As you know by now, one of the books I read for my 75 Hard Challenge was the World’s Fittest Book by Ross Edgley. As a follow up to reading this, I also listened to his Podcast, ‘The World’s Fittest Podcast,’ in where he effectively discusses specific chapters of his book. Now as I was listening to this podcast Ross said something about getting fit and working out that I’ve never fully understood, that is, until I returned to university after lockdown and after getting really into my fitness journey. He claimed that “Fitness is Lonely.”
At the time, I was confused by this comment. Largely because I couldn’t relate to it at all. When starting my fitness journey at home, I always ran with my gorgeous mother. Additionally, I had continuous virtual support from all my friends during the lockdown period. However, when I returned to university in August 2020 and had to really learn how to maintain my fitness schedule when I had a billion other things to think about, I began to understand this comment. And this is why.
1)Fitness is very personal
Your fitness journey is very unique and personal to you. Some things work for some people that do not work for others. For example I personally wouldn't want to cycle 100 miles every week as a form of exercise. Additionally, People’s different life circumstances do tend to define what type of exercise they can do. For example, living in the United Kingdom, it seems unlikely (though not impossible) that I could ski as a form of exercise. Skiing would just not be practical for me. Furthermore, some people just prefer to work out at different times. I’m a morning person. I’d much rather get up at 5 in the morning to go for a run than run at 5 in the evening. Obviously sometimes I have to due to lectures ect. But if I had the choice I’d always go with the morning run.
2)If someone isn’t on a weightloss or fitness journey, or hasn’t ever been on one, they might struggle to understand why you’re doing what you’re doing.
Obviously this isn't always true. I’ve had a lot of support from friends who haven’t been on a similar journey. However, regardless of the support they’ve given me, it’s almost like no one quite gets it. As much as they try to get on the same page and try to fully understand what I went through to lose the weight, or what I’m going through to keep it off-and the mental struggles and turmoils of the journey itself… they just aren’t because they can’t fully relate-as they haven’t done it themselves. Not one of my friends fully understands why I have to get up at 5 in the morning and go on a 5 mile run before I feel I can treat myself to a takeaway for example- or a muffin. No one fully understands that every time I have a down day, and overindulge, I spend the next 24 hours worried that I’m going to put the weight back on. No one really gets why I have to leave a gathering/social relatively early because I want to go to the gym the next day.
And this isn’t to say that every single day I feel these negative thoughts- Because I don’t in the slightest. I am an extremely happy girl and I have a lot of amazing, supportive, loving friends. However, this doesn’t mean that they can get inside my head and truly empathise with what I’m feeling. Because realistically, no one can ever fully empathise with anybody else- regardless of what it’s about. They can sympathise, support, and even understand to some extent, but they cannot fully empathise.
And this leads me on to the next struggle of weight loss: moving on to the next section of your life post weight loss.
So for 6 months I was working towards one singular goal. Losing the weight. And once I’d lost it, and completed the challenge, I felt rather lost, mainly because I’d been so driven and determined and focused for so long, and now literally overnight I had nothing left to work for. Therefore I really struggled with working out where to go and what to do post weight loss. I don’t mean I was struggling to exercise or anything like that because I wasn’t in the slightest-If anything my exercise (At this time, this was my running) was absolutely flourishing and I was loving pushing myself physically, both whilst running and also in the gym when it re opened. What I mean is, I struggled slightly with a lack of purpose. And this is hard to explain, so to use a real life comparison, remember how hard you worked for your A levels, or GCSES, or a league sporting match or uni exams, or a ballet competition or whatever it may be. How did you feel after it was over? Perhaps you thought, after a momentary celebration that the stress was over, “well this is great, but what now? What on earth do I do with all this time I now have?”
And that’s exactly what I thought. I was now technically allowed to do whatever I wanted- eat whatever I wanted… I could sleep all day without exercising if I wanted to. However after a couple of days of basically doing exactly this, I realised that I now had to set my own goals, and my own structure, and effectively re learn how to live my life. Yes, this major fitness drive had come to a close, but I now had to learn to incorporate it into my daily life. Because yes, keeping fit is important- more to some people than others. But its not the be all and end all. For a 19 year old student it shouldn’t be my main priority, and that was something that, silly as it sounds, it took me a long time to realise. I’m on this earth to enjoy life, not to purely become a fitness machine and be miserable.
So after that immensely long explanation and chapter, the key message is this. Fitness is important. Gyming is important. Even weight loss, to some extent, can be important. But you being happy with your life is way more crucial. Because you’ve only got one
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