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You are here: Home / 2015 / Archives for May 2015

Archives for May 2015

Is this a conversation you have with yourself? Me too.

Zoey · May 27, 2015 · 1 Comment

zoey-weights

I’m going to lay out a conversation that I regularly see EVERYWHERE. And it’s a conversation I used to have with myself and with my friends too.

“I just start this [insert diet here], but then I had some [insert delicious yummy food here]. I wish I had more will power.”

Does that sound familiar? Yeah, me too. I did Jenny Craig. I did calorie counting. But I always put the weight back on. I am that statistic (the majority of us are actually) that would end up heavier than when I started dieting in the first place. And you think it’s just a lack of will power. But really it’s not.

First of all let’s talk about 1,200 calories. It’s a number that everyone knows that you are supposed to have if you are on a diet. And has been written about very eloquently here. And the thing is a whole lot of people can clench their way through 12 weeks of being on a restrictive diet. But then what happens?

One of the things we tend to believe about weight and appearance is that we should just eat less and run more. There is this idea that cardio and dieting is how you can have the body you want and be healthy too. But the fact is that it is really quite challenging. Will running help you burn fat and lose weight? Absolutely. But it will also trigger your appetite which makes it really hard to be dieting. People tend to think of running as the answer because runners are slim. But that’s like playing basketball to get taller. The best runners tend to be very lean. But running won’t necessarily make you lean, any more than basketball will make you tall – that’s more about genetics.

And you can certainly go down the cardio/diet path – but that’s a very restrictive path and you probably won’t be enjoying yourself all that much.

This is where weight training comes in. It does a few things. One is it increases your metabolism. Another is it builds muscle, which will burn more energy even at rest. And so instead of being stuck on a restrictive diet, all of a sudden you can have a far more sustainable, more enjoyable relationship to your food. By contrast, if all you do is cardio-based exercise, your base metabolic rate will continue to drop and to achieve any fat loss you are forced to eat less and less, making it more and more unsustainable.

When talking about weight training it can easy to get caught up in the fears of getting too bulky. And I know exactly how that feels. Being overweight, the last thing you want to do is add more to that. But the fact is contrary to what you might be told there is no lean muscle or bulky muscle. There is just muscle. There is no toning. There is just building muscle. And it doesn’t matter whether you do high repetitions at low weight, or low repetitions at high weight – they will both build muscle. One supports more strength development, the other more endurance. But the physical result is not substantially different.

When people start their fitness journey, they usually not only want to be fit and strong, they want to look fit and strong. And the answer is usually pretty simple. Eat well. Eat a lot. Don’t pretend that all calories are the same. Because they aren’t. If you like the mindfulness of calorie counting – think of proteins, vegetables and fruits as calorie free and use your counting for all the other stuff. Incorporate weight training in a way that you are going to enjoy. And incorporate cardio in the same way. Your best results are going to come from a combination of muscle building and fat burning activities.

But here’s the thing, people can tell you all about what is the most effective thing – running, boxing, crossfit, heavy lifting, walking or whatever else. But it’s only effective if you do it. And to do it, you have to want to do it. So pick something you are going to love. Or if you don’t love anything yet, try something new.

This is not the post I was going to write

Zoey · May 22, 2015 · 3 Comments

running-capable

The post I was going to write was a different one. I was going to write about how body types don’t determine passion. People talk about a ‘runner’s body’ but the fact is if they lined up at any fun run in the country they’d have to drastically alter their perception because all body types are lining up at that start line. I was going to write about how you should do what you love, not necessarily what your body is best suited to or you would be better at.

You know, I am really good at quite a few things that I intensely dislike. Just because I am good at it, doesn’t mean I like it. And some things that I really love, I’m not that crash hot at. The research would say it takes ten years or 10,000 hours of practice to master something. But the truth is, some people just have a different starting point. Their genetics have just given them a whole lot more than the rest of us. But those 10,000 hours will benefit you just as much. You will learn just as much about yourself. It will improve you, just as much.

So I was thinking about writing about how Kate has a pretty typical ‘runner’s body’ because she leans up really quickly – even after having four kids, whereas my body holds onto weight like there’s some kind of prize involved and tend towards the more muscular so I probably look like I have a more stocky, weight-lifting body type. But it doesn’t determine either what we are good at, or what we love.

Which is ironic. Because a lot of people (some health professionals, some coaches and some friends) have been telling me this week that I should rethink running. Some said I should maybe take a break from it. Some said that the long distance running is putting a lot of impact on my hips which are pretty shocking to begin with and some said if I continued on I could end up with a really chronic injury.

Nothing is ever impossible. But some things take more work than others. And some things will really test how much you really want something.

I love crossfit and I love weights. And I’m pretty devastated when I have to take a break from that due to injury or something else. There is a great sense of accomplishment in that for me. But when people say to me maybe you shouldn’t run. Well that’s a different thing. Imagine if it was that simple, that easy to just not run. Like I could do that and it wouldn’t impact every facet of my life.

But it’s not so easy. And I would never want it to be a choice that I could easily make. Because I love it too much to leave it so easily. It’s everything I love in one place. It’s hard work and mental strength and the morning air on your face and the wind in the trees. It’s the beginning of my journey and the source of my strength. Running feels like freedom from every limit that was ever placed on you or you imagined for yourself.

And I am in rather a unique position. I can still go to crossfit. I can still run. But if I push too hard or ignore the weaknesses I could end up in a situation where I wouldn’t be able to do either of those things. So I have to be realistic. I might be able to run and lift weights but I’m still injured. And I will be for some time. If I don’t address the cause, I could head into pretty risky territory.

So this is what the beginning looks like. The beginning looks like about an hour of rehab exercises a day. The beginning looks like holding myself short of my abilities. The beginning looks like strength building. And there is a great deal of sadness in the beginning too. Because I have worked really hard for a long time and starting over is, well it’s like none of that stuff ever happened. Like a big eraser of injury that cancels out everything that came before.

I have had two major challenges in my running over the last few years. One was fairly early on where I had a debilitating shin splint injury and could barely walk, let alone anything else. And the other one was where I really doubted my ability to ever improve my speed. In both situations, there is one thing that I came to that got me through. I decide. That’s it. I decide. And I will choose my hard.

But even at the beginning I can sense that once all the work is done, I could be so much stronger and faster than I ever was before. I could be bulletproof.

When you bottom out, you don’t give up – you adapt

Zoey · May 7, 2015 · 1 Comment

light-the-fire

I’m lying next to my four year old in bed and she’s crying because she’ having trouble going to sleep. And well I’m crying for the same reason. Or it seems like the same reason, but really I know it’s not just a restless preschooler. And it’s not just a house that gets destroyed as soon as I clean it. And it’s not just having to have a long conversation with our seven year old about how her behaviour is making you feel like garbage. It’s all of those things wrapped up in a neat little package of injury and very painful (but now resolved) health issues and just life being a bit crap sometimes.

Injury is hard. And lonely. And I’ll be honest. I feel pretty beat up. I’ve just come out of two weeks of really painful health issues, my body is continually sore from the injury, I’ve taken a (very necessary) hammering at the physio and this week I had my mouth prised open for an hour while the dentist did what she needed to do. And I’m tired of being touched by pain and injury.

The injury isn’t chronic. Which is very good news. I’m doing all of the rolling and exercises that the physio has given me and I’m getting lots of treatments done to alleviate it. It’s not just one thing. The reason I went to the physio is that I had discomfort in my hip and groin but the reality is every major muscle group around the hip has seized up. The adductors, the glutes, my hamstrings and my back. The physio agreed with me that it was probably from running on my fatigue and my body was just not able to cope with it. But I also think, due to my weak left side this has probably been building for awhile.

Injuries are hard and awful but they usually have something really important to teach you. For me the first thing is that week that I got injured? I knew I was running tired and I should have trusted that instinct and taken that extra rest day. I had taken on a more involved running program but was too attached to my crossfit sessions so I ended up trying to cram too many things into each day. In perfect hindsight, I should have swapped some of the easy runs for crossfit instead. And the other thing is I need to do a whole lot more body maitenance with stretching and rolling and strengthening the smaller core muscles, rather than relying on major muscle groups to get the job done.

And so for now, while I go into rehabilitation any marathons are out. I won’t get to run Great Ocean Road marathon or Gold Coast. Which is a bitter price to pay. But when things like this happen, you have to stay focused on your goal. And my goal isn’t a race. I love training. I love it. Races are great, whether they be social or for time, but the vast majority of my life is spent training. That is what I love. And so my goal is to get back to training. I might be able to survive a full Marathon at Great Ocean Road but the recovery would be pretty horrific.

There is no achievement in dragging yourself through a race just to say you finished. It is supposed to be fun. It is supposed to be joyful. And if you can’t finish with a smile on your face, then I suspect you might be doing something wrong. I never want to limp my way through any run, marathon or otherwise. It’s a waste of the effort I put into training to do that. It doesn’t do justice to the training. And if it doesn’t do justice to the training, I don’t want to run it.

I’m hoping that with enough rehab I’ll be able to run the half marathon at Great Ocean Road and Gold Coast instead. Because I don’t give up, I adapt. And tomorrow I go for a run. Not very long, just enough to see how the injury rehab is doing.

To quote my favourite movie “Fear can hold you a prisoner, hope can set you free”. That’s what I’m going for.

 

 

 

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