FIRST BODYCOMP SESSION

Strangely enough, I'd spent most of the day prior to the first session trying to mentally prepare myself for the terror of having my first weigh in, measurements and photos taken. I always train in many layers of oversized gym clothes, mostly ones that I wore when I was 5 stone heavier than I am now, so as you can imagine - most of them are on the verge of falling off but I have always felt much 'safer' in layers of oversized clothing. The more the better generally, although always feeling like some kind of layered up potato when I see people around me training in vests and tight leggings. Therefore, knowing that in order for Coach OC to get an accurate photo representation of my 'before' body for the body composition, I was going to have to wear something that showed my body, even showed my stomach as abdominal definition is one of my specific goals. I ordered some compression leggings (never ever trained in leggings) and practiced wearing them during the day to prepare for the session in the evening.

I cannot begin to express how I felt waiting to be called in, I warned Coach OC that I might be sick on his nicely cleaned floor, but the main thing I know I should acknowledge is that I did it (despite shaking and hyperventilating the whole way through) and OC is the first person in a very long time who has seen any evidence of my stomach actually being there under all the clothing layers. He was fantastic and so reassuring while at the same time understanding, we've known each other quite a long time so this really contributed towards my being able to do it and trusting him. It's quite a contrast when I had a moment realising that not so long ago I couldn't even take my coat off around people, and here I was standing in front of someone pointing a camera at me while I was in a sports bra and compression leggings. After all the body composition team had their weigh in, Coach OC talked us through the process as well as nutrition, food prep and the training session with a Q&A slot. Then we teamed up and went through each of the exercises for 'day 1', focusing specifically on the tempo, as Coach OC pointed out this is the most important part to get right. Another first for me suddenly happened, teaming up with someone for training. Quite honestly this made focusing on the exercises a lot more challenging for me (coupled with the fact that I still had the compression leggings on under my much bigger and loose Canterbury trousers, and I really wasn't comfortable with or at all used to something being so tight around my waist which made training equally challenging). The whole time my feelings wanted to retreat to a corner away from everyone else and train privately (something that the very wonderful Simon / Coach SG is supernaturally skilled at spotting and helping me to challenge - often telling me certain gym corners are out of order and I need to move to a different spot).

But after all that I made it through the first session (only one bathroom retreat when I felt a few familiar head pre-wobble warning signs - took a few mins to mentalise then got back out there - thankyou therapy) and now my ISO BMR and nutrition calculator have arrived from Coach OC which I will put up here for reference. Honestly I'm quite nervous about getting the hang of the nutrition calculator - but fingers crossed it's another thing I feel I can't do and actually can when I try.