New Year’s day, once the haze of partying like it is 1999 disappears, it is time to look down (literally) and realize that since the end of racing season some body parts have grown. Not the ones that I would appreciate, like calves or quads. I’m talking about the spare tube that has settled just below my belly button. A quick walk to the scale reveals that I have a added a full five kilos since hitting my lowest bodyweight in May. I remember flying up the mountains in my first marathons with relative ease. Instantly I make a promise to myself to be just as lean at the start of this year’s early marathons.
I am known to appreciate good food and Belgian beers. Although I try to stay away from these during the training and racing season, I find the holidays are a good period to put my feet up and indulge. Not all my friends are marathon racers, so it is also a good time to catch up with those that I have not seen since April. These visits usually result in more consumption of the good things.
THOSE DAYS ARE BEHIND ME NOW!
Maybe writing it in caps will make it easier to accept. Last year I used a diet plan to get fighting fit. It was based on a 400 page book, probably the longest I have read since graduating from college some ten years ago. The author is Tom Venuto, a lifelong natural body builder. Body builders are, even more than endurance athletes, known to be the leanest athletes in the world. This e-book is called ‘ Burn the fat, feed the muscle’, I loved it because in the first pages Tom made some promises:
1.This is not going to be easy
2. I will not give you the magic pill
3. I will not try to sell you anything.
4. It requires hard work and dedication.
And boy do I like a challenge! I could have chosen one of those ‘Sit on the couch and vibrate yourself lean while eating potato chips’ machines from TV, but that would be too easy.
The book completely dissects the way our body reacts to food. Explaining what is the meaning of carbs, fats and proteins and what they do for your body. It explains why it is important to balance the three, why it is important to keep training while losing weight and god knows what else. I found it informative, entertaining and easy to read. Once the reading is done, the hard work starts. It is not easy to plan, cook and eat six small meals per day.
The first chapter of the book is not about food or diets at all. It is about goal setting and ways to keep your motivation. The best way to reach a goal is to write it down and look at it several times per day. Something like a post-it note on your computer screen, carrying a goal card in your wallet, or I used to make a pane on the side of my google calendar. Seeing these goals made me reach great results on the scale, but also in racing. Not meeting some other goals in racing made me decide to push harder and be more dedicated in the next year.
Another tool to reach your goals is the use of social pressure. Once you have disclosed your goals to friends or family, you will do anything within your powers to succeed and avoid looking like a loser. A bit of competitive spirit helps, but I guess most readers on marathonMTB.com have plenty of that. The more people know about it, the more pressure, the greater the chance of success.
So here it is for the world to read, my first goal of 2011: 79kilograms by first of April, not one more! Please follow up on my progress, it will make me stronger.