My 10-Week Challenge | Week 2 Status & Struggles

The past week has been a very challenging time for me. I actually considered taking a full break from all social media for a few weeks, but decided against it because I feel I owe it to everyone to share my struggles, too. Even though I’m in a better place now than I was 7 years ago, I still stumble and fall from time to time, but there’s a lesson to be learned from every bump on the road and I want to share that all of that with you guys! Nobody has it 100% together and the more transparent we can be about our struggles, the easier it is for others to understand and to ask for help if it’s necessary.

I’m not struggling because of the diet and training, but because it’s been adding to my stress as well. I’ve just been under a lot of pressure lately and had many things to deal with outside of this 10-week project. As you may know, I’ve been struggling with crippling stress and anxiety in the past. (If you’d like to know more you can read My Story: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3) And for some reason, I’ve been very sensitive this week, which means it takes very little to make me anxious or sad. It’s just been tough handling everything I normally deal with, but I’ve done it and I’m going to keep doing it to the best of my ability. I’m going to be okay, and hopefully, this week will be better.

To switch off a bit, I went out for dinner with my boyfriend on Monday night, and I’ve allowed myself some freedom with my diet here and there during the week. Weight loss is mainly achieved in the kitchen and diet is SO IMPORTANT, especially when you are busy like me and don’t have a lot of time to train, so I knew this was going to set me back a bit. I know I need to stick to my exercise when I feel like this and I never skip a workout, but instead of going beast mode I train lighter, and on one occasion I did swap a weight session for a walk. All these factors mean I haven’t lost any weight this week, instead, I’ve actually gained 0,2 kg.

After 2 weeks (19.10.18): 78,9 kg.

After 1 week (12.10.18): 78,7 kg.

I don’t see any difference in the pictures and I choose to see this week results as maintaining status quo. I know the reason for my lack of progress so I’m not panicking. Instead, I’m using it as an opportunity to refocus my energy for the coming week. I know what I need to do, and it’s good to see that my overall consistency with the gym and diet is paying off. I had a really challenging week mentally but without messing up all the progress I made in the previous week.

Consistency over Intensity is one of the things I always preach to my clients, because it’s much more important to have a realistic plan and follow it week after week, compared to going too hard in the beginning, only to burn out and take a break. Maybe I should do a more comprehensive blog about this topic, what do you think?