I feel pretty great about my health. My family is equally divided between diabetes and hypertension. I have been searching for a lifestyle plan that is achievable, results driven and inexpensive. I want to share my ideology with you and take you on my journey. In the next few blogs I will share the building blocks of the idea, as well as what a typical day looks like. To help with my discipline I have set some time lines.
Diet. Exercise. Awareness. Discipline. (D.E.A.D.)
The irony was intended. However, if you don’t have a healthy diet (not an expensive diet, but healthy), regular exercise, full awareness of your status and discipline to stick to the plan then you will not change. I wanted better for myself. I wanted to be a better person, mainly out of love for myself and life. I always strive to be the best (Age Quod Agis) and just having an average body was’t my way.
Eating the right types of food most of the time, for the right purpose is basic. You can lose weight by just managing what you eat alone. If you stop eating meat and have a high fibre diet, you will lose weight, automatically. Similarly if you exercise regularly (and ferociously) you will lose weight. You are guaranteed to lose at least 10lbs, though you may not lose much more. Same can be said for Awareness- counting your calories, regularly checking your weight causes a psychological discomfort that makes you eat less, take the stairs instead of the elevator and other clutch reactions to what you are both aware of and uncomfortable with.
Discipline
The one item that brings the whole plan together is discipline. If you do any of the other items alone, but lack discipline you will be unsuccessful. Sometimes you will feel tired, sometimes you will fall off the wagon- but you have to get back on it. It is for this reason that I have challenged myself with “12 Days of Fitness” and “6 Months of Personal Training.”
I used to be an avid fitness buff in 2010 to early 2011 but I had curtailed my adherence for about eight months. I said it was work and finance related, and it probably was, but I hardly even jogged on the home treadmill, which is free. When I finally restarted recently I was alternating weeks. Sure, the reasons seemed genuine. I was in another country for one week, working on a conference for another, vacation overseas for another. These are all outside of my control. However, I didn’t seek out a gym elsewhere; when I travel I don’t stick to my diet- all within my control.
Consequently, I have decided that I am going to do 4 consecutive weeks of exercise, dubbed 12 days of Fitness. The aim here is to break my mind and schedule back into accepting the gym as a critical part of my week. Once I have achieved this I will graduate to six months of Personal Training. I anticipate it will take me six months to achieve all my fitness goals and learn the methods my trainer uses. After that period I should be able to “show off” at a boasy gym like Gymkhana. I wouldn’t use their methods (I have my own) but I would use it for the status it affords.
Discipline is #1. Set a target and stick to it. Simple to say, hard to achieve. In the next blog post I will go through Awareness, another critical pillar that when paired with discipline unlocks some amazing results.
**DISCLAIMER – I do not endorse the video I pulled from Youtube. I will explain my exercise routine in detail in coming posts.**
