Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Weighty Issues!
I was mostly aloof to all the teasing and when I heard those cat calling songs in pre-teen/teen years, I actually giggled and embarrassed the offender (guess they expected a blush not full blown laughter). My favorite instance was when I was walking to school with a friend and someone cooed "Yendha Kadai-la nee arisi vangare.." and I started giggling and the guy just ran away! :-D.
(For the uninitiated, the line is from the song "Kathirikka, gundu kathirikka", translated as "Brinjal, plump brinjal". You see, in Tamil, we get pet-named after veggies(Poosinikka, pumpkin, is my fav!) ;-) And the particular line from the song: "Yendha Kadai-la nee arisi vangare.." is effectively translated as "where do you shop for such fattening rice"!)
So until I hit late teens, I was blissfully plump. Later while in college I still wasnt depressed (I was too busy dreaming up a grand future and I went to a girls college so got a good chance to develop a lot of individuality) yeah but did miss wearing those bootcut jeans with fitted shirts (My first jean, since I was 15, came way too late at 24!).
So what made me loose weight finally? To answer that question, another one stared in front of me. Why was I fat in the first place? I wasn't exactly a couch potato and had a very healthy diet at home. One thing led to another and it was soon discovered that I had an hormonal imbalance that was causing an insulin resistance in my body. I was told it was a vicious circle because the hormone imbalance was causing insulin resistance and that in turn was worsening the imbalance besides continously reducing my metabolic rate. And I was told its very difficult for me to loose weight because of this, but, not loosing weight wasnt an option anymore. Insulin resistance is a good indicator of middle age diabetes. So I set out to loose weight. This was in May/June 2006. And I weighed a startling 81 Kgs!
1 years and 2 months later, I had shed 24 Kgs! How? I did a lot of things right, some knowingly, some inadvertantly. I exercised vigorously (walked along Marina for 1 hour every morn - 7 Kms), adjusted diet (all home food allowed, no outside food) and sustained my weight by a super healthy diet while in Europe on a business trip.
Thinking back I am pretty sure that this is one of my biggest achievements and the very first one that I set out doing with so much drive. And I succeeded.
Along the way I also shed my spectacles, opting for contacts and it startled me to know that I had admirers! It wasnt easy! It shocked me, because you see I had grown up being the happy ugly duckling! People cannot believe the "happy and fat" part, but what better proof than the fact that Gopi and I got together just as I hit the roof at 81 Kg? The weight loss came more than 3 years later. I still am fat in my head and still shocks me when I catch people staring (different from fat days stare) and I even more shocked when someone tells me I am not fat anymore - In my head I always react with 'really?'
Years later, my weight does fluctuate often along with the hormone fluctuations, but I have managed to retain an average BMI. I still always plan to loose weight, and one might think that its so much easier since I have done it once.. But no.. the scale seems frozen in time, because the last 5 years taught me something beautiful. To love myself, unapologetically.
The much awaited before and after pics:
Sometime in 2005
And in 2010
Friday, February 10, 2012
Mystery of the Peeping Toms and other idiots
My next post was going to be about my 5 years in Ericsson. But seems like that has to wait. I just cannot help but write about all those Facebook pests putting up idiotic posts(yeah yeah, I block them, so if you authored one of those posts, please don’t argue with “if you don’t wanna see it, ignore it”.).
Nehru-Gandhi Bashing: Just as I log in, on my wall are 3 posts about the Nehru-Gandhi family. I sure am no supporter of dynasty rules, but why is everyone so f**king bothered about Sonia's heels, Priyanka's clothes, Rahul's girlfriend/lack of it, Nehru's affairs.. what the hell!!!
It is one thing to be a socially and politically aware responsible citizen. It is nothing short of 'peeping tom' behavior to be so bothered by such personal things. If you are so socially conscious, why pay that bribe to register your new house? Why does Tamil Nadu alternate between just 2 chief ministers? Why did Lok Paritran not win?
Religious posts: Do I want to see your pictures of Navarathri. Yes. Pictures of your family in Tirupathi. Yeah why not. Wedding pics. Oh yeah. You want to write about your Amarnath Yatra adventures. Heck yeah, bring it on!
But shout out to the world about your religious affiliations, beliefs, prayers, preaching. That, no thanks! Bashing another religion (claiming Taj Mahal was a temple), no way, not on my wall – get lost!
Click to win posts: This one goes like this: If you click on this link, you win 1 million $. Seriously, then why isn’t even of one of you in my friends list a multi-millionaire?
Graphic descriptions of terrifying non-existent/imagined .diseases: Is that for dhrishti pariharam on fb? ;-)
Spreading false rumors: A woman gives birth to 20 babies? Reese Witherspoon passes off as young Sonia? Seriously? Since you can read English: there is a search Engine called Google. You can establish whether the post, that you so feel like posting, is really truth or simple myth/hoax. Well I don’t have a big problem with this. It is you who comes out looking like a fool.
Motivational quotes: Grow up! Get a life!
Posting pictures of unknown pretty women: Single largest reason why girls remove people from our friends list. Like that guy I know who posted a picture of a girl he dint know – a normal girl – simply because she was too pretty and held a beer can: He was out of my friends list in a split second. To explain more on thed this topic itself is in an insult to womanhood. If you really think this isn’t all that bad – well, poor you, even the psychiatrist cannot help you.
Well so this is my list of post categories that I deeply hate and I notice people around me: colleagues, friends, family all share my view. Maybe I am just surrounded by smart people! ;-)
These are my kind of posts: People, what goes on in their life, pictures, arts, history, science, technology, quirky facts, original writing..etc. ? I know a lot of you out there reading this, hate posts of my kind. But who cares? This is my blog. :-D