Calorie Counter- healthy made delicious-ly

Calorie Counter places a significant emphasis on healthy eating and has made it a main stream and easy option at the Concept Cafes, since 2015. Passionate founder Duaine Peris constantly looking at ways of  introducing the most cutting edge technologies for cooking, preparing and rebranding Healthy food to not only taste incredible, but look the part also. 

With restaurants aplenty,  there are only a few healthy options which have gone beyond being also vegetarian friendly, or adding fresh juices onto an otherwise standard Sri Lankan Cafe menu. Calorie Counter has been produced from the personal and physical transformation of the founder, and truly gives a great competitive run for places such as Healthy Living and Life Food. 

Impressive designer boutique menues, made affordable and with every staff member being brought to the awareness that every meal served, adds an additional 3 hours of life to the person who has been served. 

Now, they also serve breakfast starting at 8 AM, with an entirely new menu that has a good variety of veg- and fruit-based dishes as well as options heavy in granola, muesli and oats.

500 - Rs. 1,000 depending on what you choose.

If, like me, you're a fan of berry juices, the energy protein booster (Rs. 480) will likely make you very happy. It's a blend of strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries with red rice milk. The meals, drinks and cooking has been truly focussed on removing guilt, and unnecessary calories, so it should be expected that all meals are prepped minus the sugar, or thoughtfully incorporating the best of whats around.

The eggs Benedict (Rs. 650) was the main we chose and it ticked all the right boxes. We also like how they've modified the famous American breakfast dish to make it very healthy. They've pretty much replaced all the components, with smoked salmon being used instead of ham, bagels swapped for healthier multi-seed bread and a creamy avocado dressing replacing the hollondaise, all of it topped with a perfectly poached egg. You could argue that this is barely an eggs Benedict, but we found it be pretty close in terms of flavour. 

Counter is like a small health food cafe. It has room for around 15 diners, but their location at Thimbirigasyaya Junction is very accessible. They've taken some cues from fast food joints and displayed their menu items on the walls with the relevant calorie count for each dish. All in all, it's quite simple but works quite nicely with their theme.

Service at Calorie Counter is also top-notch and very personal. Recognising this gap in the market, its truly noticeable that this Cafe concept is spreading quickly throughout Sri Lanka. The quality, refinement and passion can be felt from every element of Calorie Counter, as resultantly the franchisees have requested to extend this brand and idea Internationally, without ever being sought. 

An exciting time, of menu evolutions, and growth to come for a Sri Lankan Brand and Cafe which looks at the greater and bigger picture behind their business, and that is to encourage good health, delicious food, and happiness one person at a time. 

A must visit. 

Conversations with a 98 Year Old Yogini from India

The oldest living instructor in India now bends forward and backwards into some of the most challenging asanas with a seasoned body and mind, showing no signs of slowing down. She effortlessly finds her way into postures we’d very rarely see our Grandmothers let alone great Grandmothers contort into.

Since the International Yoga Day on the 21st June, she has been recognised as India's oldest Yoga Guru. Amma Nannamal came together to demonstrate various yoga asanas in Bengaluru at Kanteerava Outdoor Stadium on the occasion with Tao Porchon-Lynch. The trainers performed asanas with 500 yoga enthusiasts at the venue. Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the International Yoga Day celebrations in Lucknow. The entire world has been equally thrilled and pumped up to observe the occasion, taking a pledging to keep their body, mind and soul fit. The age-old Indian practice has brought people from different culture and countries together and this could be clearly seen from the zeal and enthusiasm with which the people across the globe are practicing yoga.

Nanammal was introduced at the tender age of 3 to yoga by her Grandmother. Nowadays, Nanammal proudly shares that the wisdom of a lifetime has resulted in 36 Yoga Instructors within the family, an institute called Ozone, and a Diploma of Naturopathy and Yogic Sciences in partnership with the Indian Government, which she oversees. 

Similarly to how a special recipe is passed from generation to generation within a family, Nanammal feels that the recipe and teachings of the art of living have been shared in this same fashion within her own family. She’s been devoted to pass this on to every single one of her students, having now educated 1000 teachers.  Her traditional roots of practise embedded in the Ashtanga method of practise, 

She has recently received global interest with over 16 million people finding and watching her BBC India Youtube video. Finding 20 minutes for 20 asanas, 5 minutes for pranayama and 5 minutes for meditation. Though she hasn’t competed since 1995, when observing a Yoga Asana Competition, and recognising a competitor being wrongly disqualified, Nanna Mal protested, and was dismissed as an old senile woman. She shared her wisdom by showing the alignment of 10 postures perfectly, and this won her a standing ovation. Unbelievably, she offers to share an image of her passport to prove age, as the centenary of her legacy arrives seems just around the corner, having a date of birth which dates to the early 20th century, 24.02.1920. 

If you want to be a yogi, wealth is always secondary. Health becomes your priority, and everything is achievable,”