Healthy for better

Happy Friday

noreply@blogger.com (healthyforbetter) — Fri, 17 May 2013 18:25:00 +0000

Some days hanging in there is your only option. You cannot quit, you cannot restart and you cannot do anything about the situation. As random as these words sound, my past few experiences have been totally and crazily out of my control. As I wind up this week, I show some kindness towards myself. Don't you think, we are way too hard on our self by putting up high expectations and unnecessary pressure? I definitely think so.

The road you are treading might be hard and you might already be doing the best. Show some kindness to yourself and appreciate yourself for very bit of work you put in. Happy weekend!

My little home garden

noreply@blogger.com (healthyforbetter) — Thu, 16 May 2013 16:35:00 +0000

Continuing the spring fever, lets talk about the little green friends at my residence. These have survived thorugh the winter and learned to thrive. They adore the window sill and add pretty green decor to my rather boring living space. You can notice my not so good care for these little ones. But they are dear to me.

The succulents galore. These survived through the winter and through my ignorance towards them at times. They are greener and fresher every coming day and I water them rarely!

Here is my terrarium. The plants are growing well and the whole pot looks more fresh. One of the best things to have happened recently! It is sitting on the table right by the window and looks really adorable. That little striped aloe-looking plant is my favorite! It adds such a nice drama to the entire space.

Happy Friday

noreply@blogger.com (healthyforbetter) — Fri, 10 May 2013 20:36:00 +0000

I recently completed reading Wild by Cheryl Strayed. A wonderfully written book which for some reason spoke very well to me. Reading through the different experiences Cheryl encounters, reminded me of my short yet exciting stay in California. I lived in the Bay Area for close to 10 months. My experiences were strange yet exciting in a way looking back. I did learn a lot and did have some wild experiences on my own. This snap is an ode to my days which I spent in California.

Go have a wild weekend, Happy Friday!!

Happy Friday

noreply@blogger.com (healthyforbetter) — Fri, 03 May 2013 14:53:00 +0000

Life presents so many choices everyday ranging from what coffee to order at your favorite cafe to more life-changing choices. Many a days I spend time reflecting over my choices and decisions. Today, I sit back to tell myself, the choices I have made have defined me and have shaped me into what I am today. I am more grateful for everything I have experienced This humbles me down to be more thankful to have had choices to make rather than having none.

This weekend I would rather take it easy and let go my regrets for my past choices and worry less about my future decisions. Would you? Happy weekend!

Colors of Spring

noreply@blogger.com (healthyforbetter) — Wed, 01 May 2013 21:26:00 +0000

As I have written before, I love spring time in Northern Virginia. Everything is in bloom and there are so many colors around. I picked up my camera and took off on a photo-walk clicking all the pretty flowers around where I live. Given the wind and the fading day light, it wasnt the best of the time to get the best shots but they are here anyways. Worth making a post.

Happy Friday

noreply@blogger.com (healthyforbetter) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 17:07:00 +0000

Today is such a random day. I always try to be prepared to post the Friday blogpost. But today seems like I am the least prepared and infact I almost forgot about it. Given my erratic traveling and crazy lifestyle I think its OK to do a post from my cell phone. Yes! I am posting from my Samsung galaxy phone. Such days hopefully don't repeat more often. I couldn't edit the photo or add any quote!! So doing the best with what I can from where I am. I am actually at a team lunch with my colleagues. Crazy it is.
Have a good weekend everyone. I am surely having fun visiting friends this weekend.

Happy Friday

noreply@blogger.com (healthyforbetter) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 19:03:00 +0000

Since the weather got warmer I m trying my best to get out and take a walk around the place I live. Everything is fresh and green. While I marveled at the beauty of nature and how it springs up new life after the dreadful winters every year, this thought passed my mind. We are getting older each day. Each one of us is so busy planning for future. While we should plan, sometimes we do get too carried away in this rush to make sure our tomorrows are perfect. None of it is really in our control and what we have today is definitely a good time. I reminded myself to slow down, relax and take this time as it is. I do need to smile and appreciate life for what it is.

So for this weekend, maybe take a walk around where you live. Admire the nature, winter or spring or hot summer, just appreciate the beauty of the season and smile! Happy weekend everyone!

I made my first terrarium

noreply@blogger.com (healthyforbetter) — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 21:11:00 +0000

Terrarium : a usually transparent enclosure for keeping or raising plants or usually small animals (as turtles) indoors.
Read more about terrariums here

I have been dreaming of owning a Terrarium for sometime now. I had seen one long back in one of the Whole Foods market and immediately fell in love with it. I love growing plants and this idea of having a pretty looking glass bowl with green plants seems very exciting. As I continued to research I realized a decent sized terrarium would cost quite a lot. I did not even know where to source these terrariums from.

In this process, the more I read, more I realized building a terrarium is not as complex as it looks, breaking down the layers and understanding the layout made it easy. As always, there are enough videos and tutorials online to help. I made up my mind and decided to build one for myself. It took me 1 trip each to Walmart and Home Depot to gather the materials. The total cost is also not very high. I will give a break down of cost at the bottom.

Terrariums are built with plants that thrive in humid and tropical climates like Ferns and moss. I picked up succulents for my terrarium. These are low maintenance and definitely need less attention. Given my highly volatile schedule and the frequency of travelling, I did not want to bring in plants which would wither the second I skip watering. Definitely having a closed glass jar and growing succulents seemed weird to me as the high humidity and moisture inside the jar would slowly rot the plants. I picked a jar that has wide open mouth. I would have been able to save $4 if I could pick some gravel out of someone's drive way but instead I bought these Soil Cover pebbles from Home Depot. The soil is the usual potting mix which I use for other plants in the house. With a bunch of succulents and everything else laid out I started my project.

This is the order of the layers I laid out. The bottom most went the gravel. I added about 2inch of gravel here. On this I added 2inch of the potting soil. I picked 4 different varieties of succulents and planted them. These had some soil attached to their roots. So I added more soil to fill in the gaps. The entire thing was neatly done to avoid having the soil mess up the glass jar. Finally I added the bigger rocks to cover the exposed soil and topped it off with the left over gravel. I neatly cleaned up the glass jar and watered it a little.

Here is the break up of all the things I bought with the store and the price. Overall cost is around $30 which is still decent given these terrariums sell for way more prices. And mine is definitely a big sized jar.

Glass Jar - Walmart - $9.99
Succulents - Walmart - A combination of plants costing $2 to $4 each
Potting Soil - Home Depot - I had some left over, but this doesn't cost much
Gravel - Home Depot - This one could have been avoided. $4
Big pebbles - Walmart - 2 small bags costing $1.99 each

This pretty terrarium is now sitting on my study desk, next to the window adding life and color to my room.

Cherry Blossoms

noreply@blogger.com (healthyforbetter) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 15:16:00 +0000

Washington DC is a beautiful city and I really love this place for its monuments and the area around it. The best time to visit DC would be spring when the Japanese Cherry trees bloom and give the entire national mall area a real face lift. The first time I visited DC was coincidentally during spring and I caught some Cherry blossom festivities around in the city. I was amazed at the crowds and the craziness. Still I couldn't help but admire the beauty of the city.

This year, I did make a visit to watch the bloom but unfortunately I went without my camera. As much as I was heartbroken to visit the city without my camera, I still made sure I get a bunch of photos clicked by my dear friend. She is amazing with her skills and I am glad she lets me pick her photos to be featured on my blog ( like I did during one of my Happy Friday series) . Big thanks to her! I had to get a post up dedicated to my favorite time of the year. Here are the pictures, and all the credits to my friend, Mythri.

The blue skies and pink flowers make a beautiful subject

There are lines of bushes with yellow flowers which added more color

The delicate flowers are pink when they bloom and slowly fade into white

Thick canopy of the flowers, seems dreamy to walk beneath these

More of the thick canopy!

People having a nice time enjoying the spring weather

Washington Monument framed by the blossoms. The monument is under construction due to the earthquake of 2011..

A nice shot of the monument with the cherry blossom branch which is all set to bloom

Tidal Basin is lined with these trees.

Boat tours of the tidal basin to view the trees in bloom.

Its just beautiful to walk around and spend a evening around these blossoms.

Golden rays of the sun making the evening even more special

The golden touch enlightens these flowers

Sunset with the cherry trees in foreground. Just magical!

Happy Friday

noreply@blogger.com (healthyforbetter) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 15:25:00 +0000

One of my favorite things to do is make a strong and big cup of chai and sip it sitting on a cozy couch. However busy a day, I like to slow down for the cup of tea. I love my tea Indian style with some ginger for the extra zing. Sometimes just a nice flavorful bag of chamomile or mint tea can do the magic for me. These moments are even special when I have a friend along to share the tea with me. Lots of sharing and caring! Its these little things that make our life more beautiful.

So this weekend grab your friend, your partner or your loved one, make some tea and sit down. Slow down, share some laughter and let your worries melt away. Have a nice weekend!

Happy Friday

noreply@blogger.com (healthyforbetter) — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 15:05:00 +0000

We bind our self with fears and create a cozy, safe world in our own realms. But sometimes these fears are just what stops us from getting to what we really deserve : fear of losing, fear of moving on, fear of change and fear of letting go. Swallow the fears and take a step to overcome it. Probably we can discover something interesting, something better, something exciting beyond these fears. Maybe do one thing that you fear this weekend!

Happy Friday and Happy Weekend!!

Flower fever

noreply@blogger.com (healthyforbetter) — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 19:26:00 +0000

I absolutely love shooting flowers. Its probably my favorite subjects to shoot and play around with. I buy myself bunch of flowers just to shoot them and I usually end up with 100s of shots. Most of them end up being stored in my repository and few make their way to my Happy Friday series. Rest lay forgotten.

I am posting few of these pictures. I like how I can get close and observe the finer details in every flower.

This tulip had finer hint of pink and looked absolutely pretty. The focus is so close that the light veins are seen.

I picked three roses and lay them randomly on the white board and I continued playing with the composition,. I love how the yellow tones stand out and the petals are so crisp.The red flower at the back only enhances the yellow color.

This Chrysanthemum is probably my favorite color for the mums. The lavender is very sweet and though I am not very happy with the composition of this picture, I still like the focus on the yellow center.

This back -lit sunflower was shot with a Canon Powershot yet love how it turned out. There is a very nice dreamy tone to the picture and the tiny water drop adds to the dreaminess.

These lilies have such nice fragrance , they will freshen up the room. This is probably the easiest of shot, and I am amazed at the details captured.

Happy Friday

noreply@blogger.com (healthyforbetter) — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 19:23:00 +0000

Continuing with my tulip fever! I really adore this shot as the pink color stands bright among the green. Have a great weekend everyone.

We had visitors this morning

noreply@blogger.com (healthyforbetter) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 19:00:00 +0000

Late March, officially we are past the Spring equinox. But as weird as it is, I woke up to a 3inch blanket of snow outside. I crib a lot about cold weather and I miss summer all the time, but I become a little girl who starts to dance around as she sees the snow flakes falling down from the skies. Everything looked so Christmas-y. The trees had tiny red flowers on them and they were topped with fluffy snow! I hurried around getting ready to leave for work and I felt I need to step out into our balcony and take pictures of the snow covered ground. The little hope was, this might be the last snow for this season and I can bid goodbye to winter.

I walked to the door of our balcony and saw these little visitors. These birds are usually on the trees hopping around and I have spent quite few afternoons sipping tea and watching them. But today they were visiting us. Slowly, with as much less sound, I pulled out my camera and started clicking.

It seemed to me as if these birdies were pondering about the weather just like I was. They must have been missing the spring weather too. They looked cozy and warm wrapped up in their own bundle of feathers. I am glad I stopped by for few moments and was able to capture these photos. This made my day. I felt over joyed at this sight and put a little thank you note for nature. Nature amazes me everytime , I just need to slow down and watch the show.

Happy Friday

noreply@blogger.com (healthyforbetter) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 15:13:00 +0000

The first day of Spring is past us already and it still doesn't feel spring yet in Northern Virginia. The wind is chilly and there is frost on the grass. I visited Washington DC and its suburbs this time around 2 years back and I fell in love with the greenery and the cherry blossoms. I cannot wait until it gets little warmer and the trees get greener. Leaving you with the spring freshness with this bunch of tulips! Have a warm and toasty weekend!

Happy Friday

noreply@blogger.com (healthyforbetter) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 17:48:00 +0000

Welcome to the Happy Friday series! Every Friday, I feature a photograph with a random quote which strikes a cord with me and my current state of mind. These photographs are taken and edited by me. I am making an exception this week by featuring a photograph shot by my dear friend. She is amazing with her talent and I couldn't help myself from picking up this photograph to feature for today. Hope this inspires everyone. Have a happy end to the week and spend time with your loved ones or doing something you love through the weekend. Happy Friday!!

A walk on the beach

noreply@blogger.com (healthyforbetter) — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 16:38:00 +0000

Recently I was on a trip to Miami, Florida for a short vacation with my girl friends. Sitting on the beach playing with the camera we spotted this beauty. I am amazed how these photos turned out. This little birdie was having a nice walk on the beach and got clicked. Surprisingly, between me and my friend, we are not sure who clicked these. So without any specific photo credits, I am posting these pictures. Its totally perfect. The white sands, blue waters and blue skies. Life cannot get better.

Happy Friday

noreply@blogger.com (healthyforbetter) — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 16:43:00 +0000

I will be posting one new photograph every Friday. I am calling this Happy Friday series. This is a motivation for me to keep my photography momentum on. Hope you like it.

Happy Friday

noreply@blogger.com (healthyforbetter) — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 17:35:00 +0000

I will be posting one new photograph every Friday. I am calling this Happy Friday series. This is a motivation for me to keep my photography momentum on. Hope you like it.

Happy Friday

noreply@blogger.com (healthyforbetter) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 18:12:00 +0000

I will be posting one new photograph every Friday. I am calling this Happy Friday series. This is a motivation for me to keep my photography momentum on. Hope you like it.

Happy Friday

noreply@blogger.com (healthyforbetter) — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 18:57:00 +0000

I will be posting one new photograph every Friday. I am calling this Happy Friday series. This is a motivation for me to keep my photography momentum on. Hope you like it.

Happy Friday

noreply@blogger.com (healthyforbetter) — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 19:06:00 +0000

I will be posting one new photograph every Friday. I am calling this Happy Friday series. This is a motivation for me to keep my photography momentum on. Hope you like it.

A new cooking challenge

noreply@blogger.com (healthyforbetter) — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 23:04:00 +0000

Left-over bread upma/stir-fry

I love cooking. My love for cooking and my love for good food goes hand in hand. It usually dictates my daily menu. I can rarely eat the same food beyond two meals. I don't complain since I can cook. I cook what my senses feel like eating or tasting everyday. From salads to soups to south Indian foods to baking breads and other delicacies. Not sure where I picked up cooking and I don't consider myself a talented or a gifted cook. Internet has been my go to resource for all recipes and it goes without saying that I read quite few blogs on this. Some days I cook to de-stress and unwind. its no surprise if one finds me in the kitchen at 11pm in the night baking a cake Many a Fridays when I am exhausted I go grocery shopping and pick up some fresh ingredients to cook a nice dinner for myself and anyone around me.

Home-made Whole wheat Bread

Where is this conversation leading? Well I recently hit a spot where I didn't want to cook and I didn't want to eat the same food even for the second serving. Blame the respiratory infection or the anti-biotics or just the cold dreary winter. I did eat out and I did eat at most of my favorite restaurants causing some not so serious weight gain and more serious loss of interest in cooking. It didn't mean I stopped cooking. I did make my chai and I did juice loads of carrots and baked loaves of carrot cake with the left over pulp. But I havent cooked a single decent meal. This seemed like a creative block for my cooking.

White rice with Rasam/Lentil Stew

While I struggle with this so called cooking block I have decided to kick my spirits and challenge myself for some serious cooking. I decided to cook newer and different vegetables which I rarely buy. This seems to me an interesting way to introduce some newer ingredients and get my hands dirty with some newer recipes.This challenge will surely nurture my love for cooking!

Fresh Greens with cherry tomatoes

Happy Friday

noreply@blogger.com (healthyforbetter) — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 15:35:00 +0000

I will be posting one new photograph every Friday. I am calling this Happy Friday series. This is a motivation for me to keep my photography momentum on. Hope you like it.

The Green Potion

noreply@blogger.com (healthyforbetter) — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 22:19:00 +0000

Falling sick, twice in the month of January is probably the most detrimental to one's resolutions and intentions for a new year. This is exactly what happened to me. I am still recovering and my energy levels have been pretty off. My intentions to get more yoga in and to work out more often have been tossed into a bin. My taste buds have been off and eating has been sporadic. I feel like getting some kind of pill with nutrition packed in it but then I know how unnatural that would be. I could have eaten a whole lot of vegetables and fruits but I dont hold the energy to stand up and cook or put together a salad. So I set this intention to juice more veggies and make magic potions which help me heal and bring more nutrients. Well on the other hand, this might be just another way to make sure I use my new juicer.

I set out to make a magic juice which could incorporate some fruits and veggies. I call this my Green Potion. It is a cucumber based juice. Since it was my first time juicing greens I was a little hesitant to add crazy stuff like kale or collards. I played safe by incorporating spinach which has a very mild taste and can be easily masked. As for fruits, I picked up Honey Dew melon and a very ripe green D'Anjou pear. Both these fruits were not very sweet or flavorful. Their water content was very high. For a little zing I added ginger as it was suggested by one of my friends on my previous post.

The juicing order was with half cucumber, half pear, half of the melons, the greens, ginger and the remaining halves of the rest. This yielded 2 mugs of juice. I also added some freshly squeezed lemon juice at the end. Taste wise the juice was a whole lot cucumber-ish. I would suggest to skip the peel if one is not a great fan of cucumbers. The juice was very light and mild unlike the carrot juice which I thought was sweet and filling. I could have added more lemon and ginger to increase the flavors next time. Spinach was hardly recognizable among the rest.

I would definitely make this juice again. I might infact blend the baby spinach rather than juice it to make the juice more thicker and stronger. For someone who is trying this juice, remember to use organic spinach, cucumbers and pears as you would be adding them with the peel. Other good addition would be green apples which would add a whole lot of flavor: sweetness with tartness.

The Green Potion:

Ingredients:

1 Cucumber (with or without peel)

1 Green Pear (clean the core)

1 cup Honey Dew melon

1-2 cups of fresh organic baby spinach

1inch piece ginger

few tbsps of lemon juice

Steps:

Juice half cucumber, half pear, half of the melon and the spinach.
Add ginger and continue adding the remaining items in reverse order.
This make two mugs of juice.
Add lemon juice at the end and mix well.
Save the extra juice in refrigerator immediately to preserve the freshness and drink within 24hrs.

Notes:

Skip the peel if you are not a big fan of cucumber.
Add salt/pepper for more zing.
Add Green apples, green seedless grapes for more fruity drink.