What fitness taught me,  Part I

Real World and Lifting lessons 

I always considered myself a fitness guy. I mean, I liked the general idea of being fit, shredded, jacked or however you wanna call it, but I never actually was. I tried many times to get “in shape” but every time I failed because something called life was interfering in my plans. And there I was again, back to square one. The reasons vary but the end result was always the same; frustration and failure.

Not long ago, I put my hands on a fitness book (which I ‘d rather not disclose) and starting reading it passionately. While I was regularly reading health & fitness magazines (you know, the ones you can get shredded in 3 weeks, or give you the best exercise for getting great abs in 10 days) I had never actually read a fitness book. While the book had many similarities with the articles you read in health and fitness magazines,its most interesting part wasn’t the actual training program or the nutrition guide (both of them were very well documented and super easy to follow), but the change of lifestyle it was suggesting. That book was the first time I was reading about Intermittent Fasting.

(As you might not know what Intermittent Fasting is, let me just give a quick explanation. “Intermittent fasting (IF) is a pattern of eating that alternates between periods of fasting (usually meaning consumption of water and sometimes low-calorie drinks such as black coffee) and non-fasting”. There are different methods of Intermittent Fasting but I’d rather not bother you explaining them — the one I am following for the most part is 16 hours of fasting followed by 8 hour of overfeeding — . If you really want to learn more about the different methods and generally more about (IF) you can read this excellent source here.)

Since I was no different than 95% of people who have a general idea of how to get in shape — you have to eat 5 to 6 meals a day to elevate your metabolism and burn fat — I found the concept of (IF) intriging but at first I was sceptical. Not eating breakfast wasn’t really a big deal since I never actually was into it, but not eating for so many hours after waking up? How’s that going to feel?

Not really having any other option since the frequent meal thing wasn’t working for me — I didn’t have the time to prepare all those meals and almost simultaneously work, go shopping, go out, hit the gym, see the girl etc — I decided to give it go. But althought I was kind of forced trying (IF) the real reason I actually decided to do it was that the frequent meal thing wasn’t working for me. I wasn’t seeing results. So the first real lesson learned in my journey to fitness was that I just never have to reject new things. Never be afraid of trying something new.

As someone put it; just because everyone is jumping off the bridge it doesn’t mean that you have to follow. In simple words, just because everyone else is doing something (which is considered the right way) it doesn’t mean you have to do it as well (especially if it doesn’t work for you).

The second real world lesson I learnt was that, in order to achieve something of great value to you; you have to make yourself accountable. By following the suggested lifestyle of (IF), training and nutrition plan of the book I made myself accountable. Accountable to the author of the book you might ask? While that was partly true, I believe that I made myself accountable to the overall goal I had set at the start of my fitness journey. I just didn’t want to fail. Making yourself accountable works. At times that I was sore or didn’t want to follow the plan I always remembered that I wouldn’t reach my goal if I stayed at home instead of working out. That kept me motivated and passionate the whole time. Still does.

Lesson number three : Be patient! I was expecting results immediately. After a month in the program I looked skinny as hell and found myself thinking that it won’t work. I felt miserable. What kept me in was not patience but accountability. It would take about 2 months after starting the program to confidently see myself in the mirror and admire my work. That’s when it hit me! Results come to the patient ones. Just be patient, work hard and you will get there kept saying to myself. What they say “Patience is a virtue” is very true. Being patient helped me in my lifting as well. There would be times I couldn’t lift more and I was frustrated. So I had to repeat the next workout with the same weights. But that’s when I would actually make it happen!