Carbs are Good

Today’s lesson:  carbs are good. Huh.  All my Atkins brainwashing circa 2000 has me twisting this lesson from my trainer, Ryan, around and around in my head.  Oh, and eating before working out is good, too.  Maybe not RIGHT before, but sometime before.

You see, your body needs food in order to fuel it, so that it can burn the fat.  It’s the short-term flame starter it needs in order to access all the stuff that you are trying to get rid of.

The reason why he told me this?  Well, because I was sitting on the floor with my head between my knees praying to not toss my cookies and/or pass out.  You see, I did NOT eat carbs, or for that matter, anything before my uber-intense baptism-by-fire first training session today.  Ryan believes that strength training can and should be a cardio workout.  And he set out to prove it to me.

So after one “trail” set (three machines – two upper and one lower body – what he calls a “Mega-set”) and three “for real” sets, I found myself on the floor, quitting for the day, worried that I might not make it home.

And the only reason is because I didn’t take the time to eat something.  As typical of me, I scheduled something up to the minute before, and forgot to eat.  I ate a small breakfast, but it was 5 hours before, and wasn’t quite providing the nutrition needed for Ryan’s Mega Set.

So the challenge is 1) do NOT let this discourage me – I am on a mission to do well by myself and my fitness goals, and this setback cannot stop me 2) tweak the plan (again) and make sure I am planning my meals along with the weekly workout schedule.

I am finding that my biggest obstacle, the thing that will most limit me and lead me to failure, is lack of preparation and planning.  This includes setting aside the time for working out (and eating) as well as preparing my bags so they are ready and/or my kids stuff so they do not make me late, as well as informing my husband, nanny, etc. ahead of time of what I need in order to workout.  Whew.  It’s a lot.  The issue right now is that I have no routine.  I strongly desire one, but feel very uncomfortable committing – I mean, what if a client can ONLY meet during the time I “blocked” out for yoga?  I am so hesitant to put that time aside for me, just in case someone might need me…

…and then of course, the workout doesn’t happen, because it wasn’t planned for.  Or at a minimum I am late/undernourished/rushed/passing out/only have 20 minutes etc.

Carbs are Good.  I must eat.  I must take care of me first.  I WILL set a schedule and I will make my appointments around it.  Yes.  See you next week Ryan.

Fitness Challenge: Accountability Buddies Rock!

Day 1:  I was so fired up!  Ready to take on this challenge and kick butt!  I walked in to my gym with a new sense of purpose about my workout – not about just the dreaded losing the couple extra pounds but about changing BEHAVIOR!  Yeah!

My intention was to get a baseline measurement from a physical trainer.  I got one of these when I joined the gym 3 years ago, and figured I was due another for free, but was willing to pay if needed.  I was pleasantly surprised when they told me that yes, I get one free assessment each year with my membership!  So I filled out the form, turned it over and expectantly looked at the greeter to point me to my trainer.  He said “okay, you’re all set.”  I must have looked confused because then he added “a trainer will be calling you in the next couple of days”.  Humpf. If you know me at ALL you know I like measurement.  Now I wouldn’t have a TRUE DAY 1 measurement…it was going to be like Day 4 or Day 5.  Not cool.

So then I looked around for my friend who works there (Jason in membership – no really, he is my friend, not just the guy who sold me the membership!  He’s my brother’s wife’s brother!).  I thought that maybe he could wrangle someone for me.  His office was dark, so I just said to myself, “it doesn’t matter – the real behavior change is about consistently working out 3-5 times a week – the measurement was just gravy!! And you’re HERE! So go work out!”  With my pep talk wringing in my ears, I climbed on the elliptical and settled down for a marathon of 6 month old magazines and Law and Order reruns.

After I finished my 45 minutes, I walked over to stretch a bit and heard “Hey!” — I turned and there he was!  Jason! We stretched together and I told him about my program.  And then I asked him to be my accountability buddy – I told him I would tell him when I was going to the gym, and if he could watch out for me and make sure I was actually going, text me if I wasn’t there, and just in general support me, that would be amazing.

Not only did he say yes, he took it one step further.  He said that after I (finally) meet with the trainer, that we could sit down and set up a schedule, that he would workout with me (WORKOUT BUDDY!!!) during times he could, and basically, that we would do this together!  I would be motivating HIM to be more consistent! Whoo hoo!  I almost cried (seriously, I get really emotional about this stuff!).

So I went home re-fired up, although a bit “in waiting” since I need to meet with my trainer before setting this all up – I have to admit to being a bit discouraged by that roadblock.  But Friday, my accountability buddy came through and texted me “GO TO GYM” Love it.  I told him Friday was my day off but would meet him at yoga at 9AM on Saturday.  He was going to be working, but said he would see me there.

Saturday at 8:30AM, as I was starting to wrangle my kids into the strollers and those thoughts of “well, it might be better just to stay home so Alex can take a proper nap” Jason’s text popped into my mind….”GO TO GYM” .  I smiled, put my shoes on and walked out the door.  I was late, but I was there.  Namaste!  (In a universe aligning-note, my Yoga Teacher, Jackie Prete, was focusing on breaking through barriers, what she called ‘fishnets’ in class – so perfect!)

Got a call yesterday from the trainer and will call back this AM to set up my fitness session.  Hopefully by the end of day tomorrow I will have a program in place so I can schedule it out in my calendar and “officially” start this thing!

A Program For Changing Behavior

I recently completed a proposal to coach an executive, and put a lot of thought into the “program” around changing behavior.  I approached it as I would any change project in an organization, breaking it into phases that included Assessment, Development, Execution and Evaluation.  The difference this time was instead of implementing a new process, technology, or even structure, we are going to be implementing new behaviors – one of the trickier challenges of the practice of Change Management.  One of the key components of the program is understanding how long it will take to identify a behavior that we desire to change, and then successfully change it.

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