What is the S that is the difference between fat and faSt?

Apologies for being a day late this week but I have been up on the Gold Coast for one of my mates bucks party weekends. 

 

Now that I have started to write this blog I am spending a lot of my time about things to write about. I usually want to focus these blogs on the questions that I most often get asked or things that I see that I think could be done differently. This week I wrote an article for Triathlon 220 Magazine about my weight-loss journey and my triathlon etc. When I was writing it I realised that a lot of people ask me "what is the secret?" the secret to weight loss, the secret to getting faster all that sort of stuff. So the question is, is there a secret to go from fat to fast?

 

In my opinion there is no "secret". I get really annoyed when I see how people prey on the vulnerability of people. Promoting a blender as a weight loss secret or some new tablet that will help you lose weight (with fine print saying “with a combination of exercise and healthy eating”). The point is that there really is no secret to losing weight and then getting faster. There are no short cuts either there is hard work. 

 

So what would I say are things that make it easier to lose weight? Well me being the brilliant linguist that I am have come up with another S that can maintain my brilliant FAT>FAST little thing I have going one here. That S is support. One of the reasons I was able to lose weight so effectively and am now becoming a faster athlete is because the people around me support me. My amazing wife has been through this incredible journey the whole way and in a blatant attempt to earn brownie points (as I know she is one of the only people reading this) she is part of the reason why my ordinary life is extraordinary. 

 

Every time I came up with a new complex healthy recipe or had a mechanical issue (like a snapped chain 50kms from home) she would help without complaint. These days as I spend more and more time training, she supports the time I put into my training and is even starting to do some training with me. I understand that not everyone has a spouse or someone who can perform this role, but it doesn't have to be a partner or wife. Why not a friend, colleague or someone else trying to make some serious changes to their lifestyle? Now I promise this isn't a blatant plug for my training but I think as a trainer of people trying to lose weight, support is the most important function. If it means checking everyday whether they have been active or tell them to take a day off because they are fatigued. By letting them know that I believe they can do it I hope it makes it easier. At the end of the day, it helped me and I think it worked out pretty well.

 

Next weekend I am racing Challenge Forster (a 70.3 race). It will most likely be a hard training day with only 4 weeks to Western Sydney 70.3. I am looking forward to seeing how I run off the bike and also want to tray and maintain a sub 30min swim. So stay tuned for my action packed race report next week.

 

Until then, happy training and remember to TRI!

Dez and me in 2007

Dez and me in 2013 (I'm clearly punching above my weight