Slimness Expedition

For Soldiers on a Slimness Expedition

What does one expect after cruising his way from obesity to slimness? Envious eyes, chasing stares, appreciation-showers and dropping dead of the opposite gender.. For these few seemingly insignificant words, people, in particular women go on hunger-strikes more than Mahatma Gandhi did, develop saintly virtues giving away all eatables their concerned ones send along with them, religiously fast for more than 36 hours, renounce all the omnivorous pleasures and choose to live on few sips.

Result – a hanger with a broom wig, scarce ounces of flesh on a zombie, or precisely, a parading X-ray report.  While the person-reduced to a skeleton revels over the newly achieved ‘slim’ outlook, he rarely has any idea of how ghastly he has become. The prolonged trauma of going through obesity leaves no way for turning back –thanks to the jokes and taunts directed at them every now and then. By the time, the person realizes the situation; he has done enough harm to make it back to normalcy. And the shocks and tremors the body goes through ensue in the dramatic muscle loss (Yes-not Fat loss), hair fall, weak immunity and declining energy levels.

It’s hence very important for those going through a weight loss transition to scruplously monitor this phase . A few points that clamor for attention, provided one is not blinded by the ‘mission to be slim’,  are:

1)      Lose weight gradually. Don’t speed it. It might lead to spells of dizziness, sharp fall in energy levels and possibly loss of muscle-mass.

2)      Go on a modestly low-carb diet. How many carbs – that depends on your level of physical activity. For an athlete, the count would definitely be different from the one confined to his office seat.

3)      Divide you meals in episodes, ideally six to eight. Consuming a large pack after a long period of starvation would still convert the extra carbohydrate into fats, and would also slow down your metabolic rate. You’d also notice that pausing after some morsels would soon give you a feeling of fullness, so you wont be craving for more after all.

4)      Include moderate levels of fats in your diet. It will give you a feel of satiation without having to consume too much carbohydrate before you feel full.

5)      Don’t eliminate any food group from your diet. It will have lasting implications on the body for the precious nutrients you’d be missing out may create a serious deficiency or affect the body in more ways than one.

6)      Exercise. Losing weight through dieting, people usually ignore how they need to ‘move’ in order to tone the body that would otherwise go loose and flabby.

7)       Too much of self-restraint is bad. Don’t stop yourself unnecessarily from eating what you wish to. Stopping oneself a lot from what one craves for leads  to depression. What’s the point doing so much, if one can’t be happy.

Don’t judge your well-being with digits on a weighing machine. Your ideal weight is one on which you feel good, are able to give your maximum output and find yourself  most happy. While women should check out whether it’s the hormonal imbalance that is leading them to gain pounds, for that needs t be treated before you head for any weight-loss expedition. And lastly, this all is a non-professional advice by a person who has only learnt this through experience. If you disagree with it, better consult a nutritionist or a doctor.