Getting fit for the sake of Allah – my weightloss journey

So are they gonna live Ricardo there's Brothers Sisters

Sharla we're gonna start a new Instagram live chat between me and cheer for the Raheem McCarthy

and the topic today is how to be fit and healthy for the sacral Allah and that second part for the sacral light is going to be an interesting discussion because I mean some people want to be healthy and fit because it makes them feel good or sometimes they want to be fit and healthy to impress other people. I think a lot of us have fallen into that trap

but that's one issue another issue is you know Islamically speaking as Muslims should we even be concerned about our weight should be concerned about our looks and appearances you know did the process and tell us a lot looks at

you know our hearts and it doesn't look towards appearances. Why are we talking about being you know, fit and healthy? Oh, I think we have with us now

a Scylla Wally kumara was alive

and well Allah, masha Allah Masha Allah Allah hello for joining I really appreciate Zack lucky for the invitation bro. Hey Carla. How are you?

Good good um, then it has everything I was family.

Everyone is good and hungry LA where we are there's no more restrictions in London UK. What about what you asked you? Yeah. hamdulillah the restrictions are mostly lifted. I mean, just I guess the mask and things like that are still continuing. But

other than that, I'm the law no no lockdowns and things like that. So it's good hamdulillah Hamdulillah I don't know if everyone knows but the Sheikh is no longer in his

former country. But he's somewhere a bit more exotic. Tell us where you're sick.

These days I've been in Turkey for some time from extended time.

Is that your place and for the foreseeable future? Well, we'll see Inshallah, maybe maybe I'll be back in Ireland soon. You and me never know.

Masha Allah, Masha, Allah. So the topic today is how to be fit and healthy for the sake of Allah. And I don't remember this. But many years ago, I just think it's about 2015. We were together into Bay. Not for a holiday. But to do some recording for PSTV.

staying in the hotel, and we met a few times in the gym.

Yeah, I remember I forgot about it. The idea reminded me. Yeah. And you were talking to me about Spanner being fit and you know, losing weight and hitting the gym and stuff like that. But even from that time until now, you've taken it to a completely different level. Yeah.

I mean, when did you when did your journey start about

not wanting to become more fit and healthy?

I was reflecting on it. No, I mean, a lot of people wouldn't tell me now that they can see that I've slimmed down. So when I started to kind of reflect and go through the history of it, it's been about five different phases.

I guess now I'm in stage five and looking at the gorgeous phase or phase six and shallow, which should be the last phase Inshallah, we will be able to see you said, you'd be so skinny.

Bajaj would have bumped back over during Phase six.

So tell us So stage one than stage one, what was the turning point? Stage one was just, you know, my family started to exercise him and they start to learn about healthy eating. So obviously, when your family learns about healthy eating, they start to kind of implant in the house. So the meals that we used to have, you know, and then I started to study it myself, I didn't start exercising that time was about 2013 2012, basically made to 2012, the two of them when I was in Dubai, so I started to eat healthy, and but I didn't start exercising, maybe it's around 2015 got consistent 2016 That was the second stage. And that was all at the the biggest I've ever gotten was about 114 kgs.

six foot two, which is about 186 or 87, I guess. So that was your that was the heaviest. That was 114 was, but I was always at 112. I mean, I couldn't really gain or lose. I just kind of it was stuck at 112 for a very long time. But I started to eat healthy, I didn't really lose weight, because I was still eating large portions. But I noticed that the energy level change that was amazing. You know, the crashes and the tiredness, the fatigue, you know, sometimes, you know feeling lethargic, all that was going on I start eating healthy man. So I was like, wow, this stuff really works right.

And so that was that was the first I would just start to eat healthy, some eating clean most of the time. That was that was the basis of phase one. Phase two, I started adding the workouts. I lost about three kgs so I got to about 109 and

Okay, so basically then what happened is that, that's probably like, right after I was with you in Dubai, I got I was more serious. Every day after fajr, I was in the gym.

And I made that my policy because even now, I've kind of drifted away from that, but I've gone back to it. Because I realized that I get busy during the days, I don't get my workouts in, you know, so I get my clothes ready. And that night, and you know, so you have no excuse, and just to get dressed and go straight to the gym. So I would go to the museum for Fudger and I had a home gym that I was using, then I was doing that most of the time. So I would, you know, come home and just just just start my workouts, read them to him. They

even asked my neighbors a little before we make sure I didn't disturb them, like what's hitting the bag and things like that, but haven't done it. How, how much time were you investing at this point in, in these workouts after fajr.

The thing is, is that I, I really enjoy it, I'm not the type who like has to force to go there. I find pleasure in it. So I find myself sometimes going for it for an hour or sometimes even more, you know.

But I also try to like listen to things that benefit me and so it's not wasting time at the same time. So were you by yourself, these workers you were doing with somebody else? No, not by myself. But after Fajr in the gym. Wow, Masha, Allah. So you know, I'll just pause you here, because I think a lot of people they do get into this initial phase where there's, you know, there's excitement, they can see some progress.

But I think motivation starts to then we know off. And, yeah, I think a question I want to ask is like, you're doing it by yourself. How do you keep yourself motivated?

What do you like, to make yourself keep going?

You know, like, nowadays, you kind of think about, you know, when when you start to see the gains, and then you start to lose them obviously, that's, that's an incentive. But after some time, it's really so like something I enjoy, I enjoy.

You know, lifting the weights, I enjoy just the feeling of the pomp and this that it gives. I'm enjoying that. So I mean, I can't I can't deny that. So that's something that motivates me, I enjoy it. And, you know, I guess I'm listening to things, most of the times and other things, I might listen to some new sheet or something like that are more like consider something like that managed to do some some Mattoon, you know, whatever it might be, but I'm just I'm benefiting, but I'm enjoying. I'm enjoying my time in the gym. So I mean, it's different for me. I know other people, you know, you hear them saying I hate going to the gym, I feel after. So I don't really I mean, I

can get busy. I know that that's my main obstacle. But when it comes to enjoying No, I enjoy going and I'm going to learn. So check. Let me ask you another question. You're talking about these phases, my show that you went through, thinking back, was there instances where you kind of struggled? Or maybe you just thought, you know what, it's not for me today? Or maybe you slackened off, it was any moments like that. And if there were How did you like overcome those slumps?

Yeah, I mean, slumps happened and basically what what I did, I made a policy for myself. It was actually very interesting because, you know, the guy Extreme Ownership was in Jaco will goes over him. His name is

the former Navy SEAL. He told me

Yeah, so it made me laugh when I heard him say it because it was the same policy that I take it for myself, is that I don't really have off days, I work out seven days, but you're off days are going to come like you're gonna have a travel, you're gonna have this you're gonna have you know, somebody comes up with a family. So you're gonna have days you're gonna miss. They're not planned. So I just kind of let those days come by themselves. And sometimes you might have, you know, bigger days. Like, like, recently, I traveled last weekend to meet up with one of the other chefs. And apparently, and hit him up here, him and his family. They all have COVID now. So us being with them,

and all of us are sick. Now there are a lot of us are sick in the house now as well. So we don't know. Is it just a regular, you know, influenza flu?

I don't know. Because it's been it's been again, we've been a bit under the weather these days. Like for example, now I'm not working out because I realized you have to be able to be intelligent, that you know if something is about to hit my body, you know, to make sure I eat clean, eat well and be well rested during these days. I've taken this time off, but it's done once I feel better. Inshallah I'll give back. So you'll have slumps, no doubt, but the thing is, you have to be as consistent as possible. And you have to make it something that's forced upon you. And you have to at least you know, at least three times a week is where you're going like full body workouts at least three times

a week as a minimum. That's what you need to do. And Shama okay. Okay, so you said make it fun upon you. I know you don't mean that you believe that Allah is going to send you the Hellfire if you don't do it. But tell me about this. This mentality that you had making something hard on yourself, like what do you mean by that?

You have to push yourself to do it and that you have you did you have to do it and I mentioned this before, it's fine. We, we talked about this, I sent you the video recently about the tips for memorizing Quran. And that's been one of my friends who really inspired me was that he told me you have to make it part upon yourself and you have to make it something that's watching. Like you said, it's not something Islam if you watch him, but it's something that you force yourself to do that there's no way I'm going to miss it. Even sometimes the family get on me. And they're like, you know, we want to go out we want to do this, we want this I said, No, I haven't got my workout and I

missed the last two days. I can't miss it. I can't miss the third day, for example, I have to get in because at least three times a week. So you make it mandatory Marsha, will you push yourself? And that's the key thing. Okay, so do you have any,

like consequences that you placed upon yourself? Like if you didn't know, if you miss two, three days straight from the gym, would you you know, deprive yourself from something or not do something? It happens I missed it because 100 usually doesn't happen like negligence. It happens because I traveled it happens because yeah, you know, like I'm recently you had to think about the about the workshop you gave about the Quran and memorizing the Quran, you became very busy. And you said we were supposed to do something together. You said, I'm busy. Now I'm doing it. So those times come, for example, you're researching, you're preparing a lecture. Yeah, it might be promoting the

evening, like you couldn't get the workout in. So I mean, if it comes because of those things, it's not really, it's not really a big deal. You know?

Okay, this is a question somebody said, Did you know is decrease in your gains?

Just you know, despite all the hours that you kind of investing into your well being and you're keeping fit, like, was there a point where you're doing the same workout and you're already seeing the gains anymore?

No, not really, because I feel much better now than what I quit. I was in my 30s. I was, I feel when I'm in my 40s. Now I feel much stronger, much better, much more energy as somebody that goes back and hamdullah to the to the diet and to the workout. But now I mean, I've changed my philosophy a bit if you've seen and I've studied a lot of this. I've listened to a lot of things read a lot of things. If you've you see brother, forest. Xabi, the MMA coach, he did some podcasts with the brothers in the UK when he came to the UK.

You know, he talked about no not going 100% Like going 70% because he believes in or not getting sore is actually the best way to do it. So you can be more consistent, you can work out more. And so that's one of the things that for me, I had, you know, I would get too, too into it. I noticed that in the beginning, I found myself like getting stronger and getting big ups at home and I can lift a lot now, you know, even like I was doing like some deadlifts probably a bit too heavy. I was traveling one time in one of the gyms and even like my belly button, the navel it popped out a bit, you know, I think tried to lift I went to the doctor he said was okay, but I mean, it looks a bit

funny now, but I mean, it's what it is. But so I noticed that sometimes also, sometimes I get a bit sore in the joints, because I will try to lift too much. When I was doing lifting seven days a week or working out seven days a week, I was doing you know, I used to do like what I call the bro split or whatever I do like one body part in the morning and then do like some back work and some other stuff. And even with them back in the day in 2017 I was going twice a day usually not in it maybe three or four times a week because I would I would do jujitsu I would do MMA, you know,

private sessions and also training jiu jitsu in the evenings. So I was doing that with workout in the morning as well. Okay, oh go shake, masha Allah, I would explore this, these hobbies that you started martial law, jujitsu and all the rest of it in a bit. But if you take a step back and just looking at things, maybe from a religious lens,

Muslims, generally speaking.

They don't, they don't. They don't think about being fit. Because it's something that Allah will be happy with Allah be pleased with, they usually think about, I need to become clear because I don't want to get diabetes. I don't want to be morbidly obese. Or maybe it's something to do with how people look at them or judge them because of the way they look. Because the unhealthy. So, check. I mean, is there a religious way of looking at our health that we're missing, that maybe Muslims need to explore?

You know, one of the things that I noticed and that had a big impact on me from a religious standpoint, is that when we for example, we studied the Shemitah Muhammad em, you know, the description of the Prophet said a lot while he was sitting, and his physical description and detail, and when and how he used to look at so that was salam.

They described him as having, you know, broad shoulders, and also a flat stomach. So and when you study, you know, the perfect physique. Those are two of the things that really stick out. They should have flat stomach and the broad shoulders, the boarder, shoulders, makes no makeup. So it really makes the physique look, look look look proper. So I realized that many of the shapes and many of the dual eyes and made the practicing brothers

you know, perhaps over eating well

against the Sunnah we have the shin and our parents and how we look in our beards and our clothing perhaps. But with a big, big belly. That's something that in the units, you own the Sunnah there, you know, so that that had an impact on me also, because the fact is that we're calling people to leave haram. Any, it's a form of self restraint.

So if you're overeating and indulging too much, that means that you're someone who's not practicing self restraint, and that you're clearly not practicing the Sunnah of only a third for the food, a third for the water, and a third floor, we know for your breathing your air. So this, this, this had, you know, had an impact on me that, you know, we're not looking as we should be looking. And as, as a practicing Muslim, as someone who's who's propagating according to the Sunnah, we should, you know, have a certain look a certain appearance. So just as we look at the beard, as being part of the sooner we do it religiously, okay, well, I'm not saying it's got to have, you know, a flat

stomach, but it's part of, you know, a following the Sunnah. At the same time, if you look at, you know, the general Hadith, and movement of coal, we don't want to have that aluminum wouldn't advise that the strong believer, he's more beloved to Allah than the one who is the weak believer, obviously, the key thing that falls into that is the man. But also, you know, the issue of knowledge, the strong mind and the strong body as well. And you know, what, we don't realize that a lot of the things that, you know, we're not reaching, is because of the weakness in our body over eating. And that's where the scholars and their books, they talked about that from, you know, from

early, early, any from from the early stages of Islam, the fact over eating, that it makes one you can't contemplate, you can't focus, and you can't even learn properly. So, you know, we're harming ourselves, you know, by indulging and overeating, you know, so that's one of the things that as I start to really focus on from a religious standpoint, and then you find yourself you're stronger near a body, you're stronger, and you're seeking knowledge, you're stronger, and you're focusing on learning, you're, you're better and you're teaching all of these things, you know, from a religious standpoint, had a big impact on me, mashallah, see, this is this is interesting, because the dislike

two years of your life, you're not physical well being and your spiritual well being. And you're, you're saying that both of them are connected, like, you know, when you started to emotionally become more fit and healthy? Did you feel like I don't know, you became

better in your body? Did you feel like you became known other aspects of your life, maybe as a husband as

the thing is, you're even in my middle name talked about that in detail, you know, that it holds you down, you know, being too heavy, or being you know, not, you know, because we have to realize even the food that we're eating the type of food that we're putting towards a fuel for our body for our body to move. So even when I was heavier, I wasn't really feeling bad, you know, people think now because I'm much skinnier, that I feel better. Not. And in reality, no, because I was,

I was eating good. And I was exercising regularly. So I was still, you know, feeling very good. So this has the impact on all aspects, when you're a burden on your focus and your prayer, you know, you have back issues because you overweight, you have problems sometimes with your knees, some brothers, um, that didn't have that, you know, back then. But the back issue, always, it's always an issue, you can't really focus on all of these things, you know, tend to start going away when you start to get into shape, and then helps you focus on a bar that helps you focus on you know, our main thing, obviously, and being involved in knowledge, you know, whether it's researching whether

it's, you know, teaching all of it, all of it, and you had had a good impact on me in hamdulillah hamdulillah Al Hamdulillah. That's, that's, that's amazing check.

You mentioned that look, you know, some of the leading people in those communities, the scholars the art,

maybe they're not saying a good image, because, I mean, the stereotypical image of an Imam, or MALDI is somebody who has a very large stomach, and somebody who's

not the fittest man in the world, just put it politely like this. And I think

this issue of setting the precedent from the you know, the leading people in the Muslim community, I think this is what perhaps may inspire other people as well. Like if you have a imam in your local Masjid who is Masha Allah would like yourself goes to the gym looks fit and healthy. speaks about this as well. It can I think it can be a real turning point for a lot of people because I don't think I've ever heard the hotbar on being healthy as well but you should have you ever heard of hotbar more probably done

a hook but I don't know if I've ever given a hook bottle that or heard one. But I've talked about it in myself. I gave a

you know, like a workshop.

And I gave in several cities and airline Oh, if I give a new key or not. But it was cool I caught it then back the blueprint to success. And I focused on what I called back then was NBS, which I can no longer use.

But it was the mind, mind, body and soul. And I remember that some some of the some of the brothers, younger brothers from university brothers who attended one of the workshops, and they said that he ordered some pizzas. And he said, you know, he said, he's after hearing your lecture. He said, I felt kind of bad. He said, I think we have to go get some, some vegetables from from Tesco or something.

Because I'm so focused in detail on the diet, I focused in detail on working out being in shape. And we have all of this in the Sunnah of the Prophet alayhi salatu. Salam, and from from a young age from an older age, when he would raise Asia will be a lot more, you know, he was in shape. The fact that even though he wrestled and he won, and so that was set up, even the fact you know, and the sahaba. And the Prophet it said that was in their 60s. Yeah, and you know, that you look at their ages, in their 60s, wearing full body armor. Yeah, you know, well, body armor. And it just the just the picture, the body armor, even, like, if you look like at the the troops from the West,

you know, the troops from the Middle East, sometimes, you know, they got sandals on an AK or something. And I really like the soldier, you see, but we do know, the soldier with the helmets and packs. And all of this, that's full, you know, full of military gear. Back in the day, it was it was it was from, you know, metal and steel. And

imagine this, and the swords are heavy. And they're wearing these things, and they're out there on the front lines. So that means they were there, even when they're in when they were in their 60s and older, while you but I'm sorry, you know, their love for Huntington, you know, 90 and he's, they're out there on the on the front lines, it means they were very strong. So I mean, if we look back, what were they doing, they were you know, they were moving, they were eating food that was was fueling their bodies, they made them strong.

So we were thinking now the age, okay, like I said, Now, I'm much stronger than I was when I was 30. You know, I'm in my mid 40s. Now, I'm much stronger, much of 100 before Bellagio Hamdulillah. And so the age it's a number that's that, you know, obviously you're gonna get older, I mean, that does have an impact. But if you take care of yourself, you can still be strong, you can still be healthy. So I mean, I talked about this in detail in that course, mind, body and soul, also,

is that I don't think it was I don't think I might have filmed the ones but never put it online. But I would like to put again, I think it'd be beneficial, maybe in some of the brothers who are with us, then we can do it with them Inshallah, as a new

focus on the point of educating ourselves making ourselves better and all spheres of life, you know, when it comes to it was general knowledge of the dunya and obviously knowledge of the deen and then obviously, you know, taking care of our bodies, and then the spiritual side as well. And instead of that full, complete package, that's what we need to focus on is missing. And that's the beauty of Islam is that we have all of that information on focus on all of those things. Even if you go back to the you know, the Sunnah diapers we can talk about in a bit, if you remind me, but that, you know, if you study in detail, all of the modern ways of eating and all of that it's all there in the

Sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu sallam, maybe in a different fashion, but it's there. So I talked about that. Also, if you remember the little workshop that I did, when we were together in Antalya in Turkey, with the family retreat, I talked about the Hadith about the movement of power with a strong believer, and obviously I talked about the bishop being shaped and you remember, maybe afterward the salon he was a heathen was joking with everybody. Because I talked about the issue of being in shape and eating healthy. I gave reminders after thought that I was

sort of mobile. And one of the prayers we prayed there with the brothers. So it happened that Allah Yeah, you know, she is he's always been very particular about food. And being healthy. I remember we used to go on these retreats. And this is going back more than 10 years now. And no, in those when you're when you're that young.

Food is not really something that you are conscious about, in terms of this is more healthier than this. You just think about what's the tastiest thing, that's what you eat. So when you used to be be in these retreats in which was our breakfast, and the show could always say was the brown bread over like brown bread, or after Brown Bread full? And then we'd get the cereal and he's like, with the brand flakes now like what ran flakes. And then so we always always have these memories of Sheikh always being so particular about the food and back then I never used to think of I used to think like it's just being fussy, or something along those lines. I understood that is there's a reason

it's wisdom, but I didn't really appreciate but now, looking back, I'm thinking you know what, subhanAllah there's so so much benefit in being consistent in eating healthy, and how when you get older, when you get older and things don't start to work properly. Things start to get messed up very quickly in your body. You started thinking oh,

idea if only if only, I used to example Stretch, stretch out properly provided a workout, if only as to, you know, eat a little bit more moderately. If only I didn't like intelligence, so much junk food, perhaps maybe I'll be suffering now, you know, Lakota Allah. But you know you didn't do that. But now we can, shall perhaps think more deeply about those kinds of things. Here's a question for you shake, somebody said,

you touched on what you listen to, when you're working out. Now, I know that for a lot of people going to the gym and listen to music is synonymous. And when they're working out when they're going for a jog or wherever, music is a big part for people being motivated, and you know, getting the best type of workout getting them, you know, psyched up for, you know, a good session as Muslims, you know, we're gonna keep away from that. Do we have an alternative? What is your alternative?

Like I said, for me, I really enjoy it. And actually, I'll probably post it online right? I found a video the other day, I was in my

my man cave, you know, my, my home office, which has a gym on the side of it that was in my house in Ireland. I was listening to a lecture one of the shakes and I just kind of got up in the middle. I was taking a break and I was hitting I was hitting the heavy bag with the with the elbow. So I'm coming here with elbow as I'm visiting and it was what kind of my way of taking my breaks in the middle was he's talking about

and I'm, I'm listening and

I listen to audiobooks. I listen to the Quran in a completely different I like listen, different curries. And I listen to the Quran. And Allah tell my staff, I have a lot dev boards and things that, you know, take a note write something down. I've listened to explanations of

different books, you know, as as I've, as I've worked out, so I do different things. But one of the things is that, like, I enjoy I enjoy it. So a lot of people who don't really need that, that motivation. No, probably my weakness. And one things you mentioned is like maybe stretching, I'm never really after the workout, I stretch out pretty good. I get warmed up. But I mean, like, it may be during the nighttime and stretching. And I think I need to do a bit more of that. But I probably don't do enough of it. But when it comes to sick, you're saying that you can, I mean, you can listen to Quran and work out that way that works for you that way it does it for me it does. Okay, you

know, subhanAllah I do that as I listen to the Quran when I go for a jog and things like that. But when I told a friend of mine, he was like, really like, he just was so baffled by this. Yeah.

They said they said a very good

person is asking. Anyway, she's asking, there's a question here about fully concentrating. And then we are definitely learning and there's different times with the Quran like you when you're driving, you know, you listen to Quran you're benefiting, you're not you might have to concentrate 100% on what's being said, because you're you're focused on what's around you at the same time. You know, you're focusing on exercise you're doing but you're listening to the point, like I said, I've been many times, even some of the lectures and some of the things I've given, it's from is that when I was working out, and I stopped it, and I write the idea down or register number of them down, and

then I go back to later when I finish my workout and I've given a reminder or a talk about it, you know, it's because I do so there is benefit and Hamdulillah. So, I mean, some people even somebody said they thought that wasn't respectful. So you need to focus when a person doesn't know. I mean, it's not like you know, I have no problem talking to you, though it's not the case. I'm not talking to people in the gym. I'm just, I'm by myself, I'm working out. And I'm listening. So that's one of the things I found. There's some other things I use something if I need some more motivation. I do have my my secret weapon for that. Which gets me pumped up. Yeah. I like to listen to for example,

Noni Barney, for example, it's, you know, some of the Alpha it's a bit you know,

your face very hard, you know, it's because he talks about you know, he talks about it that he talks about DAB he talks about all of the different things and that there's different you know, courage to actually read this no Nia will clap on it and only left like that and for those who don't know, it's versus a poetry

way what are the scholars will induce

him although he did these reports, everything ends with a noon. Also he might even not beam he has that where it's like 5000 versus 40. No need no pain, but sometimes I listen to or sometimes I listen to his Wasp agenda. There's a brother from sorority brother, which I liked his Israeli citation. His name is Abdelaziz moto Rafi. So I listened to his and that's good. That was the first one that came out back in the day. So that's the one I'm used to. But then you have other like, you know, share photos that are bad now those who were ready now as well. It's also very nice. So I

Isn't that sometimes if I need a bit of a push an A sheet I have listened to before but I'm not really

too into initiates I don't listen to it that much. Okay, listen also, sometimes the tune and it has there's a reviser for myself the ones that like poetry type, you know that listen to that as well. I mean, I think a lot of people are going to be scratching their heads thinking the sheikh listens to Arabic poetry was was beating up the punching bag this is our team did that but it can happen it happens, masha Allah, okay, she gets a different question. Now.

People talk a lot about mental well being a mental health.

Do you feel like there's a connection here between physically being fit and healthy and being in a better place mentally? No doubt about it. And even if you look Imam Shafi about him a lot. He mentioned he said, I've never seen someone who's out, there is someone who's, who's sane in a good mental state. And he's fat, except for Muhammad has an issue, Bernie,

tell me the Imam Abu Hanifa. Apparently, he was

a bit overweight from what they described. But it's because usually when someone has a weight problem, it does affect them, you know, mentally as well, learning them in the best mental state. And, you know, you can even in the prayer, I mean, I've seen cases in the prayer, where brothers, they, you know, just making sujood the record, they can't even breathe

out of breath, you know, I mean, how are you going to focus on, you know, brothers can't, you can't, you can't tie your shoes, because you're too fat. You know, and this, this is a serious issue, and it's just psychologically, it's gonna have an impact on not just not just physically, emotionally, mentally, it has a huge impact. And the scholars have talked about that, from the beginning of time, that the, from the early writings in Islam, I mean, that you know, that just the impact it has on you mentally, not just physically, but also mentally, the negative effect of overeating or being overweight.

I think also, with that, if we add to that, in the days, we live in, the type of food I was, that wasn't really a big thing for them, because most of the few food was pure, right. But for us, and it was so much unpure and unhealthy and junk food, that also that also has an impact. You know, I found myself on camera that, you know, ever since I changed my, my eating style, and I don't really sleep a lot anymore. And that was a big sleeper before I was just need more, sleep less. And even with all the training and your teachers, you know, you have to get like eight hours, Arnold got six hours in Okay, so sometimes I don't even get that, but I feel good, though. You know, I wake up energetic,

you know, so hamdulillah

it has a big impact on on, you know, I think it's a complete system as with dentistry, it's not just about looking good, you know, sending out or being jacked, or, you know, looking when you look in the mirror, but also when it comes to you know, your mental,

your spiritual, all of it, all of it is intertwined. So, you know, this this point about people, obviously, a lot of people work out because they want to impress other people, they want to look good for, you know, in front of other people.

Is there anything wrong with that?

I think the key thing is that you look good, you know, you want to look sure you want to look good for yourself first. And then obviously, for your spouse, you know, sister for her husband and a brother, for his and that's something important. And a lot of brothers, they want their sisters to look good, but they don't want to, you know, they don't take the time to exercise themselves, you know, she's got to be in shape, but you come up with your big belly, you know, at the same time, she doesn't wanna see a brother with a big belly

as well. So I mean, but sometimes I think we have to be careful especially in in the time of you know, we have online you know, Instagram you know,

YouTube and these things where people are always you know, showing off because you fall into the you know, the thing of

it comes you know, it's gonna come that's what you have to realize when you start to look good you know this you know, when you when you get a flex and you see how much of the muscle is coming out you know, as you

know, that's great. Yeah, but you have to you have to what you have to you have it just like if you're successful in anything you do and that's it you know, yeah, if you're successful as someone who's teaching people you're someone's six one your business is that you that you don't become arrogant you don't turn showing off because that's going to lead you obviously down

the wrong path and it can open up the door for obviously, it would be arrogant in many aspects in life as well. So yeah, you have to look good. If you want to be an example that's something different but you have to you don't want to mess up the NEA The main thing is for you to feel good and for you to look good. And that's one of the main things you know, even some people say now, you know, I was a little bit more like I want to lose around the midsection. You look good.

nonetheless you know reservoir will look better when I see myself you know for you but it's not just about but you know from projects more from myself when I see myself you know it makes me happy you know what hamdulillah under the law 100 Allah like I said check don't lose too much than monitor see properly.

Okay, there's a few final things I wanted to touch on you. One of them was want to ask you, can you give one small tip to someone who wants to lose weight maybe on the issue of diet, something that you've picked up through your own? MashAllah lengthy journey in becoming unhealthy? That's a very important question. I think a quick quickly though, because I learned a lot.

I tried, I always had tried a lot of different different diets, I did a lot of different things. Like for example, phase three, I kind of went to detox my body. So I decided to do a a vegan type of

automobile. optimal, optimal vegan with no no grains, I don't just fruits and vegetables. I was it was it was a detoxification for the body. And what happens then is that it shocks the body, it helps you lose weight quick, and it helps like kind of restart the body. So that was the objective. I did that for about 17 days. And I went from 109 kgs to 102. So I lost 79 days. 17 days, 17 days, 17 days, Marsha, I lost seven kgs Wow. So

but it was, it wasn't it wasn't really a nice experience, to be honest with you. Because with all the extra fiber, it was a lot of bloating in my stomach, making my stomach stick out. It caused a lot of pain in my back obviously, from the bloating in the stomach.

You know, from from the the marital side, the libido was, you know, like negative, wondrous communicability capability that actually saw videos about that, you know, as our videos about that. And the people were like, like, oh, it's normal. If you're a vegan, I was like, No, that's not normal. That's, that's something that's, it's not normal. So I mean, I went after that I said, I'm not going to stay obviously, in a situation like that. I went more to a Keto ish type day with low carbs.

Now, I wasn't keto, but it was like you know, more or less, it would just work. And then way down to about 97 from there and having them then they like the days after that I kind of just went back to eating normal.

Being consistent with my workouts, probably went back to 100. And then I would go back to 98 like that between there. Then obviously, I had the problem my knee where I tore my meniscus, I had the surgery, so it kind of slow me down a bit. But then I'm there in Ramadan, because natural, I don't eat a lot of Hamdulillah. So I was able to,

I was able to, you know, slim down, then you know, so that that's 194 Now hamdulillah that's where I am many currently Hamdulillah. So

I learned a lot of things when it comes to this, you know, there has to be a balance issue of keto, another, these type of things, there could be benefit in trying them because it's going to be a shock to the body. And that's gonna help you start to lose weight. But I think the key thing is going back to the sooner die, which The brother asked about earlier, which for me to explain.

And that is just, you know, small portions. And then to eat, what is and this I think we need to focus more on this. And I talked to some different machines about this, the verse that no one really talks about which is to eat what what is halal, I'm believer in a visual, halal and pay, you know, because a lot of the scholars talk about the fact that it tastes good. No, I mean, I believe that the claim is, is that which is going to be nourishing and fuel for your body as well. And we don't really focus on that. So you have to learn, you know, what is really healthy eating, what is healthy eating mean? Eat clean, eat healthy, and eat small portions, and you're gonna, you're gonna find

that you're gonna start to lose weight easy like that, and Shosanna. And if you look at the Hadith, of the prophets of sentiment, it sums it up. And even the issue of intermittent fasting now, which is the phenomena now everybody's talking about, if you look at the it's not a hadith, but it's that we're people who don't eat until they get hungry, famous, no Arab saying, and that's similar to that where you might prolong your eating when you're not gonna eat unless you're hungry. Also, the issue of the provenance of salami said that he has low payments, the payments will bother if it's just small porcelain are small amounts of food that you know, make your back standards right they make

the debate, they give you the fuel that you need to small portion. And if you look at the Hadith, then after he said, then cannula Mohalla if it's enough in necessity if you have to eat more than that, basically, he said that he said 1/3 for the food. So it was actually before that there's there's actually a level which comes before that it's even lower than that. It could just be some some more so small portions, they do in less than a third. And then he says if it's if it's has to be unsafe, you need more than that. than 1/3 for the food one

1/3 for the for the, for the water, and 1/3 for the,

for breathing, and I'll tell you through my own experience that once you start, the less, you won't be able to eat more back in the day, I could get a big burger, huge one and have a small one on the side with fries and a big, big shake. Now I can very big burger, I can't finish it, I can't finish it. Because what people don't know. And you notice I was studying medicine, that the size of the stomach is actually they say about the size of the fist. Yeah, obviously, us over eating, we've expanded it. So even they say if you look at like the when it comes to the fluids, it can take about 900 milliliters, which is less than a liter, some of the coffees we drink are like a liter of you

know, the large coffees, right. So and then we eating with that food on top of that, that's just a snack, if you can imagine that this is happening, you know, and that's also one of the things that you need to leave out is not snacking too much. You know, and even if you're still eating a smaller portions, you're eating clean, then you start to exercise, you know, gradually, you're gonna find that you get you're going to lose weight, and you're gonna get in shape. And then with the clean eating, like I said, it's, you know, what is fuel. And that's one of the things that, you know, I look at the inspiration of the of the bodybuilders. And sometimes I like their discipline, you know,

they're, you know, extreme in some aspects, obviously, but their discipline, their, you know, their dedication to what they do. And they say a lot of times we don't eat, for the tastes, we eat for the, you know, for the function that we're going to do for our bodies, I mean, but um, there's other things you can do, and it to make things taste good as well. You can have a Keto cheesecake, you don't have to give up on dessert, if that's what you like you can have, there's healthy options, you can make, you know, beautiful cakes with almond powder, especially as in the West, we have all these things you can order online and get it delivered to your house.

There's all kinds of healthy options. So there's no excuse for not being able to eat healthy and clean. You take up some time and learn and what is healthy eating, what is cleaning, and you're gonna find Shala that, you know, after even like, you know sugars now, fizzy drinks, I can I can't even go near them now. And just it just doesn't even taste good anymore. And if I tried to like take a Pepsi now, which is the amount of sugar, I just couldn't handle it, you know? So yeah, so paralyzed. It's amazing how the body can adapt. I mean, back in the day when I was in Egypt, studying the brothers. We were we became like addicts of Pepsi and Coke and fizzy drinks. Literally,

we used to buy

everything. Yeah, you know, you buy the crate, with about 24 cans in it. Have you seen you know the Saudis like about this 24. So we used to buy those and put them in our room. And then we just take a few and put in the fridge. I mean, it got to that level. And I remember thinking to myself, look, this, this is gonna affect you, in your mind, forget about your T is gonna affect you in your mind. So a few brothers said, Let's just forget all this junk food Hardee's and the KFC and everything on the

mat was my was in your back.

So, we just cut out for a week, we started cooking ourselves. And we didn't have to cook. We're making tandoori chicken with tomato ketchup. We're making pasta with just, you know, salt and pepper. And some, well, we could find a supermarket basically, we had no idea how to cook. But for seven days that we started. By the end, by the end of that seven days, I felt almost like a different person. Exactly. Amazing. Waking up in the morning, waking up in the morning, it used to be such a struggle. And all of a sudden, it wasn't that big a deal anymore.

Some of us used to wake up and get out of our bedroom and then go into the you know, lounge with the sofas, sit down sofas and fall asleep. They're

there again, I used to be the same. I used to be the same road. The other thing is I've had these these crashes, I would sleep you know, like have even like my midday nap. I would sleep like you know, heavy for an hour, hour and a half. And now Now it's like a power nap 15 minutes and then I'm up. And even my my wife is telling me he's like, You have to sleep more. I said I can't you know, I sleep sometimes, you know, three, four hours at nighttime, boom in the morning, I wake up I'm energetic. It's a bit more difficult in the summertime because obviously with the knee issue in the early budget, but then the normal times

for hours or even less, you know, I find myself you know, full of energy and in ready to go as soon as I wake up, you know, it's a big difference. Like I said before, it's like you know, you have to pull yourself with a robot a bed you know, so yeah, well cranes from the two things that you mentioned, check. I want to just conclude on that channel. The first thing you mentioned was you went vegan for for 17 days you said right. Yeah, so I mean,

I actually went vegan as well for seven days to try it. And I did cheat at fish as a cheat meal, but for seven days went vegan. And the one thing that stuck with me was it is not sustainable. Because the options that you have to be honest

They're so

terrible that you can't see yourself eating that same food every day. But the benefit I got from that seven days was it showed me that before that food had control over me afterwards, I had control over the food.

And I was like, This is good, you controlling the food in your life, it's not the other way around. And the other thing was that I lost quite a lot of weight within seven days is more like a noticeable amount. And so I think, as a kickstart, you know, people need to see some kind of gains pretty quickly to jump on that ladder and keep on going. So maybe some type of not extreme extreme, but some type of drastic lifestyle change, for at least a week or two weeks, probably two weeks is better, just so you can see over the mountain, and the other side, what there is available for you in sha Allah on the other side. So that's one thing I totally agree with you and I would encourage

other people to as well. The other thing is the portion sizes. Now, people have heard this a lot, reduce your posts or reduce portion sizes. But there's actually, there's a beautiful

sense of ease to this adjustment, because when we say reduce your portion size, it can mean you can eat wherever you want, at least in at one stage wherever you want. But just eat less of it. And even eating less of it in the beginning could be just taking, just

so the way I explained to some people is that you know, when you eat, you get to a stage, you're like, I'm full, but I like to keep on going, I like to have another another bite another bite. So just when you, when you before you get to that point where you're like saying I'm full,

just stop there, I one less bite one less, you know, most of you will find eventually that you can't eat more, even when it comes to eating like things, I'm not really good with my policy now. Because I think when you forbid yourself, you people fall off the wagon, and they start you know, come back and it becomes actually worse than what it was before. So like, my family last night, they had pizza, I had one piece, you know, I didn't you know, not have any, I want bees. But then I had a mixed grill for myself, you know, so I'm gonna, I was able to, you know, enjoy that. And like today, there was some cookies, I was hungry, The lunch was a bit late. So I had to focus on like, it was it

was four weeks, it was it was a better and healthier option than that. But I don't do that too much. But every now and then if I want something, like when, usually when I have ice cream then or the family, I usually don't have, you know, every now and then I have an ice cream cone to make sure that I have some balance and also the more healthy choice than ice cream you can do and you can make your own like, which I do sometimes like protein type, ice cream and things like that. So that's very important. You know what I mean? And then you'd like you said, just start doing it gradually started doing it gradually, you eat a bit less, a bit less a bit less.

And you're gonna find eventually that it becomes it becomes your habit becomes the norm and Cheltenham

making it sustainable, that that's very important that is sustainable.

You know, I would recommend probably I would think that

keto might be a better option for some, I wouldn't do it for long term, but maybe I know a brother who did like for 90 days, 100 days, and it has the huge, huge gym, I mean, brothers were bigger than me and actually lost more weight than me with that much. So that could be something as try as kind of just like a jumpstart. And then if you bring carbs back in, you know, try to learn what are healthy carbs where the carbs are what is also one of the things very important to point out what is good for your body, what is not good. And like for example, I found that, you know, dairy is not good in my body, which I didn't know, that means a big dairy person, maybe something new that

happened to my body, I don't know. But recently, I can't I can't handle dairy anymore. So I have very limited dairy. And I might have some every now and then but it doesn't really harm me but very limited dairy I have now. So that's one of things you'll learn along your path is what's good for you what's not good for you, for example, you know, also like, you know, white bread, if I have too much of it, access, it's not good for me, it causes problems for me. So all of these things, you know, you start to learn you know, through your experience, and you can just cut certain things out add certain things in and then if you're having less portions it's very similar to they say to like

intermittent fasting because the portion of it you're not going to be you know, having too many calories. So I mean, I haven't really gotten too much into this you have the calories in calories out but I'm more focused on now this last phase, so I'm I know what is the calorie dense. I'm kind of staying away from that. But I didn't do that before but I'm doing it now because I'm trying to just cut down to the last last phase and channel data. And then when is your book coming out? Then check your book on how to be a transformed human being Masha Allah. It could be very efficient, have a good day.

DMS I like to

look at the people that have joined us for this conversation. And they really, mashallah and inspired by and you've got a lot of experience and knowledge on this and also coming from a religious perspective. It's very refreshing for people as well. So Milan is one of the one of the questions that was just answer that book with things for energy. I've found that it's amazing, no dates. And raw honey is a big part of my diet, obviously now because like I said, I'm at the phase now where I'm trying to just just cut down a bit more. I mean, a bit less of it these days. But I found for example, I went

I said, let me try something like I was going to try the carnivore diet. So I did it for about oh,

I did it for about a week. And it was okay, you know, but then it like Ramadan started. And I was a bit like, no, I need my dates in Ramadan. But then I continued and you remember that the wrong to mother? Oh, man was that was the first the first lockdown the one before last? Yeah. So we were very active, you know, the religion, Islam. 21. See, and, you know, I had sometimes, you know, five, six different clouds and lectures and in a day, so we're very active. I came like after mogra about hidden like on the seventh date. And I just had no energy I couldn't move you know? So I wouldn't have I wouldn't have seven dates and it was just like

I was just energized. We just just full full energy I haven't done so that's why I kept the dates and I went low carbon and but I continued so I think that's very powerful that we have from the student as well. Obviously the dates Yeah, and you know, check I don't know if you watch tennis or not but number one player in the world Novak Djokovic,

he's been number one for some time now he cited for trend in the tennis world because he in between matches he would eat dates. And because he's number one and because he's such a health fanatic. Other players started to copy him and he would have the other module was the very big ones.

You just have the commentator was talking about it during the match that oh look, Novak's getting his data. And then the other guy was like yeah, you know, he does this to keep fit and the sugar release and the glucose hit that you get with it. And you know, he's he's the one who started it and the commentator whose normal said, Actually Muslims used to do that at the end of their fasting day in Ramadan. Because the Prophet does that. And I was like, sort of how I look at this hygiene agenda. It's really really beautiful. I mean, we used to go hiking and with the brothers and brothers they were really like gummy bears. They said you'll get the glucose back so we thought that

we have dates and we don't eat gummy bears when we started them. They like bags that dates those who go hiking with the brothers and get our energy back is where I can have that in them mashallah shake honestly speaking though, I think we should speak more about this thing you've got a lot of knowledge on this and I'm pretty sure a lot of people that are watching this would like to ask your questions so are they okay to DM you with further

just wanted to share and you can reach out to me Charla hopefully be able to respond to you and and benefit you further. But check this up on my head thank you so much again for your time and wisdom where you have got me on my increase you inshallah next time we see you maybe even on stage number 10 I don't know what that means. Now I just have one more stage.

one more stage. Hello Cindy Sharma radical lovey.

Lovey.

Arlequin Salam to you went to everyone else article I think