Health is Wealth

Finally I woke up on the morning of 12th Feb 2009 and decided to go for jogging on beach along Sai Rock hotel in Mombasa, Kenya. I was deputed in Mombasa during those days. On the first day of jogging, I kept on thinking whether this motivation be reduced within a couple of days as it happened in past. But I realised that this time it was some real motivation that came from within to do something to reduce my weight. On 12th Feb, my weight was 88 kgs and was still increasing, my life style was affecting my health and I was gaining weight with time. So finally I put my foot down to decide to do something, thereby the routine to jog started and never stopped after that..

Along with jogging, I thought of changing my food habits, at least I learnt to say no to few things such as fried food, beer, rice, cakes, chocolates, ice creams, pure ghee, cold drinks, junk food etc etc. I added new food items in my daily food intake such as fruits, juice, vegetables, salad, skim milk, whole grain food etc. I learnt swimming as well to add to the above efforts. So I had combination of jogging and diet control. I still remember, i was hardly able to run for 5 minutes because of lack of stamina on the first day of jogging. But once, it became a routine, stamina also kept on increasing. My stamina has risen from 5 min jog to 45 min in 8 months. Now at least on an average I run for 30 minutes every day. Other interesting event happened during this period. As I moved many places during this time, from Mombasa to Nairobi to Ahmedabad to Mumbai to London to Oxford to Sydney, I was always lucky to find a place to run in all these cities to follow my dream of reducing by running. Now with help of my diet control and jogging, I have reduced up to 69 kgs.

My first target of 80 kgs was achieved in April 2009, when I was in Mombasa and second target of 76 was achieved in Mumbai in July 2009 and third target of 72 was achieved in Sydney in Sep 2009. I have set next target of 68 kgs for my self, which I want to achieve before one year of my health management. Recently I participated in a competition which involved walking 10000 steps in a day and with help of my stamina, I was able to achieve this target very easily. To top it up, I was able to complete 13000 steps on an average every day, which meant a walk of around 1 hr 15 min every day. Our team stood second in this competition against 80 teams in Australia. I will love to say thanks to each and every body, who motivated me to reduce from a fat and
plump man to a fit man. And now I wish to continue this routine for life time to sustain my weight and fitness.

Wayback in 2005, my professor from CEPT told me that I will not be able to see my belt buckle with straight eyes down for lifetime now. But with help of my fitness programme, I am able to see my belt buckle. I wish to go back to my professor and share this joy with him.

At the end, i just want to say one thing.............................All izzz well as health is wealth.

Photograph 1: Then in Tanzania (Dec 2008)

Photograph 2: Now at Sydney (Dec 2009)