Fat Loss Diaries - Week Six
Hello and welcome to a new week! Last week of November has come around so quickly and I'm really happy that I started to take more intentional action when I did because my confidence in the gym and in life in general has really sky rocketed. I'm feeling much more comfortable in my body as the weeks go by and am more confident pushing my body to do hard things.
On Tuesday, my partner and I went on a spa day which was gifted to us Christmas last year and it was so good to get in a gym together and train. I pushed myself in the gym that morning because I was confident in my capabilities to lift some heavier weight given that I had a spotter and my body feels stronger. I did a 40kg bench press that morning (3 sets of 6, the heaviest bench I've lifted since pre-baby #2) and a 30kg strict press which again was weight I was lifting before Ralph but haven't felt confident enough since. It's taken 9 months nearly of consistently going to the gym, lifting weights and eating in a calorie deficit to get to this point. Really honing in on how progress takes time and consistently showing up for yourself does pay off. We also got to enjoy some luxurious treatments that my very weary skin and body desperately needed as a breastfeeding mummy who co-sleeps with baby too. This was the longest I've been away from Ralph but it was much needed time for recovery and respite.
Over the week I averaged nearly 12,000 steps a day and the week included some brilliant walks and runs both solo and with friends. One of my clients and I decided to try a local 5k together and although it was a slow pace we had a great time chatting and it surprised me how we were able to maintain a jog whilst holding a conversation. But this also gave me an idea to start a local running group for the girls that want to run in the evening but do not feel safe to do so. So I gathered some local ladies who were interested and the After Hours Run Club has been born. It may only start as a small group but I will always be an advocate of exercise and movement being available to all and so I am hoping this promotes accessibility and maybe brings a few running newbies to the game to experience the pure childlike joy of running!
I also hope the aches and pains in my legs and hips have eased by when the first event takes place! I do suffer with arthritis and after our Sunday morning hike I have been struggling immensely with pain. So today is a recovery day, which works anyway as Mondays are always client check in days. Mondays for me are also writing down my goals for the week and getting on to paper how I intend to achieve them. There's something very therapeutic about journaling and mind mapping, it's something I promote within my coaching community. That and meal planning. It's so easy to just do a food shop and hope that over the week you'll be able to construct a meal each night suitable for the family (and in line with your goals) but usually this doesn't work and you'll end up with maybe three or four meals then potentially turn to takeaways for the other days because you are missing some ingredients. Mondays I write a meal plan and a shopping list and do my weekly grocery shop so the week starts with all the right ingredients as well as a dusting of motivation after spending a few minutes with my journal.
I'm not saying these methods work for everyone, but they do work for me. This 12 week venture is already halfway done and I am 4.8kg down, which is a great effort (I weighed in at 66kg on Sunday morning) but most importantly I am feeling the benefits my habits are having on my mental wellbeing. I spoke on my socials earlier in the week about how my whole journey, from the start so September 2021, has been healing my inner child/teenager. I did not treat young Amber with kindness and I feel like I am making up for that now by putting her health above all else. My health being my physical wellbeing and pushing my body to do hard things so that it can grow and my mental wellbeing by prioritising spending time outside in nature and journaling so that my emotions and thoughts are expressed rather than bottled up which I have very much struggled with in the past. Whereas young Amber would often speak to herself unkindly, I try my hardest to express gratitude to myself for my achievements. It sounds a bit silly when you write it down like that, but for me it feels like I'm making up for years of neglect and abuse.
There is always so much to do, your full time/part time job, being a parent, the housework, the cooking, keeping up with the school activities and the children's homework, and don't even get me started on the volume of washing in this household. But creating time in your day to do the YOU things is really important for a happy life. I urge you to try it for a while, just start small.
Sunday 24th November - 66.0kg
Progress Pictures -
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