How Harsha Lost 11 kg Getting Fit For His Himalayan Treks

It all began in the December of 2016. Somewhere in the back of my head I had a deep yearning to be amidst the mountains. I had been to several hill stations but never a trek. That’s when I stumbled upon the Indiahikes site.

Indiahikes had a fitness necessity to do any trek – even easy ones. So, I put myself to test.

The overweight me wasn’t even able to run a simple 1 km without gasping for breath. But I could not give up on my dream to be nestled in the mighty Himalayas, not yet.

So, I went ahead and registered for the Deoriatal-Chandrashila trek in March 2017, an easy one hoping I would be able to cover the necessary distance, a meagre 4 km in 30 min which at that time looked like a mountain.

I started following the fitness regime suggested by Indiahikes and started improving my distance and time gradually. The first couple of weeks felt like hell but slowly I started liking it, pushing myself to do more distance in lesser time. I guess that small yet certain sense of accomplishment gave me the power to keep going. By the time the trek approached I was doing 4 km in just under 30 min.

The day of the trek had finally arrived. I had mixed emotions about the trek as it was my first one. On the trek during the first couple of days, I could cover the distance reasonably well, while enjoying the beautiful Rhododendron trails and savoring the views of the mighty Himalayas.

The night before the summit day, I had a billion thoughts running through my head questioning my ability to do it. I could barely sleep. Then the final moment of truth had arrived.

I told myself to focus only on the next step I was going to take and not the size of the summit. Slowly but steadily the whole team kept pushing towards the summit in knee deep snow encouraging each other to keep going no matter what.

The moment we made it to the summit we were all filled with joy and a sense of accomplishment. The mountains taught me a lot of things and gave me friends for life.

I wanted to keep this going. So, I continued to work out regularly and the reward for my efforts would be another beautiful experience in the beautiful mountains.

After the first trek to Deoriatal in March, I did Pangarchulla peak trek in May of 2017 and Buran Ghati trek in June of 2017. After 6 months of relentless training clocking around 300 km, I lost 11 kg and became fit.

Now I can cover 10 km in just under 65 minutes. I hope to keep this going.

Looking forward to the Roopkund trek in September 2017.