FITNESS Make me hot update 2.
Let’s hear it for the boys! It’s been eight weeks since eight lads started their personal journey to look, feel and function better and with the results he’s seeing, coach Andrew Greig has every reason to be proud.
The guys are looking great. What’s more, they survived the holiday season intact – most of them actually stuck to their eating and exercise. Just goes to show what can happen when you’re motivated to look good for the ‘after’ photos! By week eight, it’s actually addictive working out the right way.
Each week we have an hour webinar, which has been fun as it’s fully interactive and gives everyone a chance to add something no matter where they are or what they’ve achieved. We also have personal Skype coaching calls each fortnight to check on individual progress, overcome problems and make adjustments where needed.
The real key to success in any healthy living program is exactly what the guys have been doing from day one (which may or may not be a result of my constant hounding): tracking.
They know what constitutes a quality meal (which I’ve shared here), so all they need to do is track when they have one. Hopefully that percentage of their total meals increases each week. They all have workout programs, ranging from four to five days per week, of weights and cardio. They must record the weights and reps used for each exercise, so that not only can I track what they’re doing, but they can push themselves to achieve more in the short time they’re at the gym each week. So it is the numbers – of quality meals each day, amount of weight lifted and how many times – that show exactly how these guys are making serious progress.
Each member of our far flung team is facing his own wins and losses, but is also getting a little stronger and learning each new week. I’m thrilled to see how far each of them take it by week 12!
STORIES FROM THE CHALLENGE
It’s all starting to come out now: tales of what it’s been like for each of our entrants. We’ve had one casualty: online entrant Tyrone, 47, from New York was assigned to jury duty and full-time work and couldn’t see himself being able to commit.
Gareth has been adjusting to ex-pat life in China and has had a world of issues. First of all, finding reliable sources of meat and seafood. When that failed, he got food poisoning (one way to lose weight fast!) and followed that up with the flu. He’s also had to start going to the gym for the first time.
Craig has, so far, overcome his love affair with gelato and alcohol and has been almost without either for eight weeks. Most recently, he injured his shoulder running (probably over-enthusiastically) but he’s on the mend and back lifting weights.
Bill doesn’t seem to stop travelling around Australia from his base in Melbourne, then works almost every night which means he has to deal with late evenings and the double temptations of booze and fried chicken Parmigiana. He tells me he’s fine and posts a lot of photos of mangoes, so I don’t worry.
Josh is keeping it cool in Toronto (at 20 below zero) and is powering through his program. He did get upset when I attended the wedding of two of his friends in the Hunter Valley, so I made sure to eat double wedding cake just for him.
Zack and Kevin (two of our online entrants) have been travelling the entire eight weeks. While Kevin has been keeping it real with gym workouts in the US cities he’s visited, Zack dropped off the digital face of the earth in both regional South Africa and during a
holiday on the Red Sea in Egypt. He was left to determine what traditional South African foods were considered part of his plan (vodka factored in somewhat more than I would have hoped). Lastly, Queensland’s Marc faced exams and
working double-shifts over the holidays. He started 2014 feeling like he’d gone backwards and lost weight, but we got him back on track and new healthy eating habits under his belt for the final four weeks. 12 weeks is a long time to have to implement something new each week. In fact, when it comes to changing behaviours and habits, humans are more successful changing only one major aspect at a time. That’s why, early on, we set the groundwork for expectation on eating and workouts, and then only make little adjustments to those two things as we go forward. Kind of like firing a rocket into outer space: make sure it’s packed with all the right things and heading in the right direction when you aim it, because all you can do after it’s launched is make minor course corrections. It’s too hard having to concentrate on a whole new idea or plan every week.
Early on we laid down our nutrition and exercise guidelines. Central to this was our initial instruction:
“If you’re already eating or exercising in a way that is working for you (delivering all your body composition, feeling, and energy goals), keep doing it. If your eating habits aren’t helping you reach those goals, be open to the idea that something needs to change.”
Each one of us are different and respond differently to the exact same diet or exercise plan. There’s a certain dysfunction to scientific studies involving things like weight loss or muscle gain: every study has what are called outliers. These are the folks who, when everyone else on average is losing fat, they are gaining; or when everyone else is getting bigger, they are staying the same size. No one, least of all me, can predict your body’s response to a certain diet or exercise plan. You could get the average result, close to it, or be a total outlier.
Don’t get me wrong, being an outlier can be good if you respond really well to a program. However, statistics and life tell us there will be people who don’t respond or go backwards when everyone else is going forward. It doesn’t mean that it’s a terrible program or diet, it just means there might be something out there better for you.
If you’ve already experimented and found a diet that works for you, stick to it. But, by and large, looking at Western society, most people’s diets aren’t working for them to be lean and have loads of energy. When it came to our MMH guys, not one could tell me they had a perfect diet. So we went to the Make Me Hot nutrition guide and started there.