(Handyhunk etter 10 km på litt over 1 time på Oslo maraton i fjor. Nå løper han 5 km rett over 20 min og skal være med på 5 triathlon/ritt/løp i 2012)
As you all probably know by now, I started my “second” life last summer, and by that I also got my self a great personal trainer (PT) and now a great life coach, in Lene Alexandra. This is the story about how this professional relationship started and why it has helped me so immensely!
In the midst of August 2011, after following Lene Alexandra on Facebook for some months, I sent her an email and asked if she wanted to be my PT when she graduated from her PT training. To my “shock and despair”, she replied! and the communication that followed is something that I would like to share with you;
Me: Hi Lene, congratulations as a certified PT :)
Lene: Thanks!
Me: I think I need to start training in order to “save myself from distinction”…
Lene: That sounds great!
Me: I’d like you to be my PT, once or twice a week, not to tough sessions, but just to get started.
Lene: Let’s agree on this when we meet, but we will not start to hard, but rather get to where a healthy lifestyle becomes a part of your life, forever :)
Me: I’m torn between pushing for a perfect body and just get fit. I miss the feeling from “the old days”, when I just HAD to workout every day…
Lene: That won’t be a problem, if you just put your mind to it!
Me: I can’t hide the fact the my condition can be dramatically improved and that I need to loose fat!
Lene: Fat burning is one of my favourite subjects. Let’s get together and talk!
Me: Great, and I feel that I’m now so “grown up”, that I actually can listen to advice from the “outside” :)
Lene: Let’s meet on the 22nd of August. See you :)
Some weeks passed by, I kept on working a lot, traveling and just “shoving down” what ever food and drinks that “appeared” in front of me… Lene and I met on the 22nd, we had a chat, and I do believe she saw “some potential” in me, since she booked me in as her client, at least for some trial sessions to begin with. As a last thing before we met for my first PT60 session, Lene instructed me to write down what I ate and drank and how much I slept the next 4 days. And that I did, and below you see my “menu” (shortened down to fit this post) for these four days…;
Day 1:
- 5,5 hours of sleep (blamed it on an early flight)
- 3 meals the whole day, with the 3 course meal as the latter, and topped with strawberry cheesecake for dessert…
- 4 wine
- 3 beers
Day 2:
- 6 hours of sleep (normal…)
- 3 coffee (minimum)
- 5 meals, all “business travel meals” with everything from bread to lobster with everything on the side, topped with a visit to a Burger King at 2am ;)
- 4 beers
- 3 red wine
- 2 vodka/red bull
- + + +
Day 3:
- 3,5 hours of sleep (no one to blame…)
- 2 decent meals and a baguette on the flight back home
- Pepsi, juice and water to drink that day, and plenty of coffee
Day 4:
- 7,5 hours of sleep
- 3 decent meals, with moule frites as the rememberable one ;)
- Chips and nachos after work
- 2 cava
- 4 white wine
- 3 water
- 2 gin & tonic
- 3 vodka/red bull
- 1 gin & tonic (again)
- 2 capt’n morgan & coke
I needn’t start a betting competition on Lene’s reaction to my 4 days of “pleasure & pain” ;), but here are some of her comments on my log;
- On my sleep: “Not good… When you don’t sleep enough and you are stressed, you produce stress hormones that’s called cortisol. These hormone’s make you store fat and breaks down your muscles…”
- On my meals: “It’s good that you have an appetite, but doesn’t it sound like a lot of food? When you want to loose weight, you usually need to eat less than you are used to…”
- On my late night meal: “It is allowed to get your act together when you hit rock bottom… You get back up and try again. If you try enough times, you will succeed in the end.”
- On my drinking: “oi oi oi oi!”
Here’s Lene’s final remarks on my VERY honest food log;
“This is just the start of your journey, and I do appreciate your honesty. I now know what we need to start working on. We are talking a rather large lifestyle change if you are to reach your goal of loosing 10 kg by Christmas, but it IS possible, if you a willing to work hard for it. I can give you all the advice and suggestions there is, but if you don’t do as you’re told, this will not work. You need to prioritize if you are to reach your goal Borge. It is YOUR goal :) And since you have been such a bad boy, it’s going to be tough workouts onwards, but I suspect that’s ok, since you have a goal to reach :)”
I guess you now understand what a “state” I was in when I entered Lene’s “office” the first time, and what huge changes to my lifestyle I needed to undertake to be where I am today. Needless to say, if I didn’t have Lene as my PT, going on for nearly six months now, I would bet against me reaching my goals! The attitude and dedication that Lene shows me in her PT zone is admirable, it is motivating and it has been EVERYTHING in order for me to not only change my lifestyle, but also start loving me as me and “worship” my body again. Halleluja! So if I was in love with my self last summer, how do you think I feel about myself now?! ;)
And btw; I didn’t I loose those 10 kg before Christmas… Nope, I lost 18 kg!!!
So, for me, hiring a PT was the BEST INVESTMENT I’ve ever made! What’s yours?
