The Missing Piece

Everything else comes first - exercise last. We say that the other activities must be completed - we owe that time to someone or something else - and exercise is - well - hard. This is me for sure! So many irons in the fire, so much other responsibility. However, I am trying diligently to change my mindset. To realize that exercise is hard, but it is worth the difficulty. This is the only body I will ever have, and it is my responsibility to take care of it or face the consequences - and those consequences are not pretty - and dealing with them will be a whole other kind of hard.

Yet knowing what needs to be done and actually doing it are much different. So I had to find a way to make it work for me. Some people just go for it. Some people even enjoy the exercise (I do once it is done - and not because it is over, but because I feel so good). But I tend to put it off to another time, then another, then another - eating as well - oh, I don't put off eating - I put off eating meals that will fuel my body with needed nutrients. If bread and chocolate had all of our daily vitamins - I would be Hercules - well maybe Xena.

My dilemma, then, became how to motivate myself to act in a manner that would build me up both physically and mentally - that would keep me on track - not perfectly - but heading daily in the right direction.  Challenge groups and coaching groups! For me, the answer.

I began with the challenge groups - and even then I struggled - but I trudged on. I finally realized that is isn't about not struggling, it is about perseverance - not giving up. That every step I took in the right direction would eventually lead me to a healthier and happier place. The real beauty of these groups (which is the main reason I became a coach - lifetime accountability) is that my struggle affirms someone else's struggle and together with many others we journey, building one another up with encouragement and understanding along the way. We stumble - we fall - one challenger put it well when when she commented about not only falling off the horse, but tumblig down the hill as well.

We are better together - and I am better because I am not only looking out for myself but others. And if we stroll together day by day and pound by pound - we will eventually find ourselves running and wondering at which point the actual change took place.

In his book The Compound Effect,  Darren Hardy states, "The Compound Effect is the principle of reaping huge rewards from a series of small, smart choices. What's most interesting about this process to me is that, even though the results are massive, the steps, in the moment, don't feel significant....What most people don't realize is that these small seemingly insignificant steps completed consistently over time will create a radical difference."

 It is the small steps, the consistent steps, the turtle steps that will eventually allow for finishing the race. And those of us working together may not all cross the finish line at the same time, but we will cross, while continuing to cheer one another on along the way.

A Lifetime Commitment to Getting Back Up

I've done it. I've taken the plunge and become a Beachbody coach. Why? This is the question that my coach asked me. Why? Because I have tried so many other ways to lose weight and found that there is no EASY way and no MAGIC pill. They just don't exist - not to lose weight and be healthy for a lifetime. And that is exactly what I want to be: healthy for life. Beachbody's motto is to help others - really - I'm not kidding - even before selling a product. They advocate relationships and truly having a desire to help others along the way to succeed on their health/weight loss journey. Their products are solid, promoting good nutrition, exercise, and just as important accountability.

Accountability - this is what I need. And my being a coach gives me that while allowing me to share my discoveries with others. My coach and my team will keep me accountable and assist me in learning more about myself, nutrition, and exercise. There are some who can manage this journey on their own, and I applaud their will power and stamina. For me, I have a tendency to put exercise off and eat foods I shouldn't - knowing that I need to live the program I have committed to share keeps me on the straight and narrow - and ultimately keeps me healthy everyday, every month, every year, for a lifetime. No more losing weight and putting it back on months later (ever notice how much easier it is to find it than to lose it?). No more maybe I'll exercise for a few weeks then forget about it. No more feeling sluggish and tired. No more harming my body - the only vessel I have to wander this world. No more.

Commitment to a healthier life allows for a better life overall. And I am all in. And all in equals understanding that I will stumble, falter, mess up, make excuses. But it also encompasses a new group of people who care about my journey and will help me, catching me, picking
me up,encouraging me, and keeping me moving forward. What an awesome opportunity.

A Shared Struggle Strengthens Motivation

Daily accountability. For me, I have found this to be a necessity - a motivational tool. I do and will always continue to struggle with food, but with my accountability group through Beachbody, I am able to connect with others on the same journey, working on the same goals, struggling with many of the same temptations. This has become such a vital part of my process that I am about to embark on a new journey - that of Beachbody coach. I can't think of any better way to continue my own accountability than helping and motivating others in the same position I find myself daily.

Stumbling Is Still Moving Forward

So I have managed to get this water thing down. That big bottle is wonderful and assures that I will always have at least 8 cups of water with me at a time. The best part is that I have come to crave it - can't imagine going without drinking water all day long. It is a wonderful feeling.
     Exercise - doing much better with that. Just received the 21 Day Fix and so thankful that each workout is 30 minutes (make for a perfect morning workout).
And then there's the eating - yikes - have I mentioned how much I like to eat - all the wrong things for all the wrong reasons. The 21 Day Fix incorporates the belief that it takes 21 days to create a new habit. So here I go - moving toward a new, healthy habit of EATING. I also understand that this may be the aspect of clean living that will always be a challenge, but I will not ever give up, stumbling now and then is much better for my health than just giving up and eating all of the wrong things - for all of the wrong reasons.

Mastering Motivation

Motivation - where does it come from? How do we hold on to it? I want to be healthy; I want to lose weight; yet I continue to make the same poor choices time after time. this past week, I did not exercise as often as planned nor did I eat as well as I should have. But I did exercise and eat better than I normally would have and a new week offers new opportunities. Finding motivation may not always be easy but is is possible. And my motivation continues to be renewed health and energy. I have to keep that in the forefront of my mind.

So to meet those goals, I plan on altering my idea of exercise. I do plan to exercise each morning and some afternoons with a work out tape; however, I am also going to keep reminding myself that exercise needs to occur continually throughout the day - MOVEMENT, any and all movement, makes a difference to our bodies - squats during breaks, moving and walking, especially when a job requires a lot of sitting, using the stairs instead of the elevator - ultimately, finding ways to incorporate movement into my days - this is the goal for next week.

   

Finding Joy in the Moment

As much as I want to make changes in my health, I don't want to waste "now" wishing for the day when I will be healthier, stronger, skinnier.... Those are good goals, healthy goals - but they are not going to happen tomorrow or even the next day. They will take time and it will be worth the struggle; however, in the meantime, I need to remember to enjoy the small changes now, the new habits that will become the old habits. I don't want to arrive in the future regretting not having appreciated the past. Reminds me of something I once wrote  -

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Journeying in the Now

    Often I will ask my students to write about "one moment in time that made a difference in your life."  Only to realize that I don't really take the time to live for the moment in mine.  Would I have difficulty writing this memoir?  So keeping in mind that patience is still a virtue and waiting is often best for the "moment,"  I have decided to slow down, breathe (deeply), appreciate the right now.  Sometimes I am so busy dealing with the "just happened" or contemplating the "what's to come" that I miss the "happening now." 

    
    So, as I began my 9.5 hour drive the other day, I decided to put myself to the test.  Gotta start somewhere.  This drive goes on forever and ever and ever and ever and ever.  I have always dreaded the going and the coming.  So instead of thinking about how far I'd gone or how far I had to go, I contemplated the present.  Right now I am here.  This is what is around me.  I will never be in this exact place again at this exact moment.  I am here (wherever here might be).  And I must admit it was quite eye-opening.  The anxiety slipped away and the moment slid into view. Amazingly,  I discover I am not dreading the long trip back.  That I do not feel so irritable or uptight. Liberating!

   And it begins - right now, in this moment - my journey on the road becomes a metaphor for my journey through life. God will navigate and I will drive, striving along the road to appreicate the moment, wherever it may find me.

Eat All the Food - But Make it the Right Food

Morning workouts completed, over 100 ounces of water drunk. Seem to be moving along but then along comes FOOD. I love to eat. Unfortunately, what I love to eat is not what is best for me, especially when it comes to good nutrition and weight loss. And my biggest enemy - unhealthy carbs. I love carbs - any carbs, all carbs, especially BREAD. Shakeology saves me in the mornings - it is my daily breakfast, and I love it. It is the rest of the day that I have to do a better job of focusing. So the spaghetti I had for lunch and the pulled pork (with homemade wheat bread) was probably not the best clean eating I could do today.

It's all in the planning, my coach explains often. And she is right! I have to do a better job of planning my day and MY PORTIONS. I can do this - I will do this. I know it is not going to be easy, but in the same way that I have come to crave water, I hope to begin craving clean foods. I may falter, but I will pick myself and continue on away from those refined carbs and onto a better way of living and eating!

Full Hydration

Water - as an English teacher reminds me of Coleridge's RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER: "Water, water, everywhere and all the boards did shrink/water, water, everywhere nor any a drop to drink."

Drinking enough water daily has been a challenge I have struggled with for quite awhile. The goal - to drink 100 ounces of water daily. Often I would come close but never quite reach it. But as of late I have managed to drink over my 100 ounce goal! I bought a jug that holds 64 ounces of water - I fill it up twice and am successful with my water intake. Who would have thought that such a simple change would allow for such an accomplishment.



Unfortunately all of my challenges are not quite so easily overcome. The next has to do with morning exercise. I am not a morning person - and that is putting it mildly. However, when I wait until the afternoon to exercise, more often than not something "comes up", or I decide that I am too tired. So for consistency, mornings are a must. Last week I managed to get up and work out. Next week is a new challenge, but one I choose to accept. One day at a time. Hoping, like the 100 ounces of water, to make this a habit that eventually I cannot imagine doing without.

Wallowing in Weight

I have spent far too long fousing on the scale. As I begin my new, and lifelong, journey with weight, changing my focus is priority number one. Not that weight doesn't matter - it does - but not in the way I had be viewing it. The only aspect weight should have in and on my life is the aspect of health - not beauty, not "who I am", not what my day will be like, not on others' perceptions (including advertising and Hollywood). Who I am is determined by me, the real me, the internal me, not the physical me.  Once I let that idea go, I can relax and make the most of the journey I am about to begin. 

The journey is about me  - about becoming healthier, about feeling better, about being able to do more with my life, now and in the future. 

In the past, I have tried many of the fad diets as well as other remedies to lose the weight, but it always come back to the basics: exercise, clean eating, and proper nutrition - and for me - accountability.

So here goes. And luckily for me, I have a great friend and Beachbody coach as well as a husband who both know a great deal about nutrition. 

Beachbody is a company, but it is a company that offers lifelong changes and informed coaches who continue to check in with you as well as motivate you long after you may or may not still be using their products.

It helps that I love the daily nutritional drink Shakeology. And it is amazing what it offers in the way of ingredients (natural and wholesome) - ingredients we do not get enough of daily, yet are necessary for our nutrition. 

My coach, Cori Abraham, is an incredible fitness, nutrition role model. I am thankful that her philosophy is one that continually motivates despite and because of continual misteps on my part. I have come to focus on the positive changes while not beating myself up for the slips - it's all about the journey and NOT giving up on it at any time.

I begin as part of a Beachbody accountability group - a group that shares both successes and struggles. And thanks to my coach, I have a hybrid workout routine using two of the Beachbody workout tapes. 

My successes so far does not have to do with the scales at all. I now carry around a 64 ounce jug of water daily (drinking two a day), and I have managed to start dragging myself out of bed (definitely NOT a morning person) every morning to complete my exercise so that nothing later that day can become an excuse for not completing that task.

The scale no longer defines me - my actions, my attitude, and my beliefs - they define me. Renewed health allows me the opportunity to live well and be that person.