in a conversation with my best friend, she was very confused, and i realized that maybe the terms found within my blog and the thought patterns that seems so natural to me…aren’t all that logical to follow SO i’ll review the challenge, re-introduce my trainer, and reveal this weeks resutls!  (it was a good week, a very good week.)

i am in a weight loss program at our gym called ‘i lost it at the gym.’  over the years, i have struggled and battled with the weight with no real direction and no real understanding of what i was doing wrong.  jeremy gritton (http://www.grittonstrainingsystem.com/), my trainer has in the last 5 weeks transformed my diet and my view on food.  one of the things he said today caught me, and i immediately separated myself from the group.  he said most people don’t know how to push themselves, and that the 4th and 5th rep that you don’t want to be doing, are the reps that brings the results.  this, however, has never been my issue.  i know how to push myself, maybe too hard somedays.  i had my high school coach pull me out of the water one day and tell me that i was only hindering my performance by giving him 110%.  i excel at going above and beyond.  HOWEVER, i suck at the details.  i hate working on stroke technique in the water.  i have no feel for the water and i end up frustrated and feeling like i wasted time when i could have been burning calories.  i’d rather work really hard for 2 hours than work on the details that will help me to improve for 2 hours.  this is just an example, but the point being, i needed help with a detail of triathlon and performance that had nothing to do with pushing myself while swimming, biking, and running.  SO i took myself out of range for this comment, and  i have done the same things with food over the years.  

‘it doesn’t matter what i eat because i work out so much.  i am outside of the group of people that need to worry about calories or proper diet.  i am healthy.  i eat mostly, healthy food.  that doesn’t apply to me.’  

it is those kinds of thoughts and that separation that has got me in trouble for years.  it matters what i fuel my body with it.  it matters a lot.  m&m’s as an evening snack do nothing in your body except store as fat overnight.  awesome.  an extra pound to run with, great!  i had an m&m problem, and i really loved ice cream in the evening, and well, i didn’t miss having an evening sweet of some sort be it pie or cookies or cake (YUMMMM i love cake!).

the part of it all that floors me, i have been loosely studying nutrition for years!  i own multiple nutrition books.  i took nutrition classes in college, and not because i had to, but because i thought i’d be able to apply them to my own life, and benefit from them.  i should have known this stuff.  i should have known that my shit diet was a big part of my under performance, but i choose not to change my habits and routine until i read Jeremy’s (aka: j-dogg) comments in my food journal about reaching my goals.  

i got into a good routine right before we left for vacation.  i got overwhelmed and out of routine on vacation and gained 3 pounds.  i jumped right back into my good routine this week though and i lost 6 pounds in 6 days!  

i weighed in at 146 today!  i am down 18 pounds in 5 weeks.  

so 3 more weeks of the weight loss challenge.  these are also my build weeks for cozumel so it is a gentle balance of solid training and proper nutrition, but for the first time in triathlon, i am paying attention to one of the details that has haunted me for years.  i am proud of the things i have learned due to forced application.  i never would have thought i could eat so much and lose weight.  the understanding and knowledge that i have gained sets me free.

‘you have no idea how high i can fly.’  -michael scott