When More Isn't Better (Part 2)

Today's post is about more exercise not necessarily being better if you're trying to eat well and lose body fat. Today I taught two really intense classes - Step this morning and then, just before lunchtime, an absolute thumper of an RPM. I really make a point of pushing the envelope in my classes because I believe that if a participant sees the instructor putting in the effort, it's a whole lot more motivating!

Well, I must have put in the effort and then some this afternoon because I am pretty hungry and hurting all over. It has felt like, despite fantastic nutrition in bigger-than-usual quantities, that nothing has "touched the sides" since lunchtime. I've bumped up the old intake a bit more tonight, but it's really easy to overcompensate calorie wise for the amount of exercise you are doing.

That's one reason I never recommend twice daily cardio to prospective clients, it's far better to exercise smart than to put in volume that's not really achieving any purpose. Runners call them "junk miles", smart figure chicks call it "mindless cardio".

Tomorrow I'm looking forward to catching up with Miss Shelley - she's going to encourage me to go for the grunt with a chest workout tomorrow. From the sounds of it though, I'm going to have to bring a cane and a wheelchair so she can manage her DOMS :)

Being Grateful

There's actually a name for the phenomena I described in my last post.

It's called the Hedonic Treadmill Theory.

I think one thing I can do better is to be grateful for what I have.

Today I am grateful for three things:

1) My hubby - who is my rock and my girls who I am just so proud of
2) My friends - who I can share my ups and downs with and not be judged
3) My triceps - that I can get through 48 push ups on my toes teaching Step..waahhhooooooo

More Is Not Always Better

I've made some interesting observations over the past few days about human behaviour.

Quite simply, we want more.

We want more money.
We want more time.
We want more freedom.
We want a better home.
We want more to eat.
We want more holidays.
We want more friends.
We want more sex.

The list goes on....

We want more fulfillment.

WE WANT TO HAVE IT ALL.

WE WANT TO HAVE IT ALL AND THEN SOME.

BUT..
does "having it all" make us happy?

It seems that the more we have, the more we want. And the less happiness it brings us.

I'm a case in point. I logged about my manic day on Monday, Tuesday was equally as awful and the exhaustion I was suffering by the late evening put a hole in my wonderful run of eating well and training hard, culminating in an episode of overeating stuff that I really didn't need. What was driving that? "I'm tired, I deserve it" (aka, "I deserve more"). However, adding "more" didn't add to my happiness levels, rather it diminished them.

I'm not really very proud of those two days. Yes, I did a lot - but when you're doing that much and riding along the edge I believe your productivity levels take a complete dive. I thought about what it would be like prepping for a comp or trying to get uber lean under the circumstances. It would be extremely difficult to do it well. I've been trying to unlock the reasons behind why I get myself into these messes of "doing lots of everything, yet not doing everything well".

I've started to get things back on an even keel by asking John to put me back on High Performance RPM on Saturday rather than Step (goal achieved) and rather than get upset that the fish I bought for dinner was off, smiled serenely, dumped it, got in the car and headed to Coles (passing an Indian restaurant on the way - a great effort when one is hungry and tired) and bought two beautiful pieces of salmon instead.

Next stop for me is bed - I've got my regular Step class tomorrow morning, so I'm up at the crack of dawn for that one.

Living in the Neon

I've been inspired by Bodystep 76's Peak Track song "Living in the Neon". Today was literally another day of being a girl who gets it done! As I mentioned in my last post I have picked up a pharmacist job where I am working every Monday from 10.00am until 6.30pm.

My day looked like this:
5.30am Rise and Shine - make kids and hubby's lunches
6.30am Have a bowl of oats and powder and a cup of tea ...ah that's better!
6.50am Wave goodbye to hubby
7.00am Prep all meals for today and prep dinner for tonight, down to the last carrot (nothing worse than getting home, being ravenous and chowing down on cereal (uh, guilty as sin, but no more!)
7.45am: Walk girls to school and walk home
8.15am: Do RPM 43 at home - this is what's going to be on the teaching playlist this week, me thinks followed by a conditioning circuit with my kettle bell, some mountain climbers, squat thrusters and push ups.
9.15am: scramble some eggs and have a truckload of veggies - much easier to eat at home than explain why you eat so much to the peeps at work
10- 6.30pm : work
7pm: dinner (all prepped ..yahoo)
7.15-8.30pm: computer work
8.30pm Watch "Desperate Housewives" with hubs - it's my weekly "guilty pleasure".

Tomorrow is more of the same - I'm doing a one day locum ("fill in") - meals all logged and planned.

Today was successful - I didn't get all of RPM done or do as many circuits as I wanted to, but the main thing was - I did something!

Getting it Done

I'm having a laugh right now - here I am posting about "getting the job done" and realize that I named my blog "girlgetsitdone" because I wanted to get the job of preparing for a figure comp DONE. Hilarious.

I'm onto a new challenge thanks to Katie - the Hundred Day Challenge and although the premise of the challenge is around health and fitness, my hundred day challenge consists of one hundred blog posts in a hundred days. I may do more than one post in a day, I may miss a day - but in the end I shall have one hundred posts to share about all sorts of things.

From the health and fitness side of things, I might talk a bit more about my training and nutrition, just for fun. I have times where I eat more than I think I should and times where I think I could have trained harder etc etc. I'll also write a bit more about the other things I am doing to remain grounded - so I will blog about where I fall down sometimes and where I'm really improving.

So Day 100 and here's a blog post, so big tick there. Today, although I had the opportunity to train, I chose not to - I took a day off instead and feel great for it. Recovery is as important as training and after the walloping I gave my body teaching 3 Step and 2 RPM in the latter half of the week, rest was just the ticket. Eating wise, today I've naturally gravitated towards a Paleo style of eating which included a Vietnamese Salad, pumpkin soup and grilled chicken and greens.

Hubs and I went to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince today and enjoyed Vietnamese lunch beforehand and a long walk and talk afterwards. It was nice to spend the day together and we both feel a million bucks for some time out (thank you grandparents).

I'm working in a pharmacy all day tomorrow and Tuesday. I have my meals planned (not packed yet though) and I'm planning on trying out my Kettlebell tomorrow and maybe getting in an RPM at home.

Bargain Protein

1 tub (400g) of Musashi SLM High Protein formula - sealed, new packaging - 50% off - $14.50

http://www.musashi.com.au/product/details.action?productId=178

Ladybird Figure Tone 500g Vanilla Gelato 500g sealed new - $20.00 each ( this is a soy/whey combination and great in pancakes).

Ladybird Women's Whey Choc 500g $23.00

Redbak Soy Protein 500g Vanilla - excellent in all protein powder cooking applications $20.00

Slim Secret Protein Cookies (Trail Mix) $2.00 each.

All products are new and sealed and have long expiry dates.

Contact me via www.thefitnesssolution.com.au (hit "contact" to reach me).

A follow on

Kerryn has written a great post this morning and I agree.

Sometimes action has to precede motivation. If I had waited to become "motivated", I would never be where I am today. There are some days, excluding injury, where you just have to suck it up and do it.

Sometimes, you're not perfect. But if you got up and gave it a crack and did something, you're achieving.

Sometimes it's hard fighting back the inner voice that says "I deserve crap" BUT it's really character building when you stay true to your core values.

I hope that today is fruitful, I learn something and I'm grateful for the good things I achieve.

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Training today: Teach Bodystep then RPM (yes, I'm the cardio queen today...but last time I looked, I still had triceps...phew) Then I'm off to think about lifting some heavy shit myself. I've got a training partner who's raising the bar to chase!

Quick Post

Training today - "The Return from Slugdom Official Workout" - teach RPM , then teach Bodystep, making sure I have a nice big serve of oats, protein powder and a nice tall Gloria Jean's tea in between....nice!!!



I will use a combination of stored muscle glycogen, fat and circulating blood glucose for fuel and I will not care what HR training zone I am. I will complete the job knowing I have kicked butt and I will ensure I have BCAAs and glutamine with my post workout meal which shall otherwise be known as Portuguese Chicken, with cabbage, carrots and snow peas followed by strawberries for dessert.



I am strong, I am fit and most importantly I am having fun!

History becomes legend

"And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth" Galadriel, Lord of the Rings.

This quote from "Lord of the Rings" reminds me of some of the trends and theories that float around the health and fitness world. It seems that some take a little pinch of science and morph it into theories which sound good, but ultimately don't achieve anything.

Take, for example, the idea of a "fat burning" zone. I've heard this a lot around the bodybuilding traps these days - "I'm only walking, to ensure that I stay in my fat burning zone and that I don't burn muscle by exercising intensely. "

Let me say for a start that the statement as is doesn't make sense from this little exercise physiologist's point of view:
a) Yes, there is a heart rate zone where the body uses fat as substrate for fuel more (eg 50-75% of Max HR) but the truth is that the body runs on carbohydrates, either by the process of gluconeogenesis or glycolysis. Fat is converted into carbohydrate for use as fuel. At higher heart rates, the body relies more on carbohydrate (which comes from stored sources, ie glycogen). Unless you're in a super deficit and eating a very low protein diet, it's highly unlikely that doing high intensity work will cause any muscle loss whatsoever. The joke is that when you are doing very intense strength training your heart rate will peak way above the "golden fat burning zone" that some of these bodybuilder types will promote! What happens then, burning muscle? Hardly - rather setting the body up to gain lean mass if nutrition principles are sound.


b) One secret to becoming a lean mean fat burning machine is to actually concentrate on getting fitter. Yep, get fitter and you will train your body to preferentially use fat as substrate during exercise and rest. This means instead of having to walk, you can run for half the time, half the stress and the same caloric expenditure occurs! At the end of the day, fat loss is related to caloric expenditure, "afterburn", and process of recovery from strength training bouts. On this note, I get told that "if I run, I'll release too much cortisol and I'll be catabolic". Whilst it is true that training switches on catabolic hormones, a fit runner will release far less cortisol than an inefficient one - and addressing post workout nutrition/correct supplementation will go a long way in flipping the switch towards a more anabolic environment.

c) I have to add that overdoing the cardio is no good for athletes who are focused on strength training. When I hear of competitors doing two hours of cardio a day to get lean, big question marks can then start to be raised about retaining muscle etc however 30 minute bouts of intense cardio interspersed with the lighter stuff shouldn't hurt anyone's cause, particularly if nutrition is sound.

***************************************************************

Training today: Back and triceps with Shelley. After a slowish start, we both got into it and caned it!
Cardio: total slug fest today (ie nothing). But hey, I stayed in my fat burning zone...heh heh

Changing the Script

Isn't it funny how we humans always see things in such a negative light.

We're never  ... "good at anything"

....."pretty enough,"

......"thin enough,"

......"wealthy enough,"

......"disciplined enough,"

......"strong enough,"

and the list goes on and on. 

 We humans are conditioned to think the worst.

"I can't, because........."

"Why should I bother?"

"What if x,y or z happens?"

"What if I die?"

What if, just for today or even just this moment as you're reading this, we changed the script.

Today I am grateful for these positive attributes...

...I am strong ( I can kick butt in the gym and teach a mean whacker of an RPM class with my God given chunky quads!)

...I am true to myself and my core beliefs

...I am creative (and sometimes messy, but in the light of positive attribution, I'm cheerfully random) 

...I am attractive whether I'm uber lean, large or somewhere in between.  I have some very character forming wrinkles and crinkles that appear when I smile, which today are kind of cute rather than kind of annoying.

.. I am lucky that I am financially secure (Lotto win a few weeks back would have been good though!)

...I am really fit and can run, jump, dance and sing (well the last two are up to interpretation of course!)

So how are you going to celebrate your uniqueness and "awesomeness" today?

Hope everyone has a really positive Saturday!

Patterning

Today I was reflecting on the little patterns and habits we allow ourselves to fall into. This stemmed from having a discussion with one of my clients who is a Phd student. We were comparing notes about the art of procrastination. Why is it that we feel so much better when we get the job done, rather than put it off. Yet procrastination is one of my worst vices.

When we do rehab on clients, it can take 2000- 3000 repetitions of the new movement pattern over and over for it to be integrated into our nervous system pathway and response - so I'm taking the same tack with procrastination, eating well and staying lean.

Each meal is an opportunity to cement a good pattern and considering that most people eat 42 times a week, continual practice is necessary to keep building these new habits. So, if you fall over, get straight back up and start working on grooving your new behaviour patterns into your psyche. The good news is that you don't have to be perfect, just consistent most of the time.

After yesterday's cardio whacker (RPM and STep), I only had to teach Step this morning which was a relief, my entire body is in a world of pain from Tuesday and I'm lining up for more punishment in the morning!

Affirmation

Had an absolute cracker of a training session yesterday with Miss Shelley - we did a Chest/Biceps workout. We're still doing a bodybuilderish type of split at the moment but trying to be as functional with the moves as possible. Yesterday's workout consisted of decline push ups with 12.5kg worth of plates on my back (on toes), and absolutely blitzed the bench press yesterday with 8 x 45 kg bench effort (5 unassisted, 3 forced reps). For a little piss-ant like me, I'm totally chuffed with my efforts.

Shelley is also improving in leaps and bounds, especially with her push ups - we've now got her plated up and looking stronger. This is one time when being shorter has its' advantages!

I woke up this morning checking for bicep DOMS, they're not painful yet, but definitely very very fatigued. And my chest is starting to kick in as well.

Anyway, to today's post - affirmation. I am finding these hard training sessions very affirmative - I left yesterday with a belly full of Paleo Pancakes, an exhausted upper body, yet feeling so good about myself and the improvements I'm making in strength.

I would really like to go for a 50kg bench as my next strength goal and it must have been providence that Mike Robertson dropped a newsletter in my Inbox about improving the bench press, so guess what I am reading when I get home from work.

Today has been cardio heavy - RPM this morning and about to get my kit together to teach Bodystep. Then I'm getting glammed up and having a haircut before picking the girls up from school and taking them to ballet.

INBA All Female Classic 2009

Casey, Figure Novice - Stunning looks and a very impressive set of shoulders
Miss Selina - part of the "S" team , Figure Intermediate, 3rd

Miss Shannon, other half of the "S" team looking fab in pink...
Now that's a winning back! Shan, Figure Intermediate 1st. Red wine makes a good back even better!


Wow, what a weekend! There was so much going on I almost don't know where to begin, but I'll start with the purpose of my visit to Melbourne - to support the three girls I prepped for the INBA All Female Classic.

The weekend started on Friday when I met Shannon and her hubby Lins at the airport for our 11am flight down to Melbourne - was a pretty uneventful flight and I enjoyed my Virgin Chicken Caesar Wrap (I have this on every Virgin flight I take..yes, I know I'm weird, I like aircraft food) on the way down. We checked into our hotel, which was located in Chinatown, and then went in search of food and a place for Shannon to get her nails done. Once we had sorted Lins out with a steak, it was time to go home for another coat of Contest Colour and meal of sweet potato, veggies and chicken for Shannon.

Then it was time to polish up the routine. Shannon and I are very similar in that we are pretty laid back and often leave such details until the last minute.

So we started and Shannon said:
"I was thinking of this.. I'm not sure, " to which I then jumped off the couch faster than Tom Cruise and said:
"we need to walk in 2-3-4 and side chest 6-7-8 and then left hand, right hand, front double bicep and then TRICEP!!!! (Did you hear I said tricep!)."

Before we knew it, we'd put together a spiffy little routine interspersed with some Indian takeaway that had a less than positive effect on my bowels, but nevermind. Practised in our PJs, the only way to do a routine! Made up my mind to tell Jo Rogers I was a serious threat to her routine business..not!

Off to bed then and on Saturday morning we parted company and Shannon went off to meet Selina and get her hair done and I went off to Fitness First in Richmond for the 7.15am High Performance RPM where I caned my workout and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Then I had breakfast at a French Boulangerie (I don't muck around when I go away lol!) and jumped on a tram to St Kilda, eventually finding my way to the venue around 11am where I met the beautiful Casey and stunning Selina.

Casey and I have been training together online since January, met up in Sydney in April and I couldn't believe the transformation between then and Saturday. Fan- bloody-tastic! Casey won the "Best Routine" in her division, in my opinion it was one of the best routines of the night. Met her partner Lee for the first time as well, what a great bloke. Case, well done! Very proud of you!

Selina and Shannon both stepped on stage for Intermediate Figure. This was fantastic as both girls had so much fun together on stage! I was trying my best to be fair in my cheering "go Selina, go Shannon!" when I realized it was much easier to yell, "go Team S!!!!! go the sistas!" Both girls looked amazing - Selina's abs were sensational and Shannon's back was, in Lins' words, "BOOM!!!!"

Preliminaries over, we headed to Malvern with Kate and Linda (Mighty Mouse). I really enjoyed spending time with both of these girls - I cannot believe that Miss Mouse only had her daughter a year ago (I was about 35kg heavier post preg, so I was suitably impressed) and we had a great chat over scrambled eggs on toast and a hot chocolate to boot! Kate was fantastic as I asked her to watch my bag, hold my Dream Tan etc etc (sorry I was such a bossy boots Kate!). I even got to slap up Linda for the evening show! At my side during the whole backstage slapping, lolly dispensing pre stage prepping was Kerryn who kindly let little Miss Doubting THomas Liz try her Banana Paleo Pancake. OMG, sensational, is all I can say - guess who is now churning these little rippers out like the clappers? lol.

The evening show was great fun with all of my girls winning or placing in something (Case, best routine; Selina 3rd and Shannon 1st) - I must say I left with a rather swollen ego on Saturday night - went home and cleaned up and then we all headed to Lygon Street for Pizza and Koko Black (as you do after a show!) . What a great evening I had with everyone!

Big sleep and pancakes with Lins and Shannon on Sunday morning in a little "alley" cafe and then we headed off to Bridge Road for a spot of shopping (both Shannon and I scored a top and jacket each...yahoo) and then it was back into the CBD to catch up with Kerryn and Selina for lunch (as well as Shannon's sister, Kelly and her boyfriend, Ross). I bought a fantastic pair of boots from Nine West.

It was all over too soon - off to the airport and back home (but not before I bought two handbags from the airport in Melbourne..Shannon and Shelley have corrupted me - I am going to buy one of Shelley's bags for sure...now I just have to go out every five minutes.)

There's so much to say - so nice to catch up with everyone (Magda, Lia, Rae, Jeh, Friday, LJ, Kerry, Sara, Jo....just to name a few)

Flying High

Off to Melbourne shortly to help Shannon, Selina and Casey at the All Female Classic!

I'll be sure to update with some photos and post when I can.

See you soon!

Pull Up Princess

Thank you to everyone who commented on my last post. Things are moving on this front and whilst it could be imagined that I'd be jumping up and down for joy that it's all being put right, it's more a sense of disappointment that pervades my thoughts on the matter, although I'm relieved to see some resolution on some fronts.

However, enough of that. Yesterday I went to the gym and had a much needed tempo-interal-ly style of run. Yeehah.

Then I did something out of the ordinary - I casually sauntered up to the chin up rack, looked at it and thought, "I wonder...".

So I grabbed the bars and hung there momentarily and thought "let's see..." and just like that I had pulled myself up!

Woooohhoooooo. My first unassisted pull up in years!

Wondering if it was a fluke, I lowered myself and tried again. I got up there again but gosh, did it look ugly!!!!

Two pull ups nailed...unassisted!

I'm sure when Shelley comes back and I try this again, I'll have to write it off as an adrenalin fuelled fluke! Anyway, it was a nice fluke!

I have really missed training this week. The DOMS party that we're going to have next week shall be quite the occasion!

Credit where Credit is Due...

I've had this post bubbling away in me for quite a while, but hadn't known exactly how I wanted to express it. As is usual Liz standard, I'm just jumping headlong into this one boots and all.

When I started this blog back in 2006, it was to serve the purpose of writing about my journey to my second Figure Competition and my thoughts about prepping, training and eating well in a remote location. Things have changed a lot since then - as many of you would know, I started my online coaching business, "The Fitness Solution" in early 2007. I consider myself extremely privileged to have had the opportunity to connect with so many clients who have also become good friends. I have learned so much from my clients and have also learned about myself in the process - and have used my blog as a platform from which to dish my perspective about a whole slew of things, from fitness training through to emotional eating through to life's everyday mysteries. When I hear that something I have written about has had a positive effect on someone else or that another blogger relates to whatever conundrum I'm posting about, I'm really pleased. Even better, it's fantastic when you get credited publicly for such effect.

It also works in reverse - I have met so many bloggers who have inspired or helped me with a post that they have written and because I know how good I feel when I get credited for my stuff, I try to ensure I credit them if I am writing about something that has been directly inspired by them (for example, I couldn't write about Lamb Saag without crediting Kek ) . It's basic good manners and I believe that good manners makes the world a better place, because without good manners, the world can go downhill pretty fast.

The past few months I have been a victim of what I would call the one lowest common denominator in the variety of Online Pond Scum - that is the Copyright/Moral rights infringer. I have seen my blog posts and parts of my blog posts turn up on other peoples' websites/blogs as if they were their own. I've even had a forum post I wrote to help someone on a fitness forum turn up as someone else's work. The scary part was that I didn't know until a few readers sent me emails alerting me to the infringements.

Seeing this has really stirred up different emotions in me - the first initially was that I couldn't believe that anyone would want to plagiarize my writing and then that quickly turned to feeling like I'd been violated. I had thoughts of taking my blog private and thought that it might be a shame if anything I write really helps anyone. I don't want to sound like I have tickets on myself, but if I've helped make the world a better place, it's been worth it.

Being the idealist that I am, I hired a solicitor who is helping me sort out these issues. (compensation and removal of my writing from certain sites/blogs) I'm certainly not going to profit financially from any of this but I hope I'm sending a strong message that I will stand up to anyone I see trying to profit from my writing (or anyone else dear to me for that matter).

The more I've thought about it, I think that much of it boils down to really bad manners and some naivety on my part - I really believe that 99% of us are good, 99% of us do have good manners and give credit where it is due. I also want to stress to be wary of what you post in an Internet forum, even if it is with the good intentions of helping others or Facebook or Twitter for that matter.

I'm not going to stop writing and I can safely say that others influence my blogging in a big way. That said though, I want to ensure that I give credit where it is due and ask for the same in return.

Being a Badass

"but they say the sky's the limit,

And to me that's really true,

And my friends you've seen nothin'

Just wait 'til I get through....

Because I'm Bad, I'm Bad - Come on(Bad Bad - Really, Really Bad) " Michael Jackson, "Bad"

I was inspired by the late Michael Jackson to theme today's RPM Hi Performance to be simply all about "Being a Badass" - today I dropped the motivational cues and technique focus to just bringing it home hard and strong! Class was packed and the amazing thing was that I didn't need to give any motivational cues, the momentum just kept building over the course of the class and it was an awesome feeling being part of it. That's what I love about teaching Group Fitness, sharing the joy of movement, giving and receiving encouragement and not to mention a top notch workout!

On the subject of workouts, Shelley and I got down and dirty in the gym yesterday for our first session together training chest and biceps. Groans all round doing decline push ups with a 10kg plate on the old back and then I surprised myself with a comfortable 40kg bench press for 8 reps ( I remember 30kg being a struggle at one stage). We finished with cable crossovers and let me say we're pretty good at doing "The Incredible Hulk" impersonations doing this move. Until yesterday I thought that I enjoyed training my biceps but that concept was blown out of the window - three sets of sheer pain doing barbell bicep curls with a good whack of weight. Luckily I was not alone with Shelley at one stage whimpering "I can't" then taking a breath and roaring back "I CAN!!!!! (thatta girl, Shel!) and finishing strong. My biceps aren't too happy this morning with the DOMS setting in.

With all this training going on, my Inner Beast has been tapping on my shoulder and telling me to troll for all sorts of crap. Today my Beast has been renamed from "Inner Gollum" to "Vera Sluttinski"...ie will encourage me not to be choosy and have a stab at anything! Yesterday was one of those days where old Vera was calling out to me...."eat some crap....after all you deserve it, you've been training so hard". I had to firmly put old Vera in place by taking the line that even though sometimes I don't feel like it, I'm going to continue to eat well and that I won't wake up in the morning in a fog of regret.

Living without a 'fog of regret' is not about being on a starvation diet or never having a treat meal ever again, it's about respecting yourself enough to take a stand against the bad habits that can lead to becoming overweight and unfit. Some days making the choice to "live without regret" is the only one to make, rather than relying on intuition and your feelings. Because it's likely that your feeling for instant gratification will lead to regret later on - so work out whether it's you or Vera speaking first (put it this way, I'm really pleased I said no to the Cheezels...).

Hot and Cold

"You're hot and you're cold, you're up and you're down, you're in and you're out"...Katy Perry.

After yesterday's rather chipper post, I woke up with a case of the blahs - I've been thinking about how people go "off the rails" post comp or post goal for want of a better description - you're fired up, you're focused, you nail it and then what? In short, you've 'lost' your motivation - not because you're misguided, silly or lacking in character but simply because you achieved what you set out to do.

I'm seeing how important it is take the time to work out what you really want from life and what the next step is. Sometimes the issue is that we don't "know" what we want, but here I htink there's value in the answer that we more likely than not know what we don't want, so use this as a starting guide.

For example, I know that after I hit my "comp" weight, I became less motivated about my nutrition. I've certainly had a few more "bumps" than I had anticipated - you'd think that with the volumes of experience I have in this matter it would be really easy - well not always! Proper management of the other stuff that's been going on in my life has involved being introspective about my eating. It's as if I've had to say to myself, "just eat well anyway and wait for the motivation to come back". So there have been a few shaky times where I've wanted to overindulge in food, but most of the time I say to myself "in the long run, you'll be pleased you took care of yourself". The same goes for turning up and doing your workout regardless - this morning the last thing I felt like doing was teaching RPM, but I have a small, but very smiley group who are just great to be around - felt so good when I was done that I even had a little treadmill walk and trained my shoulders. Carolyn sent me a great email called "7%" and I'm going to share it with you this morning...


Written By Regina Brett, 90 years old, of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland , Ohio
"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most-requested column I've ever written.. My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:"
1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone..
8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.
16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
24. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
25. Frame every so-called disaster with these words ''In five years, will this matter?".
26. Always choose life.
27. Forgive everyone everything.
28. What other people think of you is none of your business.
29. Time heals almost everything. Give time, time.
30. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
31. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
32. Believe in miracles.33. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.
34. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
35. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.
36. Your children get only one childhood.
37. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
38. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere
.39. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.
40. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
41. The best is yet to come.
42. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
43. Yield.
44. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.It's estimated 93% won't forward this. If you are one of the 7% who will, forward this with the title '7%'.. I'm in the 7%. Friends are the family that we choose for ourselves.

I'm so glad I'm keeping on keeping on. Now that I'm excited about my nutrition supporting my new found inner tiger at the gym I'm starting to feel better - and now that I've just read that wonderful seven percent post I'm starting to feel more like my old self again.

I reckon writing has gotta be one of the most therapeutic things ever, don't you?