Born with a taste for adventure, 28-year-old Pushkar was struggling to fulfil his dreams because of all the excess weight. With a demanding job and irregular habits, the weight kept piling on. To fulfil his passion, he decided to completely quit sugar and change his lifestyle. Read his weight loss journey to get inspired. Name: Pushkar Occupation: Creative Head Age: 28 years Highest weight recorded: 92 kgs Weight lost: 17 kgs Duration it took me to lose weight: 3 months The turning point: I am an avid traveller and simply love adventure but because of being overweight, I could not fulfil a lot of my desires, which included chilling shirtless on a beach without feeling bad about my body. Simply put, I was not living, just surviving. I used to get exhausted really easily because of my weight.
For a trip abroad, I had 5 months to go from fat to fit. While I felt like I had completely wasted my time in the first 2 months in the gym, I started seeing visible changes in the third month. This gave me the motivation to carry on with my weight loss journey as I realised that eating right was way more important than working out. So finally, all the hard work paid off and I was indeed able to go to the beach shirtless. My breakfast: I have lemon and honey in warm water when I get up. I alternate between oats, dalia, brown bread, egg white omelette, and boiled sprouts for breakfast. My lunch: I eat 2 chapatis without ghee or butter, a bowl of daal, some green vegetables and 1 bowl of brown rice. My dinner: For dinner, I have a plateful of green salad or fruit salad, a bowl of brown rice, a bowl of daal and roasted chicken/fish I indulge in: As such, I haven’t really assigned any cheat days but whenever we go to any parties (which usually happen once a week) I eat anything and everything I want. My workout: I run for 2 kilometres in the morning and 2 kilometres in the evening. I also make it a point to do some Yoga before dinner. Low-calorie recipes I swear by: I have quite a few favourite recipes. Some of them are:
1. Roasted chicken with lemon juice
2. Smoked seasoned salmon
3. Homemade energy bars
4. Oats noodles
5. Chilli tofu
6. Green salad with shredded boiled chicken. Fitness secrets I unveiled: The most important thing that I have learned is that you don’t need a gym membership to get fit, just a strong will power. A healthy diet is the key to weight loss. Remember that you don’t need to starve yourself, you just have to eat clean and healthy. Ear more green vegetables and pulses and avoid sugar. How do I stay motivated? I made sure that I set targets every day and achieved the same. I have downloaded an app which counts the number of steps I take in a day. From 3000 steps a day, I’ve reached almost 7000 steps a day. When the app displays the message, “Congrats! You’ve reached your daily goal,” it really motivates me. How do you ensure you don’t lose focus? My fitness app and watch really help me stay focused and motivated. While it is true that technology has made us lazy, on the bright side, some of the gadgets like fitness trackers and smartwatches, which track your daily activities, motivate us to continue working towards our goals and stay right on the track. What’s the most difficult part of being overweight? If you love travelling and going on new adventures, being overweight can actually be the biggest bane as it leaves you with little to no energy to go on and you get exhausted really easily.

What shape do you see yourself 10 years down the line? I would love to maintain my current physique for the years to come.

What are the lifestyle changes you made? For almost 2 months, I completely quit sugar, including ketchup. I was so dedicated that I used to check the jars for ingredients and anything which had more than 5 per cent sugar, I used to avoid it. I ate whole fruits, instead of drinking juice and shunned canned food items. I added more fibre rich food in my diet and made it a point to not drink water after an hour of having a meal as it slows down the digestion process.

What was the lowest point for you? My odd office timings and eating habits made me gain 15 kilos in a span of 2 years. That was the moment I realised that I needed to do damage control. I joined a gym and wasted around 2 months working out, but to no avail. I realised that if you have a full-time job and just cannot avoid parties, gymming is not going to help. That was the moment, I felt extremely helpless.

Lessons learnt from weight loss: Your body doesn’t fail you, you fail your body. It's never too late to start your journey to lose weight. Always start with baby steps and you will surely reach your goal.

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Source: indiatimes.com