REALISTIC SELF-OBSERVATION

I’m going to talk about an internal struggle that I have been having since I did my last bodybuilding show one year ago. When I was training for the first show (Nov 2015), I had no clue what I would look like. I had no expectations, I just knew I had to follow the process and I would get somewhere. After the that show, I had a 3 month break until I decided to do it all over again and in that 3 months, I rebounded and gained a lot of the weight I had lost. So now I knew what to expect. I knew what it would feel like to have abs and I knew what it took to get there, I was dreading it. But I knew I had already committed. In my head, I could not go back from that commitment. I had promised my husband we would do a show together, I had paid for my coach, I already paid the registration. In my head, there was no going back. So I went through the second show (May 2016) and decided I never wanted to do that again. Almost a year went by and I weighed the most I had ever weighed in my entire life. I went from weighing a weight that I had not seen since middle school to weighing something that triggered me to do the shows in the first place! Wow talk about full circle!

So Realistic Self-Expectations, where does this fall into this, already long, blog. When I went into doing the Get Fit Challenge at XSport, I thought I could follow a relaxed version of the diet from the shows and do some cardio, but not anywhere near what I was doing for the shows, and I would have full abs by the time I would weigh out……EXPECTATION= NOT REALISTIC. The low calorie diet of 1400-1700 calories plus about 1 hour of steady state cardio plus 45 min of lifting was unlivable and not easy to balance with real life. Reality for the Challenge was I followed about a 1400 calorie diet, going out on weekends and having smart meals at the restaurant (not perfect meals), maybe a glass of wine, the initial month I was doing about 30-40 min of cardio and by the half way mark for the Challenge I was only 10 min of HIIT with a lifting program, which still felt intense. This was the livable and maintainable lifestyle. I could continue this if I wanted to and not be miserable. I can be happy, I can be fit, I can live life the way I want to.

THIS IS THE VISUAL DIFFERENCE:

Unlivable Reality on top

Livable Reality on the bottom

I know where I’m happier. I wanted to share this story so if you’re dreaming of having abs, you’ll see what it would take to get them (although not all body types are created equal so it may be easier for you). In my opinion- ABS ARE OVERRATED. Stay healthy, feel healthy, live healthy.