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

For heaven sake go for the ball

For the quality of the opposition team, the game what we played on Tuesday night was really good. Opponent team played in 4:2 combination with 4 hitters and 2 setters, our team has only one hitter and setter with others acting as receivers for the ball. My setting was awful yesterday with most of the balls going too wide or too close to the net and was easily blocked. While practicing (“taking touch” in volleyball slang) before the match we use heavy beach volleyball. The ball used in the match is very light compared with the practicing ball, which may be one of the reasons for my setting going bad in the match. Setting is more about control of the ball and strategy. We took lot of points in service, I was happy with the way I served. The guy who introduced us for playing in the league is around 60 years old, he also plays along with us in the team (with someone changing as sub-in). Age is supposed to slow down the reflex, but I don’t think it will slow down your attitude to go for the ball. There are few old people who play with me in the Dunmore Community Center, I admire there flexibility at that age. They are simply too good. I am not going to crib about the old guy, but when he is in the court the mistakes what he makes brings the moral of whole team down. I am not asking for all good players to play in the same team, but players who make an attempt to go for the drop falling in front of their legs.

Valentines Day a Day to remember!!!!!!

Feb 14th 2008 is definitely a day to remember, don’t run your crooked mind in all directions ( karapannai kuthirai inneram thati vitu irrupingalai). This is when we won the first match in Weston Hall Volleyball League in Scranton. It is a co-ed league, a team should have 4 men and 2 women. We were having our fingers crossed for 1 our team women player to come at the correct time. Finally she made it up, after all the initial hiccups the game started. We had a smooth sailing in the first set with us winning the set 21-15. Lethargic attitude started setting in at the end of the first set, which made us to lose the 2nd set 20-22. We made lot of mistakes with me being the main culprit with some awful setting. Things fell in place nicely for the 3rd set, some good hits and serves made us to win the set 21-17. We were all happy after winning the first game in the league. Our team has a game against the top notch team in the league on Tuesday 8.00 P.M. We are hoping to play well against that team too.

Amount of Opportunities and Facilities

I played volleyball for High school and College in India (at a competitive level). I was playing volleyball for clubs in Chennai after passing out of college. After coming to Scranton in December 2005, I played in the summer of 2007 in my apartment complex. I was looking at getting a team into YMCA Power League Volleyball for sometime, but wasn’t lucky though. YMCA Power League volleyball co-ordinator gave me another contact for playing in Dunmore Community Center, in which I am playing for past 3 weekends. Players who played there in Dunmore Community center saw me and my friend playing and invited us to play at 2 more places one on Thursday evening and another one on Sunday evening. I was seriously amazed at the amount of volleyball going around in Scranton and the kind of facilities what they have, all are properly furnished heated indoor sports floor courts.

I was bit early for the Saturday night game in Dunmore community center and got an opportunity to see Dunmore girl’s high school team (probably the girls were around 10-14 years old) was practicing (playing a game within themselves) with a head coach and 2 other assistant coaches watching them. They were observing there game and correcting them after the game on what mistakes they did and where they should improve. When I started playing volleyball at 7^th standard, there was none to teach us the basics of the game. The mistakes what we started doing at that age with respect to basics is still with me in the game, my physical education teacher (sweety jeya mary) for 2 years 11^th -12^th standard coached us really well but still the mistakes what we learned to do during the first few years are still with me. It is very very difficult to correct those basic mistakes you do in the game for e.g. while receiving the pass, the receiver should stand with the dominant foot slightly forward rather than just standing with the legs apart, it helps you to go for the ball which can drop in front of you and I still receive the pass with me standing with legs apart :(.

I always had a feeling that the amount of importance what we give to cricket kills peoples interest in other games. Don’t mistake me I am an avid cricket fan and I follow up and watch every match India plays(when I get time). I started playing volleyball only after my dad insisted (though there were other petty reasons too), the conditions what he laid in front of me for taking up a game are very simple

1) Game should keep you fit and active.
2) Should not take lot of time away from my studies.
3) Should not have physical contact between players

For the facilities what I had in school and what suited for my dad’s requirements was volleyball. My school Shri Anand Jain Vidyalaya had a volleyball court (that is the only play area we had in school) in the center with the school building covering the court in a “U” shape. We have groups/houses in school, since it was a jain school the houses were in the name of Ruby, Emerald, Diamond and Sapphire and me being in Sapphire for last 4 years of my school life. Playing volleyball in front of the whole cheering school for the house matches was really interesting and are real good memories.

I have never played volleyball in an indoor court before coming to Scranton (though my college had an indoor court which they used for basket ball), the amount of facilities here and the kind of organized coaching the provide bound to produce atleast 1 good player in 1000. Comparing the talent pool what I see here to what I saw in India, India is way way up in the amount and the quality of talent. With proper facilities and a good coaching at young age will definitely produce players far better than what we have seen. . Infact India were the runners up in 2003 edition of world youth volleyball and Kamraj( comes from Loyola college in Chennai) was awarded the best setter award for the 2003 youth edition. Facilities and quality of coaching are definitely improving, but we still have a long way to go.

First Volleyball Game after 6 months

I was trying hard to register a team in the Scranton YMCA volleyball league but did not have luck for quite sometime. Through some contact we heard that they play volleyball on Saturday Evenings in Dunmore Community Center , me and my friend krishna went to check out things. I wasnt prepared to play on saturday.Infact i was already cramped up after my workout for lower body on saturday morning.But i played since people who played there invited me to join for a game, the decision which i am regretting till now. It was easily one of out the worst games i have ever played, i play in as a setter in volleyball( guy who sets the ball for attackers to hit), i did not have any control over the ball. I should be blamed for the whole thing for entering directly for playing without warming up. Hope I play well the next time i play there.