My Fat to Fit journey

Whenever someone asked me, “What’s your lucky number?”, I would answer ‘Seven’. I don’t know why or how it became my lucky number. Incidentally, a lot of 7-LETTER words became important in this weight loss journey of mine.

My mother had gone to the pharmacist opposite my home to get some medicine, but my mother had forgotten to carry her purse, so she said to him that she would send the money through her ‘son’ or me. The pharmacist remarked, is he the one who is fat with a big STOMACH? My mother initially said ‘No’, but then, after a bit of thought, “well, that must be him”. How did I end up like this? There was a time when my nick name was ‘Skeletor’, obviously named after skeleton. My ribs were visible if I were topless. I was the famous guy who ran away from the Biology laboratory! Today I faced the other extreme.

I had this habit of watching TV while SITTING on the sofa. After sometime, I would lay on the sofa while still watching TV. Once the TV is switched off, I would just sleep on the sofa till dawn. Friends, these three (Sofa, Sitting and TV) are responsible for my situation. Sofa is perhaps the worst thing in my home and Sitting is perhaps the worst action. It hurt my back; the severity lasted 2 to 3 weeks, but it took a couple of months to get rid of the pain completely. I lost practice of running and walking or any form of exercise. I didn’t venture out even after recovering completely. Don’t get me wrong, I groove outdoors, I enjoy working out and exercising, but blame it on INERTIA. All the while, I never stopped eating and as a result, I had piled up so much weight that I wonder who else referred to me as “that fat man with a big stomach”. I weighed at least 89 Kgs at this time. (Pics below for reference)

Trip to Odisha

Side pose – I am the one of the left – during my surprise birthday party Dec 2020. I thought I was a master at hiding my tummy, but this picture speaks volumes. The thickness is in spite of trying to hide my paunch.

I shall now confess that I must have surely weighed beyond 90 Kgs but I consciously didn’t check my weight when I was in that zone. I made a quiet exit whenever the family was on a weight checking spree. I abandoned all forms of exercise until one day Covid hit the world and I was confined to four walls. I had to painfully close my rented office space in both RMV II Stage and Koramangala. I was forced to stay indoors; I had to progress to “work from home”. All my classes went online. It was now that I didn’t wanted to stay at home. One fine morning, I finally stepped out of home in the morning to run. I had put on so much weight that I was unable to even jog properly, so WALKING was the best bet. I met a lot of people after a long time. Apart from exchanging pleasantries, one common remark was that I have put on weight. That’s when I realized that the weight was truly and surely visible.

This is when the journey to reduce my weight started. I initially started walking every alternate day. During the first wave of COVID, Government announced complete lockdown. I downloaded this app that gave some points for running or exercising at home. I started skipping 5 times a day, for 15 to 18 minutes each time wherein I used to skip 4,000 to 5,000 counts accumulating 20,000 skips a day. This was my first real workout after the Inertia. I would be inundated with sweat by the time I finished skipping. It was the quantum of sweat that made me realise that I was indeed doing the right thing to lose weight. Once the lockdown was lifted, I would first skip 5000 times and then venture out for RUNNING or walking. I could see that my body became responsive to running, slightly became flexible and I was able to run as I used to many months ago. I set this routine for some time and I saw that my weight was gradually reducing. It was around this time that I got in touch with Santosh and through him I became part of Free runners, an informal WhatsApp group of runners who motivate each other. I downloaded an app called Strava: one of my biggest motivator to run every single day. In addition to running, I joined Taekwondo classes. My daily routine was set – Wake up at 4am, a bit of Pranayama (breathing exercise) start my run at 4:30 am, reach home at 5:30 to 5:45 am, Taekwondo class from 6am to 7 am, and walk another 5 Kms with my mother from 7:15 am to 8:15 am. I participated in longer runs during weekends and non-Taekwondo days. I looked forward to these 3 to 4 hours of bliss every single day.

“79.8 Kgs” I exclaimed. I announced my weight to my family only when I saw that it was below 80Kgs. The routine of skipping, walking, running, taekwondo helped me shed more than 10Kgs in a matter of 4 to 5 months. Now for the twist in the tale – I had just about started going to my coaching centre to teach my students face to face. Life seemed normal and a lot of people gathered enough courage to venture out of their homes. I too attended a music concert one evening – my first and big COVID related mistake. One day, parent of one of my students called me to check if I were fine as her son had fever, cough and suspected COVID. I said I was fine, but none of the parents wanted to take a chance and life was back to online. The 2-week affair with face-to-face teaching had come to an abrupt halt. The next day I was not able to smell the aroma of ‘Ghee’. I thought to myself the Ghee was of bad quality. In a few minutes, I realized that I could not even smell my own poop in spite of drowning my face deep into the commode. I had lost the sense of smell – one of the symptoms of COVID. I called my cousin, Shamantaka, who is a doctor and explained to him about my situation. He told me that I shoudn’t bother getting tested as the result is not reliable at the moment. He was worried about the test showing negative to COVID. He asked me to treat myself as if I have COVID. I confined myself to real 4-walls for the next 3 weeks. No running, walking or skipping. Other symptoms of COVID crept is such as cold, fever, cough, body pain etc. I self isolated myself for 3 weeks. My parents, who had had their first dose of vaccine and my neices were at home. All were safe by the time I recovered. I had not put on any extra weight.

Anti body test revealed that Covid had indeed been successful with me. It affected my running by spared my life. I was told not to exert myself for a few days, but the fact is that I could not run even if I wanted to. I could not run for more than a few metres but I decided that come what may, I shall cover 10 Kms a day even if I have to crawl. I had this Cult like following towards scaling 10 Kms every single day. If I were busy in the morning, then I would walk or run in the afternoon or evening or even in the night. A few days I would cover 10 Kms in two instalments. Even when I twisted my ankle, I didn’t give up running; I wore crape bandage for a few weeks and continued my sojourn. I gradually improved and it took a few months before I could regain my strength and run as I used to. The fraternity of free runners came to my mental rescue. I can’t thank them enough and the tribe has been pillar of mammoth support till today.

One day my father announced that he is going to have only MILLETS for the next three months. One of his friends had told him to include Millets in all his meals and it can work wonders for his overall health. For those who do not know my father – his motto in life is “My way or the Highway”. We were not too worried about the change in diet, but what we were curious about is ‘Who is this friend that my father listened to?’ Our diet changed overnight. I don’t remember eating Rice or Wheat for those three months. I hopped from one shop to another jostling for Millets, Millet flakes, Millet noodles and Millet flour. It was Millet dosa or idly or Roti in the mornings, boiled/steamed millets (just like cooked rice) in the afternoon and Millet flakes or noodles in the night. It worked wonders: my father lost weight, his sugar level subsided and he felt better overall. My mother didn’t enjoy much but had to toe my father’s diet. I was neutral but I welcomed this change. Since I didn’t have the taste for millets, I ate less millets and more vegetables and other accompaniments. I ate less than a quarter of these cereals compared to my regular intake of rice. This diet of 3 months worked wonders as my habit changed for good. I now consume less cereals even if it is rice or wheat.

Around this time, I used a bulk of my free time in watching a lot of videos and reading various articles associated to running and fitness. I realized the benefits of FASTING. I had cut down on eating extra but now and then a few extra calories would be consumed due to festivals or special occasions. I believed that Fasting would nullify these extra calories. The question lingering on my mind was when do I start. The great Hindu calendar has the 11^th day of the lunar phase called EKADASI, where a lot of Hindus observe Fasting. I chose one of the Ekadasi’s to Kick start my Fasting. This day of fasting comes once a fortnight. I consume only water during fasting. If I have dinner today, my next meal is breakfast on the morning of day after tomorrow. If you do a quick calculation, it comes to around 36 hours. I do not change my routine on these days: I continue running and do all other activities as I normally would. As a result, I do run 10 Kms and sometimes Half Marathons on empty stomach. I am happy that it is now become a part of my life. During this process, I shed another 5 Kgs. I weighed 75 Kgs!! Down by 15 Kgs.

There I was, happy and light. It had been a decade or more since I weighed so less. I was able to wear a lot of my pants and shirts which I had not worn in more than 12 years. But no matter what else I did, I didn’t lose any more weight. I now concentrated on my running. I was able to run 10 Kms under an hour quite consistently and I was also able to run Half Marathon non-stop. Both these feats were an achievement for me. I used to run 21 Kms in about 2 hrs 35 min. Over a period of a few weeks, my time improved to 2 hrs 16 min and it just got stuck there. People suggested a lot of things, such as run where there are trees or run where there is less elevation and so on, but I just couldn’t improve beyond this time. I thought I had reached my saturation point and should be happy with it.

One of my nephews, Tejas, had quit sugar for good. He said he feels better and fresh does not feel lazy throughout the day. I decided to quit sugar soon to check if it helped my running. I stopped consuming sugar on 12^th November 2020, a day after my Niece, Varsha’s birthday. This meant, no sugar, no jaggery and no honey. I shall resume consuming sugar if my time does not improve. My room cum office is on the first floor and every time I came down for any reason, I used to go to my favourite room, the kitchen, then to my favourite drawer, and then into my favourite boxes and pop in a few biscuits, cookies, sweets and other junk. My hand would invariably go into those boxes even now, but these boxes are now empty. Whenever I buy anything, I take pains to check if it has added sugar and buy only those items that are devoid of added sugar. My running and fitness did improve. My time for Half Marathon stood at 1 hr 53 min: an improvement of 23 minutes in just under 6 weeks. So, I pledged to continue remaining sugar free forever except for special occassions. I have consumed sugar on an average once a month. Did it affect my weight? Yes it did. Although losing weight was not the reason to quit sugar, it is a welcome bonus. The comments had changed from “You have put on weight” a year back to “You have lost weight” six months back to “You look sick!!” I shall live with that compliment. They genuinely seemed concerned and enquired about my health. Their concern made me feel good. If the fat was then visible, the loss of it is also clearly visible. I had lost 6 more Kgs and I now weighed 69 kgs. I weighed below 70 Kgs for the first time in over a quarter century!! My mother never imagined that she would see a day like this.

Sugar is mankind’s single biggest enemy. I have now abandoned all bakery items, cakes, biscuits, ice cream, etc etc etc. from my menu. I limit consuming sweets on festivals and some special occassions. The best part though is that I don’t have any craving for sweets. It has not been as gargantuan a task as I thought it would be. The sweets I otherwise consume now are fruits and dry fruits. I don’t drink coffee, tea nor milk. I neither consume processed juices nor areated drinks such as Coke or Pepsi, I avoid fresh juice and milk shakes. If I do come to your home, just give me water. I am a big fan of tender coconut though. I have introduced a lot of veg protein in my diet such as hung curd, beans, legumes, tofu and paneer. It is quite a challenge for vegetarians to take 100 grams of protein a day.

Over a period of my research into avoiding sugar and fasting, I learnt that one of the most important elements for good health is taming INSULIN. If one keeps eating several times a day, then insulin does not get any rest and thereby gets overworked and stops releasing Insulin when we want it to. Our organs need rest, to keep us healthy. Fasting is one of the best ways to provide rest to our organs. Whenever I fast, there is around 36 hours gap between the two meals.

The sugar we consume is akin to poison as per many experts in this field. Sugar and alcohol have the same effect on the body except that we don’t feel tipsy. Sugar contains 50% Glucose and 50% Fructose. GLUCOSE is the essence of life and it can be digested by each and every cell in our body. Fructose is quite the opposite. Fructose gets deposited on our liver as fat and the only way to burn it is through Fasting. This is a great human survival mechanism. A few thousand years back, when food was not abundant, humans would consume fruits during its season and all the Fructose would get settled on the liver. When food was scarce during winter, Fructose would be the source of food or energy. Now food is available all year round, we just have to avoid it. Fructose through raw fruits is fine but we should limit fruit intake as well.

If one can live without consuming fruits, it is not big deal. My close friend, Sudarshan has not touched fruits in all his life and he is fit as a fiddle. If one can live without grains, that’s also fine as carbohydrates are similar to sugar. It is a misconception that Fat food causes Fat in the body. It is sugar or carbs that causes fat in our bodies. As one of the Ted talkers put it wisely, we should avoid GPS – Grains, Potato and Sugar. One can easily lead a healthy devoid of any of these.

As of today, my weight keeps hovering around 69 to 72 Kgs. I have to change my wardrobe as most of the clothes look saggy on me. Many people come to me and enquire about my health. Many wouldn’t believe that I lost weight voluntarily. I have rejoined a gym so that I can put on some muscles.

There are my best performances across various distances: 10 Kms in 50 min., Half Marathon (21.1 Kms) in 1 hr. 53 min. and a Full Marathon (42.2 Kms) in 4 hr. 12 min. I run anywhere from 70 Kms to 100 Kms a week.

In a nutshell, my weight reduced by more than 20 Kgs in a year through:

1. Walking
2. Running
3. Millets
4. Fasting
5. Avoiding Sugar

If I want to improve my running further, I have to shed another 5 Kgs. I have to figure a way out. I would like to explore Triathlon, Iron man challenge in the coming years.

My before and after pics. I am wearing the same pant and shirt for reference.