Basic Pasta & Veggie Salad

Salads can be healthy and they can be filling provided you go for low calorie(or sans) dressing. Most of the calorie content of a plateful of 'healthy' salad is present in the dressing. Making informed choices never hurt, so here's a cheat-sheet for the next time you decide to order a salad:

Add, remove or go light on any of the ingredients as per your requirement. But just remember, you're trying to be healthy, not starve yourself!
And for those of you opting to have homemade healthy salads, here's a recipe for Pasta & Veggie salad I made for dinner, and it was surprisingly tasty!

Pasta & Veggie Salad

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup pasta,any type will do (preferably wheat) of your liking (I used penne pasta)
• Diced vegetables : 1/2 a cup of tomato
                               1/2 a cup of bell peppers (red, yellow, green)
                               1/4 cup onions
• Sprig of coriander for garnishing
• 1 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 tsp. lemon juice
• salt and pepper
                              

Directions:

1. Boil water for pasta, add salt, add the pasta and cook till it's al dente.
2. Dry the pasta. A good tip to prevent the pasta from going mushy is to wash it with cold water while you're draining the hot water (using a colander).
3. Toss in the vegetables after washing them. You can sautee the veggies if you're opposed to eating raw veggies.
4. In a separate bowl, mix extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper and shake thoroughly until mixed. Pour into the pasta-veggie mix.
5. Give it a toss to mix them together. Serve immediately.

This salad can be had hot as well as cold. You can freeze it for upto 2 days, but it's recommended you have fresh salads. Like Duh! Or you can turn it into a non-veg meal by adding shreds of boiled or leftover chicken.

So there you go, I personally love the look and smell of fresh salad and this one's definitely a favourite of mine.

Till next time,
Tina :)

P.S. Don't forget to enjoy your meal :)

Love Your Body

Join the Love Your Body campaign HERE

make a healthy statement. :)

Inching Ever Closer To Attaining Body Peace

Our bodies are our best friends, and they come in all different shapes and sizes. And why do you think that is? Because we're all different and unique individuals. Moreover what fun would it be if everybody resembled everybody. Diversity segregates us and makes us interesting. So let's clink our glasses together to being interesting, cheers! (seriously just toast to being interesting, how many times have you been acknowledged as interesting? Though probably you really are interesting) This blabber is besides the point.

So as I was saying, Nature manufactured us in various shapes and sizes, ethnicity and with varied cultural backgrounds making us all the more cooler. But gosh darn it, we're humans! And who has ever heard of humans being satisfied with what they have? Joke of the millennium right?!
Especially when it comes to our bodies we are more comfortable pointing out each other's body insecurities and deriving some sort of satanic pleasure out of it. As if that wasn't enough, we barricade ourselves into our own personal hell and torture ourselves n' our bodies and I would love to say that we 'derive some sick satisfaction out of it' but I can't when I know fully well that it does nothing but to scar us for life and wreck havoc in our personal lives.
Even the most perfect bodied people have insecurities about their bodies, specially if you're a woman. There's no avoiding this issue.

But is all the worrying worth it? The simple answer, you and I both know to be true is NO, it's not.
My grandma used to say,"The first step towards feeling good about your body is to start by feeling good about yourself". And that's the mantra I live by.
Understanding that you look best in your own skin is the way to freedom. Having the 'perfect' body feels good. But what we don't realize is there is no such thing as a 'perfect body' no matter what anyone tells you. Stop letter grading your bodies, they're not tests. Your body braves every single day with elan and you should train your mind to do the same. Waging war against your bodily imperfections is not going to get you to a happy place, you'll be depressed and in constant mental agony going through life as a worrisome old soul. And that is not who you wanna be. So stop criticizing yourself and start loving the skin you're in. Because let me tell you, whoever you are, your body is beautiful and so are you.

Remind yourself that you are a product of your struggles, victories, kindness, achievements, joys and sorrows- that you strive everyday to be the best you can be and that is all that matters. Don't listen to nay-sayers, be positive and smile. Keep healthy and keep stress at bay as much as possible, have apositive attitude to life and meditate(it's a sage advice, yes it's old but it still works wonders).

 Mostly though, start by signing the body peace treaty.

While the media plays a huge role in portraying the human form as a glitzy, glamourous model; all airbrushed and perfect we should know better than to try and emulate what is clearly a business propaganda. We should be aware that there's a fine line between reel and real, what we see on the glossy pages of magazines is not exactly reality.

 While you don't need to be guilty if you want a toned body but it's certainly not alright to put yourself through torturous measures to achieve your goals. In real life even our favourite actress has cellulite, they age too, models like to splurge on mac n' cheese and dress sizes beyond 16 exist. As much as we would like to say it but a skinny figure isn't healthy. Anorexia and Bulimia are diseases not temporary conditions and definitely not cool. Starving yourself isn't cool. And i'll tell you what else isn't cool, criticizing someone else's appearance. 

Fashion is changing, so are the views on body shapes and sizes. So whether you are of average, medium, small, large build, petite, skinny, boyish and a number of fruity-shaped person, just rejoice and love yourself because all that matters is what's inside. :)

We owe it to ourselves to be at peace with our body and inspire others to do the same.

Take your cue from JLaw and be awesome!

Stay healthy, keep happy! :)

xoxo

Tina

Breakfast Ideas For Spring

It's Spring! :D
I know you all know that, but I just wanted to remind you guys to feast on colorful and fresh spring veggies and fruits, because why limit the splash of colors to your wardrobe when you can reap their benefits in your diet and moreover, yummy looking food! Now who doesn't like that!?! :D

So here's a breakfast and a smoothie idea fully adapted to your inner Spring-iness and apt for a lovely Spring morning.



I cannot stress enough on the importance of breakfast. It is the most important meal of the day because it provides the necessary jolt of energy to keep us from dozing in the morning and also gives us the energy necessary to sustain ourselves throughout the day and make the most of it. It also keeps us from being cranky, take it from me, a healthy breakfast does wonders to uplift your mood and keep it elevated through the day. yes, even on the dreaded Mondays.
Most of you can probably boast of eating a hearty breakfast in the morning, but are you eating the right kind of breakfast? If you're dealing with a hectic school/college/office schedule or you're in that stage of your life when your mom can no longer make you clean your breakfast plate off in the morning, then let me give you some simple pointers which really helped me get my blood sugar levels right with the suitable meal plans.

• Try to fix a time for your breakfast and just see to it that it doesn't edge towards being a brunch. The longer your stomach is empty, the brain would think you're in a starvation mode and it'll store up energy in fats (which BTW is the opposite of what you want)
• Have a meal 3 hours apart. It keeps you feeling full and results in less/no cravings (which have been regarded as meal ruiners since age immemorial). It doesn't have to be anything heavy, it could be a few chunks of fruit of your liking, half a granola bar, handful of trail mix and so on.
• Try not to snack on bagel with cream cheese and call it a complete breakfast. Also burger and fries DO NOT count as breakfast.
   
• There are these three simple words you need to remember while making breakfast:
  Protein - a protein element in the form of eggs(water poached or boiled), protein cereals with a sprinkling of flax seeds, greek yogurt etc.
  Sugar - Instead of piling up on the artificial sucrose products invest in fruits, the natural sugar in them helps to keep things sweet and way less harmful, it provides the kick of sweetness without bogging you down for the whole day. Also honey used in moderate quantity helps sweeten food without piling the guilt and weight.
  Dietary fibres - come in the form of steel cut oats and multigrain cereals, fibre rich fruits like apples, brown bread, multigrain bread etc. With options galore all you need to do is check the nutritional information when you buy your food.
• Also a good thumb rule is to check for ingredients on the back of packets and cartons which are known to your grandma, believe it or not they used to have more wholesome food than we do. try and keep away from processed food, which is easier said than done when you live in an era of processed food, so we'll try to keep its usage to a minimum. Yet again don't buy a product if you simply cannot utter the name of the listed ingredient, while it pays to have a chemistry graduate as your best friend but don't sweat it if you don't have one. Just make it a point to stay away from all the chemicals than you cannot pronounce in one go. 

 
Now enough with all the advice, let's get to a breakfast recipe. All you need is some patience and some last night prep.

Healthy Spring Breakfast Wrap

This recipe is taken from Omnivore’s Cookbook
http://omnivorescookbook.com/recipes/healthy-colorful-breakfast-wrap/

Preparation and Cooking time: 20 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 4 tortillas
• 1/2 cup shredded fat-free mozzarella
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 2 small tomatoes, diced
• 1 avocado, sliced
• 8 boiled shrimps, peeled or one chicken breast grilled and cut into strips
• 1/4 lime wedge
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Slightly toast tortillas in a non-sticky skillet or oven, place each one on separate plate. Add mozzarella on each of tortilla.
2. Beat eggs in a small bowl. Heat olive oil in the same skillet, stir fry eggs, then divide the eggs and place on each tortilla, let the heat of egg melt the cheese. Then top with tomato, avocado and shrimp. Drizzle with lime juice, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.
3. This also serves as a vegetarian wrap if you forego the meat and eggs and replace them with grilled eggplant.
   
   With a side of organic juice, you're good to go with this recipe!

  For those who have very little time in the morning, fret not, for a breakfast smoothie is your best friend!

Breakfast Smoothies

Banana Oatmeal Smoothie

• 1/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

• 1/2 cup plain low-fat yogurt

• 1 banana, cut into thirds (chill in the fridge overnight)

• 1/2 cup fat-free milk

• 2 teaspoons honey

• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

In a blender, combine oats, yogurt, banana, fat-free milk, honey, and cinnamon; puree until smooth. Serve immediately.

Spiced Apple and Oatmeal Smoothie 

  1/4 cup rolled oats
  1/4 cup water

  1/2 cup milk
  1/3 cup plain Greek yogurt
  1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, plus more for dusting
  Pinch of turmeric
  1 apple, cored and roughly chopped
  1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
  1 teaspoon pure maple syrup or honey
  A small squeeze of fresh lemon juice
  1 fresh date, pitted and chopped (optional)
  Ice cubes

Combine oats and water in a microwave-safe bowl. Cook for 2 minutes. Set aside.
To a blender add milk, yogurt, cinnamon, turmeric, apple, vanilla, maple syrup, lemon juice, date (if using), ice cubes (the more you use the thicker it'll be) and cooked oats. Blend until smooth.
Pour into a glass. Finish with a light dusting of cinnamon on top

And what's even more fun is you can carry them around and sip on these smoothies anytime. But consumption within the hour makes sure you get the freshest serving.

Hope your tummy has a good morning!
Take care n keep smiling,
Tina :-)

Jumping On The Healthy Living Bandwagon. Finally.

So since I'm already on a roll, I decided to write another entry on why one should try leading a healthy life, why I'm procrastinating on leading a healthy life, and what you can do to ease into the healthy lifestyle.

Starting off with Why Should You Try (at least a little) To Live Healthy?
What exactly is living healthy?
 That definition changes from person to person, because God made us into 'individuals' and then went ahead and poured in 'perspectives' into our minds. Now if you're a non-believer in higher power and God and destiny and such, and are strictly a science-driven person, then brace yourselves, because Science tells you, you're gonna die if you're not making attempts at living healthy. We all know we're all gonna die eventually but even I know premature 'death from eating too much junk food' ain't gonna look good on the gravestone. That coming from a butter-lover, you had better believe it even if you're common sense got fried at birth.

So coming back to the more pressing question, what is being healthy? Simply put, it's a sense of well being. In a Utopic world that would mean everybody has an hourglass figure or buffed body with no disease specific or mutating genes whatsoever and they can gobble up as many curly fries and cola as they want and still fit into that cute tiny black toga. In the real world however, you have to do more than just watch your fattening food intake and exercise. Sounds like a lotta work, huh? Not really. Stick with me a lil' longer here...

So how does one attain a healthy body? Through exercise and eating judiciously, silly. Even a kid could tell you that. So why are you here, why are you reading this?

Let me answer this one, because you wanna find solace in another established eat-healthy-live-healthy failure of a person and mollycoddle yourself to sleep with fake promises of trying to start being 'healthy' from 'tomorrow'. Caught ya!

That brings me to the next part of my pseudo-article cum self rant.
PROCRASTINATION.
You know you're doing it, everybody tells you not to do it, but you feel so good doing it you don't wanna stop.
Well here's the scary truth. Procrastination's doing you, and not in a vanilla-kinda of way, but literally screwing you out of all the opportunities in life including a chance to be healthy.
I have been a procrastinator for the better part of my life, I still indulge in it when I think no one's looking. So it's safe to say I know the concept better than anybody else. But lately it's not as nice as it was back when I was 4 years old, lately it's been coming back to bite my rear and ignoring the chances of this sounding super weird and corny, I like my rear and I would like to save it at all costs.

I don't believe in the thigh-gap or diet fads cropping up on the internet like lemonade stands on the sidewalk in summer, nor a frame most plastic toys (aimed at little girls) would make you believe you want. I don't encourage incessant working out and not having fun, nor do I promote doing nothing to get rid of that beer belly and keep having fun. (It's college, just you wait, all that alcohol is going to catch up with you one day or the other.) I like to tread the middle ground, moderately hassle free and low maintenance. Health to me is having my daily dose of recommended calories and feeling full on salads and meat(truce veggie people) and still being able to rock a pair of shorts, but to realize that dream I still have an awful lotta distance to travel in this journey of mine. So here's an offer - I'm not exactly offering to backpack through Europe here, so I understand if you guys don't wanna jump into the wagon but here's the truth that nobody tells you, if you're not as blessed as Gweneth Paltrow's AMEX card, you will topple off your healthy routine and you'll climb back again sure, but that's not gonna be of much help to you in the long run. So let's just support and comfort each other ladies (and men if you're reading this) and take the plunge into living fitter and healthier a little at a time, everyday, motivating n encouraging each other and realizing that it's okay to indulge in that bag of chips as long as you don't dive headlong into the world of junk food.  

   So let's just take an oath - I am going to live healthy without starving myself and exercise everyday, because while it won't guarantee that I'll live extra longer but it'll certainly mean that I'll be feeling good about myself and love myself for it. 

Stay tuned for a filling breakfast recipe, and remember, carbs are not entirely your enemies, you just have to distinguish the good from the bad & the ugly!
Take care and keep smiling,
Tina :) 

Girl Meets World

I've been told that the first entry in a blog demands something interesting. Hmmn...what could I possibly say and make this interesting? How about an introduction?

 I'm a senior college undergrad and not to mention of legal age! I stress on the 'legal age' factor because,
1. I've very recently turned 21 and I'm stoked.

2. Many of the things I've been doing, I can now do so legally! :D

3. It's fun sayin' it.

Also I'm super lazy. Like seriously. I am just too lazy. Or my bed has the hots for me! 'cuz it never lets me go! Geddit? geddit? ok that joke sucked.

I am totally an artist too. Because all they do is eat, sleep and be cranky and call it 'surge of creativity'. I do that so well, quite frankly its shocking my artistic career didn't take off yet.

I'm into fashion, food and sleeping, if you couldn't tell. I like my coffee with frothy milk. I believe in YOLO, but saying that is just very old and pathetic so I'm gonna be like, "Yo, you only live once, bitches!" Now now, much better. I like soccer(I mean let's face it, cute sweaty guys running around in tights and swearing, who doesn't dig that?! Am I right or am I right!) That last bit just sounded pretentious. I am fond of all things sweet and that would explain the ever reluctant clothes-fitting events I attend. I have a soft spot for red velvet cupcakes, carrots and trust retail therapy to be the best therapy ever (If you're gonna be spending all that money on therapy at least make sure you look cute, combine those 2 sentiments and what do u have? Retail Therapy, voila! On that notelemme tell you, I love cronuts. I think they're not a fad and are here to stay.) I like cooking, reading and criticizing works of art, people, my beanie.

Let's just keep it to that, it's getting weird now.
     I despise agony aunts and yet love to wiggle into those shoes sometimes, and I'm gonna toot my own horn a lil' bit here, but I give the best advices ever! 

I'm also moody and cranky and very honest when I'm moody and cranky, so expect some of that too.

Lastly, I'm here to get to know you guys, take a plunge into the world of healthy living and hopefully stay on the right track and I would love it if you guys would join me in my journey.

-Tina ;)