BEING KIND TO OUR LOCKDOWN BODY'S!
- Lauren Alexandria | Owner
- Jun 3, 2020
- 5 min read
Been beating yourself up you haven't been keeping fit? Not been taking advantage of your daily exercise because you were binge watching a Netflix series or looking after your kids? Been comfort eating or late night snacking due to out of routine sleeping? We feel you! This is why we are dubbing this our "LOCKDOWN BODY" because tbh, it's kind of out-width our control, we are only human.
[Lockdown date night!]
Dear Diary,
We have been in lockdown for quite a bit now and a lot of us are suffering in various ways. Financially, mentally, emotionally. Being separated from family, friends. However, since this is a vanity blog, we ain’t gonna go too deep okay! Now, within lockdown's not so kinky restraints; us gals have either went in 2 directions- weight loss or weight gain! Now people who know me and come to me for gym advice due to my gym bunny status, will be quite surprised to hear- I’m the latter!
Yes, your gal here has gained around 5lbs during lockdown and ain’t feeling so cute about it rn. I have a bad habit - as I am sure many girls do - of obsessing about these changes (why do we own so many mirrors?? We can’t avoid this stuff!) we panic, we over-analyse our image in the mirror, we compare against much body better times, we ask for our friends and fam’s opinion, but in a way that’s like “plz tell me I don’t look what the scales say” and if they say otherwise we’re like “aye ok Susan who asked you” even though we asked for their honest opinion- we just don’t want to hear it!
For the first time in probably my life though, I am being kinder to myself, recognising the changes myself, accepting them and instead of beating myself up I am planning my comeback from it! As humans – especially us vain gals – we forget that it is okay to fail, take a step back a bit, it is more than okay! It’s the “rewind” and how you come back from it that truly matters and that’s a motto that has always worked so well for me over the years in both fitness and elsewhere in my personal life.
I recognise what went ‘wrong’ here and tbh, it’s just all in relation to lockdown which was completely out-width any of our control and that’s absolutely okay. Had this happened whilst life was still normal then I’d be more concerned, annoyed and panicky. I recognise my issues have been as simple as this:
1) I have been eating the same size of portions “gym Lauren” does. Now, I still work out at home, but I am lifting half of what I normally would and my sessions aren’t as intense, either. I still have maintained a lot of my gainz and in some areas, even improved them. In terms of calories however, I am eating more than what I would burn off in my usual gym sessions so I have been quite naive, tbh, thinking I could still enjoy the luxury of those glorious extra calories! Also, I fully admit to boredom snacking too! I feel like, nothing about these times is normal and I feel my new found comfort within a terry’s chocolate orange will quickly leave my life just as quickly as it entered it when lockdown is finally done with- be kind to yourself! This isn’t a normal time, snacking is going to be more common when you have an all-inclusive holiday pass from destination: my gaff to your kitchen with unlimited food, snacks and beverages! A lot of us will fall at that hurdle, I’m no different.
2) I can’t be certain my weight gain is as simple as that! I have been working my arse off (literally) doing more leg/peachy based workouts than I normally would and that is amazing of course and my bum is noticeably bigger, jeans are noticeably tighter - and a struggle - so it makes you wonder how much of that 5lbs is fat and how much is muscle? It may not be as grim as it appears. My bums got gainz, my quads have gainz, my shoulders have got broader through isolation exercises on them which is exactly what I wanted to achieve. I still have abs- probably better than I did before lockdown! However, my hips are a bit wider… but is this due to the new booty gainz and lack of portion control combined? It could very well be. When I can get a proper weight analysis done, I will know where to go from there and until then it’s just about small realistic changes.
3) My sleeping pattern has been ridiculous. I am going to sleep around 5am and only getting around 6/6 and a half hours for the last 3 weeks and as we all know, messed up sleeping patterns can affect our weight. Weight training and not getting enough rest in your snoozing that night can't be very good either! So as of tonight, I am making a more conscious effort to wind down and try get in 7 hours and up it from there.
Now, all I am going to do is be kind to myself. If I need to buy a size up see it as this: realistically, those tight black skinny jeans probably could have done with a size up anyway in the first place to be comfier at the waist! So, buy the size up and banish those awful red marks from too tight jeans for good. If your stretchier denim/clothes still fit I would go by that, too. In my stretchy denim I am still a size 6 however, in my normal size 8 jeans I am now pushing a 10 and, for the first time in my life I am so okay with that! I know I am fit, active, have muscle; so why should I be hating on myself? Huns, we gotta stop hating on ourselves! We need to be kind to ourselves more, more over in times like these and in to regards to what I am going to dub our “lockdown body’s”.
For now, I am going to make small changes. Such as portion control my dinners more, try limit snacking (but not see it as a failure if i slip up for a day) I will try add more cardio to my routine or do exercises that will get my metabolism doing overtime (such as Les Mills body pump) Just achievable things which we can all strive for, right?
When the gyms re-open I know I will be back in there, with full access to all kinds of weights, no kg restrictions and can come back from this, maybe even better and stronger. Those extra cardio sessions will definitely help pace my breathing more when I’m trying to squeeze 1 last rep in! I will take pictures now, compare them before lockdown, see the POSITIVE changes and focus on those and for the others, I will compare them to before my journey began and for me, believe it or not it was this. Same place, 4 year apart.
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