Expectation VS Reality

Let's take a minute to talk about fitness expectations vs fitness reality. When you look at fitness magazines or fitness pages on social media you see a lot of photos like this one.

While it's an honorable goal to want to be the best you that you can possibly be, one should keep in mind that the athletes you see prepared especially for either for a competition or specifically for that photo shoot to look this way! We don't walk around looking like this all the time! (Of course there are genetically gifted folks who can walk around jacked and shredded all the time, but let's just assume you're normal folk like myself.) It's not healthy to maintain such a low body fat percentage. And in all honesty, you don't feel very good when you're this lean.

Of course, everyone is different and their experiences with being extremely lean will vary. Let's just go over a few common side effects (side effects that I have experienced as do many other athletes) of being so lean: lack of sex drive, loss of menstrual cycle, brain fog or feeling mentally drained, exhaustion, constant hunger, feeling weak, feeling emotionally unstable, irritability, and more. You get the picture. Sounds great, right?  Not so much.  There is something to be said for a little bit of body fat!

Remember that what you see in magazines is not always reality. Remember that although this look is attainable, it is not realistically maintainable. And of course remember to love your body at  every stage of your personal fitness journey!

Stats

I met with my coach, Jerry, on Wednesday.  I meet with him two to four times a month to check in and make sure I'm on track. I knew I'd made some gains towards leaning out, but was pleasantly surprised at how much I'd accomplished in the last two weeks! I had been at a bit of a plateau after putting on some fat this summer (Hot dogs and marshmallows are delicious, just in case you didn't know that!). 
I've had a really great training week, and have been able to push hard. I've also been very strict with my food intake and have followed my meal plans exactly.  Short term I'm looking forward to another hard push week next week and long term I'm looking forward to being able to add lean muscle mass over the next months!

Here's what my progress has looked like this fall:

August 19
Weight 144.4
Body fat 13%

September 2
Weight 143.4
Body fat 12.5%

September 15
Weight 144.6
Body fat 12.8%

September 30
Weight 142.6
Body fat 11.8%

October 14
Weight 140.8
Body fat 10.8%

On Fridays, we flex!