In Part 1 we looked at 3 hypothetical women who take on various eating and exercise plans, or a mixture of both. I highly suggest you read Part 1 before reading Part 2 here……
In case you missed PART 1 OF THE STORY, (CLICK HERE) .
3-12 months
Woman 1 is likely to be the lightest.
She will most likely have dropped the most weight (you know that weight and fat are different right?) so far – however, she is noticing that she is getting ‘softer’ all over her body.…….but on the plus side – her friends are pushing her all the way. ‘This is just what happens’ she says to herself ,
“You lose fat, then you turn it into muscle right?!”
Exercise only
Woman 2 is striding along, happier with her body than at the start, and enjoying her training sessions. However, recently, the sessions have been getting a bit boring, and so has decided to get into some classes at the gym to motivate her – because even though her body fat is going down……….it’s not fast enough for her. She ups her training from 4 times a week in the gym to 6 classes a week (spinning, aerobics, combat style dancing etc)
After all, “more is better” right?!!
Food and Exercise
Woman 3 is ecstatic that her clothes are much fitting better! Yeah, it’s been a bit of a pain with shopping lists and preparing a food more often – but on the plus side, the training has been shorter than she thought, (but harder!) and she is finding it easier to train most days but only for 10-60 minutes – all adding up to about 3-4 hours per week. It seems a bit low, but hey!
“Its it’s not broke….don’t fix it!!! “
12 Months On ….
Woman 1 and 2 are likely to have given up.
Woman 1 lost the most weight out of the 3 women, as she ate the least calories, severely restricting her eating. All her family and friends have stopped saying how good she has done and are now saying she could do to eat more.
Her thoughts?
She doesn’t know what to do as the only way she has ‘won’ in the past is by not eating. She even says to herself that her ‘bingo wings’ are worse than ever, and she feels very ‘soft’ around her thighs and middle. Her bingo wings are what everyone sees though and hates it!
Woman 2 has given up because although she felt firmer, mentally tougher, more confident, and stronger and fitter than ever – she never saw the reduction in weight and body fat that she started out to achieve.
Sure, she was a little leaner………but for all the hours she put in – she felt it wasn’t worth it. Also, from not getting results beyond 2 months of classes at her local gym, she turned up at the desk for a gym program and found they had stopped doing them due to ‘cost-cutting’ and they couldn’t give her any advice.
She quit the gym as it seemed they were not interested in her goals. Talk about poor service.
Food and Exercise
Woman 3 is now really happy with how things have gone, and can’t stop telling everyone! She now doesn’t even miss the tasty treats she used to have like bread and pasta and ice cream for dessert…..she just knows that if she wants those food – she had better work damn hard to get them. She has reached a point where she knows that if she puts 4,5,6,7 lb (eg over Xmas) – she knows she WILL get it off in January.
This is a fictional example, but has so many truths to it.
1. Food is the most important tool to lose weight – and more importantly – LOSE FAT.
2. Exercise is something that you have at your disposal to stay on track……..and more importantly, makes you TOUGHER, MORE CONFIDENT and LEAN. It also offers a load of other benefits like reducing blood pressure, stress and is generally simply a great investment of time vs. a lot of things!
3. How you view yourself is CRUCIAL. If you see yourself as weak, saying “I can’t do that” and other defeatist phrases…..you will stay exactly how you are.
4. At any point – you can switch routes…at ANY POINT! If one route isn’t working, then you can try something else for a few weeks and see how you feel. At ANY point you can decide if you want it bad enough.
I enjoyed writing this post as it got me thinking of the hundreds of people I have seen at Bootcamp, my old gym, friends of friends who often fall into one of these categories. I just set up a page on Facebook (Just figured out how!) so if you’re on Facebook – CLICK HERE to check out Your Next Level Fitness Fan page for extra info, tips and stuff about loking and feeling your best 🙂
John