For the first 32 years of my life I had a very happy relationship with food.
Unhealthy af
But happy.
I loved my desserts, my fried foods, my constant snacking. The absolute disregard towards my body didn't bother me.
Until...

A thread on food...

Until, at the age of 32 I was diagnosed with avascular necrosis (AVN). And had to undergo surgery, which put me on bed rest for 3 months and on crutches for 5 months. https://twitter.com/warikoo/status/1263731370913923074?s=20

This freak disease got me to run the half-marathon and eventually aim for 6-pack abs at the age of 33. https://twitter.com/warikoo/status/1263731397354754050?s=20

From 89kgs and 26% body fat, I went to 69 kgs and body fat of 8% in 5 months.

80% of the reason was food.

I completely altered my diet.
The important thing though was - I still had to enjoy my food. It had to make me happy.

So the search began to move from
Unhealthy food that made me happy to healthy food that made me happy

What made the journey easier?
That I don't drink or smoke

What made the journey harder?
That I am a vegetarian

Here are the things I learnt through the journey

Motivation is the worst friend ever.
You never need any motivation to eat that extra slide of pizza, to have another round of dessert.
But somehow you need loads of it to do the right thing. And its never to be found then.

To alter your diet, motivation is a bad strategy.

KILL everything that you need to eliminate.

To eliminate sugar from your diet
Remove all sugar from the house.
Not just hidden or out of sight.
Complete elimination.

Don't rely on motivation to get your shit done!

You can't sustain something you don't love.

To sustain my diet, I made a list of all the things I love
Cottage cheese, mango, orange, pineapple, corn, kidney beans, pumpkin, almonds, cashews et al.

And everyday, I would surprise myself by a concoction of the things I loved.

I made my diet exciting, unpredictable and happiness-inducing.

I would eagerly open my lunch box in office, wondering what my wife packed for me in the morning.

It was an adventure. A food adventure. A healthy food adventure. A healthy food adventure that made me happy.

If you can eat it, do not drink it.

Do not eat anything that is packaged, labelled or on anyone else's plate.

Whenever in doubt, I asked myself - whatever is it that I am eating - is it for the body that I want or the body that I have?

The decision was suddenly obvious.

I was shocked at how adaptable our bodies are.

For years, I had treated mine as a dustbin. And just a few months of respect, made my body reject all the nonsense that I used to foolishly cherish.

I recall eating a slice of pizza after 6 months and feeling full af.

Eating right is the most single-player activity ever.

You have yourself to blame and yourself to applaud.

You lie to only yourself and the mirror only shows the truth.

You cheat on only yourself and you become friends with only yourself.

Conquering your diet is conquering your mind.

When you eliminate something that you have loved from your diet, its the first thing you think of every morning.

Until one morning, when you don't.

Your mind has adjusted to the "new normal" even before you have!

You are what you eat.

So don't be artificial, cheap or easy.

I love my food.

And I realize that my main motivation to be fit is not really to be fit. But to be able to cherish my food and be happy with it.

So I play, lift, crunch and do whatever I have to, in order to eat the things I enjoy.

I have come to believe that eating well is the highest form of self-respect.

It is when your body and your mind truly aligns.
They respect each other.
They understand each other.
And they attend to each other.

Today, I eat almost everything that I want to.

I am always a month away from 6-pack abs if I want to get to them.
I am always "count till 3" away from rejecting any food item that harms me.
I am always happy to see my food, as my body is happy to see it healthy.

The food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine
or
the slowest form of poison

- Ann Wigmore

PS: My diet towards my 6-packs

630: Bananas+almonds
830: Protein Shake + Oatmeal + Fruit
1130: Salad + Green tea
1pm: Cottage cheese + carrots + peanut butter toast
4pm: Nuts + Green Tea
7pm: Protein Shake + Roasted Veggies + bowl of boiled chick peas
9pm: Green Tea
ZERO sugar