Set Back

Hello,

This post is about set backs, those things in life that come along and stop you being able to achieve what you want.

In the last week or two I have been under a lot of stress, through work, through training, through part time course, through diet, through pushing myself. This has resulted in a number of things not going to plan.

Work:

I have been very stressed this week with work, we are coming close to the live date for a project and this means that my workstream has a lot to deliver in the next 2 weeks. I am not an outwardly stressed person (most don't realise that I am stressed, sometimes not even me), I tend to filter this and it comes through in my skin (spots / eczema), not being able to sleep and generally just looking tired.

Water:

Because work has been busy, I haven't ben able to drink as much water. Yes this is an excuse for me and I hate excuses, but this is the case. I have been travelling a lot, which makes it difficult to drink, you don't want to be stuck in a traffic jam for 15 miles and no toilet, when you are drinking a lot. At work with meetings and training, this leaves little time for me to get up and go to the toilet, so I subconsciously stop drinking.

Getting to 7pm and realising you haven't drunk enough is horrible and I tend to gorge on water at this point and make myself feel awful.

Training:

I found a gym across the road from my hotel, ideal I hear you cry - no not exactly. It was an extremely busy gym and machines were rarely free, meaning waiting longer than I should between training sets. This also meant that any exercises, which I should have done straight after the other (super sets), were broken up, therefore meaning I wasn't training as I should have been.

I made the most of it and trained hard, but wasn't quite the effective programme I have set.

Also, the gym was very warm and when I was de-hydrated anyway, this didn't bode well. To the point, where I was feeling very dizzy and sick.

Sleeping:

I'm struggling to sleep big time, with all of the above in my head, it isn't surprising to be honest. But on some days I've been getting between 3-4 hours - this is not enough for everything I'm doing at the moment.

Overview:

I have (above), 4 stresses on my body, on top of that I have course work, dieting and generally trying to stay awake.

6 (at least) stresses, my body is trying to work through and deal with. My brain doesn't help matters sometimes and this can make me feel worse. Suffice to say the 2kg I have put on this week (that is right, put on), was a massive shock to me. I have trained, I have ate well and my body has changed, for the better. I am leaner than I was last week, so this is a mystery.

Explained by my PT, that I am in a deficit with my eating at the moment (as part of my diet to get leaner), but this has taken into account the eating, the training and the extra cycle sprints I have been doing. This has not taken into account the work stress, the no sleeping or the course work - therefore, my body is in a bigger deficit that we would have liked. Therefore my body holds on to everything it is given.

This is no ones fault, but it is a combination of not sleeping and stress that can majorly effect your body and your mind. When I'm stress (like many others), I put on weight, my cortisol levels are higher than they should and this results in no weight lose or even a gain.

I am only human and we all go through difficult times, for very different reasons.

I have to remember to relax, chill out and have some me time. I have to remember to drink my water, it is so important (I'm going to push this week, from 3 litres average a day to 4 litres). I'm going to commit to training 4 days, instead of 5-6, with an additional 1 day for stretching, flexibility and using the foam roller - to help me relax.

I wanted to show in this post, that I am human, I am on a journey and sometimes you hit a stumbling block. I won't pretend that right now I'm feeling very positive, I'm not at my happiest. I'm trying my hardest to put it behind me and look forward. It is and will be tough, but the next two weeks will show me what I'm capable of........

Thanks for reading

Holly

Progress

Hello,

It is February, a lot of people have started to join gyms to achieve their New Years Resolutions - it is often the case that people join now, rather than January, due to funds not being available. You will notice an influx of members at your local gym, including yourself if you are new to going.

I haven't actually got anything to rant about this week, although I wouldn't consider my previous posts a rant at all.

The last two weeks for me have been of opposite contrasts (sorry for my lack of post last week, it has been a bit mental). Week starting 26th January, I was away for half of the week with my job, travelling to Birmingham with very little around me to be able to make the right choices food wise. I was also unable to train to the quantity I do usually (I was only able to train 4 times that week, rather than normal 6 times). 

My results weren't bad, but I did consider that they should have been better.

This week has been very different, I took 3 days off work to do a workshop for my PT course (which was based in Harlow, 1.5 hours drive away from me). The course was to prepare me for my practical assessment, so a lot of practical learning how to teach different aspect of exercise. It was interesting and actually made me realise how much I have learnt myself through being personal trained.

So the results, table below shows how I have progressed:

	24th Jan	31st Jan	7th Feb
Weight	70	70	70
Body Fat %	21.94	21.68	20.41
Body Fat KG	15.35	15.2	14.3
Lean LG	54.7	54.8	55.7

As you can see my physical weight has actually stayed the same, but my body fat has reduced massively. In two weeks I have dropped 1.53% body fat, the average (healthy) drop should be about 1% a month. I have felt quite a change in the way I look and feel, my stomach has reduced in size and getting leaner. My arms have changed in definition and my legs seem to change on a daily basis.

This just shows that it actually doesn't matter how much you weigh on the scales, what matters is your body fat percentage. This morning when I weighed myself, I was concerned and worried that all my hard work from this week was for nothing. I've been eating precisely what I should and training hard at the gym and I'm so pleased by body is seeing and feeling those efforts.

Please don't be disheartened by how much you weigh on the scales, it is just a number and is your total body weight, not how fat you are. Measurements with a tape measure and body fat % are clear indicators of how well you are doing.

I'm so excited about training to be a Personal Trainer, I can't wait to get my certificate and be able to help people - it motivates me to have that as a goal and I can't wait to start helping people like I have been helped.  It's hard work having a more than full time job, training 6 times a week and doing a qualification, let alone having friends and a social life - but it is going to be worth it!!

Thanks for reading my blog, please share with your friends and family, any questions please let me know :)

Holly