Hi friends, first and foremost thank you very much for the overwhelming support for the “Let’s Lose 10 pounds in 2 months” event. I’m not lying when I say that I didn’t expect so many people would join it. I was hoping maybe 50 at most. Now that the event has gone big, way more than I expected, I would like to clarify few important details at the outset because I have been getting a lot of messages like:
1) What’s your weight loss program like? Do you charge for it or you do it for free? Is there any catch?
2) Will I definitely lose 10 pounds at the end of 2 months?
3) Do I need to follow your diet chart, exercise routine exactly to get the results?
4) I can’t eat this or that what can I have instead? Can you give me a modified diet chart?
5) I have a very bad back/knees/shoulder problem, can I do the exercises you mention? Can you modify the exercise routine?
These are just a few and more like this. So my answer to all of this is:
1) I’m not a nutritionist,
2) I’m not a fitness expert,
3) I’m not a personal trainer,
4) I’m not a weight loss coach,
5) I have not designed a weight/fat loss program,
6) I’m not selling anything and finally
7) I cannot guarantee that you will lose 10 pounds in 2 months.
THEN WHO AM I?
I’m your average stay-at-home mom of 2 very energetic boys both under 10, living in Canada with my husband. I’m the author of EgglessCooking.com, VegCorner.com and WaistHealthy.com.
The first blog was started because of my passion for baking. Coming from a South Indian Telugu Brahmin family, I was not comfortable using eggs but was too excited to bake and did not let that get in my way and found out a way to bake egg free treats. It’s six years since I started that blog. During these 6 years, amid two pregnancies and the love for baking and cooking, I ended up putting a lot of weight, which I managed to lose and gain back.
I was your typical yo-yo dieter. I didn’t have a clear picture about real fitness and nutrition. I would use my elliptical trainer for a couple of days in a row, eat low-fat and non-fat, highly processed food in the name of dieting and expected to lose weight and look like the old me in a matter of few days when it has actually taken years to put on so much weight.
Even though I kept reading a lot about health and fitness, I didn’t know which one was right because those information kept changing so quickly. Something which was considered healthy was thrown in the garbage the next day and it came back the day after that. It was becoming like fashion exactly. This really didn’t help me at all.
Then around 2010-11 I started following few blogs and websites which really felt genuine. That’s how I landed upon RajGanpath’s blog. What made it perfect for me was that he too is a South Indian like me so that I was able to relate to him very well and finally found someone who was speaking in a way which really made sense. My attitude about proper nutrition and exercise took a life-changing turn after reading his blog posts.
Until then exercise for me was just aimlessly running on a treadmill/elliptical trainer. I believed that weight lifting, strength training, core exercises was for men, people who wanted to join the armed forces and fitness models. I seriously thought that lifting weights and having muscles would make me look like a man. Oh boy! how ignorant was I! But all that truly changed once I got hooked on his blog.
I understood what real food was, from him. I understood what fitness is actually about, from him. I started incorporating some of his principles into my daily routine like using only coconut oil and avocado oil for cooking and extra-virgin olive oil for salad dressings. I ditched the canola oils, vegetable oils etc. I ditched the store bought low-fat salad dressings with unnecessary chemicals. I tried to avoid processed food as much as possible.
I tried to stand more often and avoided sitting. I started doing push-ups, pull-ups, lunges, burpees, planks etc. watching YouTube videos. Then I realized that I need to do this properly, learn from someone who knows how to do it right. Finally found a place which did the exact same. So doing that for 3 days a week with an improved diet did help me to lose a considerable amount of weight. I lost about 21 lbs (9.5 kg) in a year and for the past 3 months or so I’m just maintaining it.
So in short I’m not your weight loss coach, but merely a weight loss companion!
WHY THIS EVENT?
Because I have hit a plateau. The reason could be that I couldn’t continue with my exercise routine since last October, especially with the brutal winter we had this year, it was out of question for me to travel the distance. But I did continue to do some of the things I learned, at home with the limited equipment I had which was definitely not as intense as it was in the studio. I think that’s the only reason I was able to at least maintain at the same weight without gaining it back. Now I want to kick start the fat loss again and I know for sure that there are so many others like me out there who either want to start losing weight, or who are mid-way like me or who just have the last 10 pounds to lose. So it’s for all of us.
WHY IS THE EVENT FOR VEGETARIANS/VEGANS ONLY?
Because I think we vegetarians have a tougher task than meat eaters when it comes to weight/fat loss. Even though we call ourselves vegetarians, we are “grainitarians” in fact. We fill up our plate with too much grains which is nothing but empty carbs when what we actually need is more of protein and less of carbs. Meat eaters can easily get their quota of protein from chicken, salmon, tuna, eggs, etc, without increasing their carbs. So comparing a meat eater’s weight loss regimen to a vegetarian’s is like comparing apples to potatoes.
We need common grounds, we should be able to relate to each other in order to help each other. When I decided to have this event, I knew that mostly my friends and other Indians who are following my blogs would join it. I knew it was highly unlikely that it would reach other people. So with a group of Indian vegetarians it would be easy to swap recipes, talk about native ingredients and dishes, etc.
I have tried Spark People, Weight Watchers etc but I was not able to find the connect especially when it came to food/recipes. I’m not saying that I don’t like pastas, pizzas, tacos, burritos etc, but I’m sure that not all of us make it every day. We still, at least most of us continue to cook our regional dishes on a daily basis. This would make it easier to relate even better. That being said, I want to stress that this event is open to all vegetarians/vegans not necessarily Indians alone.
WHAT IS THIS EVENT ABOUT?
I want all of us to make lifestyle changes rather than falling trap to yo-yo diets over and over. I want all of us to lose a couple of pounds by the end of this event in a healthy way rather than crash dieting. Whether we lose 5 pounds, 8 pounds, 10 pounds or 12 pounds by the end of 2 months doesn’t matter. What matters is that we would know better about fitness and nutrition than when we started it, that we don’t fall back to our poor eating habits and “no time for exercise” mentality. So this event will also be a forum for all of us to talk about it and much more.
You can share your weight loss story, if you have managed to lose it and maintain it, your exercise routine, healthy vegetarian recipes, post pictures of the dishes you make, talk about the changes you are implementing, progress you are seeing, etc. While you can post recipe links, relevant blog posts please do not promote crazy diets and diet supplements, because skinny doesn’t come in a bottle..
If we stay true to ourselves and actually follow what we intend to at least 80% of the time, we will definitely see results. I will make this a closed group starting July 1st. I will also post recipes I try in Veg Corner and other tips, resources and links here in Waist Healthy and will update the same in the event page for everybody to follow. If you want to talk about your weight loss story, you can use my Waist Healthy blog to share it with others, but I will have to read it first and then post it.
WHAT NEXT?
I don’t have a menu plan prepared, but have gathered some links for the same, which I will be posting soon. A couple of you have also asked me to write about how I lost the 20 pounds, what did I eat, my exercise regimen etc. I will do a small post about it too. (20 pounds in a year is actually nothing. Had I followed Raj Ganpath’s no grains (but rice post work out is perfectly fine), no sugar, no processed food rules strictly I could have reached my goal weight by now!).
You can also start posting recipes/ideas/tips in the event page. But to make searching easier you also have the option of sending it to me so that I can put it on the Waist Healthy blog under your name. Use the contact form to send me the details. The choice is yours.
Until everything comes together and we start the event on the 1st of July, read this start here guide without fail. I turned over a new leaf after reading each and every single post and still am work-in-progress. I know it’s a lot to read but you have 1 week’s time. You might not agree with some of his views (he advocates eating meat), or think that it’s not possible to follow his suggestions (he is big on avoiding grains (especially wheat) and sugar, his exercise routine) but I’m sure that you will pick at least a couple of points which will definitely change your life forever if you give it a chance and implement it.
All the best! Catch up with you guys in my next post very soon!
Lets do it madhuram… but guess I am a tad bit late