“To Lose or Not to Lose”-
that’s the name of my team. A team we
formed in the office.
The organisation I work for
holds a competition annually. A competition amongst the employees for losing
weight. It is called “10K Challenge”. The
participants form teams with four members in each. The duration is 40 days. Parameters like Height, weight, BMI, fat %,
visceral fat etc. are made note of before the competition starts. Every participant is given a pedometer to be
worn, that records the steps a person makes in a day. Every participant has to
register at least ten thousand steps a day, throughout the competition period.
Successful weight/fat losers are rewarded both as teams and also as
individuals.
The competition started with
great enthusiasm. 110 teams were
formed. Every team had a unique name,
viz.,
Flab to Fab, Fitizens, Fit
Appa, Kozhuppula Gandam, Belly Twisters, Kuchi Mittai, Fat Assassins, Fat Luck,
Ennamma Ippadi Weight Koraikka Sollureengalle maa etc.
As mentioned above, our team’s was “To Lose or
Not to Lose”. Two of my colleagues and a
colleague’s wife were my team members.
Both my colleagues are slim. In fact, they have no fat to lose. But they joined to motivate me and my
colleague’s wife, who was also little obese.
Our organization created a separate module for monitoring progress of all
the participants on the intranet and the team leader was given access to enter
the steps registered by the respective team members. Since my team leader was
busy and touring often, he shared the password with me and I became the de facto leader and started monitoring
the steps of my team and feeding the data into the system. For
the first few days, my team members were enthusiastic and recorded 10000 +
steps. Still our team was in 70th
position, as the other teams were very aggressive. There were two/three teams, that registered
1,50,000 + steps collectively, which means the average was 40000 steps per
member per day. The entire office
discussed “steps” & “weight” at every possible opportunity. We also discussed it in the train and most of
the co-passengers came to know of this program.
My fit and slim team members,
slowly lost interest in the competition and were not regularly registering
“steps”. My colleague’s wife who also
had some medical problem was walking sincerely initially, but then,
unfortunately, she was hospitalised for a surgery and so I was the only member
who registered the minimum steps almost every day. Due to this, our team slowly drifted to 104th
position. I did not give up. Though there was no chance for our team to
win, I was not demoralized. I wanted to
try sincerely and give my best and win in the individual category.
I reduced my food intake. I went for long walks twice a day - once in
the morning and once in the evening. I
walked in the stations. I walked in the
office during tea and lunch breaks. My
colleagues guessed that I would have lost a significant weight. But after 20 days of commencement of the program,
there was an intermediate assessment and the readings were not very encouraging. My weight reduced by 900 grams, fat loss was
3.3% and 2% loss of visceral fat. Still,
I was not disappointed. I keep reading a
lot about weight loss and I know that, when a person exercises vigorously, the
fat gets converted into muscle and since muscle is heavier than fat, there is
likely to be no reduction of weight or in some cases, increase in weight. My fat loss was of course encouraging and I
constantly dreamt of losing at least 10% of fat by the end of the program. My program co-ordinator was also very
optimistic. He motivated me a lot.
I did not discuss about this
competition with my best friends Murali, Anuja & Prakash, with whom I was
regularly in touch on phone, which is very unusual. I wanted to surprise them too.
My family members were not
very happy. They could not comprehend as
to why I was so obsessed about weight reduction at this stage of my life.
Till a week before the
conclusion of the program, I had recorded my daily steps. In the last one week, I was little busy and
did not log on to the module and thought I can record them on the last
day. Appointment for my assessment was
fixed on the last day. I was very eager
to know my results. I started for my
morning walk on 27th July with the pedometer tucked. Hardly would I have walked 200 steps, I felt
someone coming very close and hitting me from behind. I thought some chain snatcher was at
work. But even before I could ascertain
as to what was happening, I fell down, with my legs under an auto-rickshaw and
I was dragged along the moving vehicle. The
driver was either drunk, or was under the influence of a drug or was just
sleeping while he was driving and did not notice me at all. Probably, some part of my dress was hooked to
the vehicle as I was falling down and I got stuck under the chassis of the
vehicle. The driver did not realise even
then and dragged me along and stopped after I screamed. Some passer-by helped to lift the vehicle and
get me out and as I took my phone to call the police, the driver fainted. I could not lift my hand. With great difficulty, I called my brother,
who was getting ready to drive his children to their school and informed him
about the accident. My brother, a firm
believer of Karma Siddhanta, rushed
to the scene and without even questioning the driver, rushed me to the
hospital, as he thought medical-aid was most important and secondly felt I too
was responsible for the accident, as I walked in a road without a footpath, in
the same direction of traffic.
I had a shoulder dislocation
and it had to be set right by “reduction” technique. There were injuries all over my body, and there
was a large abrasion starting from my thigh to my foot as I was dragged on a
rough surface on the road. The abrasion
resembles the map of North America and South America. Since the dirt got tattooed, fearing
infection, the Doctors advised debridement, due to which, the skin on my leg is
yet to be formed. Even after a week’s stay at the hospital and a month’s stay
at home, I am yet to recover fully.
Life is funny. The pedometer
that recorded my steps and was part of my body for more than a month, got
smashed in the accident. I could not
attend the assessment. The competition co-ordinator, not aware of my accident,
called me when I was in hospital to check as to why I had not attended the
assessment. I don’t know how much of
weight and fat I lost. Based on my
intermediate assessment, and the steps I entered in the system, I was in 214th
position in the individual category and 104th position as a
team.
Since I was confined to bed,
for almost a month, I think, I would have gained the weight I have lost during
the 40 days period. I am eagerly waiting to recover fully, so that, I can start
my walking sessions again.
Though I am sad that, I am
suffering for no fault of mine, my family members are very glad that, I have
survived. They keep reminding me that, I
have not had any fractures because of my fat and also I did not get crushed
under the tyres of the auto, as I got stuck under because of my size and advise
me not to complain about my weight.
I planned to post a blog on 27th
July with the same title. But I could
not. Had the accident not taken place,
the content would have been very different.
I would have flaunted about the little weight/fat I would have lost.
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