 idli's. Each Idli has about 60 calories.

You can steam it with some veggies (add veggies to the idli batter and steam) like carrots, tomatoes, cilantro etc. I just made it plain. The sambar has no oil at all and is protein packed due to the lentils and veggies (onions, carrots, etc.). It can have some fat if you want to add some fried curry leaves and mustard seeds which is not required as it tastes great even without it.

I will be posting the recipe on my blog soon. We make upma out of leftover idli's or if you are not worried about the calories try frying left over idli's and eat it with ketchup they taste great!

Still going strong!

Yes! its going well.. I am enjoying my healthy lifestyle. To be very frank I haven't been tempted to eat anything outside yet. Luckily I am not a pizza or burger fan so I don't miss them. I usually like eating Chinese, Sushi or Thai food and haven't been tempted (well, I hope I don't jinx it!).
So I have started making this cabbage recipe atleast once a week. I love the taste and cabbage is a very low calorie veggie. I add shrimp to it at times.
You can find the recipe on my blog here http://mykitchenshenanigans.blogspot.com/2013/04/stirfried-cabbage-with-shrimp.html

I am surprised how I look over the menu of a restaurant before going to one to find myself a low calorie and healthy dish. Also when I am at a restaurant I always ask for a salad or atleast replace a side of fries with salad. Wow! If my friends and family back home see this they are not going to believe it! They have always seen me enjoy my food without caring how much fat, carbs or calories it has.

Guess finally some good sense has prevailed after turning 30!

I am thinking of jumping rope/skipping as a cardio workout! I have bought the gym rope made by golds gym for adults. Well its been a year I can actually start it on its anniversary ;)

A walk towards a healthy lifestyle!

I have been doing good. I am watching what I eat and I am not craving any food. I walk 4 times a week (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday) for an hour and do Zumba on Tuesdays.
I am enjoying it. I walk with my friend Z and Zumba with my friend M.
Its good to have a  buddy when you walk as it keeps you motivated and entertained. We catch up on all the gossip and have lotsa fun chatting.

I have been eating baked fish with veggies, soups, dal, grilled veggies (asparagus, zucchini, peppers etc.), salads and  stir fried cabbage. I am not bored of eating these yet as I keep changing the recipe and make it tasty with seasonings like peppers, garlic, chillies, spices, herbs etc.

I have been drinking atleast 3 litres of water ..yes I carry a big 1.5 litre water bottle and ensure I atleast drink 3 litres everyday. Well, I am turning 31 this year and I have heard its tough losing weight after 30. So I am doing everything I can to achieve a healthy lifestyle. Also water flushes out all the toxins from your body and this in turn gives you a better skin and aids in weightloss.
I do add a slice of lemon at times in the water just for a different taste.

Oxford, MS is a beautiful town with some good parks and picturesque landscapes. We love looking at the trees and the spring bloom. Also the nice houses in the town especially  along downtown are something that is worth looking at. Z and I both walk and talk. We ensure our talking doesn't breakdown our speed.
I carry a pedometer and that keeps us motivated and are excited when it shows 6000 steps and we are still going! The weather has been great though it is getting hot. We usually walk post 6pm to avoid the afternoon heat.

Take a look at one of our beautiful routes...

Todays healthy lunch

Today was that lazy Saturday where I woke up at noon and was still ready to go back to bed. Was super hungry yet didn't want to cook anything. Remember I have the 30 day challenge so no take out for me.
I didn't want to eat chicken or any leafy veggies. Ugh! This is not good. I didn't have the patience to make any dal or roti's. So I decided to make a quick bean and veggies salad. This salad turned out great was healthy and super filling.

You can find the recipe on my other blog here http://mykitchenshenanigans.blogspot.com/2013/04/beans-veggie-salad.html

Well I am always looking to cook something new, tasty and healthy. I am off fried foods and sugar so I have to think hard to cook up new dishes. Well I will keep updating any new recipes I try and if you want to share your recipes feel free to comment.

Note: BTW I am 2.5 kgs (5.5lbs) down ;)

Meal Plans!

I am no dietician but have tried enough diets to understand its benefits and harmful effects.
For instance, the General Motors diet..some of my friends swear by it. My friends who are in the airline industry or into modelling claim they follow this diet when they have to quickly lose weight for a shoot or an event. Well I have tried it and have been unable to go beyond day 2 which is only veggies, the first day is only fruits. I have had severe acid reflux, a nasty headache both days and an overly irritable mood!
So for my 30 day challenge I am eating only home cooked meals with certain restrictions like no alcohol, fried food, ice-creams or sweets, no processed foods etc.
For now I don't know if this is an effective weight loss solution but I can definitely tell you that it is very healthy. Also I am sure there will be weight loss. I am also adding exercise to my regime atleast 40mins a day 5-6 times a week.

So my meal plans are as follows:

Breakfast - I am not a breakfast person so can go without having breakfast and this is the most unhealthiest thing you can do so eat something! I like to eat a banana or a banana-strawberry smoothie with yogurt or 1/4 cup milk.

Green tea with no milk or sugar 

Mid-morning snack - Fruit - apple/pear/melon or Soy Milk

Lunch - Salad (Baby Spring mix - lettuce & spinach, shredded carrots, cranberries, sunflower seeds, 4-6 baked croutons (optional) with low fat vinaigrette dressing) OR

1 small Baked Chicken breast with grilled veggies (asparagus, zucchini etc.) OR

Dal, 2 whole wheat roti's with  no oil, any Indian veggies (Cauliflower, cabbage etc.) and low fat yogurt OR
Whole Wheat pita Sandwich (recipe in notes) OR

Idlis with sambar (Indian breakfast dish)

Green tea with no milk or sugar

Evening snack - If I have a salad I get hungry by 6pm so I eat a fruit or plain fat free pop-corn or Edamame

Dinner - Salad with grilled chicken breast/fish OR
Stir fried veggies
Dal, 1 roti, vegetable or beans OR
Soups and grilled chicken breast/fish

Walking or gym (cardio) 40 mins a day five times a week atleast!

Notes:

If I crave rice I will have a small bowl of rice but eat more dal & Veggies OR make Fried rice with lotsa veggies (I don't like brown rice)
I love to eat bulgar salad (broken wheat) or Daliya
If I want to eat bread I will eat brown bread sandwich once in a while with avocado and alpha alpha sprouts with low fat whipped cream cheese (optional)
OR make a chicken salad pita pocket sandwich (boil chicken breast & shred, add salt,pepper, garlic powder, green onions and celery chopped, add 1 tbspn low fat mayonnaise mixed with 1 tbspn yogurt and mix well. Stuff in whole wheat pita bread).
If you don't find garlic powder just add plain finely chopped garlic.
For salad dressing you can mix olive oil, fresh orange/lemon juice,orange/lemon zest, salt & pepper it tastes good.

30 Day Challenge!!

Ok I know I am not very regular here in updating posts.. I try my best to remember but you know with the day to day chores it just slips my mind. So as you know I am a big foodie (yeah! I do have a food blog "My Kitchen Shenanigans") and dieting is not my cup of tea. Well, I have tried all the possible diets; you name it and I can tell you about it.. General Motors diet, South beach, Soup diet, Atkins, Miracle water diet (LOL! yes there is a diet like this!), have been to many professional dieticians and wasted a lot of money. Now when I say "wasted" I mean I wasn't too serious and hence it was a waste.
So I eat out a lot and also have a couple of drinks atleast once a week. At a point I was kinda addicted to eating out. Two weeks ago I was bored and was browsing through netflix to watch a movie. I didn't find anything interesting so I browsed through some food documentaries. I found one called "Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead" wow the title itself was so powerful. So I decided to give it a shot and lay in my bed while my hubby was working in the next room.
This documentary is about an Australian guy Joe Cross who comes to the US for 60 days and drinks only fresh juices for the next 60days. Seriously?? This is crazy. By the end of it he loses 100lbs  and then there is another American guy who joins him and does the same and he loses more than 200lbs. They both have a similar medical condition (some kind of a rash) for which they are on heavy medication but by the end of 60days all of it is gone and they don't need any medication for it anymore. Also their juice diet is closely supervised by a doctor and a nutritionist.
Wow! I was so pumped up and started researching about juice diets and juicers. Well the good juicers were pretty expensive like $200 plus and I wanted to buy it immediately. My hubby convinced me to first start eating healthy and workout for a couple of days and if I am really serious (as he has seen me over the years with these yo-yo diet phases which just wears off in a week) he would buy me one.
Alright! I said and went right back to our bedroom and looked for more such documentaries and came across "Hungry for Change" which is about the dieting industry and some diet myths. I loved it! Then there was "Vegucated" which was about a girl trying to be Vegan and along with her she roped in 3 New Yorkers.
"Hungry for Change" was thought provoking. It made me think about my eating habits and all that crap I was putting in my body. I am 30 years old so I am not getting any younger. Also my hubby always tells me "instead of giving up some food which you crave while you are dieting and end up cheating why don't you add more veggies and fruits in your diet". The idea is not completely stopping something, its adding more nutritious stuff so you eat less of the unhealthy stuff.
So, I decided to start eating healthy (after all these motivational documentaries and hubby's challenge) and immediately made a Facebook page informing all my girl friends here in Oxford that I am going to eat only home cooked meals for the next 30 days. I told them I wont go out to eat but was game for pot lucks and alcohol was off limits. All my sweet girlfriends were super supportive and today is day 15 (it started on March 20, 2013) and I am doing great!
I eat lots of veggies & fruits, no red meat just chicken and fish and no alcohol, soda or bottled juices. No processed meats, processed carbs or any processed foods.  I eat rice once in a while, haven't eaten any bread but may have a brown bread sandwich tomorrow. I drink atleast 3 liters ( 48oz) of water daily.
I feel great, very healthy and active. I have lost 5lbs totally but I am not gonna get too excited right now as there is a long way to go!
But I am very proud of myself (if I may say so!) ;)