RE: How gaining a lot of weight pushed me towards becoming a better person (Part 2): The lessons I learned
I don't think many people understand how hard it is to stay in good shape as an adult. It's mentally tough to get yourself to eat better and work out regularly. Glad to see a great success story.
I was similar to you. I was always active and thin. In college I found a girlfriend who encouraged me to eat. I skipped the gym and gained 40lbs in 6months. Roughly 18kg's so close to what you gained. I'm a bit taller but it still showed. It was the first time in my life I was not fit or in relatively good shape and I didn't notice because my girlfriend at the time just kept encouraging me to eat and not to worry. I noticed when I went clubbing and none of the girls paid me any attention and I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and I realized why. I still remember the first few months of getting back in shape. It was horrible not being able to do the things I was used to doing and all my joints hurt just from trying to do a pushup or pullup.
Props for training, competing, and working towards your PhD all at the same time!
Here's a quote from Socrates on physical fitness. Just replace the man with man and woman. "No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable."
@aaagent Our experience sounds pretty similar, indeed. Is it possible that your girlfriend back then was doing it in a conscious way, to try to "get you out of the market"? Or was she just a bit more into the "let's chill and not worry about consequences" mindset?
I can relate to the struggle when it comes to working out when you are overweight. That's how I busted my knee, by doing lots of running with a sudden 10-15 kg extra fat on, and my joints didn't like it.
I really like that quote from Socrates, and it sums up a lot of my motivation nowadays: I want to find out what my body is capable of! There are few things more rewarding than feeling a mastery over your body, or "unlocking" a new skill that you didn't have before. Just simple things like throwing a perfectly executed spinning hook kick brings me joy, I'm a simple person ;-)
Thanks for your thoughtful comment!
@irime I never really thought about if she was trying to get me out of the market or not. It's more on me than her, but I still can't believe I let myself go to that extent.
Being as nimble and relatively strong as I was and then in a matter of a few months not being able to do a push-up really made me feel horrible. I vowed to never let that happen again. What was worse was, I didn't realize all my strength had deteriorated that quickly that I dislocated my shoulder trying to pull a sliding gate open. It didn't make sense that I lost so much muscle that I couldn't open a gate that i could easily open before. I kept trying to open it refusing to acknowledge how weak I was until I popped my shoulder out. I found out the gate was locked. That was an idiot moment.
But yes, I love doing stupid things with my body as well like dunking footballs (can't fully dunk a basketball but it's on my bucket list of things to complete lol). People don't understand that the hardwork and dedication from sports translates to real life too, if they apply it. Hopefully I'll have a fitness success story to share somewhat soon too!