Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Rooted To The Spot

My personal training classes at the gym have become just that - personal. More than I like. Every detail of what I've ingested is investigated and met with raised eyebrows, sober and solemn "Hmms..." and other trying-not-to-be despairing expressions. So when my passionate, desperate, young and charming trainer pointed to the weighing machine and pleaded with me to eat just fruit for dinner till I reached a certain weight, not brooking my arguments that it wouldn't be a real reflection of what I weighed, I reluctantly agreed. Neither she nor I are happy with my more than decent loss of inches, we want to see the kilos tumble away, and I don't want to be confronted with questions of how many grammes I've lost every day.

Now, dinner's my nemesis - contrary to all diet advice which says don't eat much at dinnertime, that's exactly what I do - I can easily forgo breakfast and lunch and not miss them but at the end of the day, I look forward to an unhurried dinner, a good book, a good DVD. An unhurried dinner also means a variety of good food and watermelon and apple alone do not a good dinner make.

As a via media between my trainer's desires and mine, and also to rescue some vegetables that have been lying around for a while, I concocted this salad.


My weight is still rooted to the spot, and my trainer's still pleading with me, so I make no claims to how healthy or filling or low-calorie it is (but it can't be, it's full of roots, and yeah, yeah, I've done the obligatory Googling for nutritional info).

It's an "As You Like It" salad, just add or subtract whatever you don't like.

Beetroots: 2, boiled, peeled, sliced
Turnips: 2, boiled, peeled, sliced
Capsicum/bell peppers: 2, diced

Dressing

Limes: Juice of 3
Garlic: 2 cloves, minced
Green chilli: 1, deseeded, minced
Oil: 1 tsp
Sugar: 1/2 tsp
Salt, to taste

Garnish

Sesame seed: 1 tbsp, toasted

In a bowl, place the lime juice, garlic, green chilli, sugar and salt. Mix and let it sit for a while, about 30 minutes.

In a larger bowl, place the vegetables and add the oil and dressing. Mix well but gently.

You can choose to strain the dressing too.

Garnish with toasted sesame seed. By mistake, I used cold-pressed gingelly (sesame) oil and the flavour was rather overpowering - I decided it needed some crunch to take my mind off the flavour and added the sesame seed, it was a good idea!

35 comments:

  1. that looks great, sra. carrots and beets are filled with natural sugar which wont really help if you're trying to have a light dinner. substitute with cabbage or cauliflower or cucumbers and that'll make the pounds go away... good luck!

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  2. Hmmm.
    I like salads provided they don't have a lot of leaves in them. Though beets and turnips aren't favourites. Capsicum, I love. Try using unsweetend orange juice instaed of the sugar. Makes a difference to the salad.
    Have to admire your single-mindedness though. Wish I had it.:)

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  3. Eating to loss weight? I actually don't know anything on that side and hence no comments. But the salad looks so very colorful as I am tempted to grab the bowl! Having a bowl of cooked greens with a teaspoon of dal with 1 roti sounds good ?

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  4. salad looks lovely .. iam just like you, i love eating a fulfilling dinner

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  5. wow very beautiful picture sra...as aparna said you got to be appreciated for your determination!..wish even I had it!

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  6. The salad looks so colourful...I would rather have less of something than be deprived.

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  7. Why is losing weight so difficult??? Ya, I've shifted to black coffee now :((
    The salad looks lovely ..The beet gives such a pretty color..

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  8. Great idea, and a lovely colour salad. Good going, and best wishes.

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  9. I love colours of the bowl, the salad with the specks of sesame..

    And yes...the way you describe the investigation is a little too personal... for comfort

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  10. Love the picture Sra! Shades of red/pink with just white as accent - very nice!

    I hope to see more gym-related humour posts :D

    Mamatha

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  11. I understand how stressful this can be and I need a good dinner too but I'm learning to eat most part during the day but that will probably change, come winter. That salad looks pretty

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  12. Young and charming trainer i was jealous and I had this expression wow lucky girl, then in the next sentence i read She :-)))))
    The dish have such a beautiful colour.
    Join the club here i am deperatley trying to loose 5 kg, it is just goinglike a yo yo, weekday almost a kilo is gone and by weekend it is back.

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  13. :)) Thats a hilarious post. I had exact opposite problem last year. My doctor desperately wanted to see few kilos on me and I could not manage even in grams (it is as difficult to gain weight for few people as it is to loose wt for others!!).
    As you said, dinner is the main meal of the day for me too.

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  14. Arundathi, yeah, I know, but I had to use these up, and delude myself into thinking it was okay ... thanks.
    Aparna, I love leaves - with a mayonnaisey dressing! LOL! So I never buy or make mayo. Single-minded, yes, but I wish it paid back, sigh!
    Ni, lucky you! Pls stay that way, thin as you are. I love greens, I don't care for the roti or rice, and here I am, still plump ...
    Deesha, yeah, now how do we change that, hmm?
    Lakshmi, thanks. I wish it showed results.
    Sunita, I've tried that too, less just makes me crave more :(
    Swati, yeah, with my luck, it'll just keep me awake and that sleeplessness won't help the cause :)
    Shreya, thanks, I liked its looks too
    Rachel, thanks, she asks me worse than I've mentioned in the post. And everyone blithely discusses those subjects too.
    Mamatha, I was wondering if I was overdoing the gym bit, but if you like it, I guess I can write about it again.
    Laavanya, she is relentless. Even I weigh myself every day but having to report to her and seeing her disappointment is stressful.
    Happy, :) Me too, I've lost about 3-4 inches but the kilos - only 2, and yo-yoing at that!

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  15. Shilpa, there are a few people at my gym who are being trained to put on weight too!

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  16. This sounds interesting. And more importantly easy.

    Good way to work this is make soups - filling and can be quite tasty. Salads usually leave me depressed.

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  17. ( i have one discovered-by-trial-and-error spring onion soup which i should post about some day. healthy types)

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  18. Love the beautiful color of the salad.... But didn't your trainer ask you to avoid beets, carrots, potatoes and a zillion other veggies?!?! even I was under training, same time last year...... and the list of veggies and fruits to avoid was longer than the ones i could have!!! :(
    But having them once in a while is okay, i guess... isn't it?

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  19. Nice color and pic of the salad. Didn't know one could eat boiled turnips.....:) I would delete that:)
    Nice post though. Ask your trainer casually what she likes for dinner, make it for her and u can also gorge on....:)...just a suggestion.

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  20. sra, I am exactly the same..i cant skip dinner and i eat a lot during dinner...and my wt is oh my gosh i cant make it public...for the time beign i can say..iam over weight n tryin to reduce ma wt..lovely salad..even i tried doing all stuff nothing is havin an effect on my wt ....got to try hard!!!May b i'll start with ur salad!

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  21. That is perfect for a diet..I have a diet event going on in my blog..Do check that out..

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  22. God, Sra... I'm exactly like that - can live w/o breakfast and lunch... but dinner is the meal I enjoy the most *sigh* And fruits and lots of greens dont cut it. *deeper sigh*

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  23. Sra,
    color of the salad is fab, although I would skip beet and turnips in salads...
    Divide your meals to 8 small portions instead of 3 prime meals , hope it helps ..
    Love these stories about going to gym.
    hugs and smiles

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  24. Looks really colourful and nice, Sra....though Iam sure I couldn't survive on just fruits/veggies every night, no matter how wonderful looking they are.

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  25. u might be losing ur body fat but gaining muscle and bone weight sra. so dont u worry too much.
    salad looks gr8.

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  26. Salad looks great...I do not boil the beetroot but shred them..I understand what you gong through with your trainer ..

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  27. this looks delicious sra, I have some beets in my fridge that i need to finish... now I know what it's gonna be.

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  28. i can watermelon for dinner every night... if it's in a margarita. :D

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  29. Cynic, soups leave ME depressed. Soups alone, that is! :-) Will look out for your recipe.
    Ramya, I'm not listening to the trainer, am I? In any case, I knew they were the wrong choice of veggies, just felt virtuous that I was using them and not wasting them, and also since it was just salad ...
    Vidya, boiled turnips sound very unglamorous but they were coloured pink and absorbed the flavours v well!
    Sangeeth, even I'm wondering why the kilos aren't going. I'll just keep trying, though!
    Vanamala, thanks.
    Divya, will look at it.
    Shyam, an Uncle of mine says there's a reason why thin people are thin and fat people are fat. Need I say anything more? :(
    Jaya, :) I do try and have something every 3-4 hours, but ...
    Jayashree, actually, I love salads, but of course, this wasn't the right combination. I love having someone else make salads for me!
    Sia, if that's true, I must have turned into Musclewoman or something - I've been at it for over three months now!
    Priti, yes, when I intend to shred them, I don't cook them.
    Mandira, hope you enjoy it.
    Bee, maybe I should start smoking, and lose weight 'naturally' - margarita will add to me, am sure! :)

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  30. Sad to tell you that the fruit in the night thing really works ...I have tried it and it helped me lose weight...on the other hand the salad does look very tempting...

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  31. I am so like you Sra - 'need an indulging dinner'. I do know the fact that carbs after 6pm are bad for our health, but its so difficult for me to abide by it!..the salad looks very colorful.

    Hugs,
    Siri

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  32. wow, you have a trainer! So great to hear that you take such good care of yourself.

    I could eat tons of this, even if I don't lose weight. Well, maybe I'll go for a big WALK afterwards!

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  33. i do love beetroot...but only in a curry..not so sure about it in a salad..so have u let tge PT go..or still moving on with her?/

    Rajitha

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