Jul 10, 2015

Honey Diet

The benefits of a good diet are unparalleled. It is no surprise that it is not just exercise that helps you remain healthy, but the diet you are following too. There have been numerous instances in the past few years that I have substituted something healthy in place of the so-called junk food, rather than going on a crash diet and depriving myself of the food I like to eat. I am listing a few of those changes, which coupled with my running routine have helped me eat what I want and remain healthy and fit.

Fruits instead of chips: Fruits have been an integral part of my intake since childhood. It only helped that my father used to bring varieties of fruits often and we were introduced to the colors, which made it even more attractive, at a young age. I used to be a big fan of chips, particularly potato and banana chips. However in the last five years, I have replaced chips from my intake with more fruits. A variety of cut fruits, fruit juice, milkshakes, fruit mix with honey and some creative preparations like pineapple rasam have helped me increase my fruit intake. On rare occasions when I really want to have chips, I opt for the baked version of pita chips with hummus and that’s good protein.

Herbal tea with honey: The coffee aficionado in me needed a break from the excess caffeine intake my body was having. Black tea is good in its own way, but what appealed to me was the different types of herbal tea and green tea that I got exposed to during my stay in the US. Herbal tea typically have a hibiscus base and there are multiple fruit flavors which I really got drawn to. With a tinge of honey, these herbal teas are really good cleansers and relievers of cold and a sore throat. I now have made herbal tea a part of my daily routine and cut down significantly on coffee.

Yogurt: With the increasing stress levels in our routine, the body tends to need some form of a cooling agent at all times. While lemonade and other forms of fruit juice do provide a respite to the heat in the body, yogurt or curd (as we call it) is something that I like to have particularly on a warm summer day. Freshly prepared yogurt which is not at a very cold temperature is what I prefer the most. This is followed by flavored yogurt particularly Greek flavored yogurt which is very good in terms of the consistency. The flavors are typically fruit flavors. Another nice healthy combination with yogurt is the one with honey (in lieu of sugar) and that is something I have had multiple times in the past.


With all the above things, warm water with honey is something I have on a regular basis and it simple is the nicest thing you can have the first thing in the morning. Your day begins on a sweet note and your body feels good too. Visit http://www.daburhoney.com/ for information on Dabur Honey and what more you can do with honey. 

Jul 9, 2015

Surf it All! Surf it Fast!

Having been a fan of cricket from the 1996 World Cup, I have seen multiple cricketing events take place in the last nineteen years. These include six World Cups, numerous T20 world Cups, eight editions of Indian Premier League (IPL), multiple instances of the Champions League, test matches and more. Barring a period 2004 to 2009 when I was not following cricket as much, I have been hooked to the proceedings of the matches in many a way.

It is not always that you get to sit in the luxury of your home to sit and watch the matches. If only one got their exams written or homework done by just watching cricket matches. I could go on about how awesome the careers of sports journalists can get, but then I would be digressing.

In 2002-03 time frame, when the Indian cricket team’s tour to Pakistan happened, I was in my second year of engineering. And it was one of those busy times of the semester when you had internals, lab exams, tuitions and assignments all piled up. It was not easy to sneak out and take a look at the score and get back to what I was working on, especially considering I would be under the watchful eyes of the professor. That 2002-03 time frame was also the time when cellular phones, commonly known to us as a mobile, started showing up in the pockets of a lot of my classmates. One thing that was amazing about the phone back then was the fact that one could get text alerts in the form of SMSes. One internet site tied up with a cellular service provider and ended up having a service plan were you could get score alerts whenever you wanted them. The joy that this brought to our class was unparalleled. The professors would go on lecturing, while the mischievous bunch of us would keep looking at the score on a friend’s mobile phone every now and then.

A few years later when the IPL fever caught up, it turned out that the cricket websites had upped their game majorly. The best thing about a prominent sports site was the fact that you did not need to go to the website every time to see the score, but the score would get updated in the title of the tab of the browser regularly. So, I was teaching a class when one of the seasons of IPL was on, but it was a pretty important match of the IPL which would determine the fate of the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) team which I support. So, in between giving instructions to my students, I would take a quick look at the internet browser window which had the cricket site tab open, among other tabs and get updated on the score.

These two ways ensured that I was updated about the cricket score very well and still managed to stay on top of more important things. Now, there is this nice UC Browser that should serve the purpose. Go to: http://www.ucweb.com/