Posts Tagged ‘goal’

Wednesday Wellness: Making life happen

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This past weekend I was riding my road bike with a couple of friends, going up a few pretty good hills, and one of my friends remarked, “why is it the ride up a hill seems to take forever, but the ride back down only takes a moment?”

I started thinking that this is a metaphor for many things in our lives. How often do we tackle a “hill” (problem, challenge, goal) and in our work to get to the top, we scratch and crawl our way up, only to zoom down. Do we take the time to hang out at the top and savor the moment? When cruising down, do we rush to get to the next hill, or do we take our time and notice what is around us, feeling how good the hard work of climbing feels?

Now that we are all working to achieve our New Year’s goals, intentions, or resolutions; consider savoring the “ride” up; the adrenaline in our bodies or the mental focus of our attention. After you achieve your intention, take the time to truly acknowledge what you have accomplished, and then enjoy the thrill of knowing, hill by hill, that you are making your life happen.


Wednesday Wellness: Stop the Hours of Guilty Nonsense

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I wrote this tip over a year ago, but this theme has been coming up over and over for the last couple of weeks, so I wanted to revive it and pass it along in case you are struggling with “getting going” and “keeping your momentum.”

How many times have you wanted to begin a fitness regiment or a weight loss program, but thought it was too hard? When training new clients, I’ve noticed an interesting phenomenon I want to share with you.

When a new client wants to begin a fitness program, we might challenge them to walk just 20 minutes on their own. It sounds easy when the commitment is made, but when the day arrives and they haven’t scheduled the 20 minutes of walking into their schedule, somehow that 20 minutes seems impossible and not easy, so it doesn’t happen. What evolves afterwards is the interesting part. The client then goes into a guilty spin of “why didn’t I do it” mentality and then they end up wasting precious hours beating themselves up about it!

Another example is getting on a healthy nutritional program. Maybe the challenge is to go 3 days without having desserts. Well, day 2 happens and that cookie just was too tempting…then the next 2 days are spent beating themselves up again!

The energy spent on feeling bad completely outweighs the actual moment of following through with the commitment, yet somehow we connect more with feeling guilty than trying something new. Why is it we are comfortable in negative feelings? Interesting, isn’t it?!

So my thought for you today is to commit to something which, in the moment, might feel a bit uncomfortable because it’s different, but know that the ripple effect of this new habit won’t waste hours of guilty nonsense. Instead establish a comfort zone over time creating lifelong healthy living and a positive mindset!

As I heard one of my trainers say this morning…saying NO to a temping food is so much easier than actually burning it off through exercise!


Wednesday Wellness: Reach Beyond the Known

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Last Sunday I had the incredible opportunity to ride around Lake Tahoe with a group of some of the most extraordinary people I’ve ever ridden with.  
 

We began this journey together last January and rode together every Saturday to get ourselves in shape as a team in order to ride in Tahoe. Our aim was to ride at altitude without struggling, but most importantly our end goal was to enjoy ourselves above anything else. 
 

Why did we choose Tahoe? Actually, our group instigator, as we’ll call him, had his own private goal to kick a debilitating fear which appeared a couple of years ago. He had a massive heart attack, nearly died and upon his survival realized a few things in his life needed to change. He knew if he could recondition his heart to ride at 7,000 feet without incident, he will have conquered his inner fear as well as reaching an overall new fitness level. During the journey, however, what also occurred was a change in nearly all the other rider’s health, mind set, focus, determination, nutrition and strength.  
 

You see, what I realized in observing this group is every one of us has a fear we want to overcome. Each one of us has many! Each one of us mentally stop ourselves from conquering our fears, but when that special person comes along to give us a word of encouragement or, better yet, show us what we can do beyond our own beliefs, we begin to expand our own boundaries. We reach a little further, we stop stopping ourselves and we start inspiring others to reach beyond their limits.
 

Over the last 6 months we have witnessed a change in all of us, knowing we can do more than what we thought was conceivable. The vibration of this mindset starts to spread like wild fire.
 

During the ride last Sunday, there were riders of all ages, sizes and fitness levels. There were even a few on unicycles (now that’s a feat)! Everyone has a different story and purpose, everyone was inspired by something different, but with the miracles I witnessed in the months before the ride, during the ride and especially after the ride, I am left with a feeling that not only has inspired me to continue on my healthy path, but has stirred the motivation in a new group to reach beyond their health and fitness levels.
 

Thank you to those who were and are courageous by reaching beyond the known.


What is the difference between being motivated and being committed?

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For the last several years, I have been asking our clients this question in relation to their nutrition, health and fitnessgoals.  I’ve received a huge variety of answers.  What I realized, is there is no “right” answer to this; but straight across the board, each person realized there is a distinct difference.   How many times have you been motivated to quit drinking coffee, or get on a walking or training program?  Think about that fire that lights you up and makes you switch to green tea and gets you out of bed in the morning in order to make it to Wednesday’s boot camp. 

Somewhere, somehow, after a couple days, Peet’s coffee starts calling your name and the excuses start coming in to play of why you can’t make your next workout.  Something happens between the moment of motivation and the dedication (or decline) of commitment!

Take some time and think about your next goal (or maybe the same one you’ve been reigniting over and over).  Think about what motivated you to start and why you haven’t stayed committed. 

Then think about what goal you stayed committed to and recognize what the difference is or was. 

 This is a powerful realization because it can take you from staying in that state of wanting to actually doing.