Good morning!
Last year I signed up for a higher-end gym with the intention of improving my movement and flexibility. I justified the increased expense by going to less heels classes (waste less time commuting to Toronto and progressing very little) and attending more pilates classes, while still having access to the gym. Furthermore, I calculated that to make the membership worth it, i would have to commit at least to two pilates classes – that’s a good push!
They give you a complimentary one-month free pass and so I visited with my mom yesterday. One con of the gym is the distance (the main gym is 20 min away) but the pro is that the yoga studio is gorgeous. The main objective of going yesterday was to attend a recommended consultation. Because leaving on time with my mom is like leaving on time with a child, we ended up being at least 20 min late. By the time I started talking to Shane, the gym consultant guy, we only had about 30 min left. He asked me how he could help. In all honesty, I was not interested in the consultation so I told him my only goal was to tone and increase flexibility.
Shane is a bald white man with glasses, very muscular, and talks really fast. Before I entered the room, he was talking to another staff member who said Shane was one of the best guys around LOL The whole consultation felt like a 20 min education session on speed about losing fat. He broke down some of the chemical components – I don’t really remember any terms except the word Triglycerides (remember, he speaks at the speed of a lightning bolt). I am probably butchering what he taught me (don’t come at me nutritionists) but cardio can burn only one-third of your fat while the “contractile” components can burn fat long term even when your body is resting. The secret to maintaining lower body fat is jacking up the metabolic rate by eating less at more intervals during the day. The main action takeaway was to not only focus on cardio – cardio also burns muscle, and muscle helps you burn fat…counterproductive. Shane said traditional diets only focus on losing carbs but what you really want to do is keep the muscle by intaking food consistently throughout the day. First focusing on just having 3 consisting meals a day, then splitting those same meal proportions into double the amount (6 smaller meals), then once stabilized being more selective about what you eat. The incremental approach can retain muscle and help burn fat even while resting…IDK Shane, sounds like a fat loss fairytale but I’m also a fan of habits and consistency. That was the huge selling point – how you set the direction for how your body functions. If you practice good habits and your body deviates, your body will feel like crap. If you practice bad habits and your body deviates into good habits, your comfort zone will be bad habits.
The lesson: YOU SET THE DEFAULT – MAKE YOUR COMFORT ZONE ONE WHERE YOU’RE ACTIVE, HEALTHY, AND CONSISTENT.
Here is the visual he drew for me as he asked me rapid fire questions, which I could not keep up with. Keep in mind that I was sitting across the desk from him in my mustard Carhart beanie, in a shirt that said “Fuck this shit” 😅
