What Calories??

Yesterday I was at a friend's house in the evening when it started to rain. Since I was stuck there for a while, we headed to the kitchen to make hot dosai with tomato chutney which is my favourite on rainy days. I was leaning against the counter while she made the dosa and we started reminiscing about our childhood, adolescent years and pre-marriage years. When I told her that before my marriage I could easily eat more than 10 dosais, she said that I was exaggerating, “you never even go for a second serve.” But it is true, I used eat a lot then. During my school days, on Sunday mornings I would return from the playground, sit in front of the TV, and mom would give me hot dosai with tomato, onion or groundnut chutney. I would count the dosais till 10 and then stop counting and continue to eat. Mom used to be really patient, something that I did not realize then, but she was always smiling when she placed yet another hot dosai on my plate and asked me if I needed some more chutney. Even after I started working, the Sunday ritual was the same, be it dosai, puri, or chappati. I would continue to count till 10 and then stop counting, but of course I would continue to eat. What carefree days. I had no clue what calories were and never even stopped to think that I could become fat.

All the other activities that filled my day took care of burning the calories. Well what kind of activities burns that kind of calories???? So many dosas and chappatis, not to mention the three cups of rice with sambar, rasam, curd, veggies for lunch, another round of idli, dosa for dinner, and all the sweets, savouries and chocolates in between???? Well, to start with, we did not have running tap water then, so we had to fetch water from our well for all our needs. Drawing water from the well with a 5 liter bucket is no joke. My mom had always insisted that we do all our work ourselves and also encouraged us to do some household chores. So every morning before going to school, my brothers and I would fill water, walk the dog, sweep the floor, do the dishes, and iron our uniforms. I used to ride my bicycle to school that was 5 kms from home. We would wash our own clothes and white shoes on weekends. So much work for such young kids??? Not at all, actually we used to enjoy doing small work around the house. We would make everything into a game. It was fun. I think sharing and doing household chores with my brothers actually enabled us to form strong bond that we have till date. Even after I finished my UG and started working, I used to ride my bicycle to office about 6 km. I think these activities had kept me in shape then.

Well, with marriage came the comfort of hiring a maid for the household work, washing machine, eating out a lot, no more riding bicycle or crowded bus since my hubby would insist on dropping and picking me up from the office. So little physical activity and continuing to eating just as before, resulted in tremendous weight gain within a short span of time. One of my colleagues said that I should burn more calories than I consume to lose weight and I asked her, “what calories?” She rolled her eyes and said, “move your body more than you move your jaw.” Since then my weight loss motto has been “move more than you chow.”

 

Dear Sulaksuresh,
Thanks for your feedback..... this is my first blog entry and i am excited to see the comments. Yes, getting physically active is a key to maintaining good health and burning up unwanted calories.

 

Dear Sritas,
Thanks for your feedback...... won't you agree that those were golden days..... something i treasure the most, never had worries beyong exams and pimples!!!!

 

Dear Sabitha,
Glad that you like it and thanks for you support. I do feel a little silly about not knowing anything about calories then and have often wondered how blank I must have looked. But even now counting calories is not my thing. It is more about sweating it out and the muscle fatigue that I use as a measure rather than the calorie count shown on the machine.