Tonight I will be celebrating the end of dry January and a 28 day challenge. I signed up for the challenge before Christmas as I was feeling that I needed to give my training a bit of a kick up the backside. I was slowly gaining weight and the body that I saw in the mirror was not the one I had pre open heart surgery. Not surprising as a side effect of the medication I am on is a slowing of my metabolism. But I’m determined not to give into it.Now I have to confess that although it was a challenge I never saw it as such. I would be required to do 6 training sessions a week, I was already doing 5. And a high protein, low carb diet. I lost a lot of weight in 2014 on a low carb diet and have followed the same principles ever since. So that wasn’t going to be too bad.

So why when I was two weeks in was I questioning my ability to complete it. Fortunately I got a huge amount of encouragement from my fellow ‘challengers’ and I was able to talk through my wobble with my personal trainer. Now I know that there will be a view that questions my sanity. Why would I put myself through something like this if it was making me unhappy. Why didn’t I just call it a day? I don’t know. I just knew that I needed to get through it. And get through it well. Which I did. I lost weight. Only 2.3 kgs, which is 5lbs in old money, but not bad given the medication I am on. And the scales are a fairly poor assessment of progress when one of the objectives is to build muscle. More importantly I lost 4.5 cm from my upper waist, 1 cm from my lower waist and 2.5cm from my hips. And I got stronger. At the start of the challenge I was doing lunges with 12.5kg dumbells which had increased to 17.5 kg by the end. So why was it such a struggle?

I have concluded that there was a number of reasons, physical and mental.

Firstly, during the first two weeks of the challenge it was cold. On one occasion it was -2 in the gym. Now I have trained in all weathers and much prefer the cold than the heat but not where barbells and dumbbells are concerned. It feels as if you are holding onto blocks of ice even when wearing two pairs of gloves. And when my arthritic fingers get cold they are painful. On more than one occasion I just felt like crying with the pain. Secondly, the programme included one rest/recovery day per week. I usually have two and the loss of one of these was a step too far for my 58-year-old body. As I have said many times, us oldies can train as hard as any 20/30-year-old but need more time to recover. I
have just read a fascinating book ‘Age is Just a Number’ by Charles Eugster. Charles decided at the age of 83 that he wanted a beach body to attract a 70 something year old woman. His trainer put together a training programme for him that included three days of recovery after each training session. He got his beach body. I’m not sure whether he got the woman but it is an excellent example of what can be achieved at any age but adjustments do need to be made.
As with a lot of challenging situations it is often mind over matter and is often where you learn more about yourself. Bizarrely I concluded that where training is concerned I don’t like knowing in advance what I am going to do. So having a 4 week progressive training programme which dictated the exercise, the repetitions and the sets just threw me. I like turning up, being told what to do, doing it, job done. I told you it was bizarre.

Anyway it is over. I got through it. Would I do it again? Maybe. But I will taking the temperature of the dumbbells first.