I’m not going to lie – 2022 has been a bloody tough year for me! I think it’s nearly been one of my most challenging years, both professionally and personally. Having said that, I’m extremely fortunate that these challenges have been nothing too serious, we have an amazing roof over our head, and have all stayed healthy. Ironic though when my focus to end out 2022 is to be healthier and wealthier.
Starting out 2022 I lost a couple of clients, which I wasn’t overly concerned about financially. I looked at these changes in a positive way and powered into 2022 feeling a great vibe and buzz at sessions. Then the dreaded “C word” that had been hanging around for nearly 2 years really reared it’s head and hit my business harder than ever. Isolation rules impacted my business like never before. In 2020 I pivoted my business when we were in lockdown. Now, things were more out of my hands. I was forced to take an unexpected week off work, and then as clients tested positive and had to isolate, of course I wasn’t charging and thus losing income. This then had a flow on effect to lower motivation, less movement, more alcohol and sugar and me feeling a little out of control, tired and emotional.
So, I’ve decided enough is enough, and with my children heading into the final 10 week term of the year I thought it was time to give myself a little pep talk, a big kick up the bum and set some goals to get back on track. Hence – 10 weeks to healthier and wealthier!
So, clearly I’m not a financial expert so I’m not really going to share my experience with my 10 weeks of aiming for wealthier. My husband would be horrified if I ever gave financial advice to anyone, I’m a bit notorious for running my credit card hot (in my defense though, he is just as bad haha). Basically I’ve set a few goals to get some bills paid off in 10 weeks (ahem afterpay!!), and some other business goals, and journaling/mindset shifts (one of those being that I have to STOP saying how much being a dance mum is costing me!).
BUT I am a qualified Personal Trainer, and I love to keep it real with my clients so I thought I’d share my 10 weeks to healthier journey. I’ve just set some little goals to start. I can’t stress enough I am not putting myself on a strict eating regime. Again, I like to keep things real and relatable for my clients, and to be honest, life is to short to not enjoy the wine and eat the cheese 😉
To set the back story for the last 6 months or so, I’ve been in a vicious cycle of wine too many nights of the week, which means I don’t sleep great (even if I think I do), which leads to relying on too many coffees and lollies the next day, which then results in needing a wine to “calm down” my already over-stimulated body. I 100% know the cycle is vicious but sometimes when you get stuck in a vortex it can be really hard to find something to grab to pull yourself out. And at times when enough was enough and start to change some habits, I was emotionally challenged by this thing called life and that was enough to let my grip loosen just enough to spin again.
And to top it off, I’ve hit the awesome age of starting to notice some symptoms of peri-menopause. One of the biggest things I’ve noticed this year has been a crazy increase in my anxiety and low moods. And of course my diet of wine, caffeine and sugar is all contributing in a big way to this increase as well. And now that I am *cough* 43, the struggle is real. I know that things I did in the past, ie hit the cardio more and restricted my food for a few days, and would very quickly see a drop on the scales, no longer worked like it used to. So I want to share my journey, especially for those women in the same age range as me (40+ and starting to hit perimenopause), to help you know you’re not alone. Shit is a little harder as we get older, but it’s also much more than just what those scales tell us.
Let’s get this show on the road! Each week I will do a little update, I have weighed, measured and taken photos, but I won’t share any of these numbers. What I will share is my weight gain/loss as we go, as I want to share the same ride that many, many of my clients have experienced during our Challenges over the years. Again my nutrition won’t necessarily be as strict as it would be on one of our 4 or 6 week challenges, this 10 weeks is about getting back to my normal every day eating and moving.
WEEK 1 WRAP UP:
I headed into week 1 prepped and ready to go. I am old school and like to track things with paper and pen. So I pulled out a new notebook (of the stash of 100 I have – thanks Kmart and Kiki K) and planned out what workouts I would do each day during the week.
For the first 6 weeks I am following a guide from a Les Mills online challenge – this gives me a guideline of Les Mills workouts to do each day. I am a previous Les Mills BodyPump and BodyCombat instructor and have always enjoyed this style of training. This is giving me plan to follow and a little more accountable instead of just choosing my own training sessions for a change.
Even though I have printed off their plan, I still spend 5 minutes each Sunday writing out what workout I will do each day, and then I tick off my plan as I go. Personally I find this is one way of committing to my workouts better.
I felt really great all week, I have noticed a bit of a drop in my strength and fitness but was enjoying the workouts. The couple of months prior to starting my 10 weeks, most of my training sessions have been walks/interval treadmill running and Pilates. So one of my big goals is to improve my fitness and strength in the coming weeks.
With regards to nutrition, I definitely cut back on the sweet stuff but I didn’t deprive myself totally – because you know…life’s too short! A couple of days I did have a Bulla ice block (approx. 180 calories), and I had no alcohol beverages Monday – Thursday. Friday night we went out to an 18th and I decided to drive so I only had 1 wine. I did have a couple of wines Saturday and Sunday night but definitely down in total overall for the week.
I’m also trying to be a lot more aware of increasing my protein intake daily. I had noticed I was doing a lot of snacking, and unfortunately it wasn’t healthy/nutritious snacking (crackers, sweets, pretzels etc). So I’m boiling eggs every few days for a quick, high protein snack and also including things such as yoghurt, veg sticks and hummus, protein shakes etc again in my daily meals. One of my focuses this week was my breakfasts – most days I either had a veggie packed omelette or a protein fruit smoothie.
I was feeling great in my training sessions, my nutrition was helping me keep my energy a little more stabilised through the day, but for about 5 days I felt incredibly bloated. My daughter was home sick one day from school feeling unwell so I’m guessing I possibly had a touch of something. So when it came to weigh in morning I was still feeling pretty off/bloated so I wasn’t surprised that I had put on a kilo after week 1. I also got my period on Saturday and it was lighter than last month (I’m starting to notice a slight change in my cycle – thanks perimenopause). I also had some interrupted nights of sleep and ended up on the couch about 4 nights in a row. So as disappointing as the read on the scales, I knew that it wasn’t a true representation of my week 1. This is the time where I know a lot of us (myself included) would think “why am I even bothering?”, but I knew I had to trust the process and keep going. Because at the end of the day I was feeling better already with myself and my energy, I didn’t need justification from the scales!
WINS FOR WEEK 1:
* Energy levels feeling better and more sustained through the day
* Increased my fruit and veg intake
* Less snacking at night after dinner
* 4 days Alcohol free – and went to a social event and only had 1 wine (this is a huge win for me – especially going to an event where I didn’t know a lot of people)
* Committing to all my training sessions
FOCUS FOR WEEK 2:
* SLEEP!! I’m sleeping in the spare bed through the week this week to see if I can catch some better ZZZ’s
* Keep focusing on how I’m feeling with energy, not the scales
