A skinny colleague of mine is stuffing her mouth with a gulab jamun while I am trying to divert my attention by sipping on a cup of super bitter green tea and typing this. Is this the kind of ‘healthy life’ that I am happy to be living? Hell, no! I want to gorge on some greasy Chinese food, then follow it up with my favorite chocolate-walnut brownie and still be able to easily slide into my skinniest pair of jeans (which stopped fitting me eons ago btw, I wonder why I still have them! #Hope). If only.
It has been exactly three weeks and three days since I started following a strict diet and workout regime (for the 999th time). And despite dropping a few pounds already, I’m not too sure if I’ll be able to stick to this routine for longer than a month. But I’m quite sure about one thing – that there are many like me, who have been battling these extra kilos since time immemorial (not really but it seems like it). So this one’s for those of you.
Dear you,
I know you know you’re pretty. So I don’t have to remind you about it now. But at times, you wake up in the morning and weigh yourself on that monstrous weighing scale or go in front of the mirror to check out your flab or try to force yourself into a dress that defined love at first sight for you. During such moments, you might just feel slightly un-pretty. But never let the cellulite on your thighs or the dimples on your bum snatch away that glow from your face.
Having said that, I know how it feels to be an aspiring fit (
NOT THIN
) girl and it is not the best feeling in the world. From following the most popular #FitFam members on Instagram to finding the latest workout videos on YouTube, from squatting 100 times everyday to counting the calories of each meal that I eat – I’ve been doing everything I possibly can to reach my fitness goal. But every single time I commence my weight loss journey, I end up giving in to my temptations and eating something that I’m not supposed to eat. After cheating once, I end up slipping a couple of times again and then I finally end up giving up. It is a taxing process, a constant struggle. No matter how many motivational quotes you read or kilos you drop, when you slip, chances are that you’re gonna go down to right where you had started. And then repeat.
Don’t seek shortcuts. Screw the food journals and don’t OD on salads. Eat everything in moderation so that there’s no room for you to slip. And workout for at least 30 minutes every single day. When you don’t feel like doing the crunches and the lunges, just lock yourself up in your room, play some peppy Bollywood numbers and dance. Or plug in your earphones and go for a long brisk walk. It’s really not rocket science. We all know what we need to do. But our will power sucks. If we want this, we HAVE to do it! Blaming your genes or the blessed skinny b*tches around you won’t really speed up your weight loss process.
So DO NOT CHEAT OR GIVE UP. Just keep tiptoeing towards your destination. Once I had lost 8 kilos in 3 months. But then I gained 10 in the next couple of months. #Facepalm. So basically, I am not writing this letter to you. I am writing this to myself. I don’t want to be the girl who is trying to lose weight anymore. I want to be the girl who lost weight and never gained it back. From Sonakshi Sinha to Parineeti Chopra to Bhumi Pednekar to that school friend of yours – so many of them have triumphed in this battle. So can we. Let’s not let anything bog us down this time and let’s continue fighting the fat. However, make sure that you do this the right way and don’t end up doing anything crazy.
I am by no means trying to assert that losing weight guarantees happiness. I recently read a post by a woman who had gone into depression after reaching her target weight because weight loss had been her one and only obsession for so many years and when she finally achieved it, she felt like, ‘Now, what?’ It might happen to some of us too. But at least we will be telling a different story then, at least we will stop cribbing about our weight. We will find something else to crib about and that will mark the beginning of a brand new journey. But at least this journey will be over. For good. Let’s do this, girls. JUST FOR OURSELVES.