SouthAsian weight/body/diet : feeling so glum

[IlFaitBeau]

Born and raised South Asian woman, busy mum of 2, living in UK and realising what an uphill slog getting fit is :/

Was raised entirely on diet dominated by white rice potatoes and yes fish. Was raised to feel comforted by some form of white rice/carbs. Favourite childhood meal? Fried white flour roundels with a spicy potato curry. Nobody exercised in my super busy city of unsafe streets. Sit home and get tutored was my childhood. All mums and aunties now ridden with type 2 diabetes, gout, rheumatoid arthritis.

I am 39, and despite so many many many rounds of trying - I cannot fall into the pattern of running/exercising/enjoying a large bowl
of salad. I desperately want to get fitter before my 40th birthday. I need to lose 10 kilos at least. I know I need to lower/pause the carbs. My skin is frightfully untoned and my knees already cream although the extra weight isn’t a massive amount as above.

I am so depressed about it all :-(

Posting on the south Asian board desperately hoping other women may have been raised in south Asia who have been raised on white rice and white flour and grew up in city flats with exercise not in the mix May have inspiring stories of change to tell…

Hello. I was the same! Also have a mum who is VERY pushy about forcefeeding me and my sister Indian food and gets quite upset if we won't eat it! I then lost 15kg while my mum was living with me! What worked for me was not cutting out carbs but just replacing them with other things. That meant still eating all the Indian curries but replacing the rice/ chappatti with cous cous, bulgar wheat, quinoa or salad! I got into the habit fairly easily after a week or two and it didn't even feel like I was dieting. Occasionally I'd have a small portion of brown rice with a large portion of curry...it might be easier to start off by replacing all your white carbs with brown?
If you eat cereal for breakfast then the best one to eat is Shredded Wheat as this has the lowest sugar. Other cereals (even cornflakes and bran flakes) are VERY high in sugar.
For fruit I'd avoid bananas and have berries instead as they are low sugar. Avoid pasta sauces in jars, ketchup, fruit juice and fruit yogurts as they are full of sugar. Lots of protein will keep you full without the carbs. Snack on cheese and nuts. If you do want chocolate then go for dark chocolate as it's lower sugar (I hated the taste at first but then got used to it and now if I have milk chocolate it tastes too sweet).

For exercise I started off with walking a lot. Go somewhere scenic on the weekend with the kids so you will enjoy the walk. When working from home on my lunchbreak I would go for a run. Now before I could barely run for 2 minutes and if 2 years ago somebody had told me I'd get addicted to running I would have rofl! But I started by using the Couchto5k app on my phone and gradually was able to run 5k after a few weeks. Such a great feeling! It did wonders for my mood and energy. If you can't get time for running due to childcare etc then go with the long walks and get some steps in (we are supposed to walk 10,000 steps a day) . Walk around in the kitchen while the kettles boiling etc. Just do little things here and there to increase your steps and you will see a difference.
Sorry for the long post...I just remember feeling like this after having my DC. I did the above (low carb/sugar and running/walking ) and the weight dropped off while I didn't even feel like I was dieting.

Thanks for your reply!

Oh I haven’t eaten white carbs in yonks. Can’t recall the last white rice bread cereal or pasta. In fact we barely cook Indian food. Still - the weight doesn’t want to come off. It’s so strange. On the odd event we do have curries I have it with salad and the family eats a mix of quinoa burger and brown rice anyway (I don’t even eat that). Fairly demoralised :/

Ah ok. Sorry I thought you were asking how to lose weight on a diet of Indian food. Ok in that case you could try using My Fitness Pal app. It will seem like a bit of a faff at first but it only takes seconds and you will soon get into the habit of weighing food to make sure portion sizes are ok. I get how demoralising it can feel when you are fairly healthy but nothing seems to work

Hi a bit late to the post
Just to say to watch portion size as our asisn food plates are overfilled typically.
I would start with walking , 30 min and then build to an hour. Walk briskly too.
Then some exercise at home. I started with yoga, then more strength based pilates.
I joined a women's resistance class buy now just do some weights at home (2.5kg and 5kg handheld weights). It's mostly for core as I have put on so much weight after children.

The best thing for weight loss/treating pre-diabetes, is actually fasting. After a couple of days it's easy and you won't even feel hungry. If you really like chapattis etc., I quite
Ike fit-bakes, you can get them on Amazon. I have even seen low carb chapatti flour, although I haven't tried it yet. It seems good at 1g carb in an average chapatti. Full fat yoghurt, low carb tortilla, spicey omelette, and salad is a go to meal for me, very satisfying and filling

I don't eat a lot of indian food as I cannot control my portions around rice. A lot of family members have diabetes so I gave up on that kind of eating to prevent this. Both my parents and my husbands parents have diabetes. He continued to eat rice and curry every day and was diabetic before 40.
Eat loads of protein heavy meals with veg and small amount of carbs
I still love pasta. I have lost 3 stones by doing this and going to the gym 3/4 times a week and walking once a week.
For some of us it is a constant uphill battle that we have to be proactive about.

Has anyone travelled to the USA recently? I’m worried about immigration and being darker skinned. I don’t know if I should be worried but all the media has me worried. I’ve been invited to a wedding but not sure if to attend now.

Sorry meant to start my own thread