ROSHNI K OLIVERA
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Adnan Sami's pleased with himself. Losing 107 kg is no mean feat! "It was a nightmare. Life had come to standstill," he says. It's been one Herculean task coming down from 206 kg to 99 kg. Here's Adnan's 'fat to fit' tale....
No weighty issues as a kid
As a kid and teenager Adnan was always slim and fit. Sometime during his mid-20s, he let himself go. "I guess I was not careful. Before I knew it, I'd completely gone out of control. I tried my best to hide behind some excuse!" he says. "I guess it was genetic. My maternal family has a history. Everybody is structured differently. Some eat truckloads and nothing happens to them. While for some like me, even water is butter!" People don't realise obesity is as much a disease as alcoholism or any other addiction, he asserts.
How and when the kilos began to add up
After his divorce (from Zeba Bakhtiyar) and when his son was separated from him somewhere in 1997, he went through a very low phase. That's when he began to gain weight. "I'd comfort myself with food. That would further depress me. It was a vicious cycle." Besides, he was a foodie and a good cook who "added all the lethal ingredients including cream, desi ghee, cheese and red meat!" In June last year Adnan touched 206 kilos! "I would walk a few steps and start gasping. I could never lie down and sleep. I couldn't travel. When I stepped onto the weighing scale, it tilted almost saying 'Are you kidding? You want me to read that!'" he laughs.
Do or die
"At 206 kg my doctor said he was giving me just six months to live. I didn't want to accept reality," he says. His father put his foot down, asking him to put all his work on hold and reduce weight. Adnan went to the US and with help started to live a normal life again. "It was a do or die situation." Diet, exercise and will-power (no surgeries) is his secret, he says. "I was never a salad person. But today I love it. I do one hour of treadmill and cycling."
All smiles now
"I feel resurrected. I once again have control over my life," says the slim, active and muchyounger Adnan. On the personal front, too, he's never been happier. "After eight years I met my son in September last year. After that we've been in constant touch. His mother and I are friends today," he says. For now, Adnan's priority is to lose more weight and come down to around 70 to 75 kg. "I would also like to help people who are obese. In fact, I already have people come up to me wanting to know how I managed this," he says.
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