Transformation

I have a different perspective about weight loss than the media, the weight loss stores and all the hype in our culture.  There's got to be a paradigm shift in one's mind to think this way. What if we started thinking in terms of decades, in years, not in days, weeks or months?  I know that my body will transform in the next year and in the next decade one way or another.  It will either slowly get stronger or slowly get weaker.  All the little things are what make up how we look and feel each passing year and decade.  Think about it and it really does make sense.  The reason a person looks and feels the way they do today is a result of their habits over the past year. 

Researchers have found that visualization is key.  If we can envision and believe that we will be a healthier person we will start making changes.  So believing in the change is key.  We have to first realize that the change is worth the end result.  If we don't completely buy into the end result we won't make the change.  Visualizing yourself being the healthiest, fittest and physically strong in the next year and decade is the root concept. 

What I'm not a fan of at all is extreme dieting that looks like starvation, extreme diets or lots of regimen that we can't follow long term.  Sure it might get us from point A to point B quickly.  But then point C is ugly.  And what is point C?  Answer: worse than we were at in point A because all the extreme dieting only gave us a short term answer.  We didn't transform, we didn't truly change. The snail route completely revolves around transformation.  And isn't transformation what will get us long term success?

So we have this knowledge that every year we get older, every decade that passes us by, our metabolism slows and our body ages.  It can become weak, decondition and aged.  If we took that information and embraced it with open arms and an open mind we'd get somewhere as a society.  Instead we play the insanity game.  We keep going around the crazy circle of losing weight quickly only to put it back on quicker.  We skip the TRANSFORMATION process because we don't want to face it.  We don't want to face that we have issues that have to be addressed.  The key here is continuing to refine.  It's not big flashy changes but small polishing to slowly create a big change. 

Say It Like It Is

I really appreciate people who talk straight.  My husband does it and many other people that I completely respect do it too.  Tony Horton, creator of the very popular P90X, recently wrote a blog entry that I really enjoyed reading.  It's a whole lot of straight talk.  While I understand this sort of talk doesn't motivate everyone, a good kick in the pants really gets me going. 

I'll list the link to his blog and the entry here but also paste it below.  Take a minute to read it as I rarely copy and paste other's words but this is a different sort of perspective than what I would normally write or talk about.  My approach offers more grace (not excuses) and more of you finding where you need to go with guided direction.  I'm different than most trainers and I know that but I can definitely appreciate where other trainers are coming from.

You know who you are. You’ve got all the answers and your lousy at taking sound advice because it’s easier to be lazy. The tilt-a-whirl of disappointment goes round and round and you pretend everything is okay. You’re not fooling anyone and everyone else knows what you’re up to. It’s easy to lack self discipline because you’re not alone. Misery loves company.
I’m sick and tired of hearing why you can’t stop eating crap. Stop blaming your thyroid, boyfriend, childhood and ancestry because it’s not working. The problem is your inability to face reality. The real issues are your lack of accountability, willpower, determination and the lousy company you keep. It’s also your lame plan or lack there of. Your reasons why suck and you don’t tell the truth about what you stuff in your face when no one is looking.


Your horrendous eating habits is the American terrorist within. If the level of disease caused by unhealthy choices continues at this alarming rate then we will destroy ourselves without any help from the bad guys. Fad diets, pills and miracle potions used to lose weight never work in the long term and they never will. Dozens of studies show that calorie control diets that still allow you to eat forms of unhealthy food always fail. I’ve never met anyone who started a “weight lose only” diet and stayed on it. So you lost 50 pounds and kept it off for 5 years. Why did you gain it all back in 6 months during year six? Are you proud of that?
When diet deprivation becomes too much the closet eating begins. Your reasons for falling off the wagon are plenty and you’ll defend them till you’re blue in the face. Good for you for choosing the option that required you to be lazy again. Choosing gluttony is no way to build your manifesto my friend. What is your reason for being on this earth? Why do you really put that garbage in your mouth? Do you want to know why? Do you want to look at it closely? Do you care enough?


The simple answer is choice. I hope you weren’t expecting something more complicated. How do you choose what to be? How will you work to be better than before? Who will you surround yourself with? How long will your better choices last? Will you continue to be the closet garbage eater or will you finally get your act together, stop making it about you all the time and begin to be an example to the people in your life who need your help?

Doing Less to Get More

What if we lived a life where material possessions didn't matter? A life where contentment met us every single day just because we got what we needed and there wasn't anything we wanted?  We didn't have to work long hours, stress about the mortgage, worry about how we're too heavy, not pretty enough or not good enough.  What if we just were?

Couldn't this be our life if we reached out and grabbed it?  Every single day I work on contentment because I know dissatisfaction is my reflection in the mirror.  Last week and into the weekend we painted most of the inside of our house including the garage (because I'm just that way).  Don't get me wrong I feel so great about it. I just love the colors and am so glad that it's over and done and we did it.  But I couldn't help but think during the process how insignificant the color of my walls on the inside of my house really are.  How the time I spent painting I could have spent playing on the floor with my 5 month old or riding bikes with my 4 year old.  Granted I squeezed in both activities but not for as long as I could have without the project.  It seems so meaningless in the whole big realm of things yet in my mind it has to be done.  Dissatisfaction.  Discontentment. Those two words seem to constantly overpower contentment. 

I think those two words are the root issue.  We have to be pleased with who we are, where we are in life's journey in order to get anywhere effectively.

Instead of adding more, strategically plan items out of your life.  Maybe I'm just wired differently but I'd rather have a small simple house with a small mortgage payment that's on it's way out the door in order to live without bills being jammed down my throat.  If we do less and consume less I think we get so much more.  Don't you?  Granted, it's not the American way but is the American way really the right way?  I think we can all agree something is completely wrong in our culture.

A Book Review

It's been over a month dear trainwithmandy blog.  I've meant to write.  I've had things to write about. Sometimes the thoughts in my head come across is the form of a blog post.  I've been busy.  Busy putting two boys ahead of my own agenda.  It's been good.  Although you know me, if I have something I'm excited about I have to let it out in some form or fashion.

I read Dave Ramsey's More Than Enough. It had more than enough fantastic thoughts and information.  One reason I love Dave is because I can translate anything he says into the health/wellness world.  Here's what I took away from the book, my favorite parts:

Work is doing it. Discipline is doing it everyday.  When you mature into work it actually becomes discipline: doing it every day. Discipline understands that get rich quick is a joke. Discipline understands that the best way to get rich quick is to get rich slow. (p. 187) Change out rich with healthy and you've got my motto.  There is no fast track to health because it's something we have to practice day in and day out.  When we put it that way, what's the point in going fast?  If we go fast we can't sustain it.

Work is doing it. Discipline is doing it every day.  Diligence is doing it well every day. Work and discipline are important keys. Diligence, however, comes with a guarantee.  When you are diligent over a long period of time you are guaranteed to become w(h)ealthy and have more than enough in all areas of life.  Diligence has an element of vision to it that tells you a real comfortable place to live is inside your income (or total calories for the day). Diligence is knowing that if you can live like no one else can, eventually live like no one else. When you reach a place of diligence in your life you are maturing. Children, whether they are four or fifty-four, are always in a hurry and looking for a shortcut. h(p. 199) This is long term thinking here!

Patience and endurance play tag. You will always find one where the other has been. Endurance through tough times always increases your measure of patience. Patience is also strength of character, which gives you the ability to endure. Patience that can endure is true power. (p. 216)

There is a gift that causes blessings to flow to anyone who possesses it.  If you have this gift it will lead to your heart's every desire.  The happiest people you will ever meet have this gift in abundance, and they seem to be almost eerie. They have a sense of destiny and perspective that is so deep it will almost spook you.  What is this magnificent principal, this gift from on high? CONTENTMENT. (p. 228-229)

Back in psch 101, we were taught the concept of "dissonance," which basically means disturbance. When someone recognizes a way to get more pleasure and avoid pain they are moved, motivated, in that direction. (p. 234)

Art Williams says, "All you can do is all you can do and that is enough."
I once read that happiness is not a state to arrive at, it is a manner of the traveling. I believe one key to contentment is to understand that. (p. 249)

See why I like Dave Ramsey now?  He's a motivator of the TRUTH.  He doesn't fill our heads with empty promises but the wise words to get there with work, sweat, blood, patience, diligence and discipline.

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