I decided this March to get back on the fitness bandwagon. From trying different forms of working out, to exploring Clean Eating options in my city – I’m going to be sharing progress updates on every front, every month. Including the inevitable struggles that come along with getting back into shape after letting go of yourself for 2 years.

In this update, I share my experience using the Apple Watch for fitness, cold-pressed juices in Delhi and the 30 Day Abs Workout Challenge all your friends are taking on.

I have been absolutely horrible with following any sort of fitness routine the past 2 months. Horrible.

Remember how I had started waking up crazy early (5 am!) to do little 10 minute workouts, and worked my way up to 20 minute sessions? Yeah. I’m going to have to re-start all of that. Just in case I didn’t make it clear already, I’ll say it again – April & May were horrible. I barely, rarely worked out. Started eating dinner post 8 pm again. Potato chips every alternate day. Basically, all my good healthy habits down the freakin’ drain.

Wake Up Time Report

Let’s not even get into this. I have gone back to waking up at 7 am on most days. Which probably sounds good to a lot of you, but I was trying to wake up at 5 am in February and March. So, yeah. 7 am is 2 hours too late. The only reason why I am talking about a wake-up time is because it’s directly related to working out. If I don’t wake up early enough, there is no way I will have the time to exercise.

Work Out Report

April started off well, with 3 workouts in the first week. But then it got bad. I maybe worked once or twice after that. I didn’t keep track of it so I have no idea. May was slightly better, thanks to the Apple Watch.

Does the Apple Watch actually help you get fitter?

If you’re following me on Instagram, you know that I’ve “borrowed” the Apple Watch from someone in the family for a few months. Let’s hope I get to keep it 🙂 Because I’m really enjoying using the Fitness features of the watch! Here’s a screenshot of my May activity tracker:

Outermost line (Pink/Red) | tracks Calories burnt | Daily Goal: 270 Calories

Middle line (Green) | tracks Exercise minutes | Daily Goal: 30 minutes

Innermost line (Blue) | tracks Standing time | Daily Goal: Stand once for a minute every hour for 12 hours

The blue line is the easiest loop to close. Every hour, the watch vibrates to remind me to stand up and move around a bit. Like a good slave, I actually get off my chair (95% of the time) and walk around my desk for a minute. The day when humans would be controlled by technology is not far off, my friends – it’s already here.

I’ve exercised 3 times a week (in sessions lasting 15-25 minutes), in the last 2 weeks of May, so you can see how the want to close the green loop has motivated me to actually exercise. Still, this loop has been the hardest for me to close.

And the pink/red line tracks calories burnt through not just exercising, but also general movement from when I stand and walk around. The watch estimates how many steps I’ve taken during the day, and gives it to me in kilometers as well, so I end up feeling good when I see I took enough steps on a Sunday to total 5 kms! It gives a sense of “I may not have exercised today, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t move at all.” Thinking positive and being happy with where you’re at is pretty important too, in my opinion.

So, what were these quick under 30-minute exercises I did?

Well, no walking on the treadmill because my husband’s been hogging the machine lately. Yes, I blame him. Ahhh alright, alright – here’s the truth: I got bored walking on a treadmill. It’s my least favourite form of working out. Instead, I tried dancing along with these Zumba videos on the Glamrs YouTube channel. The Bollywood Routines on Dance Basanti and London were my favourites – duh!

Once I had learnt the steps, I just kept repeating the full routine multiple times. This was definitely a fun break from the boring treadmill+stretching+surya namaskar routine of March.

Diet Report

Till March, I didn’t care what I was eating, because I was focussing on MOVING. But considering the exponential increase in the number of clothes that don’t fit me anymore, I thought it was time I started trying out some healthier food options along side. I’ve been ordering cold-pressed juices from JuiceUp, and recently tried a one-day cleanse with Raw Pressery (and ended up with some silly videos of me having a first sip of each juice that day, and my reaction to the taste!) I definitely liked having healthy snack options in the form of these high on nutrition juices, and plan on continue having 1-2 bottles every weekday.

Oh, and I feel like I should clarify. By diet, I don’t mean “going on a diet”. I just found it easy to use the word as it universally implies “what one eats”. The Diet Report is just going to be a place where I talk about the healthy food options I’ve been trying but never a “recommended diet everyone should follow which includes eating only from a specific food group and totally avoiding others and essentially starving yourself.” I don’t believe in all that. I’d still eat a piece of cake or chocolate every second day if it was available to me. I love my cocoa too much to give it up.

What’s the plan for June?

• Get back to waking up at 5 am everyday. Started today, the first day of the month, with waking up at 5.30 am.
• Moved my Daily Goal for calories burnt on Apple Watch to 300 Calories (from 270 in May). I’ve done this assuming I’m going to be working out for 30 minute sessions more often this month and that would’ve made closing the 270 Cal loop easier with just the workout session. And we don’t want anything to be easy, do we?
• I’m going to try out more Clean Eating alternatives. I have my eyes on Eatonomist (for healthy lunches in my Gurgaon office) and Snackosaur this month.
• I’m doing the 30 Day Ab Workout Challenge for June – it’s a Facebook event that starts today. Here’s the one month challenge:

It’s nuts. I did Day 1 today, and I already found it slightly tough. I seem to have lost all my core strength since I stopped regularly doing instructor-led work outs. Ughhh. Anyway, I squeezed my knees close to my stomach at the end of every mini-section because my abs truly burned. Which is a good thing. You definitely need to watch the videos of the correct form (posture and position) for the sit ups, crunches, leg raises and planks.

If you’re also taking on this challenge, for heaven’s sake tag me and hashtag it with #FitWithTDB so that we can share the pain this challenge is definitely going to drown us in! Come on, I’m sure ONE of you out there is motivated to look sexy as hell in that sari/lehenga/bikini this year!

Are you in?

Instagram or tweet using #FitWithTDB, and I will be your fitness buddy through the 30 Day Abs Challenge and more. I will be sharing when I’m exercising and the healthy food I’m eating as well. Let’s do this!