We are fighting a battle against the world just to lead a healthy life. Most governments have relaxed food regulations simply because of the lobbying that takes place by the largest companies in the world, the ‘low fat’ products are tweaked with higher sugar contents, the ‘heart healthy’ label is just a show and the foods that are the worst for your health are the cheapest and most easily available! So really we are up against the world to help ourselves just to lead a healthy lifestyle which we should be taking for granted.

When someone is overweight, they know it. They live it everyday, struggling to decide how to reach their goal or the body they once had. The journey to living a healthier lifestyle is definitely not only physical, if it were you could train as hard as ‘physically’ capable and there you’d have it. Its 80% mind and 20% body, take it from me! A person who has tried numerous fad diets and exercise routines relentlessly till I fell off the wagon and realized I am back to square one. This time when I made this decision, I knew conditioning my mind would take priority over training ‘really’ hard for these short bursts so I decided to look at the reality of it all.

How the hell did this happen to me?

Before I began to drown into the self-loathing side of thinking this is all my fault, I looked around me. I wasn’t born craving a brownie or other complex carbohydrates, these addictive toxins were introduced to us from an early age. Our parents became the first victims of the ‘fast food’ era and at that time with limited information and understanding, whatever was branded well, worked! It was almost thought of as a luxury to serve Coke during dinners back when we were toddlers or eating a happy meal at McDonalds when you went on vacation. Our bodies which were like well oiled machines built to fight the harshest of weathers had now gotten a taste of the sugars and complex carbohydrates and thus the beginning of the end!

I get it, most people blame the overweight person for reaching where they are but what about the alarming rate of obese children? Are they heading to the grocery store feeding themselves junk food? I don’t think so. As the new generation of parents/ parents to be or the parents will be, you have all the information in the palm of your hands to save your children! Our parents weren’t so lucky but we are, so there’s no excuse! Speak up in school, get together with other mothers, speak up to the people who might be introducing these toxins to your children; I’m sure you would if someone was providing your toddler drugs!!

In this context, my nieces’ school in London has implemented such guidelines to help the parents and children. Ultimately your child spends most of their time in school so its the perfect place to start! They are taught which ones are ‘good’ foods and ‘bad’ foods, you can’t give sugary goodies for lunch and when its a child’s birthday, you treat all the other kids to a variety of fruits! This way my niece tells her mother what she wants to eat and as a 4 year old has enough knowledge to decide to eat more ‘good’ foods than ‘bad’ foods. I know you are probably thinking you can’t deny your children chocolates all of a sudden and I’m not telling you to either, start replacing it with fruit sugars and take it from there. Become the first parents to have healthy foods at their birthday party, talk to the schools to introduce such guidelines and imagine the difference you can make for all these children. It’s the best for your baby!

So back to understanding how I got to this point, I realized now that being raised with the constant availability of such ‘bad’ foods had resulted in this and when I went to boarding school there was no one to control my eating and the body adjusted to taking in larger amounts of these toxins. From then on as a 16 year old, I remember my struggle had already started. The crash diets, the short burst of working out and then giving up. My body wanted to lose the weight but my mind was addicted and it would convince me that it was okay to have whatever I wanted. The mind is a powerful authority.

As I got older, this vicious ‘yo-yo’ cycle continued because I had always tried the short cut diets and workouts which are fed into society by companies minting money off of people’s self loathing attributes. You lose water, maybe half a pound of fat and lots of muscle and you are in awe because you’ve lost 10 lbs in a week! Believe me, I was a victim every time. It’s funny because while it’s difficult to feel good carrying all that extra weight, you adjust to loving temporary moments of happiness to compensate like wearing expensive bags or shoes. Start investing in your health because honestly, if your body isn’t there who’s going to wear the expensive bags and shoes anyway? What will those bags do when you can’t run around with your child? Nothing.

Today, I am in a much happier place because I have accepted the fact that it will take time to undo what I have done to my body over 10 years. At least I am  closer to my goal today than I was 3 months ago. I will be honest with you, the first month was absolute hell. It’s like someone in rehab trying to get over their addiction; my skin broke out, I was cranky, moody, etc. etc. but today? My skin has a healthy glow, I naturally don’t crave any sugars, my doctor told me my blood work looks like a sample of the healthiest people, I sleep through the night and my mindset is so much stronger than yesterday! Let’s help each other and our children and their children and their children’s children so they never have to fight this battle. A battle which we can tackle!

I’ll share my daily day with you so you can see if it works for you. It’s not about body image issues, its about being healthy firstly for yourself and then your loved ones. Be smarter about your investments, invest in your health today!