How many times have you decided to lose weight? Out of those,
how many times did you say, ‘I’m serious this time around’? And how many times
have you decided to eat clean from ‘tomorrow’. Let’s face it, that tomorrow
never comes because losing weight is HARD!
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| 100 Kg |
Even for me it wasn’t until people pointed out this fact that
I was excessively overweight that I decided to lose it all.
During my days at Nixor College, I was approximately 100 Kgs
and as we live in a world where to express power you need to express harshness,
lots of boys made fun of me for being fat. I’m not the kind of person who lets
these things affect me but there is always so much you can take. When it got
way too much I reached my saturation point and decided it needs to change. I
had two ways of getting back at them: 1) Negatively - by calling them names too
and making myself concrete enough to withstand all the repercussions. 2)
Positively - by making sure I’m a survivor, not a victim. Hence, I decided to
lose weight and get fit.
This wasn’t for the people around me, but for me to feel
better about myself and become a better version of myself.
Initially, I went to a close by gym and would exercise for
1-1.5 hrs without a trainer and did so for about 2 months and felt no
difference. I did realize I was missing something and consulted one of my cousins,
who is a fitness freak, he suggested a better gym with trainers. That gym was
in Gulshan Iqbal and at that time I lived in Nazimabad, which means the gym was
approximately half hour away from my place and I would go there every day
except Sundays. Anyone, who is familiar with Karachi’s traffic, knows that this
is itself really tiring and a test of one’s patience. On my first day, I did exercises
focusing on chest and biceps only. This was one of the major differences I felt
between my previous gym routine and this one. Previously, I used to do mixed up
exercises everyday but in this gym each day focused on different part of my
body. My trainer gave me one week to eat whatever I want because after that he
put me on a strict diet. He had a well-known slogan: “Aloo, chawal, meetha
mithaye, cold drink, ice-cream aur deep fried BAND!” (No Potato, rice, sweets,
softdrinks and fried items). After that I strictly controlled my diet, even if
there was nothing else to eat at home, I wouldn’t touch these things. Also, I
decreased the quantity to half of whatever I ate. Other than this, my diet
remained the same.
For the first 6 weeks all exercises I did consist of 2 sets
with 10 to 12 reps in each set. I did Commando jumps and push ups for warm up
and proceeded towards my main exercises. Chest exercises were dumbbell press,
barbell bench press, inclined and declined barbell bench press and pullover
dumbbell. For wings I did wide grip lat
pulldown, seated cable rows and V bar pulldown. For shoulders I did barbell
push press, Arnold press, dumbbell lateral raise and seated barbell shoulder
press. Bicep exercises included wide grip standing barbell curl, hammer curl
and dumbbell biceps curl. Triceps exercises were standing overhead barbell triceps
extension, standing one arm dumbbell triceps extensions and triceps pushups.
First 6 weeks seemed to be the toughest days for me at the gym. I wanted to
quit and get back on the normal routine but when I used to remember how I was
bullied and was not able to participate in cricket, I got motivation back. The
bullying and the love for the cricket made me bear the tough diet, the nausea
and drowsiness at the gym and all the pain.
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| 2 seated cable row |
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| Barbell Bench Press |
After 6 weeks I was able to see the transformation. My weight
reduced to 95Kgs. My body was now stronger with more stamina and strength. It
was now time to make the work out tougher. Now all exercises I did consisted of
3 sets with 25 to 30 reps. Some more exercises were added to my workout, for
chest, butterfly, seated machine chest press and inclined dumbbell press were
added to workout. For wings bent over barbell row and one arm dumbbell rows
were added. Abs exercises were also initiated which had leg raise, plank,
crunches, weighted sit ups and dumbbell side bends. Moreover, the toughest part
of my diet also started from the 7th week when my trainer asked me
to consume 200 to 250 grams of boiled fish on the daily basis. The smell of
the boiled fish made the task most difficult. I still managed to consume the
boiled fish and after 10 weeks the results were significantly visible, I reached
80 kgs.
People would notice my transformation and ask me how I did
it. I too, started to feel a lot better, healthier and confident.
Always remember whenever you want to achieve something, there
is a proper way of doing so, to reach somewhere you need to step out of your
comfort zone. Even for me in the
beginning, going to gym and exercising was a necessity for me but now it is a
part of my lifestyle. I owe this to all those who bullied me and gave me the
courage to become a better version of myself.
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| 80 Kg |
Good article!
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