Ready to quit your weight loss/fitness program? Don't!!

What is your response when you venture away from your health & fitness program?  What do you do when you "blow it" for a meal, for a day, for the better part of a week? 

So many people just give up. They "blow it" once and figure there's no hope and back to the old eating habits they go and/or the exercise is thrown out the window.  And in the middle of all that they beat themselves up so badly - you know... the negative mental chatter.  Does this sound familiar?

As of last Monday I have discarded 17 1/2 pounds and dropped my body fat percent by 3%.  I am pleased as punch.  However, last week was a bad week in terms of my program.  I wasn't able to stay on target with my healthy eating habits nor was I able to keep up with my regular exercising.

So what do I do?  Do I give up after 12 weeks of great progress?  If a friend came to you seeking support and advice what would you tell her?  Would you tell her what a loser she is and she's never going to make it so she might as well give up now?  No way!  That's ridiculous, right?  So why in the world would we ever talk to ourselves like that??

So this is what I'm going to do...

1.  Stop the victim thoughts AND feelings!  Those thoughts and feelings will only cause me to spiral downward.  That is not my goal.  My goal is life-long eating and exercise habits no matter what the scale says.  And even more than that my goal is to love myself.

2.  Forgive myself and let it go.  Yes, forgive myself for not staying on track, caving, and/or for not planning better.  A simple "I'm sorry" and it's done.  It's behind me so that now I can move forward.

3.  Regroup/refocus.  I need to revisit my short and long term health and fitness goals ... AND my core values that are connected to those goals.  In other words I need to revisit my why.  Make it stronger if I need to.

4.  Tweak/change up my plan.  Let's face it.  Doing the same thing day in and day out week after week gets boring.  I'm a girl who needs variety.  Variety is the spice of life in my world.  Changing things up gives me a since of newness, excitement, and renewed motivation.

That's it.  Those four simple steps is all I need to do to get back on track.  That's all any of us need to do.  And the truth is sometimes we don't even need all four.  

So go for it!  Go for the gold!  Keep your eye on your prize!  You can do it... I know you can!  Your worth it ... and I believe in you!!!

B-E-A -utiful is mine - what's yours?

Ever heard of core values?  As one of my mentors, Jon Benson, taught me core values are the things in our lives that we live for and things we die for.  They are what makes us us and things we can't live without.  Core values are what makes us tick, move, groove, fail, succeed.  They are the why behind all of our reasons.  Some examples are:

God/faith family security

love beauty creativity

joy peace serve/service

wealth order freedom

Just to name a few.  The more we know and understand our core values and live by them, the more fulfilled we live.  And sometimes when we're faced with a big goal and/or task it is imperative that we link our core value to the project.  Otherwise when the tough gets going we will have a tendency to give up.  We need to know our why - even - the why behind the why.

One of my core values is beauty.  I have learned the importance of having and creating beauty in my life.  Without it life becomes blah and I can become depressed.  Beauty motivates me, inspires me.  It can certainly make me move and groove.  Something beautiful can instantly bring me to tears as it touches my spirit that inner part that makes me me.  

I never used to be a tea drinker.  Why do I bring that up?  Because years ago I discovered the beauty of drinking tea.  There's a real art behind tea time and tea parties ... and oh my gosh how I love that art.  Recently I have been involving myself in such activities and I've been snapping pictures to capture the beauty of it all.  The proof is on my Facebook, my hospitality blog, and now on this blog. 

Why?  Because the act of tea time is so beautiful to me.  It nurtures my soul and brings me incredible joy.  What do you have in your life that feeds your soul, your spirit?  

Taking this a step further, when sharing the experience of tea time with others it becomes an act of kindness, an act of service, which is another core value of mine.  A person doesn't have to like tea to be nurtured by the whole experience.  And don't think for a minute that the guys don't enjoy it because they do even if they don't want to admit it. =)  

If you haven't done something that feeds and nurtures your soul for a while and/or if you're finding yourself  in a state of low energy maybe even depressed, pick a core value that's important to you and act on it.  Have fun with it.  And if you want to do something but don't know what?  Just pick something and become playful like a child.  I promise that your spirit will soar - it will leap with joy!

"Playfulness feeds the spirit and soul allowing for awesome moments of inspiration."