Regimes, Diets, and Joys of Life: A Fatman's Journey to Becoming an Ironman

By Gunananthan N

From a fat 126kg, I am now an Ironman! Just like my journey towards financial freedom, my goal of getting healthy was not without its fair share of pitfalls. Through it all, as trite as it may sound, determination and goal-setting played a lead role in my success and they continue to assist me in my daily life. One of the reasons for this book is to address all the different emotions and thinking processes that took me through the several stages to getting healthy. I spent a lot of time in introspection, thinking about it, convincing myself; it took months, if not years. Fact is, I have been in the bottom rungs financially and in the extremely unhealthy zone physically. With a few tweaks and fine-tuning of priorities, I was able to achieve what is truly important to me in life. So, I strongly urge you to pull yourself out of the rung or zone that you are unhappy to be stuck in – be it fitness, finance or family. Updated 2016

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Sep 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781365422454

Book preview

Regimes, Diets, and Joys of Life: A Fatman's Journey to Becoming an Ironman

Regimes, Diets and Joys of Life: A Fatman’s Journey to Becoming an Ironman.

N Gunananthan

Publication

Published by

N Gunananthan

C3-U6-15 Solaris Dutamas, Jalan Dutamas 1,

50480 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Email: [e-mail]

Second Edition

Copyright (c) 2012,2016 N Gunananthan

All rights strictly reserved. No part of this publication may be produced or transmitted in any form or any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior permission of the copyright holder, excepting brief extracts for legitimate purposes of review or quotation.

Cover, design by Adrian Cheah

Dedication

For my parents, Amma and Pappa

For the love of my life, my Wifey, Yen

And our precious children, Vara and Dava

For my brothers, Siva and Theva

And their wonderful wives, Sumi and Asha

And my delightful nieces and nephews, Kaeshini, Thevesh, Jayshrie, Amitaesh, Dharanee and Nimesha.

Disclaimer

This book chronicles the author’s journey and personal experience towards healthy living. The author is not a doctor or health care provider and is not qualified to dispense medical or health advice.  This book is for informational and educational purposes.  It is not intended to prevent, diagnose, treat or cure any disease. This book is not a substitute for consultation with a physician or professional health care expert. 

This book details the author’s life lessons about being overweight and achieving fitness, learnt through countless hours of online surfing and first-hand experience.  Use the information in this book at your discretion. However it is highly recommended that you refer to your doctor before embarking on any fitness regime or gruelling race. 

About the author

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July 2011 – Guna with his wife, Yen, and children, Vara and Dava. 

N.  Gunananthan, or Guna, as he is usually known, has a BSc in Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science and Non-Western Studies from Mount Union College, a MSc in Electrical Engineering from Yale and an MBA from Bowling Green State University.  He is also a Certified Financial Planner. 

Guna has over 25 years of entrepreneurial, management, business development and IT experience.  He is passionate about our dying planet and seeks to actively fight for her. He currently devotes a good measure of his time at work to a business focused on energy efficiency.

An active triathlete, he continues his love for the sport and has done three full Ironman races, and a multitude of smaller races to help him gain quantity and quality time in life.  His kids, Vara and Dava, join him in his passion.

He is author of The Secret to Ultimate Wealth which was first published in 2007, where he expounds the virtue of investing time wisely to seek what is important to become wealthy in every sense of the word. 

In 2012, he published this book Regimes, Diets and Joys of Life: A Fatman’s Journey to becoming an Ironman. where he chronicles his journey to lose weight and get fit.  This is the 2016 version where he has an update of what he did the past 4 years since.

Also in 2016, is the launch of his third book Energy Revolution: Evolution or End of Humanity which talks about the energy revolution that is around the corner but Which will come first – solving our energy woes or the death of our humanity? 

He can be contacted at [e-mail]

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Thank you

To the people who had to put up with me: Wifey (Yen) and Munchkin 1 (Vara) and Munchkin 2 (Dava).

To the people who slogged it out with me: In particular Harald Weinbrecht, and other friends who chipped in along the way – Bernard C, Bernard E, Keat, Cheok Chin, Mark and my numerous other friends. 

To the people who helped comment on this book: Jeremy Figgins in particular (thanks for reading this book a dozen times, if not more!), Wifey, Hsien, Jern, Sherry and Adrian. 

And thank you to my friends who had to tolerate my many weird hours and eating habits and to everyone who had to hear me talk about diets and exercise over and over and over again. 

Foreword

If I can do it, so can you!

In my first book, The Secret To Ultimate Wealth, I began with the chapter If I can do it, so can you!  For those who have read that book, you would know that the quotation bears much truth and weight.  At that time, I was talking about building a well-balanced life – my definition of wealth. 

I come from a middle-income family.  My father was an engineer with the government and my mother was a nurse.  There was certainly no silver spoon in sight and my financial freedom was not delivered overnight either. 

I used to work 14-hour days every day.  I was prudent in my spending and built my business fervently.  I achieved my first million but lost it all when the dotcom bubble burst.  This humbling experience made me take a good hard look at my priorities and myself.  I had grown to become physically heavy.  Who am I kidding?  I was obese.  I was in the red – both my health and financial figures screamed for attention.  By asking myself what had gone wrong and how I might reverse my fortunes, I reached a new definition of wealth. 

To me, wealth should encompass five important pillars – family, health, happiness, money and self-actualisation.  My health, I realised, rightfully warranted my immediate attention.  I also focused on spending more quality time with my family.  Since making this step-change, for the past few years I have worked no more than eight hours per day and I exercise regularly. With my changed mindset towards building wealth, with a healthier body and a happier family life, I have managed to turn my finances around as well.

Just like my journey towards financial freedom, my goal of getting healthy was not without its fair share of pitfalls. Through it all, as trite as it may sound, determination and goal-setting played a lead role in my success and they continue to assist me in my daily life.  One of the reasons for this book is to address all the different emotions and thinking processes that took me through the several stages to getting healthy.  I spent a lot of time in introspection, thinking about it, convincing myself; it took months, if not years. 

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If you find some inspiration from this book, I hope that you take it further and put that motivation into action.  Fact is, I have been in the bottom rungs financially and in the extremely unhealthy zone physically.  With a few tweaks and fine-tuning of priorities, I was able to achieve what is truly important to me in life.  So, I strongly urge you to pull yourself out of the rung or zone that you are unhappy to be stuck in – be it fitness, finance or family.  I wish one and all a continuously wealthy and balanced outlook in life. 

Based on where you are, you may use different measures. Here are some conversion numbers that you may need to refer to when reading this book. 

1 kilogramme (kg) = 2.2 pounds (lbs)

1lb = 0.  45kg

1 centimetre (cm) = 0.  39 inches (in)

1in = 2.  54cm

1 kilometre (km) = 0.62 miles (mi)

1mi = 1.61km

0 degrees Centigrade = 32 degrees Fahrenheit

20 degrees Centigrade = 68 degrees Fahrenheit

Centigrade = Celsius

PART 1: MY IRONMAN JOURNEY

CHAPTER 1: HOW I GOT TO WHERE I DID

There is no substitute for athletics.

- Robert Kennedy, U.S. attorney general and adviser, 1925-1968

A long and winding road

10 July 2011.  Zurich, Switzerland. 

If I can do it, so can you!

I had just started the greatest physical challenge of my life, The IRONMAN, a 3.8 km swim through icy waters, before proceeding to a 180 km cycle and then running a full 42 km marathon; all of these had to be completed within 16 hours.  The usual cut-off time is 17 hours.  But for Zurich, the duration was reduced to 16 hours due to local legal regulations. 

Despite being in a wet suit, the water was colder than anything I had ever experienced before. It chilled me to the bones.  I felt out of breath immediately as there was so much pressure on my chest.  I stopped swimming.  It was a madhouse as swimmers all around me surged ahead. 

I have to ask for help….  quit the race!

Being in the Ironman was a big deal to me and it had been a long and difficult journey. 

Here is my story. 

Growing concerns

Growing up, although not overly obese, most people would at least have classified me as fat.  I was not very active but did not live an entirely sedentary lifestyle either.  There was the occasional sporting activity such as badminton but the truth be told, sport was never a way of life for me. 

I went to the United States for my studies when I was 19 years old and I weighed approximately 65kg.  I started lifting weights because physical size mattered there.  When I entered graduate school, sporting activities quickly exited from my life. 

After graduating, I returned to Malaysia and obtained a job at age 26.  It marked the first time I had my own money to spend.  So here I was, at the prime of my life, standing close to 6 feet tall and I weighed 85kg, though a lot of it was muscle. Life was not all bad. I had always enjoyed eating and drinking, even during my college years. That lifestyle amplified as I could afford to treat myself to rich food and alcoholic beverages. 

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