Holiday Challenge RESULTS

So around 50 days ago I wrote about a holiday challenge I was participating in.  Well, the holidays have come and gone and with them so have 13 lbs been lost, 4.5% body fat gone, 7.75 inches lost, 1.84 lbs lean muscle gained and 16.44 lbs of FAT SHED from my body frame!!!!  If you haven't guessed I am a little excited because since I began to focus on my health and body fat September 24, 2009 I have dropped (and don't want to pick back up) 26 lbs and 8.79% body fat.

But, what makes this time around so different you might ask?  I actually am doing it the right way for the first time.  That makes a huge impact on lifestyle changes, allowing me to change my attitude and relationship with food.  In the past I focused on weight loss programs that only dealt with food and discouraging exercise.  Then I worked at two weight loss camps that, although encouraged exercise, did not allow me to function in the "real world" of balancing a new lifestyle with the stress of school and work. So once I left that safe environment, over time, the weight piled on and the workouts became less.  Now, I am working - collecting data for my dissertation, writing grants, drafting articles, compiling presentations, and interning with a local third sector organization.  To be honest, it is a lot but I am learning to balance that workload with other activities - running, hiking, attempting to learn to climb (with attempting being the key word) - that keep me sane and allow me to see the bigger picture.  Life is not all about work, and this is something that is so easy to lose sight of.  I don't need to devout all waking hours to reading, research, and writing and I can still be a "good successful anthropologist/academic" (whatever the hell that means).  More importantly, I am learning that I don't need to sacrifice my health and happiness to succeed - cause really what is the point of "success" if you are constantly tired and miserable, and is that even really "success"? 

The Tom Venuto book, Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle and The Body Fat Solution were saving graces for me when I first moved to the UK in September.  I have read a lot of the self-help New Age style books like The Secret, part of A New Earth, and The Art of Happiness that talk about the need to be in the present moment and the realize that your thoughts will dictate your future so you need to change your thoughts in order to "be happy."  Now for the most part I get it (well not really A New Earth as I thought he was all over the place, but that will be a BIG digression if I go there so I am not) but it didn't really sink in.  Then I picked up, and finally read, The Body Fat Solution...and you know, I had on of those light bulb moments.  The idea that I needed to set goals, set realistic dates to achieve those goals, and to think about "shedding fat" instead of constantly telling myself that I am "fat", were all factors in my success of ultimate health that made sense.  He focused on the mind first and then set off on the body which most programs neglect.  Then going back and reading his first book Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle gave me all the steps to put those goals in action. 

As the holidays came and went I finally see that I can enjoy life, have some fun, but stick to my own convictions and treat my body in a respectable manner.  This really came out of this challenge and my long and short terms goals of pushing my boundaries.  That is why I wrote the Push-over piece yesterday.  For a long time I was a push-over in my resolve to stick to a healthy life style change - one slip up and I would say screw it and go back to food and drink as a comfort, even though it only made me more uncomfortable.  So to Tom Venuto I say thank you for doing this challenge and helping me to show myself that I can do it.  By August 21, 2010 I should have reached one of my long term goals of fat loss with further goals to come.

Easy vs Simple

My body is sore.  Not that "oh I have a little soreness in my knee or shoulder" but that "God DAMN I can't move or breathe to hard without swearing and grunting" type of sore.  It comes and goes, mostly comes after a training session and goes before the next to only re-emerge and start the process once again.  Just when I am comfortable with a routine or workout my trainer (God bless his little ass) flips the script and I leave the session a sweaty stinky mess - and sore the next day.

Now, I can't complain to much.  As of yesterday I am down a full 20 lbs since I started September 24, 2009 and 7% body fat.  Not to bad if I say so myself (and I do). My body is leaning out and I can start to see myself again in the mirror.  It is a face I had lost for the better part of a year (and a bit longer if I am being honest with myself).  But the work it takes to get back to the face, and body, I want and remember is unbelievable.  I realized that this journey is teaching me something really important - the different between EASY and SIMPLE.  Let's break it down.

Life is simple...no really it is.  You are born, you do that whole growing up thing, you get a job or get married or be a bum, you might have some kids or a dog, you get older, and then you die (and yea I hate to break it to you, you will die).  That is simple - but it doesn't mean it's easy.  Being a kid is not easy, nor are the different inequalities associated with what type person you are.  Relationships aren't easy, they take time to foster and work.  School and jobs are not easy, you must "prove" yourself worthy to be in school or have that job and once in you must then "prove" you belong.  Again, depending on your race, class, gender, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, (you get my picture) your life may be more difficult than another s.  People around you are not easy - some are too loud, too noisy, too smelly (I live in Europe, lets be real), or just plain annoying.  Then that whole death thing is kind of downer as well - "When will I die?  How will I die?" are not easy questions to ask or answer.  So, simply put, life is not easy.

But in society we are trained to always find the easy way out and if it doesn't work just give it up and wait for the next easy fix.  In terms of weight management and fat reduction this becomes a problem.  It is not easy to lose weight - but it is simple.  Eat less and move more...or burn more calories than you consume.  That sure as hell ain't easy, but the diet industry makes it seem so.  Take this pill, eat this food, do this workout - 20 minutes a day, eat all you want and lose weight - its all a bunch of hype but people buy into it because it seems easy.

So I finally came to realize the difference between simple and easy.  Simply put I make sure I burn more calories than I consume.  But I accept that this is hard fuckin work (excuse the "fuck").  Being conscious of what goes in my mouth, training at least 5 times a week and making the time to do so, coming to terms with soreness and stepping outside my comfort zones, signing up for races that I am afraid to do - all of this is not easy but I have come to realize it is necessary for my own personal understanding of what is healthy for my body.  I was ok with the fact that school and academia were not easy and so I work my ass off to get to where I need to be.  I realize that having a relationship is not easy so I work to make sure we stay connected as we both grow older and change.  But I never realized the work really needed to keep my body at a healthy body composition until I began to consciously work at it.

To everyone out there doing the 30 day 30 run challenge, the 50 day Tom Venuto holiday challenge, or any other training regime realize that what you are doing is not easy, but its simple.  Work it out.

Holiday Challenge

(Song for your enjoyment while reading. One of my favorite that gets me going when I am down. And you know you love country in that undercover way!)

In my weight loss post a few weeks back I mentioned a book that really got me to focus make on my my health and mental well-being.  Well that author, Tom Venuto, has created a Holiday Challenge that I accepted on November 22, 2009.  Some of you may be asking yourself, why in the hell would you do that?  Well, I'll tell you why...cause I want to.  The fact that I actually want to makes me excited to do it.  Let me explain.

Holidays can be alot of fun.  Friends, family (if you like yours), booze, food, and jolly good times.  Really, after Halloween the holidays are crammed down our throats as department stores begin to decorate, Christmas music is pumped out 24/7 (starting at Starbucks), and people start to make plans for Christmas parties and holiday travel.  It is all around us and in that frenzy many times we forget about what the holiday season is suppose to be about, along with our own sanity and well being.  We begin to stress over getting others the right present, getting to the stores at the butt crack of down for the right deals (I mean really, who in the hell thinks its a good idea to camp outside of Best Buy for a TV or Nintendo Wii?  I'd rather look for a hot one on the corner and pay $10 bucks more and avoid the insane moms with the strollers who want to run you and you're little dog over, but I'm just sayin), going to all the right Christmas parties, and making sure family members are happy.  So really, the holidays can make you go crazy, have you eating to much, drinking even more, and by the time New Years day rolls around you are tired, bloated, look 3 years older, and all you really want to do is have a lie in - but you can't cause it's the New Year and you need to make that New Year's resolution to drop weight and get into a bikini by summer.  Damn, I'm tired even thinking about it!
 
Sister Big Bone (couldn't embed it -damn copyright across international borders infringement)!

Now, some of you might be thinking "damn Nicole you sound like Scrooge on a good day."  So, let me explain further.  For me the holidays are a time of celebration and mourning.  My family is not that close.  They are not that keen on keeping in touch once you leave the Chicagoland area.  I am never in that area, therefore I tend to be on my own during the holidays.  In the past I traveled and didnt think anything of it - I made this front like I didn't care.  Yet, as I get older I find myself longing for that family connection - no matter how much of a pain in the ass they can be (and are to be honest).   I look at Mike and his family and I see how a family can be.   Yesterday his whole family was over at his Aunt's for Thanksgiving and they skyped him to say hello.  It was like something off of a tv commercial - the whole family is over talking and cooking and the one son is off somewhere else in the world.  But through the wonderful advantages of internet they can be together.  It made me sad as I longed for that with my own family, but I know it will never happen.

However,  instead of me drowning my sorrows in cheap wine and turkey, what I can do is focus on my own goals - and one of the main ones is to get myself in a body that can go long distances and not be in pain.  The holiday challenge seemed like a logical avenue to pursue.  In doing this the holidays are not a time for me to be sad, but instead they become a time where I can learn to enjoy myself in new surroundings with Mike, make new friends, and get out there and explore.


So, I have 50 days to transform my body composition in the hopes of winning a 5-day all inclusive trip to Jamaica.  Do I think I can win it?  Well, HELL YEA I DO!  A body composition challenge focused on body fat lose, not just weight lose, is exactly what I need to keep my spirits and hopes up this holiday season.  I am tired of having to travel to escape confrontation with the holidays.  This Christmas Mike and I go to Spain to be with another friend who has just moved to Europe, but for New Years we will be celebrating it at our flat, with one drink in hand and stomachs flatter (I know that sounds counterproductive but roll with me here).  I wouldn't have it any other way.  As the days go on I will keep updating my status, but know that this challenge was just what the doctor ordered for me this holiday season.  Waddle on friends...