Mary’s school is going to hold a beauty contest in 6 months. In order to prevail, Mary carries out her ambitious fitting project. She wakes up everyday at 6 to run 5 kilometers before school, rain or shine, even on holidays. Then she would take an egg and a sugar-free soy milk as breakfast. After class she would go to the gym to do some weight trainings: biceps, triceps, latissimus dorsi, quadriceps, abdominals…etc, sweating all over and carving the shapes of her muscles. For dinner she would take banana and sugar-free soy milk again.
“ Gosh I am beat. Run the 5k in the morning then the tricep-drill in the afternoon. How am I still standing!?”
“ Sugar-free soy milk tastes like shxt with that awful stinky smell. I feel so hungry and dizzy eating only eggs and bananas during classes. Sometimes I can feel my heart beating so fast.”
“ I would have some desserts before at night but now I can’t have them to stay fit. It really gives me a sense of deprivation!”
Despite all those discomforts and disappointments, she carries out her drills for the next two months, however….
One day the weather is so cold and rainy, she doesn’t want to go jogging thinking that she would do weightlifting in the afternoon anyway.
The mid-term during noon is so hard that she can only complete half of it. On the edge of failing this subject, she doesn’t have the mood to go weightlifting, thinking that she would go jogging tomorrow morning.
At night she still feels bad, she then turns on the N channel to watch some dramas. She feels a bit odd enjoying dramas without food and drinks. She decides to indulge herself and get a pack of fried chickens.
That one day of indulgence develops into a 3-month-out-of-control.
Without a doubt she lost the competition.
Bob wants to gain female attractions by building good body shapes. He has a friend, Mike, who has been weightlifting for years. Mike then takes Bob to train along with him.
Mike is way stronger than Bob, that makes Bob a little bit envy. Bob wants to catch up with Mike quickly, to be as strong as Mike.
One day Mike is occupied so Bob goes to the gym alone. Without his friend‘s supervision, he takes the dumbbells three times heavier than usual, in the hope to gain strength more quickly. Within 5 minutes Bob is sweating all over with severe pain passing through his biceps, deltoids, pectoralis, yet he continues his drill, immersed in the illusion of adrenaline and thirst of strength.
“Snap”
There goes down his biceps, torn apart.
We can get some inspirations from the two stories above:
1. Eating less, moving more is essential, however the goal should be set alongside humanity. We’re not Superman and we don’t have to be.
2. Add some flexibility to your training project. Take one day off every week and eat whatever you like for 1~2 meals. This will help ease your stress.
3. Try not to bind your diet with your own frustrations or satisfactions. Emotional eating can result in enormous calories.
4. Your will is like a 600mL bottle of water. It’s a good metaphor that points out the importance of forming good habits. Forcing your will to carry out the project is hard. Following the habits you established is way easier.
5. Protein is low in calories yet high in satiety, and you can easily obtain eggs or soy milk in convenience stores. However when you cut down on your consumption, sometimes you would encounter hypoglycemia, which is a state of low blood sugar, including symptoms like dizziness, palpitation, sweating. If the condition is severe make sure to go to the doctors. If it’s mild, be sure to eat some energy bars or chocolates. They will raise your blood sugar and ease the symptoms.
6. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. For weightlifting amateurs, your stance and postures are way more important than the weight you are carrying. Muscles grow gradually when they are used to movements of the drill, then they are able to carry more weights to be more strengthened.
