The Cold, Hard, Sting of Reality...

"Illusions commend themselves to us because they save us pain and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead. We must therefore accept it without complaint when they sometimes collide with a bit of reality against which they are dashed to pieces."

~Sigmund Freud

On the Cold, Hard Sting of Reality...

Yep...Woke up to one of those this morning...a Reality Slap!

I finally got some scales. I was jumping for joy until I got on them. OMG...65.3kgs! This is the heaviest I've been in 2 years! How's that for a reality check? I weighed about 62kgs only a month ago. And I think I definitely put the last nail in the coffin being on holidays last week.

So I've been deluding myself for a little while now, thinking that I'm still looking okay. But it's time to own up to the facts, so I can do something about slipping back to some place where I said I would never return to...FATVILLE! 'Year of the Sexy Bitch' has turned into 'Year of the Slovenly Bitch'. One of those nasty Seven Deadly Sins...Sloth...has found me again.

I could beat myself up about it, but I won't. It's time for some action. There's still stuff to sort out over the next 4 weeks, which is when Christmas arrives. I will have a brand, spanking new, nutrition and exercise plan for 2011 and I'm excited. I want to get rid of this sloth again, and I hope to do it faster this time.

I have finally sat down and finalised my new training goals for next year. My first priority will be to lose the weight and get lean as quickly as possible, so I can feel good about myself again and concentrate on the remainder of my goals. I will use the rest of 2010 to clear all the debris from my life; tidy up loose ends and discard things I've taken on, so that next year I can concentrate and focus on my health and fitness again.

So why have I put the weight back on? The simple truth is, I've consumed more energy than I've expended!

Regardless of all the reasons and excuses I can give you and myself - the cold, hard reality is I haven't continued to work hard on the 'expenditure' side of the equation, and my nutrition usually falls behind when my training does. It's that simple!

Look...I've lost the weight before when things have been much more challenging, so why I can't I do it now? Well, I can. It's just that I haven't had the same focus as I did when I did my first Ideal Bodies Online program. I haven't been prepared to make the same committment as I did then. In the end, that's all it is. When you lose focus and you don't keep recommitting to your goals, other things will soon replace them.

Life has changed. But instead of losing sight of your goals, it's important that you re-evaluate them and ensure that they evolve along with your life. I think it's important to put in place mechanisms to review your life in a systematic way each year - times to reflect and think about your life and your goals.

Life has a way of becoming so crazy and we get caught up in the momentum of events and situations that are sometimes unwittingly created by ourselves and/or others. And before you know it, you've failed to stop and find the time to look back to review and if required, re-design your life. Your life begins to shape you instead of the other way around.

I think a way to address these changes is to look at the natural ebb and flow of your year. Look for windows of time and opportunity where you know that outside influences are going to be less of an issue, and use that time to create and form some new goals and habits.

Personally, I think the lead-up to Christmas and Christmas itself is one of the worst times to begin something new (though I still did it because I was super focused on achieving my goals). Inevitably, outside influences will hamper most people's efforts in change.

However, if you used the time BEFORE this to either establish or re-establish some goals, you might find that during the busy and crazy time of Christmas that you will experience less angst and more contentment to go with the flow, because you've achieved or partly achieved these goals and feel more in control. And it may not be Christmas time for you - it might be Easter or other times in the year, where outside influences are too strong and will thwart any attempts at long-term change you have planned.

So I'm moving forward with this in mind. A life still full of goals and plans, but one which is more intuitive, where I build in mechanisms to allow for the natural ebb and flow of life. A life where I can still achieve my goals on one hand whilst retaining balance: achievment AND contentment!

On Catching up with Friends...

During our break in Caloundra, I had the fortune of catching up with both Michaela Muller and Nicole Lambert (both previous IBO gals). We caught up for coffee and a nice chat. It was great to be able to do that and I learnt so much from our exchanges.

The above picture was taken at Michaela's first comp back in May 2009. She competed again this year, and placed, and has big plans for 2011, and I look forward to seeing her progress in her body building aspirations. Michaela has come so far from the days I first knew of her from Ideal Bodies Online. She has now completed her Personal Trainer qualifications and is out there meeting people in her area of interest, i.e. body building, expanding her horizons, and is always learning more and more and growing as a person. She's a real inspiration and an example of what you can achieve with continued focus and determination!

After Michaela left, Nicole and I chatted on for ages, and before we knew it, hours had zoomed past. Looking great, I commented to Nicole on how different she is now to that person a couple of years ago. I don't mean just in a physical sense, but I noticed how her whole demeanour has changed and that you wouldn't recognise that person that was Nicole - that's just how far she's come in her life.

Now a triathlete, she makes me tired hearing of her accomplishments this year alone, and I also look forward to watching her achieve in her aspirations next year. I have a feeling she's going to make some huge leaps next year, after all the challenges and setbacks she's faced in 2010!

In Ending...

I still haven't been around much in blogland, and confess to having less desire to be on the computer. As I've intimated, I've been cutting the superfluous from life, or just things that are taking up more and more time away from the really important, and one of those things is spending time on the computer. I'm getting more done being away from it, and I value my time so much more these days. I plan to continue spending more time away from the computer and living my life goals, rather than living it vicariously through just talking and dreaming about it.

I'll end with where I am at, quoting from one of Craig Harper's thought-provoking posts titled 'The Quickest Way to Create Internal Shift'....

"So, what is the single quickest way to create interenal shift? To change the way we think, feel, interpret, react, cope, expect, process, intereact and communicate? Three simple words: Experience new things. Do Different to Be Different."

"...the place I've always learned the most, had my biggest breakthroughs and experienced by biggest (internal) shifts was when I stepped out of my overthinking mind and experienced new things."