I read a post last night on facebook that got me thinking. The post was saying that to achieve anything great you cannot maintain any form of balance in your life and that you have to make your goal your obsession. It got me thinking… A few years a go when I was in my peak physical condition and competing a lot I had no form of balance in my life what so ever, I had no social life, I was single or in the wrong relationship, I was insecure and I was lost. Yes, I looked my best and I had my dream bod that when I look back now I wished I still had that bod, but to me what comes with that bod really isn’t worth it for me right now in my life.
So to a certain degree I feel that this post was fairly accurate as I was very obsessed with my body and super obsessed with how I looked, it was all I ever thought about. Did this help my career progress? Yes, it did. Did this give me the exposure that I needed? Yes, it did. Was it worth it? Yes, it was. Was I happy? No!
I know for anyone to acheive their body fat reduction goals it takes time, it takes focus, it takes commitment and it takes all of your energy everyday to make sure that you don’t fall short and that you don’t slip up and lose all of your hard work. Ask anyone who has competed and I am sure that they will agree with you that it is super hard to have every area of your life in order and to have balance with your emotional, spiritual and mental bodies when you are so focused on your physical body.
I guess what I am still to work out is if it is possible to have balance and peace in all areas of your life while still being so focused on your body. From my experience and those that I know who manage to work full time, be a parent/wife and compete there are areas of their lives that have to suffer, it is just the way it is when you are super focused, you have to let certain areas of your life fall off the way side. Now I am not saying that there is anything wrong with living this way if you are out there achieving your goals, I am just trying to paint a picture for those who may be at the start of their journey now or thinking about competing as I believe that too many people are out there preaching very inacccurate information claiming that life is perfect when they are super lean and that life is easy and that they have everything-this is so misleading to the general public!!
Now for most of the general population that don’t want to get to 6% body fat, I believe that you can get your dream body and you CAN do it while living and enjoying life at the same time. I feel that too much emphasis is put on the way we look, we are constantly comparing ourselves to others and we are listening to other peoples opinions and not staying true to who we are and if that happens you tend to lose the one thing that is crucial for you to achieve your goal and that is self belief as you start to doubt yourself and your capabilities. Initially you have to do the hard yards and perhaps isolate yourself for around 12 weeks to give yourself the chance to really focus on your nutrition and training. This would be made a lot easier if you had support from your family and friends, you can even get them onboard with you and make it a family affair.
Once you have got to your first big goal and are not far off your dream bod, that is when you can start to introduce more into your life and find some form of balance, this is where a lot of people fail as they stay so focused on their goal that they then lose track of the people around them and that there is so much more to life than the gym. It is to be hoped that after the 12 weeks your healthy lifestyle will become so routine and you will be feeling amazing that then you can start to live by the 80/20 rule. This is how I live now and it works amazingly for me, I eat clean through the week and allow myself to eat what ever I feel like on the weekend and will have a few wines with my friends, etc. Of course when I am trying to lean out for a shoot this changes but for all over life and living whole and balanced in ALL areas of my life, this keeps me sane and it keeps me real!
