Christmas is Coming

They are back – and who doesn’t love a Christmas Coffee?

Now you’d need to have lived under a rock for several years to not know that these Christmas Coffees are pretty high in calories.

They are often delicious… BUT there is a catch – If you’re TDEE is around 2000 calories, depending on what you pick, one of these can account for almost 20- 25% of that (FYI that’s a lot – this is a drink ladies and gentlemen not a meal)

So if like me you love coffee, you may need a Coffee Plan of Action to enjoy them in moderation.

For instance you might decide:

– To have just one or two this festive period- A couple over the festive period won’t hurt the waist line, two a day and you may be asking Santa for a borrow of his trousers

-To drink them whenever you fancy, but know what your drinking. There’s nutritional information available so being aware and factoring them into your eating that day is fine.

-To buy some zero cal syrup and make your own Christmas Coffee at home (black coffee and a bit of syrup, you could even add squirty cream)

Control

My knee hurts. I’ve rested it, had it checked out and it looks like one of those aches that there isn’t much I can do about. I’ll need to work with it as it is.

It’s really frustrating when you want to do things and can’t because of injuries and niggles like this that just don’t seem to have an easy solution.

This is when I need to remember I can only control what I can control and what I can’t control I need to work with. I could get really annoyed about it, let it get me down, decide that it’s not worth doing anything if I can’t do things as I wanted or planned. But actually I will only upset and frustrate myself. I need to accept the things I cannot do anything about are what they are. I can plan things to work around it, different training, adjusted goals and accept there are some things that I may not be able to do.

I think I’m still going to aim to do the same events I wanted but with the knowledge it may take me longer and I may have to adjusted my ideal results from them, remembering that this will still be an achievement and pushing myself is great but I can’t change certain circumstances.

Controlling the controllable and accepting what I cannot control is something I really struggle with but am trying to get better at!

Winter Mood

Do you find it harder to exercise in winter? I do and I don’t think I’m alone.

On one hand there’s less of a desire to go out and do things like sit in a pub garden and so I should have more time to dedicate to going to the gym, but equally when it’s cold and dark the urge to stay at home is strong.

Less sunlight and colder temperatures can certainly make people feel more tied and less motivated. Light subconsciously boosts a lot of people’s mood, obviously in winter there are fewer hours of daylight so it’s not uncommon for us to feel more fatigued during the winter months. Beyond that, cold and wet weather and even snow can make getting outside to exercise harder, when the weather is particularly bad even travelling to a gym may be difficult. So whilst actually getting up and doing something would probably make us feel better, getting started in the first place often feels like a much bigger obstacle.

Now in the past, when training has just been so habitual I did it without thinking, this seasonal change had minimal effect on how much I did. But in recent years it’s become much more of a notable thing for me.

The solution of course is sill to work on making exercise a habit rather than something you need to be motivated to do. Like going to work or brushing your teeth, tings you just ‘do’ no matter whether you feel like you can be bothered or not, when training becomes a habit the weather won’t matter.

For me that means planning it in, making dates with people to do stuff and putting sessions in my diary like appointments so I don’t end up putting it off, as I do this I know I’ll start to rebuild those routines back into my week so how much I feel like training won’t matter, I’ll just go do it.

I want you to know

What’s something you believe everyone should know.

If you want to lose weight you need to be in a calorie deficit.

If you make your diet up of fast food and processed food you might not feel your best, but as long as the calories within in it equates to less than you burn for a consistent period of time you will lose weight.

Weight loss and optimum health aren’t one and the same so you don’t need to stress because you ate a load of chocolate last night, the food in itself isn’t going to detail progress.

Too Many Balls

Do you ever feel completely overwhelmed with everything that is going on?

I suspect a lot of people do because one of the most common reasons people give for not exercising or looking at what they eat is that they are too busy.

I’ve said here before that really this can be overcome with planning, working out what you need to prioritise and what you can realistically do, being realistic about your goals. I stand by this, but I also get it, it’s something I’ve struggled with recently.

I think it’s a natural feeling to have sometimes, to be completely overwhelmed. Whether you already train regularly, eat pretty well, juggle lots of jobs and tasks or whether these are things you aspire to do but don’t feel like you do right now, sometimes it just feels like there’s too much stuff.

Sometimes out of nowhere the balls your kept in the air for ages feel like too many balls or trying to change one small thing in your house of cards feels like it will bring the whole thing down.

This is when you need to stop and evaluate.

‘Hustle’ is great. If you want things you do have to work, whether that be in your career or working towards your ideal physique, but when you attempt to do everything perfectly you can end up reaching the point you actually are doing nothing because it’s all just got too much.

Sometimes you need to sit and look at everything on your to do list. Take off some of the pointless tasks that don’t really matter. Look at your training, look at your diet and pin point exactly what is you need to focus on right now and forget about everything else you hear about and think maybe you should be doing too.

My plan for the 8 weeks or so before Christmas? Well I noticed these last few months I’ve been putting off important shit because I’ve felt a little bit overwhelmed. When I’m overwhelmed I comfort eat, when I comfort eat I feel sluggish and don’t really want to train.

My plan? I’m going to track my food, not cut stuff out or eat too differently (I’m not good when I cut things out) just make sure I’m staying within my TDEE. That will make me feel better about training – Training I need to rebuild. Not spend hours in the gym, but plan my sessions in and treat them like appointments and be 100% present in the session to be the best of my ability that day.

Essentially I’m planning to finish 2023 by focusing on doing the basics well. That’s going to make life feel simpler and therefore reduce that feeling of juggling lots of balls.

If right now you feel like you can’t hit your fitness goals because you’ve too much on try taking a look, seeing what you can drop and what really simple things you can commit to right now to get you closer to your goals by the end of the year.

3 Wishes

You have three magic genie wishes, what are you asking for?

1) To be 10kg lighter?

So would you actually want this? On face value it would be great, to immediately be the size you would ideally like to be. But, without the process and learning the healthy habits to maintain this new weight how long would you be able to maintain it for? One of the things about losing weight in a sensible managed way is that you learn good habits and that helps you keep the weight off.

2) To not want to eat chocolate and all the good stuff?

If we didn’t love the taste of chocolate or whatever food we crave wouldn’t it be easier to manage out diet? Well yes, but then we’d lose the enjoyment of eating those foods and having the really good deserts when out. What we might gain in one respect would be lost in others.

3) To be able to run fast?

To suddenly be able to run a distance in a great time sounds great. But part of getting to the point where you hit your time goal or get a PB is putting in the work and feeling the sense of achievement when you then hit that goal. Just being able to do it easily might be nice but you’d lose that goal that pushes you to keep improving and try and work past stumbling blocks.

My point? As much as we might think it would be great if we could skip the hard bits of the process when it comes to our diets and fitness and just get to the goal point, very often it’s the process itself that teaches us the habits we need to learn and provides the most satisfaction and sense of achievement. The things we think might make our life easier if they just came naturally might also remove some of the joy from things. As much as I might still be tempted to ask the genie for 3 wishes would it be in my best interest?

Why aren’t the scales going down?

Are you’re tracking calories but not losing weight. Why? Here’s a few things to consider as you evaluate what isn’t currently working.

You aren’t logging everything. Sauces, the odd biscuit, left overs, these all have calories too.
You’re underestimating your portion sizes. Apps like MyFitnessPal will bring up various portion sizes when you search and what you’re eating may be more than this amount. That’s going to mean you’re eating more than you’re logging and so not actually in a deficit even though you are logging everything.
You’re free pouring things. Again this comes back to portion size, you could be roughly working out your portion but underestimating it. That one bowl of cereal your tracking could in reality be more like 2.5 bowls in MyFitnessPal
You don’t log your drinks. Alcohol, coffee shop coffees, these can have more calories than a full on meal at times so if you aren’t logging them your stats aren’t going to be acurate.
You have cheat meals. Calling something a cheat mean doesn’t mean it’s calorie free, it does mean you’re more likely to go over board and consume way more calories than you think because it’s a ‘free meal’. I’m not saying don’t have it but you should log it so you know where you stand.
Your eating your ‘exercise’ calories. Your watch is telling you you’ve burnt 500 calories so you’re adding an extra 500 calories to your daily allowance. Instead calculate your TDEE which will include your rough calorie expenditure including your normal exercise anyway..
Your picking the ‘best’ version of a food in MyFitnessPal. Be honest, when you search a food on MFP you will see some questionable entries. As tempting as it might be to go with that really low one to make your data look better the food doesn’t have fewer calories in real life because you’ve done this.
You track daily rather than across a week and scrap a day if it’s ‘bad’. It’s what we do over time that matters not one really good or really bad day. If you stop tracking on days where you know you’re going to end up ‘over’ calories and then start again the next day you won’t see you’re true picture of how you did over the week. In the plus side the strategy of averaging over a week allows your more freedom on certain days.
Food on other people’s plate doesn’t count. In my head I live by this rule but it is of course bollocks
Your calorie goal isn’t right for you. Maybe it’s too low and restrictive so you keep ending up ‘binging’. Maybe it was right for you but you’ve lost weight and now it’s just a bit too high or you’ve changed your activity level and it needs adjusting.

The thing to remember is that if you are eating less than you are burning on a regular basis your weight will reduce. Regardless of what and how you track, if this isn’t happening you are going wrong somewhere with tracking. We all under or over estimate our food intake at times but if you are serious about creating change you need to have an honest look at your habits and see where you are cutting corners and look to rectify those little habits.

Comparisons

People say all the time not to compare your fitness journey to someone else’s, and I think even if we fall into the trap occasionally most of us know this is true.

What’s really hard is getting out of the habit of comparing where you are now to where you yourself used to be. It’s fine if the change has been what you see as an improvement, your slimmer or have more muscle definition or your faster, can lift heavier. It’s much harder to deal with when you feel like where you are now is a step back.

Going for a run when you know you sued to be able to run much faster or to the gym when you once could lift much heavier adds an extra layer of mental challenge to your motivation. I also think that when you are bigger than you once were the emotions surrounding that make it that much harder to get out there and move, especially if you feel self conscious about the changes, and it becomes a double edged sword, where the things that would help you feel better about yourself are also hard to do when you don’t feel good.

Of course this is also a feeling that people starting from scratch with fitness often feel, but when you’re starting again there’s almost an element of shame added to it.

I honestly think fitness is a mindset thing, because the actual components of a healthy lifestyle aren’t complicated, it’s our emotional connection to those things that makes it that much harder.

When to let go

What principles define how you live?

Know your worth but equally know when it’s worth fighting and when to let go.

Recently I discovered my contribution to a project was being attributed to someone else. Hurt was my initial reaction, then I was pissed off, then I realised that as unfair as it is – I did a lot of the work and not only was that was not acknowledged but someone else took the credit – it actually doesn’t impact me going forward.

I could object, highlight the fact, argue my point but I actually wouldn’t benefit from it beyond feeling I was in the right. It would be different if it impacted on my future or my income but actually it doesn’t.

So really, it’s not worth it. Some things in life are worth standing up for and others worth more for just letting go for your own sanity.

Mental Health Day

Where is the fine line between using exercise to assist your mental health and it starting to affect your mental health?

I know many people (myself included) who at some point found that exercise helped improve mood, anxiety symptoms, depression and just general sense of well being. A common thing you will hear amongst regular exercisers after a session is ‘I needed that’.

And it’s proven that exercise is very beneficial for people’s mental health and well as physical.

It can become the opposite though. A bit like an effective drug, it can in cases become addictive, where the idea of not training has a negative effect on how a person feels.

I know myself I often feel worse about myself in general if I have a spell of inactivity and I’ve known people fearful of taking a break because it’s the thing that helps them.

The issue when this becomes the case is that it makes it hard to cope if you get ill, injured or have something that truly prevents you from training.

Tuesday was World Mental Health Day. As part of days where we look at how we can improve our mental health it’s also useful to understand the wider picture and how some things (like advice about exercise) aren’t always black and white. If you do struggle with not being able to train, to the point where that affects you negatively, as opposed to being able to train helps you, it’s worth taking a moment to consider how you can tackle this.