40 to 31 in 1 year

I wasn’t into running till last June 2007. I went for my vacation to India in May. I was quite heavy then weighing 220 pounds( 100 kgs). I got quite a few nice comments about my looks and how heavy I am from my so called friends and relations. I was very very upset about one of my old volleyball colleague’s comment asking on when is my marriage and I look like a 29-30 year old guy. I wasn’t a heavy guy in college, it all happened after I joined cognizant for work, due to heavy coffee drinking, food and no exercise helped me ballon from 72 kgs to 100 kgs within 2 ½ years. After coming to US in December 2005, the un-healthy life style continued, my fondness for choclate and with no one to curtail me from not eating it didn’t help me either. One Hershey or Mars bar for a snack in evening was too much for my body. I did not realise that I was getting heavy for a long time reason being, people who are around me are also heavier. Only after going to India I realized how heavy I am, my mom wasn’t happy either with my weight. She had her reasons to worry, child hood friend of mine had his first heart attack at the age of 24 thanks to high cholestrol and heavy weight. I did not have a clue on how to reduce my weight but I had a motivation that I have to reduce my weight.

I have never run for a long distance in my life. Longest as far as I remember was 400 metres race in high school and in that too I ran for first 300 metres and walked for the remaining 100 metres, I finished the race though. I was very active kid in high school, I played volleyball for school but that doesn’t require much moving around or running, I participated in shotput, discus throw and javelin throw in zonal/school district competition. I use to go in my bicyle to school( still remember the day when my dad bought me my first bi-cycle, I was so proud as if I was the king of the world), I have to ride 5kms one-way, It kept me really really slim. After returning back to US I started thinking on how to reduce my weight then I realized what I did when I was in High school, so I got a confidence that I can reduce my weight. I asked for suggestions from people who have decreased there weight. One of my client Systems analyst was weighed a whopping 380 pounds, he decreased his weight from 380 to 220 pounds in 1 year. He had some good motivation for decreasing his weight, he has a small passport size photo of when he was heavy on his desk. He advised me to have my photo in which I am looking heavy on my desktop as wallpaper and the moment I see that I will be off to working out. Actually his idea did really motivate me. I thought of just jotting down Some of the tips what I learned from other people who have decreased weight and what I did to decrease my weight . I chose running for decreasing my weight since it was the fastest and healthiest way suggested by my doctor
• Buy a weighing machine and weigh yourself daily morning and evening.
• Buy a Nice running shoes, probaly you have to shell out somewhere around 80-100$ on a running shoe, but it definitely does worth it.
• Buy some good branded play dry t-shirts. I hate wearing cotton when I am running, cotton t-shirts or shorts absorbs sweat and becomes heavy in the course of running and made me to feel tired. Play dry t-shirts evaporate the sweat and helps in running.
• Buy some play dry shorts. It helps in running similar to play dry t-shirts.
• Keep yourself hydrated when you are running. I prefer water.
• Buy 4 or 5 head bands to use for running. Lot of people have aversion towards using head bands. Head bands helps in absorbing the sweat from the head and prevents it from dripping down to the face. It feels lot better to run with a Head band. It does worth to spend some 4 to 5 4 on a head band.
• If you are starting to run for the first time in the tread mill then start with a speed of 4.5 or 5 Miles per hour and run for around 5 mins @ the start. Then start increasing the timing slowly. After a week if you are feeling comfortable with running at 4.5 miles per hour then increase it to 4.8 and try running for the same time.
• Most of the gyms have TV nowadays, try to find a nice show for the time you are running, go to the gym for seeing the show and run when you are watching the show. I like seeing Everybody Loves Raymond, I use to align my running time when the show comes on TV. It will keep me occupied.
• If you are using some music player when you are running get a nice wristband or arm band for the music player, it helps in the natural free flowing hand motion when running. Holding the music player in hand or in pocket made me conscious about the presence of music player and I would concentrate on not dropping it on the floor than actually running.
• Lot of motivation and will power is needed for running daily, lot of times I wont feel like running at all but the moment I switch on my laptop and see the wallpaper I will be off to running.
• You may not see the weight loss results immediately. Donot lose hope, it happened a lot with my friends, they will run for a week and if they don’t see result then they will stop running.
• I feel lot confident about myself after decreasing my weight, I am able to do lot of outdoor activities, my endurance has increased a lot.

Now you maye be wondering on why I kept such a blog heading, it is my waist size. I was 40 inches in June 2007 and I am 31 inches now.

Myself in June 2007




Myself in May 2008