Yeah ! Im glad you’re back and taking the time to read the rest of my story :) Thank you! It means the world to me.
So, in my last year of high school, I discovered a new challenge - wrestling and grappling. I know, right? I was totally obsessed and I quit the gym. I was doing 5 wrestling workouts per week. Say what!?
Right next to the wrestling club, were the best sandwiches on earth (to be honest, whenever I’m in Bulgaria I still visit them, just for the good old times, you know?). And as you may guess, after every workout, me and my friends were supposed to ‘recover’ our bodies somehow, and those sandwiches were the best option. Let’s ignore the fact that I was also living right next to the gym and the opportunity to cook something healthy for myself was also available...buttt you know... an 18 year old’s life is hard, busy and all the other excuses you might think of, right?
So far so good and it was actually a very good year for me; a new sport, new friends, new opportunities = Top!
And then here we are, my first year at Uni. After the first couple of months I got into a new challenge, not the best one for me that time, I started smoking weed.
Fortunately, it didn’t last long - around 3 months, but those 3 months were enough that I dropped very quickly into a bad physical and mental state: I stop visiting my wresting workouts, I totally lost my motivation and basically developed this haze (pun intended) over everything I had started to achieve, I actually became even worse than before I started - yes it’s possible :D, and then one day I just woke up and I was like - "What the fuck are you doing?”. I went back to wrestling and did my best to recover what I’d lost. Perhaps knowing that, if I had kept it up, I would have lost my way completely. Look, I’ve absolutely nothing bad against smoking weed and those of you who like it or benefit from it. It just didn’t suit my body and mind at all and, overall, it totally stalled my personal progress at that time.
Meanwhile, I was still not that great with food but at least I started to cook at home sometimes or order normal food, not just the usual junk food.
In my second year at uni, I went to live with two friends; one from university and the other was a friend from high school. That was, hands down, the best decision that I could ever have taken. Why? The support, the new, the old, the familiar and the downright fun of it all - “I”, became “we” and I started combining wresting with fitness. “We” created a ‘bro-company’ of gym addicts, can you believe? and here’s some of our classic ‘bro-meals’:
Eggs, chicken & rice - workout - chicken & rice, sleep, REPEAT!
Again and again.
No sauces, no frying, no seasoning, and most of the time not even with salt!… say what?! crazy.
I was so goddamn motivated and I was believing it was the only way to a good looking body.
Actually it was not such a bad time. I learned a lot about my body and, even though it might not seem like it, about nutrients too. Yet, I was still forgetting about something so important - Fruits & Vegetables...
“Hey, there is no protein in that bloody apple, why should I eat it?! My chest muscles are not gonna grow from an apple, they need meat and rice! YOLO, you gotta be big!”
I’m right, yeah?… Hmmm, NO! Absolute crap. NEWS FLASH. Our bodies need such a variety of nutrients; not only protein and carbs.
There are SIX, essential nutrients - protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals and last but not least, water.
But…. I’m starting to think this blog is already too long and you’re probably hungry, thirsty or maybe you gotta go back to your tasks…… but there’s more! :)
So stay tuned, cos next week I’ll go into more detail about my "aha" moment; when the apple dropped and the healthy lifestyle took over and I changed my ENTIRE thinking about food and lifestyle completely.
Til next week,
Cheers!