Motivation Monday -- One Holiday Down...

Thanksgiving was easy. We were on the road so there was no giant home-cooked turkey with side dishes and desserts. We were on the road in India so there was no restaurant serving turkey and all the fixins' either. But my first week of the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge wasn't the greatest. I knew it wasn't going to be, knowing we'd be on the road. We walked quite a bit but I didn't bring my Garmin so I'm doing a conservative estimate of one mile per day; we weren't running 5Ks but we weren't exactly sitting on the couch watching television all week, either, so I want some activity accounted for. I didn't reach my seven servings of fruits and vegetables per day until we got home. (I got them in on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.) I was careful not to over-indulge in sweets and fried foods; I ate fresh fruit whenever it was available to me, mostly bananas and papaya, and I'd brought dried fruit and nuts for snacking on. Fresh vegetables are a little iffy in India so I avoid them when they don't come from a trusted kitchen, which means I didn't eat any while on the road.

Lululemon water bottles from Pinterest

We came home to find our kitchen freezer partially defrosted. Most of the expensive meats were in the deep freezer in the storage room, which was fine. The kitchen freezer was full of my pre-chopped fruit for smoothies, soup stocks, fruit purees for muffins,  tomato sauce, and vegetable soups -- all the healthy things I'd hoarded away to help me through the first few weeks of the challenge. It also had the duck we'd planned on having over the weekend in lieu of a Thanksgiving Day turkey.

I'm looking forward to Week 2. I have some treadmill time scheduled. I have a huge shopping list (partially on account of restocking the freezer) and a meal plan. I'm going to hold off on my Christmas baking for a few days, until I've got my healthy routine back on track.

Week 1 Points:
Monday: Walking -- 1 point
Tuesday: Walking -- 1 point
Wednesday: Walking -- 1 point
Thursday: Walking -- 1 point
Friday: 7 servings -- 1 point, Facebook check-in -- 1 point
Saturday: 7 servings -- 1 point, Facebook check-in -- 1point
Sunday: 7 servings -- 1 point, Facebook check-in -- 1 point

Total Points for the Week: 10

You can check out other participants' weekly wrap-ups at Jill Conyers: Fitness, Health and Happiness.

What We Did Over Our Thanksgiving Vacation

My mom is in town and other than having total access to Muffin, she had one goal if she was going to visit India: See the Taj Majal. We spent this week making that happen.

Monday.

Tuesday, we arrived in Jaipur.

Wednesday, Amber Fort and the Observatory.

Thursday, Hawa Majal.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.

Building a Climbing Wall

Muffin is a champion climber. Whether it's stairs, jungle gyms, boulders, or the grills on the windows, she is scrambling up everything faster than anyone can stop her. I don't know exactly when or how I got the idea but a few months ago I found myself at the Atomik climbing holds website, loving the photos of little kids on their rock-climbing walls. So we decided to build one for Muffin.

I studied the FAQs and how-to instructions and we decided on a simple outdoor plywood wall. We don't want to invest too much labor into it because we'll be moving soon. A framed piece of plywood with removable holds is perfect. It's sturdy enough for a toddler and when it's time to leave we can unscrew the holds, pack them up, and use them for a new wall at our next home. I ordered the set of 24 Kids Holds and for a little extra fun, some Garden Animals holds. I also ordered all the hardware through the Atomik site, to make sure it would be exactly what we needed. I don't trust India to sell me what I want; we tend to be sold what merchants think is best, even if they have no idea. I didn't want to take chances with this project, especially since safety is a concern. The package was heavy and I waited anxiously to see if our mail depot would accept it or not. (Our mail is sent to a U.S. mailing address and then forwarded to us overseas. There are some restrictions on what they won't ship.) Once I saw that the package was accepted we moved on to the construction phase.

While waiting for our holds to arrive we bought the plywood. We did this ourselves, in person, rather than give full responsibility to our driver or haggle with plywood sellers over the phone. We were first quoted prices as high as 5,000 rupees ($90!) but ended up paying 1,700 rupees plus 300 more for home delivery.

Muffin went to work sanding the board, saying all along, "It's for me to climb on!"

One afternoon when Muffin and I both passed out at nap time, Mike did the painting and texture. The instructions call for textured paint, in order to keep the holds from spinning, but layers of paint with sprinkles of sand worked just fine for us. We decided not to prime the board or weather seal it. It's not going to rain again between now and when we move and the wall's placement in the yard is an area that gets very little direct sunlight. It should last a few months.

Next came drilling and framing. We wanted the wall to lean against the side of the house rather than attach to the house. Framing the plywood gave it some structure and strength and also created a buffer space so the bolts wouldn't scratch the house. Again, this needed to be sturdy enough for a 28-pound toddler, not for adults.

The holds arrived and Muffin spent some time unwrapping them and admiring them in the living room.

Drilling and the frame. There are several 2x4s across the back for stability.

Mike put most of the holds on during nap time, so I didn't get any photos.

Voila! The finished product.

We have a tiny yard so this is a good way to add play space to it. Muffin hasn't gotten too far off the ground yet. I think she's getting used to it, plus the holds are little rough on bare feet but she hasn't wanted to put socks on for climbing. Mike and I have both gone up and down it a few times to show her how and it holds our weight remarkably well. The holds seem very sturdy. I'm sure Muffin will love it over time. And when we pack up in a few months we can unbolt the holds and start over again in our new home!

Note: If you make your own climbing wall, please, please, please read professional instructions and do not go simply by what you read on this blog. We mostly used the Atomik advice but made our own decisions based on our needs and the materials available to us. The Atomik FAQs give lots of great advice on making walls for children of different ages and adults of different capabilities. Their customer service was responsive; I posted questions on their Facebook page and they responded within 24 hours.

Happy Diwali!

It's Diwali time again! India's Salute to Fireworks, er, Festival of Lights. I've gotten so used to the fireworks (this is our third Diwali) that I'm a little sad this is our last holiday here. Next year Muffin and I will be making laddu and rangoli in chilly Rhode Island November weather and we will most likely not be lighting any fireworks. (Maybe I'll pick up a few after Fourth of July and save them...)

We did not have the same fireworks extravaganza that we had last year. We declined invitations to several parties because I've had a cold and Muffin hasn't been sleeping well. My mom is arriving on Thursday so we are in preparation mode while trying to nap as much as possible. It was a quiet holiday at home. We took our traditional holiday walk around the neighborhood to view the rangoli and our housekeeper made a rangoli at our house. We also made laddu with our housekeeper, the traditional sweet made of lentil flour, ghee, and sugar. (I'm having some laddu and tea right now.) We finished off the day by going to our rooftop patio to watch the fireworks from around the city.

Around the neighborhood:

At our home:

Happy Diwali! May your days be full of light and your nights be full of sleep, if you need it.

The Amy Sedaris Ghost Cake

I know I'm a little late, so bookmark or Pinterest this one for next Halloween.

I bought Amy Sedaris's I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence when it first came out several years ago. I love so many of the crafts and recipes but I'd never gotten around to trying any of them. About a year ago, though, Muffin became obsessed with the book, especially the pages with ice cream on them and the pages with ghosts. I looked forward to her being old enough to do the craft projects. When I made her a pair of tissue ghosts, she was ecstatic. My next project was the ghost cake for a Halloween party.

It was really quite simple, since I'd already tested cake mixes and frostings (back for Muffin's birthday party). I followed the photo in the book for the shape of the ghost. I cut out the shape of the head and used those pieces for the arms. I secured the arms with toothpicks and frosting. I used a white cake mix so that crumbs wouldn't be seen through the frosting. For the frosting I made sure to use white butter (no yellow coloring added) and I didn't add any vanilla so it was as white as it could be. For the mouth I cut a chunk of chocolate.

While I was working in the kitchen, I gave Mike and Muffin the task of testing the flaming eyes. I'd been saving egg shells all week so the two best ones could be used on the cake and the others could be used for practice. The instructions in the book call for sugar cubes soaked in lemon extract with an additional teaspoon of lemon extract added to the eggshells. We didn't have lemon extract, so after experimenting with vanilla abstract and whiskey, we determined that whiskey produced a nice, blue, glowing flame that lasted long enough for everyone to ooh and ahh and take some photos. (Don't worry, we didn't use the good whiskey from the stash. If you have any Teacher's Origin, India's finest, this is the best use we've found for it so far.)

Boo!

Muffin loved the ghost cake. I was laughing at myself the whole time I was working on it, the lengths I go to for such silliness.

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Happy Birthday Marines and Happy Veterans Day

As performed by one of our friendly neighborhood Marines.

Bhongir Fort, Hyderabad

About fifty kilometers outside of Hyderabad lies a little-known attraction called Bhongir Fort. The town of Bhongir is home to the "monolithic rock" where the twelfth-century fort still stands. And you can hike up that giant rock to the fort on top.

We've been looking for day-trip hikes to do with Muffin and a friend said he was going back to Bhongir and didn't mind if we tagged along at Muffin's pace. We brought the baby backpack but we let her start off on her own. We are always impressed with her stamina and endurance, for a two-year-old, but she blew us away as well as all the others in our party by insisting on walking up to the top all by herself. She held our hands in a few tricky places but she refused to be picked up.

She was so proud of herself when she got to the top. When she saw the view of the plains below she let out an "Oh wow!" that echoed through the fort. Then she very happily and very hungrily dug into the lunch I'd carried up for her -- chocolate milk, cheese, bananas, and almonds. As we'd been hiking up the last part, she said over and over, "Chocolate milk at the top!" and I think it became her version of "Just keep swimming," keeping her motivated.

We ate lunch and rested for a bit, walking around the fort and exploring. We decided to put her in the backpack for the walk down because it was so steep and she was so tired; none of us really had the energy to try and keep her from tumbling down. She protested, but as tired as we were, we were still bigger and stronger than she was and we wrangled her into the backpack. She fell asleep within about five minutes and stayed asleep for the whole walk down and the whole drive back to Hyderabad.

Going up...

and up...

and up.

At the top.

Coming back down.

The walk up takes thirty minutes to an hour, depending on the pace you're going. You can go straight up the rock or take a winding stairway around the sides of the fort.

To get to Bhongir, take the road to Warangal. At just under fifty kilometers, you'll notice some large rocks on the horizon and there's a sign for the town of Bhongir. There's a nominal entrance fee. We'd heard 60 rupees per person but we were charged something like 100 for all 5 adults, Muffin, and two cameras. We learned why we got such a discount on the way down. The ticket agent called the local newspaper after we entered and as we descended, reporters and photographers were waiting to take our photos and get our names. It was very exciting news to have Americans at the fort, apparently. We obliged and gave them our first names. Muffin was totally conked out, or else they would have gotten a real treat for the front page.

H'bad Anniversary

Two years ago today we landed in Hyderabad. It was the first night of Diwali and we had quite a welcome, driving from the airport to our new (temporary) apartment with fireworks going off along the route.

This is the longest Mike and I have lived in one place, I think since college, aside from a stint in Ocean Beach, San Diego.

The biggest change over the last two years is our little Muffin growing from this:

Muffin turned three months old on our first full day in H'bad.

to this:

Muffin, a few days short of the two-year anniversary and twenty-seven months old.

It's funny, thinking that life will be relatively normal to Mike and me once we're in the United States, but to Muffin it will be completely foreign. She's lived here her whole life.

We have a few months left. I hate the feeling of counting down but we have been examining our India to-do list and have to figure out when to fit it all in. 

I put a bottle of champagne in the fridge (still have a few bottles left from our household shipment two years ago!) for after Muffin goes to bed tonight. I think that if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere, and two years here is worth celebrating.

Motivation Monday -- Busting Through Holiday Sweets

**I decided to put this up early, because I need the motivation now, not on Monday.**

Between local holidays -- Dussera, Eid ul-Adha, and Diwali -- and American holidays -- Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas -- there is a lot of food consumed between October and the New Year. I love making treats and eating them; we'll be on holiday for a few days so we'll have our share of travel food as well. But I want to stay healthy and active and I want Muffin to be healthy and alert for school, so the whole family has to stay on track.

This year I am back on the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge at Run to the Finish. I found the challenge to be a great, fun support system last year even though I fizzled out toward the end and didn't win any prizes. I'm in it to stay healthy and make a few running friends, even if they are virtual (although it would be nice if some of my real-life friends joined me, too!). I have been a disaster lately, with excuses piling up. But the weather is cooling off, I've finished my courses for the year, and I may even have a treadmill nearby to use -- where I can wear shorts! Excuses are starting to wear thin.

One of the hard parts for me is meal planning to make sure I keep myself properly fueled. Last year I considered myself in the 5K/beginner mileage part of the challenge. This year I've moved myself up to half-marathon and marathon-level mileage. My goal is to keep myself in half-marathon condition, even if I don't get the chance to run one any time soon. Higher mileage results in a much faster turnaround from mommy to monster if I don't have good food NOW. I can only eat so many Kind bars and I hate protein powders and protein bars so real, quick food is essential.

To combat that, I'm already filling my freezer with pre-chopped fruit for smoothies, pureed vegetable soups, soup stocks, pre-cooked beans, loaves of bread, fresh gnocchi, fresh tomato sauce... all things that my housekeeper or I can make ahead of time and then I can pull out when running hunger strikes me. And all things that are healthy proteins and carbs and enjoyable for my family as well. Gluten-Free on a Shoestring and The Homemade Pantry are my go-to books right now. I'm learning that the processed stuff just doesn't make me feel as good, both mentally and physically. Yes, I'm expecting an order of one of my favorite instant soups to arrive soon and yes there is a case of Annie's gluten-free macaroni and cheese in my pantry as well as several jars of my family's favorite brand of peanut butter. I do love some of my processed comfort foods and don't plan on giving them up altogether. But if I can replace a few things, such as pressure-cooked beans rather than canned and fresh tomato sauce rather than jarred, we will be a little bit happier and healthier.

I also like to fill Muffin and myself up with a healthy meal before we go out to a holiday event so we can eat the treats without making dinner out of Halloween candy. (Not that there's anything wrong with that sometimes; I ate a chocolate bar smothered with peanut butter for dinner two nights ago because it was just one of those days.) I'm trying to eat more beans and chicken earlier in the day though, to avoid that evening hunger crash.

If you are ready to join me, please use the link here to sign up, and please reference me! Thank you!

The challenge runs from November 19 through January 5. I've already started tracking my fruit and vegetable servings because one of the daily challenges and a way to earn points is by eating seven servings of fruits and vegetables a day. It's a habit you need to work on. I discovered last year that you can't just sit down on the first day and eat seven servings. That's a lot if you're not used to it.

Here's to a healthy(-ish) holiday season!

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