projectruby-blog1

[projectruby-blog1]

They Are Lying...

You must have heard so many people come up with these quick fixes for weight loss. And I am sure somewhere along the line you believed them and even gave in.

Drink this, eat that, do this...the list goes on.

It’s a lie. It’s a hoax. It’s a fraud.

There are no quick fixes for anything in life let alone weight loss.

If you want something in life, you gotta work for it,

If you have this mantra in your life, believe me there is nothing you won’t achieve. Quick fixes are for people who want an escape route. a feel good factor, that something was done, now whether that works or not is not there problem. 

If you want to loose weight, tone a certain body part, or you want to just feel good...you have to put in a few hours of hard core training (hard core is relative basis your capabilities) of course how you nurture your body is also part of the whole process.

In the enxt blog, I will take you through nutrition for body that goes through intense workout- these are personal experiences so I am not trying to be some sort of Guru, feel free to correct me at any point or share your own experience. 

Coming back to quick fixes vs hard work, it’s my request if you wish to kick start your metabolism, remember this, you can start a machine, but if you want productivity out of it, then you need to programme it to do so.

similarly if you kick start your metabolism you can’t just let your body just sit there and figure out where to burn stuff, you need to get it into action for it to do something about that active metabolism right?

work it and the reap it. no better feeling I assure you.

[projectruby-blog1]

NEVER PUSH- ALWAYS DIRECT

This is for all those people who feel the need to push someone on a fitness/weight loss journey. Do you really think if you constantly nag and complain and embarrass someone about their mounting weight that they are going to drop those cookies and head to the gym? 

Do you really think they don’t look at themselves in the mirror and hope for that awakening? Do you really think that those nasty bodyshamers haven’t made them realize that they need to change their lifestyle?

what’s happening instead is that every time you’re hurting them, food is comforting them. What you’re not realizing is that your efforts to make them walk down the fitness route are actually becoming counterproductive.

How do I know that? Because I have been there. Bad food habits and bad sleeping habits, turned me into this obese 90kg individual in the last year of my college days. And it happened so gradually that I didn’t even realize when it hit me. 

I was so ashamed and I had become a recluse and I felt like I had done this serious damage to myself and that no amount of help is going to undo it. People around me were not very forgiving as well. I would constantly be made fun off and I would come home thinking oh well...since I cant do much about it let me just drown myself into a cookie jar. 

I would hate shopping. I was suppose to head to London for my post grad studies. And that whole shopping experience was just plain grueling. Looking for XL sizes in styles that I loved, and settling for styles that came in XL size became the story of my life. I ached to wear certain clothes without looking like a stuffed up teddy bear in a LBD. 

In short....no one was guiding me but everyone was pushing me.

When I came back from London and was in the midst of job hunting, and basically feeling sorry for my puffed up body (You get the best pies in London btw), I used to see my sister hitting the gym like a religion. She would come back from work and no matter how tired she would be, she would still put in that 50-60 min of training in. And I was fascinated. 

I decided to start going with her. I promise you I gave myself no goals. I just decided to make it a routine, like brushing my teeth, rather than a mission. No one likes to entertain missions that are painful, we usually fall of those wagons. I did it initially just to make it to the gym---- and then figure from there.

My first week at the gym was so damn painful. Not because my body hurt, because my soul did. People in the gyms are far less forgiving than those you meet socially. because they also judge you from their looks not just their words. Today when I train, and there is someone on the plus side that enters the gym, I always pair with them for my workout that day and gently push them enough for them to realize their potentially without being obvious about it. Nothing more satisfying to see someone who entered the box feeling feeble, eventually leaving feeling powerful. 

At the gym, in those first few days of my fitness journey,  I did bare minimum. I would read up a lot about workouts and how they benefit, good form etc and nutrition. It took me a year to figure and stick to a good workout plan for myself and a diet plan. along with my work, I would make sure I hit the gym 5 days a week minimum. The transformation was amazing, and I couldn’t believe myself when the scales revealed I was a 61kg. Yes! from a 90kg to a 61kg in a year. I lost 29kgs. I felt fitter I felt stronger and I felt a whole lot good about myself. 

I give the credit to my fitness journey completely to my sister. She, without really pushing me, guided me down  the road. I remember, I am sure she doesn't, how one day she decided to skip her workout because she had a tough day at work. These were early days at the gym for me. and I told her that if she slacked I would too, she looked at me and smiled and said “lets go then”. It made all the difference for me. 

All she did was guide me, direct me, and supported me through it without being nagging, complaining, belittling or being sorry for me. She simply made sure I showed up, and guided me when I asked for it.

Weighloss/Fitness as a journey needs to come from a completely different place in your head and heart. It cannot be about getting married, it cannot be about heartbreak, it cannot be about getting into a certain dress size, no way, those issues wont last, and as a result your journey won’t last either.

It needs to come from something deeper, something like confidence, strength, determination, respecting your own self, feeling fitter, feeling in control of yourself. Tell me how can someone instill those in you? They can’t.

My husband always said that unless you keep reminding someone they need to get fitter they won’t. And I would always tell him he is wrong. He once asked me how then do people one day decided to change their life. I told him, “you wake up and you realize that if you don’t do something today to change your life, it might just be too late. and that day you don’t care if you have the right Nike shoes or the right Reebok Tee to match your Reebok tracks, you get your shit together anyway and just make it to the gym” It’s true. 

[projectruby-blog1]

Here is something many won’t tell you

My fitness journey did not start because I wanted to look like some celebrity, or because it was the latest thing to do. It was rather circumstantial. I was born in a defense family and to keep moving was the mantra, but along the line, as it happens to many of us, I found comfort in food. More on that later.

What many won’t tell you, the journey of fitness is peppered with pain, both mental and physical. and it hurts. unless you make that pain your best friend and seek it everyday you might as well just do 20 min treadmill walk, a few lazy dumbbell curls and a squat there and a lunge there and go home feeling superior.

I am not trying to be nice, I am simply stating facts. let it hurt because your body has been in some sort of limbo for so long that it needs that shock. Of course it goes without saying that when I say pain I am not referring to injuries, there is a difference. the pain I am talking about is the soreness, the ache, the kind that sometimes feels like stiffness. You’ll know!

As far as mental pain goes, well let me just out this out there. DO NOT TAKE CELEBRITY TRANSFORMATION AS THE GOAL. I cannot stress on this more than it already has been. Celebs have an entourage of people making them look the way they do, you and I don’t fit in that category. They take number of supplements to look the part they do in certain movies. THAT ISN'T FITNESS.

If you are looking for some dream body you might as well quit this blog. I am not here to give you the instant recipe to lose weight. However the road to fitness does go via weight loss. I am just taking you on a journey to fitness with me. And when I say fit, i mean when you can squat deeper, when you can jump higher, when you can do unassisted headstand, when you achieve that first pull up. Oh those highs...those highs give you far more mentally than a dream body. \

You will never say ‘I can’t do this’to any physical sport/activity. When you reach your fitness goals day in and day out , you’ll be the person who will say “let me give it a try”. 

The only kind of disappointment and pain you might feel on this journey is the quantum of time you might take oppose to another while hitting your fitness goal. it can make you sad, feel let down, but the best part is ...you still turn up the next day and you give it one more try :-)

[projectruby-blog1]

How It Began...

Let me just start by saying, I am not here to give some overnight solution to your problems. Hell if I knew one I would just try it myself. My journey has been full of pain, sweat and working on my powers of self restrain every single day.

If you wish to travel with me, I promise to not be insincere and fool you. If you don’t I wish you all the best on your endeavors. 

I don’t need anyone’s negativity if you are full of it, this ain’t your party so kindly leave.

It’s Project Ruby, my own personal strength and fitness journal. And if I don’t have the answers you might be looking for, sweat not, we will find it together :-)