26 December, 2014 | 8 March, 2015 | 7 May, 2015 | 21 August, 2015 | 5 September, 2015 | 26 September, 2015 | 25 March, 2016 |
Motivation
I always wanted to stay fit and keep my body in shape but my lifestyle was taking in opposite direction. When it seems nothing can be done and its very difficult to change lifestyle, all we need a little motivation to come out of this mess.
Motivation cannot be injected, motivation doesn't come from outside. It has to come from inside.
There is no better motivator then realization of current problems and potential of your hard work in future.
I got motivation to reduce weight and become fit when climbing 2KM small trek became very difficult in Dec,2014. Then and there I realized this has gone too far and I have to change it.
Reality check
1st January 2015, I moved to a new house near my office and with facilities like gym and swimming pool available inside my apartment campus. Deal was apartment management will charge a blanket money for using facilities irrespective of usage. I wanted to go to Gym from first day but I wasn't able to go up till Feb end.
First day in Gym was real eyeopener, I weigh 90KG, 5KG over my expectation and 18KG over my ideal weight.
Environment
Environment plays a vital role in your success. Supportive environment can reduce effort by 40% to reach goal.
Things I changed in my environment
I used to keep snacks and biscuits in my kitchen. These small snacks and biscuits are not healthy and are actually very deteriorating for health. I stopped bringing these kind of snacks, biscuits, etc. This helped me many folds, Firstly by stopping eating this I reduced lot of bad calories and other bad chemicals/substances from my diet. secondly, Since I don't have this at home I am no more tempted to eat this whenever I am hungry. I follow a Thumb rule, don't buy anything which is not healthy and not in your diet plan and don't plan.
Stopped eating outside. Outside food, irrespective how good the restaurant is, is almost always made for taste and not for health. Now this was a very big deal for me and my wife, neither me nor my wife like/knows how to cook. We almost always eat outside. Solution, we employed a cook. He cooks our lunch and dinner. I recon eating outside for lunch and dinner is both costly and unhealthy compared to having a cook cooking food for you.
I schedule my day which worked best for me for both Gym/office/sleep. I am not a morning person so planning to go for gym in the morning never works for me, so I decided to go to gym in the evening.
Having gym inside the campus is also a big environment boost.
Having gym inside the campus is also a big environment boost.
Little Advice
Make sure you evaluate your actions before taking them. For example if you have work which can wait so don't miss gym just because you have an excuse. Don't push it, make gym a priority but don't undermine other things in life, if you have a emergency at work you can always make up for the day in weekend. Simple rule is you have a schedule, try to follow it but keep your schedule flexible. Think before you eat, even if you have gone out with friends, remember you have a target to achieve but they don't. Control every temptation.
Cheat meals
Cheat meals is a very wrong concept. Never Never Never take cheat meals. There will be times when you HAVE TO eat outside and don't have any other option like you went for team outing and there is nothing healthy to eat. Consider this a cheat meals, even in these cheat meals don't eat a lot, eat in limit. Evaluate taste to health ratio, If food is too tasty but little unhealthy its okay to eat it in limit once in a month.
After this horrible reality check I have to set a target and have a plan and schedule to achieve this target. I decided to reduce my weight to 72kgs by 31st Oct 2015. So I had 8 months to reduce 18 kgs, so I have to reduce 2.25KGs every month to reach my target weight.
My schedule
The nexus of Diet and Workout. No workout works without proper diet and no diet works proper workout and when both diet and workout is good they complements each other.
Workout : My workout wasn't simply going to gym. It involved cycling to office, weight training, running till my legs pain, playing squash. I worked out for 2 hours every day. Which includes squash, running and weight training for single body part like chest/biceps/back/legs/triceps/shoulders.
Diet: Waking up at 9AM. Don't eat anything unhealthy or processed. Try to keep yourself little hungry , eat less, your body don't need lot of food, its your stomach and brain which force you to eat more. Staying hungry will be little difficult in the beginning but in 2 months your stomach will shrink and you wouldn't be able to eat more and your body will adjust to new diet plan. You will feed more energetic.
Diet: Waking up at 9AM. Don't eat anything unhealthy or processed. Try to keep yourself little hungry , eat less, your body don't need lot of food, its your stomach and brain which force you to eat more. Staying hungry will be little difficult in the beginning but in 2 months your stomach will shrink and you wouldn't be able to eat more and your body will adjust to new diet plan. You will feed more energetic.
Breakfast 9:30AM : 1 small bowl oats very less sugar. Few almonds. Juice without sugar.
Cycle to office : 1.5 KM.
11:00 AM : 1 Big strong coffee in office with less sugar.
Lunch 2:00 PM : 2 chapati, 1 bowl veg curry, 1 bowl Dal.
3:00 PM : 1 big strong coffee without sugar.
7:00 PM : Evening before gym : juice/20g raw ground nut or small banana. 2 cubes of dark chocolate.
9:00 PM dinner : 2 chapati,1 bowl veg curry, 1 bowl Dal. fruits, 1 glass milk.
Journey
It was not a easy journey with lot of ups and downs, there were many times when weight stopped reducing for weeks and many weeks when I wasn't able to go to gym or do any workout. I knew even if I was slow I am on schedule. I am true believer of power of persistence, even water has broken mighty Himalayas with constant persistence over time. Nothing is impossible if you do keep pressing until achieved. I have seen many people starting workout with lot of enthusiasm but after 2-3 weeks they stop doing work out. One thing which kept me going was daily body weight measure, knowing where you are going and how far is left is a good technique to keep going, at least it worked for me.
Never do easy exercise, always try to take an extra step. Exercise will become easy after 2 months, then change exercise or add more weights/speed for weight training/running.
Never do easy exercise, always try to take an extra step. Exercise will become easy after 2 months, then change exercise or add more weights/speed for weight training/running.
In March running for 10 min at average speed of 8.2km/h was very difficult but now I can run 20 min at average speed of 11.6km/h.
I reached my target 2 weeks before 31 Oct, 2015.
I reached my target 2 weeks before 31 Oct, 2015.
Look back after achieving the target
Fitness is not achievement but a way of life. This looked impossible when I started working out. Looking back after achieving there is a great sense of achievement knowing I am a lot fitter then I was and I can do a lot more things which were not very difficult earlier.