A Model without the Makeup

Archana Akil Kumar is a fashion model from India. She has graced the covers of many coveted publications. She looks every part the glamor girl that is expected of her trade.

Then I found her on Miss Malini's webite... don't get me wrong. I think she is fresh faced and pretty. Very much the girl next door if you ask me. But glamorous definitely does not come to mind.

Oh the tricks of great makeup artists and fashion clothing!

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder... or the very talented media industry!

To all you girls feeling un-pretty out there, remember it's all an illusion.

xxx Big Sis.

A Monday Moment with Whittaker’s Milk Strawberry

I finally got a chance to try out Whittaker’s latest offering today. This new flavour is yet another special contribution towards their New Zealand Breast Cancer cause (their previous offering was White Raspberry).

For those of you who haven’t heard of Whittaker’s chocolate, the brand is Kiwi owned and operated, and originated in 1896. It is New Zealand’s oldest confectionary company run by a family of the same name.  These chocolates are by far one of the most delicious on the face of this globe (trust me I’ve tried a lot chocolate!). It’s one of those things I love to take over for friends and family overseas, and definitely for Big Sis, a chocolate lover like myself.

 

The Politics of Weight

This incident got me thinking a bit...

TV anchor Jennifer Livingstone received the email below with the following header:

 “Community Responsibility”:

Hi Jennifer,

It’s unusual that I see your morning show, but I did so for a very short time today. I was surprised indeed to witness that your physical condition hasn’t improved for many years. Sure you don’t consider yourself a suitable example for this community’s young people, girls in particular. Obesity is one of the worst choices a person can make and one of the most dangerous habits to maintain. I leave you this note hoping that you’ll reconsider your responsibility as a local public personality to present and promote a healthy lifestyle.

Adding Ethnic Pieces to a Western Silhouette

Ideas for Mixing and Matching Indo-Western Style

Tom Ford experiments with bright ethnic hues

Big names of the fashion world have always drawn inspiration from ethnic tradition. From ikat prints, Indie-boho skirts and Palestinian print scarves hitting mainstream fashion, the mix and match of the exotic has helped lend a personalized touch to an otherwise ordinary wardrobe.

 

Here are some ideas on how to mix and match East and West without looking overwhelmingly ethnic. The trick is to keep a balance and let one key piece shine through.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Office Toilet Chronicles

A typical workplace has more bums than toilet-seats (logical really, as the odds of us all going at the same time are pretty bleak). Having had the privilege of sitting at an office cabin diagonally opposite the toilet corridor, I have been building up on my trivia on shared office toilets. For example, I can tell you men are remarkably faster at their business than the fairer sex, and people are creatures of habit and tend to go around the same time each day and to the same cubicle. I also have more disturbing trivia on people who seem to have the most efficient bladders, and a mental list of ladies who are more likely to leave a stench after their job is done in the 'Ladies' loo.

Ramada Beach Resort - Ajman



Our room at Ramada Beach Resort - the bed was super comfy

One of the best parts of living in the UAE is all the great bargains you can get through online sites and credit card offers. We were looking for a short weekend getaway, and hubby managed to score an awesome deal on Cobone for Ramada Beach Resort, Ajman. For AED 320 we got a one-night stay in a deluxe room with sea-views, got access to the private beach, the indoor pool and saunas, and got served buffet dinner and breakfast. The rack-rate for the deluxe room is AED 800 per night... not a bad deal eh?!

Zereshk - Dried Iranian Barberries

I first saw these beauties at an Iranian buffet. The lovely ruby red hues added vibrancy to the rice dish I later learnt to be ‘Zereshk Polow’, an Iranian staple for a gourmet meal.

Zereshk are essentially dried barberries, and is used extensively in Iranian cooking. I was delighted to find them at my local Iranian grocer’s. I’ve always been a fan for tangy treats, and these berries are pretty high on the tartness scale. They are usually used in cooking, and even found in traditional medicine, but I like to munch on them as is. 

Onesies for One & All!

Just when I thought I’d seen it all, out pops a new vocab into the fashion scene – the onesies!

These all-in-one romper suits are nothing new. Every new mum has invested in over a dozen… for her baby. Enter the new-age romper, the ‘onesies’ for adults!

Just like the baby counterparts, they come in soft, cuddly fleece and friendly nursery animal prints (loving the rubber-ducky print!).

 

Dessert Madness at Strawberry Fare

I have a crazy sweet tooth and love my desserts. So a weekend dinner catch up with some fellow sugar fiends is easily swapped for a dessert do.

Located in Mount Victoria Wellington, Strawberry Fare is a renowned dessert restaurant in the Capital. I hear they make all the ingredients on site, including the mascarpone cheese they use.

The desserts menu is priced between $NZ 16-$NZ 20 and includes tiramisu, sorbets, lemon meringue, baked cheesecakes, chocolate creation platters, pavlova, crème brulee, English toffee pudding etc. Like my previous visits I was as delighted with the desserts as before. The rushed manner of the service staff though leaves more to be desired.

The portions are meal sized and easily shared (if you choose to!). Here are some clicks from visits:

The Entrance Foyer

 

 

Banaffi Pie

 



Tiramisu

 

Devil's Dream Cake

 

Chocolate & English Toffee Pudding

-Lil Sis J

PS: Sorry Big Sis for the dessert-talk while you’re on the GM Diet!

My Attempt at the GM Diet

I've known about this diet for ages, but have never been able to follow it through. Call it a lack of motivation or will-power, but my husband swears by this 1-week diet and has lost upto 4 kilos in the short 1 week timeframe.
 
Dubai Municipality put up a challenge last month - win your weight in gold! You can read more about it here but in a nutshell, we have the chance to win 2 grams of gold for each kilo lost, great motiviation for a wannabe dieter like me! So hubby and I signed up on 29th July, and the final weigh-in is this Friday 30th August.
 
We started the GM diet last Monday 19th August. The GM Diet, or General Motors Diet, is believed to have originated from General Motors in a bid to keep staff healthy but the company denies such claims and it is fast proving to be an urban myth. However, its been around for ages and people who have stuck to it swear by it.
 
Given it's only a week-long ordeal, it shouldn't be too hard to stick to, and all that vege and fruit is great for detox too. For details on the schedule read this.
 
However, my hubby made me follow a more ridgid version of the GM diet:
- We didn't make any of the Wonder Soup, and on most days I drank up to 3 litres of water (kept me full, and all that exercise walking to the loo must count too!).
- We did cardio exercises every day (hubby went for jogs, and I did the one-hour cardio workouts from Shaun T 
- We also had 3 to 4 cups of green tea every day (no sugar added).
 
Day 1: Fruits
The diet tells you to stuff yourself with fruits of every variety (except bananas), but we stuck to watermelons alone. Lost 1 kilo by the end of the day!
 

 
 
Day 2: Vege Day
As per the diet, we started the day with one baked potato each, but didn't have any but didn't have the pat of butter. Instead, we seasoned ours with salt and a good dose of Tabasco. For snacks, I bought myself a bag of baby carrots and grazed on it throughout the day. For lunch, we had steamed vegetables (mainly cabbage and a mix of carrot, onions and tomatoes). Reprated the lunch menu for dinner. Tabasco really helped in making the veges more interesting.
 
 
*My hubby took the batteries out of the weighing scale today. He said I should stop obsessing on weighing myself everyday as this could be demotivating!
 
Day 3: Fruits & Veges Day
Watermelon for breakfast, baby carrots and a bowl of fresh blueberries for my midday snack, and the same steamed vege combo of yesterday for lunch and dinner.
 
Day 4: Bananas & Milk Day
I found this day pretty tough as I didn't feel as full. I read other people found it hard to eat all 8 bananas, but I managed just fine - maybe its because I didn't have any of that Wonder Soup. I had a banana smoothie for breakfast (a cup of milk with a banana whizzed in the blender), and a banana for my midday snack. Lunch was the smoothie again along with two whole bananas. Dinner was a repeat of lunch. By the end of this day, I felt quite bloated.
 
Day 5: Beef & Tomatoes Day
We limited our beef intake to 500 grams each for the whole day. I made a spicy beef and tomato curry in the pressure-cooker (no oil - I chopped 6 tomatoes and let them sweat. When the water was half dry, I added the beef with spices and let it cook). I also made a salsa salad using 6 tomatoes (we are allowed 6 tomatoes each for the whole day - so the curry had tomatoes, and we got the rest from the salsa). The salsa consisted of chopped tomatoes, onion, chillies and cilantro. We had this combination for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
 
Day 6: Unlimited Beef & Veges Day
Hubby made a delicious Chinese stir-fry with beef strips and lots of veges. He only used a spray of oil on the wok. We had this for all three meals.
 
Day 7: Unlimited Brown Rice, Fruit Juice & Vegetables
We decided to skip the rice and juice, but shared an apple for breakfast. For lunch and dinner, I made a soup (boiled together chopped cabbage, tomatoes, capsicum, onion). I have to confess I cheated this day. I was packing my daughter's lunch-box and ended up having a whole piece of chicken roast! Sshhh... don't tell my hubby!
 
Woke up this morning, and hubby had replaced the batteries in the weighing machine. Moment of truth...
 

 
 
Would he find out I indulged in that chicken? Would I see any significant weight loss?
 
I LOST 3 KILOS!
Hubby lost 3.5 kilos.
Pretty psyched! And no, I won't be celebrating with that cheese-cake! Gold, here we come!
 
Here is why I think I was finally successful at sticking to this diet:
- Doing it together: Knowing my hubby is in this as well kept me on track, and it also meant sharing meals and not having to watch my partner indulge in something decadent while I munched on baby carrots!
- Not weighing myself every day. Weight loss is slow and painful, and some days it might even spike up. Best to check at the end of the week.
- Having mainly watermelons for fruit. The high water content kept us fuller, and its a low-calorie fruit.
- Tabasco! Spicing things up kept the otherwise bland menu appetising. Also, spicy foods give the metabolism a serious kick-start.
- One-hour cardio daily = more calories burnt!
- Green tea kept me alert and all that antioxidising must be good too.
 
Remember everyone looses weight at a different pace. It all depends on your body and your lifestyle. One week is only 7 days of your time for a slimmer, happier you. Give it a go!
 

- Big Sis.