Glucose, Sucrose, Lactose, Fructose…(My books are here!)

That was the title of the last email that Tapas from flipkart sent me.

If you are totally clueless about anything in this post, let me explain in brief (or click here for the full story). A month back, I was frustrated with my excessive sugar consumption and decided to do something about it. I put myself on a “Sugar free Challenge” for a month and promised my own self that I would buy two books as a treat if I stuck with my challenge for the whole month. The two books were linked to www.flipkart.com. Now Flipkart.com is this great online bookstore based in India with virtually every book under the sun available on it and I recently discovered it. So Tapas from Flipkart graciously offered to sponsor my challenge! yes he actually did that! 🙂

So we’ve been exchanging emails over the past one month, checking on my progress. His hilarious emails always crack me up!

I opened my mailbox this morning and saw a new email from Tapas. I just started replying when the door bell rang. Any guesses people?

I was handed a neat cardboard box with flipkart printed in loop all over it. Talk about perfect timing 😀

I don’t know how I even managed to click a photo of the carton because I was DYING to rip it open!

Once I DID rip it open I started clicking photos right away.. even before I could remove the plastic cover!

So my books are here! 😀

Ahh!! I still can’t believe it! Molecular gastronomy.. (I could cry with happiness like right now)

and Small Batch baking! (something tells me I’m going to read this one first ;))

More publicity shots of my Bee-auti-ful books.

So this past one  month has been AWESOME…

Thank you sooo much Tapas and Flipkart.. this has been absolutely wonderful! 😀 (I’m really at a loss of words :))

Flipkart.com : Flipping Nice Guys!

* Update on The 30 days NO sugar Challenge!… I got Sponsored!*

I prefer buying books online. It’s so convenient.

You want to hear something really stupid that I do? I browse about for hours in bookstores but end up buying online.

Maybe its not so stupid actually. First of all buying online is convenient and cheap. Second you can buy just about any book ever published. Third you get to read reviews before you buy them. Fourth you can find newer/older editions and buy what you want.. not just what’s available.

I’ve been buying books from a website called Indiplaza.in for years right from the time it was Fabmall.com. I can’t even count the number of orders I’ve placed there. They didn’t have a large collection and often the book covers would be “no image to display” but since there weren’t any other better websites, I thought it was the best.

Sometime back however I had a pretty bad experience. I ordered a book that never came. No one even contacted me about it and after a month I get a lousy apology letter and a idiotic “customer experience improvement survey” link (like that’s going to be pretty!) So I stopped buying there.

In my first sem at college in 2006 I borrowed this book from the college library Moment Of Truth: Redefining The Ceo’s Brand Management Agenda. The Biggest mistake of my life. I accidentally dropped it on the railway tracks (smart ha?) and I had to return it. They didn’t want the money! they wanted the book! Apparently it was an imported book and impossible to get. I have hunted all over the city for that book! I’ve googled it a million times and never got an Indian website that sold it.

So I ended up buying a second hand copy from barnes and nobles and the shipping was more expensive than the book. It costed me 3 months worth pocket money.

Remember Baked: New Frontiers in Baking Well I saw it on amazon and I really wanted to buy it. After my fallout with Indiaplaza.in I wasn’t going there. So I decided to google ” Baked: New frontiers + India + online book store”

flipkart.com was the first link. A new site? I suppose so but they have it! yay! I searched for more books. And more and more.. they had them all (with images and descriptions please)! OK time for the acid test… the moment of truth.. (pun not intended). I punched in the name of that damned college library book.  I FOUND. THAT. BOOK.

Where were you in 2006??!

I ordered Baked and Ben&Jerry’s Ice Cream book and you know how much I’ve been raving about those books.

Okay now back to the point..

This is actually and update on the 30 Days No Sugar Challenge.

Remember I linked two books http://twurl.cc/11lo

and http://twurl.cc/11lp as what I get for winning the challenge?

well guess what? some really nice people at Flipkart.com actually decided to sponsor my challenge!

Oh wow! all I have to do is NOT eat sugar and I get two great books!

That as Tapas, a nice guy over at flipkart mentioned is ‘the icing on the cake’.. I couldn’t agree more ( even though I can’t eat any of that! 🙂 )

Wish me luck people! Its Day 7 of the challenge and I’m going pretty strong! (touch wood)

Thank you (oh so much!) Flipkart and Tapas (no issues with me using your name right?)

And if it really wasn’t clear enough I’m a fan + customer for life 😀

Oh and do visit http://www.flipkart.com/ it really has a great collection of books and free shipping in India!

Green Thumb Experiment

Not that I am a cheapskate or can’t afford to buy organic vegetables from the grocery market. but I wanted to give the whole “Grow your own” a try.

We planted lemon, chili, tomato and celery.

Here is my progress:

 

You may not be able to see it but ther is a lemon sapling (yay! 🙂 

 

Celery seems to like me.

 

 

This is really exciting! can’t wait for my first tomato/chili/lemon/celery 😀

The No Sugar 30 day Challenge

The thing is that I  ♥ sugar. And who doesn’t?

Maybe this is somewhat off topic for a “Food Blog” but I guess this entry would affect my future posts bigtime.

The other day I had a chat with my cousin and I was in complete awe. He (quite like me) was a lover of all good food, and when I say good food I mean “real food” in the perverse context. Sloppy joes, sodas, cheesecake, pizzas, fries, candy candy candy in all shapes and sizes.

To be honest the last person we thought would watch his weight would be him. He seemed quite happy at his 120kg/264lb high fat percentage body, he ate all he ever wanted and almost never moved anywhere beyond his refrigerator.

One day in his own words he “got tired of living a boring and unhealthy life.”

Today he hasn’t quite reached his fintess goal of 10% body fat but he isn’t too far at 14% but after having lost 36.4 kg/ 80lb and gaining a ton of muscle, I just can’t recognise him anymore!

His outlook to food, life and his body has changed tremendously. He hasn’t missed a workout in a year, still doesn’t eat dessert but he doesn’t feel like he is denying himself it’s more like something he wants to do rather than being forced to do it. I’m not sure if I would ever be able to do that but I really need to cut down on the sweet stuff (for sure).

A.H, boy are we proud of you or what!

He has tried (several times) to put me on one of his military diet plans and I’ve always let him down. I’ve always tried to cook a little healthier and have succeeded somewhat but never really got those results that I want and deserve maybe because of many bad habits.

But I really want to change for real! I mean I’m tired of living a boring and (somewhat) unhealthy life too!

You can find my Cousin on bodybuilding.com http://bodyspace.bodybuilding.com/wewillrule/

and twitter (I don’t quite remember his last update)

http://twitter.com/tokinhamster

So I’ve decided to take the One Month No Sugar Challenge (3rd june 2009- 3rd july 2009)

These are the ground rules:

1. No desserts of any kind.

2. No added sugar drinks

3. No sweet condiments (not even ketchup)

4. No refined carbs (white bread, white rice etc)

5. No sugar substitutes either

OK if I win this challenge I get to buy http://twurl.cc/11lo 

and

http://twurl.cc/11lp

So that is my treat! and I don’t get them if I don’t stick to the plan!!

I’d love for others to join me too.. those are the ground rules, feel free to take your own baby steps to your fintess goal, whatever it be. I’d love some feedback people!

Again congo to my cuz and all the best to me (God save me!)