I recently saw a quote, “It takes 4 weeks for you to notice your body changing, 8 weeks for your friends to notice, and 12 weeks for the rest of the world to notice. Give it 12 weeks. Don’t QUIT!”
For most people ,12 weeks seems like forever to see the changes you want to see. Why is it we all want overnight results? I have trained many women and if they aren’t seeing some sort of change quickly then they are easily frustrated and resort back to their old lifestyle of convenience and unhealthy choices. What they don’t realize is that the body IS changing even though they don’t see physical results right away. Increased energy, decreasing body fat (which doesn’t necessarily mean drop on the scale), lowering cholesterol, balancing insulin levels are all examples of the body changing for the better.
The reason I am writing about this is because I want people to realize that I don’t just get in shape for a show or photo shoot but I try to live a healthy clean lifestyle year round. The consistency of eating healthy year round results in your body staying fit for the long haul versus up and down yo-yo dieting which most women are all too familiar with. My show season is over for the year but that doesn’t mean I am pigging out every chance I get…yes I am more relaxed and have a little more wiggle room to enjoy different foods but for the most part I enjoy my healthy food year round. I eat just as much oatmeal and egg whites when I am not training for a show as when I am training for a competition.
I try to inspire others through my actions and practice what I preach year round. Not saying I don’t have OFF days but I try to have more ON days then I do OFF. Earlier in my career I would train for a show then after my show was over I would mentally struggle trying to maintain BALANCE with my foods and workouts. I would tell myself “Oh, I can eat this because I trained so hard for months now it’s time to relax and eat what I want”, or I would find I would tell myself that “I will eat what I want this week then next week back on contest type diet”! This was a vicious circle of eating then extreme dieting, then getting so hungry that I would binge eat and regret it after. It’s hard for me to admit that but I do think many women out there struggle with this.
It took me a year to find my inner peace with food and training and find a balance. Balance is so important and once you have it…it makes everything so easy. Now I am able to maintain a healthy weight, balance my food and workouts, no more mind games and struggling with the vicious circle. I know that I only get my body once and I want to treat it with the up most respect. I remind myself whenever I find myself struggling with food that I feel 100 times better when I nourish my body with clean food so why would I want to feel sluggish, unproductive and lazy??
So DON’T QUIT!! If you are trying to lose weight or tone up or just feel better overall realize that it doesn’t happen overnight and the key to success is a lifestyle change for life!
