How Fitness Really Is a Lifestyle

I’ve just arrived back from my honeymoon traveling around San Francisco, Los Angeles and Hawaii! For the first time in four years, I have not been to the gym for a month. It is not by choice; I fell really ill the week before my wedding and had to reciprocate before the celebration. On vacation, I was extremely tired; jet lagged and active during the day. Lifting weights would have made me collapse.

Although I am always telling people being fit is a lifestyle, I had firsthand experience with this during my trip. Fitness really is a lifestyle. Healthy eating and physical activity is something that must be practiced no matter where you are in the world. If you do not do this, you will notice your fitness levels diminishing faster than you could have imagined.

Although I didn’t visit the gym during my trip, I was active and followed a healthy diet most of the time (combined with several cheat meals!). Some activities included biking for 30 km, hiking for two hours, snorkeling, lots of long walks, etc. Even though I did these activities, I noticed a negative difference with my physique and my fitness levels. Imagine if I had not been active and constantly ate junk food?

What were the changes? I was less fit. Much less! From someone who could do cardio six days a week, I was nearly out of breath walking up the stairs. My physique was fuller. It is not very noticeable weight gain, but I know I am not as lean and as tight as I was. My body is also much softer. My muscles that were once as hard as a rock have become slightly wobbly much to my frustration.

After being away from the gym for so long, my first session back was last week. I lifted a measly 32 kilograms doing deadlifts as a start. Right before my trip, I was deadlifting 85 kilograms. The next few days were a nightmare. The muscle ache was so intense I could barely walk or sit. Right before my trip, I was lifting 53 times heavier without any muscle ache whatsoever. I’m back on track now!
This example proves that your body is like a machine that needs to be maintained. If you want to achieve your dream body and keep it, you need to keep on eating clean and exercising. I am someone who is incredibly active and eats clean 90% of the time and was majorly impacted by a month of more junk food and less exercise.

There is no such thing as a diet that lasts for a month. There is no such thing as an exercise program with an expiry date. Remember, it takes a lot of hard work and effort to achieve your fitness goals. Once you reach your goal, you will need to put in as much effort to keep it as you did to achieve it. If you don’t, you will find yourself right back to where you were before you started.

Currently a work in progress: PDF home exercise guide and a phone application with nutritional information! Coming soon! Subscribe to the newsletter at the top right hand side to stay updated.