Notes from Urbana

When I walked through the doors of CRCE (a gym in Urbana) in the middle of January this year, I couldn’t help but make a mental note that this was my third visit to the gym in 2 years. Something about my visit to India had flipped a crucial bit that had so far supressed my urges to lose any weight. It is weird when I think about it because nothing actually fundamentally changed. My parents said the same things. “You need to lose weight … your health is important … etc. etc.”. Most of my relatives had the same refrain and one aunt was even glad I had stayed nice and true to my plump self. However, when heading back to Urbana I could feel that something inside me had changed. I am still puzzled by it. I’ve been regular at the gym over the last few weeks. I even bought myself one of those digital weighing scales. I’ve actually started eating at home and have switched to diet sodas. More importantly I’ve resisted, as far as possible, the urge to eat junk food. It has worked for 3 weeks now.

By the looks of it this time some hitherto unidentified part of my brain has taken over and means business. Maybe this time I’ll actually get around to shedding a few pounds. In class 12 I had decided Pilani was the place to go and in bold yellow paint had written the words “487/500 Pilani” on a piece of paper and stuck it on the wall in my room. It was so that I was constantly reminded of what my goal was. This spring I got around to sticking a post-it, with a modest target weight written on it, on my door.

Some people I know have said they would find it difficult identifying with “me” or relating to “me” if I ever got thinner. That I would be a fundamentally different person.

I say, f*ck ‘em.

Here’s to a leaner meaner ME.

PS: Bald one, I look forward to reading that India story you so want to discuss.