Junking junk food did not come easy to Lhendup G Bhutia. But after two weeks of sticking to a healthy diet he discovered that he actually prefers roti to pizza.
Junking junk food did not come easy to Lhendup G Bhutia. But after two weeks of sticking to a healthy diet he discovered that he actually prefers roti to pizza.
My first visit to Dr Richa Anand two weeks ago felt like a confession. I told her how I had sinned over the last seven years, eating almost anything that caught my fancy, anytime. But she didn’t tell me ‘all will be well’ or ‘god will forgive’.
She told me instead that I will die of a heart attack before I reach 40. Her message sounded even more ominous when I stepped outside her cabin and found myself staring at the Operation Theatre (OT). I decided then that I did not ever want to be in there with a bad heart.
Allow me to describe my sins first. I have been living away from home for the last seven years, and in those years I have never paid heed to ‘healthy eating’. Every meal is eaten out and whenever convenient.
At breakfast, I gorge on half a loaf of white bread, two eggs, biscuits and tea. Lunch is usually a spicy Chinese takeaway lunch like a Chicken Schezwan Rice washed down with soft drinks.
Evening snacks could be a Masala Dosa or a few Samosas, again washed down with a soft drink. Unwinding after work means a couple of beers, accompanied of course by a plateful of French fries. At about midnight, I sit down for a sumptuous dinner, usually a generous helping of non-vegetarian biryani.
According to Dr Richa Anand, I consume at least 3,000 calories a day while an average Indian male engaged in desk work needs only about 1,800 calories. So I swept my kitchen clean of mayonnaise bottles, cold cuts, and cream biscuits.
I eat small meals through the day at regular intervals. Breakfast is now muesli or oats at 10 am, followed by a fruit at noon. Lunch at 2pm is either a bowl of vegetable salad and grilled chicken sandwiches or chapattis, dal, vegetables and boiled chicken.
Snacks at 4 pm are either idli sambhar or dhoklas. I also don’t hang out with friends over a few beers. Instead I hang out over soup! Dinner is now sharp at 10 pm, and it is always light, three chapattis and vegetables. The only SOS allowed at night is a fruit or a cup of milk.
It isn’t easy I admit. Temptations abound. The neighbourhood vada pav wala, the McDonald’s near the railway station, my friends guzzling beer while I drink soup, the pungent fumes thrown out by the neighbour’s kitchen exhaust fan — everything seems to conspire to break my resolve.
The first day went according to plan. The second day I almost gave in to temptation but swallowed my order for a coke before it reached my lips. That night I dreamt of flying on a huge KFC fried chicken wing. So the following day, I decided it was best to avoid all contact with junk food.
But then, as they say “shit happens”. One day I open the newspaper and out falls the menu of a popular pizza joint. I succumbed. The next 30 minutes, as I sat waiting for the pizza, were probably the most difficult moments of my life. I was waiting to sin.
Strangely enough, when I bit into the pizza, it didn’t taste all that great. I realised that my mind was playing games with me: I craved only as long as I thought I was denied. All I needed to do then was to condition my thinking. In a few days time, I didn’t even have to do that. I had begun to enjoy my diet!
It is two weeks since I went off junk eating. Except for that one occasion, I have remained clean. So what if I my friends take a few shots at me for not being ‘man’ enough to drink. I have come to enjoy soup.
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