Ever since my childhood, I have always been an obese child due to which I was highly underconfident throughout my childhood, especially with respect to public speaking. There was a lack of awareness and knowledge about health back in the ’90s and the early 2000s. Eventually, that led to an overall unhealthy lifestyle and gradual weight gain to the extent that it was out of control.
I was even subjected to a lot of body shame, if I may use such a harsh term for it (though not intentionally), but a lot of relatives and friends at school do subject you to it. Everyone around that time was conditioned in a way that fat means bad/ugly/unusual, etc., especially if you are a girl. No one told me about the importance of proper nutrition and exercise.
Once I started my menstrual cycle, even that was irregular, and the visits to my gynecologist began very early in life when I was just 13-14 years of age. Everything revolved around obesity and weight. I slowly started realizing that weight gain has some serious consequences. Eventually, I tried things like VLCC or fit-to-fat. The companies marketed themselves with remedies for quick weight loss without any hard work. I thought why not go ahead and try the easy way out. I finally decided to do something about my health and soon joined a gym when I was 17 years old. I am still grateful to my first trainer for beginning my fitness journey.
When I joined the gym, I weighed 105 kg and I am 5feet-7inches tall. I was far off from my ideal weight. The first month went in trial-and-error and finally, from the second month, I started getting results. For the first time in my life, I felt I made an achievement with respect to my body. Just when I started getting some results, my trainer decided to leave the gym. I was disheartened but very determined to continue my journey towards weight reduction.
Soon after, I signed up with my second trainer. He put a proper plan in place with respect to my diet and my workouts. There were no crash diets, but a very balanced diet with all possible meals. I had a proper fitness routine in place. I started seeing results slowly and steadily, and for the first time in my life, I started feeling confident about my body and myself. People around me started complimenting me and my family started applauding me for my determination. Every time I got on the weighing machine, I had lost some weight and finally, after 1.5 years, I was down to 73 kg with sheer hard work and dedication.
As they say, there is no shortcut to success. It stands true even in anyone’s weight loss journey. After that day, I have never taken my diet or workout for granted and I make sure I eat healthy food and workout every single day without fail.
I am glad that in today’s time, there is so much awareness and content around health and fitness. Mainly, one has to maintain the balance between calorie intake and calorie burn.
However, I always recommend people to see what works best for their own bodies. Every type of body is different, and different things work for different people. One should try, experiment, and see what works best for them. One should not follow anything blindly and see what works best for their body type. I strongly believe that if I could do it, so can everyone else but, one needs to begin today.
In your fitness journey – “every step is progress, no matter how small”.
Author:Prerna Nigotiya
