song of the road

How do all of you put up such rocking titles for your posts. All I can think of are - “Hanging on”, “Checking in”, “Well…” and occasionally “Beside the point”. Oh well. Let me see if anything pops to my mind by the end of the piece.

I am bang in the middle of the implementation. We would be working nights tonight and tomorrow. After that things should settle to normal to an extent. Well, not really - but no harm hoping, right? Tons of things that I have been neglecting in last few weeks would need to be done. Then the trip to UK end of May. Preparations for that. Since we would be in UK for about 6 weeks, wanted to get serviced apartments as accommodation. Looks like that may not work for the whole trip. In a hotel where all we would perhaps be able to do is to make tea - diet would get tough. I would need to look up cheap raw food options. Salads are going to be my friend. Salads are not my strength yet. Maybe that will be one positive change that would come about. Let’s see. I am going to do everything reasonable to stick to eating healthy. I would need to try eating some new things too. Well, being predominantly vegetarian anyways limits choices to an extent. So challenges ahead. Also how to find a gym nearby which will let me work out for a few weeks for not an exorbitant fee. I am not good in walking or running outside gym. I am too self-conscious plus I will slow down continuously. I need a moving belt below my feet to keep me moving. As the last option, I would take a couple of workout videos with me. But I would prefer a gym where I can put in cardio effort regularly.

The last week has been a mixed one. I had zero exercise. For most part ate well. Almost all days were hairy at work. Could not eat for long periods. Got very stressed. My whole body is aching with the stress and worry. But anyway the job is getting done and I am learning a lot. Also the satisfaction of getting the job done is immense too. So back to eating - most times made healthy choices. One night came home late - very tired and a bit dispirited. Had another mini binge. Again not too many bad things but some sweets etc. Had a headache next day. In fact had a row 3 or 4 headaches last week. Downed some pain medications. Then next Saturday my right palm and fingers swelled some. The skin was tightened and it was mildly disturbing. It went down after a while. Maybe it was too much stress, too many pain medication, too many cups of black tea or the lack of exercise. I have checked. I have not gained any weight. Hopefully can lose some by end of this week. I have been trying to drink enough water. I think I did manage to do that most days last week.

What I need more of and must work on is enough sleep. I ate badly only because I was tired and could not sleep. I read somewhere that proper and full sleep is a must. Lack of sleep causes unnecessary hunger. Just sleeping can cause weight loss. It is soooo hot in Mumbai these days. Need some rain soon. We have not bothered to put an AC in our home. So the nights can be very hot. What I need to do when I am back from work is to take a shower immediately. That helps in cooling down and brings sleep and washes away some stress. I instead open my laptop to catch up some updates on my google reader (this is becoming a bit of an obsession) and keep on and on till literally my head drops off on the keyboard. I end up eating sometimes at this time. So I eat more, sleep less, gain weight and am tired next day and more tea and some times pain medication. So sleep I must. I think the shower would do the trick. Will try that this week.

I have got awfully hooked to google reader. Mainly I have subscribed to many fitness/weightloss feeds. They keep me focussed. Also I have got connected some generally interesting blogs on humor, writing and India. So I have always too much to read and catch up on. Not a very bad situation as such. But the organizer person wants to not see so many unread items there. But I can’t get myself to unsubscribe too. I read a few favorite blogs and the 3FC blogs first thing when I find time. The rest I read as and when I find time. My reading fiction has taken a backseat for now. Annie’s post reminded me that I have a hill of files and papers to be sorted and filed. They are stacked on a chair in my bedroom. Need to get around to that. Hopefully this weekend. I have time today but no intention. Definitely a guest cannot come to this room. I need to devise a way to stay clean and organized with minimum effort.

Love to you all beautiful ladies. Let us all stick to the path leading to our goals and enjoy the scenery on the way.

If No One Ever Marries Me

If no one ever marries me –
And I don’t see why they should,
For nurse says I’m not pretty,
And I’m seldom very good –

If no one ever marries me
I shan’t mind very much,
I shall buy a squirrel in a cage
And a little rabbit-hutch;

I shall have a cottage near a wood,
And a pony all my own,
And a little lamb, quite clean and tame,
That I can take to town.

And when I’m getting really old –
At twenty-eight or nine –
I shall buy a little orphan-girl
And bring her up as mine.

by Lawrence Alma-Tadema

I am hanging on there. Not much progress. Eating is still good. No exercise these two days. Last week I worked out 2 days I think. It will stay crazy like this till 1st week of May. Hopefully things will settle down post my software implementation. Do plan to get back on track with a vengeance. I am taking it as a good sign that I am not particularly bothered that I can’t fit in workouts right now. I know I will. Right now for a few weeks, work IS a higher priority. But I am eating well. I slipped a couple of times last week and had a mini-binge from stress. But been good over the weekend and this week so far. Haven’t lost any weight but haven’t gained any either. TOM ended today. There could still be a tiny loss.

So fingers crossed and keeping to plan as much as possible. Hope you all are doing very well too. Best wishes to you all and me.

The past week has been reasonably decent. I have lost a couple of pounds. In my gym scale I weigh about 10 lbs more than my home scale. I am for now sticking to the home scale. It is analog and less used, so more liable to be correct. Will check weight later at doctor’s too.

I had been able to work out only 3 days last week. All those 3 days were intense. But on Thursday and Friday, I had too much work and my trainer couldn’t make it on Friday. Plan for this week is to work out on all 5 days of the working week.

What I feel I have done really well is in the food department. I have managed to have my last meal of the day considerably early. Even the weekend was pretty good. I had come to work on Saturday and had a small pizza at lunch. Other than that it has been mostly on plan. Had tons of stir-fry and salad over the weekend. This must be the first weekend where I have not gained back weight lost during the work week.

All in all - good start. Planning to fine-tune the eating still a bit more. Working on reducing the gaps between meals by having a fruit juice (made fresh in the cafetaria), a small piece of cheese or a glass of low fat buttermilk. I could eat a few nuts too. But not yet going there. So the logic is if I keep eating small portions at proper intervals, the BMR will stay up. Of course it won’t be possible on all days. Many days real life will catch up and I will have long gaps between meals. But would work on making that less and if it does happen I won’t be too upset.

That’s about all ladies. I was planning to add to my happiness list but the internet was intermittent this weekend. Will catch up on that.

Much love and best wishes to you all. Keep at it and we all will get there.

A good feeling is there. It feels that I will not fail this time. I will be thin at the end of it this time. Hallucinating? Perhaps! But somehow I feel positive and full of hope.

I have started reading the 3FC forums now. Pretty late. Somehow seeing so many ladies trying and quite so many succeeding too has perhaps brought on the hope. My google reader is loaded up to the gills with 3FC forum threads. I have subscribed to the blogs too there. (This is why I have read each of your entries almost as soon as you made them but haven’t gotten around to commenting always - plan to correct that today). I have now started to skim through my reader once or twice during work too. If I stop that because of work load, I will definitely read some on my way to and from work - on my cell. I am reducing my chances of getting distracted.

I have been to gym almost at all opportunities in last couple of weeks. Have changed my work timings to hit work early and get out by 7:30-8 pm. I have started with a trainer too. I had two sessions with him. I have liked him. He got me to do good work-outs. I was quite tired and sore by the end of them. He is not unnecessarily pushy and keeps to the point. Poor guy turns up in the evening only for my slot. Hopefully we will form a good partnership. My first trainer S was fabulous. Then the last one was not great at all. I plan to meet the dietician too - at least for one session.

My days are slightly better structured now. The working out in the evening is going well so far. I am not so tired that I can’t work out. It gets rid of some stress too. I am sleeping better. My eating is slowly getting better. It is roughly as below

· Breakfast at 7:00 am (Ungodly hour for a breakfast really) – Mostly savory oats or 2 chapattis with a bowl of curry

· Mid-morning snack – so far nothing other than cups of black tea. May drink some buttermilk or something.

· Lunch at 1:30/2 pm – 3 chapattis + 1 bowl of curry + 1 bowl of lentil soup + 1 bowl of plain homemade yoghurt. Will try to replace one of the above bowls with a bowl of salad

· Mid-afternoon snack – black tea

· Evening snacks at 5:30/6 pm – Plan to have an apple or a serving of fruit salad and a serving of beans salad. More work needed here. I end up mostly eating something else from cafeteria which is not vey healthy. Not very oily but not vey good either. If I miss this, I almost feel like passing out while working out. I did that last Friday and most definitely not plan to repeat the experience.

· Post workout snack at 9:30 pm or so – a glass of protein shake – made with whey protein and water.

This is what I am working at. So far I have not been perfectly been able to stick to it. I have been advised to eat a fruit immediately after getting up. I get up around 6:30 am, often 15-20 minutes late. Not able to fit in a fruit here yet. Let’s see. I need to include more vegetables and salads. It is a bit of a fight seeing that I am outside from 7 am to 10:30 pm or so. My mom can do only so much. Also it has become very hot in Mumbai these days. It is very difficult to keep food well for longish periods.

On non-weight-loss front, we had a good 3-day vacation last weekend. We went to Ajanta and Ellora. They are world heritage sites in the same state, about 400 km away from Mumbai. They have awe inspiring cave paintings (about 2500 years old in Ajanta) and stone carvings and statues (about 1500 years old in Ellora). We were so proud to see how advanced we were so long back. And where we are now! There is so much to be done. Anyways we went to a fort there too. That’s about 700 years old. It had an unbelievable defense set up. There are 3-4 concentric walls with strategic corners and gaps for archers and boiling-oil-pourers (!!), gates and false gates, stairs with uneven treads. moats which were filled with alligators. It even has a maze which is pitch dark (called a bat cave I think) and which has many false corridors going out of it. One can easily get lost. We went in with a guide who actually lit a wood and oil torch and it was deadly scary even today. The Daulatabad fort has much fascinating history too. It was such fun listening to the stories. The fort has never been conquered. Of course an insider betrayed the king when it fell for the first time. Even with complete inside information, the first conqueror put up a siege and did not dare to attack. Afterwards it always changed hands as part of pacts made. Anyway it was all great fun – this vacation. It was very hot though. I had hoped the long walks and climbing stairs in the blazing hot sun would make me lose weight. I gained a few pounds!! Guess it was because I did not particularly watch what I was eating and had quite a few cocktails in the hotel watching the cricket matches in the evening. Things have been better since then – I mean on the weight loss front.

Things are a bit stormy at work. The dreaded Mr. V is being given a part of my team. His project would wind up end of this year. So my boss has decided to split up which I so far was thinking of as my portfolio. I have been very very angry and depressed and was feeling betrayed and all that. I have poured my heart out in this job. I really liked my boss too. This would slow down my growth by quite a bit. Anyway I am mostly settled down with this now. I don’t plan to quit. Let’s see how things turn out. If I am better than V, then sooner or later I will win. If V is better, well, I will have to learn to live with that too. Since the split is not clean and there is much overlap between us, there is going to be many clashes in the coming months. We have different management styles. I resent him for coming in to my territory. I am sure he has plenty of reasons to dislike me too. We will keep head butting again and again. The loyalty of the team is going to be tested too. My run of good luck has turned around a bit now. Anyways I have mostly come to terms with it. For one thing, I am no CEO material – V or no V. So a bit of slow growth or even no growth wouldn’t kill me. For the other, I can stop killing myself over work. I should and can concentrate on my weight loss and later on adoption. I always thought I am not resistant to change. But when a change came up and it threatened me even a little bit, I reacted badly badly. I need to stay cool and patient. It won’t be easy. But I can do it. Things are going to be fun (not really). I will discover some more strength inside me hopefully. To be fair, unless I can handle such reverses, I really should not hope for growth too.

Some bit of good news too. It is almost 90% sure I would be coming to UK for a couple of months from mid-May. A couple more folks from my team would be coming with me. That idiot V will come too. I would be staying in Leeds and Bournemouth and will definitely visit London. I was just looking them up a bit today on internet. Such gorgeous places – oh my! I am so looking forward to the visit. It will perhaps be another blip on the weight-loss journey. Not that I plan to let it be – not at all. Hours will be lot less crazy there and there will be a gym in the hotel. I plan to eat well and get my trainer to give me a workout routine to which I will stick. In my list of places must-see before I die, I would be able to strike off London now. I have been to Tokyo and Chicago before. (Chicago was beautiful but not on my must-see list). I still need to go to New York, Paris, Rome and Cairo in the least. And I want to go to Africa at least once – Masaimara reserve forest – once – oh please please!

If you have still been with me so far, wish you all the very best on your weight loss journey. Love you. I am with you at every step of the way.

Here is the second list of 10 things that make me happy. Again they are not in the order of preference.

11. Corresponding

A bit weird? I love writing and receiving mails. Barely do this any more. I do sometimes have long telephone conversations. But I love mails and letters. When we were very young, mom would make us sit down and write annual greeting cards to our grandparents and aunts – a simpler sort of Christmas cards. She would draw light pencil lines on the card, so we would write straight. We Bengalis have a 10 day long autumn festival called Durgapuja at the end of which we are supposed to go meet elder relatives and pay our respects and get their blessings. If we couldn’t meet in person, then we wrote letters. I did try to bless my grandparents causing much hilarity. That was the start. Then there were an elder cousin who was away at college and had the heart and time to write long funny letters to me. I haven’t seen him in ten years at least and would most likely never see again. Anyway his brother was very lazy. So his letters were very infrequent but even more fun. Then when I left home for college and later for work, my brother and I used to exchange long emails. He is a very good writer too. I used to write a lot of emails to my first boyfriend too. This is a pleasure that is almost completely lost to me now. Now all I receive are emails to increase the length of my peni$.

12. An interesting conversation

Well – the next best thing is an interesting conversation - on phone, messenger or in person. I think I am slightly wittier and less inhibited when on messenger. Again interesting and fun conversations are a bit rare. Fortunately my current team members are a bunch of intelligent and fun people. Also quite a few of us reporting to the same boss are good fun too. So often there is a long lunch where we lose track of time a bit talking about something inane like cricket and movies. Recently we went to dinner to celebrate my boss’ promotion. I laughed so much the insides of my throat got bruised. Conversations with dear brother are the best when we find time for one.

13. Learning something new

It is fun to learn something new. Very often it is something about work. And then looking up something on the net is fun. Google perhaps has made us lazy but I sure would not look up so many things if not for this fabulous search engine. Sometimes learning is a big thing like learning to drive and sometimes small like a new recipe or the meaning of a new word or looking up a new place in the map. I do not do this enough. I should try to incorporate something new at least 3-4 times in a week.

14. A good workout

I know! If I love a good workout so much then I shouldn’t be fat, right? But once I am over all the obstacles of laziness and work excuses and in the gym and have sweated it out either on a cardio machine or on the exhortations of a trainer, I do feel fabulous. I had not wanted to believe that exercising makes us happier. But this is one place where I have been lucky and I hit the after workout high pretty regularly and easily. Love the feeling. I also love sweating. Somehow it makes me feel cleansed. I love the exercise-induced soreness. Especially after someone told me that when your muscles are aching it means that you are burning calories. Not sure if that is particularly true. But that soreness sure does bring in a sense of achievement.

15. Correct pronunciation

I would love to perfectly speak each language that I speak. English is not my mother tongue. I do pronounce things wrong pretty often. Sometimes I haven’t heard the word pronounced before and I would make a wrong phonetic guess. Sometimes I imitate others wrong pronunciations unconsciously. My accent is a mixture from my upbringing among 5-6 Indian regional languages and exposure to British and American media. I am not ashamed of my accent – not at all. But I love to look up the correct pronunciation and say the words correctly. I think I somewhere read that the way you speak says volumes about education and background. Not sure why I should particularly care but I do. I have a couple of phonetic dictionaries lying around unused somewhere.

16. Lazing in my bed

Things were getting a bit goody goody, right? Unfortunately more and more I am realizing I am quite a conformist and I keep trying to be a copybook good girl, daughter, sister, employee and boss. Anyway, I am really really lazy. I do work hard at work or at things that catch my fancy. But I have an unlimited capacity to do nothing. Well reading a novel is almost doing nothing. I can laze around with tons of things to do. Perhaps when there won’t be so many things to do, the temptation of doing nothing would reduce drastically. I have heard of people getting bored of sitting still while getting a haircut, a massage or a facial. Not me. I love these periods of passivity. It is tiring enough to be alert and making decisions and clearing doubts 12 hours a day – thank you very much. Anyway, I have a good bed with a nice and firm mattress and my laptop a permanent fixture along with my pillows. With the view of the city sprawling below and an occasional helicopter or airplane crossing by and oh yes the pigeons in the balcony – it is my most favorite place. I do spend most of my weekends in my bed and can happily spend more time. I never get bored on an off day.

17. Radio Mirchi

Mirchi loosely means a hot chilly. It is a FM radio station in Mumbai. I listen to this radio station almost every day on my way to and from work. I listen to the early morning show and the late evening show. The RJs seem like personal friends. Both of them have lovely baritone voices. The morning one is jokey, dramatic and all fun. He talks about current events in a fun trivial disrespectful way and plays good current Hindi Bollywood music. The late evening one plays music from 60s, 70s and 80s – they call it the golden era. He is very sweet too. Somehow I have grown accustomed to start and end my weekdays with these two guys. I should get over my laziness and send a thank-you note to these two guys.

18. Tea

I love drinking cups of tea. I drink a couple of cups over the weekend. However I drink 6-7 cups a day when I am at work. I almost always drink tea without milk and sugar. I do love a cup of strong Indian tea made with milk and sugar too. Specially when I am tired or on the road and buying a cup of tea. Otherwise I have numerous packs of flavored tea bags in my workplace drawer – lemon, ginger, masala, cardamom. I have managed to grow a taste for green tea too. Last week I bought a pack of sachets to make herbal drink – cranberry apple flavor. Love the tart flavor and the red color. I hardly ever drink coffee, though I do love a cup of well made coffee too. But mostly it is too strong for me. I remember getting a cup of Georgia brand coffee from a vending machine in a client office in Tokyo and a sip from that almost felled me. Before that I wouldn’t have believed a cup of coffee can be that strong and make one feel weak-kneed. Of all my loves, my love for tea is an well-indulged one.

19. My team

I love getting to see the same known reassuring faces everyday. The most important ones are of course at home. Then they are at work. I love my team. It is a joy to see their smiling faces. I am currently a little irritated with my boss. However his face brings a kind of joy and peace too. It is like when I am at work and everyone is counted and at their place, I am at peace with my world. I guess it sounds a bit silly. But it is so. Each person in my team in their own way – some because they are joyful, some because they are efficient and intelligent and get things done, some because of their silently peaceful countenance – fills something in my days and in my life. Somehow I have managed to fall in love with most of them. It is a bit unhealthy, I guess. Things always change and they must too. I would be so unhappy to lose any of them to another job, to another project, to another manager which would inevitably happen sooner or later. And I will survive too. Anyway, right now they are my joy and pride. I will deal with it when it changes.

20. Happy endings

Well, who doesn’t love happy endings? I love them too. I still believe that if everything is not yet all right, there is more to this story. I am a sucker for success stories. I love succeeding myself. I love others succeeding too. I love to read about and see pictures of ladies who have lost so much weight in 3FC. I love to read about successful celebrities – sports stars, actors, writers. I love books and movies with happy endings – occasionally ones without one too. The victory of indomitable human spirit uplifts me and makes me happy. I love to see underdogs win. I am not very cynical I guess.

Well, more on this later.

Yiippppeeee.. made it to gym today.. first day of a long journey.. awfully tired but feeling good…

Love you all

100+ things that make me happy

With Round, I join in here with my list of 100+ things that make me happy. This is an effort make myself calmer, happier, more centered and satisfied in general. Hope that this will add significantly to my weightloss journey. Please see the original happiness post from Round.

Here is my first 10 things - not in the order of preference.

1. Long drive

I love long drives. More when someone else is driving. From the time I can remember I have loved a window seat with wind flying away my hair. Love the long roads and changing scenery. Luckily India is a fascinating country where I do not get bored ever on a drive. In fact I love my drive to and from work as well. It is my time to relax and let my mind wander. A drive across India is heaven. A drive across Mumbai is very good too.

2. Walk on the Marine Drive

This is a special place. This is end of Mumbai. All you can see is Arabian Sea. And some of world’s richest real estate is behind you. There is a concrete pathway on which people sit, stand or stroll on. This is built on reclaimed land. So no gentle beach this. The sea side of the walkway is a straight drop ending in piles of huge boulders. Doesn’t sound very interesting, does it? But the atmosphere is electric. Every single time I have been there, I have forgotten every problem I had. Can’t really explain what it is. Perhaps the lovely wind blowing in from the sea or the decked up families and lovers and old comfortable couples or the apartment complex on the other side of the road (where I do not dream of living in my next ten reincarnations) - I don’t really know what it is. Just sit on the pier and look out and once the Sun sets there is nothing to see also but it just lifts me up no end.

3. Watching a few episodes of Friends

I enjoy watching season DVDs of tv series. Of all that I have watched so far, FRIENDS remain the favorite. There is something so lovely in these six friends and their lovely conversations and antics. I specially love how they get up each time they fall. They are not someone you would call particularly successful but they have the best attitude. So yeah, when I am blue and hopeless, I sometimes make myself get up and plug in a season DVD. Perhaps one day I will grow tired, but till then big fun.

4. Cooking a near-perfect family meal

Do recognize the word near-perfect there. Know that I should not get bothered so much. But it’s such a big deal for me to have everything just perfect. As much as possible I would not let sis-in-law to help. Mom can help but she needs to do exactly what I tell her to. So I would plan a whole menu on these days and cook everything with lots of love and care. I love to see the joy in everyone’s face. Specially brother’s whose praise is difficult to get. Of course I love to eat that meal too. The meal is not always healthy. It is always healthier because picking up healthier options have become second nature, at least when I am cooking not under stress.

5. Cooking and eating a comfort snack

A guilty pleasure now. Well, I have lost the taste for process snacks (the ones easily available) for most part. Not that I never indulge in a packet of chips. But for the most part when I want to eat something because I am down or just feel like indulging a bit - most often I want to make something to eat. About half the time I cook variations of Maggi noodles. Maggi is an immensely popular instant noodle brand in India. It’s holding on to the most popular spot for 25 years now. Most Indians have their own variations and twists. Generally it would be a vegetable laden soupy concoction for me but quite often it is guiltier and spicier. Apart from this too, the main theme is savoury soupy stuff with oats or lentils or again some savoury stuff made of left overs. Generally a bit of nonsense really but I love them. What I need to do is not read a book while eating those so I get a better handle on the quality.

6. Reading

There will be a few more more specific reading items in the list. However I love to read (okay, to an extent) any content. I hoard mails in a to-read folder as I hurt deleting mails without reading. I know I am not interested in company balance sheets (yet) but I will save that mail for years. We often use paper sacks made of recycled newspapers and magazines. It’s a passion to carefully tear up the sack to open and smoothe the paper to read it. Perversely enough I barely read current newspapers. I do sometimes but not really much. I love reading emails of every kind. So yes, reading makes me happy - on the net, on the phone or on plain old fashioned paper.

7. Washing my hair

I love washing and conditioning my hair. Must be the one grooming thing that I do frequently enough. I love the fragrance of some shampoos. Love more the soft, clean and shining hair. I love blow dried hair too. Get that done with a hair-cut. But otherwise, no. Also love getting my hair washed in the salon. They sometimes massage my head a bit too. Lovely!

8. Taking a long shower

Love taking a long shower. Specially using a fragrant body wash or bath soap. Specially in the summer which has started in all earnest before time this year. Specially after working out. It gives such a squeaky clean feel and I feel lighter. It makes me fresh in the morning and sleepy at the end of a day or a lazy Sunday afternoon.

9. Full body massage

Again heaven. Almost always. I often have body pains and aches from everyday stress and of course the body and the feet hurt carrying the immense load. High heels help getting some pains too. It’s heavenly to get a massage done where pains flow away and muscles loosen. I love to get pampered. I love that time of doing nothing and letting go.

10. The view from my bedroom window

This is a bonus that would go away when we leave this apartment. It’s a rented one and quite far from my office. However what a glorious view. The city sprawls on for a while and then there is a small mountain rising up. When the light is mellow in a morning or late afternoon (a glorious golden light or a sepia light comes up at times) or a cloudy day or even on a sunny noon, the view is lovely. I keep looking out and when I do I always feel better. The lights dazzle like jewels carelessly thrown. Rain falls vertically straight or columns of it move with the wind. The mountain gets lost in clouds and sometimes in mist. In a very busy, very crowded city, we have hit jackpot. Do not plan to leave before the rains. However may do later to reduce the commute time.

Looking forward to jotting down the next 10. Do let me know your thoughts. Also if you decide to make a list, do let Round know so we can have links to all of them at one place.

Sunday (21st March)

That’s what I want to be in the coming week. Last week was very slow on the weight loss front. I went to the gym near my office. It is quite good. I was supposed to join last Wednesday. Consistently on all three days starting from Wednesday, I could not make it to the gym again. To sum up the progress - I found the gym and I made to work by 8 am every single day. Going early happened. Now I need to make leaving early happen. It will - I know. I will set up reminder from 6 pm which will flash every 15 mins to remind me about working out. I should then be able to leave by 7:30 pm.

On the not so good news front - my teeth is acting up again. This is a signal that my blood sugar is up again.

Later - Tuesday evening (23rd March)

Well, that was all that I wrote on Sunday. After which brother and I had a marathon chatting session. Talked and talked. It was good fun. Got too late and fell asleep about 1 am.

Had gone to the gym and paid the admission fee for 3 months. That’s the part I am always successful. Have an initial counselling planned for Thursday. The plan was to do cardio today and yesterday. But came home early today. I am planned to come to UK in May. Need to file a ton of paperwork. Had misplaced some tax returns. Went through a mountain of old papers looking for these. Very happy to say that I have found them. Now all is well. Need to get photographed tomorrow, per specifications.

Plan to stay as positive and as happy as possible. I need to grow more calm and cool. That’s what I want to be to lose weight and be better in my job.

Lots of love to all of you.

Have been adding some good stuff to read to my google reader. I loved this short story that cropped up.

http://www.littlemag.com/family/kamala.html