The Insider

Heyya

I have been trying to lose some weight lately. And when I got married a couple of months ago, I shed off around 5 kilos in 3 weeks which was pretty good. I have done some research then and found some interesting facts about weight loss which I thought would share with all of you.

1. One kilo per week plan

A healthy weight loss is losing 1 kilo per week. Many people think “Oh 1 kilo per week is not hard”. but all of you people watchout!! Its not that easy. Cause I was one of yous a few months back and then I realized how hard it was. “One kilo per week” is a slow and healthy process where you can avoid getting all those wrinkles and marks. A healthy diet, regular exercise and a good 6-8 hour sleep per day are very important part of it

2. A HEALTHY diet does not mean starving

A healthy diet does not mean starving. “Eat in little amounts but more often” is a good idea. Go easy on your liver. Eat more of non-diary and non-oily stuff. Liver is very important organ in our body that breaks down your fat into lipids. So go easy on it. Eat once every 3 or 4 hours and have more of proteins like fish, goat cheese (fetta), soya. Its kind of more hard for vegetarians but trust me its not that hard You can be well organised and plan your diet well ahead so you know what to make and how much to eat and when to eat. Oh one thing I have noticed if I dont eat rice/rotis (made of wheat flour)/bread I lose my tummy very easily. So there you go, thats a tip. So I have stopped eating rice or bread and switched over to salads and soya drinks. I am a vegetarian as well So keep an eye on this blog, and I will be rolling out some healthy vegetarian recipes. But yes, once a week I party and I eat well that time, especially yummy biryani :p

3. Get into a routine

Oh please, I know most of you are like me. I sleep everynight thinking I am going to setup a routine from the next day. But 99% of times I have failed. After getting married, my husband has been very helpful and he encourages me and helps me to stick to my diet. So I guess the most important thing is a supportive partner :). But yeah I am still trying hard to get into my routine 100% and I am at the moment half way through it. So wont be too long when i actually give you hints on setting up a routine.

4. Regular DAILY exercise

Regular DAILY exercise is very important. You exercise only for 30 min a day but do it daily, you will see your accelerating results. But its the universal truth that you gain more when you do exercise for a while and then stop Yeah biggest blunder I have done, so not planning to repeat again. Exercising activates your muscles and keeps your body active. I suggest early morning hours for it so that it keeps your mind fresh and body energetic as well so you have a veryproductive day.

So, all of you my lovely friends, start framing up your targets and work hard to reach them, cause the happiness you get by hard work is unexplainable. Its something you can only experience.

Oh and by the way, I have got some good targets too, you can see my recent picture in my flickr. Keep logging onto see how I succeed/fail in reaching my targets

Cheers fellas

Preethi

After a busy day’s work at the office and getting back home you want to eat something nice tasty and at the same time healthy. I made gongura pulusu the other day and felt that it suits all those requirements.

It was quite hard to find gongura (Sorrel leaves) here in Sydney. But thanks to Flemmington markets, where we can get most of the Indian vegetables, I found gongura over there. I have done a bit of research online for the recipes but all of the current online ones I found were not quick and easy recipes. So I thought I would make one of my own. And hence follows…

Ingredients:

• Gongura
• Chana Dal
• Menthulu
• Mustard seeds
• Onions
• Garlic
• Green Chillies
• Besan
• A pinch of turmeric

Pluck and chop Gongura leaves to medium size. Boil it with chana dal in a pressure cooker. After 3 whistles stop the cooker and set aside for cooling off. Once cold, open the cooker and drain the water off. Slice onions into thin and long slices. Also chop chillies and garlic.

Heat a pan and put a couple of spoons of oil in it. I usually use Extra virgin olive oil for cooking to provide that extra care for my heart Refined sunflower oil can also be used for the same. Put mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds (menthulu) in the oil and when the mustard seeds splatter put chopped chilli and garlic. Once garlic is fried and turns brownish put chopped onion and fry till golden brown. Add a pinch of turmeric and fry it for 30 seconds. Now put the boiled chana dal and gongura leaves in it. Add some salt chilli powder according to taste and cover it to cook. Keep an eye on it so that it does not get burnt at the bottom. Let it cook for 8 min and then add some water to it. Now let it boil and cook well. In a separate bowl mix a little bit of Besan in water to make a thick paste. When cooked well i.e.. the leaves are soft add the besan paste to the mixture and let it cook again for 5 min. The besan mixture makes the soup a bit thicker. Now turn off the stove and garnish with chopped coriander.

If you think that sorrel leaves are not sour enough then you can also add a little bit of tamarind paste for that sour touch.

Yahoo!! Yummy Gongura pulusu is now ready for serving.

Hello Everyone!

In the traditional programming style, I wanted to write a small Hello world! program to introduce myself to all of youz..

<?php

echo “Hello World”;

?>

Now that would obviously give you a hint that I am into programming, Yes I am a software engineer working for Yahoo! (yahoooooo) and no I dont yodel either, like Jerry Yang I would be talking about different technologies and oh dont think that the title of the blog is not matching the content. Yes I am also into fashion designing and cooking as well. So I will be talking about all the exciting things in different fields. So keep an eye on this one.

Cheers

Preethi