30 more days to go! I am thinking this has been a different challenge as the seasons have changed from monsoon to winter. There have been moments where my body has seized to move because of the cold. But this morning after taking a progress picture and finishing my reading task I headed out to the gym I put in all my effort into unfreezing myself.

I had three positive highlights today. First was when the owner of my gym complimented me for putting in the effort in my workouts. Apparently there is drama going on between two patrons of the gym but I have no clue about it. When I asked what happened everyone present giggled like I was a 3 year old entering a class full of 12th graders. I was oblivious to all the drama and they just said- “tis a long story my dear little boi!” And at that was my cue to move on from the topic. I was only curious because there has been a lot of discussion happening in the background for the past couple of days and many members have been complaining about missing their workouts over this issue but I have been just working out and going home completely oblivious. My friends all know what happened because they are clearly not working out and the owner of the gym and the trainers were calling them out for wasting time. I will admit I had a moment of Schadenfreude or in more descriptive words felt a little bit of malicious glee (in a funny friendly way of course) after seeing that.

The second highlight was when one of the serious patrons came to me for advice about weight loss. I used to be invisible before but since I am showing visible results people are curious as to what I am doing. I pointed him to the calorie tracking app that I am using and I also showed him the step counter app. He is in his 50s and has a desk job as a senior journalist so his activity level is low. He asked me for a few tips for weight loss and he also asked for advice on his carpal tunnel. I showed him a few exercises for the wrist and forearm to counter the effects of carpal tunnel and also suggested he increase the amount of protein in his diet. He did go to a doctor but the doctor told him to avoid exercise and gave him a bunch of meds. I suggested that he should visit a physiotherapist for this. When I came home my mother had made dosas for lunch.

The third highlight of the day was when I was going for my walk in the evening. It was a straight up compliment from one of my neighbours. She is a straight shooter and a good friend of my mother’s. She said I had lost weight and needed to stay in practice. Her son is my age and a friend of mine. She also complimented my mother for losing weight. I suppose the resistance training that I asked her to do is having some effect. My mom’s wrists used to hurt before but since she has been using resistance bands to train arms the pain has disappeared. I finished my gallon of water when I got home.

That was my day. I made some progress at the gym with handstands and I am learning how to do a proper pike press. It will take some effort but it will be worth it. I also made some progress on the middle and forward splits. Day 45 was a success.