Remember one thing –
Only you can do it for yourself! No-one else can exercise or diet or remain
motivated to make YOU lose weight! So, gear up and listen hard!
I know what you are
going through because I have felt a whole gamut of emotions in my journey from
fat to fit. I know how it feels when colleagues, friends or family comment or
joke about one’s weight. Sometimes even their well-meaning advice can either
make you very angry, irritated or plunge you into the depths of despair. You
just want to scream, ‘SHUT UP’!
I know how
self-conscious one becomes in the presence of an attractive member of the
opposite sex! It may sound clichéd, but I have to confess that I have done the
trick of sucking-in my belly, whenever I found myself in the elevator with a
cute guy! Boy I admit, it has been a very difficult trick to perform,
whenever the elevator belonged to a particularly tall building!
I know how drained of
energy one feels all the time. How even the simplest task like getting up and
fetching a glass of water can seem like a huge effort. I hated to walk even the
small distances from the car park to the office or from my house to the
neighbour’s or even the corridors of the fancy mall. And the odd staircase,
forget it!
I know how difficult it
seems to control the urge to eat that yummy favourite food. Who the hell is
bothered if that burger is unhealthy or that chocolate brownie is laden with
calories I don’t need? I just want to eat it and I will. I also want the large
helping of fries on the side. And yes, the cola to go with it all.
And oh God the mirror!
It becomes the enemy! I just hated the sight of all those bulges from head to
toe. I simply hated my body. My face to me looked like that of a bull-dog. I
felt like a small elephant. I hated the way the clothes always seemed too small.
Even the largest size available didn’t seem to hide all the lard. The search
for ‘smart-loose’ clothing became a torture. I just stopped looking into the
mirror!
It was not as if I had
made no effort in the past to lose weight. I seriously had, but it never worked
out! I think you will agree that when one is trying to lose weight, either of
the following things may happen:
The body just does not co-operate! The limbs feel heavy when you begin to exercise and you feel tired within minutes. There is simply no stamina.
- You feel its just too much effort and you can’t do it. There’s no point in sweating it out anyway, because everyone has accepted you as the local ‘fatso’. So what are you trying to prove?
- Even if you somehow manage to exercise for fifteen minutes every day, it all comes to naught because you are unable to change your eating habits. No low-calorie substitute can beat the taste of cheese or butter or cola.
- OK so you begin a low-calorie diet plan that promises to do wonders for your waist-line, but you don’t stick to it long enough for the miracle to happen! You abstain from your favourite foods then binge, then abstain then binge again…
- If you miss your exercise routine once or twice, you feel guilty but are unable to regain the enthusiasm to go back to it. If you cheat on your diet plan, you feel guilty but are unable to stop yourself from having that next pizza.
- You have a million excuses for not ‘making the effort’. ‘I am too busy’, ‘I don’t have time’, ‘I am ill’, ‘I don’t have the right gear to exercise in’, ‘the gym is too far, its too expensive and it stinks’, ‘I will be late for office’, ‘I need to do that household chore instead’, ‘who loves me anyway’ or ‘they love me anyway’, ‘I am fine, I don’t have diseases’, ‘I will think about this tomorrow’. And tomorrow never comes!
- You are embarrassed to be seen making the effort to lose weight, because you have always projected a happy-go-lucky image in front of your peers, and you don’t want them to know how shitty you actually feel about yourself.
- You have isolated yourself from social contact and are happy spending all your time with a book or in front of the television or computer or the X-box. And all these activities require you to keep snacking through-out the day
- Actually you are feeling discouraged because despite all that exercising and dieting, the weighing scales are just not tilting in your favour. The weighing-machine is not showing any weight loss.
- You are reluctant or scared to meet new people because the first thing you think is that they are seeing a ‘fat’ person. You always feel self-conscious and believe people judge you by your weight.
- You truly believe the advertisements that claim their products are zero-calorie foods or drinks! Plus, you have indulged in spending huge amounts of money in quick-fix formulas like that weight-loss pill or drink or belt or massager or oil or sweat suit or some other ‘short-cut’ product.
- Even when you seriously pursue your weight-loss programme, your parents or partner over-indulge you and express their love by treating you to ice-creams or chocolates or lavish dinners. Your new-found delicate resolve goes out of the window!
- Or, just as you start looking and feeling much better due to the weight-loss programme, a jealous colleague or partner or cousin, plays around with your low self-esteem and pushes you back into the old habits.
- And anyway food has always been your solace when you are depressed and down & out. The emotional upliftment you get from food is un-paralleled.
- You hate eating with other people because you feel they are watching everything you put in your mouth!
- If you are a lady, perhaps you have recently embraced motherhood and so you feel you have gained the license for remaining over-weight! After all now that you have a baby or babies, no-one should expect you to look like a diva? Right? Wrong!
- You have suffered a personal tragedy or setback, like a relationship breakdown or an accident or financial woes or a disease, and you take that as a license to start neglecting yourself because you are so bloody miserable!
- Cooking is another issue. You survive on packaged food and frozen meals that can be popped in the microwave. Who has the time or the inclination to cook healthy meals? It is much easier to open a packet of potato chips than to chop fruits or vegetables, right?
- Or maybe you are just confused about how to exercise or eat right. Nothing seems to be working for you. When something does appear to make a difference, it usually becomes tough to follow through after a while and you are back to square one!
- And last but not least, you have just lost steam! You simply lack motivation!
So what can you do now?
Before I share the experiences of my support group or share expert advice, I
want to tell you how I did it!
Dear reader, please remember your comments are eagerly awaited! And please spend a few seconds to take the poll on your right, its anonymous like the comment section!
2 comments:
I really like the way you have infused humor at places e.g " trick of sucking-in my belly, whenever I found myself in the elevator with a cute guy!" :-) really well written and motivational.
Thanks Atul :) your encouraging comment means a lot to me!
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