If you are not yet above 40 and if you are not overweight by 20 kg or more, then don’t worry about your weight yet. Especially, if you are an Indian male. If you are so particular about your figure then you can start dieting and exercise.
I was overweight by about 30 kg and my age was 42 when I seriously started caring about my weight. My blood pressure was way above normal and I used to pant heavily after a few minutes walk. I am on hypertension medication for the past two years.
I was 100 kg on 15th Jan 2006 and now(16 May 2006) I am 89 kg. My target is to get to 80 kg by October 2006. Still I would be overweight by about 10 kg, but I can slowly get it off. But now is the time for war-footing weight loss.
My first step was cutting white sugar. I stopped adding sugar to coffee, tea, oatmeal, cornflakes or anything else I ate. Stopped eating all types of sweets and chocolate. No paayasams or sweets even if it is part of “Prasaad”(food offered as part of worship). For the first few days you may feel bad. But the whole thing is in the mind. You can keep alive without this enemy called sugar/jaggery. Do not drink coke or any soft drinks or juice tetrapacks in India. They all have extra sugar added on. Overseas there are no-sugar colas available. But don’t have more than one of them a day.
My second step was cutting all fried foods. I stopped eating any type of chips, potato chips, banana chips, jackfruit chips, tapioca chips(Mallus like me have a variety of chips in their life). Don’t enter any McDonalds/Hungry Jack/Burger king, where you always get French fries as part of meals. No vadais, bondas, bajjies, pakoras.
Being a vegetarian, cutting on meat was easy. I had never had non-vegetarian food except eggs. I cut on eggs too. If you are a non-vegetarian just stick to non-fat fish. Boiled or steamed fish is ok, not the fried ones, please. Cut out on any type of meat. Eat only boiled eggs avoiding the yellow yolk. Eat only one egg a day. You don’t need to be a meat-eater for living. There are millions of people in the world who never touch meat.
The only energy I got was from the carbohydrates I had like 4 idlies or 1 dosa or 2 slices of bread for breakfast, a cup of rice with daal and vegetables for lunch and 2 chappathies(oil-less chukka) for dinner. Cornflakes with no-fat milk is ok, oatmeal with no-fat milk is ok. Forget cheese, butter, paneer etc. for life! Eat about 3 fruits a day and eat green vegetables boiled or steamed. Even if you go to visit somebody, be careful of eating whatever they offer. We Indians show our love with sweets. Show your love back by shaking your head!. You can substitute ordinary milk with soya milk if you don’t have problems with uric acid build up. Substitute tofu for paneer if you love such things. Cut out on cashew nuts and such rich nuts. Avoid dried fruits as they contain more concentration of sugar per unit volume.
Remember, that, it is all in the mind. You had been eating for taste and to fill your stomach till now. Now you start eating just for living. The ritual of eating should not be one which substitutes your eager to fight and win over some one. Don’t have a fighting mood, arguing or quarrelling mood when you sit for eating. Say grace or pray or just keep cool. Most over-eating is due to mental tension.
Exercise: I did not do much of exercise. Just brisk walking for 30 minutes 2 times a day was enough to reduce me from 100 to 89kg in 4 months. If you increase your exercise you can get better results. Any sport, swimming, cycling will help. Avoid elevators if you are going up only 3 floors or less.