Tag: weight-loss

The Angel of Fitness Guides me

by Himan

The organization I work for has a lottery every year and seventeen lucky employees get an opportunity to get a membership to a gym. The interest was high and forty people had applied for it. I saw that the probability of me getting a gym membership was only 42.5% and I wasn’t happy with that. I requested two other colleagues to apply for the lottery and with the additive property of probability, I was very sure that I will get the membership. Both the colleagues wanted to support me and had assured that they will give me the membership if they get it in the lottery. On the day of the draw, the admin manager of the company had put all 42 names in the bowl and invited a person to pick a chit one by one. I prayed to god to give me a signal that he will support my journey by getting me one of the seventeen passes. What I didn’t know was that god was in a mood to give me thumping support, the very first name that got picked up from the bowl was mine. At that moment, I came to the realization that this time I will not fail in this journey.

What do we tell the God of Laziness – Not Today

by Himan

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 First Steps

by Himan

In conversation with my father, I realized one thing very quickly. It has taken me 15 years of lethargy and bad food habits and it won’t go away in 15 days. This had to be a commitment to a healthy lifestyle and changes had to be made in a manner that they were sustainable in the long run. I had to start small and build my fitness base. The very first thing that I started to do was take a regular walk for 30-45 minutes a day. I was at home for christmas holidays and in those nine days, my father walked with me every morning. The first day I walked 3 kms as per the health app of the phone. I was happy that I did something but the pain in legs was killing me in the night. Next morning, I wanted to go out for a walk but my legs were telling me not to dare attempt the stunt again. I wish I could tell you that I dug into all the mental and physical reserve of my body and went for a walk longer that 3 kms. However, this is not a movie but real life. I stepped out of my home and did go for a walk. This time the walk was 20 minutes and 1.9 kms as per the phone. I came back home and was dejected but my parents gave me the positive energy I needed. As per them, I had spoken a lot about doing weight loss for last eight years, this was the first time I had done something beyond a day. This was my fight or flight workout and that on that day, I made up my mind that I am going to be fit. I decided to embark on a challenge of dream run of Mumbai Marathon of 2018. The distance was 5.9 Kms and it was a realistic expectation to be able to walk that distance (that’s what I thought). In 2017, I had attempted the same but found it difficult to stay in the group with my colleagues who joined the dream run (read as walk). The target in my mind was to be able to stay with them throughout the distance and finish together with the group. This dream run was to change my life forever.

The Lowest Moment

by Himan

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.