The date was 15th December 2017 and I was in a hospital. I was accompanying a friend who had to meet one of her relative. She decided to take stairs instead of a lift and climbed two stories in a jiffy. I on the other hand took several minutes for those 24 steps, every single one of them felt like an Everest at that point of time. She smiled at me and in the usual banter that goes between friends, commented to me how fat and unfit i was. I laughed at the comment but deep inside, I was broken. The comments on the shape of my body and excess weight were becoming regular. In every other domain of life, I was doing much better and was happy with the progress of my life and career. However, this was one area where i had failed miserably over and over again. The first time I had crossed the 100kg(220 pounds) mark was in 2009. From then every year, my resolution was to lose weight and for eight consecutive years, i had failed. 2017 was going to be another year where I would fail in next 16 days. I came home that evening and stepped on the weighing machine. The number on that scale brought tears to my eyes, I weighed 123.2 kgs (271 pounds) and I was out of breath when I bent down to tie my shoelaces. The lowest moment was to come next day. I work for a healthcare company and in a meeting, an expert in Diabetes looked at my neck and told me that I was becoming insulin resistant and if i don’t change my diet and fitness, I would be a patient for sure very soon. These gut punches on back to back days were the lowest moment of my life. That evening, I spoke to my father who listened to me patiently & that conversation changed my life. There was and is going to be a lot of sweat, blood and tears but the path has been good and I continue to move forward. This is the first page of my story and I am going to continue walking.
The Fat Runner 