Letting Go of the Numbers

Had a smasher of a training session today with Mrs Biologica and emerged tired but triumphant! There's always something to be learned from having a good crack at something and today's lesson was in learning to ignore the numbers.

On Tuesday, I got a bench press of 52.5kg, but as soon as I started thinking about how much weight that was, I lost the plot a bit. Shelley was the same, a bit startled that she can military press as much as she can bench (which means she could pick up a tiny weeny figure competitor in a cinch!) - as soon as we stopped thinking about the numbers, we started lifting more. Shelley did a PB in our push ups - added the 10kg plate and off she went, hesitantly in the first set and smashed the second (the difference - she didn't realize that I'd added the 10kg back for the second set!). Which meant I had to pull my finger out and get 15kg - for 8 reps only, I ended up submarining on the floor and couldn't push myself up again. Ouch!

The power of the mind is an amazing thing. Sometimes we have to cast the numbers aside and what we think we can do and just go to that place where we really test our potential.

The other thing that stands out in my mind is "course correction". Lately I've been paying more attention to planning my meals and generally eating less processed stuff and more greens, lean protein etc. Today I rushed out the door with only my pumpkin soup as my post workout snack. I ended up having to buy an HPLC bar at the gym and because that sucker packs nearly 400cals I had to cut it in half (yeah, bugger!). When I got home, the old belly was growling in a major way - the chicken and veggie stir fry was just not going to cut it alone so I had a slice of spelt toast with lunch. Aaah, much better! Not on my original "plan" but I'm now happy and comfortable rather than trolling for food like a mad banshee.

Well after all that heavy lifting I am going to have a little lie down as I'm busily preparing for life in a new decade.