Shillong is a beautiful place with awesome weather.

The temperature hardly ever goes

beyond early 20s and the skies are almost always as beautiful as they can be. However
this also means that you almost always yearn for good food, sleep and that breeds
lethargy in people like me. When I came to IIM Shillong I was overweight but not
exactly obese but given the kind of weather, the food Shillong had to offer along with
my slow metabolism and lethargy facilitated rapid weight gain. By the end of 1 st year
my weight increased to 91 kgs up from around 80 kgs when I started out at IIM
Shillong. I was hardly able to run, started panting even while walking for a short time
and could hardly manage staying up even during the interesting lectures. I started
realizing that I was losing out big time on the opportunities available to me and had to
do something to reverse the downfall.

I had lost weight previously (Yea thanks to my irregular working out habits I managed
to regain all the lost weight and more) but this was going to be a little more difficult
because of the B-School curriculum, the placement season and also because I wasnt
getting any younger. Apart from all the impediments stated above not having access to
the food items I regularly used to have when I had reduced weight earlier only added to
my woes. But Shillong had its positives as well. The weather being awesome throughout
the day and lots of trekking/running options/routes gave me the freedom to work out
as per my convenience (wrt to time) and not get bored while doing it. Food options
were there too so I only had to replace certain items on my previous diet chart with
some of the ones available. However July until October it rains a lot in Shillong (being
close to Cherrapunji one can easily imagine how much rain it receives). So I had to
prepare a routine which could be executed indoors. Thats when I came across some
videos on youtube which helped me formulate a 1 hour work out along with some
exercises from prior experience. Now there was an issue of timing as in when should I
work out? 4th trimester was pretty hectic and we had classes quite regularly. So I
decided to pick up a slot right before the morning class: If the 1 st class was to be at
10:45 then I used to wake up at 9 and complete my daily chores and work out by
10:30. I also made it a point to go for a walk every night post dinner for around 30
mins.

The work out used to consist of the following exercises:

On the spot jogging 2 sets of 500 counts each

Skipping 2 sets of 150 counts each

 Jumps with hand movements 3 sets of 100 counts each

Sit ups 3 sets of 20 reps each

Burpees 2 sets of 10 reps each

Pushups 2 sets of 20 reps each

Triceps Bench Dips 2 sets of 20 reps

Abs leg raises and crunches 2 sets each of 20 reps each

Plank 2 sets of 30 counts each

Started with lower intensity, lesser repetitions/counts & increased gradually.

My diet was as follows:

Breakfast A glass of milk, almonds (8-12), 2 pcs of dark chocolate at around

10:30

Lunch A plate full of salad (carrots, cucumbers, onions and tomatoes) with dal,
curd and one curry (whatever used to be there in the mess)

Evening Snack Green tea with puffed rice/diet chiwda/non-fried snack served
in the mess

Dinner Same as lunch

Night Snack Green/Lemon tea with puffed rice/diet chiwda

The point being instead of having meals in bulk have small meals every 2-3 hours which
improves your metabolism too. Also, Green Tea doesnt help reduce weight directly but
it does help improve your metabolism which in turn leads to weight loss indirectly.

I continued with this routine religiously for around 3 months until September end. My
work outs were always accompanied by some soothing songs to keep me mentally
relaxed throughout the draining work out sessions. Breaks of not more than a minute
were taken between the exercises (20 seconds in case of sets).
This helped me to shed around 15 kgs in those 3 months. I was around 75-76 kgs and
felt healthy and awesome. However, as the rains began to recede I decided to switch
gears and started trekking and jogging. As mentioned Shillong had a lot to offer in
terms of scenic beauty and convenience and I enjoyed a lot of it. There was a mini-trek
right behind my college which led to the Doordarshan tower (around 2.5 kms upward
and 2 kms downward) which became a regular along with jogs/walks to police bazaar
(~5-7 kms). Some of my friends used to accompany me on these treks/walks and
together we used to explore new routes to these places. When we used to get bored we
used to go to some other locations such as Shillong peak, Sweet falls or some other
random locations. Night walks were continued as normal.

The diet part too was relaxed a little bit as I started having regular breakfast, snacks
(no fried, sweet stuff though) along with a couple of chappatis in lunch. If fried stuff
was there in the mess food then some alternatives like corn flakes and milk or puffed
rice/chiwda/dry bhel was arranged for.

As a consequence of all this I lost another 5-6 kgs in the next 3 months. The point to
note here is that losing weight becomes more and more difficult as ones weight nears
his/her ideal weight. Hence, losing those last 5-6 kgs was really tough. A few feathers
in my caps were as follows:

A top 20 finish in the 5 km Run for Shillong mini marathon

A 3000 step (up n down with an incline of 70 degrees) trip to double root bridge,
cherrapunji

A 16 km trek in the form of the David Scott trail

More than 1500 kms covered on foot in the last 7 months (covered almost the
entire Shillong on foot)

Learnt a lot about time management & scheduling my day

Now even after college has ended, I am still continuing my regime regularly and weigh
a healthy 70 kgs. My waistline has gone down from 36 to 31 and T-shirt size from XL to
M. Also, now I can run for more than 5 kms at a decent pace without stopping & work
for hours without getting tired. I have relaxed my diet restrictions a bit more and allow
myself to indulge in sweets occasionally and take a break every 1 or 2 weeks.
Anybody can lose weight any time under any condition as long as he/she has the intent.
One just has to aspire enough and push oneself. Health is the biggest wealth and I urge
all those hoping to join the corporate sector to regain their fitness in order to build and
sustain a long and fruitful career ahead.

Heres a before-after pic for reference :)