Olympics epiphany: yes I can!

Lusting at these male eye candies at the Olympics (see yesterday’s blog post) got me thinking about fitness, and my personal struggle -- well, our personal struggle as a couple -- with keeping fit, losing weight and looking good.

We all know that fitness plays a major role in being healthy but let’s be real: a big part of fitness is about looking good.

No matter what you say, if the person with whom you fall in love transforms into a blob overtime by gaining too much weight, over time it will impact on your marriage.

Men, if you marry a stunning 125-pound, shapely goddess who is always on top of her game and she later transforms into a 180-pound woman, chances are you will not be a happy camper. So, why do you think it's perfectly OK when you have gone from Mr Six-pack-abs to Mr Pot Belly?

Don’t all get your undies in a bunch! I know-- love is not skin deep, and beauty lies within. Cut the crap! Be honest with yourself: looking good matters!

Go ahead. Bring on the retort: "Just wait until you have a baby, and you start packing on the pounds!”  I hear it all the time. Don't get me wrong, I accept that it is difficult to lose weight after pregnancy. I know that it can be a struggle, especially if you have a busy career. But guess what? Many women have done it; I hope to be one of them.

Seriously though, how long can you use the child-bearing fact as the reason for keeping on those extra pounds? The child is now 10 years old. For heaven sakes, why are you still calling it “baby fat”?

Case in point: for as long as I can remember, Paula-Anne Porter-Jones (she has no idea I’m writing this, and may really hate me for doing so) has been an inspiration to me. Aside from the fact that she is not human, and is clearly a total freak of nature, in my eyes, she is the quintessential woman!  She is a wife, mother, full-time career woman, and -- wait for it -- she still actively plays a sport! There is no debating that she's drop dead gorgeous. In another life, I hope to be like her.

Working out as a Couple!

 Leading up to our wedding,  we had an intense workout programme which included being on Mountain Spring at 5:45 A.M., then we would head to the gym to work out with our personal trainers: Courtney Bailey and Meloney Martin. I tried to keep working out right up to my exams. It was brutal.

Hubby and trainer Meloney

The result?

My husband lost 32 pounds which is a tremendous feat. I didn’t have a goal but I lost 7 pounds!  Even more than the weight loss, we are extremely proud of our accomplishments. When we first started, we could barely make it to the top of Mountain Spring.  It was sheer torture.

Struggling to make it up the Hill

Now, with the help of our magnificent trainer, Kevin Wallen aka King of the Hill, we often make it to the top in record times. We can even run parts of the journey which is a huge accomplishment for my hubby who just last year had to do physiotherapy and an MRI on his knees. It’s unbelievable the kinds of high impact exercises that we are now able to do (in case you think that's anything to brag about,  a close friend of ours, who recently had a baby, walks the hill every morning -- baby in hand).

Anybody who exercises knows that hard it is to stay in shape, to maintain your fitness and to keep looking good.  It requires dedication, commitment and perseverance.

Hubby and Kevin aka King of the Hill!

This brings me to why I hate exercising.

Our bodies are the most unforgiving and ungrateful creation there is: you can lose weight, get in shape and look drop dead gorgeous today. God forbid, you stop working out and maintaining your diet, in no time you go back to being blob central.

That is why it’s so frustrating for me!

I’m accustomed to setting goals, achieving them and moving on. But noooo, it doesn’t work that way with fitness and weight loss; you must keep working at it. If you want to maintain bodies like athletes, it has to be a lifestyle. Fail to do this, and all your hard work will in no time amount to squat!

I am yet to come to terms with this fact. Often times, I have to kick my own butt, give myself pep talks and even malice my husband for forcing me to get ready to go to the gym.  As I write, I am still playing hide-and-seek with both our trainers.

But I do recognise that I have to do the work, not only because I am mostly partly superficial, but also because I shape like a box. Don’t laugh; it’s the truth! I have the shortest torso, so when I gain weight it lands right in my stomach, and stays there. The result? I end up looking like sponge bob.

I remember weighing up to 140 pounds. My hubby had all sort of nicknames for me like “Whale”, “Fatty”, and “Cow”. Needless to say, fat jokes were rampant around the house and even our camera came out a lot less often (and, you know how he loves to take photos).

Garfield, on the other hand is a natural fitness/gym buff (although he is more talk than action). Admittedly, it is so much easier for him because he is coming from a place where fitness was a lifestyle. And even then, it takes a great effort.

If you know him from his University days, you will know that he is coming from a body that could rival any athlete to a belly that could now give Rick Ross a run for his money (payback).

And that’s why I have to give athletes mad props! You all deserve every penny and all the recognition that you get. What you do is no easy feat; after all if it was, then we would all be strutting around looking like you do!

So a strange thing happened while I was watching the Olympics. I had an epiphany!

I am not going to just sit on my butt and admire your sexy bodies. I am going to put in the work, and while I may not attain the perfection of an Olympian, I can very well try!

My new fitness mantra: I can do it! So as of now, I will be encouraging my hubby to get out of the rut that we have been in since the return from our honeymoon, to get back on track ,and keep going so that we can have a happy, healthy and sexy life together! (Cue song: We are the champions my friends...)

Can you say sexy forever!