I had made my big commitment in front of my colleagues on the beer table after the 2017 Mumbai marathon. I had 365 days to prepare for one of the biggest challenges of my life. Just to put the challenge in perspective, I looked at the health app of my iPhone. The app had diligently recorded the everyday steps and distances I had covered. The average steps per day for 2016 were 4699 with an average daily distance of 3 kms and for 2017 it had gone down to an average of 4483 steps with an average daily distance of 2.8 kms. This is is how sedentary my life had become. I had no control on my food habits. On an average, I was eating lunch/dinner outside of home for 5/6 days. Exercise was generally only on PC while playing FIFA, Cricket, Call of Duty or games on mobile phones. I was the highest goalscorer on the PC and success in virtual world was making me more satisfied than anything I did in the real world. I was addicted to food and gaming and to ensure that I didn’t become a laughing stock next year, I had to change. I knew I was unfit so I started small. Generally, I had no energy after coming back from office. So, I decided that I will walk for 20 minutes in my building compound from tomorrow. The tomorrow became today and I was again not in a mood to walk but score some goals in the PC game. The god of laziness and comfort was inviting to my status quo zone. But today I said no to him and for that 20 minutes, I did go for the walk. I had my favorite music in my headphones and I had already started to imagine that one year down the line, I will pass the finishing line of Mumbai half-marathon. I continued my routine throughout February and my average distance per day for the month (sunday being rest day) had been up to 3.7 kms with an average step count of 5983. The weight was down from 123.2 kgs to 122.1 kgs. The journey had well and truly begun.
The Fat Runner 