Fitness – Why Would I Write

I didn’t manage to write a wrap-up post for 2023. Fortunately, I had the foresight to put down my thoughts about time, which was apt. Since the real new year has begun – I’m Chinese, that’s what Chinese New Year means right? Non-Chinese people won’t get it. Here’s my 2023 recap (more like my fitness journey).

With a little bit of 2024 sprinkled in, because why not? I could have written a recap of my past 365 days at any point in the year – which was what I did back in August. A yearly recap can be done at any point in the year, just that it’s not so meaningful unless you keep it consistent.

Then again, who reads this blog and thinks, “That was meaningful.”

It’s been a year of significant change for me, some by choice and some not so much. Regardless, these old bones have gone through quite a bit. I’m still getting used to my new role, where I’m learning something new every day. It’s no cakewalk.

In the coming months, I plan to grasp my role and live up to expectations fully. It’s time to take off the training wheels and step out of my comfort zone.

This brings me to the main point of this post: gymming. I started hitting the gym last February, and as of this week, I’ve officially turned it into a habit. One year of gymming at least thrice a week – that’s 156 times in 2023.

Now, you might think, “That’s crazy, George! I could never do that!” But it wasn’t difficult at all to practice what I preached. Consistency is key, as I’ve always said. And while I’m no Arnold Schwarzenegger, I’ve achieved my goal of making my pants fit.

If there’s only one thing you take away from this blog post: being consistent works. You won’t see results overnight, but you didn’t get fat overnight either. Which is why you have to keep going. Don’t give up when you don’t see a change immediately.

And here’s a tip: make it easy for yourself. I made my gym days fall on my work-from-home days, and I picked a gym within walking distance. No excuses for skipping the gym. Especially since it’s open 24 hours.

Other things I did to make sure I stuck to my routine: I kept my sessions to around one hour. That made it easier for me to play my day. Keeping my sessions to an hour also helped me to maximize the time I spent working out. Knowing I only had three hours a week at the gym ensured I didn’t waste any of it.

For posterity, here are my stats – February 2023 and February 2024:

I haven’t gained much muscle I’ve managed to reduce my body fat. My lack of muscle gain is probably due to my unchanged diet. Protein shakes? Tried them for a bit, but didn’t fancy them much. Maybe I’ll revisit that in the future.

Back when I started gymming, I had a trainer who guided me through 24 sessions. Most of our workouts targeted my arms and upper body. Turns out you can’t spot reduce fat, so working on my arms was the way to go.

My progress has been steady from struggling with a single push-up to aiming for 10 pull-ups. Pull-up progress has halted for a bit due to an arm injury over a month ago. But I’ve adapted by switching to running, wrist-neutral and wrist-strengthening exercises over the past few weeks.

Thank you for reading my fitness recap. It took me 38 years but I’m in the best shape ever. Maybe the next step is getting rid of my smoking habit, but we’ll see about that. Happy New Year everybody, I will spend more time writing on goodnewsgeorge.com in the coming days.

After counting calories for a couple of months and not making any progress in reducing the fats around my belly, I figured it was time I kicked my ass into gear.

People do anything if they’re desperate enough. I’m at the point where my metabolism isn’t what it used to be and simply counting calories wasn’t enough. I had to do something drastic that wasn’t getting hooked on meth, so I did the next best thing.

I signed up for the gym, and as of now, I’ve been going to the gym regularly for a month. I know it’s not much, but it’s better than nothing. I’m officially on the path to becoming swole. Not really, but also really.

You see, for most of my life, I had been able to get away with not being fat. Sure, I wasn’t as skinny as I was during my college days, but I was never at the point where I could be made fun of either. I was middling. Neither here nor there. But I was also putting on the grams over the years.

It took me 37 years but I’m now an Anytime Fitness member. A club I never thought I’d ever be part of in. Just like clubbing, and smoking, if you told me many years ago that I’d be a gym bro, I’d laugh in your face. Life is unpredictable sometimes. No, all the time. You never know what comes next.

Also, my company’s fitness benefits helped push me to take the first step. What excuse did I have to not make use of work’s perks? That’s right. If you’re looking for a career in an awesome company, we’re hiring (this is not a sponsored post).

On a side note, why do people talk about their full age range, as if they had a choice of what they could do from age 1-18? It’s hyperbolic to say I took 37 years to sign up for the gym when really, it would be at most 19 years. No regular 18-year-old kid would have been able to join a fitness center.

They wouldn’t have the money or the intention to. At that age, being active and playing team sports would have been enough. They wouldn’t have been able to afford a membership since they wouldn’t be working, and if they were working they wouldn’t spend that meager salary to work out either.

I feel like gymming is an older person thing. When you don’t have all the time in the world and can only commit an hour a day to getting in shape, that’s when you need it.

And it’s been 19 years since I turned 18, holy shit.

Maintaining a workout routine has been surprisingly easy. I thought I would struggle with but I guess I want to get in shape more than I want to buy new pants. Even though it’s probably cheaper to get new pants than to maintain a gym membership.

While I’m sure it’s beneficial to my health, it’d be hypocritical of me to speak on that topic considering how I partake in unhealthy activities. Let’s just say they cancel each other out and I’m gymming out of vanity.

Speaking of smoking, I have reduced the number of cigarettes I consume a day since it affects my stamina and endurance. I don’t smoke before a gym session, so I’ve been able to make a pack last four days instead of three.

I doubt I’ll quit smoking – I still find it enjoyable. It’s also great for socializing with people I wouldn’t have normally spoken to. So many friendships have been born over cigarettes.

A month in and I’m still weaksauce. I still have a lot of catching up to do. Just like how we don’t get fat overnight, the same can be said for the opposite. No idea if I’ll continue blogging about my fitness journey, but this marks my first official fitness-related post.

Something-something accountability by putting yourself out there. Listen to the new Hot Mulligan track if you haven’t already. It’s a banger.

One Year Strong (2023 Fitness Recap)

Re-check, Change