Living healthy is so hard!

Unlike friends and family around me, for many years not having the responsibility of juggling work and kids has allowed me the luxury of being able to make plans to a more healthful life. But somehow in my 20s it was much easier to follow my plans and perhaps I didn’t have anything better to do. In my mid 30s it seems like an uphill battle. It’s not like I am some super health conscious person – all I ever did back then to keep myself fit was avoid certain kinds of foods and 30-45 min of aerobics 4-5 times a week. Now even that seems challenging. When I moved to California in 2005, there was a long period of gap for many years when I just didn’t give a rap about my eating habits – both quality and quantity. Eating all my meals outside for two years in grad school really wrecked a havoc on my body. I had lower energy levels and got tired with slightest exertion and couldn’t digest half the stuff I ate.

Earlier this year I decided I was going to live more healthy – at least make some more conscious decisions in that direction. Firstly and most importantly, I was worried about putting myself at high risk of diseases for sedentary and overweight people, like diabetes, specially as there is a very solid family history of this killer disease. Secondly because I wanted to have increased energy levels to have a normal life. And thirdly, I am a person who does not know how to practice moderation in life, including eating – I often eat well beyond my satiety to please my tongue and sometimes I feel I live to eat, so I needed at least some consciousness/awareness that will guide me into making better eating habits. I remember my dad always recommended eating just enough to satisfy hunger or even incorporating more servings of fruits or getting myself out and exercising regularly, but that good advice was always brushed away as soon as I hung up the phone.

I had to take a break for a few months due to my fractured foot, but since then I am trying to get back on my goals. But this time my approach has been a little different. It’s about focusing on fitness than amount of pounds knocked off. Also, I am taking it more easy i.e. making fewer plans and taking baby steps. For example, earlier this year when I decided to go healthy, I went all the way to the point of trying to eat fruits or grilled stuff at night for dinner everyday. Now that was quite impractical and ridiculous, really! After two weeks of sticking to the plan I just let it go. Now it is really about making small plans and sticking to it. For example, last few months I resolved to stick to a healthy breakfast alternative like an old-fashioned oatmeal that didn’t need me to go out of my way to prepare it, and make it more edible with cut fruits like apples/bananas. That wasn’t too hard and so far it hasn’t been hard to keep up with it. For some people this may sound trivial or no-brainer, but for me after a diet rich with fat every morning, this is a big step. Or for that matter I stopped bringing junk groceries to home, as I finish them within a couple of days of arrival. But I certainly give myself a break from time to time, as long as its not too frequently. There are certainly two schools of thought when it comes to eating. The first school promotes restraint. The second believes that people get sick anyways so why bother.. and in fact go to great lengths to give examples of many people who were perfectly healthy and how something went wrong.. in other words “Do din ki Zindagi hai, so jo mun me ayee khao khao…” which in Hindi means life is short so eat and be merry (I stole this line from a shopkeeper who would prompt his somewhat hesitant customers to buy Samosas from his shop).

On the aerobics front, I have been able to keep up with an outing most mornings. On a recent trip to the doc’s office, my doc advised to include 2 miles of brisk walk in 30 min in my schedule. After first few weeks of somewhat easy walking, I switched to a faster more brisk pace, but I guess it is harder to walk really fast than jog (you have to try it sometime to know what I am talking about). Slowly I have been incorporating small trots or jogs.. alternating with walks. I must admit that just when I wake up early morning and finish my cup of hot drink/tea/coffee and it is time to get ready and step out, I am like “God I am so tired today” or “I am so not into this exercise thing today” or “I want a rest day” and I am ready to give up.. as if my body is begging me to not punish it. But then I somehow convince myself that perhaps I will just go for an easy walk/stroll and not exert myself, and push myself to step outside home. Once out, after a brief 5 min warm-up and stretches, once again I somehow push myself into a 5 min jog and then manage to extend that till I am out of breath, breaking into a brisk walk thereafter. Sometimes I alternate between the two and sometimes I simply give into an easy walking pace. Panting and cursing through this laborious exercise all the way, it is finally time for the last quarter mile…. and I am so relieved that yet another day of self inflicted punishment is over. All of this – warmup, stretches, walk/job, cool-down and stretches again – in a total of 40/45 min around in less than 2 mile block. It’s not fun and it’s not easy and I hate it everyday. I am not sure how much my energy levels have changed – not a whole lot as I only recently have been able to add jogging slowly and steadily. But hopefully my body is working its way to a bank balance for future.

Many people take it personally when I tell them I don’t want to eat certain things or refuse an extra serving, as if by rejecting their offer I have insulted them or judging their choices, which is just not the case really. I think I am just trying to practice some constraint whenever I can. There are enough temptations on a daily basis – whether its a party or an eat out or what not – almost every week there are occasions, and I feel week in front of them. But as if something inside is urgently nagging me that I am overweight and unfit and better do something before it is late. Every baby step I take towards it is a step in the right direction for me. I just hope I just don’t end up simply talking about it (like in this blog) but not doing much.

Moving on..

summer, 2005

I was over at my brother’s home this morning, which literally takes just 20 minutes from ours. But that won’t be happening any longer. They’re moving to a new home that will take just a little over double the time i.e. if the traffic is not bad. I was a little sad to say good bye to the old home, where I have spent a significant chunk of time in the last three years, including a few months during summer of 2005 and 2006. It is here that my little nephew has grown up from a tiny 2 yr old tot to almost 9 yrs now. I didn’t realize how time would fly… there was a time when he was small enough to sit on someone’s lap and have a book read to him, or be totally fascinated by Thomas Trains or Nemo or one of the many things that made up his little world.

March, 2008

I still remember my first visit to the house when he was 2 yrs old. He used to be totally glued to cars – any model and type.. in print, on tv or miniature toys. Six months later, during a trip for his third birthday in November 2003, together we filled lots of balloons and after each balloon was sealed and let go, he’d hop around laughing unable to contain his excitement. Now almost 9, he is so much more independent – from catching live bugs to reading Harry Potter books to playing with his Nintendo DS to trying science experiments – there are plenty of other attractions to keep him occupied.

I will somewhat miss going to the old home and the familiar route especially since it was just a skip away. But change is also good – for my folks and nephew it is having a new school that is just a skip away from home, where my nephew will spend his middle and high school yrs.

No more clutter

We were due for our cleaners to come over, and it was anxiety time for me as having been out of house for two weekends in a row, the house was a mess – which meant it needed some serious work before I could even let anyone else start cleaning. I started attacking all the corners – from stacking up office papers to folding laundered clothes to emptying kitchen sink, and it felt like a punishment! Even though I was highly annoyed at having to tidy up the place, it was worth the hrs of effort. Finally when the cleaners came and left – the place looked so much more livable. My mind felt clutter free and from that moment onwards I was extra aware /conscious about put things back in their place after using them. It’s a nice, light/airy feeling to have a clean organized home. What’s frustrating it that every time our house is back to normalcy, things start trickling out of their place slowly, and eventually there is a breakdown. It’s like I just have a higher tolerance for mess around me.

As far as I can remember, I have never been even close to being neat and organized. There have been serious attempts to take incremental steps towards becoming organized. My mother spent a large part of her life trying to get me to keep things back in their place and a sense of orderliness at home, but her constant pleadings to exasperated requests fell to deaf years. During my late teens, she almost gave up on me and assigned the weekly task to the girl who came to cleanup, and when that didn’t happen, she did not bother stepping into my room. So some of that habit has spilled over into my adult life.

I am tired of dealing with this on a consistent basis! Why is that some people are such freaks when it come to orderliness whereas there are others who live blissfully, some even thrive, amongst chaos and disorderliness? And why is that even after I swear to keep things in place, something more important comes up. Is it because I have too much stuff? Or am I just too lazy? Or a combination? Or being organized and super neat is just a cultivated habit that develops as a child and that’s it, and the rest of us are doomed. Or perhaps I should stop complaining and spend the energy in doing some cleaning .

Mineral King Valley – Paradise in California!

We were off to the Sequioa National Park over the Labor Day weekend. Initially we were debating between the Redwoods Park and Sequioas, but a search through online forums indicated that Sequioa was probably better for site seeing and/or hikes, and a quick look at the map showed Redwood as a tiny blip compared to the Sequioas. Although we were initially debating over camping on one of the many campsites at Sequioa, the idea of sleeping out in hot scorching 100F, which was the weather forecast for the park for the next few days, didn’t quite sound very adventurous to me. And we decided to be safe and have the option of cooling ourselves off when we needed it. Once again we scrambled with last minute bookings and managed to get an efficiency cottage at Three Rivers. The town of Three Rivers is the gateway to Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks and is located just where the foothills of the park begin. It is also the nearest place to most Sequioa attractions (about an hr of drive) if you are coming from south entrance to park and would rather have non-hotel accommodations with a private bath and/or cooking facilities. The foothills of Sequioa are an eyesore due to all the vegetation being dry/parched by end of summer, and thus living in Three Rivers means driving up and back to the park attractions every day; however, the daytime hour long drive in itself is not too bad with wide divided roads, although it is mountain driving all the same.

The first two days we covered the usual Sequioa attractions: Crystal Caves, Sherman Tree, Moro Rock, Crescent Meadows – each one of these attractions unique in their own way, although the Sequoia trees are something else. On Day 1, after a guided tour of Crystal Caves, which was amazing and a relief from the scorching temperatures above (almost 100F), we ventured into the Giant Grove, area of the park which is known for the giant trees. Standing in front of the majestic Sequoia trees, you do indeed feel tiny like ant in front of such a large living thing. Photo above is with us standing in front of the General Sherman tree, the largest tree by volume. We then had a forest ranger drop and give us a detailed story of the history of the park and a fascinating account of what it takes for a Sequioa tree to reach this kind of majestic size – it is a long fight for survival of the fitest over thousands of years.

Following our fill of the giant Sequioa trees on the first day, on Day 2 we first covered Moro Rock, climbing 400 steep steps to reach the top of the granite rock to get an unparalleled view of much of the park – I had never been more scared of heights climbing up the steps. Even though there were guard-rails and wide steps, I was almost kneeling down while climbing to avoid looking down the steep drops. We then decided to explore some short hikes and found the trails by Crescent Meadows, a lovely grassy small open area surrounded by trees, to be particularly beautiful. As we stopped by one of the spots to eat our lunch, it was as if time had stopped. I would highly recommend taking one of the short trails around Crescent Meadows if one were to make a trip to Sequioas. There are a couple of other meadows too nearby and the trails lead you through some of the cabins built hundred years ago. Some of the more beautiful places in Sequioa can only be discovered by hiking along one of the many high Sierra trails with some even gaining 2000-3000 ft elevation. We saw plenty of hardcore hikers on their way through the trails, some on their way to Mt. Whitney, which at 14000 ft, is the highest mountain in the contiguous US. I certainly admire their spirit and sense of adventure, but not sure if that kind of adventure appeals to me (it used to once upon a time) anymore partly because of the level of fitness and ability to carry enough food/supplies to last 2 weeks in the wilderness! On my very first day, a mere 400 ft ascent up a small trail left me gasping/panting for life.

The reason I started writing this blog post was not to ramble about the majestic trees at Sequioa, but about Mineral King, a subalpine valley about 2 hours drive from Three Rivers and also a part of Sequioa National Park – it is an off the beaten track literally! On the third day of our stay, we decided to check out Mineral Valley, which was roughly a 7000 feet climb up the mountain. We started driving into the windy roads with hairpin curves, unpaved roads, blind turns and drop offs with thousands of feet with no guardrails to stop from tumbling down. The road was wide enough to hold only one moving car and if we met another vehicle, one of us had to stop and make space or backup to let the other car pass by in order to get past each other. Few minutes into the road leading up, I started having second thoughts about making the trip… we were driving at the rate of 10-12 miles/hr and had about 24 more miles to go… that meant two and half hrs of sitting tightly in the car holding on to yourself in case some mad driver from the opposite direction came too close or too fast. However, we decided to continue as who knew when we’d have a chance or inclination to check it out again. As we reached half way, we gained more confidence and it was too late to turn back.

After 2.5 hrs of treacherous drive, the reward was beyond beautiful!! It was well worth the drive!! You really have to go there to know what I am talking about – a gorgeous scenery that seemed pristine and untouched. Tourist traffic to this place is quite low due to the difficulty of reach, and also perhaps because there are no commercial hotel type accommodations. Our first stop was at the store/shop at Silver City resort, the only cottages within Mineral Valley which have electricity and running water. We took a quick break and checked around the area a little bit – it was quiet, serene/peaceful and much cooler due to the higher altitudes (7600 ft). There were no Sequioas or very few Sequioaa in this part of the park, but mostly alpine trees. It didn’t feel like we were at Sequoia anymore, where it was quite dry and hot.

A couple of miles ahead of Silver City led to the end of the road to Mineral King, which is a valley at an elevation of 7800 ft. Besides a smattering of cabins nestled amongst the shade of trees, there was not a single soul around. There is nothing to see here except nature. There are several lakes at higher elevations which can be hiked up to within a day by the experienced hikers. And thus this place might primarily appeal to hikers and backpackers. Mineral King is only open from Memorial Day weekend through early fall which can be through October, and is quite a bit of drive (almost 3.5 hrs) from most of the popular Sequoia attractions, and thus really is a destination in itself. Also, there are almost no facilities in Mineral King. The small restaurant/general store at Silver City Resort, is the only place open during weekends. The only other thing in Mineral King besides the Silver City resort is a small visitor center, two camp grounds and some private cabins in the valley. So, if you don’t get checked into one of the cabin homes at Silver City Resort, you will have to rent one of the primitive cabins (without running water or electricity) or camp/hike outside. There nothing there to entertain the casual windshield tourist but some gorgeous out of the world scenery. If all this doesn’t deter you, then maybe you should give it a visit.

Beautiful California

When I was living in Minnesota (1998 – 2005), my cousin used to always talk about how much stuff there is to do and see in California and all the numerous attractions that are just a few hours of drive away from Bay area. Ever since I moved to Bay area, California in fall 2005, I have barely seen any of the attractions around here. Earlier this summer Delip and I made a list of places we wanted to cover in the near future. Given his super busy and unpredictable schedules, we wanted to pick places that we could cover over long weekends during the year and which didn’t need planning/bookings too far in advance.

We made a trip to Yosemite National Park during the Memorial Day weekend, along with my brother, sis-in-law and nephew. We were all awestruck by the majestic sights and beauty of Yosemite – from waterfalls to cliffs to meadows. I am glad we made the trip in-spite of some lukewarm reviews from a few people based on their visit to the park. I think the key is in visiting the park at the right time which is early spring or before summer starts – that’s when the waterfalls and creeks are full force and the forest is still green, fresh from the snow meltdown. We spent two and a half full days in Yosemite, but there is so much more left there to see and lots of beautiful hiking trails to explore. We will certainly be back there, although accommodations are booked way in advance, so I would probably book ahead. This time we were lucky enough to find some last minute nice comfortable accommodations located just half hr drive from the Valley visitor center in a really quiet place, away from the valley crowd.

Our next trip plan for the labor weekend was a toss between the Sequioas and Redwood National Park, both equally drivable over a long weekend. A quick search on the forums of TripAdvisor recommended Sequioas over the Redwoods due to more stuff to do and see, which I will be covering in another blog. I would certainly recommend TripAdvisor for travel related recommendations next time you plan your trip – especially since it’s generated from users like us, who are looking for travel information and want a quick easy way to find recommendations/information from others in one place rather than going through exhaustive travel guides. Another great site to find more information on a specific destination is Wikitravel.

California is blessed when it comes to weather and diversity of natural beauty. If one likes nature/outdoors and has the time, then there are lots of attractions that can be covered over long weekends. It’s ironic that when I was in Minnesota and had all the time, there wasn’t a whole lot to do all year around (or so I believed), but now that I am here in Bay Area, California, we haven’t been able to take out time to do much. A fraction of the blame also goes to some inertia on our behalf – planning a travel to a tourist destination takes effort and time if done decently.