So my friends, last time we finished exactly at the point in my life where I just started taking care of my food, I was doing it hard but I wasn’t doing it smart.
One of the reasons why, was because of my limited income; I was trying to maintain the high-quality food when actually, I was broke as f*ck. I was able to buy the basics: chicken, rice and eggs, but I wasn’t able to experiment a lot with other food.
Plus, my time was extremely tight and no, I am not exaggerating… And yeah, you might say that everybody is saying that but let me tell you more about my schedule most days during the time I was 20 - 24:
07:00 - wake up, cook my breakfast and meals for the day
08:00 - eat breakfast and drive as fast as possible to University (a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering if you must know)
12:00 - eat my chicken and rice from a box in my car and complete written work before 13 - 14 - back to Uni
15 - 15:30 - My favourite time… I was in the gym, working out and enjoying the best part of my day, literally!
17:00 until 01:00 - working timeeee… you didn’t expect that, didn’t you? At that time I was working as a Sports Trader at SB Tech, an awesome place with very cool people, and I f*cking miss it.
Next to that, let's add the fact I was living in Plovdiv, my family was living in Hisarya (1 hour away) and I was finding time to visit them. My girlfriend was living in Sofia (2 hours away) and I was barely managing time for her too (which is no wonder she left me) and yeah, we all need something for ourselves; downtime or even just being young, wild and free. Don’t ask me how, but I was STILL able to find it. I mean, there’s 24 hours in a day right?
One day my best friend and roommate asked me: ”Bro, how the hell are you doing it? how are you managing so many tasks a day?” And to be honest, I have absolutely never thought about it that way.. for me was just discipline that I built over the years. I was seeing all those daily tasks as simply something that will bring me to the next level and no matter what, I have to just keep making it work.
After telling you all that, believe me, you can still be young and stupid but also disciplined as well. Or is it the other way around? Hmmm. Let me share more though, about how I started eating smart and healthy.
So after my university was close to finishing, I was single, my job was cool but extremely easy and boring already and I was hardly making enough for the lifestyle I wanted to live. I started thinking about what could be the next step.
Fortunately, one of my best friends from high school was living in Switzerland with his family and told me “Hey bro, why don’t you come here for the summer, I can ask around for some jobs, just to start you off, you know?”.
And you know what? At that time, I had NOTHING to lose, so why not?
In July 2018, I jumped on a flight to Switzerland. I only knew two things about my journey: 1. I was going to work in a hotel kitchen (never have I worked in a kitchen before) but I was joining a friend, Panayot. I hadn’t seen the place where I was going to sleep, or where I was going to live and I hadn’t even spoken with my future boss… what can I say? I took a leap of faith. I guess when you know, you know.
I can talk a lot about that journey but that’ll be for another blog, so stay tuned my friendzzz.
Okay, so after many years of being non-stop busy, I landed in a place where suddenly I have more time than ever but unfortunately, I know no one… or maybe, fortunately?
I decided to invest all my free time in reading, listening to podcasts, videos or ebooks on mind and body health and THAT, my friends, was the game-changer for me… I started feeling like I was living in a completely new world. Since I arrived in Switzerland, let's just say that I was finally able to treat myself the way I wanted, approach my life in the way I should and I began to experiment with so many meal plans with fruits, meats, legumes, vegetables, dairy and non dairy, grains, rice and pasta- you name it.
I was not only cooking for keeping my protein high but I started eating the food that I wanted and cooked in the way I wanted. That “food freedom” unlocked an entire potential for my body and later had a massive influence on the people around me.
The days were flying by one after another, my knowledge was growing, my shape was improving and then something great happened: people I’d helped started coming to me with questions and telling me their own achievements. For example, how much water they started drinking per day, they cut fried food out, and one of my friends has turned from 3 beers per day to 3 protein shakes per day and next to that, my friend who helped me start my Swiss journey, has turned himself in a goddamn beast. I mean it, he started following an optimal diet and working out like he’d been doing it his whole life (he never visited a gym before I landed in Switzerland). Soooo AWESOME… isn’t it? One day I sat down and I started thinking about that feeling whenever I have seen all of my friends around me and how they are changing their lives…. I really couldn’t put in words the pleasure that I was experiencing from helping the other to achieve those milestones in their healthy body and mindset.
Regardless of that I was able to help for those huge and positive changes in the lives of my friends, I havent thought about having it as my job to help people improve their lives and I have continued to thinking about what is my purpose in life, what skill should a learn, marketing, or no no maybe sales, or something with social media… There was even a time where I was highly interested in Artificial Intelligence… brooo… I am so good with people, why go and build robots?! Hahaha, yeah, now when I look back I am like “WTF, dude, all of the answers were infront of you?!”, but its never to late for a good change, right?
Okay, so lets wrap it: after 10 years of struggling with my bad food behaviours, lack of time, building discipline on the living on the financial edge, I have packed all of that knowledge and now I am ready to share it with you my friends and help you improve your one and only life, yes you got one life and that life is going to be the way you make it with your small daily steps towards your vision of a successful life. OMG, I sound like a politician, VOTE FOR ME, haha, just kidding :) How am I going to share my knowledge you might ask? I am going to write healthy blogs on topics that can help and improve the health of anyone who is reading them, regardless of their location, age or gender. Mainly focused on food, exercises, habits, books, and personal growth.
Next to that, you can book consultations with me, as well as workouts.
Plus, feel free always to send me some questions here or on Instagram, whenever I got free time I will be answering every one of you… oh come on, Atanas, you have a time machine in your wardrobe and you can always handle the time… OKAY, you got me here, I will try to help you ASAP :D
Thank you so so so so so much to anyone who has reached the end of those mini-series in my blog called “WHO THE FUCK IS ATANAS?” and I hope that you have gained some positive vibes and maybe something to think about later on. Have a beautiful day my friends, stay healthy and know the difference between enjoying your time and destroying your future! See ya :)