The Baack Paack

I had the opportunity to exercise with my sister the other day.  it has been a rough winter for her this year and it was nice to get some one on one time for us to just talk as we walked together on a brisk (for my Arizona family, down right COLD) 39 degree day, with bright sun shine – a typical day in Maine towards the end of March where spring is starting to awaken and winter is slowly loosing its grasp on the area. Longer brighter sunshine leads to slowly receding snow banks, and faith that blue skies do again exist.  We had both expressed that we had hard workouts for the past few days and while we wanted and needed to do something today, I wasn’t feeling a fast run, (I did that for the past two days) and she wasn’t feeling like lifting a lot of weights, (she did that yesterday).

We decided on a 2 mile walk.  As any brother and sister family knows, this would not be just a leisurely, “Oh- let’s pick the flowers and pause here in there..” this was going to be a you push me, I push you.. but we are still walking.. workout.   It was never planned for that level of intensity, but we just knew it was going to happen.  You have to love sibling rivalry when you both want to push each other to see who breaks first.  For all of you saying.. “Jay, that isn’t fair for your sister”.. Yes, you are right.

• I have been working out all year in a place without snow or freezing temps
• I have been running a lot more than her, and I have the BaackPaack to push me and keep me accountable every weekend
• I can run / exercise just about any time due to my home climate
• But..the brother in me says:  “STFU (Spartan The Frig Up) Suz!”

Within a half mile of the walk we had already adjusted the mileage longer, closer to 4 miles than 2 miles, with neither of us wanting to yield.   Through the huffing and puffing of our 4 mile jaunt in 39 degree weather, both of us in running shoes, jeans and ski jackets.  Suz brought up a great topic that after we discussed it for a while, I told her I would blog about it.

Without further ado…

Carving my own statue

In a conversation that she had with her personal trainer, the topic came up of carving your own statue, not as a image that your importance warrants a statue, but that your journey, your transformation, is very similar to the process of carving a statue.

You start with a raw block of material.  Large, unshapely, unrecognizable to most of the potential of what it could be.  Most of us who are or have been on a quest to loose body fat can relate to this starting point.  We would look in the mirror and see this “being”, not a representation of what we knew we were on the inside.  We wonder how we can show or let out the real us, “inside”, and cast away this shell that is currently being shown to the world. The first step of any carving is the process of making large broad cuts and strokes that starts to transform the shape of the block of stone to a rough shape – rough form of the final objective.  Equating this to personal transformation, this is when we start and keep to a new exercise or eating plan and begin to see results.  For some of us, this is the hardest part.  The new schedule adjustments, the new eating plan, the new focus on ourselves over others, the amount of time that we are sweating and exercising..all can be seen as drastic changes.     From all this we begin to see a glimmer of changes, either in our waist line, arms, thighs, neck, face, but a change none the less.  We notice this part of our body didn’t used to look like that.. or I couldn’t do “this” action before… as this rough block of stone starting to take shape.

From the longer, broader strokes the artist moves to slower more deliberate chips and taps of the stone to make smaller more precise adjustments to bring out the form of the subject from the raw materials.   In our lives, this is where we get to a point where we start to see real changes in our transformation, and while progress is not as quick as it was earlier, our transformation, both physically and mentally starts to shine.  We start to see in the mirror the person that we always knew was there all along, just covered in layers of fat- either physical or emotional fat.  We see that the hard work is paying off and reinforces our focus as we work harder as we can see the “end of the tunnel” of this journey of fitness.

The final steps of the artist is the very slow, precise adjustments of the rock to show the essence of the of the subject being brought out of the stone. Often one adjustment would be followed by several minutes or even hours of contemplation before the next action so the artist can visualize if the next change is warranted.  This can be one of the longest processes as the artist needs to find that balance point between “finished and unfinished”, as to when the process is completed.  In our experience, this is the point that we start to switch from a body fat loss (or other transformation) journey to a maintenance mode, where our focus is on keeping a status that we have worked so hard to establish.  What exercise level do we need to maintain? What foods can we consume and in what quantity? What are my green, yellow and red line limits that I need to pay attention to.  All similar questions to that of the artist.

Before we knew it, the 4 miles were over and we were back at the house.   A nice little calorie burn a good average pace (15.03 min/ mile) on the walk.  We also had a great conversation for the last 2 miles.

So, if you need help focusing on your workouts or keeping with your “new” eating plan, think of your journey as a step in “creating your statue”.  Keep that visual in your mind as you go through the moments of frustration and the physical and mental pressure of being out of your comfort zone.

Statues are not created in a day, but when they are finished, they are truly appreciated for not only the beauty of the final product, but the work, dedication and time that are put in by the artist to them to get them to that point.

YOU are the artist of your own statue.