Ever since my back pain took a turn for worse in February, I have been paying extra importance to my health and attempting to exercise regularly. Then last month I went ahead and booked flight tickets for Leh in October.
Since then, physical and in particular cardiovascular fitness has become a top priority for me. I want to be in best physical shape possible for this trip, due to what I want to achieve from it.
With this in mind, I decided to up the notch last month and set a goal of walking for 60 minutes each day (in 3 splits). As you can see in the chart below, initially I wasn’t really able to do it and at times not even stick to schedule. But eventually I decided to give up laziness and get stricter.
While I had been working out with my dad’s bullworker (over 50 years old) since mid-March, I also decided to incorporate weight training into my exercise regime around mid-April.
So my workout schedule looked like this in April:
Walk: Daily, 30 minutes in morning, 15 minute before workout and 15 minutes after workout.
Bullworker: Daily
Weight training: Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Results so far have been promising, and I have lost 2.5kg since 19th April and 1.5” of fat from waist! More significantly, I now feel a lot stronger than earlier and have been able to gradually increase weights and number of exercises.
Even more importantly, I can now do stiff leg deadlift (something I wouldn’t think about a month back) with around 30kg of weight for 10reps and 5 sets. In third week of April, I had begun doing stiff leg deadlifts with just 12-13kg of weight. While this is nowhere what I used to do few years ago, it is significant progress for someone who couldn’t even bend down without experiencing pain, just couple of months ago!
I have also been experimenting with my diet and since I am still in muscle recovery and strength building mode, I am in no mood to cut back drastically on calories. Instead I have been focusing on limiting my carb intake to around 200-225gms per day (especially for past one week or so), while ensuring I am consuming enough protein and fat to help increase my muscle mass and strength.
I have been successful in reducing my carb intake, due to the fact that I am no longer eating rotis or rice in breakfast and dinner, instead I now eat 40gm Oats with a serving of salad and 2-3 eggs both times. I stick to eating chapatis for lunch, since I exercise in afternoon and feel like replenishing carbs at that point.
Plan for May: This month I plan to start doing weight training 6 days a week. Because with the increasing number of exercises, yesterday’s weight training and bullworker workout lasted for around 80 minutes and by the end of it, I was so exhausted, that I had to cut short my walk to 7 minutes, instead of usual 15 minutes.
I would also keep focusing on keeping my carb intake under check and focus on incorporating more fibers, fats and protein into my diet.
I will report back on the first Saturday of June with my results, since I take measurements and check progress every Saturday morning.
2 Comments
YS… you are just doing great… one thing i want to comment on your fat intake.. you are trying to increase intake of fat but wouldn’t it be sensible to cut back on fat because your are trying to get leaner and fit. we all do consume hidden fat anyway…be it diary, bakery or processed foods.. if you are inclined to add more fat, consume 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil..
I may not be correct… better check with your doctor or dietician… and GOOD LUCK to better health…
Thanks Rahi.
Eating fat does not necessarily lead to higher body fat percentage; on the contrary, eating good fat actually helps increase production of testosterones and growth hormones. Both of these are vital for gaining muscles and losing fat.
Also I do not eat processed food these days and even if I eat them, I count fat present in them (usually mentioned in the labels). If anything, my fat percentage in food is usually on the lower side (as per myfitnesspal and similar logging apps.