This is a very long post but if at any point in your life you have come across an obstacle or you are currently struggling - please bare with me.
It all started around March this year. It was my birthday.
I woke up, looked in the mirror and did not recognise myself.
I've gone through a lot in my life but last year has hit me especially hard, in early 2019 I've lost YEARS of savings and hard work in what felt like an instant. This, combined with a stressful job, led to depression, eating junk food all day and not leaving bed outside of going to work and back. I've spent almost a year living in the dark.
That one day, I have said no more - it is time to get back up and this time give it everything I have.
I have a lot of fitness knowledge and experience but gym usually bores me and I thought that spending a bit of money makes the commitment easier - I have dusted off my credit card and purchased Max Shred programme on Athlean-X because then at least I would think "Well, I've spent the money and might just as well at least try it now".
After being out of any serious training for over two years (I've worked A LOT on two startups +my part-time day job), I have become probably the most unfit I ever was in my life and have felt miserable - I have started at "Alarm 1 level", the lowest level of the programme and have felt like I will spit my lungs and heart out. But I did not want to give up, I've had enough.
Few days into the training, I have discovered the 'Kick in the AX' videos, and this video was there:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX39J_YyKbs
I have had this in the loop and probably listened to this about ten times every morning before the workout.
After the first two weeks of training, I have started to get more energy and wake up earlier and earlier - soon beginning the training at 5 am before work. I have found my will of the champion again.
I have started just before lockdown and continued to do this throughout all of COVID-19 lockdown whilst working from home 60 hours a week. I stopped following the programme after about a month and have been doing a mixture of my own training including calisthenics, gymnastic rings, runs, boxing and others.
I have also been scared of public speaking my entire life.
It held me back my entire life, and I was always ashamed of my past as well. For me, recording and posting this video was the hardest thing I have ever done, and you should not take that statement lightly.
Today not only I overcome this fear but have also decided that to move forward, I have to let go of my past.
I come from a broken family with roots filled with nothing but alcoholics, no-goods, psychopaths and morons. Not a single person in my family tree was ever successful or achieved anything in their life other than making people miserable. From as long as I remember since early childhood, my life was always just full of misery and pain. For a very long time, I was driven by rage and used to blame everything on my past and others.
I had to provide for myself since a very young age and started working when I was just 12 years old.
Throughout my life, I have been through drug, alcohol and gaming addictions. I have seen some of my friends' suicide, and it was a thought that has crossed my mind as well.
I have made it through homelessness and months of starvation multiple times. Life with no family, friends or any support is not easy, and it takes a lot of mistakes to figure things out by yourself when you've never had a good role model or mentor.
It wasn't until my mid-twenties when I have finally realised that the easiest and only viable way to progress is to change myself - you can't change everyone around you. It was probably one of the most valuable lessons I have learnt.
I have also learnt that life always finds a way of kicking you in the face.
Just when things started going well, and I have started to turn everything around, after many years of hard work, I have once again lost everything.
Years of hard work, dedication and savings ended up with just another life lesson and a major setback.
Once again, I have given up to depression and anxiety and lost faith in my skills. This time it was terrible, and at one point, I would not even leave my house for six months, for anything other than work.
Three months ago, I finally looked in the mirror and decided that I can do better. What if I decided to go at full speed, stop half-arsing most things in my life, ended quitting and tried to reach my full potential? How far can I get?
Only six months ago, I struggled to find the strength to get out of bed. I almost was overweight, which for someone as active as me was bad. I always loved various sports and usually stayed fit, so for me, being around 68-71kg mark was unbelievably hard. I could not do anything well, could not run and had no strength. My joints were in pain from doing basic exercise.
I have decided to at least try, for once, to give life everything I have. To use all my knowledge, skills and willpower, to their full potential.
I have started taking complete care of my nutrition, train hard and use my free time to achieve something. For once, look at the whole picture and journey, instead of looking for a shortcut.
In just over three months, I have lost over 8kg of body fat (going from around 25%+ to 13%), trained almost every single day, and I am stronger than ever.
I have recently beat my lifetime personal best for 5km run, 10km run, completed my first ever half-marathon and even walked an ultra-marathon. I am close to achieving fitness, and personal goals that I used to believe were not possible without entire life's training (Front lever, muscle up, running 5k under 20min, 1 arm pull up). Everything I did to achieve this, including all of my training, nutrition, and overall wellbeing is and will continue to be recorded on this channel and my instagram account.
The bottom line is that if you're blaming anyone else but you for your current situation and keep looking for excuses, you will never get anywhere. There will never be a perfect moment in your life to do what you want to do - you have to create that perfect moment yourself. If you're waiting for your friend, parent, partner, uncle or anyone else to do anything for you - it's not going to happen.
You have to take action and create your destiny.
I have already come a long way, but I am not stopping, and neither should you.
Join me on this journey, and I hope that it can inspire you to become a better version of yourself.
https://youtu.be/q6-BO-12vdE
If you'd like to see how far I will get and maybe learn something a long the way, drop me a sub!
Follow me on Instagram @GrindUntold:
https://www.instagram.com/GrindUntold/
MyFitnessPal Food Diary:
https://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/alexpwillard
Garmin Exercise Diary:
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/profile/BPHX
It all started around March this year. It was my birthday.
I woke up, looked in the mirror and did not recognise myself.
I've gone through a lot in my life but last year has hit me especially hard, in early 2019 I've lost YEARS of savings and hard work in what felt like an instant. This, combined with a stressful job, led to depression, eating junk food all day and not leaving bed outside of going to work and back. I've spent almost a year living in the dark.
That one day, I have said no more - it is time to get back up and this time give it everything I have.
I have a lot of fitness knowledge and experience but gym usually bores me and I thought that spending a bit of money makes the commitment easier - I have dusted off my credit card and purchased Max Shred programme on Athlean-X because then at least I would think "Well, I've spent the money and might just as well at least try it now".
After being out of any serious training for over two years (I've worked A LOT on two startups +my part-time day job), I have become probably the most unfit I ever was in my life and have felt miserable - I have started at "Alarm 1 level", the lowest level of the programme and have felt like I will spit my lungs and heart out. But I did not want to give up, I've had enough.
Few days into the training, I have discovered the 'Kick in the AX' videos, and this video was there:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX39J_YyKbs
I have had this in the loop and probably listened to this about ten times every morning before the workout.
After the first two weeks of training, I have started to get more energy and wake up earlier and earlier - soon beginning the training at 5 am before work. I have found my will of the champion again.
I have started just before lockdown and continued to do this throughout all of COVID-19 lockdown whilst working from home 60 hours a week. I stopped following the programme after about a month and have been doing a mixture of my own training including calisthenics, gymnastic rings, runs, boxing and others.
I have also been scared of public speaking my entire life.
It held me back my entire life, and I was always ashamed of my past as well. For me, recording and posting this video was the hardest thing I have ever done, and you should not take that statement lightly.
Today not only I overcome this fear but have also decided that to move forward, I have to let go of my past.
I come from a broken family with roots filled with nothing but alcoholics, no-goods, psychopaths and morons. Not a single person in my family tree was ever successful or achieved anything in their life other than making people miserable. From as long as I remember since early childhood, my life was always just full of misery and pain. For a very long time, I was driven by rage and used to blame everything on my past and others.
I had to provide for myself since a very young age and started working when I was just 12 years old.
Throughout my life, I have been through drug, alcohol and gaming addictions. I have seen some of my friends' suicide, and it was a thought that has crossed my mind as well.
I have made it through homelessness and months of starvation multiple times. Life with no family, friends or any support is not easy, and it takes a lot of mistakes to figure things out by yourself when you've never had a good role model or mentor.
It wasn't until my mid-twenties when I have finally realised that the easiest and only viable way to progress is to change myself - you can't change everyone around you. It was probably one of the most valuable lessons I have learnt.
I have also learnt that life always finds a way of kicking you in the face.
Just when things started going well, and I have started to turn everything around, after many years of hard work, I have once again lost everything.
Years of hard work, dedication and savings ended up with just another life lesson and a major setback.
Once again, I have given up to depression and anxiety and lost faith in my skills. This time it was terrible, and at one point, I would not even leave my house for six months, for anything other than work.
Three months ago, I finally looked in the mirror and decided that I can do better. What if I decided to go at full speed, stop half-arsing most things in my life, ended quitting and tried to reach my full potential? How far can I get?
Only six months ago, I struggled to find the strength to get out of bed. I almost was overweight, which for someone as active as me was bad. I always loved various sports and usually stayed fit, so for me, being around 68-71kg mark was unbelievably hard. I could not do anything well, could not run and had no strength. My joints were in pain from doing basic exercise.
I have decided to at least try, for once, to give life everything I have. To use all my knowledge, skills and willpower, to their full potential.
I have started taking complete care of my nutrition, train hard and use my free time to achieve something. For once, look at the whole picture and journey, instead of looking for a shortcut.
In just over three months, I have lost over 8kg of body fat (going from around 25%+ to 13%), trained almost every single day, and I am stronger than ever.
I have recently beat my lifetime personal best for 5km run, 10km run, completed my first ever half-marathon and even walked an ultra-marathon. I am close to achieving fitness, and personal goals that I used to believe were not possible without entire life's training (Front lever, muscle up, running 5k under 20min, 1 arm pull up). Everything I did to achieve this, including all of my training, nutrition, and overall wellbeing is and will continue to be recorded on this channel and my instagram account.
The bottom line is that if you're blaming anyone else but you for your current situation and keep looking for excuses, you will never get anywhere. There will never be a perfect moment in your life to do what you want to do - you have to create that perfect moment yourself. If you're waiting for your friend, parent, partner, uncle or anyone else to do anything for you - it's not going to happen.
You have to take action and create your destiny.
I have already come a long way, but I am not stopping, and neither should you.
Join me on this journey, and I hope that it can inspire you to become a better version of yourself.
https://youtu.be/q6-BO-12vdE
If you'd like to see how far I will get and maybe learn something a long the way, drop me a sub!
Follow me on Instagram @GrindUntold:
https://www.instagram.com/GrindUntold/
MyFitnessPal Food Diary:
https://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/alexpwillard
Garmin Exercise Diary:
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/profile/BPHX
