Picture Day: 4 Weeks Away

At the halfway mark.

Friday, December 14th is picture day, so we have four weeks to complete the transformation we started back in September.

If you’ve been doing your Turbulence Training consistently for the past eight weeks, you have laid the foundation for a great physique.  Now in these coming four weeks it’s time to reveal what you’ve worked to build.

The biggest obstacle I confront when it comes to bringing my physical appearance in line with my wildest dreams, is the fact that I want results right now.  Like a kid who can’t bear the fact that her birthday is months away, I whine internally about the fact that permanent healthy change takes time.

How tempting it is to say, “Oh I’ll just fast today”, or “I’ll cut my calories way back”, or “How about an extra hour of cardio?” In order to try to force a change in the scale or the mirror.  It’s true that many people can take drastic measures and shed fat quickly, but I suspect that if I was one of them, I never would have become obese in the first place.

No, the truth is that if I try to fast for 24 hours, or if I cut my calories below around 1400, my appetite comes roaring up and I eat far more that I would have without the cutting or fasting, and usually later in the evening when I can least afford the insulin surge.

The discipline for all of us going into the last four weeks of the Transformation Contest is to continue to follow a healthy eating plan that fuels our training, and allows us to reveal our beautiful new muscle development through continued fat release.

The best way to do this in my personal opinion and experience, is to focus on pure whole foods, that tend not to wake up a surge of the storage hormone, insulin.  A simple way to do this is to eliminate foods that contain added sugar and white flour.  There is nothing radical or drastic about this idea.  Yes, that means bread, and pasta are out the window, and so are sweets, but this is how I send a message to my metabolism that it’s time to release fat, and not to store it.

What about Thanksgiving you say?  Simply make some choices today, about how you’re going to celebrate that wonderful national holiday. When it comes to the Thanksgiving meal, what is it that makes it special for you?  Yes, if you truly desire starches and sweets make sure that you choose them wisely in terms of quality, and the enjoyment and satisfaction they add to the meal and the experience.

I ordered an organic free range turkey last week, and yes the price made it an indulgence, but it is the star of the meal so it’s worth it.  I am also looking forward to whipped sweet potatoes with coconut oil and cinnamon.  Today I will be choosing a sugar, gluten, and flour free dessert that I can have while the pumpkin pie is served, because believe me I would never deny my family that pleasure.  (Besides, they wouldn’t let me.)

Put simply, the idea is to think ahead and make some choices before you sit down to dinner.  The great news is that we can all make excellent progress in the three weeks after the holiday.  Add to that the fact that since we’ve been training consistently, that yummy food will serve as fuel for our muscles.

To all of the TT participants at Gordon studio, I’m looking forward to seeing you on Monday the 19th, and again on Monday the 26th for TT Thermogenic.  Bookend that holiday with great training, and you have nothing to fear.