Ok well the stats are in, yet again. I just had a dexa scan done as planned, with it being 3 months since my last one. The goal was to lose some body fat while trying out how being in a nutritional state of ketosis panned out for me (see post "Body composition progress at 12 months"). I wanted to test and measure accurately for the three months and a body composition scan is a perfect way to do that. It measures your body fat, muscle mass and bone density even giving you a breakdown of the percentages in different areas of your body. It's a really good way to gain an accurate snapshot of where your at.
So the results are that I lost 1% body fat and gained 3 kilos of muscle. If I had jumped on the scales and seen an increase of 3 kilos I would of freaked. A body composition analysis takes all the guess work out. It's been a good gain, muscle mass is going to work in my favour, keeping my metabolism chugging along nicely. With regards to my body fat the aim was to lose closer to 3%. I didn't reach my goal there but there's a reason for that. There's always a reason if we're game enough to examine ourselves a little closer.
I truthfully found maintaining a nutritional level of ketosis quiet difficult. I made sure I tested and measured each day to see what my readings were and I have to come clean that I stuck to the plan only for the 1st month. The rest of the time I was in and out of it. My main downfall was letting the sugar monster back in. I find it really hard to keep to moderation when it comes to sugar. It tends to be an all or nothing approach for me. I find it really addictive and have to make a concerted effort to wean it back out of my diet. I also found it easy enough to eat enough fat but found it hard to keep my protein low enough.
Another issue for me was that I had holidays booked. As much as I love holidays they tend to give me a little anxiety as I hate the feeling of losing control over my routine as well as my training and nutrition. It tends to freak me out a little bit. I know when I'm out of my environment my usually good habits tend to wane and I get a bit down on myself. So I think I do a bit of self sabotaging beforehand.The thought of having to fight off that sugar monster again was all too much, especially when I was only going to let him back on holidays anyway...see the pattern of poor thinking...
I'm not telling you all of this to give myself excuses or get myself off the hook. I'm not here to impress you, I'm here to connect with you. I want to be as real as I possibly can in telling you my struggles and successes. This shit is hard. Day in and day out, it's hard to keep your focus and remember why we do the things we do. I could sit here and tell you that I did exactly as I had planned and it was piss easy and lie to mysef and you, but truth be told, I slipped up this time. I took the road that I warn my clients against. I took the road of all or nothing. Ok so you have a shit day, you shouldn't let one bad decision blow out into a bad day and then blow out into a bad few days and before you realise it's become a bad week. Guilt gets the better of you. Every decision you make everyday of the week becomes you.
What I got out of this experiment was a direct correlation to what I put into it. I can't complain nor delude myself that I should of got better results. I think too many times we give ourselves the easy road and let ourselves off the hook. You can't do things half arsed and expect a stellar result, end of story and that applies throughout every facet of your life. You cant give 100% one day then 50% the next and think it doesn't count. It all counts, every single decision you make counts. You have to assess whether treating yourself with a treat meal after you've eaten so good all week is really worth it? How is it a treat if it just sabotages all your efforts?
Doing this scan when I knew that less than desirable results would come was good for me. The results weren't bad but they were not what I initially set out to get and that's hard for me to come to terms with and even harder for me to share it with you. There was definitely some positives too. I did achieve that goal of 120kg back squat and all in all my training felt good. Another positive is I regained that 3 kilos of muscle mass that I lost before. I can't be sure whether it was purely training related or due to more carbs being in my diet. I didn't plan my carbs around my training, they were just incidental. That is something I will experiment with though.
This has reinforced for me and hopefully for some of you out there what it takes to make real progress. It's also reminded me why I choose to eat well in the first place. It makes me feel good, helps me train well and to me that's the most important thing. Of course losing body fat is a bonus but this experiment has been a reminder that at the end of the day I want to fuel my body so that I can get the most out of it to do what I love to do and that's to train up a storm. Moving forward I will get back to basics and not focus on the body fat component of my journey so much but on basic clean eating, cutting out sugar and making sure I fuel up for training. Body composition results will naturally stem from there.
I know myself well enough to know that a pursuit of purely body composition won't get me to the gym twice a day. It used to be easier without a baby, but now just getting there is hard. Sure I want to look good in a bikini like everyone else but at the end of the day I need a bigger driving force and everyones will be different.
Like I tell all my clients, you have to have clear set goals. You have to have that voice in your head that reminds you why you want success when temptation comes by. Sticking to the plan some of the time won't get you to those goals. Thinking 'its all too hard' or 'whatever I do I can't lose weight' won't work either. None of us are perfect and we all struggle with the same things a lot of the time. We have to get honest with ourselves. Deep down we all know what our outcomes will be because sometimes we impose on ourselves self limiting beliefs. We've already set ourselves up to either succeed or fail from the get go. Believe me when I tell you that you can do it! You can! Put the true effort in and the results will come, always. That I can promise you.
You know what? Your life is happenning right now. As I sit here writing this, my baby Jetta is running around at her grandmas having fun maybe wondering where mummy is or maybe not? Time is ticking by whilst we sit and complain about what we don't have yet or what it is we are striving for. Make it count. Don't waste any more time on negativity. We have to just get in and do it! Time doesn't wait for us. How many more 'starting again on Mondays' will it take for you to start the new phase of your life? What will it all mean in the end? Make sure that goal is worthy of you, worthy of your time and your efforts, and most importantly enjoy the journey.
