What is the essence of a fitness lifestyle

00:00:00 Speaker 1: If you want to achieve your fitness goal, then you must succeed in setting up a sustainable fitness lifestyle for yourself. And in this episode, we'll talk about what it takes to have a successful fitness lifestyle, or what is the essence of a fitness lifestyle. Mascara and welcome to the Stronger Men project. If you want to be a better man, become a stronger fitter and a better looking 00:00:20 Speaker 1: version of yourself and fulfil your fullest potential in all areas of your life. You have come to the right place. I'm also on the same journey. I'm your host, a deai, a mechanical engineer, turn fitness coach and a gym owner. And here I'm going to share my knowledge, experience and lessons and also bring on experts and achievers who can help us all win together. Get ready and let's dive into today's topic 00:00:42 Speaker 1: Before I talk about the essence of a fitness lifestyle. Let's go through how many people fail to achieve their fitness goals despite making a sincere effort. What I mean by sincere effort is your intention is in the right place and you take action. You truly do what you feel you should do or what you can do based on the information or the knowledge you currently have, or the ideas you have direct exposure to. At this point of time. Maybe you start exercising regularly. 00:01:12 Speaker 1: Maybe you make changes to your eating habits. Or maybe you do both, which is actually your best bet. Not going too much into what form of exercise or details of diet. Or maybe you want it easy on your mind and jump to over simplified methods like skipping dinner or doing intermittent fasting. Follow some kind of diet like, uh, Keto diet or juicing diet or some kind of detox diet 00:01:36 Speaker 1: or cut out rice or sugar or fried food items or junk food or packaged food or any combination of these. 00:01:44 Speaker 1: Or you go listen to someone like a baba Ramdev on YouTube and start drinking warm water. Only true story. I did this for months together. 00:01:52 Speaker 1: Or maybe you fall for some marketing gimmick and bought a bunch of pills and supplements, which promised you natural testosterone boost resulting in rapid fat loss and muscle growth at the same time. Or you just fell for the pretty face of Sadak Kapoor selling green tea as a belly fat solution. 00:02:11 Speaker 1: There are countless ways you can go about it, and your results depend on what you choose and how consistently you follow it. 00:02:18 Speaker 1: Some methods might give you quick results in the short run, but cannot be followed in the long run, which will ultimately result in a failure. Some methods might never give you the results, which is again a failure. And there are some methods which will give you slow and steady results and may be sustainable for you in the long run. That is something you should definitely look to find for yourself, regardless of what method or approach you choose. 00:02:42 Speaker 1: There will come a point when that method stops giving you results. And that is when most people keep grinding and grinding and cannot figure out why and eventually get bored and be motivated and give up. That is when you need to understand the essence of fitness, lifestyle, 00:03:00 Speaker 1: the essence of fitness. Lifestyle is not exactly in the form of exercise or the diet you follow. The essence is in control 00:03:10 Speaker 1: whether you can control your exercise and diet to get the results you desire. 00:03:16 Speaker 1: It may seem very simple, but control is the most powerful part of a fitness lifestyle. I have seen way too many people grinding out in the gym, putting efforts into sticking to their diets. There is no question that they are putting in the effort. In some cases, it may be like two people on a boat paddling excessively in different directions, such that they end up spinning in the same place. And I don't want you to be on that boat. 00:03:41 Speaker 1: So how to build control in your fitness lifestyle? I'll give you a simple formula for that. You may want to note this down, pause here and get yourself a pen and paper. 00:03:51 Speaker 1: So here is the formula 00:03:53 Speaker 1: Training, 00:03:55 Speaker 1: plus nutrition plus rest and recovery equals to results or outcomes. 00:04:02 Speaker 1: I'll repeat your inputs. That is, your training, nutrition and rest and recovery. 00:04:10 Speaker 1: Combine together will give you the outcomes or results. 00:04:15 Speaker 1: Let's go over each of these one by one. First. Training training is related to your exercise. When you exercise with a certain goal in your mind, that becomes training and the goal of your training. 00:04:31 Speaker 1: Believe me, is not fat loss or losing weight. 00:04:36 Speaker 1: Every kind of exercise you choose has its own training effect. 00:04:40 Speaker 1: That means it will improve certain aspects of your fitness, and your goal should be to improve your fitness level rather than burning fat or losing weight. 00:04:50 Speaker 1: That is where a lot of people get it wrong and keep on doing hours and hours of exercising. The goal here should be to improve certain aspects of your fitness. For example, if you go to gym and lift weights, the result you're looking for is bigger and stronger muscles. That is what you're looking for if you're in a gym and lifting weights if you're into running, the result you're looking for is improved running 00:05:16 Speaker 1: and improved cardio respiratory fitness. So with any kind of exercise, there is a certain training effect, meaning it will improve certain aspects of your fitness. And you should decide what is that you're looking for. And for that, you have to follow a structured programme so that you can keep on improving on your fitness levels. You need to make sure that over time if you continue to follow a programme, it should result in improvement in your fitness. 00:05:42 Speaker 1: This is where you have to do your research properly, or If you want to reduce your effort, you have to hire a coach or a trainer who can help you in this matter. 00:05:52 Speaker 1: Even though I said exercise is not meant for burning fat or losing weight, it does contribute towards it by the way of helping you spend more energy firstly, directly by spending energy by exercising, you spend energy, and that is how it contributes. Secondly, if you feel energetic after your workouts, you are more active throughout the day and you're spending more energy there. 00:06:14 Speaker 1: And if you're going to gym and lifting weights, that will actually produce signal for your body to build muscle. And it takes quite a bit of energy for your body to build muscle and recover from the workout, and all these things will add up and result in more energy expenditure throughout the day. 00:06:31 Speaker 1: That is how it will contribute. And if you take care of your nutrition and eat fewer calories than you are burning throughout the day, you will definitely lose weight, and you will definitely lose body fat. That brings us to the second point, which is nutrition. Nutrition covers everything you eat and drink, and when it comes to nutrition, you have to take care that your nutrition is meeting three needs of your body. The first need is energy. 00:07:00 Speaker 1: We need energy to stay alive, do the day to activity and also exercise if you're into exercising, so whatever you're eating should meet your energy needs. And if you're trying to lose weight, you should definitely eat fewer calories than what you're spending throughout the day. And if you're trying to gain weight, then you should eat more calories than what you are 00:07:22 Speaker 1: spending throughout the day. That is how you gain and lose weight. And the best way to know how many calories you're eating is to actually measure your food and use some food tracking app to track your calories. Or you can also have a fixed meal plan, which you vary based on your results. The second need of your body is nutrients. Nutrients like protein, fats, vitamins, minerals, trace metals, fibre and water are the raw materials your body needs to function properly 00:07:51 Speaker 1: and stay healthy. And for each of these nutrients there is a daily requirement which you should fulfil. And if you're someone who wants to improve your fitness and are into exercising, then protein is one of the most important nutrients. You should pay attention to, 00:08:07 Speaker 1: which make sure that your body records properly and will be able to repair the wear and tear which happens during the exercise. 00:08:18 Speaker 1: And the third need when it comes to nutrition is pleasure. You heard it right. 00:08:23 Speaker 1: When it comes to nutrition, your third need is pleasure. What I mean by this is that the food you eat is not only providing you the energy and nutrition, it is also making you feel good about. Think about the food items which you love, how you feel after eating those, 00:08:43 Speaker 1: and think about the food items which you don't like and imagine if your diet is full of those kind of food items, will you be able to sustain it for a long period of time? No, right. That is why pleasure is also important. The food you're eating should meet your energy needs your nutrient needs, and also it has to be tasty and it has to be something you like and it should meet your taste. Otherwise, you will not be able to sustain it for a long period of time. 00:09:11 Speaker 1: and again. When it comes to nutrition, you can do your own research. Or you can hire a nutritionist or a trainer or a coach who can help you figure out what is the best diet and nutrition plan for yourself. Let's move on to the next thing, which is rest and recovery. See rest and recovery is a very, very important part of a fitness game, because whenever you finish an intense workout, your body is fatigued and your body has gone through stress. And there is a certain level of wear and tear 00:09:40 Speaker 1: on the microscopic level on your muscles and connective tissues, and it has to be repaired. And your body has to recuperate from the exhaustion you caused due to 00:09:52 Speaker 1: the intense workout. And that is why you have to give rest and enough time for your body to recover, and most of the rest will happen in your sleep, and most of the repair will happen in your sleep. And that is why sleep is very, very important. And it is ideal if you sleep 7 to 9 hours in the night. And for some reason, if you cannot meet minimum hours of sleep, it is a good idea to add an afternoon nap in your routine. 00:10:20 Speaker 1: Apart from sleep, the other important part of recovery is your nutrition, especially your protein intake. Like I said earlier, protein is the building block of the body, and if your body has to repair, then protein is a must. If you take care of your rest and recovery, then only you will be able to go back and repeat the intense workout again and again and again. And if you're not able to repeat the intense workout again and again and again, 00:10:46 Speaker 1: that means you may be overtrained or you may be doing too much in your workout. You may have to look back in your training programme and adjust, or you may have to take a break or a reload and repeat the training programme again. 00:10:59 Speaker 1: That brings us to the right side of the equation, which is our results or outcomes. When it comes to results or outcomes, we have to pay attention to two things. One is your fitness levels, and the other thing is your body composition. What I mean by fitness levels is as you follow your training programme, you should be able to see that your performance is going up and you are becoming stronger and stronger day by day, 00:11:24 Speaker 1: if you're able to do the workload with more and more intensity as time passes. And uh, if this is happening, that means your training programme is working and you are making progress in your fitness, and the best way to know how this is is through maintaining a training log. It can be a physical notebook, or it can be a digital form. You will have to note down. What is your workout today? I'll take an example of going to gym. 00:11:51 Speaker 1: If you are going to gym and, uh, doing certain exercise, you have to note on how much weights you're using. How many reputations are you able to do and all the time, this should go up. Either your weight has to go up or your reputations have to go up. If you're running, then you have to note down the timing you have to note down the distance. Or, uh, let's say your speed or whatever matters when it comes to running. So like that way, with whatever kind of exercise you're doing, you should be 00:12:19 Speaker 1: able to track your performance in your exercise. And if your performance is going up, that means definitely you're making progress. And another aspect of our human mind is, if you're not making progress, if you're not improving in something, you will start losing interest in it, and eventually you will quit. So that is why it is important that you track your performance in your workouts and make sure that it is going up with time. 00:12:45 Speaker 1: Now let's come to body composition. When it comes to body composition, it is about how your body is changing with time. More simply, what you can do to track your body composition is to track your weight 00:12:58 Speaker 1: if you want to lose weight. Eventually your body weight has to go down. And if you want to gain weight, your body weight has to go up for that. Ideally, you have to track your body weight daily and keep tracking your weekly averages. That is because your body weight keeps on fluctuating on a daily basis based on several factors which we cannot control and account for. 00:13:20 Speaker 1: So that is why you take your weight daily ideally, first thing in the morning 00:13:25 Speaker 1: and you take weekly averages, and your weekly average body weight has to keep moving in the direction you desire. If you want to gain weight, the weekly average has to go up. And if you want to lose weight, the weekly average has to go down. 00:13:39 Speaker 1: And the second thing when it comes to body composition is your body fat percentage. See, the weight is the simplest way to track your body composition, but it is not the best way because a person can weigh the same weight. But his body fat levels may be different. You don't want to have high body fat percentages, and especially if you're losing weight. You're actually not trying to lose weight. You're actually trying to lose the excess body fat you've gained 00:14:09 Speaker 1: while retaining your strength and muscle mass. That is the goal, actually, and that is why you have to track your body fat percentage. And the simplest way to track it is 00:14:20 Speaker 1: to use something called as US navy body fat calculator. I'll leave a link to a calculator, which I use in the description. You can click on that 00:14:30 Speaker 1: so you have to feel your weight, your height and your body measurements in the calculator, and it will show you a percentage of body fat, which is not accurate. But it is a definite indicator whether your body fat level is going up or down. And ideally, if you're trying to lose weight, your body fat level has to go down. 00:14:50 Speaker 1: And if you're trying to gain weight, you should make sure that your body fat levels are not rising very quickly because gaining weight is very, very easy. Gaining fat is very, very easy, but ideally, when you want to gain weight, it is not body fat. You want to gain muscle and lean mass, which is a very, very slow process, and that is why you shouldn't rush the process of gaining weight 00:15:10 Speaker 1: and tracking your body fat percentage will give you an idea if you're in the right direction 00:15:16 Speaker 1: and the next thing when it comes to body composition is your body measurements, because the US navy body fat calculator is taking your body measurements only in select few areas. But your fat distribution may not be the same as everybody. Everybody stores fat in a different way slightly. That is why body measurements come into picture and If you're trying to gain weight, you also have to understand if you're gaining 00:15:42 Speaker 1: size in the right places. If you're gaining muscle in the right places, right. That is why you have to take body measurements regularly. Ideally, body fat percentage and body measurements you have to take every four weeks. And what all body measurements you can take is your waist circumference at the naval 00:16:03 Speaker 1: waist circumference two inch above the navel, two inch below the navel, your shoulder circumference, your chest circumference, your bicep circumference, your forearm circumference, your hip circumference, your thighs circumference and your calves. By that way, you can check if your body measurements are changing in all the areas 00:16:24 Speaker 1: and last but not the least, you have to track how you look in the mirror When it comes to body composition. It does not matter if your weight is going down or up. It does not matter if your fat percentage is going up or down by 1%. What matters is how you look in the mirror, and that is where you have to take progress pictures. 00:16:47 Speaker 1: And this is one of the most powerful ways to track your progress. Every four weeks. You have to take your picture from the front side and the back in the same lighting condition and in the same place so that you can compare it every four weeks. And if you keep taking pictures every four weeks, you will have a visual comparison between where you started and where you're headed. And when you see the change in your body, that will be the most powerful 00:17:12 Speaker 1: motivation. And believe me, this is what I have done with myself. And this is what I do with my customers. And nothing beats taking progress pictures. So now, once we have understood each element of this formula, so now it comes to the essence of fitness lifestyle. Now that you're tracking each of this, 00:17:31 Speaker 1: you know if you're getting your results or no, if you're getting results, you'll be motivated to continue what you're doing. If you're not getting results, you already know what you're doing and what you can change in that. And that is how this formula will help you put yourself in control of your fitness lifestyle, and this is what it takes to have a successful fitness lifestyle to track everything regularly and 00:17:58 Speaker 1: make adjustments as per your results, and that is what it boils down to in the long run, instead of following some kind of method blindly, 00:18:10 Speaker 1: I hope you found this episode valuable and understood how to actually go about setting up your own fitness lifestyle. 00:18:18 Speaker 1: And if you like this episode, and if you're still not subscribed to this channel, please subscribe now and share it with your friends, family and colleagues for whom this might be helpful. 00:18:29 Speaker 1: And if you're someone who has failed again and again and again in your fitness journey and want to start fresh or if you're someone who wants to start for the first time, or if you're someone who is already into a fitness lifestyle but not getting right results. 00:18:45 Speaker 1: And if you want to check all my free and paid courses, workshops, webinars, 1 to 1, coaching everything, 00:18:53 Speaker 1: I'd like to invite you to a special WhatsApp group I've created for this purpose. You can join the WhatsApp Group by clicking the link in the description. I'll be happy to have you in the WhatsApp Group. I'm delighted to offer all my free and paid services that will be useful to you 00:19:09 Speaker 1: So click on the link and see you in the WhatsApp Group. Thank you for tuning in today. I'll see you in the next one. This is a always here to help you become the best version of yourself.