Can anybody share their fat-to-fit journey?

I believe I am still ‘work-in-progress’ and have not yet achieved full fit status. But, I never thought I would even come so far.

I have been a ‘chubby’ kid all my life. I heard taunts and casual remarks about my weight from friends and family since as long as I can remember. This made my confidence never rise from ground zero. I was under-confident to the level that I used to blame my weight even if I did bad in a job interview or academically. I used to hate getting clicked, and never showed my pictures on social media, that is why I do not have a lot of old pics too. Now, I can not stop taking pictures of myself :D

My lifestyle was not something too terrible though. I did not eat fast-food often, but most of this was a result of too much pampering by parents and grand-parents. But even then, my family overall has an inclination towards staying healthy and we had a good mix of vegetables, greens, fruits in our lifestyle. Too much processed foods were not a norm in our house.

When I moved to the US for my masters in 2013, my weight reached an all-time high. I did not know how to cook, and the freedom of all the junk and doing my own grocery shopping took a toll. The aisles were full of candy, frozen foods, junk food was in abundance all around as well as cheaper than fruits and vegetables for a grad student on a budget.

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I lived on ramen, frozen food, takeouts and free pizzas at grad-school events. And when I did cook, I would get nostalgic and want to make full-blown Indian meals with lots of butter and oils.

All this just kept piling up and before I knew it, i was in the worst shape of my life.

I got a reality check when I visited home after my first year and parents and family just felt shocked of how I looked. In this visit, my dad also made me get a health check up, which revealed border-line cholesterol. This triggered something in my brain and I just knew that this is not the life I want to live.

I approached this problem very gradually and these were my steps -

Step 1: Eliminate junk and processed foods - I did this by slowly stopping all donuts, cookies, sodas, pizza, fried foods, anything processed. Even if I would eat out, I would choose the grilled chicken instead of fried chicken, skip the dessert. I did not put any restrictions on what I ate at home, but I just tried to eat at home more than eating out.

Note that I was still not doing any kind of ‘diet’ but I started seeing results, I felt less bloated, my face looked less bloated, my clothes started feeling better. I did not own a weighing scale (student-budget) and I was not obsessed with numbers. I just wanted to see visible results.

Step 2: After a whole semester of doing the above, I started cooking better food. I would make delicious daal-rice or simple vegetables at home with minimum oil and very tasty! Most of my daily food contained, a lot of vegetables, rice, daal, roti, yogurts.

I had also started reading more about health and fitness, followed fitness influencers on social media and blogs etc. I started walking more and doing some cardio on the treadmill in the neighborhood free gym.

I would even walk to the downtown Chicago by myself for light shopping trips, that means 3–4 miles. That might not sound a lot, but it was a big deal for me at that time and with time, I got used to it and could comfortable walk this distance.

I saw a lot of difference in my stamina, my energy levels got high.

Step 3: I started making more changes to my food. Making grilled chicken, fish, green smoothies, eggs. Also, taste was something I could never compromise on so I always found ways to make my food taste delicious. I even baked a lot of my chicken and fish without any oil at all. I got very passionate about food, and not just food, but making healthy food taste good. 

I visited India sometime during this stage, and got myself tested again and all my blood sugar and cholestrol levels were in a normal stage. I felt really good that in 1 year I was able to do this so I can do so much more if I keep going!
By this stage, I did see physical results but it did not feel like a lot. I had become comfortable in my skin but the real break-through came in Step 4.

Step 4: Crossfit! I moved to a new city with a new job. This city(Tampa) was very different than Chicago. Here, everyone had cars and noone walks around the city. Also did not have a free gym in my society. So I started looking for a good one around. I found a ‘Crossfit’ place nearby, and while speaking to a ‘gym-freak’ friend, he mentioned ‘find something else, you would never be able to do crossfit, it is very intense’. I felt offended at that time and decided to sign up for few intro classes. I kept going and this was like a new birth to life!! I loved the classes, the intensity, the people, the whole vibe was amazing. I found an amazing amazing coach who has become a friend for life and she guided me so much. I realised the importance of weight-training, it just gives you wings! I started with an empty pipe in my first class, and went on to doing 120lbs deadlifts.

This gave me so much physical strength, my body felt light and so powerful. I gained so much confidence through this journey. Every workout makes me feel more confident, if I can do this, I can conquer everything!
Lifting heavy is really an addiction.

I also modified my food a lot during this. I started eating a lot more protein because that in turn gave me more strength to complete my workouts. I reduced rice and carbs a lot.

I am still in this phase, I do not feel like I am done so I look forward to achieving a fitter body. This is just in progress!

I have learnt all about calorie-deficits and nutrition through this journey. For weight loss, calories and food is truly the key. But, I feel exercise just takes you to another level mentally as well. Any day that starts with a good workout just makes my day positive and bright.