Don’t look back in anger

I heard you say!!!! What is happening? I am very excited to be sitting down to bring another blog straight to your eyeballs, and this one is bloody important! I think I say that at the start of a lot of my blogs, but its something I’ve been sitting on for a while and not quite found the right words to get it out to you all. Today’s blog titled ‘don’t look back in anger’ is all about what we should really focus on in order to get results we want and is somewhat of a sequel to my earlier blog ‘stay in your lane’, so if you haven’t’ yet given that a read, go back and have a look there first.

The title was me trying to give this blog a catchy interesting title because ‘stop taking backwards steps’ just didn’t have the same ring to it, but that’s what we’re going to cover today! There’s been so many different forms of inspiration for this, but the main one has been a lot of messages I get on socials about what I did to lose weight this time around. Now we all know how I did it, diet and exercise, but this actually only gets you so far. In stay in your lane, I talk about needing to make changes in your lifestyle so that you can happily stay at a new weight, and we’re going to delve further into that today.

A backwards step in your goal can look very different to everyone and is massively dependant on the goal you set yourself. Sometimes it’s obvious, like if you try and give up drinking and you have a drink, you’ve taken a backwards step, or sometimes it isn’t, like when your trying to get healthier and you miss a day of steps. That might not seem like a massive step in the wrong direction, but it’s absolutely not taking you where you want to be. It’s easy to make an assumption when you see someone in really good shape that it was easier for them to get there, so when I get messages the first thing I address, is not what I eat, how many steps I do, or what my training split in the gym is, but instead I tell them what I sacrifice in order to achieve it. I don’t eat any bad foods, I don’t drink alcohol or sugary drinks, I don’t have rest days, all these things I would view as a backwards step away from the goal I want to achieve.

There are three things to consider when your trying to work out if what your doing is moving you in the right direction, the size of the step backwards your taking, how many steps that is, or if your just going to be staying still, and this comes down to the choices we make day to day. One normal sized Wispa is a step in the wrong direction, a sharing bag of Wispa bites is a massive step in the wrong direction, eating one everyday for a full week is 7 steps in the wrong direction, are you staying with me? Now I think this is fairly obvious to most people and you won’t be learning so much right now, so let me delve a little deeper. If your craving chocolate, then there’s options, if a Wispa is a step back, then a Grenade protein bar could mean you’re just staying stood still, you still manage to kill your chocolate craving, but you made the best possible choice at the time that didn’t hinder your progress. The alcohol we choose is another good example, and actually the one I see more then any other. We all like a drink, no one more then me, and I’m not saying you can’t have one, but what beverage of choice is a step in the wrong direction, and which one would just mean your staying still? Let’s look at some science. Ethanol in its purest form is recognised by your body as a form of energy, but not one that is converted into fat, meaning you can drink it in its purest form and you won’t actually gain weight, this is why we recommend clear spirits, and if you value your eye site, is a better choice then pure ethanol. Now as your body views ethanol as an energy source, anything else that comes in with it is just excess energy that isn’t needed, so for example, alcohol along with sugar would lead to all the sugar you consume being stored as fat, if you haven’t worked it out already, beer is the example I’m describing, same goes for cocktails or any other stupid way you have to dress up your alcohol just in order to get it in your face hole. Being drunk is the goal of drinking alcohol, or is that just the alcoholic in me speaking, but you can still achieve the same desired outcome without taking any backwards steps towards your goal, drinking beer is a massive backwards step, vodka and diet coke just means you stay stood still, choosing not to drink in favour of something more productive would be a step in the right direction. Whilst we’re here I think it worth also mentioning that any food consumed whilst your intoxicated is surplus to requirement, so will in turn be stored as fat. My advice to you here, is fight off the urge for the late-night kebab, and make sure you ate all your protein before your night out. The same goes for going out for a meal, apply some balance to your lifestyle, go for the meal with your significant other if you want, make the best choice off the menu, and make sure you aren’t going in the wrong direction, not everything has to be a sacrifice, and quality times with the one you love doesn’t have to be missed.

The next very important example I want to use is when people feel ill, or maybe you get injured, or perhaps you’re going through the change and want to make it as comfortable as possible. If you go and see a doctor, they will prescribe you an endless cocktail of drugs to solve whatever symptoms you’re suffering from, but 9 times out of 10, it’s something you’re already doing that is moving you in the wrong direction. For example, if you suffer from anxiety or depression but do something mind altering on a weekend like drink a bottle of wine or eat bags of sugar, the first thing you should look at isn’t medication to relieve the symptoms and numb the pain, it should be removing the effects of the backwards steps that alcohol or shit food takes you on. Menopause is no different to this, don’t turn to drugs for the answer, although there are absolutely things that can help, but don’t keep taking backwards steps and instead ask what am I already doing that is making the symptoms worse. Dr. Juliana Kling with Mayo Clinic's Women's Health Centre in Arizona says that alcohol and consuming processed foods during menopause can worsen symptoms and increase a woman's risk for serious health conditions, like heart disease and osteoporosis. Dr. Kling warns that for many women, alcohol, sugar and menopause can be a dangerous mix. How often does your doctor tell you anything like this, but in their defence, how often would you make that change anyway? Afterall, just taking tablets everyday is so much easier. If you have an injury, reducing inflammation is critical to your recovery, sugar in whatever form just promotes inflammation, and therefore is a massive backwards step to helping you feel better.

As I said in my very first blog, we all know how to lose weight, its diet and exercise, there’s no special diet that gets you the results you want, there are just many different paths to the same goal, all of which are dressed up ways of being in a calorie deficit. Now when you’re on this path you need to pay attention to the steps you take, having a massive binge before you start a new diet or perhaps your just in between groups and feel like you’re having a ‘rest’, is just a series of backwards steps. When people make the decision to start a new lifestyle, why then are you eating everything you can get your hands on before you start, either stay the fuck where you are, or get your arse moving towards that goal! The same applies to once the goal is achieved, you either need to stay where fuck you are, or keep making positive choices and forward steps, absolutely don’t then think your cured and back peddle all the way backwards down the path into fat bastard land.

Engage your brains, think about the actions you’re taking all the time because everything is either moving you forward, moving you back, or is a total neutral effect, and we can have plenty of the last one without gaining weight, just don’t expect a lot of progress either.

Big Love,

Az

Ps. Fat bastard is a state of mind, not a representation of a person’s physical appearance