Things to think about...

I recently came across something interesting on the internet, 13 Thinks Mentally Strong People Don't Do, I started to look at this list and analyze how I approach these items. 

Here are my thoughts about each item:

1. They Don’t Waste Time Feeling Sorry for Themselves
I actually think I do a pretty good job with this. I don't like to dwell on things too much and therefore I don't feel sorry for myself too often.  There are days that I don't feel the best, but I try my hardest not to let it slow me down.  I try to remember that feeling sorry for myself isn't going to solve anything.

2. They Don’t Give Away Their Power
I used to be really bad about this and allowed others to dictate how I should act or what I should do. As I have matured I believe I have taken back the power of my life.  I am the one who has to live with myself and I should be doing things that make me happy or I know is right for me.

3. They Don’t Shy Away from Change
I actually really enjoy change (except when it comes to food).  I like to try new things and go new places.  I don't fear moving on to something new or letting go of something.  I am not saying it is easy, but I don't mind it. Now when it comes to food, I don't like to try something new at a restaurant if there is something I already know I like.  I worry I won't like what I have ordered and then I am stuck with it. HA!

4. They Don’t Waste Energy on Things They Can’t Control
This is probably something I am the worst at.  I want to be in control at all times. I want to be able to plan every second of my life and have things happen the way I want them to happen.  I am very uncomfortable when I am not in control of something.  I spend a lot of time thinking about things that I wish I had control over, but in the end I don't.  This is a big waste of my energy and I need to learn how to stop this.

5. They Don’t Worry About Pleasing Everyone
Here is another item I could work on.  I too often worry about if I am doing to right thing and keeping everyone happy.  Trying to keep everyone happy is exhausting and most times it is impossible.  Another point I need to work on.

6. They Don’t Fear Taking Calculated Risks
I am all about stability and feeling safe.  No matter how calculated a risk is, I still am afraid of it and very uncomfortable with it.  I was scared when we bought our house, I had to be pushed into it.  Now, here we are 5 years later and I love my house. The unknown scares me but sometimes it is necessary.

7. They Don’t Dwell on the Past
I live too often in the past.  I truly try to just look at now and the future, but I find myself suddenly wrapped up in the past.  This is a hard habit to break, but I am working on letting go of the past as I cannot change them. 

8. They Don’t Make the Same Mistakes Over and Over
Finally something I can say I don't do.  Learning from our mistakes is important, we can't be a better person if we don't make mistakes, learn from them and the apply what we have learned.  This is something I have learned as I have grown up and been married forever.  I really try not to make the same mistake twice.  (Unless it has to do with cleans in the gym, I make the same mistake over and over, it is very frustrating)

9. They Don’t Resent Other People’s Success
I try to be happy for everyone's successes.  Now, that is not to say I am not human and sometimes I am a little jealous.  I try to never let my bit of jealousy show and only try to celebrate their success. I love when those around me are successful and I truly enjoy seeing them happy.  Plus, it helps me to push myself that much harder to be successful too.

10. They Don’t Give Up After the First Failure
Ha, if I gave up after the first failure, I would never do anything.  There are many things that take me more than once to succeed at.  I believe failure is part of the learning and growing process.

11. They Don’t Fear Alone Time
I love my alone time. I enjoy being able to do whatever I want and not having to answer to anyone. Now, that isn't saying I like a lot of alone time.  There were times when Lido would be gone for long periods of time, I didn't like that. I can't be alone with myself for that long, I start to drive myself crazy.

12. They Don’t Feel the World Owes Them Anything
I believe everyone should work for what they have.  When you are handed something, I don't think you appreciate it as much as if you had to work for it.  I have had a pretty great life, but I also had to work hard for the things I have.  I am thankful for all that I have.

13. They Don’t Expect Immediate Results
I don't expect immediate results, but damn it would be nice if it worked that way. HA!

I really enjoyed going through this lists and thinking about how I act as compared to the list.  There are things I need to work on, but I still have time and you can always teach this old dog new tricks. 

How do you measure up to this list?  Would you consider yourself a mentally strong person?  Hope you are all having a great Tuesday!

What's Your Motivation??

What makes you eat healthy?  What makes you workout?  What drives you? 

 

I have been thinking about what my motivation is and why I do what I do.  I realized that I have gone through many different phases of motivation. 

 

When I first started my journey, my motivation was purely to lose weight. I wasn't thinking about getting healthy per se, I just wanted to see the scale go down.  My successes were only measurable if the scale went down each week (or day). I cut my calories down to 1200 a day and didn't worry about anything else.  If I had a party to go to one night, I wouldn't eat all day so that I would have all my calories to really enjoy myself.  I lost weight, but I wasn't really changing as much as I wanted.

 

My next phase of motivation was to get into a smaller size jean.  I had this idea that a size 4 was the perfect and ideal size for me.  So I started adding running into my routine of calorie counting.  Again, I didn't care about what my body needed, I only cared about structuring and limiting what was being put into my body.  I lost more weight and went down in size, but I don't think I was giving my body what it needed.  I was just getting smaller, but not ensuring that I was healthier. I was hungry a lot of the time and weak.

 

 

Then I started going to Train Insane.  I had always liked lifting weights, but felt that cardio was the only way I would lose the weight that I wanted to lose.  Over time I saw the scale continue to go down, my pant size go down and I was feeling stronger.  I began giving my body the foods it needed.  I focused not just on the exercise, but on eating healthy.  I have followed this routine for 1.5 years now and really enjoy it.  I started asking myself recently, what motives me?  Why do I get up at 5:20 each morning to go to the gym and workout, then rush home to get ready for work?  Why do I plan out my food out each Sunday and spend 3 hours in the kitchen to prepare it?  I know it would be easier to just eat whatever whenever.  Why do I track my calories, fat, protein and carbs each day and make sure I hit my goals? 

 

Here are my reasons, this is what motivates me (in no particular order):

 

1. Living a healthy life

2. Being strong, I love when someone come to me for help that requires a little bit of muscle.

3. Being able to be active while I can, who knows what will happen tomorrow.

4. Motivating others to be healthy

5. Fitting into my skinny jeans

6. Hitting a new PR in the gym

7. Hearing my husband tell me I have a nice back!!

8. Constant improvement, being stronger, faster, fitter than I was before.

9. Realizing what I am capable of.

10. Showing all those negative people in my life that I can do whatever I put my mind to and their opinions are better kept to themselves.

11. Proving to myself that I can do things that I never thought were possible.

12. Looking good in pictures (seriously, who doesn't want this?)

13. Having someone ask me how I do it.

14. Socializing with all my Train Insane Friends, this is one of my favorite parts of going to my gym. 

15. Being healthy and active for my future family.

16. Beating the person next to me in a metcon, I can't help it, I am competitive!  But I still cheer for everyone!

17. ?????

 

This is just a short list of what motivates me.  Each day there is something different that motivates me for the day.  Some of my reasons are completely superficial,  but I don't feel bad about that.  I like feeling confident when I am in clothes or even naked.  Are there things that still can be improved? Of course! This is a process that I will always be working on.  Once I get comfortable (which has happened) I will see the scale move up or my jeans become a little tighter and that is when I know that I need to get focused again.  I am not prefect, no one is, and there are days I do want to eat bad.  I just have to know that I will pay the consequences and I am only slowing down my journey.  But, it is a journey that I happily go on.  It isn't always easy or fun, but with the support system I have (husband, family, friends) it is bearable and rewarding.

 

So what motivates you?  Do you have to pull from your motivation list often?

No More Excuses

I had a goals meeting with my coach last night.  I went in thinking I would get to lower my calories since I wasn't seeing the results I was expecting. I left with instructions to tighten up my food and refocus.  Not exactly what I was expecting. 

He looked through my journal day by day for the last month as showed me where I was falling short. I figured since I make most of my meals and I stay within my calories I should be following the plan just fine.  Well that was not the case.  He pointed out every time we had gone out to eat, especially over the last weekend, and would not listen to any of my excuses.  I even tried to change the subject at one point, but he was not done giving me a hard time about my food.

I have to admit, after speaking with him, I can see where my food is lacking.  I was only making sure I was hitting my numbers, but I was not always thinking about what I was putting in my body.  It is no surprise that my body isn't changing how I would like it to.  I am not feeding my body what it needs to support the training I do and change the way I want it to.  I have become lazy when it comes to making the best choices for my body's needs. 

I tried to come up with excuses and push the blame, but in the end, I know I have no one to blame but myself.  I have the knowledge and the tools (recipes, scale, coach, supportive friends) to do what I need to do.  My body doesn't want to hear excuses, my coach doesn't want to hear excuses and I don't want to hear any excuses.  I was being lazy. I wanted to eat how everyone else was eating when it was convenient for me.  I can't just pick and choose when to be on point with my food.  I need to be on top of my food all the time or I will not get to my end goal.  I am responsible for myself and no one else can influence me to make bad choices.  I am a big girl and it is time for me to put those big girl pant back on and do what I need to do to get what I want.

I went home from the gym reignited and ready to focus on my food.  I cooked up a whole bag of asparagus, a couple turkey patties, and some chicken breast.  I even popped some oatmeal banana cookies in the oven this morning.  These cookies are healthy, with only 3 ingredients (recipe below). I will get back to journaling my food the night before, instead of in the morning when I don't have as much time.  I plan on spending more time in the kitchen experimenting with recipes, which I love doing. 

Oatmeal Banana Cookies:

Ingredients:
1. 2 ripe bananas
2. 1 cup instant oats
3. One Serving Organic Peanut Butter (I added this, you don't have to)

Directions:
1. Mash the bananas
2. Mix in the oats and peanut butter
3. Put on a cookie sheet, I was able to make 11 in my batch
4. Bake on 350 degrees for 15 minutes

Stats for 1 cookie: 51 calories, 8 carbs, 2 fat, 1 protein, 1 fiber

I figure these cookies will be a good/healthy snack when I want something.

I don't want to bore everyone with my food, but I will be keeping up on it and I will report back to everyone how I am doing.  I am going to be completely honest, so if I slip up, I will tell all of you.  Although I don't plan on slipping up.  I am worried about our trip to NYC at Thanksgiving, but  if I want the results I have to make the choices and sacrifice. 

I told my coach that I didn't like any of his answers last night, but I know it is what I needed to hear.  I am at a point where a calorie is no longer just a calories.  Eating a Sprinkles Cupcake and telling myself it is okay because I didn't go over my calories doesn't work.  Down with the cupcake!!!

 

As much as I love them, it is time to breakup!! 

No Negative Nancy's Allowed

My gym participated in a competition this Saturday and I was one of the competitors.  I had a great partner, who kicks butt everyday in the gym. She is constantly impressing me with her strength and stamina.  I was so excited when she agreed to be my partner.  I don't know what happened on Saturday, but our team just didn't have it.  I take the blame since she is amazing and I was obviously the weakest link. It is very true when they say you are only as strong as your weakest player, well that was me.

 

My poor partner is so used to being the one on the podium and she had me as a partner. I was totally our of my element on top of everything.  I don't exercise on grass and I don't exercise in the heat and sun. I know those are all excuses for my poor performance, but it is true.  I went into the competition nervous, which is usual, I mean who likes having people watch them do Burpees and Bear Crawls. No one wants to see my butt up in the air while crawling on the grass.  Not a pretty site. I expected that we would at least finish our first heat strong, and we were doing pretty well until the darn Bear Crawls in the grass.  It seemed like we had to crawl and entire mile.

 

I am pretty sure this sloth would go faster than I was.

 

I am not sure where we ended up in our heat.  I know our time was 7:01 and I was expecting us to go a lot faster. My legs were on fire after the first heat and there was still two more to go.  Now, I know I run Half Marathons, but all that means is a can run long distances at a slow pace.  The next two heats involved running, short distances at a fast pace.  This would be my kryptonite.  First off, no one should ever do anything called "Suicide" anything.  I went into the second heat wondering what the hell was a Suicide Run. I quickly found out and wanted to injure myself.  Again, no one should watch me run on a basketball court in the sun with a ball that weighs 15 pounds but feels like it weighs 50 pounds.  I came close to puking a couple of times, but got through it with my protein bar still in my stomach. I take that as a small victory.

 

 

 

The last heat had running, sit-ups, more running and then walking lunges the length of two basketball courts.  Really? Why? That is just torture.  Well we started our run and was right at the back of the pack.  What are you going to do?  Thought about tripping people, but there was too many witnesses. Then we get to the sit-ups.  We couldn't get our rhythm down and just kept laughing. Our judge kept telling us to go faster and we would, while he watching, then we would start laughing.  My partner tried to bail at 50 sit-ups (we needed 60), I had to tell her to come back. We finally knocked those out and then had to run again.  I won't go into detail about what we were saying when we were running an no one was near us, but it would make some people blush.  Then on to the walking lunges over lava (ok, there was no lava, but it felt like it). I wanted to die, it felt like it was 100 degree outside and my partner was way ahead of me.  We finished... finally.  I don't know our time, I don't believe we were last, but who the hell knows.  I don't think I even knew my name at this point.

 

So, what do I take away from the experience?  I suck! Just kidding, but there is lots of room for improvement on my part. I went into this competition feeling prepared and learned I was not as ready as I thought I was.  Even with the competition being way out of my comfort zone, I had a blast with my gym.  Train Insane has the best bunch of people.  They are all so supportive and positive (and good liars when they tell you that you did a good job). 

 

Train Insane killed it!!!

 

Thank you to Ashley for being my partner, I owe her big time for taking me on as a partner, although I didn't give her much choice. 

 

I figure I can sit here and be negative about the competition or take it as a learning experience and set some new goals.  Although I still think that no one should ever do bear crawls in front of an audience.  I had a great time with great people and I got a great workout in, right? There is no time to be negative.

 

True Dat!!

 

Happy Monday!!