I know that feeling well.
Things are not going as well as you would like training wise, maybe your garmin is telling you lies, maybe the scales are just having a laugh.
What do you do?
It’s obvious isn’t it?
You need to find a way of fitting in some more training and eating less cake.
It all goes well for a while but then progress stops again.
What do you do?
Train some more, eat even less cake.
But how much more of this can you take?
It can feel almost as if it is taking over your life – that’s OK sometimes but not when there are other ball to juggle, “the kids” and “the job”.
Triathlon is of course a hobby and there are only so many hours in a day and everyone likes a bit of cake (normal people anyway).
I know this cycle all too well:
The train more eat less cycle.
The problem is it pays off short term and then it leads to implosion of some sort.
- You run out of energy
- You feel drained
- You miss a session here and there
- You stop losing weight
- You maybe even start gaining weight
And then…….
BOOM – you either get ill or injured and need to take some time out.
This has happened to me many times.
Like some of you I am a victim of my own enthusiasm, my own desire to never say STOP!
You know where I am going with this………..
The answer is NOT to do more and NOT to eat less.
The answer is:
- Have a training plan set out at the beginning of the year which factors in recovery.
- Eat enough – Remember you are an athlete not a sedentary member of the public who can slash calories to 1200 a day – YOU CANT.
Both of these points though require some confidence – confidence that the process will work.
They also require patience – the slower things happen, the more likely they are to stick.
You don’t want flash in the pan success – short term doesn’t work in this game.
So ask yourself this:
“Are you confident in your plan?”
Do you believe it 100%?
If you do you will be fine but this tends to only come from experience
or
From buying that experience off people because believe you me, that experience is like GOLD – probably worth even more to you, its the difference between success and failure.
Thats why clever people have coaches – even me and I am a coach, because I know sometimes I can’t trust the voices in my head.
The ones that say:
“Do more, eat less”
If this sounds familiar to you my book will help – The Triathlon Nutrition Code
http://www.nutri-tri.com/e-books/
It will help you set out a plan for your nutrition and mean you don’t need to go hungry because going hungry does not make you faster.
Losing fat makes you faster but that does not mean starving yourself.
This book teaches you how to nourish your body and to optimise your health and performance – it’s not about doing without but actually the opposite and the best thing…….
This is where you get the REAL SUCCESS and more importantly HAPPINESS.
Oh and it has healthy cake recipes!
Go and get it:
http://www.nutri-tri.com/e-books/
Jamie “Less is More” Leighton
P.S – On this subject – A video I made about why athletes don’t diet –https://youtu.be/X5A2bqtkFPc