I am sure most of you would have wondered if by just boosting your body metabolism, you could chomp down on that extra piece of cheese cake or perhaps trim your daily exercise routine by a few minutes. There are a lot of people who would give a lot to increase their metabolism. Having a high level of metabolism enables one to burn their intake calories  at a higher rate and avoid accumulation of fat with the least amount of activity. Metabolism is the rate by which the body produces and consumes energy and calories to support life.

There are several factors that affect the metabolism of a person, such as the amount of muscle tissue, the frequency of the meals one consumes, genetics, stress levels, personal diet and activity levels. Metabolism also slows down due to the following:-

-Loss of muscle tissue due to sedentary lifestyle and physical in-activity

-The tendency of the body to cannibalize its own tissue because there is not enough food energy to sustain it ie -Harsh Dieting techniques  etc.

-Old age and  the decrease of physical activity that comes with it.

Here are several ways to fight back and fire up one’s metabolism:

1. Build up on lean, mean body mass. It is only natural that metabolism decreases along with age, but it is possible to counter the effects. The amount of muscle a person has is a very strong determinant in the ability to burn calories and shed fat. So it goes without saying that exercise is essential. Build strength and resistance by working out at least twice a week. Do easy exercises in between workouts. Simple tasks such as walking the dog and using the stairs in place of the elevator can already take off calories. The key is to match the amount of eating to the amount of activity one has.

2. Eat breakfast. A lot of people are ignoring the fact that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Surprisingly, the ones who eat breakfast have a higher metabolism rate. Metabolism can slow down considerably if breakfast is taken during mid-morning or if one waits until the afternoon to eat.

3. Have small mini-meals. Eating small, frequent meals keeps your blood sugar stable, fuels your metabolism and gives you sustained energy. If possible, taper calories to fit your daily energy output – breakfast would be your biggest meal (but not too big). And your last meal of the day, at least 4 hours before bedtime, would be your lightest meal.

4. Spice up your dishes. Hot and spicy seasonings, such as chilies, mustard and curry have been found to raise metabolism by up to 40% for two or three hours. Just make sure your spicy dish is not a high calorie meal or you’ll undo the fat burning advantage. The importance of a vegetarian based diet with lot of fresh vegetables and greens cannot be over emphasized.

5. Sleep more. According to research, it is riskier for people who do not get enough sleep to gain weight. Also, muscles are regenerated during the last couple of hours of slumber.

6. Drink ice cold water. Water makes up 70 to 80% of your blood and brain, so it’s essential to good health. And now German researchers have found dieters can increase their metabolic rate by as much as 30% by drinking 17 ounces of cold water. Actually, just being cold increases your metabolism. Your body has to burn about 100 calories to get warmed back up to normal temperature. Plus, thirst is often mistaken for hunger, so staying hydrated can help keep you from overeating too. Water flushes out toxins that are produced whenever the body burns fat. Majority of bodily functions involves water, and lack of water causes the body system’s operations to decrease its speed, and produces unneeded stress as a result.

7. Switch to green tea. Studies show green tea can speed up metabolism and help burn fat. So consider exchanging your morning cup of java for a mug of green tea – especially since it’s also been shown to be a good source of antioxidants.

8. Get an optimum level of good fats. According to fish oil and weight loss research, certain specific omega 3 fatty acids are important for their fat conversion abilities. Essential fatty acids are also necessary to keep your thyroid and other hormonal glands working optimally.

9. Ditch the stress! Stress, be it physical or emotional, triggers the release of a steroid called cortisol, which decreases metabolism. Also, people tend to eat excessively when stressed.

Achieving the desired body weight is never impossible if one has the determination and patience needed to stabilize the metabolism level, which plays an important role in weight loss. A person needs to realize that eating right and working out is not just a passing fancy, but a way of life.

Though this is not a comprehensive list, I hope it was constructive.

Pat

I would like for you to read these comments about our restaurant in the cyber space in the recent past before I make my proposal :-

Tasteless food, will never go back again!NOT REAL INDIAN FOOD - Sep 17, 2010

This place is an insult to indian food. I love indian food with a passion every since I got addicted of it few years ago and I traveled around to few states and 2 countries and I was always blessed with good indian food until I came to Tampa. I tried a few indian restaurants here and they seem to have lost their ways on how they prepare their food. This Tun-Du-Ree place is the worst of all I have tried so far…I ordered a chicken tikka masala and the color was yellow with no taste whatsoever and then plain white rice. I asked for a fried rice or any other kind of rice and they said that they only have 1 more kind but it comes with meat so it’s considered a dish not a side… This place is a joke! The people that left good reviews about the quality of food maybe they don’t know how real indian food should taste like and in this case they should do everyone a favor and not leave a review.

December 31, 2008 - Doesn’t like it

Now A Little About Us:-

We started business about three years ago from a one man operation and has now grown to  employing 15 people at two locations. This has been possible largely due to the dedication and unwavering commitment to quality shown by our associates. These hardy bunch of individuals refuse to take the economy lying down and have a passion for our brand and believe in hard work & honest living.

We strongly believe that our customers shouldn’t pay for our inefficiencies or mismanagement and hence  our unwavering attention to detail and focus on “no room for error” syndrome. Sure we could mark up all our products by a couple of bucks and cut ourselves a slack. But that is not what we set out to do. Our commitment was to provide the best quality Indian Food produced Home style from scratch in our kitchen served to customers in the most honest price we possibly could afford. We have been successful thus far in maintaining our goal and have had tremendous support from our Loyal Customer base.

Cut to today’s twittering environment (literally) with the new age Web 2 era of Social Media networks and Smart phones. Anyone with a keyboard could be a potential boost or death-knell for our business. Veracity of the claims/comments are often an ‘after thought’ in this age of information overload.  Sure every one has differing opinions, and we understand and appreciate that. I remember the utter helplessness and sheer personal defeat I felt after our first really bad review on line. It was followed by umpteen sleepless nights and harsh introspection into every thing we did. Sure the new age provided us with the feed back loop which otherwise would not have been so easily possible.  But then there are those reviews which completely blow your mind away and leave you wondering what can you do.

After a lot of thought, We decided to take a novel approach to the tricky issue of harsh reviews. We have decided to publish the worst reviews we have had every month and let you jump in the mud pit and wrestle with the Pig !

Now isn’t that what the social media all about ?  Have fun reading what keeps us up all night !

Pat

athithi-devo-bhava

I just came across this write up and feel it very rightly brings about the essence of true Indian Hospitality. Having traveled extensively across the length and breath of the Country, I have personally been at the receiving end of umpteen acts of such Hospitality. We at Tunduree try to imbibe this tradition and practice it every day.

I strongly believe, that it is just a matter of time before which any guest at our establishment would forget what a particular dish tasted like, It may be just a few weeks, months or may be years. But what remains etched in their subconscious mind forever is how they were treated and greeted when they were in the restaurant. Even if the food was not up to their expectation, they would be willing to come in again just because they felt nice in the warmth of the hospitality showered upon them. This is precisely what the ancient Indian Scriptures teach us- treat your guests as gods- In effect, treat your guests with the utmost respect and warmth, and put their wellbeing above yours.

Enjoy the link above:-

Tun-Du-Ree means quick, tasty Indian food

For better or worse, the deal is done and signed.

Yes, we would be opening up a location at 1506 W Kennedy Blvd. It is build out time.

No, I don’t have a fancy budget to work with.

Yes, I did consider taking in a rich partner to make the going a bit easier.

 No, I am not going that route any longer.

Yes, those couple of meetings with potential investors/partners were the most humiliating four hours of my life.

No, I don’t think I will consider raising funds through partnership again in the future.

Yes, I did raise the money from the three ’F'  sources - Friends, Family & Fools ! 

No, I didn’t tap into the third source yet!

Yes, It is 18 hr work days- 1hr commute, 3 hrs cooking, 6 hrs at the trailer, 6 hrs handy man work at the new location, 2 hrs meetings,discussions,planing,web-surfing and blogging.

          I have been pounding the pavements for months now, looking at potential sites for a new home for Tunduree. I prefer to search for a location the old fashion way of actually getting to a general area of where I would like to be located and searching for possible sites. I usually make a list of places, get there and park my car in a lot and walk around, grab some thing to bite, strike up a conversation with any one with time to kill and walk around for miles to get a  feel for the place. With our economy the way it is, there are plenty of vacancy signs and phone numbers along the streets to give me company. You will be surprised how much you learn in a couple of hours, talking to Landlords, Agents and Hobos on the streets. Some might call this a backwards approach, but I prefer this to sitting on my computer and pouring over the listing sites and scheduling a showing for places you don’t have a feel for.  

            It was in one such visits that this sweet agent talked about a potential site which would meet my requirements, and before she finished explaining it , I thought ‘ that is it’. The scheduled showing later only reaffirmed my belief. Convincing the Landlord to accept my offer and arriving at a middle ground was more difficult than I though. But things seem to be falling in place…so far.

Well, I have been having this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach more often lately. Specially when i get those phone calls for dinner reservations!! Whats wrong with that ? you may wonder. For starters, we dont take dinner reservations, since we dont have a place to seat them… We dont even have a roof to stand them!! The calls asking for a handicap access toilets are another embarassment when I try to explain that we dont have toilets even for healthy beings! High chairs for children? No we dont even have low chairs for adults. “We are a freakin Trailer with just a little cubby hole on the side to put in your hands and grab you food..! that is it.” I end up explaining when faced with multiple combinations of the above questions. Umpteen times people turn up and kinda ask me if this is ” the tunduree” with a look of bewilderment. 

 I guess these are the side effects of when the image gets larger than what you actually are. That is when i started working on the project to find a decent next level home for Tunduree. 

 Well for any one out there thinking that hiring the best professional in the field is the end-all to having a kickass website, here is a wakeup call. An angry kid, irate wife, two broken keyboards and twelve sleepless nights later, i realise  that having a professional is just the begining. Your website is an extension of this vauge idea  in your  head of what you want to lay bare in the cyberworld. So I guess the endless iterations with your web-designer through extended mail chains is kinda like paying your dues for having what you want. For a tardy typist like me , it would take 2-3 hours to put down my daily comments on a mail (as my IT guy refuses to talk to me over the phone), and when i hit the send button, an error page pops up and deletes all my work..grrr. thats when i lost my first keyboard to my fist. I save the story of the second keyboard for later.

Long story short, I wish there was an easier way. I now understand the difficulty of putting together a site. Earlier,  I tried it using “easy to use tools” , and gave up a few hundred hours later. I would prefer the route of hiring a professional  to ‘DIY’ any day, but hey, whining is my birth right and I shall have it..

So long

Hi,

I am just trying out the blog plug - in provided by my Site Programer . I should sort out the kinks and be belching out pages of unreadable material soon..!

So long,

Pat