Real-Life Weight Loss Journey: Weight gain is a common problem in today’s time, thanks to our sedentary lifestyle. Hopping onto a weight loss journey takes a lot of motivation and perseverance. You need to make a 180-degree change in your lifestyle. Manik Dhodi’s story of weight loss is more than inspiring. Manik lost 37 kilos in a span of 17 months by following a simple routine and by making small changes in his lifestyle.
The turning point: I was 104kg and never bothered about getting into shape or checking my health parameters which were deteriorating day by day. I was oblivious to the fact that high cholesterol levels can wreck the condition of my heart and a hay-wire lifestyle can mess with my immune system, but I still never bothered. The first realization which shook my mind came on the day when I was at my daughter’s school and there was a race where I had to participate as a parent. I realized that I won’t be able to run half a mile. That could not just embarrass my daughter publicly, but also damage my self-respect.
Manik Dhodi lost 27 kgs.
The journey began with self-introspection and I personally took little steps all by myself to improve my lifestyle and made sure to get some exercise daily. I cut down on my junk, harmful diet and started running every day, in whatever capacity I could. In the first few months, I was able to cut down to 5-6 kg all by myself and that motivated me further to try in a more organized way. At first, I thought that I must reach my weight goal of 72-75 kg keeping my height in mind. But gradually, it dawned upon me that body weight is not actually the sign of a healthy body, especially, not alone. A lot of effort has to be put into eating right, working out in a correct manner. Eventually, I was able to build a suitable routine for myself which matched my body requirements and my fitness goals.
This also gave me the ability to start teaching healthy habits to my children. I realized that I first needed to practice them myself and lead by example. Else how can I teach them the habits that I do not practice myself? That was the starting point.
Small And Achievable Targets: I started running to start losing weight, and it soon became a routine. I gave myself small and achievable targets and upgraded my target once I achieved the previous one. After a certain time, I developed a strong liking for running Half Marathons and that needed a much higher level of fitness. This motivated me to enlighten my knowledge and focus more on my overall health, including healthy eating as well as strength training.
Manik Dhodi before and after pictures
Weight Loss And Diet: The first thing I did was to stop eating refined flour, fried food, junk food, sweets, aerated drinks. The next thing was to eat 5-6 meals in a day and eat on time.
- My day would start with lukewarm water mixed with lemon and honey.
- Breakfast would vary from egg white vegetable omelet with a slice of multigrain bread to upma, vegetable daliya, veg sandwich in multigrain bread, the vegetable chilla, etc.
- A fruit as a mid-meal between breakfast and lunch, followed by green tea about an hour before lunch
- For lunch, I would start with a small plate of fresh salad (without dressing) followed by a bowl of each of the grilled seasonal vegetables and dal.
- A cup of green tea again an hour post-lunch with some healthy light snack
- 1 Fruit early evening
- Dinner around 07:30 or 8 pm, a plate of salad along with grilled vegetables/ fish/ chicken
- A cup of lukewarm water before sleeping
Weight Loss And Workout: My workout has a mix of different forms of cardio, bodyweight training, as well as weight training, and most importantly mobility. The key is to mix these based on your own body’s requirement, and not to overdo as well as underdo it.
Manik Dhodi
Weight Loss Mantra: There is absolutely no shortcut to losing weight. It is a structured process that can give good and healthy results only if respected and followed with appropriate guidance, knowledge, and discipline. My mantra was the focus on the bigger goal, and hence my motivation was high.
Manik Dhodi
What worked for me: Almost everything worked for me because I had too many kilos to shred. But another important factor was to sleep. Most of us don’t realise but sleeping at the right time as well as sleeping for about 7-8 hours is another very important requirement of our body.
India.com decided to bring Real-Life Weight Loss stories for our readers which will inspire you to finally sign up for that gym membership or start making yoga an active part of your lifestyle. If you have got an incredible weight loss story that inspires people to stay healthy, write to us on our social media handles to get featured and we’ll get in touch with you!
