Childhood was this cute ;-)
Going to relive with Kiaan :-)
Blessed !!!
My money is on 7
I am a Jack Canfield fan. Following him for quite some time now and recently completed his Success Principles 10-Day Transformation program. It’s an amazing program that helps you practice few of Jack Canfield’s success principles through 10 days.
One of the exercises was to list down the life goals: short-term, long-term, dream goals, etc. And so I did. But this post is not about the goals (I may write another post on goals).
This is to emphasize on the power of goals – which help us see through the key things in life and remove clutter (such as watching any random Netflix series or scrolling Facebook wall zillion times a day).
Here is list of 7 key things my money is on (caveat: few of below wouldn’t apply when I am on vacation exploring new places, which in fact is also one of the core things for me):
- Improve knowledge on asset & wealth management, digital and product management
- Write daily – fiction story or blog post or private journal
- Read book or listen podcast daily (alternate: watch meaningful movie)
- Practice gratitude and visualization daily
- Spent more quality time with Kiaan, Isha, family and friends
- Simplify life (I may write post on this later)
Everything else is a clutter. And which means I was all in clutter for so long… duh!!
By the way through entire last week, I successfully managed to do all of them expect #4 (which I started from today).
Now, if I would continue this or fall back into my clutter pit… that depends on my determination and commitment.
But did you see, the clarity of goals.
Lack of exercise takes its toll
Back in 2012 I used to do 100 push-ups (50+25+25) with a minute gap in between. Unfortunately, I didn’t exercise at all since then. Today after 4 years, my friend challenged me for 25 push-ups. I was like what… just 25… you don’t know me dude!!
To my shock, my hands started trembling just after 10 and my entire body was shivering at 15… I wasn’t able to believe myself. What the hell is happening… How is this possible? Though I somehow managed to win the challenge half dead, it drew upon me a serious thought.
We all understand the importance of regular exercise… but we don’t actually realize how lack of exercise silently takes its toll on our body with every passing year esp. when you cross the 30 mark.
So, I am taking a challenge today to exercise at least 4 days a weeks for next 3 months. It could be Yoga, Cross-Fit or Running. No more excuses. No more toll.
Introducing Kiaan (daddy blog post 1)
You are the most precious gift to us who promoted us in life from wife & husband to mommy & daddy!
Your mommy & daddy stole each other’s hearts but never thought their hearts would be stolen again on 28th May by such a cute little man!
You are just five days old and learning ways of life, and your mommy & daddy are learning along with you: lullaby melodies, power naps, surviving sleep deprivation and most importantly unlimited & unconditional love!
You are a Grace of God to us, and that’s why we call you – KIAAN!
Again among Top 10 winners in Write India contest
I feel so overwhelmed for making it to the Top 10 winners for the second time in a row in Write India contest. This was my second story for this contest and I am so glad it also made its way to the winner’s list. So grateful!
Thank you Mishti Jain and Shekhar Ghalot for brainstorming the plot with me. It was so much fun. And thank you Isha for brainstorming, editing, improvising the scenes, proofreading and more proofreading and most importantly keeping me motivated to write.
What-the-fuck & Low carb diet
What-the-fuck!
I am sure everyone – almost everyone – of us must have had used this expression at least once. It’s that moment when we scan ourselves – in front of the mirror or in a digital image shot by a camera or in an internal image shot inside our head – and not happy with what we see, we say with a big sigh – ‘what-the-fuck I’ve done to myself.’
It happened to me in May of 2015.
Isha and I had just returned to Singapore from our home in India after long three weeks. Isha was reading some article on her iPad and I was changing my clothes. As I removed my vest, she looked at me and shook her head with a smile and a little frown between her eyebrows. She didn’t speak anything. But it was enough to made me observe at myself in the mirror. ‘What-the-fuck I’ve done to myself’ was the expression.
I don’t want to get into the details of explaining that image I saw because of obvious reasons.
The best part of this ‘what-the-fuck’ expression is that it’s more often than not strong enough to get us started in a right direction. It inspires us for a positive change.
The Four Hour Body
And so I started looking for diet plans for myself. I read a lot of articles, consulted my dietician cousin but what actually stuck me was a book by Timothy Ferris: The Four Hour Body. Maybe because of it’s a catchy name. The more I read about this book and about the author, the more inspired I felt.
This book is not only about dieting. It is about complete health: diet, exercise, physical stamina, etc. However, I’ve used it only for diet. So far.
Low-carb diet
It explains low-carb-high-protein diet. It is not a new concept after all but the way this book explained inspired me to follow it.
In short, it says NO to anything white except eggs. It says, everything white has carbs, so we shouldn’t eat them.
No sugar, no wheat, no bread, no brown bread (it is actually white), no rice, no milk, no potatoes, and for some reason no fruits or fruit juices (even though they are not white). The author explains medical/ scientific details for every point he mentioned in the book but I didn’t bother myself with those details. I simply followed.
Measure and Record
The second important thing is to measure weight every day in the morning before breakfast and measure size (chest, waist, hips, biceps and thighs) every week and maintain all the records in a journal.
My daily diet
I started on 22nd May. I weighed 74.5 Kg.
8:00 am: Two eggs (boiled, scrambled, omelette, etc.) – within an hour of waking up.
10:30 am: One vegetable salad portion (carrot, cucumber, tomatoes – though not white but allowed)
12:30 am: One big bowl of lentils or beans
4:00 pm: One big bowl of lentils or beans
6:30 pm: Something full of protein such as stir fried green peas (optional)
9:00 pm: One big bowl of lentils or beans
Binge day
Now, this is the best part, probably the reason I was inspired to give this diet plan a try (apart from book’s name). One day in a week, it allows (in fact encourages) to have a cheat day to savor anything on the earth you want to eat or wanted to eat in last 6 days in this diet. It also encourages to keep making note of stuff you desire to eat during the diet days and then eat all of them on this cheat day.
I chose Saturday as my binge day.
Result
I followed diligently for 40 days, maintaining records of each day. On 28th June, I weighed 68.6 Kg. I’d lost 6 Kg. All my shirts looked better fitted and all my trousers went loose. It was an exciting feeling. My friends also noticed this change.
And then Hong Kong happened. I took a week break for my Hong Kong vacation but never went back to that diet routine. Eventually, in last six months, I gained all my 6 Kg back.
Sighed. What-the-fuck I’ve done to myself… again!
Give it another shot
I am determined to resume this diet plan from around mid-Jan once I get settled in my new place. And, I am confident it will work for me as effectively as it did last year.
Cheers!
Image courtesy:
http://www.wikiihealth.com/
http://fourhourbody.com/
My readings for 2016
Recently, I turned 33. Assuming the best case scenario that I am reading till 75 years of my age leaves me with 42 years of reading i.e. 504 months. This means that with my current reading pace of one book a month, I can read ~500 books in my remaining lifetime.
Isn’t this revealing? I’ve to either choose my readings carefully or increase my pace. Probably both.
Well, here is the list of my readings for 2016.
Non-Fiction
Zero to One by Peter Thiel
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance
The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli
The Richest Man in Babylon by George S Clason
How to have a Beautiful Mind by Edward de Bono
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Fiction
To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (again)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (again)
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J K Rowling
