2 weeks ago, I started a 6-week exercise challenge with UBX Nundah, and I’m really hoping to be able to build some positive, new habits, whilst breaking some lingering old bad habits.
Changing my habits has always been something I’ve struggled a lot with because they were so deep rooted, and one of the worst has been my eating habit. It was always like my negative habits were just so heavy, that I could never build enough momentum to break free from them to build new habits.
But now at least with meditation, I’ve been able to reflect on my old, negative habits, and discard them from my mind, and it's given me a chance to be able to dive headfirst into these challenges with the wisdom to change.
Changing Old Habits - Why I’m Doing This 6 Week Challenge?
Through meditation, I know intimately the type of person I am and what kinds of things drive me. I know I operate best when I set my self a challenge, and so this is the main reason why I’ve decided to start this 6-week challenge.
It began with a body scan and a sit down with Marty as a first step. Marty is one of the gym trainers there and he helped me with establishing what my goals are and how I can achieve them, setting me up with all the right apps and how my goals are related to my body scans. He really opened my mind up to new perspective I wasn't really aware of!
My main goal is to shed a few extra kilograms, which seem to be lingering around for years!
To my surprise, he actually told me I needed to eat more according to my goals and what my scan told me, and according to how much I like to exercise. I really like to exercise at least once a day, although ideally twice since I started 75 Day Challenge (which I failed twice, more on that later) as I find it to be really good for my body and mind.
The meditation centre I run is open 9am - 10pm, so the 2nd exercise I feel is critical for my body to just move away from the computer and from sitting and keeps my mind fresh for the evening duties.
Measuring Macros - Junk Food Has Been the Biggest Problem
This is going to be the most interesting part for me. When Marty told me I needed to eat more food, I was really quite surprised! I thought I was supposed to be losing weight, so I needed to be in a calorie deficit, but even so, you apparently still need to eat enough calories, so your body doesn’t go into starvation mode, thereby holding onto the calories.
So, after spending a couple days measuring the macros, I realized that not only was I barely eating 1000 calories a day, but I also wasn’t getting anywhere near enough once you deduct 600 - 1000 calories due to exercise.
To be honest, the amount of food (2 meals a day) was fine with me, but I found myself getting to a point after 2-4 weeks where I’d get really hungry for something rich and dense (junk food!) and I just could not fight the urge to fight my body like that.
I’m hoping now that I’m eating 3 meals a day, that this might stop the craving as my body will be getting enough for the amount, I'm working out.
I did notice straight away that when I exercised, I had a lot more energy to actually workout harder, and sometimes I'd be extremely hungry after a workout. In the past, I tried to deny that, but now I’m realizing if I work out hard, I need to fuel my body right, and feed it properly after a workout to make sure the recovery goes well.
The Wisdom of Going Bit by Bit
One of my character traits is I am very intense! Which means I give too much all at once and I’m not very good at controlling and tempering my energy. It means consistency is very difficult for me.
Because I now know this through self-reflection, I’m able to plan my development on this 6-week program according to that, in a way that’s going to keep me going for the full 6 weeks. I planned to slowly work up my exercising, as 2 weeks prior to the challenge, I had slowly started exercising (prior to that I had stopped for a week or 2 for the first time in about 6 months)
Now, as I’m 2 weeks in, I’ve built my way up to where I was previously, which feels great.
I do need to learn to get more sleep though as recovery is just as important and this is one thing I’ve always struggled with, as when I have high energy, I work long hours and late into the night, and I’m up early to exercise again.
But in all honesty, even if I wanted to do it any other way than bit by bit, it just wouldn't have been possible with my bad habits... I have to get rid of them bit by bit.
Exercise Journey of Changing Bad Habits Up to Now
I used to be over 110kg's in the glory days of my World of Warcraft days (did someone say Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker?!). I was lazy, I ate KFC regularly, and I played video games for epic stints (7am - 4am type stints....). Suffice to say, living a sedentary life and eating poorly isn't good for the weight :P
Over the years, I've been stop / start with exercise and the gym and have lost bouts of weight in bursts. Until I started meditating, I wasn't able to maintain the consistency with exercise, but now my body habitually craves it.
This year I had attempted 75 Day Hard twice and failed both times in the final weeks of the 75 days. I'd eat junk food prior to that, but only for a day or two, but then my desire for junk food just overwhelmed me and my old habits of eating, feeling depressed, and eating more would take over.
I'm not afraid to admit that I tried, and I failed (twice) - what are you gonna do? Shit happens.
But now, I'm really hoping with this newfound wisdom of eating more food, and more of the right kind of food, that it will become a much more sustainable change in terms of my eating habits - because it's been the last issue.
It's no good exercising a lot if you're not eating properly.
And I'm happy to say, the cravings seem to have diminished, but I'm not holding my breathe. I'll wait to see what it's like, because like everything on this journey, it's trial and error and trying to find, through wisdom and self-reflection, what actually works for me.
Conclusion
Changing habits is bloody hard, man. It's really hard! Especially when you didn't have the awareness to know what a habit even was, and how debilitating it could be on your life in the future.
It's been a continual process of trial and error, self reflection, and discarding the deep rooted habits from my mind.
But things are looking up, and I feel confident about where this is going, but who knows? Either way, I'm motivated to finish it and push myself to the next limit of my body and try to win the challenge and continue to form these new, healthier habits.
Together, with forming new habits and keeping my mind clear, I'm slowly but surely changing for the better, where before clearing my mind, I literally saw no way out no matter what I tried.
“Bit by Bit” , “Trial and Error”
I like these words :)
Great blog Steven. Interesting to read about how you need to eat more for your goals 👍
Awesome Steven 😃 I was the opposite, I used to be a rake when I was a teenager and it was super hard for me to gain muscle. I tried eating more protein and carbs but what made by far the biggest difference was getting rid of the anxiety, then I found muscle easier to gain and keep. As my housemate landlord in Perth said, stress is a killer.
Keep going!