All my life I’ve been
pretty aware of the fact that I have to eat healthy and stay fit to ensure I
stay more on the side of average sized girl than a baby elephant. I gain weight
very easily and anyone that knows me knows my weight fluctuates quite regularly
depending on my motivation, current situation and whether I’ve started a new “fitness
regime” or not. The approaching Christmas season is striking the fear of God
into me and making me want to stay in my own little cocoon in Abu Dhabi and not
bother returning home to cosy fires, Bailey’s coffees and all that I hold dear
in my life (Selection Boxes, Haribo, anything with carbs and Southern Comfort).
I’m usually very good
at motivating myself once I’ve committed to something. If I say I’ll do something,
in particular, if I’ve paid for it, I can motivate myself to follow through.
However, since taking the leap and moving my whole life to Abu Dhabi all I’ve
done is gain the “Abu Dhabi Stone” or so they call it. “They” being my predecessors
that also gained. As a result of this horrific weight gain I decided to take
action and I signed up to a Nutrition and Exercise Program. This is not the
first time I’ve done this and the first one, while it was, to be honest, quite
successful with regards weight loss and muscle building I knew there was more I
could have gained, or lost, from it had I being more committed. I’m easily distracted
by booze runs and FOMO plays a huge part in my life. So, the intention with
this sign up was to improve on my last one, to commit, follow through and reap
the rewards. I’m three weeks in to a four week plan and this has, devastatingly,
not occurred.
I can motivate
myself. I ENJOY healthy food. I like to feel in control with regards food and
exercise. I like a lot of exercise, in fact, I LOVE to go to some classes;
Spinning, Yoga, Pilates, any combination of weight resistance and cardio (apart
from Burpees, but who likes Burpees), cross fit, TRX and I adore a long walk
along the coast. I like the endorphins that are released post exercise and I
like the feeling of your body toning up slowly but surely. I’ve tried every
single exercise class and trend that’s out there and there’s very few I don’t
like. I love fruit. Stir fry is my favourite dinner. I find salads not
unbearable, depending on the ingredients.
But, here this is not
the case. I’m finding motivating myself to exercise nigh on impossible. Eating
healthy is a genuine pain in the neck and my heart is throbbing with self
loathing because I can’t seem to stick to anything and keep, to use a cliché, “falling
off the wagon”. So, on my way home from boot camp this morning I decided to
pinpoint the reasons I’m not enjoying my healthy lifestyle this time round.
This will not be a motivation post (that’s the next one) but it might also help
you pinpoint reasons you’re not staying on track.
Work.
I’m genuinely not
enjoying work. When I leave work, as a result of my hatred, all I want to do is
treat myself by having a cuppa and a biccie, a nice dinner and some a gorgeous
dessert. My favourite part of the day is coming home to the girls and having a
lovely cup of tea and a biscuit and dissecting your day. These girls can eat
biscuits with minimal effect but for me every biscuit I eat is another ripple
in my thigh. I feel that after a day of dealing with things and people I hate
that I deserve these treats and without these it makes the day very difficult
to get through and all of a sudden my job is ten times worse than it was
beforehand. If I’m not rewarding myself for getting through the day I simply
want to sleep to forget about it. Problematic on all sides.
Environment.
A lot of the
socialising we do here in Abu Dhabi is based entirely around and on food and
drink. Brunches are common weekend plans where you’re simply encouraged to eat
and drink as much as you can for a sum of money. Not conducive to a healthy
regime. The last few weekends have been a constant cycle of people going up to
Dubai for big weekend celebrations and with the Abu Dhabi GAA tournament coming
here, hundreds of Irish descended on our island and, let’s not lie, drank the
weekend away. I’ve avoided these two weekends and subsequently feel like a dry,
boring Granny and have made zero progress with my health and fitness desires.
Disaster.
Another factor in my
environment is my living space. When we arrived we were thrown into a villa
with a stranger and everyone crossed their fingers that they got along. I,
unfortunately, was not one of the lucky ones and this makes coming home, making
dinners, spending time in the kitchen consistently awkward.
I live in a suburb
outside of Abu Dhabi that is, simply, a desert. There is nothing. It’s a barren
land, pretty much. This, for someone that loves streets, exploring new places,
finding new spots to walk and taking advantage of “new sign up” free weeks in
yoga classes etc, is disastrous. To get anywhere, to any class, to anything
that is advantageous to a healthy regime I must find a partner (to cut the
price of the taxi), find a taxi, usually guide the taxi driver, pay for the
taxi and hope that it all works out. A
massive effort that a lot of the time does not reap big enough a reward for the
effort required.
Lack of results.
I stuck with this
nutrition and exercise program pretty well for the first two weeks and, yet,
there were no results to be seen. My gym buddy (something I would recommend
everyone should have when starting a new regime) managed to lose close to A
STONE on the first week with the juice diet section of the diet and I managed
to shift ZERO pounds. If that’s not disheartening I don’t know what is. I know,
I know, it’s not all about the figure on the scale but, really, for me, a lot
of it is.
Restriction.
I don’t know if it’s
just me or if this is common in the spoiled brats among the world but as soon
as I’m told I can’t have something, guess what, I NEED it in my life. As soon
as possible. I’m instantly tempted by everything and anything. I’m aware of how
close the shop is to me, how easy a delivery would be or how tasty a good piece
of toast feels. This diet is restrictive in the extreme so that every time I
eat ANYTHING I feel like I’m cheating and I’m carrying that guilt around with
me everywhere and, of course, the temptation is unbearable and my willpower
nowhere to be seen.
Discipline: the art of doing what you need to do regardless of whether you feel like doing it or not
There is not much I
can do about the above reasons, the point of this is that now I’m aware of what
my negative triggers are and when I’m feeling down, I know why and can turn to
something that makes me happier or motivates me, like tha VS fashion show? Waaaaaahhhh.
This is not meant to be a depressing post; simply if you’re also having trouble
it might assist in helping you see why. I promise one that will actually motivate
you is coming soon. Now that I’ve pinpointed the reasons I think are
restricting me I’m starting again. This time around, now that I know my
triggers I’m, hopefully, not going to let them affect me. Juicing is starting tomorrow
and I’m committing whole-heartedly until next Thursday and hopefully after I
will continue at least until I smell that Baileys Coffee when I land home ;)
Wish me luck
xo
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