This extract was taken from one of the feature courses I teach ‘Energy Anatomy’. The course presents ways for women to develop their own training strategy on what exercise methods and intensities suits the current demands of life, your bio-rhythmic monthly cycle and emotional state. Many women don’t realise we are rhythmic beings where our energy levels, hormonal cycles and emotional responses will alters our endocrine system and therefore our entire state of being. When we attempt to just ‘drive” through these natural waves, we being to screw with the system. On most occasion, this manifests as various forms of burnout. Some is chronic some is temporary. I presented this at Fernwood Ballarat in September 2013 to room full of women who were asking why their training and eating plans are constantly interrupted by a variety of factors and their goals never achieved. In all honesty, its a big multi-faceted question however I wanted to address the basics; Our body’s function.
The main focus of this workshop was to demonstrate how the majority of weight-loss theory of “Go Hard or Go Home” and move more, eat less are is not always realistic to the modern working woman not to mention designed to complement the female anatomy. Where ever I tour, its common women want to know why the training programs they invest time, money and emotion into can’t be sustained for long term results. They want to know why are they sent off course by self-sabotage, injuries, burnout, illness, boredom or lack of motivation to name a few? For the purpose of this course, I kept the information factual relating to the human body’s natural laws of order and avoided subjective data to support my main point. The first question I asked back was “When a program “fails” do you question yourself or do you ever question the program?” The majority response was no. The blame is normally self-directed.
The board you see in the video is not clear however I had given an example of what our daily energy tank normally allows for each day. Its like our standard fuel tank and the mileage we can get out of each tank, per day. This tank size is determined by our general expenditure on our body’s standard functions of breathing, organ function, cellular reproduction and general system management. This is a popular number trainers and fitness programs like to use as a foundation for weight loss known as the BMR. If we burn more than this BMR the body will need to access the energy reserves in stored body fat. Common sense prevails, we will loose weight right. No brainer right? Hence the common understanding “MORE MEANS MORE” This is why we are conditioned to think get into the gym and smash it as hard as we can for optimal results (calorie burn). However the formula to calculate this figure doesn’t take into account the multifaceted complexities the anatomy let alone the female anatomy. It ignores energy expenditure and biochemical influences consumed in our emotional responses to a recent unforeseen event or a past event that continues to withdraw energy. Otherwise known as STRESS. These BMR calculations do not consider the body’s hormonal cycle, biochemical state or depleted functions to which the body may be attempting to recover from which has compounded over days, if not months or years ago. So the theory of burn more, move more and increase the intensity for greater results is great, on one condition, it is not compounded with ANY variable (or other stress). In other words it treats you like a text book with no variable. In the 14 years of working with thousands of men and women, the only people I have encountered to equate this theory are professional athletes and military forces who have clear uninterrupted training methods for specific outcomes. But that is a whole other topic.
Meanwhile so many women attempt to govern their calorie intake and training intensity based on a one dimensional formula: calories in and calories out. Eat less, smash out more. In other words it doesn’t consider the full picture. Let alone the the realistic picture of a modern working woman, mother, student or athlete let alone one who menstruates. However I explore that further in The Red Print courses. Additional literature is the wonderful book by Dr Libby Weaver, The Rushing Women’s Syndrome and The Calories Fallacy
This 10min segment follows on from a women in the audience who volunteered to tell us what a “normal” day looks like.
This was just her schedule if a day is running smoothly. Nothing has gone wrong yet. She does not specify anything that could be drawing on her energy externally or internally that is unforeseen past or present. We haven’t even factored in emotion yet. Emotion expends energy. Pain whether it be emotion or physical, withdraws energy. An injured body withdraws energy. STRESS withdraws energy. It is my observation from working with thousands of cases that one of the most silent underlying issues to our health, our weight and our wellness is STRESS.
This extract video of my presentation goes on to explain the anatomical responses to a packed schedule like this and the underlying impact STRESS has on your fitness, weight loss and wellness goals. These are the considerations that are overlooked when trying to achieve a perceived idea of the “perfect superwoman”.
NOTE: When watching this remember you are only seeing 10min of a 2hour course. There is more information layered before and after that hopes to fill in the gaps on our knowledge about our bodies and our natural laws of order. These principles are explored in greater depth in the Red Print courses.
