Gut Check...Literally

Happy Monday! I'm celebrating my last summer Monday to sleep in and enjoy myself by waking up at 6am and cooking lunches for school :-/  I suppose it's better to get in the habit now then having that rude awakening Thursday morning!

I finally stepped on the scale yesterday.  It was as bad as I expected.  I know it's not all about numbers it's not really about looks, but my feeling very much matches the scale.  I don't have as much energy as I used to and my confidence is a bit shot.  This is my literal 'gut check'.  It's really easy to go down a negative path here, but I'm going to look on the bright side and use this as an opportunity for self reflection (I think I blogged about that a bit last time).  Life is a learning experience, if you let it be.  You can either be defeated by your mistakes, or learn and grow from them.  A friend of mine got me into the "Art of Charm: Confidence/Relationship&Dating Advice/Biohacking/Productivity" podcasts.  They are primarily directed towards men, but I think that a lot of them are applicable to both men and women.  I was listening to their episode on "How to Get Over a Break Up" (not directly related I know) and this quote really stuck with me.  It can apply to so many different areas of our lives and help with mental and physical health and growth.

"Start putting together pieces that you may be able to take responsibility for that you want to change and start working on those moving forward.  Because, if you're going  to be a different person, guess what? You're going to have to do things differently and you're going to have to create new habits  that are going to lead you into being the new person you want to be moving forward.  Use it as a learning experience.  We're not all perfect and the older you get the more stuff you take responsibility for, the better you're going to be feeling about moving towards the future...adopt the mindset that this is a learning experience"

(Sorry Aunt Bun, my loyal reader and grammar police.  I know that's a run on like many of my sentences are)  I would argue to say NO ONE is perfect, but that doesn't take away from the power of that statement.  So here I go...creating new habits.  Today's habit being--FOOD PREP!!! 10 chicken breasts at bagged up and in the freezer waiting to be my lunch.  It's hard when you wake up at 5:30am and get home about 7pm in the evening to be prepared to make healthy choices.  It's especially hard when there are no good choices at or around your work and I tend to make poor choices anyway when I'm rushed.  I really hope I can keep this up!  Maybe try some new recipes to share with you all?  Another habit I'm going to try to start is reading more, not just about health and healthy habits, but keeping up with current events and reading more for enjoyment.  If I find any good health ones...I'll post them here!

That's all for today.  I've been a bit long winded lately! Thanks for sticking through the end...or skipping to the end ;)

Stray strong!  I know I'm trying to! 

Embracing the Pain

It's been over a year since my last post.  I had sort of been stagnant and hadn't had anything exciting or interesting to report.  I forgot the whole meaning behind myself doing this blog.  It's a journey through the exciting, boring, easy, and difficult times.

I started this blog two years ago, but in some ways I feel back where I started.  I've slipped  back into some bad routines, but this is my wake up call.  When people would compliment me on my weight loss, I used to say "Thank you, I've been working hard".  I can't necessarily say the same thing now.

When I first started CrossFit and this blog it was a form of therapy for me, means to embrace the struggles I was facing at the time.  I have always struggled with health, body image, confidence, direction, and attitude...just to name a few.  I learned so much in that first year and embraced it all.  Now that I've found myself back in a rut, it's time to look back and reflect on some of those lessons I've learned and use them for the motivation I need now.

I'll put them in list form, because I like lists!

1. Hard work pays off.  Not only does it pay off physically, but it pays off emotionally.  It is rewarding to achieve something you have worked so hard for.  It's a way to put your stamp on the day.  Some days it's going to be hard to work hard, and that's ok.

2. Learn from your mistakes.  Sometimes you have to mess up to realize how to fix what's wrong.  This one has really resonated with me recently.  Not only relating to my growth in health and fitness, but in my growth to be an overall better person.  Boy do I ever make a lot of mistakes! This is the essence of what my career revolves around.  I have kids answer questions or say certain sounds.  I let them try it their way first and then work through the problem.  That has always been my philosophy on what works best for them, and now it's my time to learn that skill.  I think this blog will really help me to reflect on where I went wrong and how to fix it.  My goal for this blog is to write about growing towards better overall health, but I think a huge component of that is mental and will help me become the best version of myself mind AND body.  Embrace the pain (I'm not talking injuries).  To quote Batman (cheesy I know...but it was on the other day) "Why do we fall down?  So we can learn to pick ourselves up!"

3. Stop making excuses and stop feeling sorry for yourself!  For solutions to this see #1 and #2.  This one has always been big with me, but has changed some over the years.  I used to think I was so far gone I couldn't be helped, it was too late to start, I can't do that, and if I complain about it maybe it will change.  Lately it been more...well I work so hard I should be able to_(full in indulgence or mistake)___.  I'm not saying never indulge or that mistakes won't happen, but it's a thin line before you let things get out of hand.  For me, it was with the food.  I used to be a clean eating machine.  It started off with a cheat meal here and there...and that didn't seem to make a difference...then it became lots of cheat meals...that didn't seem to make a difference....then it became eating out a lot...then BOOM...it hits and you're back to where you started! It happens little by little and sneaks up on you.  Nutrition really is key! You can't (or at least I can't) workout really hard and think it will cancel out the junk you put in your body.  I'm currently in the process of finding out what works best for me.  Being thrown into CrossFit and paleo at the same time, I dropped weight pretty quickly, but it didn't seem to be able to be extremely sustainable for me, so I'm looking for something similar and a better strategy to eat what kinds of foods when.

4.  The excitement will fade.  I think when you start anything new it's so easy to dive in head first.  When I started CrossFit, I was there 5 days straight a week and sometimes even 6!  I got the shoes, weight belt, wrist wraps, more workout clothes than regular clothes.  I was in it to win it!  There comes to be a point where it is no longer novel.  I kind of look at it like a relationship.  The "first date" butterflies are gone.  We are two years in and now we are into the hard stuff.  I still love it!


I'm sure I've learned a lot of other valuable lessons in these last two years.  Bare with me as I look back and try to learn to move forward!

Stay strong...I know I'll try!