Fatso, Fatso, Fatsooooooooooooooooooo!
The words still ring in my ears.
The truth is. I am a fat girl. I was born this way. When I was 5 years old, my parents took me to a pediatrician who thought I was a chubby boy and he told my parents, 'Don't worry, his baby fat would melt away when he grows up and plays cricket or football.' Then my parents told him that I am a girl and he was like, 'Ohhhhhhhhhh'.
I did grow up to play football and cricket, but the baby fat never really melted away. I was always the plumpest girl in my class. Up until the age of 10-11,everyone called me a teddy bear since I was a rolly polly child and we all love such chubby kids,don't we? But then came the teenage years and as if pimples weren't enough to make me feel bad enough, there came those rings of 'fatso' in my neighborhood whenever I went to market to buy veggies or fruits or bread. Even my mom's aunties started asking my mother if she was helping me go on some medicine to lose weight or if she was looking for some gym to enroll me in.
The worst part was, nobody in my family before me has been born fat. My dad is athletic but far from fat. My mother was actually underweight before marriage and it was only after I was born that she started resembling a normal,healthy human. So everybody would just see me and my parents and assume that I am fat because I spend my days eating and doing nothing else.
Well, I did everything possible.
I ate as less as possible. I ate as much karela and bhindi and all the healthy veggies as I could. I said no to chocolates. I had ice-cream once a month. Even when we would go out on picnics or sleepovers, my friends would indulge in samosas and chole bhaturey while I would make excuses and eat watermelons in a corner. But I still remained 'fatso'.
By the time I reached college, I was desperate to find a cure and turn into a 'hottie' with a figure like a model. I read about all kinds of crash diets and in a moment of utter desperation, even tried some of them. For a week, I abstained from all solid food and had only fresh fruit juices. Result? I fainted on the 7th day and had to be taken to hospital for intravenous glucose. The medicines to recoup my health made me gain even more weight than what I had lost in that horrible week. Then I went on an alternate-day-eating diet where I had normal food one day and only water the next day. Again, I started feeling weaker within 5 days and my parents made me stop all this nonsense crash diet obsession.
The only ray of hope-my parents. They never made me feel bad because I am fat. They never loved me any less! When my parents quizzed me on why I was doing all that and I told them it was because I wanted to be thin, they asked me to be patient and trust the age old wisdom, starting right from having a glass of warm water every morning with a spoon of honey. I had always seen Dabur Honey on a kitchen shelf and read about the benefits of using Honey in the process of dieting (Honey Diet ,if you may!) but never really tried it!
Well, I started with the morning ritual and guess what, within 3 months I had lost 6 kilograms of excess body weight-which might sound less to you-but considering how stubborn my body fat is, this is a miracle. Not only this, I feel more energetic, stronger from inside, I am not bothered by diseases due to low immunity anymore, my skin feels better, I do not have acne anymore and there is a general spring and vibrancy to my lifestyle. I credit all this to Honey and that is why I have vowed to never even look at a crash diet again!
