Eating right... (contd.)

I think I left my previous post incomplete. While counting calories and reducing intake works for weight loss, there can be wrong ways of doing it too!

Starving or drastically cutting down on your food intake isn't a good idea. I'm not a dietitian, but know that the body should gets its required nutrition. It should be easy to find good plans on a balanced nutrition on the web. Moreover, even if you do manage to lose weight by starving, unless you've changed to light eating forever, the lost weight will most probably come right back in a short time. And if your weight loss plan includes exercising in addition to watching your diet, a balanced diet becomes all the more important. Exercising usually results in fat loss and muscle gain, and without the proper nutrition to aid the muscle gain, things will not work as expected.

In short, I wouldn't advise losing weight by starving or "crash diet" plans. A changed lifestyle is the only way out, IMHO.

You may already be well aware of what metabolism is, and how it relates to weight loss. But let me briefly talk about it here.

All of us have friends who are thin or well within the healthy weight range for their height - without having to exercise regularly (or even at all)! There could be a few different reasons why things just magically work for them - may be they always eat light and even out their calories intake. Another reason could be that they have a high metabolism. Metabolism directly relates to the calories you burn during the day - either just doing day to day activities (including things like keeping your biological systems running), or physical activities, or the process of digesting food. While some parts are in our control (e.g., physical activities), some folks may just be lucky to have higher metabolism due to a variety of reasons.

That said, there are ways to increase your metabolism (even the "resting metabolism"). Muscles apparently have a much higher calorie burn rate than fat. In other words, if you gain muscles, your resting metabolism will increase and you'll burn more calories without having to exercise :). If you do plan on gaining muscles, supplement it with adequate protein intake. Some articles on the web claim that 0.5 - 1 gm of protein per kg of body weight is the recommended amount of protein. Apart from protein supplements, it's easy to find regular foods that are rich in protein - turkey, chicken, sea food, soy, milk, eggs and other very common foods are excellent sources of proteins. A whole bunch of protein supplements are easily available - I tried Twinlab's protein supplement and thought it was pretty good. The Premier Protein Bars are also pretty good.

Another thing I found out (though I haven't put it in regular practice yet) is that eating smaller portions more frequently is better than eating fewer large portions. The body starts digesting the food soon after eating (and burns calories in the process), and more frequent eating will help increase your metabolism. E.g., 5-6 small meals in a day instead of 3 large ones will help increase metabolism and you'll burn more "free" calories.

And talking about exercising and nutrition, from my web research, the post-workout meal is probably the most important meal of the day. The 30-60 minute "recovery" period immediately after the workout is when the body can greatly benefit from the required nutrition. This is when I usually took my protein supplements. And be careful to count the calories in the protein supplement if you plan on taking one. Some have very high calories content, while others, like the twinlab one that I tried, have reasonable amount. High calories content isn't necessarily bad - just make sure you count them towards your daily intake ;)

One surprising thing I learned was that not all fat calories are bad. There is a thing like "good fat" - typically all nuts (cashews, almonds, peanuts, pistachios, walnuts) have the good fat. So again - as long as you count them towards your daily intake, I guess the "good" fat calories won't hurt.

As for the rate of losing weight, a healthy rate of weight loss is not more than 1 - 2 lbs a week. Weight loss at a higher rate is apparently not something that the body can deal with. And if you are doing things *right*, you'll see that this range is easy to stay in (btw, this may be another reason to stay away from ads like "lose 20 lbs in 2 weeks" ;).. I've also experienced that weight-loss supplements don't really work by themselves. If you read the fine print, they often say that "for best results, use in addition to regular exercise and healthy diet". I did use the Weider fat-burners, but don't know if they helped or not. I know I tried a few supplements earlier on in my life, but I guess I was missing the "regular exercise and healthy diet" part ;).

(to be contd., i think)

Eating right..

This one is in continuation to my previous blog post about the weight loss.. A few folks asked me if exercising regularly is all that is needed.. And though I mentioned this briefly in my previous post, more details may serve better.. In this post, I'll use my personal before/after eating habits to illustrate how important it is to watch your diet.. And yeah - these are all my own opinions, and will probably not hold for everyone..

Rewinding back to a year ago (early 2010):

I knew what calories meant.. but i never ever thought about the calorie content of any food item. Quite often, I used to have the snickers bars for lunch - it has roughly 280 calories (most of them from fat). Didn't know if it is more or less.. and didn't care either. Skipping meals (especially lunch) was not rare for me.

A foot-long subway was easy to finish - and my favorite one, the spicy italian, packs more than a 1000 calories. As a matter of fact, I thought eating subway (even if it was foot-long, 1000+ cals) for a meal was very "healthy" - and why not - Subway is mostly known as a healthy option - fresh veggies, bread, meat, etc.

And the Red Robin's Royal Red Burger was simply amazing. I once saw that this burger, along with the bottomless fries is worth 1600 calories! But I didn't know what that meant. I used to look forward to the all-your-can-eat lunch buffets at the Indian restaurants - and unless I come out overfull and uncomfortable from such a lunch, I didn't think that I had made a wise use of the $10-12 for the lunch ;).. and I did always make *good* use of the lunch cost ;).

Another favorite of mine was the Tropics Fried Rice (Chicken) from the Tropics restaurant in International District, Seattle, WA. The huge serving size for a mere $8 seemed totally worth it. And being fried, it was tasty too. Finishing the whole plate was not a big deal for me.

My best shot at watching my diet was skipping meals - sometimes even 2-3 days of the week. I sometimes wondered why that didn't help reduce my weight. But thoughts about weight-loss never stayed with me for long.

The main ingredients in my self-cooked meals - especially the non-veg ones - was oil and butter. Was super-important to make the dish tasty. Why should one need to find alternate ways to cook tasty dishes when all that is needed is a lot of oil/butter? I was actually surprised why everyone doesn't cook tasty food :).

So.. this was a rough outline of my eating habits.

Forward back to today, early 2011.

I count calories. Have been doing so since the past 8-10 months, and for me, counting calories consumed and burnt every day is the only way that works to keep a tab on my diet. I know my body requires roughly 2000 calories in a day, and when more than that go in, I have to spend extra time burning them away. About.com and several other sites are good resources for knowing the calorie content of various foods.

Subway's spicy italian 6-in sub has 520 cals, oven roasted has 320, sweet onion chicken teriyaki has 380. Subway is actually pretty awesome if you want to watch your calories - at least half a dozen options for you to get away with less than 400 calories (yeah - you have to be content with a 6-in sub). Quiznos doesn't have nearly as many options, and when I tried it last week, their "small" sub (which compares to the 6-in in subway in terms of calories) wasn't filling at all!

I have to say that my better half is exceptional and low-cal cooking. Eating subs or salads everyday is not a practical option, and I have the luxury of enjoying home-cooked food which is even better in terms of being "healthy" and tasty :).. I'm still working on convincing her to blog about her low-cal cooking tips.

I have learned to stay away from oily/cheesy/buttery or other types of high-calorie foods. Every once in a while is fine, but I don't (and in fact, can't anymore) eat a foot-long subway in one sitting. I also realized that the Tropics fried rice serving size is more than sufficient for 2 people. And again, I can no longer finish the entire plate by myself. I haven't visited a Red Robin restaurant since April 2010. But I will, soon - I don't have to finish the entire burger in one shot ;).. And moreover, I can balance it off by lighter meals in the rest of the day.

Luckily for me, I was never a soda person, and didn't have to fight the ~250 calories from a single can of coke or other sodas. But I hear that if you practice long enough ;), you can develop taste for the "diet" versions of these, which have 0 calories! The diet sodas are readily available - at least in the US (during our recent India trip, we never found a McDonalds, or Taco Bell, or other fast foods have the diet-coke in stock - though they had it on their menu!).

Not that I was crazy for sweets, but that's another thing I stay further away from now. Sugar has a lot of calories. Indian sweets can especially be very rich, and are better avoided (though some of them are so good that you can't completely avoid them ;). And if you have a sweet tooth, the 0-calorie sweetners do help (we use splenda, which apparently has a much better taste than some other such products). If you love ice-cream (luckily, I am not crazy for ice-creams ;), and eat a lot of it, find an alternative ;). But as long as you control your intake, there's no harm in continuing with your love affair ;).

And be careful when counting the calories - there is no "standard" serving size and some brands will just document those in a very tiny serving ;). Also, calories mentioned on restaurant dishes often don't include those from dressings or cheese or other add-ons. And you have the option of having them serve you the fat-free or "lite" versions of the same. It is easy to find low/zero-fat options for cheese, and a variety of dressings. And that makes a huge difference. Consider this - "regular" ranch has 140 cals in a serving (which, I think, is as little as 1 or 2 tablespoons), while the fat-free one has just 30! Mayo/lite-Mayo are just as dramatically different in terms of calories content. A slice of fat-free cheese has only 30-35 cals. Even a slice of regular bread has somewhere close to 100 calories! So 2 slices of bread with 2 eggs (an egg has roughly 100 cals) is a heavy enough breakfast for me.

French fries are EVIL!

Oh.. one thing I have to mention is that some people count only the fat calories of a food item! I have a friend who did this, but I hope he's not doing it anymore ;). Calories, whether from fat or carbs or anything else, mean the same thing when talking about their impact on weight. When exercising, I think the carbs get burnt before the fat resources are utilized. But if you don't burn away the carb calories, they eventually get converted and stored as fat. If your focus is on reducing your body's fat % only, then it may make sense, but I found it easy to just look at the total calorie content.

Every now and then someone comes along to say that always counting calories, watching what you eat, not eating fried goodies, etc - all for maintaining weight - is not worth it, and doesn't stand up to "enjoying" life. Unless I find another way that would let me "enjoy" (as per their definition) life as well, this won't be a sustainable approach.

Well - to start with, the definition of "enjoying" life isn't right. I probably wouldn't have disagreed till about a year ago, but a lot has changed in the past year. To me, heavy eating isn't necessary for enjoying life. And yeah - if you are not used to it, always counting calories may look painful. But like I mentioned earlier, maintaining weight is all about keeping your consumed and burnt calories in balance. Counting in/out calories has worked for me over the past 8-10 months, and being regular at it makes it easier too ;). Though crazy workout sessions burning 1000+ calories were fun when I was doing them regularly, continuing with them all my life is a more un-sustainable approach for me, than to count calories and stick with more manageable 500-600 calories sessions.

There isn't a magic plan that will be easy and/or work universally for everyone. If you are serious, you'll be able to find one that works for you (may be with some trial and error).

Arav: I want to become big and fat like daddy!

One fine day, in early 2010, Arav, my then 4-yr old son, told my wife: "i want to grow up fast and become big and fat like daddy!"

and sure enough, my better half (Akshaya Bhosle, a.k.a Vimala Patil) passed it on to me, and my parents who were visiting us. just more fuel to the almost daily discussions we had been having about me doing something about my weight/shape/health.. I had actually gotten used to getting this advice since the past 8-10 years.. to the extent that the frequent "lectures" were becoming a pain!

I wasn't always in such bad shape.. when i passed out from my undergrad, i was in an arguably good shape - 72 kgs on a 6' frame. that was way back in Sept 2000, when i moved to the US for my Masters'. and I had maintained the 70-72 kgs range for more than a few years. But, man! Pizza is definitely a new love I developed after moving to the US :) Nothing to beat pepperoni for pizza toppings ;) and with all the self cooking, i discovered that a lot of oil and butter goes a long way in making food tasty ;). My most recent food-love-affair was with ~1200-calories Red Robin's Royal Red burger :).. Including the bottomless fries, this package is easily an astounding 1500-1600 calories in one meal!!

Sure enough - i added 6+ kgs in the first year. Got married in Dec 2001 with my 11th/12th classmate, and put "health" on the back seat.

Relocated a couple of times from US to India and back to the US in Dec 2006. Tasty food is not hard to find.. and yeah - taste is all that mattered ;) I once thought that it was probably the unhealthy food in US that caused the weight gain, but I guess I forgot all about it when moving back to India didn't stop my weight gain ;)

Was finally able to quit smoking in Sept 2009 - after almost 14 yrs. (btw, Nicoderm CQ does really work). Good thing I didn't let the fact that "quitting smoking causes weight-gain" interfere with that goal. Being smoke free was terrific - and I didn't even think about the consequent decrease in my metabolism and rising weight.

And when my son uttered the "golden" words, I weighed a whopping 94 kgs (208 LBs)! 22+ kgs gained in 9 years.. 43" on my waist.. and at a BMI of 28+, i was on the verge of officially entering the "obese" category, which starts at BMI of 30!

Well.. the good thing was that when I heard my son say it, I figured that at a minimum, I owe him better things to look forward to than a big tummy and a fatty lifestyle. And all the constant, never-ending "lecturing" by my parents and wife suddenly seemed to make a lot of sense too ;)

One thing I know for sure now is that if you are committed, even tough goals are easy to meet. Earlier instances related to myself that I can think of are quitting smoking (2009), finishing my Ph.D. (2008), and another one several years ago about making it through the IIT-JEE (1996) in my 2nd attempt. Was reasonably easy for me to believe that I could stand up to this challenge as well :)

Mid-March 2010:
Current weight: 208 LBs. ( = 94 kgs. Pardon me switching the weight units now - have been in US for more than a few years now ;)
Target weight: 172 LBs.
Time period: none.

Yeah - aggressive target of -36 LBs. But I figured that if u aim for the stars, you might at least reach the moon ;)

Before Pics: tractor, holi

Started slow: picked up the tennis racket after ages.. I had bought it 4 yrs ago and it was still wrapped in the plastic cover when I'd picked it up in the store ;). Tried that with my wife with a frequency of couple of times a week for the first couple of weeks.. Mixed that with 2-3 miles of walk over an hour a couple of times a week with my wife. And all this worked out pretty well with my parents being there to take care of my son. And after the initial 2-3 weeks, I finally tried jogging ;). The first few times was barely a quarter mile jog (and to think that I had jogged a lot in my childhood (my dad was in the Indian Army, and is *very* health conscious), and was the athletics secretary in iitkgp! ;). The quarter-mile jog was about 2 rounds of the circuit in the crossroads park right outside my apt.

Anyways - things were going good. The first month saw me get rid of 5 LBs.. :) Seemed a great progress! Started more jogging. Moved up to 4.. 5.. 6.. and sometimes even 7 rounds of the jogging track in the park. Seattle summer was helping a *lot*. Amazing weather for outdoor stuff. And then a new issue creeped up - my knees started cribbing. Excruciating pain after 4-5 rounds. And bad enough to bring my jogging to a halt. :( Tried the knee braces (mostly the knee-sleeve type), but didn't help much. Had given up hope on continuing to run/jog. But as luck would have it, a pharmacist suggested the knee-straps to my parents, and the Mueller's knee strap is an absolutely amazing product. The pain was down to absolute ZERO! Naada.. nothing.. GONE!!! I haven't seen many products that do their job so well! I'll cut this short, and link u to my product review. FWIW, this is one of the only 2 product reviews I've ever written in my life (was so compelled to appreciate the product).

So.. I could run again.. had gone up to 7-8 rounds of the jogging track. And then the Seattle Weather played spoil-sport to my newly revived jogging passion. I was down to 195 LBs by May.. which was a good 13 LBs lost in roughly 2.5 months.

First alternative - Join a gym for ~$40 per month.. But the closest and convenient gym had a deal of $40 per month or $300/- for a 2 yr membership. The latter didn't seem practical for me - 2 yrs is a *really* long commitment ;). And knowing that rate, the monthly seemed too high ;)

Not sure how I came across it, but I ended up spending much more on buying the FABULOUS Nordic Trac x7i incline trainer. This is the 2nd of the 2 product reviews I've ever written ;) Won't go into much details - see my review. But this thing really works - lots of calories burnt (I managed 1100 calories in 40 minutes at the peak of my weight-loss training!!), lots of workout variety to keep me from getting bored, and overall a GREAT equipment. Absolutely worth the $2K price tag!

After ~4 months from when I started, I had lost 23 LBs and finally entered the "healthy" range when I touched the BMI of 25. And I kept going.. x7i finally helped me reach the goal on thanksgivings - On 26th Nov 2010, I weighed in at 171.2 LBs and had 7 inches shaved off my waist :)

Before/After Pics (~2 months stale now)

Of course, working out wasn't the only trick. Weight loss is all about losing calories. It's the *net calorie loss* that we are talking about. An average human burns roughly 2K calories per day doing the day-to-day activities. You can eat less, and reduce your intake to achieve a net calorie loss. Or, you can consume a lot of calories and spend a lot more time in the gym (or much lesser on your x7i ;) burning off more than what you consume. Yet another option is the middle ground - make a conscious effort that you don't consume a whole lot, and you can get away without a crazy workout session. Either ways, you need a *net loss* of calories to lose weight and even them out to maintain. Not much of a mystery there. To lose a pound of weight, you need to burn a net of ~3500 calories. Rest of the maths is easy ;) About.com has a bunch of helpful articles on exercising for weight loss.

Healthy diet is a key aspect to it as well. And I can't say enough about my better half's AMAZING low-calorie cooking. Even with almost ZERO oil/butter/ghee used, her cooking doesn't lose the taste. I *am* indeed lucky to have her support and help through my effort :) Some day I'll succeed in convincing her to blog about her cooking style ;)

So..? what next? Not so sure. But one thing I can bet on is that I'm going to stick to watching my calories and staying on a regular workout schedule. Yeah - I don't burn 1000+ calories 5-6 days of the week like I was doing during my peak weight-loss-workout-sessions (btw, with the x7i, this is only 40-45 minutes per day ;), and am down to 700-800 calories sessions (30-mins on the x7i ;) every alternate day. But hey - I don't really need to lose any more LBs ;)

~8 months was a long effort. Being focused for this long can sometimes be tough. Gets somewhat easy if you have a son who thinks that everything you *do* and everything you *are* is the right thing. Yeah - my son's innocent comment did it for me - you might need to find your own catalyst. And it's great being in a better shape (except for the apparel shopping expenses that I've been piling on since the past couple months - I even have an oldnavy membership now ;). I definitely have a bit more to lose (lower abs fat is a tough and adamant beast ;).. But for now I think I've closed this goal :)

Finally, I can tell my son that "big and fat isn't pretty"! :)

The anomaly scan

Last week we had her detailed "anomaly" scan done.. everything seems to be normal.. the placenta has "moved up", and the best thing is that she is allowed to travel. Time to get a break to a nearby hill station :) luckily things are much more relaxed at work.. in fact, the "big-guys" are urging ppl to take a break !! i guess it will be ooty, or some such place..

This time the scan shots were much better than the one done at the 3-months timestamp.. arms, legs, face were clearly visible. less than 4 months to go now.. and it will be a "small step for mankind, and a giant step for us" :))

Immediately after the scan, we drove to nagarhold for an overnite stay at the King's Sanctuary resort.. it was truly awesome.. and with the huge crowd with us (all my compay folks), it was a really welcome break for us.. can't wait to exhaust the velvia in my eos rebel 2k, and look at the pictures..

so long..

First movements

On July 23rd, 2005 came one of the most exciting moments of the road to parenthood. Akshaya had experienced this a few days before.. the very first distinct movements of the new life inside her !! This friday evening, with my ear on her belly, when i was checking if i can hear some heartbeats, i felt a sudden push on my ear.. "hello papa" whispered my wife.. and i was all smiles :). I have had several more "handshakes" with the kid-to-be over the weekend, feeling them with my hand. This is the closest we've come so far to feeling (literally) the baby's presence.. and it sure is much different from just knowing that she's pregnant.

One definite downside of these 9 months is the restrictions on travel, especially because of the "low-placenta". Hopefully, we'll get some better news after her detailed "anomaly-scan" scheduled for tomorrow (apparently, in most cases, the placenta does move to a favorable position after the first few months). Eagerly looking forward to a short getaway-trip to a near by place (bangalore does offer a wide selection when it comes to short trips all around it).

Some complications..

We visited her gynac a couple of days back to get a review of the ultrasound report. Apparently, Akshaya has a condition called the "low-lying placenta", or "placenta praevia". It basically means that the placenta forms in the lower half of the womb, rather than the more common upper-half. From what I could find on the www, it seems to be a frequently occurring phenomenon, which heals by itself in most cases. One of our friends also had a similar condition, which got cured in a couple of months' time. Another ultrasound is on charts pretty soon..

Not one of "those" things that we should be alarmed about - we left the clinic with a prescription of "complete bed rest, no travelling and lots of precautions". Air travel seems to be permitted, but we don't see an immediate need of travelling.. will keep it safe and simple :)

Bhosle Jr.'s journey..

So.. Akshaya, my better half, has been 3 months pregnant now.. and we finally had her first (post-conception) ultrasound scan done today morning at the Sagar Appollo hospital, here in bangalore, india. Our previous 2 visits for the ultrasound were futile due to some documentation issues..

the lady sonologist was pleasant, and cheerful, making her comfy.. and within 3 minutes of entering the lab, she drew our attention to a tiny image on the screen, quite actively moving inside a small region.. a little bit more focus, and we saw what she was refering to as "head", "arms" and "legs"..

"wow.. he's already moving" escaped my mouth.. Akshaya was all smiles way before this point..
"how long/tall is he?" (the repeated use of "he" is totally unqualified ;) ..
"about 6.4 cms"..

and then there were very rapid beats we could hear through the amplifier speakers.. which were the magical heartbeats of our yet unborn kid.. apparently, unborns have a much higher pulse rate, which paces down to normal with development.. all these events were enough to make us forget the related inconveniences of pregnancy - nausea, morning sickness, tonnes of precautionary measures, and what not.. everything sure seems worth it.. :) one might think that these are not big issues for the dad anyways.. but trust me.. it's not a piece of cake even for the dad..

though the thoughts about the huge impending responsibility has not yet sunk-in, hopefully it will happen over the next few months.. right now we are just busy enjoying one of the sweetest gifts of nature.. :) as one of my colleagues mentioned.. "there's nothing better than having kids" !

[to be continued].