Author: Rashmi Sasidharan

So I have been in an on-again-off-again with working out for years.

My fitness flings usually follow the same trajectory: the first throes of passionate research, motivation and dedication, then comes the niggling doubts, then comes disappointment with slow results. At this point usually I will run into a hurdle thata causes me to break from my workout routine. And then like the sudden evaporation of romance, my will to work out is gone.

Before I know it, a few missed work outs has become a yawning gap of a few weeks and soon enough I have forgotten and lost sight of why I started at all. I get back to the comfort of old, bad habits and assuage any guilt with the treacherous solace of overeating.

For long, I have known this but I haven’t been able to break out of these routines and pitfalls. This attempt, that I am now also accompanying with blogging, could very well fall into the same bracket.

But here’s why I’m hoping that this fitness push goes the distance:

1. I am taking it slow, accepting my limitations and time challenges.

2. I’m focusing on what this means to me. For the longest time, I’ve often let my own motivation be drowned by the litany of imagined opinions and criticism I carry around in my head.

3. I’m focused not only on a number, but on making working out a daily habit.

And that brings me to why I used a slightly (ok, very) click-baity title for this post. I have customized my weekly routine in a way that truly fits the shape and form of crazy week.

So what is this routine, you ask?

Monday to Wednesday – Yoga: This was simply to accept and accomodate how intense these 3 days tend to be at work. I usually have calls with clients in the late evening on these days. How many failed and aborted attempts at starting a rigorous workout on Mondays have I seen? Now I know that it’s unrealistic to want to get into a full cardio or resistance workout on days when I’m so time-starved. Instead, the simplicity and flexibility of a yoga workout (barely any cooldown needed) are really making sense.

Thursday to Sunday – Cardio/Resistance: With these days offering room for a 45 minute workout followed by 15 minutes to wind down, I am finding myself much more prepared and willing to get into these intense workouts.

Noticed something? No rest days – instead incorporating lighter stretches and relaxation with yoga on one day of the week. This really helps me to keep the motor running…I’m very aware that this is just the first week and till I’m able to hardwire this as a habit into my brain, I’m allowing no breaks.

So that’s how I am hitting that workout G-spot that’s been eluding me. Focusing on long term fitness habits rather than short lived and frenetic bursts of weight loss attempts. Fingers crossed, I’m on the right track.

This idea has been fermenting in my brain for over a year. So catchy to say…fit by 40. And now I’ve let 8 months be swallowed up by the hazy, crazy pandemic lockdown days. Days have bled into months, and I have not so much as gotten off my ass in the past months.

And now, there’s just 5 more months to go to my 40th birthday and I was feeling like utter shite. In fact, as my husband, reminded me… this is the heaviest I have been. It felt like rock bottom.

And then I came across a miraculous little TED article that’s just given me a push again…a pragmatic, achievable push.

Sharing it here so you can be inspired too: https://ideas.ted.com/heres-how-i-finally-got-myself-to-start-exercising/

For the first time, I felt this was something within reach. Instead of lofty goals and motivational drivel, this article’s simple idea is “start by doing the bare minimum you can per day”. The writer goes onto say that we should embrace the idea of being less than perfect. And that right there had been my problem.

So I have a simple goal…. Work out every day even if it is just for 10 minutes.

It’s too early to say whether this approach is working…I already missed my workout yesterday in the midst of a frustrating and grueling work day. But it has cleared the fog of inertia and indecisiveness and whacked that loserly feeling that my weight loss goals are insurmountably hard.

But I believe I can this time. And as a way of solidifying my commitment, I wanted to share my journey with the world. Disclaimer: I don’t plan on doing before and after photos of myself yet. So if that’s a deal-breaker, I wish you well, dear reader, and thank you for your visit. But if something about my predicament and my journey appeals to you and you do stay on…thank you. I hope this is a rewarding endeavour for you and me.

On to the next post, where I share how I have planned my workout routine.