5 months' triathlon training & not an ounce lost!

Back in 2004 I had an epiphany ... I would do triathlons and those 20 pounds of fat would just fall off of me. My proof and shining example of this realistic thought was a woman I met through my business referral group. Her name was also Lisa ... she was super-fit and had a gorgeous, lean body. Her secret, I knew, was that she trained hard and competed in triathlons.

So, with this goal set, off I went. I trained by myself for a couple months, but I didn't really know what I was doing and didn't seem to make any progress (or lose any weight, ha!) So I paid Lisa's partner, Roger, who trained reasonably normal people to compete in ironmans, to coach me.

I started my training regime set out by Roger in July 2004. He had me exercising every day of the week. I swam and ran Mondays and Wednesdays, biked on Tuesdays and Sundays and swam and biked on Fridays. Thursdays were not a day off ... I tramped for four hours with my club on those days.

I worked hard with my training. I think I did my first event - a sprint triathlon after 3 months of training. This was 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run. It was tough for me although the swimming was a breeze (my strong point), biking and running not so great.

Anyway, while I had accomplished much with my training in terms of fitness and actually competing in my first event ... I had not lost a single ounce. I was working my butt off but my butt was still all there!

By November, when my friend told me about her nutritionist, I was desperate and totally motivated to have her help.

The reason I wasn't losing any weight, she told me, even though I was training so hard was because I was not eating enough food or the right kinds of foods to feed my body. It had gone into 'emergency mode' with all that exercise and was hanging on to every bit of fat for its dear life.

When I followed Ginny's programme, the weight fell off effortlessly. Now I know that simply walking several times a week is enough to keep my metabolism working - no need for that hard slog! I don't miss it a bit!