Fitness - How it changed me!

I use to be someone who never ever exercised or at least hated it. Couch potato for sure! But something changed and it was my mind-set. I think I stopped putting so much importance to food and also looked at fitness differently. The most important thing was that I found what I like doing at the gym. I still don’t do machines and don’t go hours on a treadmill cause I realised that its just not me. But I think what’s important is to find something you like doing and then just do that and not bother with the other stuff. It could be running, Zumba, cross fit, boxing or even going on the treadmill if that’s your thing. I have found the pleasure of doing group exercise classes at the gym. I absolutely love them now. I think its cause they are more interactive and I found that it was more exciting. I workout at Fitness First Thailand and the trainers make it so worthwhile. Honestly the group exercise classes are so much fun and I get so involved and engrossed in them. I particularly love Zumba, Body Pump, Body Combat and BodyJam. I do all four classes and I don’t feel the time go. Each class is one hour and I enjoy each hour so much.

I hardly recognise myself now and its not just about how I look. I actually don’t mean my body transformation. I’m talking about who I am as a person. I absolutely love coming to the gym, which for me is alien usually and it’s weird. Its such a “new me” and I love who I’ve become. I’m such hardworking gym pro now and I love it. And how my body has physically changed doesn’t hurt either! I look at working out and food so differently now.

So my transformation first was my mind and then of course I started seeing results. I got into fitness at the lowest point in my life honestly. I’d like to share a bit of my story and how I got into working out. Cause as I said I was never the one to go to a gym let alone spend 4 hours in one. So at the beginning of this year I was in sever depression because of the end of a bad marriage and I was so broken and I wanted to find something that will help me to just get rid of some energy and sadness. Long story short I had moved to Thailand for my husband’s studies and he decided to just up and leave me. I had uprooted my entire life from Sri Lanka and had dedicated years of my life for one person and he said he realised that marriage was not for him. He left me alone in a foreign country and I had to figure it out with a broken heart that to this date I couldn’t imagine going through again. Anyway that is the shorter version of the story and the more dignified version to be honest, however you could imagine how devastated I was and I had no idea what to do. A few weeks maybe even 2 months I just spent alone in my apartment and was just destroyed. Hardly sleeping or eating healthy, I had hit rock bottom. And this is when I turned to this whole new journey of fitness.

Fitness was something I was never into, so it was one place that I had not gone with my ex husband, one place with no memories and I just thought I’d give it a shot, cause everywhere else I spent time, I would have spent time with him and I was just miserable. And I swear it was the best decision I ever made. I walked into Fitness First and got myself a membership and just started coming everyday. I just wanted to have a place to go to where my ex and I hadn’t gone to. I was in such a dark place that I just made it a routine - wake up, basically drag myself out of bed and go to the gym. Everyday! and it became a routine and slowly I realised it was the one place I was feeling better. Just mentally feeling refreshed and happy! I realised that I went minutes and later hours not thinking about what a terrible thing had happened in my life. And I didn’t think of my ex. It was great. And today it’s been 6 month since I started my fitness journey (I started in March 2017) and my fitness level has gone up immeasurable. I do 4 classes a day- that’s 4 hours and my body can take it. I have so much energy physically and mentally. and Yes I was 75 kgs when I started and today I’m 65! I’ve lost a total of 10 kgs in 6 months and it wasn’t even hard. Don’t get me wrong, I work hard at the gym but I don’t feel like its difficult to do. and it’s such a stress reliever, trust me! I’ve always found it such a strain but I honestly loved every minute of working out and it’s because I changed how I looked at fitness.

It use to be all about loosing weight but somehow this time it wasn’t about that. I wanted some place to hang out and spend some time and my energy and I was nursing a broken heart. Funny but its was so much better taking this route to mend my broken heart than turning to booze and boys! Hahaha which is what we girls usually do. Yes I’m single! and when I was at my lowest point I refrained from consuming alcohol , honestly only drink when your happy otherwise it becomes a bad habit. and I decided not to turn to any boys. So all that energy, sadness, frustration and anger all was focussed towards the workout I did.

So back then I use to be able to eat a whole 9’ pizza for dinner, I swear! and it made me happy. What I realised was that it was all my mind and not the physical need to eat that much. I was most probably stressed out, or sad and unhappy in my life that I needed food to fill some emptiness. Food does release endorphins in your brains and in turn do actually make you happier - it’s a scientific fact. I think I was stress eating and I look back and I wouldn’t blame me, I was in such a bad situation for a long time and this was a way of coping I think. Now I look at food so differently, honestly I still like food but I don’t find the need to excessively eat. And I never really restrict myself, I do cut out the sugars but even doing that earlier was so hard, and now I feel nothing towards it. I never crave it or want it and feel like I have to stop myself.

I know you cant replicate my exact situation and I hope you never go through what I went through and the depression I felt , but what you can do is change your mind set about working out and about fitness. Today I don’t workout just to loose kilos, I work hard at the gym to be strong and fit. Don’t think of it as ‘oh gosh I have to loose weight, so I have to go the gym’. Cause at the end I never wanted to loose weight, and then I did.. what I wanted was to find something to do and the gym became my past-time. Best past time ever! Cause the results are amazing. And also my advice is to find the kind of exercise that you enjoy doing. If I had to choose two classes I couldn’t live without now, it will be Zumba and Body Pump. I absolutely love those two. So find something that matches your personality and who you are and then it becomes easy!

I made something great out of a horrible situation- I hope you can too!

Stay tuned I’ll go further into a few tips of how to workout at the gym.

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