Week 7 – Rest and Recovery by Emma

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This week I’ve learnt the importance of rest. For six weeks we have followed a strict workout routine of band and HIIT workouts. I’ve not missed a single session for the whole of this time and although we get rest days throughout the week, my body hasn’t had a real rest for 6 weeks.

On Monday, I was having a bad start to the week as I was on a 6 day plateau of my weight. I know it’s bad to get frustrated of the scales and Chris jumped in and chatted about the reasons and to look at all 7 progress points. It is hard to not get frustrated when your weight loss slows, but having a coach there to talk to or just highlight my other success makes more sense and keep me motivated.. This combined with the fact I wasn’t doing any band workouts for a whole week made me feel really worried that I’d lose the progress so far.

Looking back that sounds ridiculous and I quickly realised how much my body needed a rest week. I upped my step goal to 9000 a day, I got out for 2 walks per day and I stretched on pretty much a daily basis. The rest has done the opposite of what I was worried about. I am now so motivated for the next 4 weeks and everything that is to come.

I’m ready to up my band weight, to smash the HIIT sessions and keep my step count high. I want to say if you are worried about giving your body rest then I completely understand. I want to say though one weeks rest isn’t going to undo your progress. One weeks rest will give your body time to heal and it’ll give your mind time to get the motivation needed to continue your fitness journey.

I am so ready for week 8 and I can’t wait for the final 4 weeks of this journey, which is only a small milestone towards my long term goal.

Emma