Recipie for a better self esteem...

Mind you, being fat, overweight and obese didn't make me loose my self esteem. I told my self several times over and over again that it is the person inside that counts. No matter what the outer wrapping is, I am a great person inside, confident, understanding and intelligent. It shouldn't matter to anyone who really loves me, what I look like.
But no matter what said and done, no matter how well I carried my self, theres always the shopping experience to pull you back to reality. It was when I would go to buy a dress that I would lament my weight. I would end up looking at my self in the dressing room mirror and see the frustration mirrored in my eyes when a dress that I fell in love with, would just not fit. Towards the end of an hour or so, I would grit my teeth and take the only ones that would fit me. It would not hold a candle against the ones I really liked. Thats when I would resolve to loose weight. But this feeling kept roller coasting.
Around January this year, I started getting severe knee pain. I could not even stand for five minutes at a stretch, leave alone bending and picking up the kids. The orthopedic told me that there is nothing wrong with my leg other than the weight I am putting on it. This gave me the scare of my life. Me, a 25 year old active woman, being reduced to this? That challenge was enough to get me going.
....What I did...

The first three weeks, I just spent in slowly reducing my intake. I started out by replacing all the high calorie food with lesser ones.

• milk -> slim milk (Nestle, Amul etc.)

• sugar -> sweetner

• rice -> atta (whole wheat) noodles

Rest of the care I took:

• no oil

• slim milk and muesli for breakfast and dinner

• loads of vegetables and noodles for lunch

• diet rusk for tea

• fruits whenever hungry

Thats it!! Lost quite a lot of weight with this diet (around 3 KG per week) and then moved on to General Motors Diet the next week. It is quite a difficult diet to follow, but is supposed to cleanse your system and give a good weight loss. A scientific program that ensures that you stay healthy but remove all the extra deposits.
I found only the first day very difficult to follow, rest of it was pretty much smooth sailing. Did feel a bit weak at times, but since I am at home, could take adequate rest and recuperate.
Lost a total of 4.5 Kg that week and have been maintaining that weight till now.

P.s: A small note!! I followed the healthy diet through the week and relaxed on weekends. It was more to let go off my craving that I ate a bit of rice and the usual food I serve my husband, and less of the need to give my tummy a change, a small reward for managing to stay off the fatty food! Do go through this note about metabolism and diet. I think I did just that. Reduced my daily diet to a healthy one and once my knee problems were gone, started exercising to build up the muscles.
I feel good now. I no longer have the urge to keep eating everything in sight. My hands don't rush for the oily snacks on the counter nor my eyes wander to the high calorie food on the menu. But I still do eat them once a while to remind myself that I am not missing out on much. Just some oil, some fat and a bit of taste!!

inspiration...

I just realized that I am an inspiration to many. There are lots of categories in which I could be, but, what I really am is in my weight loss. I got a call yesterday evening from a mother of two, the youngest being five months old, telling me that she read my blog and was amazed at the metamorphosis that I underwent.
We then shared my dieting experience and what all I am doing to maintain and reduce further. I really loved the fact I could make a difference to somebody and I hope that I can help out more. I am publishing two snaps of mine, not unlike the 'before' and 'after' snaps by the slimming institutes. I am just happy to be rid of all that 20Kg and want everyone else to be rid of theirs too.
But a disclaimer here, I started the weight loss struggle only after my kids refused to breastfeed. Till then, it was an uphill task to eat as much as possible, prompted by the wrong age old notions of, 'you get as much milk as you eat'! Though a feeding mother does need to eat well, it surely doesn't mean finishing off half liters of ghee in a week, eating rice three times a day and drinking two litres of milk a day. And god forbid, your child doesn't suck enough to get a tummy full of milk, you face the wrath of these 'know alls' who say you compromised your child to loose weight. These self righteous women drive me crazy. They might have left their kids off with their parents, or got the servants to feed them, or agreed, they might have taken care of them themselves, but that doesn't give them the right to question how others are rearing their kids. I am venting some hard feelings here, but the fact remains, and I say it again for all the self righteous people who are reading blogs to find faults with others, that I started the weight loss after my kids STOPPED FEEDING off me.

The 'before' snap: Taken just before their Namakaranam in Chennai, Aug. 21, 2006 when kachi and kautu were three months old. I was 96 Kg then.

The 'after' snap: Taken at a cousin's marriage in Nanjangud, April 26, 2007. I am 76 now, still raring to loose some more.

Do share with me your experiences. I would love it if I could help someone out.

Weighty me

I have always suffered from a weight problem. I have been called names all my life and have had periods of being slim to overweight, with the slim period being very slim indeed. And so, when after pregnancy I gained 25 Kgs or more to nearly touch 100 Kg, I decided, its time to take stock of my self and reduce, to if not less than pre-pregnancy, to definitely pre-pregnancy weight.

Somehow, the urge didn't come till Jan this year, 2007. I knew that I couldn't run and in fact, even my walk was a slow gait of an 80 year old. But what pushed me to take the initial step was a very painful knee. I went to the doctor expecting some Physio and reasons like hormone issues to be told that I needed to reduce weight and fast. By then, I couldn't sit on the floor, stand for more than 5 minutes and even pick up my children from the bed. There have been nights I have cried myself to sleep, telling over and over again how I was just 25, beautiful and smart and how much in life I am going to miss out if my knee remains as it is. Then my husband, being the practical man he is, said that all I have in my hands right now, is to reduce weight. If my knee gets alright, then I have done my bit to improve my life, else, thats how it was fated to be!

Well, for that and that alone, I did what I have never done in my life before....dieted like no end! I dieted for a complete 3 weeks, very strict diet and lost an astounding 10 Kgs to become a completely new person. I now swim for an hour everyday, still watch my diet and am fitting into all my old clothes (of course, there are parts of me that don't exactly fit, but then, being a mom has to show somewhere!!).

I still have to reduce 5 more Kg to get to my ideal weight, but isn't a transformation from 96 to 76 truly a remarkable achievement? And I am proud that I could do it, if not for my health, at least for my husband who told me that the one thing he wants the most in his life right now, is a healthy and slim wife!! (What don't we do for our men!!!!??)