A gal asked me about some tips recently, some ideas on what she could do to get in shape. I appreciate the compliments she gave me and truly want to help people get where they are trying to go. I started this page and website just for those reasons, to share out what I’ve learned and pass on the motivation to those around me.
If it’s your goal, you can revamp your physique *at any age*. You are never too old or too young for improvements! Overall, please know that it is a package deal. It’s not just about what is done in the gym. It is a process, a very slow process. But if you are willing to go “all in”, then your results will be “all out” as the payback for your investment.
Our current systems produce our current results. Our habits in our sleep, eating and time management ways do impact us greatly. If we are simply trying to “lose weight” but are not changing our systems, nothing long term is going to change on our bodies. Simply put, if we want a new product, we must adapt new methods. We might be able to make the scale move for a time, but if we don’t change our habits, we will come right back to where we started AND if our new ways are not sustainable long term, we may put ourselves in an even harder spot than where we started. The bottom line: You can’t keep your same habits and expect to look like someone else. Your same habits are going to produce the same you!
When I was in my “I will worry about my fitness later” stage, I used to buy bags of peanut butter M&Ms. I would keep them in the pencil drawer and every afternoon, like clockwork, I would get bored or tired and found myself making my mindless grabs, usually three handfuls each afternoon to supply my fix. A few months into that habit, I noticed myself in a picture and knew something had to change. It was not me I saw in that picture! I looked into what I was doing daily and caught myself in the M&M habit. Doing the math, but some 400 calories and some unknown amounts of fat and sugar later, this {not-so} innocent daily habit had caught up with me. On a weekly basis, that is 2800 extra calories and on a monthly basis, that is 11, 200 extra calories that had really put the weight on me and slowed my system down in more ways than one.
Am I saying M&Ms are bad? No! Are M&Ms a poor choice everyday without accountability or boundaries? To my goals and physique, the answer is and was YES! Ownership of that habit and mindless action HAD TO GO! And when they did, better results were soon to follow! Better yet, I had to acknowledge my why, that I was bored or frustrated with something going on in my life at the time and that I likely had a sugar addiction and those were the issues I had to get under control. Simply calling “M&Ms bad” and putting myself on restriction from them was not the resolve. It was the why of the habit tied to it that I had to address and undo before any progress could be made.
So how do we change? First off, we have to be willing to change mentally. Until that happens, nothing will change. Secondly, we must be aware of what we currently do on a daily basis. Keep a journal and be honest with yourself. This is just to gain awareness of what you do with your time and choices day in and day out. Take a few weeks, grab a notebook and take notes on what happens in your day. Track your sleep, food intake, soft drinks, water intake, fast food frequency, workouts, alcohol, TV, Internet, phone, shopping, spending, excuses, your self talk, your self improvement, hours on the job, your moment of worship or devotion, time with family and friends….basically whatever you do that impacts you (ahem, that’s everything!). Just be aware of what you do because we are a package deal producing a product…..it’s all tied together!
We can’t change what we don’t acknowledge, so awareness of yourself is your greatest tool to change. Once you see what you do daily, then you can see what needs to rework, what seems to be out of balance in your life. This process won’t happen overnight. I’ve been on this journey for four years and I’m no where near finished! But it’s been four amazing years of getting to know me, what does and does not work for my body and what I can do to be a better me inside and out. Honesty with myself was my best gift yet!
Overall, this is not about a sprint, it’s not about being discontent with yourself and it’s definitely not about being a smaller number on the scale. It’s about adopting a new lifestyle that allows us to be who we were created to be. It’s about letting go of the little habits {like my peanut butter M&Ms!} and ways in our lives that hold us to low places and about making changes to those so we can grasp the big life that’s planned for us. It’s about being the healthiest, happiest you inside and out so you can fully embrace the purpose that God’s created for you. And when we take a deep hard look at the little details that we choose to do on a daily basis, there we find our way to a life full of many new layers that offers us back more than we can ever imagine!