Motivation Monday: Brainwashing

"Its the repetitions of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen." -Muhammad Ali


"Whatever you focus on you create more of. Whatever you believe, think and speak about yourself you create as your experience. Whatever you flow emotional energy to you manifest in abundance." - Carol Tuttle


I'd like to take this Motivation Monday to brainwash some beliefs out of your thinking.  Because most people like to see immediate, incredibly big change we miss out on the progression of what could have been accomplished through small steps.  We overlook the small steps as "insignificant," like they won't matter.  I tell you friends, the small steps are what it takes to get the big change. 

Unusual talent and/or unusual intellect doesn’t always amount to unusual success. Unusual perseverance does. ~Dave Ramsey
Every day is conquerable by its hours, and every hour by its minutes. ~Robert Brault

I often wonder why is that so hard for many to understand.  I blame society brainwashing instant gratification and "microwave" ways of thinking into our skulls. 

Believe that small changes over time will get you where you want to go.  If you believe that you will always be headed down a path of success.

Motivation Monday: Starting and Sticking

Last Monday the weight loss study with a group of 23 women started.  They are 23 women who want to improve, change, and transition into a new way of living.  They started, now it's a matter of sticking with it. 

As a trainer I hear a lot of plans.  I hear a lot of what someone intends to do; whether it's coming to a class, starting a new way of eating, beginning a new exercise program, or plans of how many pounds they are going to lose.  The reality is that the planning phase is easy.  It's easy to talk.  It's easy for me to tell you that in a couple of months I want to have a natural labor.  The hard part comes when the labor begins.  Plans are easily disrupted.  Life will unwrap as it's suppose to and the plans we made go right out the window.  Obstacles are inevitable.  Plan that once you make a plan, the plan will be shaken.  There will be a roadblock of some sort that will have to be overcome.  Don't ask me why, it's just part of the process.

How do we overcome the obstacles?  I believe there are 2 things: 1) look at the big picture and 2) allow for grey.  The big picture of the study is to get through the study.  Get through the program.  The grey comes when adaptations need to be made.  So it's no longer black and white but you're still getting through it.  I think that when obstacles arise we confuse it with a sign that we are suppose to quit.  Nope, it's not a sign to quit it's a learning/shaping/growing segment of time.  It's uncomfortable, something we may not be used to.  When something uncomfortable happens use it as a tool to grow, not quit.  And be happy, growing is good!

Lastly, I have to add my personal tidbit.  I'm sitting at 31 weeks pregnant.  I'm growing alright.  Growing is good just like I said, but I never said it was easy.  What would be easy at this point is to stop the exercise and get lazy, it would be eating every carb and sweet I desired in sight.  But the real growing here would be to stick with it to the end.  And the obstacle has been the growing belly, not being able to run but switching to walking and the unending hunger that comes some days.  My goal from the beginning was a healthy pregnancy to 40 weeks or when the baby arrives (whichever comes first).  I always knew the end would be the toughest as getting bigger every single day and gaining weight every single week is inevitable.  And even when it seems like all my efforts are worthless, I have to remember they aren't. 

Motivation Monday: Single Digits

That was this client's plan: eat less and move more.  It's nothing fancy and when people asked her what she did to lose half her body weight that's her response.  She eats less and moves more.  I just had to share a snippet of her story for this week's motivation Monday.  I hope it only encourages you that if this gal did it, so can you.  What are you waiting for?  Move more and eat less.  Figure out a way to get more movement and less calories each day and watch what happens.  You will shrink yourself.  It will be a gradual thing and it's nothing flashy but she lost weight and has kept it off for years.  Don't go the short cut route, learn to eat better and eat less and learn to move your body.

Here's her story:
These are my new jeans! They fit and I can still breathe when they are zipped.

When we first met, I wore a 22 or 24. I had owned some 26/28 clothes. I wore a 12 or 14 when I graduated high school. I don't remember ever wearing a single digit size in jeans. Wow!!

Motivation Monday: Change your Normal

Is your normal talking about what you want to change instead of actually doing it?  My challenge and motivation for you this week is to actually DO something.  Don't tell anyone you're going to do it or that you did it-they aren't the ones you have to impress.  Instead think about what you want to change and follow through all on your own.  I think that if we can begin to do things for ourselves versus pleasing/impressing others we'll get so much farther.  Only saying what we want to do is like sleeping through life. 

Ready, Fire, Aim

You'll hear more about this book as I make my way through finishing it but so far it's amazing.  It's by Todd Durkin (a really incredible trainer-he trains Drew Brees and LaDanian Tomilson) called The Impact! Body Plan.  It's a book that recently came out and I've been excited to tear into it because I've heard Durkin speak twice before and he's nothing but inspiring and motivating.  Here's my favorite excerpt so far from the book:

But this is very important.  Do not ask me to fix you.  I won't. I can't. Because one thing I know for certain is that action is the key to getting to the next level in your life. And you need to be the one who takes the action.  I can coach you but you need to make the commitment to get better.  He goes on to say that he lives by the mantra ready, fire, aim because so many people aim but never fire.  He gave the examples that we want to start an exercise program but never do, we want to hire a trainer to get you into shape but never do, you want to go back to school but never do, there are so many dreams we dream but never follow through.   (p. 5)

Isn't that so inspirational?!  So, act now.  Stop talking and start doing.  Ready, Fire, Aim!

Race 10...Check!

Boy it feels good to be done with races for the year.  Goal met. Check! 

Last weekend I did part of the Kansas City Half Marathon.  I had my headphones on for the whole run but could still hear people say, "she's pregnant" as I passed them.  Not sure if they were judging as I know some people aren't quite sure to make of my running during pregnancy.  Whatever the case, the run felt GREAT.  It was a beautiful morning and Johnna left me nothing but flatness (elevation that is).  She loves hills so she got them! 

So here I am with my husband, Aaron.  He completed his first half marathon.  I am so proud of him and I think it's proof that men do follow in women's footsteps.  It just took him 4 years to do it!  He finished in the time he wanted but told me afterwards that he might stick with 10K's.  Hey, I get that.  Marathons and Half Marathons take a lot of time and energy to train for.

Here I am with Johnna, my race partner.  We split the half marathon distance so I was "Johnna" for 6.5 miles.  We met on the plaza and ran about a mile together before we made the switch.  Gosh we are such rebels!  I really doing races in a team.  It makes the experience much more fun.  So, I'd secretly highly encourage rouge race running in a team.  But you didn't hear that from me!

Motivation Monday: Training for Health

What are you training for?  How will your daily habits and routines affect your long term health?  We're all training for something but often don't look at our life as a training ground for what's to come.  What if we looked at the small decisions we make throughout the day as how it will affect our life long term?  For example, we could look at daily soda consumption as an example of training for possible brittle bones, tooth decay, brain tumors, diabetes, high blood pressure, poor digestion, and weight gain.  There are so many endeavors we can train for with either positive or negative outcomes in the long run.  Don't live in the moment of what sounds good temporarily.  Live for the long run.  It's not drastic or flashy just small changes over a long period of time.

Other possible trainings:

-Training for career advancement-working long hours, not sleeping enough, putting your career ahead of yourself and making little time for things that will benefit you in the long run.

-Training a child to be a healthy adult-giving your kid healthy food, letting them see your active lifestyle and what you put in your mouth.  Exemplifying what a healthy adult looks like.  Actions speak so much louder than words.

-Training for a healthy pregnancy-making healthy decisions daily, staying active and not using the "I'm eating for two mentality."

-Training for nothing-no focus, just going through the motions of life.