Lessons I've Learned

Today's post refers to some of the lessons I have learned during my fitness journey.

1) Don't get hell bent on finding "THE WAY"

Because like clothing, a lot of the time "one size doesn't fit all". When I was a student of exercise physiology, it was during the time when high carbohydrate, low fat diets were all the rage and we all furiously scanned our food labels for fat grams and the like. Now various research has shown us that perhaps a low fat high carb intake doesn't suit all. However, at the time, I was convinced that because I had learnt these things (high carb, low fat) at University, then that was "THE WAY". Years of experimentation and exposure to lots of different methods of training has shaken a lot of that out of me. Now, I'm almost embarrassed to say that I thought that this was "THE WAY". The same thing could be said for abdominal "h0llowing" vs "bracing".

Unfortunately many people who partake in the fitness industry seem to have many cases of the "all or nothing" attitude shining through. It almost may be safe to say that the more extreme the sport, the more obsessive the attitude (think marathon running, bodybuilding etc) - like most things, there are probably exceptions to the rule but I think my observation is on the whole pretty accurate.

The take home message for all of us is to breathe in the air of possibility - there is still so much we don't know yet. Scientific studies aren't always independent, there can be bias - so it is up to us to learn to critically evaluate claims about things and tread our own path.

2) To go LONG you need a wide angled lens.

ie - to enjoy your chosen sport or activity you need to be able to have a global view of things. A week where the gym is a distant memory will often do more good and hasn't been known to harm too many people. Connecting with experts who have specific interests can be really useful - to prevent injury or imbalances keeping you out of the game in the long term.

3) Maintenance Can Be Bliss

A common theme around us fitness buffs is the concept of goal setting, of always moving forward and always improving. Physiologically and psychologically it's hard to remain in this state long term. Many clients tell me they consistently want to improve and in the same breath finally be happy just as they are. This doesn't make any sense - sometimes appreciating where you are fitness wise and stopping to smell the roses is the biggest favour you can do for yourself. Be thankful for what you have done, enjoy being fit, enjoy being strong, just enjoy being for a change. Yes, you can always improve, but if you never stop to celebrate your improvements, you lose that sense of gratitude and never get a chance to appreciate what you really have.

4) Everybody's Free

We are lucky to live in a world where freedom of speech is encouraged. I cannot begin to say how much I've learned by tuning in to the opposite view. Recently I did some reading about diets that promote ketosis (to those who know me well, it's the last thing I would do - besides I'm too lazy) - it gave me some insight into why some choose this way of eating. Don't be scared to look at the opposite point of view for example - some love running, some don't enjoy it; some love competing, other people's experience is different. It's not about who is right or wrong, it's about being tolerant of others. I look at my marathon running friends and marvel at their ability to get through 42.2km and come to the finish line smiling like Cheshire Cats, I cheer my Figure friends on at a comp, knowing how hard they've trained to get there. I admire my friends who can hold yoga poses like true champions and I admire the group of ladies in my RPM class who are in their 60s and are so excited to be in the gym kicking butt with women half their age.

Which brings me to my last point:

5) Stop Looking Sideways

It's fine to admire other's physiques, but you need to stay focused on YOU and your own standards. Eg my current standard is to stay relatively fit whilst on reduced classes and limited time. People tend to focus on their own weaknesses but look at the strengths of others (which is probably why I have a fetish for amazing abs). However, focusing too much on this is a no win situation. I'm never going to have a fantastic six pack (even after surgery), so comparing myself to those with awesome abs is just an exercise in futility. Celebrate who YOU are and focus on what you can do, rather than what you can't and give yourself congratulations when you do make improvements.

And the greatest lesson of all - have fun, do what you love and love what you do!

Travelling Foolosophy

After my "trundling" post yesterday, I was thinking about how to keep the focus alive to see it through to the end and the thought occurred to me in the middle of teaching RPM - focus on discrete areas of performance and the rest will follow. Here I was at 7am sprouting some "foolosophy" on the class. It is not enough to want to come in and "look better", though "looking better" is an undeniable and valid reason for wanting to join a gym, but in the context of my RPM class, riding for "better legs" doesn't really give you a lot to grasp on in terms of performance. However, increasing resistance to improve your climbing, working on your cadence and your transitions are all concrete goals that actually lead you to naturally looking better anyway and you didn't have to *think* too much about it. It's the same with nutrition, focus on your meals with intent, rather than just say "I want to eat, so I lose body fat" - focusing on improving aspects of your eating eg more vegetables, less processed crap leads to the same effect as the concrete athletic goals - looking better.

Psychologically speaking, if you take the time to look after yourself - eg "I will go to sleep at 9pm" rather than "I'll try to get to bed earlier"...same result will happen.

This applies really well to comp prep - today I focused on teaching decent Bodystep and RPM classes , I made a semi paleo curry (semi because it has dried fruit in it), I ate my planned meals. I learned new Bodystep for tomorrow. I can rest easy knowing that my work is done for the day - and that I'll be improving never the less - you know, DO, not think.

Ditch the Diva!

I've written quite a few posts about this in the past - I am talking about the "All or Nothing Continuum" - that is you're either "on" or "off" with no happy medium in between.

When I coach clients, I ask them to fill out a questionnaire and when I ask clients to describe their relationship with their eating, at least 80% of them will respond with, "I'm an ALL or NOTHING person". When somebody writes to me and tells me that they've had a big binge they will say - "I totally overdid x, y or z - BUT I'm an ALL or NOTHING person". In the meantime, I'm thinking, "so that statement gives you permission to act like a complete doofus then, does it? You'll just shift the blame to some other out there side of your personality.. because you're ALL or NOTHING and you CAN'T do anything about it...so there IT IS". It's the same principle when I hear people tell me that they're ALL or NOTHING with carbohydrates (yes, my poor misaligned macronutrient mate) - they're not intolerant to carbs usually, but their belief system is.

Let me be the first to say that all of these people that I deal with are totally worthwhile human beings - some of them may even be reading this and thinking.."geez Louise, she's being pretty harsh today". Let me also say that whilst I can find the "all or nothing continuum" frustrating, I also get to witness first hand the amazing changes when these beliefs are left at the roadside and as Tony Horton would say, "it's a beautiful thang".

What characterizes the "ALL or NOTHING" type - as I wrote in my post about the Beast yesterday, the AONT (abbreviation people!) breeds off absolutes and negativity in their self talk whether they know about it or not. For example - the statement of "I'm such a failure when I eat carbs, they are all bad for me" would be a classic example - Negativity - "failure" and Absolute - "all". The problem with the AONT is that they stop there - they don't question their Beast - eg "are carbs bad", "what evidence do I have to suggest that I not eat carbohydrate?" , "what does failure and carbohydrate have in common". When an AONT can see how nuts their type of thinking is, then there is the opportunity to learn and grow - for example: " I can see that some types of carbohydrates don't react so well with me - like sweets and cakes - but from doing more research I can see that they don't work well for a lot of people - so I'm not alone - I'm not a failure. I'm going to find out what role carbs play in the body and make an educated decision about my beliefs".

A belief is just that - a belief. It doesn't mean that it is FACT.

As well as self talk, the AONT fears letting go of the dramatic, diva-ish behaviours that come with the territory - is it so AWFUL that the scale goes up 0.5kg overnight, is it so TERRIBLE that Aunty Betty (who you haven't seen in 25 years) invited you for dinner and served you tiramisu, is it a DISASTER that it's raining and you have to change your training plans? The AONT feeds off catastrophe - these issues are minor compared to the disaster in Victoria last week - that really has been tragic.

The AONT may also believe that if they lose the drama, they'll lose the edge. Who said that taking a level headed tack about most things was the same as accepting mediocrity. Being even keeled may seem to good to be true for the AONT, but if it is continually practiced, eventually it becomes second nature - nothing worth fighting for is ever "natural" at first - tennis may be "natural" to Serena Williams but that's after 10 million hours of practice.

Taking a more level headed approach to things can actually bring our goals into razor sharp focus - lose all the drama and what do you have - your goal and a pathway to reach it.

Now it's back to me:
Training today: RPM 42 - learning the new choreo! Meg Chalker, who is an Aussie, is on this DVD - she's a mountain bike expert and a superb rider - look out for Track 7 is all I can say.
Cathe's new STS - Mesocycle One, Disc One - I thought I was really improving on my push ups but Cathe's 16 Bootcamp ones knocked me for six.
Rest: taken
Eating: superb!
Dirty Di: 1 can of Diet Coke

Evaluation of Nutrition and Training Plans

Hello bloggers, I feel like I've been away from you forever....but I'm back!

Here's what is going on with me....

Over the past 8 weeks or so I have dropped 4.5kg (yes, I have mentioned that I was having to take a little action). Here's what I did:

*Trained on average about an hour a day - this was divided up into approximately 40 minutes of cardio and 20 minutes of strength training. If you add RPM into the mix, it's about a 75% cardio, 25% strength training split. I took on average one rest day per week, sometimes two.
*I had 10 days off any serious training due to tonsillitis
*I was away from home for approximately 5 nights
*I ate meals that contained starchy carbohydrates in them 4 times a day, and mostly did not log my food intake. When I did, my macronutrient ratios were approximately 40% carb, 40% protein and 20% fat (as an example, yesterday I ate: Oats and protein (pre training), Slim Secrets bar, 1/2 a banana , Big Asian Salad (which included a small serve of noodles) with 100g chopped turkey breast, oats and protein powder with cinnamon and the other banana half, 2 bunches of asparagus and hommus dip, Grilled salmon, small baby potato and buckets of greens/carrots.

Now many so called "experts" out there would look at this plan and say "too much starchy carbohydrate!", "not enough strength training!", "not enough application to training ". So why, using this model have things worked so well?

*when I train, I treat every session with specific intent, that is if I plan to smash it in RPM , I really try to cane it, if I'm focusing on my shoulder rehab, I work on my mobilizations. When I'm strength training, I'm all about doing a quality 20 minutes of what I can do and what is complementary to my current position rather than trying to waste my time on exercise which is essentially useless to me right now. Somebody at the gym asked me "Don't you miss doing bench presses?" and I was reminded about Lisa's post on Labels - my reply was, "I don't need to be doing bench presses right now." They were pretty surprised and asked me, "why" - my response was along the lines of that my body needs a lot more pulling type work to maintain a good posture and 3 sets of push ups on my toes (which I'm very chuffed about given the annus horribilus shoulder year) was all I needed to keep my chest muscles happy. If my specific intent was different, well the answer would be obviously different.
*when I eat, I really listen to my body - I'd been having the old "let's mow down the fridge" syndrome upon coming home from work - so I decided to trial what I call my "Mad Monkey" oats (thank you Shelley) - oats and protein and a sliced banana (no magical powers there, just tastes awesome) for afternoon tea. What a difference that has made - less stress, less cortisol and frankly (the best part), a nice full belly.
*I treat my body like a science experiment and encourage everyone to do the same - this is a cornerstone rec of PN and a good one - if you don't get the results over a two week period, then make a change. I had a bit of a stall there - so my strategy there was to "clean up " a little and it worked well.

This post isn't meant to be "flipping the bird" to anyone who likes to approach things from a different perspective - everyone's journey is amazingly different - however I want to use it as an example that you don't have to blindly follow a fitness/food trend (eg low fat, low carb etc) or a rigid diet to get "results".

The actual mechanics of it is quite easy on paper - it's the application of the mechanics that will trip most.

Make small manageable changes, believe in your capacity to achieve great things, try to beat your own personal best (ie don't look at others, look at the wonder within) and most of all, ENJOY THE JOURNEY.