The cliché “eat to live, don’t live to eat” never worked for me until it stuck me. Between all that crunching and munching, I had ended up adding pounds and inches. The revelation came when the numbers on the scale escalated like never before and it was then when I started pondering about how to drive away all that I had devoured.

Like every other teenager, I started off with putting out calories from my life. It sounds cumbersome, but who wants to live with those ghastly numbers anyway? Calories were everywhere, and keeping it low was easier said than done. I crossed out every food from my calorie free list and I was starving each day. It was annoying to see friends eat their heart out and passing that “sorry, you’re on a diet” look. But I kept thinking that one day I’d be able to have on “that” dress, which had caught everyone’s eye.

I went hungry to get that flawless “Barbie body”, which mirrors the image of a perfect body. Body curves, as I believe, are either a gift or a hard work. The latter seems quite convincing, but the former is absolutely unfair. My friend is one of those gifted people, who munches on junk food every hour, but is absolutely in shape. And there I was, giving up every possible fattening food, out of pure dread of big numbers on the scale.

Dieting brought along family fights that were centred on my eating. I tried out some of the hundreds of diets plans available that promised me an ideal body. It became a hard slog for me, but the thought of losing an inch would keep me going. And it eventually turned me into someone who was afraid of food.

Losing weight was a formidable task. I was counting calories everywhere. Besides having to give up on a double scoop of rich creamy ice cream and a slice of cheesy pizza, I developed my mental mathematical skills by calculating calories on each food that came across me. But the words “You’ve lost weight” rarely hit me, and when it did, it worked miracles.

So the alphabets took new meanings for me. My ABC regimen isn’t trouble-free like before but I think it’s worth it. Putting it straight, it’s A for aerobics, B for body exercises, and C, definitely not calorie counting.