Being a trainer, knowing the “inside secrets” and “tricks” to a great body, somehow doesn’t always ensure that we have – or keep – this great body. Sometimes, life gets in the way. There could be a death in the immediate family throwing us off for a while, or a divorce with complications; the subsequent move to a new place, a new life … what we tell our clients are excuses, not reasons J
They are excuses. A divorce, no matter how messy, still leaves time for workouts, and you have more energy to deal with it when you eat right. A move/ relocation can warrant a week off to get your bearings, but no more. There either is a gym near by, or you make the decision to train at home right away; and food – well, you’ve found the supermarket that first day. With a mourning situation, it can be a little harder, but your family member wouldn’t want you to eat junk and get out of shape on their account, and it’s not being disrespectful to hit the gym after a week or so.
Excuses. I made them too, just like you do or did. My new partner made them. For the gym, it was traffic if he went after work with me joining him, and then there was the line-up at the free weights that bugged us both. Training at home wasn’t good because of the rental place we had and the musty smell in the basement where we’d set up the dumbbells and a few other things. Training dwindled and died!
Nutrition wise, same bad excuse of the rental place being so miserable – not so much the place itself as the landlord being an *** and making us not even want to spend time there if we could go out; plus my new partner wanted to show me off, show me the good places to eat around his city. Well, pretty soon there wasn’t much to show off! Or three was too much …
Enter our own house. We even made sure we chose one with a nice room for a gym. That was one criteria. The other was that I wanted a kitchen with counter space! Most kitchens (in Canada and the US) seem to be large enough to fit a table in a corner, but there is no counter space. Put a coffee machine and a toaster on it and you can’t even slice a tomato on what’s left (slight exaggeration of course), so I eliminated all houses with “postage-stamp kitchens no matter how nice they might be otherwise. Added bonus, a pool – and this house even had an in-ground one. So we have no garage … big deal.
I got back to the workouts, cleaned up the nutrition, but never really got into the strict swing of things. We were approached to do one challenge whose name I won’t even mention, it was boring, demanded the participants buy their supplements only in order to be eligible for the final draw, and their workout was boring.
Marriage right before Christmas, then Christmas and New Year, we were trudging along, knowing we were out of shape, seeing a double chin here and a few rolls there, not liking it at all.
Then as you know from this blog, we entered Combat The Fat challenge on March 28th 2008 (http://combatyourownfat.com). Finally getting somewhere, this program is really fun. It’s fun to do, and it’s fun to see the rapid progression as well as the results.
While we were on the CTF challenge, we followed Jon Benson’s original Every Other Day Diet program (http://myeveryotherdaydiet.com) . I’d started us on it before the challenge came along, and the nutrition plan in CTF was so close to EODD, I just kept going with it.
We didn’t win the contest, but we won anyway! We were back on track, back to the serious training, clean nutrition plan, and throwing out our fat-clothes.
Jon Benson comes up with plan nr 2, or rather, he releases his “secret” training program, 7 Minute Muscle (http://your7minutemuscle.com). New challenge, and of course, I was on that too! Still didn’t win the challenge J still didn’t care, I had to buy new jeans!
Finally, 45 days ago, the EODD 2.0 SNAPP! version (http://myeveryotherdaydiet.com) came out. Exit the old EODD e-book, it’s no longer available even. All links lead to the SNAPP! version, which is … a snap! And a 90-day challenge set to span over the Holidays – now that’s interesting!
This new version doesn’t include the Detox Plan from the old version for some reason. When I hit a plateau in the middle of the challenge, and right before the Holidays (I don’t count the US Thanksgiving, we had ours a month before here in Canada, and the rest of the world has none), I dug out my old EODD and did a detox week.
I’ve just finished it actually, and it was a great success. I reduced bodyfat by over 1%, and “lean” mass as well. However, I am confident that this “lean” was at least 90% water and old – how shall I put it – “internal build-up” if you see what I mean, as well as accumulated toxins of various kinds. The detox week allows for one cup of caffeinated beverage for three days, then none for 4; I cut my one cappuccino a day from the start, because there is also no dairy for the week, and I cannot handle black coffee.
Of course, there is no training during a week like this, but Mother Nature saw to it that I was busy by dumping over a foot of snow on us in 4-5 days. So yes, I did get workouts: pushing the snow shovel, digging with the other meaning squat to pick it up, lunge to walk to the dump site, twists and throws, curl.s as I picked up the shovel … full-body workout with cardio in the cold outside air. That’s another reason I feel confident there’s been no or minimal muscle loss on this detox.
Further plans then; that was what I was going to tell you about after all. Well for one thing, I am keeping up the EODD 2.0 SNAPP! (http://myeveryotherdaydiet.com) Challenge until the end January 31st. And I’m still using 7MM (http://your7minutemuscle.com) because it’s fun, intense, gives results, and it’s fast. Total 16 minutes, plus set-up time for the exercise, max 20 minutes in and out of the gym. My husband uses it too, and he goes to a commercial gym at lunch time. He’s out on the gym floor and back to the locker room before a lot of the others are even out of the locker room to start with! And he gets weird looks, but they also all see what a difference he’s made to his physique, so they don’t make stupid comments, some wonder what the heck he’s doing though J
The last week of January I’m stopping the 7MM (http://your7minutemuscle.com) program for now. Taking a week off, keeping up the SNAPP! till the end, and reading up on te next protocol I’m going to be using: 1 Rep Fitness!
Remember, I gave you a post about Fabrice Rinaldi’s program the other day (http://www.atozfitness.com/sarahsblog/shocking-news-about-the-new-year/ ). Of course, the special offer is now over, but the program is available at regular full price at http://www.1repfitness.com/aff/FitnessFor/. I since spoke to Fabrice, and he’s happy to add me to his client list and have me follow his program, blogging about the results and also putting updates in the AtoZFitness Newsletter. A trade-off basically J but I can promise you that if I don’t like the program, or don’t see any particular results, I’ll be telling you straight. A favour doesn’t automatically mean good reviews – at least, not from me.
So there you have it, my plans to move from here to … where ever this program takes me. I still have about 5-6% bodyfat I’d like to get rid of (19.9% is still too much for my liking), and hope to have burned half of that by the end of January, attacking the rest with 1 Rep Fitness (http://www.1repfitness.com/aff/FitnessFor/) while maybe adding some lean muscle. Probably actually, having read the protocol, I don’t see how anyone could avoid building muscle on this program!
Before any of you ladies back away in a panic, building muscle does not mean I’ll be getting huge and bulky, ok; and neither will you. We do not have the testosterone levels the guys have! And even they have trouble adding the muscle they want. Those big, bulky women you see on TV or in magazines are all “juiced up” on hormone injections and/or pills, and you and I do not want to go there, it’s more than unhealthy!
As a last note today, you may be wondering how I plan to handle the Holidays … that “dangerous” time of year we have to “survive”. Simple really. Take this week – Friday is traditionally family dinner at my sister-in-law’s, Saturday is our anniversary and we were going out, Sunday my in-laws want to take us out for an anniversary dinner as well. Three “danger-days” in a row? No, we asked my in-laws to take us out on the Friday instead and cancelled our reservations for Saturday. Three days down to one, and as you all know, one treat-day a week is fine – dwindle it down to one treat meal and it’s even better.
Christmas itself is more of a challenge, as I celebrate the 24th (being from Norway, Northern European countries mostly celebrate the 24th), there’s a buffet lunch at work that day; and we’re having the family over on the 25th, but a little planning will avert any catastrophes. The buffet has salads and grilled chicken. “Problem” solved. Dinner is just a pork roast, cabbage (with carvi, vinegar and sugar – replaced with stevia), a potato and gravy – portion control will handle that. And the 25th, a turkey with stuffing, salads and vegetable side-dishes, so there is no real problem at all, portion control!
New Year? Haha, we’ll most probably toast it three hours early (it’s already 2009 somewhere, right?) and go to bed hoping no one will call to say Happy New Year at midnight L Supper might be some leftover turkey or something, no special plans there at all.
OK, last note, promise! I was listening to a video-call between Jon Benson and Scott Tousignant the other day, and Jon said, regarding leftovers, “Take them if your aunt or grandma offers you, and give them to the first homeless person you see under a bridge!” Frankly, that’s great advise not only at Christmas, but all year.
Happy Holidays to all (in case I don’t blog before 2009) J
Sarah, CPT
www.trainwithsarah.com
we still have a Shabbat dinner tomorrow night!
once the added build-up is cleared out, I’ll be "lighter" on the scales, and I’m already leaner as it is!
But here’s a guy, who really sports a great set of abs, telling us what to do to get that look. I know, he’s not the first one to do so, there are other books available, some great, others good, and many mediocre to lousy, but this one places among the great. And Jamin is really a nice guy too!