A few months ago I decided to adopt a healthy lifestyle that I was hoping to sustain for a lifetime. While at the back of my mind, weight loss was an important goal, it was never the prime one. Not because, it is not an issue because it surely is, but I was planning to change for a better life ahead.

Today, after almost 4 months, I decided to look back at the time gone by to see where am I heading.

Since it is my blog where I have no obligation to impress someone, I can be brutally honest. I said so because I have NEVER before been able to talk so freely about my weight issues before an audience.

There have been no miraculous results as far the weight goes, primarily because I haven’t invested efforts of that level. Mind you, when I say so, I am well aware of my pace and I am pretty confident that this snail pace is going to continue even in the days to come.

Though the good thing is, I have stuck to one thing, keeping carbohydrate intake to a minimum and regular exercise. The exercise levels fluctuated but I have never stopped the workout.

The salads have been on but more than them, I have come to like the fruits. There has been a slow but sure shift in my liking for fruits. I have come to enjoy snacking on them. Breakfasts have been oats and free from all sugar though in the Mango season I did add it on a number of occasions but successfully avoided adding any sugar (or even honey) on 100% occasions.

I am not too sure what should be the parameter to assess the results. If the overall feeling is to be counted, I am surely feeling fitter than I was four months ago. All the aches and pains I had begun to develop (slight pain in my shoulders, sometimes in the knee too) have been a thing of the past. I have lost one dress size, moved back two holes in my belt and lost 5 kg thus far.

While looking for inspiration over the Internet, I came across countless weight-loss diary blogs where people had undergone a dramatic change in terms of weight in the time I have been actively working. With those examples in mind, if you’d look at me, I am sure we all would agree 5 kg is nothing exciting.

What actually is exciting, is the fact, that I have learnt to adapt to the lifestyle changes and am at no point missing out on any of my favourite foods. I still eat pizzas, pasta, sweets, chocolates and everything part of the many festivals in India.

It is just that I either have learnt to draw the line as to where to stop or else I workout enough to burn the extra calories. So the scales haven’t shifted right so far.

I am letting my body come to terms with living with less sugar and salt for the life ahead.

Yes, cutting fats are on the agenda, but I have never been consuming them in excess anyway, so I am not being too harsh on myself on that front. The one good thing that has happened in this process is, I have come to learn a number of ways of cooking up Oats and even successfully managed to rope in my mother to love eating oats in breakfast daily.

That is something major because my mom is the world’s easiest person to lure to consuming carbohydrates at any hour of the day, despite being a diabetic.

My skin has shown definite improvement though nothing dramatic. I definitely look 5 years younger than I did in the recent past. I feel happier mainly because I have this realization of having taken the reigns of my life in my own hands.

These small achievements are doing wonders to help me feel alive like any person should.

The song on my mind: Ziddi Dil ~ Mary Kom