My Weight Watching Saga!

Like most women out there I am also sometimes conscious about that growing waistline (not population or money). In the Past.... I was lean till my college 3 year. Ever since I have been growing in width. It could be attributed to the fact that I stopped playing football or any other games, I sat at home eating and sleeping for 6 months until I finally joined a software company. Needless to say the day long desk work in turn added more to the waistline. Finally my love for food did it all!! .I started eating Non-veg for no reason at all. I went overboard on that and started devouring anything everything on the plate. I succumbed to the magic power of ice-cream and finished tubs of it. There were more supporters than devil's advocates. Then I went on vacation back home and even my parents were shocked to see "more" of me. That’s when it hit me... the sudden realization of having gained 33 pounds in 4 years.

On my return I joined the Gym and started following a 2 protein + 1 carb + 1 fat diet. I hated the gym, just could not do it. But I stuck with the diet for around a year. Overall I lost around 18 pounds, but the waist line did not reduce much. Again work, depression, more work, lack of exercise, more food, more friends, more restaurants - it all added up and got 15 pounds back to my body. I finally decided to give up non veg food and join the gym again and see it through. But the distance mattered! I could not make it more than a month in the gym. The guilt of paying money to the Gym added to the other things, but I gave up Non-Veg strictly. Yet again with all the mighty heart I decided to do it once again, this time with sense.

I was searching for online videos on daily home exercises. I stumbled on Spark People. It helped me to gain some confidence and I tried the simple exercises. I just could not do it. I was huffing and puffing. But this time I had a whole network watching my progress. I was not willing to give up. I even added the K-challenge to it and when I went on vacation I had lost 10 pounds with 2 inches on the waist too and my parents were happy :). When I got back I was so temped to get back to my dream weight. This gave me a booster to hit the gym again, more methodical and prepared. I made a bet with myself to run the 5K in March '10. The first day I could not even run 5 minutes continuously in 4.5 m/hr. It’s been a month now and I have improved to 10 mins for 2 miles @ 5 m/hr and shed 5 more pounds.

Though I am not all that strict I stick to vegetarian diet with more protein, less carb and low fat - not anything in particular but general. Once in a while I surprise my metabolism with restaurant food or ice-cream. For the exercise part I am trying to do 3 days cardio and 3 days strength alternating in a week. Monitoring both eating and exercising on Spark people. Learning to cook healthy :). Reading more stuff about health and diet and food (doing my analyses too..). For a good start I am on the GM Diet this week!! More to follow on these lines...
Update: I finished my Diet and shed another 6 pounds. Now overall I am only 9 pounds  more than that dream weight. Now the concentration is around the waist and on the 5K :)