If you’ve ever been on a fitness journey, you’ll probably concede that it’s not just the getting to your goal that’s tough, it’s also maintaining it.
Which is why, Shikha Aggarwal’s dip on the scale and her subsequent success in staying fit over more than a decade is so unusual.
The 40-year-old Indian expat began to struggle with her weight 14 years ago, when she was pregnant with her first child. The five-foot-seven-inch mum-of-two says owing to her health issues that called for medication to maintain a healthy pregnancy, she put on a few kilos. “I was 55 kilos before pregnancy,” she recalls, “by the end of term, I was 115. I had quite literally doubled in size.”
Her doctor began to urge a change in lifestyle. At first, Aggarwal, who is a “hardcore vegetarian”, considered going to the professionals to figure out her way forward, after all, trying to lose weight alone can be a daunting prospect. But something held her back. “I thought I should consult a dietitian. But then, I decided I would try to understand my body. And so, I started with the process of weight loss. In 10 months, I had reduced 55kgs.”
The Indian expat managed to keep this weight off for seven years after which she got pregnant again.
This time around, she put on 35kilos —which she shed in six months. She has stayed this weight for the past seven years.
“The complication and weight gain was caused by hypothyroidism during pregnancy,” she says, adding that she is on medication for her thyroid gland and will be on it for the rest of her life.
What matters when it comes to shedding or maintaining a certain weight, she stresses, is a person’s lifestyle. “You have to commit to a routine and a lifestyle. There is no escape from that. My body type is such that I put on weight easily, so I keep a check on myself even now,” she adds.
The point of no return
Aggarwal’s commitment to her new lifestyle came from a place of pain; she remembers being ridiculed and body shamed after she gave birth to her daughter. “People gave me that look,” she says. “To be frank, I was in depression, and I knew only I could get myself out of it. I’m very fond of clothes and dressing up, so that was also playing on my mind. Fortunately, I believed that if you really want to achieve something, you can make it happen. I began my journey with a strict diet.”
So what does a strict diet entail? “I had no carbs, no sugar, no cheat meals, even on my birthday. I ate homemade food.”
Want to follow in her footsteps? The first thing she recommends is not falling into the trap of fad dieting. “People who say for 10 days they’ll do this or that, not have sugar, not have salt, it’s not sustainable. Home-cooked food is the best thing and apart from that, you just need to keep a track on the calories you are consuming,” she says, adding that one should try to eat non-processed food. “Go to the gym thrice a week and give yourself a cheat meal once in a while.”
The importance of a cheat meal
While it’s important to stick to your schedule, it’s just as important to give yourself a break, explains Aggarwal. “You do have cravings, so if you let yourself indulge a bit, it’ll become that much easier for you to stick to your resolution,” she says. “On my cheat days, I’ll eat paneer and roti, carbs — whatever I want. But for six days, my last meal of the day is at 5pm.”
What should be on your plate?
Aggarwal is all for a colourful plate. “There should be more fibre, more colours on your platter,” she says.
And it’s important to be self-aware. “You should understand how your body responds to things. For me, if I eat too much salt, it affects my body. Once a week, I would eat meals without salt.”
Meeting people, not eating
In a place like Dubai, where socialising is a big part of life, says Aggarwal, dieting did not come easy. “In Dubai, every night you are out because you have social commitments. What I do is, at five o’clock, I’ll wrap up my meal. I’ll go out, and I’ll sit and I’ll enjoy my water, maybe a green tea, or something like that. On special occasions, I’ll eat something, but otherwise, I avoid eating out,” she says.
This used to be difficult, she concedes, but she will not break her rules. “If I’m going out and everyone is having a pizza, I’ll go for a soup. I’ll have just half slice of pizza, but my main portion would be soup,” she says about dealing with cravings on a normal day.
She also begins eating only at 11.30am-noon. “In the morning I’ll drink a glass of water with some seeds,” she says, adding that her big meal comes at about 3pm.
Staying active
While you can’t outrun a bad diet, some exercise is a must for healthy living, and Aggarwal’s goal remains walking 10,000 steps in a day. “It’s important for me to go for a walk every day; even if it’s 11.30pm I’ll go for a walk, then I’ll go to bed.”
This taking care of herself has percolated through the way she runs her home. “My husband is really into being healthy. And now my kids are also more aware. We don’t have Coke and chips at our home. If my children want to have chips, they will have banana chips, a better, healthier version, rather than having a packet of potato chips. They know their mother will let them eat pizza over the weekend, but for six days, they must eat homemade food.”
She also tells mums who are predisposed to polishing off what their child has left on their plate, not to. “It’s just empty calories.”
At the end of the day, says Aggarwal, getting fit or staying fit is a commitment you make to yourself. “If you commit to yourself, you can do wonders, whether it’s diet, personal life or professional life. Look at me, at 37 I’ve started modelling. I lost 55kg at one point, 35 kilos at another. Just commit.”