Omneya Hossam 
Ramadan is only less than 45 days away. Time flies by and it’s only a while before you find yourself having your first sohour and getting ready for the holy month. And unlike all year long, Ramadan usually requires us to cook for long hours while we are fasting, pray in the night for quite some time. If you have been lazy all year, most likely you will suffer in the first few days. If you want to avoid this here is your ultimate plan to getting fit before Ramadan even if you haven’t been fit for a long time.
Phase 1: Baby Steps
For the first 5-7 days you are going to start doing some minor changes that will help you get back on track, but nothing big because you want to start real slow. Start by taking the stairs instead of the elevator, walk for an extra 3-4 minutes. Lower your food portions by a tiny amount if you want to lose weight as well. This should be good as a start since it won’t make you feel like you’ve completely changed your lifestyle.
Phase 2: Push forward
All you need to do now is introduce some cardio into your daily routine for the next 10 days. 20-30 minutes of walking on the treadmill are fine or any other kind of cardio that you prefer. Make sure to work at your own pace and not push yourself too hard.
Phase 3: Get some action going
You now have about 30 days and with that, you can do wonders. Now your body is adjusted to being able to move and exert effort and you don’t want to lose that. It’s time to hit the gym or attend fitness classes. Along with your 30 minutes of cardio, why not attend a yoga class twice a week or go for a Zumba class that will be so much fun you won’t even count it as work out. For the next two weeks, keep it that way and remember that you are moving slowly.
Phase 4: Level it up
Now you have about two weeks and in case you haven’t noticed, you are really much more fit than when you started, and you might have actually lost some weight. Now it’s time to level things up and start doing some toning exercises after the everyday cardio. For a week or so you want to take the gym seriously by going at least 3-4 times. You can start lifting some weights and increasing the number of classes you attend per week.
Phase 5: Wrap it up
Congratulations! You really made it so far and your body is in a much better condition. Now for the last week, you will want to train for 5-6 times. You will get used to not eating for longer time intervals than usual and really moving around as much as possible.
After you’ve finished all this, you won’t suffer in the first few days in Ramadan, you will have so much energy and tolerance that will get you through the long fasting hours and night-time prayers.
Main Image Credits: Instagram @farida_aboueldahab
