Just The Kick in the Ar$e I Needed

My last blog post mentioned how I had been feeling a little flat and not really with the program so to speak.  Well let me just say that not only did I have a flat, but all four of my tyres were flat this last week as well as my spare.  I couldn’t even find the jack and tyre lever to try and change it up.  What the hell has happened to me?  Seriously, do I need any more reason to get off my slowly shrinking arse and get moving than having a half marathon in 8 weeks. 

Obviously the above highlights that my last 7 days have not been flash.  That is an understatement of massive proportions.  I have indulged in lots of wine, had pizza with the kids on Sunday night, some fish and chips, potato chips, and numerous other crap foods that I could find.  Now not all of my food choices were bad, but they were certainly undone by the other bad ones I had consumed.  Add to that, I only trained 4 times in the last week.  Two of these sessions were rides on my new bike, one was a group workout in our garage on Saturday morning and then the other was a weights session with Julie yesterday.  Now looking at that you would say that is okay, 4 sessions when it should have been 6 is not that bad, but it is way behind what I would normally do.  I have not run for almost 2 weeks, which is due to the fact that I have not been well, but I need to get out there.  Thankfully my chest cold is gone and I can start to run again.  I think this might be the only way I can get the mojo back.

So another Wednesday has come around, which is weigh in day.   I was already aware this was not going to be pretty, but there is no point getting worried or stressed about it.  Own it, Man Up, Take Responsibility.  The result was that I put on 2.2kgs.  Not good, but in the grand scheme of things, no big deal.  WTF!!!!!!!  I can hear everyone screaming at the PC now.  But just hang on there, hear me out.  This is actually a good thing.  It is a wake up call, warning and kick in the arse all in one.  I would like to think that this drop in my guard is not due to complacency, I am all too aware of the need to keep up the work and how it can bite you in the bum if you let it go.  Christ knows I have done it in the past when I have lost weight.  I also think this is the best time for it to have happened to me.  This gain means that I am now over 100kgs again and that is something I said I never wanted to see again.  It is more shocking for me than getting down to 95kgs and adding a kilo or so.  Now I see the 3 digits on the scales, which is horrible and sad, but not the end of the world.

For some people having a gain can be devastating and enough for them to drop it all, throw their hands in the air and walk away.  What I am trying to get across here is that it isn’t like that.  I have had a crap few weeks, packed on a bit of weight, but I am not done with my attack on the fat.  There is still plenty I have and want to achieve and by me getting back on the bike figuratively and physically, I will smash these few kgs and more.  We all have periods in our life where things get away from us, we drop the ball in certain areas, whether it is diet, exercise, mindset or all of them together, but the only time we have truly lost the battle is when we give up altogether.  You can lose a battle so to speak, but you can certainly win the war by making sure that all is not lost and we get back on track.  This is exactly what I am doing.  Today starts the new round for me.  The last 2 weeks have been wasted for me really.  Being sick didn’t help but I will not use that as an excuse for eating poorly.  There are no excuses for making poor food choices in my opinion, not when you have the right food there to eat.

I now have 10 weeks until the end of the round.  I have decided that my goals for this round are not even weight or scales related.  I am purely focusing on my fitness goals and I know if I can nail these then the rest will fall into place.  I was speaking to a friend last night and she asked me how close to goal weight I was.  I told her I don’t care.  I have a half marathon to run in late July, then a 200km bike ride in August.  If I am training correctly for these and preparing properly, the weight will be gone and I will be super fit.  Of course I will still be weighing in each week, but the focus won’t be on the scales like it has been in the past.  This has been part of my problem I think, that I was consumed by the numbers and how much weight I had lost and % lost etc, that I forgot about the most important thing.  ME!!!!  I also need to be happy with what I am doing, the reasons why I am doing it and the results that come out of it.  I am not training for weight loss anymore, (yes I still have 13-15kgd to lose) I am training for events.  This is something I have never done before and is a complete change in focus.  I need to be looking at training plans, carrying them out correctly to get the results I want and weight loss and toning will be a wonderful by product of this.  Of course, nutrition and mindset are vital parts of this but they will be considered parts of the planning and execution to get me to the finish line.

I appreciate this is a bit hotch potch, but I am hoping some people that have been and may be in this position in the future really do understand that one bad week is really only that.  It isn’t the end of the world and you can come back from it, just make sure that it doesn’t turn into a bad month or more.  Gaining a kilo or two is nothing in the grand scheme of things. Don’t let it get you down.  There are people battling cancer that would love to have that as their biggest worry.  Keep it in perspective, find out where we went wrong and fix it now.  If you are pissed off or frustrated, take it out on yourself in your next workout.  It will all depend on how badly you want it and for me I want it more than anything.  I guess my next workout will hurt somewhat, but so it should.