Ahmad Awais

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A Stupid-simple WP Developer Fitness Challenge!

Ahmad AwaisAhmad Awais

I can eat all I want and never get fat! Said Kara (The Super Girl), while I was watching the new Super Girl TV series. Believe me, when I tell you, I used to feel just like that. I am 6 feet tall and weigh more than I should. But about 4 years ago, I used to weigh anywhere between 55kg to 60kg.

My Story! (The Excuse…)#

Football#

6 feet and only 60kg? Yes! right! To top it off, I used to play football on a daily basis (most of the time twice a day). I never knew that I could get fat. I ate a lot. I mean a lot times a lot. As a matter of fact, I was a teenager — that’s a growing age, right? — and I was this skinny not because I ate less, but because of my interest in football.

Fate#

Less did I know, it was about to change. I selected pre-engineering in college and most of my friends with whom I played football chose pre-medical. It didn’t change anything since we were still living in the same city. But when I moved from my hometown to another city — Lahore — for graduation, everything changed.

Everything Changed?#

By everything I mean, my eating habits, my friends’ circle and the city of course. I am too picky when it comes to food. I just never built the taste for going all in. I don’t eat beef or mutton and I only started eating chicken when I moved here. So, when it came to eating whatever was on the menu in the mess hall or in the canteen, I had to choose. Sadly, I chose to go with the canteen and started eating Paratha (Oily Bread with potato) on a daily basis. Most of the days I’d have breakfast with bread and egg omliat, I’d skip lunch and in the evening, I would eat 3-5 Paratha(s). Yes! I ate a lot.

WTF…WTVeryF#

Not only that but none of my classmates liked playing football, most of them were into cricket. I was studying Electrical Engineering (EE) and was more interested in Computer Science (CS) subjects. So, whenever I got a free time slot, I’d start programming or reading the course-books of CS. At the end of the day, I literally stopped playing. My routine was more like 80% studies (both EE and CS) and 20% movies or TV seasons.

So What Happened?#

The Weight Gain™#

Since I was already underweight (roughly 20kg), I didn’t care much about getting fat. Though, I gradually started putting up weight. It was 15kg in the first two years, 10kg in the 3rd year and 15kg in the final year. I knew I was putting up more and more weight day after day but with a tough routine of engineering studies, add to that, the time spent on freelancing, I never got to get back to playing football. (Since that was my go-to form of exercise for like 12 years or so).

Change of the Career Path#

Long story short, I knew I needed to go the gym or start running. I tried one too many times, but the studies and my work always held priority over my health and fitness. I had started playing Table Tenis and Badminton but can you really compare them with football? No! you cannot. So, then I graduated and I left electrical engineering for good. Even though I had a pretty good score, I just couldn’t stay away from design and web programming. The day I graduated, I was hired by the same local agency as a Senior Software Engineer, which had me on contract for about a year.

So, then I graduated and I left electrical engineering for good. Even though I had a pretty good score and a job offer, I just couldn’t stay away from web design and development. The day I graduated, I was hired by the same local agency — as a Senior Software Engineer — with which I did contract/freelance work for about a year.

Fitness Is Important!#

Yesterday, I wrote about My Commitment to WordPress and Epic Moments of 2015, where I made a case that I feel like I am on the right track and now I am going to prioritize my health and fitness. Well, there is no doubt at all that the physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.

If I don’t feel confident about my body, I’m not going to sit at home and feel sorry for myself and not do something about it. It’s all about taking action and not being lazy. So you do the work, whether it’s fitness or whatever. It’s about getting up, motivating yourself and just doing it.

Making excuses burns ZERO calories per hour!

I’ve had been running one hour daily for about two week now, one of the best feelings in life is realizing that two weeks ago, your body couldn’t do what it just did. A good job can make you strong, creative, motivated and able to take on the world…erm… oh, sorry… that’s exercise… exercise does that.

Why Now?#

A few friends asked me about why am I doing it now. What changed? How did I get motivated? Well, I don’t have all the answers, I am only getting started myself, but here are few:

The Challenge#

What Am I Doing About It?#

I am building a routine to jog on a daily basis. You too can do that. To situate a better future, I am challenging YOU to run/jog/walk 60 minutes daily for next 90 days with me. Running is nothing more but an argument between the part of your brain that wants to stop and the part of your brain that wants to keep going. It’s a journey to get comfortable with being uncomfortable!

Health is the thing that makes you feel that now is the best time of the year.

YES! I’m In, What’s Next?#

Great! It’s actually pretty simple.

60 Minutes for 90 Days#

I’ll be updating this post on a daily basis to keep a public track of my activity. Right now I am using Note 4 with RunKeeper, Google Fit, and Samsung’s default S Health.

Hashtags:#WPFit and #60for90 .

Day #1#

  • Time: 62 Minutes
  • Distance: 4.72 km
  • Calories burnt: 419
  • Date: 01-01-2016
  • Steps: 8049

Day #2#

  • Time: 68 Minutes
  • Distance: 4.57 km
  • Calories burnt: 389
  • Date: 02-01-2016
  • Steps: 4056

Day #3#

  • Time: 64 Minutes
  • Distance: 4.89 km
  • Calories burnt: 428
  • Date: 03-01-2016
  • Steps: 746 (I guess something went wrong in the app)

Day #4#

  • Time: 44 Minutes (It started raining!)
  • Distance: 2.76 km
  • Calories burnt: 243
  • Date: 04-01-2016
  • Steps: 2097 (Still something wrong here. I plan to report the bug)

Day #5#

  • Time: 62 Minutes
  • Distance: 5.14 km
  • Calories burnt: 853
  • Date: 05-01-2016
  • Steps: 563 (Still something wrong with the app.)

Day #6#

  • Time: 68 Minutes
  • Distance: 5.38 km
  • Calories burnt: 426
  • Date: 06-01-2016
  • Steps: 6834

Day #7#

  • Time: 152 Minutes
  • Distance: 14.55 km
  • Calories burnt: 1508
  • Date: 07-01-2016
  • Steps: 18956

Day #8#

  • Time: 42 Minutes (Was out of town)
  • Distance: 2.33 km
  • Calories burnt: 178
  • Date: 08-01-2016
  • Steps: 854

Day #9#

  • Time: 60 Minutes
  • Distance: 5.27 km
  • Calories burnt: 158
  • Date: 09-01-2016
  • Steps: 6793

Day #10#

  • Time: 81 Minutes
  • Distance: 4.52 km
  • Calories burnt: 1508
  • Date: 10-01-2016
  • Steps: 5798

Day #11#

  • Time: 61 Minutes
  • Distance: 4.01 km
  • Calories burnt: 326
  • Date: 11-01-2016
  • Steps: 5104

Day #12#

  • Time: 16 Minutes (It was raining all day long)
  • Distance: 0.21 km
  • Calories burnt: 12
  • Date: 12-01-2016
  • Steps: 132

Day #13#

  • Time: 62 Minutes
  • Distance: 5.47 km
  • Calories burnt: 448
  • Date: 13-01-2016
  • Steps: 6627

Day #14#

  • Time: 63 Minutes
  • Distance: 6.21 km
  • Calories burnt: 462
  • Date: 14-01-2016
  • Steps: 7507

Day #15#

  • Time: 60 Minutes
  • Distance: 3.77 km
  • Calories burnt: 311
  • Date: 15-01-2016
  • Steps: 4554

Day #16#

  • Time: 60 Minutes
  • Distance: 3.01 km
  • Calories burnt: 271
  • Date: 16-01-2016
  • Steps: 4012

Day #17#

  • Time: 70 Minutes
  • Distance: 5.59 km
  • Calories burnt: 420
  • Date: 17-01-2016
  • Steps: 6752

Day #18#

  • Time: 69 Minutes
  • Distance: 6.74 km
  • Calories burnt: 522
  • Date: 18-01-2016
  • Steps: 8194

Day #19#

  • Time: 72 Minutes
  • Distance: 5.49 km
  • Calories burnt: 423
  • Date: 19-01-2016
  • Steps: 6636

Day #20#

  • Time: 145 Minutes
  • Distance: 12.43 km
  • Calories burnt: 964
  • Date: 20-01-2016
  • Steps: 15372

Day #21#

  • Time: 44 Minutes
  • Distance: 2.16 km
  • Calories burnt: 178
  • Date: 21-01-2016
  • Steps: 2626

Day #22#

  • Time: 60 Minutes
  • Distance: 4.47 km
  • Calories burnt: 365
  • Date: 22-01-2016
  • Steps: 5584

Day #23#

  • Time: 60 Minutes
  • Distance: 6.33 km
  • Calories burnt: 491
  • Date: 23-01-2016
  • Steps: 7662

Day #24#

  • Time: 62 Minutes
  • Distance: 5.66 km
  • Calories burnt: 476
  • Date: 24-01-2016
  • Steps: 6937

Day #25#

  • Time: 87 Minutes
  • Distance: 6.90 km
  • Calories burnt: 534
  • Date: 25-01-2016
  • Steps: 8349

Day #26#

  • Time: 22 Minutes
  • Distance: 0.63 km
  • Calories burnt: 41
  • Date: 26-01-2016
  • Steps: 221

Day #27#

  • Time: 64 Minutes
  • Distance: 6.35 km
  • Calories burnt: 515
  • Date: 27-01-2016
  • Steps: 7736

Day #28#

  • Time: 93 Minutes
  • Distance: 7.29 km
  • Calories burnt: 564
  • Date: 28-01-2016
  • Steps: 8676

Day #29#

  • Time: 23 Minutes
  • Distance: 1.31 km
  • Calories burnt: 84
  • Date: 29-01-2016
  • Steps: 1801

Day #30#

  • Time: 66 Minutes
  • Distance: 5.29 km
  • Calories burnt: 407
  • Date: 29-01-2016
  • Steps: 6650

What Are You Waiting For?#

Founder & CEO at Langbase.com · Ex VP DevRel Rapid · Google Developers Advisory Board (gDAB) founding member. 🧑‍💻 AI/ML/DevTools Angel InvestorAI/ML Advisory Board member San Francisco, DevNetwork

🎩 Award-winning Open Source Engineer & Dev Advocate 🦊 Google Developers Expert Web DevRel 🚀 NASA Mars Ingenuity Helicopter mission code contributor 🏆 8th GitHub Stars Award recipient with 3x GitHub Stars Award (Listed as GitHub's #1 JavaScript trending developer).

🌳 Node.js foundation Community Committee Outreach Lead, Member Linux Foundation, OpenAPI Business Governing Board, and DigitalOcean Navigator. 📟 Teaching thousands of developers Node.js CLI Automation (100 videos · 22 Projects) & VSCode.pro course. Over 142 Million views, 22 yrs Blogging, 56K developers learning, 200+ FOSS.

✌️ Author of various open-source dev-tools and software libraries utilized by millions of developers worldwide WordPress Core Developer 📣 TEDx Speaker with 100+ international talks.

As quoted by: Satya Nadella · CEO of Microsoft — Awais is an awesome example for developers.
🙌 Leading developers and publishing technical content for over a decade 💜 Loves his wife (Maedah) ❯ Read more about Ahmad Awais.

👋… Awais is mostly active on Twitter @MrAhmadAwais

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Comments 6
  • Usama
    Posted on

    Usama Usama

    Reply Author

    It’s a great take indeed. Best of luck for it.
    Being guilty of almost having the same feeling for my body, I wish I could take on this routine myself as well.


  • Harish
    Posted on

    Harish Harish

    Reply Author

    Hey Ahmad,
    Good to know you started this new routine. I have started the same from last 1 month. Currently I’m using Nike+ app but I’ll try the one you are using.


  • Ines
    Posted on

    Ines Ines

    Reply Author

    Hey Ahmad, I’m in on this! Doing a few other things as well, including eating as clean as I can. Blogging about it here: http://www.hunterpantry.com/personal-journey/going-paleo/. I’ve ‘officially’ started today, and hit my goal. 77 minutes of walking!


    • Ahmad Awais
      Posted on

      Ahmad Awais Ahmad Awais

      Reply Author

      That’s great, Ines. Some people are following up on Twitter too.


  • Josh
    Posted on

    Josh Josh

    Reply Author

    Where’s your Strava? If it’s not on Strava then it didn’t count ;)


    • Ahmad Awais
      Posted on

      Ahmad Awais Ahmad Awais

      Reply Author

      Yup! I don’t use Strava! But you can use whichever tool you are most comfortable with.