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Are they all just excuses?
Let’s face it, if you want something bad enough, you are going to do whatever it takes to get there.
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
End of story.
And I’m getting really sick of all the excuses that we make about why we CAN’T live a healthier lifestyle.
Not enough time. Too tired. Too busy. It’s not working quick enough. Stress. I NEED the bad food. I NEED the cheat. Healthy food is too expensive. There aren’t options easily available. I don’t like it. I don’t know how. I’m just not one of those people. At least it is better…Right? I can’t do that…..
I’m pretty sure everyone out there has said at least one of those at some point.
And frankly, they are just all excuses.
We all make them, myself included, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are simply excuses – they are simply us letting ourselves off the hook for something we know we SHOULD be doing.
And we only seem to make excuses when we don’t value our goal enough. Because let’s face it, if you have a powerful reason WHY you want to accomplish something, you are going to make it happen. As I said before, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
So if you figure out WHY your goal is truly important to you, your WILL will be strong enough to find a way.
Oh but…You DO really really want to feel like you are in better shape. You really do want to workout 3 times a week.
There just truly isn’t time for you to go to the gym.
HA!
For one, you don’t need to go to the gym. Here is a body weight workout you can do at home.
Two, you don’t need that much time to workout! Really you don’t have 15 minutes three days each week to workout!?! Really!?!
Come on!
That’s right…You DO actually have time. You just haven’t sought out a way to make it happen.
Instead you’ve just made excuses.
Same goes for healthy eating. People tell me they don’t have time to cook. Or that eating healthily is just too expensive.
Honestly, those excuses are both CRAP.
For one, it doesn’t take that long to cook especially if you just take one day and prep meals for the entire week.
Two, there are LOTS of places to buy great, healthy foods that aren’t that expensive. Even Walmart is now carrying local produce! And farmer’s markets are another great less expensive option.
Three, you can do lots of quick fixes to make things healthier without spending more money.
Can’t spring for grass-fed beef?
Fine…But make your traditionally farmed meat better by cooking it in grass-fed butter, olive oil or coconut oil.
There are small little changes you can make, that aren’t more expensive, that can make a big difference!
So take a couple of minutes this weekend and think about all of the reasons WHY you CAN’T do something.
Then make a decision…
Do you really want to accomplish your goal?
If the answer is truly yes, they buckle down and find a way to overcome the excuses.
Stop giving yourself the option to fail. Buckle down and DO IT!
My WHY
Recently I’ve been doing a lot of writing (most of these posts are yet unpublished) about finding your WHY.
The reason WHY you are committing to a healthy lifestyle…but not just the superficial reasons.
Those deep dark reasons that keep you coming back for more no matter what else is going on in your life.
The reason that would keep you coming back even if you didn’t make money or get any recognition for what you’d done.
And this got me to thinking about my true WHY.
Why did I really want to become a trainer? Why did I want to dedicate my life to health and fitness?
It’s funny…When I started as a trainer, I did it because I loved fitness. My why, I thought, was a passion for health and fitness.
But the reason I continued as a trainer wasn’t because I loved fitness so much – it was because I loved people.
If I could do one thing every day, it would be to make at least one person realize their own strength and feel more confident and happy about who they are.
And more specifically, I want to empower women.
Don’t get me wrong…I love improving the health of all my male clients. I love making them stronger and more confident and happy about how they feel. I love seeing their progress in the health and fitness realm carry over into every day life.
BUT my true why is empowering women.
I think this whole empowering thing was bred into me at an early age by my mother who loved to read me fairy tales where the princess rescued herself and sometimes even the prince.
I’ve always been on a quest to be strong, self-confident and independent.
And for me…sports became a way to develop these things.
There is just something about lifting heavy weights or pulling out grueling matches or games that makes you feel so freaking strong.
The victory of doing something as simple as lifting a heavier weight than you lifted before is empowering.
It doesn’t just make you feel better about your fitness – it carries over into every aspect of your life.
And while I think lifting heavy can empower men, I think it has an even bigger effect on women.
I really do feel like most women aren’t raised to want to be super strong, independent, self-confident and empowered individuals.
I feel that most women believe they are supposed to suffer in silence and want only what is best for others – I believe that many women are raised to try to see themselves as selfless individuals.
Which don’t get me wrong, can be a good thing. It is great to put others first.
BUT how can you really serve others if you don’t take care of your own needs first?
If you aren’t truly your own person, how can you really be there for anyone else?
Anyway, I believe that through sports and heavy lifting, specifically, women can develop a clear and empowered sense of self.
I know I did.
And well….my WHY is to share this with as many women as possible. I’ve seen it work. I’ve seen women grow stronger and more confident right before my eyes.
I’ve seen women give themselves permission to embrace qualities of themselves that they didn’t realize they had before.
I’ve seen women who once said to me, “I’m not strong and confident like you” become incredibly empowered, strong and self-confident individuals who could hold their own against any challenger.
I’ve seen women reach beyond what they once thought possible because they became more empowered simply by lifting heavy.
Lifting heavy is empowering. I saw myself grow and change because of it. And my WHY is that I want to help as many women as I can realize just how strong and wonderful they truly are!
Maybe this post is too philosophical for a Thursday, but heck it is 75, I just went for a run on the beach (YAY and ICK) and am now relaxing with a cider on my afternoon off. So…well…bear with me!
Slowly Circling
So over the last couple of weeks I’ve spoken A LOT about mindset.
I’ve been slowly circling the topic talking about being “All Talk” or saying “No” all too often. I’ve talked about how you make the workouts hard based on your mental toughness and how you determine whether or not a change will stick by knowing WHY you are doing it.
And while all of these talk about different aspects of mindset the biggest point to take away from all of these posts is that MINDSET IS KEY.
If you don’t have your mind under control, how do you expect to be able to stick to a diet or exercise program? How do you expect to maintain self-control if you aren’t confident and don’t believe in yourself?
Thoughts beget actions.
So negative thoughts mean diet and exercise failures while positive thoughts mean looking and feeling great!
So here are 10 tips to help you turn a positive mindset into results!
- Figure out your WHY – Why do you really want to change your diet and/or exercise more? If you know the real reason, not your “just to be healthier reason” you are way more likely to stick to your plan. If your WHY is powerful enough, you will MAKE things work!
- Use the positive momentum – There is something that got you motivated to start the diet or exercise program in the first place. What you need to do is capitalize on it. Don’t say, “Yes I’m going to do it…I’ll start tomorrow!” START NOW! Don’t wait! Do everything you can to keep the momentum going. Start eating healthy the moment you want to start a diet. Even if you ate badly earlier in the day, you can still turn things around! Use your momentum. Map out a plan. Do small things to start. Place your motivation up on the fridge and keep it going!
- Make goals big events – When are you most likely to really stay committed to your diet or exercise program? WHEN YOU ARE WORKING TOWARD A BIG EVENT! Think about it….when you are losing weight for a wedding or getting ready for a competition you are going to work your hardest to look, feel and perform great on that big day. No big event in your future? Create your own event! You can create an event by planning an outing when you achieve your goal. You can make your diet and exercise program a competition with friends with “testing dates” which would be events to prepare for. Whatever it is, the more of a “BIG EVENT” you make it, the more likely you are to stay committed!
- Surround yourself with believers – Surround yourself with friends who SUPPORT what you are doing. Surround yourself with people who will push you and encourage you not with people who complain and skip workouts. Getting the people around you in favor of what you are doing will make it so much easier! That doesn’t mean your spouse has to do your diet, it just means he/she has to support you! Support means you won’t give in to temptation. When you feel down, you will have someone to pep you up!
- No more “Nos” – Start paying attention to how many times a day you say no to yourself. Then start stopping yourself when you are about to tell yourself “no.” When you realize you are about to say “no,” stop your thought and say “yes.” Yes you can. Yes you will. Yes you have the strength/self-control/WHATEVER. You CAN do it!
- Be the tortoise – Don’t expect perfection. You don’t have to go cold turkey and zoom ahead like the hare. Slow steady changes will make the difference in the long run! If you want to create a lifestyle that you will stick to in the long run, you need to take your time. Small swaps, little changes will turn your new diet and exercise program into a habit! If you create a plan, plan in times to indulge and enjoy. Don’t seek PERFECTION!
- Visualize! – So I’m not telling you to close your eyes and visualize your body looking splendid and you jumping and running through the fields happily. Visualization can be a lot of different things. For me visualization means looking at my lifting numbers and trying to match my best or beat it. For me visualization means posting pictures of myself where I look my best and trying to make sure I stay there. For me visualization isn’t imagination – it is putting something solid in front of you that you WILL attain. It is putting a picture in front of you of a woman who is the weight you want to be. It is putting the lifting numbers of a woman you want to beat in front of you. You aren’t picking out outrageous things, but things that tangibly represent your goals! It is showing yourself your goal in solid terms!
- Post, share and make your goal be known – Post your goals on the fridge, on your computer, by your bed, wherever you can see them each and every day! Share your goals with friends and family. Create a blog. Make a Facebook page. Do whatever, but make your goals be known! You are way more likely to retain self-control and stay positive when you know that you won’t only be letting yourself down but the others who know about your goal if you quit!
- Breath and refocus – That downward spiral of negativity can ruin a day. It can ruin a week…Heck it can ruin years! So what do you do? You have a negative thought. You cheat on your diet. You skip your workout. Stop, breath and refocus! Sometimes when I get into a downward spiral I mentally tell myself to “STOP”…or “shut up” depending on my thoughts. One slip up doesn’t ruin anything. It doesn’t excuse the slip up but it doesn’t ruin anything. What RUINS your diet or exercise routine is if you let that one incident spiral out of control. Remember, if you have a negative thought or a slip up, just stop breath and refocus! The key is to implement something that stops the negativity in its tracks!
- Start acting the part – Thoughts create actions, but actions can also create thoughts. If you start acting the way you want to be, you will start thinking of yourself in that way, which in turn will mean you act the part. Sometimes the best way to become what you want to be is to play a part. Make a list of 10 things a person like the person you want to be would do and then do those 10 things…Not once, but every day!
WHY!?!
So before the weekend I wrote a post about you PUSHING YOURSELF – about you MOTIVATING yourself.
I wrote that you need to motivate yourself if you really want to get the most out of any workout that you do. I wrote that you don’t need fancy moves or to do things at break-neck speed to have a great workout.
But I didn’t get into HOW you motivate yourself.
Then this weekend I attend a Training for Warriors certification course, which was absolutely amazing. (I’ve honestly never enjoyed a seminar so much! Anyway, more about the course later…)
But one thing I really want to discuss now after my post last week is what Martin Rooney said about motivating yourself….He said you have to have a big enough “WHY.”
Saw this on the Innovative Results facebook page and just had to steal it! 🙂
When you have a big enough reason as to WHY you should do something, you will do it.
So if you have a big enough reason WHY you should push yourself during a workout or WHY you should eat well, you are going to do it.
Which honestly makes perfect sense. Saying you want to be healthy or be in shape isn’t a clear WHY. There also is no TIMELINE in which you want to accomplish the goal so why work hard right now?
But a wedding or a competition or any other BIG EVENT is a great motivator because it does give you a reason, a WHY, you should be committed and work hard right now.
So then the question arises of, “How do you motivate yourself when there is no big event, BUT you still need to eat well and workout because you logically know it is the right thing to do and you want to live a long healthy life.”
How do you get that sense of urgency that a big event creates when realistically you are just trying to make healthy habits a way of life?
You create that big event. You don’t allow yourself to slack off and put things off. You set immediate and pressing goals that force you to get started!
They don’t have to be huge daunting goals they just have to be something that you can measure that have some sort of reward or consequence.
I know I definitely am more committed and focused when I have a “big” event. When I wanted to hit those VersaClimber mile-markers, I did everything I could to reach that goal. I stayed focused on working hard each and every workout. I made sure to do the proper recovery in between. I made sure to get enough sleep and to eat well EVEN when it meant not binging on Thanksgiving.
I had a big enough WHY. I didn’t just want to hit the mile-markers…I also wanted to be the first woman to do it at our gym, which meant that I couldn’t wait – I needed to start training and do it NOW.
I had a sense of urgency which made my reason for working out even more important – it gave me a big WHY that wouldn’t let me put off training and made me give everything I had each and every day.
So even if you don’t have a big event coming up, create one. Give yourself a real reason to do all the things you want or know you should do, but haven’t done.
Create “tests” at the end of each month to monitor your progress. Have weigh ins. Have performance evaluations. See if you can do better each and every time.
Heck maybe even add in a little competition. I know that when I’m competing against other people I definitely push harder!
Take a second and really hammer in WHY you should achieve some of the things you’ve been slacking on…like eating well or working out. You may just then get the results that you’ve always wanted!
Man Bicep 