Battling the Bulge

Some 5 years ago when a friend called from the US asking for my waist size. I asked him why. and he said he wanted to get me a pair of Dockers. So I said "OK, that's nice of you; its 32."
"Huh! What...32?" he shot back in disbelieve. "Come on! Seriously, I'm at the store now!"
So I repeated it again, and he still did not believe me. A week later when he dropped over my place, he gave me the pair of Dockers...with a waist size of 36!

I'm on a diet now and have been so for the past 2 months. Oh, its not one of those regulated forced diets, just that I have been skipping dinner - rice, mainly - in hope to overcome some unwanted 'muscles' here and there. The worse part is the middle area where at times it protrudes like an overhang boulder and can be quite unsightly. No matter what I did in the past, I was never successful to tone it down to a more respectable...shall we say, view? But don't look at me with one eye closed - my physique has been this way since I was a kid.

Back during toddler days, I was the only one in the family who could never eat anything with chili, not even chili sauce! And a mere cutting of chili that would be adventurously stuffed in my mouth by my parents would send me searching for water. In fact, I use to even eat nasi lemak with tomato sauce! Over time and without my realising it, my battle against the bulge began, and have been going on for the life I have lived since. Though this battle has been seesawing between a bulge and not, I think I finally am making gains. Now, one may think that I'm just making some boastful statements here but I assure you I am not.

For the past 20 years, my eating habits have changed and I now even eat cili padi without having to resort to water to cool my tongue - a total opposite from much before; drinking while having food is not a good thing for the body, and I believe there is even a hadith about it, but one which I am unable to recall now. Looking back, I now wish that my parents had instilled such discipline within me. But, they are not to be blamed as outside influence did play a role too!

I remember watching movies or TV series where those actor policemen while on stakeout, would be eating burgers, fries, and at the same time drinking. The whole scene may have been only few seconds long but it imprinted an image in the mind of a kid who was left thinking "ooh! That looks delicious!", and later tried to emulate the very manner how the food was gulped down. In fact, writing this down I can just imagine holding a burger in one hand and a milkshake in the other! Hmm...not good for my diet. And most certainly not good in my preparation for a Physical Examination I - insyAllah - will be having maybe sometime in October or November this year.

Now, in preparation for this P.E., I have started doing my exercises. Nothing much currently, just some push-ups and sit-ups; would love to do chins but that would have my emak looking at me in total disbelief! We wouldn't want that now, do we?

To prove that I have made some gains on the main battleground, we now have to reflect back at the pair of Dockers mentioned above - even with a belt on, the pants slowly drops! That is encouraging already, wouldn't one agree? Thus by the time I go for the P.E., I guess I will be fit...and hopefully muscular. Now, this brings us back to my exercises.

As of early this morning, I had made quite a large progress since I started a month ago - I am now able to do 6 push-ups and sit-ups compared to 5 last week.