I love watching the Olympics. It always makes me cry!

What is astounding to me is the dedication these athletes have for their craft. Most of them train 6 days a week, 5 hours a day for years, just a chance to be the best at their chosen field. (And here I am trying to convince some gals to train minimum 3 times a week …and even that’s a tough sell sometimes!)

Now I know what you’re going to say: these athletes don’t have to work, and they have most things tended to for them.

No and no. Read their stories, you’ll see. Most of them are the you’s and me’s living on the same street. They work, play, get injured, over-eat, but they have an incredible inner burning desire to achieve the highest level of performance with their precious bodies. 

What does it come down to? It’s simple, really.

The main thrust: You have to want it really, really bad. You have to have an unending focus that carries you for years. You don’t make excuses, and you see time as precious, almost your foe. You ahve to see food as fuel, and time as finite. Age is something you work against, and you know that yesterday’s training is adding into the pool of potential today…and on it goes.

As I train for my own little Figure competition this fall, I’m doing my own mini version of an Olympics…I train 60-90 minutes a day on weights, always re-assessing, always trying to do one better. I do 1-2 hours of cardio. I measure and weigh all my food. I pay strict attention to supplements, and I try to keep my stress to a minimum. I pose, I walk, I flex, and I envision the stage, the lights, the crowd, every night. And my eating is exceptional. Really exceptional. I have to manage injuries, over-training, immune system lulls, and hormone fluctuations. All the while, I run a full-time training business, I tend to my special needs son, my hubby, my 4 animals and my acre-homestead. 

It’s all about what you want, and what you’re willing to do to get it. You have to learn to compromise on certain things  – like making time to train or not having that glass of wine at night – to ensure you can get there, and to make yourself proud. I think what makes me acutely aware of it all is my son who has no use of his arms and legs, and my own experience of living in a body that was immersed in pain for years, and I could find no way out for a very long time. It makes you appreciate things more.

I gotta go…my favourite part of the Olympics is on, when we see the winners on the podium, and their faces just light up like candles as their names are called one by one…

It always makes me cry!

Karen

Sports Supplements Seminar: Want to know what kind of Sports Supplements you should be taking? Join me at Lifestyles Select in Sidney, BC on Tuesday,  July 31st from 5:30-6:30 for Women and Sports Supplements: What we need and why! Handouts included! $10 fee. RSVP to karen@mccoyfitness.ca! Only 10 seats!

Last week, I lectured to a group of at-risk youth from the Spectrum Youth Project / Job Search Program in Victoria, BC (pictured below)

WIth this group, I always teach the importance of clean eating first and foremost (exercise can wait…for now), but many are resistant to giving anything up. But at the end of 2 days of lecturing, the message remains: you’ve gotta give something up to get something else… you’ve gotta learn to compromise with your eating. 

Participants always lament whenI say cheese is fattening, late night eating is a no-no, you gotta watch the carbs, and oh, that alcohol adds up…somewhere. “But I love cheese…I love my beer…I can’t live without sandwiches….”. The choice is always there, but if we don’t change something up, then nothing can shift.

Life is all about choices. It’s also in how you look at things. Lean people make compromises all the time…painful at first, but eventually these become a new eating lifestyle, and this newer version takes over. Then the results follow: more energy, nicer fitting clothes, and these rewards far outweigh what you had to give up. 

Life is a compromise…you can’t spend your entire paycheck on designer clothes every week or you couldn’t pay your rent or mortgage, right? It’s the same with food: determine what you want, then make just one compromise and see how it goes.

Start somewhere. View compromise as a trade-off to a healthy life. Pretty soon the compromise will be a distant memory and you will see it as simply the best thing you ever did. But remember the golden rule: If you keep doing what you’re doing, you get what you get: you will look and feel the way you do now. But if you change it up, compromise on something, let something go, then you’ll shift toward being lean, energized, and healthy for life!

It’s really as simple as that!

Karen

Sports Supplements Seminar: Want to know what kind of Sports Supplements you should be taking? Join me at Lifestyles Select in Sidney, BC on Tuesday,  July 31st from 5:30-6:30 for Women and Sports Supplements: What we need and why! Handouts included! $10 fee. RSVP to karen@mccoyfitness.ca! Only 10 seats!

Yesterday, my son and I walked into town for our daily excursion, a 6 km walk. Along the way, we met a lady out walking. “Good for you,” she said, “Walking is my chosen exercise, I do it every day.” Hmmm…I thought.

Then just last week, I saw a former training client at lunch, and he announced that he had found the perfect exercise regime for him: walking. “I try to do about 7 km a day,” he said. “No more gym stuff for me.”

I recall another lady that was quizzing me about the need for formal training. “I get enough exercise chasing after my grandkids,” she said. “I don’t need anything more.” Yes you do. Really, think about it.

See here’s the thing (and I’ll probably get tons of emails for this….), walking is not exercise. Walking, in my books, is an activity. Exercise is when we train our bodies in a structured environment to attain a higher level of fitness and health. Activity, is, well, the other stuff that we’re supposed to do on a regular basis, like, well, walking.

See here’s the rub: when we look at walking as something out of the ordinary, then we’re saying that the norm is to be sedentary, when in fact, walking (and moving in general) is supposed to be the norm. And other things, like cutting the lawn, power washing or spring cleaning…these too are norms, things we are supposed to do in our daily lives.

Yes, I think walking is very worthwhile, and I do it every day with my dog (good thing about having a dog!), but I don’t factor that into my daily exercise regime. After our 6 km walk, I still did my 30 minutes of high impact cardio, then a 45 minute gym routine. Now I know not everyone is into physique training like me, but you don’t have to be. I always say, change your thinking, change your body…and your life. 

See you on the walking path!

Karen

PS – NEW CLASS!: I’m teaching a NEW Women on Weights class at PAK Fitness (formerly the Bodybarn). This class, and my regular Lift n’ Lose at Panorama are the only 2 group classes I’m teaching in 2012, limited seats, so sign up soon! September is closer than you think! CLICK HERE!