What are your fears? Are you afraid of failure? Are you afraid of the unknown? Are you afraid of suffering or sacrifice? We ALL have our fears, our weaknesses, our skepticism's, but there is few greater feelings than that of accomplishment. Over coming those fears, conquering those weaknesses, is extremely empowering and worth every bit of sweat, blood, and/or tears that might come along with that. You need to know that you are strong enough. Repeat with me... "I AM STRONG ENOUGH." Whatever your goals may be: to lose weight, gain muscle, gain energy, live healthier, eat cleaner, run faster, run longer, lower cholesterol, strengthen heart...YOU ARE STRONG ENOUGH TO ACHIEVE YOUR GOAL. No one ever got to where they wanted to go without a little hard work, heart ache, or sacrifice. You can't take a vacation without working for the funds to travel, and moving around the schedule to make time available to travel. Thomas Edison didn't invent the light bulb on his first try (but aren't we glad he didn't quit on himself). I didn't get to where I am today with out a lot of hard work, personal heart ache, and sacrifice. Here are a couple of tips I use with my clients to get you started.
1. Remove "I can't" from your vocabulary. LIKE NOW! Then replace it with "I WILL"...You have to fully commit: the words "I will" enable that. It is 90%+ mental. But really, I can't tell you how many times my brain has started to say: "okay, Nikki, you can stop running now" or "you are too tired today" or "you could really go for a cookie right now" and I have had to use every last bit of will power I have to just keep running, or just get out of bed, or literally throw the cookies out. However bad it sucked in that moment... I do not regret it at all when I set personal records in my running, or step on the scale and drop another pound. Just remind yourself that it DOES and WILL pay off. Stay strong. Why? BECAUSE YOU ARE STRONG ENOUGH.
2. WRITE DOWN YOUR GOALS. Don't just jot it in your head, your head lies. Physically write them down. We've all heard this time and time again...I can attest to it's validity. So just do it...write it down and put it somewhere in plain sight so that you can be reminded why you are making these sacrifices. Perhaps even on the pantry or refrigerator door? Then share your goals with others, so that you are held accountable. Don't forget to give yourself a deadline, and then set new ones once those are achieved. What got my running going was actually signing up for my first race. It was done, I paid for it, it was happening whether I was prepared for it or not....I HAD to make it worth my while. As soon as I finished my first race, I registered for another and wrote down my goal finishing time for that race. AND I KILLED IT:-)
3. Create a game plan. You can't just say "I want to be rich" and expect money to be handed to you because you thought about it long enough and hard enough. Set those goals, and then write down and plan out HOW you will achieve them. Write these on a calender or set notes or alarms in your phone to go off, whatever works for you, so that you can follow through with your game plan. Set that alarm to go off 6 am Monday through Friday so you get to the gym or take that walk. Written on your calender: Monday is the day to clean out that fridge and pantry. Feel free to get specific with it too. I like to write down which muscle group I'm training on what day.
4. Make the achievement of these goals a priority. Rearrange your schedule to MAKE it work for you. Tell that sneaky little part of that mind of yours that likes to come up with all those nasty excuses that YOU AIN'T LISTENING!
5. Mentally prepare yourself for the roadblocks, and hard times to come. It is going to get hard, you are going to feel weak (again it's all in your head)...but if you're prepared for it then you will prove to be strong!
6. Find a support person or group. Perhaps it's found amongst those that you chose to share your goals with, or someone else who has similar goals, challenges, weaknesses. Someone to lift and motivate when feeling hard. Someone to contradict those lies that your sneaky mind might be telling you. Someone to remind you that "YOU ARE STRONG ENOUGH"
I'm sure you get the idea by now. The point is don't hold yourself back. You can do it by preparing and then running at those hurdles full force. Why wait for tomorrow?
Don't be a chicken, eat chicken! (I'm pretty punny right)
As many of you know I don't really eat any meat besides the occasional turkey or chicken. I'm picky and just prefer leaner meats. Some think this could get bland or boring, my meals are hardly either of those! We had some plain cooked and shredded chicken left over from the whole wheat chicken enchiladas from the night before. So last nights dinner was a breeze. I threw together a mayonnaise-less chicken salad. It was awesome so I thought I'd share my concoction.
CHICKEN SALAD LETTUCE WRAP
(about)3 boiled boneless skinless chicken breasts-shredded (could sub canned chicken)
3 TBSP of plain greek yogurt
2 TBSP of yellow mustard
2 TBSP of relish or pickle juice.
2 TBSP of raw honey
1/2 avocado-mashed
1 stalk of celery- sliced thin
1/4 an onion-diced
1/2 bell pepper (I used orange)
1 apple- remove core and dice
handful of craisins
salt and pepper to taste
A few leaves of lettuce of choice (I used romaine)
garnish with chopped pecans
Toss all ingredients in a bowl (minus the pecans and lettuce) until well blended. Spoon it out onto lettuce- sprinkle pecans on top. DEVOUR.
Simple & Devine! It's wonderfully versatile as well. Experiment with your favorite diced fruits and veggies...you could try some of these add-ins as well: raisins, grapes, cucumbers, walnuts, ect. Or for a little more fiber put your lettuce and chicken on whole wheat bread or tortilla.
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