mobanmarket“I took away my kids’ PlayStaytion 4,” says Syed Mehdi, a Pakistani expat based in Dubai. The 41-year-old had just won brownie points with his children a few months earlier when he returned home to Karachi, where the three currently live, so this was bad. This was really bad.
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But it was also tough love. Mehdi, who got rid of 27kg in about 8 months, is adamant that his progeny will not go through what he did.
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The shock came this March, when he took his fever-ridden self to a doctor in Karachi for a check-up. This health official sent him for a slew of tests, then told him the results that he already suspected: At the height of 187cm, Mehdi was cradling an excess of about 37.5kg. His lipid profile, cholesterol and sugar levels were elevated. With a family history of heart troubles – his father passed away from a heart attack – he was a walking, talking time bomb. Frightened for his family, for what would happen to his children – the youngest of whom is only 5 – his wife and his mother if something untoward were to happen to him? The thought kept him awake that night; he decided it was time for action.
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Once he returned to Dubai, he began to make healthier choices, swapping out rice for brown bread, lunch for bits of fruit and dinner time meals for water. [His last plate for the day would be ready by 6.30pm.] His portion sizes shrunk. His exercise time increased; he went from walking half an hour to about three hours a day. “From half hour to one hour…I was making a habit, no slacking. It’s like I have to eat, in the evening, I have to walk. Irrespective if the weather is hot, it was just something I thought I should do,” he said.
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The rainbow of food choices was reserved for the weekend, explains Mehdi – he’d eat pizza or rice or whatever else he wanted to, in moderate portions. “One day I eat [two such meals]. I eat pizza I take the privilege, because I feel I can’t leave everything just like that. My intake is much less [though] than what I used to eat,” he says.
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Mehdi also began to use his work lunch hour to get more exercise in. “My job is mobile. But I have a lunch hour, I eat fruits, I go to waterpark for swimming, only half-an-hour. I just push my limits. I used to spend time watching movies on the laptop, on social media. I’ve cut that off up to 90 per cent. That time I invest towards my walk and my exercise,” he says.
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And so came the changes. “For me for two weeks, I don’t lose any weight, then suddenly it starts – then 2 kg goes back in another 10 days. I also keep changing my routine so the body doesn’t get used to it,” he says about overcoming weight plateaus.
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His happiness also comes from sending home selfies to his family and bathing in their encouragement. But here’s where things got a bit annoying, for the young-ins. “When I started changing myself, I started seeing my kids spending too much time on the television. I took [their] PS4. Instead of that, I bought them cricket kits, new cycles, physical activity gear – all those things – I push them to go to the ground and be physical.
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“Even my wife, even [though] she doesn’t like to go out, she’s taking them religiously at least 1-1.5 hours. When I changed myself, I thought, my kids should be healthy [too], you know?”
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For a while there was tension – the kind any parent trying to pry a game out of a kid’s hands is familiar with. But it comes with the territory, you know? Being a dad is tough. Being a role model though is much much harder.
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The Morning and Evening Brief###
The Morning and Evening Brief