Health & Fitness

I mentioned a few days ago that I had some reasons for not streaming on Twitch as often as I used to, or at all. One of the reasons I mentioned was that I didn’t have the paints or the materials needed for some of the Gunpla projects. The other reason is health.

Now, I’m not sick, I’m ok, but I am severely overweight and have been for quite a while now and I’ve decided to finally take measures about it. I’m tired and done with this weight. I’m tired of all the negatives associated with this weight, including how fast I feel fatigued. I’m also tired of looking at clothes I’d like to wear and having a mental image of how it’d look and realising I can’t get it because they don’t have my size. It’s not for vanity, not to look good, but because it makes getting clothes really difficult.

So I’ve decided to go all in with an exercise program. This program has me working out four times a week for an hour-ish, all of it circuit training, getting core, upper and lower body exercise in addition to cardio, all mixed together. I love it, I can do it from home, there are exercise substitutions I can make for those moves I can’t do, such as split squats and lunges, which are currently physically impossible for me. The program is tailored for every level of experience and fitness, which helps me greatly, as my experience is lacking and my fitness was non-existent. It’s already become part of my routine, so much that before taking this week off to focus on stretching and mobility for some sore muscles I felt guilty about it, and felt like something was missing.

As for dieting, if I have one saving grace is that I generally eat healthy. My mother drilled it into me to the point where if I want to eat something unhealthy, I will hear her voice in my head and I find myself coming up with excuses for it. When you’re making excuses to explain things to a fictional version of your parents, you know it’s something you shouldn’t be doing.

But I suppose we all have our parents’ voices in our head for any number of reasons.

My problem has always been portion control. My mother often said that I wouldn’t stop until I saw the bottom, which is an aspect of my personality that I keep in mind when I refuse to drink alcohol. I always had the fear I wouldn’t stop until I saw the bottom, rock bottom. Fortunately, once I actually started drinking when I moved to Ireland—national sport an all that, you know. Just kidding—I realised I couldn’t drink more than a couple of pints of anything before I got tired of the taste and just didn’t want to drink anymore.

But the notion of not stopping until I see the bottom applies to drinks and food, as I’ve gone through pots of pasta the same way I went down a bottle of diet Pepsi. Often when I did that I felt awful afterwards, that feeling of overeating to the point of nausea, and yet I kept doing it. Haven’t done it in a while. In recent memory only once was I really full when eating, but it was a head of lettuce that did it, with just a bit of lime juice and salt for dressing, so it’s not that bad. It’s a change I’m handling quite well, I rarely feel that need anymore, the compulsion to eat, be it because of stress or some other reason.

That’s another thing, I love veggies. I don’t understand people who can’t eat veggies, but then again I don’t understand people who don’t do bacon, so whatever.

My other issue, my other habit that I’m breaking now is not drinking enough water. I can go for a year without drinking any water, using a combination of juices and diet sodas for my liquid intake. It’s had a severe effect on me and I’m making those changes, because the worst thing about that level of dehydration or bare minimum hydration is that I’m not burning as much fat as I should with the workout.

But these changes, particularly the workout, are things that take a fair chunk out of my evening, as I can’t really work out during the day, and I’m still not used to it all, so between work and the exercise I’m usually exhausted by the end and just ready to go to bed.

Hopefully as I lose weight and have more energy or just as I get used to working out and making all these changes in my life, I can go back to broadcasting regularly, because I do enjoy it. And while I know that many people broadcast their workouts, as part of those IRL twitch streams, it’s really not my thing. Hell, my mother’s coming to visit me in a couple of month and I will lock myself while I do my exercises. I don’t like people watching me.

For reference, if you’re wondering, the exercise and diet program I’m following is the Metashred Extreme, developed by Men’s Health fitness guy BJ Gaddour. Here’s the link, though I warn you, if you’re not in the US or Canada, you can’t order the thing. I had to have my sister buy it and send it to me to the UK.

I’m hoping to one day be able to do all the advanced exercises and have that level of fitness or at least somewhere along the way perhaps add other things, maybe more cardio, swimming, cycling, backflips, limited flight. Some of those might not be real, but the goal and the drive certainly are, as difficult as it might be. It’s not a race but a journey, as cliché as it might sound. It’s why I’m not getting frustrated nor trying to rush anything. This is something that will take months and months and I’m ready, willing and more or less able.