The Matrix

Its something so many people, at least in my friend circle, seem to be obsessed with these days. Its also something that always brought a smile to my face because I knew, and I believed, it wouldn't ever bother me. I was WRONG!!

2006. Bangalore. My roomie & I used to go for dinner. There was this small place at BTM Layout 2nd phase, where we'd get nice steaming hot chappatis and curry. To watch that butter floating on the chappati and melt before my very eyes before I tore and gobbled it up with a generous helping of the curry... ahh absolute bliss.

My friend on the other hand, would have dry chappatis, exactly 2 of them, and wait for me to finish.

One day I had 12. The average was around 8.

"HOW!!!??" he would ask aloud. "How can you have 12 butter rotis and not put on even a gram of weight, while I, after having just 2 rotis and gymming for 1 hour still put on a kilo in no time!!!!??!"

I felt blessed. People around me had to make so much of an effort to even maintain their weight. And all the sacrifices! No butter in chappatis! No ice-cream with gulab jamun! And here I was, blissfully eating away to glory, with not a worry as to what I eat, how much I eat or when I eat!

Those, were the days.

All was well, until December '09. That was a month I put on (a staggering) 5kgs. For some relative measure, that was 9% of my body weight! (Boy I love using News Channely words like 'staggering' :-P)

I knew my lack of sport after I started work was making me unfit, but I was okay as long as I was thin. But the 'launch of the paunch', as I call it, got me a bit concerned. That's when, in a conversation with a colleague, I hit upon the Fit-Fat matrix...

One usually starts out at the centre, or even on the FIT side. (Remember babies doing backflips, putting their feet in their mouth etc etc?).

But pretty soon, you start moving towards the fat or the thin side - this is mostly in your genes... The amount of sport and exercise when young determines whether you're on the top half of the graph (FIT) or the bottom (UNFIT). For me, I was more towards the pink spot there, thin and fit with lotsa sport. There are a few people who're on the heavier side, but still quite fit (towards the purple spot). Their genes mean they will be heavy but they still get some good exercise, so they stay fit. I have a few friends who're in that zone. Not entirely bad.

I moved towards the blue spot quite quickly after I joined work. The lack of sport and exercise (entirely my fault), dragged me along into this zone. But I still wasn't all too worried. Some exercise here and there, and I'd be back into the green zone, I thought. What didn't ever occur to me was I could get into the deep red zone!

Sadly, that's exactly what started happening last month. I've been warned of this by my pot-bellied uncles. "This is the age when I started putting on weight, especially this is when the Paunch was launched.." And surely enough, its hit.

But I'm fighting back! Almost entirely stopping my rice intake was the first thing I did. For any self-respecting Tam Bram, this is a tough thing to do. Rice is like water for us, a necessity! The stomach feels incomplete without rice in a meal... But then I HAVE to start getting back towards the blue spot at least, if not in the green zone!

The fight on the Fat-Fit matrix continues........