No. That does not refer to my physical stats.
It’s the journey of my waist from size 36 to 32 and back to 36. Though the
duration of size 32 waist seems like a illusion/dream which didn’t last long
enough. Actually, that was a belief God gave me to prove that getting into a 32
size jeans is not impossible to achieve.
I messed it up later, that’s another story. So when anyone tries to
advice me on reducing weight, I give that been there, done that look. To be precise, I have done it and I know I
can do it again. What I need advice on
is how to be committed to the diet/workout regime and the will power to do it.
I guess 90%
of the obese people know how to reduce weight thanks to the internet. The problem is commitment and the will to do
it. I still wonder how I managed to
commit those three months to discipline and focus to bring about the magical
shift from 80 kgs to 70 kgs………….
It all
started when my Dad’s Cardiologist suggested him to a dietician to reduce
weight to help him cope with the heart muscle.
So we went to the dietician Aarti Batavia for consultation. Like most others, even I had myth about dieting. Dieting meant less eating and depriving my
body of adequate food according to me. And I had been trying to reduce my
weight from ages but couldn’t come anywhere near it due to lack of commitment.
I had tried gym, walking and also experimented with fasting one day hoping it
might help to reduce atleast few gms of my weight. Though have to admit, fasting was the most disastrous
one. It didn’t last more than 6 hours. I was on the verge of fainting – my
whole body was craving for food that my body could recognize.
So it was amazing and convincing to listen to Aarti
Batavia scientifically explain about the process of dieting and how to reach at
the ideal weight. She dismissed my myth that diet meant eating less. It actually meant eating less in more
frequencies. When we can came out of her clinic, I was very upbeat about my Dad
reducing his weight in next few months.
But my Dad had other things in mind. As usual, he kept his opinions to
himself and was adamant that come what may he is not going to follow that crazy
diet of eating mini meals every 2 hours.
He broke my fasting record – his dieting lasted for 3 hrs on first day
itself. By lunch, he was back to eating
his favourite rice and coconut loaded sambhar accusing us of starving him to
death by this stupid diet. Ironically, his idea of diet had led him to his
death. But I was too inspired by Aarti’s
diet plan and had a hunch that it might work for me. And after few days, I was
at her clinic.
I am a typical South Indian which generally means we
are economist by birth. We always
consider the cost and the benefits to decide whether we need to go ahead with a
plan. So here I was at Aarti’s clinic
trying to calculate mentally the time and cost involved to knock off my excess
10 kgs accumulated over more than 10 years. It came down to 3 months and 300
bucks per session per week which roughly worked out to 4000 bucks for three
months with a hope of losing 10 kgs. Not
bad. And I was convinced by her process
of losing weight. Eating mini meals
every two hours which meant I would not be deprived of food. Her logic – your body takes 2 hours to digest
a particular quantity of food, anything more than that gets converted to
fat. The game is to burn more calories
than you consume. That you achieve by following
some form of exercise – walking, gym, jogging, etc… I choose walking.
For 45 minutes each day. So our plan was
to get me to follow the diet and work out and check my weight every week at her
clinic. The target was to knock off 1 kg every week. Thus began my race to
throw off my excess baggage and finally get into a 32 size jeans.
I know by now, you guys are desperate to read my diet
schedule. Well, it just went by the Aarti’s logic of diet. She broke down my
eating schedule depending on my work schedule and my hunger attacks. I started
with mini meals every two hours – which consisted of not more than one spoon of
oil, no coconut and no sugar. Options
were idli dosa (without coconut chutney), chapati and sabzi, sandwich (without
aloo, butter, cheese and sauce), khichdi, fruits (excluding few like grapes,
mango - basically any fruit with high
sugar content). I used to have tea 5
times a day which she was generous enough to keep it at the same figure but
only reduced the quantity to half a cup.
So I was having cutting chai five times a day and still not missing my
cuppa of tea. I could have sukha bhel
too - but without sev, moongfali, masala
dal, aloo and puri. The bhelwala used to
feel guilty when he offered this bhel to me for 10 bucks. He felt he was cheating me. Along with this
diet, I used to walk for 45 minutes every day without fail during lunch hours
in office at a nearby garden. Don’t be surprised - I was working for a
government organization at that time. That was fun too. Observing the beautiful plants, flowers, kids
and also cosy couples during the walk made it much easier.
Weight check every week at clinic included both the
weighing scale and the Body Mass Index (which basically checks your relative body
mass for your height). I started seeing
the results in next few weeks reducing 1 kg each week which helped me to follow
the diet and walking regime more vigorously. This routine went on well for next few weeks
more and I was getting closer to my target. Then something happened one day. Got
a invite for a Friend’s Wedding which meant Buffet dinner. Couldn’t avoid
Friend’s wedding. It is said when a Lion tastes blood, it goes after its prey
with a crazy fury. I had willed myself against going on the prowl on the wedding
feast. Had decided will only eat salads and little dal and rice and come back
home. But all hell broke loose when I neared the Buffet counter.
I ate as little as possible for next few days. I
dreaded my appointment with Aarti. I learnt a lesson that day on weight
concept. Your body weight reduces if you
hardly eat for few days after having a feast. But your BMI doesn’t hide
it. It’s like Raja Harishchandra –
always speaking the truth. My weight had reduced but BMI had increased. I didn’t
have the guts to spill the beans. She smelled something fishy. She asked for my
diet book (this was a book she had told me to maintain to write down each and
every thing I ate and I was very honest when it came to that). She started
reading my book for the preceding week.....She was fine with the first few days……...then
came the day of my holy sin. It went something like this:
Breakfast : 2 Dosa
Lunch : 2 Chapatis and sabzi
Dinner : Salads
Dal and three spoons of rice
1 cutlet + 1 more
2 Puris + a
bowl of Paneer Makhanwala
2 more puris
1 Gulab Jamun + 2 more (by now she had taken out the
foot ruler for hitting me)
Bowl of Ice cream with choco sauce
By the time she finished reading, I was looking like an
innocent puppy who refused to accept the mischief he had committed. She gave me
a stern look and then a smile which was more dangerous considering she was
going to give me the diet schedule for the coming week. As feared, she gave me a diet of only Dal and
2 chappatis for lunch and dinner for the coming week. By the end of that week, I had fallen in love
with dal. It seemed to be the most comforting food for me. Psychologists would
have called it the Stockholm Syndrome. But it did bring out the required
results, I lost 1.5 kgs by end of that week.
Then, there was the fun people had at my expense for
eating every two hours during the whole day.
My office colleagues used to come and taunt me whether I was trying to reduce
weight or gain weight. Also, when it came to fruits like cherries, I had to eat
only 150 gms of it and the fruitwala couldn’t give anything less than 250
gms. So my office friends used to grab the
remaining 100 gms of cherries sometimes even encroaching on my 150 gms. But it
was fun eating every two hours. Trust
me, some days, my stomach would feel full and by evening I wouldn’t mind
missing one or two meals. Aarti even
taught me to make simple veg soups which was yummy and easy to make (just boil vegetables
of your choice with little water in cooker, cool it, grind it in mixer and boil
it again with pepper, salt and coriander leaves and serve hot) and kept my
stomach from growling for solid foods.
The only trouble was during those three months, there
was two meals being cooked at my home – one for myself and other for the rest of the family. They refused to be part of my diet plan except the veg soups which they
relished to finish off.
Though I was almost reaching my target I didn’t realize
the difference that much until people started commenting and asking me about my
secret to the reduced weight. Some of my
friends admitted later on that they even gossiped initially doubting and attributing
my lost weight to my contracting AIDS. Our
target was to bring my weight down to 67 kgs.
But at 70 kgs I was looking too lean and Aarti told me stop as any
further weight loss would not look good on my body frame.
So at 70 kgs, I realized I could get into 32 size
jeans and I went shopping for 32 size jeans like a child who got permission to
pick up his choice of toys. It was such a happy feeling to get into those
jeans. I felt more confident and energetic.
Aarti gave me a diet which I had to follow for a lifetime including the
workout of 45 minutes everyday. It wasn’t difficult and I could manage that for
few weeks. One of my friends once advised me during that phase not to throw off
my old clothes, I might need that in few months. Ironically, he was nasty yet
right. Don’t know when I went overboard
with my diet but ended up piling more fat than what I had began with.
My struggle for ideal weight goes on. I guess that’s one motivating factor that’s
going to permanent in my life. Like they say, sometimes the journey is more
interesting than the destination itself.
