Weight loss mission

The making of Indian white wine with local supplies

2007-11-17T02:04:00Z

Although making of wine is a bit offtopic to bodybuilding, research says good wine is a killer of cholesterol and burns away fat on frequent use. The wine available in the markets are either so sweet or tastes like vinegar. On top of it they are very expensive. So I had decided to make it at home. The first thing I did was to buy a book on wine making "The Wine Maker's guide" by JP. Choffel. I chose to make white wine from apple about 40 litres.

These are the ingredients and equipments needed

Apple - 50 kg
Masher(I used the conventional wooden bucket and a heavy piece of wooden log)
Water - 40 litres
Yeast - 20 gms
Sugar - 12 kg
Potassium Meta Bi Sulphate or Campden Tablet
Hydrometer -950-1200 range
Big Buckets -2
Long handled stirrer
Water can 2 (20 liter capacity, the normal plastic water can with narrow neck)
Corks and Saline tubes

I bought 50 kg's of apple, ripe ones removed the seeds and mashed it out. I cleaned the Bucket, stirrer with potassium meta bi sulphate solution. (Prepare the solution with 1 liter of water and 100 gms of potassium meta bi sulphate)
Then the mashed apple was divided into 2 and put in the buckets. 20 liters of water was added to each bucket. 6kg of fine sugar was added to the bucket. I bought the best sugar in market. If you go for cheap sugar then the finished wine will not be of the high quality. Then the yeast was added approximate 10 gms to a bucket. A long handled stirrer(I used the stem part of a pal tree leaf) was used to stir the solution. Be careful to stir them in clockwise direction which is believed to be good for yeast multiplication.

(Here is what I did and I am writing it in simple words if you wish to try it at home)

Fermentation with air - phase 1

Cover the bucket with a clean cloth and leave the solution to ferment with availability of air. Stir it twice a day for 5 days. By then the yeast would have broken down the sugar and apple must. The fermentation will be furious and you will see bubbles and foams from day2. It will be vigorous till day 4 and the must will start settling down by then. If the must is not settling down and you notice fermentation even on day 5, you can allow it to ferment for a couple of days more. Do not forget to stir it twice a day so that the must is distributed evenly. Once the primary fermentation is stopped filter the solution by a clean white cloth.

Fermentation without air (secondary fermentation)

Clean the water cans with sulphate solution and rinse them thoroughly. Filter the fermented apple juice using a clean white cloth. By now it will have the smell of wine. Pour the filtered juice (we call it wine from now on) into the water bottles upto the neck only leaving an inch or so empty. If you have not enough wine to fill it, you can add clean water to make it up to the neck. Now place a airtight cap on the bottle. You can get this cap everytime you open a sealed 20 liter water can. Place the cap and wind the cap thoroughly with tape so that no air can get inside the bottle. You can use several techniques to prevent any air entering the bottle and to expell the air (gas) generated during the secondary fermentation. I used a saline kit for this purpose. With the sharp end I pierced the Cap and put the other end of the tube into a bottle of water so that no air can come inside but the fermented gases can ooze out through the water.

Leave it for 2 months and then rack it. Racking is just filtering again so that the wine is clear from any suspended particles. Leave it for another 2 months. Now the wine is ready to drink. However if you can bottle it and can keep it for another 6 months, it will give best results. In my case we just drunk the 40 litres in 3 weeks.

I had took the pictures of all the apparatus, the procedures etc in my camera, but unfortunately it got corrupted. Next Time I start with wine making I will provide you with as much details as possible. Also I will offer a bottle of wine (inside India) for the best comments

Not much success in the first phase..

2007-11-02T15:17:00Z

Work was so hectic that we 3 couldn't do our workouts which eventually led to the failure of phase-1. We were working out several diet plans and exercise routines but could not execute it well. I am writing the story of my part while Felix and Marilyn will be writing their experience separately.

It happened that I had to expand my office with 4 more staff and we launched a series of websites including www.realkk.com which took most of my time. On top of it I had been running behind officials for a Gun license which I finally got . I don't want to bore you with the other not so important things happened. Inspite of all the hassles I was able to reduce 2 Kg or roughly 5 pounds which was only 20% of the expected 25 pound loss. However I consider this as a good achievement and thank everyone who had contributed in the community and motivated me to do it.

Without the motivation from the bodybuilding community, I bet I would have gained at least 10 pounds. Ok enough of it, I would like to share you the experience and the diets I used to get this very little success.

The Diet
Initially I had followed Dr.Atkins diet plan to cut down all carbs and go for protein rich foods. Being a south Indian we are very much used to eating rice from our child hood in the form of idlies, dosa, Puttu and other forms. It was not so easy to cut it off completely. Rice is very rich in carbohydrates and the body had been used to it. So I planned to have cereals for lunch on alternate days and have a light breakfast in the morning avoiding rice based foods.

So morning breakfast was eggs with noodles or two chapathis.

I chose sprouted green grams for lunch on alternate days which was less carb and full protein

Nutritional value of Green Gram (Per 100 grams)

    Energy : 30 calories
    Protein : 3 grams
    Carbohydrate : 6 grams
    Dietary Fiber : 2 grams

    I had decided to go for sprouted green grams for lunch. To make it more edible chopped onions, salt and a little coconut gratings was added to it. This is what you have to do if you decide to go for a sprouted green gram lunch. I had tried several recipes and finally stuck with this.

Take about 50-70 gms of green grams and put them in a airtight vessel with water added to the level. Keep it for 24 hours. When you open it next day you will see that the grams have sprouted with about 2-6 mm shoots. Chop a small onion and fry it in olive oil or any low fat oil. Use aas minimum oil as possible. You can add one or 2 green chillies to add taste. Once the onion is fried red add the sprouted grams and stir it for a while, then add the coconut gratings to finish the dish..

It may sound a bit annoying to have only green grams for lunch, but it is a delicious dish and will give you a stomach full feeling. It keeps your energy level high and feel light..

I had avoided taking more sugars and brought down the number of cups of coffee per day. Other than that I kept off from Grape Juice which I used to take often. I am planning for a strict diet in phase-2

Exercise

As for the exercise, I did 40 minutes a day on an average of 3 days a week, which I feel is very less than what I had planned initially. Rain, work and various other factors have really affected the routine. However I did the following exercises.

1. Taichi - Yang style, Basic -8. I had learned taichi from Master Selvaraj, who is the best Taichi Master and head of Taichi India Federation. Unfortunately, I couldn't continue the classes and Master was also flying to and fro to Hong Kong. So eventually I ended in learning the basic-8 only. I do it five reps a day.

2. Slanting Bench Press with 30 kgs, - 50 reps.

3. Biceps - 8 kg (single hand) - 50 reps

4 Forearms - 8 kg (single hand)- 50 reps

5.Pushups - 10-15

6.Cycling -(one or twice a week) -11 kms.From my home to kanyakumari and back

7. Occasional swimmiing

8. Work out on a belly trimmer rope..

Apart from this I feel I did not have a killer will and most of the times the body did not cooperate to the new exercise routines. However I feel I will achieve good success in phase-2

Mission started

2007-07-11T13:45:00Z

"Every Journey begins with a single step"

Finally we 3 of us have started the weight loss mission by monday 10th July 07. I had inquired some gyms last week, while Felix has his own workout equipments at home and Marylin's apartment has their own sophisticated Gym with a trainer. I will be doing brief updates on behalf of those 2 guys until they find some time to write about their experiences. Coming to the point the I have decided not to enroll in any of the gyms I have visited. While at chennai I used to be a frequent gym goer and continued it while in Dubai for some time. Those Gyms had great trainers sufficient equipments, spacious and motivated bodybuilders.

The ones I visited last week had one or more of the following drawbacks

Operated in a small dungeon like place
Not enough equipments, members have to stand in a que to use a particular equipment
Trainer looks like a bloated toad
lot of gossip going on and most of them are chatting over cell phones
too much distraction from short skirt girls
The time slots are not convenient

and a lot more other things which didn't suit the needs.

So what next, I have decided to do it inhouse with the available equipments and strictly follow the low carb Atkins plan. This is supposed to be an induction time which will last for another 15 days(upto july 25 2007). I had to cut the usual coffee, tea and snacks. No juice, milk, ice cream or any diary products. It is pretty tough for these 3 days and Atkins have strictly said that the carb intake cannot be more than 20 grams which used to be a lot more before. So I follow the strict diet as per Atkin standards which really is terrible for the past 2 days. Lucky I didn't find any abnormalities or loss in strength or energy. But the stomachs are crying out for the routine food which I had for 20 + years.

Apart from this I had contacted my Taichi Master and he is busy preparing for his tournament in China. So I have to meet his assistant by this weekend and discuss any possibilities of resuming taichi which I had to abruptly stop a couple of years back. I will write more on the previous experience on taichi later.

Also I had managed to cycle at an average 25km speed for 11 kms. It was marvelous, went upto kanyakumari and returned back. It was real tough while coming back due to the slope and the opposite breeze. It was very refreshing and felt good. It is not an exercise bike, Its a Hawk Racer from "Hero Cycles" but I guess it will do the job. Had I used an exercise bike I am pretty sure I couldnt cover more than 5 kms. So here we go..

Monday (10-7-07)- Started Induction on Atkins

Tuesday (11-7-07) - Atkins with a brisk walk for 3 kms.

Wednesday (12-7-07) - Atkins with cycling for 11 kms.

Not weighed yet :-) . Will do that sunday and post it here.

The weight loss story - Target 25 pounds in 100 days

2007-07-01T11:54:00Z

We have not yet decided the date to start the workouts or not even scheduled on what to do.. Since all the 3 are working on various projects on tight deadlines, we have agreed to start the work outs not late than July 10th. Meanwhile my cousin brother Amarnath have joined with us in our weight loss mission.. I would be providing more details later on him or maybe he will write down his own experiences. To begin with I have just weighed myself and measured my hip size..

What i found out was pretty discouraging. I weigh about 96 kg or 212 pounds and the hip size is a mega 42 inch. It's uncomfortable to publish the photos here, however I am doing that coz every time I look at it, I will be motivated to shred that fat. There is a heavy downpour here today, so had to remain indoors. I bought a book of Dr.Atkins and browsed through it. He is emphasizing on taking low carbs and more protein. The first thing I did after doing some reading was to google for Dr.Atkins. Wiki says Dr.Atkins have died obese according to the docs. And his wife have defended it saying that the weight was due to the medication given at hospital. Anyways I have decided to follow Atkins advice for some time and test the results. His diet appears to suit me coz here being surrounded on 3 sides by the sea, we get a lot of sea fish not to mention the abundance of river fish.

The only thing I need to sacrifice is the sweets which I have decided to quit from tomorrow. While writing this I have gobbled 3 big sweet and ripe alfonso mangoes which will be my last in this mango season.

Welcome to Bodybuilding and weight loss Blogs!

2007-06-04T17:55:00Z

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