After 12 weeks of dedicated training and relentless effort, I’m (finally) proud to share my body transformation journey with you.
In this instagram post I share the–many and varied–emotions I experienced throughout the journey.
With this blog post, my goal is to double-click on the experiences I lived along the way and share my learnings on building muscle and losing belly fat, for good.
From this previous transformation blog post on how I lost 100 lbs of fat, you may already know that for the better part of my childhood and as a young adult / teen I was significantly overweight. I was bullied, constantly made fun of, and deeply insecure. I also happened to experience this in addition to being closeted and uncertain about my sexuality or where I fit in to this world.
This was the perfect culmination of factors that would create a lack of self confidence carried into adulthood.
My weight has always fluctuated, gaining and losing fat with every yo-yo diet I tried.
I always looked for answers to weight loss in all of the wrong places, and placed so much emphasis on diet. For a full year I was convinced that being vegetarian was the answer. Then for two and half years I thought being vegan would solve all my problems and I would finally be “fit and healthy”.
I tried the keto diet, low-carb diet, intermittent fasting… you name it. I’ve done it.
Though each diet ultimately failed (how could they not?), after all the experience I gained from trying different approaches, I finally learned what worked for me. Balance. While that may not be the answer you were hoping for, it is the truth, and I’m happy to dive a bit deeper on it.
First of all, many of the old sayings like:
- “Slow and steady wins the race”
- “There’s no quick fix or one-size-fits-all solution”
- And my personal favourite: “It’s about eating well and exercising”…
In my experience, all seemed to be true. The key for me was finding what eating well and exercising should look like for me. For the longest time, I was trying to understand what “eating well” meant by copying the diets of other people. All without realizing that certain foods weren’t contributing to my goals. but in fact were harming the process.
When it came to exercise…
I used to do a lot of cardio because of how effective it can be at burning fat.
But that was a different kind of body transformation, and maybe that was part of my problem, not my solution. In my case, I was overdoing the cardio–not just burning fat but also burning muscle mass. I made it that much more difficult for myself to put on muscle mass, which was a key component in sculpting and shaping the body I wanted.
So “eating well” and “exercising” sound fine and dandy in theory, but in practice it takes a bit of trial and error to learn what works for you. Hence, the no one-size-fits-all rule.
During COVID, I definitely put on the “quarantine 15”…
Or the “COVID-20” in my case. Why was it so easy to put on weight, and so hard to lose it? I found it extremely difficult for me to go through another round of fluctuating weight.
I was sick of having to work SO hard in the gym as a form of punishment for what I ate.
This needed to stop. I needed a serious mindset shift (which I also worked on, and I plan to share that story with you soon). Transforming my mind and allowing talk-therapy to help me achieve a positive self-view were instrumental throughout this journey.
After many years of trial and error and throughout this most recent body transformation, I realized that I needed to change my relationship with myself and with working out. Previously, what I couldn’t see was the only thing getting in my way, was me.
Throughout this journey, I realized I needed to shift my view of working out as a form of punishment, to a form of celebration. And to listen (really listen) to when my body was tired and needed rest vs. when it was up for a challenge. It all kept coming back to balance and moderation.
When it comes to losing belly fat and gaining and maintaining muscle mass, this is what worked for me:
The old saying “abs aren’t made in the gym, they’re made in the kitchen”… I found to be partly true. In my view, abs are made in the gym; physically you train those muscles while working them out. But they’re shown by what you eat in the kitchen.
In my case, I have to train my abs more frequently and regularly than any other muscle group on my body, combined with eating only certain foods (lean proteins, lots of greens, and healthy fats) in order for my abs to really develop and show. And, of course, doing this repeatedly over time in order to train those muscles and build the habit.
For the last 12+ weeks, I worked out so that I could celebrate the amazing things my body could do—not to punish myself anymore for what I ate the day before.
It took a lot of perseverance, investing time in myself, and showing up to every one of my workouts with @matthewtaub through my partnership with the WRKOUT virtual platform.
I am proud of my growth, and how far I’ve come with this body transformation.
Wherever you are on your journey, be kind to yourself. Let there be zero bandwidth for negative self-talk, and always believe that you can achieve what you put your mind to.
Nick Joly | Inspired by Nick
inspiredbynick.com
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