I took the 21 day 'no junk food' challenge. And here's what happened!

WARNING: A blog post the length and breadth of a mini-island ahead. Please resist the urge to not hiss or throw slippers the next time you spot me. 

Hi guys!

I apologize for being the erratic blogger that I am, and for not writing rambling posts and annoying you guys regularly. I blame this on my boring but content life, since I don't really go out too often or have a large circle of friends. (I like it that way) Before I launch straight into this blog post, I am excited to tell you something else not related to this topic- I voted for the first time today! I almost felt like a responsible citizen today, and I urge y'all to cast your vote too (if its too late, please do vote in 2021). Pushing past that small ramble, I wanna give you guys a brief background of my weight loss before I talk about the 21 day no junk food challenge.

A peek into my 'heavy' past

I love food, and by that I mean eating it for the most part (a rookie cook). Those who know me from since childhood, during school and college, and even since I started working 2 years back are well aware of my weight loss journey. I even wrote about it previously but in brief. I can rehash it here again, if you aren't yawning already- I was overweight from 7th grade in school till the third and last year of my under graduate degree. I used to wear XXL, eat a shitload of unhealthy food and never exercise (okay, maybe I did go for a 30 minute walk once in a month). 

This was me in 2012, during a college fest.

I was aware that I was carrying extra flesh that jiggled when I walked a few steps faster, and found it difficult to procure nice clothes because of my rotundness. You know, the cliched weight loss horror story done to death, and I lived it for about 9 years roughly. I know a lot of people who are comfortable in their body, no matter what their size or weight is. But I was and still am not one of them, and I never will be. 

My moment of 'enlightenment' snuck up on me in September 2013, when I realized an uncomfortable truth- I would never get over my self-consciousness unless I lost all the stubborn, unnecessary fat in my body. I term it uncomfortable because it is not body positive and sounds so superficial. But I will admit it all the same because that is exactly what I felt and won't hide behind some weak excuse. It was my belief that by becoming fitter and thinner, I would radiate confidence. So what exactly did I do to lose weight, you wonder.

• I adopted and then adapted myself to a different lifestyle. I did not stop eating cookies, chips, ice cream and other forbidden edibles just because I wanted to lose weight. I just started making calculations in my mind, living in the obsessive world of calorie counting for roughly a year. I allotted myself 1200 calories per day, eating 70% nutritious, home cooked food and 30% forbidden 'treats'. An example- I would eat a bar of chocolate only if it had less than 250 calories. 
• I used to rope in a wee bit of exercise, roughly about 20-30 minutes x 4-5 days. 2013- I started out with 3 surya namaskars at home, and then increased it to 5 suya namaskars a month later. 2014- I joined a yoga class and lost a chunk of my weight with ashtanga and vinyasa asanas, I must add here that I was also working as a journalist then for a brief period (read about it here) and the hectic schedule also helped me drop dress sizes. 
• My food habits focused on portion control. I still do practise this, but not as rigorously as before. These are the rough quantities of food portions- 3 small to medium chapatis/1 serving of rice (either sambar or rasam or curd rice)/ 2 brown bread slices. I also preferred eating tofu to paneer since 200g of tofu has half the calories (and is super filling at 120 calories!)

My present (2015-now)

Note to y'all- I am not short! It's the angle. 

Took this minutes before uploading this post, just to show you how I look now.
If you're curious to know my height, I am 5'8.

I lost 20+ kilograms and now wear size XS or S (depending on the brand). It was not easy losing weight, physically and mentally. Though the skin bears stretch marks that are a reminder of how far I've come along, I still don't feel satisfied with how I look. This is the first reason that transpired the 21 day no junk food challenge. The second reason that I took up this challenge is because I wanted to break free of any developing sugar addiction. 

Let me tell you why I felt I was in the grip of one- I was roughly eating a packet of cookies every single day. EVERY SINGLE DAY. Additionally, I would empty huge slices of cake, packets of chips, sweets, pakora and mayonnaise sandwiches way too often. Fat was accumulating around my stomach, hips and thighs. Even my face looked chubbier and I felt like I was an example of that saying, 'old habits die hard'. 

My '21 day no junk food' experience
  
I took up this challenge from April 25 to May 15. I did not weigh myself, because the goal was to see the change abstinence could bring upon my physique. 

This was my holy grail during the testing 3 week period-

• NO Cookies
• NO Chips
• NO Fried Food- yes, even homemade snacks
• NO Sweets- from semiya payasam made by mom to the delicacies at restaurants
• NO Bread
• NO Butter
• NO Cheese
• NO Restaurant food

What I ate in balanced, filling amounts for breakfast+lunch+dinner+snacks (a gap of at least 1.5-2 hours between each meal)-

• 2.2-2.5 litres of water
• Boiled eggs
• White Rice
• Chapatis
• Sambar, rasam, kuzhambu
• 1-2 spoons of ghee
• Homemade vegetable curries and subzis, tofu, paneer
• Coffee/Tea, made with milk + 1.5 small spoons of sugar
• Buttermilk
• Homemade curd
• Sugar-free watermelon juice
• Banana, grapes, watermelon, mangoes and apples

The experience of taking up this challenge was.. reassuring. I learnt the amount of discipline I could rein in, avoiding anything remotely tempting. There were numerous occasions to test my willpower- my brother's birthday, two wedding anniversaries in the family and those gnawing moments when I was very hungry and there was only water at home. I avoided even sniffing a single marie biscuit during such times, guzzling water instead. I ate fruit for dessert, and drank coffee/tea/watermelon juice when hungry. 

I had three food related nightmares (yes, that's a thing) during the first week of the challenge. I did have cravings, but surprisingly, not as strongly as I suspected they would be. I managed to stay committed throughout the 21 days, but found solace in cribbing to bae, my friends and family. If they were not there to listen to me rant, I swear you'd find me yanking my hair out and roaming around the streets like a mad woman (heya buddy exaggeration, I missed you for a while now).

Results of the challenge

Since I did not weigh myself, I do not really know whether I lost any kilograms. But I can tell you that I have seen a significant reduction in my body fat. I have also been easing myself back into the yoga bandwagon, in order to stay fit. 

My stomach has caved in, my waist size has shrunk, my muffin top has lost a bit of its fluffiness and my thighs do seem a bit more toned. My face has lost some of the chubbiness too, or so I seem to deduce. 

I do not know if these pictures can exactly capture the changes mentioned above, because I can see all of them when I am in my birthday suit (ahem, no pictures of that tho'). Here's a look at them, anyway-

Left- April 23 | Right- May 13
I seriously wanna apologize for the bad photo on the right.

A hopefully better looking photograph. Taken on May 13 (Day 19).
The jeans were ill fitting at the waist, hips and the knee area.
Not fibbing, mother promise!

Left- April 21 | Right- May 15
PS: Sorry for the scary-looking face.
I think my face looks a little thinner, no?

With that, I put a full stop to this rather long post. BRB, I need to empty the sweets waiting for me inside the refrigerator.

If you wanna ask me anything about this experience, drop me an email at maha141193@gmail.com or comment below! Would love to hear your thoughts. :)

Bits and pieces.

Away on nimble-tipped wings, always poised but ruffling every individual's feathers- oh time, how fast have you flown away? 2015 felt like a capsule of emotions dropped into a cocktail of events, and it passed so fast as well. I am 22 now, and engaged to be married to a wonderful man- wow, this is really happening then. It was just yesterday that I was a short haired girl standing at the crossroads, obsessing over whether I would grow my hair out, lose weight, achieve anything to be called worthy in life and of course- whether I would find 'the One'. Somehow, so much has changed over the past few months and that is what I want to document here. In all my earnestness and battling this sudden crippling sensation while writing, I present this jumbled account of what 2015 taught and brought to me:

1. Bad things always come to an end. I breathe anxiety when stressed out, and I become one giant frowning emoticon. But whenever I am caught in a shit storm, it makes me depend on nobody but myself. I have come to the realization that I am my own saviour (cue an angelic sweep on the lyre and a golden halo above my head), and I can choose to either mope or cope. It is okay to cry and throw a pen (or a refrigerator, in case you wanna switch things up) at the wall, but to only wallow in pain? At the end of the day, Time reforms to become a mean-girl-to-non-mean-girl (?) Cady Heron and cries Phoenix tears on your wounds. One such small experience I had was when I did a ramp walk at my previous office. I always wanted to be one of those models who would swing their hips and sashay confidently, while the audience looked at them in awe. But when I attempted the ramp walk, I apparently made for a comic sight (as recounted by a friend). I was very upset to have heard some members of the audience titter when I had done the ramp walk, and I did mope for a bit. I was embarassed at the thought of meeting these people at work the next day, but the jokes never came forth. It was all back to normal, and it was just another experience for me, But on a more serious note, a friend of mine told me some very comforting words recently- "You have the choice of always beginning again, of wiping the slate clean." It holds so much truth in it, because bad times are temporary. It is okay to immerse yourself in the pain it brings, but you also have to haul yourself up and face the world even before you are ready. Because the moment you step into the spotlight, you have no choice but to let the sun beams radiate. And soon, you become whole again. Much like Glen Coco. You go, Glen Coco! (Sorry for the Mean Girls references, and thanks for not chasing me with a 1000-wala firecracker bomb.)

2. Do it, even if it scares you. This word, It, holds whole worlds within. To me, It meant getting a tattoo. I was piss-in-my-skinny-jeans scared of getting inked, but I went ahead. I did It because I wanted a belief of mine to be etched into my skin and remind me to never fall so far down the rabbit hole. (PS: It is a tat of a phoenix, symbolizing strength and resurrection.) If It to you means getting a septum piercing, pulling off a crop top with tiny shorts or singing to a large audience, pull out all stops. Even if they laugh at you, laugh harder than they did. Now that's downright sportive of you, and confusing to them. (If you can't win over them, become one of them)

But please do not pay heed to what I said if it requires you to commit murder, suicide or rob a bank. And watching all the Final Destination movies together- that shit be cray cray.

My tattoo, on the nape of my neck.

3. Appearances do matter, but like, 50%. I wish I could stroke every teenager's hair gently and tell them that only inner beauty matters. But I do not believe that myself, and this has nothing to do with the "EVERYTHING IS PHOTOSHOPPED AGDXGBZHM" line being parroted. During my teenage years and a little beyond, I was an overweight girl who was in denial of how she looked. I would binge eat a lot and form resolves to exercise every week, abandoned when I thought of putting on my sports shoes and facing the world. But I did start at some point in 2013, and there has been no looking back since. I now look like half of me just broke off of my own physique and ran away into the sunset, while the other half blinks like a ramp model who has forgotten her routine on stage. I am in no way implying that I look like a model, it was a very crap joke I tried to illustrate my point. Okay, I quit the rambling and tell you straight- I love my body now. I still do battle issues with the way I look, droning on about how I wish I could stop loving junk food and become one of those Instagram babes with flat stomachs. But I also celebrate how far I have come from the start of that weight loss journey- clocking in a loss of 20+ kilograms and going from a US Size 16 to Size 4. (Bragging much?) But the truth is, I got barrel loads of self confidence only after that drastic transformation in my physique. And most individuals tend to feel the same, as I see from trending hashtags like #transformationtuesday and make up diaries. To anyone who says weight loss and/or wearing make up to enhance your looks are superficial, I have a picture to convey what I want to say:

Source: Pinterest

Remember, your "on fleek" look can never outshine your amazing sketches, your awesome-sauce karaoke sessions or pani-puri thulping abilities! 

4. Good things eventually happen. I remember how I whined to my family last year about how I would never find anyone to call my own. I wanted the cringe-worthy romance, sweet nothings and promises of how amazing it would be to be with someone I would never get bored of. It finally happened after a spate of self -doubting, and like a cliched rom-com protagonist, I declare: "Once he came into my life, everything changed for the better." If he is reading this (which he must have done, like a gazillion times, I am sure), he knows how much of a better individual I have grown into becoming now. And let us not limit good things to just finding your other half. I also have good things happening to me such as fitting into cute clothes, being able to splurge on whatever I wish to buy and discovering aspects of myself slowly, like the setting of the orange sunrise in the horizon. I am also going through some other mental turmoil as I type right now, and it has been testing one other individual as well. But we both know that after the storm, cometh the calm. (Wait, why did I even Shakespeare) And good things are just, just around the corner.

5. To each, their own. And finally, this is something I have been wanting to talk about for a while now. This has to do with how judgmental we have all become. Each person has their own beliefs, routines and tastes. (Duh, Einstein) But to fuss over someone else whose ideologies do not match up to ours and crib about it- what is even the point? Every individual is entitled to making decisions that benefit them without being subjected to emotional dressing-downs, as long as they do not harm another individual's life. In respect to my life, I specifically talk now about how some people in my life are asking me the question, "Why are you getting married so early?" While I appreciate their concern about whether I have taken a major decision after thinking through it soundly, I also do not like how it carries an undertone of disdain. To some, marriage seems appropriate after they clock in 25 plus in years. And some do not wish to marry at all. And there are individuals like me who wish to marry young. While society at large lauds these individuals who marry a little later or choose to remain as bachelors as "achievers", those who marry young are chuckled at and told in a conspirational whisper, "Escaping uhhh". What even. As long as my marrying someone at the age of 22 does not threaten your very living, you can respect my decision- like I respect and do not try to change your opinion on marriage. (You here addresses the people who asked me that very thoughtful question) And if you are extremely nice to me, you might just find extra sweets on your banana leaf during my marriage. 

And with this, I usher in 2016 very late. Here's hoping that I do not grow fat from all that sitting on my bum, and all of you happiness the equivalent of a sugar rush!