#antonio wright

The cast of MOVIE CLUB b33

some full art refs for my horror movie ocs! plus a little whats in my bag tour and their 3 favourite albums - MCb33 takes place in 1999, so the references are a bit more retro

ace (he/they), katie (she/her), kevin (he/him), mika (she/her), sam (she/they), toni (they/them)

It's funny how fables that are labeled "children's", go well into adult hood. The moral in The Tortoise and the Hare is something we all apply. Not only in fitness but all aspects of life. However, we're going to talk about fitness, because this is a fitness related blog (yeah really).

Here is a quick rundown on the story. The hare challenges the tortoise to a race. They race and the hare runs off. Well, the hare is so far ahead, he decides to take a nap. He wakes up and found out that he was passed while he slept.

How does this relate to fitness? Fat loss is not something that is going to be done in a short time. You cut corners, results will come fast. You think you're good and you decide to nap. You "wake up" and you have lost the race, because those quick results rebounded on you.

Well you have finally reached your goal! You lost XXX amount of pounds in XXX amounts of weeks. Sure, you feel better, and even look better. However, since you lost weight (note I didn't say bodyfat), you have a noticeable amount of loose skin.

Let's start from the beginning....

What is exactly is loose skin?

When the body goes through a rapid weight loss transformation that outer layers (your skin) needs to time to catch up. While you were getting larger, your skin was taking it's time to enlarge too. If you notice you can see larger people with stretch marks. Hell, I still have my stretch marks from when I was larger.

What can I do?

You can start off with waiting... Your going to have to give your body time to adapt to it's new surroundings. If you're thinking surgery, don't. It's been generally accepted by surgeons to wait at least a minimum of two years before even exploring the option.

How can I prevent this in future?

You can develop a plan that is not based around losing weight. Your focus should be the reduction of body fat. I was able to keep my loose skin to low amounts, because I lifted weights from the beginning. Thermogenesis is your body "burning" fat cells as fuel.  Your body uses the stored fuel and the cell shrinks. It's like an inflated balloon. You release the air out, the balloon shrinks. When all the air is out the balloon is deflated, smaller but still there.

Muscle at the most basic understanding moves into that space where the reduced fat cells lie. You may have heard that muscle turns to fat. This is not true. Muscle and fat are different types of cells.

So to recap...

Lift heavy and try not to focus on pure weight loss. If you have a large amount of body fat to lose, well expect some of it to carry over. Just give it some time and your body will adapt to it's new shell.

References

I had a great birthday/Mothers Day weekend.  Now, it's time to get back on the grind. As I look at my countdown app, I have 163 days until FMI. My first checkpoint is 23 days away.

To drop this body fat. 

Over the last few weeks, I haven't been following a set meal plan and it has been fantastic. Being exposed to amazing drinks like Morrir Sonando (Orange Juice and Milk) and fried plantains, hasn't really done much to the waist line.

1. Improve overall health - Some of you may be surprised about this one.  Even though I have made great progress, I don't consider myself to be healthy. In my opinion, good health is being in tune with your spiritual, mental, and physical well being. 

2. Improve flexibility - My lack of flexibility has always been a concern of mine. You will not reach your full potential, if you're not flexible. 

3. Improve strength - Who doesn't want to get stronger?