Hi There,
Welcome back to Kat & Tshepi blog. We hope it was a good week for you and you are looking forward to the next one. Our week was fair but tough. It was fair because it did not yield any unexpected curve balls on our plans and routines, there were no hair-raising eventualities of life in work, family life and in general, this is always a welcomed gift. It was tough though to face the scale every morning, full of expectations of what should be the reading on the scale, expecting validation of the work we have put in the day before, but the scale was really not abiding by our expectations.
In this week, we continued to execute our plan for the 6-months weight loss and fitness journey. Training went as planned, it is a great feeling when we get to a point where training does not feel like a chore and a burden, but an enjoyable habit that re-ignite a sense of purpose and a feeling of achievement. We found ourselves just waking up and training and not breaking much sweat over the difficulty of doing it, we acknowledged the difficulty of doing it and our human innate resistance to doing difficult things, but we kept going each day and managed to clock 9 workout sessions this week. It is a satisfying feeling when we think about it.
Our food preparation was perfect this week, we ensured that we were never short of foods that are on our meal plan and ate according to that plan except for a few derailments where we fell victim to the temptations of snacks. We also realized that the more we practice tracking and logging our calories the more we are learning about the macronutrients we might not be paying attention to and which foods we should be adding or reducing. An example is protein, Kat realized that he is over exceeding his intake of protein and Tshepi is constantly missing her target of protein, this then suggests that Kat needs to reduce his protein intake whilst Tshepi needs to increase her protein intake.
Although our training, food preparation and calorie tracking is going well, we are not losing weight as we expected, the numbers on the scales are not going in our favor. In this week, we found ourselves flabbergasted by the lack of progress despite the hard work we are putting in, and we were impatiently wondering and asking ourselves probing questions as to why our efforts are not working out. Is it the effects of the changing season as we are seeing the dawn of winter? Is it a welcomed addition of new muscles mass as we are doing resistance training? Is our metabolism slowing down to counter the effects of being in a calorie deficit? Are we consuming more calories that we are accounting for? Did we hit a weight loss plateau again?. All these questions are valid and solicit insights that can allow us to make progress going further, but the impatience we have when we reflect on these probing questions is burdensome. This leads us to this week’s topic “Patience”.
1. Patience
“Patience is a virtue”, one would say. But this virtue is much difficult than the simplicity of its utterance. Patience is that period where one is waiting for some form of feedback, results and directive to proceed. It is when one is clinging to hope for surviving the current, it brings with it uncertainty, discomfort and urging spontaneity which can be negative or positive. As a virtue, patience requires faith, a strong belief that things will work out in ones favor no matter the outcome. Patience is a virtue because it provides an opportunity for reflection, for gratitude and self-love. In our fast paced, personal goals chasing world, we find patience to be an unwelcomed eventuality that needs to be avoided. Stand in queue, and five minute will not go by without someone having to complain about the poor service of the discomfort of just waiting 🙂 , we constantly have things to do and places to go and waiting is not one of them.
A lack of patience denies us an opportunity to be in the present, to be aware of and appreciate the beauty of our surroundings, the feelings of gratitude for all the blessings that one has and the impossible feats that one has achieved. A lack of patience allows one to forego an opportunity to reflect on their current status, an opportunity to perceive the clues, the insights and the solutions that one is looking for because the focus is always on the future, the next thing to do. It makes sense why patience is a virtue, it gives one an opportunity to be in the present, to live life now whilst waiting for the future, and what could be more joyful than living.
In weight loss and fitness, the sentiments on patience are the same. We get frustrated and become impatient when we are not losing the desired weight, when we are not training intensely enough as planned, when we are not reaching our future goals now. In this state of impatience, we miss the opportunity to be grateful for the progress we have made so far, we miss the simple clues of the small things we might be missing to make progress, we start not to enjoy the process and this adds resistance to our efforts. It is no longer exciting to think about the desired outcome, the fun factor of the current activities weans down and the focal point becomes the current temporary failures and the subsequent pending overall future failure.
But if one really takes time to allow patience to rule, a new perspective will emerge on the goals. One will be able to appreciate the progress made so far, the fitness level accomplished, the realized health improvements, the improvement is self-confidence and self-esteem. And these benefits are in the present and are readily available to be enjoyed now whilst the solutions for the current challenges are brewing and hovering in search of a landing pad….and they will land at the right time, that time when patience has cleared the solutions for a safe landing.
That’s it for this week, It is clear that on our weight loss and fitness journey, especially currently when the weight loss is not going according to plan, we need to learn to be patient with ourselves and our situation, be kind to ourselves and each other, and most importantly live now and enjoy the benefits accomplished so far. In the coming week, it will be Kat’s birthday. We will be celebrating his birthday, we have no choice but to loosen up the chains of caloric deficit on the day and enjoy life ,hopefully responsibly 🙂 . Until next week, stay blessed.
Kat & Tshepi
Kat & Tshepi 