The first time I was made painfully aware of my weight was in Grade 12 by my Home Science teacher, in a class full of snickering teenage girls. As an assignment, each of us had to read out our daily diet in class, so that our teacher could recommend suggestions to make the diet healthier. The average teenager might have been quicker on the uptake, but I didn't sense the impending doom. Even as the heaviest kid in class, in my head, I was fine the way I was and would have probably lived a few more years feeling that way if it wasn't for that moment when Ms Sriram looked at me straight in the eye just as I'd finished reading out my diet and said, Are you sure that's all you are eating Because you are overweight.
If you have battled weight issues all your life, like I have, you may have had the words `overweight', `fat' and even `healthy' (by those who want to be politically correct even in their insults) thrown at you several times. More so, if you seem perfectly content with the way you look -oh no, the body-shamers will have none of that confidence.
But the point is, all this makes one want to lose weight for the wrong reasons.
In October 2014, I discovered that I was overweight by 23 kilos. I was not concerned about the weight for cosmetic reasons (thankfully, Ms Sriram's asinine remark had no real long-lasting impact on me) but as a journalist who has occasionally reported on health issues, I was concerned about my health. A range of diseases run in my family, and I had just entered my 30s. It seemed like a good time for a physical challenge.
It took me around 10 months to shed 23 kilos and I have managed to maintain my weight for more than a year now. Here's what I have learnt along the way
WHY DO YOU WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT
Ask yourself this important question, for the success of your fitness programme depends on the answer. Even the crudest comment about my weight never motivated me to get fit. I started getting fit only when I (and not society) was convinced that it was time to do some thing. You are always going to be to too thin or plump for someone else.So do it for yourself.
STAYING MOTIVATED
A wedding or an upcoming festival are perhaps the worst reasons for wanting to lose weight. Sticking to a fitness regime is a lifelong commitment for which you can't continue to seek motivation from something short term like a wedding. Try making `getting fit' your goal over `losing weight'. That way, even during those months you don't lose a lot of weight, you won't feel demotivated.
STOP READING
There is such an overload of information on fitness, that it can leave one overwhelmed. Do not get addicted to reading up excessively. All the articles I read contradicted each other and that left me confused and even a bit demotivated.
DECIDE ON A DIET YOU LOVE
Listen to your body and mind.While chalking out a diet, ask yourself whether you can follow this for a long time and the inanity of fad diets will be obvious to you. I am South Indian and love my rice. Since I wasn't prepared to cut it from my diet, I switched to brown rice. I also started having it in lesser quantities and never after 6 pm.
CHALK OUT A REGIME THAT SUITS YOUR SCHEDULE
Try to weave your workouts into your daily schedule. As a journalist, it's been a while since I have seen the world at 6 am, but I have no qualms staying up late. Early morning workouts might have its own perks, but dragging myself out of bed at 630 am for workouts left me miserable. Instead, I experimented with running outdoors late at night and discovered that I loved it. Choose an activity you love. Keep it fun.
PLAN YOUR MEALS IN ADVANCE
Take stock of what you are going to eat the next day. The aim should be to curb eating from out side as you can't control what goes into your food. Instead, carry small portions of food. If I know I am going to be out reporting the next day, I make sure that I have enough ingredients to make an easy-to-carry and eat sandwich. And always eat on time -honestly, no one is too busy to eat.
CHEAT DAYS
All this can be a bit socially isolating, especially if a chunk of your socialising takes place in restaurants. And peer pressure affects even the oldest of us. If you are out on a day you don't have a mad craving for, say, a slice of dessert, don't have it just because you are offered one. This takes an incredible amount of willpower but guess who will be laughing all her way to the dressing room And when you are hit by a genuine, urgent need t
Source: Times of India
BDST: 1650 HRS, DEC- 06, 2015
Edited by: Sharmina Islam, Lifestyle Editor
