From fat to slim (2): take it easy policy

Today I completed a week of going to the gym!! The first few days when I was simply exercising were great fun. I was learning new things. It was exciting getting used to all the equipments. The treadmill for instance. It had an inbuilt sensor such that if you kept your hand on a particular spot on the bar then your heart rate would come on screen. On one instance it showed 120 beats per minute. What freaked me out more was a heart shaped symbol flashing a red light and I pressed the stop button! Then my trainer cooled me down by informing that I needn't worry as the flashing implies that the heart rate is being measured and 120 is a normal value. As I looked around I found people running on the treadmills at way higher speeds and then I felt relaxed.

On Fri I met my dietician at the gym who made a new routine for my food intake to be followed for the coming week. Basically she told me to include more of dals (lentils), fruits, salads and milk products and reduce my sugar, cheese and rice quantities. As I did this, after every lunch and dinner, I started suffering from acidity and for one hour I'd feel winds (a more refined phrase for having gas :P). I couldn't understand why this was happening. We all know that when we start doing exercises after a long gap then we feel pain. But what I was feeling was it normal too?

The answer is yes. After having raw salads or sprouts some people do feel winds. In that case its advised to eat them boiled.

The other reason for me to have acidity could be because of the change in my lifestyle not just in terms of food habits and level of activity but in terms of my hours of functioning. I consulted a doctor who said that my body hasn't still got over my old timings of getting up at 8am and going off to sleep after midnight. But everyone doesn't go through this. He told me in hindi tension nahi lene ka (don't take tension). So did my trainer. His advice to me was to remind myself that all the things that I am now doing like going to bed early, rising early, drinking lots of water, eating healthy food, coming to the gym... are all good habits. At the same time I shouldn't become too serious about it.

What I have realized is that the change in eating habits should be brought about slowly. One shouldn't just simply give up taking sugar and cheese. Neither should one over-exercise in a bid to loose weight. All of these should be done in small bits. The idea is to not to get worked up but follow a take it easy policy.

Or else you'll end up feeling like Garfield here :p