Healthy Bite: 8 - My first best version of juice until next!

Well, I don’t know what I should have named it. No great ideas at the moment but this taste  not only startled me but my husband too and it was nothing less than “Best Version” till dateJ and there’s something nice about this.

I wanted to try my hands on making a different, chilled, and heavy yet healthy mix of juices.  Apples and Oranges go along very well because they give a mixed flavor of sweet and sour citrus taste. So I decided to mix these two fruits.

With the help of processor get the fresh juices and strain them well so the texture is smooth (Quantity of juice mixture depends on the serving you want to make. I made 2 servings with 5 oranges and apples).

Chop the fruits that you would want to have in your juice.  I preferred strawberries & Peaches. Try something that is softer to eat. Unlike apples which are crunchy and the main juice mixture consist the same.

Also have blue berries juice set aside.  Prefer a small quantity of juice as we shall only be topping it. If you can’t get your hand on blue berries try grapes.

In a glass add ice cubes, a pinch of salt, squeeze little lemon and pour the juice mixture (apple & oranges). Stir it well.  Add the chopped fruits – strawberries and peaches (in this case). Top it with a layer of blue berry juice and garnish it with mint sprigs.

Enjoy! J

Let me know how was your version.

Reader’s Choice: Hair Care

Recently I have received quite a few requests for penning down a post on my hair care. So here it is.

I am often questioned “Did you straighten your hair??” or few straight charges of "you must have straightened your hairs". Well, the truth is I rarely straighten my hair. I only tinker with straighteners and curlers or I should say tidying up only if I am going out for a trip for more than 2 days. 

If I am at home and getting few clicks of mine you have no choice but to trust my words that I DO NOT straighten my hair J. You can check out my pictures below. I have taken these the next morning after hair wash. You can see most of the hairs are smooth and straight. The issue is with the small layers, porcupines would be happy to have such pointing out hair ends but not me J.

Hence, to make the edges smooth I make a bun like below. Securing it with an elastic band and then pinning up with pretty hair clip. The last pic in Indian attire is the result on 2nd day. So, what I am trying to say here is that mostly I do not straighten my hairs. They are good enough naturally.

My hairs have turned softer and silkier since I have followed my husband’s advice of applying Mustard oil J. I learned from him that mustard oil is the best oil one could have. I have seen a great deal of difference in texture, growth and thickness of my hair from this oil. Thanks to my husband who has been applying the same since his childhood. Getting back on basics does have greater advantages.

I oil my hair twice a week. I shampoo my hair only and only with “Matrix Biolage Scalptherapie Normalizing Shampoo” and condition it with“Matrix Biloage hydratherapie Detangling Solution” I get best of both. I do not prefer anything less or more than these.

These are my favorite products after my numerous trials on shampoos and conditioners.

Coming onto straightening hairs, these are my experimental machines J Which I hardly use. However, when I want to, TRESemme is the spray that I use. I would like to make a point here. I do not use hair sprays when I am travelling outside for a long weekend or any trip. I use it only if I need to curl my hairs lest I prefer mild straightening. Reason being, my hairs become rough, sticky and texture goes crazily weird. I would rather make a bun and sustain the straight hairs for long weekend when out of the house.

Below are the pictures where I carried out mild straightening and gave a little bend at the ends with the wide inch curler. Day 1, 2 & 3 I did not use any spray, still they looked tidy J Isn’t it? That’s coz making a neat bun sustains the smoothness of hairs.

So advice to my readers is that you need to select a product that suits your hairs and stick to it rather than changing it often.  I have to take good care of my hairs because I color them. So few home remedies that I often follow for hair care are:

-         Use Mustard oil (twice a week). It can never harm but help.

-         If not great fan of mustard, try applying Olive oil, almond oil are other healthy oils.

-         After applying oil, you can wet a towel and dry it in drier for some time and wrap around your head. The steams makes your scalp absorbs moisture.

-         Apply curd once a month. That helps dry scalp to absorb moisture from the fat in curd.

-         Eggs, are good source for smoothening hairs.

-         It is important to condition every time you shampoo your hair.

Have a lovely week ahead J

Fitness Tip: 2 – What’s your excuse for NOT drinking water?

Honestly, how many of us have read about benefits of water and approximately how many glasses we should be taking every day?  You know everything; you are smart enough that I don’t need to mention the same old saga of drinking water. There is no hard and fast rule of drinking 8 glasses of water a day but try to make it on regular intervals approximating up to 3 liters or more.

Yes, this is the tip that stands very close to first for fitness - is you need to DRINK WATER!! It helps in breaking food and digesting. Like most of us I was not indulged in the habit of drinking water in regular intervals. But I changed myself. Isn’t that nice ?? J Change for good should always be welcomed in life.

The excuses that I often heard when I ask my relatives/friends to have water:

- It's bitter cold in here I prefer drinking more of tea or soups.

- It’s scorching heat in here and I die to have something cold and fizzy so I prefer coke/Fanta/ any cold drinks.

Sincerely, is it that difficult to drink water?? Eeeemmmm …I don’t think so. I have adapted this good habit and I can certainly feel difference in me. If it’s chilly then why don’t you warm up the water? I always did that when I was in England. People in hot climatic conditions you better don’t give me any excuses because you can have gallons of water and not to choose those sweet unhealthy cold drinks.

Ladies and Gentlemen who are working, you better do not give any excuses because you are in better position to have water in regular intervals.  Every couple of hours you can get out from your desk, stretch, drink water and freshen up your system.  Take water breaks than coffee or tea breaks J.

At the moment I am home maker, so these are my 2 little friends. The blue glass is always by my side. Frankly, I don’t even allow my husband to use that glass. If I am going out I carry a bottle with me. If I am eating out (which is quite rare) I order NO beverages J.

Few Facts on Water that I think you should know:

-          Water helps in detoxifying (taaddaaa)

-          Moisturizes air in lungs

-          Helps with Metabolism ( sounds good huh)

-          Helps our organs to absorb nutrients better

-          Protects our organs (water does it not cold drinks or beer. Let us get this right!)

-          Digestion and absorption of food

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here’s a small conversation between kidney and liver:

Kidney: Hey you!! Yes you behind the screen. I am talking to you!! Do you understand that I have got the crucial job in here? I filter out waste and toxins for you and all I ask is WATER. Without which I cannot function properly. Well, if you don’t provide me with it then I can’t do this alone.
Aaayyyeee..Liver. You got to share this workload. I don’t have water in here.

Liver: L aahh man!! Why me! I have got my own thing to do. If I have to share your job then whose gonna do mine??

Damn!! I have to stop my work and help out this kidney. Okie dokie Kidney!! Here I come to help ya.

(And Liver skips it’s job)

Work Status: Fat is not metabolized or burned. A human body gets energy from fat being metabolized. And we generally have quite a lot of spare fat to be metabolized.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No soads/tea/coffe can replace water, the chemical properties are altogether different. However, water from raw veggies and fruits does contribute in Hydrating body.

People who like beer, this is for you. On an average I have 10 beer glasses of water/dayJ. (My curiosity made me measure the blue glass and it perfectly equals to 1 beer glass).

 I guess my cheers would be much much healthier than yours. So which side are you in?

Healthy Bite: 7 - Chicken-Stuffed Mushrooms

This is my version of Chicken-Stuffed Mushrooms.  This is pretty quick and easy to make, stuffed yet makes feel lite.

Preheat oven to 325 Degree F. Cook pieces of Chicken Breast in a large skillet over medium-high heat until evenly browned. Drain and set aside. Clean mushrooms with a damp cloth or paper towel and remove the stems. As shown in the picture below:

In a bowl mix the finely chopped chicken, cream cheese, bread crumbs, green chilies, salt to taste and ¼ cup of red wine. Here, you can have variants as per your taste desires.

Spoon the chicken mixture into the mushroom caps. Cover the baking dish with little red wine.

Bake it for 25-30 minutes or until lightly brown. Enjoy your quick chicken-stuffed mushroom starterJ.

Fitness Tip: 1 – Dedication!!

Alrightyyy Pinkiiesss! I am back with a bang!!

Well, I was off for the long weekend. My Bad!! I should have mentioned earlier in my post. Next time I will surely keep this mind.

Firstly, thank you very much for the overwhelming response from you all. I appreciate the fact that you are keen to have a healthy lifestyle. Once you have it, weight reduction is certainly on your way. I have published this post earlier but honestly I wasn’t happy about it. As this post lacked evidences from my life. Too many words don’t make sense if I don’t picture it out from reality. Hence, I am rewriting this with pictures. So that you believe me-what I say is what I doJ.

Like I said, you must have read about this, you know it, you would have tried it but you don’t want to continue it. I am taking about dedicating yourself to healthy lifestyle. There are NO secret diets for weight loss, trust me!! I repeat there are NO secret diets on weight loss. The only key is you should be married to the image that you want to be and against all odds you should fight for it. It will take long time to reach there.

If you don’t have that kind of dedication for yourself then I must say sorry. Really!! It is very easy to start something but dedicating yourself is little difficult part. However, once you are committed to right diets and healthy lifestyle. There is absolutely nothing in this world that can fiddle with your will power. You will not know the fire  you posses until you give it a shot.

Initial weight loss i.e. first 5 to 6 kgs is pretty easy to reduce. Post the mark is real challenge. The results will take time to show up. You got to have patience and commitment for your life long esp the first 5 or 6 months is important period. Provided you follow a disciplined regime of diet and compensate for the over eating or fried things that you crave to have in the midst of weight loss period.

Now, when I travelled to Atlanta, was there for 3 days and 2 nights. I had food from restaurants and was very much afraid that I would surely put on weight. Once I came back home, straight away hopped on my weighing machine. Guess what!!! Voilllaaaaa!! I was 2 pounds down J. That felt so good! So damn good!! Like I said initial weight loss is quick and easy, post that maintenance needs dedication. A lot of dedication!!


So how did this happen?
Here’s the picture of fruits that I packed for my travelling to Atlanta.

Here’s another picture that I have taken at Denny’s, where we stopped for our breakfast. Now, my husband ordered a dish for himself and I took out my share from his plate. I always do that if eating out. You can see 4 halves brown toasts in my plate but I had only 2 halves that made a toast and the little share of veggie omelet.

I hooked onto my fruits so that I don’t need to eat outside and maintained my diet regime. Like I said it’s not easy but it’s not impossible either. You can do it! Sit back and recollect, you have shown your dedication in many things then why not for your good health.

My 2 pounds were bit stubborn but I managed to reduce it with proper diet, small portions and of course trips like these ask for more of walkingJ. I guess that did help a lot. So do you need great diets or treadmills or super gym instructors to reduce your weight?? Think about it for a minute.

I guess NOT!! At least I don’t because my dedication and will power is with me. Do you have yours?

Fashion @No Deal - 3

Before I continue with my fitness tip series. I wanted to make a quick post on the shawls/Cloaks. I have seen couple of my friends goofing up with the finest shawls from India. Honestly, I did too in my past. However, last night very quickly I got few pictures clicked from my Iphone on the better styling of your shawls. I got this idea from my Cape that I recently bought. Below is the VIVIENNE TAM Houndstooth Cape.

Very well, if this is a styling then why can’t I style with my pretty shawls that I have. These are wider length shawls that are pretty difficult to use as scraves.

So I tried styling them like a cape. You can make it better than mine. But the sole idea is to utilize your deep dug shawls in closets.  Below is the styling that you can carry out by belting the ends and leaving free the fabric behind.

Coming onto the smaller shawls, those are pretty less wide and light weight that can be used as scarves. We spoil the texture and mess up with the fine, smooth shawls by knotting it as below. My dressing for these pics is pretty simple so that we can concetrate on shawls.

I have tried to style them better these winters. Knot both the ends and place around your neck in such a way that the knot is not visible from front view that gives a better presentation and the knot is hidden behind your hairs anyway.

You can also play with the contrasting colors and make people think what is that you have actually dressed. You can dress anyway you like shown below.

 

When I said playing with contrast colors, below is too what I meant. You need to twist the shawl again and set it in such a way that both the colors make a contrasting combination. Isn’t this cool J

My third styling would be just wrap shawl around your neck and hide the ends. J

What if you have the smooth shawl that can hardly stand any styles. Like I tried to style with this pretty pink shawl and it just gave up. So I wrapped it around the neck of course it looks stunning against the dark tee and black coat on or you can go with usual wrapping of scraf too. But dress in such a way that you pretty shawl color outstands.

Have fun with your shawl ladies. Of course these are my ideas and I did not train my creativity from any other source. Hope you like it.

At the end of this post I also want my pretty friends to give up their grey/black winter caps like this picture here (well that's my husband's).

and try new colors or better feminine accessories like here. Have stylish winters!

Healthy Bite: 6 - Red, White and Blue Banana Spilts

I have heard a lot from my friends that they are unable beat their sweet tooth and tend to put on weight. Why not try something different that helps you stay away from sweet dishes and chocolates. Here’s a quick and easy recipe.

Mash Strawberries with little sugar and set aside. Arrange 1 banana halves and place pineapples chunks along the center of banana split. Place a scoop of ice cream, top it with mashed strawberries and blueberries.

You get the sweetness and you consume more than 3 fruits in a plate. Enjoy!! If you want to get rid of the mashed strawberries, you them cut them into fine pieces and top it.

Weight gaining and losing is part of life.

That’s right! weight loss is a never ending journey. There are multiple point of times in your life when you put on weight.  Post wedding, post baby delivery, thyroid issues, many of us have sweet tooth and love for eating outside. So this is a never ending occurrence. There are many ladies out there behind the laptops and computers seeking best possible ways to lose weight. They all end up with websites that either highlights being fitness freak and dig into protein foods and make you lean & fit or ends up with different varieties of diet plans. Let’s say GM, Dukan, Low Carb or high protein etc; a never ending list of sites and diets.

Though we decide and are successful to an extent in kicking off the diet but after a week or so when you see its aint working. You are bogged down then chuck out all these crappy diets. I know this happens a lot because it happened to me. Weight Management has become real important factor to our generation. Why not?? With the skinny jeans, pencil dresses, high heels in the market one seeks for the best figure of her lifetime.  

I have lost good number of pounds and yet to go till I am in my safe zone. My family and friends are pretty astonished. Honestly, So am I. In this post I want to share my experience of weight gain & loss then gaining again and losing again. That’s right! You learn from your mistakes. So did I! I learned many things over the time of 8 months in my weight loss tips and trials. Gradually is what I understood is that basic foundation for weight management is “Healthy Lifestyle”. You need to change your lifestyle in order to look good and stay fit. It’s not about dieting or running miles on the treadmill. If that was all then you should have seen great results from your work out. There has to be something wrong with it.

These are the pictures from May & June 2011, while I weighed maximum till date. Reasons are the same got married, cooked delicious recipes and gained 20 pounds. Post June 2011, I decided to get back to shape. Though I was active, playing tennis, hiking, swimming, I was still that fat. I guess I was eating more than what my body needed. It takes time to realize that. Eventually I did!

May 2011 (In Indian Attire)

June 2011

 I was unhappy and in the rush of getting back to shape I opted for quick results 2months extreme work out DVD called “Insanity”. It was insane I guess it justified itself because I could see results in 15 days. Below are the pictures from the month of September 2011, when I lost nearly 11 pounds in 15 days. Not bad huh? But later it got worse.

Sep 2011, Vegas



Late Sep 2011, In Petrified Forest AZ

I exerted my knees and paid for my ignorance that I became a victim of extreme “inflammation” in my knees. This time my body was called off for 2months bed rest; 2months extended to 3 and I regained those lost pounds and this is what I looked like from October to December 2011. I did not go out anywhere so I don’t have much of pictures from this period.

Nov 2011

Late Dec 2011, I decided to get back to shape but this time it was going to be healthy. I was careful in what I was eating and reducing my portions too. This came as an advice from one of my beautiful friends who managed to get perfect figure in 6months. Slow and steady does work I agreed to it. This is my latest pic where I lost 12 pounds in total and absolutely no workout. However, this week I have started yoga; it relaxes my back pain too.

Jan 2012

Followed by this post I shall publish various posts under Fitness Tips. Few tips that you might already know but I think you are waiting to hear from horse’s mouth. The only system that you own and deserves to be kept clean and healthy is your body, mind and soul.


Have a good day!

Healthy Bite : 5 – Artisan Fruit Salad

A meal off from the blue flame; Yes!!! I like to prepare few of meals straight from refrigerator. No heating/baking/frying absolutely nothing. Eating fresh greens and fruits make me so alive. My love for green and fresh fruits was all the way from my childhood.  My evening snacks after school was chomping on the chilled tomatoes. I am glad the love persists, unlike my sister who enjoys more of meat, sea food and nearly hates green.  She is trying build up her taste towards greens now. She understands how healthy they are.

Taste is one factor that drives people crazy. Everything and anything is always about absolute taste. The savor from the spices makes people excited and they forget the actual taste of greens.  Thanks to my digestive system which can hardly take any spices. Hence, I try to make best of my options available. If you want to try out eating greens without cooking. Here’s the artisan salad for you.

Strawberries, Pomegranate seeds, Almonds that were soaked for few hours, peeled and chopped.

Artisan salad that I grabbed from Costco; it’s 3 lettuce varieties.

Of course I added Blue Berries too. There can be many variations. You can add olives, cheese, cucumber, red onions, fresh oregano, Balsamic Vinegar, Jalapenos, chopped crunchy greens too. I wanted a fruits affair.

In the end I added dried cranberries and croutons in salad bowl. My husband likes it with croutons as that give a salted flavor.  Enjoy!

Healthy Bite: 4 - Veggie Roll

A quick snack, healthy, filling and I promise you its tasty too J. It is not what you are thinking. A fried rolls?? and me? Impossible! It’s a roll that I made of fresh chopped green veggies wrapped in whole wheat Indian bread (Roti).

You can add any veggies you would like to. I preferred Green chilies, onions, bell Peppers, cabbage, spinach and Tofu! Reason being, I like to have spinach in almost every dish as it’s my favorite green. Why it is my favorite may be because I hail from a place where spinach is considered mostly a staple food. We have it most often then why not make varieties of it? Spinach has a high nutritional value and is extremely rich in antioxidants, especially when fresh, steamed, or quickly boiled. It is a rich source of many vitamins, Iron & calcium.

I like to have something crunchy so I sorted out for the above veggies. Chop them finely as shown in the pic below. DO NOT forget Ginger. As we are not using any of the spices; it is going to give us a better flavor. Tofu was the best past. It being high in protein and healthy cannot be left alone in the refrigerator. It does strikes a balance with crunchy veggies.

Fry them in a spoon of olive oil. A little fry that doesn’t spoil the flavor of veggies and at the same works to flavor up with the chilies and ginger. Sauté them till they are little brown, once done add spinach at the end with salt to taste and sauté for other 2 mins. We do not want spinach to lose its flavor with over frying. Mind you my Indian friends I am not using any sort of cumin seeds or spices. It’s a plain veggies and slat business. Do not get away with shining pan in pic, I have NOT used more than a small spoon of olive oil.  

Make Indian bread from whole wheat dough. Fill it with the veggies and enjoy the snack with fresh orange juice. Well, my husband likes it with sauce while I prefer plain. He likes it to be much spicy so schezwan sauce does the magic for him.  Enjoy this healthy snack while keeping your hands off from the high sodium, fried snacks!

Have a great day!