Many people started this challenge with a bang, and achieved great things in the first month, and some have started well, then fallen off a bit, and now are bang on course to achieve big things of course. Whatever your situation, I don’t think it is realistic at all to expect you to be perfect all the time, that simply isn’t possible!
It’s always good to take the pressure off at times, and you will realise by now that 12 weeks is quite a long period of time to give your very best effort.
This is why I give everyone a 80% target on eating good natural food. I gave you a target of 8 out of 10 in each workout you do, because 10 out of 10 is highly unlikely each time.
If you manage to get these kinds of averages in, you’re going to be classed as working amongst the top percentage, and pretty much guaranteed to reach your goals in your programme in a relatively quick period of time.
Putting undue pressure on individuals to do well has never been a tactic I’ve considered successful. I remember in my teens, we had a captain in our cricket team who would berate you if you bowled slightly off the mark, or it wasn’t your day when you batted you would have a verbal outburst directed at you.
Hammering someone because they weren’t performing at their best proved to be a potentially damaging tactic to myself and destroyed my confidence.
I remember another captain years later who would always give me a reassuring pat on the back if I was having a bad day, and told me that he was sticking with me no matter what. The result? My game and confidence came back sooner than I thought, and that meant my performance was up to its normal standard very quickly and that reassuring pat on the back helped me an enormous amount, and put a spring back in my step.
All of us need someone to show confidence in us from time to time, and you have seen it on this site with some members seemingly be at all time low’s recovering to be at all time high’s in just over a week sometimes!
I tend to use the tried and tested method of showing great encouragement when someone is a bit down, and having a harder time than usual. I’m in the business of getting the very best out of people, and less is more sometimes!
So when you are looking to assess your progress so far, try and look at the big picture.
If you are getting it right most of the time, then there’s no problem and your condition will be improving naturally.
If your food and training is all over the place, and you’ve gone back to your old ways, then you need to reassess your priorities, and ask yourself if you really want to be in the best shape of your life, or not?
Answering this question honestly will help motivate you to take immediate action, and make you realise if you have put too much pressure on yourself, or too little even?
The focus should not only be on this 12 weeks, but creating the trends and patterns that will serve you well for the rest of your life.
Nobody’s perfect all the time, so if your lifestyle is healthier now than when you started, you are still making steady progress, then that’s perfectly acceptable to me and keep having confidence in your abilities, that is the vital element you always need!
You make sooo much sense Keri, and I agree you never ask too much of us, when ever you have asked me now or in the past to do something, I have never questioned whether or not I can do it cos I know you would’nt have asked me to do it if you thought I could’nt. So I have that trust in you. And this weekend I will be goin out for a meal and I wont be feeling guilty about it, 80% of the time remember, I deserve this. Well I found out this morning that my hamstring is ok. Cycled 57 mins, then I did the hill work and worked my indoor circuits into it, ok so it wasnt exactly the same as indoor but it was such a lovely morning. UP HILL SPRINTS, DIPS, AND PRESS UPS, EACH CIRCUIT TOOK 2.38 AND I DID 4.
SPRINT X4 38SECS EACH
DIPS 4X35
PRESS UPS 4X35
day off today and bloody nice it was to….
breakfast milkshake with strawberries,bananas and a few grapes.
snack banana
lunch turkey pita and a pear water to drink.
snack pear.
dinner cod and parsely sauce with 5 veg cos the family had corn-dog with veg.
jean
excellent work and nice to see you finishing off the week on a big high!
cyril
Hope everything is okay with your back?
Plus do me a favour, and if you can, let me know how many grammes of fat are there in the parsley sauce you have sometimes, be interesting to know? and hows your taste buds these days, are things getting easier and easier to eat plainer?
Pleased you enjoyed ur day off Cyril, u deserve it and take it easy until ur back is better. I have had a good day also. Weather so nice I took my bike down to the Country Park and did my circuits down there, my eating today has been good, same old 4 breakfast, even tho my mam came for a visit and she had a couple of glasses of wine with her meal, I had fruits of the forest juice with water, and a baby baggette, brown, with Tuna salad, supper Jacket potato with match box piece of cheese, 1 slice of ham, and half a tin of baked beans, 2 digestive biscuits.
3.2grams Ker.Bought plain Tuna steaks today to have a try at?has for the plain food i know one thing, i get less aggro if i keep it plain!!!!! ie if i cant be bothered to cook and get chips and what ever form the fish shop, i’ve have either a bloated gutts more than normal or wind etc….wonder if its worth it having the crap.But at least i know it is the shite i have from them places that make my belly bad 😉
Hi Cyril, is that 3.2 grams per 100grams or for the whole pack? I am a great lover of Tuna, can b bland but you should try it with Asda Vinigarette, no calories and it does add a bit of flavour to it. Just done a 40min run, legs heavy 2day, and the best news is I just put on a pair of JEANS that havent fitted me since 2008, got the Zip up and everything, and also a top that I bought and only wore once then it didnt fit anymore, so I am feeling pretty smug this morning. Thinking I will give my MOTHERS DAY MEAL a MISS, was goin to go for a curry, not babysitting 2mo, BUT DONT WANT TO RISK IT NOW. Have a good weekend. Jeanx
Also I was told by my friend Sue, havent seen her since xmas, that I have lost weight, and one of my CHINS, so cant be bad eh
you have had tremendous success jean, and it all happened when you started believing in yourself!
Yeah that could have something 2 do with it Ke, all started with binning the pumps and your constant preaching, wouldnt b doing it otherwise. Would’nt hold ur breath 4 2mo, Ireland r the defending champions and I would rather like them to win, we were lucky against Scotland. 2 Beat Ireland we will have to come out fighting and not take until the second half to warm up. enjoy. Jean