Four Weeks and Counting

by Rebecca Maslin

I am currently winding down after the Easter weekend and have had the pleasure of some much needed rest, a few days off work and time spent catching up with family and friends. Despite thoroughly enjoying this down time, the one thing that has remained consistent is my nutrition plan (GASP, I didn’t even have an Easter egg!) and training schedule.

My reasons for this are that I am four weeks away from a big goal I set myself at the start of 2012, and I am feeling more motivated now to achieve that goal - looking what I hope to be my best shape and condition yet. It was one of my New Year’s Resolutions to have fitness photos taken by a professional photographer this year and to pursue the path of an aspiring fitness model. The date of my photo shoot is Saturday 5^th May and rather than slowing down I am only building momentum and enthusiasm as the date draws closer.

What has compelled me to share the last four weeks of my training, food plans and preparation with Revolution was my own personal experience and feedback from clients who also underwent the Revolution 12 Week Transformation. What I found (and this is not the case with everyone) is that as they go further into the 12 week plan and their goal draws closer, they are often side tracked and tired after dieting, watching their food and making exercise commitments for 8 weeks. Clients can at times lose motivation or lack inspiration, miss socialising and drinking alcohol/eating out regularly and revert back to old habits that they feel comfortable with.

What has always amazed me is knowing how some people have trained in the gym and committed themselves to following a food plan, but in the last few weeks before their 12^th week measurements or an important date, where they should be pushing harder and giving a little more of themselves to their goal, they seem to fall off the wagon and become disinterested with very little justification the majority of the time.

This is something I hope to shed some light on and to the best of my ability demonstrate how the final weeks leading up to a big goal - be it an important social occasion such as a wedding, beach holiday or the last push in your Revolution 12 Week Transformation - should be executed.

There are a few things I would like to share with you in this first blog post so that you know where I currently am with my training and diet.

I have followed the exercise principles of the Revolution 12 Week Transformation. Once I felt my body was conditioned and ready, I followed a five day split lifting weights since the start of 2012. My split was training legs twice a week in a high rep range and then my upper body split was chest and triceps, back and biceps and shoulders and abs - lifting as heavy as I could without injury and maintaining correct form for 10reps each set. I also had a boxing/cardio circuit with Ryan weekly to maintain a base level of fitness. The muscle definition that I am starting to see now is a result of my training with weights prior to circuits which is the training phase I am now in, leading up to 5^th May.

However, you cannot out train a bad diet and I have also been following a food plan in the last 8 weeks, and sticking to the main nutrition principles that Revolution advocate for fat loss. These include choosing complex carbohydrates throughout the day with my main meals, mainly oats and sweet potato with lots of leafy green vegetables, eating every few hours to keep my metabolism revving, choosing lean proteins such as white meat and fish, and especially choosing good quality fats in my diet such as almonds and walnuts, olive oil, flaxseed and egg yolks. I have eaten lean and clean foods (no non/low fat products - these are high sugar!) and for the last five weeks I have been booze free....this has been the hardest part of all of the above.

These last four weeks, I will be hitting weight and cardio circuits hard as well as including some steady state cardio work to expend additional calories. My diet will also be tightened up as I am now following a carb rotation plan. This is not a ‘no carb’ plan, but rather I vary the amount of carbs I eat depending on my training that day. For example, I eat more carbs on a day when I am doing leg circuits, as they require me to use up more energy so I will need extra fuel on these days.

The key point I want to get across is that I personally feel that I have done the hard part and broken the back of my goal. These last four weeks will be an education, as this is when I start to learn a little more about myself and how the body works, what it is capable of when pushed and diet tweaked and food plans adhered to. I know these next four weeks will fly by as quickly as the last 8 weeks, and I feel excited and incredibly determined to see through every workout and give 100% to seeing through my goal with success. I am hoping that Revolution clients will get a better understanding of how important the last four weeks leading up to a goal are, and that it should now be a snowball effect gathering pace rather than a slowing down mentality.

The picture below was taken on Friday 06 April. I am starting to slim down nicely, and as my body fat is decreasing more muscle tone is being revealed. I will be uploading another photo in a fortnight so you can see the progress. Please feel free to post any questions or approach me in the studio if you have any queries with your own nutrition or would like any more explanations from my blog.

Rebecca Maslin