….and bin the haters

Nothing does my head in more than people who can’t just be happy for someone. I’m going to have a right good rant here and then get onto the good positive smiley happy stuff. I feel like starting this with the words of Shakespeare because it is THAT important:

“Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean”

Yeah cracking stuff Will but I need to make this more applicable to fitness. Right so I am training with Tom and Tom is very very supportive and encouraging. Exactly how anyone who wishes to make a living by coaching people should be. Nothing is too much bother. Whatsapps regarding diet or “what the hell is a broad jump” are replied to within minutes more often than not and it doesn’t matter if I am not PERFECT at a new exercise e.g. barbell squats or cleans. Ok so Tom is the house of Montague because let’s face it – that house is just better. On the flip side we have the house of Capulet – boooooo. Now I’m not going to name names because there is no need. The guy working for the house of Capulet is a “friend”. His response to my efforts? “Pssssh could the bar be any further away from your body on that clean? Amateur”. Aye – great friend. See ya later.

Now – don’t get me wrong – I love a bit of banter and a bit of joke but the fact of the matter is some people are negative. Always have been always will be and frankly, I don’t give a damn if they read this because at the end of the day this is what holds people back.

I’m going to leave it there because I don’t want to spoil my moment of friggin’ ELATION at this mornings session with Tom. Shake it off Tay Tay and let’s move on.

Last time we caught up I was negative as *rhymes with duck* wasn’t I? Whining and waa waa but I got over it. I always do for the most part. So moving beyond the negativity I got my training session with Tom last Friday and he wrote a programme for me. A PLAN, if you will, to get me stronger faster better happier and healthier. It’s been a week and I feel like a weapon. Yes really. I’m eating more. I’m training harder. I’m calmer. I’m stressing less (hardly at all to be honest) and I’m thinking about stuff less and life is just easier. My swimming is stronger, my confidence is getting stronger – KAPOW – it’s just going good.

I’ve been chatting with a really awesome friend this week, we haven’t actually spent masses of time together as she lives up north in York but we’ve known each other a long time and recently have been talking a lot more. Her husband is a hero and I originally chatted a lot with him last year when he was trying to get some training together for walking the Sahara. He did it and made a lot of people very proud. Anyway, my friend wants to start doing some training at home because she has a little boy and a full time job. We were emailing yesterday and I sent her this:

“Just stay consistent with whatever you choose to do. Don’t worry about what other people are doing. A good one for time pressed people is first thing when you wake up. I’ve started doing 15 minutes skipping first thing in the morning. For food don’t get too worried about it. Aim for 2000 calories and use myfitnesspal to make sure you get over 120g protein a day. You won’t be starving yourself and after that you don’t need to worry about anything until you start to get really strong and fit. People get really stressed about it all including me! If you have a crap day where you smash nothing but carbs and cheese then just deal with it and move on. I spent years going back and forth with restricting and over eating when really you just have to stay pretty decent for 6 days a week and keep at it.”

I AM NOT A PROFESSIONAL AND I AM NOT TRYING TO GIVE OUT PROFESSIONAL ADVICE

However, I know this girl is around my height and age and I know roughly, ROUGHLY, what I’m talking about because it works for me (not that that means it works for everyone!!). Anyway the point is you can drink your detox tea and you can have your bullet proof coffee and you can take your CLA and you can do your fasted workouts and you can add whey protein to everything but at the end of the day it does, pretty much, at the beginning, boil down to calories in versus calories out and making sure you have a deficit and just keep doing it.

Before people come at me with pitch forks yeah yeah there’s loads of other methods and things to take into account but generally speaking if you do the math you will drop some weight.

So – the mega morning I had… I am reeeeeeeeally impatient and for years have thrown hissy fits because I can’t squat. WHATEVER haters! I can squat now! Bit of mobility work, bit more weight on the bar, a proper teacher and kowabunga it’s squats for dayyyyzzz. See SEE!

The point I’m trying to make is you can do anything you want to do. One of my best friends ran her first marathon on Sunday – THREE HOURS FIFTY EIGHT MINUTES – she was totally nonchalant about the time, I was silently screaming into my hoody because there’s no way I could run a marathon in that time haha! She had her doubts leading up to it and even during the run but she smashed it. Right in the face. POW.

Just be patient. Keep going. Work at it. Get a plan. Stick to it. Make goals. Doesn’t matter if they take years to achieve. Shit I’ve been trying to learn pull ups and chin ups for THREE YEARS. I will get there and you will all know about it when I do! You lucky monkeys.

Have a freakin’ brilliant weekend guys. Stay positive. Love those bodies and to re-quote my favourite water bottle from Ironman days….

“You’re Stronger Than You Think”

 C xxx