This week at 9Round, I learnt all about motivation. It’s so hard for someone like me to wrap my head around the fact that people voluntarily put themselves through excruciating pain, when you could be at home watching Star Trek while munching on French fries.
Making the jump from a couch potato to someone who can genuinely be interested in a strict workout regimen is not simple. And like child-rearing, I realised, it takes a village.
For my second week, I decided I’ll take a friend/s along to give me that added boost. At 9Round, where you can’t just plug your headphones in and go through the mechanical process of jumping from machine to machine, and where interacting with the trainer and the physical gym is paramount, it helps having a familiar face next to you.
I found it extremely encouraging to be able to mess up, joke around and laugh alongside people who have similar fitness goals as me. Also, once I invite a friend, there’s little chance of me backing out of a planned workout.
Week two also brought with it more energy. I was throwing quicker punches and kicking harder. At the end of my 30-minute session, I didn’t feel like hurling. And I also found that I was less tired and burnt-out at the end of a long day and that I was sleeping better.
A TALK WITH THE NUTRITIONIST
While a regular member has full access to 9Round’s meal plan, we were not made privy to the same, as yet. However, a conversation with the nutritionist/manager, Noura Al Sulaimani, revealed more good news than bad. According to Al Sulaimani, those who do not want to adhere to a strict meal plan should follow these two extremely simple rules:
1. Restrict the carbs to breakfast and lunch. Dinner should be light and ideally, protein-rich.
2. Unless you have a dietary restriction, don’t stop yourself from eating the kind of food you love. It’s important to indulge a craving responsibly from time to time, apparently. Because the more you hold yourself back, the day your resolve breaks, you’ll indulge without any control.
MY PROGRESS
At the beginning and end of week one I weighed in at 56kg. By the end of week two, I was happily at 54kg. My trainers warned me that if I slip up and don’t put in my minimum three classes a week, I would see all that weight coming back on. So I’m going into week three with renewed determination.
