On the left, at 16 years old around 7 years ago, I was 140 lbs at 5’ 9” my senior year of high school. I played Varsity Tennis, weight trained and did cardio after tennis practice, and ate ridiculously clean foods on an Intermittent Fasting, Keto style diet. I brought meal prep to class for crying out loud (I’m being serious, my teachers would ask me why I did it, and I would just say “to stay anabolic”). I just wanted abs like all the fitness models on YouTube and in magazines. I would do anything and everything.Fast-Forward 7 years later, I’m jacked… kind of. In reality, I’m the same guy I was in high school with the same drive, dedication, determination, and will power, but with newer and better methods of achieving the goal I started with. Instead of doing 60-80 minutes of cardio every day, I do 20-30 minutes a day while reading. Instead of eating super clean foods at certain times of the day, I eat a variety of foods. Instead of training high rep all the time, I train low rep high weight, high rep low weight, power lift, weight lift, callisthenic work, etc. It’s all about persistent, slow changes over the long term if you want to see the results you so desire.
This game takes some time getting used to. You’ll make gains at times, and you’ll lose gains at other times. Sometimes you’ll maintain what you have. You’ll try new things, some work, and others don’t. Sometimes you’ll feel like a God at the gym and other times you feel like a worthless human being. Sometimes you’ll sit there wondering why you’re not progressing how you like, and other times like today, you’re going through your camera roll to find a throwback picture only to feel incredibly grateful for everything. Other times you feel like you’re running yourself into the ground, demotivated, disgusted, depressed, and unsure if you’re doing the right thing. At the end of the day, these emotions occur whenever you’re doing any activity for a prolonged period of time. It doesn’t have to be lifting weights.
If you can get through all these emotions ranging from grateful to depressed and you’re still doing that thing you love, you’ve found your passion.