God If You Can't Make Me Skinny, Then Please Make My Friends Fat! (Part 2)

So, fast forward 3 months on; after losing 3 stones, I started to become complacent with my diet and exercise. I began to skip my workout and eat one granola bar too many. Although I wasn't at my pre-pregnancy weight, I didn't look bad for a mother of 2 (that's what I told myself). 

Until one day I started getting notifications on my Facebook timeline from a secret group that I didn't join! It was spooky! This lady featured kept appearing on my timeline posting endlessly about the need to lose weight and not settle for average. 

I took a look at her and thought, she looks like she needs to lose some. She was the same height as me and of similar body frame. So I decided to follow whatever she said to do. If she said run, I ran with a skip, if she said drink a glass of green smoothie, I drank 2, and soon I noticed the fire was reignited in me. 

When I struggled or let myself down I would inbox her and she was never tired of encouraging me. She celebrated every single achievement with me. From my first green smoothie, to running my first ever marathon, to becoming a personal trainer, to even writing this blog. A lady I met online via a secret group. She saw greatness in me when I was ready to settle for average.

But in giving to me and many others, she received because she met her weight loss goals too. She lost the weight whilst encouraging others. A woman indeed encouraging women; a rarity!

Today I want to say.............. Thank you!

To you reading my blog, I say surround yourself with the believers, the dreamers, the thinkers, the doers but most importantly surround yourself with people who see GREATNESS in you.

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God If You Can't Make Me Skinny Then Please Make My Friends Fat (Part 1)

Yep, that dumb caption above was my facebook profile picture for a long time while I sat on my butt wishing the weight would disappear miraculously. Yes God works in miraculous ways but he sure doesn't answer dumb prayers. 

However he did the mysterious one day when I was at a party with my big self. I bumped into this lovely lady (shown). She was merely an acquaintance at the time but had seen me when I was slim and "athletic". 

I said a quick hello and tried to hurry pass because I didn't like people who knew me before I got over weight to notice that I was now fat (not that it was hard to hide my 100kg plus weight at the time). But she gave me a kind smile and said "Julien you look lovely but you have got to lose some weight". I smiled and mumbled something like "I'm working on it". But deep down I was angry! How dare she tell me I am over weight! She is even bigger than me! What does the bible say about removing the log from your eyes so you can see the spike in.......balahlahlah!

But next day I heard her voice again in my head but this time I heard it as it was meant to be received..............with love. Because it takes a great deal of love or selflessness to have your own struggles but try to ensure that others don't go through the same struggles. This lady didn't think " Ha! Jules is now big like me" or " Thank God, since I can't get skinny at least more people I know are now getting fat" 

That comment, " Julien, you look lovely but you must lose some weight" was all I needed to get up, lace up and go for my 1st run.

Today I want to celebrate a cool friend. I want to say thank you for being honest with me. Now look at you; all trim and hot too. Thank you

I hope this post encourages someone who is  struggling with their weight. I hope this post encourages someone to be honest in a kind way to a friend who is struggling. 

This is part 1 of a 3 part Story on friends who have held my hands through my weight lose journey.

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I Exercise So I can Eat

I exercise so I can eat more; but more importantly, so I can eat junk.

Yep! That definitely use to be me. The more I ate badly the more I exercised until 2 things happened.

 

1. I got injured from excessive exercise: Because I was exercising for 2 hours per day 6 days  a week, ponding my body, trying to out exercise my bad food, I get seriously injured and could not exercise for  months. Now, because I hadn't learnt good food habits, the inevitable happened. I gained 1 stone in 4 weeks
2. I hit a fitness plateau: But in actual fact I really didn't hit a plateau, because  plateau is when you cannot seem to make any progress despite doing everything right. A plateau as a result of exercising and eating badly is not a plateau; it is simply a waste of ones time.

As for as I am concern exercise without the corresponding healthy eating is self abuse. Why would I want to abuse myself, three times! First with bad food then with exercise and  third with the mental torture of  feeling bad from eating bad! Why would you want to do that to yourself too?

Now, does this mean that I eat perfectly every time now? No! It is okay to indulge occasionally. But to continual overeat because you exercise is not okay.

I made a path with myself that I will use exercise as a way of rewarding myself for eating well rather than punishing myself. So anytime I ate badly I did not exercise because I felt  hadn't earned it. But because I know that if I continued to eat badly and not exercise I will soon be back to 116kg so I choose daily to eat right and reward my body with natural endorphins aka exercise

So, make a decision today to use exercise to keep fit and food to maintain your weight/lose weight depending on your goals.

Exercise so you can eat more? No! that is so 2013.....

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Push-Up: Learn how to do them

PUSH-UP!

I love push up! It is perhaps one of the best body weight exercise you should learn to do.

 

Push up works so many muscles simultaneously enabling functional strength to the core, bicep, triceps, lats (upper back), lower back & quads. It is a total body workout in just one movement perhaps that is  why it's hard to do.

 

 

There are lots of variation which targets and isolates various muscles but I will be talking about push-ups for beginners and how to eventually progress to doing standard push-up.

 

These are beginner push ups

Wall push-up are perfect for beginners because it helps build the strength required to eventually progress to traditional push up. It is also a good one to do if you have back problems because they put no pressure on the spine (but place your feet flat on the ground as opposed to tippy toes as shown above)

Push-up on the knees or "girl" push up are a good progression from wall push. If done correctly  they can be just as effective as regular push up. To feel the effect, step your knees slightly back (as shown), hands slight shoulder width apart and lead with the chest (not the head) when you press down.

The triceps push-up

 

The triceps push-up is considered the poor (wo)man's breast lift and great banisher of "bingo wings" because it targets mainly the pectorals (muscles around the breast) and triceps (3 muscles behind the upper arm) if done regularly and correctly.

The key to performing this particular push-up is to keep your hand close to your body (shoulder-width apart) as pictured above.

 

How to progress to standard push-up

 

 

Here is how to progress from doing push-up on your knees. I do this always with my ladies at bootcamp and I have seen them progress weekly with doing a push-up

 

 

Step 1. hold a high plank for 5secs
Step 2. lower your body by bending your elbows slightly (lead with the chest)
Step 3. go straight back into high plank, hold for 5sesc then repeat step 2
Do this cycle for 30secs, rest for 30secs and repeat 3 times over.

Try this 3 times a week and gradually go lower down each time.

Following these steps helps strengthen your shoulders and core in preparation for progressing into a full push-up. 


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