If you’re ready to work, let’s get this show on the road.

Why will this work?

Let make make this clear. This is not a scam. This is not the ‘Look and feel awesome in just 3 minutes a day’ bullshit. This is not ‘Why choose hard when easy works’ nonsense. This is legit. This involves progression. This involves hard work. And this works only if, brace yourself, you actually do it!

- In order to get strong you need to strength train. I’ve spoken about this in detail multiple times earlier, but I’ll summarize again. Getting strong(er) is achieved only by linear progression i.e. starting off with a load you are comfortable with and very gradually increasing that load in as small increments as possible. So irrespective of what the exercise or workout is, be sure to start off light ‘cos if you stick to the progression for even a couple of months, you will find yourself working with much more weight than when you started. Starting off too heavy will only result in ugly reps and plateaus too soon into the game.

- To lose fat, it isn’t enough that you momentarily burn some calories. To lose fat effectively and consistently, you need to rev up your basal metabolic rate. Traditional cardio doesn’t quite help with this (wrt efficiency and sustainability) and short duration high intensity conditioning work is the best way to achieve this. Read more about this here.

- To gain endurance you need to challenge your anaerobic (and aerobic) threshold and this is best done by improving work capacity which directly relates to improving endurance. In other words, by increasing the amount of work you can do in a given period of time, you increase your endurance, power generation capability, coordination, fatigue threshold etc. In some other words, endurance also known as sufferance is your ability to fight through stress (exercise) over a given period of time and the more sufferance you are capable of, the fitter you can be.

- And finally, to improve your mobility, you need to consistently move through the full range of motion during every rep of every set of every workout.

So can all this be done in a 15 minute workout? Definitely. But only if all aspects of strength, conditioning and mobility are taken into account when designing the workout.

Here is one way to do it.

Raj’s full body strength & conditioning sequence

Perform a standard 5 minute warm-up with squats, lunges, pushups, leg swings, arm circles etc. and then do as many rounds as possible of the following in 10 minutes ensuring each move is done flawlessly and each rep is solid and strong. No ugly reps. No grinding out reps.

• Clean two kettlebells.

• Do a thruster.

• Drop weights down and bear walk for 5-10 meters (preferably to a pullup bar).

• While still on all fours, do a pushup.

• Jump to a squat position.

• Do a jump squat and (if you are at a pullup bar) grab the bar and do a chest-to-bar pullup.

• Bear walk back to the kettlebells.

Here is the video.

Note:

• Each round took me about 30 seconds but as I got tired it took me much longer and I ended up with about 15 rounds in 10 minutes.

• I used 20kg KBs but feel free to use lighter/heavier ones based on your capability.

• Cleans, thrusters, squats and pullups are all awesome multi-joint compound moves that demand plenty of muscle usage thereby making the sequence extremely energy hungry.

• Technique is paramount irrespective of what the exercise is. So dedicate some time to learn technique if you aren’t familiar with these exercise.

• I’ll post more workouts which have a similar output i.e. strength and conditioning in under 15-20 min in the future. Be sure to mix and match.

• We workout at Bamboola Play School after coaching The Quad’s BootCamp. This was filmed at the end of my workout today and had to be done ASAP before the kids start pouring in. So pardon the lack of solidity at the start.

But I can’t do this because…

When you can come up with excuses to not walk on a daily basis, I’m sure you can come up with a bunch of excuses to not do this. So here are some modifications -

• If you don’t have kettlebells, use dumbbells or barbells. If you don’t have kettlebells or dumbbells or barbells, use sandbags. If you don’t have kettlebells or dumbbells or sandbags or barbells, use a backpack/school bag. The point is to lift a weight from the floor to your chest and then squat thrust is overhead. No equipment isn’t an excuse.

• If you don’t have a place to do pullups or can’t do pullups, well, don’t do them. Finish with a max height squat jump.

• If you don’t have enough space to do bear walks, do 20 mountain climbers instead.

• If you’re not ready to suffer through it, then get back to your treadmill and stay weak.

Peace out.

• Stop asking about fitness, fat loss and health on FaceBook forums filled with idiots who think they know nutriton ‘cos they eat and fitness ‘cos they flail around a couple of dumbbells.
• Shut up, open your mind and listen when I talk.

If thats cool, read on. If not, thank you for stopping by.

Linear Progression

Strength is the foundation of fitness. Period. The sooner you realize that and start working towards get stronger, the faster you will get to your goals. So then what is the fastest, safest and most effective way to get strong?

Arnold - Strong is awesome!

In the world of strength training, the world in which people are strong as hell and look awesome as heaven, the concept of linear progression is a very familiar concept. The awesomeness of this concept is that it applies equally to both the beginner who wants to look and perform well in life and to the fitness enthusiast who is looking to continue climbing up that fitness ladder.

Linear progression is, in all honesty, nothing more than continually progressing linearly. This refers to progress that is continuous and linear without any sharp jumps or drops during the (training) cycle. And if you understand the concept of linear progression, you will realize that it is the only sure shot way to fitness and success in general. Don’t believe me? Think about it for a second.

Why do you start school at grade 1 and make your way up to grade 12 before moving on to college/university? Why do you start off as a subordinate and slowly make your way to the managerial positions? Why are you asked to start off with the empty bar (wrt barbell work)?

The point is, linear progression works and it works so well that, as long as you stay the course, success is a given! Let me explain.

Have you heard of Milo? No. Not the sugary junk that is marketed as health food. I’m talking about Milo of Croton – a wrestler from the 6th century BC. Heard of him? If not, check this out. Definitely an interesting read. Among many of his feats of strength, the following is applicable to what we’re talking about.

Legends say he carried his own bronze statue to its place at Olympia, and once carried a four-year-old bull on his shoulders before slaughtering, roasting, and devouring it in one day. He was said to have achieved the feat of lifting the bull by starting in childhood, lifting and carrying a newborn calf and repeating the feat daily as it grew to maturity.

See what he did there? He started off by lifting and carrying around a newborn calf and then he continued to lift and carry around the same calf each and everyday. In a few years, the calf was no longer a cute little thing that weighed a few pounds but a fully grown monster bull that weighed as much as a dozen men! And, Milo, grew strong enough to lift and walk around with a fully grown bull!

Myth? Maybe. Maybe not. But the point is that you start with a load (resistance) that you can comfortably handle and every progressing day (or week), you increase the load by the smallest possible increment. Ideally, you want to increase the load in such small amounts that you hardly even notice the added resistance. That, my fine folks, is the holy grail of getting strong and there is no denying it!

What about beginners?

Here is a question for you – Before we get all fancy with loads and reps and increments and rest periods, can you control your own bodyweight? Are you strong enough to move your body under total control? If you said no, then read carefully.

Let me make this very clear.

• If you can’t do 25+ proper full ROM bodyweight squats, you have no business trying to squat a load or sitting at the leg press machine.
• If you can’t a 120+ sec plank you’re pretty far away from a 6-pack or washboard abs. Period.
• If you don’t have 25+ legit pushups (chest touches floor), the bench press station means nothing to you.
• If you don’t have a single pullup, you are only making yourself look like a douche curling those 25lb dumbbells.

I can go on and on, but I’m sure you get the message.

Folks, seriously – walk before you run. Bodyweight training before weighted training. As a general rule when you work with a particular weight, move on to the next weight, ONLY when you have truly dominated this weight!  So work up to a good number of reps of each bodyweight exercise before you even consider adding extra poundage or touching them machines.

How do you do that?

1. Simplify your training. Understand that a fitness program isn’t a compilation of a bunch of random fancy looking moves. Fitness is the capability to do things and there isn’t much things you can do if you haven’t mastered the basics. So instead of doing 30 different exercises for no sensible reason, focus on the very basic movements – squat, pushup, pullup and plank.

2. It might sound like common sense to learn to do something right before doing it over and over again, but common sense isn’t so common these days. So learn the right way to do these basic moves.

3. Once you have learnt the right way to do things, practice them! Strength is a skill and unless you practice strength (moves) over and over again, you’re never going to get good at it i.e. you’re never going to get stronger.

4. If you see that you’re not strong enough to perform the basic moves as is, look into beginner variations. Mark Sisson has some awesome videos that explain beginner progressions for the various basic moves. Check them out here - Squat, Plank, Pushup and Pullup.

5. Work towards satisfying the following requirements before adding any kind of weight to your movements.

• Squat – 25+ repetitions with perfect form
• Pushup – 25+ repetitions for men (5+ repetitions for women) with perfect form
• Pullup – 10+ repetitions for men (1+ repetitions for women) with perfect form
• Plank – 120 sec+ elbow plank

Be it the random trainer at your neighborhood gym or the extremely experienced CrossFit level 1 trainer or Mark Rippetoe himself. I don’t care who tells you what. The bottom line is – if you aren’t strong enough to satisfy the above requirements, you have absolutely no business doing anything other than these 4 basic movements.

I’m not a beginner anymore! What now?

If you don't know what this is and/or which book this is from, you're still a ranked beginner

So I’ll assume you laid the foundation as stated above and you’re now an advanced beginner or an intermediate i.e. someone who satisfies the above requirements and is aware of the proper technique to do the basic moves. Here is what you need to do.

1. Simplify your training. Choose a squat (back squat, front squat, KB squat etc.), a push (OH press, pushup, dip etc.), a pull (pullup, row, inverted row etc.), a hinge (KB swing, Rack-pulls , Deadlift etc.) and a isometric hold (plank, L-sit, L-hang etc.). Forget everything else. Seriously.

2. Do 2 sets of 5 reps of each of these moves every other day or 3 days a week. For eg. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Rest as required between sets.

3. Each progressing training session, increase the number of repetitions by 1. Once you get strong enough to perform 12 solid repetitions, increase the weight by the smallest possible increment. Continue progressing.

4. Eat slightly above appetite and sleep as much as you can.

5. Don’t do anything else. And by that I mean, don’t f*cking do anything else! No running on off days, no basketball in the evenings, no extra ‘weights’ at the gym, no more nonsense. More is not better. Better is better and it doesn’t get better than this.

What about women?

Yeah. What about women? Won’t we get big and bulky? Ummm no, you wont. Don’t believe me? Look at Neghar Fonooni. Is she big and bulky? Or is she strong and awesome? You tell me.

Neghar Fonooni – Strong is awesome!

How does she train? Well, here is a sample.

Summing up

Whether your goal is to get fit or look awesome or both, do what been said, and only whats been said, till you get strong enough to back squat 2 x BW (1.5 x BW for women), deadlift 2.5 x BW (1.75 x BW for women), do 15+ pullups (6+ for women) and hold a 3min plank.

And then we’ll talk. We’ll talk about variety and macros and six pack abs and training frequency and rest periods and tempo and what not. Until then, shut up, open your mind and listen when I talk.

Peace out.

My honest answer…

1. I only like to do stuff that makes sense.

2. I stay away from doing anything that is counter-productive.

3. My time is very valuable and I’d rather spend it on something I enjoy than on a stupid machine which spits out random numbers.

While such an answer sounds cool, it is of no good to anyone interested in the topic. So, in this post, I’ll try to be less of a smart-ass and actually explain why I recommend against ‘doing cardio’.

Before we get on with the post

Allow me to clarify a couple of things.

1. Most people “do cardio” in order to lose ‘weight’ and/or to improve their cardiovascular health. These people are, for the most part, found running on treadmills or dominating the EFX/stepper and are driven by numbers (calories burned, total time etc.) that appear on the screen. These people don’t really understand fitness and do it for the sake of doing it. These awesome peeps who believe in ‘ignorance is bliss’ are referred to as ‘cardio junkies’.

2. Runners or dancers or swimmers or cyclists who do what they do ‘cos they enjoy it and people who train towards endurance goals (triathlons etc.) are not considered cardio junkies and what they do isn’t considered ‘cardio’ but is considered training or enjoying an activity.

Doing cardio vs. working the cardiovascular system

You see, cardio, as it is affectionately called by bodybuilders and elliptical-loving-fatties alike, actually means any activity that works the cardiovascular system and anything that raises your heart rate, from skiing to sex, can be considered as “cardio”. The benefits of cardiovascular exercise, as normally proclaimed, are -

• The heart muscle develops more muscular walls and becomes stronger
• The heart beats at a slower rate when resting.
• The heart is able to squeeze a greater volume of blood out per contraction.
• Recovery after exercise is enhanced.
• The heart becomes more efficient (ie delivers more blood with less effort).
• The lungs become more efficient at delivering oxygen.
• Increased elasticity of the arteries thus improving circulation.
• Increased numbers of capillaries within muscles, improving circulation.
• Our blood volume increases enabling greater uptake and delivery of oxygen to our bodies.
• Blood Cholesterol Levels decrease.
• Endorphins may be released causing us to feel happier and healthier.
• Increased calorie expenditure and higher metabolic rate (the rate at which your body burns calories).

While I agree that the effects of cardiovascular exercise are pretty awesome, I disagree that you need to “do cardio” to reap these benefits.

The thing is, the act of optimally working the cardiovascular system is extremely beneficial with respect to fat loss and cardiovascular health. No question about that. But, unfortunately, “doing cardio” the traditional way is not the optimal way to losing fat or improving cardiovascular health. If you have read my article, The Cardio Conundrum, you’d know why traditional cardio is ineffective and, actually, detrimental to both fat loss and cardiovascular health. If you haven’t read it, well, read it now. It is a simple read which will answer most, if not all, of your questions.

Adding sense to fitness – Strength training

While the benefits of strength training range from better bone mineral density to washboard abs, I like Rip’s reasoning to strength train…

Stronger people are just harder to kill.

This being the case, I think it is obvious that, in order to train completely and optimally towards fitness and health, one needs to work both the muscular and neuromuscular systems (strength training) and the cardiovascular system (cardio) in order to produce not just superior health, but also, the body of his/her dreams.

I know what you’re thinking -

So this means I need to strength train and do traditional cardio right? So how about I do resistance training 3 days a week and then spend 60-70 min on the treadmill/elliptical for the other 4 days? Should I do cardio first thing in the morning and strength training in the evening?

Stop the mind chatter and listen up!

Strength training is cardio!

While trying out new workouts is always fun, Arvind and I realized that, the constant effort to novelty resulted in lack of focus and too much time investment. So in order to restrict ourselves from drifting away from our personal goals we made a decision. We said all our workouts need to be completed within 40 mins + stretching. Warm-up was not an issue ‘cos we workout right after coaching the The Quad’s BootCamp.

So last morning, we set the timer to 40 mins and got to work. This is what I got done…

• Quick dynamic full-body warm-up & mobility work

• Weighted pullups: BW + 16 kg x 4
• Weighted pushups: BW + 34 kg x 8
• Squats jumps: BW x 11

• Weighted pullups: BW + 16 kg x 4
• Weighted pushups: BW + 34 kg x 8
• Squats jumps: BW x 11

• Weighted pullups: BW + 16 kg x 4
• Weighted pushups: BW + 34 kg x 6
• Squats jumps: BW x 11

• Weighted pullups: BW + 10 kg x 6
• Weighted pushups: BW + 34 kg x 10
• Squats jumps: BW x 11

• Weighted pullups: BW + 16 kg x 5
• Weighted pushups: BW + 34 kg x 12
• Squats jumps: BW x 11

• Sprints: 15 sec @ 90% intensity; 45 sec rest x 5

• Core work: 20 sec hollow hold, 20 sec rest x 8

• Close-grip chinups: BW x 12

We got all this done in 40 mins and we were real close to throwing up! Anyone who has strength trained will know how taxing a heavy set of squats or pullups or presses or pushups are and for those who haven’t, let’s just say, a death set can leave you gasping for breath and blacked out all at the same time. Not the only sign of a good workout, but a sign of pushing beyond limits and definitely an optimal, efficient and effective method of working the muscular, neuromuscular and cardiovascular systems.

So, from a cardio perspective, what really happens when you do a whole lot of heavy multi joint compound moves in a short period of time with minimal rest periods without ever going to failure? You crank up that heart rate acutely, let it recover and repeat this multiple times for the duration of the workout. In this particular case, I did it about 21 times. In other words, I had 21 intervals during which my heart rate was elevated to my max (i.e. 192 bpm or more) and then allowed to recover. In some other words, I had 21 short intervals of max effort and the same number of longer intervals of rest.

Sounds familiar? It should ‘cos this mechanism is the exact same as…

Interval training is a type of physical training that involves bursts of high-intensity work interspersed with periods of low-intensity work. The high-intensity periods are typically at or close to near-maximum exertion, while the recovery periods may involve either complete rest or activity of lower intensity.

Why is this awesome? 

Because such a well structured training session as this is your one stop for all things fitness! Such workouts when performed at reasonable frequency…

1. Make you stronger with a higher metabolism, stronger bones, reduced risk of injury and much better body composition due to the focus on resistance training.

2. Produce better results with respect to fat loss and heart health since this is truly HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) which works the cardiovascular system better than traditional medium intensity cardio does.

3. Is time efficient since you get both strength training and cardio done at the same time and hence need lesser number of training sessions per week to get and stay fit.

4. Is more sustainable due to the limited time investment.

5. Is what awesome people do!

If fitness or fat loss or heart health or joint health is your goal, why waste time doing cardio and hurt yourself in the process, when there is a much more optimal and effective way to reach your goal? If you can get more bang for your buck, why not take it?

This, my fine folks, is why I recommend against cardio and why we do what we do at The Quad and why my clients get amazing results with under 3 hours of training per week!

Stay away from BS machines. Stay aware of true fitness.

Peace out.

If you said yes, read on ‘cos you’re about to surprise yourself with 4 weeks of effort. If you said no, don’t waste your time reading this. Please continue your eternal search for the magic pill.

- – - – - – - – - – x – - – - – - – - – -

You’re an intermediate if…

• You can comfortably perform 25+ legit pushups and 10+ solid pullups/chinups.
• You (at least) know what ‘linear progression’ means.
• You are aware of proper technique in most lifts and are capable of learning new moves fairly quickly.
• You have done one or more of my previous workouts.

You’re an enthusiastic beginner if…

• You understand you are a beginner and are ready to put in the work required to move up the fitness ladder.
• You have no ego and are open to modifying moves to suit your fitness level.
• You are not an idiot and are open to learning technique and fixing your movement patterns before jumping up in weight.
• You don’t hesitate to comment and ask for modifications and/or ways to work around your injuries, constraints etc.

Warm up

Do the following in as many sets as required. Take breaks as required. The point is to “warm-up”, so don’t over do it and get wasted.

Intermediates

• 100 Jumping jacks
• 40 Lunges (10/leg)
• 40 Squats
• 20 Broad jumps
• 60 Arm circles (30/side)
• 40 Pushups
• 60 Hinges

Beginners

• 60 Jumping jacks
• 20 Lunges (10/leg)
• 20 Squats
• 10 Broad jumps
• 60 Arm circles (30/side)
• 40 Knee-pushups
• 60 hinges

Workout 1

Intermediates

• Weighted jump squats: 5 sets of 8-12 reps (Goal is to use a weight that allows you to clear the ground comfortably for the entire set. No ugly reps.)
• Weighted pushups: 5 sets of 8-12 reps (Use a weight that allows you to push off the ground explosively for the entire set. No grinding out reps.)
• Chinups: 5 sets of max reps (but not going to failure in any set.)

Beginners

• Do only 3 sets per move.
• Modify. Do bodyweight squat jumps, do pushups or knee pushups instead of weighted ones and do let-me ins instead of chiups.

Workout 2

Intermediates

75 Weighted burpees (Rest as required. Explode in each pushup and each jump. No blurpees. Only solid strong burpees.)

Beginners

• Do 40-75 regular burpees based on your fitness level. If you can 10+ pushups, do 6-step-burpees, else stick to 4-step burpees.
• Explode in each pushup and each junp. No blurpees. Only solid strong burpees.

Workout 3

Intermediates

• One-arm clean and press: 15 sets of 2 reps per arm (Choose a dumbbell you can press only 5 times. Clean the dumbbell violently and press it twice. Drop, rest 30 sec and repeat on other arm.)
• High knees in place or wall sprints: 4 sets of 15 sec max intensity sets. (Get crazy with it! Nough said.)

Beginners

• Do the following instead of the clean & press – Choose a weight that you can press only 5 times. While maintaining a straight back, pick up the heavy dumbbell from the floor with both hands and bring it up to your chest. Press the weight twice overhead with both hands. Place the dumbbell back on the floor. Rest 30 seconds. Repeat this for a total of 15 times.

Notes

• Do these 3 workouts consistently for 4 weeks. Do them on alternate days ensuring you have at least 1 off day between two workout days. So a mon-wed-fri or a tue-thur-sat type schedule works well.
• Each week try to increase the weight you use by a reasonable about (~ 2kg) while still performing the move with good form.
• Eat real food. If your goal is to gain some mass, eat 3 good meals a day with at least one meal being above appetite. If your goal is to lose fat, eat 2 good meals a day skipping breakfast or 3  small meals a day with all meals being slightly below appetite.
• Bonus: Maintain a diet log and you’ll be surprised at how big an effect that has on your nutrition.

If you do these they way I have laid them out and eat real food, again, per the recommendations, you WILL see results. Period.

Peace out.

Swarna, was truly an amazing client. She trusted me, stayed the course, was open to making any and all changes that I recommended, very respectful of my time and, most importantly, a tiger when it came to implementation! Not once, and I repeat, not once, did she ever complain or whine about not being able to eat wheat or that she didn’t know how to make real food tasty or that the workouts were too intense or blah blah. In short, no excuses, no BS. All action, all results.

I know I say this about all my clients who see great results, but it is the fact! Stay true to your goals, trust your coach, don’t complain, don’t get greedy and look for shortcuts, don’t find ways to justify quitting, do the program AS IS, eat as told and results are inevitable! If you are indeed serious about your goals, be it fat loss or joint health or strength or performance, 6 months of watchful sensible eating and staying active is a breeze. And even better, what you get in return for 6 months of being diligent is just worth so much its hard to describe! Don’t believe? Ask Swarna… or Neha or this 61 yr old or any of my other clients who stayed the course.

OK. I’ll shut up now and let Swarna talk.

In one sentence if you want me to describe the effect of my nutrition/fitness session with Raj it is “Raj gave my life back”.

When I came across Raj’s blog my condition was thus:

• Excess fatigue attacks, which lead me to sleeping straight 18 hours.
• Severe joint paint which made me immobile. Knee pains as if I am 60 year old and not in 30s.
• Doctor diagnosing that my condition is mostly Fibromyalgia and referred to a neurologist and even though I know I was not depressed I was given anti depressant
• Flu like body pains
• Sever heartburn, stomach cramps
• Recurrent vertigo attacks
• Insomnia, trouble getting sleep and very less sleep of only 3 hours or so
• Neck and shoulder pain.
• Every day morning the possibility of facing the day was gloom. No energy, no stamina. Everyday living was a chore.
• No energy
• NO zeal for life
• Concentration level down in the dumps

Then I came across Raj’s blog. That was definitively my lucky day. I enrolled in Raj’s online fitness regime and within a month there were so many changes. Going of grain immediately solved my insomnia. Real food solved my chronic constipation and stomach cramps. Off sugar stopped vertigo attacks. I was about 11 pounds overweight, but within 3 months I lost 14 pounds, more than I bargained for, which is wonderful

Raj was very helpful throughout and answered questions and suggestions to help my health. I, being a lacto vegetarian brought up in India, never thought this, but found I was milk intolerant and thanks to raj for helping me to find this .

I feel much better these days…maybe I got rid of my fibromyalgia…if that is even possible…or at least I almost did it.

By cleaning up my food and adding stuff rarely on cheat meals I found that I am very intolerant to gluten, milk and vegetable oils. If I avoid those I am not just good but great

The workout routine has made me more energetic. No more severe overall body pain or neck pain or fatigue crashes. Very less pain these days and I am sure over the period of time I will conquer that too.  And as bonus my weight has also come down.

No pain reliever pills, no fatigue crashes, life is wonderful and my concentration level has rocketed high. For the first time, yesterday, I played soccer with my son! It was humongous achievement for me, because 4 months earlier getting out of bed during weekend was a big question.

Thanks Raj!

Swarna continues to follow my real food recommendations eating awesome wholesome meals with plenty of fat, carbs and protein. She is healthy, solid and still very curious and helpful, questioning, learning and contributing in our FB group.

Heres wishing Swarna awesome health and continued success in 2012!

Peace out.

Excuses are BS (yea yea, I know I’ve said this a million times before but if you’re getting a free training program out of me, you better sit through this). No one really puts any thought  before they come up with an excuse. Let me explain. Say you know you’re fat but you’re not doing anything about it. And one day someone asks you why you don’t workout and you instantly say…

Well, I never have the time. Work keeps me busy during the day and at night I need to blah blah.

But tell me this honestly – is this true? I mean, did you truly put any thought into this answer? Did you write down everything you do in a day from the time you wake up to the time you sleep? Did you honestly make an effort to find time to workout? Did you try to move things around a tiny bit to give yourself the time to take care of your body? Heck no! Why? ‘Cos if you did do these things, you would’ve absolutely found or made the time to workout.

Listen. 30-40 min is all you need to get a good workout and that works out to ~ 120 min per week. I refuse to believe that you’re swamped for the entire 10,080 minutes of the week that you can’t dedicate a paltry 1% of it to fitness. Sorry, you’re so full of BS if “no time” is your excuse.

That said, what can you do in 30-40 minutes that qualifies as a good workout?

Plan to create

Before we get to the specifics, here are some you-better-knows.

1. You don’t have to go to the gym to get a good workout. In fact, you don’t have to go anywhere to get a good workout. You can get a pretty darn awesome workout at home in your living room or bedroom or your garage or the patio.
2. You don’t need any machines or equipment to train. All you need is resistance and it doesn’t matter where this resistance comes from or how you generate it. If you have a body, you’re good to go.
3. You don’t need to do cardio. You can get all the cardiovascular benefit and more from resistance and interval training.
4. You don’t need to train more than 3 days a week to get and/or stay fit.

Now that you know better, here are a couple of things you need to do before actually creating a plan or working out.

1 – Find or make the time to workout! Stop kidding yourself. You can dedicate 40 mins every other day to workout. It doesn’t matter if this is in the morning, afternoon, even or night. Find that tiny window.

2 – Make training a part of your schedule. Not a ‘nice to do’, but a ‘to do’.

Create the plan

You (like most people) don’t do anything about your fitness ‘cos you don’t know what to do! Even the day you decide to workout, you walk into the gym without having the slightest idea of what to do and hence end up doing what everyone else there does or rely on a trainer to tell you what to do. And sadly for you, what everyone else is doing is nothing more than wasting time and money and what the trainer will have you do is not too different from that.

So, like how a new cook needs a good recipe to make a decent tasting dish, you need to create a training plan from a solid template to produce any kind of result. Here is how you do it.

On Monday, choose one each of a lower body move (squat, lunge, squat jump etc.), an upper body push (knee-pushups, pushups, pike presses, dips etc.), an upper body pull (pullups, inverted rows etc.) and a speed move (high knees, jumping jacks, box jumps etc). Do 50 perfect reps of the first 3 moves and 150 quick & clean reps of the last move. Do this is in as many sets as required resting as needed, but never go to completely failure. If this is too high a number, start with a number that you can complete in 30 minutes. From there, keep increasing the reps by 10% each week and try to complete in under 30 minutes each time. Keep progressing.

On Wednesday, either sprint or do wall sprints at max effort for 20 seconds. Rest 30 seconds. Repeat this for a total of 6 rounds. Next week, reduce the rest period to 25 seconds and increase total rounds by one. Keep progressing by reducing rest period and increasing number of rounds.

On Friday, do burpees! Learn to do perfect 6-step burpees and do as many of them as possible (with perfect form) in 10 minutes. It doesn’t matter how many you do. Note down your number and, next week, try to get more burpees in the same 10 minutes. Once you are able to get 100 perfect 6-step burpees in 10 minutes, move on to burpee pullups or double pushup burpees. If you can’t do 6-step burpees ‘cos you don’t have a pushup, start with 4-step burpees and work towards progressing to the 6-step version.

There you have it – a workout program that needs no equipment, no gym, no learning curve, demands less than 60 minutes per week and brutally effective!  If you are a beginner/intermediate and/or the kinds that finds excuses to get a workout in, this is your solution!

Remember – It isn’t about how complicated your program is. It is about how consistent you are at it. If you are sedentary/lazy/full of excuses right now, what harm can come from dedicating a total of 60 minutes per week for fitness? Seriously, what do you have to lose? Open your mind and try something new. Give it a shot!

Peace out.

And whats the best way to get past these struggles?

• Try something different.
• Get outside your comfort zone.
• Find something thats fun.
• Consider joining a group, so you stay motivated to reach your goal.

Or in other words, change the way you look at fitness!

In the coming weeks, I will be writing a bunch more about unconventional training methods, quick & effective training, creative equipmentless training and basically, ways to make working out interesting and sustainable. But until then, I hope this short video will keep you motivated to stay fit and prove to you that going into a gym to use machines isn’t the only way to train!

Please do share the video and help us spread the good word! Thanks a bunch.

Its not all or nothing!

Say you want to go from point A to point B. Will you ever get to point B if you don’t ever leave point A? More specifically, if you want to go from fatburg to fitshire, irrespective of how long your journey is, will you ever get to fitshire if you won’t ever leave fatburg?

My point is, most people lose the battle cos they refuse to fight it! The most important step towards reaching your goals is to not do the right thing but to…

do something!

If you know you’re in bad shape or want to get in better shape, well, do something about it already! Stop complaining. Stop whining. Stop finding excuses. Stop waiting for the best opportunity. Just freakin DO SOMETHING!

And what is something? Honestly, anything other than nothing is something. Off the top of my head, here are a few ‘somethings’ you can do.

• Drop junk. Start by reducing the frequency of junk consumption.
• Eat more protein. If you’re vegetarian read this article.
• Make a conscious effort to eat more vegetables and less starch.
• Drop wheat and other potential allergens for the most part. i.e. dont fear wheat, but don’t make it a staple either.
• Dump vegetable oils at home. Enjoy your ghee and butter and coconut oil and save the vegetable oils for the unavoidable situations.
• Move some weight. Doesnt matter if these are barbells or bar stools. Move em!
• Do pushups, squats and chinups if you can do them. If you can’t, feel ashamed and work on getting strong enough to do them.
• Stay mobile. Don’t sit if you can stand. Don’t stand if you can walk. Make a decision to walk 15 min today. Walk for an extra 2 min every day and in a month you would have found enough time and heart to walk 75 mins a day.
• Sprint. If you don’t know how to sprint, run as fast as you can for a short distance. Rest for a couple of mins and repeat a few times.
• Work on developing some common sense. No seriously. Pizza doesn’t make you obese. Sugar doesn’t kill. Stupidity resulting in frequent uncontrolled gluttony is what messes you up.

It is not all or nothing folks… its never all or nothing. You don’t have to do everything I recommend (or anyone else does). Find what works for you at this very moment and start with that. You can make further improvements later.

As a matter of fact, as you read this line right now, make a decision to do something. Small, big… doesn’t matter. Make a decision… quick! Confused? OK here is one I recommend – throw out the junk from the house. All of it. If you want junk, you can walk to the store, buy some and eat it there. We’ll figure out the rest later. Just do this for now.

Don’t refuse to start cos its all too intimidating.

I now eat a diet that is 70% grains (rice or wheat) with some vegetables cooked in vegetable oil, some low fat dairy, fruit juice and snacks. You want me to dump all grains and fruit juice? Ok that’s 80% of my diet gone! And you want me to dump vegetable oils? Ok… thats another 10% gone! And you want me to eat only whole organic dairy? Wow Raj! You’re telling me everything I eat is wrong. Your approach is too intimidating! I’ll get to it when I am in a better place in life.

I get this all the time and I totally understand where you are coming from. But remember, it took you 20+ years to be able to earn and support yourself and a family. Imagine doing this when you were 13? Scary shit right? Same deal! Making a complete dietary change might be too hard and intimidating for you. If that is the case, take it slow. Make one change at a time. Transition into eating real food. It is much easier than you think it is.

There is money on the table!

Too many people fuck around too much and end up doing nothing. This is truly the story of everyone’s life. I understand there is so much information about fat loss and health (all claiming to be legit) out there and it is equally easy to be overwhelmed with all this as it is to stay ignorant. But, seriously, cut the crap.

Listen. I know berries have more fiber and anti-oxidants than bananas. Yes, ghee is better than butter. And yea, sprinting is more beneficial than low intensity cardio. But these are minutiae! If you can reduce your consumption of junk food, industrial seed oils and allergenic grains (wheat, quinoa etc.) to once or twice a week,  eat more organic vegetables, fruits, meat and good fats and stay active in life by moving some, playing a sport and/or training smart 2-3 times a week, you are 90% there! In other words, these are money on the table! Just pick em up! Figure out the rest later.

Truth is, you will always find one excuse or the other to put this away. Why? Because transformations are hard and you, naturally, will find reasons to avoid doing it. Explains the astronomical success of the supplement industry in the recent years doesn’t it?

Stop waiting for the most perfect diet or the one pill that will make you look awesome or everything in life to line up so you can start eating well ‘cos these things won’t ever happen! Be it “I work 12 hours a day” or “I don’t want to shower twice a day” or “My gym is too far” or “I don’t know how to cook real food”, they all mean the same thing - “I don’t have the will to commit to making a change. I’m weak. I’m not efficient enough to make time for my and my family’s health. I’m full of excuses!”

You and only you can make a difference to your health and it is up to you to do so. Or let’s make this 937 word article short and just say…

Suck it up and do something already!

Peace out.

In the last article I presented a bunch of responses that were submitted to the following question…

Sticking to a nutrition and/or training plan for a very short period of, say, 10 weeks. Assuming this will produce visible results and quite literally change your life wrt health & fitness…

Why can’t you do it? Why do you break? Why is consistency a problem?

While the nature of answers were very different, they all had one thing in common. Most people didn’t have an issue with the diet or the workout program or the complexity as much as they had issues with…

“I”

So, today, let’s forget high reps, low reps, low fat, low carb, distance running, resistance training and everything else related to nutrition and training and go to step 0. The step where one needs to realize that he/she is capable of losing fat and/or regaining health!

Are you really that stupid?

I need to get this off my chest and, more importantly, I need to get this into your head. In my opinion, anyone who is obese has to pretty stupid. Of course, this excludes the unfortunate few with genetic hormonal dysregulations/imbalances etc. But my point is that you don’t go to bed all fit n cut and wake up fat n flabby!

Becoming overweight or obese is a result of many many months of crappy eating and/or a sedentary lifestyle. It is impossible for any human to become overweight overnight. And I’ll stop here, ‘cos Calvin and I have discussed this in the past and you’re better off reading that than my ramblings today.

But this is what I don’t get – you have PLENTY of feedback about you getting fat. Your trousers feel like a noose and the buttons on your shirt get shot into thin air not being able to handle your chub! I mean, come on! You HAVE TO know this! And once your clothes don’t fit you, they don’t grow. You physically have to go to a store, choose clothes that are a size bigger, reach inside your wallet/bag and pay money for it. So don’t give me that ‘oh it sneaked up on me’ crap anymore! You knew you were getting fat and you let it happen. Period.

Gaining a few pounds, going up a size, adding a little chub – I understand. Life happens. But letting yourself go to a point of becoming obese or 40+ lbs overweight? Are you kidding me? Are you really that stupid?

Now don’t get all defensive here. I used to be fat too and I had all the excuses you do right now. I know how it feels to get fat, to live fat and to go from fat to fit. So be a sport and take a hit! Its OK to be called stupid when do do something stupid. You know… like when I asked my clients in India to eat a cartload of vegetables without having the slightest idea about the pesticide scare here. Like when I ran 50 miles a week and encouraged everyone I met to do so. Like when I tried to explain to my wife why she was wrong. Like when I write stuff that I shouldn’t on the blog. Like right now.

Actually, you’re not that stupid

But funnily enough, you are, obviously, not that stupid. I mean, your life resume is pretty impressive! Confused? This is what I mean -

• You learnt to walk
• You learnt one or more languages
• You completed school and college (at least)
• You learnt to use a computer and navigate through the internet
• You were able to find yourself a job and at least do well enough to not get fired
• You were able to give birth and/or raise one or more children

See my point? These are all tasks that are harder than fat loss… MUCH harder than fat loss. And guess what? These tasks also take much longer to master/compete than a fat loss program! And, clearly, you have been able to do these things pretty darn well. Any person who has done all this… can’t be stupid now can they? So what is it then?

Consistency! Commitment! Regularity!

You don’t have them! Right? Wrong! Let me explain.

You are committed. Very committed indeed. Just look at those tasks you did complete! Let’s take a couple of examples.

• School – If you did complete school, that is ~ 2400 to 2800 days of going to a place and doing what was expected out of you. Sure, some excelled and some didnt, but all of you actually did it! You were consistent… you were committed… and even if your attendance % was 70, you were pretty darn regular.

• Work – If you are able to afford a computer and read this article on the internet, I’ll assume you have a job… a job to which you show up to at least 4-5 times a week. Irrespective of what the job is, you somehow manage to stay consistent and committed and regular!

So you are can be consistent, committed and regular with nutrition and training too. But you just won’t be! Why? Maybe because mommy isn’t there to smack you in the ass every time you stuff your face? Maybe because you don’t run the risk of living on the street if you won’t show up for training?

But it doesn’t matter. And, No. I’m not going to give you the ‘You’re an adult now and you ought to know better!’ speech… ‘cos you are an adult now and you ought to know better!

Realize first and then you shall redeem yourself

Listen, irrespective of what the reason is, realize that you can do this. I’ve said it plenty of times before – fat loss is very simple… not easy… but simple. As a matter of fact, every single client of mine, who has done what he/she has been asked to do, has seen impressive results (Except a handful of women who started gaining weight very rapidly after starting to work with me. But thats because they got super fertile after making the dietary changes and hence got pregnant! So watch out!). And these people are exactly like you – People who live super busy lives with kids and responsibilities and demanding jobs! These are smart people like you who let themselves go since health didn’t feature in their list of priorities. After reading this blog or due to some knock-on-the-head incident in life, they realized that they have let themselves go a little too much and decided to make a change. And what happened?

Realization -> Decision -> Action -> Redemption

My point is…

Step 1 – Realize that you can do this! You completed 14 yrs of schooling… you can complete 6 months of a body/health transformation phase! You fought your way through life and landed yourself in a nice job… you can suck it up for 6 months and find yourself looking and feeling awesome!

Step 2 – Decide that your health needs to be one of your top priorities. Understand that letting go of your health will result in a short life that is filled only with guilty short-lived pleasures that die the moment they pass the lips!

Step 3 – Act! Don’t mess around too much. There are enough theories and diets and training plans around that can make you go in circles for the next 3000 years. Find someone who can help you with this and get started! You’re better off doing something properly than perennially looking for that magic bullet or that perfect diet/training plan. Again… do something about it!

Step 4 – Redeem yourself by staying patient and true to your goals. My best clients are the ones that pester me the most. They question and question until they understand every word of the plan I have designed for them. But once they understand why they are doing what, the questions cease, greed (for results overnight) flies out the window and results show up!

Remember – I and 90% of those making transformations are in no way genetically gifted or superior than today’s normal below average human and if we can do it, so can you. Life is just better when you’re fit! Give it a shot. You’ll be happy you did.

Peace out!

PS: As stated earlier, this is just the start of a large series. Stick around and you’ll be free… free from obsessive dieting, free from compulsive exercising and free from this vicious  cycle of craving, indulging and guilt!

Something doesn’t add up right. Something is wrong somewhere. And to me, the concept of these two diverging lines – success of diets/health foods/gyms and failure to successfully reach fat loss/health goals – has always been interesting. Sure we can end this with simple answers like ‘People are not committed’ or ‘Most diets are BS’, but that would only qualify as an aloof answer from someone who doesn’t care enough to invest the time to study the “why” behind these physiological and psychological patterns. Being someone who cares, I decided to look into this a little deeper and starting today this is what I will be addressing for the next few weeks.

I will be talking you about why you fail to reach your goal, why diets work/don’t work, why certain programs produce transformations while certain other produce only injuries, why some people succeed in the exact same training and nutrition plan as yours, why you feel like dog poop when you try to lose fat, why you gain everything back, why you are unable to commit, why fat loss seems like a never ending battle for some people etc etc etc. And in-addition to that (possibly once all the whys have been answers), I’ll address the hows – how you can stick to eating right for life, how you can safely and sustainably accelerate during a 10-12 week fat loss period, how you can train very less and get very much, how you can not obsess about food and stay fit and healthy, how you can stay motivated, how you can motivate people around you, how you can make a change and stick to it for life… without having to sacrifice the little pleasures.

First step of any research is data collection and thats exactly what I did. I asked the fine folks in my FaceBook group (What the hell do you eat Raj?!) the following question…

Sticking to a nutrition and/or training plan for a very short period of, say, 10 weeks. Assuming this will produce visible results and quite literally change your life wrt health & fitness…

Why can’t you do it? Why do you break? Why is consistency a problem?

We are pretty tight community and people are very approachable, love to share their experiences, struggles, problems and knowledge and are at all times ready to help each other out. And not surprisingly, I ended up getting some truly awesome responses. I am publishing them here verbatim with only the member’s names removed to protect their identities. If you would like to know more about who said what or if you would like to contribute, please join the group and do so.

Because when I go to buy electronics at the so called ‘electronics mall’ the first shop that I see as I enter is the donut store that has 23 different kinds of donuts. and the whole mall smells of freshly made waffle.  Because my hotel management thinks I would love to see free chocolates / cookies on my hotel bed everynight.

ROTFL.

But its all in the mind and its about giving way to temptation. If I may give an example – its like quitting smoking – I have so i know what i am talking about. Really need to focus on the reason why you want to do it and shut everything else out. I had never crossed 7 days without a cheat meal until this month (been trying for > 3 months).I have now gone 20 days of zero sugar (+ only real food) and counting. Looking to do a 30.

I think lack of time is a big one. Take my case for example: I travel on average 3 hours everyday. Minimum time spent at work is 9 hours, sometime 12. Thats 12 hours of your day gone, just spent on work. the remaining time has to pack in – spending time with family(esp in kids r involved), cooking(sticking to the diet), meeting friends, errands like shopping and sleep. And the easiest thing to sacrifice here is sleep (I have been doing it for the past 10 weeks, I should know). And running on minimal sleep and trying to catch up on weekends becomes a nightmare.

Fitness training is fine, but nutrition/eating is a problem…sustainability is the key to this, right ?? but sustainability involves cheating; so, the more I cheat the more sustainable my plan becomes

let me explain:

instead of having a big cheat meal every <watever>, I eat a small portion of ‘acceptable junk’ (e.g. chips or some dessert but not wheat) more frequently (say few times a week). This works for me because I don’t wait for the cycle to eventually break; because when it does break, all bets are off

makes sense, no ??

Raj, how we wish there was a magic formuIa! I think people get superexcited in the beginning and try to change everything all at once -eating ,exercising sleep patterns – it can get overwhelming. Too much stress on any other front in life is a barrier for most – even if it may help to reduce the stress finally.

Also people focus too much on Results (which can only be incremental ) and feel that if they have fallen off the track -its of no use. But that is so untrue.Like bad eating patterns good eating patterns also need a fair amount of time to get ingrained. As another commenter says rightly there is no premium on virtuous eating except in forums like these . We wd be major party poopers anywhere else

In my case, it all boils down to my lack of seriousness/committment. Yes, there is lack of time, stress due to too much work in a traveling job that requires me to stay 2-3 days per week in a hotel, managing a kid etc etc. But inspite of all this, I know if I was serious enough, I would get it done. I am probably living under this huge illusion that I am healthy enough. I have not yet been jolted out of this illusion with something alarming, like say I was diagnosed with diabetes or some such thing. So as long as my “normal” life goes on without a hindrance, I am too cozy in my comfort zone to even make real serious effort to change.

But I must say I have started taking efforts like exercising/eating healthy etc thanks to following your blog. Also slowly getting into the mindset that it is better to be strong and healthy instead of discovering one fine day that things are seriously wrong and out of control.

Habits, boredom & friends for me….. Let’s say you are working from home and worked out in the morning, and the tummy is grumbling for the next something to get in to you… At that instant, I don’t make a mini-decision to reach for the fruit, salad or cottage cheese from the fridge and instead reach for the cheese crackers in the pantry(that I originally got for my toddler) …. It hardwired in the brain to reach for the option you have been trained to do since you are a kid…

Or when your friends call up to meet at the Mediterranean restaurant for dinner, and it’s winter time when your other outdoor activities have been to a minimum, it’s hard to pass up on the dinner invitation ….. And ofcourse you are so busy chatting, having a good time and distracted enough to forget about your original eat-out rules you drafted for yourself( choose the better options from menu and keep it to minimum) …. If you obsess over eating clean, you are constantly reminded that there is a long list of untouchable food options around you…. If you don’t obsess over it you sometimes go with the flow and forget to remind yourself ‘at the very instant’ the decision is made to eat or not eat something…….

No problem in terms of working out. But nutrition is a big problem for me, especially in India. I have borderline Aspergers. I need my routine and alone time. Both are impossible most days here. I get worked up very easily and rely on carbs to overcome stress. Rice is my vice.

Adjusting eating patterns, for me. If I were living alone (which I was, a year ago) it’s easier to cook the sort of food I want to eat – I like cooking, so that wasn’t much of an issue. Now, when my mum is the main cook and she is cooking for 4 people (and also rushes to work in the morning), it’s hard to demand multiple food options/ get access to the kitchen in the morning. Eating the right food is made easier when there is variety and its not always easy to come by. Also, the fact that when the hunger pangs hit, I have very limited ‘quick food’ options (given I am not a big cheese fan and am not permitted to eat fruits and nuts).

I sacrifice exercise over sleep. I prepare for diet during the weekend. The wife does help a lot. Sometimes I do exercise for a few weeks, then sleep starts to get affected. Probably something to do with the Adrenal. Then I get off exercise and sleep becomes easier. The exercise goes like a yo-yo .

In my case, I am just lazy and need someone to kick my behind to get me to workout. I am not sure why that is the case with workin out ‘coz my diet was relatively easy to fix and I don’t need someone constantly reminding me to eat right! Also, another thing is that I easily get bored of workouts that I do. I never ‘want’ to workout.

I think its the number “10″. No, seriously, when you embark on a short term goal, its very easy to go astray if you don’t start to see results in week 2 or earlier. It’s a psychological thingy.

I think my problem is that I do not enjoy exercising alone. I try not to effect my sleep. Gyms are not an option because they are quite bad these days, they are full of equipments with no space for exercise. Quite a bit of my time goes into tackling my baby’s sleep issue. Only way I exercise is running on stairs carrying shopping bags in the weekends. But I take care of my nutrition quite well.

For me one the following has wreaked the consistency before. (1) Marking a workout time and if you cannot do it then skip it (2) coming from work in evening feeling tired and thinking of restaurant..(3) cheating more than once due to occasions like office get together or friends get together (4) If because of too much work and deadlines if workout missed 2 consecutive days then it goes all the way downside………This has been the case till now but now since my whole health depends on me sticking to this I am trying to workout whenever time permits it may morning 7 am or eve 9.30 pm…always try to prepare some real food and put it in fridge….but still long work day+ restaurant food and cheat meals are the worst factor that shake my discipline badly…….

In my case there is no problem working out, thanks to the quad I have a proof of this as I’ve not missed a single class. Initially accepting that I had to change my diet so very drastically was a problem, I am sure you remember my whiny mails and a BIG THANK YOU to you for setting me right and telling me I had no options, after which I started enjoying cooking the new all real meals(?body=https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150405031515700.407929.571385699&type=1&l=5322fac3a0&subject=What%27s for dinner?).

My main hurdle is one that what another commenter also mentions 1. Getting late at work and coming back and thinking of alternatives to cooking a good meal, so the alternative isn’t necessary a restaurant, it’s a combination of a restaurant, easy meal such as Varan Bhaat (http://the-cooker.blogspot.com/2007/06/varan-bhaat-amti-bhaat.html) and take aways. I really like eating real food but after 12 hours at work, I just don’t have the energy to cook.

Living in a joint family with different food likes and dislikes, it becomes difficult to follow even a doctor-recommended diet when you’re recovering from an illness. So a full-fledged 10 week over-haul becomes impossible. Plus a job and two boys to run after make time management difficult. And unless someone MAKES me exercise, it’s just so easy to say, “Nah, tomorrow!”

My biggest problem is sticking to my goals / objectives. I don’t function well left to my own devices. Food-wise, I am an all or nothing kind. As long as I don’t touch contraband, I am golden. But the minute a small slip happens, I cannot put it aside and move forward – I can only go headlong into disaster

 I had the whole of today away from home. Nothing but a cup of coffee before I left in the morning. Because I was doing someth I love with like minded people I never had any craving or hunger. But that’s not the case everyday. Responsibilities, worrying about my son drive me towards carbs. That plus the weekly get-togethers with friends who junk all day spells disaster. Before having a baby I made good food choices, but now very less will power left I have impulsive bad judgement in terms of nutrition.

According to me food is ‘emotional’. It has the power to make/change my mood. If I feel happy, I want to celebrate with something delicious.. if I am sad, all I want to do is eat some junk/comfort food to make myself feel better. We all have plenty of memories associated with food – so it makes you give in to temptation and eat something you’ve always thought of as delicious. I remember an ice cream ad from the 80s – ‘you make me lose, lose my self control’

Unless one has an extremely stress free life and a good support system in place, it is difficult to eat right all the time.

For me, eating right is the easier part. I hate sugar/anything sweet, so will never get tempted seeing any sweet. Fried foods are my nemesis though. Even then, as long as I don’t cook some fried stuff, I don’t crave it. I am fine eating veggies and real food all the time. The husband however loves junk, and it is on days when I make something like bajji/vadai that I go out of control as well. I am certainly not at a stage where I can cook junk and skip eating it! Working out is another story altogether. I am yet to find something that motivates me to get over my laziness.

 I think motivation is the key. I didn’t have it badly enough earlier, and its not something I could have even talked myself into, with all my reasoning and logic. A death scare or a sudden hyper love of life is an excellent motivation!

Boredom, I think. Altho, that would have been an old excuse. Nowadays, i try and snap out of de-motivation ASAP. May I recommend Rupaul? There’s nothing like a 6’4″ legendary drag queen telling you that ‘You *better* work!’. And I’m being serious.

On the exercise front, I decided to at-least try going out for a 20min walk during the lunch break. Day 1 and Day 2 were good. Day 3: Someone in my office till 12:30PM … so skip. Day 4:Meeting went on till 12:15… so skip. That’s about it. No exercise whatsoever after that. Basically this is boiling down to the priorities in life and I know I am choising the wrong one !

 I too think it’s priorities.There was a time when I would consistently workout 5 times a week. But now, running behind a super active toddler is exercise enough. Exercising ranks way below taking care of his needs. I know the two are not mutually exclusive, I just need to figure out a way to manage my time effectively to fit in exercise.

If you got up to here, you are certainly interested in the topic. What do you think? Why do you break? Why do you fail? What are your experiences? Share it in the comments section.

Peace out.