WEIGHT LOSS

in 18 months, i lost 10kgs. my secret? i didn’t intend to.

i always have mixed feelings about goal setting because when we set goals, we’re setting them from a position of deficiency. from a place of lacking. we’re here, but we want to be there. and so we concern ourselves with getting “there”.

the problem with this mentality is the energy it elicits. it’s negative. it’s deficient. it’s stressful. and as i mentioned in a former post about my weight, stress makes you retain weight, not lose it.

the problem with diets is they deal with the “how” and the “what” but they neglect to tackle the “why”. people know what they should be eating, people know they should be exercising, so why don’t they? it’s not from a lack of knowledge, it’s from a lack of understanding. understanding their “why”.

so the question i would ask anyone wanting to lose weight - when did you first notice you put on weight? what was going on in your life that might’ve contributed to the weight gain? and what are you emotionally holding on to that you can’t seem to let go of?

for me, it was soccer. it was the idea of “making it”. soccer consumed every thought. every decision. every ounce of my energy. and it was stressful. debilitating. limiting. once i let that go, i started listening to my body. i started paying attention to when i was actually hungry, not when i “thought” i should be eating. i questioned, “do i really want this?” and if the answer was yes, i’d eat it. if no, i wouldn’t.

i’m not trying to minimise weight loss, but i am trying to reduce the stress surrounding it. fancy diets don’t work, not because they’re fancy, but because they don’t deal with the root cause. answer the aforementioned questions and start listening to your body. start relieving your stress and i’m pretty confident the weight will start relieving you.

"STICKS AND STONES...

may break my bones but words will never hurt me.”

whoever came up with this phrase has obviously never truly lived. because reality is, words do hurt. and they hurt a lot.

something i really struggle with is mean people. people who say mean things with the specific intention of causing pain to others. i wholeheartedly understand hurt people hurt others, and their words are merely a projection of their inner pain, but that awareness doesn’t prevent you from internalising the sting in those words.

as my aunt said, someone can chop off your arm and be extremely apologetic for chopping off your arm, but at the end of the day, now you have no arm. words are no different. someone can lash out at you and be extremely apologetic, but the damage has already been done. those words, that energy, it exists in the universe now. and it’s an energy that isn’t serving, it’s an energy that is destructive.

just because you’re hurting, that doesn’t excuse you for hurting others. because within that hurt, you’re causing more hurt. words can be scarring. so next time you feel like giving a tongue lashing, stop. breathe. and ask yourself if what you’re about to say is helpful or harmful. use your words to serve, not destroy. choose words that heal, not harm. and remember, that other person? they’re a human too.

ATHLETE MASOCHISM

there’s a fine line between pushing yourself and pushing yourself too much. knowing when you’re doing the latter is often not as simple as it seems.

many of you following my posts have probably seen the hard work i’ve been putting in to come back from my surgery 8 weeks ago. i was hoping that by pushing my body, i could come back and close the gap between where my teammates were and where i would be.

but you can’t trick physiology. and overloading is a real thing. as athletes, there’s this hidden belief that unless your body is sore, you’re not working hard enough. but as my physio said to me, the goal is not to need “rest” days, the goal is to be able to exercise every day.

unfortunately, i retreated to former habits and i pushed my body probably a bit much. i was feeling tightness in my quad on monday, but i thought through rest, ice, beach therapy, and massage, that would resolve the problem. i was wrong.

i’m also human though. i got caught up in the hype of my “first game back” on friday. i ignored the warning signs and i traded short term glory for a longer term pain. there is a time and a place for this, but that time and place is usually during finals. not during season.

so any time you feel a niggle, listen to it. and don’t just listen by resting, listen by adjusting your workload. the quickest way is the long way - when you try to rush the process, something will always compensate. be patient, take your time, and take it easy. the game isn’t going anywhere.