Seven Years Later
Amazing how time flies. Since my last blog on the workout - a lot has happened. Seven years have passed for one thing. I continued the weight training religiously during the time I was still back in the USofA and I must confess to developing good, sleek, toned muscles and improving my strength. However, about 2 months after that last entry I packed my stuff and moved back to Bangalore, India. The work there involved growing and developing people - far more interesting than anything I could do in the US which was in deep cost cutting mode and looking for ways to move more work to India.
I had every intention of pursuing my fitness regime in India, and I even made some efforts to restart.. But halfway around the world, living first in a hotel and on an expense account, catching up with friends and family, going through the business of finding a new home, relocating my parents, adjusting to a new workplace and a completely different work schedule - the good intentions melted away.
But not for long. My niece Dhruti was very persistent about making me get back on track and not lose momentum. So about 8 months after I had stopped working out at the gym, I finally found someone to come do yoga with me at home. We had a series of very creative and enthusiastic teachers who would work with me and my parents (yes, the niece roped my then 82-85 year old parents into doing Yoga every morning). Dad continued till he passed away. Mom still practices what she learnt.
Me - I stopped after about 18 months. I was getting really fit and flexible and ambitious. And then one day I pushed myself a bit too hard and hurt myself. I had to stop the yoga for a few days, and just as I was getting better, the yoga teacher went on vacation. Work / Life filled in the time set aside for yoga, and when the Yoga teacher returned, the only people working out were my parents.
Things went downhill fast after that as my eating habits - which had been pretty bad to start with once I moved to Bangalore, got worse. I also started feeling guilty about not spending enough time with my parents whom I had uprooted to Bangalore. To compensate, I established the Saturday Lunch ritual, where the 3 of us would go out to lunch together. It was a lovely time, when I put aside my cell phone and the 3 of us enjoyed fabulous meals together. The deserts which I had avoided since an unfortunate sugar overdose 15 years earlier started creeping back into my diet. Fried food was an almost daily feature. The muscles, the yoga, held their own for a bit. But from November 2011 to about March 2016 I did not work out much at all. In 2013 I moved to a different location within Bangalore and the Yoga teacher resigned me and mom.
Slowly but surely the weight started coming back, and my natural inclination to avoid pain and sweat started taking over.
Because of the nature of my work, I had had pretty poor sleeping habits while in Bangalore, and in Feb 2014 I took an assignment in which I was formally expected to be working from 2pm to 10pm. However, I used the time from 9am to 2pm for extra-curricular activities. At 10pm I was totally wired and ready for another 3-5 hours of work. And so I got into the habit of working till 2am. Clearly, I couldn't do this from the office. I couldn't possibly be showered and in the office at 9am - and stay there till 2am (I am no superwoman), and so I ended up working from home in my pajamas. This worked well because some nights I was inclined to stay up till 4am and occasionally went to bed at only 6am. So I ended up working off the living room couch... which was affectionately dubbed the office. And my level of activity was just marginally higher than that of a rock.
The shoulder pain - a result of my poor posture had been my constant companion now for several years. The muscles in the back of my neck are taut with tension even today. My teeth started wearing out because I ground them so hard during the hours I slept. I stopped checking my weight or sugar levels and blood pressure because they were among the most unpleasant things I could think of, after excercising of course.
I did not really notice, except getting frustrated over how nothing looked good on me. I was used to nothing looking good on me - and my wardrobe was a careful selection of things that supported easy expansion (elastic waistbands and such) but none of the pretty Indian clothes fit me. I was starting to become too large for the clothes they sold in stores. Even the custom tailoring could not get it loose enough! I didn't care too much - except occasionally when I saw a picture of myself resembling a beached whale. Or when I was trying to pack, or dress for a special occasion. But these feelings did not last long. There were far too many other things that were exciting and rewarding.
In June 2015 I took voluntary early retirement. I was deeply stressed during this time, because despite being financially prepared for retirement, I had very few interests or friends outside work. Essentially I was an alien living in my little bubble in Bangalore. And I liked it that way. So I took to social media like a duck to the water. I also started pursuing my long cherished dream of creating / writing books. I took my doodles and converted it into a coloring book for adults. I learnt the process of how a book is created, printed, published and sold. I established a presence on the Amazon marketplace. I was in a rush to get all kinds of things done that would demonstrate, mostly to me, that I had retired well. And indeed I did.
But all this activity was done in my new office, the couch in the living room, and I daresay there were days when I moved less than 500 steps. I know because by then people had started talking to me about the state of my health, and I decided to use an app on my phone to monitor my physical activity. It got to the point where I couldn't stand for more than 2 minutes, walks were out of the question. This wasn't a huge problem because I had built a wonderful cocoon of comfort within which I could live forever.
My physical discomfort started to increase - I would get nasty coughs every time the season changed, and they would last for over 6 weeks leaving me tired and worn out. I felt bloated and uncomfortable a lot. I started having acid reflux which was unpleasant but not life threatening (or so I thought), I started developing more aches and pains - nothing major - just irritating. I was also starting to feel a little depressed as I sought the next thing to do. A job that I thought would be offered to me on a platter seemed to be slipping away because of management changes.
So by the end of 2015, I was slipping into this deep negative spiral of 1. Poor Gut Health 2. High Acidity 3.A very sedentary lifestyle 4. Pathetic sleep habits - (I loved staying up till 4am, I loved the peace and quiet of the night) 5. Poor emotional state of mind. I was a ticking health disaster, I just didn't know it.
I had every intention of pursuing my fitness regime in India, and I even made some efforts to restart.. But halfway around the world, living first in a hotel and on an expense account, catching up with friends and family, going through the business of finding a new home, relocating my parents, adjusting to a new workplace and a completely different work schedule - the good intentions melted away.
But not for long. My niece Dhruti was very persistent about making me get back on track and not lose momentum. So about 8 months after I had stopped working out at the gym, I finally found someone to come do yoga with me at home. We had a series of very creative and enthusiastic teachers who would work with me and my parents (yes, the niece roped my then 82-85 year old parents into doing Yoga every morning). Dad continued till he passed away. Mom still practices what she learnt.
Me - I stopped after about 18 months. I was getting really fit and flexible and ambitious. And then one day I pushed myself a bit too hard and hurt myself. I had to stop the yoga for a few days, and just as I was getting better, the yoga teacher went on vacation. Work / Life filled in the time set aside for yoga, and when the Yoga teacher returned, the only people working out were my parents.
Things went downhill fast after that as my eating habits - which had been pretty bad to start with once I moved to Bangalore, got worse. I also started feeling guilty about not spending enough time with my parents whom I had uprooted to Bangalore. To compensate, I established the Saturday Lunch ritual, where the 3 of us would go out to lunch together. It was a lovely time, when I put aside my cell phone and the 3 of us enjoyed fabulous meals together. The deserts which I had avoided since an unfortunate sugar overdose 15 years earlier started creeping back into my diet. Fried food was an almost daily feature. The muscles, the yoga, held their own for a bit. But from November 2011 to about March 2016 I did not work out much at all. In 2013 I moved to a different location within Bangalore and the Yoga teacher resigned me and mom.
Slowly but surely the weight started coming back, and my natural inclination to avoid pain and sweat started taking over.
Because of the nature of my work, I had had pretty poor sleeping habits while in Bangalore, and in Feb 2014 I took an assignment in which I was formally expected to be working from 2pm to 10pm. However, I used the time from 9am to 2pm for extra-curricular activities. At 10pm I was totally wired and ready for another 3-5 hours of work. And so I got into the habit of working till 2am. Clearly, I couldn't do this from the office. I couldn't possibly be showered and in the office at 9am - and stay there till 2am (I am no superwoman), and so I ended up working from home in my pajamas. This worked well because some nights I was inclined to stay up till 4am and occasionally went to bed at only 6am. So I ended up working off the living room couch... which was affectionately dubbed the office. And my level of activity was just marginally higher than that of a rock.
The shoulder pain - a result of my poor posture had been my constant companion now for several years. The muscles in the back of my neck are taut with tension even today. My teeth started wearing out because I ground them so hard during the hours I slept. I stopped checking my weight or sugar levels and blood pressure because they were among the most unpleasant things I could think of, after excercising of course.
I did not really notice, except getting frustrated over how nothing looked good on me. I was used to nothing looking good on me - and my wardrobe was a careful selection of things that supported easy expansion (elastic waistbands and such) but none of the pretty Indian clothes fit me. I was starting to become too large for the clothes they sold in stores. Even the custom tailoring could not get it loose enough! I didn't care too much - except occasionally when I saw a picture of myself resembling a beached whale. Or when I was trying to pack, or dress for a special occasion. But these feelings did not last long. There were far too many other things that were exciting and rewarding.
In June 2015 I took voluntary early retirement. I was deeply stressed during this time, because despite being financially prepared for retirement, I had very few interests or friends outside work. Essentially I was an alien living in my little bubble in Bangalore. And I liked it that way. So I took to social media like a duck to the water. I also started pursuing my long cherished dream of creating / writing books. I took my doodles and converted it into a coloring book for adults. I learnt the process of how a book is created, printed, published and sold. I established a presence on the Amazon marketplace. I was in a rush to get all kinds of things done that would demonstrate, mostly to me, that I had retired well. And indeed I did.
But all this activity was done in my new office, the couch in the living room, and I daresay there were days when I moved less than 500 steps. I know because by then people had started talking to me about the state of my health, and I decided to use an app on my phone to monitor my physical activity. It got to the point where I couldn't stand for more than 2 minutes, walks were out of the question. This wasn't a huge problem because I had built a wonderful cocoon of comfort within which I could live forever.
My physical discomfort started to increase - I would get nasty coughs every time the season changed, and they would last for over 6 weeks leaving me tired and worn out. I felt bloated and uncomfortable a lot. I started having acid reflux which was unpleasant but not life threatening (or so I thought), I started developing more aches and pains - nothing major - just irritating. I was also starting to feel a little depressed as I sought the next thing to do. A job that I thought would be offered to me on a platter seemed to be slipping away because of management changes.
So by the end of 2015, I was slipping into this deep negative spiral of 1. Poor Gut Health 2. High Acidity 3.A very sedentary lifestyle 4. Pathetic sleep habits - (I loved staying up till 4am, I loved the peace and quiet of the night) 5. Poor emotional state of mind. I was a ticking health disaster, I just didn't know it.
Comments