The next time you dig into a jar of spicy pickles or a bowl of your favourite flavoured yogurt, think twice. They promote weight gain. Surprised? Well, these are just some snippets from a recently-released book, Losing It: Making Weight Loss Simple (Pan Macmillan India). Written by Delhi-based fitness professionals Dhruv and Prachi Gupta, the book talks about simple changes that one can make in one’s everyday diet which would lead to weight loss.
“There were always extreme measures that entailed you to go beyond your regular stream of things. And that’s where we thought there ought to be a middle ground where you can lead a regular life, go to work, eat healthy and yet lose weight,” says Prachi, a former national level basketball player. The couple credits Fitho, their online weight loss diet plan, for the book.
“People think fitness is a humongous effort, we want to show people it’s actually not. Making a few small changes steadily will lead to a bigger change. It doesn’t mean you have to follow each and everything mentioned in the book,” says Dhruv, an engineering graduate from Michigan University, U.S.
With shorter attention span these days, the book doesn’t require a cover to cover read. Rather any chapter can be picked and read at one’s convenience. “It’s about which ones you choose to implement, say maybe not the snack unnecessarily, sleep early or cut down sugar,” Dhruv adds.
A simply written book, with easy to understand language, Losing It has busted a lot of myths, from pushing potato and rice to a ‘not harmful’ bracket, to giving a green flag to all mango lovers to go ahead and enjoy it. The same problem affected by various factors is addressed from different angles for better understanding.
“People come to us with all sorts of questions, and there’s a lot of information out there. But the main problem is implementation,” says Dhruv, giving example of olive oil, which is healthy but not the healthiest oil.
The couple feels that many diets are inspired by the West. But ine has to keep in mind the Indian way of life and the lifestyle diseases that we are more prone too. Aimed at the average Indian, the book tries to drive home the point that one does not require exotic food or expensive exercise equipment to lose weight.
While some existing facts are reinforced, others are logically connected to the weight loss concept. “Once you’ve got the knowledge, and the logic makes sense to you, the next time you’re going off track, you’ll feel guilty. And then the next time you’ll pre-empt the situation and probably carry something healthy with you. It’s a gradual change,” says Prachi.
For all the busy professionals who are constantly stressed about their health, Prachi advises choosing healthy options wherever possible. “It’s a myth that people don’t have time. Like in our book, 15 minutes are all you require for exercise and you don’t even need to go the gym. You need to prioritise, since work at the cost of health is really not worth it,” she says.
To sum it up in Dhruv’s words, “Our book is about what we do and who we are. Its goal is to be a go-to resource for reliable information on healthy weight loss and make it simpler for people to understand along with sharing our thoughts with the readers”.
