It’s been a long while since I posted up anything remotely personal. It’s been a weird, weird year full of ups and downs and side to sides. But now I feel like I’m back in the right frame of mind to start circulating my thoughts around this crazy cyberspace of ours. I’ve been writing plenty, but more for my own satisfaction and analysis than anything else.
I suppose the biggest things on my mind of late have been my career and my physical fitness. I’m not going to talk about my career on here, because I have things in the works, and I certainly have no intention of jinxing it.
So instead I’m going to talk about this physical vessel of mine that I’ve put through so much over the years.
When I was younger, I was one fit bastard. I could run uphill at speed, I could swim fast, lift weights, fight, climb, and get up to lots and lots of mischief (for hours at a time, with little need for breaks). I loved army life. All the discipline and the focus was great for me. It made me realize I could do things I previously never thought were possible. Then all that changed when I started working in the professional world. I no longer had time to do all the mad things that made me feel so alive, and my health plummeted while my body fat sky rocketed.
I took control of that towards the last quarter of 2010, when I sent myself off to Lanna Muay Thai Boxing camp in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and I started to claw my way back to physical health, one painful step, kick, and punch at a time. I’ve dealt with it earlier on in my blog, so I’m not going to say much about it, except for the fact that it was a crucial step for me in reclaiming my former glory.
Since that first step, things have naturally gone up and down for me as well, but the prevailing trend has definitely been an upward one. The last few months have definitely been the best ones. I’ve managed to drop a lot of body fat (currently sitting around 14-15%) and managed to increase lean muscle mass significantly.
I’ve had a lot of realizations and learning experiences along the way, and I’ve learned so much about my body. From conversations with people, to having my nose stuck in books, to all the time spent in the gym, I’ve learned. A great deal. And there’s so much more to learn with each mental milestone I reach. One of the greatest learning sources within the last few months though, has definitely been my trainer, Soo Boon Ang. Soo Boon is one crazy motherfucker in the best sense. He’s daring, not afraid to tell it as it is, has years of experience in the field, and most importantly, the man is living proof that what he knows, works. Of course, my body goals are vastly different to his, in terms of size, but the man is a treasure trove of fantastic information, and a nice guy to boot.
My training with him began about 8 months ago, but my first lot of sessions with him weren’t as great; not because of anything to do with him, but it was to do with my own state of mind. I was going through some drama at the time, and I just wasn’t feeling it. I got the impression I kinda disappointed him, which made me think that really, the person I was disappointing the most was myself. So I laid low for a while, and then one month before I was due to return to New Zealand, I got back on the wagon, and haven’t looked back since.
This time, things were different. I had taken the time to research more about building lean muscle and maintaining low body fat. But most importantly, my mind was in the zone for it. Y’see, at that point in time, I’d just come out of a one year relationship, then for three weeks solid after that, I boozed and binged enough to put a galley of pirates to shame. When the alcohol fog from that madness lifted, I looked at myself, smiled, and told myself it was time to give Soo Boon a call. Best. Decision. Ever.
In one month, I had lost a reasonable amount of fat and gained a bit of lean muscle. Soo Boon was happy with my progress, but what he didn’t tell me was that he was expecting me to come back from my two months in New Zealand at square one again. Might have happened in the past, but not this time. When I was in New Zealand, I spent a great deal of time in the gym, eating well, relaxing with outdoor activities, meeting new women, and working on my tan at the beach. If only every day life was so ideal that you could actually do that all year round. The world would be a much better place indeed. A friend from Malaysia came to visit for three weeks, so me, him, and my best buddy filled our time up with exploring the great outdoors, and doing a ridiculous amount of laughing. Usually at each other’s expense.
During that trip, I visited the gym no less than three times a week, and supplemented it with light cardio in the form of brisk walks, and increased heart rate thanks to all the hot young lovelies strutting their stuff in bikinis everywhere. Running has never really been my thing. I could do a lot of it when I was younger, but to be perfectly honest I never really looked forward to it. At all. So anyway, the kicker is, I get back to Kuching, contact Soo Boon, tell him that I’m ready to train again, and send him a photo of my progress. What I got back from him was precisely what I wanted to hear. The conversation held a lot of expletives and disbelief. Then, when he saw me in the flesh, he told me he expected me to go the opposite way and slack off.
So all in all, I packed on a few good pounds of lean muscle and dropped the fat, and made my trainer happy. Since I’ve been back, I put on a little bit again over the festive season, but nothing that can’t be shredded fairly quickly. My maintenance work before I got back to training with Soo Boon was hampered for at least a good week due to a nasty burn I got on my arm. Yes, I set myself on fire. No, I’m not going to go into it, because I am so sick and tired of retelling the story. I can say that my body has done a tremendous job of healing up what was a really rather nasty burn in a very short amount of time, and I credit that to being fit, eating well, and taking the right supplements. Admittedly though, I had a few dark days when I initially thought I’d be out for a while. But no! I always knew I had a bit of Wolverine blood in me somewhere. I used to tell my sister all the time. She never believed me.
So now I’m back on the program. I started with Soo Boon again last week, but I’d like to think of this week as the official beginning point, because of the ease-in period that’s always required when you get back into heavy training. I suppose the reason why I’m writing all this for the world to see is for a very simple reason. I have now put it out there. This is what I want to do. This is what I want to achieve. This is my mind over my muscle, over all my fears, faults, demons and weaknesses. And I shall prevail. There’ll be setbacks, no doubt, but at least now I’m on the path to achieving that body I always felt I deserved. I don’t want to feel self conscious ever again if I’m on a beach with my shirt off. I don’t want to look at myself when I’m alone and not like what I see. Enough is enough, and it’s time for some action.
Watch this space. The transformation begins.
Time to kick some ass, 2012!
