The day before yesterday, I finished my second year of university, finally creating the time slots in which I can once again dedicate myself to the clean eating, working out, happy body, happy mind health kick. It feels quite amazing. To invest in this new program (which includes eating at least three entirely healthy meals a day and working out at the gym every day), Ariz and I ventured to Kikki K - aka organisation heaven - to purchase a meal planner, workout diary, and food log book. We’ve both started filling them out; a great tip from Ariz’s trainer Deb, 54-year-old ex-bodybuilder who could just as well be 40 from the looks of her.
“You’ll have the tightest ass in Perth,” she says to Ariz, as I watch him struggle through deep lunges with an added 30 kgs in his hands.
The books keep you organised, focused, and entirely honest, which are all essentials if you want to succeed in any kind of long-term fitness or health goal. And it’s fun, cause you reward yourself with little treats when you’ve completed a day, or week, or month, of hardcore fitness. We’re going for a Guinness later.
Yesterday, I visited the gym in a healthy state for the first time after my bronchitis months. The workout was absolutely thrilling. I didn’t wheeze, I didn’t feel dizzy, and I ran. It’s been so long since I ran on the treadmill, and it was indescribably fantastic. Then I re-visited my old friends, the lunges, as well as the severely missed sit-ups. Unfortunately, I’ve managed to obtain an inflamed tendon in my thumb, so weights are no-can-do for the moment; my appraisal on Thursday should fix that one right up.
Then there’s the issue of the food. Having been sick and ridiculously busy with university, my diet has also gone severely down-hill. I’ve gained more fat-kilos than I want to mention here, so since my health kick - and it will forever be known as the health kick - started yesterday, a serious clean-up in food has been made (yes, this far, being the last two days, being nothing in the long term, but reach for the stars, right?). Back at Kikki K we purchased meal planners, and set up two completely different menus; Ariz is trying to gain weight, and I’m trying to lose it. My menu mostly consists of protein and vegetables now, with some complex carbs, like quinoa, brown rice, and rye bread, in between. I made myself a delicious salmon salad for lunch yesterday and followed up with calamari and capsicums at night. It’s a huge transition for my body; my stomach shrieks up at me: “What is this?! I have to work again? But I was so comfortable passing it all on to the fat cells...”
The great thing about healthy food is that you can, and should, eat loads of it. I’ve realised that in order to keep this going, I will have to actually make my own meal plans, and ensure that I enjoy everything on them to hold in the large amounts; if I have some superior force telling me what to do, I’ll get sick of it, and quickly too. Deb pointed out that it’s important to load up on poultry and seafood; I now have red meat once a week, and carbohydrates only with lunch. Unless you have an extremely high metabolism, your body isn’t going to process those carbs overnight, so it’s important to get them all dealt with before you go to sleep. Handy tip. Thanks, Deb.
As I entered the gym today, I felt like myself again for the first time in a long time. I did 45 squats, 60 lunges, 74 sit-ups and ten minutes on the treadmill among many other exercises, with some energy to spare at the end of my session. I cannot believe I’m excited to get up at 7 AM tomorrow morning for another workout. The summer, it seems, is finally here.
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