When I was about 5 years old I took ballet lessons for about a year. One of the things that has stayed with me since those very early days is our teacher's voice saying: 'SLOW......SLOW.... quickquickquick' and having to perform various exercises in this rhythm. The point I want to make is that there is some significance to this constant change of pace in training and, when I see how strong and athletic ballet dancers are it seems pretty obvious to me that it works.
It is not only ballet dancers of course, I can see this methodology at work in other sports from rugby players to runners. I see them trotting along slowly for a few seconds then exploding into a flat out gallop for a short burst and repeating this cycle over and over again. This type of training is called high intensity interval training.
Anyway, about 3 weeks ago I changed things up in my exercise regime. Instead of only slow sessions of long distance I am now doing some intense interval training as well. I thought it might speed up weight loss but it has not. What is has done though, is increased my strength, speed and aerobic fitness significantly. I have also lost an inch off my waist and an inch of my hips. How it is possible to lose body dimensions without losing any weight is beyond me. The only explanation I can find is that muscle mass takes up less room than fat. Yeah, yeah - blah ...blah!
Well, I will tell anyone this for free - I don't care about explanations and reasons - I am fed up with doing all the right things without any significant results showing on the scale!! Only one kg in over a month I mean honestly, what the X@#!! is going on??
Desperation led me to calculating my body fat index at this site; check it out it is great: http://www.bmi-calculator.net/ All you need are various body measurements (in inches) and it calculates your BMI. So, it is possible for body fat to be reducing without any weight loss.
Sigh, I still want to see a significant loss on the scale though. I wonder why this obsession with kilograms? It seems that kilograms are the only thing that speak to me! Every morning I am convinced that I will have lost an amazing amount of weight (something that will take everyones' breath away) and then the scale tells me either that I have stayed the same or I have gained something. Honestly, it is enough to drive a girl to drink. Instead, I go jumping - up and down the two stairs in our garage - weird huh?
Diana Elsmere
