About Watching TV

Here is one of the light bulb moments of my life. For a person who is constantly and lifelong on a diet with a view to reducing body weight which btw doesn’t seem to budge (witness those people who see you after a long time and tell you, you haven’t changed one bit, you look just the same. And you go uh? Is that right? Then how come I now have 12 kilos, always, always to lose?), its a bad bad idea to be so fond of watching food channels. I always thought of it as gaining knowledge. Well, yes, a bit, why not.  But in reality what all this food watching on TV does is keep food constantly in mind. If you opened my head and picked stuff out of the top of it one by one, what will come out? Food Topic. Food Ideas. Menus. Calories. What to eat next.   Here I am watching my favourite Nigella, or those cute Masterchef juniors, how on earth do they cook these complicated dishes at that age? 8 years old? seeshhh!! And all the time I am concocting recipes in my mind. No sugar? Well... what can I use to make my Falooda sweet without adding sugar or sugared rose water or roohafza? how to get crunch in a dish without deep frying the stuff? You get the picture. So I decided I would stop watching food channels. Full stop. Instead, I would switch to sports channels. This light bulb moment happened as I watched Nigella's Bites yesterday. The program that was being aired was from 2000. That I didn't know at the outset. I thought, what! Nigella? Has she lost that much weight? And then this little doubt crept in... is that an old programme? I waited till the programme came to an end and I saw MMI. Aha. 2001. That explains it. Fifteen years on, she has put on as much weight as I have in the same period.  At least, she's done eating all those fabulous desserts of hers, and I've managed the same fete by doing all sorts of awful things- yo yo dieting, bad eating, no exercising......Seeing her, I thought, well!

I had quit watching sports a long time ago. Which is a bit shocking, now I think of it, for I love Sports. I do believe I am a sporting person, if not a sportsperson! I thought about it. Why did I stop watching sports? Coz at home, the men are constantly watching Cricket. And even though I love cricket for more reasons than one, there is only so much of it that one can watch....Okay, okay, here I go as usual off tangent. So. I decided I will switch to watching sports channels and see all those wonderful things that these young uns are doing in the field, on the track and so forth. And be inspired to get fit and stay fit. Instead of cakes and pastries, I should watch rippling muscles, peak performance. Instead of thinking of eating, I should think of working out. Sit up if you are lying down. Stand up if you are sitting down. Walk if you are standing. Run if you are Walking. Keep moving.