Any regular reader will know I spend a lot of time writing about my waistline.
Because it changes, frequently.
I have a wardrobe of clothes from size 10 to 16.
I lost a lot of weight a few years ago, and I have gained some of it back.
But it hasn’t impacted me mentally as it did before. Because for the last year I have worked flipping hard on accepting myself as I am, and seeking happiness outside of the number on the scales.
Because weight does not equal happiness.
However, happiness is also not found in a cheesy chip butty – despite how good one can taste.
For me – happiness is found in being fit, healthy, and mentally strong. And I knew after the summer that I had some work to do in all those areas.
I CrossFit as a sporting pastime, and I competed in September with my best friend. It was hard, the weight I had accumulated in the summer made the cardio aspect vomit inducing, and we although we performed well, the final workout of the day was pure cardio, and my lack of training plus rounded waistline, plus wine and pizza diet merely served to hold me back.
When you stop enjoying what you love, because you are self sabotaging your body – something needs to change.
So I changed.
But I didn’t want to do a short-term plan, I want to spend the next forty years feeling awesome inside and out. Not writing about an ever-changing waistline.
I’ve counted points, called food syns, cut out carbs, drank meal replacements.
I have still yo’yo-ed.
I have a childish personality; if you tell me I can’t eat something – then I will crave it for days until I finally succumb and eat it with a shovel and spade.
Which is why following a nutrition plan rather than a diet has worked for me. The very nature of the psychology of the words makes an immense difference. I’m not dieting, I am eating to perform. My nutrition is making me faster, stronger, fitter, and as a sideline – it is changing my shape and reducing my body fat.
For six weeks I have been working with TACD Nutrition, looking at what macros my body needs to perform well and shed fat. For October I chose not to drink alcohol. The combined effect of both has left me feeling so immense I have no huge desire to go back to half a bottle of wine a night, and a take away on the weekend.
TACD Nutrition
The food plan is simple, I can eat what I want, when I want. Typically I consume between 2000-2300 calories a day, but that is made up of a certain percentage of carbs/fat/protein. Plus, its recommended that you stick to foods that have good nutritional value, rather than trying to make a KFC fit your macros…
I’ve cooked, food prepped, eaten like a queen for six weeks.
I have never felt hungry.
This weekend was the true test.
The first goal was to do another CrossFit competition, leaner and fitter.
Six weeks to the day I started the nutrition plan, myself and my best friend (who also has become a macros master) went to CrossFit Altrincham to compete in their box throwdown…
A word about the competition – it was incredibly well ran. The wods were challenging but accessable, the timings perfect. There were far too many burpees, but that is standard for CrossFit. Credit to the box – they created an awesome day.
One workout was pure lifting – myself and my teammates favourite part of CrossFit, the other three wods – were cardio heaven.
At a combined age of 85, I think we were the oldest pair in the room, well, we looked it at least.
We won the lifting.
And we didn’t die in the cardio workouts.
In fact, we enjoyed them.
I cannot even describe the difference in how it felt. It was like I had been given an oil change, fresh petrol (the super expensive kind) and fresh tyres. The 8kgs that has gone from my middle in the last six weeks made my burpees faster, and we could do more than ever before. As a team the pair of us felt a little bit like we were flying, as our bodies, fuelled by good fats, decent protein and carbs, finally did what we asked them to do.
Three years I have been CrossFitting, I have an amazing teammate with whom I compete, we also had our own outstanding support act in the crowd. Combine those together, plus the wods were finally in our favour, and we did ok.
Four wods;
We came 4th, 1st, 2nd and 2nd.
The final workout was all down to burpee box jumps – our nemesis in CrossFit, we went into the workout in a joint first position.
We came second in that workout.
But most importantly, it didn’t break us. The competition was fantastic, the people were amazing, the other competitors just lovely. We fought hard to stay in the game, and no one was more surprised than us when they called out our dreadful team name to take first place overall.
Turns out, eating well and laying off the Prosecco, does make you fitter.
For a beautiful bit of comparison, you can see the difference from the competition in September, on the right, to this weekend….
Obviously we celebrated – with Prosecco, we may never win again – we have made the most of it!
But now the training is back on, the macros are being counted, I just want to see the gains keep coming.
Next paired competition is straight after Christmas, I can’t wait to see how we do.
You can find out more about TACD Nutrition on their website, they are not taking on new customers until the new year though. I’ll be keeping you updated on my progress throughout the next few months as I keep working with them to get leaner and faster (hopefully!)
Thanks to CrossFit Altringcham for hosting a fantastic day!
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