I'm Indian. I have mentioned this before.

Recently, my family's been watching a lot more Bollywood films, and we all got into it a bit more. It's... great.

I live in a family of four, including myself, and we all have our Bollywood actor biases. Mine, of course, is Tiger Shroff (even though I'm not in love with him!!).

My sister is waaay partial to this actor called Varun Dhawan. I don't blame her, he's pretty cute uwu

My mum is openly biased towards Hrithik Roshan (can't blame her either).

My dad likes songs and films with Nora Fatehi, although he won't admit it.

We all tease each other relentlessly. It really is great. (I can tell you now, I get the most hounding after me, because Tiger's been my favourite for a while.)

Anyway, the topic of this chapter is abs.

I can explain.

To work in the Bollywood acting industry, you have to ace at least 2 of 3 categories, the way I see it. Looks, dance skills, and acting skills.

I can tell you know that there are some legends who've mastered all 3.

Example: Hrithik Roshan is a total hunk, he can burn straight through the soles of his shoes with the way he dances, and he's a brilliant actor as well.

AND... he has abs.

Example 2: Shah Rukh Khan ages like fine wine, and his acting is honestly some of the best I've seen in Bollywood. His dancing is alright, but in my opinion it looks like more of the other 2 categories that carry him through.

AND... he has abs.

Example 3: I was going to talk about Tiger Shroff, but I'll spare you. Instead,  Varun Dhawan is really cute (like I mentioned before). His acting is iconic, and his dancing is well up there too.

AND... he has abs.

Who am I kidding, I can't write this chapter without Tiggy

Example 4: Tiger Shroff is (let's face it) really attractive, and he's an alright actor. His dancing, though... holy merlin. It's like BTS-level dancing.

AND... you guessed it. He has abs.

So far I've only mentioned actors, but the actresses are all pretty strong too. I don't think any of them have aBs... but damn, I swear sometimes they have inhumane strength. The point is... abs.

Like I mentioned, our family got really into watching more Bollywood, and around the 5th Tiger Shroff movie we watched, I was like 'ok tiger we get it, you're completely ripped and you love to show off, ok.'

You couldn't call it an inspiration.

Ok, you totally could.

I decided that if the entirety of Bollywood could have insane core strength (and aBs), then I could too, right? ... Right?

Stupid logic, I know. Hrithik Roshan and Shah Rukh Khan and Varun Dhawan probably spent half their life gaining cores of iron like that, but I was determined.

Hell, I was determined. It was scary. Why can't I get that same determination to finish my homework?

I started working out.

It was little and subtle at first. I just wanted to improve my core strength a little. My goal wasn't to lose weight, it was to gain aBs. (I'm going to keep writing abs with a capital B now lol it's fun)

Every day, before hopping into bed I held a plank position for 1 minute. And after a couple of months... absolutely nothing happened (that's right kids, it's not like you do one push-up and wake up the next morning with completely shredded biceps).

I wasn't all that discouraged. I watched some more Tiger Shroff films to remind myself how lit it would be to have aBs and picked up on my plan again. This time, better than ever.

Along with the 1 minute plank hold each night, I added 10 crunches, a 10 second dish hold, and 10 push-ups (just for fun). Hopefully those should help speed up the improvement of my core strength.

I started playing volleyball around this time too. 'This time' being around a month ago. Altogether, the exercises each night and the volleyball training began to improve my strength. Still no sign of aBs, yet, though. 😔 (Ideally, it should have taken me around 6 months to even start showing a sign of even a small four-pack, but I was determined, ok)

A week went past. I kept up with my training, and even found it fun. Watch out Tiger Shroff, I'm coming for you! *trips over my own feet, falls off a cliff, and dies*

I decided to ramp it up even more. This was about two weeks ago, now. My poor friends were roped into doing crunches and plank hold and push ups when we got bored (they'll thank me when they have a six pack), and I started cutting back on lots of sugar and sweets. I even shared some healthy fud recipes with friends and family.

Ok, I scoffed half a bar of chocolate during parent-teacher interviews, but I was stress eating, okay?

I also found out that my parents were doing this challenge every night called the stomach challenge, and once I caught wind of it, I asked them if we could do it together, on top of my usual nightly exercise. I tried convincing my sister as well, but she found more entertainment in just watching the films XD

Stomach challenge is basically a selection of core-strength exercises, and you're meant to do them every day for a month.

So from then on, this was my plan:

Every weeknight: 10 crunches, 10 push-ups, 10-second dish hold, 1 minute plank hold

Every Saturday + Sunday: 10 crunches, 10 push-ups, 10-second dish hold, 1 minute plank hold, stomach challenge.

It went like so for two weeks, and I began to get skinnier (thanks, physiology, I thought I didn't have any weight left on me to lose, but then I became skinnier... great for my self esteem). And then last night, I could've sworn that I saw a faint outline of a light four-pack in the mirror, but it might've just been a trick of the light.

It had only been two months, anyway.

So, yeah.

Just wanted to share that. I'm trying to get aBs. I don't care how many, I just felt like it was time to shape up.

A thought hit me last night as well.

It's a bit of a prallel. Fantastic Beasts had inspired me to start writing stories again, because I totally fell in love with the plot and the characters. Likewise, I think that watching Tiger Shroff films inspired me to start working out, because I totally fell in love with-

eheh... nevermind.