Striving Towards the Ideal Body — Part II
When I went back to college after that summer, I wanted to change. I was sure I could be fitter and stronger, I just didn’t know how. The one thing I knew was; I didn’t want to lift weights. I associated lifting weights with big muscles. I have always been a nimble person and proud of it. I didn’t want that to change. I thought if I built muscle, I’d be slow. Boy was I wrong.
Anyway, I spent more of my time running and doing push-ups. I got better and better at running and incorporated sprints in my routine as well. At the same time I was paying attention to what I was eating. Before I’d just skip lunch as the food wasn’t very palatable. However, now I’d eat whatever was available to make sure I was not missing out on nutrition. I also reduced the amount of sugar I was eating even though I was not overweight. In retrospect this turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve made. I believe this has improved my health by a significant order of magnitude.
I also made significant changes to my daily routine. I used to be a night-owl before. I improved my sleeping habits to make sure I was getting enough sleep. I stopped playing video games which were taking up way too much of my time. I was up at 6 every morning without fail to perform my daily dose of push-ups. I got good at those too and started doing cheated one hand push-ups. A lot of my friends were floored by the amount of change I had undergone in a short amount of time.
Every lap I ran, every push-up performed and every bead of sweat which dropped off my face reminded me how weak I had been once. With every stride I took, every movement I made and every morsel of food I swallowed, I promised myself — I will never be in that position again where someone has to help me. I will never be let my dignity diminish like that again.
At this point I had gained some good weight (hopefully most of it muscle). I was the same height and weighed in at about 150 lbs.
Read part III to this story here.
