I felt that I needed to spend money to stay fit, not just in the gym, but also in the class, personal training, and Lululemon enough to wear a small Olympic team.
I was immersed in the landscape of gym fullness and self-improvement cultures, which combined with my own impulsive control led me into an expensive cycle.
However, despite spending over $100 a month on gym memberships, personal training and workout gear, I didn’t get a fitter. What ultimately worked wasn’t the radical app that blowed up my phone with reminders or new Apple Watch. It was a companion to self-discipline and AI.
It’s been over two months since I replaced my personal trainer with AI, and as a result I’ve been stronger, lean, and saved hundreds of dollars.
To be clear, when I started, it was not my intention to exchange people for algorithms. After all, it was people who got me into fitness in the first place.
But I have to admit that using AI to focus, my ownership of my time, money and motivations will come back to me.
My fitness trip was unstable, but not typical
In my early 20s, I traveled frequently between cities, making it difficult to establish consistent habits, including fitness. This lack of structure and a random routine came to my mind when I moved to Cambridge for my master’s program.
I was victimized by juggling my full-time job in my research and found that the only real solution to the clean mental health bill is exercise.
One of the instructors who run classes at my local gym was amazing and I was lucky enough to have the trick to push me beyond my natural limits. I trained with him for about a year, and when he moved, my motivation was tanked.
I stayed at the gym and didn’t get what I needed from other instructors or membership bills. Testing alternative spaces with classpaths and various free trials at other gyms has been fine for a while, but without consistent guidance and encouragement I started to get less, make excuses and procrastinate.
The accumulation of all the habits in the world and the calendar updates won’t help just not wanting to be somewhere.
Filling myself with new gym wear and post-workout snacks helped me show up, but it wasn’t sustainable either. The pounds were rolling down, but they were of the wrong kind: Sterling.
I decided to make a change.
Mindset shift was required
I have already used ChatGpt and confusion in other areas of my life – mainly for recipes, travel planning, and other types of research and troubleshooting. Therefore, it was not difficult to adjust my personal exercise routine.
I used ChatGpt as my master app, entered my goals and progress every week, and requested a new or updated training routine.
I also used it to explore issues related to Willpower and discipline. It may have taken me a few days in the past, but as I read my strategies and motivations from the book, I’ve now been able to find solutions in real time and delve into why I might be holding myself back.
I’ve used ChatGpt to find recommendations for other free AI-powered apps.
These bests started using Cronometer, a Nutrition and Calorie Counting app every day. I use the free version to help you track your water intake, macros (carbohydrates, protein, fat), fiber, iron and vitamin levels.
I was interested in the results I had seen on Cronometer and turned again to ChatGpt to learn more about nutrition.
I asked the following question: Why is protein so important for muscle growth and recovery? How much do you need? What is the best way to get it? Immediately they provided me with a simple diet plan to increase my protein intake and better complement my training.
It also uses Hevy, a free app recommended by ChatGpt, to track your set of reps in real time. I also use the free version of Gymmade. It offers a catalog of resistance training exercises with step-by-step instruction and animated illustrations. It was the perfect tool to handle free weights with confidence.
I’m finally seeing the results
I’m now looking at real results beyond strength, stamina, body composition, mood. My definition of muscle has improved, doubled the weight I had lifted in a few weeks.
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Plus, the urge to expensive personal training has disappeared. I dropped my gym membership and now I bumped into my local free outdoor gym instead.
Without the encouragement of that first great instructor, I wouldn’t have reached this point. But what made the most difference was learning to take accountability and build motivation and momentum without anyone else’s help.
I didn’t try to build a DIY fitness routine, but it stayed longer than anything else I tried myself.
