Monday, May 14 2001
A rather 'weighty' problem
By- Sudha Somanathan"I am a doctor and am training to be an eye surgeon. I love to surf the net, one thing that I will sorely miss when I return to Chennai, my home. I am presently residing in the UK. I am a mother to a lovely 1&1/2 yr. old who makes me laugh, cry, angry, and frustrated in turns and sometimes at the same time, as only toddlers can. I believe greatly in the strength of the 'family unit' and never fail to thank God for making me a part of my family." |
 |
I don't know when it all started but slowly and firmly 'it' had rooted itself firmly in my mind.
Yes, I'm talking of the twin obsessions of all teenage girls- slimming and dieting!
Actually to begin with I did have a tidy figure but high school brought with it huge amounts of study-load combined with dwindling exercise routines- I let the fat pile on and started looking plump. Now, I know plump is not bad but when you are in the 14-18 age group the word is anathema to you. Especially when you are constantly brainwashed to view beauty in the form of skinny models and pencil-thin actresses and Miss Worlds. Not that I aspired to be any of these but somehow I did spend an entire decade with a 'New Year resolution' to lose weight. And mind you, it was not a so-called goal less task. There was definite criteria to be achieved- prominent cheekbones and collar bones, at least an 8" difference between the bust and the waist and rounded arms instead of the sausage ones God had sent me down with!
I used various measures and plans varied from season to season. I devoured 'girlie' magazines and books that talked about easy (?) ways to lose weight and more important not put it back on. If I was not maniacally cycling the neighborhood you could be sure I was skipping furiously in the privacy of my bedroom. I tried swimming too but only briefly 'cos I never did manage to get rid of the float!! Diet dutifully accompanied these sweaty measures. I remember an entire fortnight when I tried to subsist on 'roti' and salads. My elder brother had a whale of a time ragging me about this one. He'd see me with my bowl of leafy cuisine and start off about how I was going to have a regular diet after the slimming one and how he wondered why I was not losing any weight despite so much diet (ing)!!
Apart from what I did allow myself to eat, I had a miserable time fighting the temptation of pizzas, pastries, ice-creams and all the other fattening but maddeningly tasty food. I'd crib and crib all the way to the fast-food joint or the ice cream parlor and guzzle down the forbidden treats. The guilt and misery, which followed, were absolute torture but somehow my taste buds always won the battle.
Alongside this dieting dilemma, I finished my schooling and graduation and was in the last year of my post graduate studies. You'd think I would have seen sense by now and accepted the God-given figure and moved on but I was drawn to the diet-torture like a moth to a flame. My b'day cards from friends still had huge jokes about my slimming attempts. And God was singularly cruel in making the two of my best friends with no weight problems at all. One at school had the most gorgeous figure while the other at college could gorge on the most sinful of food and not add an ounce.
Then came marriage and the accompanying changes and I did forget about slimming. The best of surprises was when pregnancy- the most susceptible period for women- left me 'unbloated' and I was the 'slimmest' during the few months immediately after the birth of my little girl.
But it did not last long. As I have watched my daughter grow from a gorgeous baby and infant to an adorable toddler with the greatest of joys I have noticed with equal horror the adipose piling on. But there's a slight difference now-the horror is not at the loss of a tidy figure but more for health reasons 'cos yours truly read somewhere that an adult is not supposed to put on more than 2.5 kg (!!) to his/her wt at 25 years of age .Heaven knows how I'm going to achieve that but I do know that there's going to be at least one permanent New Year resolution for the rest of my life !
 View and Post comment on this article
The contents of the article are Copyright © of the author and may not be reproduced in any form without prior written permission from the author.
|
