My little fitness transformation story
A rejuvenated relationship with my own body, and how it started with a diet in 2021
When I look back at 2021, a lot of things happened during the year. But one thing that stands out is the health and fitness transformation that I underwent during the year. It deserves a special mention because it was only possible because of the help, support and guidance from a few wonderful people.
When 2021 began, I was recouping from a fistulectomy surgery that required me to restrain from any physically exerting activity for 6 weeks. That combined with my infamous food habits ensured that I got out of shape pretty quickly. I'm told that I have "thunder thighs" but they couldn't get any more thunderer and it was an effort to sport a couple of trousers that I had bought just a few months back. Not good.
I've always had a challenge with showing restraint when it comes to food. It's almost like the "Houseful" signal from my stomach hits the brain a bit late every time. Adding to that, because I have a sensitive stomach with a tendency to develop acidity if not fed on time, I've always opted out of intermittent fasting and other diets just after a few weeks of giving it a try. But this time, I felt I had to do something about the weight gain. It made me a bit tardy and as you can see, the clothes were also giving up.
What followed was a 3 months sprint of strictly following what's called a quantified nutrition diet. It’s this messy business of measuring the calorie equivalent of everything you consume (by weight) and ensuring that it's less than the calorie you burn every day.
Quantified nutrition was hard (starting with the weighing part for anything and everything you eat) but we were able to do it with the help and guidance of an amazing trainer. The result was just beautiful - my weight reduced from 85 kg to 70 kg. And after the 3 months period I was able to continue with a self-supervised version of the diet for the remainder of the year.
But it's not just the diet that helped. When the results from the diet started showing, it built a positive feedback loop that helped me engage in other activities proactively. I started playing football more regularly. I learned to jump rope for cardio, building a regime of doing upto 4K skips in a session. The cardio efforts were balanced with one or two stretch and strengthening workouts every week that were pretty thoughtfully designed.
Is a lifestyle like this sustainable? It certainly depends on people and circumstances, but for me the benefits outweigh (pun intended) the cost. Weight loss was not the only outcome from this experience. Remember the infamous food habits I talked about in the beginning? I can say that I've better awareness about what I need to eat - it's as if that stomach to brain signal got fixed to some extent in the process. I also feel like I understand the needs of my body better - when I need to rest, when I can exert etc. Coming to sports, I'm a better footballer now - more agile and athletic than before - and it helps me enjoy my favourite sport even more. Overall it feels like I have developed a higher level of awareness and wellness.
So if any of you have been waiting for that extra push to focus on diet and wellness in 2022, go for it. Like all long term investments, it's one that gives you delayed gratification but it's worth it. Nothing like understanding that wonderful body of yours and taking care of it. Here's to many more years of living healthy and fit. :-)
Thanks to these amazing folks for their help and support.
1/ We worked with @hitzyfit, a very thoughtful trainer who helped us get onboarded onto the quantified nutrition diet. We connected with Hitesh via @fittrwithsquats.
2/ Thanks to @raju.pillai.30 who motivated us to try out quantified nutrition as a means to become fitter.
3/ Weight loss works well when you couple it with some great workout sessions. We were lucky to workout with @debapriya_nrityakosh - she runs the dance academy @nrityakosh and conducts some of the best strengthening workout sessions I've experienced.
4/ I've got a new workout friend whom I carry everywhere I go - the jump rope. Thanks to @decathlonsportsindia for letting me try more than three jump ropes to finalise on the type and fit that I wanted. They have a jump rope collection for everyone.