A change is as good as a rest?

I’m about to start my second week of rest. In the last couple of years I’ve never really taken any time out from exercise for anything other than an injury and I’ve got to admit that choosing to take a fortnight out feels a bit odd.

But there’s good reason for it. In just over a week I’ll be starting on Julia Buckley’s new fat loss programme – which has the title of Extreme Inferno. With that name you’d think I’d be feeling a bit nervous about what lays in store for me. But the truth is that my fat loss progress has stagnated over the last couple of months and I cannot wait to get started.

I am not at all surprised that I’ve hit a plateau. I’ve been less than focussed on my clean eating, I’ve had a lot of social events and I had to scale back the intensity of some of my training while I recovered from an injury. My body fat % is current a couple of points above my all time low. Taking everything into account I’m actually pretty relieved that the situation isn’t any worse.

Last week those of us starting Julia’s new programme got a message from her advising us to take the next fortnight off intense training to make sure that our bodies were prepared for what was to come. This doesn’t mean not doing anything, but she advised us not to do anything more than moderate exercise.

My first reaction to her mail was “this doesn’t apply to me, I’m feeling fine, I don’t need the time out”. But then having given it some more thought I realised that even if I physically don’t feel like I need a rest, mentally I could probably do with it. I’ve been maintaining a pretty full on fitness schedule since the start of this year. Even if I don’t think my body needs time out, my mind could probably do with a break.

So for the last week I haven’t so much as touched a weight. There’s been no high intensity training and no jumping around. I’ve been for a couple of gentle runs and done a yoga and Pilates class. And that’s it.

I must admit that I’ve enjoyed an extra hour in bed in the morning and not having to be organised with laying out my fitness kit the night before. And I’ll continue this rest this week so that my batteries are re-charged and I’m raring to go for a week on Monday.

I’m excited to find out more about what this new programme has in store for me. Julia’s been sharing a new sneak preview photos on Facebook with us and I can’t wait to get stuck in. I’ll be blogging about it again, as I did with Julia’s Fat Burn Revolution programme and am excited about revving up my metabolism and shedding some more fat.

But for now I will rest!