My transformational journey from fat to fit
“A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world.” -Paul Dudley White
I have been a passionate trekker & have successfully completed more than 15 treks across India & Europe. However, after having a narrow escape during my last trek to “Hampta Pass” , I had regrets of neglecting my health & eating junk.I had serious doubts if I would ever be able to re-pursue my passion & climb the snow covered mountains given my unhealthy lifestyle.
With such thoughts in mind I headed towards Nehru Park for a pleasant walk . After I parked my car & looked outside, I was welcomed by pleasant & fresh air with soothing smell. Considering the weather & aroma of the park and the presence of joggers & sportsmen in the park, I kept wondering if I would ever be able to gather such energy & endurance level to engage in such fitness activities. I wanted to run like other joggers; however my bulky weight & obese structure played a spoilsport.
During past 4 years, I had put on lot of unwanted weight & started looking old & aged than I actually was.Considering the fact, I did not have the fitness level in place to jog & run, I used to have a small 10 minutes walk around the park & moved back, hoping to regain/build stamina before re-plunging into running spree.
The same night, I learnt that one of close acquaintance & my mentor left all of us from this world. Although he appeared to be hail & hearty when I met him during last year, he was suffering from Diabetes due to his unhealthy eating habits & avoided physical exercise & labor.
All the above instances gave me alarm bells & given me thoughts to ponder upon! What I really want from my life? Does the current lifestyle will help me lead a sustainable & happy life? Why I am missing my life objective? The answer to all these questions was — “ I want to take control of my life”. Now I really wanted to revisit my health objectives.
With this objective in mind & discussion with couple of friends, I decided to break-free & take a plunge towards bringing positive changes in my health & ultimately my happiness. I visited couple of gyms as a first step towards my health transformation journey
The next morning, I received a call from Mr.Rishabh, Manager at “ Anytime Fitness”.
Rishabh, Hello Mr. Sushant, how are doing today?
Me: I am doing pretty good! Thank you so much for asking.
Rishabh: I wanted to speak with you as a follow up to your visit to our gym yesterday. How did you find our gym & the services we offered?
Me: I found your gym has decent infra & trainers. Can I have trial sessions & speak with handful of current members to have real time perspective.
Rishabh: Sure thing. You may visit our centre tomorrow @ 6am.
After this , I hung up the phone. The very next day I was at “ Anytime Fitness” at the appointed time & spoke with trainers & some of current members focused on reducing weight. I was enlightened by the passion & to-do attitude of the trainers for helping their clients reach their fitness objectives.
I settled upon “ Anytime Fitness” as my fitness partner for my weight reduction journey. My target was to reduce 27 Kgs in span of 15 to 18 months.
The very next monday, I reached gym @ 5: 30 am. With the thought of working out on sophisticated machines with motivated trainers, I was already pumped up. It sounded like a eventful start with trainer, Shadab, was already waiting for me in the gym.
The first day was more focussed on goal setting. I underwent my body & weight check-up & when we defined our target to reduce my weight from 105 kgs to 75 kgs, my heart took a pause! I questioned myself with a cunning smile are you kidding me? 30 Kgs in next 15 months? This was a mammoth task. I realized next 1.5 years are going to be excitingly challenging for me. I decided to not to take Shadab services initially for 3 months since I wanted to taste waters whether I have that patience, perseverance & control to attain my objective.
Next week was really challenging for me since I have to come to terms with my stamina level. Initially I did treadmill, cross fit & cycling 20 minutes each at a speed of 5 km to an hour. This continued for a period of 2 months. Although these cardio exercises helped me build my stamina & endurance to some extent & increased my speed from 5 km to an hour to 7 km to an hour, I neglected to focus on strength building.
As a result, I reduced by weight by 5 kgs, but suffered on skin toning side & my muscles had become weak. At this instance, Shadab phoned me up on one fine Sunday
Sushant: Shahdab ji, Although I reduced 5 kgs, my body is not coming in shape & love handles are clearly evident.
Shahdab: Sushant sir, you need to focus on core strength & weight training besides cardio. Now it appears be a mammoth task to tone your body.
I was in state of shock. I thought my 2 months workout has been futile. However, “ giving up” did not appeared in my life dictionary. The very next day, I decided to set up an aggressive fitness target for myself & decided to restructure my entire workout schedule. I transitioned from a full cardio regime to mix of weight & functional training. Working out with Shadab was itself an challenging experience.
We started off with functional & military training that tested my real stamina & endurance levels.. Every workout right from planks, mountain climb, jumping jack,catelbell, berpeice, mix of abs exercises along with weight training, drained me to the core but my intensity of strength & mental toughness kept on increasing. Besides, I started following rigorous diet to support my ever increasing strength level.
I followed a strict diet pattern consisting of optimum combination of protein carb & fats. In case anyone wish to know my diet plan &/or workout schedule, please feel free to reach out via facebook (sushant.kumar.963)/email(sushant.kumar45@gmail.com)