Jitu Arora with several of his Marathon medals

From running marathons and half marathons for several years and then suddenly becoming inactive, to weighing 95 kgs and not being able to walk even 10000 steps is scary isn’t it? Jitender Arora has been through this scary phase until one day when he realized being scared is doing no good to him. And rest, as they say, is history…. Let’s here from Jitender how he brought about a healthy change in himself and getting back to being his old fit self. Jitender’s story in his own words.

For almost a decade I stayed in the US and the UK till about 2011.  During, my days abroad I was extremely fit. I indulged in a lot of outdoor activities and ran marathons and half marathons regularly. I had finished 3 full marathons and a dozen half marathons. My downfall started when I shifted back to India. I got huge responsibilities at work. I was looking at functions with multiple geographies and too much traveling and erratic eating habits took a toll on me. Due to lack of any physical activity, I had also cultivated a few habits that I should not have. All this led me to put on weight and my lifestyle was also very stressful. Overall, very unhealthy. I weighed 95 kgs and wasn’t even able to complete 10,000 steps in a day it used to be a very tough task.

I joined GOQii in May 2014. The band was a gift from my wife on my birthday. She watched the review by Rajeev Makhani on NDTV and thought I needed it. She was right, I definitely needed it because I was overweight and was not really into fitness.

But, to be honest I started using it seriously only when Shimpli my coach told me about the 100 Km trail walk to be held in December 2014. I thought that is a good challenge to give myself and I started training for it. I had decided I will walk and see if I can complete it. If not, it would just be about meeting few other like-minded people and that will give me an extra dose of motivation. I seriously trained for the trail walk.

I also started with yoga and strength training because I felt just cardio was not working for me and I wanted more of a complete turnaround. I got back to my running and back to running Marathons.

On the day of the trail walk, I was confident I could do this walk within 48 hours and do it in a pretty decent time. I was only hopeful because of the training, the coaching support and the device itself helped me kind of understand my goals better and I started pushing myself a little bit more in terms of being more active by changing my lifestyle, changing my eating habits, hydrating better. A lot of these small suggestions by my coach has helped a great deal in the   past one and a half years.

Ever since I got back to my healthy self, I have been challenging myself to do various things. I did the 100 KM trail walk twice in two consecutive years, I have done 12-13 half marathons in last few months, I have done the devil’s circuit in Gurgaon. My next big challenge is to trek the Everest Base Camp. And, I am going this May. I have always loved the mountains. I have done a couple of small treks. I guess for every individual who loves the mountains’ their dream is always to get close to Mount Everest. So my dream project has been to trek to EBC. It’s going to be challenging for me but, more than anything I think I am going to come back more knowledgeable and fitter and perhaps be more appreciative of the nature.

I am looking forward to my EBC trek as I am going with few other GOQii players. I treat them as my second family so that’s again a comfort factor for me.

What does Coach Shimpli Patil have to say about Jitender Arora?  

Jitender is one of the most vibrant and cheerful people I have ever known. He became a part of the GOQii ecosystem in the very initial days of GOQii. When I spoke to him for the first time, he expressed that he was a very active person while in the US, but lost track of any kind of physical activity once he came back to India. He was thus aiming to get back to his fitness again. We started with some simple cardio exercises and later moved on to interval training with intense core strengthening. The best aspect was even though we wouldn’t communicate every single day, he made sure he caught up with his workouts and astounded me by sharing his workout summary at the end of the week.

We also focused on his eating habits, especially his pre and post workout meals. After a few months of coming on board the GOQii platform, Jitender registered himself for the 100 km Mumbai Oxfam Trail walk, we teamed up together. At no point in time, did I see Jitu losing his motivation to complete the walk? His energy levels started dipping, his feet started giving up, his body started aching but, his willpower was strong and that kept him going and he successfully completed the trail walk.

It did not stop here. Soon after he got himself into various activities including 10 k run (TCS Bangalore), 10 Half Marathons- including Standard Chartered, One 15 KM trail Run, 100 km Mumbai Oxfam Trail walk once again, one 30 Km Road Run (Gurgaon) and one Devils Circuit (NCR 2016) and the list continues!…he is currently preparing for his big Everest Base Camp. Jitu is a great inspiration to many, and is a perfect example of how to reconnect to the disconnected path, and stay up to it!

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