Keeping fit all over again.

It has been a long time since my last post, so yep, I thought I would come in and fill this void with a little bit of rubbish. One thing that has really become a priorty in my life now, is keeping fit. I have no idea and can't really remember when it started, but I just woke up one day, looked at my body, and decided I was going to change that. I was sick of being fat, sick of feeling lethargic all the time, sick of feeling like a bum. And so my fitness plan began!

I used to be pretty much in shape when I was in the army 9 years ago. Back then I was 173cm tall and weighed a consistent 65kg. I was the fastest runner in my battalion, I got gold results for my fitness tests, but one thing I noticed, was that I never really had muscle definition. All I looked like was a skinny kid. And the strange thing was, I ate all the junk food I wanted but never got fat.

Fast forward a couple of years, I got a car and got a job. So I basically drove everywhere, didn't have the time or motivation to workout, and didn't really see a need to stay fit. I started getting really fat, and weighed about 90kg before I decided one day that hey, I've had enough of this. I want to be fit again, I want to feel good about my body again, I want to see how much I can transform myself. By this time, I could not even do ONE pushup, I couldn't walk up a flight of stairs without feeling out of breath and I have a huge bulging tummy from all the eating and beer-drinking. I started jogging and doing knee-pushups, situps, etc. And I fell in love with wakeboarding, so it became a sport I did every week. Needless to say I could barely handle the sport, and started having injuries and sores because my body simply couldn't cope with the stress of the sport. Still I pressed on but I felt like I wasn't making much progress in terms of weight-loss. It's strange how losing weight suddenly seemed like such a hugely impossible task now.

And then I read about the Atkin's diet. And I'm an impatient man, but very determined once I decide I want to do something. So I decided to try using it as a crash diet to lose some weight really fast, then slowly easing back into a normal diet and maintaining my weight with excercise. I love my food, so Atkin's really isn't a long term solution for me! So for the next 2 months, I forced myself to eat ZERO carbs. Yea I know Atkin's still allows a little carbs, but I wanted results fast. It was pretty much a torture. I felt really, really weak from the lack of carbs in my life. Everything suddenly seemed to require twice as much effort to move. And everything I loved seems to have carbs in them, I never realised how much carbs meant to my life. Even a bloody fishball has carbs for goodness sake. Even soya sauce has a little carb in it, so I steered clear away from that too. I felt really grumpy, I felt totally weak, I really missed my food, and I really hated the strange metallic taste in my mouth, which is a result of ketosis. Workouts became a torture too, I barely had strength to lift or run anymore, but still I forced myself through them.

Then, I started losing weight, really fast. I didn't measure exactly how much, all I know is that fats are starting to disappear from my body, and my pants were getting looser and looser. So for the next 2 months, I kept at this diet. Until that one fateful week. A little too much wakeboarding in a week, coupled with a few bad falls, a mild concussion, a twisted ankle, an injured back and a torn hamstring, I was forced to finally rest my body. And I had to finally admit to myself that despite the great short-term results of this diet, it could not support my lifestyle. My body is recovering really slowly from injuries, and a lack of strength while wakeboarding meant I was more prone to injuring myself as well.

So I slowly started taking more carbs again, and with a couple of days of rest and light exercise, I slowly recovered. I can't go back to wakeboarding yet because I still have not recovered from my concussion, but my body feels like its on steroids now. From not being able to do a single pushup, I have somehow trained myself to be able to do 5 sets of 10 pushups, 5 sets of 3 pull-ups and 5 sets of 5 inclined pull-ups in a typical arms workout day. I used to be giddy, totally breathless, and unable to walk straight after my usual jogging route, but today, I did the route twice without stopping and still felt great after that.

And all of these feel great! I have really pushed myself to the limit the last few months, but looking at the results now, it makes me feel really proud of myself. I still have a long way to go, but I'm getting there!