We are a little more than a week away from May 1st. The unofficial kick off to summer, Memorial Day weekend is six weeks away. My birthday is five weeks away, but I digress! Are you where you want to be in your health and fitness goals? I know I am NOT and starting today, that is going to change.
First, I want to make it clear, I am talking more than just weight loss. I am talking about going into the summer feeling our best, physically and mentally. This means fueling our bodies with the proper food, moving our bodies daily, taking time for self-care, sleep, and surrounding ourselves with positive, uplifting people.
At the beginning of the year, I committed to all of the above. Except for running, I have not kept up with the rest, and I can feel it. I have let my strength training slide, my eating habits have been less than stellar, and I lack sleep. I am not feeling comfortable in my own skin. I do not want to head into summer feeling this way. With my training season in full swing, I need to implement some changes. I am putting this out in the universe for two reasons, one to keep me accountable and two, to see if I can entice you to join me!
In looking over the last couple of months, I have concluded there are two reasons I have let my health and fitness goals slide, discipline and not being an active participant in my online accountability group. Accountability groups are key. Here are five reasons why accountability groups work.
- The group is always available. The group is right there, on Facebook, just a click away. If you have a question, facing a struggle, or just want to clelebrate a milestone, simply clikc on the group and tell them about it. Chances are, there is someone on the other end of their phone waiting to respond.
- Third Party accountability. It is a LOT harder NOT to follow through with your goals after you have declared them in a group.
- Learn from each other. Each of us bring something new to the group. As we share share our tips on nutrition and fitness, we learn and grow in our journey to come healthy.
- Positivity. There is no room for drama in these groups. We spend time building each other up, not tearing each other down. Need I say more?
- Like minded women working toward similar goals tend to shine. I have seen it over and over again.
As you can see, there are some great benefits to belonging to an accountability group. It is time I stop the talk and walk the walk. I have been just going through the motions, and that needs to stop. I learned a long time ago, I can’t, nor do I want to do this alone. On April 29th, I am starting up an accountability group on Facebook. It is a free, private, judgment-free group. We will share our goals, struggles, our daily food and fitness logs, exchange recipes and more. The goal is to be an active participant in the group; however, if you are not entirely ready to commit, you can be added and check it out. With summer coming, I want to be as healthy, mentally and physically as I can be. I would love for you to join me. Comment below or send me a message at lifeatmyownpace@yahoo.com. Let’s do this together!
In my last post, I discussed the benefits of journaling. Journaling helps keep me on course with my goals. Another tool I use to keep my dreams alive is a vision or dream board. According to Wikipedia, “A dream board or vision board is a collage of images, pictures, and affirmations of one’s dreams and desires, designed to serve as a source of inspiration and motivation and to use the law of attraction to attain goals. ”
Now, how do you make a vision board? In the past, I have taken a cork board or poster board and put my goals and vision on that. More recently, I have chosen to create one using an app on my phone. I like this idea, as I can make it my screen saver on my phone or computer. I can pull it up anytime, anywhere. Let’s face it, most of us spend more time looking at our phones and computers than we do a wall. Whichever, one you chose, make sure it is what will work for you.
Creating a Vision Board on a Bulletin Board
Supplies Needed:
Bulletin/cork board or a piece of poster board scissors, colored pens or markers, glue stick, stickers, and other fun embellishments if you want to get real fancy.
Magazines, photos, pictures, and quotes taken from the internet. These should be items that reflect your goals, fill you with excitement and serve as a daily reminder of what you are working toward.
Once you have everything you need, start putting it together. There is no right or wrong way to do this. Place the pieces down in any order you like and have fun dreaming big!
Creating a Vision Board on an App
I prefer to do my vision board using an app. There are several free ones on the market. The one I use is called Hay House. I downloaded it from the app store on my phone. I like being able to access it at any time. The app is self-explanatory. You can add photos, quotes, affirmations, text, change the background, etc. Once you create an account, you may share your board across the social media platforms.
Now it is your turn! I would love to see my Facebook page flooded with vision/dream boards. Not comfortable sharing them publically? If I get enough interested people, I would be happy to start a private Facebook page where we can share our boards, support and encourage each other to reach our goals. Leave me a comment here or a message on my Facebook page.
Happy Dreaming!
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Did you keep a diary when you were a kid? I never did and looking back, I wish I had. Writing down our thoughts, dreams, and struggles is therapeutic. A couple of years ago, I received a journal as a gift. Each page contained a writing prompt. For example, 20 things that make you smile or write a letter to your future or past self. I enjoyed going through the journal and writing on a different topic. Once my journal was full, I simply took a pretty notebook and each morning jotted down some thoughts. It has been a habit for well over a year. Perhaps you have thought about keeping a journal, but not sure what you would get out of it. Here are 5 reasons why it is beneficial to journal.
- Great way to start the day. Each morning take 5 mins and write down how you want your day to go. Write it as if it has already happened. For example: I woke up early and exercised for 30 mins. I made my to-do list for the day and checked off everything I accomplished yesterday. I went into the office and got through all my e-mail, successfully set up my meetings for next week, and finished making edits to three agreements in my inbox. As you can see, I laid out how I wanted my day to go. By jotting this down, it is in my head and sets my mindset for the day. I am set up for a productive day.
- Promotes healing. We all have tragedy in our lives. We all have relationships that have gone bad. By writing down your feelings and thoughts about these events, it can start the healing process. It’s not healthy to keep everything bottled up inside, but many of us are not comfortable speaking to someone about our feelings. This makes a great alternative.
- It helps connect us to our goals and dreams. Do you have a big, scary goal or dream? I do. Actually, I have a couple. One of which is to own a beach house on the North Carolina coast. I have a series of goals to reach in order to achieve this dream. From time to time, I may sway from these goals. In doing so, I am moving further away from achieving my dream. When I journal about, it brings me back to my goals and reinforces my why. I write the entry as if I am already there, owning my beach house. I describe what it looks like, how I feel, who is visiting me, what a typical day on the beach is like. What time do I get up? What is my morning routine? What is my evening routine? Get real descriptive with your writing. The more you can envision this, the harder you will work to stay on course with your goals.
- Use it as a brain dump. A brain dump is when you take all of your thoughts and put them down on paper. It is everything. It is feelings, emotions, questions, worries and things that you need to do. By putting it all on paper, you are organizing these thoughts outside of your brain. It allows you to take a look at everything and become more organized. Once it is down on paper, you can go back and organize these things into buckets or categories. This may include, work, family, exercise, meal planning, paying bills, school events, self care, friends, etc. Once you have gone through and made different categories, you can use this as a reference as you cross the items off your list. I don’t do this every week, more like once a month, but it works!
- Self reflection. Journal about how your day or week went. Take a moment to reflect on what went right or what was a struggle. It is important to acknowledge the highs and the lows. It is how we grow as a person.
I hope these tips have been helpful. I would love to hear about your experience with journaling. If you have never journaled before, but would like to start, I am offering to all new subscribers to this blog a FREE PDF checklist of journaling prompts. IN ADDITION, for every 25 subscribers, I will be giving away a journal. Please share with your friends and lets journal together.
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Hi y’all, it is finally SPRING!!! Can you believe it? The weather here is still a bit wonky, but we are getting there. So today I am doing my monthly goal check in. As I mentioned, by me sharing my goals with my readers, it holds me more accountable. I also strive to help motivate you to make some goals, write them down and smash the hell out of them.
My March goals were as follows:
- Organize the kitchen cabinets – Yes
- Organize the linen closet- No
- Run 65 miles- CRUSHED IT- ran 78 miles
- Become certified in a second nutrition program- Ultimate Portion Fix- Halfway there
- Implement a morning routine- Yes
- Read one personal development book and one book for pleasure- Yes
- Grow my blog audience- Yes
So as you can see, this month was a mixed bag. Since I have quite a few races coming up, the miles had to take priority and they did. My kitchen cabinets were driving me nuts, so that had to happen. The linen closet, not so much. Perhaps this will happen on the next rainy day. I was putting most of my free time into this blog, so the certification in my new nutrition plan fell by the wayside. That is okay. I plan on diving head first into it, once I am back from Disney. I did implement a morning routine, but it is not the one I set out to do. Starting next week, my commute is shorter, so I will have more time to get things done without having to get up at 4:00am! As far as reading, I finished the book Girl, Stop Apologizing by Rachel Hollis. If you are looking for great goal setting book, I highly recommend. Rachel is funny and has some great advice, tips and tough love when you need it. For pleasure, I read Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter. If you like mystery, murder books, this one was good. I highly recommend all her books.
As far as my blog, I did a ton of work behind the scenes on this. I am in the middle of a travel blog course and a content creation course. I want to make sure I providing you with quality content. I did grow my blog and I want to thank all you that have shared it. Please, please continue to do so. I really appreciate it.
Now, on to a new month, with new goals. April is going to look very similar to March. I am adding a couple of things and really buckling down on my own health and fitness. I need to get back to strength training and better portion control. With that being said my April goals are:
- Finish my travel blog and content creation course. *
- Grow my blog by 20%.*
- Become certified in my new nutrition plan Ultimate Portion Fix and be a product of the product.*
- Date Night with the hubby, at least once this month.*
- Try a New Spring Adventure with the kids.*
- Organize my new office space that we are moving to.*
- Run 75 miles.*
- Strength train 4 times a week.*
- Lose 5lbs.
- Read 1 personal development book and 1 fiction book.
- Get at least 5 scrapbook layouts completed.
The list is a bit long. However, I have divided it into two. The goals with the asterixis are a MUST. The others are things to shoot for, but not going to stress over it. Notice how the weight loss does not have an asterix? I go by more how I look and how my clothes feel, than the number on the scale. That is simply a tool and does not define my journey.
I would love to hear how you did last month or what you have on your list for April. Drop me a comment below if you set goals last month and any struggles you face in accomplishing same.
Have a great Monday!
The last two weeks have been hard. Hard in the sense, I can’t get my act together when it comes to healthy, clean eating. I was doing great, down 7lbs and boom, something happened and it has been downhill since then. Well, I have to stop. I need to get back to my good, healthy habits. Not only does it help me lose weight, but more importantly, it makes me feel amazing. I have so much more energy. My running is better. I feel more confident in my clothes and myself. So, I sat down and sketched out what I need to do to reach this goal. I am going to Disney this weekend, and I would by lying if I said I was not allowing myself treats. I make this a lifestyle and not a diet. It needs to fit into my life. With that being, I still like to eat clean 85-90% of the time. In order for me to do that, I HAVE to meal prep. This is a non negotiable. If I don’t meal prep, then what has been happening the last two weeks, will continue to happen. So, off to the grocery store I went and stocked up on some things.
Now, you are probably thinking, I don’t have hours to spend in my kitchen, on a Sunday, prepping all my meals for the week. Well, neither do I, nor do I want to. I have plenty of other things I want to be doing, so here are my hacks to meal prep
- Cook batches of food, like chicken, turkey, pork or lean beef to have during the week as your protein. For example, I cooked a turkey breast in my crock pot for dinner this weekend. There was enough leftover for two meals. This, along with a bagged salad, will be my lunch for the next two days. This week, I plan on making a pork tenderloin in the crockpot. Leftovers will be used for lunch and probably one dinner. The same thing can be done with veggies or a carbohydrate. I will make a batch of butternut squash, roasted broccoli and roasted brussel spouts to have with the pork. Again, there is enough for 2-3 meals.
2. Buy your veggies and fruit already cut up and ready to go. Yes, it is more expensive, but time is money. These make great grab and go snacks. Throw in some dip or hummus and there you have a healthy snack.
3. Have the same breakfast during the week. This way you are only prepping one thing and it is ready to go. I have 2 go-to breakfast ideas I use through the month. My first is non fat Greek yogurt, with a tablespoon of chocolate hummus and a tablespoon of granola. Quick and easy to pack in my lunch bag. My second favorite requires a bit more work. I make egg cups on the weekend and portion them out for each day I will be eating them. I usually eat them for 4 days and then have yogurt on the 5th day during the week. I freeze the remaining egg cups and use within the next couple of weeks.
4. Have other convenient, yet healthy things that don’t take any time at all to cook. For example, frozen turkey burgers, chicken apple sausage, rotisserie chicken, hard boiled eggs, etc. These make great, quick meals. Add a side of frozen veggies and you are good to go.
5. If you eat out during the week, even the healthy options tend to be HUGE. Immediately ask that half of the meal be wrapped up and put in a box. Viola! You now have two meals.
6. Have meals you like and keep them in your rotation. Then it becomes second nature when planning your week ahead.
If addition to these 6 hacks, I thought I would share what my meal planning looked like for this week. This will help give you an idea on how simple, yet effective it can be.
Breakfast- Monday-Thursday: Non Fat Greek Yogurt with hummus and granola.
Lunch- Monday-Wednesday (Leave for Florida Thursday afternoon) Monday & Tuesday will be left over turkey with a bagged salad, Wednesday: left over pork tenderloin with left over veggies and whole wheat couscous.
Dinner- Monday- Flank steak and roasted broccoli. Tuesday- Pork tenderloin and roasted squash. Wednesday- Turkey burger on the grill with brussel sprouts.
I hope these hacks are helpful. I know I need all the help I can get when trying to get back on track. I have a big goal I am trying to reach in terms of my health and fitness and would love for you all to help keep me accountable.
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Welcome to this week’s Tip Thursday. Today’s tip has to do with hydration. Drinking plenty of water does more than just quench your thirst. The majority of our bodies are made up of water. It has numerous health benefits.
Drinking water
- Flushes the toxins out of our systems.
- It aids with weight loss.
- It makes our skin and hair look and feel better.
- It impacts our performance of physical activities.
- Helps with mental clarity and more.
The amount of water we should drink, varies depending on the person. Everyone, at a minimum, should aim to drink half their body weight in ounces. For example, if someone weighs 120lbs, they should drink 60oz of water. So, what if you don’t like plain water? Here are some tips to jazz up it up.
- Infuse the water with fruit, veggies or herbs. Water with cucumber and mint, is delicious.
- Try herbal tea. As long as the tea is decaffeinated, count it toward your water goal. I am a huge fan of David’s Tea.
- Seltzer Water. This is all I drink (besides coffee and Shakeology). Just make sure it has zero artificial flavors and sodium.
- Add something like Nuun to your water bottle. Nuun comes in yummy flavors and jazzes up plain water. I actually take one tablet of Nunn Immunity in the morning for about a week prior to travel. No one wants to be sick on their vacation.
So there you have it, 4 ways to turn plain water into something you look forward to each day.
Not every week, but a couple times a month, I will share with you a tip related to productivity, goals, health & fitness, travel or just life in general. We could all use more tips in our life. Today’s tip has to do with working out and scheduling in that time. I am going to share what works for me.
I am a pen to paper girl. I am not a fan of electronic calendars, scheduling apps, etc . There is nothing wrong with them, it is just not my thing. However, this tip can be incorporated into your life, whether you are put it on paper or in your phone. I am often asked how I find the time to workout. I am a full time attorney, raising two busy teenage boys, with a husband, a dog and two cats. I also run this blog as a side hustle and do online health and fitness coaching. I have a full plate. Which is why it is so important for me to schedule my workouts, like I would any other appointment. I don’t just schedule them a week in advance, I schedule them a month out. Take a look.
As you can see above, I schedule out each of my cross-training days and each of my run days. I do take into account everything else on the calendar, but didn’t want to publish my every move, so left it off for today’s purpose. As you can see, I even schedule in my rest days. You will notice, there is not a time associated with each workout. That gets put down on the daily page in my planner. For example, April 2nd is a lifting day. On the page for April 2nd, I will put next to 5:00am- Liift4. Again, you make it like any other appointment on your calendar. By doing so, you are making it a priority and more likely that not, you will not cancel on yourself. Makes sense? So there you go.. your first Tip Thursday. I hope it helps!
What do you think when you hear the word “diet”? I can tell you what I think. I think of deprivation, temporary solution, not sustainable. Diets do not work because it usually involves in depriving ourselves of food, for a certain about of time, and as soon as the weight is gone, we go back to our old ways. What happens when we do that? The weight comes back! So what if, instead of going on a diet, you make it a lifestyle? By making it a lifestyle, you are implementing behaviors that you can stick to. Here are six tips to help you do that
- First, we are more than a number on the scale. The scale is a tool that we use, with all our other tools, to see progress. How about instead of being a slave to the scale, you go by how your clothes fit? Take your measurements and redo them once a month, every six weeks, or after you complete a workout program. Finally, take progress photos. Once a month I put on the same workout clothes and take a series of photos. I compare each month and see how I am doing. This right here tells me more than a number on the scale.
- Exercise regularly. It is true, you can’t outrun the fork, however exercise is so important. Exercise increases our energy levels. It helps reduce risk of chronic diseases. It aids in weight loss. Those who exercise, sleep better and have an easier time relaxing. It helps with brain health and memory. It makes us feel like a badass ;). Another important point about exercise, find something that you like and will stick to. If you hate running, do not commit to running 4 times a week. For example, I hate cardio, but LOVE to run. My workout routines involve strength training for the most part and my weekly miles. I am not going to stick to a routine that is all cardio.
- Eat healthy, whole foods that nourish your body. Food is your body’s fuel. It is not going to run properly if you feed it crap.
- Everything in moderation. No food or food group should totally be cut out of your life. Instead of simple carbohydrates, chose complex carbohydrates. This includes high fiber, whole grain breads, pasta, oatmeal, brown rice and sweet potato. Also, when you do have a treat, like Mom’s chocolate chip cookies (I make the best!), don’t feel guilty. Having a couple of cookies is not going to derail you. If you are eating clean 80-90% of the time, you can indulge and enjoy a treat. Notice I use the word treat and not cheat. Remember, this is not a diet. Cheats only happen on a diet.
- Drink half your body weight in water. For example, if you weigh 150lbs, you should be drinking 75 ounces of water a day. If you exercise, that number should be higher. By the time we start to feel thirsty, our bodies are already dehydrated. Water will help keep you full, clear up your skin and keep your body working properly.
- Learn to listen to your body. A good example of this. Every day at 3:00pm I need a snack. Or I think I need a snack. Sometimes, it is true, I am hungry and my body is sending me signals to feed it. However, there are other days this is simply not the case, yet I go to reach for something out of habit. I am putting something in my body unnecessarily. My being in tune with myself, I can stop the unnecessary snacking.
I hope you found this to be helpful. If you are looking for some help or support implementing these changes, I run a free Facebook group. It is a place where we lift each other up, cheer each other on and share ideas. Drop me a note, I would be happy to add you.
Whoa.. . is it just me, or did February go by in a blink of an eye? Of course this brings us to March. March is not a month I particularly enjoy, but I am making the best of it. Spring should be arriving in a few weeks and hopefully, we can see the end of the tunnel as far as winter goes around here.
A new month, brings new goals (or an attempt to complete ones from the prior month) and to review what we were able to accomplish in the prior month. In February, I had some pretty lofty goals. I was a bit concerned that I overextended myself, I had a 10 day vacation thrown in there, so I really had to be focused to get my stuff done. I don’t know about you, but the older I get, the more distracted I become. Some tasks take me twice as long as they did before. I am going to have to do some research on that and get back to you. Perhaps, a great idea for a new blog post. 🙂 In any event, in February, my goals were:
- Launch blog
- Finish Transform 20
- Set up my next online health and fitness group
- Read one personal development book and one book for pleasure
- Have a stress free trip to Disney with the boys
- Run 65 miles
- Organize kitchen cabinets
- Save additional money on top of what already goes into savings
I am happy to report, I accomplished all my goals except for the kitchen cabinets. This will get moved to March. I successfully launched the blog on February 14th. Is it perfect? No. Does it have everything it needs to run smoothly? No. However, the goal was to get the content out there and work on it as I go. There is no such thing as perfection, right? Everything is a work in progress. As you can see from earlier this week, I did finish Transform 20. I had great results and despite my intial reservations, I am glad I did it. What challenges us, makes us stronger. My online health and fitness group is up and running. As a side note, I have had some questions on that. Each month I run a free three week accountability group on Facebook. It is a place to go to log a workout and healthy meal. We support each other, build each up and no drama and judgment. If interested, send me a message and I will add you to the group.
Back to goals, I read one personal development book and one book for fun. My personal development book was the Go Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann. It was an interesting little read. The other book I read was The Good Sister by Jess Ryder. It was good. There were parts where is dragged, but I would give it a 3/5 stars. I achieved my running goal of 65 miles. I ran 3 races and it was a great month for running. Speaking of running, the reason the kids and I went down to Disney was so I could participate in the Princess race weekend. My goal was to have a stress free trip with my boys and I did! It was probably the best trip we have had down there, since they were little. More about that in a blog post to come. The last goal of saving money was met as well. Not a bad month.
This brings me to March. It is a pretty long month and there are no trips planned. This gives me time to concentrate on some organization projects. So, what are my goals for March? Here we go…
- Organize the kitchen cabinets
- Organize the linen closet
- Run 65 miles
- Become certified in a second nutrition program- Ultimate Portion Fix
- Implement a morning routine
- Read one personal development and one book for pleasure.
- GROW MY BLOG AUDIENCE. -For this goal I need YOUR help! I want to reach as many people as I can. If you would be so kind to share my blog, refer friends to my site, Facebook page, IG, etc. Once I get to 100 followers, I will be doing a give a away.
Now it is your turn. What are your March goals? I can’t wait to hear.
Seven weeks ago I introduced you to this guy.
On January 14th, I started the program, Transform 20. It was 20 minutes of intense exercise, 6 days a week. It was tough. It pushed me past my limits. I was sore most days. It made running a bit difficult at the beginning. However, all that hard work has paid off.
I am down 3lbs, AND 10.5 inches. I lost 2 inches around the bust, 1 inch on each arm, 1/2 inch off the waist and 3 inches off of each leg! I did this by showing up each day, eating 80/20 and plugging into my accountability group. Tomorrow the journey continues, as I continue to train for races and keep up my strength training. I am reigning in the nutrition just a little bit more, as in a month I will be back in Disney. 😉 Never doubt yourself. Put your blinders on and just get to work. You can do it! My inbox is always open if you are looking for that accountability partner. You just have to take the first step!
Oh and that running.. just this past week, my running has become stronger and faster!
