Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Wish You a very Happy 2013

HOPE THIS NEW YEAR IS FILLED WITH FUN AND HAPPINESS FOR EVERYONE.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Monday, November 19, 2012

Jamie Eason's LiveFit - 12 weeks program - Week3

3rd Week Update: Bad Bad week! Only worked out 2 days,No Cardio, Diet was bad :( Daddy came to visit, so lot of family time and sweets from back home :)

Workouts got a bit intense this week. I have done 10 mins cardio for warm up before session and 10 mins cardio after to burn some fat. Weight hasn't come down at all (I guess raised a bit), but I can't blame the program, I am not eating as clean as I should. But I can see a little change in shape, not too noticable though.

DAY-18 /Monday, Nov 12th 2012

Skipped -travelling

DAY-19 /Tuesday, Nov 13th 2012

Completed Week3 Day15 workouts.

DAY-20 /Wednesday, Nov 14th 2012

Completed Week3 Day16 workouts.

DAY-21 /Thursday, Nov 15th 2012

Skipped

DAY-22 /Friday, Nov 16th 2012

Skipped

DAY-23 /Saturday, Nov 17th 2012

Rest day according to Program, but I did not makeup for missed workouts

DAY-24 /Sunday, Nov 18th 2012

Rest day according to Program, but I did not makeup for missed workouts

Monday, November 12, 2012

Jamie Eason's LiveFit - 12 weeks program - Week2

2nd Week Update: I am very happy. I completed this week without any skips. I am travelling this weekend so I have to skip Monday next week.

I started adding 10 min warmup cardio before workout and 10 min cardio after workout to burn some fat, as its the best time to do cardio after strength training. Program suggests no cardio for 1st phase, but I wanted to do for short periods to boost my calorie burn. I have burned off around 3000 calories a day during the worked out days this week. I ate about 2000 calories a day though.

DAY-11 /Monday, Nov 5th 2012

Completed Week2 Day8 workouts.
  
DAY-12 /Tuesday, Nov 6th 2012

Completed Week2 Day9 workouts.

DAY-13 /Wednesday, Nov 7th 2012

Completed Week2 Day10 workouts.

DAY-14 /Thursday, Nov 8th 2012

Completed Week2 Day11 workouts.

DAY-15 /Friday, Nov 9th 2012

Week2 Day12 is Rest day according to Program.

DAY-16 /Saturday, Nov 10th 2012

Week2 Day13 is Rest day according to Program.

DAY-17 /Sunday, Nov 11th 2012

Week2 Day14 is Rest day according to Program.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Jamie Eason's LiveFit - 12 weeks program - Week1

I have been struggling to loose weight after pregnancy. I don't look too fatty, partly because I am tall, but 10 - 15 of those 60 lbs gained during pregnancy are still sticking around even after over 1.5 yrs. I am trying to workout a little, but I am not trying my best. I have tried personal training, but one class a week didn't really help, especially when that's the only time in the week I went to the gym. So when I saw Megan @ Honey We're Healthy (Her blogs Honey We're Home and Honey We're Healthy are part of my frequent blog reads) following Jamie Eason's Live Fit 12 week program, I checked it out.

It is a huge undertaking for me to do this whole program, but it is so well designed with all details, including videos for each of the excercises, I wanted to give it a try. Before even starting, I knew I may not do the program exactly, especially the food, but my goal is to do atleast 50% efficient foodwise and atleast 75% efficient workoutwise. So I started it. On 26th October 2012. I did the excercises given for Day1 alright, though my right shoulder had a problem and the joint was locking every time I lift a dumbbell over my head, so I had to ease into it. I was ok with food until dinner. Its always hard to be in control for Dinner, that too on a friday night.

I will keep posting weekly updates so I can keep track.

DAY-1 /Friday, Oct 26th 2012

Completed Week1Day1 workouts today and not bad with food. As I said I can't follow the diet in the program, but I am cautious of bad foods

DAY-2 /Saturday, Oct 27th 2012

SKIPPED IT......
I know, just started yesterday and I already started skipped it. Baby was sick all night so couldn't leave her. Wanted to go to gym when she napped, but I napped with her and the day is gone. Food was bad too. When I am home, I can't eat totally clean, but I should try to opt for healthier options.

DAY-3 /Sunday, Oct 28th 2012

SKIPPED IT......AGAIN..........
I guess I can't do it on weekends. But I have to.

DAY-4 /Monday, Oct 29th 2012

Determined to do this program, I started with Week1 Day2 workouts.

DAY-5 /Tuesday, Oct 30th 2012  

Completed Week1 Day3 workouts.  

DAY-6 /Wednesday, Oct 31st 2012  

I was very sour today because of the Legs workout yesterday, so I wanted to take a rest day. I went shopping during the usual workout time, atleast I got to do some walking.

DAY-7 /Thursday, Nov 1st 2012

Completed Week1 Day4 workouts.

DAY-8 /Friday, Nov 2nd 2012

Week1 Day5 is Rest day according to Program.

DAY-9 /Saturday, Nov 3rd 2012

Week1 Day6 is Rest day according to Program.

DAY-10 /Sunday, Nov 4th 2012

Week1 Day7 is also a Rest day according to Program.

I am glad I could complete first week. Hopefully I got the routine set now and won't break it.














Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Birthday Smash Cake

My daughter turned ONE, 5 months ago and I am posting this now. LAZY ME! Well ,better late than never. I mentioned about taking cake decorating classes, but I never posted about the cakes I decorated. I will show them all in another post, but this one is about the cake I made -FROM SCRATCH-, frosted and decorated for my baby girl for her first birthday. It was a tiny 6" cake (along with 200 mini cupcakes, also made from scratch, frosted and decorated with tiny fondant flowers), but big enough for a smash cake. I found many ideas for simple decorations online but loved this dots one. So simple that it took me less than 15 mins to frost the entire cake. It took much longer to make the fondant flower, which wasn't very pretty, but adding the fondant letters to spell her name and a cute little cutout flower (that I put on all mini cupcakes) kind of made it beautiful. Sadly, my daughter did not smash the smash cake. She was too tired by the time we cut the big cake and had lunch, she took a long nap until the end of party. I guess she didn't want to ruin Mom's Work of Art with her own hands hahaa.


Anyway, thats the cake I made for my baby. That was the last cake I made and decorated. I guess I decorated too many cakes that I needed a break from it. I will try to do it sometime again, may be for someone's birthday.

Monday, January 30, 2012

Cake Decorating Basics


I love baking cakes, more so, decorating them. Learning cake decorating has been in my Bucket List for so long :) I have tried my hand on cake decorating, including fondant/gum paste decorating. Below are some pics of my previous cakes.

But I wanted them to look more professional. So, finally, now that I have some time to spare for personal interests, I signed up for these classes at local Michaels store. I thought it would be a vigorous course, but they teach you basics and give you an instruction book, rest of it is your imagination and practice. Our instructor was awesome. Though I missed the first class she taught all the basics from that class sparing extra time for me. Here is what I created in this course. Still not professional looking, but now I know how to pipe rosettes, shaggy mums, roses and much more.

We also decorated some Cupcakes and another cake, which I will update in this post later. Decorating part was really fun, but cleanup is tedious. Buttercream, with vegetable shortening (CRISCO) is very greasy. I don't like the taste of the frosting with Crisco anyway. I tried with butter, but it is too heavy for my palette and my whole family's. I tried making a whipped frosting with heavy whipping cream, but it doesn't hold shape very much. I am still in search of the prefect whipped cream frosting recipe. You know, the one used in Indian pastries, like the pastries you get in Hot Breads (yum!). If any of you have this recipe or one that you have tried and liked, please share.

Friday, December 23, 2011

A Comeback

Its been years I posted in my blog. Lot of things have happened in life, putting blog behind. But I am back now and plan on posting actively in the new year. Just to jump start it, I am here posting about my bold choice of nail color. I love getting mani pedis. They are expensive and kind of unnecessary, I agree, but once in a while it feels good looking at your perfectly trimmed and painted nails (as long it lasts, for me about 3-5 days). It had been 5 months I had one. With a newborn, it seems like I have no time to wash my hair, let alone getting nails done. Having no secondary income didn't help either. But with Holiday season around with happiness everywhere, I needed to feel good about myself. With a December special of $15 mani pedi at a local salon, it seemed like a little splurge I could use. As I said I needed it. I don't get all the extras, just basic manicure pedicure with a nice color. I usually play it safe with nail color and choose a shade of red or pink which kind of complement my complexion, but I have been wanting to try a bold color for so long. Finally I decided to go for it this time. A shiny Turquoise. I know, too bold for someone like me. But I did.

I keep staring at my nails from time to time to understand if I love it or hate it. I don't absolutely crazily love it, I don't hate it either. Kind of getting used to it. Everytime I look at it, I feel proud, don't know why, may be because I was brave in choosing such a color (a lady at the salon said 'WOW look at the color she chose'. Was it a complement:? I would like to think so, even if it is otherwise). It would have looked even better if I added some design in black on one of the nails but I saved that for another time.

So thats how I plan on starting the new year. Bold, Brave and with Go For It attitude. I am putting together a list of things to do in 2012, actively posting on this blog being one of them. I will post it here soon so I can be accountable.

Have a Merry Christmas all you readers, if there are any, at this point.