Belinda Freeman: Week 5

...his name is gym.

I made a fatal mistake this weekend, I went to the supermarket midafternoon starving, having had the discipline to eat soup for lunch in a food hall and avoid Easter eggs last weekend I took one look at the hot cross buns in Spinneys and caved in. Afternoon tea with a toasted hot cross bun covered in melted butter paired with a hot cup of tea was too tempting for words. I ate one, with joy, read a magazine to let it digest and then took myself off to the confession box better known as the gym. Having allowed myself a treat from heaven it was time to work off my sins and build up a sweat as penance, admitting I was wrong and successfully righting my wrong by visiting the temple of fitness made me feel fabulous.

Alternative Therapy

A new word to enter my vocabulary for week 5 on this Aquarius Life Challenge is CARDIO, trying new things is all part of the new me and one area I am loving is listening to the advice of the dedicated professionals we have access to.

I have  never dabbled in any alternative medicine before but now I have a holistic therapist based in the Balance Spa, 3rd floor in the Oasis Center ( recommended by Urban Energy for doing the Body Analysis test) . My therapist was proud of my four week progress but he did not let me leave with a gold star, he told me my fat is going nowhere without cardio, honestly, for those who know me this will be no surprise, words like cardio, heart rate and incline etc are new to me,  you may laugh but I look at it another way, no one is stupid, just confused and unless you are educated in a specific subject and I am not educated in the language of fitness well not until now. It was time to work off that hot cross bun, I used my ipod to give me confidence and mask my ignorance, the gym was busy but being plugged into my music I avoided making eye contact with anyone which made me feel like I was in a comforting world of my own. Instead of just taking a half hour jog on a machine which I have done about 5 times since I left school I felt my urban energy trainer Fiona in the back of my head saying “come on Belinda, push yourself, build a sweat get your heard rate up to 140”. With the music blaring I programmed the machine to Cardio, pushed myself until my heart rate hit 140 and proudly felt the sweat. After that I moved around the gym trying different machines, carefully studying the pictures on each separate machine so I would not make a fool of myself. I set the weights and pumped my arms for 40 reps minimum, as that's what Fiona would expect of me, if I could do more I did but some moves are not so easy. Once again I felt a new joy that I had managed to overcome my fear of entering a gym, this was so satisfying and fun. my new man Gym will be seeing a lot more of me :0)

NLP is the way forward

NLP stands for neuro linguistic programming, if I can make that simpler for you it's training the brain to use only positive language, by doing this you can reach your goals. Carolyn my Life Coach and NLP Master from the Skyrocket Sessions has been exemplary in training me week after week. It's a serious skill, she is tirelessly working with me to train my brain and eliminate any negative talk or thoughts, the skill lies in believing you can do anything and it is incredibly rewarding when you get it right. She has words which are banned from my lips, I can't, If, But, Don't and Try. I am so aware of these words now that when I received an email this week from someone saying they will TRY, I though NO you either CAN or you WON'T but saying TRY is non-committal and now very annoying to me. I did not get a gold star there either as it I have not perfected this mind programming language just yet, but being the faithful student Carolyn knows I am listening and learning, I am serious about mastering this technique with her guidance. We also discussed how people are only what we perceive them to be and how the people we don’t like tend to be just like us………………….too much to write about, you will have to go and see Carolyn if you want more details, it’s all so fascinating.

And so we move on to a very exciting week 6 filled with fitness classes pumping weight shaped floats underwater whilst my kids get bribed for a second week to sit quietly by the pool, dates with my new man Gym, life coaching to perfect the desire for my mind to replicate that of Nelson Madela and a healthy food lesson to teach all of the challengers how to make the best food for themselves and their families.
 
Life is challenging isn't it!
From the bottom of my heart, I never want this Life Challenge to end; never again will I fall into the comfort zone. We can all do better, work harder and make more effort. If Carolyn can boost my confidence and train my brain to ask for anything I want then imagine a world where you too can have whatever you want, how fabulous would that be?