Week 16 - Crossing the Line

It was always going to happen eventually.  No weigh in day loss today.  An 800 gram gain on the day.  On a brighter note, my weekly average weight was 400 grams lighter.  It might appear to be an easy thing to say after that result, but, I really am coming around to the weekly average weight as being the measure of choice.  On competition weigh in day, the figure on the scales at that point in time is crucial.  Prior to that the weekly average of weight taken every day really does seem to reflect the efforts of the week as a whole much better.

So what was so different about this week?  I've been crook.  Had a head cold that has meant I have only trained twice in the week and even then, not at 100%.  The biggest difference on weigh in day was not training fully on the day before.  That usually tips the scales dramatically, but, also directly impacts the average for the week, albeit in the right direction.  In some ways I think it is good practice for if\when I might have to 'make weight' for a competition.  Although I think I would use other methods beside exercise to extract water from myself before rehydrating for the actual competition.  No use expending unnecessary energy that could be used in a bout.  That however, is a completely different blog post!

The chart below tracks my weekly weight change since I started 16 weeks ago.  The purple line denotes a 1kg loss for each week as a goal, the blue line is my weigh in day weight and the green line that starts a couple of weeks in is the average of my daily weight checks for that week.  It's an updated version of the one I posted in Week 7.  You can see that this week saw that average weight match up exactly with the 1kg per week point.  Hence that line has been crossed.  I have been somewhat pleasantly surprised that it has taken this long in all honesty.

I knew this day would come and I would have to reassess my goals.  I think it is pretty healthy to revisit goals periodically and that there are obvious checkpoints that present themselves along the way.  That's not just in weight loss of course.  It goes for all kinds of endeavours.  The question of mind does also pop up.  Now that the 'easy' losses are undeniably over, do I have the mental strength to push on?

Something I spoke about a couple of weeks ago in my Biggest Guy in the Room post, was the psychology of turning up the difficulty on training by not being able to use muscle over technique.  The underlying theme is really what will be the reaction to things generally becoming more difficult.  When it comes to going from mediocre to good, or from good to great, are you willing to do the extra hard work that it takes?

The extra work on the weight loss front means putting more in on the training front.  But vastly more important than that in terms of results on the scales for me is really tightening up what goes in my mouth.  To this point I have been good with my food intake.  Quite good really.  But perhaps not good enough to get where I ultimately want to be.  To maximise the outcomes of weight loss from here and by that I mean lose fat and not muscle, even if it is at a goal of 500 grams (or less) per week, means getting a little more obsessed about the food I put on my plate and it is more than just counting calories.  It's making the calories count!  I know I could actually be consuming a higher volume of food if I made more intelligent food choices for my daily calorie allotment.  That has always been my biggest issue though.  I don't drink.  I don't smoke.  I don't gamble or do anything that I think can be considered one of the more common social 'vices' (I won't profess to being an angel though).  My problem has always been just liking to eat and I think this will be harder work for me than nearly anything that I do on the training front.

I like to think of doing well in this process as being a metaphor for success in most endeavours in life.  Whatever you are trying to achieve great things in is going to be hard work.  Achievement of great things is measured on an individual basis. There is no challenge in eating healthy for some people.  They might have a ridiculous metabolism and can eat anything they want with no apparent impact.  Or they may just be able to say no to things that aren't great for them in the same way I can with cigarettes for example.  Not smoking doesn't phase me in the slightest and I have never been interested in even taking a single puff.  For someone that loves to smoke, not doing so would be an entirely different proposition.  For many I suspect that quitting smoking is tantamount to achieving greatness.  For others, it might be going back to school and learning to read (how much I admire someone who does that).  For me it will be not only meeting the strict dietary requirements of what it will take to make light heavyweight, but, more so making that a habitual change for life.  While Martial Arts is the vehicle for change, the ultimate greatness of this journey will be where I am at in a few years time.  Will I still be living lightheavy?  Do I have what it takes?  Let's find out shall we...