The Speedbreaker Diet

Following this diet along with the associated exercise regimen helped me drop from 85 kilos to 62 kilos in 4 months.  I changed my diet starting 08 Nov 2013; that's the day after i was diagnosed. When i stood on the weighing scale in the doctor's chamber i was 85 kilos. Four  months later in March 2014 for an  interim review when i stood on the weighing scale in the same chamber, I was 62 kilos. The doctor was mighty pleased  (as was my tailor). So it worked for me, and there's no reason why it shouldn't work for everyone if done sincerely. I never went hungry nor was the nutritional profile of the diet skewed towards any  particular food group. Simplicity is the name of the game.

The fundamentals being the diet is this. Avoid processed food, increase fibre and protein, reduce fat, and switch to slow  burning carbs. This translates to:-
Things to avoid :-
Flour  and everything made from it (biscuits, breads,cakes, samosas, et al)
whole wheat flour or Atta,if possible, for the first three months.
Rice,white, brown all varieties.
Starchy vegetables
Overly sweet and Ripe fruits
Saturated fat : butter, ghee, dalda, mayo, cheeses.
Polished and dehulled dals (dhuli daals)
vegetables / meat cooked in gravy or a lot of oil
Not more than 2 tbsp of oil a day
Not more than 1 tsp of salt a day
sugary /milky tea and coffee

Things that help good health and weight management:
Salads
Dals with bran (unbroken chilke waali dals)
Rajma, choley in less oil, black Chana
Vegetables that have little starch
Cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli,Karela, bhindi, louki,Tomatoes,Onions,capsicum, cucumber,beans, garlic, ginger, brinjals,kundru and parwal, kathal etc
Oats, dalia, barley (substitute for Atta and rice)All green leafy vegetables.
sprouts salads
guavas (not overripe), apples,pears
two eggs a day (whole, boiled for 7.5 min in boiling water and then removed and placed in a bath of normal water to stop overcooking)
grilled chicken,fish.Keep in mind however, that no matter how much fish is touted as a super food, there is a very real danger of mercury poisoning if portions of large sized fish(>1.5kg)are consumed regularly. This is because, when fish eat other fish, the mercury content progressively increases. no more than 180 gm of fish per week is to be consumed, preferably of smaller variety. Consider the pollution level of our water bodies from where fish are sourced and use discretion.
Soya nuggets: a true super food.One of the best sources of vegetable protein,they possess the miraculous quality of being able to reduce cholesterol in the bloodstream. Given that the Indian diet is fundamentally deficient in protein,soya nuggets go a long way in ensuring adequate protein in the diet.

Speedbreaker 2

So began a period of intensive change. I started two activities   that i had been running away from a long time. Research  and exercise. A lot of net-time went into reading about diabetes. Books were ordered and studied in detail. Clinical nutrition  was studied. What exercise benefits most... The list goes on.
It was apparent that I had adult onset diabetes. Having a history on my father's side, chances were high that I  would have got it eventually, and so i had.
As i was overweight, the insulin being secreted by my pancreas was no longer able to cope up with the glucose floating around in my bloodstream. Either that, or the combination of inactivity and excess food had caused  my tissues to develop a bull hide that made glucose processing difficult. The result was same. Grossly elevated blood sugar levels. This placed a greater workload on pancreas, liver, and kidneys, not to mention peripheral capillaries and nerves.
Solution was obvious. Lose all excess weight. Fast. Start medication. Metformin 500 mg thrice a day. Change diet totally. It is these two things, exercise and diet that i intend to talk  about in this series of posts.

Speedbreakers.....

There I was, leading a happy go lucky, responsibility free life. A year into marriage, with a patient wife who was custom made for me (with great patience,  i must add, by whomsoever makes wives), going about daily life and generally being fussy about small things,  which generally happens whenever god bestows good fortune; I was expecting the arrival of my firstborn.
There is something called an annual medical exam. That which all pilots, throughout the universe probably, approach with the apprehension of testing the water of the pool on a cold morning.
As usual i had prepared for the medical. given that i was heavy, i had been going for the occasional run for the past four weeks. The idea being, the ex nda body cannot fail; and beneath all the layers of fat was an iron core, which is indestructible.
Not so, said the body.
The day after the tests, i was feeling satisfied  after a busy day of flying. Just need to collect  the reports and file them. Routine.The figures hit me like a goods  train. Deranged sugar levels. Not only deranged, dangerous. Worry, worry.
Repeated the tests next day. Same result.
Broke news to wife. Then boss. Wife broke down. Spoke to the specialist. They all had the same thing to say. You have diabetes. It seemed like an accusation. Am quite sure some people meant it that way. What was the use of trying to tell them that you can not choose to have our not to have the malady. Anyway.
This is where i guess the the hard years  help the most. If nothing else,  the training makes you mentally strong, to think rationally in adversity and try and find a logical end to the situation at hand. The grit that it provided me, was and remains, better than any injectable devised by the docs to help me.

Return of the slob

Hi.
The slob is back.
No longer fat.
Somewhat fit.
Cheers.