Little things matter

Most of the people I meet at work or socially say they would like to lose weight. However, there are also the rare few who wish to gain weight. Often their plight is worse than of those who want to lose weight. When I tell them that the principles of weight loss are as applicable to them, they feel let down. But this is a fact because besides how you were fed as a child, your genetic make-up and eating habits, the truth is that your weight is determined by your current state of metabolism and digestion pattern. I know this not just from my nutrition studies, but from my own need and struggle to put on extra kilos. It isn’t that I ate less than others, but putting on even half a kilo was difficult for many years. This suddenly changed when I took a real holiday recently. By real I mean a holiday which totally excluded work for ten full days. I quickly gained 4-5 kg and I have to admit it makes me feel sluggish. Following this experience, I wonder how people with extra weight manage to get around because I don’t feel as agile as I used to. I can feel the strain on my heart, pumping blood through the extra fat and making me lethargic. This time the weight is not shaking off because my work load has reduced and for the first time in my busy life, I have time to relax and rest. This experience confirms my belief that to lose or maintain body weight, work activity is a prerequisite. Not just sporadic exercise, but continuous activity. That is, getting so involved with work and living that there’s no time to sit around. Weight maintenance apart, being busy with what you enjoy doing is also the recipe for happiness. So getting passionate about things is a very real solution. Therefore I spend a lot of my time assuring fat-paranoid people that they aren’t fat. I don’t believe in consulting weight charts which prescribe height-related weight. Just as people function quite normally at varying blood pressure levels, some even dangerously low or high, there isn’t one standard for measuring whether a person is overweight or under par. In fact the only extra weight one need worry about, which is generally the first indication to heed, is weight on the belly. And if your thighs touch while you walk, it’s a signal to take stock. I’ve time and again discussed in this column good eating principles which apply equally to weight gain and weight loss, because sticking with a natural diet balances the body whichever way you’d like to go. In this dispatch I’ll touch upon certain subtler elements that can help you attain the balance your body needs at all times even if you aren’t aware of it. • Choose foods in season, especially fruits and vegetables • Don’t waste any part of the food you cook • Don’t cook in a hurry. Cooking and eating are sacred acts, necessary to…