Every once in awhile someone will ask me – “I know it doesn’t matter but I’m just curious…and you don’t have to answer me but how much do you weigh?” or recently one of our clients whose husband also comes to the gym said, “So, last night at my house we were discussing how much we thought you weighed…”

Me, in disbelief – “My weight was the topic of conversation over dinner at your house last night?!?!?!??!”

“Well, yeah…because I think you’re probably in the 130’s…are you?”

“Ha, Ha. Me? 130 pounds?!?!?!”

As much as I try to de-emphasize the scale and what you weigh people are still determined to put emphasis on it focused on what # do I need to weigh to look the way I want to look. I always debate whether I should share what I weigh knowing that they are comparing themselves to me but usually when I do share what my weight is (which I don’t always know because it isn’t something I focus on) they are surprised that I weigh as much as I do. In fact, my grandma who doesn’t understand the concept of muscle weighing more every single time I see her says- “I can’t believe that tiny body weighs so much!” “Um, thanks Grandma…I’ll take that as a compliment…”

This past week I was extremely focused on my weight because I had to “make weight” for the powerlifting competition I was competing in. Why did I have to make weight? The weight classes were Under 165 pounds or Under 148 pounds. My weight is usually around 155 pounds (Not 135 pounds like people seem to think!) so I am right between these two classes. If I stayed put I’d be in the 165’s and I knew there was a girl in that class who already held all of the records and could lift a lot more than I could. Being the competitive person I am I knew if I dropped my weight by 7 pounds I wouldn’t be against her and would have a shot at making a few records and winning the GOLD.

Here’s the crazy thing – My husband (who has had a lot of experience helping fighters “make weight”) knew he could manipulate my weight by loading and depleting my water to drop the 7 pounds no problem. Little did I know what exactly he meant by that and what all was involved but it should have been a hint when he said- “You have to do everything I tell you to and you can’t be mad at me or cry…and I’ll help you make the weight.” Sounds extreme but I can handle it! The few weeks before the competition I was confident in my husband’s knowledge to help me do what I needed to do to make weight so, although I should have, I didn’t try to drop a few pounds first but instead had a weekend in Vegas and then the week before we enjoyed our usually Saturday night splurge of Pizza and on Sundays in the winter time we go to the local pub for roast dinner with potatoes and gravy and of course a Guinness…so come Monday before my competition my weight had creeped up to 157. Usually I would not even know this because the last time you should weigh yourself is right after a splurge. All I know is that I can get away with a few splurges a week and maintain my jean size which is all that usually matters to me. I knew the couple pounds was bloat from my recent splurges but I had to be 148 or under by Saturday. Can you drop almost 10 pounds in a week? My husband said he can do it but again I can’t be mad at him and can’t cry…this is not going to be fun…(disclaimer: do not try this at home)

I ate clean and drank my water and got back to 155 by Wednesday dropping the splurge bloat. Then we started to load my water and then deplete by Friday I was at 152 pounds but that meant I still had to lose 4 pounds by the next morning! No way!

How I spent my Friday night…submerged completely under a hot bath (only my face showing), then sitting up in the bath sweating like crazy, then sauna style wrapped in two robes and a towel on my head sweating even more. This sequence took about 20 minutes the first round (again disclaimer: do not try this at home). I’ve done a lot of physically challenging things including completing an Ironman and this was one of the TOUGHEST things I have ever done! I had conversations in my head of – “I can’t do this. I have to get out of here.” Then I’d talk myself back down- “Breathe. You can do this…”

What did that do? I dropped 2 pounds of water! I did one more round taking about 15 minutes and finished Friday night where I needed to be at 148 pounds. Saturday morning on an empty stomach I was 147 pounds- I had lost 10 pounds in one week. My body was EXACTLY the same (did you catch that? EXACTLY THE SAME) and remember it was temporary! Just because the scale said a certain # didn’t mean anything had changed.

Immediately after I stepped off the scale I started a regimented refueling schedule of Gatorade, protein, and high sodium foods getting my body back to my normal weight before competing.

One of our clients (who is super fit and looks amazing) at the competition heard me talking about what I had done and she said – “I want to do that.” “Why?” “So I can drop that much weight.” “Why?” “To be down on the scale.”

Really?!?!?! Why would you put yourself through THAT just to see a number on the scale for one moment. It amazes me that no matter what, people still put so much emphasis on the # on the scale. They can look fit and be in phenomenal shape and still want to see a certain # on the scale.

I hope this blog post illustrates how you can manipulate the scale to get it to say what you want (it’s not easy but it can be done) but it doesn’t mean your body has changed at all. I didn’t lose any fat this week or add any muscle. My body is the same and could lift the same amount of weight and wear the same jeans it could wear a week ago when I was 10 pounds heavier. Plus within a few hours of stepping on the scale I was back to weighing what I weighed a week ago.

Stop putting so much emphasis on the scale and enjoy your fit, healthy body!

Oh and it was all worth it…I got the GOLD!

One of my favorite stories growing up was The Little Engine That Could…”I think I can, I think I can…” and now looking back I realize what a powerful story that is and how it is even more meaningful now.

One of my favorite exercises to use with my clients to show them the power of their mind is Box Jumps. The first time you put a small box in front of a client and tell them to jump on top of it, knowing that they have been training with you long enough to have developed the power and strength to easily and safely jump on to that box, they’ll look at you like your nuts – “Jump on top of that box?!?!?! I can’t do that?!?!?!” As they stand before the box trying to get up the courage but just can’t picture themselves jumping on to it.

It reminds me of watching my nephew about to jump off the side of our swimming pool from the highest step this past summer. He stood there looking down at the water and you could see him trying to run through the scenario in his head, 1,2,3, jump….not yet….1,2,3….over and over again until he would get mad at himself and finally get up the courage to jump into the water and after was “so proud” of himself!

As soon as you “think you can,” you can! But if you think you can’t, you can’t! I was working out and I had a set of 10 box jumps at the end of my workout.I did the first set of these no problem, flew up and landed softly on the box. Then the second set I did one and my office manager came around the corner and said, “Show off! I couldn’t jump to that box. I have a mental block.”

I said to her- “It is completely in your head. You must be thinking that you can’t do it so ofcourse you can’t do it.” Then I… with the thought of, “you must have been thinking that you can’t do it…” in my head go to jump on the box and completely miss by not jumping high enough and practically tripping myself. My office manager thought is was hilarious but I thought it was such an amazing lesson that you have to have your mindest right when you head into a workout.

On a box jump you can clearly see the connection of thinking you can and accomplishing the exercise but this also goes for your entire workout. If you have negative thoughts floating around in your head while you are working out, every rep you do, you will not do as well as you can. It is obvious on a jump like this but it may not be so obvious on a lunge or a row but if your mind is not giving that movement 100% and doing everything to focus and lift as much with perfect form as you can you will be cheating yourself out of better results.

Henry Ford said, “If you think you can or you think you can’t you are probably right…” So true!

So I want to challenge each of you to enter in to your next workout with a focus and attitude of challenging yourself to see what CAN you do. Keep focused, positive thoughts in your head and get the most out of every rep leading to a more effective workout, more calories burned and faster results!

Remember the little engine that could and throughout your workout keep repeating – “I think I can, I think I can…”

Once a week I head to a hillside of stairs to do my interval workout. It is a challenging workout with 160 stairs to climb.

I am always amazed by the different people I see out there also doing the stairs. People of all fitness levels – some this is their first workout in years as they trudge up the stairs once or twice and call it a day, others are athletes home for a holiday break flying up three stairs at a time, or firefighters at the local station or mom’s making it a family outing with their kids who are joining in doing the stairs too.

Recently the city planted trees blocking the entryway to get to the stairs. There are no signs that say – “No Trespassing”, but I can only assume they are trying to keep people from using the stairs as a form of exercise. (It seems the stairs were built to reach the landscaping on the hillside, not for the purpose of giving us a place to workout).

As you walk up toward the stairs, it now appears, with no obvious path to get to them, that these trees block them. This would be an easy obstacle, if you were looking for an excuse to not do the stairs. And we have all been in the situation where you are looking for an excuse to not do something especially when it comes to exercise or anything out of your comfort zone.

Where there is a will there is a way…there is a small opening where you can squeeze by the trees maneuvering around them to get to the stairs.

A few weeks ago as I was doing my intervals and catching my breathe at the top of the stairs I noticed a couple walking up to join me. They were trying to figure out how to get up there and were not going to give up. As she stood looking determined with her hands on her hips strategizing the best way, looking for an opening, he actually started to climb through the bushes, practically climbing trees to get up there I’m sure scratching himself up. They were not going to use this as an excuse to not do the stairs today. As I came down and saw him tangled in the bushes going the wrong direction, I yelled out to them that they could get through at the small opening and they were on their way joining me on the stairs. No surprise they were great training partners as we chased each other up and down pushing each other to do “one more round.”

A few minutes later I was at the top of the stairs catching my breathe and noticed another couple walking up toward the stairs but before I could get down to tell them where the opening was they had given up and turned around. It was as if they were hoping an obstacle would get in the way – “Oh darn, there are trees blocking the stairs. I guess we can’t do them…” turning around faster than I could run down the stairs they had given up on doing what they had set out to do that morning…

How easy do you let obstacles get in your way? Do you back down as soon as you have an excuse?