Don't Miss a Step

I met with a client last week that was back in the gym again after a month and a half. She had been training with me hard core for the 3 months leading up to this break. She had to go in for some minor surgery which set her back for that time off. She had lost 12 lbs and was down 4% in body fat. She was feeling and looking great, but was worried because of this ensuing "off her feet" time.

She was back in Monday morning and we did our body composition measurements (I like to say, "muscle testing") so that we were back on track. We are pretty religious with keeping "up-to-date" measurements so that we are holding each other accountable for our results. I am excited to say that her weight remained the same, but we had increased our fat mass by 2%, while decreasing our lean body mass. She was visually crushed and at the end of the workout, she had broken down to me.

I had a talk with her and said that I admire her tenacity and patience through this time. I reminded her that this was not a setback, but just a minor challenge and that she would get back on track again really quickly, as she didn't gain any weight- but, simply, lost some valuable fat burning muscle. It was hard for me to see how upset she was, but I told her that if she didn't care and if she wasn't going to do something about it, that she wouldn't be so visibly hurt.

The key takeaway is this. Remember that life is life. We can't always eat perfectly 'clean' because we are enjoying a family vacation, or out to dinner with coworkers, or simply because we don't feel like it. We don't always have the ability to work out because we might be sick, injured, recovering, or flat out tired. We may not be able to make it to our regularly scheduled gym appointment because of our kids, or our spouse wanted to do something else, or if we got caught in traffic on the way home. Such is LIFE. If, by chance, this unpredictable LIFE catches up to you, you have two choices- ONE-react to it in a way that is destructive or pity yourself because of things you "should" have done better, or TWO- be positive and look to the future, for you know what it feels like to feel great and look good, and you truly know what you need to do to get there. Don't let LIFE throw you off track. Be flexible and remember above all that if you can handle adversity in your life, that you are doing better than 90% of the people out there. Get back on your bike and ride- hard!