I will be happy if this helps someone who is in need!
Late Feb 2010 I encountered faintness problem while working in office. That was the trigger for me. I did all different kind of blood tests and no surprise; each report was shocking and mentioning my health status as “RED”. Cholesterol level in blood was high (HDL was low and LDL was high). Before and after fast sugar level reading was out of normal rang (high). That report really shattered me a lot.
I spend near about 2 days with that report and did some analysis. To get exact idea, I consulted with my childhood friend ‘Vinayak’ who is doctor by profession and physiotherapist by choice. He gave really very good suggestions. He asked lot many questions and suggested that this is very high time for me to change my lifestyle. He also mentioned that this requires high level of commitment and dedication.
Most of the reports and discussion with Vinayak were directing me towards ‘Stress’ as main cause. I started analyzing reasons of stress. And I realized that my profession is the main source of stress for me. Then I thought to discuss this in detail with experienced people around me in my profession. No doubt, I choose my immediate boss to have this discussion. ‘Boss’ as word is really very rude for Abhijit. In that discussion I understood that this is very common in my profession and we really have to handle this in very professional way. From that day I started detaching myself from the things which was creating stress for me. To do this I did not run away from situations but I actually ended up finding different way to handle those situations without getting any kind of stress build at my end.
This technique helped me a lot to manage my Stress. After that I was so relaxed and thought to start my weight loss program. I discussed this with my friend Vinayak. I started my weight loss program in March (late March 2010). At that time my weight was 118 Kg. Before March 2010, I tried all those different products to reduce weight and nothing achieved out of it. I ended up losing money and most valuable my “self-confidence”.
I started observing my eating habits and food patterns. Then I started changing those habits with help of physiotherapist. My wife Sangita is the one who is managing all that section very well for me. She actually adjusted her schedule just to help me out in this. During those days I calculated my BMR (Basic Metabolism rate) and adjusted my daily food intake exactly 300 to 400 Calories below my BMR. Along with that I started brisk walking. In early days I was struggling to walk 1 km. After few days I ended up continuously walking up to 4 Km. This I continued for 1 month and achieved my short term goal. I reduced my weight by 5 Kg. in near about 5 weeks. This helped me to get engaged with my weight loss program.
After that my physiotherapist suggested me to start swimming. And that was really difficult for me, as I was not having idea on how to swim. During those days my friend and my peer in office motivated me to go for learning swimming. From there I joined swimming class. That was 23rd May when I first entered in water to learn swimming. And here my early success of weight loss and dedication really paid me a lot. Surprisingly I learnt basic swimming in 10 days. By early July I recorded my weight below 100 Kg on weighting machine. First time since from last 7 to 8 years I saw my weight in 2 digits. This was big achievement for me. By this time my whole family was involved in my weight loss program. As they were contributing emotionally in this program, they started becoming key success factors for my ‘weight loss’ program. Starting from 11th June I started playing badminton (approximately half an hour) after swimming workout. That activity is also contributing a lot in my weight loss program.
Starting from 3rd July my father joined my program after his retirement from service. His weight was 103 Kg at that time. Now days I am having company of my family member in my workout. That really helps you to be focus. Today is 8th Aug. My weight is 94Kg and my father’s weight is 97 kg.
Still date, apart from weight loss I really achieved lot many things in last 5 months. One is my physical and mental flexibility. I really got very good friends in swimming pool and on badminton court. I got chance to observe different kind of people who are not from my profession. That helped me to manage my stress. Once again I started trusting my dedication towards my commitments. These all are really valuable achievements for me to move on my life.
Yet I have to go long way. My program’s goal is yet not achieved. You might be wondering about what is my goal? Answer to this is ~ I started this program with a goal of maintaining BMI for myself. During the course of it, I actually changed goal and now new goal is ‘To be healthy family’. In last 5 months, my family members also joined this program and started working for this program. I could see changes in them and that makes me happier. This is long-term goal in nature with broader prospective than the previous one.
