Monkey See, Monkey Do

No No...I am not talking about Eminem's rap...something strange happened last week that made me pause for  a minute and think. Most of you that know me, know about my need to keep the house spic and span ( yeah yeah...understatement I know)...so last Monday due to busy schedules as I was cooking dinner, I asked K1 to take the garbage out as it was garbage day...K1 did it in due course that evening (did I tell you he is a really awesome husband...most days)...afterwards he comes back in with a sheepish grin and says -- Garbage day is Wednesday, I am not taking that stuff back in...Next morning as we were leaving for work, we saw that 6 out of our 7 neighbors had left their garbage cans out...we felt kinda sorta guilty about it (for about a minute)...it brought home the point of how hard we try to conform, follow the pack and not stand out...Monkey See Monkey Do

Thinking back about my obsession with "health and food" it started with a "diet pill" in 2000 called Metabolite which had way too much caffeine and gave me an unnecessary buzz...followed by a "grapefruit diet"...which left me hungry all the time... then it was the "Hollywood Detox Diet"...no food just the juice for a couple days and in the following days, you see all the weight come right back. I followed this by the Weight-watcher's...God knows what else till in 2006, I found out K2 was on his way - all diets flew out of the window -- I focused on  balanced, healthy whole foods (think yogurt and banana for breakfast, a spinach salad with shrimp for lunch and moong dal khichidi for dinner with some healthy snacks thrown in), I walked 3 miles everyday and gained only 21 pounds during the pregnancy. Once K2 was born, I think we maintained a healthy diet. However, in 2009 with my dad's illness I became totally irrational about food - I took the family off dairy and meat for a while and this resulted in Vitamin D deficiencies for K1 and B12 deficiencies for me... I no longer follow diet fads...I exercise when I feel like it, we eat reasonably healthy foods and it is no longer about Monkey See, Monkey Do...

What did we do this weekend?K2 was not well and is still complaining of an ear ache - so it was a quiet weekend, we watched a Shakespeare's play in the park (Henry Vth )

Attended a friend's 50th birthday party where I binged on Ragda Pattice and Ras Malai...not ready yet for a work day but I am sure I will get there. For now I am admiring a near-perfect rose in our front yard and a vibrant little humming bird which is buzzing away busily near it...