Author: Aditi Malhotra
Marketing & Social Media Consultant | Content Writer & Columnist | Events & Wedding Planner | Award Winning Home Chef | Home Baker | Artist | Photography Enthusiast

How To Live A Healthier And Happier Life

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

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There are many things that we can do to live a healthier and happier life. It’s your responsibility to make sure you’re doing them, because no one else will do them for you, unfortunately.

So here’s what you need to do.

 

Eat healthy foods.

A big part of why people don’t want to eat healthily is because of the effort that needs to be put in. Sure, fast food is simple and takes no time to prepare, and it’s fine for a one off, but if you’re eating junk food every single day, then your body isn’t going to be in the form that it should be. Not only will you be overweight, but you will be putting yourself at risk of high blood pressure and high cholesterol. – It’s not worth putting your body through that for a quick fix.

There are many easy meals out there that you don’t need to be a chef to make, and the benefits that they will have on your body and mind will pay off. You won’t just be healthier, but you’ll look so much better too.

 

Drink plenty of water.

It was once suggested to drink eight glasses of water every day, but experts now say ten to twelve. Water is so important for our bodies; it’s amazing for our skin, fights off old age, gets everything flowing through our body how it should and so much more!

If you ever have a headache that just randomly starts nagging at you during the day, a reason for this could be dehydration, and you may not even be aware. So carry a water bottle around with you so there’s no way you can just ‘forget.’

Exercise regularly.

Even thirty minutes are enough exercise if you do something every day, so there’s no excuse for not having the time. You don’t need to do anything too intense, just listen to your body and do as much as you can. Whether you like to swim, run, box or dance, as long as it’s getting your heart beating and the blood pumping – you’re doing what needs to be done.

Get enough sleep.

If you have ever gone a night without sleeping, you’ll know all about the effect lack of sleep has on your body and mind. It can make you feel so weak, and physically and emotionally exhausted too, so try to get as much sleep as you can to avoid this.

Eight hours is a good number – you should feel great in the morning, full of energy and ready to take on the day ahead of you.

 

Quit the bad habits.

Whether that be nail biting, smoking or alcohol, if you know it’s not good for you, cut it out of your life. Of course, that’s a lot easier said than done, but there are plenty of resources out there that help battle addiction. So open yourself up to the idea of getting assistance if you aren’t able to do it alone.

 

Treat yourself.

This doesn’t mean going overboard and spending all your savings on that car, house or boat you had your eye on. But if there’s something that you’ve wanted for a while now, and you can afford it – treat yourself. It’s a great little pick-me-up that will leave you feeling very pleased with yourself.

 

Get some real friends.

‘Real’ is the key word here. There are two different types of friends that you will have in your life, the ones that seem really fun to hang around with, but that just end up using you for what you’ve got, and there are the people that would sit with you in silence for hours on end, just to let you know they’re there for you.

Stick to the second option…

 

Find a hobby.

If you haven’t already found something that you enjoy – try a whole bunch of things until you find one that makes you happy. Explore music, art, dance, and sport. Join clubs and groups; you may even meet some like-minded people that turn into great friendships.

 

Get out of the house.

Don’t be confined to four walls every day; it’s so important to get out and be social; otherwise you will just get depressed. Human beings need to be stimulated or we will just end up getting stuck in a rut and having no way to climb out.

So take a walk in the park or meet some friends for a game of soccer. Whatever appeals to you – go ahead and do it.

Wacky Ways to Lose Belly Fat!

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

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If there is one thing we all want in life it’s to lose a little weight. Sometimes, we just enjoy food too much and let go of our inhibitions. Although it’s delicious, it’s also unhealthy, especially if you’re carrying a little more timber than necessary.

Of course, you’re reading this thinking ‘this isn’t my first rodeo, pal,’ and you’re right. Lots of people try to lose weight on a daily basis, so what makes this post any different? Well, aside from the fact that these tips work, they are also weird and wonderful. When you spend a lifetime following the rules, sometimes it’s good to cut loose.

With that in mind, here are four wacky ways to lose weight that you won’t find on a conventional dieting blog.

The Sniff Test

According to a study by the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation, sniffing food works. In fact, their research shows that people lost nearly two stones. The method behind the madness is that the aroma of the food tricks the brain into thinking you’re eating. As a result, the brain tells the stomach you’re full, and the hunger pains cease. Sure, you’ll feel like an idiot the first time, but persist and you’ll look like a skinny idiot!

Testosterone Replacement

As you know, testosterone is a hormone found in the human body. What you might not know is that it is prominent in both males and females, and it’s responsible for burning fat. In fact, experts believe it’s the main hormone in charge and advocate supplements like Elite Testosterone Replacement. The stats do add up too. For starters, low testosterone can affect energy levels, which in turn make you less likely to exercise. Plus, low hormone levels also make you more tired. Fatigue is a killer when it comes to health because it lowers the body’s overall efficiency.

Bigger Breakfast

Because we don’t feel like eating in the morning, breakfast is usually quick and easy. Although it’s a good way to start the day, it isn’t the best way to lose weight. Simply put, eating more calories in the morning gives you more time to burn them off. Plus, it should provide you with more energy to workout. Shifting the balance so that your lunch and dinner have fewer calories can help you lose a ton. Okay, it won’t be a ton, but it’ll be a lot! In fact, try and avoid eating at night altogether because the body doesn’t have the time to digest the intake.

Packaged Snacks

The fact is that you will still snack even if you are on a health kick. It’s just an occupational hazard of being a human being. The good news is that you can curb it by sticking to wrapped products. Studies show that people that have to unwrap junk food cut their intake by up to thirty percent. It seems that the hassle of fiddling with packaging makes snacking less desirable. What a result!

See, you don’t have to stick to the tried and tested methods to reach your goals.

Get Crafty- How to be creative on a budget

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

When you’re perusing lists of ideas for Christmas and birthday gifts, one thing usually stands out: a lot of people suggest that in order to be thrifty and save a little of your hard-earned money, you should make gifts yourself. One problem with that is that they don’t actually save as much money as you think they will – materials can be a lot more expensive than people realise, and the time that it takes to craft is also valuable. If you really want to save some money when you’re crafting, here are some tips to help out…

Image source

Look For Deals

First of all, it’s time to start to look for deals. When you’re buying groceries, you probably look out for buy one get one free offers, so why not do it with your crafting supplies too? When you’re at a crafting store, make sure that you look around for any deals that can help you save a little money. Just make sure that you remember not to buying anything that you really don’t need – it can be easy to be taken in by deals that seem like a great idea when you’re in the store but that are definitely a waste of time and money when you get home. If you see a deal, make sure that you’d buy the items full price anyway – that means that you’re saving money. Otherwise you’re spending unnecessarily! You should also look out for coupons that you can use – for instance, check out today’s top coupons & promo codes at Coupon Sherpa to see if there’s anything you can use there. Look in newspapers and magazines for coupons as well.

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Plan Your Projects

It’s always a good idea to plan your projects so that you can buy your supplies in advance. Of course we all need a little spontaneity in our lives and you need to go with the flow sometimes, but if you’re planning on a big project then it’s a good idea to start planning it a few weeks beforehand. That means that you can do your research to find out the costs for the project so you don’t spend more than you were intending to.

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Remember Your Time Is Valuable

A lot of people think that you craft solely for the love of it, which means that you’re totally happy to do things like make scarves for gifts for friends of friends for free. Even if the cost of materials is given to you, you need to remember that although you love crafting, your skills don’t come for free. They’ve been developed after years of hard work that you’ve poured a lot of time and money into, and as such you deserve to be compensated fairly for it. If you tend to do a lot of crafting for other people in your own time, start charging for it – not only will this help you to invest in more materials to experiment with and improve your skills with, but it could also start to turn a hobby you love into a business to supplement your income.

The Town House Cafe, CP- a foodie’s paradise

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

If you want to enjoy good food and spend some cosy and comfortable time with your friends and family, The Town House Cafe is the place for you. The decor is minimalistic and comprises of huge and comfortable sofas, and some big windows overlook the busy outer circle of CP. I spent a rainy afternoon enjoying the delectable food with a few of my friends and I totally loved the experience.

Coming to food, here are my recommendations

Chicken Salami Tacos, a very nice preparation with chicken tikka chaat with some veggies wrapped in a chicken salami and shaped like a taco, its definitely a must try.

Poached Chicken Salad with Wasabi Dressing was another great starter. Though I am not very fond of wasabi dressing, but thankfully it wasn’t really overpowering the overall flavours and hence I liked it.

Chilly Chicken, Chilly Prawns and Chilly Paneer were all very good, hot and spicy, and when I say spicy, I really mean it. So those who don’t prefer spicy food, shouldn’t order these. I loved the prawns very much, so so delectable.

Chicken Seekh, Chicken Malai Tikka, Paneer Tikka, Mutton Galauti, Mutton Seekh, The Non Veg Platter are totally worth indulging in. Soft and tender meat, perfect spices, these dishes are any non-vegetarians delight.

The dishes I loved the most included the Chicken Bruschetta, Chilli Garlic Chicken Dimsums, Hoisin Chicken Dimsums and Falafel. They all were so good, and you really can’t afford to miss them, especially the dim sums. They were so juicy and tasty that you can’t have enough of them.

For the mains I ordered a Mixed Sauce Chicken Pasta and also tried some Dal Makhani with Butter Naan. Fish N Chips too were good, I can say that because I indulged in hearty two bites of the same, sharing from my friends.

The Tiramisu that I had for dessert was by far one of the best I have eaten in recent times. Please do try it. It was so moist and creamy and perfectly flavoured. I loved it completely.

 

The Town House Cafe Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Need-To-Know Wedding Planning Tips

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

So, he’s finally popped the question, you’ve told everyone you know the good news, and the reality of it all is finally setting in. You may have had countless ideas about what you want your dream wedding to look like ever since you were a little girl. Now, you’re finally going to be able to make these daydreams a reality! When planning your big day, there are a number of things you should know, and others that you have to know. If you’re about to get stuck in with the planning, here are some essential tips to bear in mind…

Your Guests Come First

Well, obviously, you come first. However, when you sit down to start planning, your guests are the first thing you should worry about. First and foremost, get a firm handle on the number of guests you’re going to invite. This will make it easier to settle on details such as the wedding invitations and the venue. As a general rule of thumb, you should make sure you have around 25 square feet of space per wedding guest. That might sound like a lot, but remember you need to account for the tables, the catering staff, the band and of course the dancefloor.

Figure Out No-Go Dates

From Flickr

 

There’s nothing worse than marking a date on your calendar, beginning to count down the days to your wedding, and then finding out that you’ll need to postpone it. Start investigating a rough time when you’d like to have your wedding, and find out if there are any no-go dates around the same time. Trade conferences, charity walks, and other local events, can all have a dramatic effect on both traffic and the availability of hotel rooms. Rule these out, and you’ll ensure your big day goes as smoothly as possible.

Think About the Weather

To make sure your big day is enjoyable and memorable for all of your guests, you need to start thinking about any potential annoyances that mother nature might throw at you. It’s fairly common for wedding guests to leave early from events held in blistering summer days, and winter receptions with inadequate heating. Bugs such as gnats and mosquitoes will swarm around some areas in certain times of the year, so take precautions against these pests if the wedding or reception is going to be largely outdoors. If a sunset is essential to your perfect ceremony, make sure you check what time you’ll need to say your vows. You don’t want the reception to start too late in the day!

Leverage Plastic

Weddings are among the most expensive private events anyone will have to pay for. However, you can take advantage of the high cost of your big day, by applying for a good rewards credit card. Whether it pays off in air miles or excellent shopping deals, trying to consolidate all of your wedding purchases with the right card will help you acquire countless reward points. These can be an absolute godsend when you two are on your honeymoon!

Have a Meal Plan

From Pixnio

Feeding everyone who’s coming to your wedding is another major expense that you’ll have to account for. Before you sign any contracts with your vendors, just make sure you’re not expected to serve the same meal to them as you’ve got planned for your guests. You don’t want to have to pay for twenty extra lobster tails at short notice! Start looking for affordable, but equally satisfying wedding meals to serve them instead. You’re going to have to call your caterer in advanceand let them know precisely how many vendors are going to need feeding. Don’t forget the people who often slip through the net, such as roadies and photography assistants.

Leave Some Emergency Cash

We know, your big day may be completely wrecking your bank account as it is. Flowers, attire, music and entertainment, food, transport… the list goes on and on! However, if you want to be 110% sure that the event’s going to go off without a single hiccup, you also need to leave yourself an emergency cash cushion. As a general rule, this should be around ten percent of the necessary, non-negotiable expenses. This will be for surprise costs, such as getting extra invitations made up due to mistakes, supplying umbrellas for a rainy day, or even little décor frills. Hopefully, everything will go according to plan, and you won’t need to touch this emergency reserve. Still, it’s better to have this money and not need it, then to need it and not have it.

Set a Kids Policy

When children and weddings mix, it can make a large and complex event even more hard to manage. You have a few options for dealing with this. You can tell everyone that kids are welcome, make it an adults only event, allow immediate family only, or organise some kind of childcare solution for your guests. There are many childcare services that will accommodate for weddings, basing themselves either in the reception area, a function room, or at a family member’s home. Obviously, you don’t want to avoid hurt feelings, so try to avoid letting some guests bring their kids and then disallowing others.

Take Things a Step at a Time

Planning your perfect wedding is a massive project, and even though you’re excited for the day itself, all the different aspects of planning can quickly turn it into a long and difficult stress-fest! To keep yourself from pulling your hair out, break down all the work ahead of you into several manageable steps, sorted into a logical schedule. Figure out the tasks you need to complete, and tackle them one by one, preventing it all from snowballing out of control and casting a gloom over the happiest day of your life. Don’t hire any vendors or services before a date is set in stone. Don’t design your cake until you’re certain on the flower arrangements. Don’t choose entertainment before you know how much space you’ll have. Move things along in a logical, manageable order, and you’ll take a lot of potential stress out of the situation!

 

New Way to a Sweet Life with Sviten! A product review powered by FBCI

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

In todays time, when health is becoming a big concern, replacement of sugar is need of the hour. Unknowingly just in our regular tea and coffee drinking habits we end up consuming a lot of sugar, and then we have to compromise on enjoying sweets and desserts, but thankfully with products like Sviten, which are natural sweeteners but without having any side effects, any calories and gluten are a blessing.

Somehow I have been off sugar for quite sometime as far as milk and coffee is concerned, but I never really tried making a cake or dessert without sugar. But recently I thought of giving it a try and did my experiment with a simple recipe of making a custard. Having custard after dinner is almost customary in my house, and hence I chose to use Sviten instead of sugar in my custard this time. Also because I was making jelly, which is too sweet, I thought of balancing the custard by making it free of sugar. Trust me it urned out to be as sweet, natural tasting with Sviten as it does with regular sugar.

Must say that I am very impressed with this product and also relived that I can now enjoy desserts guilt free. Now add Sviten not only in regular tea and coffee but also its use in desserts, or making cakes or sweets is as simple, easy and tasty as using the normal sugar. Sviten is a natural sweetener made of Stevia, the best tasting part of the stevia leaf. Its been in use since 200 years and 300 times more sweeter than sugar, but only without calories and completely natural.

So what are you waiting for, make your life sweet but guilt free with Sviten, order from Amazon today!

World’s Best Classic Movies Festival by Navrasa Duende

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

Navrasa Duende, decoded means Navrasa, the nine rasas of art and Duende the quality of passion and inspiration.

Holds true for their Founder Dinesh B.Singh who is a veteran in the business arena and a true patron of art in ant form. His undying love for arts led him to the concept of Navrasa Duende and his never ending urge not only to follow art but also to bring it for the Global audience to partake and experience the various forms of art from across the Globe. It is his endeavor to promote commercial and niche arts from around the world. Navrasa Duende being the first step in this direction.

Recently Navrasa Duende organised a classic movies festival where in classics by two famous directors of that time were shown. The chosen directors were Alfred Hitchcock and Frank Capra.

It was a two day festival and each day, one movie of each directors was shown. I chose the first day of the festival and also the first film, The Man Who Knew Too Much by Alfred Hitchcock. It truly was a trip down the memory lane. Such a pleasant experience witnessing old time classics. The beauty about the movie was its surprising repeat value much appreciated by the audiences present.

A really commendable effort by Navrasa Duende, who have lots more to offer in the near future. One of the most promising upcoming venture by Navrasa Duende is the Global Carnival, an amalgamation of Dance, Theatre, Visual Arts, Music, Fashion and much more. I am really looking forward to this one. Stat tuned on their Facebook page to get regular updates of events organised by them.

All the best wishes to team Navrasa Duende may they succeed in this most wonderful endeavor and bring the best of Global talent for the art lovers.

Changing Scenarios of the Publishing Industry-Thank God for Half Baked Beans!

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

Started with a mindset to be different right from the very beginning, Half Baked Beans is not just a regular publishing house. Yes they surely publish books, but they have their own uniqueness in every thing that they do, just the way their name is. Their philosophy lies in the fact that their company is not a mere publishing house, but a company that dwells on developing talent, giving them a platform to showcase their work and also bring like minded people together through different workshops and forums.

They very regularly organise creative writing workshops, book launches, book reading sessions, open discussions related to the subject and even run a very successful group on Facebook which again encourages writing, like minded discussions etc on the online platform.

I am a regular participant in the group activities and love exploring my writing skills and who knows one day I am actually able to write a full fledged novel. Seeing so much talent around definitely gives a sense of encouragement.

Recently Half Baked Beans organised a bloggers meet, where in we met not just as bloggers but as book lovers in general and shared our views on the latest trends of the industry, writing skills, marketing needs of the hour and a detailed brief of services offered by HBB. Chetan Soni the man behind Half Baked Beans and Richa Saxena, his subordinate, both shared their passion for books and we got engulfed in a long conversation over some lip smacking snacks at the Pot Belly, Shahpur Jat.

It indeed was a very insightful session, and these open discussions have enlightened me more than before on the publishing industry. We discussed how scandals, political dramas and mythology sells and creates more buzz than other genres. We also discussed the role of book reviews and book bloggers and other marketing needs that are imperative to the success of a book in todays time.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself learning the nuances of the industry.

 

Half Baked Beans also offers many other services like:

  • Editorial Services
  • Beta Reading
  • Book Cover Services
  • Book Design Services
  • Book Marketing Services
  • E-Book Services

You can check out more details at the Half Baked Beans website. You can also follow their page on Facebook for regular updates. They have already published more than 40 books and are growing steadily giving chance to quality authors. Their criteria for publishing books are also fool proof and they don’t publish each and every book that comes their way. They choose quality over quantity.

As a take back I got this wonderful book to read, which I am looking forward to.

Unique Ways To Drop Those Extra Pounds

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

Pic Via Flickr

If you’re struggling to lose weight, perhaps while you’re trying to get beach body ready, you’re probably just not making the workout interesting enough. It’s hard to encourage yourself to get fit when it simply involves doing sit ups and press ups. Or, perhaps heading to the gym to run for an hour on a treadmill, going nowhere. It takes a special kind of person to get invested in these types of monotonous activities. Although, the payoff might ultimately make it worth it.

One possibility you could try is simply wild running. Rather than heading to the gym, you can drive to a forest or country track and go for a run there. You’ll be amazed by the effect the fresh air has on your performance, and the scenery will ensure it is a more fulfilling experience. Here are a few other ways to get fit that are a tad more unique than the typical gym workout session.

Wild Swimming

Pic Source

Since we mentioned wild running, we might as well talk about wild swimming. Wild swimming is all about going for a dip in outdoor areas like rivers, streams, or even lakes. If you’re going to do this, you need to be aware of the dangers. First, you must make sure that the water is warm enough or that you wear a wetsuit. If the outdoor temperature is anything less than around nineteen degrees, it’s probably not.

Also, you have to watch out for fast underwater currents. These can drag you down, particularly if you are not a strong swimmer and make this activity very dangerous indeed.

That said, wild swimming can still be great fun and a fantastic workout. You can find tips online about where to swim in your local area.

Coaching A Team

Pixabay Source

Perhaps you might want to volunteer coaching a sports team. Particularly, if your kid is a member. You might think that coaching is mainly an inactive sport but that’s not true. You’ll have to show them how to hit the ball, tackle, or complete plays. All this can be very active. Of course, you will need to take on other responsibilities such as arranging rewards if the team wins. Luckily, you can find football, rugby, basketball, and cricket trophies by Premier Trophies online. And if in doubt, you can always just take the players for ice cream after the match. Though, this does somewhat defeat the original intention behind the activity.

Shocking, Isn’t It

Pic Link

Finally, if you are just can’t muster the energy to work out, you might want to try shock muscle therapy. Doing this, you send low electric pulses through your muscles, and this stimulates them in the same way as exercise. After a few months or even just weeks, you might find you’ve dropped the pounds while your body can even look more toned. It’s definitely a unique idea, and it does depend on the tech you use as to whether or not you see results.

You see, there’s lots of unique ways to workout before you rush off to the gym.

Picture Via Flickr

Chronux- Book Review

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

A word about the author first.
Sagar Kamath teaches History and International Affairs at Symbiosis International University.
He is a Masters in History and Philosophy and has almost a decade of teaching experience. He has lectured extensively on a wide range of subjects and specializes in issues of religion and politics.
In his free time he loves to explore ‘off the beaten track’ locales which hold a sense of mystique about them.

Chronux is the story of Time or let’s put it this way that Chronux is a story which time tells us about of times past to times in the far future and the times spent inbetween.

The story which starts from a a small village of Aruhu, in the Himalayas takes you on a roller coaster ride through a span of more than 3000 years BC to more than 3000 years in the future,not to forget the time in the present.

It’s a wonderful Juxtaposition of the long past events mingling with the present and the future.

Although a work of fiction a tremendous amount of research has gone into the making of this absolutely rivetting story of Time.

The events described whether in the past, present or future are so realistically portrayed that at times you pause and find that yes all this could be very plausible and true. Really a remarkable piece of storytelling wherein you feel you are a part of this journey. The events described from the past,present and future are beautifully intertwined and does leave one dazed at the aouthor’s imagination and the finesse to put things up so brilliantly.


A must must read for everyone. Go grab your copy now and enjoy a never before experience of fiction/reality. Find out for yourself.

Its available on Amazon for Rs 475 for paperback and 283 for the Kindle version.

My Rating 4.5/5 stars