How not to NOT go to gym

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! That is the internal primal scream response that emanantes from a small reserve area of my brain that has sparked to life - a few billion nerve endings, that's all - in response to my freaking bleeping phone. It's 6:40am and there are my gym clothes, laying in wait. My eyelashes flutter weakly against the pillow, like a pair of sleepy moths.

Now I remember. I was up until 2am typing out that damned script - WHY THE WORLD NEEDS BATMAN. There is NOOOOOOO way in Gotham that I am going to get up and lift weights now. I get up and type an sms into my phone:
SOZ LATE NIGHT. WILL GYM LATER TODAY. NJOY. And off it goes. I'm supposed to be meeting A at 7am, and everybody knows (and he will soon) that there is no way that that is going to happen.

I get up to do some voiding, vaguely aware of a repetitive dream that has hooked in my consciousness. Something about a waterfall, with not much water in it, but it looks like there is...and some female leader going down it because it's a sort of a rite of passage. And then I went down. And it was supposed to flow into the sea not far away from there. Very bizarre.

So I'm back in bed, my body is basically weeping quietly (from being woken up) and I'm expecting the sandman to dump a truckload of sand on my face any minute. I glance at my watch. 7am. Then there's that irritating buzz, like a fly against a freaking window, from my phone, with a message that has come through. I resist the urge to look. Unfortunately my irritation now infects other nerve centres - previously dormant - and a few cursory thoughts flicker through my brain. WORK! BOSS! STATS! SEX AND THE CITY! I rub my nose in my pillow. Noooo. Just...nooo. I turn and check the sms:
NO WORRIES. I'M NOT GOING TO WORRY ABOUT YOUR FITNESS ANYMORE ;)

I lay back down. It's 7:12 anyway. GRRRRRR. Too late to go to gym. 7:15. 7:16. Jeepers I can't go back to sleep. At 7:21 I am out the door, in my car, and by 7:27 I am in the gym, doing pull ups. It turned out to be a lekker session - the core stuff was especially hard.

Moral of the story? Just get out the door, no matter how cold, no matter how little sleep you've had. You'll be glad you did, and it beats beating yourself up, or rehearsing excuses for why you didn't go.

The Times: How Sharon lost 62kg

Contestants lost a whopping 536kg in total

Losing 61.8kg doesn’t just mean Sharon Haarhoff is a thinner person — it also means she has a new life.

“Men didn’t give me a second glance. I couldn’t even visit the Cango Caves because I was too large,” Haarhoff said yesterday, hours after winning R250000 on e.tv’s weight loss reality show, The Biggest Loser.

Haarhoff not only shed kilos, but also her “fat person” attitude.

More.

NVDL: That is exactly what we all need to shed - our 'fat person' (wasteful) attitudes. We start to do this by bothering to accept reality at face value, but not ignoring the steady flow of signals, and by responding in a constructive way - and one that is congruent with reality. It may sound simple, but to execute requires DISCIPLINE, EFFORT AND CONSISTENCY. Our 'fat world' doesn't possess these traits in abundance I'm afraid.

Another thing to point out that is once you get through the initial strain of starting to exercise (like a rocket taking off, the first few seconds require the most 'will', and burn the most 'fuel/resources') - so one quickly gets addicted to the benefits and appearance enhancing side-effect of exercise, and in particular - intense exercise. The feel good factor and the sense of well-being doesn't need hype or motivational speaking to convince you it's good and it works. Living it is evidence enough.

Stress vs Weight Loss

It's often under-reported that in order to lose weight you have to reduce the stress in your life. This is part and parcel of the whole 'change your lifestyle ethos', and of course, eating better, and changing one's habits are also ways to reduce the burden on our bodies. But one of the most important areas to pay attention to is stress. In particular - stress at work. Most of our time is spent at work, and work has a huge influence in our well-being (including what we get up to when we are away from work).

Work habits also have a way of intruding into leisure time, and here discipline is important. Boundaries need to be set in terms of work vs leisure. In sport rest is as important as exercise. In life, exercise is as important as work. Sometimes there are deadlines, sure, but prioritise workouts too. Make sure you get up in the morning, because at the end of the day, that is probably the best thing you did that day (for your body, mind and spirit).

Exercise is also a good de-stressor as it asks the mind to shut down so that energy can be dedicated to moving the body. But exercise alone is not enough. Be conscious of the ways to reduce stress at work. Here are a few suggestions:
1) Find ways to minimise your commute
2) Work effectively
3) Have a list of prioritised tasks for a day, do them, then get out there and move your body around
4) When stressed at work, go for a walk, have a drink of water, take a deep breath. Remember you (your identity and your ego) are not your job, it's just part of who you are.
5) Think smart. If you're being stressed out by something or someone, doing do the fly against the wall thing. Think strategically. Either defeat the problem, or if you can't, move yourself into another environment. The third option is to try to develop a different psychology or attitude towards the problem. Accept it, and work with it rather thank kicking against it each day.

Finally, remember these words of wisdom:
"It is every man's obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it". - Albert Einstein

Every time you go out of the world, not with money, but with open eyes, breathing it in, feeling the wind on your face, you begin the process of giving a gift to the world. That gift can be a better, stronger, healthier you. Please give it ;-)

I'm Becoming A Veggie

So I walk into my buddy's house after sunset yesterday and I am like verbally accosted by extended family and a rider even better than Alex (hobbling on crutches). Immediately they assess my weight, and immediately launch into a series of monologues on how I can lose EVEN MORE weight. From there I get assessed on my chances of going under 3 hours in the Argus (slim to none).

Solution? Go on a fruit and veggie diet for 3 weeks and...supposedly...I am meant to lose 5 kilograms. My counter-argument? Among others, ...'I don't want to be South Africa's biggest loser...'

I might be more dismissive of the veggie strategy except I was a vegan before (in the Ironman days) and at gym today my weight has ballooned back to 85.1kg (no training for the last 3 days). I know cutting out protein works, so does cutting out slightly more complex carbs.

Pass the carrots and broccoli please...

MacDonald's SA's Biggest Loser

In the same way that a Divorced Woman's Group doesn't quite work for me, The Biggest Loser doesn't quite work for me either. It's all very melodrammatic, with bursts of applause and congratulations for the smallest achievement. The one group during the weigh in (with the goal to see how much weight they'd shaken off) even applauded a teammate who gained weight. Doh! I guess it is all relative, but as far as I'm concerned, it's this surplus of emotion, the undisciplined emotionalness of everything, the excessive personal sensitivity, that is the root of the problem.

I've been accused of being 'too sensitive', and the solution isn't to force oneself to be less sensitive. Being sensitive is a skill, not everyone has it. It's about extra sensory perception that may be above average. But what is crucial is where you focus that sensitivity. Do you focus on what you can't change, on the unsolvables, on negativity and criticism, on yourself all the time, or do you focus on being sensitive to what can be done to change, to induce change, on making a difference. Many people experieincing hurt and pain - I did the same - misunderstand that they have to try to 'not' be sensitive. You can't. Be sensitive, but in terms of the messages you're getting. Listen to them, and then be sensitive to all those things, all those actions you can take to affect change in your life. In this sense, sensitivity is an enabler, rather than a disabler.

To reiterate: Don't be sensitive to all the hurts and restrictions, focussing on what you can't do. Focus on the opposite: what you can do. Be sensitive to that.

Now, back to the topic at hand. I haven't eaten at MacDonald's for about 3 or 4 years now. I've stopped eating KFC too. I found it insane that MacDonald's advertised in the slots on a reality show about weight loss. The arrogance! The ad features palm trees that turns into cloves of lettuce, and rock far out to sea that becomes a bun. The ploy is to milk our obsession for food (and junk food - burgers in particcular). If you didn't see any harm in this ad being flighted where it was (MacDonald's aren't stupid, they are fighting our attempts to eat and live healthy) you're in trouble. Snap out of it.