Anuradha Sridharan

  The most common reasons that have led to the increasing adoption of breakfast cereals in India is that they are easy to make, quick, instant and convenient. Many of us prefer muesli for breakfast as the " perceived health factor " is higher. We might even choose the sugar-free version. Muesli is typically made with grains, nuts and dry fruits in the proportion of 80:10:10. Let's look at the ingredients list of 3 popular diet/unsweetened muesli brands. Baggry's no added sugar - diet muesli doesn't contain any nuts or dry fruits. Rolled oats and wheat flakes are the primary ingredients but the dietary fiber is only 3 gm per 30 gm serving. This is because the two ingredients are so highly processed that they are stripped off most of the fiber. Also, there are a couple of antioxidants that might increase the shelf life of the pack but what they do to our body needs to be understood. Kellogg's muesli no added sugar contains a mix of gr...

As I mentioned in an earlier post, "Lifestyle" is a topic I wanted to write more about. The lifestyle we choose dictates multiple areas of our lives - our health, our food choices, clothing, weekend activities, our hobbies, where we live, where we work, how long we work, what BS are we ready to tolerate etc.  In the Tamil movie "Velaikkaaran" (Sivakarthikeyan one), there is an amazing scene where the hero would wonder how the expenses of his family have suddenly increased ever since his income increased. The following scenes where a salesman sells a stabilizer for an LED TV and how the hero thinks about past conversations about our mindsets are just brilliant. Here's that particular scene if you haven't watched it. What I'm trying to convey here is well narrated in this scene. The rigor with which we focus on increasing our income is so high, but most of the middle and upper-middle-class families don't seem to have the same rigor when it co...

The sequence of events from yesterday evening helped me understand the triggers that push me towards buying/eating junk foods. This is just a personal observation. Triggers might vary from one individual to another. So it makes sense to first observe our thoughts and emotions before we succumb to the temptations. I had an early lunch yesterday and had a cup of tea around 3PM. I didn't eat any snack and took D to an activity class around 5PM. While waiting in the center, I was reading an informative book on my Kindle (a serious, non-fiction book on the jobs-to-be-done framework loaded with insights). I read for an hour and had made good progress with the book. My stomach started grumbling around 6PM. The class got over at 6:20PM and we headed to a nearby grocery store to pick up a few things. As usual, D wanted to buy her quota of ONE junk food per shopping trip.  While she picked up a pack of cream biscuits, I was looking at a pack of tapioca finger chips and drooling ...

At the beginning of every year, I identify a few focus areas to work on and note them down. They are not really resolutions per se, but more to do with broad guidelines. This year, I wanted to try a new technique to align my focus areas around a verb. What's that ONE verb that I really want to focus on this year? MINIMIZE - yes, that's my verb for 2020. This verb is applicable to different areas of my life, not just with respect to physical belongings. I have been focusing on leading a minimalist lifestyle for the past 3 years. Though I don't buy a lot, I have been holding onto many things due to various reasons - sentimental value, future potential usage, loss aversion etc. This year, my plan is to consciously reduce, declutter and organize my home. I may refer to Marie Kondo's book but I don't plan to follow every step along the way. So yes, MINIMIZE my belongings. That includes my books too. As I'm writing this, the images from the Australi...