My journey!

Okay I am also just another person who is writing about a boring transformation journey. Boring for others but truly amazing for me. I am the kind of person who I guess 99% of people can relate to when it comes to their health journey. I follow 5 different pages for health and fitness, look at those strongbodies on facebook, people with mindblowing pics on insta and can't help wondering "how does he/she look so lean and good". I like myself, I really do but those fb, insta pages always make me doubt myself for few mins or days.
I have spent so much money on my fitness journeys, loose x kg in x days, try keto, try fascinating mummy program, go traditional blah blah. Truth is every single person who has lost weight and kept it off has repeated the same thing. Exercise and eat healthy and then repeat it the next day and again on the next day. You knowwhat I kept thinking how much exercise, what kind of exercise, strength training or cardio, HIIT or workout for long duration !!What is healthy food? am I meant to just eat salad now, what about snacks etc. The questions never stopped, every theory I read gave me a different answer. I absolutely hated exercise and salad.. I started this over and over , differnt gyms, different trainers, different classes, working out with my partner, friends everything and then gave up. But I never gave up trying again. I never gave up the thought of becoming more leaner. And that my friends was the problem. My goal was short term, it was temporary and it meant nothing except the number on scales. I was set up for failure.

One day a friend of mine told me there are new bootcamp classes starting on weekends. For me, it was just another thing to "try". The trainer said just pay as much as you like !! Now, this was new. I didn't have to sign any contracts, pay advance and some classes were even free. I did it for few weeks and fell in love with it. I fell in love with trainers.. they were different from my all previous trainers. They didn't work for big gym, they didn't care much about money, they didn't keep looking at the watch to say ok 26 mins done ..use 4 mins to cool down and out of this place. I joined them for Personal Training once a week on top of bootcamps. I did what I could never think of doing. I started lifting heavy weights. I remember the first time I did deadlift with 40 kgs ! I was so happy with myself. I wasn't thinking if it will help me with weight loss, if it will help with lower cloth size. I was just such a happy and confident girl.

Life doesn't always go as per plan and I fractured my toe !! not at gym though, at the park while playing with my kids. There came the first hurdle. For the first time I was loving exercise..and I was forced to take a break. Most of you will again understand what it means to take a break? it means not going back to exercise or your hobby even though you loved it when you were doing it. I am one of those humans. I never went back to exercise for a year. It was Jan when I broke my toe and I only went back to exercise in Dec (2019). It is hard to forget this month and year thanks to COVID-19! Australia wasn't hit by it at that time. So, I started my journey again with my amazing trainers Ves and Eddie.  This was nothing but my another go ..only difference being I wasn't going to new gym, new trainer, new program and had no new goals. Eddie and Vesna sat with me for an hour over tea and told me they can keep taking my money and keep training me till I am old but it wont help any of us. I get that ..what was I doing - training once a week, paying lot of money, eating my hearts out and then back to training. I had no goal, no way to measure it, no plan and nothing. I did not know why I was doing this. I always said I want to loose weight but there is a difference between really wanting it and working for it. So, this time ok I want a goal-  I want to do deadlift by 100 kgs by end of 2020, I want to do 25 pushups without stopping and I want to do atleast 5 chin ups ( I can't do even 1). So, there it was, my goal, something to work for.

Eddie made my plan, Vesna worked on my form and we started. Formal training started in Jan and in March 2020 I did a deadlift with 90 (effing) Kilos. I was there in 2.5 months. I could do 10 pushups and still 0 chin ups. I am human guys ! March wasn't a great month for most of the world with Australia being no exception. We were truly under the grip of this evil pandemic. Offices started closing, gyms started closing and came another hurdle and break. No MORE PT  or gym!!! Which meant I cannot work on my goals anymore. I decided to take another break to keep everyone at home safe. I hated it. I wanted to go and do another deadlift, hit the gym and sweat it out. But in reality I was happy as I had a valid excuse for not working out. In April, Eddie told me to join his virtual classes which I didn't want to be but joined under peer pressure from friends.

April 2020 - Peak of Pandemic - Virtual classes
I started virtual classes which are more like cardio classes and enjoyed them. 30 mins 4 times a week. Classes run 7 days a week but I chose the ones I like (or rather find easy) and left the hard ones. Eddie and Ves realised I am getting away from my goals more and more. They offered to do PT in a park or virtually. I chose virtual sessions and they were meant to start in May.

May - Virtual PT
Now I had never ever imagined of doing Personal Training virtually. I wanted to give it a try though. I did and they are no where close to what do you do in face to face PT in a fully functional gym but they are 100 times better than what you can do at home in a lockdown. I had to modify my goals, my plan and my attitude. I wanted to be in size 8 till my 40th Birthday. I was in size 12 (tight), 14 (loose) when I started. I bought a goal dress of size 10. Yes, I am also that kind of person who would love to be in size 8 but in reality happy with 10.  My 40th is in July. I was told 3 months isn't a lot of time. It isn't a lot of time for people who want to change their life. However, those who always dream of short term goals, believe in fad diets and fantascised over loosing weight for a holiday, 3 months is a very long time. We plan to loose 1-2 kg a week and loose 10kgs before holiday in 2 months. Truth is that most of us never loose that 10 kgs before holiday but do put on those 12kgs after coming back.

Back to 3 months plan. It wasn't a long time but this time it wasn't the end goal too. It is just a pit stop. I never believed truly in the goal, never really worked 100% for it. I respect my trainer and dont want to hurt him so I started on this journey. I wasn't 100% convinced still why am I torturing myself. When everyone else is posting pics of food day and night on social media, why am I learning the opposite. Everything was hard, staying at home 24/7, home schooling kids, working from home, working for home ( laundary, kitchen, cleaning) and then learning this new skill to be focussed on health. But, within few weeks something amazing happened. I started looking forward to the workouts, this was my only me time in all the craziness of lockdown. I couldn't wait for my class and let my energy burn off. PT helped me get back to strength training too.. not 90 kgs deadlifts but 9 kgs dumbells. Eddie and Ves never left my side.. they kept pushing me and pushing me and I kept on going.
I did my birthday shopping 2 weeks back and I can happily and comfortably fit into size 8, I have lost around 6.5 kgs since start of this year. Lost around 10 cms off my waist !! They are all numbers, just numbers. They are not my trophy.  My trophy is my kids telling me they dont enjoy jumping on my tummy anymore as it is not like jelly anymore :). My real win is my kids adding cucumbers and carrots in grocery list as they dont enjoy any meal without salad anymore. The most amazing part of all this me looking into the mirror and actually liking what I see. I look at food and don't count calories, I see if this food will nourish my body or not. I love going on bike rides without getting tired within 1st 10 mins, I enjoy playing x-box with kids and winning the games for a change.

My measure of fitness is changing, it is moving away from weight, weight, weight to muscle in my shoulders. It is moving to my resting heart rate,  it is moving to how much I enjoy my time post workout. I am not even half way with my journey. It is only starting.

Only piece of advice from this novice starter -  Don't think just do it and do it consistently. Do it with someone you like and respect. Not with someone whose interest lies only in your money and not you.