My fitness journey

Due to some recent questions regarding fitness, and the trend of people starting to get into fitness, I would like to share on what I did for approximately a year now to achieve my goal. I am not a fitness trainer, nor am I any expert in nutrition or health. These are just based on my personal goals, real experiences.

So I had been thin my whole life (skinny fat without knowing) and I thought I am able to eat but not gain weight, which I eventually did, and kinda plumped up (had difficulty walking) though I was not actually obese.

I been through the eat all you want and kinda starve myself phases, I am quite an experimental person so I wanted to know how my body reacted to different conditions. My fitness journey started when I was feeling really ill during a short hiking trip and had to exit via the emergency route. I have always thought thin/slim equals fit. That was the period when I ate junk food thinking I will never be fat. After that I had difficulty walking. For the first time in my life, my thighs were rubbing against each other, and I had rashes. I had pants I could zip up and I had flaps on my tummy. Also during this time, I have never hit the gym. I probably did cardio, run 3-5km on the treadmill, only once a month.

That was the point when I realised things weren't right. I started working out following aerobics / HIIT videos on Youtube. I started doing just the warmup sets and already felt myself panting. I didn't actually reduce my food, but I was determined to shred that fat through HIIT and cardio. For 3-4 months, I ran 3km thrice and week and did body weights exercises on other days. Miraculously I did lost most of my fats.

After that I found out about BBG (Bikini Body Guide) by Kayla Itsines. It is an intensive body weight/ light weights workouts. I did it for 4 weeks, before I felt that it was too intense (I was always out of breath) and I was getting too thin. When I did BBG, I ate very clean and was on a deficit diet (will talk about this in my next post). I lost my flaps, but I lost the curves, I became so flat. Some people want this type of lean body (check Kayla's). If you want to get abs, it is possible with BBG. Afterall abs is just low body fat.

After getting lean, I felt that I hit a plateau and was feeling weak with my diet. Many have said that BBG nutrition is not probably the best, which I now agree. Now that I know my body is capable to actually burn fat and built abs through these body weights exercises, I wanted to push it further.

My goal quickly changed to getting curvier, more muscles definition. One thing is that muscles need to be fed. I did not want to be lean, so I need to eat more, which is eating calorie surplus (also in next post).I started working out with weights, lifting heavier. I saw my arms and legs grow. As I have mentioned earlier, this might not be your goal as some people find these growths less feminine. During this time, I lost my abs as I surplus my daily calorie counts. The 2kg fat which I lost during cardio is not gained back as 2kg muscles.

I did not start heavy, in fact I still am not doing heavy because I always go to the gym alone, no support/spotter. I am worried that I will injure myself so I start light and slowly bring in more weights. Know your body well. Which parts are prone to injury and which parts felt unwell, workouts variations are not restricted to people. Choose what fits your goal and body best!

It has been quite a journey and I am now looking forward to more muscles definition once I am able to properly count my macro nutrients and having regular workouts. This is not a journey of self torture, but always know that your body is capable of doing beyond the limitations of your mind.