This is the first article on my transformation journey. Body transformation is never an easy task. People give it a try and when they do not see any results, they easily quit and move on with their lives... but there are people who do not give up and fight against every odds coming to their way. Today, I can proudly say that I am one of those...There were several ups and downs in my journey till now but I have passed them with ease. I have tried to showcase my transformation journey till date. How I lost 23 Kg and 7" waist. I have not used any fancy terms in the article just to make it easy for everyone to read and relate.
Contents:
⥤ My tension free childhood⥤ Realization
⥤ I just want to get rid of belly fat, I am not interested in body building.
⥤ Try - 2, Success - 1
⥤ Break
⥤ Try - 3, Success - 2
⥤ Exercise
⥤ Diet
⥤ Motivation
⥤ Tips
⥤ The man behind my transformation
My tension free childhood...
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| 1997 |
Realization...
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| 2015 |
Once my college started, I started realizing my body being overweight according to my age. As a student I didn't have enough money and time to follow a healthy diet which would involve spending money on veggies rice and milk whereas I used to get a full meal in Rs. 25. So like every other teen, I started with running a few meters! yes, just meters! and just after a week I got demotivated by seeing no results. I hardly ate anything healthy during those days. Junk Junk and Junk! Body weight and fat doesn't wait for us to realize, it gets on increasing if you don't get conscious enough to control it.
2nd Realization...
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| 2015 |
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| 2016 |
I reached 90 Kg when I was in my final semester and fortunately I got a job before my final exam. Once I cleared my engineering, I started working passionately without taking any care of my body. I kept on eating whatever I like. Fortunately my preferences were a bit different than others. What I loved to eat was home made desi food, although it's healthy but it's dense in calories. It was 2015 when I again realized about my weight and I started staying hungry. My job location was Kadi town, near Mehsana, Gujarat. 4G was not introduced and 3G was too costly for me, so I never tried learning anything online. I enrolled myself into a Gym in Kadi but the trainer was not so experienced and the only instructions he gave me was "Run to and fro in this lobby for 25 times and then use each of the machines present in this hall". I hardly went there for a week! But I was a bit satisfied because at least I started doing something for my body. And in order to celebrate this satisfaction, me and my friend used to have treats! In short, I worsened my health by doing so. I stopped going to that gym and continued with that fasting lifestyle without knowing the harmful effects it would bring to my body! Whenever I was hungry at the office, I ordered a cup of tea and a tray of mixed biscuits! No proper breakfast, no lunch, only chai-biscuits and dinner! It was end of 2015 and I found a gym where the owner was the trainer himself. I won't go deep into how I found him. Looking at his biceps and body structure, I was sure he had participated in competitions. I talked to him, I explained him how sad I am for my body and as as many of us would mention it "I just want to get rid of this belly fat. I am not interested in bodybuilding" I said this to him, he smiled and asked me to join form the next day. Till now I had some Idea about diet as I had followed GM diet to see miracles. I knew what are carbohydrates, fats and proteins. The next day I asked him to give me a diet plan. He asked me to come regularly for 15 days at least and then I'll get a proper meal plan. I went there for a week and got busy with my work and I discontinued again. Again I started getting indulged in unhealthy "nuskhas" and diet plans.
Try - 2, Success - 1
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| Transformation from October 2016 ⇒ April 2017 |
Break
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| Reverse transformation from April 2017 ⇒ March 2018 |
It was the end of March when I decided to shift back to my home and travel to and fro to work from home. Once I shifted, my routine changed. I was back to my normal life. I tried holding back my diet but my thoughts demotivated me. I started waking up late, I started eating whatever I liked! I tried several times to start my diet but failed each time. I also joined a gym near my house and went there for a week! I joined another one where the trainer was from Mumbai and used to train celebrities. I just started getting good vibes and suddenly he left his job and I got a reason to quit the gym again. I searched and followed too many fitness bloggers but nothing motivated me again. I started putting on weight. I stopped measuring it.
Try - 3, Success - 2
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| June 2018 |
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| September 2018 |
It was April 2018 when I contacted my trainer again. I requested him to give me a diet and exercise which can be performed without a gym. He gave me a flexible diet and a running schedule. I skipped the running part but started following the diet. I followed 40% of whatever he asked me to follow. After 1.5 month i.e. June'18, I explored the gym present in my township. I sent the photographs of equipment present there to my trainer. He started sending me exercise accordingly. Since July'18, I started following my routines religiously. I was 102 Kg in April'18 (Never discussed it with anyone as I was ashamed of it). I lost 2-3 Kg by July. I got motivated and started tracking my weight and changes in my body. I educated myself through internet and case studies but never followed anything blindly. Today when I am writing this, I am still getting my diet charts and workout routines form the same trainer. I develop recipes which fits in my plan, I learnt about calorie management, macros, exercises and proper form, what matters and what not, myths about fitness and much more. I weigh 80 Kg today. Losing each Kg was an achievement for me. Though fat loss matters more than the weight but to check the progress, tracking weight is the easiest method initially. Looking at my physique today, I am so satisfied and motivated that I have accepted this lifestyle for rest of my life. This was the story how I reached here. Now I will let you know what I've learnt till date and what I follow including the myths I came across.
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| November 2018 |
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| March 2019 |
Diet and Exercise:
Both play a crucial role in achieving your fitness goal. Though 70-75% role is of diet but the 25-30% role of exercise is also important. Planned diet restricts yourself from having extra calories (If you follow) and exercise tones and burns the excess fat stored in your body.
Exercise:
I met people asking me to do just cardio exercise for weight loss. But luckily I was guided by a professional and my routines had 85% of heavy weight training and 15% of cardio.
- I have tried the only cardio routine but I had zero outcome of my sweat.
- The exercise routine should be a mix of cardio and weight training where weight training should be focused more.
- "Burning calories" should be your goal and you can burn it better with lifting weights and squats rather than running for an hour.
- No exercise would give you results if you would not get proper nutrition. So in order to see the outcome of exercise, you need to eat healthy and skip unhealthy.
Diet:
In Indian homes, everything homemade is healthy. Many people stop themselves from eating out but they do eat 5 chapatis and pieces of sweets when at home. This misconception should be cleared first of all.
- Everything you eat has calories, whether you have it at home or you have it anywhere else.
- Follow a planned diet where you are taking all the nutrients proportionately.
- This can be done by consulting a dietitian.
- There's no such miracle plan which can be followed to achieve your dream physique.
- The diet plan needs to be changed periodically.
- Searching for a free diet plan online and following it for months and months won't help you.
- The amount your dietitian would charge is too nominal as compared to the amount you'll need to pay in future for your unhealthy body.
- Also there are myths regarding diet foods so it is better to know about it before you start consuming anything.
- Proportion should be taken care of. Healthy food has calories which may affect your goal. For example nuts and nut butter are dense in calories so its consumption should be limited to the portion that fits into your diet plan.
- There is a lot to add in here but I will save it for other articles.
- Visit this blog for getting diet friendly recipes.
Motivation:
Without this, your journey would not even start. And to get motivated, you need to invest.
- You need to invest your time and money.
- Majority of us have failed in the past due to lack of motivation. After running 2-3 km daily for a week and restricted eating, we see no change in weight and we immediately get demotivated.
- We need to understand that the accumulation of fat did not happen overnight and so losing it in a week is impossible.
- Our body needs to get prepared for the new lifestyle you have started adopting. The time taken for the body to accept the changes varies in each of us. It took 2 months to see a minor drop on weighing scale. Some may start losing in a month.
- Despite getting demotivated, one should try improving the mistakes and if there are no mistakes in your routine, then you just need to do whatever you are doing in order to see the results.
- We ourselves are never going to see the drastic change in our physique, nor the people around us would notice so one should stop asking about the improvement to the people they meet everyday.
- You would feel lighter and happy when your body would start responding.
- Many of your health issues would be gone and you will notice them too.
- You will feel energetic the whole day. You will feel confident about your body. T
- his would motivate you to move further.
- But to reach here, you need to invest your time without giving up.
- Do not worry about the weight loss, just prepare yourself to adopt a healthy lifestyle which would not only improve your physique, but it would also improve your body systems. If you are doing everything right, sooner or later you are going to lose the excess fat.
- Do not set any short term goals like your own or your loved one's wedding. Once the occasion would pass, there won't be any reason for you to follow this restrictive regime. And you would not be able to accept it as a lifestyle if you are doing this just to look good on such occasions.
Without this, your journey would not even start. And to get motivated, you need to invest.
Healthy lifestyle tips:
- Not every healthy food remains healthy when over consume. Ex - nuts, butter, ghee, oils, some fruits and vegetables.
- Not every unhealthy food remains unhealthy when consumed in restricted portion. Ex - Pasta (made of semolina or durum wheat), Roti/Chapati, White/wheat bread.
- You may skip your workout for a day or two, but try not to skip your diet routine.
- Do not let travelling, occasions and parties disturb your goal, search for the foods and drinks matching your calorie goals for the day or week. At least you should restrict yourself from indulging in such cheat meals and drinks till you lose at least 2" of your waist. Yes! After that point of time you would have enough knowledge to decide whether those cheat meals would fit your daily goal or not! Curd, buttermilk, rice, dal, plain paneer, green vegetables, idlis, plain dosas, boiled eggs, are few of the things we would get in every corner of India. So you should not have any reason to indulge in cheat meals in your 1st phase.
- There are many experiences to share which would help you a lot but I would like to write a separate article for it.
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| November 2019 |