With the emergence of social media in our lives, people seem to have developed a penchant for stepping onto their online soapboxes and sharing their opinions with the world whether it’s warranted or not. Unfortunately, I am not immune to this phenomenon; at times, this has been much to my detriment.
Initially, I was reluctant to write this article. I did not wish to keep on hacking away at a horse that may have died eons ago. However, the benefits of this mindset I’ve been both preaching and practicing in the last seven months have been good enough for me to want to write this article.
In the past six months, I’ve lost 30 pounds going down from 227 to 197 lbs. I am proud of the progress I've made; however, I am far from complacent. In the past, I had a propensity to lift hard but I would go home and eat as if I’d never laid eyes on food before. As a result, this would curtail my progress and I would blame others and assume everyone was genetically superior or on steroids.
Furthermore, I was surrounded by people who embraced mediocrity or, at the very least, seemed to accept it as a way of life. I would hear certain things from my fellow Indians about how the average Indian is not that strong and/or they can’t really become that strong because our genetics have forever doomed us.
What would make me especially irate was that many of my fellow peers seemed to accept these stereotypical attributes as facts rather than stretched partial truths at best. I was exhausted of being a negative person and living the self-fulfilling prophecy that had become my life. One of my good friends suggested I work on my mindset in order to improve my overall quality of life. He had advised me to put pictures of people that inspired me on my bedroom wall. Ultimately, I listened to his advice even though it felt like I was part of some movie montage with “Eye of the Tiger” playing in the backdrop.
Every night before my head hit the pillow, I would look at these pictures and remind myself of my fitness goals and the ultimate vision I had in my head. I started going to the gym at 5:30 am instead of 5:30 pm. I wanted to start the day off in the right way and I figured the positive energy would transfer to other aspects of my day.
Even if I ended up having a terrible day at work or a long day in class, I would find satisfaction in the fact that I had worked out earlier that morning. It became routine and I looked forward to going to the gym the next day.
I began doing different forms of cardio after each lifting session such as the stair master, exercise bike, and/or high intensity interval training either on the treadmill or the outdoor track. I had also employed intermittent fasting in addition to extricating junk food, soda and alcohol from my diet. Moreover, I began cutting down my portion sizes and substituting the food I normally ate for healthier options.
It definitely did not happen overnight; however, over a period of time, I began to notice small changes in my physique. The removal of junk food and alcohol helped tremendously in dropping a lot of the weight. Losing the weight helped with finding a level of confidence I had not felt in a long time. I was waking up in the morning with a sense of purpose and a mission at hand to go to the gym and build myself back up into the man I wanted to be.
I am not where I want to be yet but I feel I am taking steps in the right direction and I am hopeful in relation to reaching my goals. The small steps I have introduced into my life as well as the consistency in the gym have helped in transforming my mindset. This experience, more than anything else, has reaffirmed the power of the mind for me. The world does not seem as hopeless of a place to me anymore and I am beginning to believe I have more of a sense of control than I thought previously.
Occasionally, I post progress photos and videos on Facebook and Instagram. Getting "likes" and positive comments on the videos and photos feels good; however, it does not hold a candle to the feeling of waking up in the morning and actually liking what one sees in the mirror looking back at him/her. The best part about it is that it's hard to take it for granted because one can't help but remember all of the work they had to put in just to get to that point and how much work there is still left to be done.
