My fitness Journey

“10 kgs lost, and you are a new person”. This is a personal win for me, and I feel incredibly accomplished as I hit each micro goal I set myself.

I weighed about 104 kg in Jan 2021. I felt sluggish and quickly burned out. I took the blame on lockdown and convinced myself it was just ok. But I started to feel vulnerable, and I decided to change this, which had to begin with controlling my body.

5 years into Book reading taught me that decisions and goals shouldn’t be impulsive, so I have set achievable goals first and slowly levelled up my pace.

Gym

I started walking for 5 km per day, rode my bicycle for 5 km, and eventually joined the Gym. Whenever you tell someone that I’m thinking of joining the Gym, the immediate reaction would be, “bro, if you stop going to the gym, you will become fat again”. Yeah, of course, it’s true, but I learnt more about it personally.

If you are going to the Gym, you are on the first step in setting up the chain of habits. For example, if you were to hit the Gym in the morning, you have to wake up early, go early to bed, plan your work schedule. Most importantly, you have to be conscious about your eating habits else you will end up throwing while lifting weights.

My Gym regime was pretty basic, and my Gym instructor warned me that I would only be allowed to do intense workouts once I hit 85 kg, which in a way made a lot of sense.

 

Rope Jump

When the second wave started in mid-April, I stopped going out, and I feared I might derail from my routine and rushed to find the fitness regime. I am glad that I found the rope jump and a few exercise apps which helped me propel through the lockdown.

I had never done Rope jump before, and it took almost a week for me to do two rope jumps and then, a week later, I was doing 50 in one go, and now I was able to pull off 700 in one shot and can endure up to 5 mins. So in total, I do it 1500-3000 times a day.

I watched a couple of videos on Youtube, and they helped me correct my mistakes and find my rhythm. My next goal is to learn the boxer rope jump and increase my endurance time, which I believe will need a lot of practice, and I am all for it.

 

Fitness Apps

There are multiple apps on the Play Store for free to help you do routine exercises from every day to intense. You can take up the 30 days challenge within the app, and it feels rewarding as you complete the daily tasks.

Here are the apps I use : 

Six Pack in 30 Days - Abs Workout – Apps on Google Play

Lose Weight App for Men - Weight Loss in 30 Days – Apps on Google Play

Plank Workout at Home - 30 Days Plank Challenge – Apps on Google Play

Planck

A special mention for the Planck here, Initially I could only hold for up to 15 sec, but now I can do 2mins and cumulative minutes of 5 mins per day. If you ever want the world to stop for you, try Planck.

Dance

Dance is an excellent way to enjoy burning calories, and it’s my favourite form of draining my energy. Whenever you are learning a new choreo, you wouldn’t even realize how many times you have played that song in the loop and in the process, you will lose way more calories than any other form of fitness.

Cycling

I am very novice compared to the professional bike riders and strava pros, but I make sure I cycle about 20km each Sunday morning, if possible on Wednesdays. It feels incredible to feel the Vizag morning beach vibes.

Cravings and the Diet

I have cravings for Sambar and Vada, not a Biryani guy. All I did was conscious-eating. Instead of completely locking myself out from cravings and suddenly falling like a pandemic zombie, I ate in a limited amount. Your body knows how much to take, and all you need to do is just listen to your body.

I didn’t follow any particular diet like the famously touted all over social media. Instead, I had oats for breakfast twice in three days and chapati at night. Below is my favourite quote that helped me normalize my conscious food eating habits.

“Every time you avoid a temptation, you are feeding the hero in you and making him STRONG”.

 (cc: IG @personal_reels)

Fitness trackers

Fitness trackers are a great tool that we have right now with the advent of technology. I use the Google Fit app, which records my different activities, and I started to use the ‘Amazfit GTS 2 mini’ smartwatch. It costs Rs.7000, and I have never spent such a significant amount on devices, but the way I see it is an investment as it would serve me as a constant reminder of my goal.

I mix my fitness routine with various forms because I don’t want to get bored by doing the same thing, again and again, every morning and the initial few minutes will feel like giving up. Still, when you dress yourself up in fitness wear and lace up your shoes, you will feel just right, and everything just falls in place.

As Hrithik Roshan puts it, “Fitness goal is like the address, once you know how to get there, next time you can easily drive yourself to get to that point”. If you ask me why all this and your motivation, I would say, “it feels good to be fit,” and it took only an hour in my day. Most importantly, I could channel this energy into my work and be a “chain of habits” better individual.