I am totally sure that this post will irritate some people. So I'll start by outlining the purpose of writing this all down; I am the first to admit that I consider myself to be an average person trying to achieve my above-average goal of becoming a competitive bodybuilder. It's tough. Bloody tough. And one of the ways I get through the hard bits is to write down my thoughts. That's what I use this blog for - an outlet to get out those things that run around inside my little brain and cause distraction. I love writing and am thrilled that others have found some inspiration from some of the posts.
I won't lie. I won't hide the truth and I won't tell you I feel a certain way when I don't. Lies (or truth-bending) don't sit well with me and besides, my nearest and dearest would see through any bullshit straight away!! So I feel compelled to tell you the good, the bad and the ugly, no matter how irritating it might be.
Why might it irritate people? Because the topic of 'Training on Holiday' is hard to swallow for some. It causes some minor discomfort to those that firmly believe one should "let loose", "relax" and "live a little!!!" while on holiday. That one should let the exercise slide while away. And my personal favourite - that one shouldn't be so selfish and should just spend time with the family while away. My thought - what a load of old poppycock!!!! I don't subscribe to this thinking nor do I fall for the attempts at guilt tripping. And most of all, my idea of a "letting loose" or "living a little" is certainly NOT spending most of my time drinking too much, eating too much and lying around all day long. In fact I couldn't think of anything worse!! So I do what I do regardless of whether it irritates people or not. That is not to say that others feel the same as me. I 'get it' that the eating, drinking and resting is another persons idea of absoute heaven. But it's not mine. By about day three I would be such a pain in the rectum to be around because I would be so wound up with the lack of exercise. I wouldn't find it fun at all.
Am I perfect? Most certainly NOT!!!! I would never claim to be. But I try to maintain about an 80/20 split in my holiday regime, especially when it's quite a long one like the 3-weeker we just came home from. And here's what I achieved;
- 3 x Travel Days
- 2 x Gym Days - left Brooklyn with my Grandma and had a couple of blissful sessions in Northland
- 4 x Gym Days - with Rob at a great gym in Taupo while Grandparents looking after kids (we only see them once a year so it's not a hardship having our three for a few hours to themselves however we did organise the gym with a creche so we didn't have to rely on anyone)
- REST DAY
- 4 x Gym Days - Taupo
- 2 x Crossfit Days - Rarotonga on front lawn
- REST DAY
- 3 x Crossfit Days - Rarotonga
- 3 x Travel Days - arrived home on Monday night
- Tuesday - Heavy Chest workout
- Wednesday - Heavy Quads & Tris (just finished this one about 5 mins ago)
So training went well. Really well. And guess what?? My kids didn't suffer at all!!!! They came out of it unscathed because I still had 22 more hours in the day to spend with them - WOOHOOO!!! I'm being a smartass because it's obvious that there are more than enough hours in most days to squeeze in some exercise. No excuses.
How about the food? Well. I left home on a great clean diet with added carbs in order for me to use the next few months to build muscle. I had oats in the morning with protein, lentils, rice, chicken, tuna, veges and salad throughout the day and veges & chicken for dinner. I found on holiday that I liked to indulge a little more here and there and eventually felt myself bloating a bit. Partly from increased carbs, partly from lack of cardio and partly from travelling with less water intake. I adapted by cutting the morning oats and the late night protein shake so lowered my calorie intake to compensate for the incidentals during the day. This worked well. But I did what I normally do - I used the evenings to cook rice, prepare chicken and prep veges. Here's a novelty - when everyone else was sitting down enjoying a cold glass of wine, I stood in the kitchen and did my prep while having a cold one too - pretty easy to incporate my lifestyle into the holiday if you ask me.
Travel days were the worst and I cooked up a storm the night before and carried most things on the plane. It was only when we got caught at odd hours in airports with no food and only crap shops to choose from that trouble brewed. I find that once I start eating shit food, I lose the taste for good stuff so it can be a bit of a disaster for me to give in. But I did a couple of times and then pretty much beat myself up for the rest of the day. Yes - I'm totally human. And the problem wasn't giving in to the crap food - the problem was the act of beating myself up about it for the rest of the day. What a waste of emotion. Self destruction is not helpful to anyone and just prolongs the whole issue. Things don't and won't go plan all of the time, that's a given. Take the day my gorgeous Father in Law (top chef at a top resort) handed me a plate holding; 2 x pieces of Bailey's Cheesecake, 2 x pieces of Chocolate Mudcake, 1 x mini Passionfruit Pavlova and a cute little bowl of traditional rice pudding. How did I respond to that? I ate the pavlova, the cheesecake and near on all of the rice pudding. Feeling afterward? Sick and cranky and pissed off with myself. Was there anything wrong in eating those delicacies? Not at all. Just wished I could have controlled my portion size a bit better. So my plan was broken, I felt quite emotional and wondered how to shake it all off. Not easy but headed to the gym and did a really heavy session. NOT as punishment!!! Definitely not into that! But as a way to move my mind because I actually felt like I wanted to spend the rest of the day eating crap food. I don't do moderation well and I know what I need to do to stop the snowball. Like I said - me....I'm very human.
The scheduled 'off the track' meals/snacks are just fine for me. It's the incidentals that I give in to that threaten to throw me right off the path, and sometimes it can be hard to get back on track. This, in my opinion, is the key to conquering food demons. Being able to stop the path of destruction before it goes on and on and on. I find it's a mental battle and when I block out the voice of reason by continuing to eat, it gets worse and worse. That's why the tornado has to be stopped by a change of direction eg. going for a walk, or brushing my teeth or anything that stops the flow of eating shit food. And not giving in to the voice that will say, "Just keep going and eat everything and anything tonight and tomorrow you can do extra exercise and not eat anything until lunch time". Self punishment is a terrible thing and leads to guilt and shame which ultimately leads to further destruction.
So all in all I was pretty pleased with how the holiday went with regard to training, food and how I feel about it all. I'm definitely looking fuller than I have for a long time but it's all part of the master plan. It's muscle-building time from now until approximately January and from there it's a slow cut until Feb when we move into the intense cutting phase.
For now I've re-adjusted my nutrition to help me to quickly lose the excess fat I picked up from my propensity to eat New Zealand ice-cream (bloody beautiful!!!!). It's quite easy to manipulate food and exercise to quickly drop small amounts of weight if you play by the rules. There's no secret to it. Eat unprocessed foods only, keep the carbs natural (brown rice, quinoa, lentils, sweet potato), loads of veges (other than starchy potatoes, corn, peas etc), add unlimited salad and add protein. Snack on fruit, nuts (about 20 max) and protein shakes. Along with that, mix up the exercises to a higher intensity so do a weights circuit with minimal rest rather than a slow, heavy workout. Throw in a few 30min cardios and it will fall off. I promise. Stick to the plan. Don't make it harder and more complex than it has to be. I'm not a fan of banning certain foods unless they are your undoing eg. if you just can't cope with a life beyond bread, cut it out completely for a month to kick the habit. But other than that, if you stick to food as close to it's natural form as you can - you can't go wrong.
And don't fool yourself that you can't continue your life plan over the holidays. Take responsibility for your own decisions and most of all remember - you can't bullshit a bullshitter!! Hehe!!
Now it's got to be time for a shower before I start attracting flies!!!
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