Zubair Qureshi
A few years back he was 110 kg (242 lbs), now his weight is a little over 79-kg (174 lbs) and he is determined to cut it further to 74 kg or 163 lbs).
It took Dr Abdul Baseer Qazi, a young professor at Islamabad’s local university eight months to reduce 60 pounds and according to him all that was possible by changing his eating habits, following a strict diet plan and adopting a healthy lifestyle.
Dr Qazi, 44, has found the key to peaceful life: Eat less, drink much and quit sugar, white flour, white rice and potato once forever.
“Unless you go cold turkey, you cannot change your eating habits and consequently you cannot reduce your weight,” said Dr Baseer while talking to Pakistan Observer in F-9 park of Islamabad.
“My wife and I used to come here for running in the morning and we did this without fail. Daily we covered around 4 miles and daily we compared our each day with the previous one,” he said.
Baseer’s wife is not following that routine these days, yet he is very particular about it. Besides he is also particular about his diet and is keeping a distance of miles from sugary drinks, food items, bakery products and all kind of junk food.
According to Baseer, in the beginning his friends and colleagues laughed and ridiculed him for abstaining from fatty food, drinks and other stuff but now they “have come to terms with it.”
My family, friends and colleagues at Bahria University all of them now understand this and some of them have even realized that it is necessary to regulate our eating habits and have complete monitoring of what we are eating or drinking.
Baseer has got a bicycle too and along with his bicyclist friends also bicycles off and on.
Born and brought up in Germany, Baseer returned to Peshawar with his parents and did his Matric there. Later, he did Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from University of Engg & Technology, Peshawar.
Then again he went to Germany for doing MBA from Technology Management from Hamburg, (1999-2001). He was married in 2002 and after living for a few years in Pakistan doing various businesses, again he went to the Europe along with his family, this time to do his Ph.D (2007-11). He did his Doctorate in Technology Policy from Maastricht, The Netherlands United Nations University (MERIT). Baseer has studied and worked in Pakistan, The Netherlands and Germany and has a rich experience of working in corporate sector. He is also involved in a number of community activities and entrepreneurial initiatives. He is CEO and Co-founder of artificial swarm intelligence tech startup, MindHives (Pvt.) Ltd and social entrepreneurship startup, BestInPk(Pvt.) Ltd. He can speak German, English and Dutch.
Currently, he is learning Quranic Arabic and this he is doing along with his wife, mother and kids. My resolve to lose weight and restrict my diet was further strengthened through study of Quran, he said.
