pune – Page 2 – Dumbbells and Drama

Fitness

Please Don’t Be A Gym Bully- A Request To Fellow Fitness Enthusiasts

“You must be into cardio” they ask me as I shake hands with my new gym acquaintances. “No, I’m weight training” I say, and am met with a somber nod and an occasional hmm. I’ve noticed those side glances they exchanged too. The conversation has abruptly ended, and I make my way towards the weight rack, conscious that every step I take is being intensely scrutinized. All that beast mode enthusiasm has disappeared too, and I suddenly find myself faced with a simple question- should I be doing this at all? Sounds super familiar, doesn’t it? Congratulations, you’ve been noticed by the gym bullies and you’re officially a part of the gym world. This feeling was quite common a few months ago, and of course I learnt to deal with it, but it’s the attitude of those gym-goers that irks me till date. Fitness is a positive community of people,…

Lifestyle

Mad House Grill Pune- A Legacy

These days it’s quite a task figuring out where to dine. For those of you who are new here, long story short, I have now moved over to the dark side. This dark side boasts of heavy weights, HIITs, 10km runs and a lot of healthy eating. I am consciously making diet plans, trying my best to follow them, and of course minimizing all the eating out. Before you assume we gym folks do not know how to have fun, I’ll have you know that we have our lovely cheat days, 1:00am nights and parties every other day. Balance is the key, and once you get the hang of it life gets easy. With restaurants introducing healthy food in their menus, trying to get this balance has got easier lately. Joining the list of brands that the #fitfam will always be thankful to is Mad House Grill, an establishment critical…

Lifestyle

Mixed feelings at the launch of Mandarin & Mircchi, Pune

The team behind Sassy Spoon and Baraza have opened a third property, Mandarin & Mircchi, inside the premises of Ishanya Mall. Taking its cues from the public that is torn between choosing from the Chinese and Indian cuisines, Mandarin & Mircchi decided to gift us the best of both worlds, perfect for those times you cannot decide if you’d rather settle for some fish tikka or chilly chicken. I checked out this new place last week at the soft launch, and here’s what I have to say about Mandarin & Mircchi- AMBIANCE This new establishment is located right next to Baraza (even before entering I had made a mental note to keep this as a dinner option for those weekends we head to Baraza) and appears to be fine dining. You walk in to a space that has been creatively customized to showcase the amalgamation of Oriental and Indian elements.…

Fitness

I Doubled My Food Intake To Get A Well Defined Core

This year has been great so far, and as far as the fitness journey is concerned, if you follow me on Instagram you’ll must have realised how I’ve opted for lifting and gains earlier this year. I have gained a whole lot of muscle mass, and I have also moved up to a size 4 now, but I don’t have any regrets. My muscles are pumped, I’m sore 3 out of 7 days of the week, my glutes are beginning to pop, and life looks really good right now. As I said, no regrets :) I have concentrated on eating clean, eating smart and working out. Lifting weights burns a lot of calories, so in order to keep the gains going I’m eating well too. So does that mean I do not have a hard core anymore? Absolutely not! In fact my core is stronger, and definitely more defined than what it…

Lifestyle

Super Excited To Be A Part Of The Women Writers Fest In Pune!

SheThePeople has chosen Pune to host its flagship event, The Women Writer’s Fest , a festival that aims to focus the dialogue around women writers who are breaking new ground in content, style, and storytelling. It takes me immense pleasure to announce that I am also a part of The Women Writer’s Fest this August, and will be participating in the panel at the Blogging Workshop. *cue applause* With me I have the gorgeous Aashna Bhagwani from Beyond The Bouffant, Reema Sathe, Founder of Happy Roots and Sheena Dabholkar from one of my favorite Travel & Lifestyle webzines LOVER. The session would be moderated by Richa Singh, Founder of BlogChatter. This workshop is scheduled for 11:00am on 18thAugust 2017. (I have literally written this with a smile on my face, and I cannot be patient about this fest anymore!) About The Fest The Women Writer’s Fest will be a day long event…

Fitness

You Are More Than A Dress Size

Each one of us wants to change our appearance. Someone wants to be thinner, someone wants bigger muscles, someone wants a nice butt, someone wants to gain weight, someone wants bigger calves…the list is endless. But from what I’ve seen online and offline, there seems to be a certain obsession about getting smaller. Everyone wants to be able to use “lost a dress size” to feel good. Nine out of ten times I get “HELP! I need to lose weight” in my mails/DMs. While I have nothing against this, I feel a little sad that this is the only thing that everyone is concentrating on. No one has ever asked me “help me get stronger?” or “I want to grow my muscles” I see a lot of people approaching fitness as something that will help them get smaller. It breaks my heart to see this :( Before I start, I’d…

Fitness

4 Ways We Lived ‘The Fit Life’ While Traveling #TravelFit

Travel often means a break in your fitness routine; you’re on your feet, pacing around dodging traffic, tourists and trying your best to eat everything that a new place has to offer. Normal routines are completely thrown out of the window. If you have been going to the gym, you suddenly land yourself in a spot where you do not have a gym membership. If you like going out for runs, you are not sure if you should be going out running in the new neighborhood. If you are used to certain meals, you’ll realise there are so many new things to try and you want to try all of it! Your sleep cycle is ruined. Your drinking habits change. It’s a vacation after all! Luckily there is hope for the fit fam. Fitness peeps can totally take a vacation and not compromise on their workouts; you just HAVE to…

Lifestyle

A Taste of Chocolate Paradise: Le Flamington, Pune

I can safely assume that Pune has a coffee shop at almost every corner. Seeing how much the city adores the beverage, the entry of gourmet coffee came as no surprise (at least not to me) What I was worried about was the reaction of this price sensitive market that has grown to love deals and budget entertainment options. So was I right? From the little bit of knowledge I’ve gathered after speaking with owners and managers of gourmet coffee stores, I realised people were not too comfortable shelling out those big bucks every now and then. They do have a set of loyalists, mostly the early adapters who’ve stuck around, and the market is definitely growing, albeit at a slow pace. Why am I talking about coffee when my headline clearly says chocolate? I wanted to share with you the context of the conversation I had with Taha Khan, owner…

Fitness

A Full Body HIIT Favorite

I am back after a vacation, and I am SO excited to get back to life here. I’ve been inspired to do so many new things, I cannot wait to get started. Plus I’m stoked about hitting the gym and switching on that beast mode again :) We walked around 20km everyday for 2 weeks and even cycled around Rome and got back with great tans *tee hee* I had expected some weight gain during the vacation, but I’ve got back more defined than before. So of course I want to work out more and set new standards of fitness for myself. Starting off with this HIIT today – NOTE- This requires great stamina and needs to be done with only 10sec intervals between each exercise. Do it at your own pace, it gets easy and less painful as you get used to it (which took me 2 weeks LOL)…

Guests

ChatRoom #11 – Ashish Gurbani

We connected at “This is the moment when people quit, I am going to do the opposite and stay on this path” Plus his new found love for the gym has us talking for hours on end. It’s always a great experience to meet Ashish Gurbani, a name we’ve grown to associate with some of the best photography work in Pune. It doesn’t matter what you do or where you come from, Ashish will talk to you of future plans and concepts he’s thought of, and will leave you feeling empowered. It was during one such breakfast conversation when I realised I needed to get him on here (what should have been done last year is finally being penned down now) A steaming cup of hot mocha lies forgotten on the table at the newly opened Coffee Jar as Ashish Gurbani takes me through this knowledge sharing experience. Excerpts -…