Line Kolbe

I’ve been wanting to make this blog post for a while with a couple of inspirational videos I’ve found on youtube, plus direct links to two of my own blogposts here.

These 4 stories are all about a dream made into a goal. Then a struggle. And then the success.

You see… before every success you have a struggle, a fight. You have to keep on fighting. You have to have patience, dedication, and faith in the process. You have to let time do it’s part and not expect success overnight. You have to be willing to have set backs and failures along the way. You have to be willing to have even more set backs and failures. You have to be willing never to give up.

See these two videos:

120 pound journey

Arthur\’s Inspirational Transformation

And read about my friend, Berit and my friend and client, Thomas:

http://linekolbe.blog.com/2011/11/16/my-friend-berit/

http://linekolbe.blog.com/2012/04/23/inspiration-my-client-thomas/

I competed in a fitness five competition this weekend and I did really good. Did some PRs and had a lot of fun
It’s a competition where there are five exercises and you lift acording to your bodyweight. You do as many reps as possible in those five exercises. The one with the most reps wins. It was chins with bodyweight, dips with bodyweight, bench presses with 50% bodyweight, biceps curls with 33% bodyweight and millitary presses with 33% bodyweight.

I did:

13 chins, 17 dips, 41 bench presses, 20 biceps curls, 26 millitary presses. So a total of 117 reps.

Swedgym in Borås held it on their 1 year anniversary for the supplement store, Gymgrossisten, they have right there in the gym and really many came to see it and support those of us who competed. We were 6 girls and a lot more guys and I got the second place. I’m really proud of that. Those 13 chins and 17 dips are PRs

Thomas, my client, has come such an incredibly long way in his weight loss journey and it has not been without bumps on the road. He has faced challenges where almost everybody would have given up. But Thomas never gives up.

When I first met him he had signed up for training with me in the gym. He had just turned 50 years old and this was his present to himself: A personal trainer, to help him get further. He had – and hold on now – started at 180 kilos and gone down 50 kilos, on his own, but in this great weigh loss he had also lost a lot of muscle mass. His weigh loss had come to a halt, and he wanted to build his muscles up again and get the fat loss going again. He was weak and he was actually still fat. Even though he had gone that much down in weight he still weighed 130 kg.

In the year that I’ve now known him and worked with him I’ve seen him get stronger and stronger and I’ve seen him overcome so much. Some exercises he couldn’t even do because he didn’t have the strength for it when we started out. Like squats. That was not even possible. Now he lifts a 60 kilo bar and go down to 90 degrees  knees. He deadlifts 60 kilos. He has become a really good training partner for me and we use the same weights in almost all exercises now. He’s even stronger than me in some. In the beginning he could not even lift half of what he can now.

But back to his story:

Everything was going great for months. but then In the middle of it all he starts getting weaker and weaker again. I wonder if I’m overtraining him but then it hit’s him. He finds out that he has gotten heart problems. So no training and a lot of tests, a lot of medicin that upsets his stomach. He can’t keep the food in him. Everything just seems hopeless. But not for him. In his mind this is just a set back, not a stop. In his mind he just have to get through this and he can’t wait to start working out again.

To get a perspective on this. Imagine that you have about 100 kilos to go down. Not 10 or 20, but one hundred kilos. That is so overwhelming that almost everybody would give up just by the thought of it. Then at the age of 50 many would, to say it as it is, give up right there and get really old and just start a slow death.

(What made Thomas start was a wake up call from his doctor – Loose weight or die – and Thomas chose to live)

Then you get going with the weight loss and then you get another message from the doctor: Stop working out or die!!
Can you even imagine all of this?
What almost everybody else would have done in this situation is to give up. Think that the weight that is gone is good enough. That this is as good as it gets and then settle for that body. Maybe never ever get started working again and then end up weak with permanent heart problems. Thomas didn’t even considder this option. His only option was to get the heart problems sorted out, find a medicin he could handle and start workout out again. And that was what happened. He had his heart restarted! got medicin that worked, started working out again.

Then the heart problems came back. Really. Talk about challenges! You finally think you’re through it but, no..

He didn’t give up. He kept on fighting. Kept on wanting to get back to the gym getting stronger again. What this man has been through…
I am so deeply inspired by him.

And..

Now we work out together again. He gets stronger and stronger again. Goes down in weight again. Gets more and more healthy.

He gladly said to me, when we did legs this past Friday, that he had now gone down 75 kilos since his start two years ago.

75 kilos!  (and he’s not done yet )

Then I had to take some pictures.

So. Here you go. This is what a 75 kilo weight loss looks like:

This last Saturday the first competiton of this spring was held in Alingsås, here in Sweden, and I was there to see my fellow team members in Team Fairing compete.

Team Fairing did so amazingly good!

Martin Hanzel took the overall Gold medal in mens classic bodybuidling and of course took the gold medal in his class. Freja Lindberg took the gold medal in the short bodyfitness class, Emelie Lundström took the silver medal in the middle bodyfitness class, and Sebastian Fritzson got a good fifth place in bodybuilding.

This gives the rest of us in Team Fairing something to live up to

And that brings me to this:

You will never outperform your own self portrait. 

Or said in another way: You will only get as good as you believe you are able to become, and can see youself be. You will only achieve the things you believe you are able to achieve.
Can you see yourself as a winner?
Do you believe in yourself?
When you decribe yourself do you use the words:
Determined, Dedicated, Willing to fight, Unwilling to give up, Worthy of succes?

You can change your self image. You can make it better. You can work on improving it all the time. And even if you do believe in yourself and can see great things happen in the future for you, you can always work on this. Progress is the key. Getting better and better.

I can tell you all that I believe in myself and that I can see myself win when I’ll compete again in October.

Here are some pictures from the competition this Saturday:

Martin Hanzel:

Freja Lindberg:

Emelie Lundström:

Sebastian Fritzson (the third guy):

It might seem like a long time, 28 weeks, but it’s really not.

I’m turning the mental switch to “game on” and not have it at that midway point, that “not really there yet, but almost” point I feel it has been these last couple of months.

Don’t get me wrong – I have had crueling workouts. I’ve added strength and a bit of muscle mass and I’ve seen progress. People in the gym have started asking if I’ve started dieting, which I have, but the feeling of being switched to ”game on” dietwise has not been pressent.

That changes now. I feel it. I’m on.. Game on

It’s time for some tiny diet changes. I’m adjusting my diet down with 200 cals a day, but setting the amounts of vegetables up (so I won’t be hungry). I still eat a lot of carbs, I still get lots of heathly fat (Udo’s Choice oil off course) and a lot of good protein. So lots of food, really. But no grains. I eat extreme amounts of vegetables and carb rich ones, so I get the carbs from them.
Fighter Diet style
I always seek more knowledge and I always want to learn more and more and one of the mentors in this part of my life is Pauline Nordin, founder of the Fighter Diet. I recomend reading up on her and her concept.  I’ve bought many of her ebooks already and I’m sure I’ll get them all over time.

Other than the small changes in diet it’s a mindset change. I still do the same amounts of workouts and I still kill myself in the gym. I still do my cardio and I don’t plan on upping that now. I’ll let the diet do the job for starters and not up the cardio untill it’s needed.

The mindset changes from “getting ready to soon get going” to “game on” and that actually means it gets easier. I don’t get tempted anymore. What’s the point of being tempted to eat something you can’t eat anyway? Why bother?
When I’m not in the “game on mode” I get so tempted. I want to eat so much I shouldn’t, because I don’t feel I’m on, and then I could give myself permision to eat it. The possibility to eat it exists in the back of my mind. But as soon as I feel like this, that, in fact irritating, possibility disappears.

It’s a great feeling of commitment, dedication and disciplin. It’s a drive and a passion, and it’s also a way for me to serve others. I want to inspire and help. This is my way of showing it’s possible. With dreaming, believing, fighting, staying strong, being consistant, taking small steps in the right direction every single day, making the right choices every single day and keeping on doing it, keeping on believing, keeping the faith.. Everything is possible!

Dare to dream. Dare to go after your dreams. Dare to be yourself and be the best you you can be.

I’ve been asked what my favorite supplement is, and to be honest, that was a pretty difficult question to answer. I have many favorites… But if I am to chose a single one as the absolute favorite, it is protein powder because if I could only use one supplement it would be that.

For many reasons:

1. It’s the most effective way to boost recovery and it’s what the muscles need the most right after a tough workout.
2. There’s nothing weird about it. It’s really just protein from milk made so it gets into the muscles faster. Food made drinkable.
3. I love the shake after the workouts. It’s a reward.
4. It can be a snack between meals and before bedtime.
5. My husband loves it in his müsli for breakfast.
6. It’s the supplement almost everybody could benefit from.

And then the next question:
which protein powder is my favorite?
And that’s Fairing’s Complete Protein 3.

It’s high quality, tasty, and it also has a great price when you look at what you get.

The reason for the name “Complete Protein 3″ is that it’s made of three types of protein: whey (fast protein that gets into the muscles right away), casein (slower protein that makes sure that the muscles have something to grow from for a longer time), and lactoferin (a protein that speeds up recovery).

This is just perfect for me.

(And the taste… I really can’t chose. They are so great all of them!)

Fairing is a Swedish high quality sports nutrition brand that I trust and recomend. I love it. There are always so many brands to choose from and why not choose one where you can call the owners and have a chat, support a family owned company, know where it comes from and that everything is tested here in Sweden and backed up by the latest research, and then to make it all even better not have to pay overprice for it? I have found my favorite brand, that’s for sure.

I have this deep drive inside of me to help and serve others around me.

It gives me value and a meaning to my life.

To be a good example is to serve those who need a rolemodel.

I strive to be the best me I can possibly be.

I don’t want to be ordinary. I want to extraordinay.

I strive for progress and I cherish the small steps.

I protect my focus and I make sure I reach my goals.

I do my very best to be true to myself in all areas in my life, and I live the life I chose to live.

This makes me feel fullfilled and happy and it makes me able to help and serve.

I got my team stuff home yesterday. So happy

A bag, a shaker, wrist support, a cap,  and a T-shirt with the logo on the front
and this cool text on the back:

FOR THOSE WHO DON’T BELIEVE IN LIMITATIONS.
FOR THOSE WHO DARE GO WHERE OLD RULES DO NOT APPLY, AND
FOR THOSE WHO HAVE SIMPLY LOST THEIR MINDS

I want to update a bit.

I’m so busy and happy. Everything just goes really good. My training and diet, my job in the gym, own coaching business and my little coffee thing I have on the side of everything. When you then add a perfect husband and my dogs plus a hobby of buying cars every now and then…

I’ll take some progress pics soon. This weekend it’s been 6 weeks since the last pics. I’m excited to compare them. It’s always difficult to see the change in the mirror but when you take pics it’s so much more visuable what’s going on.

And being in Team Fairing just rocks

There’s a team get-together the 11th of March and I really wanted to come, but other exciting stuff is going on. We’ll take a flight to Stuttgart, Germany and buy a car and drive home, visit family in Denmark on the way home, and due to my husbands work and other plans in the other weekends we have to do it that particular weekend where the team get-together is.
I do want to come to the next one. I want to get to know the others. The support we have towards one another on facebook (see our group here: http://www.facebook.com/groups/21379746524/ ) is great. We are going to do amazing at the competitions we will attend this year.
That I’m sure off

Am I insane if I love the great pain that comes when I push myself to my absolute failure in the gym, knowing it will give me great results?

Am I insane if I want to have a freaky body that’s almost impossible to get, because I think it’s beautiful, because it shows the disciplin I have in me, because I can do it the healthy way and because it makes me proud and happy?

Am I insane if I don’t care what other people think, if they get it or like it, but just care about being true to myself?

Am I insane if I want to connect to my inner beast that makes me do one more set, one more rep and work all the way through the pain feeling the rush of the endorfines?

Am I insane if I am different and love my life?