Popat

After a fabulous (and very, very wholesome) dinner at N's place yesterday (soy, paneer capsicum, and chana dal), I was all set for boot camp this morning. Woke up at 4.50 first, then realized I had more time, so promptly went back to sleep - a little too complacent about my ability to wake up on time. Unfortunately, the alarm collapsed because the phone was dead. I woke up to find that it was 6.06 and saw no point in going so late for boot camp. Instead, headed to the gym for a solid hour's workout which still feels wonderful. The plus, of course, was that the elliptical had a cable screen and I was able to watch an entire episode of Desperate Housewives on it. Not only was the workout painless, I learned that DH is not all too bad either. The lesson in today's episode - to not be too quick to judge - was entirely welcome and worth a thought. I also slipped in a few minutes of pranayam after stretches. Yay.

Breakfast consisted of chai and an exotic omelette (with egg, onion, tomato, mint, and some spinach/sour cream dip). Two heavily grained slices of bread made it even more healthful.

Barely Alive

No boot camp for two days now. Tuesday destroyed me and Wednesday did little to regenerate. I was sore in the abs, calves, hamstrings, glutes, arms, shoulder, neck... you get the picture. When I did decide to turn in, I realized there was no way I was gonna be up for boot camp this morning. And yes, the one plank I tried to do this morning proved me right. I will, however, admit that my core does feel stronger now, even after just five sessions. I suppose pain never (or seldom, to be safe) goes unwarranted. I'm still plenty sore, but will go tomorrow, come what may.

On the food front, let's go back to Tuesday now. Dinner was at Gather, a new organic restaurant in Berkeley. It was so awesome and so very Berkeley. I helped myself to tiny portions of the starters - mushrooms and asparagus, then had a chick-pea cake that was vegan and gluten-free. There was also startlingly good wine to go with the meal - a glass of California syrah.

On Wednesday, breakfast consisted of unhealthy gyozas (I meant to eat only 4, but 5 fell into the boiling water and I had no choice). For lunch, I had veggie quesadillas (with a salad on the side) at the FSM cafe. Also a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. Dinner was home-cooked again - lauki dal with eggplant (and rotis and rice).

This morning, I tried my hand at making cold coffee, but the coffee was all wrong - Seattle's BEST, but not the instant kind. What was meant to be a shake ended up looking like a black/white oreo-like concoction (without the taste). I suppose the plus was that I ended up consuming all that milk, for a change. Breakfast was good ol' almond butter and banana. Lovable as ever. Sigh.

Lunch was at good ol' CP - rajma, chili paneer, and 3 rotis. Also had one tea this morning at Starbucks, and now a fantastic non-fat latte at Red Rock (that is 9/10ths done and looking mighty photogenic right now).

OK, that will be all folks. Dread to think of the impending weekend and what it might do to the diet again .

Keeping Up...

Last Friday's boot camp was rigorous indeed, and the weekend provided considerable relief! As for food, the meal at Google was healthy healthy - a plateful of salad with fruit for dessert (if only salad and fruit were always so tempting!). Friday was also a cafe kind of day - with the first half spent at Red Rock and the second at Epi Cafe. Dinner (before the live action shorts) was at Cafe Del Sol and not a meal to boast of at all.

Saturday, ahem, saw a brunch at Amber (and the spread was quite impressive). I certainly recommend the mint lemonade there (off menu and entirely perfect). Dinner was 1lb of food at Whole Foods - a quick meal before Avatar (which was amazing, btw). We also tried some Vietnamese iced coffee Saturday evening and is highly recommended for when you really desperately need a pick-me-up.

Sunday morning saw a brunch at Vik's - half a kathi, half a bhatura, and half a cuppa chai. With the Oscar party in the evening, health went down the drain :). The samosas were delicious, as was the food from Mehfil, but it's a good thing that Oscars come but once a year.

Monday's breakfast was a leftover samosa with chai (no boot camp, unfortunately, since I had my presentation in the morning). Lunch was with V at Chipotle - a veggie bowl with some unhealthful components. In the afternoon, I treated myself to a hot chocolate at the machine in the ischool kitchen (for $0.25!). The dinner was the real clincher though - lauki dal, guar beans, and veg. fried rice (with half a cup of orangina). Two gold stars there :).

Boot camp this morning killed me though - I am sore all over, as I usually am after every session. No doubt it will get worse still tomorrow. The push-ups, planks, step-up lunges, weight exercises destroyed me today. Came back, showered, and slept like a baby for an hour after. [Point to note: my alarm didn't go off today, because my phone magically decided to turn itself off overnight. I did however wake up at 5.09, anticipating the ring a minute later.]

Breakfast was the lovely and comforting almond-butter sandwich again, with a cup of chai that unluckily got fed twice as much sugar as it needed :(. Lunch will consist of the glorious leftovers and 2 rotis. A 'normal' cup of chai is much looked-forward to for the evening.

2.5: A Magic Number

Yesterday's lunch consisted of leftovers - rice with dal and eggplant. The eggplant was a little too salty for my taste, but at least it was home-cooked. The afternoon snack consisted of a cup of orange juice (fortified with calcium and vitamin d) but no chai after all. I felt motivated to cook dinner and hunted out some besan which, it turns out, was 2.5 years old but still edible! The resulting kadhi was pretty good, (recipe right here) though maybe not perfect. On the adjacent burner, I cooked aloo with pudina and tamatar. Perhaps a little on the too-sour side, but still pretty good. The white rice was mixed with a bit of brown, more for psychological satisfaction, I'm guessing, since it really was a rather small bit.

This morning's breakfast consisted of the usual - almond-butter toast with half a banana and chai. In an hour I shall treat myself to more of the kadhi and aloo. Yay :).

As for working out... I shall help myself to a walk to and from campus, but for all practical purposes, today's my off-day :).

Catching up!

After last Wednesday's post, the tummy did a little rumble and threw out everything. As a result, the earlier post can probably be ignored :). The evening saw a banana-and-milk snack, and dinner consisted of a home-cooked chana-and-mushroom dinner with steamed rice (thank you, a). Boot camp died though, for the next couple of mornings. And food kinda crossed over onto lets-not-talk-about-it territory. And then a prodded this morning after which I felt motivated enough to get back on track.

Let's start with yesterday then (since the weekend can really be considered to have gone to the dogs as far as fitness is concerned). After a crazy boot camp session that saw me do more push-ups than I have done in my life altogether, and about 500 squats (in addition to other pain), breakfast was a healthy almond-butter sandwich with chai. Lunch was pretty perfect - a healthy veggie pasta bowl with one small slice of bread (and for <$4, no less). After a small snack of 4 veggie gyozas with my evening chai, I had home-cooked eggplant and dal for dinner (2 rotis and rice).

Today was especially awesome for how it began, and deserves special mention. Though I did wake up in time for boot camp (I also woke up at 1-something, 3-something, and 4-something just to make sure I hadn't overslept) and head down there, we found it was raining much too much for an outdoor workout. It was still only 6am, and though I coulda headed straight for bed, I was a good girl. I went to the gym for a 45-minute workout, including stretches and back exercises. Came back, took a nice long shower, and then fell into deep and wonderful slumber until 9am. Oh, it was heaven!

Also this morning, I indulged in a mint/onion/tomato omelette with toast (it was excellent!). Of course, all this writing is making me hungry and I might just go in for my second cup of chai now.

See you after lunch!