Obese Hong Kong food writer falls short on India weight-loss trek

Mischa Moselle completes only 450km of his 1,450km route, and trims 27cm of a target 60cm from his waist – but he’s learned some valuable things about himself and made some positive changes

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Former SCMP food editor Mischa Moselle after his Indian adventure – a little slimmer, although not as much as he wanted. Photo: Edmond So

Published: 2:00am, 7 Mar 2016Updated: 2:00am, 7 Mar 2016

Can I let you in on a secret? It’s one I found out during my Indian odyssey. I’m a moron. Harsh perhaps but I’ve checked my dates and I gave myself 88 days to complete a 90-day challenge.

That challenge was to walk 1,450km and I managed a mere 450km. I could blame my bad back, several minor stomach upsets and poor research for some more days taken out of the equation, not to mention insomnia. I’m not discounting them but the main reason for the low distance was that I didn’t gain nearly as much fitness as I expected to.

SEE ALSO: Obese Hong Kong food writer hit by doubt on weight-loss trek across Indi

My thinking was as sophisticated as, “Well if I play squash I’ll have a heart attack, so I might as well try walking. That’s easy.” Doubling the amount I walked every few days was supposed to bring me up to my target of 16km a day but this figure constantly eluded me. If I reached it on one day, I could manage very little the next few days.

Just like my remaining man boobs, the kilometre target was a bit of a bust.

… and after. Photos: Jonathan Wong (above) and Edmond So

In retrospect I wonder if I could have pushed myself harder – at the time I seemed to be losing weight whatever I did and the distance covered almost seemed irrelevant. If I’m honest with myself, I could have pushed harder – but I also know that pushing harder would have been totally out of character and, at the age of 47, I’m unlikely to be developing a new personality.

I’m still feeling a bit smug about the results. Perhaps it shows in the “after” photo accompanying this article. I’ve lost 27cm around the waist and am confident that the other 33cm I’ve decided to lose will melt away with more of the same effort – walking and a low-carb, low-alcohol diet. I might regret those words when it comes to the last 5cm.

More evidence I might be a moron – I was convinced that I might somehow be using my tape measure wrongly. I had a strange relationship with that tape measure, as my eyes refused to believe I was losing as much as the measure said. It took trying on my old clothes for the “after” photo to convince me.