Thursday, January 1, 2009

Mind Clarity

I hope all of you had a safe and fun New Year celebration.  I spent it with Shrenik, my brother, Sudha, his wife, and his wife’s siblings and cousins who came up from Atlanta.  For those who are interested, pictures of everything will be up on Facebook very soon.

Since this entry is titled, ‘Mind Clarity,’ I’m going to tell you just a few things that have been rolling around in my head lately.

(1) I got a new camera, a Pentax Optio V20…and I can’t go anywhere without it now.  First, I got it for $114 including shipping, when at most places including amazon.com, it’s going for $224.  Props to woot.com.  [Actually, I unknowingly put the charged battery in the wrong way, so the camera didn't turn on, so Achira, my sister, said, "You idiot, that's what you get for buying a $100 camera from woot.com."  Then I turned the battery the other way, put it in, turned on the camera, took a picture, and Achira was therefore owned.] 

(1a) My first obsession with the camera has been photographing items or scenes of color, like candy, fruit, flowers, etc.  [I put up a few pictures on Facebook already.]  I even snapped a picture of a colorful arrangement of bowling balls yesterday.

(2) Speaking of, I bowled a 171 in one game and an 83 in another.  Talk about inconsistency.  But hey, better than the President-elect no matter what…

(3) I’ve been looking at some culinary suggestions by Dr. Dean Ornish, the inventor of a relatively well-known diet book, “Eat More, Weigh Less.” I like his suggestions because they incorporate mainly vegetarian/vegan tactics.  The most important suggestion is this, 

“The following can be eaten whenever you are hungry, until you are full:
  • Beans & Legumes
  • Fruits & Vegetables 
  • Grains”
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  • which is something most of us don’t do enough of.  I mean it’s not a genius suggestion by any means, but I think that if someone pens something that you think it’s obvious, well, then it lends itself to more credibility and feasibility in your mind.  And so you end up doing it!
  • (3a) That’s how people from marketers to diet gurus to motivational speakers make money.  They validate what you already know to be true.  Am I a sucker?  Absolutely.  I know you’ve been one also at some point. 
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  • (4) Speaking of, this was my latest grocery shopping trip result.  47 dollars.  And I couldn’t be more proud: 100% Whole Wheat Bread, Vanilla Soymilk, Bagged Salad, Carrots, Apples, Whole Wheat Pasta, Deli ‘Bologna’ (obviously fake), Soy Yogurt, and Hummus.  
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  • (5) The treadmills have been full at the gym the last two days, so I’ve been using the Stairmaster (in part) to compensate.  It’s kind of funny trying to do the Stairmaster at the same pace as I would be sprinting (110-120 rpm).  Certainly earned me some funny looks and some burning quads.  But hey, you gotta’ do what you gotta’ do…

(6) Just had lunch.  Shrenik and Sudha (with everyone’s help) made enchiladas and soup which were stupendous.  Why is this eventful?  Well, not only were the enchiladas superb (with vegan cheese!) but were followed by dessert (I worked out extra hard this morning to earn it :-D), which for me, was one of twelve cinnamon buns I special ordered from Pattycake Vegan Bakery in Columbus, Ohio.  As expected, the combination of the bun and the cinnamon swirl and vanilla frosting topping was heaven…pure heaven.

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Posted by Shardule at 17:48:30 | Permalink | Comments (4)