How To Get On A Diet In India🇮🇳

Going on a diet in India isn’t very simple-for reasons you probably haven’t thought about.

The past week, I’ve been working out of hotels, buses, airports, cafes and home. I spent a considerable amount of time looking at different aspects that affect my productivity and figured out that sunlight☀️ and human interactions🗣 are key🔑 factors.

Whoever decided that Starbucks should have WiFi apart from ☕️- you da real MVP

I’ve been “body aware” since the last couple of years. I started by Googling my symptoms that I had if I fell sick and it got to a point where I’d go to the hospital🏥 and tell the doctor my version of the diagnosis and they’d go-
“Oh..great..so why don’t you prescribe a medicine for yourself.”
Apparently doctors don’t like that. So now I’ve learned to get the prescription and google the name of the medicines💊 they’d prescribe, just to know what’s going inside this body.

Starting with a diet

I happened to speak to an amazing couple while I was in Pune for a Kilter meetup. They told me that they’ve been focusing on their health since the last couple of years an it’s been amazing. He told us about his journey.

“I was overweight, so I decided to exercise and start running. I kept getting injured. The doctor then told me that it was because I was overweight. I have to reduce some weight so that my legs can handle my body weight.”

This was interesting for me because I’ve always thought🤔 that you had to exercise to lose weight. Now, a doctor tells that someone has to reduce weight first to be able to exercise💪🏻.

When they started with the Keto Diet, it was more difficult to convince friends and family that they’re not crazy. They’re from a Bengali family and Bengali’s are known to love food! They make amazing sweets and I can definitely vouch for that. She’s considered an outcast in the family for not eating rice🍚 or any forms of bread🍞. What’s worse? She’s also criticized for not feeding her husband properly because some people don’t get the concept of getting on a diet. Diets don’t always mean to go starving.

She also had to speak up for breaking the stereotype of a good bahu. Who’s a good bahu you ask? The one who didn’t put on weight and settle with family after she was 30. Weirdly enough, it’s also linked with not feeding her husband(who, also has independently made a choice to go on Keto diet).

Surely, before Pune, I never thought that getting on a diet to take care of your own body meant dealing with a lot of sociocultural factors.

But there still is a trump card🃏

There apparently is a way to deal with this! How? Next time you’re offered something that you’re staying away from as a part of your diet-
Mom/Dad, I’m doing this to take care of my health. Do you want me to eat this and ruin my health? If that’s what you want, I can eat this.

Of course, the other way of not offending people is to just take a tiny teaspoon🥄 serving of the food item so that they’re happy that you’ve tasted it and you’re happy that you’re still on your diet.

Sticking to habit

Ask any diet coach and they’d probably tell you that the concept of cheat days are manifestations of devil😈!

Yes, this is also about that friend who told you -

“Let’s get drunk today🍻/eat that chocolate truffle cake🎂..today is cheat day.”

Sticking to your diet or fitness regime is one of the toughest things and the day you slack, it’s that laziness taking over!

So here’s to a healthy, active and productive week.

This blog is a part of my “One Blog Per Week” resolution. Contains random rambling, learning and experience. If you have any inputs/thoughts, shout out to me at @dun3buggi3.