My weight loss story

Article Written on: 22 SEP 2008

I remember weighing like 50 or 52 kgs before marriage. After marriage, I got introduced to all kind of restaurants, eating outs and slowly I had become a “saapatu raami”. I could eat ..eat…eat. One would be surprised by the amount I could eat. Luckily, I had a good metabolism that kept me from bloating up. And to add to the luck, I have always been associated with fitness industries. 2 years in Oklahoma was the only time I had to buy a fitness club membership which I used only on weekends. At the age of 25 and 26, fitness didn’t take priority in my life.

In 1999, I moved to San Diego. Voila! I landed a job in 24 Hour Fitness. With this, I got free admission to all of the 350 clubs located all over US. I was in a team of 5 people – me and 4 other men. We were responsible for building the Intranet which was used to register the new members into club and track their performance. Day in and day out we got to meet so many CPTs(Certified Personal Trainers) as they were the one’s who tested our system. My team lead organized a beach volleyball theme for Mon-Wed-Fri during lunch. He roped in the Web team(3 men and 1 woman) too so we would have enough people to play. All of us were in our 20s except the team lead who was in his 30s. We took a 2 hour lunch break and would play volleyball in the beach. On Tue-Thr, I would hit the gym with my co-worker Marco. This continued for 2 years until 2001 when things got crazy at work and we all had to give up the lunch time exercise stint.

In spite of all the exercise,  I was slowly putting on weight. I was 54 kgs in 2000. After having Ajit in 2002, I came to 57 kgs. From 2002 to 2004, I stopped going to the gyms for lack of time. My exercise was limited to the occasional lunch time walk around the campus. This was also the period when I suffered from severe sinus

By 2005, I was weighing 59 kgs.

After coming to Sicily, I gained 2 kgs and touched an all time high of 61kgs eating the wonderful Italian foods like pizza, pasta etc. Though I diligently exercised for almost 2 years, I only lost the 2 kgs that I gained here. My weight wouldn’t budge from 59kgs. Then I took help from my Italian friend(Claudia). She is very good in dieting and keeping her weight in control. I got a copy of her diet plan and started following it from March 2008. Instead of the Italian diet food, I just tweaked it to suit my needs. I had to cut down my food intake to half of what I would normally eat. Slowly, I started losing weight and after 6 months of diet and exercise, I was able to lose 5 kgs and came down to 54kgs. I think this is the rock bottom. Now, whatever I do, I am not losing anything.

For breakfast, I have 1 glass of milk with cereal or 1 spoon of sathu maavu (kanji powder) cooked with 1 glass of milk. Around 10:00 am, I have a fruit, mostly a banana. For lunch its usually the previous days leftover like vegetable daal (kootu) or dry beans varieties(like rajma, konda kadalai, pasi payaru etc) with 1 slice of wheat bread, 1 yogurt and a fruit. For dinner, its brown rice or wheat/ragi dosai with tomato chutney and kootu and  a fruit. On Saturdays and Sundays, I have 1 piece of fish. That’s it.

I totally avoid foods like Biryani, white rice, variety rice like tomato, lemon, puliyodarai etc. Also, I don’t cook kurma or kuzhambu varieties like chicken or fish kuzhambu since it requires coconut. Red meat (mutton, pork, beef) etc are banned. I don’t cook them at home. No coconut or any kind of fried foods like vadai, bajji, poori etc. No chips, biscuits, cakes, icecreams or any kind of snacks. Also, no coffee, tea, pepsi, coke or any kind of packaged juice. Eating out is a no no. Home cooked food is the best way to lose weight.

The key is to eat half of what we usually eat and fill the rest of our stomach with fruits. In India, there is no dearth of fruits. We have so many varieties. For lunch you can have 2 phulkas with daal and veggies. For dinner, switch to wheat or ragi dosai.  In between whenever you are hungry, keep some fruits handy. Initially it will be tough. You will feel like you are always hungry. But slowly your body will adjust to the low calorie input and you will be okay. It does take some time. I don’t believe in any of the fad diets like Juice diet, Atkins diet (eating only meat), South beach diet etc. Its better to eat all the healthy food, but in limited quantity.

Exercise is another key factor to lose weight. For me, dieting was very tough. Increasing exercise was not a problem at all. Like I said before, just exercising doesn’t help to lose weight. I tried it and didn’t help. Combining both diet and exercise was the only way to lose weight. My 5 days of exercise schedule is:

Mon-Wed-Fri – 35 minutes of non-stop running(3 miles), 10 minutes abs workout(crunches)

Tue-Thr – 35 minutes of Elliptical machine, 10 minutes abs workout(crunches)

The key is to have a non-stop cardio workout for atleast 40 minutes. Only after 30 minutes, you will start burning fat.

It was my co-worker who taught me the technique to run. He was practicing for Rome marathon and he needed multiple running partners since he ran once in the morning, then once in the noon. I was initially scared to run with him. He talked to me for months and finally convinced me to run with him. First day, I felt so horrible. After 10 minutes of running, I felt like my legs needed a break. But the guy wouldn’t let me stop. He let me to slow down but never to a full stop. Somehow I hugged and puffed and completed the 3 miles.

The reason I said non-stop is I used to run before, but would stop every 10 minutes, walk, then again run. Instead my marathon running partner/co-worker taught me to run slowly

I don’t believe in any of the fad diets like Juice diet, Atkins diet (eating only meat), South beach diet etc. Try to lose weight slowly. Don’t diet and exercise too much. You might get frustrated and give up.