From sick lean to healthy fit

When I first stepped in the weightlifting room, all I knew about the sport and the proper nutrition was...ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! I was like a butterfly in the garden, jumping from one flower to another-in my case from one machine to the other. I had no idea what I was doing-maybe just wasting some time, trying to fill a gap in my schedule ;).

Later on I had a PERSONAL TRAINER, or that's what I thought. Back then I tought he knew everything! But now, after I've read a bunch of books, thousands of articles and tried a lot of training and nutritional plans, I can not even dare call him PERSONAL TRAINER...maybe just a chatting buddy in the gym.

It is surprising how most of the coaches in a regular globo gym are there just to have a good chat with you. They are far from helping you reach your goals. They just make sure you won't be bored of the silence or bored of your thoughts while working out!

I see them all the time! People that claim to know everything about the sport, but in reality are just fooling people that are the same as I was at the beginning!
Most of these "coaches" are people that have read a couple articles about some famous bodybuilder, picked up his way of working out and applying it to everybody that goes through the door of the globo gym! It doesn't matter who you are, what your goals are, if you are injured or healthy...you will all get the same training program and nutritional plan.

I am sick of hearing people that have heard only about bodybuilders and the way they train. That's cool! I respect bodybuilders but I refuse to accept that this is the only way you could get in shape! And did I just say in shape? I think that bodybuilders are far from being in shape and being fit.
Here’s a little secret that most won’t share but the ex figure competitor Erin Brown Seryak shared…"looking your best in the figure world means feeling your worst! If fitness is defined by your ability to safely and efficiently cope with the demands of a specific physical task, the only task that I was prepared to handle was taking a nap! I mean, I couldn’t even do a dead hang pull-up, but I was supposedly fit. If I had to run for my life I would probably collapse on the spot. But who cares? I looked good right?".

That is so true! When I used to follow bodybuilder's nutritional plans, I used to feel really weak, I was loosing weight but I never felt capable of doing half of the things I am able to do now. Besides that, when it comes to working out, I never truely felt pleasure doing a split and I never really got the results I expected. It seemed like I was "cursed" to be in an enchanted circle where you pretty much deprive yourself all the time, thinking about food all day long and doing the same split over and over again. What a life!

Erin back in the figure days

Besides most bodybuilders look good for a week or two after the competition and then they start bulking up. So what comes out is that you look good just part of the time and the rest you are bulking up and not looking as lean as you'd like to be.

Well you can solve that problem by engaging yourself in some kind of functional training and HEALTHY eating. Healthy doesn't mean depriving yourself so you will get lean. By working out the right way and eating healthy you set up the opportunity for your body to look the way you want it! In this case being lean is not the goal but just the consequence of eating healthy and working out functional.

Erin nowadays being healthy, fit and strong

Conventional wisdom tells us that the only way to become and stay lean is to lift light weights for a bunch of reps. This will get you those long, lean muscles that you’ve always wanted! What does that even mean anyway? It means you’ve been lied to! Lifting heavy weights has done more to improve my body composition than any other type of training I have EVER done in the past, and it almost seems like I don’t have to try. I am stronger, fitter and healthier. So don't be scared of the weights! Don't be scared to try a new approach! Yea, what the globo gym "coach" says might be right, but not for you, not for your goals!

Eating vs Starving

I was surfing in the internet when I found the pictures below. I find them to be really meaningful.

I think the pictures say it all! You know how when you are hungry and you go to the shop everything looks delicious. You are bifurcated between all the choices you have. And since it is really hard to just pick one, you get all of them( and usually you pick the most unhealthy once).

When you go to the shop and you are not straving you will make smarter food choices and you won't crave all the junk food that is out there.

It is the same with diets. If your diet resembles more photosyntheses, i.e. you are hardly eating...you are most likely to endure this for a couple days and then you will eat as much food as you can get.

But if you are eating a well balanced diet, that leaves you full and satisfied, and provides you all the nutrition your body needs, I can assure you that crappy food won't be a temptation anymore.

So instead of spending your life thinking about food, starving yourself to death and then overating just change your mindset! Change your diet! Get a TRUE healthy one. Start eating! Make better food choices and just enjoy it!