Week 2 of Me: I’m learning to love pushing myself past my own expectations again. Boot camp at the gym was such a driving force before because I wanted to compete with whoever it was next to meet busting out push ups too. Having signed …
Procrastinator is my middle name, disorganized is my second middle name… Ever since I finished my first Spartan Race I wanted more from fitness, like to be able to help people with their fitness goals. Two years later I decided I wanted to be come …
Yup, it’s that time again. Goal setting, new commitments, lifestyle changes. Hooray!!!Go big or go home right?!? Nope. Let me tell you why… (Unless you are that one in a million.)
Change is even harder when you try to pile on 20 changes in one week. Think back to when you were a baby, okay so you probably don’t remember that far back, how about the last baby you spent time with? When they were learning to walk they didn’t just stand up and start running right? They held on to the table, steadied themselves and then let go. Then they decided it was time to take a step, maybe two, and then it progressed to three or four or more. While I would love to see you all successfully master your health goals right away, I know that small steps are more successful. Start at the bottom and continue to build up that foundation. The New Year, is just that, a YEAR, that means you’ve got 12 months to master those good habits. Let’s focus on mastering one thing at a time.
What is your goal? Lose weight? Give it a number. Be stronger? Give it something attainable, full push up, pull up, squat 100 pounds. Be healthier? Eat a veggie with every meal, cut out soda, exercise 3 times a week. See what I’m getting at here? If you’re wanting to be successful you need something to work towards, you need something that will give you a sense of completion or accomplishment. Saying you want to be healthier or lose weight leaves a lot of wiggle room. One more thing, let’s be realistic. Don’t be afraid to set a small goal to start, it will help you build up the confidence needed to push further and grow confidence in yourself.
Why did you choose this goal? I want you to dig deep and decide what it is about this goal that makes you want to complete it. Why do you want to lose 15 lbs, did your doctor say it was necessary for your health? Are you unhappy in your skin? Do you want to be a healthy example for your kids? Only you can figure out your why and whether it is going to drive you to succeed. Write that why on a sticky note and put it on your refrigerator, put it on your bathroom mirror, remember it when you don’t want to do the things you know will make you meet the goal you set.
Now, give it a deadline. “I will lose 15 lbs by the end of March, I will master the pull up by June,” you get my drift? Having a deadline can help give you a sense of urgency, knowing I have to meet a goal by that date gives me a little extra drive. My focus is more intentional if I know there is an end date.
Now that you’ve got that deadline, break it down. To lose 15 pounds, I’ll need to lose 5 lbs a month. How am I going to do that? What has or hasn’t worked for you before? If it didn’t work, don’t do it again, if you’re needing some ideas on how to meet those specific goals, don’t be afraid to reach out. Want to quit your 5 soda a day habit, try breaking it down weekly. Week 1, I will cut back to 4 sodas a day, week 2 it will be only 3. Or spread it out a little longer. Quitting a bad habit can sometimes cause withdrawals and it may be painful to quit cold turkey. Don’t be afraid to try new things, remember if it seems too good to be true, chances are it is. There’s no magical pill for weight loss or getting rich quick for that matter. (No matter what the infomercials tell you.)
I mentioned baby steps before, and I mean it. If you have lived on the couch and haven’t been to the gym since your high school gym class, haven’t had a vegetable since your mom made you eat one and drink coffee as your method of hydration, don’t try to make all those changes at once. Yes, some people can make those changes, with the power of God, I believe, but big changes are stressful. If you’re going to quote Philippians 4:13, I pray you are really relying on him to help you through it. Otherwise, one step at a time. I wouldn’t expect to go run a marathon with zero training, don’t expect to change over night either. The clock isn’t going to strike midnight tonight and you’ll be miraculously changed, I don’t know if I can emphasize enough, “the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
There will be bumps, just like that baby, you might fall after a few steps. That baby isn’t going to give up, and you shouldn’t either. I recommend reevaluating every month. What is working? What isn’t? Are you on schedule to meet your goal? If yes, awesome! If not, awesome! Keep your eye on the prize and remember that tomorrow is a new day. You can do anything you put your mind to, you just have to want it bad enough.
Last year, I made myself a pretty little vision board that had all sorts of goals on it for the year. I’ve realized that having so many goals made me lose focus of the bigger goals I had, I spread myself too thin. ↓↓↓ My theme for the year is “Learn it, Apply it.” I will be setting monthly goals and breaking them down by category. Health, Spiritual, Work, and Relationships.
January Goals:
Health- Microbiome Bootcamp do over. DIY workout program, 6 days a week.
Spiritual- Read 2 chapters of the New Testament daily and daily devotions with the family.
Work- Get on a schedule! This will be a learning process as I will be working from home. Take certification test.
Relationships- Quality time with each of my family members, individually, once a week. Quality time with a friend once a month.
Congratulations on committing to your best year yet. <3
My family loves burger night. Have you ever had the Morning Star Farms Roasted Garlic and Quinoa burger patties? Those are my favorite pre-made burgers. I try to avoid soy where I can because my body doesn’t seem to like it much. I’m so glad …
Troy decided to watch “What the Health?” again this weekend and it got me thinking about our diet. I was actually cooking while he was watching it but my ears were perked the whole time. I’ve been preparing vegan food in our house for almost …
I remember eating the pumpkin seeds after carving pumpkins every year as a kid. When my kids were little, I had tried making them a few times with no success. I think the problem was that I kept using oil. After hunting through recipes, I finally found one that I enjoy. Since Thanksgiving is just around the corner I wanted to make pumpkin purée for pumpkin pie of course, as a bonus I get to have pumpkin seeds too. This recipe is so simple but you could make it more complex. Try using a seasoned salt or making the pumpkin seeds a sweet treat using a bit of sugar and cinnamon. 👌🏻
Hooray for pumpkin seeds and depression fighting tryptophan!
INGREDIENTS:
DIRECTIONS:
Spread seeds, in a single layer, onto a baking sheet. (You could place line the sheet with parchment paper to make for easier clean up.) Sprinkle evenly with Himalayan salt or seasonings of your choice.
Bake on middle rack uncovered for 35 minutes or until seeds are dry. Stir after 20 minutes.
Allow seeds to cool completely before storing in a container or they will become soft. I usually let them air dry for 24 hours before storing them. (If they make it that long!)
This little guy flew right under me as I was trying to take photos of the flowers in my yard. One of my favorite things to do is watch the birds. My favorite is the hummingbird, with the blue jays coming in a close second. …
Due to the fact that I’m sort of a self proclaimed jack of all trades, you could be here because you are interested in outdoor adventures, recipes, or just plain ol healthy living. Whatever it is, I’m glad you’re here!
The new year always brings new resolutions, goals, I committed to my first half marathon. Even though I didn’t officially sign up until April, I had already decided it was happening whether I trained and prepared for it or not. I also knew not preparing wasn’t an option, so I started to run!
I can’t say that I love running. What I really enjoy is accomplishing goals. Setting out on a five mile run I always dread the first three miles and then start smiling the last two because I’m almost home. I’ve struggled to finish a lot of things in my life and fitness is one place I stay committed to finishing. Health is important! Any hoo, my goal(resolution) was to run the whole thing…
In 2015, I signed up to complete my Spartan Race Trifecta. I earned it BUT not how I wanted to. I was training for the race and went out for a ten mile run, ended up running 16 miles because I got lost. That run messed up my left knee and forced me to walk a lot of my Beast, downhills are still mean! Since then, I’ve felt proud to have finished but felt like I could do better. That’s why I decided running the whole thing was the goal.
This was the first race I had a friend that wanted to join me on. I shared in January that I was going to do this, Lisa jumped on the crazy train and signed up too! I was stoked! I’m so glad I was able to have her in my accountability groups sharing her running struggles and victories because it made me push harder and made me stick to the plan even if I didn’t feel like busting out a long run. Trust me, there were plenty of days I didn’t want to run.
It’s interesting to think about the reasonings behind our races. She has been working towards a goal of being healthier and wanted to try it because running a longer distance was something she’d never done before. She realized a few weeks before our run that she wasn’t a runner, it isn’t something she enjoys doing. But she committed to running it and she did! Seeing the big smile on her face as she crossed the finish line was priceless. ❤️
One thing I enjoy about training for races is it gives me a deadline. I like being able to exercise and then move on to the next thing. Exactly why I love having such a huge variety of programs at my finger tips. I get to have that finishers moment but still get to work on staying healthy.
I also crave the attention I get from my peers, doing something most people don’t do makes a girl feel good. I had some rough relationships as a young adult, had some tough moments with my parents growing up too (divorce sucks and I hate that my kids have to deal with split households too) and I guess that probably contributes to why I crave that attention. That’s something I’m working on, there’s only One I should be seeking approval from.
Finally crossed the finish line and it was a little bitter sweet. My goal with this run was to RUN the whole entire thing and I fell short. At mile 11 my left hip and knee were toast. This is one reason I’m huge on proper form, if you are building muscle up in the wrong way, you are setting yourself up with a higher risk of injury. I thought my left knee was good but apparently the little bit of compensating I was doing impacted my hip. It’s crazy how even a foot injury can impact your shoulder or neck. Our bodies are so complex! The impact of jumping from rock to root to dirt wasn’t something I trained for and that’s a big part of why I suffered through the last few miles. (I say few because the total was 14.4 miles, I believe.) I spent time training on gravel roads, some dirt trail and mostly my treadmill, not rocky rough terrain. My heart wanted to run the whole way but I ended up walking around a mile of the race trying to get my hip to relax.
✨Lesson Learned: Sign up for a road race if that’s what your training on! ✨
Would I run it again?!?
Of course I would! On my way into the boonies, I was debating if I would try to push for a full marathon next year. After the race, I was already trying to find my next half and trying to find a good full. Of course my hip has been giving me grief and I’ve only tried running once since, but I still have big dreams for longer races and staying race ready year round. Wanna join me??? 😘
Eating healthy & exercise?!? That sounds terribly difficult right? I’m not here to tell you that it’s easy, it’s going to take some dedication on your part. BUT once you get started and get into a routine, I promise it gets easier to stay on …