V’s Journey

Christmas is ten days away and the shops are full of all the seasonal foods and treats that go with it.  Have you finished your Christmas shopping yet?  I haven’t.  I haven’t even put up a tree yet. 

Why? Because in the past Christmas was about well…. food. 

Coming from a background where you celebrate with food, comfort with food, always have lots of food, and so on - I have not really gotten into the spirit of the season.  Not that I am complaining. 

I am quite happy that I can walk past the all those treats and not be the least bit interested. Food is fuel now.  If it does not serve my programme it doesn’t get eaten.  May sound harsh to some.  The reality is, that most people struggling with their weight would win 80% of the battle if they adopted the same attitude.  I know.  I was there.  I used food for everything but for what it’s real purpose is - fuel.  

I have lost an amazing 39 pounds so far.   The magic happens when you figure out the ratio of fuel in versus fuel burned.  Sounds really obvious? It means nothing until you have a an a-ha moment and it becomes real for you. 

You’ve got to win it in your head before it becomes real in your body.

I regularly post on a social web-site about what I’m doing training wise, recently a friend asked me the following:

What’s your motivation?  What’s your goal?

This was my answer:

I tend to extremes. So I decided to make it work for me. Basically with all the stress of moving I picked up a tonne of weight, 96kg at my heaviest on my 1.63m frame. I felt old, icky, I wasn’t having any fun and worse of all I was becoming socially invisible. I like the limelight so the social isolation really hurt.

Then I had the a-ha moment where I realized that I can change it, I don’t have to accept where I am.

I started with small things (no more daily snacks from the vending machine, swop my white chocolate mocha for a skinny latte, etc, etc) and then I found a gym. But I really got inspired when I started buying a women’s fitness magazine called Oxygen. The women in it are fit, beautifully defined and not stick insects.

My goal for now is to lose 21kg by February next year so that I can look fabulous for my 32nd birthday in March. And what keeps me going is that I am seeing results: I feel better, my posture is better, I am stronger, I sleep better and the best result - all the compliments and yes even now people are starting to notice me.

Also, once you have your nutrition and workout programme right it releases feel good endorphins that are really addictive, I really don’t like my rest days because I always have "fat" days on those. But it is important to rest too.
Thanks for the support. There’ll be lots of updates and photos eventually (yes, I am going to find the guts to strike a pose in a bikini).

If you had told me three months ago that I would be getting up early to do a cardio session I would have laughed.  Today, I did it.  And weirdly enough my body was so wired with excitement that I woke up before the alarm clock went off. 

Tonight I focus on my lower body and core strength.   

Let’s hope I am feeling just as excited and energetic about tomorrow morning’s cardio session.

Today is a rest day for me.  I will spend some time preparing my programme for the week ahead.  So much of being succesful is being prepared (I am discovering this very quickly).

This week I split my training - cardio in the morning, weight training in the evening.  This is certainly up a notch for me especially since I was not a morning person.  I am sleeping better since I’ve started training, so I might actually become a morning person!

Welcome to my first posting in my blog!

This is a major turnaround for me - I used to be one of those people that did everything I could to avoid exercise.  That stemmed from a childhood spent overtraining (swimming) and bad nutrition, I was burnt out by the time I was 12.  

All of that has changed.

I needed to get to a point in my life where I wanted to change.  I reached that point earlier this year when I realized that I am "old".  I didn’t have enough energy to do anything and that meant I wasn’t having any fun.  I was becoming invisibile socially - this was probably the hardest thing for me. 

So I made the choice.

Small changes at first, nutrition (no more snacks from the vending machine on a daily basis) then fitness (I joined a gym).  Soon I needed more information and starting buying fitness magazines.  I was gaining momentum and I started seeing results. 

The results keep me going.  The changes in my body are wonderful to see and soon I’ll be brave enough to post those progress photos.

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