“One day you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted.”
DO IT NOW - Paulo Coelho
Confession Time
Last month I touched on MINDSET so this month it’s time to make another little confession.
The last confession I made to this congregation was in Feb when I blurted out that “I DON’T ALWAY’S ENJOY TRAINING”
Trust me that was hard enough but this my dear friends is even harder.
YES hard because it goes against the grain of what I believe and for what I stand for.
Most of you see me as this Super Strong, Super Focused, Super Strict individual and yes I do have a fair dose all those traits and you can add pig-headed and stubborn to that list :).
OK, so what is it?
People I love junk food.
YES I LOVE FAT FOOD
I LOVE SWEET FOOD,
SAVOURY FOOD, CHEESE (hard, soft, smelly, white, yellow, moldy), CRACKERS, SALAMI, DIPS, BREAD
I LOVE CHIPS (of any kind, hot cold, dry you name it, if it’s made out of white potato I’ll eat it), DIMS SIMS, CHICO ROLLS,
HOT DOGS, HAMBURGERS and I love KRISPY KREME DONUTS, (make that any kind of donut as long as it’s fat and sweet),
I LOVE CHOCOLATE (dark, white, you name it I’ll eat it) I love PIZZA, I LOVE BREAD,
I LOVE BEER, RED WINE, WHITE WINE, DESSERT WINE (I’ve got at least 100 bottles at home).
I love all the fat cut’s of meat, chicken, pork.
I can eat junk food until I throw up then I’ll eat even more!
Phew - There you go, I’ve finally got it off my chest…
BUT
…although I crave it I DON’T EAT IT EVERY DAY, BECAUSE
If I did chance’s are I wouldn’t be around to write this post.
If I continued eating the way I was bought up to eat I would’ve died of a heart attack a long time ago.
Both my parents were large people with a passion for food, my brother is a Chef who tends to abuse alcohol.
I was bought up in a working class family who thought I was an oddity because I exercised after I secured a wife and ate weird food like chicken breast.
Fish was never eaten raw in my family it was either grilled, baked or more than often fried. My mum usually included fried chips with every meal.
Friday nights was always Fish and Chip night, pork chops were fried and you dipped your bread in the fat from the frying pan.
There was always soft drinks in the fridge, the Gold Medal man delivered 1 dozen of sugar laden fizzy water to our doorstep every week and 2 dozen during the summer.
The pantry was full of chips, chocolate (mum loved Kit Kats) biscuits of all kinds especially Arnotts Cream Biscuits, fruit was bought by the kilo.
As kids mum used to beat an egg yolk with sugar until it became creamy and give it to us as a breakfast treat.
Mum was renowned for her pastries she could roll hand made fillo pastry so thin you could read the newspaper through it.
She made the best Baklava, Spanokopita, Sweet pumpkin pita, Greek Short breads, home made Spoon Sweets of nearly every fruit and vegetable known to man, and whatever she couldn’t make she would buy from one of the many Greek cake shops, which adorned Sydney Road in Brunswick.
I had holes in my teeth by the age of 9.
Dad made his own wine and encouraged us when we became of age to have a couple of glasses at dinner with him and a glass at lunchtime on weekends.
He shopped from the best butcher’s and he grew whatever he could, his garden was his pride and joy.
The only animals we had were the edible one’s he raised and slaughtered for the dinner table, Chooks, Pidgeons, Spatchcock and when he lived in Greece for a few years after his retirement Goats and Lambs.
We were never allowed to have a dog because they'd pee and poo on his lawn where he picked his Horta (wild Endives).
Olive oil was bought by the 10 kilo drum and preferably Virgin and from Greece because what would the rest of the world know about Olive Oil. Wasn’t the Olive Tree a native of Greece and the eternal sign of Fertility?
Any surplus olive oil in the salad was drank as a treat or used to dip the copious amount of bread, usually Pastadura or Chiabata (one thing about the Italians, they know how to make bread, he would quip) our family consumed on a daily basis.
Yes I was one of those Wog Kids who had the thick Pastadura Bread filled with Salami or Mortadella and healthy layers of Kraft Cream Cheese Spread.
Can you imagine the smell of my school bag during the summer it’s a wonder we didn’t die of food poisoning :)
Mum and Dads idea of a healthy diet was Fruit and Veg. As long as every treat had fruit and veg it was considered healthy, so yes I always had fruit with my donuts.
Pies and pasties were healthy because they had vegetables in them :)
When my Mum and Dad saw me go through my first pre-contest diet they thought I was dying of malnutrition, that I was starving myself.
They actually thought I was going to die. My dad even warned my mum to prepare to look after my daughters, he was that convinced I’d end up killing myself in my quest for body perfection:)
There you go I’ve finally got it off my chest :)
Please don’t get me wrong, my parents were poor Greek migrants who witness extreme times, times of war, times where food was so scarce they’d have to share an egg between 4 kids, famine was rife in war torn Greece when they were growing up.
Mum was pulled out of school in Grade 3 to work the fields which provided their meager existence, Dad managed to finish Grade 6 and could actually read (mum couldn’t) but there was no playing after school, it was straight to helping with the chores usually in order to put food on the table something totally foreign to my generation and the generations that followed.
Food to them was until they died a sign of prosperity, so yes they had trouble understanding why I was desperate to look the way I look, my parents couldn’t understand what the BIG DEAL was having a 6-pack:)
My whole life changed at the age of 12 when I saw a photo of Steve Reeve’s as Hercules and yes people since that day I was and still am totally consumed by that look.
That’s when I decided I wanted to be a bodybuilder but I won’t bore you with the "Trials and Tribulations" I had as teenager convincing my parents of the health benefits, of my rather peculiar pursuit of Body Perfect.
"What do think you are a Bloody Greek Statue" my dad would quip :)
"Yes I want to look like a Greek Statue" I would answer back
"Pai Trelathike" (he’s gone mad) my dad would say to my mum and cross himself as if asking for divine intervention.
So at a very young age I had to pick and choose my food, I learned the benefits of Protein, the dangers of over consumption of Carbs and Fats and have never stopped learning since.
"If nothing changes - Nothing Changes”
Throughout my life I’ve battled my sugar urges so I had to make changes to my Mindset to achieve what I have in Bodybuilding
More importantly I had to curb my addiction to JUNK FOOD and learn how to control my urges.
· I've learned and think mastered the Mind techniques required to succeed.
· I’ve put practices into place to avoid lapses particularly when I’m dieting.
· I mastered the art of MINDSET and most importantly I’ve recognised that my body is weak and in order to succeed I would have to make my MIND STRONGER, it’s something I’m constantly working on.
· I’ve learned to switch my TASTE BUDS “ On and Off” or face failure or even worse failing health and obesity
My Junk splurges are Legendary, on Saturday I ate 5 Krispy Kreme donuts and a medium size bag of Red Rock Chips followed by a Twix Bar and I won’t tell you what I had for dinner but come Breakfast on Sunday morning I was back to my strict diet.
So yes I guess I am normal
