Journey

This story begins the day I was born... Neah, just messing with you, wouldn't want to torture a poor soul with irrelevance! It actually began in the summer of 2007 during my internship at Clemson University. I stepped into the fitness center there and was hit by a wave of motivation when I saw people working passionately to reach their fitness goals. And that was the first time I lifted weights. Was it easy to begin with? Hell no! The challenge was not just physical; imagine my plight struggling with 15 pounds when a girl standing next to be is curling 25. I carried on anyways and was surprised to see how fast the improvement came (at least initially)! I felt alright, I was still packing fat but I was happy with the fact that I was making an effort. Here's how I looked during that time (And I dare not take my shirt off back then):

I came back to college determined that I would stick to my newly acquired healthy ways. No points for guessing that I fell off the wagon. It's surprising how easy it is to find excuses for missing workout. I tried starting a couple times and soon realized that the environment wasn't as conducive here and that I needed a gym buddy who was equally if not more serious. So I started again sometime in October 2008, this time with another fanatic Sidhant. With whatever information we could synthesize from the big dark online world we chalked out a schedule which served us well for the months to come. It was targeting one body part per day while cycling through new workouts every month or so to utilize the famous "muscle confusion" technique. I felt I had bigger biceps and chest, I noticed a little improvement on legs and on back but tummy, phew, it was there to stay! Here's me during convocation with all the baby fat:

I then came to Bangalore determined yet again to continue and failing yet again to stick to the resolution. But this time motivation wasn't a problem, time was! After spending 10 hours in the office and another on the road, my body will give me all sorts of excuses for just lying down and start watching a hundred episode tv series. I dragged myself to the gym in September and things clicked, unlike college where you could hardly find a regular goer here I saw people who looked like they took things seriously enough. I started with three days of weights and six days of cardio. Weight training was a fully body routine, that is I would do one exercise (3 sets) for each body part. Cardio was 70 minutes on dedicated days and 20 minutes on weight training days. Results were fast: from 74 kg. I came down to 65 kg. in a matter of 4 months. And yet, the tummy wouldn't go! I thought this was it, resistance seemed futile, for if this much of workout didn't chip the fat, it seemed nothing will. That, of course, was ignorance! The conventional diet which most of us live on is highly unlikely to take you there. It took me another year to realize this and though I religiously continued, the results were far too slow. I asked my gym trainers and they were as clueless (they wouldn't admit though and would try and inundate you with jargon), some of them had good bodies but they just "had" it, they didn't know how they can help others to get there. In the mean time I gave up on cardio (the boring tiring enterprise as it was) and stuck only with weights. Here's a pic (admittedly matrimonial kind) taken in May 2009:

If the last pic gave you the impression that I was fit, I'd pat myself on the back saying, "wow! i could really pull my tummy in when need arose." However, stepping out of the shower gave a glimpse of reality everyday without fail. I was getting nowhere and I was confused as to whether I should try to add muscle mass or try to cut down fat. In late December 2009, I talked to a trainer again (see I was running out of options) and he suggested me a big big diet, I obliged. I started at 69 kg. and reached 71.5 kg. in a month, the bad news was I added another inch to my waist. I had had enough, I knew that if I wanted to avoid my gym becoming just a societal meeting place (and you wouldn't believe how many people do just that) I needed a new strategy. I knew that the most important thing for me was to cut down fat, I needed definition more than size (which aesthetics aside is a healthier aim too). That's when I read and read and there was wisdom to be found if you look well enough. I understood the role of all the components: diet, weights, cardio and rest (plus a not-so-known which I will talk about later). I realized my mistakes: since my foray till the day of enlightenment I had blatantly ignored diet and was highly irregular with cardio to put it mildly. I designed a diet and a better workout and after that there was no looking back. Details will follow soon but I thought a little background wouldn't go amiss if it can serve as motivation, for after all is theorized it is the commitment to act that gets the job done!