I started working out 2013 and prior to that , I've never stepped foot into a gym . I hated sports , I hated being outdoor or under the sun . Anything to do with sweating and tiring myself out is a big NO for me .
Well, guess what , I am a strength coach now ! The irony ! Life is so unpredictable !
Back when I wasn't active , I wasn't particularly overweight or skinny . I was just in the middle of the spectrum . I have a lot of fats especially around my lower body . My stomach was still fairly flat and my upper body just seems pretty normal to me . I ate whatever I want , whenever I want . I guess that's why I never thought of working out because I thought that I look fine , I feel fine so why do it ? Funny story , when I was studying in Sydney , I signed up for a gym because I've realised I put on some extra KG's and wanted to do something about it . So I went there , I remember it was in the evening , paid for it , literally when on the treadmill for not more than 15mins and went home. While walking home , I saw a pizza store and I went straight in and got myself a whole pizza and ate everything. Yes , I use to be that type of person.
Anyways , side tracking too much here . The purpose of this article is to help anyone that is just starting their fitness journey to not make the same mistake I did. I went through it the hard way and you don't have to !
1. Obsessed with restricting calories
We all know , when you are trying to lose some weight / fats , you have to be under a deficit. Of course I have no clue what all these are about , I don't know what my maintenance calories are or how much I need to be in a deficit to lose weight in a safe manner. All I did was just not eat , or try to eat as little as possible . There was a period of time that I was literally living off of 'fitness cereal' that I thought it was safe to eat and low fat milk ( which then found out that I am lactose intolerant ) but back then I didn't know better ( no wonder I was feeling bloated all the time ! ) I would cut off rice and have ' whole wheat bread' instead . If I were to take a wild guess , I would assume that I was consuming not more than 1000 calories a day. I was hungry all the time , I was deprived . I would binge eat at night when no one was watching and feel awful after , and the next morning I will restrict my calories even more to make up for the previous night.
The truth is , I lost a significant amount of weight but sadly it wasn't in a good way . I was skinny fat , I looked sick , people around me start asking if I am doing ok . I lost a lot of muscle mass but the fats are still with me . So then I got really frustrated and I wasn't reaching out for help because back then , I was still a student and I do not have the finance to hire a coach , plus fitness really isn't as popular and as blooming as compared to now so half the time I have no clue what I was doing. It was all trial and error.
My biggest advice on this , DO NOT RESTRICT YOUR CALORIES . Instead , find out exactly how much you need in order to lose/gain / maintain your weight. There's so many TDEE calculator right now online to help with your goals and to properly calculate your daily caloric needs to make sure you are doing it in a steady and safe manner . Because crash dieting is not the solution , I've gained back all the weight I lost after I stop this ridiculous calorie restricting diet . Oh well...life...
2. Consuming empty calories , ' health foods' that is actually not as healthy as they promote
Like I mentioned above , for a phase , I was literally living off fitness cereal and milk. I was also depending on a lot of low calorie , zero nutrient food like diet soda , all type of low calorie biscuits , ' healthy granola bars' , whatever you can think of that you see in the supermarket on the middle aisle. I totally dismissed eating whole and nutrient dense food because I simply do not know how many calorie is in it. Keep that in mind that I wasn't using any food tracking device back then because I did not know better. So if I don't know how many calories is in it , for sure as hell , I wasn't going to touch it. ( OMG I feel like slapping myself RN) The only food that I would eat was dinner cooked by my mum ( to save some money) But then again , even a pigeon wouldn't get full from that because I was eating so little ! Not to mention , those empty calorie food literally will not last me for more than 2 hours before I start reaching out for another pack of it. ( See how all these l add up ? )
Side effects on eating those food , I was constantly having stomach cramps , my stomach was always bloated ( due to the ingredients that I am intolerant to like gluten , dairy , wheat , artificial sweetener ,etc..) Oh dear those cramps was really bad. I was constantly constipated because I wasn't consuming enough fibre . Had to visit the doctor multiple times for that. Until now , my dad still joke around and ask if I am pooping fine
My advice on this is that , FOCUS ON WHOLE NUTRIENT DENSE FOOD . An egg or a piece of chicken or even a slice of bacon is way better off than all these self acclaimed ' fitness food' . Whole foods have way more micronutrients , vitamins than packaged food can ever give you. No clue what the macronutrient is ? Download MyFitnessPal , key it in and you will see everything . Keep in mind that it is not 100% accurate if you don't weigh it out by the grams but it is close enough to keep you on track.
3. Being only cardio and HIIT focus
Let me tell you my ridiculous routine back then . I will go straight to the treadmill , RUN like my life depends on it for 45 minutes , go to the bodyweight area and do shit tons of burpees or plyometrics or HIIT I can in an hour. That is 1 hour and 45 mins of cardio. I leave the gym feeling like shit and repeat that the next day,SEVEN TIMES A WEEK . Because I though that this was the BEST WAY to see results and to look shredded. I ended up looking sick and feel exhausted all the time. On top of that , eating in such restricted environment. People at the gym will come up and say I am fit but thinking back now, I was more stupid to be putting my body through inefficient training like these. That is why if you ask me to do burpees now I will say -
Cardio is not the answer, resistance training and a moderate amount of cardio is. If you are a beginner to start off with , resistance training 3 - 4 times a week for an hour with proper nutrient is enough to give you good progress . You don't have to think about cardio yet . Trust me on this . After being sick and tired of all these , I gave resistance training a try , following a really basic split that I grab online and it worked wonders! I can see major differences in body composition , my energy level went back up , my weight did went up but I would like to think that I am adding more lean mass and losing fats because I just generally looked way healthier and better in front of the mirror and mirrors don't lie !
4. My no pain , no gain attitude
Have you ever heard this phrase? or something along the line of ' Better be sore than sorry ' ? I use to live by them , I even wanted it as a tattoo ( IKR , SMH ) . Every single training session , I go balls to the walls , 7 times a week, I have no idea what recovery or rest day is. I thought that if I don't wake up sore , something is wrong or if I don't feel like I sweat enough or I wasn't dying by the end of the session , I am not doing it right . Well the truth is , I was a fucking idiot . Not only being in this mentality exhaust the shit out of me ( both physically and mentally ) my performance in the gym was deteriorating . I wish someone told me about how to properly plan my training schedule. Which is why , I am here writing this.
Here's one good example on how to plan your training. Again , this highly depend on your goals but a good baseline is to have two days on , one day off . Having three lifting session back to back is not optimal . You could also throw in some active recovery like steady state cardio , eg incline treadmill walk or just simply taking a walk around the neighbourhood on your rest day. You can also choose to have a conditioning session with only concentric movement like sled work , farmers carries , assault bike , rowing etc.. These movement will not stress your system as much and if you are sore from lifting , these movement will do some good to get your blood flow moving and reduce the soreness.
A little example -
Monday - Upper 1
Tuesday - Lower 1
Wednesday - Rest or active recovery day
Thursday - Upper 2
Friday - Lower 2
Saturday - Rest or active recovery day
Sunday - Back to day 1
5. Obsession towards how I look
I would like to end this article with something more on the mindset side. The main reason I got into working out and fitness in general was because I wasn't happy with how I look after a bad breakup . Prior to that , I was eating a lot , drinking a lot and I put on a lot of unwanted and unhealthy weight. Right after I came out of that relationship , I became this girl obsessed with how I want myself to look. Seeing pictures on the internet , I remember Kayla Itsines was a huge hit at the time. I wanted her flat abs , thigh gaps , skinny arms and I wanted to mold myself into that body type . I even went ahead and subscribed to her BBS series ( Girls , you know what I am talking about ) . But guess what , I can't look like that. It is just not my body type. It is so tiring to chase after something you are not . I felt so defeated and disappointed at myself and I was so envious of the girls that somehow looked like her. Thankfully , I snap out of it ( it wasn't easy , involve a lot of tears and self hatred ) , I decided to be the best version of myself instead of trying to be someone else. I have big muscular legs and I don't have a thigh gap but I've learnt to love them and make them even stronger . I might not have the smallest arms , but I have nice shoulders and delts , I've learnt to sculpt them even more . You see , you have to stop looking and wishing you can look a certain way and start looking at yourself and see where you can improve it , that is way more achievable .
After a long battle with myself and my body , it's safe to say that I've truly accepted how I look , on or off competition season. You can't just love yourself only when you are lean or choose when to love yourself . You need to love yourself every single second . No, that is not being full of yourself. That is self love.
I hope you enjoyed the transparency here and I love being honest with you guys. Do share this few pieces of advise if you know that someone needs it. Thank you for your time and catch you guys later !
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