I am Spandana, and I am a regular YKA user. You can check out some of my articles here. In this article, I am going to talk about how nutrition helped me to grow.
The nutrition plan I followed is not a short-term diet but a long-term lifestyle change. Food is the basic necessity of a person. It is a mixture of different nutrients such as carbohydrate, vitamins and minerals. These nutrients are essential for growth, development and maintenance of good health throughout life.
Nutrition is the science of food and teaches us how to deal with food with a systematic approach. About my story on fitness — one day, I had gone out with my family to Nickles road in Hyderabad to spending some casual family time. Suddenly, we saw an adventure game (adventure and adventure sports are my favourite), so we went inside to participate.
I saw a zipliner and we all got excited to climb on that. We needed to check our weight before climbing the zipliner, and that is where the whole twist to the story lied. The zipliner team said that only those below 90kgs can climb the zipliner. I was so happy to see that board as I knew I am 85kgs. But after going inside the camp, they said that the weight limit has been changed to 75kgs.
Then I was upset, but also happy because my brother was more than 75. After some time, they allowed entry of those who weigh 85kgs or below. My brother and I got ready, only to realise that my weight was now 86kgs and the team refused to allow me to participate. I was frustrated and came come out to the parking lot. It was bit far from that place.
My parents kept calling me, so I picked their all and told them that I want to lose my weight. My target was losing 10kg. I was in the NCC and practiced yoga and judo. Basically, I was always into sports, but never got any recognition. That is different story.
I thought I would join yoga or approach a nutritionist. But yoga classes amid the pandemic being being held offline, and not online. I approached my nutritionist, who is my friend’s sister. I started my journey with her and in those three months, I learnt so many new things about food.
I a currently pursuing my PGD child psychology and so, I was learning both theory and practice through my course and my plan with my nutritionist. When I started, it was a bit challenging — I was supposed to wake up early in the morning and sleep early at night. Drinking a lot of water also became a habit eventually.
I also used to get a treat meal in my diet plan — six times a month. I did not have to once sleep on empty stomach. I had many servings in a day that included a lot of vegetables, fruits, nuts, roti, rice, curd, ragi and oats, but all in a balanced way. Gradually, I started enjoying the process of being healthy.
My target was losing 10kgs, and I lost 8kgs in only three months. I am now thinking about losing 10kgs more to reach the optimum BMI level.
I have now reached 80kgs and I will reach my target in another month. The motivation behind losing so much weight was not due to society’s pressure, but because I wanted to experience a new version of myself. Unfortunately, I do not have a picture of my ‘Before’ and ‘After’.
This is my personal experience. I had a great journey. It is not about losing weight in three months, but about self-reflection. Self-care is important, thinking about yourself is not selfish. Take care of your body before you take care of something else. During Covid, we learnt so many things about ourselves, and one of them is that every step matters.
“You gotta nourish to flourish.”