There are seasons of the year, seasons of our lives and even seasons of TV shows. at face value they may all seem disconnected. The weather outside and how my life stage is going don't match up - but they kind of do. In your life seasons you'll have hot days(great days) and cold days(no so great days) and TV seasons, well they do follow the seasonal calendar for the most part.
What about TV seasons and the seasons of your life? Not related right? Wrong again - you aren't really wrong so don't get down, but do listen to how they relate.
You are in a season of life - maybe you are single or newly married, maybe you just had your first child or just lost a loved one. Maybe you are approaching an big birthday and thinking - what next?
As you look at the season you are in you may find that you notice some themes that match up with some of your favorite TV shows. This isn't really untrue - for example I'm a big fan of the TV The Flash, I don't however run super fast or save people's lives. I do however understand his personal loss and his desire to help others and better himself.
We are the authors of our own TV season - we are the stars. We control the plot as the season progresses. Do we get the girl in the end? Do we save the day? Escape the zombies? Does someone kill Kenny? For the season of your life are you the one writing or are you a supporting cast member in your own series?
The fact is for many of us we know what the plot of our season is and have an idea how we want it to end(aka what we want to accomplish with a given amount of time). How many of us are using each episode to fulfill our plot? Granted every season has some filler episodes, but we a good season of our show should stick to the plot.
If you days and weeks were TV episodes and your goals the plot of a season how would that change your day to day? Why aren't we reaching our goals? Don't wait until next season to bring up your ratings. You have the final say!
Be the hero - get the girl(goal)! You are amazing and nothing will stop you!!
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Sunday, September 17, 2017
You 2.0
I was recently asked by a friend what diet I'm on. I told him I wasn't really on a diet just that I was eating better things and watching what I put in my mouth. After giving this a few days thought, it was not only totally unhelpful to my friend it was also not really true. I'd say I'm not on a diet because it is a permanent change of what and how I'm eating. However my diet has changed and for the better! So I'm giving my diet and exercise changes a name. Welcome to You 2.0 or Y2 for short. This could already be a name of a diet, I didn't check - if it happens to be the two aren't related. All I know is that once you give something a name it is harder to kill (Thanks Chris!)
So let's talk the new you, You 2.0 - most of us start with You and go to You 1.0 after our first few years of life. We better ourselves and make positive and sometimes negative changes in our lives. You 2.0 is simply making changes for who you want to be NEXT. Please note the all caps next, you can't change overnight and if you could it would be a bad thing because it would be too easy to change back. So let's get started.
Planning - You have to have a plan, we are trying to build a new normal and habits and you'll need a plan to get you there.
Let's start with exercise - I recommend 30 minutes a day for at least 5 days. Let's define exercise - something that gets your heart rate up for longer than a few seconds. I'd strongly recommend getting a fitness tracker, they are super helpful at tracking how you are doing and well worth the money. I'd even go so far to say for me it has been required.
If you don't live an active lifestyle and you wouldn't be alone in that. Ramping up to 30 minutes a day of exercise for 5 days may seem like a huge leap - it is, sorry not sorry. Maybe I can ease the blow by giving you my reasoning - you see exercise helps to curb your hungry, it also reminds you how hard it is to work off even a small amount of calories - most of us eat well over 1000 calories for lunch. I've been exercising regularly for months now and even with two workouts a day I've never burned 1000 calories just from working out. Never! Walking for an hour and a half gets me about 680 which is the closest I've gotten. Not to say it can't be done, but I think you are getting the point - if not here it is - exercise will help you lose weight, but it won't make you lose weight. Exercise will help you to be healthy, but if your goal is weight loss the battle is won or lost in the kitchen!!
So recap - we are exercising to be more fit, curb our hunger, free up some calories and to treat our bodies like we should be, we only get one treat it right.
I'm going to take a side step for a minute - if you have a kid or kids and they were sitting on the sofa not moving for hours on end and over the course of a few months they gained weight and looked like their quality of life was getting lower - would you sit back and let it happen?? Probably not - so treat yourself with the same standards, you could be saving your own life and your kids will be thankful for that later!
OK - let's talk diet.
First things first you need a food scale, I have two one I use for ounces and the other for grams, it just happen you needs one for grams for sure and you could probably make due with just that. You could buy one that does both as long as it is easy to change. I measure most prepared foods in ounces, cups or tablespoons - you will do this a lot so make sure you buy enough measuring spoons and cups I have at least four sets of each. Most packaged foods I measure in grams like cereals or chips (I don't really eat chips now but I'll get to that later)
Let me talk about that chip comment for a minute - If you want to lose weight you have to make changes to your diet, that isn't to say you can't have chips anymore, but I also want to make it really really clear that you will never get to eat like you do now. I think some people either believe or are told that once they lose weight they can eat their "normal" diet again, you can if you want to go back to You 1.0. If you aren't interested in making this change forever then I personally wouldn't bother. That said, the change is worth it and you will find that how you feel and your quality of life will prove that to you.
This post is already getting pretty long so I'm giving to give you some tips to get you started and address specifics in later posts.
I'm on a low carb diet - not really but I think it seems that way. I'm on a low bad carb diet - I skip the bread at restaurants, I don't eat chips at lunch - pasta is really a distant memory (I'll cover this later, it isn't a completely sad story), most importantly the fried foods have got to go!! That breaded deep fried goodness has so many calories you could be on a treadmill for hours and still but hurting - also put the tortilla shells by the way side, those 3 shells you just ate are close to 300 calories a piece, not including the greasy meat inside!
I promise to write about finding the right carbs soon. For now - replace rice with cauliflower rice, replace the chips with carrots and a serving of air popped popcorn (little to no butter), I recommend smart pop white cheese it is 35 calories for a cup. Buy low calories bread and some Oscar Myer roasted chicken breast for 50 calories for 2 ounces. For breakfast eat no more than 300 calories and make sure it is packed with protein and fiber - you'll need both to stay full oh and have (black)coffee it will help to keep you full.
Target around 1500-1600 calories a day for most men, ladies I suggest starting with this as well, but some research says it is much lower. NOTE: You have to eat to lose weight, if you eat too little your body thinks it is starving and won't let weight go - seriously!!
Hopefully this random information is helpful - stay tuned for more.
So let's talk the new you, You 2.0 - most of us start with You and go to You 1.0 after our first few years of life. We better ourselves and make positive and sometimes negative changes in our lives. You 2.0 is simply making changes for who you want to be NEXT. Please note the all caps next, you can't change overnight and if you could it would be a bad thing because it would be too easy to change back. So let's get started.
Planning - You have to have a plan, we are trying to build a new normal and habits and you'll need a plan to get you there.
Let's start with exercise - I recommend 30 minutes a day for at least 5 days. Let's define exercise - something that gets your heart rate up for longer than a few seconds. I'd strongly recommend getting a fitness tracker, they are super helpful at tracking how you are doing and well worth the money. I'd even go so far to say for me it has been required.
If you don't live an active lifestyle and you wouldn't be alone in that. Ramping up to 30 minutes a day of exercise for 5 days may seem like a huge leap - it is, sorry not sorry. Maybe I can ease the blow by giving you my reasoning - you see exercise helps to curb your hungry, it also reminds you how hard it is to work off even a small amount of calories - most of us eat well over 1000 calories for lunch. I've been exercising regularly for months now and even with two workouts a day I've never burned 1000 calories just from working out. Never! Walking for an hour and a half gets me about 680 which is the closest I've gotten. Not to say it can't be done, but I think you are getting the point - if not here it is - exercise will help you lose weight, but it won't make you lose weight. Exercise will help you to be healthy, but if your goal is weight loss the battle is won or lost in the kitchen!!
So recap - we are exercising to be more fit, curb our hunger, free up some calories and to treat our bodies like we should be, we only get one treat it right.
I'm going to take a side step for a minute - if you have a kid or kids and they were sitting on the sofa not moving for hours on end and over the course of a few months they gained weight and looked like their quality of life was getting lower - would you sit back and let it happen?? Probably not - so treat yourself with the same standards, you could be saving your own life and your kids will be thankful for that later!
OK - let's talk diet.
First things first you need a food scale, I have two one I use for ounces and the other for grams, it just happen you needs one for grams for sure and you could probably make due with just that. You could buy one that does both as long as it is easy to change. I measure most prepared foods in ounces, cups or tablespoons - you will do this a lot so make sure you buy enough measuring spoons and cups I have at least four sets of each. Most packaged foods I measure in grams like cereals or chips (I don't really eat chips now but I'll get to that later)
Let me talk about that chip comment for a minute - If you want to lose weight you have to make changes to your diet, that isn't to say you can't have chips anymore, but I also want to make it really really clear that you will never get to eat like you do now. I think some people either believe or are told that once they lose weight they can eat their "normal" diet again, you can if you want to go back to You 1.0. If you aren't interested in making this change forever then I personally wouldn't bother. That said, the change is worth it and you will find that how you feel and your quality of life will prove that to you.
This post is already getting pretty long so I'm giving to give you some tips to get you started and address specifics in later posts.
I'm on a low carb diet - not really but I think it seems that way. I'm on a low bad carb diet - I skip the bread at restaurants, I don't eat chips at lunch - pasta is really a distant memory (I'll cover this later, it isn't a completely sad story), most importantly the fried foods have got to go!! That breaded deep fried goodness has so many calories you could be on a treadmill for hours and still but hurting - also put the tortilla shells by the way side, those 3 shells you just ate are close to 300 calories a piece, not including the greasy meat inside!
I promise to write about finding the right carbs soon. For now - replace rice with cauliflower rice, replace the chips with carrots and a serving of air popped popcorn (little to no butter), I recommend smart pop white cheese it is 35 calories for a cup. Buy low calories bread and some Oscar Myer roasted chicken breast for 50 calories for 2 ounces. For breakfast eat no more than 300 calories and make sure it is packed with protein and fiber - you'll need both to stay full oh and have (black)coffee it will help to keep you full.
Target around 1500-1600 calories a day for most men, ladies I suggest starting with this as well, but some research says it is much lower. NOTE: You have to eat to lose weight, if you eat too little your body thinks it is starving and won't let weight go - seriously!!
Hopefully this random information is helpful - stay tuned for more.
Saturday, September 16, 2017
Willpower
Where to start... effort + time = success? Well sometimes, probably even most times. If you put enough effort into something and enough time you will have some level of success. For example if you love golf but suck at it, you will generally improve if you practice. Practicing incorrectly will not make you better so maybe it is effort + coaching + time = success.
So to solve for success we need coaching (I'm trying to help with that), you need time - we all get 24 hours in a day, you alone decide what to do with those (if you are married it may not feel like you making this decision by yourself, you don't if you are happily married ;)). So that leaves effort are you trying? Probably - but effort unlike time is variable.
You want to make a personal change in your life like a better diet or exercise. You have every intention of working out after the kids are in bed or early in the morning maybe, but it doesn't happen. Over and over again you mess your workout and you feel more and more guilty about it. This issue really isn't an effort problem, it may simply be you are trying to do the wrong thing at the wrong time.
Here is where I take a 180 on you - effort isn't really your problem. Not at the beginning of a change, most of us are excited and are willing to put in the effort. Time and coaching aren't really your problem either, not for most - you can make time, even if it is 15 minutes a day. Coaching is a simple google search away or maybe phoning a friend. Effort is important and if it is an area you need work in you know it.
So what's the problem? Willpower.
You go into the day wanting to put in the effort, but you fall short because of willpower. Had that chocolate cake after dinner, willpower issue. Skipped your workout because you wanted to sit on the sofa and relax instead, willpower again. You see willpower is like a muscle( http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/willpower-limited-resource.pdf), you use that muscle all day long, ladies research suggests you use it more than men (sorry!). Some researchers believe that as you use willpower that it reduces your "willpower stores". The article I linked above and some books I've read suggest you can increase or refuel your willpower, but I prefer the alternative approach.
Willpower is reduced each time you make a decision, which most of us do all day long. We start our day by figuring out what to wear or what to pack for lunch, which email do I answer first, what should I work on completing right now? The bad news is we all have to make choices each day, the good news is we can make less of them and save our willpower for that cake!
So how does one go about making less choices? To start you can simply move when you make a choice. Trying to eat healthier - prep your lunch on Sunday for the week or at least the first 3 days of the week. Don't try to decide halfway through the day what healthy option you will have for lunch. Can't prep your lunch? Ok use a mobile app to plan out what you'll have from your favorite fast food place. Before I even step into a Wendy's and smell those yummy fries or that oh so tasty frosty I know what I'm going to order - I use less willpower because I made the choice before I had to fight all the good smells.
Having an issue working out during the week? Well fake it until you make it - if you can't get up and workout (most days I don't have it in me), then workout at night. I hear ya... sure that sounds easy, NOT. You're right, you have used your willpower all day and trying to talk yourself into working out is another choice you have to make. So lets make less choices, decide today that you will always put your workout clothes on when you get home, that is one less choice you will have to make that prevents you from working out, not only that but it will put your mind in the right place working out.
The next step is to look at your day or better yet your week and make decisions for the upcoming week before it even starts. Set calendar reminders or appointments. If you really want to give your willpower a super boost read more on habits! Spoiler: Habits require little to no willpower and can change you into a completely different person!!
So to solve for success we need coaching (I'm trying to help with that), you need time - we all get 24 hours in a day, you alone decide what to do with those (if you are married it may not feel like you making this decision by yourself, you don't if you are happily married ;)). So that leaves effort are you trying? Probably - but effort unlike time is variable.
You want to make a personal change in your life like a better diet or exercise. You have every intention of working out after the kids are in bed or early in the morning maybe, but it doesn't happen. Over and over again you mess your workout and you feel more and more guilty about it. This issue really isn't an effort problem, it may simply be you are trying to do the wrong thing at the wrong time.
Here is where I take a 180 on you - effort isn't really your problem. Not at the beginning of a change, most of us are excited and are willing to put in the effort. Time and coaching aren't really your problem either, not for most - you can make time, even if it is 15 minutes a day. Coaching is a simple google search away or maybe phoning a friend. Effort is important and if it is an area you need work in you know it.
So what's the problem? Willpower.
You go into the day wanting to put in the effort, but you fall short because of willpower. Had that chocolate cake after dinner, willpower issue. Skipped your workout because you wanted to sit on the sofa and relax instead, willpower again. You see willpower is like a muscle( http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/willpower-limited-resource.pdf), you use that muscle all day long, ladies research suggests you use it more than men (sorry!). Some researchers believe that as you use willpower that it reduces your "willpower stores". The article I linked above and some books I've read suggest you can increase or refuel your willpower, but I prefer the alternative approach.
Willpower is reduced each time you make a decision, which most of us do all day long. We start our day by figuring out what to wear or what to pack for lunch, which email do I answer first, what should I work on completing right now? The bad news is we all have to make choices each day, the good news is we can make less of them and save our willpower for that cake!
So how does one go about making less choices? To start you can simply move when you make a choice. Trying to eat healthier - prep your lunch on Sunday for the week or at least the first 3 days of the week. Don't try to decide halfway through the day what healthy option you will have for lunch. Can't prep your lunch? Ok use a mobile app to plan out what you'll have from your favorite fast food place. Before I even step into a Wendy's and smell those yummy fries or that oh so tasty frosty I know what I'm going to order - I use less willpower because I made the choice before I had to fight all the good smells.
Having an issue working out during the week? Well fake it until you make it - if you can't get up and workout (most days I don't have it in me), then workout at night. I hear ya... sure that sounds easy, NOT. You're right, you have used your willpower all day and trying to talk yourself into working out is another choice you have to make. So lets make less choices, decide today that you will always put your workout clothes on when you get home, that is one less choice you will have to make that prevents you from working out, not only that but it will put your mind in the right place working out.
The next step is to look at your day or better yet your week and make decisions for the upcoming week before it even starts. Set calendar reminders or appointments. If you really want to give your willpower a super boost read more on habits! Spoiler: Habits require little to no willpower and can change you into a completely different person!!
Wednesday, September 13, 2017
Self
Mom's of the world this post is for you. (If you aren't a mom keep reading, it does apply to everyone in some way)
What makes a successful business person? Hard work? Connections? Right place right time? Luck? Some of all of these play a part I would wager. Most importantly time management plays a large role. If you are successful or working your way to being successful you have to manage your time well.
Time is the only real thing we have of value - we sell our time to get money to by other things, but make no mistake you can't buy time. I'm sure someone could argue that you can, but really at the basic level you can't, you can pay for services and vacation days but it doesn't give you more time it just frees up the time you already have.
So of the 24 hours in a day or 1440 minutes in a day, how much time do you spend on yourself? Mom's if you answered more than an hour or two, you are probably ahead of most. The rest of us may get somewhere between 3-8 on average. My free time tends to start around 6 and ends when I go to bed at 10 pm(on average). What do I do with those 4 hours of "personal time"? Well I used to waste at least 30 minutes of it on Facebook. The rest would be spent on video games or TV, maybe a book (if I wasn't out or hanging with the family). How much of that was I working on me? Zero. I was recharging from the day, but I wasn't doing anything to improve on who I was or reach the goals I had.
To be totally honest I still fail at time management. I have a lot of personal goals and most of them don't get much personal time - it's a work in progress.
So here comes the important part. Ladies and anyone who is giving everything and not taking personal time - you are hurting everyone in your life! Yup I'm the jerk who just said giving it all away is selfish. (Waits for tomatoes.) Seriously if you don't have time for you - your first goal is to make time. If you are a single mom with two jobs I can't even begin to know how much time you don't have and I have no advice for you, but I do pray you get relief. For the other Mom's...
You need to take time for yourself, regardless who you are or where you are at in your life. In order to be the best version of yourself you need me time. Figure out how to make that happen.
Husbands, fathers, dudes - You need to do this too - but make sure you are supporting your better halves in the process! Also Dad's your health is important - having ditched my Dad bode I can tell you that it was worth it. Worst case you can just go back to eating donuts - Dad bodes are easy to make.
Bottom line - In order to be your best for those you care about, you have to take care of yourself too. There is no I in team but there is an I in family!
What makes a successful business person? Hard work? Connections? Right place right time? Luck? Some of all of these play a part I would wager. Most importantly time management plays a large role. If you are successful or working your way to being successful you have to manage your time well.
Time is the only real thing we have of value - we sell our time to get money to by other things, but make no mistake you can't buy time. I'm sure someone could argue that you can, but really at the basic level you can't, you can pay for services and vacation days but it doesn't give you more time it just frees up the time you already have.
So of the 24 hours in a day or 1440 minutes in a day, how much time do you spend on yourself? Mom's if you answered more than an hour or two, you are probably ahead of most. The rest of us may get somewhere between 3-8 on average. My free time tends to start around 6 and ends when I go to bed at 10 pm(on average). What do I do with those 4 hours of "personal time"? Well I used to waste at least 30 minutes of it on Facebook. The rest would be spent on video games or TV, maybe a book (if I wasn't out or hanging with the family). How much of that was I working on me? Zero. I was recharging from the day, but I wasn't doing anything to improve on who I was or reach the goals I had.
To be totally honest I still fail at time management. I have a lot of personal goals and most of them don't get much personal time - it's a work in progress.
So here comes the important part. Ladies and anyone who is giving everything and not taking personal time - you are hurting everyone in your life! Yup I'm the jerk who just said giving it all away is selfish. (Waits for tomatoes.) Seriously if you don't have time for you - your first goal is to make time. If you are a single mom with two jobs I can't even begin to know how much time you don't have and I have no advice for you, but I do pray you get relief. For the other Mom's...
You need to take time for yourself, regardless who you are or where you are at in your life. In order to be the best version of yourself you need me time. Figure out how to make that happen.
Husbands, fathers, dudes - You need to do this too - but make sure you are supporting your better halves in the process! Also Dad's your health is important - having ditched my Dad bode I can tell you that it was worth it. Worst case you can just go back to eating donuts - Dad bodes are easy to make.
Bottom line - In order to be your best for those you care about, you have to take care of yourself too. There is no I in team but there is an I in family!
Saturday, September 9, 2017
Full
Full - it is an interesting word and concept. I would guess that most would describe the concept of full as a good thing. My life is full of joy or my cabinets are full of food or my house is full of friends and family. All great things, but full has a dark side... careful you are or full you will get and no room you shall have.
You can have a full house with no room to grow, full cabinets that won't hold that last cup you need to put away, a full schedule that won't allow you time to even go to the bathroom without putting it on your calendar (there are days... I'm just saying). Probably the worst full of course is a full stomach. Most of use are raised to clear plates and eat until we are full. I've spent my adult life getting full - most was from food, but sometimes it is other things like "stuff" or praise or even information, all of these can fill you up! The worst part of being full? You have no more room even if something great comes along or super important.
So maybe full isn't the best thing - maybe there is such a thing as too much of a good thing? Can you have too much love? Maybe you can if you aren't returning that love or showing it to others. So instead of being full why not be satisfied. Let's take a meal for example, when I was a kid I would be "full" once I had eaten enough of my meal that I had room left for dessert. I would rarely get "full" on good food alone. As an adult I still deal with this, but instead of saying I'm full I know I'm satisfied with how much of this or that, that I have eaten.
So what is satisfaction? To be honest I don't know what the real definition is and I won't be looking it up because I like my own :) Satisfaction for me is being happy for starters. It is also somewhere between not enough and too much. So from an eating point of view I'm neither hungry or full, but I also won't be hungry in 30 minutes or an hour. If I'm working on a task, satisfaction may have nothing to do how close to finishing I am, I could be done and not satisfied with the result.
So let's think about being done with something and not be satisfied - it happens in meals all the time, or a bad movie or even in relationships. Given all those satisfaction would seem to have an element of expectation to it. If I expect this chicken to taste like a steak I'm sure to be disappointed! This salad tastes nothing like that cheesecake. This movie won best picture, who voted for this awful thing? My best friend forgot my birthday...
Expectations are in everything we do - we expect to wake up in the morning. We expect to walk whenever we "tell" our legs to get up and move. So if we sit down to eat and we expect to get full, what will happen? Well we will get full most likely - But what if we sit down to fuel our bodies, to promote good health, to satisfy our needs. I'm not advocating to no enjoy your meals - but I don't know anyone that like an overfull feeling a lot of us get that feeling when working toward full, we tend to "top off" the tank.
Not trying to lose weight, fair enough - Maybe try setting your expectations for Monday. "Today will be the best day of the week because I am refreshed from the weekend."
Looking to lose weight or improve your health - set an expectation that will satisfy you - try to listen to when you are satisfied not full or stuffed. Don't expect that healthy meal you fixed to taste like the deep fried Twinkies from the state fair. Expect it to give you energy and no heartburn and healthier body to enjoy your life with!
I hope this helped to satisfy your hungry for healthy knowledge but didn't fill you up with too much to think about! :)
You can have a full house with no room to grow, full cabinets that won't hold that last cup you need to put away, a full schedule that won't allow you time to even go to the bathroom without putting it on your calendar (there are days... I'm just saying). Probably the worst full of course is a full stomach. Most of use are raised to clear plates and eat until we are full. I've spent my adult life getting full - most was from food, but sometimes it is other things like "stuff" or praise or even information, all of these can fill you up! The worst part of being full? You have no more room even if something great comes along or super important.
So maybe full isn't the best thing - maybe there is such a thing as too much of a good thing? Can you have too much love? Maybe you can if you aren't returning that love or showing it to others. So instead of being full why not be satisfied. Let's take a meal for example, when I was a kid I would be "full" once I had eaten enough of my meal that I had room left for dessert. I would rarely get "full" on good food alone. As an adult I still deal with this, but instead of saying I'm full I know I'm satisfied with how much of this or that, that I have eaten.
So what is satisfaction? To be honest I don't know what the real definition is and I won't be looking it up because I like my own :) Satisfaction for me is being happy for starters. It is also somewhere between not enough and too much. So from an eating point of view I'm neither hungry or full, but I also won't be hungry in 30 minutes or an hour. If I'm working on a task, satisfaction may have nothing to do how close to finishing I am, I could be done and not satisfied with the result.
So let's think about being done with something and not be satisfied - it happens in meals all the time, or a bad movie or even in relationships. Given all those satisfaction would seem to have an element of expectation to it. If I expect this chicken to taste like a steak I'm sure to be disappointed! This salad tastes nothing like that cheesecake. This movie won best picture, who voted for this awful thing? My best friend forgot my birthday...
Expectations are in everything we do - we expect to wake up in the morning. We expect to walk whenever we "tell" our legs to get up and move. So if we sit down to eat and we expect to get full, what will happen? Well we will get full most likely - But what if we sit down to fuel our bodies, to promote good health, to satisfy our needs. I'm not advocating to no enjoy your meals - but I don't know anyone that like an overfull feeling a lot of us get that feeling when working toward full, we tend to "top off" the tank.
Not trying to lose weight, fair enough - Maybe try setting your expectations for Monday. "Today will be the best day of the week because I am refreshed from the weekend."
Looking to lose weight or improve your health - set an expectation that will satisfy you - try to listen to when you are satisfied not full or stuffed. Don't expect that healthy meal you fixed to taste like the deep fried Twinkies from the state fair. Expect it to give you energy and no heartburn and healthier body to enjoy your life with!
I hope this helped to satisfy your hungry for healthy knowledge but didn't fill you up with too much to think about! :)
Saturday, September 2, 2017
Meal breakdown
A little advice on how to break down your meals for successful weight loss or control.
First - know when you are hungriest - for me it is dinner and after.
For those of us who like our snacks at night I'd suggest.
- A cup of coffee or tea(no calories here folks)
- 30 minutes to an hour
- Breakfast (protein and fiber are your friends!!) - try to keep this your low calorie meal of the day
- More coffee or tea
- Snack time (I try to wait until 10), I recommend a vegetable. (Carrots for me)
- Lunch time - honestly most days I don't make it past 11, but that seems to work out for me
- Make this your second biggest meal
- After lunch you should have about half of your daily calories eaten, unless you snack at night a lot
- Afternoon snack, I don't normally have one, but make sure I have food if I feel like I need one.
- Dinner time, Biggest meal, probably.
- Why not sneak in a walk after dinner? The dishes won't mind!
- Late night snack - if you are going to have one try to make sure you have it before 8
I'll go into more food detail in the next few days, but for now it is bed time - no one is good at personal change on too little sleep!!
First - know when you are hungriest - for me it is dinner and after.
For those of us who like our snacks at night I'd suggest.
- A cup of coffee or tea(no calories here folks)
- 30 minutes to an hour
- Breakfast (protein and fiber are your friends!!) - try to keep this your low calorie meal of the day
- More coffee or tea
- Snack time (I try to wait until 10), I recommend a vegetable. (Carrots for me)
- Lunch time - honestly most days I don't make it past 11, but that seems to work out for me
- Make this your second biggest meal
- After lunch you should have about half of your daily calories eaten, unless you snack at night a lot
- Afternoon snack, I don't normally have one, but make sure I have food if I feel like I need one.
- Dinner time, Biggest meal, probably.
- Why not sneak in a walk after dinner? The dishes won't mind!
- Late night snack - if you are going to have one try to make sure you have it before 8
I'll go into more food detail in the next few days, but for now it is bed time - no one is good at personal change on too little sleep!!
I stand on a tower of failure
I started to write a post about set backs the other day, but I couldn't really find the words I wanted to say - I knew what I wanted but not really how. To be honest as I type this I'm not sure I have the right words either, but I'll let you be the judge.
Failing sucks - it can hurt emotionally, physically and even financially. One of if not the hardest thing about making a real change in your life is failing to make that change over and over again - day after day you make a promise to yourself that today I'll do this or I won't do that and at the end of the day all you have is a broken promise to yourself.
Let's for a moment pretend that all of those failures or broken promises go in a bucket. Now we all fail a lot so lets have two buckets to catch all the fails and a stick to pick up those buckets and carry them on our back. I mean that is what failure feels like right? A large bucket or two of weight, preventing you from moving forward and each failure or set back make it harder to move forward...
Many things have been said about failures or troubles including in the bible, the bible says we ought to be thankful for our troubles (more or less). I'd have to agree - Failures and setbacks can either weight you down or lift you up...
Ready for a little trip down memory lane?? Remember when we had a reason for personal change and set a goal? OK close your eyes - just kidding then you can't read... Imagine you're in the woods it's cool out and the sun is going down, you hadn't planned on camping but here you are none the less. You start a tiny fire - see the flame in your mind notice how small it starts out. You add some twigs to the fire and the flame gets strong, hotter and bigger! You add a log or two and sit back to enjoy your warm fire - in the distance you hear thunder. The rain starts, you bundle up and hope your fire doesn't go out. To your delight the fire is still burning bright, mostly because of those logs you added.
So where am I going with this - the flame is a few things really, it's your goal, it's you in some sense. When you start to make a personal change in your life you tend to be weak in that area and easy to "put out", your goal can be extinguished before it ever really got started. Twigs to the rescue!! Twigs are your failures, yup failures help to feed the flame of our failure at least they can if you use them. Remember our big buckets O fail - think of them as coal to super heat the goal furnace!! The logs are our reasons for personal change, to weather any storm we need strong reasons that really keep our fire burning.
Setbacks and failures are a major part of life and most personal change - they can fill your bucket full of coal or water - you decide how you want to feed your fire!
Failing sucks - it can hurt emotionally, physically and even financially. One of if not the hardest thing about making a real change in your life is failing to make that change over and over again - day after day you make a promise to yourself that today I'll do this or I won't do that and at the end of the day all you have is a broken promise to yourself.
Let's for a moment pretend that all of those failures or broken promises go in a bucket. Now we all fail a lot so lets have two buckets to catch all the fails and a stick to pick up those buckets and carry them on our back. I mean that is what failure feels like right? A large bucket or two of weight, preventing you from moving forward and each failure or set back make it harder to move forward...
Many things have been said about failures or troubles including in the bible, the bible says we ought to be thankful for our troubles (more or less). I'd have to agree - Failures and setbacks can either weight you down or lift you up...
Ready for a little trip down memory lane?? Remember when we had a reason for personal change and set a goal? OK close your eyes - just kidding then you can't read... Imagine you're in the woods it's cool out and the sun is going down, you hadn't planned on camping but here you are none the less. You start a tiny fire - see the flame in your mind notice how small it starts out. You add some twigs to the fire and the flame gets strong, hotter and bigger! You add a log or two and sit back to enjoy your warm fire - in the distance you hear thunder. The rain starts, you bundle up and hope your fire doesn't go out. To your delight the fire is still burning bright, mostly because of those logs you added.
So where am I going with this - the flame is a few things really, it's your goal, it's you in some sense. When you start to make a personal change in your life you tend to be weak in that area and easy to "put out", your goal can be extinguished before it ever really got started. Twigs to the rescue!! Twigs are your failures, yup failures help to feed the flame of our failure at least they can if you use them. Remember our big buckets O fail - think of them as coal to super heat the goal furnace!! The logs are our reasons for personal change, to weather any storm we need strong reasons that really keep our fire burning.
Setbacks and failures are a major part of life and most personal change - they can fill your bucket full of coal or water - you decide how you want to feed your fire!
Wednesday, August 30, 2017
The secret of my success
I'm going to focus now on weight loss and more importantly a healthy lifestyle.
I was a skinny kid - in fact gaining weight was at times a challenge. A few year ago that stopped being so much of a challenge, if I look back it was even starting after I got married almost 15 years ago - I still remember my doctor saying my weight gain was "happy fat" because I was happy with my life or some other BS - I've had great doctors most of my life, but I don't know that most of them paid enough attention to weight gain and diet as problems. Instead they focused on symptoms like high blood sugar or high cholesterol levels - h and heart burn, terrible terrible heart burn.
So a few month ago I wasn't OK with my "happy fat" or taking medicines for 5 different "problems". I didn't like how I looked or felt and the term Dad bod hit too close to home. I should take a step back - this all really started with exercise and that started because of a book on self-improvement main in the area of better practice and skill building. Basically it said if you weren't exercising and eating right you weren't using your body in the right way and you wouldn't be able to preform at your best or learn more effectively. Well i had started a new role at work and I needed to be as sharp as I could be because I had super limited time to devote to learning. So exercising started - walking and jogging on the treadmill. The came diet -
My diet changes came about with the help of a program offer by my employer, while I won't discount how much it impacted my life there are only a few key details that anyone needs to know to lose weight and I'm going to share those with you.
Weight lose or gain is basic math - it is that simple on paper, in practice there are some other things to consider. If you want to lose weight don't lose more than 2 pounds a week (sometimes you will lose more, but try not to, I'll explain more) Try to lose at least half a pound a week, again you may not lose but .1 pounds or even stay the same, it will happen, look for any reasons things didn't go to plan and try to correct for next week, no guilt or self-bullying.
Ok so how much do you want to lose in a week - well you can roughly say that a pound of fat is 3500 calories so you need to shave off 3500 calories in a week. Which works out to about 500 calories a day. I'd suggest starting out with this goal and base it off of a 2000 calorie a day diet, a word of warning, few of us eat 2000 calories in a day, most eat much more, but our bodies burn about 2000 with a normal level of activity. (In my personal experience) This is the bit where I tell you that you should probably talk with your doctor on how many calories you should eat as 1500 calories a day is too little for a man, but woman can take it even lower.
Want to lose more than a pound a week? I suggest doing a pound in the kitchen and a pound in the gym. The one, two punch of diet and exercise really is a secret to success. Your workouts help keep you on track by reminding you how hard you have to work to burn 200-400 calories and working out also helps to curb your appetite.
So diet + exercise = less of you, and in this case less is more! Figure out some goals for you to lose a pound or a half a pound next week.
Here are a few food tips to get you started -
If you drink soft drinks or sugar filled coffee - stop cold turkey, this wasn't an issue for me so I won't be much help here - I don't have any thing good to say about diet soda but nothing bad either. If you do have them track them, it may help you give them up. Remember the reason you are trying to lose weight and know that it is better than that cold Dr. Pepper.
Protein and Fiber are your friend - I eat greek yogurt and fiber buds for breakfast everyday it is only 160 calories, nice and sweet - portable and healthy overall (still has a lot of sugar) most importantly it helps me to stay full - speaking of staying full in the morning - don't skip the coffee - coffee can help you feel fuller longer!
Pickles - they are zero calories in most cases which on hard days can be a super blessing!
Don't eat late! Let your body use that food during the day, not while you are sleeping.
Save calories for when you are the most hungry - for me that is at night so half or more of my daily calories go toward dinner and after dinner snacks.
Carbs aren't bad, but there are bad carbs - that basket of bread at the table or those chips at your favorite Mexican restaurant those can turn a successful day into a disaster faster than Leo can say iceberg off the port side! Eat good carbs like baked potatoes or rice, but watch the portions and measure everything! (I'll talk more about this later) Just don't cut out all carbs, this is a lifestyle change not a prison sentence.
More to come!
I was a skinny kid - in fact gaining weight was at times a challenge. A few year ago that stopped being so much of a challenge, if I look back it was even starting after I got married almost 15 years ago - I still remember my doctor saying my weight gain was "happy fat" because I was happy with my life or some other BS - I've had great doctors most of my life, but I don't know that most of them paid enough attention to weight gain and diet as problems. Instead they focused on symptoms like high blood sugar or high cholesterol levels - h and heart burn, terrible terrible heart burn.
So a few month ago I wasn't OK with my "happy fat" or taking medicines for 5 different "problems". I didn't like how I looked or felt and the term Dad bod hit too close to home. I should take a step back - this all really started with exercise and that started because of a book on self-improvement main in the area of better practice and skill building. Basically it said if you weren't exercising and eating right you weren't using your body in the right way and you wouldn't be able to preform at your best or learn more effectively. Well i had started a new role at work and I needed to be as sharp as I could be because I had super limited time to devote to learning. So exercising started - walking and jogging on the treadmill. The came diet -
My diet changes came about with the help of a program offer by my employer, while I won't discount how much it impacted my life there are only a few key details that anyone needs to know to lose weight and I'm going to share those with you.
Weight lose or gain is basic math - it is that simple on paper, in practice there are some other things to consider. If you want to lose weight don't lose more than 2 pounds a week (sometimes you will lose more, but try not to, I'll explain more) Try to lose at least half a pound a week, again you may not lose but .1 pounds or even stay the same, it will happen, look for any reasons things didn't go to plan and try to correct for next week, no guilt or self-bullying.
Ok so how much do you want to lose in a week - well you can roughly say that a pound of fat is 3500 calories so you need to shave off 3500 calories in a week. Which works out to about 500 calories a day. I'd suggest starting out with this goal and base it off of a 2000 calorie a day diet, a word of warning, few of us eat 2000 calories in a day, most eat much more, but our bodies burn about 2000 with a normal level of activity. (In my personal experience) This is the bit where I tell you that you should probably talk with your doctor on how many calories you should eat as 1500 calories a day is too little for a man, but woman can take it even lower.
Want to lose more than a pound a week? I suggest doing a pound in the kitchen and a pound in the gym. The one, two punch of diet and exercise really is a secret to success. Your workouts help keep you on track by reminding you how hard you have to work to burn 200-400 calories and working out also helps to curb your appetite.
So diet + exercise = less of you, and in this case less is more! Figure out some goals for you to lose a pound or a half a pound next week.
Here are a few food tips to get you started -
If you drink soft drinks or sugar filled coffee - stop cold turkey, this wasn't an issue for me so I won't be much help here - I don't have any thing good to say about diet soda but nothing bad either. If you do have them track them, it may help you give them up. Remember the reason you are trying to lose weight and know that it is better than that cold Dr. Pepper.
Protein and Fiber are your friend - I eat greek yogurt and fiber buds for breakfast everyday it is only 160 calories, nice and sweet - portable and healthy overall (still has a lot of sugar) most importantly it helps me to stay full - speaking of staying full in the morning - don't skip the coffee - coffee can help you feel fuller longer!
Pickles - they are zero calories in most cases which on hard days can be a super blessing!
Don't eat late! Let your body use that food during the day, not while you are sleeping.
Save calories for when you are the most hungry - for me that is at night so half or more of my daily calories go toward dinner and after dinner snacks.
Carbs aren't bad, but there are bad carbs - that basket of bread at the table or those chips at your favorite Mexican restaurant those can turn a successful day into a disaster faster than Leo can say iceberg off the port side! Eat good carbs like baked potatoes or rice, but watch the portions and measure everything! (I'll talk more about this later) Just don't cut out all carbs, this is a lifestyle change not a prison sentence.
More to come!
I love it when a plan comes together
A goal without a plan is just a dream -
Our bases are covered, you have a reason for change, you have a goal or goals you want to meet. Now time to get a plan together. Since your plan is a realization of your goal we will work from your goal.
Let's make a plan for two goals - first goal. Be more active. I'm going to assume you don't have a fitbit or some other kind of activity tracking device. If you do well this will be even easier. ( I do recommend an activity tracker as it gives you so much data to how you are doing toward fitness goals!)
Walk for 15 minutes after dinner 3 times next week. That's it - you goal, be more active, your plan walk 15 minutes after dinner 3 times next week - why because of X. Can you walk 15 minutes before dinner, sure if that is your plan, but don't walk 15 minutes before and not stick to your plan of 15 after. Can you walk 30 minutes, yup but don't walk 30 minutes today and feel so tired tomorrow that you don't stick to your plan. (I'm guilty of this and you probably will be too, but at least I warned you).
If you decide you want to walk 30 minutes 5 days a week, but set a goal for 15 minutes 3 days a week, I'd recommend walking 15 minutes Sunday, Monday - Tuesday you need to walk at least 15 but can up it to 30 - the rest of the week you can walk an hour each time if you want and way to go if you do - but after Tuesday you have met your goal! Congrats, feel pride in meeting your goal and sticking to a plan.
Sticking to a plan and meeting a goal no matter how simple will help you to achieve more and more success.
Something to note - don't set a goal or make a plan that is something you already do, that isn't change. Now if you want to have a goal of riding your bike for 3 of 5 days and you currently only do 2 that is fine. Don't make a goal of working out 3 days this week, when you already workout 3 or more - push yourself - make a change. If your goal is something you already do you probably need to look back at your reason, it probably isn't a good one...
Try a simple goal this coming week - if you can't think of one just go for a 15 minute walk 3 times or call 3 friends that you don't keep in touch with enough. Set a goal, make a plan, celebrate your success - repeat.
Second plan - Let's say you want to be more active but you also want to lose weight. You can't lose weight by exercise alone, if someone has told you differently they are probably crazy, misinformed, or a professional athlete whose job is to stay in shape and that requires tons of calories due to tons of exercise like crazy amounts! No if you want to lose weight it starts in the kitchen.
So your second goal track your food two days next week, every meal. Try not to guess, measure or weigh your food for example or if you are eating out look up the calorie content, most of the time they are easy to find. If you want to have a little more fun put down a guess of how much you think a meal or snack is and then figure out the real value, sooner rather than later your will be shocked at how many calories our favorite meals have in them!
So our plan goal is what we want to achieve and our plan is how we will achieve it or measure our success.
I'd suggest you don't keep your goal private - share it with a friend or share it with the world(social media)
Good luck!
Our bases are covered, you have a reason for change, you have a goal or goals you want to meet. Now time to get a plan together. Since your plan is a realization of your goal we will work from your goal.
Let's make a plan for two goals - first goal. Be more active. I'm going to assume you don't have a fitbit or some other kind of activity tracking device. If you do well this will be even easier. ( I do recommend an activity tracker as it gives you so much data to how you are doing toward fitness goals!)
Walk for 15 minutes after dinner 3 times next week. That's it - you goal, be more active, your plan walk 15 minutes after dinner 3 times next week - why because of X. Can you walk 15 minutes before dinner, sure if that is your plan, but don't walk 15 minutes before and not stick to your plan of 15 after. Can you walk 30 minutes, yup but don't walk 30 minutes today and feel so tired tomorrow that you don't stick to your plan. (I'm guilty of this and you probably will be too, but at least I warned you).
If you decide you want to walk 30 minutes 5 days a week, but set a goal for 15 minutes 3 days a week, I'd recommend walking 15 minutes Sunday, Monday - Tuesday you need to walk at least 15 but can up it to 30 - the rest of the week you can walk an hour each time if you want and way to go if you do - but after Tuesday you have met your goal! Congrats, feel pride in meeting your goal and sticking to a plan.
Sticking to a plan and meeting a goal no matter how simple will help you to achieve more and more success.
Something to note - don't set a goal or make a plan that is something you already do, that isn't change. Now if you want to have a goal of riding your bike for 3 of 5 days and you currently only do 2 that is fine. Don't make a goal of working out 3 days this week, when you already workout 3 or more - push yourself - make a change. If your goal is something you already do you probably need to look back at your reason, it probably isn't a good one...
Try a simple goal this coming week - if you can't think of one just go for a 15 minute walk 3 times or call 3 friends that you don't keep in touch with enough. Set a goal, make a plan, celebrate your success - repeat.
Second plan - Let's say you want to be more active but you also want to lose weight. You can't lose weight by exercise alone, if someone has told you differently they are probably crazy, misinformed, or a professional athlete whose job is to stay in shape and that requires tons of calories due to tons of exercise like crazy amounts! No if you want to lose weight it starts in the kitchen.
So your second goal track your food two days next week, every meal. Try not to guess, measure or weigh your food for example or if you are eating out look up the calorie content, most of the time they are easy to find. If you want to have a little more fun put down a guess of how much you think a meal or snack is and then figure out the real value, sooner rather than later your will be shocked at how many calories our favorite meals have in them!
So our plan goal is what we want to achieve and our plan is how we will achieve it or measure our success.
I'd suggest you don't keep your goal private - share it with a friend or share it with the world(social media)
Good luck!
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
Lights, Camera, Action
Lights, Camera, Action or rather A reason, a goal, a plan!
So you have your reason - you know why you want change in your life. It is a reason that will stick and motivate you to a goal(s).
Onward to a goal - start small, wanna walk 10,000 steps each day? Are you walking 5,000 today or maybe less? Set your goal at 8,000, if you always pass it then up your goal to 10,000.
Let me take a step or two back, no pun intended... Goals are important, not as important as a reason, but if you don't have a goal you don't have a point to which you are going, you have nothing to measure, which means you can't tell if you are making progress.
Let's look at the goal of getting 10,000 steps in a day, say you are at 5,000. A goal of 10,000 is a good goal you are doubling down and putting a very specific goal that you feel you can achieve. Most books or articles you will read on goal setting will tell you, that you are spot on. Well I'm going to disagree with that for now.
As I said in my last post change is simple, but hard the last thing you need is something getting in your way. So looking back at the goal of 10,000 steps we see the main goal which is get more steps, be more active. Let's start with that! My goal I want to be more active!! If you'd rather have a specific goal than set the bar low - how many times will you hear someone say that?! Seriously - set yourself up for success - want to walk more, read more, run more, eat less, complain less... do it slowly, simply, incrementally.
My favorite thing about my step goal is to blow past it by the middle of the day! Why don't I increase my step count you may wonder? Because it doesn't match my real goal which is to be more active and ultimately be healthy. I hate not meeting my step count I feel like I've failed for the day when in fact 8456 is way better than the days I used to get 3000 to 5000 steps.
Take away - Step a goal that even on a "bad" day you think you can reach.
Why? You probably already know but success feels good, it is additive. A goal of 30 minutes of cardio 3 times a week turns into 5 times a week quickly. Let me give you an example. Say I want to get in 15k steps in a day for a week - by setting my goal at 12k first (from 10k) I get used to success - I also start to learn how to fit extra steps in. For example in order for me to get in 15k steps in a day I know I have to have 10k by 5 pm. If I don't I'm not likely to get to 15k by bed time - which in turn means I probably need to walk on my lunch break so that by 3 I have at least 8k steps. Starting to see what I'm getting at?
Your assignment - set a simple goal.
Tomorrow we will talk planning - from there we will get to more of my day to day goals and plan for a healthy lifestyle, including food choices, exercise, etc.
So you have your reason - you know why you want change in your life. It is a reason that will stick and motivate you to a goal(s).
Onward to a goal - start small, wanna walk 10,000 steps each day? Are you walking 5,000 today or maybe less? Set your goal at 8,000, if you always pass it then up your goal to 10,000.
Let me take a step or two back, no pun intended... Goals are important, not as important as a reason, but if you don't have a goal you don't have a point to which you are going, you have nothing to measure, which means you can't tell if you are making progress.
Let's look at the goal of getting 10,000 steps in a day, say you are at 5,000. A goal of 10,000 is a good goal you are doubling down and putting a very specific goal that you feel you can achieve. Most books or articles you will read on goal setting will tell you, that you are spot on. Well I'm going to disagree with that for now.
As I said in my last post change is simple, but hard the last thing you need is something getting in your way. So looking back at the goal of 10,000 steps we see the main goal which is get more steps, be more active. Let's start with that! My goal I want to be more active!! If you'd rather have a specific goal than set the bar low - how many times will you hear someone say that?! Seriously - set yourself up for success - want to walk more, read more, run more, eat less, complain less... do it slowly, simply, incrementally.
My favorite thing about my step goal is to blow past it by the middle of the day! Why don't I increase my step count you may wonder? Because it doesn't match my real goal which is to be more active and ultimately be healthy. I hate not meeting my step count I feel like I've failed for the day when in fact 8456 is way better than the days I used to get 3000 to 5000 steps.
Take away - Step a goal that even on a "bad" day you think you can reach.
Why? You probably already know but success feels good, it is additive. A goal of 30 minutes of cardio 3 times a week turns into 5 times a week quickly. Let me give you an example. Say I want to get in 15k steps in a day for a week - by setting my goal at 12k first (from 10k) I get used to success - I also start to learn how to fit extra steps in. For example in order for me to get in 15k steps in a day I know I have to have 10k by 5 pm. If I don't I'm not likely to get to 15k by bed time - which in turn means I probably need to walk on my lunch break so that by 3 I have at least 8k steps. Starting to see what I'm getting at?
Your assignment - set a simple goal.
Tomorrow we will talk planning - from there we will get to more of my day to day goals and plan for a healthy lifestyle, including food choices, exercise, etc.
Monday, August 28, 2017
The Reason
Change is simple - simple is not easy and change is not easy. Change happens all the time, everyday of our lives. Most changes are happening without notice or without our direct influence.
Real change generally requires some action, some plan to get us from this state to the next state. If you want to change your hair color you have to make a plan to buy some hair dye or go to a salon. If you want a new car you have to take steps toward research or going to a dealer. Even relationships require action, you want to be friends with this person or avoid that person it requires action and planning to some degree.
Now change does come in unexpected and unpleasant ways from time to time. A car accident doesn't take any planning or the lose of a friend or loved one requires no planning on your part, however that change does require you to change, to develop a plan to handle that unwanted change in your life. Let's not dwell on this, but rather agree that change is simple, but not easy and to make change happen in a positive way we need a plan!
So here is my plan..... HAHA just kidding, how can I just jump into a plan?! Nope before we plan, before we can make a change we need a reason!!
What is a reason, a reason isn't a goal - A goal is something you make a plan to achieve and we aren't to plans yet. A reason isn't a how that is also a plan or some set of steps. A reason is WHY - Why may be the most important question we can ever ask, and most of the time the hardest to answer with any real truth or thought behind it.
So why? Why change? Change is simple, but it is HARD - Why change at all? You won't change if you don't have a reason to change and the reason has to matter. Looking good on the beach (classic weight lose reason) is a temporary reason and it's effects will fade with the Pumpkin spiced lattes. Real last change needs a real reason, one that will remain before, during and after you have made your change.
So before we can get to change, goals, plans, steps, mistakes, successes - we need a reason.
So what's your reason? Is it to get fit? Be a better parent? Live a longer life (Lord willing)?
Find your reason - maybe you write it down, maybe it is rooted so deep that you don't need it written on paper because it is written on your heart or written on the faces of your children or loved ones.
A closing note - reasons can change and most of the time that will at least somewhat. The reason you made one change doesn't have to be the reason you keep that change as "the new normal".
Step 1 - Find your reason.
Real change generally requires some action, some plan to get us from this state to the next state. If you want to change your hair color you have to make a plan to buy some hair dye or go to a salon. If you want a new car you have to take steps toward research or going to a dealer. Even relationships require action, you want to be friends with this person or avoid that person it requires action and planning to some degree.
Now change does come in unexpected and unpleasant ways from time to time. A car accident doesn't take any planning or the lose of a friend or loved one requires no planning on your part, however that change does require you to change, to develop a plan to handle that unwanted change in your life. Let's not dwell on this, but rather agree that change is simple, but not easy and to make change happen in a positive way we need a plan!
So here is my plan..... HAHA just kidding, how can I just jump into a plan?! Nope before we plan, before we can make a change we need a reason!!
What is a reason, a reason isn't a goal - A goal is something you make a plan to achieve and we aren't to plans yet. A reason isn't a how that is also a plan or some set of steps. A reason is WHY - Why may be the most important question we can ever ask, and most of the time the hardest to answer with any real truth or thought behind it.
So why? Why change? Change is simple, but it is HARD - Why change at all? You won't change if you don't have a reason to change and the reason has to matter. Looking good on the beach (classic weight lose reason) is a temporary reason and it's effects will fade with the Pumpkin spiced lattes. Real last change needs a real reason, one that will remain before, during and after you have made your change.
So before we can get to change, goals, plans, steps, mistakes, successes - we need a reason.
So what's your reason? Is it to get fit? Be a better parent? Live a longer life (Lord willing)?
Find your reason - maybe you write it down, maybe it is rooted so deep that you don't need it written on paper because it is written on your heart or written on the faces of your children or loved ones.
A closing note - reasons can change and most of the time that will at least somewhat. The reason you made one change doesn't have to be the reason you keep that change as "the new normal".
Step 1 - Find your reason.
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