Give A Positive Twist To Life

Sometimes, an unexpected encounter could significantly change the course of life. Dr Rajesh Javherani shares one such event that inspired him to make a positive change in his life.

- Dr Rajesh Javherani

Name: Dr Rajesh Javherani

Age: 48 years

Occupation: Doctor

“Doctor, heal yourself!”, these were the words said to me by one of my patients in March 2017 when I was unhealthy and obese and which still prompt me to remain fit.

I am a 48-year-old doctor, a specialist in Internal medicine and critical care. In 2015, I moved to Pune from Goa and started working at Chellaram Diabetes Hospital. I was staying alone, away from family and had a sedentary lifestyle. I was never into sports right from childhood and would prefer to commute by car even to a small distance. I loved eating good food and street food being my favourite; I would gorge on anything I would fancy. 'Calories don't count on the weekend' it is said but for me, every day was the weekend because I would venture out every evening and relish all kinds of street food. To top it all, I also consumed alcohol. I had put on a lot of weight and I tipped the scale at a whopping 100 Kg. Never in my life had I thought that I would be this obese. I remember weighing 54 Kg during my MBBS and was body-shammed for being skinny.

With obesity came other health issues. Obesity and overweight are major risk factors for many diseases. I was also suffering from obstructive sleep apnoea at that time. This is a syndrome which happens commonly due to obesity, wherein a person has disturbed sleep due to blocking of airways and this disturbed sleep causes day time sleepiness. I started using a machine to help me breathe called a CPAP machine. I would connect a face mask attached to the CPAP machine to help me breathe during my sleep.

All kinds of physical activity were a hindrance and got me irritable and breathless but it did not stop me from eating or get me to change my lifestyle. I would sleep better with the help of the machine and continued eating and battering my body with junk food, fizzy drinks and alcohol.