I am now one year away from being 40 years old. It’s a strange feeling. A humbling feeling. Yet, it’s a feeling that we will all experience in our lives like all age milestones. Physically I am in the best shape of my life. I recently cut 10 pounds and working to lose another 5 or so to get down to 12% BF. Feels good. I love being locked in and committed. Not only that, but the discipline I’ve achieved during this has helped me so much. I truly believe everyone should at least once commit to getting into shape. The benefits from it are truly unreal. Even the negatives turn out to be positive! Sacrifice being the biggest of them all. In order to achieve you have to let go of things. Alcohol, bad eating habits and free time. My lunch breaks now consist of walking on the treadmill for 50 minutes. After work, I spend an hour lifting hard in the gym. By the time I get home and eat, it’s close to 8pm. We get into bed around 9:30-10pm now. (old, I know) However, in order to maintain healthy hormone balance to produce muscle building and fat burning you need to get 7-8 hours of sleep a night minimum which is a non-negotiable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also, let me say here that I’m not on a high horse preaching like a snob. No. I still miss my old lifestyle of eating whatever whenever I want. I long for the days of going to BWW and drinking with the boys. I miss when Taylor and I would watch YouTube on the couch until 3am while eating 1000s of calories. I get why people do it and I don’t blame them one bit. I’ll be honest as well. There are still nights where we indulge in some fast food. However only now I have to factor the macros into my day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If there is a point to my rambling here, it’s that without me making changes I would never have had the mental benefits that I do now. The discipline of all of this has helped me deal with stress better. The pain in the gym helps you realize that to build a better version of you, you must break yourself down. The amount of dedication and commitment it takes to build muscle and get into shape is truly beyond what most people think. It’s why there are a million bullshit artists trying to sell you the next best diet or workout to get you into shape in 30 days or less. People do not want to invest the time it takes to truly do it. All these ‘short form’ content creators on Tik-Tok showing absolute bullshit lifts that will “grow your arms 3x the size!” are just putting people at risk for injury. The sad truth is that most people don’t have it in them. There are outlying factors of course. Real life happens and should always come first, but to give up because it’s too much time to invest? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once you commit and push yourself to change, you gain a massive amount of self respect. It’s you against yourself and no one else. That self respect bleeds into all other aspects of your life. It did for me personally. I started to finally enjoy who I am. Hold my head higher. All those years of hiding behind a mask with the feeling of inferiority are gone. I’m able to speak with anyone as me. The real me. If they don’t like it, that’s okay! I like me and they don’t have to. The beauty of life!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s truly a wonderful thing which is why I try to help everyone get into fitness. They just never get past the hump. The initial workout causes so much pain they never go back. The realization that they can’t continue their eating habits is too much. Again, I completely understand and do not fault them one bit. It’s one of the hardest parts of fitness; consistency. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have a friend who lives in Virginia who is super into it as well but we can never hit the gym together and push each other. It would be amazing to have someone to go with consistently. Not only to share knowledge but to push each other to be better than the last time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of these days I’ll get someone to get hooked like me! Until then, I’ll continue my solo journey! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking of which! It’s time to get some cardio in! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Onward towards 40 in the best shape of my life! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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