The journey to 1:45 — Training recap, Week 5

‘I hated every minute of training, but I said, “Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion”.’

Those are the wise, pertinent words of Muhammad Ali — words which, I’ll bear in my heart and mind whenever I struggle through the burn, wanna give up and think I’m not making progress, which is exactly how I felt this week..

The Fitbit Report

So yea… I’m not sure I want to commit to monitoring every last thing I’m doing (or not doing). The ‘not doing’ is totally bumming me out, and the doing doesn’t feel like I’m doing enough. So Fitbit Report…it’s been real…but you gotta go. It’s not you. It’s me.

Calories/Diet — 7 out of 10:

I’ve been eating alot of kale recently. I found this recipe for a “kale rainbow salad” which involves stir-frying the green stuff with bell pepper (that’s the base level), then throwing in a side of hard-boiled egg and avocado, topped with sesame seeds. It’s a real beaut and so effortless to make. Sometimes I forget the egg and avocado, but I think I ate some variation of this four times this week, so I’m proud of myself. But I also consumed two buns and a chocolate chip cookie from the Fabrique bakery. Argh. But on the plus side — KALE. And lots of it.

The active minutes — 8 out of 10: Once again, on point. Five days of exercise, nailed — and this hasn’t dropped off since I started the challenge, either. Those days also included a whole lot of pilates classes for a bit of research I’m doing at the moment. But can we talk about pilates for a moment? Of all the exercise I do, pilates is seriously KICKING MY BUTT. I think I did about three pilates sessions this week (what, too much?), plus two Frame Fitness sessions at Gymbox — and you know…it left my heart so heavy. I just felt so useless not being able to hold certain moves, pulse, hold, pulse, etc…

What did I learn? One of the things that’s been weighing on my mind this week is the question: “when will I start to see the results?”. I know I haven’t been as militant as I could be with my diet, but I imagine if I’m doing at least 5 days of exercise a week, surely I should start to see the results by now? Surely? In terms of lessons, then, I’d say I’ve learned that these things really don’t happen overnight do they? And truly — if I suffer now (that’s patience, long-suffering, sacrifice, and “just say not to the donuts Tilly”), I can live the rest of my life like a champion. RIP to the Greatest.