I live in an apartment at the tenth floor of a high rise, in a city where jogging in the street may make you a victim of a rash car driver; and above all, I have a punishing work schedule in an office where I work for more than sixty hours a week. These were few of the excuses that had earlier stopped me from being more active physically. Now, when I have to do it, I found a way around all these ‘hurdles’. I had two options, to begin with- the first was to join an upmarket gym, and the other was to do free hand exercises. My first choice was to join a gym, which was located equidistant to my office and home. I paid significant money for a six-month subscription, hired a personal trainer- the ‘best’ available there, and started my gym journey which would consume my lunch hour or the post office hours during the working days and mornings on holidays. I couldn’t sustain the gym run and had to leave it before completing one full month. The deposits made for six months were of course not returned. The monetary loss apart, the adventure didn’t cause a lasting impact on my fitness, but it wasn’t without some positives-

First time I knew that I was almost tipping 100 KGs at the scale. That my metabolism was very slow. That there are fit people all around me who run fast and lift weights. That how lucrative the fitness business is. That I must achieve fitness without putting any money in the fitness industry.

The biggest reason for quitting the gymming was the time it consumed. For a forty-five minutes session in the gym, I had to spare double of this time, if not more. The remaining time was consumed in commuting to and fro the gym, changing into gym gear, waiting for the trainer and the equipment to be free. But, there were other reasons as well that hastened my departure from the gym-

The trainer didn’t understand different needs and kept prescribing the same schedule to everyone, and his prescriptions caused my severe backache and numerous sessions with the physiotherapist. The importance of diet and nutrition was underemphasized. It further reduced my time with the family. I thought I could do better without spending so much time and money. I wasn’t losing weight the way I had expected.

The Second Option: The Functional Fitness-

The few things I started doing were –

Better macronutrient balance- In my case it was cutting down on carbs, increasing protein, and having good fats. While reducing calories, I made sure to take nutritionally dense food, full of vital vitamins, minerals, and good bacteria. The easiest thing to reduce calorie intake was to completely quit the added sugar, in all forms. Taking stairs to my office( sixth floor) and occasionally to my house ( tenth floor). Trying to sit as less as possible- got a standing workstation Running – whenever and wherever possible Occasional weight training with free weight available with me in the house.

For running– I opted for three minute’s blast running sessions with a break of two-three minutes and repeating the same six to seven times, giving a total exercise of twenty-one minute. This I did indoor, in my apartment, by making a miniature track starting from the main door in the living room to the far wall of one of the bedrooms. The furniture was moved out of the way. The sprinting and turning, from wall to wall, for around twenty-five rounds completed one session of three minutes. Seven such sessions completed a full duration of High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). HIIT, thrice a week and combined with few sessions of weight training with free weights did wonder to my metabolism. However, get your vital health parameters checked and take your doctor’s advice before starting HIIT.

……….to be continued.

(Forced by the inevitability of health reasons, the author of this series of blogs lost twenty-eight Kgs of excess body weight in six months, and attained a superior level of fitness. This series is an attempt to share the experience and whatever knowledge he had gained during this process. Please feel free to write in either the comments section or mail at bastavarzumi@gmail.com for any advice on exercises, diet, and daily routine. I will try to share my own experience to the best of my knowledge. Always remember that you feel so much better, physically and psychologically, when your BMI is 23 (my present BMI) than it is 34 (when I was obese). Achieving fitness and weight loss is possible and doable. You just need to make a start. The author plans to write on various diets, exercise regimes, problems of adjusting exercise in the daily routine, modifying diet with minimum change to your dietary habits, various ideas for sticking to the diet, understanding the roles of various micro and macro nutrients for your health, fitness and weight loss, and so on.)