Addicted to Blush

ATB BB Series: Does "Thin Privilege" Exist?

2013-05-08T21:28:00.002+05:30

It has been about 8 odd months since I began my HFLC (High Fat Low Carb) / Wheat Belly diet. As a result of which I have lost weight and transitioned from being "fat" or "obese" to what might be called normal sized now (I'm wearing a Medium / size 10 so I guess I'm normal).

I was always subconsciously aware that our society seems to favour the thin. However the difference never really stuck me until I became a normal sized person.

Now, I'm not talking about clothes not being available in certain sizes and stuff. Those things, I feel, are dictated by supply - demand & the scale of economies a lot more than simple prejudice. So I know a lot of people are up in arms over Abercrombie & Fitch's recent public announcement that they want to sell only to the "Thin & Beautiful" and hence the women's clothing line will not feature clothes above Large. But I think that is okay. All companies are in the business to make money, and therefore adopt strategies accordingly.

One wouldn't get angry at ALL for retailing only Plus size clothes, right?

I have always felt that Fat Hate is the last socially accepted discrimination in society. The experience of going from "normal" to "fat" and then back to "normal" however really highlighted how prevalent it is for me.

For example:

1. Sales People treat me a lot nicely compared to before. Like 10x more. They are more attentive and courteous. I haven't really changed too much as a shopper. I am still the same sometimes patient, sometimes snappy me. But now across the board I get treated a lot more nicely - especially when buying accessories or clothes.

2. I'm being seen as someone who is dedicated, disciplined & basically awesome since I lost weight. The truth is I have always been extremely disciplined. I was a stickler for my skin care routine and even at work I'm quite planned & organised. I wasn't fat because I was lazy. I was fat because I was ignorant about how the body processes Carbohydrates. It was a knowledge issue, hardly a personality defect. Now, I really don't have a problem being seen as disciplined, what I don't like is the corollary - that Fat people, therefore, are not disciplined.

3. I'm treated a lot better at restaurants. The servers smile at me, and the overall service experience is a lot better. Odd? I know!!

4. People talk a lot more to me now. Relatives and office colleagues included. The chats are longer, suddenly I'm more interesting as a person. People confide more easily in me.

Of course you could say that all of the above could be simply explained by my increased self - confidence, but here is the most important learning I've had during this journey:

It is far easier to lose weight, than it is to gain confidence.

I still feel unsure about myself, judged, and look for validation through others.

So why did I write about "Thin Privilege" on a Beauty Blog?

Because I think while there will always be standards of beauty (tall, slim, fair etc) in the media, our society need not be dictated by it. Until a few years ago it was okay to shame a girl for being "Dusky" in our country. If brands try to do it today, a dozen bloggers rise up in protest.

I want the same kind of acceptance for "fat" girls. Why it is that as a girl, the worst insult that we can throw in another girl's face is that she is "fat"? Not mean, boring, unfriendly. Fat it is.It is always about they way the girl looks.

There is a lot of misconception out there about that fat people. That it is all a result of over-eating & under-exercising. I know from experience that is just utter bullshit.

The size of your body is dictated by your internal hormones. You wouldn't think of shaming someone or being mean to someone just because they have extra melanin in their skin, then why the big people?

No one should feel like a lesser human being just because they are different in the way they look. If as "beauty" bloggers that is the one legacy we can leave behind for women to come, it'll be a great achievement that we all can be proud of.

And ohh, for those of you following I've lost 30 kgs now! A few more left to go!

So tell me, have you ever noticed Thin Privilege, or experienced it yourself?

Where are the Nail Paint Testers?

2013-03-30T07:26:00.000+05:30

Nail products have taken off in a really big way in India.

We have brands coming up with collections exclusively based around nail paints. For example the recent Pop Tints Launch by Lakme.

The New Lakme Pop Tints on my nails

Most of these products cost anywhere between 150 to 400 rupees. I'm talking mostly about drugstore brands here: Lakme, Maybelline, Revlon, Colorbar & Faces.

However neither of these brands seem to think it is important to offer nail paint testers to customers. It is present neither at their kiosks in department stores, nor at their flagship stores (at least not in Infinity - II. I was there yesterday and at all stores they didn't have testers for nail paints).

I don't get why they would not offer testers for nail paints to customers. It can't be because the range is too big. They have a similarly big range in lipsticks - all of these brands - and they seem to offer testers there. So why leave out the nail paints?

Sometimes some SAs let you try them on the sly from a new bottle. But it all depends on the SA, some are sticklers for rules and won't budge.

Is it because nail paints dry out once opened? Maybe companies do have a valid reason for not offering testers. Maybe it gets infected with bacteria and is a liquid product - but then so are foundations! And by that count there should be absolutely no testers for liquid eye liners.Is it because then they will have to offer acetone to customers as well?

But I'm just curious. As a consumer, I would obviously like to be sure before forking out the dough.

Does the lack of nail paint testers bum you out as well? Why do you think they do it?

ATB BB Series 10: Clickity "Click"

2013-03-26T19:22:00.000+05:30

It has been roughly 7 months since I changed the way I eat. Before this I spent most of my late twenties bigger than I wanted to be.

It was hardly because I wanted to be like that. I really doubt *anyone* wants to be like that. And it certainly wasn't due to lack of trying. But even when I was eating food that was home-made, it was all still imbalanced as it had too many carbs and a huge proportion of it was whole grains. (It is a big myth that there are good carbs & bad carbs. To the body they are all the same.)

It was extremely disappointing to eat well all week and yet lose nothing, at times worse, to gain! It did make abstaining from junk food more difficult too. If after a month of eating well - eating calorie counted rotis & sabzis with no oil plus exercising- you still put on weight, it made little rational sense to abstain from the Chinese food & Death by chocolate pastries.

Part of the fault lay in my own understanding of how the body deals with Carbohydrates. Weaned on the typical Indian diet of carbohydrates, as well media fueled frenzy of "Fat/Non Vegetarian is Bad" it is easy to fall into that trap. Luckily we are the generation that has Google & internet and therefore access to a lot of information. Once I understood how the body works on an hormonal level, it has been a breeze to lose weight.

So, is the "Low Carb / Atkins / Paleo / Primal / Wheat Belly / LCHF" diet difficult to follow?

Yes, initially it is. It does require discipline and determination. But no more than you deciding to follow a regular skin care routine, every single day, come what may. Okay, may be a bit more difficult initially. Although this WOE (way of eating) does allow a lot of yummy treats like cheese, butter, nuts etc it does demand that in a world full of carb-heavy treats you exercise caution & some amount of discipline.

There are plenty of people around me who want to lose weight as well. Some need to and some *really* don't. Regardless I have shared my WOE with all of them in detail. As I do feel that this is a healthier way to eat if you wish to avoid the metabolic diseases of diabetes & cardiovascular systems. Sugar and Carbs do no good for anyone.

All of these people who spoke to me enthusiastically adopted the diet, but quite a few fell off the wagon so to say. Having spent time on that side of the fence, I did have well meaning people (spouses, parents, friends, colleagues, neighbors, relatives and so forth) around me goading me to lose weight. I'm sure the people who start the diet with great gusto, but then drop off the program do as well. So why is it that they can't stay on?

I find it best to quote Al Roker here:

Here’s the thing I say to the person who’s not struggling with their weight: Shut up. We know we’re fat. We know we need to lose weight. Your nagging us and pleading with us doesn’t help. In fact, in ways it makes it worse. We’re not going to change until something clicks within us. Until we say, "I’m tired of living like this; I want a different life for myself and for my family." It’s not that we don’t love you; it’s not that we don’t care. It’s just that right now, we’re not prepared to deal with it for whatever reason, whether it’s emotionally or physically.

And that "something" that clicks within you is what makes this diet so easy to follow. For me it had. I was sick & tired of looking and living like that. Not having the strength and energy to deal with life. That is what lead me to Google in frustration - Why do we get fat?

That's my point of this entire post.

If you are somehow who is dealing with someone who is struggling with their weight - then just "Shut Up!" They know they need to lose weight. As it is research indicates that mixed weight couples (yea, there is a term like that) seem to have more fights compared to other couples.

And if you are the one struggling with weight, it comes from within. You know that well as I do. If you are not ready, you are not ready. Don't beat yourself up about that. Be happy & proud of your body and all the wonderful things it lets you do. And while you are at it, take a look at the video below. A real gutsy lady if I may say so.

And ohh I was at Lakme Fashion Week Spring 2013 over the weekend - Saturday & Sunday. It was awesome fun. And this is what I wore. In total I've now lost 25 kgs :-)

Yup, I'm wearing MAC Morange - this was on Saturday

On Sunday!

Revlon Lash Fantasy Total Definition Mascara - Review

2013-03-20T20:26:00.001+05:30

It claims: Revlon Lash Fantasy Total Definition™ Mascara Waterproof nourishes thickens and lengthens lashes with amazing clump free definition!

- Vitamin enriched primer nourishes, lifts and makes lashes look up to 70% longer
- Mascara delivers thickness and rich, intense color impact that lasts all day, without smudging or flaking
- NEW Lash Separating brushes comb through every single lash for beautiful definition without clumping

Price: Rs. 750 /- for 4.4 ml

Shade: 101 Blackest Black

What worked well: (Not much!)

1. The brush is very nice, it is bendy and it has these short bristles that really help you grab the curved lashes right from the roots.

2. The shade blackest black is very dark – true black & it does makes your lashes look longer and more defined.

What could be better: (A lot!)

1.Instead of volume, what you get is clumps when you apply the black mascara. It is odd that it claims to provide "amazing clump free definition" when all one gets is clumps from the very first application. I think the problem lies with the primer. You see, the primer is white in color. When you apply that you get these hideous white lashes. The black mascara doesn't coat the lashes throughly - maybe the formula is too thick or the brush doesn't pick up enough. God knows. So what you get is "Zebra" lashes - half white and half black. In order to salvage the situation, you go back in with the mascara formula that is not designed to layer well - Clumps Ahoy!

2. There are no directions on the pack whether one needs to wait for the primer to dry before you apply the mascara or if it is to be applied immediately.

3. This is not for office / day or natural looking lashes. The end result is not soft, pet-table lashes but intense dark, very obviously mascara-ed lashes.

4. Overpriced! I know of mascaras from Max Factor, Maybelline & Lakme that are much cheaper than this & work a lot better. Considering that you gotta "officially" throw away mascara in some 3 months of use, this is an expensive proposition. (And I use my mascara till it gets dry & clumpy, which is generally 6 to 8 months after first use)

5. Not waterproof.

Overall: I wouldn't recommend this to anyone. Maybe it needs to be used in a particular way, and I am just ignorant about it. In any case the pack doesn't carry any instructions, so I assume that it was created to be dummy - proof (which means that dummies like me can use it without burning out grey cells). You get much better mascaras at 1/3 the price for eg, the Lakme Absolute Mascara which I adore to bits!

Product provided by Company / PR for review.

Have you tried this mascara? Any thoughts on how to make it work?

ATB featured in Cosmopolitan March '13

2013-03-17T16:16:00.000+05:30

Hey Girls!

ATB has been featured again in Cosmo!

I was a part of the lucky 5 bloggers who were sent a bunch of products to review by Cosmo for their March '13 edition.

The other 4 bloggers are:

1. Mehak - Peaches & Blush
2. Ankita - Coralista
3. Anamika - Wiseshe
4. Pooja - Indian Beauty Central

They are all friends & bloggers I love reading and talking to and I'm sure most of you already know about them.

But, before I sign off....

Thank you dear reader for all the love, support and attention you have showered upon this blog. It wouldn't have been possible without you loving and talking about this blog! From a silent, humble begining 4 and 1/2 years ago, the blog & I have come a long way. I have learnt things & had experiences I would have never thought possible.

Thank you for reading & have a great week ahead!

ATB BB Series 9: Help! I've stalled...

2013-03-12T19:33:00.001+05:30

As a woman, stalls are a source of great pleasure, but only those that line fashion streets of various cities. A Stall in your weight loss journey, isn't met with the same enthusiasm however.

A Stall technically when you don't lose weight for more than 3 months or so despite following the diet / workout regime. It is a hyper-reactive world where we want fast results and most people panic if they don't lose weight even over the period of 24 hours! My advice to such people is to relax! It even takes a skincare product at least 21 days of continuous usage to show benefits. Besides you didn't put on a kilo a day to begin with, so why the desperation now.

A stall is not always negative. You may be still burning fat, but it is the body's way to adjust itself to the new form and so it takes a break. Weight loss in a low-carb diet does happen a little bit in spurts, so will stall for two weeks or so and then suddenly, almost overnight, lose 2-3 kgs.

When I started the diet, about 2 & 1/2 months into the diet I seemed to have stalled. I didn't lose any weight for over a month, despite following the diet quite strictly. And then suddenly over the span of 7 days I lost close to 5 kgs.

However some foods are suspected to cause stalls. If you have stalled, see if you are able to locate the offender in the list below.

1. Too much milk & milk products: Milk has sugar in the form of lactose, that can in some insulin resistant individuals cause too much insulin release. Furthermore the protein in milk (casein) is also insulingenic, meaning it results in insulin production as well despite not being a carbohydrate. Consider cutting out dairy completely for a month (milk, curd, paneer & cheese) and see if it makes a difference. Ghee & Butter however are fine, since they are pure fat. Do note that we all have different body chemistry and tend to react differently to different foods. I don't stall at all with milk, maybe because it is such an integral part of my diet since childhood. But someone else may.

2. Too many peanuts: peanuts are very high in carbs and since they are such delicious munchees, it is easy to overeat. In the same vein, please don't eat any chips / namkeen. They have no nutrients of value, unless prepared at home.

3. Too many nuts: especially cashewnuts (are high in starch) are known to stall some individuals as it is very easy to eat too many nuts and go overboard on your carb intake. Restrict to a handful and no more.

4. Too many carbohydrates: while you may be avoiding grains, are you also avoiding protein and instead subsisting on veggies & dals only - that makes the diet again a carb - heavy diet. You will lose weight on such a diet, however the rate at which you lose weight will be quite slow.

5. Too many fruits: Some of us can tolerate fruit only once a week. Fructose in fruits is directly converted to fat in the liver. Avoid if you are trying to lose a lot of weight.

6. Dehydration: Not drinking enough water can cause you to stall as ketone bodies build up the blood stream. Dehydration is known to decrease the metabolic rate as well. Drink plenty of water throughout the day.

7. Not enough sleep: It is important to sleep in a dark room for at least 6 to 8 hours. I sleep for 8 hours everyday. Not sleeping enough raises your cortisol levels (the stress hormone) and interferes in your weight loss.

8. Cheating: It is very tempting to eat that little bit of rice with that rajma, or just that one bite of ice-cream. And it is understandable, we are after all humans. However try and restrict your cheats to only once a month and even when cheating - don't eat grains! It takes your body anywhere from a day to three days to recover and go back on the fat burning mode after your cheat. Think about that before you cheat.

9. Alcohol / Cocktails: While it is okay to drink once in a while (rarely), if you consume liquor very often it stops the fat burning process in your body while it is being metabolized. Do it often enough and you will interrupt the process often enough to undo any benefits.

10. Eating outside too often: I personally find that eating out on this diet is easy, but I try and avoid it and keep it to once a week only. Reason being that one never knows if the recipe calls for hidden sources of sugar (especially in sauces / curries) or carbohydrates like maida or corn flour. It is best to eat home cooked food as much as possible.

The body has its own wisdom, and it is important to learn to trust it. For those of us who want to shed excess kilos, the urge to lose it all at once it quite high. While it is always good to be optimistic and look forward to good results, don't lose faith or beat yourself up if it takes some time.

Rome wasn't built in a day and none of us put on that weight in a day either. Relax, and stick with it. It'll happen!

Maybelline BB Stick in Fawn & Radiance - Review

2013-03-10T16:59:00.004+05:30

It claims:

Controls shine - Mineral Clay formula helps keep skin shine-free all day

Lasts all day - Powder Finish, resists sweat and sebum up to 12 hours

Clears - Reduces the appearance of dark spots, redness, fine lines and wrinkles

Refines - Reduces the appearance of pores

Conceals - Instantly hides flaws and imperfections

Evens - Corrects uneven skin tone

Smoothens - Makes skin feel smooth, soft and supple

Protects - SPF21/PA+++ protects harmful UVA and UVB rays.

Shades available: 02 Radiance & 04 Fawn

Price: Rs. 250

What I liked:

1. Where do I start? It really does almost everything it claims. Let's talk coverage: This is fairly pigmented and provides medium to heavy coverage. This means that it really works like a BB cream should - it conceals & evens out the skin, yet it doesn't look overdone or cakey. It is easy to build up coverage if needed. It does even out the skin.

Maybelline ClearGlow Shine Free BB Stick in Radiance & Fawn

2. It even covers the slight darkness under the eyes most of us have, and I like using this to even out the color on my lids - it applies well and stays put without creasing. If you tend to have rushed mornings, this really packs a base & concealor in one tube, saving time.

3. The texture is pretty light, and it is easy to blend this into the skin (provided you suit either of the two shades) just with your fingers. It is summer here in Mumbai (38* C in the day!) with humidity, but this doesn't feel heavy nor does it cause the face to sweat uncomfortably.

4. It is priced very, very well!

5. It travels well, and is easy to apply on the go. The packaging is tiny & nifty. It dries to a matt finish within 2-3 minutes of application and it seems to me that it actually "tints" the skin, because despite rubbing the swatches on my arm quite vigorously it never really vanished completely.

6. It is mattifying and covers pores pretty well - at least for 3-4 hours.

7. SPF 21

8. Fawn works very well for contouring, btw, if you happen to be fair. If you want to try cream contouring, but aren't willing to invest in big daddies like MAC, consider this.

What could be better:

Radiance & Fawn - Swatches of Maybelline BB Stick

1. The shade selection. If this were sheer in coverage like a tinted moisturiser, I could still fathom giving girls only two options. But these sticks are very pigmented and This seriously limits the product's target audience to those who are either light or medium skin toned at best. Radiance (02) has some serious pink undertones despite being a pale beige. Fawn (04) is quite yellow toned. I wonder why 01 & 03 haven't been launched here.

2. I feel the need for a moisturiser underneath, it does seem a bit drying. If you have dry to normal skin, please note that this may prove difficult to blend, and emphasize your dry bits.

3. Since it seems to 'tint' the skin, a oil based remover is best to take it off.

4. It smells like plastic. It is not very over-whelming, but I don't like the synthetic smell.

Overall: After Ponds TM, this is the one product that has really, really impressed me! It makes all the other BB creams in the market look really bad in comparison, but it is a pity that the shade selection is so terrible. I was sent Fawn for review. The shade is a little dark for me, but the product impressed me so much that I purchased it in Radiance. While Radiance is a shade that I am able to wear, I can easily see this looking weird even if I tanned a wee bit. It is that light!

This is an amazing product however, and if you are lucky enough to suit either of the two shades, you must try it! It is much, much better than the cream version.

Btw, I found this video explaining how to apply it and if notice, even in the video the shade seems to be too light for the girl's skintone.

Fawn (04) sent for review by Company / PR. Radiance (02) bought by me.

ATB BB Series 9: Eating outside on the Low Carb diet

2013-02-19T16:32:00.000+05:30

A big part of the social lifestyle these days is eating out. With the days spent stuck in office, an evening coffee or dinner is the best time to catch up with friends. Generally when you are on a low fat diet, eating out can be very troublesome as nothing outside is low fat. However the LCHF diet that I follow is actually very easy to stick to when eating outside.

For those of you who eat out often and get most of your nutrition either on the run or on the road, this dining guide will help you make selections in keeping with your Low Carb – High Fat Diet.

Alcohol: A single 3-ounce glass of dry red or white wine once in a while.

Beverages: I never drink Coke / Pepsi as it is nutritionally empty but if you have to, stick to the Diet versions. Other than that have water, tea (not iced version that has synthetic sugared flavors) or coffee without sugar and coconut water (fresh). No juices – even if they are freshly extracted.

Desserts: Fresh berries or fresh fruit salad will work, you can add unsweetened cream (malai) on top. Crème Brulee is also fine as it is mostly eggs, milk & sugar, but not every week. I make this at home and substitute the sugar with Sugar Free. Avoid cakes, cookies, custards, pies, pastries, cheesecakes, all Indian sweets & mithai like halwas, jalebis, Bengali sweets et al and ice cream / kulfi.

Butter: if possible always ask for extra Amul butter on the side and add a bit to your food. It will fill you up and keep you on the diet.

American Grill or Bistro like TGIF

Grilled meat, fish, paneer or chicken, a large green salad with ranch, blue cheese, or olive oil vinaigrette dressing; steamed or sautéed vegetables in place of the usual potatoes, pizza, burgers, pasta, or rice. No bread.
Chef’s salad or grilled chicken Caesar salad. Beware of the bread croutons, potatoes, corn and crackers!
Quiche and green salad or small fresh fruit salad. Eat only the quiche filling, scooping it out of the crust.
Tomato stuffed with chicken, tuna, or crab salad, or cottage cheese.

Barbecue Joint like Barbecue Nation

Sliced & grilled or barbecued beef, pork, chicken, fish, paneer with coleslaw and tossed salad.
Eggs are fine.
Hold the sauces, beans, fries, or other potatoes and toast, bread, or biscuits.

Fast Foods/Burger Joints like McDonald’s, KFC & Subway:

Grilled chicken/fish burger (with cheese) along with a side salad, ranch, blue cheese, or Italian dressing. No veggie burger – the tiki is full of potatoes! Remove both buns and eat with a knife and fork. Avoid the fries, baked potatoes, pasta, pies, shakes, coke and sundaes.
Grilled chicken salad with ranch or Italian dressing.
In KFC, eat the grilled chicken, but go slow on the sauce. Avoid the crusty / breaded ones.
At Subway: Sub-sandwich-style (but don’t eat the bread), deli meats and cheeses on salad greens with ranch or Italian dressing.

Chinese Restaurant: eat rarely as most Chinese sauces used in cooking are quite high in sugar. It may not taste sweet because the flavors are balanced via salt & sour ones. But it does have hidden sugars.

Soups: Egg drop or clear soups only. Avoid thick soups like Sweet Corn or Hot & Sour that have corn flour in them
Appetizers: Grilled / Stir fried beef or chicken, paneer, fish. In Momo’s eat the stuffing inside, not the outer cover.
Beef, chicken, pork, shrimp (or combinations) with broccoli or assorted mixed Chinese vegetables – Stir Fried.
Avoid: Egg / Spring rolls, potato & baby corn starters, crispy vegetables (generally have a coating of maida for frying) noodles, rice, pancakes, Manchurian or American Chopseuy, anything that says it has a sweet sauce and rice. Read your fortune, give away the cookie!

French Restaurant

Clear soups and fresh green salads.
Medallions of beef or pork finished with butter sauces or green peppercorn sauce.
Roasted lamb, duck, quail, chicken.
Grilled or poached fish.
Sauté of vegetables (squashes, carrots, onion, cauliflower, asparagus).
Avoid: bread, potatoes, rice, and heavy cream sauces, which may contain significant carbohydrate from flour.

Indian Restaurant – North Indian Food

Tandoori / grilled chicken or lamb; chicken, beef, or lamb curry; chicken tikka or chicken masala.
Tossed green salad, tomato and cucumber salad, pickled onion, saag paneer (creamy spinach), all sabzis – but no potatoes. Pickle is fine as is green chutney. No sweet imli chutney.
All unsweetned curds, (except pineapple raita & the bhalla/vada itself) are fine, as is chaas. No sweet Lassi.
In soups, stick to clear soups. No tomato soup – it generally has sugar added to balance out the acidity of the tomato.
Avoid: The breads / rotis, breaded and fried vegetables, potato dishes, all dals/pulses, masala papads, desserts and rice dishes.
Don’t go for all you can eat Thalis. You will get tempted by the theplas & khichdis.

Italian Restaurant: Not a good place generally because almost everything is carb laden.

Sautéed (not breaded) calamari (squid), chicken or antipasto appetizers like tossed tomatoes.
Chicken, grilled fish or pork cutlet, or rotisserie or grilled chicken with tossed salad and any sautéed or steamed vegetables available to substitute for pasta.
Avoid: The pasta, pizza dishes and bread. Even a single piece of garlic bread can contain 14 or more grams of carbohydrate.

Japanese Sushi/Teriyaki Restaurant

Sushi or sashimi. Beware of rice.
Miso soup (seaweed, broth, and bean curd).
Teriyaki chicken, beef, or fish with salad.
Avoid tempura, which is breaded and fried.

Mexican Restaurant

Chicken or beef fajitas, minus the tortilla wrappers. Eat the garnishes: lettuce, chopped tomato, guacamole, sour cream.
Grilled chicken, fish, or shredded beef, pork, or chicken with tossed salad.
Taco salad—but leave the shell uneaten.
Avoid or strictly limit: rice and beans (no more than 1 tablespoon of either), tortilla wrappers (one half), shells (one half), or chips (3 or 4).

Pizza Parlor

Pizza and a tossed salad with ranch, blue cheese, or Italian dressing. Load up the toppings you like: the trick is to eat only the toppings and leave the crust uneaten.
Avoid: breadsticks, garlic toast, spaghetti or other pasta dishes. Corn for toppings.

South Indian food: Turn around and go to another restaurant. Nothing is allowed here. Everything is heavily carb based.

Chaat / Snacks Stall

Only curd flavored with spices & green chutney.
Pakodas are fine once a month.
Only non-veg frankies, the veg ones are full of potatoes. Eat the stuffing, discard outer roti wrap.
No imli / sweet chutney.
No puris, samosas, puffed rice bhel, kulfis.
If very tempted – half a potato tikki.

Vegetarian / Religious / Wedding functions

These can be very troublesome as they only have vegetarian food. The absence of protein means that one doesn't really quite feel full because how many veggies can you hog on? For such events I eat at home, before I leave. I eat eggs or chicken & then just eat the veggies I like at the event. No point going hungry & then giving in to temptation.

Reference: Protein Power Diet. I referred to the book - Protein Power for some of the tips in this post on eating out.

ATB BB Series 8: The Low Fat Diet / Zero Oil Cooking Technique

2013-02-04T15:17:00.001+05:30

In my quest to lose weight, I tried a number of different diets, one of which was the "Zero Oil" cooking technique. The premise of this diet is simple - All oil / fat is bad for your health, and fruits, vegetables, grains etc contain all the fat you need. There is no need to add anymore oil / fat to the diet and therefore all cooking should be done without any oil.

Food cooked as per this method, simply replaced the oil used in cooking with water. So instead of a spoonful of butter, you'll add a spoonful of water to your kadai and then proceed to cook pretending that the water is oil. You also don't add butter / fat / oil or anything in high fat to your food - like cheese spreads or cream. One drinks double toned skim milk in very small quantities. You cannot eat fried food and vegetables that need oil for cooking like bitter gourd cannot be consumed.

I was on this diet for 6 freaking months, and during this period I ate home cooked food only. I stopped eating outside, began gymming close to 3 times a week and the result - I must have lost around a measly 5 kgs.

The diet seems, on the surface, highly effective as it cuts down on fat - which we have come to think of as the root of all evil. If followed as suggested, your diet will contain less than 10% fat. Sounds awesome? It isn't because now on the flipside, your diet is heavily carbohydrate based - close to 70%. The reason is that in nature, high quality protein is never or rather rarely found without fat. Think of eggs - the fat rich yolk, meat has fat, milk has fat. Carbohydrates, as we know, activate the secretion of Insulin, which is one of the principle hormones of fattening. On this zero-oil almost vegetarian diet, as a result one hardly loses any weight.

Fat in food plays another very important function - satiety That feeling of fullness. Eliminate it and you will soon discover that your stomach starts acting like a bottomless pit. The absence of fat means that you need to eat more to feel full and also eat more frequently - like every two hours. If you resist, trying to control your calories, you will be assailed with intense hunger. On this Zero Oil / Low Fat diet, you are essentially starving to obesity.

It is difficult to subsist on boiled food (which is essentially what zero oil food becomes over time), in order to introduce some interest in your diet, you will soon turn to sugar in the form of fruits & fruit juices. Fruits are healthy but in moderation, which means not more than two servings a week. On the zero oil diet, one tends to eat a lot more fruit or sweet food for two reasons - first it is oil free, secondly you will be so hungry all the time that you will end up snacking on fruits in order to limit your caloric intake.

This is how I eat now :)

After about 4 months of the diet and gymming I had barely lost 3-4 kgs. The next two months were relatively gym-less because of a intense work schedule, and my weight loss platued out. At the end of 6 months I had just 5 kgs of loss, and soon the reverse happened. I not only regained all the weight back, and put on some more. All on this low fat / zero oil diet.

I am sure there will be some people for whom the Low Fat / Zero Oil diet would have worked beautifully. That only underlines the differences in our body metabolism. Everything may not work for everyone. This post was just to recount my experience with the diet & some possible reasons it went so wrong.

Have you tried the Low Fat / Zero Oil diet? What has been your experience?

Lakme Eyeconic Curling Mascara - Review

2013-02-02T08:26:00.001+05:30

It claims: Indian women are blessed with gorgeous deep set eyes and to help highlight this feature, Lakmé has launched Lakmé Eyeconic – a revolutionary range consisting of kajal and mascara. The mascara gives the eyes an intense black finish and comes equipped with a curling brush that helps give curves to your lashes. It is also enriched with D-Panthenol – a moisturizer which keeps lashes soft and smooth. The product makes the eyes look brighter and adds a perfect sparkle to your entire look.

Price: Rs. 250 for the 9 ml tube

What I liked:

1. The brush! I love, love the curled brush. Because of its unique shape, the bottom of the curve of the brush can be used to apply mascara right to the root of the lashes, it grabs a few of the lashes at a time and then you can easily apply the mascara through and through. The closely spaced bristles mean that it grabs all the lash hairs in one go and has a good grip on them. Again because of the shape, the end of the brush reaches very easily to apply mascara into the inner corner lashes. This is something I generally struggle with most wands. The brush is also sleek enough to apply mascara to the lower lashes without creating a mess.

2. The color is a deep, dark intense black. It really darkens my lashes to make them appear quite dramatic.

3. It did not flake on me, and is easy to build layers.

4. It does curl the lashes a bit as it dries. Considering how much I freak out around lash curlers, this one is kinda makes up for the lack of curling - a little bit at least.

5. I've been using this current tube for over 2-3 months now and it hasn't dried as yet.

6. It is priced really nice!

What could be better:

1. It could be water-proof. Admittedly, it is water resistant and it starts to bleed a bit only when I splash my face with water, but I generally use a face mist every couple of hours during the day & when I have this mascara on I have to skip it.

2. The formula neither volumizes nor lengthens considerably. However it didn't promise to do either, anyway. When I used this the first 2-3 times the formula was a bit wet, and I would have to wait for a minute for it to dry or else it was all Smudge-ville. But it has settled to a thicker consistency now which I prefer.

3. I wish this were available in brown. It is very intense black, a little too black for me to be able to wear it to office. I would love a dark brown variant.

Would I repurchase: Yes! Just because of the brush. I love the brush design & I think it is absolute genius! It really helps apply the mascara very very well, right down from the roots, all the way. The shape makes it easy to apply mascara to the inner, outer corners as well as the lower lashes. The formula too is decent and doesn't get clumpy over time (I've been using this since 2-3 months).

I am quite fond of the Maybelline Colossal Mascara as well, but between the two I'll have to pick Lakme. The only thing going for the Colossal one is that it is water-proof and it volumizes a bit more than Lakme. But I find the brush is not as user-friendly for the inner corners & lower lashes. The mascara tends to get very clumpy in about 2-3 months of opening rendering it quite unusable. It is priced around 350 bucks compared to 250 for Lakme.

What can I say, this Lakme Mascara has spoilt me.

Have you girls tried this mascara? What did you think of the curled wand?

Product sent by Company / PR for review. The review is a honest recount of my experience & opinions about the said products.

ATB BB Series 7: Beauty Benefits of Weight Loss

2013-01-29T19:11:00.000+05:30

Any change requires some motivation to help us pull through the adjustment period of ill-ease. You have to overcome the initial inertia of letting things continue as they were. I had been ‘trying’ to lose weight since the last couple of years without success. Partly because the ‘methods (read: diets)’ I tried were wrong bio-chemically and also because results on those diets were so less and took so long that I invariably gave up.

Everyone has different drivers aka reasons for losing weight. At the most basic level it could be to be healthier & build greater endurance. For me, it was Fashion. I love reading about fashion, and though I’m hardly the fashionista myself, I do enjoy dressing up. Some things really catch my fancy (like colored denims) others I dislike a lot (peplum & boy-friend jeans, anyone?). I don’t mean to imply that fashion is the sole prerogative of those with a certain body type. As fashion bloggers will tell you, it is just a matter of fit.

Anyone can carry off anything.

It has been my experience however that I feel more confident about sporting trends now that I have lost weight. And maybe because of that confidence, it looks good. As I have lost weight, I have observed certain beauty benefits have accrued.

1. I no longer need to stick to Cat-Eyes all the time. A plump face is generally soft & round. It is my experience that angular faces photograph a lot better as they appear sharper in pictures. In order to introduce some structure to a plump face, one very abused technique is the cat eyeliner technique. Aishwariya Rai wears it all the time. So did I for all important functions.

That's me!! Finally sporting colored denims, a high ponytail and some blush

2. I can tie my hair away from my face in a pony tail. Hair styles were a major issue for me when I was big. If it was open coz my hair is frizzy – it made my face look very big, but at the same time I wanted to leave it open to make the face appear slimmer by hiding the ears & sides of the face.

3. I can apply blush again. I had stopped using blush for a few months (Ironic? I know! The blog is called Addicted to Blush!), as I felt that when I applied blush it called too much attention to my chubby cheeks. So I mainly concentrated makeup on the centre of my face – aka lips. I used dark colors on the lips to make them appear bigger so that the face looked smaller in comparison.

4. I can now apply makeup on the lower lash line. One of the tricks to make a face look slimmer is to make the eyes look big. This is done by concentrating makeup on the upper lash line & lots of mascara, but leaving the lower lash & waterline bare.

5. I can smile in pictures. I used to avoid smiling in pictures as I felt it made my cheeks look even more chubby. Of course I was also very reluctant to get pictures taken. Somehow I had deluded myself that I wasn't really *that* big. When I looked at myself in the mirror, I thought I looked good, a bit plump but fine otherwise. But I could hardly recognize the person I saw in pictures. I wondered why I looked so bloated and always put it down to being unphotogenic.

6. This benefit is exclusive to following the Wheat Belly Diet: No acne! I've been acne free since I began the diet 5 months ago. No more pesky pimples at that time of the month & no more marks to deal with. Also due to the high fat content of my diet I no longer suffer from weak-split nails, dry skin, rough hair.

Btw, I've lost a couple more kgs since I began posting about the diet. The tally now is 20 kgs in 5 months.

A big shoutout to Ankita of Ank's Ramblings who has also decided to try out this diet. Good Luck Girl! I look forward to reading your success story soon.

Have any of you lost weight? What was your driver? How did losing weight change things for you?

ATB BB Series 6: OMG! There is "Nothing" left to eat!

2013-01-18T12:00:00.000+05:30

I can imagine a lot of you think like that after have gone through the previous posts. Grains & sugar have invaded our eating habits like sand invades your clothes at the beach. And we have gotten used to thinking that we cannot survive without this sand. Prehistoric men & women survived only on meat, fat & veggies for millions for years. Grains are a very recent addition to our diet.

From my own 4 & 1/2 month experience, I can tell you that there is plenty left to eat. Having said that, I do understand that not everyone may be convinced to give up grains, which is okay. Grains are quite addictive, and besides I leave it to your wisdom to decide what is best for you.

In its simplest form, when implementing this diet - just remove the grains & dals from your diet and replace it with bigger portions or a little more of the rest - meat, veggies, nuts, butter & cheese.

Breakfast:

2 eggs + cheese.
I eat them in various preparations, depending on my mood. Scrambled with lots of onion, tomatoes, capsicum, chillies, cheese & garlic. Or else as a veggie + cheese omlette. Sometimes sunny side up. Boiled and mixed with mayo, cheese & veggies. There are honestly endless ways to prepare eggs. Also I eat the "whole" egg - white & yellow!

1 big glass of full fat milk
I generally have this when I'm in a hurry and don't have time to eat eggs. I make a cold coffee out of this with some almonds & of, course, coffee.

A heavy breakfast as you saw above, generally keeps me full till lunch - which is around 12 noon.

Lunch:

Grilled Chicken / Fish along with veggies sauteed in butter + I also eat a bowl of sabzi cooked the Indian way: Gobi peas, carrots, capsicum, palak-paneer, methi malai or sometimes a small bowl of rajma or chole. All vegetables & mushrooms are fine - except potatoes, beet & sweet potatoes. Depending on my mood I also eat curd at times or a glass of buttermilk. Eat natural, unsweetened curd & buttermilk. Don't eat the flavoured, full of sugars & preservatives wala curd. You can also eat a bowl of salad at this point with the meat.

You can cook the meat in any way you like. I prefer grilled as it is dry & easy to carry to office.

Evening Snack:

If I haven't had cold coffee in the morning I generally have it at this point.

Or else I eat nuts: cashews, peanuts & almonds that I roast in ghee. You can eat walnuts, hazelnuts, pistas as well.

Or I have some grilled paneer / raw paneer

Or some sabzi + bowl of curd.

Or I make a bhel out of peanuts as base, to this I add onions, tomatoes, chillies, corriander, butter, salt, shredded cheese & mayo.

Or else I have tomato / veggie / spinach soup that I make at home with tomatoes, onions, garlic & carrots. You will get the recipe easily online. Just don't thicken it with corn-flour. I add cream to it, before eating.

Once in fortnight I eat onion or gobi or paneer pakodas that I make using only besan - no corn flour or anything else. I just coat the veggies or paneer with a very thin layer just for crunch. Sometimes I substitute the besan with an egg coating instead. It works just as well.

Dinner:
Chicken cooked with veggies. This meal is similar to lunch.

Dessert:
2 pieces of dark chocolate - at least 70%. Please don't eat Bournville, it is full of sugar. Get Lindt. They have 70, 80 & 90% as well. You can eat this everyday, but I'm not very fond of chocolate so I generally eat this once a week.

Once a week - I eat Strawberries with Cream.
I cut up 4-5 ripe stawberries & add cream (malai - you get this easy in market. It is mostly 25% fat, but if you get a higher one, purchase that) generously. I honestly love this desert & look forward to it as my weekly treat!

To all my meals I add a spoonful of butter or cream from top. Sometimes two :-)
You can basically eat anything & everything except grains (wheat, corn, rice, maize, bajra, oats, jowar, millets, maida, suji, poha, upma, baby corn) pulses, sugar in all forms (table sugar, raw sugar - gurd, honey, sugarcane juice, brown sugar, fructose, maltose, glucose, sucrose, starch) potatoes, beets & sweet potatoes. So modify your recipes accordingly and you can still eat what you like.
There is no portion control, you eat till you are full. You don't have to count number of eggs or chicken pieces. I am not very fond of meat other than chicken, and in fish I eat only White Basa, nothing else. I don't like prawns, crabs & the works. But you can eat all of that on the diet. I don't coz I no like.
Drink lots of water & don't forget to take your supplements (Supryadyne, Celin & Evion). Drink all the tea & coffee you want - but without sugar.
Don’t worry about eating high-quality monounsaturated and naturally saturated fats as long as you follow the plan guideline with regard to grain intake. Most of the problems associated with “dieting”—dry skin, brittle nails, dull hair, hair loss, the development of gallstones, menstrual irregularities, susceptibility to colds and other infections—occur because the fat content of the diet is too low. Fat intake is self-regulating. By that I mean that people have a built-in“off” switch for fat consumption. Few people would sit and eat a stick of butter, consume lard by the spoonful, or swig olive oil by the cup. Without carbohydrate to wrap the fat around, it’s not very appealing. When you don’t eat chips, french fries, baked potatoes, doughnuts, cakes, pies, pastries, cookies, and chocolate, you avoid a huge amount of incoming fat, even when you get a moderate amount in lean meats & eggs
I do go out for lunch & dinner very often & this diet is very easy to follow there as well. More about it in another post.

Questions? Doubts?

ATB BB Series 5: Why the diet works..

2013-01-16T14:24:00.000+05:30

Before you commit to anything for a lifetime, it is important to know as much as possible. For two reasons - one you should know what you are getting into, and two you will be able to defend & commit to something only if you are truly convinced about it.

One of the biggest hurdles in this diet is getting used to eating butter, ghee, malai, oils, cheese, eggs, chicken with skin - all fats very liberally & freely. I have no issues now, but when I began this diet I used to feel very apprehensive. What if it backfired?

But if your plan is to succeed, you will have to increase the fat content of your diet. And no, it will not cause your BP to rise or heart disease. The myth that eating Saturated Fat causes Heart Disease, is just that - A MYTH! It was a mistake by the scientists in the 80's who oversimplified cause & reasons. The real cause of diabetes, heart disease, cholesterol issues is high insulin, which is caused by high carbohydrate intake.

Although fat is the raw material the body uses to make cholesterol, insulin runs the cellular machinery that actually makes it (see table below). If you reduce the level of insulin, the cells can’t convert the fat to cholesterol, almost no matter how much fat is available. Eating fat in the absence of carbohydrate and expecting it to be converted to cholesterol is like trying to make your car go faster by putting a larger gas tank in it. If you reduce the amount of carbohydrate when you add the fat, not only will you probably not see any increase; you could even see a reduction in cholesterol levels.

In an earlier post I spoke about Insulin & Glucagon. Here's a quick tabular summary of what these metabolic hormones do for us:

Scanning this chart, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the more time we spend on the glucagon side, the better off we are. Remember, however, that metabolism control is not a one-or-the-other phenomenon: all Insulin or all Glucagon. Both hormones are present in the blood all the time. What drives the metabolism to store or to burn is a dominance of one or the other.

Scientists have fed research subjects all kinds of food in all kinds of combinations, drawn their blood, and measured its insulin and glucagon to discover how foods affect these hormones. The results of these experiments were:

As you can see from the chart, of the three basic constituents of food—fat, protein, and carbohydrate—carbohydrate makes the most profound change in insulin, because it makes the most profound change in blood sugar level. Fat doesn't do anything; as far as insulin is concerned, fat doesn't exist.

The combination of carbohydrate and protein, especially large amounts of carbohydrate with small amounts of protein, causes the greatest increase in insulin.

(This principle is very important to understand. You will be able to make intelligent meal choices only if you get this)

Now consider the typical Indian diet.

How about the old standard: dal, sabzi and roti — protein (some in dal) and carbohydrate (veggies & grains).

Rajma / Curd & Rice - protein and carbohydrate.

Idli / Dosa / Upma with Sambhar—protein and carbohydrate.

A pizza, which is basically cheese, meat / veggies, and a crust—carbohydrate and protein.

Pasta, vegetables, sauce /cheese—carbohydrate and protein.

Think of anything we commonly eat: eggs and bread, milk and cereal / oats / daliya, poha, chicken and noodles.

The list could go on forever; every one of these popular foods is a combination of lots of carbohydrate and some protein.

And what do we eat for snacks? Samosas - Carbohydrate & fat, Chaat - Carbohydrate & fat, Bread sandwiches, rolls, namkeen and papad/theplas—almost pure carbohydrate. Doughnuts, cookies, biscuits and cake—more carbohydrate and fat.

Unfortunately, most people when they want to lose weight treat only the symptoms and often in a way that makes the real problem worse. If you go on a low-fat diet, what happens? By decreasing your fat intake you usually decrease your protein intake, because virtually all foods that are protein-rich contain substantial amounts of fat. Meat, eggs, cheese, most dairy products—the best sources of complete dietary protein—are all either taboo or severely restricted on a low-fat diet. With this protein and fat restriction, the only food component left in the diet is carbohydrate, which by default results in your eating a high-carbohydrate, low-protein diet—the very diet that maximizes insulin production.

The Food Pyramid we learnt about in school, it is wrong. It needs to be upside - down!

Summary:

1. If you want to lose fat, you need to be in the Glucagon state for most of the time.

2. To maximize Glucagon you need to make smart food combinations of Protein + Fat

Questions? Keep them coming....

ATB BB Series 4: Guidelines for starting the diet

2013-01-15T16:06:00.001+05:30

Now that you know what to eat and what not to eat, you must be feeling excited to start the diet. Some of you may be feeling nervous. After all we have been taught since childhood that grains are good & fat is bad. Some of you may panic, "There is nothing left to eat!"

According to the Wheat Belly diet:

Modern wheat is an opiate. Wheat is truly addictive.

Wheat is addictive in the sense that it comes to dominate thoughts and behaviors. Wheat is addictive in the sense that, if you don’t have any for several hours, you start to get nervous, foggy, tremulous, and start desperately seeking out another “hit” of crackers, bagels, or bread, even if it’s the few stale 3-month old crackers at the bottom of the box.

But the “high” of wheat is not like the high of heroine, morphine, or Oxycontin. This opiate, while it binds to the opiate receptors of the brain, doesn’t make us high. It makes us hungry.

This is the effect exerted by gliadin, the protein in wheat that was inadvertently altered by geneticists in the 1970s during efforts to increase yield.

Wheat stimulates appetite. You can read more about the addictive effects of wheat here

What you are doing is replacing grains that offer no nutrition, with real food. It is scientifically proven, over & over, that the human body does not need carbohydrates for survival. It needs Protein & Fat to work. You will not develop any nutritional or fiber deficiencies on this diet.

Trust me it is worth it. That I have lost weight is an awesome side effect of this diet. Yes, it is a side - effect. The Wheat Belly diet itself has more powerful advantages of restoring your health back. You will no longer feel hungry every two hours, your skin & hair will flourish, you will feel more energetic, stronger. You will have way more stamina & endurance, you will be more alert. You will sleep better at night & feel well - rested in the morning.

Before you jump into this way of eating & living, enthusiastically, there are some guidelines you must keep in mind. They will help ease your transition.

Don’t worry about fat, but choose healthy fats: olive oil, nut oils, avocado, ghee, and butter (yes!). Your body can and will use incoming fat as fuel.
Never let yourself get hungry—keep snacks on hand and eat regular meals.
Drink at least 2-3 liters of water a day. On my earlier carb based Indian diet, I would never feel thirsty, but on Wheat Belly diet, I naturally feel very thristy all day & easily accomplish this. When you burn body fat or dietary fat for fuel in the absence of an abundance of carbohydrate, some of the fat may be burned incompletely. These partially burned fat by-products are called ketones. These ketones are nothing more than the natural by-product of fat breakdown. Your body can and will burn them for energy, or, if there are too many to use, it will dispose of them in your breath or by passing them out in the stool or in the urine. And this is where water drinking becomes important: the more water you drink, the more urine you make, the more ketones will pass out in the urine, and the more fat you lose. So drink up!
Take a high-quality vitamin & mineral supplement. I suggest one Supradyne + 1 Celin + 1 Evion daily. Your body, initially on this diet, will lose the water that you have retained . This can initially cause loss of potassium.
When you start the diet, you will get Atkins flu. I suffered for 4-5 days. The symptoms occur because the body craves the opium like hit of wheat, and the withdrwal symptoms are very much like that a smoking addict would suffer from. I had headaches, felt feverish, very cold, shaky & had trouble sleeping at night. At times I had joint pain. But all of this lasts only 3-4 days. It happens because the body takes time to stop production of carbohydrate digesting enzymes, and start digesting protein & fats. Don't give up at this point, it will go away in a week max.
You may get constipated in the first one - two weeks, this happens because your intestinal flora is adapting to the change in diet. Don't panic and just take a spoonful of flaxseed morning & night. It'll not last longer than a week.
There is no portion control in this diet. Eat as much as you want, when you want. But eat only when you are hungry.

Below are some FAQs that I have got from the book Protein Power. This book is written by a MD husband & wife Drs. Michael and Mary Dan Eades who first tried the diet on themselves and have since then in joint practice healed thousands of patients of obesity in their 20 years of practice. This book is also easily available on Flipkart

Q. Won’t eating all this protein harm my kidneys?

A. No, not if your kidneys are normal to begin with. A number of researchers have studied this exact question and, in fact, an impeccable 1995 study from Germany demonstrated that kidney function actually improved with increased protein consumption.

Q. What should I do if I feel dizzy or light-headed?

A. If you feel like you’re going to pass out, or especially if you feel this sensation immediately upon standing up from a chair or bed, you probably need to increase your salt intake. This regime packs a potent diuretic force. As you progress on the program, your lowered insulin begins to allow your kidneys to release their retained fluid. You will notice how much more time you spend in the rest room as you rid yourself of this excess fluid. Unfortunately the kidneys also get rid of sodium and potassium along with this excess fluid, often leading to a sodium and/or potassium deficit and a little dehydration. The lowered sodium along with the dehydration causes the light-headedness. Increase your salt intake by adding regular table salt to your foods, eating a pickle, and you should find your problem solved in short order.

Q. I’ve just started the program, and I feel extremely fatigued. Why?

A. This is a common experience. All of life is catalyzed by enzymes. If it weren't for enzymes, we would just be piles of nonreactive chemicals instead of the living, breathing beings we are. Our DNA codes for millions of enzymes, but we make and have circulating at any given time only those we need. If you have been on a low-fat, high-complex-carbohydrate diet, you have all the enzymes circulating around that deal with storing, breaking down, and retrieving carbohydrates as needed for energy. When you drastically change your diet, all these enzymes are then running around with nothing to do because they’re so specific to their function that they can’t work on your new diet. It takes a few days for your body to produce the new enzymes to deal with the composition of your new diet. After a couple of days of a little tiredness, however, your energy levels should rise considerably, and you should actually end up with a lot more energy than you had before you started the diet.

Q. Why do I sometimes get a funny taste in my mouth on this diet?

A. Ketones released through the lungs can cause an a funny taste in the mouth. The best thing to do for this is to drink plenty of fluids. If you make a lot of urine, most of the ketones will escape that way. If not, about the only way out they have is through the breath.

Q. Why have I had trouble sleeping since starting the diet?

A. Heavy ketosis can cause sleeplessness. It will go away in a few days as your body adjusts.

Q. I don’t have any trouble getting to sleep, but I wake up in the middle of the night starving. I raid the refrigerator and eat whatever is at hand before I can get back to sleep. Will the diet do anything to stop these cravings?

A. Yes. This is not the typical description of a food craving but sounds more like an ulcer or gastritis problem—both of which are common to insulin-resistant people on high-carbohydrate diets. The body naturally releases a surge of stomach acid in the wee hours of the morning that doesn’t bother anyone with a normal stomach lining. But in people who have either ulcers or gastritis (inflammation of the stomach lining), this surge of acid often produces enough pain and discomfort to awaken them. They typically don’t have a sense of actual stomach pain but instead feel a kind of gnawing hunger that begs to be relieved. Consuming a large portion of food neutralizes this excess acid, they feel better, and they go back to sleep. On our program the reduction in carbohydrate intake begins immediately to allow most ulcers and gastritis to heal. Most of these problems are caused by an eicosanoid imbalance that is quickly normalized as soon as insulin levels fall. A few days after starting the program these episodes should begin to become much less frequent and finally go away. If you do awaken, however, make sure you eat according to your intervention plan, and don’t overeat carbohydrates or you will perpetuate the problem.

Q. What about my “sweet tooth”? Because of the carbohydrate restriction, this program doesn’t have any really sweet foods, so I can’t indulge my cravings for sweets.

A. Believe it or not, your craving for sweets will diminish with time. Just as insulin receptors become resistant to the stimulation of insulin over time, requiring much more insulin to make them work, your sweet receptors (taste buds) do the same. With chronic stimulation by a sweet, sugary diet your taste buds become resistant to the stimulation of sweets, requiring more and more to give you the pleasant sensation you desire. As you destimulate them by removing the refined carbohydrate from your diet, your sweet receptors will regain their sensitivity. At that point foods that you previously would have eaten by the plateful to get your sweet fix will provide the same sensation in much smaller amounts. In fact, if you try to eat the amounts you did before, you will pay the price in the way you feel later (This has actually happened to me. I now find sweets too sweet to eat. I am unable to eat them). A few such experiences and your sweet-consumption habits will have changed for good.

Some of you may be thinking of starting this diet. My suggestion is that you read up on the all information available online (do visit the wheatbellyblog it has a lot of information), as well as read the books mentioned below before starting.

1. Wheat Belly

2. Why We get Fat & what to do about it - Gary Taubes

Optional Reading:

1. Atkins Diet Book

2. Protein Power

Questions? Please ask!

ATB BB Series 3: The diet that finally worked...

2013-01-14T23:00:00.001+05:30

Thank you for all your wonderful comments on the second post of the series. I can understand your sense of urgency regarding the diet & food plans. I too would have felt the same way if I were in your place.

I stumbled on this lifestyle, quite by accident. Although now it seems it couldn't have been a co-incidence.

Before I let you in about the diet (bear with me for a few minutes more), please note that this is not a short-term way of eating. If you want to lose weight & stay at that weight, effortlessly, you need to eat like this for the rest of your life.

Yes, you read that right. For the rest of your life. This is not a short term magic formula. The diet works on restricting insulin production in your body, therefore carbohydate restriction. The moment you go back to eating regular roti - sabzi, you will be in deep trouble.

And this diet is best suited for non-vegetarians. There are not too many high quality protein sources that are also vegetarian, other than tofu or soya chunks. Dal does have some protein, but if you google it you will see that it has more carbohydrates per gram than protein, and you can only eat like a half a bowl max of it daily. I avoid it, tbh. I eat it like one bowl once a fortnight.

Vegetarians can try this diet, but it will be a bit monotonous & difficult to come up with new foods to eat. So think about it deeply before you begin.

Before you begin, a word of medical caution: if you are pregnant or are currently taking medications to control cholesterol, blood pressure, fluid retention, or blood sugar, do not begin this regimen without a physician’s guidance.

Okay, with the statutory warnings done, let me introduce you to the diet. This is famous by many, many names actually. And has been around since the 70s. It is the only diet *proven* by science to be effective in weight loss. In a year long study done by Stanford University in 2008, this was the only diet that caused the maximum weight loss which was sustained over a year.

You can watch the video of study here:

This is the "Low - Carbohydrate" diet. This diet is also known as

1. Atkins diet
2. HFLC diet: High Fat Low Carb
3. Wheat Belly Diet
4. Protein Power diet
5. Paleo Diet

Although truth be told, while my diet does have food pattern similar to Atkins (Induction phase only), Protein Power, Paleo or HFLC diet, it is essentially "The Wheat Belly" diet. I will share later why I chose to follow WheatBelly above the rest in another post.

This book Wheat Belly is available on flipkart & my suggestion is if you plan to follow this diet, please buy it and read it. You can also refer to the blog by the author (who is a cardiologist btw) here: http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/

Yes, you heard that right. No grains. No wheat, corn, rice, millet, bajra, jowar, maida and no dals as well! For the rest of my life. This is not a month long initiative. This is a life time deal.

This is the diet I followed in the last four months:

Eliminate:

All wheat-based products (all breads, all breakfast cereals, noodles, pasta, bagels, muffins, pancakes, waffles, donuts, pretzels, crackers), oat products (oatmeal, oat bran), corn and cornstarch-based products (sauces or gravies thickened with cornstarch, prepared or processed foods containing cornstarch, cornmeal products like chips, tacos, tortillas), sugary soft drinks, candies. I even avoid other grains like rice, bajra, jowar, millet et al. No grains.
Avoid processed foods containing wheat, such as Chinese sauces like soy sauce, powdered instant Soup mixes, salad dressings, taco seasoning–examine ALL labels and avoid any food with mention of grains / sugar. (It’s not a bad idea to avoid foods with labels! Cucumbers and spinach, for instance, generally don’t come with labels.)
Anything that has sugar - whether it is regular white sugar, brown sugar, jaggery, honey, sugarcane. That means no chocolates, cakes, pastries, sweets, fruit juices. But this strict sugar avoidance is important only if you are looking to lose weight. No dry fruits as well, like rasins, apricots & dates.

Enjoy unlimited:

Vegetables-except potatoes, sweet potatoes & beets; rest you can eat fresh or frozen, never canned
Raw nuts and seeds-raw almonds, walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, pistachios, Brazil nuts, cashews, macadamians; dry-roasted peanuts (not roasted in oil); pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, and chia seeds
Healthy oils-olive, flaxseed, coconut, avocado, walnut, peanut, sesame, ghee.
Meats-red meats, pork, fish, chicken, turkey, eggs.
Teas & coffee (all without sugar), water, unsweetened almond milk, coconut milk or coconut water
Cheeses.
Avocado or guacamole; hummus; unsweetened condiments, e.g., mayonnaise, mustard, oil-based salad dressings; ketchup without high-fructose corn syrup; pesto, tapenades; olives
Full fat milk, curd, malai, ghee, paneer.
Water: drink till you float!

Limited:

Fruit-No more than one serving once a week (one serving is a level handful), preferably in this order (best first): berries of all varieties, citrus, apples, nectarines, peaches, melons only. Minimize bananas, pineapples, mangoes, and grapes and only in the smallest of quantities (since they are like candy in sugar content)
Legumes/beans (rajma, chole, channa) only half a cup a day.; peas; organic soy
Dark chocolates only -70-85% cocoa or greater; no more than 40 grams (approximately 2 inches square) once a week
Pulses - dals: one bowl once a week.

Never:

"Gluten-free" foods made with rice flour, cornstarch, tapioca starch, or potato starch. This means that bhujiya, namkeen, chaat is all no!
Fried foods like samosas, vadas - But you can eat onion, gobi & paneer pakodas btw. Vegetable pakodas, once in a fortnight is absolutely fine. Just make sure you use only besan batter & don't add any wheat / corn starch to it.
Fast foods - like samosas, rolls, frankies, sandwhiches.
Hydrogenated “trans” fats
Cured meats–hot dogs, sausages, bacon, bologna, pepperoni “fixed” with sodium nitrite
High-fructose corn syrup containing foods; honey; agave syrup; sucrose
Processed rice, rice flour or potato products-rice crackers, rice cereals, pretzels, white breads, breakfast cereals, potato chips
Fat-free or low-fat salad dressings

Please start this diet when you have 2-3 days off as the body takes a few days to adjust & you may experience flu like symptoms (Atkins flu)

So there you have it. The list of foods I eat & don't eat. I shall share the rules of this diet in the next post as well as what to order in restaurants, what alcohols are okay and a lot of other information.

Questions?? Keep them coming!

ATB BB Series 2: Why we get Fat

2013-01-13T16:34:00.002+05:30

Thank you all for the heart warming response to the introductory post in the series.

Now whenever you talk to anyone you know for advice on weight loss, we’ll be instructed to exercise regularly, to diet, to eat less, as though the thought of doing so, the desire to do so, would never otherwise have crossed our minds.

Those of us who are overweight or obese will spend much of our lives trying to eat less, or at least eat not too much. We will struggle to avoid "fatty" foods. Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we fail, but the fight goes on. For some, the battle begins in childhood. For others, it starts in college, while spending the first year away from home.

We are convinced we are fat because we are consuming more calories that we can burn.

This way of thinking about our weight is so pervasive that it is virtually impossible nowadays not to believe it. Even if we have plenty of evidence to the contrary — no matter how much of our lives we’ve spent consciously trying to eat less and exercise more without success — we’ll question our own judgment and our own willpower than we will this notion that our fatness is determined by how many calories we consume and expend.

What I'm trying to say here is that we don’t get fat because we eat too much and move too little, and that we can’t solve the problem or prevent it by consciously doing the opposite.

I don’t mean to imply that there is a magic recipe to losing weight, or at least not one that doesn't include sacrifice. The question is, what has to be sacrificed?

When I was a size 28 waist and my tops were mostly Small in my twenties. My diet was a typical Punjabi diet - eggs, milk & milk products everyday, and of course regular food - sabzi, dal, parathas - I ate two parathas a day. One at lunch, another at dinner. I also ate ice-cream every single day. Yes, I was not concerned about the ghee / fat in my food at all. My attitude was bring it on. I never saw the inside of a gym, but walking up & down in college & lab activities I suppose was enough. I didn't put on any weight at all.

Once I began working / doing my MBA, the weight slowly started to pile on. I was eating outside - South Indian food - idlis & dosas, sandwiches, burgers. But even then I didn't get too concerned. It was just a couple of kilos. The real change happened after my marriage. Hubby disliked eggs, non-vegetarian food & milk. So I also moved to a all veg diet with him. Mornings I made Oats with low fat milk - no sugar, some daliya (wheat porridge) or poha once in a while, afternoons/evenings was regular roti - sabzi. I used whole grain / multi grain atta. The food was cooked at home, made using Zero-Oil techniques. I ate fruit everyday. I made salads a part of my diet. I had given up my indulgences like cheese & butter. Yet, I just got fatter! I was even going to the gym three times a week, yet there was just no difference. Was it possible that my body had turned vengeful for all the abuse, and now that I was leading a healthy lifestyle it had decided to revolt?

I got the thyroid / PCOS testing done. Nada. I couldn't blame my problem on an hormonal imbalance.

Or could I? Did I somehow cause an hormonal imbalance because of what I was eating?

It looks healthy, but it is full of fattening Carbs

On a lark, I googled the phase "Why do we get fat" and came across this article by Gary Taubes.

Insulin and glucagon are the primary hormones involved in the storage and release of energy within the body. When we eat, insulin drives our metabolism to store the excess food energy for use later. When later comes, glucagon drives the metabolism the other way, letting us burn our stored fat for the energy we need to swim or walk or sleep in the hours long after we’ve eaten.

When insulin levels are elevated, we accumulate fat in our fat tissue; when these levels fall, glucagon levels rise & we liberate fat from the fat tissue and burn it for fuel. This has been known, scientifically proven since the early 1960s and has never been controversial. Ask any doctor & they will tell you that this is correct.

Our insulin levels are effectively determined by the carbohydrates we eat—not entirely, but for all intents and purposes. The more carbohydrates we eat, and the easier they are to digest and the sweeter they are, the more insulin we will ultimately secrete, meaning that the level of it in our bloodstream is greater and so is the fat we retain in our fat cells.

“Carbohydrate is driving insulin is driving fat"

Now do you see the difference in my two diets. I eliminated almost all fat & protein and was eating a normal, Indian, vegetarian diet - one that is full of carbohydrates.

In other words, the science itself makes clear that hormones, enzymes, and growth factors regulate our fat tissue, just as they do everything else in the human body, and that we do not get fat because we overeat; we get fat because the carbohydrates in our diet make us fat. The science tells us that obesity is ultimately the result of a hormonal imbalance, not a caloric one—specifically, the stimulation of insulin secretion caused by eating carbohydrate-rich foods: cereal whole grains (wheat, rice, corn et al) & flour, pulses & dals, legumes, starchy vegetables such as potatoes, and sugars, like sucrose (table sugar), honey, high sugar fruits and high-fructose corn syrup. It doesn't matter if the carbohydrate is simple (sugar) or complex (wheat). To the body it is a carbohydrate and it will secrete insulin to break it down. Insulin that will make you fat.

It was an eye opening moment for me when I realized it wasn't Butter & Eggs that was making me fat or lack of physical activity, it was my supposedly "healthy" whole grain based vegetarian diet.

I know, right now some of you will have a ton of questions. Aren't pulses supposed to be good protein sources? You mean my roti / dosa is making me put on weight? My best friend / colleague / neighbor is a pure vegetarian & is stick thin, why don't carbs make her fat? Aren't vegetarian / vegan diets are best for the environment / planet? How can fruits be making me fat, they are supposed to be fat free?

I will be dealing with all the questions in coming posts. In case you have any doubts or questions, please leave them in the comments below.

To summarize:

1. Insulin secretion, which means eating carbohydrates makes you fat.
2. Eating fat does not make you fat.

Further Reading:

1. Why we get fat & what to do about it by Gary Taubes.

This was the first book I read in June last year. It is a pretty recent book, published in 2011. The author before this wrote Good Calories, Bad Calories, which is essentially the same book - but the science in it is too complex for me to understand. But "Why we get fat" is written very well & easy to read.

This was the book that first opened my eyes to the possibility that what I had been taught was all wrong. If you are serious about losing weight, and have tried everything & given up, are sick of starving & exercising till you drop dead, then please buy & read this book. It is a big book, but it is a must read according to me. It's also not very expensive. The paperback costs only 350 bucks.

Gary Taubes is an American Science Writer, a journalist. This was the only book out of the lot that I read that was not written by a doctor or a cardiologist or a medical expert. But just because Gary is not a medical professional, it is not reason enough to dismiss this book. He may not have done the research himself, but he is a science writer. He is able to read studies, and decipher them for people like you & me.

At the end of the day I'm not an expert, but I know what it is like to be fat. Whether it is the emotional issues or the physical ones. Hence I'm going to suggest that if you are serious about losing weight, spend the time, money & effort to read the books suggested, and also Google them up for related articles & videos.

This is not intended to replace medical advice. This is just a honest recount of what worked for me. Please consult your doctor before any diet changes. Your health is your responsibility.

Questions?? Please leave them in comments below! :-)

15 kgs, 4 months.. Welcome to the ATB BB Series!

2013-01-12T18:24:00.001+05:30

Yes, you read that right.. I lost 15 kgs in 4 months. You wanna know how? Read on...

2012 was the year when a lot of people took charge of their fitness routines. You can read some wonderful posts on fitness on Coralista, Indian vanity case & Wise she.

I was no exception. Only I didn't want to write about it until I experienced substantial change. Call me superstitious, but I definitely didn't want to "nazar lago" my weight loss. God knows, I have struggled through various solutions with no results. I started my diet in September of '12 and it has been roughly 4 months, and I have lost 15 kgs.

This is me before:

and this is me now:

Sorry for the slightly blurry pic, I haven't had a chance to take a proper picture recently

Some of you must be curious about what I did. No, I didn't starve or turn anorexic. Nor did I become a gym rat.

It is difficult for me to encapsulate all what has happened in the last four months in one post. So this will be spread over a few posts, but I will candidly share all I know with you guys. Things that worked, and more importantly things that didn't work. Books I read, oh yes, I read a lot of books before I made changes. And some internet resources that you can use to keep on track.

I'll be more than happy, if it helps even one of you. Hence this BB Series, where BB = Body Beautiful.

And no, I haven't reached my ideal weight yet. I'm still on my journey to a fit & healthy body. I hope that you will enjoy reading this series.

Colorbar Nail Paint Exclusive 56 - Review & NOTD

2013-01-10T21:20:00.000+05:30

I love glitter nail paints. I love how they shine & shimmer. I love how they stay on for really long. And I also have a fascination for black based shimmer nail paints. So there is no way I could have walked away from the counter without this nail paint. I don't know why this is called "Exclusive" though, I'm not sure if this is LE.

Price: Rs 150 for 9 ml bottle.

What I liked:

1. This is based based golden shimmer nail paint. On the nails, the black forms a very light base, dark enough to accentuate the golden shimmer & light enough to get the shimmer take center stage.

2. The formula itself is thin and therefore I find it easy to work with. I don't like polishes that are too thick as I always mess up the application. The first coat goes on sheer, but it is very build-able I'm wearing three coats in the pictures + a clear top coat. The glitter is densely packed in the formula & you will get very good coverage in 2-3 coats without your nail feeling heavy & suffocated.

Colorbar Nail Paint Exclusive 56

3. My maid has been absconding, which means I have been washing utensils myself. I was sure this would come off after one session of washing. But it has stayed on. It faded very little bit along the tips - very little. But on the whole it didn't chip, dull down or wear off.

4. The brush is pretty decent. Nothing exciting, but nothing bad either.

5. It is a neutral shade, I think it'll pretty much look good on everyone with everything.

6. The shimmer / glitter is very, very fine and doesn't feel gritty or heavy on the nail.

What could be better:
1. The price? Y U NO make economical products anymore Colorbar? Y U try to ape Inglot? Y NO name?

Overall: I'm very fond of gold & silver shimmer / glitter nail paints. So I really like this one as well. If you are into glitter nail paints then you will enjoy this.

ATB Learning Curve: 10 beauty lessons I learnt in my twenties

2013-01-02T23:17:00.002+05:30

Okay Girls, I turn thirty tomorrow (3^rd Jan). And this is something I’m really looking forward to (NOT!).

No seriously, I am fine with it. It’s not like I have an option. Besides people say it is just a number (Whateva! If it is just a number, what’s wrong in being 24 forever?)

1.Some colors are meant for when you get a bit older: I couldn't carry off red lipstick in all my twenties. I was finally able to look decent (read: not like a streetwalker) when I turned 29. Yes, last year was my year of red lipstick. I wore it everywhere – to office, to the market. Maybe my face needed to mature a bit. Maybe I just didn't have the confidence to carry it off. God knows.

2. Don’t compare yourself: Sure, there’ll always be someone who is taller, duskier, leggier than you. It is tempting, and being women we are always constantly scanning & comparing ourselves to others. I remember being insanely jealous of this really pretty friend in college. She was gorgeous, intelligent and from a very well off family. I thought she had everything going for her, and would keep wishing that I could have a charmed life like hers. One fine morning I found out that she had committed suicide. She was very unhappy because of her boyfriend. It’s all perception. You never really know how easy or tough someone’s life is. Which brings me to my next point.

3. Walk away: Sometimes it is better to walk away from certain people, situations, relationships, SAs / MUAs & products than try and make them work. Life is too short to take abuse of any sort. It may hurt if you are very fond of the person or ruing the money you spent over the product. But if someone or something is taking you for granted, making you feel bad about yourself then walk away. We all have flaws, but that is no reason for someone to take advantage of you, or make you feel bad about it. It is the same for products, if they are not good for your skin or that shade does nothing for you, give it away to someone else. Don’t waste time on them.

4. Eyebrows make a big difference: Find yourself someone who does it well (not too thin, not too arched) or else do it yourself. That’s what I do. There are lots of wonderful tutorials out there on how to take charge of your brows. Do it. Also when doing your makeup for a big day, fill in the gaps. It’ll make a huge difference to your entire look. I have just started to pay attention to them.

5. A good mascara is really worth it: A good mascara for me (for night / smoky eyes) is one that darkens (my lashes are bit lighter than black) and lengthens. After muddling through a lot of mascaras I have realized that a good one, literally, elevates your eye makeup to a whole another level. It may sound like just one product, but it has up to 50% impact upon how your eyes look. Yes, I made that up, but seriously try out mascaras till you find one that you love. And it’ll be worth it. The one that I absolutely love is Lakme Eyeconic Mascara and it costs only 250/-

6. Take good care of your skin: I remember being quite reckless with my skin in my early twenties. All I used was a face wash. Nothing else. I started to take care of my skin only when I crossed 26 and I can see the difference now when I look at my older pictures. My skin is much better & healthier now.

7. People will always judge you, no matter what you do. Some young readers have mentioned that they feel self-conscious when they wear makeup. People stare, friends disapprove etc. Don’t care. People will anyway talk about you behind your back. When some people have no shame committing heinous crimes, why should you be self – conscious about your taste (I know it is a bad analogy, but stay with it). Over time others will get used to you, and you’ll get impervious to the stares. Trust me; I am a fair, green eyed with brown hair. I get stared at by men & women & children all the time, since I can remember. I don’t even notice it now. Don’t let it stop you.

8. Unblended eyeliner on the lower lash line is not a good look: I used to get away with that thick line of brown eyeliner on my lower lash line all through my twenties till I was 28. But after a while it just began to look unsophisticated. Blend it into a soft color into your lower lash line.

9. Shiny, vinyl textures are not good for bright lip shades: Maybe it is just me, I just find bright or deep lip colors easier to carry off when they have a satin or matt finish. For example MAC’s Ruby Woo works so well because it is Matt, similarly MAC Diva which is a deep burgundy. MAC Rebel which is a deep purple, again works because it is satin. This is pretty much the reason I didn't like Colorbar’s True Gloss range – the problem is not that it is too bright for me, that I can work with. But the shiny vinyl glossy finish is really not pretty. I feel it trashes up the entire look. However I am aware that lots of people love them and carry them off well, so I’m gonna put it down to me. Maybe I’m just comfortable with the color calling for attention, without adding an additional dimension of finish to it. If you are shy of bright or bold colors as well, try altering the texture to find products you feel comfortable in.

10. Always be open to new ideas: for the longest time I thought I couldn't wear black eyeliner (as it clashed with my eyes) and I couldn't line my waterline as it made my eyes look small. They both changed. After a discussion with a MUA at MAC, whom took up the challenge to make me wear black eyeliner, I have never looked back. She simply told me not to wear stark black, but a black tinged with color – to retain the black pigment, but take off the harshness. I generally mix either gold or some purple into my black eyeliner. As for the waterline, I recently lost some weight. And my face structure changed quite a bit. My eyes look bigger now, and I can do the waterline. So the point is never give up & keep experimenting. You never know.

So those were my beauty lessons from my twenties. What are some beauty lessons that you have learnt along the way?

Happy New Year & A Quick Smoky Tutorial

2013-01-01T12:34:00.000+05:30

Happy New Year!

I hope this year is all sorts of awesome for all of you!

Yesterday was quite a hectic day, I had to rush back from office, get ready & then step out again. So I did a very, very quick smoky eye.

1. Get your face base in order. I just washed my face & applied a quick swipe of MAC Blot Powder
2. Apply MAC Power Kohl in Orpheus along the upper & lower lash line. This is a very bronzy, shimmery black based kohl, a LE product that is part of the Glamour Daze Collection.

2. I lined the waterline with MAC Feline. You can use any deep black kohl. Use one that is bit smudgy, so your eye makeup keeps getting smoky as we go.

3. Now here you stop your make-up and do you do your hair / clothes / shoes / whatever. Basically to give time to Feline to get a bit smudgy on its own. Takes about 15 minutes. Or else you could blend it in yourself with Orpheus on the lower lash line.

4. Run over the blended lower lash line with Orphesus again.

5. Mascara: Lakme Absolute - it darkens & lenthens like nothing else.

6. Blush: MAC Mocha. Just use which ever blush you like.

7. Lips: MAC P+P, followed by Hot Tahiti.

That is it! This makeup shouldn't take you longer than ten minutes.

How was your New Year? What look did you wear?

ATB Beauty Awards Makeup of the Year 2012

2012-12-30T23:43:00.000+05:30

This year has been a little slow in blogging. I was travelling quite a bit, dealt with the loss of some loved ones, as well as with the fact that as we grow older our friends seem to be drifting away as they get busy with their lives - careers & family. Sometimes the distance was physical, sometimes just a change in priorities.

But I hope to be blogging a lot more in the coming year. And as always is the tradition here at ATB, here are my makeup products of the year 2012!

Foundation

Medium to Heavy coverage:

Bourjois Bio Detox Organic Foundation: I’m sticking with Bourjois. I really feel they make the best formulas in foundations for drugstore brands, and they are gentle enough for daily use with no clogged pores but with the recent increase in rates, it is beginning to pinch. But I don’t have a drug store replacement to be honest. Most other brands are too yellow for me. This one has plenty of bad reviews online. And I admit, it is a toughie to work with. But once you master it, it looks like real matt skin. Only not everyone may have the patience to blend like a manic every morning.

Light coverage:

Ponds Age Miracle Tinted Moisturizer with spf 15 – It has been discontinued. I tried the Maybelline BB one as well as the Garnier BB cream one, didn't like either enough to replace this. This stays.

Concealor

Undereyes: I generally use Bourjois Detox Foundation itself after warming it up a bit. I tried a couple in stores which included Maybelline Illuminating one – I found it to be too light for me & too sparkly.

For spots: Colorbar Instant cover up concealer Stick - I use #1, and it suits me very, very well. It is soft enough to blend but dry enough to stick on to my acne spots. The only issue is with sharpening it. It won't sharpen nicely in my Lakme sharpener, and I don't wanna pay so much for that overpriced Colorbar one.

Loose Powder Lakme Rose Powder. Nothing really comes close to it in terms of price v/s quantity & performance.

Compact Powder

MAC Blot Powder in Medium Dark: Although not really a compact, and more of a touch up powder for oily skinned girls, this was my go to compact this year. This was amazing on my oily skin. It instantly mattifies without making me look powdery. Tip: buy this in a shade darker than you think you need, it does seem to go very light even in the darker shades. (For reference I am C1 in MAC Face & Body, but here Medium Dark is what suits me)

Primer

L'Oreal Magic Perfecting Base – I stuck to this, as I didn't see any good primer launches this year.

Eyeshadow

Powder

L'Oreal Color Infallible Eyeshadows: My favorites are Endless Chocolate & Burning Black (a deep purple – black). These are really, really awesome. Very pigmented, excellent color pay-off and they last a good 5-6 hours without primer on my lids. They are a bit troublesome to blend, especially mixed with other more powdery shadows. But they look so beautiful by themselves also that I actually don’t mind it.

Cream

Maybelline 24 hour Tattoo Eyeshadow: The delicious price allows you to indulge, the free brush is really quite good, and while the color selection is not good enough to rival MAC and neither is the staying power (on my oily lids without primer, I get only 2 hours wear) you’ll definitely find a shade you like. I personally like Bad to the Bronze best.

MAC Paint Pots: I love these! I have around 4-5 of these, but out of those, it is Bare Study on a daily basis (makes me look less sleepy!) and Genuine Treasure was my eyeshadow of the year! It is the most unique eyeshadow I own and gorgeous to boot. Unfortunately this was LE, but if it comes out again, run & get it.

Eyeliner

Liquid: The only one I tried this year was Maybelline Hyperglossy. It is glossy, but the brush is terrible. It is soft and bends all over resulting in a very uneven line. I wish the brush were more stiff. So no winners in this category.

Pencil

Faces Pencil Eyeliners – They’ve increased prices now to 325, but I still like Soft Brown, Metal Brown & Black Sparkle a lot.

MUFE Aqua Eye Pencils: I love the color range, they stay put on the waterline, and did I mention the gorgeous colors? My particular favorite is 1L, a soft charcoal grey black!

Colorbar eye pencil in Coal Mine: I’m yet to experience wearing this, and not be asked “What are you wearing on your eyes?”. A pretty grey-blue with shimmer. This is a super interesting shade that you need. Yes, it is a need, not a want!

Gel
Maybelline Gel Liners: I finally found a way to work with them. All I needed was a super fine Vega eyeliner brush, and kitten flicks, here I come. I also liked that they launched a pretty, swirly, brown one. The staying power isn’t as good as the regular black one, and neither is it as pigmented. But at a price point of 300/-, I’ll take it.

Kajal

Lakme Absolute Kohl Ultimate: I generally don’t wear black kajal, but when I do, it is only this. It is so soft, it glides on beautifully, the smudger is quite good at the end of it (it’ll be gentle if you are gentle with pressure) and it sets after a minute or two & lasts well in humid, hot conditions. And the color is an unapologetic deep, dark black. Not that grey tinged black kohl that I’ve seen all too often (Lakme Eyeconic Kajal – you are one of those offenders!). It is a bit pricy, but I think it is worth it.

Mascara
Max Factor: I have tried 3 of their mascaras now, and am convinced that they make the best mascaras (for office / day wear) in drugstore arena. They have shades other than black, like brown which is perfect for me for office. And yes, I like them better than Maybelline.

Lakme Eyeconic Mascara: Lazy (read: Scared) like me to curl your lashes before mascara? Well, Lakme finally combined the two to moderate success. It does curl & it does the job of a mascara well enough too. Not as awesome as Max factor, but then it is priced almost half as well.

MUFE Smoky Lash Mascara: You want va va voom lashes? Get this. Tons of volume, some lengthening. But this is a loaded gun, go overboard & it is clumps, ahoy! But I still love this for night-time. The most intense mascara I have tried.

Eye Base / Primer

MAC Paint Pot in Nubile: Released as a part of the MAC Posh Paradise Collection, this is a neutral beige with a hint of pink. It looks natural blended in, unlike Painterly which was too beigey for me. This is perfect for my skintone, and it does make the eyeshadow last really long.

Blush

Powder:

Bourjois #33 Lilas D’Or: This NARS Orgasm dupe is the one I vote for.

Cream

Ben Nye Cream Rouge in Sandy Rose: These were *almost* my find of the year. If you like Cream Blushes, you will love these!

Bronzer

Colorbar Blush in Cinnabar – Nothing looks as good on me. But this has been discontinued now, and Colorbar has launched pricier versions. I don’t know if this figures in the new line up.

Lipstick

MAC Lipstick: From one lipstick last year, to more than a dozen this year. And now I finally understand the hype around their lipsticks. I eat my words, and will say that they are worth it. I love the huge selection and that the MUAs are patient while you keep oscillating between shades like crazy, wanting to try them one more time. My favorites amongst the ones I own are Ruby Woo (a cool toned red which is just awesome), Hot Tahiti (pretty raspberry pink red), Retro (a very under-rated shade according to me), Rebel (a burgundy purple), Diva(burgundy), Viva Glam I (cool toned red with a hint of brown), Viva Glam Cyndi & Lustering (a clean, vivid pink). My favorite formula is Satin, followed by Matt. Amplified Cremesheen, I dislike.

Revlon Super Lustrous lipsticks: This was the year I finally tried Revlon SL lipsticks. And Boy, was I hooked. I love the formula, the colors, the price. Everything. After MAC, these are my go to lippies. One doesn't need thick layers for coverage, and it stays on long enough. It won’t dry out the lips as well. My favourites here are Berry Rich, Mulled Wine, Rose Velvet, Rose Passion, Cha Cha Cherry, Certainly Red & Blackcherry (If you be like me, and are into deep burgundy shades, this is an absolute must have!)

Lipliner

Inglot AMC Matt Lipliner – I have three of these now, and I like them. The mattness doesn’t bother me, but if you have very dry lips, stay away.

Gloss

Jordana LOL (Lip Out Loud) Lip gloss: I love these! They go on non-goopy and last long. Plus they are priced right at 300/-

Revlon Colorburst Lipgloss: They are good, I’ll say, with some very unique & gorgeous shades. But too pricy according to me, I can’t indulge. And that, makes me sad.

Tinted Balm

Maybelline colorbloom lip balm in Peach: It is a white stick that changes color to a very pretty, natural looking pink. Light enough to look natural, but not light enough that you look like you have nothing on your lips. It also is very moisturizing. Leaves behind a tint that is buildable with more layers. Just a warning: Don’t drink citrusy drinks after applying this. As it changes color with pH, it once turned fuchsia pink on me.

Jordana Easy Shine Glossy Lip color: A better dupe for Revlon’s Lip Butters, these are priced at Rs. 239/- and are more pigmented. I love these. Berry Colada is my #1 choice.

Revlon Lip Butters: Overated! I tried Berry Smoothie. It’s nice, but not worth the hefty 600 price tag! Better invested in a bunch of shades from Nivea or Maybelline. I didn't like these at all.

Lip Primer:
MAC Lip Prep + Prime: 3^rd tube. Enough said.

Nail Paints:

Lakme Fast and Fabulous One Stroke Nail Color: You say they will dry in 40 seconds? I’m sold. These are amazing for clumsy, always rushed for time people like me. Because all said & done, we know that most nail paints take an hour to set 100% (Don’t tell me you haven’t spoilt your paint with fabric marks). The nail paint lasts at least 3 days without chipping with a top coat and the range has some very amazing colors as well. My favourites are Aqua Blaze & Popping Pink.

Jordana Nail Paints: They are the Big 3 free, last long and the formula is easy to work with. I like ‘em a lot!

So those were my hits (and some misses) of the year 2012, when it came to makeup.

Which products make it to your best of 2012 list? What were your "best buys" of the year?

The world didn't end, but humanity did...

2012-12-29T20:43:00.001+05:30

By Simran Parmar

Why do women's rights have no weightage in our society?

What is wrong with the men of this nation? What is it that makes them feel so superior to their mother sister, wife or daughter? Why can’t they see a woman as she is supposed to be- a woman. What gives them the right to think they can treat her as a non-living object, meant to be treated worse than plague?

Nirbhaya- that was the name given to the young 23 year old woman by a leading newspaper who finally succumbed to the might of men. That name could not have been more ironical. It’s a joke. She was brave, no doubt, but not without fear. She was conceived not knowing if she would be given birth to. She grew up not knowing if she was going to be educated. She lived not knowing when she would be beheaded by her own brothers for ‘honour’. She lived not knowing when her parents would decide to get her married because surely she has no say in something as trivial as becoming someone’s wife. She did not know if she was going to be burnt for not bringing a car in marriage, or if her husband just enjoyed beating her up after he had a few drinks. She did not know if, as if to complete the vicious cycle, she would abort her own child because it was a girl.

But ‘Nirbhaya’ did not even get a chance to live this wondrous life.

But do not despair, she faced ample opportunities to feel fear. When she was traveling in public transport and someone ‘accidentally’ bumped into her, when she was walking on a crowded street, or when she was in a deserted lane. When she was in a club and was offered a drink, when she wore anything that showed an inch of her skin or when she was just minding her own business, going about life as she thought was normal. But of course she was wrong. How dare she go to office or watch movies with her friends? How could she even think of clubbing or that she could join in the crowd in a public place on New Years eve to celebrate like the rest of the world? She asked for it, everytime, for she was behaving like a ‘loose’, ‘painted’ and ‘immoral’ girl. She asked for it when she was 3 and when she was 68.

What about the other ladies of the world who have been fortunate enough not to face such brutal violence? They have been compensated, for they have been allowed to study, no matter that her equally educated, men of the so-called next generation, easily dissed her accomplishments. When she got placed, it was because the companies had to maintain a certain gender ratio, no matter that she later went on to beat her male peers and top her stream, or it was because of the way she looked, because surely she can’t simply have the ability to be better. They have been allowed to work, at lesser pay and with even lesser chances of opportunities, while being a topic of watercooler discussions because she wore a lipstick.

When she got promoted, it was because she flirted with the boss, not because maybe, just maybe she has brains. Men lament the special treatment given to ladies, not realizing perhaps that most of the time the treatment is to protect her, from the ever hungry eyes of other men. They have been allowed to survive in this society, while being constantly reminded of that their freedom is limited, because they should not go out too late, they should be accompanied with male friends, because they need protection, from other males. Because she was unfortunate enough to be born a girl.

Don’t you understand? Don’t you get it that when you catcall or whistle at a girl its not just harmless fun? That its not fine for you and your friends to loiter around streets, staring and singing ‘chamak challo’ and ‘chikni chameli’ when a woman walks by? That its not ok for you to look the other way when all these things happen because she’s not related to you?

She came into this world scared, and she left it in pain, scarred, humiliated, dishonoured, with broken bones and a shattered soul. But then of course, she deserved it. Because she was a girl. And above all, an Indian. The world didn’t end, but humanity did.

Doomsday? I think our society is already doomed...

2012-12-21T18:56:00.001+05:30

.... if this is how we treat our women and kids, our society is already doomed to destruct & die. We don't need meteorite showers from outside.

I was in Goa, last week when I heard about the Delhi rape case. According to some statistics at least 30 women get raped in India everyday. We read about it, shake our heads in disgust & move on. Everyday. A Spanish women got raped in Mumbai recently. Appropriate noises were made by those in power. And we move on.

The recent case stands out for absolute brutality meted out to the girl. It is a terrible event, and it doesn't even begin to make sense to me. I wish it had never happened.

I don't understand how it didn't occur to even one out of those six men that what they were doing was wrong, that the girl also was a human being, just like them. Wasn't even one of them, "man" enough to stop the rest?

In today's HT I read about a 3 year old girl child who was raped at her play-school. Three year old? Come on now, did she ask for it too? Was she dressed inappropriately?

What is happening to our society? How is it that men don't even think twice before ganging up just to commit crimes against women? And how is it that it doesn't seem wrong to any of these men? Our men have forgotten how to behave in a civil fashion. Travel across any roads in India and be prepared to be stared at constantly, at the least. And while they will do this & worse, other "men" will just stand around as mute spectators. There is no fear of the law when it comes to crime against women.

I don't have any expectations from either the law & order system, the politicians & police. Because it doesn't affect their lives, they won't bother. The rate of conviction is almost zero for crimes against women. Until things get better, our safety & security is in our own hands.

I wish I had some fool proof solution to help all of you stay safe & secure. Do whatever it takes to make you feel safe. It could be as simple as carrying a pepper spray / pair of scissors to learning some self defense techniques. Keep your wits about you, don't accept rides from strangers. If you are at a club or party, if the drink leaves your hand, just chuck the rest & get a fresh one. Ensure that your drink is prepared right in front of you. Basically just be vigilant. And stay safe. God Bless!

My Swiss and Paris trip & Packing for it

2012-12-08T21:58:00.000+05:30

This time last weekend, I was in Paris.

Eiffel Tower at Night: One of the most beautiful sights I have seen

I was actually on a business trip to Switzerland, but I snuck some time out on the weekend to visit the Fashion Capital of the World - Paris. I had less than 36 hours in Paris, and it was too less to be honest. It is a beautiful city & deserves at least a week.

I was quite excited & apprehensive when packing for the trip, I'm one of those people who cannot stand cold weather at all (I can't stand summers either here in Mumbai. I guess I'm just difficult to please), but at the same time I didn't want to look out of place. Ki of Dressing Up for Life helped me quite a bit when packing warm clothes for the trip and so did Mehak's / Peaches & Blush post on her Europe trip (read it here) I thought I'd share my packing list here, in case any of you might be planning a trip to colder climates.

1. In Paris, the local girls wear very monochrome colors like black, navy, beige, white/cream & grey. The only splash of color in their outfit will be the scarf. I too carried mostly neutral colors (read: Black) as I was packing for office work as well, plus I really didn't want to look like tourist and neutral colors are very easy to wear coz everything matches everything. Parisian women like to wear black fitted trousers, and jeans are all dark wash, fitted. I also had a woolen beanie cap from Accessorize, but I left it behind at Eiffel Tower. :-(

2. The streets in Paris & most parts of Swiss are cobbled, so walking on them in heels is a bit tough. But if you are a Mumbai girl, you will have most probably negotiated potholed pavements in heels, and this cobbled pathways are like clouds. However, since I wanted to walk around & explore the cities, I packed two pairs of flat leather black & beige oxford shoes from Clark's. They served me rather well. I also took knee length woolen socks as the cold from the snow does travel up the feet. Under any circumstances don't carry your white trainers - you will instantly stand out in Paris. Wear leather. Wear boots or oxfords.

3. Paris is really cold in winter and windy as well at times, in Swiss it was snowing everywhere. So Ki advised me to layer well. First a thermal, followed by my top, a thin woolen sweater (I took a black one) and finally a long, knee length beige coat on top (carry this on you, in the flight, it'll save luggage space). I additionally purchased a couple of woolen scarfs from Paris. This kept me warm even when it was snowing a lot in Zurich. I also carried some woolen gloves, but I didn't wear them (I hate gloves) and ended up with a lot of internal bleeding injuries because of the cold. So don't make the same mistake I did. I thought I was coming down with Frost Bite. (Yes, I'm also a hypochondriac) I also took a knee length black dress just in case and my DKNY Cozy in both black & white.

4. Makeup: I carried very basic makeup. Revlon Mulled Wine Lipstick, Faces Metal Brown Eyeliner, NYX Red Cheeks Cream Blush, Ponds TM & Maybelline Peach Bloom Lip Balm. That was it. It was so cold there that my cheeks naturally turned pink & I really didn't need to use the blush at all. Most days I used the brown eyeliner & peach lip balm.

5. Skincare: Again very basic, I carried Neutrogena Norwegian Formula Hand Cream as moisturizer for the hands & face, (yea, I used it on my face & am glad to report that I didn't break out at all & neither did I get any flaky dry bits) sunscreen Elovera cream and TBS Vit E Cream Cleanser. I forgot to carry Body Butter & had really dry legs. I skipped hair care & used the hotel prdts instead.

6. Accessories: I didn't carry any. I just wore tiny silver hoops and nothing else.

I essentially packed very light. I shopped a bit for skincare in French Pharmacies and also made a lot of notes on the makeup trends in both Paris & Swiss, but I'll save those for my next post.

Have you been to Paris or Switzerland? How do you pack for cold climate trips?

ATB Learning Curve: Perfect The Skin

2012-11-25T11:10:00.001+05:30

I've been not blogging as often as I'd like. I want to, but I've been busy making some changes - changes in my lifestyle & a beauty trip. I will be blogging about both, but all in good time.

There is a quote attributed to the great Kevyn Aucoin, it goes something like this

‘You’ve got to perfect the skin—the actual skin, and then the makeup.’

That pretty much sums up what I'm gonna be talking about in this post today. So if you are in a hurry and have to log off now, just keep that quote in your mind & think about it.

Those of you kind enough to read on, let's go....

A lot of blogs do seem to concentrate a lot on makeup, and I get that. Makeup is just so much more fun, it is colorful, bright, neutral, shimmery and all sorts of awesome. You can create various exotic looks. You don't have to apply and wait for three weeks for results. But I'm going to make a case here now for the boring, mundane world of skincare.

If you want makeup to be effortless, then it has to start with the skin. A lot of us essentially want to look like healthy, natural beauties on a daily basis. Good skincare will get you there. Makeup will help you enhance it, deal with that stubborn redness around the nose. There is no foundation till date that will look like real skin.

Here are some tips that I have found to be very useful in taking care of my skin

1. Adjust your budget: If you still haven't found your perfect skincare products, then experiment around. I would say keep 70% of your budget for skincare & the rest for makeup. It is just an initial investment when you are trying out products - some of which might be duds. But once you have figured out your best products, this expensive will automatically come down & you can go back to splurging on makeup.

2. Use a sunscreen. Always. If you don't use because you don't like the one you have, then shop around till you find the perfect one. But get it & then use it.

3. Don't buy products that don't list the complete ingredients list: I understand that this can be bit drastic for those of you who love brands like Fab India. Just a few active ingredients listing doesn't cut it for me. If I'm gonna put it on my face, you need to tell me what it has. I think that if a company has nothing to hide, it should list out all the ingredients. If they don't don't think I as an consumer am worth the information, then they aren't worth my money.

4. Moisturizer is more important than Foundation: A lot of girls will carry compact for touch-ups, but won't carry a small pack of their moisturizer. Working in dehydrated AC environments will make even the best skin look dull at the end of the day. During summers I use tinted moisturizer on top of an Olay moisturiser. In winters, I forgo base like primer et al. and replace the Olay lotion with a thicker cream.

5. Trust pharmacy products more than cosmetic lines. Why? Because pharma products need to prove their efficacy & safety in mandated clinical trials that span years & hundreds of people. Most cosmetic companies tout lines like "93% of women felt a difference in their skin". First of all "felt" is subjective - unlike a pharma study where they actually have to show dermal changes & improvement. Secondly if you follow the asterisk on the cosmetic claim, it will eventually say in tiny letters at the bottom "As observed by 28 women". The study group used by cosmetic companies is too small at times.

6. The dermatologist is your best adviser when it comes to skincare. They aren't there just for when your boils or acne won't go away. Ask them for best anti-aging treatments, the best moisturizer the cream to deal with your dark circles & spots of hyperpigmentation (it is better to get a pharmacy grade product than rely on whitening creams if the problem is big enough to bother you). The pharma products they recommend will be far more effective and at times cheaper than branded cosmetics. (The salicylic acid cream I use for acne is 1/20th the cost of the Kiehl's one, it has 3 times more salicylic acid, plus it is equally gentle). 80% of my skincare products come from the pharmacy. I could list the products for you here, but since these are medical products, I think it is best you get these only after a check-up / prescription. They could be too potent for your skin.

7. Educate yourself: The net has made it very easy to obtain access to information on ingredients. Read up on blogs that are dedicated exclusively to skincare. Know about scientifically validated ingredients for skincare, for example Vit E for skin hydration & softness. And then look for products that actually have these. Ideally these should be amongst the top 5 ingredients in a product. Ingredients are listed in order of quantity in a product. The top 5 makeup close to 80% of the product. Sometimes even more. Two of my favourite sites for skincare education are http://askanesthetician.wordpress.com/ & FutureDerm.

8. Start early: Make sure that you have a skincare routine in place by the time you are 12-13 years old. And Anti-aging, I'd say start at 16. Don't wait till you hit 25 & 30 to do something about it. By then you have already accumulated damage. They only way to make your skin look good is to prevent. By 16 make sure you are using a sunscreen daily, moisturizer and an anti-oxidant serum at night. With the kind of polluted environment & stress we face, it never hurts to start early. If you didn't start at 16, don't worry. Start now. I started at 26.

9.Cleanser is the most important: I have said this before in another blog, I'll say it again. The most important product in your arsenal is your cleanser. A wrong cleanser will either dry out your skin too much, or else not clean it well enough leading to dull skin. It doesn't have to be expensive, but put some thought into this. I generally prefer using non-foaming cream cleansers. I find foaming cleansers too harsh for daily use.

Those are my skincare mantras. Is my skin perfect?

Not at all, I have pores issues thanks to harsh oil clearing packs (Himalaya Neem Pack to be specific. I know ppl love it, but it was too harsh for my skin) I used in my teens & because I ignored the blackheads I had. I still have some acne pigmentation & my skin easily looks dull if I forget to moisturize during the day in office. But is it better than what it was four years ago? Hell, yeah!

So what are your skincare mantras? Share please! :)