Hey Team,
Sunday is here again! I have to say my life is beyond chaos right now. We are working super hard in the background to try and facilitate this change-over to the new gym management software. Stress is H-I-G-H!!! It is changing everything we do at the gym – from member management, how people are billed, how people check in, how and where we put together the programs, how we send emails and text messages, how we sell things at the front desk…it is changing EVERYTHING. Do I need help? Well…I kind of do. I need everyone to – when the invites to the new system come out – get in and REGISTER…registration is going to include entering either your bank account details OR your credit card details…we wont be able to cut you over to the new system UNTIL those things are done!
Before I get started on today’s blog, I wanted to mention that we are JUST ABOUT to enter the crazy season – weddings, party’s, everything!! As part of this there are two events I wanted to mention.
Event #1: Round 1 Christmas Party – Benny’s Bar Fremantle, Saturday December 2nd.
Our traditional members party is $15 this year – we are all meeting at 4pm and you can come for a couple of hours (sounds like me) or for the duration of the night into Sunday morning (sounds like Tracey!). Grab your tix at Reception OR via the marvel of the interwebs:
https://tms.ezfacility.com/OnlineRegistrations/Register.aspx?CompanyID=1214&GroupID=3561685
Event #2: Boris and Lisa Christmas Party – 356 Wattleup Road, Saturday November 27th.
This year there will be TWO bands – Hells Bells doing their ACCA-DACCA tribute show and Sabrina D doing her ‘PINK’ show. This one starts at 7pm, is BYO drinks and food – $25 for admission to cover the bands…See Boris or Lisa for tix for this one…
Both events will be awesome if we all get along! I know it’s 2023 and everyone wants to make a ‘on-the-day’ decision but it is challenging to arrange catering etc in advance (which the venues need) without having ‘some idea’ of attendance! So – please – get involved and buy your tickets if you are thinking of coming. Friends and family are welcome at both!
OK – now – on with the show…and I’m going to talk about my most recent obsession – the TV Show ‘ALONE’.
Thanks to Nicola R, I started watching ‘ALONE’ a few weeks back – it is a survival show where they dump some people up in an inhospitable place and they need to survive ‘ALONE’ for as long as they can. So their chopping down trees for shelter, fishing, hunting – the whole kit and kaboodle. I’ve watched a couple of series now and what I have learned is a couple of things:
1. The people who are ‘best’ at being by themselves – ALONE – have a great chance of winning. Those who are going to miss their friends and families, well…they’re going to quit.
2. The efforts of the contestants are impressive. But you know what’s really impressive? The animals native to the region who just ‘get on with it’ – working away with no ‘$500000’ incentive – they are busy and alert – working away, avoiding predators etc…every single day.
One animal I have actually gone and done some research on after the last season I watched (season 9) is the beaver. A couple of contestants actually caught beavers and ate them during the season…and they were able to do it essentially BECAUSE the beaver is so hard working. They are up early and building their dam, securing their food source for winter…it just seemed to me that the beaver’s in the show had two modes – working or sleeping – and there was just no in between.
I have been thinking a lot about this as I slog my way through the ‘Highway to Hell’ challenge – and with just a week to go now I am pretty determined to follow the beavers lead and get to the end. Here is what I have found out about how beavers live – basically they have to overcome a series of obstacles every day in order to ensure that when the winter season comes, they are ready. Here goes:
#1 – Selecting the Perfect Location (aka Defining the starting point – STRATEGY!):
In order to build a dam, you first need to find a place where there is a balance of accessibility to resources AND being safe and secure…I know this is about location but to me this translates to all of us challenge people – and to be truthful everyone else just trying to get their weekly sessions done – to all the ‘strategic decisions’ we have had to make to get this thing complete. 4x classes, 3x extras (basically 30-mins each) AND 3x cardio efforts (run/swim/ride) every week? It’s been NO JOKE. On top of that, time for meal prep…for everyone who has gotten to the end, we have 100% been great with our time management and planning.
#2 – Gathering Building Materials (aka ‘managing the basics – WHAT and WHEN!):
In the show, the beavers seem to have a remarkable ability to cut down trees and transport them to build the dam. For us – we not only had to overcome the ‘quick fix’ dietary fillers – bread and pasta – but had to make sure we still got in enough nutrient-rich foods to fuel their bodies for optimal performance during training sessions. I know for me in the first week or so I didn’t really take my food all that seriously…I quickly learned – if I wanted to get to the end, I needed to sort out my food – the training load was too heavy without proper nutrition.
#3 – Construction Challenges (aka the MENTAL game).
Every week it was something – I would get caught up at work or have a function to attend – I never seemed to be able to get into a ‘rhythm’ with my training…but it still had to be done. This mental battle – I had planned to do this but now I have to do that…AND the whole ‘negativity’ challenge (I’m never going to make it) and the whole “I really can’t face doing this workout again” (for me I’m officially having nightmares about the ‘Da Three Kings’ workout!)…It has been HARD. No harder of course than the challenges of the Beaver – repairing the walls after his meticulously prepared dam collapses, trying to position things for maximum effect…
#4: The WEATHER! (aka EXTERNAL factors):
The beaver’s construction efforts were not immune to the unpredictable weather conditions of the forest. Rain, storms and snow – not to mention the water turning to ICE all posed threats to the stability of the dam. Weather was one factor for us – I missed one run because of the rain – but more common were external factors like work-related stress, family obligations, or unexpected commitments which really tested the resolve to adhere to stick to the training and diet right to the end.
#5: Time Constraints (aka “Every week has a set of tasks…let’s GO!!!)::
For the beavers in the show, winter was looming on the horizon and time was of the essence. The beaver had to work tirelessly, day and night, to complete the dam before the freezing temperatures set in. For us – it was like every Monday a starting gun went off – classes, extras, cardio, meal prep – it all had to be done by SUNDAY. You couldn’t just push a session back to ‘next week’…next week had another deadline waiting.
#5: Balancing Energy Expenditure (aka “Man, it’s been tiring!):
This one is more about the contestants on the show – they have to make decisions between hunting vs building a shelter – you need a shelter but it takes a lot of calories to build one – and without a food source, that’s gonna be a problem. For us, we really had to balance out the extra training with the issues relating to the food restrictions we were also dealing with. Like the contestants who couldn’t afford to exhaust themselves too quickly or waste energy by having to ‘repeat’ tasks, we had to find the right balance in our training – both time and intensity – in order to make sure we could get to the end every week.
#6: Adapting to Unexpected Challenges (aka “watchagonnado? Stuff goes awry!)
Nature is unpredictable, and the beaver had to adapt to unforeseen challenges such as the intrusion of predators (the contestants on the show got added to this list!) or the collapse of partially constructed sections of the dam. In the same vein, many of us have had to overcome unexpected setbacks, be it injuries, plateaus in progress, or other unforeseen obstacles that required adaptability and resilience. What else can I say – it’s been a journey!
So – here we are. Just one week to go.
Let’s continue to be diligent and hard-working and get to the end of this thing! Weigh-ins are next Saturday…whatever the outcome on the scales, if you manage to get to the end of this one you’ve done something pretty impressive!
See you in the gym,
Michael.
