YES I CAN!!!
Today I ran and finished the PF Chang’s Rock ‘N’ Roll Arizona ½ marathon. I ran the 13.3 miles in 3 hours 15 minutes and 56 seconds. I was so happy when I crossed the finish line that my eyes almost filled with tears of joy. Eighteen months of hard work and dedication paid off today. I was so overweight eighteen months back that anyone would have laughed at me if I told them that I could finish a half marathon eighteen months later. Here is the photo me after the race and medal I got.
Excessive eating combined with no exercise has taken a toll on my body. My weight was increasing every other week and at one point of time I was over 35 pounds overweight. I was in such a bad shape that it became so tough for me to even take a single while playing cricket matches. After every single I was not able to breath.
I decided soon after my PhD that it is time for me to take care of my health. My immediate goal after my PhD as I wrote in this post was to make my body in shape for running/completing a half marathon in 2009 and I am very happy that I could do that by the early part of 2009 itself. This is also a perfect example of “Where there is a will there is a way”.
Looking back at what I did for bringing my body back to shape – the most important thing I did was to understand for myself why I was putting on weight. I came to two simple conclusions.
First one – I was all these years, right from my childhood always “living to eat”. I used to eat what ever I get and in huge quantities.
Second one – I realized one thing – As a general rule more the taste of the food the unhealthier the food is. Majority of the foods I used to eat were tasty and I realized it was all unhealthy.
So here is what I did to correct the mistakes I made:
First – I started “eating to live”. I just started eating to quench my hunger. I just stop eating when my hunger is over and won’t eat any more under any provocation/temptation. I developed that will power that made things very easy.
Second – I took the word “taste” out from my vocabulary. If eating a particular tasty food is bad I just won’t eat it. I just stopped eating sweets especially Indian sweets like Mysore Pak or Jelebi. I could bake and eat a chicken than frying it and eating even though frying it is hundred times tastier than baking.
Adopting these two principles I could get back to shape. It is just a start and I know I have a long way to go. Getting back to shape was a long journey and I could not have been here without the support of my wife who always encouraged every thing I used to do. That also helped me to make the changes in the food habits. Also I should mention my mother here. She was the one who always kept telling me the need for good health and sounding alarm bells when I was putting on those extra pounds.
Today US President elect Barack Obama stated that “Anything is possible” and it is just coincidence that I completed the half marathon on the same day and Arizona’s own Cardinals won NFC Championship game and are on their way to Superbowl, apparently the biggest show on earth.
Anything is Possible – If One has a Will for it
GO CARDINALS!
18 Comments:
cool man. Thats some achievement.
Congrats Nair!..
Congrats Brijesh!! Keep it up..
(and i know v well what u must be thinking abt me! lol :D )
woow..thats great Brijesh...congrats..13 miles is really an achievement.
great Job sir!!!! keep it going and you will definitely reach your goal with a willpower like this....
adipoli ..congrats !
A different way to do it would be burn off whatever extra you eat. The summer fitness trainer whose classes I took in SRC used to say he doesn't believe in controlling food. He recommends working out regularly and keeping an idea of how much calories you consume and how much you burn.
Good work,Brijesh!Being consistent is the difficult part. :)
Awesome Brijeshe !! You are an inspiration !!
Hey Brijesh - congratulations on the marathon! keep it up!
Congrats Brijesh... Cool man..
Thanks All for the wishes
Roshith,
I use to eat almost like you. Till the age of 26-27 you wont find any difference but after that age you just start putting on weight if you eat too much. It is better to control gaining weight than later trying to reduce it.
Sarath
I agree with you. It is not always easy to burn off the extra you eat. Say for example a human being needs 2000 calories a day to survive and assume your intake is 5000 calories. you work out and burn around 1000 calories. remaining 2000 calories is still in your body. That has what was happening to me.
Thats really great news Brijesh. Congratulations & Keep it up...
Congrats... May you get many more happy and fulfilling days in your life..
One important thing worth mentioining here is that you drove a few people to Grand Canyon the previous day of the marathon and came back on the same day.
Going to the marathon and finishing it off after that tiresome driving.... HATS OFF!!
So you completed a half-marathon. Unbeleivable. Well done and keep it up.
Thanks for your photo.
Hearty Congratulations Nair!! Great job!!
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he he he.. thanks a lot for that comment to Roshith!! LOL ...!! I've been trying my best everyday to convince him!!! :-)
@Roshith!!!! - look and learn!! :)
Inspiration!!!!! :-) .. Congrats and this is really well done! Don't stop now :-) ... Next stop the Ironman Triathlon. You've satisfied 1/3rd. Cycling and Swimming will get you the other two!!
Vivek
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