Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! There is so much to be grateful for, and we can find so much happiness when we choose to focus on our blessings.

Yesterday my family and I went to a running path near our home and did our own little family 5k walk/run. We had so much fun! My 7-year-old daughter ended up alone with me while the other kids ran (or were pushed in the stroller) ahead with Dad. My daughter was giddy that she suddenly got some unexpected alone time with Mommy. The two of us had a great time exploring new paths, looking for bats, and trying not to scare the birds in the nearby trees. We really enjoyed just being spontaneous and laughing together. I love being a mom! That is definitely at the top of my list when I feel the need to start counting my blessings.

2012 Holiday Challenge Time!

With Thanksgiving only a day away, the time has come to set some goals to help you make it through the next 6 weeks in good shape physically and emotionally. Now don't get carried away with this idea. Making a goal to lose 10 lbs. this season might not be a great goal if you have historically gained 10 lbs. over the holidays. But making a goal to maintain your current weight might be a great goal. So choose a goal that is appropriate for wherever you are, physically and emotionally, today.

Next step: Write down HOW you are going to make that goal happen, e.g. limit the number of sweets you eat each day, make exercise a priority despite the chaos that ensues, drink more water, etc.

Third: As I mentioned in a recent blog post, visualizing yourself achieving your goal can be very powerful. So every morning, take a few minutes imagining yourself on January 2nd as having succeeded at your goal. Imagine how happy you are going to feel, how proud of yourself you will be for having achieved this goal! How do you look? How does it feel? How does it sound? Imagine yourself eating that delicious, healthy meal instead of the pumpkin pie leftovers and how good the healthy food tastes to you. Really get into the visualization!

Add to that a little moral support and some tracking of your goal progress, and voila! Successful goal setting at it's finest! Okay, so maybe it's not quite that easy. But this can be a recipe for success if you don't let yourself get psyched out by it. Short-term goals are definitely the way to go when you're just starting out, so take this opportunity to start next year's resolution-setting off on the right foot before next year even starts!

Consistency is Key

Have you ever had the experience where you get super excited about something--a big project or a weight loss plan or a race you're training for--and you go for it with full force at first? But then, when you don't immediately see the results you were hoping for, you kind of fizzle and lose momentum, sometimes giving up completely? I have gone through that exact cycle more times than I care to admit. Recently I was starting down that path with my business. I am so excited about what I do! I can't wait to share it with everybody! But the problem is not everybody wants to listen. So when my passion didn't immediately translate into people banging down my door trying to sign up for my program, it kind of took the wind out of my sails. I started making excuses for why I should back off and stop working so hard, consoling myself that this was for the best. But thankfully I received a wake-up call yesterday that helped me realize what I was about to do--give up--before I completely went down that path, and I quickly made some course corrections.

How many times have you done the same thing this year with your fitness goals? I, like so many, tend to set unrealistic expectations for myself, and then when I don't drop 10 pounds AND 10 inches in the first week, I get discouraged and start to doubt whether the program is really going to work for me. The truth is, any exercise program is better than no program at all. But they are all going to take time if they're worth anything.

So my message today is be patient! Don't give up just because it's hard. Whether it's a business, an improved way of eating, a relationship, a new exercise routine, or anything else new you might embark on, you've got to be consistent. What you do now WILL make a difference, but it will likely be weeks or even months down the road. And you know what? That's wonderful! Because by then the change will have become integrated into your life and is much more likely to remain a part of your lifestyle for the rest or your long, healthy life.

For now, put your focus on enjoying the journey, loving yourself, and keeping faith. Those changes will come. But they will come one step at a time. Gradual progress is the best kind there is.

6 Weeks Until Christmas! If You Are Prepared . . .

As I was "helping" my 3-year-old make his bed this morning and waiting a loooooong time because he had to pick up every blanket in his stuffed shark's mouth before he could hand it to me, I had time to ponder the fact that Christmas is 6 weeks from today! For a moment panic set in, but then I realized that it is too soon to panic. As long as I have a plan for how and when I'm going to do all of the Christmas shopping, deliver gifts, decorate the house, wrap presents, do Christmas cards, etc. then I will be okay and there will be no need to panic.

The same thing goes for avoiding the typical holiday weight gain. If you want to be successful about keeping off those 7 to 10 lbs. that people typically pack on during the holidays, you just need to be prepared. Make a plan for how you are going to navigate the holidays. For example, plan to eat a small, healthy meal before going to a Christmas party; plan to drink an entire cup of water before digging into the treats; limit yourself to just one serving, or if you want to try everything, just one bite of each; and make sure that you are still making time for exercise! Your techniques may be different than these (although I don't recommend the binge-and-purge method), but as long as they work for you and you are prepared with a whole tool belt of options to help you, you will be successful! I don't recommend trying to cut the sweets out completely because that will likely cause you to feel deprived, which will eventually invite a major binging session. Not good. Believe me. I've tried it.

Now, Forward March! We WILL win the battle against holiday treats! And we will start the new year feeling better than ever!

Exercise for the Brain

As I was literally spoon-feeding my 3-year-old son his breakfast this morning, as I do with at least a portion of every meal of every day, I once again found myself fast-forwarding 15 years and imagining myself feeding my 18-year-old his breakfast before he drives off to school or work for the day. I wondered if his wife will be willing to keep feeding him his meals when she takes on the responsibilities of being married to him. Should we include that in the marriage contract? Now, this is not meant to elicit comments about my bad parenting. I actually want to talk about this habit that I would guess many of us have of projecting ourselves into the future. While this is not necessarily a good thing when I am seeing my 9-year-old as a juvenile delinquent 7 years down the road because he runs off to play with friends instead of doing his chores today, or my 7-year-old flunking out of school and not being able to keep a job because she forgets to turn in a homework assignment, I do think it can have its uses if we choose to change the vision.

Our minds have so much power, more than we realize. If we will take that ability to project into the future and just change the picture a little, it becomes a very powerful mental exercise. If, for example, you lack motivation to do physical exercise at all, start envisioning yourself as someone who likes to exercise and who looks forward to getting up and doing something active every day. The more you visualize the future you want to create, the more you will lock that into your subconscious and get the wheels in your head moving so that that vision can start to be created. Most of what we do every day is controlled by our subconscious thoughts, so if we can just lock those more positive thoughts into our subconscious mind, the things we do when we are on auto-pilot will more likely be things that help us reach our goals. And in our conscious mind, visualizing what we want our future to look like will keep us motivated to keep working toward our goal. 

So take 10 minutes today and try it. Visualize something that you would like to see in your life, whether it’s a healthier body, a better job, an intimate relationship, etc. and paint a picture in your mind of just how it will look. How do you feel? What are you doing as a result of this change? Where do you see yourself? What are the sights, sounds, and smells, surrounding you? The more detail you put in, the more you will be able to lock it in. Take a few minutes to do this every day, and see how your life starts to change. You may surprise yourself!