Tag: contemplation

The first week of a new diet

Akshat Rathi4 Comments

Tikka masala with flavoured rice, maple pecan plait (1x), rice pudding (1x) for Lunch. Mango juice (500 mL), rice pudding (1x), crisps (2x), cheese twist (1x) for evening snacks. And 12″ margherita pizza, one tub of cookie dough ice cream, maple pecan plait (1x) for dinner. By the time I went to sleep, I was a little sick. 😉 That was probably more than 4000 calories on Saturday, my cheat day!

I started a new diet regime on 31st July. Six days a week, I maintain a slow-carb diet and on the seventh day, I eat what I want how much ever I want. Apart from that cheat day, the first week hasn’t been easy. I never thought it will be that hard to keep my cravings at bay. But I succeeded and overall, it’s been a good exercise.

Stats first: I’ve lost ~1 kg (68.8 to 67.5). My total inches have gone down from 133.5 to 133.0. I suspect within experimental error that can be considered to be no change.

Chilli Con Carne

Through the week (Sun to Fri), I’ve had to cook a few times. I made the following things: Chilli Con Carne with this recipe (replace beef with hydrated soy mince), egg bhurji, boiled eggs (12), bean salad, chickpea salad (2x) and stir fry (2x, once with black bean sauce and once with sweet and sour sauce). Other things I ate but did not cook: veg fajita (without rice, 1x), hummus (3x, various flavours), carrots (300g), peppers (6), cous cous salad and corn tortilla (8).

Two things I was wrong about:

  1. This diet blends with my old diet but not quite. I can make my rajma masala, mix veg curry, daal, etc. but without roti or rice it’s not enough.
  2. Keeping control over my sweet tooth has been really hard. Saturday was a saviour.

Throughout the week I found that in the morning I did not feel that energetic but after breakfast I was back to normal. This is, of course, not that alarming because before last week, I had not had breakfast in the morning for almost two years. I suspect that because my body was taking less calories now than it needed, those morning calories were essential.

The first two days I felt I wasn’t eating enough. I was hungry but not because my stomach was empty (weirdly enough). Each night before sleeping, I took Ferris’ advice and had a teaspoonful peanut butter (which I relished dearly). Also, to stop that from happening I had to increase the number of times I ate to six: breakfast (8 or 9 am), lunch (12 pm), snack (4 pm), dinner (7 pm), 2nd dinner (10 pm), peanut butter (12 am).

Getting used to what I can eat and what I can’t was pretty straight-forward but knowing where to buy the things I can eat in the supermarket wasn’t. It meant I had to look in places where I had never looked before! Also, I had to go to the supermarket thrice this week instead of my usual once-a-week routine.

Chana Chaat

Some interesting notes:

  1. Eating spinach with sweet corn is awesome for breakfast.
  2. Raw pepper on its own or with hummus is great.
  3. Mix some chana (black chick peas) with chaat masala, chopped onion and some sweet corn to make an delicious snack.
  4. Green tea works wonders to keep hunger at bay.
  5. I don’t think I will survive on this diet if I don’t have that cheat day.

Bring on week 2!

That job after that degree

Akshat Rathi6 Comments

Not too many years ago I was a teenager who shared the dreams of many other teenagers of getting a well-paying job after I completed my degree. I hoped, as many do of that age, that such a job will help me settle down, make enough money, raise a good family -in short, enable me to live happily ever after. It is a dream worthy of desire, but one that may only rarely ever turn to reality.

What brings such notions to young minds I do not know, but it is one that I have seen year after year as the newbies begin their professional education. It may be because of stories perpetrated by parents and relatives or may even be real life examples of people who pretend to be in such positions. Or perhaps it is the financial situation that most youth find themselves in.

If I have learnt anything, then it is that working towards a happily-ever-after future may be as futile as a dog chasing it’s own tail (may be that’s an exaggeration but you get my point). Wanting a job that will allow one to lead a life of stability without much struggle might just be dream, especially in today’s economic climate.

Many students come to read the ICT awareness pages on this blog to find information that may help them decide whether ICT is the right place for them. In the comments or by email, I get asked a question over and over again that pertains to the ‘placements’ offered to it’s graduates.

“I have admission for BChem at LIT, Nagpur and BTech Dyes in ICT, Mumbai. Will I get a better paying job if I choose ICT? What is the average salary offered to the graduating students?”

It is a vital question indeed, but should not be the only one on which the decision is made. It is not a bad thing to think about what one may achieve from studying at an institute, but it would certainly be unfair if money earned from a job after is considered the most important criteria.

As I mentioned before, I also, as a teenager, dreamt of an elusive job like the one you seek, but I am happy that I did not decide to come to ICT solely on that piece of information. Because within a year of my time in ICT, I had rid myself of that notion. From wanting to be a graduate with a fat pay-check, I decided to pursue higher studies at a student salary.

Many factors played a role in this change of direction. Today, I am glad that I took that step and can cite many reasons to discount the high-salary job as one of the decisive factors of one’s career.

It is important to remember that education of any kind will serve its purpose only when it opens doors for you that you did not know existed (by teaching you things that you did not know about before!). I certainly wasn’t thinking that I can become a scientist when I chose to do chemical engineering. Many things can happen when you spend time being educated with a group of smart people. That should probably figure as an important factor in deciding where you would like to get educated or where you would like to work when you finish.

Amongst all these news articles about IITians being paid huge salaries and IIM grads getting into the world’s top companies, one forgets about the day to day stuff. Behind all those big salaries and names there is a job which one needs to do everyday. A job that will involve going to the office, mixing up with colleagues, working on projects and delivering results. That daily stuff will be really hard, if you choose a job for the salary it offers and disregard your interest in the work. You may be able to survive the job if you are capable enough, but all that money will give you no satisfaction if the job is not of your liking.

Daniel Pink describes three things that give us great satisfaction and help us perform better: autonomy, mastery and purpose. You should go watch this talk to learn more and probably that will make it easy for you to see why people leave a very high paying Goldman Sachs’ position to work for a start-up.

It’s like the MasterCard line, ‘There are some things that money can’t buy, for everything else there is that high-paying job’.

I am changing my diet

Akshat Rathi3 Comments

I am reading Tim Ferris’ The 4-hour Body and it has prompted me to change my diet. I am 180 cm in height and weigh about 69 kg. It is not that I need to lose weight but I would very much like to lose fat and gain muscle. The book gives me good reasons to believe that with this diet and some exercise I will be able to achieve and maintain it.

My breakfast and lunch. That's right the same meal for both!

The diet is described in detail here. Obviously, I am keeping to my pescetarian choices while doing this. That means no meat. Here’s what I will be eating:

  1. No white carbohydrates i.e. Rice, Bread, Cereal, Potatoes, Pasta
  2. All my diets will consist of eggs, lentils, beans and vegetables.
  3. I am allowed to use whatever spices I like in cooking.
  4. Lots of water and only unsweetened drinks.
  5. Some supplements: vitamins, calcium, potassium and cod oil.
  6. Saturday will be my day off i.e. I can eat what I want and how much ever I want.

Ferris gives me plenty of good reasons to do this:

  1. I can’t count calories. It makes me sick inside to think every time about what I am eating how much calories that will contribute. This diet allows me to keep my calorie count low enough to not have to worry about calorie contents.
  2. Thinking about what to eat every day is boring. Going out to eat is time-consuming. I can get by with this diet with minimal cooking.
  3. It blends well with my old diet.
  4. I really like the ‘day-off’ option. That way I can train myself to keep my temptations for this one day and not have to think about them the rest of the week.
  5. The science in the book seems convincing and so do testimonies from some people I read online.
  6. I’ve wanted to start quantifying myself and this diet gives me the perfect chance to begin. I start this diet with a count of my total inches (mid-biceps + waist + hips + mid-thigh) = 133.5. I’ve also downloaded the mappiness app and hope to monitor my daily food intake and mood.
  7. The diet is healthy. It will allow me to keep my LDL cholesterol, blood sugar and iron content low. With lots of spinach (which is one of the recommendations of the diet), I will be able to induce muscle growth.

Most importantly, this is an experiment. If after 4 weeks there is anything unhealthy about it, I will stop. Let’s see what happens.