Petra 30 days later...
Day 30: 58.95 kg Day 0: 64.70 kg
49 km running, 10 weight training sessions, lots of crying - 5.75 kg loss and an average of 6.16 cm slimmer body parts in 30 days.
A little over two weeks ago, I concluded Petra's summary by saying that there was a very high chance she would give up the program due to her seemingly unshakable and days-long low point. In those few days, I talked a lot with Petra about what was wrong, what the problem was, but she constantly deflected, saying that she could never tell anyone, not even her parents, about her truly deep and serious problems because she simply couldn't talk about them. I've been playing poker since 2005, and while I haven't achieved great success over the years, it has taught me one thing. I've perfectly learned to read people, reactions, and I've observed how to react to certain behaviors in a way that reverses what your opponent is trying to use against you. With Petra, this looked like this: after 3 days, she still couldn't tell me what was wrong, even though I could see she really appreciated the care and interest in her problems or that I was trying to help her. I switched from an understanding and empathetic style to a cold and insensitive state (if you tell me, I'll listen; if not, from now on, I don't care what's wrong with you and I'm not interested in your problems), which, of course, as always, brought the solution, and after a week of struggling, Petra told me what was wrong...
Since it was a female problem, we moved across a wide emotional spectrum, meaning I was prepared for everything from real and universally shocking serious problems to completely insignificant, infuriatingly meaningless worries, and indeed, everything up to the "my hair isn't as shiny from the diet" level of problems. Of course, I wasn't disappointed this time either. Petra simply had enough of the program, there's a lot of pressure at her workplace, she's constantly being harassed, she wants to perform in all areas of her life, she wants to prove herself to herself and to everyone who follows her on the blog or in her private life. This is a lot of pressure, let's face it, sometimes even I was overwhelmed by the weight of the blog, and this weight can break a person. Petra is strong, at least she wants to appear strong, she tries to suppress these feelings, but sometimes they surface, and the result is a huge, days-long, self-pitying hysteria. But there's something else here. Although I am convinced that women are more persistent and stable in the flow of life than men in many areas, even the toughest woman can break down at any time if she starts to feel emotionally attracted to a guy. In Petra's case, something is starting to develop on the horizon, which I can only support, but this step also carries many factors that could not only negatively affect the program, but if things turn out a certain way, could even mean its end. I wish Petra good luck with this project, and I would tell the guy, if he even reads the blog, to try not to be a little jerk and screw everything up.
To discuss women's self-esteem crisis sufficiently and in adequate depth would take more than several lifetimes, because anyone who has dealt with a woman knows exactly what I'm talking about. But the catastrophes of everyday complexes (do you think I'm fat?) are incomparable to the state I face when the topic of weekly summary photos comes up, or when I ask Petra to stand on that damn scale and measure her hips. Oh, you really should see this show, because everything comes out from the depths, and it triggers such a struggle and tantrum that in a psychiatric institution, they would simply say, "prepare examination room number 4." At such times, the full repertoire strikes, from "my butt is still big" to "people can't see me in this state, let's postpone the photoshoot," all the way to the regularly arriving crying fits. I just sit, wait for her to finish, and with an impassive face, measuring tape in hand, I just tell her, "when you're done, come here." You can see the results above, and after Petra also looks at the photos and the differences in centimeters, of course, there's tremendous joy and happiness, but few things in life are as certain as the fact that we'll play this circus again in 15 days.
There are 40 more days left in Petra's program, meaning we're slowly past the halfway mark. At the beginning, we set two goals: the first and most important was for Petra to lose 10 kilograms, and the second was to shape her butt, thighs, and arms, and give her hips a curve. This is a damn good sculpting job, and we're already past half of the 10-kilogram weight loss target, even before the halfway point of the program, which means we have 40 days to shed the remaining little over 4 kilograms, which I don't think will be a problem. The shaping part is now joining the program, which means I've slightly rewritten Petra's training plan, and we're focusing on exercises for butt and thigh shaping. Shoulder training will also become a bit more emphasized in the future, which Petra doesn't want, but I think it's necessary from an aesthetic point of view, and besides, as the girl doesn't talk much, she doesn't have much say in it.
As for the past 15 days, there were some issues with the workouts in the last few days, as Petra was kicked in the thigh during a basketball game by a girl she called a "sneaky stinky bitch," causing her to miss a few days of training. Despite this, Petra ran 20 km, did 4 weight training sessions, cycled 30 km, and swam some amount in the past 2 weeks, but unfortunately, I don't know how much, because when I asked her how much she swam, I had the following conversation:
Bence: How much did you swim?
Petra: 2 hours, but I rested every half hour.
Bence: That wasn't the question; the question was, how big was the pool?
Petra: 4 lanes
I had no further questions...
