Okay, I'll let you in a little bit of happy secret. I have lost some weight, the slightest bit of the (not so) huge figure I plan on losing. But any start is a good start, what say? And I've done this without following any so-called "diet" and without exercising a teensy bit. Not a thing to be proud of, certainly, but who cares!
Your jaws must have dropped open by now because you know what I eat and as rational human beings, you can also deduce that it is IMPOSSIBLE to lose weight by eating all the stuff that I cook. Let me not kid you. I DO eat everything I cook, so do my family and guests at our place (I'm very generous, you see. :P). But I have found a wonder strategy that helps me keep the unnecessary pounds at bay but at the same time relish all the sinful delicacies that I dream of every waking moment.
I've stopped eating after sundown. I keep my mouth tightly shut after it's dark, and open it only to water, and, if hunger pangs engulf me bad, to green tea. This idea basically occurred to me during the recently concluded FIFA World Cup. I was staying up till late at night (and sometimes till early in the morning) and with every goal I would fetch something from the fridge and chomp it. I would go to bed feeling full and wake up all bloated. Halfway through the World Cup started Ramzan month. Now I'm neither a Muslim nor religious. Food is my religion (okay, I guess then I'm religious). But the way every single individual following Islam keeps fast for the lion's share of the day...the way kids aged 5 to uncles aged 50 curb their needs and wants for greater pursuits ... amazes and inspires me to no end. And then I thought, why not keep roza? Not to attain any religious goals of course, but just as a determined attempt to curtail your pangs of greed.
Now my routine is a bit different from yours. By the time I wake up you've already reached office and had a couple of coffee breaks. I drag myself out of bed not before 10.30-11, cook, eat, watch TV, read, catch up with folks and then when you come back from work, I take the same metro to go the reverse direction. By the time my day is over, you're probably fast asleep. So you see, the most dangerous hours for me, food-wise, are those 7-8 hours in the evening when I end up ordering in all kinds of roadside/restaurant junk in office because I'm either bored or overworked. So keeping a fast during the day and lifting it at Iftar wouldn't have served my purpose. So the roza had to be customised in a way I could eat all morning but would stop the moment the sun sets.
And you wouldn't believe all that I'm eating during the day. The first week that I lost 1.5 kilos I had lunch outside every single day. I couldn't believe my eyes when the weighing machine progressively continued to display numbers lesser than the previous day. It works like magic, I tell you. I don't know whether it's "healthy", so I'm not advising you to follow it, but boy, it's nothing short of a miracle. You stuff your face with Chinese, Thai, Biriyani, Haleem, Desserts and Chocolates during the day and not a single gram goes up! (I'm gorging on Double Chocolate Cornetto as I write this!)
Enough of weight-related blabbering. Now let's talk food. This salad is something I came across in my blogger friend Archita's archive. Archita is known to make simple things delicious, and this salad recipe was no exception. She made this with only potatoes and salami drenched in creamy deliciousness, I chose to add olives (because their expiry date was nearing) and pineapples (because, well they are pineapples). It serves as a very good evening snack, the last meal I partake before sundown. It's rich and creamy and filling and keeps you full for the rest of the day. And it has cream and cheese and mayo. And potatoes and salamis. So don't get busy counting calories, but just go ahead and indulge. But make sure that you do that before the sun sets! :)
Recipe inspired and mostly adapted from Archita's My Food My Life (hop over to
her blog to see the original recipe and gape at her amazing cutlery)
Serves: 3-4
Ingredients:
Potatoes, cubed and boiled in a little salt and garlic water: 2 medium
Salami (pork or chicken), chopped: 4-5 slices
Pineapple, roughly chopped: 10-12 slices
Green Olives, cut longitudinally: 8-10
Mayonnaise: 3 tsp
Cream: 3 tsp
Cheese spread: 3 tsp.
Mustard sauce: 1 tsp
Chilli flakes: 1/2 tsp
Salt, to taste (I used garlic salt)
Roasted garlic flakes (optional): 1/2 tsp
Pepper powder, to taste
Dill/Chives: For garnish (I used dried Dill)
Method:
1. Put the mayonnaise, cream, cheese spread, mustard sauce, salt, pepper, garlic flakes and chilli flakes in a bowl and mix thoroughly till well blended.
2. In another bowl place the potatoes, salami, pineapples and olives.
3. Now pour the dressing on top of it and mix well. Garnish with additional chilli flakes and chives/dill. Serve at room temperature or cold.
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