Picture from last week( don’t miss the time stamp on the bottom right😉)
I have been training for 8 long years and people often ask me, what does it take? Well, for starters, I have always said weight loss programs and diet plans are short lived. It is a lifestyle change. You must plan your life around your active physical environment and not your physical environment around your life, it is that simple. Yes, I admit I am a little bit eccentric with this sport. I have been disciplined each day, every day for the last 8 years and the rewards have been more than gratifying. it isn’t easy, else everyone would be doing it, but it certainly is not difficult either and anyone with a little bit of passion, will to sacrifice along with access to the right tools, can achieve this like a breeze. And that is what today’s read is all about.
I will give you 3 of the most elementary yet effective tools to begin your transformation journey. It took me a while to figure this out.  I remember waking up one fine winter morning and hitting a nerve in my head. It has never been the same since then. It was a great way to begin for me, but with time I realized, it was not enough. I pretty much lived in a box during the initial stages of discovering myself alongside the sport. No socializing, no indulgence in the so called “evil food” ( it took me a while to realize no food is evil ’cause a calorie is only a unit of energy, how you utilize it is what matters) no drinking for the longest time( you sure can indulge in alcohol alongside building your dream physique, it’s all about understanding your biochemistry and the macronutrients,) There has been one too many learnings and a lot of error correction which helped me discover myself and evolve as a natural fitness enthusiast and realize my maximum potential as an individual. I can confidently admit, I know a thing or two about health and fitness. Let me give you my top 3 guidelines to start your transformation journey.
Evaluation-Assess yourself
This sport requires time. Especially if you want to be a natural. The first step towards building a healthy lifestyle is to evaluate
- What is your intent? where do you want to go with this? do you want to be a recreational lifter or go to the next level? it is extremely important to have an end goal in mind. A vision, as they say.
- What is your current physical and biological state? Are you a beginner or an intermediate? What are your eating habits like? This will help you build the right approach and align yourself better to the transformation goal.
- What pushed you to recompose your body/Life- I remember what pushed me to pick up the sport and my why has helped me to remain aligned to this lifestyle. Each time I tend to lose focus or drift away, all I do is remember why I started. It all falls back in place.
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Creating the right Exercise and Nutrition plan followed by execution
Now that you have identified the fundamentals, you need to put it on pen and paper along with short- and long-term goals. Sounds simple, well, this is where most of us fuck-up. You see, in the beginning we are motivated to another level and tend to set unrealistic goals. E.g. I want to build a six pack in 3 months, I will make sure to run 10 miles tops In 2 months, I will learn the elimination diet, etc. now, these certainly are achievable, however, when you factor in life to this equation- your work or home schedule, your readiness and willingness to go that far, your ability to execute what you’ve envisaged, etc. the game changes and you end up failing more often than not. So, the right approach is to set simple but effective goals. For starters, I will eat a fruit every day. I will get to the gym/or play my favourite sport 3 days a week. I will walk home from work once a week, etc. You see these little disciplines are achievable. They build a habit, which in turn makes you consistent as an individual and the only 2 things required to be successful at this sport (and life!)are habit and consistency. This also solves your problem with execution. How do I start? You already are on the right track in terms of making sure you are getting to the gym or playing your sport or walking often which will ensure significant movement. You are consuming your vitamins & minerals from the fruit which will kick start your nutrition and believe you me you will feel inherently  better and want to continue doing this.   So, do not load yourself with a bunch of stuff that is unreal. Take the linear approach and you sure will set yourself up for success.
Measure
In order to progress in life, you must measure what you practice. Your output must compound and get you closer to your goal. When I started, the barometer I used was the good old weighing scale and pictures( pictures never lie). Gradually I learnt about other things and I will get there in a minute. You will have to learn about your body to be able to sustain this as a lifestyle. The only way you will cover more ground is by pushing your body beyond capacity. The changes you will experience in the process will help understand how you respond to exercise and nutrition under different circumstances. Your digestion, your biomechanics ( how and why the human body moves the way it does), progressive overload( pounding more weight to achieve muscle hypertrophy) are variables which you need to account for and you learn all this with experience and error correction. So here are my top measuring tools to track your progress.
- Pictures- as explained above
- Body fat calipers to measure your body fat percentage. You can buy them off Amazon for 250 odd bucks and they are super effective.
- Weighing scale
- DOMS- Delayed on-set muscle soreness- According to the American College of Sports Medicine, DOMS symptoms typically occur at least 12 to 24 hours after a workout. The pain tends to peak about one to three days after your workout, and then should ease up after that. Now, does this mean you are progressing? Well not exactly, however, when you start a new exercise routine or push your limits, you are more likely to get sore. But as you keep working out, your body adapts. This sort of diminishes with time but is a part of the process and is a relative indicator of exercise intensity.
These guidelines will help you begin your transformation journey. Remember, the only reason you are out of shape or will ever go out of shape is due to a sedentary lifestyle and poor nutrition quality. It is not diabetes, thyroid, a tiny body which stores more fat, or you think you were born large 😉 Become so consistent and committed to your goal to the extent that it leads you to getting physically adapted to this predisposed concept of training and nutrition.
Get on with it already people. Do check me out on Instagram and Facebook if you haven’t yet and make sure to follow me on YouTube (Rishiraj Kapur-Fitdadaesthetics)
So, here is to a new beginning. In case I do not see you, let me wish you Happy Holidays in advance. Have a blessed Christmas and a very Happy New Year!
We lift; therefore, we are!
Cheers!
