Challenging Cardio Workout

Here is a real challenge for you! I don't expect most of you will be able to do this right away, but what a goal to set for yourself.

Start at the 15 point and do all below it. Do this 3 times a week. The following week move up to the next number and do all below it 3 times a week. Continue progressing each week until you are able to start at the top and work all the way down.

Once you accomplish your goal, make sure to reward yourself!

Fresh Start

2019 has been a roller coaster of emotions for my family which has been the excuse I have used all year for not being consistent with my eating or moving. For those who don't personally know me, I am tall and skinny and fight for every pound I have. Just one week of not eating well and I dropped six pounds. This will take me quite awhile to gain back. All because I wasn't taking care of myself.

Guess what? Today is a new day and with each new day we have the opportunity to make amends for what happened yesterday, learn from any mistakes we have made and proceed forward with confidence that we will do all we can to do better. 

This week I am working back on my eating schedule, walking one mile and doing yoga daily to get my body loosened up. I am NOT going to jump in with both feet and hurt myself. I am a believer in slow and steady....with bursts of high intensity at the right times. I am in a slow and steady time and encourage any of you who have not made the best choices yesterday and before, to join me in taking steps to better health one day at a time.

I will succeed!

January begins a more than usual hectic time for me.  My normal hectic is to work my more than full time daycare Monday thru Friday, workout 5 days  a week,  be gone from home for volunteer work at least 3 nights a week, and very seldom have a free weekend.  That's my usual hectic life.

My more than usual hectic life will still have all of the above mentioned busy, but I will be adding into it going back to school, enlarging my health business and buckling down on getting the work begun to open my gym this summer.

How am I ever going to find the time to get all of this in?

I like my sleep...I REALLY like my sleep.  I don't want to have to sacrifice it in order to accomplish all I have planned.  My friend Chris from On Track With Chris has a great time management tool that she has shared with me.  It is a simple time blocking tool.  Simple, right?  Well, you would think so.  My day is all blocked out, ALL I have to do is follow what I am supposed to do at each time and everything would get done.  That is all I have to do...but I just never seem to follow the blocking for very long.   Oh, I always start out with the best of intentions.  My blocking sheet is even color coded to help me.  But within a couple of weeks I fall away from it and before long, I am not getting hardly any of my to-do done.

This time around I will find a way to make this work!  This really is a must...not a want, a must.  I still have a couple of weeks to tweak the blocking and find what is going to work best.  I will find a way, I will make this work, I will succeed!

 We all find ourselves in times of more than usual hectic.  We can sink or we can swim, it is completely up to us. 

Focus

 

"Focus on what it is you want to do. It will expand, it will multiply."

I like to listen to motivational/inspirational messages on youtube while I'm working out. I heard these words this morning and they spoke right to my heart. I am like a squirrel in a room full of shiny things...I go from one thing to the next shiny to the next shiny and then...oh wait...there's a real pretty shiny over there! Can anyone else relate?

Nothing seems to get my full attention for long. Maybe I should mention I'm an instant gratification type of person. I like to see results in short time and if not, I tend to lose interest and move onto the next shiny object. This is definitely not a good quality when working on longer term projects....like myself. 

However, if I pick just one thing to work on instead of trying to tackle the whole project at one time, I find I do much better. For too long I've been trying to take on all of me at one time. Working on becoming more organized, less procrastination, eat better, eat more, exercise, study, open a new business, keep my home clean....whew, I almost lost myself just reading all of that! Too many shiny things at one time.

Breathe. Focus. Choose.

Make The Bottom Step Yours

We've all heard that every journey begins with a single step, and this is true.  However, that first single step can be hard, scary, lonely.  Not everyone wants to go on your journey with you.  Heck, not everyone wants YOU to go on your journey.   How you are is comfortable to them, they don't want you to change, they may not accept the changes. They want to hold you back. 

You have to do you.  What do you want, what dreams do you have, what goals?  Give some serious thought to these questions and write down ideas.  You aren't going to figure this out in two minutes, let it be an ongoing list that is ever growing and changing...as you continue to grow and change.

Who you are today and what you want is not the same as it was ten years ago, and it won't be the same ten years from now either.   You are a living, breathing, ever evolving wonderful child of God.  He did not make you from a mold.  You are your own unique person...with a mind of your own.

Take a look at that list you are writing.  What do you need to do to get started on making any one of the items on it come to fruition?  Not the whole plan, just the first thing necessary to get it going.  That is the very first step...often times the hardest step.  Don't look at the whole staircase that needs to be climbed to reach what you want at the top.  Look at the first most precious step.  The step that means change, improvement, a better you.  

Stand tall, know what you want and step up. 

Not Why, but How to make it happen

You've made the decision to get more healthy, you know WHY you want to do it, you are motivated and ready to begin.  But....HOW do you go about this?  This can be a bit tricky, even just trying to figure out where to start. The beginning can be a bit overwhelming.  You are ready, willing and able to reach your goal...you just don't know how to get there.

* First step is to DEFINE your goal.  Make it specific.  Not just lose weight by my wedding, class reunion, summer....etc.  How much weight/inches do you want to lose?  Not just to eat better, but how do you want to be eating?  Not just exercising, how often, what type?

* Second stop is to lay out a plan to get there.  Make a map to get you from where you are to where you want to be.  Know up front that you WILL make wrong turns on this journey.  It is going to happen.  This is why your map is so important, it will help you become aware of your wrong turns and get you back on your journey.

 If you don't have a plan and aren't tracking small changes, you may not see the progress you are actually making! You may also have no idea that something IS or IS NOT working!

Your HOW needs to be a plan. And that plan may change but you NEED something to get you started with clear direction.

You can search Google for ideas and make your plan.  You can hire a professional to help make your plan.  The point is to make a plan for your goal and work that plan!

Don't forget to DO

It is nice to realize there are things we want to do and accomplish in our lives. We dream about how life will be when these things happen. It gives us the warm fuzzies.

However, just dreaming about this future life and accomplishments isn't going to make it happen. WE make it happen! We think about what we want and then decide the best course of action to get it. Some things will require only small changes on our part. Others will demand more of our time.

Dreaming and thinking and planning are all important aspects of getting what we want, but action...truly living our life in a way that promotes these aspects, is what will ultimately help us to reach our goals.