From my Pink Diary

Losing few kilos while being on a forced diet of fruits and lemon water is the sweetest side effect of chemotherapy….

I always hold a grudge against God that there has been unfair distribution of height to ladies in His world; otherwise why would ladies and girls like Shilpa Shetty, Anouska Sharma and Deepika Padukon have the pleasure of towering over others whereas ladies like me always have to stand in the front row while a group photograph is clicked! I always feel that I have been deprived of my right of standing tall physically in a crowd. The sensitive matter of ‘height’ became almost “over –sensitive” when my dad had to write 5’ 0” in matrimonial communications just to give an illusionary effect of being of average height like an average Bengali girl. Understandably, I am too sensitive to the magic word of “tall and slim”.

After I landed in Dubai, first few months were lazy rolls on the couch at home and endless hours of stroll in the malls. I was continuously on the search of keeping myself engaged meaningfully while enjoying my much-deserved break from life’s crazy run during the last few years. During the process of exploration, my observation gave me an insight that even though I could not do anything to increase my height at an age when the bones would not stretch length-wise but I could always reduce the ‘body mass’ to fit into the category of “slim and petit”. Just as I started wishing that there should be a health club around my residential locality, Studio Fitness opened its doors to countless enthusiasts like me. With little nudging from my husband, I entered into the world of “yoga, zumba and weight lifting” hoping each day that fitting into size 10 from size 14 would be only months away!!

Well, while I had been following the regimen religiously and few friends also commented that I looked more toned, I could not find much change myself and after relentless trials in the trial room of various stores in the malls, I could only fit into size 12 but getting into size 10 was a distant dream!!

…….after almost a year, I said “Quit”. Probably there was much more into reaching that dream of looking ‘slim and petit’.

Knowing me as not a quitter, my search on weight-loss secrets were on and I finally hit upon the conclusion that gym-run had to be in tandem with a ‘proper diet’. Another search began and almost all diet plans advised to stay away from ‘carbs’. I hit the first roadblock – being a die-hard Bengali, plateful of rice with fish curry is my biggest weakness and staying away from carbs was just IMPOSSIBLE for me!

 …..but dreams sometimes can be very persuasive! As if to give my dream the last push, Bodyworx opened just below my tower with a massive layout of machines, balance balls, kettle bells, treadmills, dance floors and what not! I could not resist the pull when I saw people thronging there and huffing and puffing on the machines and almost all of them fell in the category of “slim and fit”. I entered Bodyworx nervously one morning and was guided to a ‘personal trainer’ by the receptionist.

…… I set upon another journey towards attaining my dream of losing those stubborn kilos!

After some ‘critical calculation’, the trainer churned out that I should ideally weigh 55 kilos to go with my height and I was overweight by 9 kilos!! As regards the diet plan, when I mentioned my weakness on ‘rice’, he flashed a very pleasant smile and assured that I could eat my staple ‘rice with fish curry’ but only with slight change – “shift to brown rice from white rice”!!!

An immediate visit to the supermarket replaced the bags of India Gate Basmati Rice in my grocery cabinet with Tilda Long Grain Basmati Brown Rice with lots of protests from all members of the family. The taste of pristine white long grain India Gate Basmati rice was certainly too good to be compared with taste of brown rice of any brand and quality. After the initial protests subsided, we all made a conscious decision to shift to eating healthy and to our surprise, we all started liking the taste gradually.    

..... every month the weighing machine showed a little ‘shedding’ of those stubborn kilos and pushed me to go a little further in trying new techniques, machines and healthy diet!

Possibly seeing all these, God took pity on me and wanted the whole process of losing weight a little less effortless!

After the diagnosis, the finalization of the treatment plan and surgery, I had to say “Goodbye” to Bodyworx and to my wonderful personal trainer who was sure that I would come back after a short break and would start from where I left!! Thank you Sherwin that you showed this confidence in me as I hate to quit something which I started enjoying! I would go back, for sure…..

The chemotherapy started and suddenly without even realizing, I am on a forced diet of lots of fruits, lemon water, and soupy curry without even a hint of spice and WHITE RICE as these only suit my chemo-ridden taste buds. Every time, the nurse asks me stand on the weighing machine, the reading makes me very happy as it has been showing a steady decrease!! The last reading before the therapy session last week, the machine surprised me with a reading of “59.2” and I was elated.

……Voila! I am only 4 kilos away from the ideal weight that my trainer calculated and I am certain, that with three more sessions of therapy, the final reading is certainly going to show “55”.

The Therapy sessions and the associated side effects are not at all pleasant to bear with, but dreams do not always come true without pain and suffering, right? While approaching my dream of looking ‘slim and fit’, this much pain and suffering I will endure with a smile for sure!!!