What started of yesterday as a short quick post on inspiration and Steve Jobs took shape of something much longer than I had intended. I started by writing about Steve Jobs and then realized I had nothing to say that hasn’t already been said.

So without wasting your time, I’l just dive into what this post is about. Its been inspired by Mr. Inspiration itself and it is about, well… inspiration.

There are two reasons why I am writing about inspiration today.

1) In the last few days, I’ve heard the word ‘inspiration’ a lot. My current lifestyle that warrants a change in attitude, and a new outlook to health and fitness has encouraged a few readers to reach out and ask for inspiration.

2) I believe that Steve Jobs inspired just by doing. If you’ve heard stories about him, you’d know that the CEO of Apple was not one to sit back and let others do things. He’d get involved in the minute tinkering of new launches much to the exasperation of his staff. He scrapped a couple of iPhone prototypes after countless hours of work, just because they were not up to his perfect standards.

This eulogy of action by Seth Godin has inspired me greatly.

Today, I am more inspired than yesterday, to live life to the fullest, to respect my body, to eat and exercise sensibly and to do it with love.

With this blog, I aim to delve into my personal experiences and share them, and by doing that I hope to encourage readers get onto a path of long term health and fitness, because it all starts with some amount if motivation. So in that vein, I’d like to share with you my story and what inspired me to make this drastic change in lifestyle with the hope that I might inspire you in even a small teeny weeny way.

Because the only true way to inspire is by doing.

My brother has been primal since 2007 and has lost weight, become fitter, stronger and leaner. He told me for years (3 years to be exact) to try it out, to try and make the shift. I pooh poohed him saying that I am not half as determined, I am too much of a foodie, and too un disciplined to make such a huge change. Nonetheless he kept living by example keeping his thoughts to himself, but getting leaner, stronger, fitter by the day.

Me on the other hand, I kept getting fatter  (This picture is of me few months before I went primal), I kept eating sweet things like it was an addiction (and indeed sugar is an addiction) blaming it on being a foodie, when in fact I know now it was not merely the love of food that kept me doing it. I remember trying to lose weight in vain for my wedding, an impossible task in spite of going to the wearisome gym ‘regularly’.

I blamed my hormones, I blamed my genetics, I blamed my ‘love’ for food, I blamed my parents, I blamed my body, I blamed my lack of focus, I blamed my lack of discipline…. I could write a page on things I blamed.

But I did not stop to think that my entire premise on health and fitness could be wrong.

In late 2009 I went for a routine medical check up with my husband, just for fun. Though there was nothing apparently wrong with me, it disturbed me when the doctor said that I needed to lose weight because I had PCOS and also that my tryglicerides were on the borderline higher side. TRYGLICERIDES!!!! what the hell was that? And all this time I thought I was a 28 year old who was in the pink of health – albeit a bit chubby – but pink nonetheless!

SO I decided to make more efforts to lose weight. I did the regular stuff like going to the nutritionists – who think by restricting portion sizes, weight loss is achieved, went to the BORING gym and ran on the treadmill, dieted – half heartedly, and well, lost close to 1 kg and a centimeter somewhere. In short, nothing worked.

A few months after all these ‘efforts’ my brother who was watching from the sidelines said, why don’t you try being primal for one month. For one month go all out, no grains, no sugar, no carbs, no alcohol except for fruits and vegetables, higher intake of proteins, lots of nuts, and lots of fats. He also shared a link with me of a woman who had PCOS and went primal and now had lost weight and had lost any traces of PCOS.

This time, I must admit, I was interested.

So I researched and read and read. I learnt that I was insulin resistant a condition that is also known as metabolic syndrome. Everything I read told me in different ways that the only way to increase my sensitivity towards insulin was to start living a primal lifestyle. It told me to start living clean, cut out processed stuff, and to eat real food high in nutrition. And hey, it was worth giving up one month for.

So in April 2010 I finally decided to make the switch for one month and I’ve never looked back.

Today, though I give my self some leeway and am not as strict as I was in the first two months, I do not feel the urge for sweets, I am no longer addicted to junk, and pizza puts me off rather than tempts me. Give me a large slab of fatty red meat though and I will devour it.

I’ve never been happier or more positive, I haven’t had a migraine (I used to get awful ones every few days) in over a year, my PCOS has disappeared, I don’t get mood swings, I love life more, and happiness is so much more than a bar of chocolate or a bowl of ice cream. I’ve travelled somewhat excessively in recent times, and earlier a trip meant me coming back looking bigger than ever, but now I actually come back  weighing less every single time due to the delish salads and food choices I pick over the stale sandwiches and pastries that once caught my eye!

So what does it take to be inspired? A small eye opener, a little broadening of the mind to acknowledge that there may be some truth other than what we already know, and a leap of faith.