Written by Amanda Green
It was at the start of the year when my wife suggested Bangkok, Thailand for the summers. I thought it was a great idea considering we had to be frugal with holidays this year and it was the home to somewhere I always wanted to go: Pattaya Beach.
I was pretty much excited and thought I had everything planned out (the tickets, advance hotel booking, restaurant look-ups etc.), but a wakeup call came in March when I was trying a pair of 33’ jeans, and I even failed to zip them up. What the hell? I just stood in the trying room staring at myself, and I wasn’t happy with what I saw.
A bigger blow came a week after when I asked Wendy to take a picture so that I could get an idea of how I’ll look at the beach. I took off my shirt, tucked in my stomach and did a little pose. But when she handed over the phone, I became upset, guilty and miserable.
That night I thought hard. I didn’t want to go to Pattaya with all that fab, and I knew if I wasn’t going to do something about it, I could run a risk of being the beach’s new unicorn. I had to get rid of my body image problems before July. I had to get a beach body within four months.
I started my journey at the beginning of April. I knew that I was going to do well with diet changes (because I had never been picky about meals) but working out was something that I was definitely going to struggle with.
Here’s a breakdown of what I did during the four months:
1. Exercise
Being a noob at exercise (apart from the brisk walk if that counts), I decided to look for guidance on the web. After reading some beach body success stories, I found out that building major muscle groups would decrease my overall body fat.
Now only if I knew what they were, but that it didn’t take me long to find out as I ran into some videos by Kyle Leon. Not only did I get an idea about major muscle groups, but also found some cool training tips such as how to avoid injury and what was the proper range of motion. Exercising major muscles was how I spent majority of my time 4 days a week at the gym.
2. Diet
I wasn’t a firm believer in ‘so-called’ diet programs. I just knew that I had to burn more calories than I consumed each day to lose fat from my body. By reading a little bit more about calories in the community library and on the web, I found out an ideal portion size would be similar to the palm of my hand on a fat loss diet.
So that’s basically what followed in the next few months. I ate my regular non-veg meals (staple foods were beans, rice, meat and dairy) in less portions and drank lots of water throughout the day because I read it was important to keep the body hydrated.
3. Lifestyle changes
I knew diet and exercise weren’t going to cut it alone, so I made a few tweaks in my routine as well. The major changes were that I started sleeping 8 hours a night instead of the usual 6, and made sure that I didn’t eat anything 3 hours before going to bed.
I was 190 pounds in April, and ended up at Pattaya with 160 pounds (more muscle, less fat). Though I didn’t turn out to be like Huge Jackman, my average beach body was in enough shape to satisfy me (and shock Wendy). Fast forward 2 months later, I am still following the same diet and workout plan and feel much stronger, healthier and at peace than I did in my entire life.
