Though my title says it took me a year but it all started five years ago. I was always on the curvy side, to maintain these curves, it needed me to make lots of effort especially to sacrifice on my love for chocolates and ice creams but it never mattered to me that much till I was able to pick the clothes I desired. Five years ago,I was diagnosed with PCOD, well, PCOD stands for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome which is basically related women's hormonal disorder (google it!), I never had the regular/normal symptoms of PCOD so it took me a while to figure out my problem.
I got alarmed when in spite of regular walks and little bit of gymming my weight kept on increasing. Being careless and lazy as I am I kept on ignoring the problem till I had put on 15 kgs in two months’ time. Then all hell broke loose and I started consulting a number of gynaecologists, I was given different medications which used to give me a lot of mood swings and nausea. Due to the side effects they had on me I stopped taking the medicines and kept on with my regular walking regime.
Meanwhile, my career took a hike and obviously my priorities changed, and health became my second priority. Though every now and then I would join a gym but due to PCOD it used to become very difficult to shed even a kilo. And finally, I lost all hope of ever reducing the extra kilos. I started hating gym, I started getting depressed and eventually stopped going to parties, and began to spend all my time and energy on my business. So in self-pity I, kind of, wasted three years of my life.
Exactly, one year ago I made a friend in Art of Living, Shria Kaur. She showed me few of her pictures when she was fat (and now she is a bombshell) that made me think again on what is stopping me from achieving my target of loosing weight. And... Oh! believe me, I had spent few days with myself in my room and decided to give myself a last chance where I would not cheat on anything. I started by approaching an Ayurvedic doctor and started the medicines he suggested. With Ayurveda the thing is that it takes time but the results are for life time, it took three months for the medicines to work and control the hormones. Soon after this time my doctor suggested me to join gym or any other physical training.
I chose gym, why, because, I had a lot of myths about gyming and the obvious one was that I should not do weight training as I am not here to build muscles. And slowly and gradually a lot of my myths were shattered. The instructor made me go through a mix of cardio, weight training and aerobics. This used to be my daily routine for six months and as a result I lost TEN kgs. For the first two months it was easy as I was able to lose seven kgs and every day I used to push myself to do extra training which helped me lose some extra kilos. After these two months, the next three months my weight just refused to go any low even by a kilo. I used to be very frustrated, I did everything in my capacity but nothing happened. This was the time my friend, Shria told me to be patient on myself and continue doing with whatever I am doing eventually it will pay good results. Finally after three these months, my weight decided to show some mercy and the next month I lost three kilos. Believe me, the smile on my face was hard to miss.
I would love to give all the credit to gymming but my eating habit did play a big role, as well, in helping me reduce my weight. Initially I started by including three glasses of coconut water to my then existing diet plan and then increased it to five gradually. What exactly it does is it keeps your body hydrated which helps you increase your metabolism which in turn helps you reducing your weight. It was an advice given by my friend, Shria again. I never googled it also I just blindly followed her advice and what I found was during the first week of taking coconut water I felt hungrier than before and then gradually by the next week it reduced to a point that I stopped feeling hungry during nights. To tell frankly it actually worked wonderfully for me. The only thing I had to keep in mind was to have it before 7 pm and had to follow this just for a month and then I replaced it with water. I have at least 4 -5 litres of water every day.
The most important parameter to remember while reducing your weight is to curb your hunger which in my case I did by taking coconut water along with my three meals in a day. The second most important thing for me to curb was my craving for sweets. Believe me, I love chocolates, my fridge is 24/7 stocked with Dairy Milks and what not. I know you must be thinking it’s impossible to have chocolates and reduce weight. Well that was my whole aim to reduce by not starving myself to death. To satisfy my urge for sweetness I had 2 pieces of chocolate every day.
Losing weight is all psychological, once your mind is satisfied the urge gets satisfied too. See definitely for the first three months I was strict with myself, no junk food, no ice creams, no chocolates (instead I had mango khatta meetha toffee) no uncle chips – imagine how much of will and determination one needs to avoid everything. You need to give up on these to reach your target but once you start losing say about 10 kgs then you can add some of these things for one of those cheat days.
Another thing you need in losing weight is motivation; I had my brother’s wedding in six months so losing weight was a do or die situation for me. While I thought I was reducing to look better but with time I fell in love with myself in the process. Every morning I used to get up (and still do,) and I appreciated my body, the curves, everything about it. I think I have never fallen in love with myself as I have now. For the past five years I hated my body to an extent that I stopped facing the world and now I realised by loving myself and my body that it is as important as breathing for life.
Lastly the eating habits, it’s necessary to know what suits your body. While going through the process of reducing weight I paid a lot of attention towards my body, for instance: I used to put on weight if I ate anything after 8 pm, soya helps me reduce weight if I eat it in the afternoon but the same when eaten in the night increased my weight, like these a lot of other things effected my body. We need to pay close attention to them and start molding our eating habits accordingly. Very important is that one day in a week should be a cheat day, indulge in your cravings but the day after that should be very light on juices or fruits. That’s my theory of maintaining my weight, losing it while also satisfying my urges. Finally very important after every two months of hard core gyming one should take a break for a week and rest. But make sure you have light food so that you do not increase the weight. I do this and when I go back after a week my weight starts reducing again.
Another thing is one should go for family outings, vacations, weddings
Yup, it took me a year to reach where I am, though I have only covered half the journey but that does not mean I am not enjoying the process or I crib when my weight refuses to budge. There were months on a stretch when my weighing scale showed me the same weight every day in spite of working so hard. Yes, at times I do get frustrated, I feel worried what if I fail in achieving my target, but then I go and look myself in the mirror and appreciate my body and promise not to fail it again. That’s how I motivate myself and that’s my story till now.
I am still working hard, I am still avoiding junk food, I am still fighting my urges (it’s a daily process) and it is all acceptable because I know the end result will be and is in my favour. Keep that faith in yourself and nothing can stop you from reaching there. Most importantly listen to your body, listen when it says your stomach is full, listen when it says it needs rest, listen when it craves for food and finally appreciate your body.
Any more questions just message me, I would be really happy to help.
