On Physical Health: Game Changing Revelations

How do exercise, nutrition, sleep and physical well being affect my life in the 'present'? I share insights on what compels me to prioritize these, and live a healthy lifestyle.

This is a long-ish article because I've made a one-size-fits-all post discussing several things in detail. I discuss the benefits of physical well being with my journey as a backdrop, so most of it would appeal to you if you are beginning to get fit or haven't started, but I do hope there's something in this for everybody. Following is the order of topics discussed (click on a topic to skip to that section):

• Brief history of physical fitness -> How (unfit) I was earlier

• Humble beginnings -> How I started

• The journey -> What I did, initial progress

• Insights and rewards -> Most important lessons for me

• Tips for starting off -> Things that can help beginners

• Outlook: Finding a new normal -> Life in India and new experiments

Like my history with meditation, I had tried strength training at several points in my life. I was neither strong nor completely unfit. Every single time, I had begun exercising for aesthetic looks and it had lasted only 1-2 months. There is no cause-effect relation here, I was just too complacent during my Bachelors to be consistent at this, and by the time I had reinvented myself in my Masters, gyms closed during the lockdowns.

I moved to Germany when I was 21, and until then, I had never cooked even a carrot in my life. I moved out of my house at 15 for residential school, and since then I had had all my meals at my hostel 'mess'. They were mostly vegetarian and reasonably tasty and healthy. Whenever I came home, I really wanted to learn to cook but the kitchen was off limits in my house due to "safety" reasons (don't ask me). So I learned to cook from scratch only when I started living completely independently. I instantly fell in love with cooking and became a decent cook, but back then I only cared about the taste of my dishes.

Sleep was my biggest problem. Between the age of 15-22, I slept an average of ~6 hours every day, and after high school, I had no good reason to do so. I would stay up and do random shit, surf youtube videos and waste away my time, because I didn't like to sleep. In fact I felt it was "dead" time I could use to do something I liked. I know, the irony of it never ceases to amaze me :D

During the second lockdown in 2020 from August to December, I was going through a really stressful time (juggling a part-time job with tough coursework, a house hunt and a really hard breakup). I did not give two shits about what I ate. I am someone who has a good self-image, so this wasn't an intended self-destructive reaction to all the stress in my life then, nor was it a coping mechanism. I simply didn't think of it at all. A harsh winter was approaching and I stayed at home waddling about in my own gloom.

In short, I was absurdly, totally indifferent to my physical health. So what changed?

Moment of reckoning

Around this time I started having weird chest pains. Some kind of tightening pain in my sternum and I freaked out because my family has a history of heart conditions. So I came home to India for the christmas break and, upon my father's advice, did an overall health check up. He came home from work that night and said quiet nicely, "Everything is fine, but your cholestrol level is close to the upper limit of what's normal. Start exercising."

The casual delivery didn't mitigate the shock. I saw the result and WHAM! Nail in the head. I got extremely pissed with myself and my arrogance kicked in, "What am I even doing? How the f*** can I be having issues like this?"

Sigh. Truth. Pain. Shame. Empathy. Clarity. Time for yet another reinvention.

Humble beginnings

This time I knew the pattern for reinvention from firsthand experience -

1. Face reality with brutal honesty: I came back to Germany and I looked in the mirror (picture in the section below) -> Visually estimated body fat percentage (using google images): 30%.
   

2. Figure out a broad strategy for improvement: The challenges were actually enormous. Not only did I have to be consistent at being 'healthy', I actually didn't know jackshit about what that meant. "Where do I even begin? Exercise and nutrition sure, but what to do really?" I am the kind of person for who knowledge is ultimate power. If you tell me what to do and not convince me why I should do it, I won't do it at all. I had to do it my way so it would stick - to science the shit out of everything - so I went berserk. I stumbled on nerdfitness.com and began devouring tonnes of content on fat loss, cholestrol science, muscle gain, diet planning, basic and advanced exercises etc. (If you're hungry for concepts like me, I highly recommend the page. It removes all kinds of 'No pain No gain' toxicity and gives plenty of advice on sustainable practices. And yeah, read. If you want to remember for life and not depend on anybody for advice, read.) I identified four pillars of physical well being: 1. Nutrition, 2. Exercise 3. Sleep 4. Hydration. And my goal was fat loss and muscle gain.

3. Figure out pitfalls to avoid: For exercise, consistency was key. The training program depends on the goal, but to be generally fit, most popular exercises and methods are good enough. I read somewhere that 'it takes six months for the effects of exercise to show up in the appearance'. Phrases like this are important to me, whether they are true or not. Target fixed: I will train for six months at least. This also aligned with another very 'hollow' goal. I knew a German guy I helped do assignments, who never stopped talking about girls, who said "Man, once the lockdown is over, I'll throw a summer party at my place and I'll invite you." I imagined myself hitting this party ripped. Damn, it felt good. Honestly, this did not motivate me to start training even a single day, but it was something I could look forward to as I progressed. The lockdown didn't end, I never met this guy in my life again and there was no party... but by that time it didn't matter. I will explain soon what really made me consistent. Nutrition was a minefield. It's incredibly easy to make mistakes, have the wrong eating habits, etc. So this required consistency, being up to date with the science, and constant vigilance. Challenge accepted! Fortunately, I made all my meals and I was solely responsible for what I ate.
   

4. Find gratifications for improvement: It always helps to know that your efforts are fruitful. When I did things 'right', it mostly showed up in the mirror, but the real progress was in improvements to my strength.

With these things figured out, it was time to get down to business.

The journey

Here I'll list out just the facts: what I did, and how I progressed. I will share insights in the next section.

A brief note on starting out: Apart from being motivated, the big issue when starting out is of course, time. Carving out time to train but also to read, watch videos, understand methods and apply it in practice, and also to stay aware and focused on a high level. When I started, I had just come out of a serious relationship and it was... hard. But there was no channelling negative energy, anger, frustration, etc., because my (ex-)girlfriend and I ended on good terms. All of a sudden, I just had a hell of a lot of time in hand. In retrospect, I could not have used it any better than to work on myself, and it did wonders to my mental state:

"The antidote to a bad day is exercise" - James Clear

The following are details of the program I made for myself:

• Gyms were closed. I had to train at home with bodyweight exercises. (And potato and rice sacks, lol. My flatmates watched my crazy ass haul the sacks to the living room and do curls with them. No excuses.) One month in, I bought a pair of dumbbells (2-10 kg each). That's all I started with. I began training on alternate days, full-body HIIT and bodyweight strength exercises (I used the program in this video). I relied on Nerdfitness to choose my exercises and Youtube for exercise form.

• Nutrition for weight loss can be summed up in two words: Calorie Deficit. You can eat absolute crap and lose weight if you eat below your caloric needs. But I didn't want weight loss, I wanted fat loss and muscle gain. So I needed to eat very healthy food at a caloric deficit. I made myself moderate carb, high fat, high protein meals mostly consisting vegetables, lentils, eggs, meat (unprocessed) and rice or oats. I avoided sugary foods and followed a "Cut" phase plan. I also went crazy and started reading labels on every food item to understand nutrient composition and to track down my macros (I cannot stress how big of an eye opener this is - most of us are so oblivious to what really is in the food we eat every single day).

• I used the lockdown to my advantage and slept 8-9 hours everyday. Social life was anyway absent, and I studied and worked part-time from home. So all my time was spent on productivity, fitness, meals, sleep, and some fun with flatmates.

• Hydration was extremely important for my goals I read, so I drank atleast 4 litres of water everyday. This was hard because I never felt thirsty! I could not drink small quantities throughout the day so I downed a 1l bottle every time I drank water.

"For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them." - Aristotle

I measured my progress everyday in pictures, exercise records and weight (Pictures just for my own satisfaction of "seeing" the differences). Progress turned out to be like this:

Disclaimer: These are mirror selfies I never thought I'd share in public. NSFW.

Day 1 (Jan '21):

Weight: 86 kg

Visual estimate of body fat percentage: 25-30 %

Performance: Could not do regular pushups with proper form, started with knee pushups. Could only do one out of three rounds of my HIIT circuit.

One month in (Feb):

Weight: 79 kg

6-7 kg lost in one month, because of an aggressive calorie deficit. Just plain DUMB. I wanted to lose as much fat as fast as possible so I though why not halve my caloric intake. Just two weeks in, I figured this out but it was already too late: 2 kg per month => ideal. 3-4 kg per month => high risk of muscle loss. *Facepalm* Whatever little muscle mass I might have had, was probably obliterated. Trust me, the result is not worth this really dumb plan. I changed my eating right away.

Performance: Could do regular pushups. Could easily do three rounds of the HIIT circuit.

Two months in (Mar):

Weight: 76 kg

Performance: No more HIIT circuits, I had lost quite some fat, so I did just strength training with body weight and dumbbells.

Three months in (April):

Weight: 74 kg

Performance: Reasonable push strength but I couldn't do pull exercises at home. Went out to a Calisthenics park for the first time and instantly fell in love with it. Tried to do pull ups for the first time in my life and realized I could do only half a pullup. It became the most important exercise to me.

Four months in (May):

Weight: 72.5 kg

This was my leanest. Body fat percentage of about 10-12%. At this point, I had lost so much fat that I actually started feeling slightly cold all the time... I stopped cutting now to focus on muscle building. Stopped checking my weight everyday.

Performance: My appearance is deceptive, I was very lean but not very strong then. I started going to the Calisthenics park more often as the weather improved. I could still do only 3-4 pullups, so I bought resistance bands to improve.

One year in (Jan '22):

Weight: 79 kg

Gyms had reopened in July, and I already had a running membership so I hit the park and gym both from time to time. As the lockdowns eased, I started travelling a lot for weeks together and my routines were affected, but I exercised sometimes even during vacations. By then it had become lifestyle. There were no goals or rules, I just did it because I loved it. After cutting until May, I decided to do a lean bulk. I had to eat healthy melas with some more healthy carbs, this time with only a small caloric surplus. This didnt work out for me well because my routines were changing and I found it hard to maintain. Its my opinion now that its easier to do a dirty bulk and then cut again to get lean.

Performance: Pull ups (8 rep max (RM), 40-50 with bands), Deadlifts (100 kg - 4 RM). I dont chase deadlift PRs because I had an injury from doing it two years before, that took me 3-4 months to heal. 3-6 reps are great for strength training.

19 months in (July - Aug '22):

Weight: 78 kg

Just went through "life" for another 6 months: Gave up training for two full months to focus on my Master thesis. Picked it up again, made progress, started travelling again, struggled to stay consistent, just trained whenever I could... same cycle.

Performance: Pull ups (10 RM, 30 in 4 sets without bands)

Edit: I just realized after sharing these images of myself, that I may be unintentionally selling the wrong message. I want to make it extremely clear: Lean is not the standard for being physically fit and healthy. It so happens that I have been lean consistently for over 1.5 years because I am very physically active and outdoors, and I've struggled to eat accordingly. In fact, my biggest challenge for muscle gain is that I am unable to eat more healthy food than my appetite allows. Its simply my new equilibrium. Appearance is a consequence, the process is key.

This has been my journey in fitness so far, and it has been incredibly rewarding in several ways. Now I am going to share insights on the process and the biggest lessons for myself.

Insights and rewards

The fundamental point I want to sell is that being physically healthy has had the biggest impact on my mental fitness and condition and that has shown me the value my physical well being. It really is a virtuous cycle, perhaps one of the very few that exist.

Rewards of exercise:

A friend who loves to train told me once when he went for a second round of desserts: "The point of exercise is so you can eat cake xD." He was joking, because he feels what I and most people I know feel. The biggest motivation for me to go out and train everyday is simple and boring: Physical exercise is its own reward. Both in the short term and long term. Ask anybody who runs, plays sports, trains at the gym, or does anything else to keep fit regularly, why they do it?

• For starters, it just feels good to exercise. Hormones like endorphins and endocannabinoids are released during, and right after exercise. The post-workout glow is real, its actually inside and it spills outside. The mood boost is awesome.

• Training time is calming. I don't use my phone at all, except for music, so I am out enjoying the breeze, basking in the sun or simply lost in thoughts. Its high quality me-time since I'm working on both the body and the mind. Some of my best ideas for work/life have all come in between sets. I prefer training alone for this mental space and I feel more grounded in general.

• The biggest challenge is starting to train. It helps to know the rewards that you experience (not read about), but starting requires sheer will power because the mind starts playing tricks. I feel the weakest, and most exhausted right when I am starting to bike, jog or train. Two minutes into the warm up, my mind goes like - "My body is hurting more today for some reason", "You have other work to do right now", "You haven't eaten or slept well, its not the best time to exercise", "You could just take today as a rest day and train tomorrow". These are all just tricks that exist for evolutionary reasons. The human body is an efficient machine evolved to do physical work only when absolutely essential, like gathering food or running from predators. So relax, almost everybody feels them. Its actually the hardest to train at home for the same reason. Starting at the gym is easy but going to the gym is the hard part. But the effort is so totally worth it, that if you regularly experience the reward, the mind starts to play along.

• Low stress levels and increased focus and energy: It sounds crazy but spending energy to exercise makes me feel more energetic to do things later. I've noticed it so many times that when I am really stressed out and I stop and catch a training session, my stress levels plummet. It would be 8 pm, I'd be working from home, studying for an exam, etc, and I'd feel stressed out that I don't have enough time. Then I take a break, train, make dinner and come back to my desk at 10:30 pm feeling very confident and energized that I have a solid few hours left to get the same work done. And I am able to focus way better. Scarcity of time plus good mood and energy work way better for productivity.

• Structuring time and the value of discipline: This is one of the best reminders that delayed gratification can be far better than instant gratification sometimes, even though training also gives you a mellow instant one as well. And the discipline that comes with managing time and prioritizing my own health has been a valuable lesson. I read this line somwhere: "... I don't know anybody who runs regularly who doesn't have their shit together", and I'm tempted to believe it now.

• Confidence boost from being strong and looking fit: I find aesthetics slippery to serve as motivation or to gauge progress. But I really love it as a consequence of regular training. Looking physically attractive to my own eye (and that's where it starts and ends) makes me feel great. There's a fine line between good self-esteem and arrogance, that is upto everybody to tread for themselves. To be able to do most things I value in life without fretting about physical exhaustion feels great.

• New found love for sports: It so happened that just as I was getting fitter, summer happened and I found a strong love for outdoor sports. Being reasonably fit and strong allowed me to never worry about stamina or other issues, and just have fun out in the sun. This elevated my mental health (chasing thrills and satisfaction) even further. Cycling and bouldering became my sports of choice, and Europe gave me the best atmosphere for these hobbies.

These were all the reasons I could unlock consistency in training. Regular exercise/sports simply offer a rich way of life.

(source: kurtkinetic .com)

Rewards of healthy eating, sleep and hydration:

I admit that this depends on what I really call healthy food. Its a topic I prefer to not discuss because each person's body and choices different. But there's one thing that warrants definite mention: avoiding sugary foods. And I'm talking as someone with a sweet tooth who has a huge weakness for chocolates. The most important idea is that the food I eat affects me everyday. On a given day, I am what I eat.

• Constant and high energy levels throughout the day: This is a difference impossible to miss. I started having breakfast and lunch with a moderate amount of carbs from fibrous sources and I no longer had the post-meal crash in energy levels. Lunch was particularly always sleep inducing and my productivity was the worst in the afternoon. It felt like somebody gave me a few extra hours in the day to do all that I wanted. I think cutting out most refined carbs and consuming less carbs overall have worked for me mainly, but constant hydration and good sleep are perhaps equally responsible.

• Everything is tastier, when I avoid sugar: This is solely my experience. If you consume a lot of ready made foods and ingredients (ketchup, sauces, dressing, bread spreads etc) you should be aware that everything has added sugar. The mind releases some feel-good hormones when sugar is consumed, and even non-sweet items have added sugar to taste good. I'm not going to discuss the horrible consequences of this problem here but it can royally fuck you up and you should be aware of it. Since giving up sugary foods on a daily basis, I feel like all foods including healthy foods (which most people complain taste like shit) taste better. I am not a bad cook, I am usually capable of making any simple food taste good enough for myself. But even chocolates taste way better now. Its as if the entire threshold for what is tasty is down. This is wonderful, because I am not choosy anymore about tasty food, and now I can eat healthy foods without considering it a chore.

• Sleep is the ultimate fat-burner: Good sleep (7-9 hrs) has extremely far-reaching consequences. Short term benefits from my own experience are being much more engaged in the moment, and having better memory and focus. But all of that would not have motivated me to sleep well. I'm a human, a stupid creature. Somebody said sleep well if you want to burn fat so I said "You son of a bitch, I'm in" (Amma, appa if you're reading this relax, its a pop reference). From only visual estimates of my body, I can say my GOD they were right. I measured my weight daily before and after sleep just to see this myself and I was always 400-500 g lighter in the morning. All that energy just to live through a night. And if I slept 8-9 hours really well, I'd appear in the mirror leaner. The reverse has also held so many times. If I sleep long hours regularly and just one day I sleep 6 hours or lesser, I wake up and notice more fat around my waist, even when everything else like my meals have been similar. It has made me realize that fat loss and gain are daily processes which have their own fluctuations. Its perplexing how the duration of sleep has this effect but the point is that good sleep is an extremely healthy way to burn fat by doing nothing at all. The science is pretty clear, if you're serious about muscle gain or fat loss, sleep is your best friend. Matthew Walker knows way better than me and he agrees (listen to his Joe Rogan podcasts).

• Hydration has also been key to maintaing high energy levels, and not feeling tired. Its hardest to stay hydrated while I'm on the move, but at least at home I keep this up.

Edit: I want to add here that eating healthy is not about sacrifice (giving up things you love). Its about loving something else, the lifestyle and rewards. That is the only truly sustainable way to do it. There's a cliched line you may find as useful motivation: "Live your perfect days so you can love your imperfect days". I like half of it, because you have to love your 'perfect' days too to keep it natural in the long term. I don't have a concept of cheat days at all. I eat junk, tasty food from time to time without feeling any guilt, but I've naturally gone to liking them lesser, particularly on days when I am in a productive mood. But sometimes it requires integrity to resist temptation: Am I saying "just this once" really only now, or has it been a pretty clear pattern? Moderation is the name of the game and the goal is to enjoy pleasures without feeling guilty, because -

"Moderation is the only thing worth doing in moderation" - Peter Attia

I've tried to talk about the benefits individually but the truth is that I don't know these for sure. What I do know from real experience for over 1.5 years, is that caring about physical health and following up on it has had such a positive impact on my lifestyle, and all of these things together work wonders. The impacts can be summed up in one line:

Being physically healthy has put the youth back in my age.

I maintain that youth is a state of mind. I know I am actually young, I'm just 24, but I feel the young hot blood in me so much more now. I have always been restless in my mind, and I've become even more restless now. Except this time, I'm not in the same place with my thoughts. I'm running, jumping, trying new things and trying to keep everything I want together with an energy I've never had before. I feel rejuvenated.

All benefits together - good mood and high energy, less stress accumulation, desires to try new and hard things, being strong physically and mentally, being confident, etc. have all unleashed the child in me. Kids don't think so much about playing, running, doing things on a whim, they just go ahead and do it. And they fall, get hurt, recover and keep up the same spirits. I share the same zeal for life.

A few tips for the journey

These are some tips that help me stay consistent and have a good time -

1. Knowledge and clarity help: If you want to get fit but don't know what to do really, it can kill your motivation. If you do some things wrong and don't get the output you expect, you'll be disappointed. Clarity is your friend. You don't need everything figured out to start, but invest time in learning.

2. Train a few days of the week or everyday?: If you like to do other things throughout the week, you can use rest days. They have such a tremendous impact on your progress also. Training 'everyday' could work for you if the choice is your enemy: Should I train today or not?

3. No particular time of the day: If your life has a nice routine, its good to fit exercise somewhere everyday at the same time. But its so easy to fool yourself out of training if you miss that particular time. Early mornings are especially hard if you're a night owl. And if your goal is to rise early so you can also fix your sleep cycle, think again. Those are two separate hard tasks... I train any time of the day I get.

4. Have favorite muscle groups and exercises. It's a strong kick to see yourself get more muscular in the mirror and break personal bests.

5. Find "local" inspirations. People you know who've managed to get fit, instead of celebrities or fitness influencers. Don't compare yourself to them but keep in touch to learn about the "real" experience of doing it, the ups and downs.

6. Figure out a sustainable meal plan: sudden changes to diet don't stick for long. Start simple and cut down or add one or two things to get the ball rolling.

7. Cardio is most boring at the gym: I like to do cardio outdoors. If you associate "gym" with "treadmill for 30 min" you might face resistance to go. In most cases, strength training is a much more effective way to lose fat.

8. If you have pain, take a step back and fix it: This is the hardest part because it hurts to know you cannot continue getting stronger. It requires honesty and humility but it always pays off.

9. Compare with yourself, not others: At every point in your journey, you're gonna find people who appear to be at the same point in life as you but stronger and looking better. Anybody could also tell you that you could do much better than you're doing now. Happens to me all the time. Fuck all that and just enjoy being healthy. You do it for yourself. Milestones are good, but the process is the true reward.

Outlook: Finding a new normal

In Germany, I had the gym and park to train, I cooked all my meals with cheap, easily available items, and I had a lot of freedom over my lifestyle and choices. I commonly hear from Indians that its easier to be healthy in the West, with its work life balance, access to outdoor sports, gyms, etc. I agree, but I also think that its extremely easy to be unhealthy because tasty trash food is super cheap and life is much more comfortable. I refuse to think that its much harder to be healthy in India.

Since returning home to India, I am running several new experiments. I hope to be exploring several parts of the country, and during my travels I won't have access to gyms or training equipment, and my nutrition is going to be totally out of my hand, I cannot afford to be choosy or spend a lot of money. This year's experiments are all about trying to figure out how to be physically healthy on the go, without a routine. I don't think its impossible, but I already know its going to be a roller coaster. I'm looking forward to this ride, and I'll share my views on this as I go! Cheers :)