GYM SCENE GREEN SCENE
PLEASE indulge me in making this week’s column a little more “Gym Scene” than “Green Scene”. On Tuesday I qualified as a level 3 personal trainer after studying in Usk College since September last year. It has been an incredible journey, and even though I have completed parachute jumps, wing walks and fire walks, it was by far and away the most nerve-racking thing I have done for a very long time. Enrolling was a challenge in itself – I recall not being able to complete and submit an online form and being convinced it was a test that I had already failed and would therefore be refused entry to the course.
That experience and a whole lot of others were only made surmountable by the incredible staff and tutors. As well as a brand new shiny qualification, I also have a new-found respect and regard for teachers. The right ones can change your life in quite spectacular ways.
As well as absorbing anatomy and physiology and nutrition like a sponge, I have had great fun and even better results by putting it all into practice. My A&P understanding has meant that I have been more respectful of my body in work, especially when heavy lifting. But the real eye-opener has been the nutritional information. Most of us are far more careful what fuel we put in our cars than what we put in our body, because our bodies are far more tolerant – to a point. I finally realised the harsh truth that I can’t keep eating like I did when I was in my 20s and 30s and expect to stay lean. My metabolism has changed, life has changed and habits must change accordingly.
Although I am still very active and physical, it is not to the extent that I was in my younger years. That couldn’t possibly have been sustained. I was like Road Runner – now I’m often more like road kill, flat out.
Carl Jung said that most of our “midlife” crises happen because we try to live the second part of our life like we lived the first. It is impossible to do. Like many, I simply blamed the menopause for my weight gain, (and a lot of other things) rather than a lack of necessary knowledge.
Weight gain is predominantly (not always) caused by more calories going in than are being burned. However, I wasn’t actually consuming enough calories so my body was hanging onto what “fat” it could as it thought I was “starving”. Drama Queen body! I had to totally revise my eating habits but it has been worth it – we’ve dropped the drama and are enjoying the karma.
Most weight gain is scarily stealthy. A gain of just 1 lb per week – little enough to be comfortably ignored – will result in almost a
stone gained in just three months. I went up to a size 12 during the menopause, and borrowed clothes from a friend as I absolutely refused to buy that size. It may not seem a “huge” size to many but I have always been a 6/8 and so that was up by 2/3 sizes. It’s all relative.
I ricocheted between being angry with myself, angry about the injustice of it all, guilty for being so self-obsessed and just got too tired to really address any of it properly.
What I learned in college changed that. Calories are actually interesting things – not to be feared or resented. And knowledge is power – it is so underrated. Knowledge about anything – keep learning, stay inquisitive, it’s so important.