The Week Started With A Little Bit of Brutal Honesty

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I walked into the gym last week and, while at the reception, a person walked in whom I hadn’t seen for about 12 months. He’s a lovely man and I know for a fact that he doesn’t ‘do’ Facebook so I’m certain he won’t read this. Anyway, we said the big “Hello’s” and I quickly noted that he had lost a heap of weight. So our conversation went something like this;

Me: “Wow!! You have lost a ton of weight!! You look tiny!”

Him: “Yeah. And you’re just the opposite”.

Ok. Wow. Conversation ends about there. Awkward.

I didn’t ask him for a body composition breakdown during which I am certain he would have explained that he meant my muscle mass was up while my fat stores were at a manageable level with fluids sitting on my legs due to creatine intake. Nope. I didn’t invite his explanation. I just sort of stood there with no real place to go.

I willed my open mouth shut and my eyes to stay smiley rather than glarey. Couldn't really disagree could I? Last time I saw him I was a good 10kg lighter!! The only thing I could do was take the comment, process it quickly and choose not to dwell on it or make it into an excuse to feel a little shitty, or start some internal name calling (think “fat arse”). And I did achieve it. I had a little laugh and he said “whoops” when he realised that women don’t do too well with the bulk up compliments. I wished him well and took my bulk through those doors. Then I hit the gym and had a bloody good workout. Not an angry one actually. Just a good solid workout.

Moving right along….. the last two weeks have been quite amazing. As per my last blog, I had a really shitty time of it for a couple of weeks and so I took my head out of the equation and just decided to do my workouts, eat my food and get on with it. Enough with the over-thinking. And that’s when the magic just sort of started happened. I’ve been stripping fat, feeling great and hitting some new highs with the weights. Instead of losing strength, I’m feeling stronger than ever. This pattern of simplifying things has a track-record of producing the best results for me. So what do I mean exactly? I mean this;

·        Not always expecting each workout to be something I’m fist-pumping or Facebook Selfie-ing my way through. Sometimes I turn up at the gym with less than the desired enthusiasm. I’m a little tired, a little over it, and a little less than happy at having to wait my turn for the squat rack. So I refuse to think about it too much – just turn up and jam those ear phones in, open my workout diary and do what it says. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS carry a workout diary!! The days where motivation is low, you just open the page and tick off your exercises – gives you a much better chance of completing all that you need to as opposed to relying on your memory and fighting the mind-demons that will tell you to drop a few reps off, lower the sets and leave early.

·        Not over-thinking the food. I know what I have to eat. I have it plastered on my fridge. I make it to the letter and I make enough for 3 days so I’m not preparing food when I’m feeling flat, hungry, disinterested or upset/angry/happy/stressed/tired. Instead I just take the container out, heat it up, salt/pepper and enjoy.

·        Not googling ways to ‘fix’ my program. Trust my trainer. She is an expert. She knows that there are many ways to skin a cat yet she has my progress sorted and her way will work. But it won’t work overnight. Delving into the “but I want to try a different way” is just a way of thinking you know better. But you probably don’t.

So this works for me – it really does. The solid and consistent approach works way better than being on a euphoric high that, of course, leads to the expected low.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; I’m not the strongest girl. I don’t have the best physique and I’m not the muscliest girl in the world. There are others with way better genetics then me. Clearly this is true. But what I do have – I have consistency. I have the ability to stick to something and stick to it for a long time.

I have been eating in the manner I do for the past 2.5 years. Without falling off the wagon. to clarify - in my world, eating a piece of cake or a piece of pizza is not falling off the wagon. It's all part of being alive.

I have been training with heavy weights for 2.5 years. Without stopping. Clarification - I have plenty of rest days and I LOVE my rest days. But I haven't swapped weights for crossfit and crossfit for kettlebells and kettlebells for TRX - I have chosen my path and stuck to it for a decent amount of time in order to gain the wins that come with time.

Results come from consistency. Whatever you do in life – not just training – anything. Consistency. Continuing to do something even when you don’t feel like it, when the odds are against you and when you feel sorry for yourself and long for a change. Consistency – sticking with what you know will work instead of yo-yoing back and forth every few weeks or months. That’s consistency. Very under-promoted in this instant world.

So how on track am I? Feeling very on track thank you. I feel like I have a big kilo-clock on my shoulder and time is going past a little too fast for my liking but I’m confident we can do this.

I am 7.5 kilos down.

I have 8 kilos to go.

9.5 weeks until competition day.

I am pretty pleased with what’s starting to appear under my winter coat. It’s very different than the last time, and it should be. There will have been 18 months between competitions and I could not think of anything worse than looking the same as I did last time. I want change and growth and improvement. I reckon it’ll be there.