That’s it almost 3 weeks left to go before I start my Premier personal fitness training diploma down in Trowbridge.  I am nervous but it’s an excited, positive energy nervousness not a scared to death nervous

I have already got myself a nice new pair of running shoes (Asics Gel 2150) which are proving to be a running dream you I feel I have made a good choice there.

Actually I got a nice surprise this morning while I was out on my run.  I was walking up to an empty retail building and I was very excited to see that Sports Direct (sportsdirect.com) are opening up shop there.  I find Sports Direct prices unbeatable, yet they sell good brands (no I am not working for Sports Direct.

Ok lets get back on topic, so three weeks remaining, but I have less time as I will be flying down to Bristol on the 19th (Aug) so I have about 2 and a half weeks to have everything organised before leaving.

I feel I am on top of most things and I am hoping Sports Direct will be open before I leave so I can get some gear, most of my clothes are too big for me now.

Something that I have been doing especially this year is planning things into blocks of 4 weeks. In these 4 weeks I plan my overall goal for that block, smaller weekly goals, my nutrition (what I am going to eat over the block) and how I am going to use my supplements.

I like to illustrate it using this image (above) of the road going into the horizon. Take a look at the white lines on the road; the more you follow them into the horizon the more obscure they become. I could easily describe the first line, and I could mention a few things about the second line, and the third is still in my view so I know what to expect, on and on but after the 4th line I would just be guessing. I could try to predict the white lines, make assumptions, but should I really build my goals and expectations on an assumption?

Four weeks works for me, I can see them, plan for them, but anything further and I don’t know what life is going to throw at me. Maybe for you your block could be 2 weeks, or even 5 weeks.

If I could travel back in time and meet myself in January 2010 and say to myself, “Do you know by the end of July you will have lost almost 4 and a half stones! (62lbs) I would have laughed!

And if I had tried to plan that far ahead, I think the pressure would have given me less results.

Plan everything meticulously in small blocks to reach your horizon and beyond!

I thought that I’d try out a pair compression shorts and see if they live up to the hype.  So I got myself a great deal for some white Under Armour at £7.99.

After deciding that they were too kinky to be running around in under 4 inch shorts I opted to wear them under my tracksuit bottoms.

After a warm up power walk I had arrived at my start point, revved and ready to tear up the path to a new PB, I took off running.

Around a sharp corner, through a little alleyway, a little straight, cross the road at the lights… a big decline is coming up so I have a oportunity to use it to my advantage and up my pace.

I tear down the hill, but somethings not right….

What’s that draft at my butt AAAARRRRRRHHHH!!! I scream to a halt just to catch my tracksuit bottoms sliding off my shiny hips on their way down to my knees!

I caught them just in time, gosh I hope no one seen that! I thought to my self.

After fixing myself and tying my tracksuit bottoms a little tighter I set off again.  The thoughts of exposing my rear in public was enough to slow me down and quash any expectations of setting a new PB.

Lesson learned, compression shorts are good, i.e. they hold all your bits in place, but don’t ware them with tracksuit bottoms that are too big for you!

Click to Enlarge

There is a theory about how muscles contract called “The Sliding Filament Theory”; The sarcomere inside the muscle fibre has two protein filaments, Myosin (thick) and Actin (thin).

The Myosin filament has heads that nod and connect to the Acitn filament and then it pulls it forward to the centre of the sarcomere (this is also call the power stroke) and then the muscle is contracted.

Then in reverse; the heads on the myosin are released from the acitn filaments and then they lengthen (called the recovery stroke) and the muscle is now relaxed.

I have kept a tight ship this week in regards to exercise and nutrition (even doing a 26 mile cycle) but only managed to knock off 1lb this week.   Well this is when I need to eat my own words, “Believe in the process!”

I know that I am on the right track, I am not taking any short cuts so I have nothing to fear.  I guess that it’s just the pressure of Premier approaching that has turned knocking off 2-3lbs a week a requirement, and my body’s not going to keep that up constantly week in and week out.  So just suck it up Andrew and keep soldiering on!

HIGHS

I mentioned that I did a 26 mile cycle yesterday; I did the same cycle back in May, and it took me 3 hours and 45 min, but yesterday I was able to do it in 2 hours and 30 min, so that was an improvement, showing myself that my fitness (endurance) has increased since then.

LOWS

Yeah I am still sulking that I only lost 1lb this week, but I’ll get over it!

Everything about my fat loss success so far has been because of balance, but I have found that the art of balance goes much deeper than I once thought.

Everything about a successful living is due to balance!

For my current quest it is essential that I have a perfect caloric balance to see the fat go but the muscle come, also the right balance of nutrients; protein, carbohydrates, fats for each meal and how much water I drink. Also when I workout, my balance of cardiovascular and resistance training so that I keep blasting fat but keep building muscle.

But looking outside this (my nutrition and exercise) I have a balance of life tasks, which is bringing me great living and it is sinergizing (it that a real word?) my life as a whole.

For example; I wake up at 4am (every day); I use this time for prayer & Bible study, study for my up and coming personal training diploma, planning new workouts, planing what I am going to eat next week, reading and the odd morning (maybe once or twice per month I’ll watch a movie.  So what this does for me is it gives me 17 and a half undisturbed hours per week (my family is still asleep) to invest in important things, that’s 70 hours a month! that I invest in my families live spiritually and for future plans and projects.

So where is the balance?

When my family wakes up at 6.30am (normally) then I am ready to make them breakfast (family time) then when I come home from work I get to spend time with my wife and son (family time), then my weekends are free (family time). There is no point in me investing in my family and our future if I don’t spend any time with them, this strikes a big balance in my life. I use the time that my family doesn’t need (4:00 – 6:30 am they are asleep) and then the time that they do need me for, from when they wake up and when I come home from work, until we all go to bed.

Now I am not saying that you need to get up at 4am to have a successful balanced life with your family, this is how I do it, this is how I strike a balance in my life that works for me.  I am a morning person, in fact I am a super-morning person, waking up at 7am is a lie in for me

What our task is is to find out how to balance everything we do so that everything gels together and complements each other. For example watching too much TV and playing video games is destroying so much in our generation because it’s unbalanced, the scales have tipped!

Balance I have found takes time, you need to work it out, plan it, fail at trying to achieve it (without giving up), learn from it, review it, tickle it….. ok you don’t have to tickle it but you have to work all the creases out of it and perfect it.

Here is something that I started with and it is so simple but can be a powerful catalyst in someone’s quest for a balanced life;

THERE ARE 24 HOURS IN A DAY; WORK, REST & PLAY

• Work = 8 hours

• Rest = 8 hours

• Play = 8 hours

Total = 3,567,999 hours! LOL!

Ok so it all adds up to 24 hours, I found that a great place to start my life evolving into a balanced life that I could be proud of and see all the part of my life work together for the better.

I hope this helps you in your quest for balance, the art of living.

One thing that I have found to be very powerful in this fat-blasting-life-changing journey is that the short-term goals can be really powerful; but so many of us (including me) neglect them.

We have a goal and a dream to get to 13st (182lbs), to become a pilot, to getting promoted, to getting married, etc. But sometimes focusing too much on the end goal keeps us from getting to the end goal, does that make sense?

This is where the S and the T in the SMARTER principle come in; be specific and be targeted!

The goal to become a pilot is specific, but targeting yourself to reach the end goal is going to be made up of little small powerful goals that will create your destination.

For example, this year my small goals have been; getting to the next tens, from January I was in the 280’s so getting to the 270’s was the goal, then getting to the 260’s, and so on. And by the end of March running had come into my weekly routine, so small goals with that were formed; walk/jog, jog/run/stop/jog/run/stop, jog/run, RUN/RUN!! Goals to increase my running pace once I had conditioned myself to not stopping and walking on a run.

All these little goals have brought me success so far this year that I am really happy with;  I have come down from 282lbs (20.2st)  to a current 222lbs (15.12st) and I can run 6 miles without stopping and my 14:57 mi/m pace is now 10:38 mi/m.

All these little power goals should not be neglected as they form and drive us to the end goal, the big dream!

I was asked by a friend about how good tone up shoes were, so I have looked into it a little and here is what I have found;

The whole theory behind these shoes (no matter the brand) is they create a unbalanced walking experience causing you to engage more muscles.  Now initially this is true and I am pretty sure (and I don’t even have to try wear them first) that you will start to feel muscular pains in the butt, calves and glutes.

But the way they are selling and marketing them, I find not so honest.

Lets look at the fit person, already at their target weight, I believe these shoes will give them results, but for how long will they see results I don’t know.  Remember muscles need to keep on being challenged to change.  So after a year will your muscles have gotten use to them and they are no longer a challenge, I am thinking the challenge for your muscles will have gone.

Now lets look at the person with that extra baggage.  I think these shoes will not give you the glamorous results that the advertisements show.  You will also feel the muscle changes and will be challenged but the slight tone and changes that you’ll have in muscle will be buried underneath….. dan dan dan…. the extra fat that’s rolling around!

Remember you can’t spot reduce; you can’t target a body-part and hope to reduce the fat in that particular area. You need to workout the whole body and then body-fat will gradually be reduced in the area that you also wish.

OUTCOME: I believe these tone up shoes are yet another fad that tell us “hey you can get the results but you don’t have to work hard for them!”  Remember there are no short cuts to total body fitness.  I truly believe these kind of shoes are not worth the big price tag. Why not use your money wisely and take a few sessions with a personal trainer, were you will learn proper ways to lose body fat and get real results.

Have have given you my opinion on these but here is also a video that you can watch.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxpJjH91LD4

The body has three ways that it produces energy.  Two of these are anaerobic (without oxygen) and the third is aerobic (with oxygen);

CREATINE PHOSPHATE (CP) SYSTEM

This energy system does not require oxygen, it’s very explosive, the intensity of the activity will be at about 95-100% MHR. It fatigues very quickly about 0-10 seconds. The activities that use this energy system are short and explosive, requiring short bursts of maximal effort; weightlifting, 100m sprint, golf swing, etc.

LACTIC SYSTEM

This is also an anaerobic, it is rapid (not as explosive as the CP system), the energy source comes in the form of glycogen and it produces a waste product called Lactate Acid (that burning sensation in the muscles), this system can go on for longer than the CP system around 1-3 mins. The level of intensity will be around 60-95% MHR.

OXYGEN SYSTEM

As it name states this is the aerobic energy system, so the speed of energy production is slow and not quick to fatigue. Its energy source is glycogen and fat. It occurs in low intensity activities up to 60% MHR; running a marathon, swimming, etc.

Ok I ditched another 2lbs this week brining me down to 222lbs (15st & 12lbs), so I am almost on top of my initial goal of 220lbs, which I am hoping to smash through at next weeks weigh-in.

HIGHS

I booked my flight to Trowbridge this week which really made everything real for me, I mean my mind got a shock and I realised that I am actually going to do this! I will be leaving on August 19th; this is good as I will have a few days to get familiar with my surroundings before the course starts on the 23rd.

I also handed in my notice at work this week, which also added to the thrill of really getting ready to head into a new, challenging and exciting new chapter of this story.

LOWS

Even though booking the flight and handing in my notice were high’s, they are equally lows as it means that in less than 5 weeks I will be leaving them for nearly 3 months another blow to this was our plan to have my wife’s cousin come from Indonesia to stay while I was away, and we just got word that the visa application had been refused; we are currently attempting to appeal this decision.

NEXT WEEK’S MINI GOAL

I am aiming to get down another 3lbs for next week’s weigh-in which will bring me down to 219lbs (15st & 9lbs), I am still hoping (and I know that it’s still possible) for me to get to 210lbs (15st) before I leave for Trowbridge. Sign up to my RSS feeds (top-left sidebar) and you will get any future Discipline or Regret news delivered straight into your inbox!