My Gym Journey So Far

Being an obese kid for the majority of my life, almost everyone around me felt morally obliged to recommend how I should lose weight. Hitting the gym stood out as a common theme and I finally gave in to the pressure.

This happened not once, but four times through different stages of my life. And each time, I ended up hating it and couldn't get myself to go for more than 2 weeks.

Here's why it didn't work out:

1. No intrinsic motivation: The main reason I went to the gym was to please someone else - my parents, my friends, and random people who decided to comment on my looks.
   

2. Inconsistency: Because of the above factor, hitting the gym daily became increasingly difficult. I came up with excuses almost every day to not go - which eventually ended up with me stopping the whole thing.
   

3. Unhealthy eating: It did not occur to me that my diet should also be modified in order to lose fat. I kept eating the same (junk) food as I did before - sometimes, even more, owing to tiredness after hitting the gym (more bullsh*t).
   

4. No friendly faces: I was never really good at socializing and hence found it difficult to form acquaintances quickly. Soon it got quite lonely in the gym which led to a kind of dissent towards the place.

Fast forward to today and I’ve been going to the gym for more than a month now - consistently.

Here’s what changed:

1. Clarity in what I want: After losing most of my excess fat, I realized that the next step was to improve my core strength. So this became my primary objective, instead of aimlessly going to the gym hoping to lose weight.
   

2. Setting no goals: Earlier, I used to get disappointed every time I got on the weighing scale and my weight remained the same. Shifting my mindset to trust the process of hitting the gym daily, and not focusing on futile goals helped a lot here. “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems." - James Clear
   

3. Accountability partner: The main reason I joined the gym was because of a meet-up with an old friend of mine. He was back in town and urged me to join a gym - preferably the one he goes to. His being there and holding me accountable played a very large role in ensuring I never skipped a day, especially during the initial few weeks.
   

4. Good things take time: I am in no rush to see any kind of tangible results. "Play long-term games with long-term people. All returns in life come from compound interest in long-term games." - Naval Ravikant

This is the first time that I’m enjoying the whole process of going to the gym and not having it feel like a task that I should get through. Hopefully, this feeling never goes away!

For anyone interested, this is where I go now - good trainer, good people, good gym :)

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