Eating Panta bhat for Summer

When I was a child, eating Panta bhat was common among most families in Dhaka. In case you don’t now what is it then let me tell you. They are two Bangla words and together they mean a special kind of food. Panta means ‘with water’ and bhat means ‘boiled rice’. So, many people still do here is that they boil the rice at night and eat dinner and pour water in the left over rice and the rice soaks overnight. In the morning, they eat this watery rice with some lentil soup, red chili and salt. Of course, you can add other curries but it is better you eat light. Well, soaking for a long time is not good for rice.

So, what I am going to do is to soak rice in morning and then eat for lunch. It is almost summer time and weather is hot and dry. So, panta bhat would be good.

We lost the habit of eating Panta bhat when refrigerator came in our home. Thus, I am going back to the old habit.  

How Work Overload can destroy your Weight Loss Plan?

Yesterday and today, I again ate all the junk foods and bad foods that I used to eat in the past. I drank tea and Pepsi. No, I did not become bad and spoilt about eating like past. What happened was that yesterday, I was all the time running from one place to another and I felt very hungry, tired and weak. So, I had to eat a lot. The junk food items have this power to give you strength on a temporary basis. So, the work overload forced me to eat bad items.

Today, when I got up I felt totally unfresh and out of touch. I had no energy. So, I ate beef and drank Pepsi. In the last two days, I did one good thing. I tried to consume some decent amount of fruit juice and also Yoghurt water. This is a good improvement in me.

The main problem is that life is tough and sometimes, you have to work a lot. I wish that I don’t take any project that would require this amount of running in a single day. Well, for the next one week, I will have to run a lot and work a lot. 

Sleeping is better and cheaper than Tea or Coffee

Today, I woke up at 8:30 AM and for the last 5 hours, I felt better. Most probably, my health is becoming normal and I am getting some of my strengths back. I have given up my habit of drinking tea and it offended me a lot in the last few days. I felt tired, weak and some sleepy all the time. Today, I feel much natural and fresh despite the fact that I had just 3-4 hours of sleep last night. I just want to sleep at 11 PM at night or 12 AM.

Now, if I feel sleepy then I will sleep some instead of drinking tea. I am grateful to God that I have been able to totally give up my habit of drinking soft drinks (Coke or Pepsi) and coffee. It takes time to get back your health. Well, at last, I have started to feel dizzy and my body wants to have some tea. However, my goal is now to try to stay awake as long as possible and then sleep. Sleeping for a hour or two is better and cheaper than a cup of tea or coffee.

If you are fighting to get back your heath then try to be patient. You cannot expect any miracle to happen overnight. 

Birthday Resolution Plan for Weight Loss Efforts

My birthday is on 22 March and that day after tomorrow. This time, my only resolution is to decrease weight. It was my new year’s resolution and so far, I could not decrease any weight in this year of 2010. It is frustrating but I have not given up hope. Instead, I am trying that my weight does not increase. I have experienced an important change in my mindset. Even if you cannot decrease weight, it is very important that you do not give up. In the past, I used to give too early.

Now, I am not giving up and I know that this is my life and my health. I have to try for it and if I continue trying then sooner or later, it will change and I will be able to come to my normal weight. Today, I was taking a look at the pictures of my past. In 1995, my weight was just 64 KG. In 1998, it was 67 KG. Those days, I was underweight. Things were more or less ok until 2005. Last 4 years, I became overweight and the main reason is professional blogging. I did sitting work full time.

Eating all the junk foods took place at the same time with the stress of professional blogging. Now, I am changing and I am trying to leave the stress of blogging. 

Fight with Depression if you Can

I am a very lucky person because I have suffered from depression much less than most people I have seen in my life. I have fair share of misfortunes and tough times and it had been a very tough life for many years. When I look back and see and can remember the people who suffered from long term depression then I can see that this depression is a very bad enemy for human beings. It destroys the hope and when you are depressed, you can not think of any good future.

Well, I don’t want to say that when you are suffering from bad luck then you should not become sad. It comes automatically to you and you can not help it. However, you should try to have some kind of dream and you should always dream for the future. If you have a dream then it will be easier for you to tolerate the bad part of life.

We all know that life is tough and you can never expect that life will be only rosy. When you are fighting with weight loss then sadness is perhaps the last thing that you want to see. 

Caught Cold for the Time Being

Because of a lot of work and doing some running outside home, I have caught cold. It is bad but at the same time it is not that bad because now I am forced to staying and rest some and give the body some rest to get better. For many months, I did not suffer from any cold or fever and that is why it is natural perhaps that I have caught cold. Another thing that has happened is that it is now the time of changing season in my country. Spring is gradually finishing and hot weather is coming. This time is very tough for the body to adjust because in day time it is very hot and you need fan or cooler to have comfort. On the other hand, at night if you turn on the fan then you will feel very cold.

So, it is natural for many people to catch cold in this time out of the season and I hope that I will become ok very soon.

Learnt to decrease Your Work when you need to lose weight

In my last entry, I wrote about making a balance between weight loss effort and your career. Now, I am finding it very difficult to make a balance between career and weight loss effort. I have noticed that to decrease weight, I need to forget everything and just focus on this effort. However, when you have to look after a business then it simply is not possible. For example, I have to look after all the blogs and my workers.

Now, two persons are working under me and they are a part of my company. It is a small and home business but it is full of competition. We have to updates our blogs and at the same time we have to focus on getting traffic. It is not an easy matter and just two persons are looking after now fourteen blogs. I can not do anything right now because I am busy with other projects.

I am busy for another two weeks and after that I can be some free. In fact, I am busy with other outside projects for three weeks and at the same time I had to suffer the stress of looking after the blog network. For example, I have to update some of my blogs so that they have fresh content. When you are in the blogging business then you have to ensure that you blogs have fresh content on a regular basis or else it will suffer.

Well, finding the right balance between the right career and health is always difficult for everyone. For me it is double difficult now because I am passing a very bad stage. On the one hand, my health is becoming better but on the other hand my business has suffered a lot and needs serious attention from me.

Perhaps the only best solution is that from next month I do not take any new project from outside and just stay home do blogging and take care of my health. This is the only way out for me right now.

Weight Loss vs Your Career: How to make a balance?

Right now, I am at the peak of my career. I am flooded with projects that I can not handle but they have quite the good potential of earning good amount of money. Secondly, I am also at the top of my skill in my mid-thirties. I have got now over one and half decade of experience in writing field. I have even four years of professional blogging experience. I am not only fast but also my quality and performance have improved a lot compared to the past. I am in a good time in my career.

Suddenly, everything looks to be very bright for me except that I have been fighting with my ill health for the last seven or eight months.

Now, getting project is not a challenge for me anymore. I have been able to make a network of clients and more than that I have learnt a lot about earning money through blogging. As a result, I am always full of projects and now, earning money is not a problem at all.

You know that for most people getting regular projects or getting regular work is the main challenge. Especially, when you are a freelance writer or you are not doing any job then there is always a level of uncertainty. Fortunately, I have passed that stage and now I am in the stage that I don’t have any shortage of any work.

That is why, it gives me a lot of pain to see that I can not do my work very well because I have been suffering from sickness continuously for the last seven or eight months. What happen before that was that I forgot to take care of my health and just focused on working. I used to stay awake whole night and read about blogging, about search engine optimization, about freelance writing etc.

With extensive reading, I have become expert on South Asia and my blog on South Asia has become very successful. It got links from many websites and blogs and a Page Rank of 6. All the success has come at the price of my health and now in my mid-thirties, suddenly, I have found that all my energy has finished.

I am writing this thing just to remind you that health is important not only for a happy living or happy life but also for success of your career. If your health is not good then it is very difficult to work full time everyday. May be, you can do it for two or three years and give all your efforts but after that be sure you will suffer. The same thing happened to me in professional blogging.

First three and half years I gave all my energy and gave a lot and learnt a lot and even got some decent amount of success. When I felt that I have become very skilled and I have all those knowledge I need and success is very easy, suddenly, I have no energy to use my skill, knowledge and experience.

If you have the same kind of attitude towards your work and you are dedicated for your profession, then please try to learn that you must never neglect your health. Try to think that taking care of your health is a part of your professional success. Health is a part of your career. Just remember that or else you will suffer just like me.

Now, more than being sick, the feeling that I cannot work full time when I am at the top of my skill and knowledge, gives me the most pain. I feel bad because my blog South Asia Blog is getting good traffic now. If I could work full time it would have become a smashing success. 

Another Sleepless Night with Obesity

The birds have started signing outside of the window. It is now 5:25 AM in my city and within 30 minutes, the sun of the new day will rise. It is another sleepless night for me. It has been more than four years that I am awake whole night and then sleep until noon. Sometimes, I sleep at 9 AM or even 11 AM in the morning and then sleep until the sun set. Needless to say that it is a very bad habit and unfortunately, it seems that I cannot change this habit. I am also losing the battle of weight loss. Today, I found that my weight is 103 KG. So, I am now living in the obesity range again. Needless to say, things have to change.

For the last few days, I was doing a writing project and I needed to consume some decent amount of tea to keep my energy level enough to do the project. In the last one month, two times, my health became fresh but on both of the times, suddenly, I put a lot of pressure for two days continuously and then became weak and sick. I have lost mental strength to eat good and healthy food and last few days, ate more junk food items like beef, oil, sweet etc. It is like that I am losing both the battle and war against weight loss.

I am just happy for one thing. I have not lost the mental consciousness. Instead, my wanted to lose enough weight, coming back to normal sleeping style, starting some kind of physical activity, good eating habit, I want to get back all of them very soon. It requires a lot of determination and effort. However, the first thing I need to do is to get free from any kind of deadline based work at least for a week. The first thing, I have to do is to start walking and walk a lot every day. Perhaps, only this way, sleeping habit can be changed and weight loss can happen too. In the past, it was like this. I used to do a lot of work and daily, I had to go out a lot and go to different places. Since I started professional blogging, I hardly go out of home.

It is time again to give my best effort to improve my health. When it comes to strict discipline, I am not good at it. Now, I have to do it with all my heart Failure is not an option. 

Weight Loss: Hope and Frustration

In the last one week, in stead of decreasing one kilogram weight, I in fact managed to gain one KG. This is bad and the main problem was I became some sick and week and I needed to eat more food. I understood in the last four months that losing weight is a daily battle. It is not that you just weight lose 10 KG and then you can go back to your normality. No, it is not like that. In stead, you have to fight every day. I could manage to lose 10 KG and come to 100 KG but then sometimes my weight is increasing by one or two KG all the time. I find it very bad to see that I can not go beyond 100 KG. I must go to 85 KG to go out the over weight level but it seems a very impossible and difficult work.

However, I have understood that I must continue trying. Good thing is that I am not going back to the bad eating style of the past. Mutton or goat meat was my most favorite and I was fond of fast food like burgher, sandwittch and pizza. I was also fond of biryani and Chinese food. In fact, any outside food which was tasty, if I had the money in my pocket I would not hesitate to eat. As a result, it is taking so much time for me to decrease weight. Although, I have totally stopped eating outside food, soft drinks like Coca Cola, and even any kind of sweet. Still I am finding it very difficult to lose weight and sometimes I get frustrated.

Even if I get frustrated I have understood one thing that it must be a daily battle and I must not get it go out of control. In fact, while losing weight, what you have to remember is that when frustration comes or you are trying for many days but still you are not getting the result, that is the most challenging time. If we just continue trying then very soon you will get the result. Now, I know that if I continue trying then in the next one year I will definitely lose some weight.

Home Food vs Outside Food: Just One Tip

For the last four months, I have developed a very good habit of eating home made food. I live a country in which restaurant foods or shop foods are not healthy at all. Sometimes they are not cooked even clean or proper way. As a result, if you eat outside food continuously then there is every possibility that you will get some diseases. Because it is a poor country, the restaurant workers don’t get good salary and at the same time people can not afford to pay enough money for buying food. However, even sometimes in television it is shown that food items in expensive food shops are not healthy. I have stopped eating fast food.

Anyway, the important lesson that I have learnt is that we should try to decrease eating outside food as much as possible. What happen is that three days ago, I had to eat outside restaurant food and it was not so good and I managed to get diarrhoea. As a result, I lost a lot of water from body and in last two days I have become very weak. When you are young then these things do not matter. You have the ability to tolerate anything and everything. However, when you are getting older then this simple thing can become very problematic. 

Please don’t Destroy your normal Sleeping Habit

The last two days have been very tough for me as I had a special work. I normally sleep very late at night and then sleep until 1 or 2 pm. However, last two days, I did not had just three or four hours each time. As a result, today I feel very weak and tired. Sleeping habit is very important thing and unfortunately I destroyed it completely and now I am paying the price for it.

I am now trying very hard to get back to normal sleeping habit but it is not that easy and I have understood that it will take a lot of time. Whatever your sleeping habit is just remember that you should try to rest enough everyday. There is no alternative to having proper sleep and rest. Many people work at night shift and often they can not sleep at night. So, what they can do? They have no choice but when you have a choice then don’t try to be awake too much at night. Also even if you are awake then try to have enough sleep and enough rest.

One of the biggest problems is that when I feel some better then I forget the need for rest and try to work a lot. I know that many people have similar kind of disease like me. It is not good and when you become middle aged or old then it can be very dangerous.

List of TV Channels of World Cup Hockey 2010

If you are a fan of field hockey then it is a must read entry for you. It was originally posted in another blog. I felt that I should give it here too so that it can reach to more people.

For most of us who do not live in India but are interest to watch the matches of world cup hockey 2010 on television, there is good news that many TV channels will broadcast the matches. I am very happy to see that this time a record number of TV channels are going to broadcast the matches live and as a result millions of people around the world in every continent will be able enjoy them.

First of all, I like to talk about Ten Sports because Ten Sports has been giving a lot of coverage to the tournament. Ten Sports is popular in South Asia and in Middle East. It is a based in UAE. Ten Sports regularly broadcast hockey events.

Ten Sports may be a popular TV channel in South Asia and Middle East but it is not a terrestrial TV channel. It is in fact a satellite channel and its viewership is limited compared to national TV channels like Doordarshan. Doordarshan is the national TV channel in India and it is going to broadcast world cup hockey 2010 matches. According to the official website of International Hockey Federation, Doordarshan reaches nearly 110 million homes and as a result almost 600 millions people will be able to watch the matches if they want.

In Pakistan, PTV is the national TV channel and it is available in any home with a television set. Pakistan was once the world champion and many people are emotional about this sport in Pakistan. Now, Pakistan cricket team is doing very bad and that is why many people will hope that hockey team can bring some glory for them. I am sure that the millions of people in Pakistan will be in front of their TV sets in the match against India on 28^th February. And if the national team can advance to semi-final stage then surely it will ensure a huge viewership of the semi-final matches. Pakistan last became world cup champion in 1994 and since then in the last three world cup hockey events, all they could manage was that sixth place.

I also like to mention about Super Sports because Super Sports is available all across Africa. I was checking the Super Sports website and I found out that they will broadcast a number of matches of world cup hockey. Especially they will be showing the matches involving South Africa. On 28^th February, South Africa is going to play against Spain.

As for other TV channels, I am giving the list from international hockey federation websites:

- Ten Sports (cable and satellite; India Subcontinent) – all matches live

- Astro Super sports (cable and satellite; Malaysia, Indonesia) – all matches live

- Starhub – (cable and satellite, Singapore) – all matches live or delayed

- PTV (terrestrial, Pakistan) – PAK matches and final

- NOS (terrestrial, Netherlands)– extended daily highlights and live coverage of selected matches

- Sport 1 (cable and satellite,  Netherlands) – all matches live

- Teledeportes (digital terrestrial, Spain) – ESP matches and final

- Sport Digital (cable and satellite, Germany) – schedule TBC

- ARD/ZDF (terrestrial, Germany) – extended news

- Deutsche Welle (worldwide) – extended news

- Zee (cable and satellite; UK) – all matches live 

- Cricket Plus (cable and satellite; USA and Canada) – all matches live and delayed

- ESPN Sur – (cable and satellite; Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay) – all Argentina matches plus final

- SKY SPORTS – (cable and satellite, New Zealand) – NZ matches and final

- FOX  Sports (cable and satellite, Australia) – AUS matches and final

- Showtime – (cable and satellite; Middle East) – all matches live

- Supersports (cable and satellite, pan-Africa) – RSA matches and final

In the above list, perhaps you can see that in England, Zee will telecast the matches. In Germany, it is Sport Digital and ARD/ZDF. In USA, and Canada, it is Cricket Plus. In Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay the TV channel will be the ESPN Sur. In New Zealand it is Sky Sports and in Australia it is Fox Sports.

Here, I like to say few words about the TV coverage of World cup hockey 2010. I am very happy that it is to being covered by a record number of channels. However, I felt disappointed in the absence of some notable TV channels like Sky Sports in England and ESPN in USA. I really wish that International Hockey Federation can come up with these major TV channels in UK and USA. They are very popular and they reach in huge audience.

I saw a news in Geo Super website of Pakistan that many sports journalist protested after they could not cover training seasons of different team. This kind of incident should not be repeated because hockey is gradually becoming a dying sport. It has lost popularity in traditional strong holds like India and Pakistan. So, International Hockey Federation officials should remember that they must try to work very hard with the media to bring back some of the popularity. Otherwise, in near future the sports may die. 

Pakistan vs Spain Time and Live TV Channels: 2 March 2010

I wrote this entry in South Asia Blog. Considering the fact that many people will want to know about it, I am posting it here too.

Pakistan lost the first match against arch rival India on the opening day of World Cup Hockey 2010. It was a humiliating defeat and it naturally frustrated and angered many people back in home. Now, it is time for them to face Spain in the next match. In this entry, I am going to write about the time and TV channels involving Pakistan vs Spain match. Spain won the opening match against South Africa. Spain won by 4-2.

Pakistan vs Spain match will take place on 2 March 2010 (Tuesday) and it will start at 18:35 Indian Time. Spain vs Pakistan match is going to take place on Dhyan Chand National Stadium, New Delhi. In fact, all the matches are taking place in this venue only.

About India vs Pakistan match, BBC reported:

andeep Singh scored from two penalty corners to bring India a 4-1 victory - their first win in four matches against Pakistan.

Pakistan's coach said India had played better but all was "not over yet".

While about Spain’s win, Times of India wrote:

Spain, ranked third in the world, were forced to come back from a goal down to the 13th ranked African champions and eventually managed to win 4-2 in Pool B.

The pace was relentless but the match was cleanly fought, with the only injury casualty being Irish umpire Colin Hutchinson, who was replaced by the Malaysian Amarjit Singh midway through the first half.

The match will be shown live in different TV channels. If you have access to Ten Sports then it is fine. In Pakistan, PTV will also telecast the match.

I think that Spain is the hot favorite in tomorrow’s match as they are now ranked third. If Pakistan wins then it will be the end of their dream to play in the semifinals.