My new husband

Vishal ettan is a big man. Tall, broad shoulders and heavier bone structure. He has a few extra pounds on him, has always had them ever since he can remember. I could make out from his old pictures that he had been plump as a boy.
We married in September 2007 and nearly two years in to matrimony both of us grew bigger. When we went to India in 2009, it was all every one could talk about. Another two years go by and my husband gets bigger. In December 2011, we schedule an appointment with the doctor for our 2-year routine check up. After regular tests, the doctor suggested that a meeting with the nutritionist Dr. Maria would be a good thing.
So we scheduled appointments with Maria and met her regularly for the next 3 months. Thus started Vishal Ettan's journey towards better health. I say better health because this is not and has never been a weight-loss process. It started as an initiative toward healthier living and weight-loss was just a natural part of it.
Maria's suggestions were for a change in lifestyle, small yet significant changes to be incorporated in our daily lives and to be habituated for the rest of it. My husband is all ears, strictly follows every single instruction that Maria gives and to my disbelief and amazement eight months later he has undergone a phenomenal change. Had I known this was coming I would have documented his transition in detail much earlier. Now I was compelled to write simply because I always try to write about things that move me in some way.

Nearly all of the changes we made were on food and the way we ate it. Some of the most vital of those were juices and white carbs. He went cold turkey on them - never touched them after the first meeting with Maria. Juices include all kinds of store brought juices, sodas, diet sodas, etc...
 He replaced regular milk with almond milk which has better taste, flavor and much less sugar. So the only fluids he has now are water, almond milk and occasional red wine. That must have been hard cos he loved juice, had them on a daily basis, but he stuck with his new regime and never once wavered.
All the white carbs were switched with brown and whole grain - brown rice, brown/whole grain bread, whole grain pasta, whole wheat chappatis and pita.
For the first time in our lives we discovered and loved new grains like quinoa, Israeli couscous and orzo.
We experimented with our traditional breakfast items like dosa & idli. They are almost always made with white rice, but when we tried brown rice instead we were surprised to find that food was more flavourful, tastier and of course healthier! Puttu(steam cake) was never again made with white rice once we realised that the whole wheat version tastier and cheaper.
 Another one of our food experiments that transformed in to a tasty new surprise was oats. Instead of the boring milk/water and sugar/salt combo we jazzed it up by going the Indian way. A lot of vegetables, Indian spices, low-carb zesty seasonings and a handful of nuts made the oats nearly unrecognisable! Unrecognisable but really yummy and not to mention healthy.
All of our cooking is either olive oil or no oil. If we can, we avoid the oil.
The piece-de-resistance is my husband's slow-cooked mutton curry & vegetable soup. Fully oil-free, loaded with healthy ingredients they are both lip-smacking tasty! Its so delicious that he now makes them only on special occasions.
And so after 3 months we went back to Maria. She was not just happy to see my husband but bumped him to her list of best patients ever! And why not he had lost 60lbs in a little over 3 months without even making the effort. That was the irony of the whole process - eating to loose weight. He just ate and kept eating one tasty food after another and lost weight while getting healthier.

The road to good health is only driven on a vehicle called -  portion control. Without portion control one can't reach their destination(good health), period. So when we added this new dimension to our dining, we started seeing even better results. Another 3 months go by Vishal ettan has lost another 20 lbs. That's a total of 80 lbs in more than 6 months.

After the first 3 months I thought that to loose any more weight, my husband has to start going to the gym. But to my surprise, not only did he prove me wrong, but he also helped debunk one of the greatest myths that I believed in - loose weight with exercise. This is one of the greatest myths that people fail to realise. Exercise can help keep you fit, maintain your weight, but exercise alone can never make you loose weight! The logic is simple. Half-an-hour of running at medium pace will burn around 80  to 120  calories depending on your body. Eating one burger can put nearly 400 calories to in your body. How long do you have to run to burn that single burger? So its not how long you run or how much iron you pump that helps you loose weight, its what you eat or rather what you don't eat!
I can't believe that a fact as simple as this missed me and never again did I nag my husband about going to the gym.

Vishal ettan is more active, energetic and still going strong with the new diet perspective. He made these changes so quickly and drastically that I was sure that he wouldn't be able to keep it up for more than a month. Ever since he began I have been dreading that he will fall off the wagon.  But once again to my glee he proved me wrong. I have never seen a more determined and focused person in my life! I am so proud of you Vishal etta! Knowing what a foodie you are, I have nothing but respect for you in what you are doing! He is in the best shape of his life in nearly 15 years and I cant help fall in love with him all over again as he seems to get handsomer by the day! Here he is. Incredible isn't it ?