#40NotOut |Navigate through weight-loss traps| 5 stories you will love | #BlogchatterA2Z

I could have written a long, boring post on weightloss traps and how to avoid them. Instead, I decided to tell you 5 stories that you will love.

You can tell me which one is yours in the comment section below.

I will help you with ways of winning the health transformation challenge. 🙂 

Everyone loves a good story. Read the 5 stories that follow and identify yours. 

I know it all, I just don’t do it

43-year-old Minakshi is 106 kgs, suffers from high blood pressure, hypothyroidism and B12 deficiency. She enrols in almost every exercise class but doesn’t push herself. She blames her hypothyroidism for her weight gain. She walks at low speeds on the treadmill and on the tracks. She enrols in a slimming clinic that guarantees 12 KG weight loss but misses most of her sessions. She overeats at social occasions, even stuffs food in her bag and takes it home. Her home is stocked with diet food, slimming teas and coffees – all have crossed their expiry date and she buys more when she throws out the expired stuff. She has a workaholic husband who is an exercise freak. He constantly tries to motivate her but to no avail.

She loves advising people on healthy food, diet and weight loss. Spends time watching videos of healthy food and exercise. All this while gorging on junk food and lying on her cosy sofa.

I watch and worry till my next meal

35 year old, Sandhya owns bathroom and bedroom scale. She weighs herself multiple times a day. Sometimes she even keeps a record. She worries about her weight and keeps awake till midnight. That’s when she gets hungry and fixes herself a midnight snack. She wolfs it down hungrily and then continues worrying about her weight. The next morning she wakes up and exercises vigorously. After exercising she has a giant burger and chocolate milkshake to reward herself. She weighs herself in the afternoon (after taking a dump – so that her morning food doesn’t show on the scale). She gets tired and takes a nap in the afternoon. In the evening she weighs herself once again, it hasn’t changed so she rewards herself with chai and pakoras.

For the next 3 days, she doesn’t exercise; initially, because she is tired and later because she feels that her weight isn’t changing.  On the fourth day, she finds she has gained 100 gms, so the cycle begins once again.

She is so lucky, I am not!

32-year-old Amala is a homemaker and mother of two kids. She lives an upper-middle-class life with her husband, kids and in-laws. All through the day, she is constantly working to meet the needs of her family. Dabbas, piping hot meals, ironed clothes, instructing the maid etc. She plonks herself on the bed every afternoon for 2 hours in the confines of her bedroom. She enjoys this precious ‘me-time’ by scrolling through Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. She takes a short nap for an hour before she rushes back to prepare tea then takes a quick 1.5 hour trip to the market. She returns home, sorts the vegetables and fruits, prepares dinner, serves it, cleans up. She ends the day preparing for the next day and then crashes into her bed by about 11 pm every night.

All this is interspersed with the thoughts of her friend, Deepa who has been constantly uploading her health transformation pictures. She keeps muttering to herself about how lucky Deepa is with her supporting husband, loving in-laws. She knows that Deepa is a working woman and secretly admires the way she is balancing home, family and weightloss. She ends her day by telling herself, Deepa is plain lucky – if I had that kind of luck then I too would be thin and sexy.

We will start tomorrow. We promise!

44-year-old Mihir is an overweight businessman who has been diagnosed with high blood pressure and diabetes. Apart from a busy work schedule, Mihir loves spending time in front of the television. Despite staying in a joint family, he prefers to eat in his room while watching TV and then dozes off to sleep almost immediately after dinner. His 37-year-old wife, Sharmila and he are social butterflies and love to dance at parties and flaunt their new clothes. Their social media is flooded with pictures of their numerous parties, couple dances and wedding that they attend throughout the month.

They both know that their health is failing, their stamina is weak and they get tired easily. They love life and therefore laugh away their worries. Every night they promise themselves (and each other): we will start tomorrow, promise!

I can do only this much. Enough!

38-year-old Aamir has an extremely successful corporate career. After completing his MBA at the age of 23, his weight and career both saw a meteoric rise. Irregular eating habits and burning the midnight oil to meet deadlines was a norm. On weekends, along with his friends, he let loose and partied like crazy – junk food, barrels of beer and packs of smokes were his favourite stress relievers. He would wake up late on Sundays with a splitting headache.

During a routine health check-up at the office, he was detected with obesity and that is when he started thinking about his health transformation. He enrolled in the most expensive gym and went there dedicatedly for exactly 7 days. An important project came up and he got busy with it. Yes, he did have time on weekends but when reminded by his wife he would shout at hear loudly and say: “I can do only this much! Enough is enough! Stop nagging me!”

Stay with me throughout April 2020 as I take you through #BlogchatterA2Z: My secrets to health transformation. 

Do you have any questions? Do drop in your suggestions and queries. I would love to respond. 

Penned by:

Mayura Amarkant 

Disclaimer:

Dear Reader: You must know that I am not a healthcare expert and nor am I posing to be one through this series. I am sharing my personal experiences and journey. I urge you to speak to your healthcare professional before trying anything in this series.