Hey Team,
Thanks so much to everyone who came and trained with us last week. It was so great to see everyone after the lockdown ended and whilst the masks SUCKED it was better than the alternative (no gym)…AND the wearing masks sure made the past couple of days with no masks feel like sweet relief.
I wanted to write today about the ups and downs of training/eating/life as I have been chatting to a couple of long-term members recently who have been going through a flat spot and have found themselves in a ‘body space’ that they really don’t like. Here’s the news flash – it is 100% normal to have ups and downs. And it’s OK.
I don’t know where this expectation has come from that we should all be perfect ‘ALL’ of the time. I mean, once upon a time you would maintain a ‘base level’ of fitness then ramp things up for an event (like the City to Surf). You would maintain a base level of body comp (you all know what I mean) but then when it was time to squeeze into some boardies/bikini you would take a long, deep breath and really focus in for a couple of months…yes, you keep things ‘at a level’ but that level was never ‘perfection’.
Somehow these days it seems we are all expected to be ‘PERFECT’ 12-months of the year. The thing is, I don’t thing anyone expects this except the little voice that lives inside our heads.
Gaining a couple of kegs or falling short of your calories on a couple of bike targets doesn’t make you a bad person. And it doesn’t mean you have failed at life. It just means you are like – a normal person. And for normal people, stuff happens, life throughs up challenges and short-term priorities and long-term goals don’t always line up!
And remember, when you get stressed out (and who hasn’t had those moments over the last couple of years – all those jokes about how much 2020 sucked were written for a reason) everyone reacts differently. Some people eat more than they should when they are stressed – and gain weight. Others get so pre-occupied they don’t eat enough. And lose weight. Others feel constantly exhausted and as a result exercise plummets down the ‘To Do’ list/. We are all different and all react in different ways. And all of them are completely OK.
If you are finding yourself stuck on the ‘down’ roller-coaster, well, remind yourself of these things.
Stop with all the negative self-talk – stop telling yourself you are useless, lazy, fat, whatever it is. There are enough critics in the world without each of us being our own critic#1.
Have a look – a REAL look – at everything going on in your life and give yourself credit. I have people come in for Health Checks who tell me they are shift workers with 4 kids under 5, a partner who works and a parent undergoing treatment for a serious medical condition. I then ask them what constraints are holding them back from training/eating well and they reply “Oh, nothing really!”. I mean, be serious. The first step of overcoming hurdles is acknowledging they exist.
OK – now we are being positive and have a real grasp of what our challenges are…create the plan. It might be as simple as eat breakfast every day and get to the gym twice each week…Monday and Wednesday at 7:45pm (for example). But be clear with what you ‘agree’ to do, and execute the plan. At this point, it really is the time for ‘No Excuses’. Sure – if things change, you can add “MORE”. Or do “LESS”. But either way, to move forward, you simply have to be OK with the ongoing ups and downs.
See you in the gym,
Michael.
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