How To Lose weight and be healthy?

1. Why did I want to lose weight?

The main reason for my weight loss project was very superficial -  Every morning when I looked at myself in the mirror I did not like what I saw. Now one may wonder 'why do you care so much about how you look?'. Well, when you buy good clothes, jewelry, shoes, brands, get haircuts, manicure, pedicure - are you doing it for some kind of social service? Nope, you do that to look good/ presentable.

I truly believe that one may be adorned with diamonds, jewels, Prada or Chanel worth 1000 bucks but fitness looks the loveliest of all. Fit people are the most attractive people even if they are wearing torn clothes. One may be covered with gold but fitness is that Philosopher's stone that makes YOU look gold.

Also being overweight can cause a lot of medical issues.

2. Reasons for weight Gain?

One may put on weight because of several reasons: medical issues, bad diet, sedentary lifestyle etc. but the most lame reason I have heard for being overweight is 'It is genetic!'. 

The only thing that is genetic or so to say runs in the family is lifestyle, choice of diet and exercise. It is too convenient to blame it on genetics.

I weighed 175 pounds not too long ago. I covered myself with loose clothes/ scarves/ jackets and still was congratulated by many strangers at malls, social gatherings on being pregnant 

(I was NOT). It was terrible, I felt depressed.

I got angry at people if they pointed out what and how much I ate or how fat I looked.

3. How much weight is perfect?

The definition of perfect weight varies from person to person depending on the level of our laziness and disillusionment. 

I referred to this chart - http://www.calculator.net/ideal-weight-calculator.html trying to match the weight suggested by Robinson formula (for my height and age).

It is possible that you are kind of a person who is comfortable in your skin and weight issues do not bother you much. May be you are someone who carries that belly fat with pride, in that case this post is not for you. You can go back to being disillusioned, it's hard to take the weight loss challenge until we are out of the denial phase.

This post is for you if you accept that you are overweight, do not conveniently blame it on genetics and are determined to lose weight.

4. How to lose weight?

For those who are still with me - answer to the question 'How to lose weight?' is not a secret obviously, the keys are Diet and Exercise. The difficult part is how to implement it, unfortunately it doesn't happen by any magic trick (as I was hoping).

I like what they say about Hinduism - 'It is not a religion but a way of life'. 

It sure is applicable in case of weight loss - It is not something that you do every Sunday but needs to become a way of life.

If we don't change our core lifestyle then the lost pounds keep coming back.

For losing weight one needs to sacrifice a lot of things. WRONG. 

If weight loss is an important goal for you then what you give up is not sacrifice but gain/ profit. So nowhere in this post am I going to say 'I sacrificed...' NOPE it is all gain (in this case loss ;-), we don't want weight gain ;-) ). 

The things I gave up do not matter much to me as looking thinner gives me utmost happiness. I still have to lose 8 more pounds but I already love how I look now (f**k modesty).

5. How to find time for weight loss project?

In order to Exercise you need Time and that is the second most lame reason I have heard about being overweight - 'I don't have time to exercise'.

In my denial phase I have used both lame reasons myself - 'It is genetic' and 'I don't have time'.

Time - everyone gets 24 hours a day, no one is blessed enough to have more, seriously! The most important thing you need to do to find 'time' in your routine - Simplify. 

6. How to Simplify?

A. Possessions: Minimize things that you have. Clean up your house, organize it, donate/ throw away things that are not required. This saves up time that you spend on managing, cleaning and finding stuff. Simplify Clutter. So if you have a bunch of kids and pets then you are doomed ;-) just kidding... I am sure you will still be able to simplify in any given situation.

B. Relationships: Do you like quality or variety? I like quality and hang out only with people whom I get along very well. Relationships that give you stress, humiliation, unhappiness are not worth having. Cut Down... you will be saving a lot of energy, frustration and in return what you get is time to do things that matter.

C. Actions: Are there any junk actions that you can live without? which are not helping you in any which way? For example - I cut my hair short and saved the time to manage and set long hair, didn't get my nails done, didn't go shopping AT ALL for 3 whole years... it was hard :-) 

I am sure you can think of some actions that you can cut down on. Video games anyone? 

D. Chores: Get Help! Rather than spending on expensive brands/ jewelry and what not, spend on maids who can help you cook, hire house cleaners. Delegate tasks. 

I don't know, but may be you are helping a friend's kid learn Spanish when you can actually use that time to work out. Well, trust me your friend will manage. Make a priority list and cut down the non important stuff.

E. E for e-clutter - I delete all my emails unless there is some action that needs to be taken. I am subscribed to a very few people on social accounts. Other sources where I lost a lot of my time - you know celebrities wearing nice clothes and make up and posting their pictures from every angle everyday - fuck them - those pictures are not adding any value to anyone's life so I unsubscribed to all celebrity accounts I followed. Cut down the e-clutter - This is the biggest time saver.

F.  Parallel task - I take care of laundry, ironing, cleaning etc. while I listen to audiobooks, I am sure you should be able to make a list of things that you don't want to cut down on and can also be done in parallel. 

 G. At Work: All of the above (which ever is applicable for you) needs to be applied at work as well. I would highly recommend the book Essentialism: The disciplined pursuit of less by Greg McKeown. 

If you are someone who is overly ambitious and after money/ promotions and all that jazz (or work with Amazon ;-) ) then what can I say?.. just Get a fuckin' LIFE!

So basically - Donate, Throw away, Cut down, Prioritize, Organize, Minimize, Delegate and Simply Simplify. Woohooo! Now you have a cleaner, de-cluttered house, you are surrounded by only those that matter, doing things that are utmost important, congratulations on getting a fuckin' LIFE and most importantly for claiming back your very own TIME. So what do you do with all the time that you have?

A. Exercise, B.Focus on diet, C. Sleep, D. Read, E. Take a hobby.

Because that is also important for mental health.

A.Exercise: 


'Gyms are expensive' this is the third most lame reason I have heard from people. These are the very people who spend a LOT on restaurants, movies, clothes and what not. Does one need to join gym to exercise? I haven't been to gym in last 6 months and that is when I lost the most of my weight. 

What kind of exercise do you do to lose weight?

1. Aerobic - hiking, biking, running, aerobic gym classes like boot camp, bosu circuit, HIIT training etc.
2. Weight Training
3. YOGA and pilates

Notice how I have written Yoga in all caps? that is how much it helped me in every which way to have a mental, emotional and physical balance.

Exercise helps one feel energetic, increases immune system, improves mental health, helps your heart function normally and of course helps with weight loss. I can not insist more that how much it is important for everyone to exercise (even if you don't want to lose weight).

7. What about Energy?

We have a great fear of getting tired so we look for an easy way out. Any energy depleted is not lost forever. Why do we plan our fatigue the same way we plan work? Most of us barely move as we need to 'save energy' to work out at the gym, there too we time ourselves, count repetitions, track the heart rate. These days people wear those wrist bands which even tracks how much they slept! If you wake up and feel fresh then you slept well... Similarly if you feel like working out in the morning and then again in the evening go for it!

STOP robotic routines, move around, run, walk, do Pilates, go biking, climb hills - There is no rule how many times or how much to do... just do it as much as you can... because you can!

Stop staring at the idiot box for hours, consumption is easy, creation is hard and creation is something that gives us long lasting happiness. In this case it is creating a good healthy body.

8. DIET

Eat less, stop eating sugar, try intermittent diet, eat fresh home cooked food!