By Cait
“I’ve only burned 200 calories in my workout,” I moaned to James.
“Never say that to me or in this gym again,” he replied.
It has taken me a long time and a lot of effort to reframe my mindset. To get out of the thought process that I’m trying to train to burn calories/lose weight, there are healthy/unhealthy foods. Still, after training at Rebuild for nearly two years, working with some of the best minds in the business and working myself on my thought patterns, I still struggle.
And lately I’ve gained a few kgs, thanks to injuries and poor nutrition choices, bringing back the wrong kind of mindset.
So I’m trying to remind myself.
James and Sean told me – if you celebrate weight loss as a victory, does that mean that weight gain is a failure?
Not really.
I’m stronger than I’ve ever been. I’ve done CrossFit for six years, and it was only this year that I got my first pull up and first toes to bar. I’m lifting heavier and better than I ever have before, and I’m happier than I ever was before, and I’m a bit heavier than I was before – so what?
Sure if you have body composition goals, it’s nice to reach them, but at 85kg I wasn’t happy, 65kg I wasn’t happy and being at 75kg didn’t make me happy – so maybe a weight goal isn’t the answer?
I was a lot happier when I got my first pull up, bested my power clean record or finished a workout RX that I had previously scaled than when I dropped a few kilograms.
It’s not an easy mindset to change, it has taken me a long time, and I’m still working on it.
I have to be reminded of it often – and called out on my mindset sometimes.
But I appreciate that in a place like Rebuild – that is the point, we don’t talk about body composition, or celebrate how many calories you burned in a session – and I think that’s really fucking important.
Come to change your body composition, fine. But once you’re in here, you’ll see it’s so much more than that. There are so many other things to focus on, and that’s pretty special.
