That is me in the same LBD with slightly over three years between the two pictures. What a transformation right?
I joined a gym for the first time in my life on April 1, 2019, so today on my one year gymiversary I am sharing a pseudo love letter to Ultra Fitness Gym because the gym changed my life.
For most of my adult life I weighed between 61 – 63 kgs. Then I quit smoking on September 1, 2015 and everything changed.
For those who may not know, it is quite common to gain weight after quitting smoking because:
- The nicotine in cigarettes speeds up your metabolism. Nicotine increases the amount of calories your body uses at rest by about 7% to 15%. Without cigarettes, your body may burn food more slowly.
- Cigarettes reduce appetite. When you quit smoking, you may feel hungrier.
- Smoking is a habit. After you quit, you may crave high-calorie foods to replace cigarettes.
Additionally, a 2014 study published in the journal Chemosensory Perception found that smoking can dull taste buds. Which explains why when I quit smoking, all the foods started tasting so so sooo good. I added about five kgs in the four months after I quit, which is something that tends to happen when smokers give up cigarettes.
2016 is when shit hit the fan and I added a whopping 10 kgs that year!!! I hit 81 kgs in December 2016 and to date that remains the heaviest I have ever been in my life. I do not want to get into the details of my weight gain as that is a story for another day. For now what is important is that after two years (2017 and 2018) of trying and failing to lose weight I decided to do better in 2019.
I previously used to jog four times a week but there has been construction on Ngong Road for the last 4,207 years *rolls eyes*. Said construction really amped up at the beginning of 2019 which made jogging next to impossible. A cousin of mine had recommended Ultra to me in late 2018, so thanks to Ngong Road and its never-ending construction I finally joined a gym on April 1, 2019.
Before I joined the gym I never understood why people would pay money to access a gym yet you can just jog for free. I used to believe that exercise ni exercise but after my second day at the gym I quickly realised that not all exercises are created equally. By the end of week one I was hurting in places I did not know exist. Jogging is great, but it does not work out your entire body the way the gym does. And even cardio from jogging does not compare to cardio at the gym. Burpees anyone?
When I first started working out my weekly schedule was:
Monday – cardio day (gross!)
Tuesday – leg day
Wednesday – booty class (my fave!)
Thursday – cardio day (gross!)
Friday – back day
But after I started losing weight I reduced my workouts to four days a week. I also no longer needed two cardio days so my new schedule was:
Monday – cardio day (still gross!)
Tuesday – leg day
Wednesday – booty class
Thursday – back day
Towards the end of 2019 I started feeling like I was getting too skinny. I understand that I joined the gym to lose weight but after nine months of working out my boobs, thighs and ass left the group chat and I wanted them to come back a little. So I had a conversation with my trainer in January this year and we tweaked my schedule to:
Monday – leg day
Tuesday – back day
Wednesday – booty class
Thursday – shoulders day
No more cardio day!! Woohoo!!
In February my trainer and I started toying around with the idea of me working up to squatting just under 82 kgs by the end of June so we came up with a tentative schedule of:
Monday – leg day #1
Tuesday – alternating back/shoulders day
Wednesday – booty class
Thursday – leg day #2
But as much as I miss the gym I am also enjoying this time away from it because after hitting my target weight, I no longer have the same zeal I had for the gym when I started. I had even planned to take a two week break in April to re-evaluate and adjust my goals as I was bored of going to the gym because I had to, not because I want to.
Lastly, pro tip for the ladies: the gym is where the fine men are at. Good looks, ripped bods, high endurance … you can find it all at the gym. Thank me later 🙂 After all I met my heartfelt boyfriend, who also has the most fire flames sex, at the gym so I kinda know what I am talking about 😉
Lwile the Leo 
Now that we are in quarantine, is it possible to have two blogs in a week? A request
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Hahahahaha!! Thanks for reading ma 😎 but 1 blog post is hard enough as it is … now 2 🙅♀️
Otherwise I hope you are keeping well since we met 😊
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