Being Round

I'm back! To being a mother again, to being a sulking wife, to being the regular PMS-ing girl and (most irritating of all) being a roly poly overweight version of myself! Although I have been overweight since ages, for the past couple of years I was so engrossed with my pregnancy and baby care that I casually left those thoughts out. After all, I couldn't do much about my weight during the time. And now that I am at leisure to properly gauge myself in the mirror, it isn't a pretty sight, to say the least!

So here I am, thinking about diets and exercises and best ways to lose weight. We will be celebrating my younger son's first birthday in Trivandrum with my in-laws and I don't want to go back as the same old, bigger than ever, me! I could very well do without the mocking glances and sarcastic comments.

Therefore, I have decided to try my best ( and by best I don't mean jumping on the crash diet wagon because I know from experience how harrowing they can be!) by combining exercise and healthy eating and wait to see what follows. Fingers crossed!

"If thoughts had weight, I would be the slimmest person ever!"

Mom Vs Media

A couple of days back I saw an advertisement for Horlicks on TV. It seems that nowadays, these companies can go any length to sell their products. Of course, that's what business is all about but I believed there was a slim chance of setting a limit here. Sadly, I was mistaken.

Here's what the ad was about. When milk is boiled it loses some of its essential nutrients. So you add Horlicks to improve the nutritional quality of milk. I get it, when milk (or any food for that matter) is boiled/cooked, the nutritional value decreases. But to say that by adding Horlicks or any other malt you can make up for the lost goodness of milk, is taking it a bit too far. Another one of Horlicks ad shows the likes of Einstein, Akbar and other prominent people in history not being able to drink plain milk. They couldn't do it so how could you, right?

In today's world of junk and unhealthiness, we parents take sincere efforts and convince our kids to cultivate good eating habits. And then, after all that hard work, along comes a commercial saying that there is absolutely no need to! Come on! Even if there was a slim chance of getting our kids on track, these ads sure know how to topple that all up!

Of course, we adults understand that advertisements are all about exaggeration. But how our little ones react to their selfish act is none of their concerns, apparently. I have to repeatedly remind my son that advertisements are false, they are a lie to make money. I may seem a little out of context here but I'd rather do this than be left speechless when my confused son argues with me over drinking milk just because an advertisement told him so!

Whatever the case, there's no way an advertisement can get away messing up my children's healthy habits because I will make sure it doesn't. But then, there is a thin line between brainwashing and educating as far as the media is concerned. To identify that is where the true challenge lies.

God couldn't be everywhere and that's why he created mothers. (Neat escape, God!)