Try Weird

Doing something drastic over a short period of time.
-Normal people do this.


Doing small things over a long period of time.
-Weird people do this.

Isn't this the picture of our culture?  Always working to fit in with everyone else.  Take a look at the picture of normal in America.

•Finances: normal is debt, worry, tension, fear. Normal is broke.
•Schedules: normal is overwhelmed, overworked, stressed, burned out.
•Relationships: insecurity, betrayal, fear—unfortunately, normal marriages struggle and often end in divorce.
•Careers: normal to feel stuck working for a paycheck in a job you don’t like.
•Normal to feel empty—longing for something more, something better.

Instead of trying to take in the entire scope of your life's mural, maybe it's time to zero in on one major detail, one significant color, one delicate brushstroke. Focus all your attention on it over a long period of time instead of making a complete overhaul for a short while only to ultimately get burned out on the drastic change with no satisfaction.

Getting it Together

Do you know how many days I've told myselt I'm going to write a "trainwithmandy" entry today?  Too many to count.  Life is different now with two kiddos at home.  I love it, it's just that things don't get done like they used to. Throughout the past 11 weeks I've worked toward balance.  Some days it happens and other days it doesn't.  As a stay at home mom and owning my own business there is a crazy new reality that's been created.  Food journaling has been put on the back-burner, prioritizing workouts, reading time and doing two things at once is slowly becoming perfected.  I find that my little escape is diving into a book where I never fully appreciated the time-out before; I sure do now.  Don't get me wrong, my passion and love are my children (check out my reading list if you don't believe me), but too much of anything is never healthy.  Plus, I sure do love learning and reading seems to fill that need.

So in the spirit of getting it together, which I completely understand is a lifetime process, here are two quotes I've read recently that have inspired me to keep working at "getting it together."

"Champions know that there is a difference between interest and commitment.  When you're interested in something, you do it only when circumstances permit. When you're committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results!"  -Author Unknown

I find that this is so true with a busy schedule.  We all have busy schedules.  My interest that has turned into a commitment is leading a healthy lifestyle and setting an example by living out the best me I can be for my boys.  If I want that for them then I need to step up to it myself so they can witness it firsthand.  Granted, they will witness firsthand my failures but hopefully we can all work through them together.

"To put it simply, you practice diligently, but you practice primarily for the sake of practice itself." - George Leonard

Everything is a practice (for me) nowadays.  It's practice of oral hygiene-the new and improved cleaning routine (brought about by the new hardware in my mouth)-to eating breakfast every morning to practicing strength training 2 times a week.  The focus isn't the outcome, its the day to day practice.  If I have the practice down, the outcome will follow.

Lower Body Weight Workout

As you can imagine, having a baby leaves the lower half of a woman's body...well, changed.  Here's to another workout that only requires 1) you, 2) doing it.  The focus here is the whole hip/booty/thigh region.

2 sets of 15-25 reps
on all fours-diagonal kicks (leg goes out at a diagonal and comes back in)
touch the ground and come back up (bend your knee here)
back lunges (make sure to not press through toes)
curtsey lunges
squat with taps out to the side with one leg
knee up repeater on a step (any step will do in your house)
step up and down on a step using the same leg
wide leg squats--slow

Glass Half What?

I blog a lot about the how to of becoming healthier.  I think most of us know what we need to do it's just a matter of how to blend it into our life.

Action Follows Belief. I firmly believe this.  If we see success in our mind before anything happens, we will succeed.  However, if we see failure in our mind before anything happens we are already defeated.  I believe this because I've seen it.  Not necessarily with fitness but with anything.  The glass half empty people have far less successes than the glass half full people. 

I came across this article the other day.  Its a short article and worth reading if you need some ideas to shift your perspective. 

This is not rocket science but for some reason it can easily be overlooked.  Not only will success come with a positive outlook, other things will happen. People want to be around the glass half full person.  They attract success in most every capacity.  Besides, there's no reason to try something if you already know in your mind that you will fail. What areas of your life do you look at the glass half full or the glass half empty?  Recognize those differentiating areas, write them down, change them.

C is for...

Consistency!  By now we have figured out in our mind that the big wham-bam transition does not work.  Going from nothing to exercising every day only leaves us injured and unsatisfied (because we didn't lose 10 pounds that week).  See, we know in our mind that doesn't work.

What if we really took to heart small changes over a long period of time?  Unfortunately this methodology will require something that doesn't come naturally to American culture; patience.

Here's how I see it: we need to make weekly goals that aren't overwhelming.  Start out small and build from it.  Make a weekly goal of something that you know in your heart, mind and soul can happen each week without much trouble.  Then, once that goal is met successfully for a series of weeks add something else.  An example of this might look something like this to a person that is not exercising at all but passionately wants to incorporate it into their life:

First 5 weeks: weekly goal of completing 2 miles.
Next 5 weeks: weekly goal of completing 2 miles, 1 strength session
Next 5 weeks: weekly goal of completing 2 miles, 1 strength session, 1 pilates class

Do you see how I did that?  To many people 2 miles per week would seem hardly like a goal.  For some reason we think it's got to be a crazy amount of exercise in order to even consider it a goal.  Although that way of thinking typically leads to an all or nothing mentality and ultimately leaves us frustrated.  At week 15 instead of completing a weekly goal of 2 miles, 1 strength and 1 pilates class we're doing nothing because our goal wasn't realistic in the beginning.  Here's an example of what we all too often get caught up in:

First week: workout every single day
Second week: workout 3 days per week
Third week: nothing...because we can't take another day of killing ourselves just to see no change to our body.

I could go on for days about this subject but the gist of it is we need to start out incredibly slow.  Slower than we want to start out.  Set up for success.  Set yourself up to grow.

Body Weight Workout

Last week I couldn't take it anymore.  The 4 year old was coloring in the kitchen and the new babe was sleeping in the bouncy seat.  They were both peaceful and didn't need me, which rarely seems to happen these days.  So I jumped at the chance, grabbed my ipod and right then and there began my body weight workout. No equipment needed, perfect for the busy mom that never has time to exercise. 
Squats-15
Curtsey Lunges-15R then 15L
Repeat
On all fours, bent leg extensions-25R, then 25L
Hip lifts-25
Repeat
Push ups-on knees-15
Side Lying Triceps push ups-10
Repeat
Little roll up crunches-20
Side crunches-20
Dead bugs-20
Repeat
Done!

Limiting Beliefs

Even though I'm on a little maternity leave, or what I consider a sabbatical from training my mind is still on training (sure it's also always on the new babe too, of course).  I think about all my clients...how are they doing, what are they up to, are they behaving?! :-)

So I finished reading Cruise Ship or Nursing Home and absolutely loved it.  It's all about preventative health, taking care of your body NOW.  I like that its not just a "how to" book but a "how to do it" book.  For example the authors talk about limiting beliefs-I love this concept!  Limiting belief is a belief you have formed in your mind that is stopping you from making progress.  And I could write about this all day long because I think so many of us suffer from limiting beliefs.  A great way to know if you are suffering from limiting beliefs is the simple fact that you are not making any sustained progress in areas of your life that are of importance to you. It could be your weight, health, fitness, finances, relationships and so on.

Now, how to overcome this?  1. Write down a belief that is holding you back. An example may be, "I'm too old to lose weight." 2. Now cross out that old belief, "I'm too old to lose weight." and write a new empowering belief. Change it to "I can lose weight easily and quickly."

Lastly, make it stick!  Retrain your brain by saying this new belief 3 times in the morning and 3 times in the evening.  When we're used to thinking negatively it's easy for our mind to go back to that because it's so natural.  In order to think a new way, at first it will take some effort. 

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened." -Sir Winston Churchill