Sunday, November 19, 2017

New diet from tomorrow

So... I recently found out after my annual physical that I have pre-diabetes  with a Hba1c level of 6.4. (6.5 and above is diabetes). My mom is diabetic and I do not want to follow her footsteps and go down that route.

I feel like I am on a permanent diet for the last 10 years. Low carb , low fat diet, gm doet, hitt intermittent fasting, holding myself accountable... nothing seems to work long term.

So, I have made this commitment to myself. I have let myself go and I have to make myself my priority. I need to be fit by taking care of myself and feel good about me.

My employer offers a health benefit with a company called Virta which promises to help reverse pre-diabetes and I have qualified to join. They offer a nutritional ketosis diet program which is low carb and high fat as well as personalized coaching. I think the coaching will be key in helping me achieve my goals. I may be carb intolerant and insulin resistant as well.

I am going to try to blog as much as possible to capture my progress and hold myself accountable even if it's just a photo and couple of sentences.

I start the diet tomorrow and am prepared by watching educational videos, planninv my meals ans am stocked up with groceries. I weigh 153 Lbs and am 5'4" tall. I am 39 years old and my goal is to reduce pre- diabetes as well as lose 30 Lbs hy my 40th birthday on June 30, 2017. I also promise to take care and maintain a changed lifestyle which does not slip into bad habits and gain that weight back again.

I have been eating like crazy these part couple of weeks trying to get all my favorite foods and cravings in as well. Measured my blood glucose and ketones yesterday and today. Glucose was 179 wnd 181 in fasting begore breakfast. My ketones wete 0.1. Not surprised my glucose is so high but hope it goes down next week.

Ready to start bright and early tomorrow! Need to weigh myself first thing in the morning, then test my blood for glucose and ketones. Then follow my keto diet for the entire day. 

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Minions Birthday Party


A new year, a new birthday party. I still can't believe that my little baby girl is now 9 years old. Sniff!! By the time I turn around she is going to be a teenager and I am so not ready for that yet!


We are all fans of the little Minions who appear in Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2. Who wouldn't be BANANAS about them? We are eagerly awaiting the release of the Minions movie on July 10, 2015. So, this year my little cutie pie wanted a Minion party.

I went to the stores and this time around I actually found party stuff related to our theme. Yay!! A lot of my work was already done.




This is actually one of my favorite photos from the party. It was so simple and looks so cute.



This was the centerpiece with Kevin, Bob and Stuart plush dolls (Walmart) and a minion lunch box(Five Below).





I was actually planning to draw minion faces on the balloons but these balloons were available at Party City and I just pounced on them. Less work for me!!


The birthday banner also from Party City. 



This was the craft center setup and all the kids got to do a minion craft.



Bubble wands for an outdoor activity blowing bubble for the kids.


Party favors for the kids. I was able to get a lot of minion items - a minion bouncy ball, minion candy dispenser, minion bracelets, minion stickers and all from Party City - my 1 stop party shop :-)

These favor bags were from Michaels and I printed some minion eyes and pasted them on both sides.





I got this cake ordered from a local bakery and it looked really cute.

All in all a fun birthday party and look forward to planning the next one.



Monday, June 9, 2014

Harry Potter Birthday Party


My daughter Nivedha is a major Harry Potter fan! YAY!!! I love the Harry Potter books and have read them countless times. I was so happy that my daughter is following in my footsteps. She has already read them 10 times and informed me with a written list of requirements that she wanted a Harry Potter theme for her 8th birthday party.

The toughest part of the party was narrowing down my choices when I googled for the Harry Potter theme.

These are the invitations I designed in MS Word. The invitation was inspired by the blog here.
http://onecreativemommy.com/harry-potter-party-invitations/





Following this, we brainstormed and focused on what was easy and could be done in a couple of weeks time without breaking the bank.

I ordered Harry Potter glasses from Amazon. 

I painted Easter eggs gold with Gold Spray Paint and filled them with stickers. These were "Dragon eggs" and I was inspired by the blog here. http://harrypotterparaphernalia.blogspot.com/2012/02/floo-powder-remembralls-and-golden-egg.html




For the favor bags, I really loved these fashioned like broomsticks. They came out really well. Credit to this site: http://www.ivillage.com/quidditch-broomstick-favors/6-b-139571



 I wanted to buy some plush owls but they were just too pricey so I settled for S drawing owls on white balloons. Srini did a wonderful job with these. I also found some cute owls at the Dollar Tree for a dollar each.





The wands were so easy and fun to make. We had a great time making around 20 of them for the kids. Thanks to this blog: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/271553052502033583/




Flourish and Bott's Bookshop and Forbidden Forest signs






Sorting Hat - Ordered from Amazon



House Banners 

Happy Birthday Banner

Chocolate Frogs - Inspired by this blog: 
http://potterpartymania.blogspot.com/2009/10/how-to-make-chocolate-frogs.html








Golden Snitches - These were Ferro Rocher chocolates with wings cut out from golden paper.



Wizard Hat Cupcakes - Credits: http://www.savvyhousekeeping.com/harry-potter-cupcakes/




Florean Fortescue's Fruit


Jelly Slugs and Gummy Worms




The kids had a wonderful time. Initially, for all the kids we welcomed them to Hogwarts and took them to Diagon Alley where they got their wand.

They were then sorted into different houses. I had ordered Hogwarts school seal rings from Amazon which were pretty neat. http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Potter-School-Seals-Rings/dp/B002HJHEF6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1402340797&sr=8-1

Then we had the Fabulous Feast followed by Transfiguration Class where they transformed themselves into different animals and the others had to guess what animal they were. Love the look of sheer glee on Nivedha's face here.


Next, they had Potions class where they did different experiments. The first one was the Practice Potion for the beginner. Kudos to One Creative Mommy Blog. http://onecreativemommy.com/harry-potter-party-games/

Then they watched magical creatures grow in water and finally all the Magical creatures were missing and they had a Magical Creatures Hunt. 

After that, the kids played Basilisk Eye - Freeze Tag and we had some Harry Potter trivia time. The kids were all pretty tired after this and settled down to watch a Harry Potter movie.

My daughter was so happy with this party and I was so happy to make this such a special event for her.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Airplane/Pilot First Birthday


My son Vikaas's first birthday was a pilot and airplane themed one.