Competence Breeds Confidence

I'm going to let you in on a secret.

Depending on the circumstances of us meeting, if we've met, there will be two dramatically different responses to this revelation.  Very opposing responses.

If we were introduced socially, you're already in on the secret.  If someone were to ask you "did you know this about her" your reply would be "isn't it obvious, everyone knows that about her".

Suppose our meeting happened in a professional setting.  Revealing this truth about myself would receive a much different reaction.  "No way".  "It's not possible".  "Not her".

Here's the secret

A Year of Total Fulfillment

Ever crush a goal and have a strange sense of emptiness?  Make 2018 a year of total fulfillment.

Are you joining millions who are going to the gym this week? Here's a plan to kick off your next several trips to the gym. Focus on lifting weights with one arm. Each time for the next bunch of visits keep working that same arm. Curls, flies, lift, press, repeat . . . work it! 

We all want a toned arm. Actually, none of us want just one toned arm. We would look ridiculous. No one is setting a fitness goal for 2018 to look weird, but many are setting goals in just one or two areas putting themselves at risk of feeling very unfulfilled even though they've achieved their goals. When working on your personal plan for 2018 take a look at more than just your job or your financial status or your relationships. Take time to reflect on and plan for your whole self. Gift yourself a year of total fulfillment in 2018 by thinking through and planning in the following 8 areas

What's on My Reading List; Grit: Passion, Perseverance, and the Science of Success

Grit: Passion, Perseverance, and the Science of Success by Angela Duckworth
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book started out great. Her explanation of grit and the examples provided were very interesting. I feel that people will be encouraged to read that perseverance can win over talent or skill. Perseverance puts the ball in my court instead of in my heredity or environment. How badly do I want to be great? How hard am I willing to work for it? Imagine if everyone could get that and get the voice in their head lined up with that thought. Wow!

The book then turned very ordinary and repetitive and even sounded

Beef Brisket with Endless Possibilies

Busy households need easy solutions.  What could be easier than cooking once and making 4 (or more) great meals out of it?

As part of the 68 Day Challenge, a great "your best year starts here program" my husband and I are doing the Whole30.  In a nutshell:  meat, vegetables, fruit, and healthy fats for 30 days.

Slow Roasted Beef Brisket

printable version

Ingredients

• 1 beef brisket
• 1 small box portabella mushrooms, sliced
• 2 onions, sliced thick
• 1 cup beef broth
• 1 tsp garlic
• 2 bay leaves
• cracked pepper
• salt (adjust this depending on the sodium content in your broth)

My Whole30 Challenge

The top reason I have stayed with the same employer for over 20 years (dating myself) is that it is so great to work for a company with tremendous opportunity that encourages you to grow as a person.  Several years ago they made it even more fun to do so with the 68 Day Challenge.  Check it out here on Facebook:  The 68 Day Challenge.

The challenge I am taking on this year - the Whole30 Program.  30 days of cleaner eating for better health.  No grains, beans, dairy, added sugar, and alcohol for 30 days.  What is  attractive about this program?

Happy New Year 2016

Happy New Year.  May 2016 be your best year yet!

Sober September

The sobering fact; I've put on 14 pounds since this time last year.

At a business meeting Friday someone said "LT you're looking thick"!  I know he meant it in a good way.  I'm sure of it.  But, for my type A self, it troubled me.

On the flip side, 14 pounds lighter, a different friend said "LT, you've got a great looking body . . . for an 8 year old boy". Ouch!

Somewhere in between "thick" and "boy body" is the answer.

Sofa to 1/2 Marathon in 65 Days Final Post

It's race week.  It's time to rest the legs and prepare for Saturday's race.  If you feel like you haven't gotten in enough training runs or if your legs feel great - stay off of them.  You can't cram for a race like you crammed for a test in school.

From Stephen Covey:  

"Can you imagine "cramming" on the farm? Can you imagine forgetting to plant in the spring, flaking out all summer, and hitting it hard in the fall--ripping the soil up, throwing in the seeds, watering, cultivating--and expecting to get a bountiful harvest overnight?Cramming doesn't work in a natural system. That's the fundamental difference between a social and natural system. A social system is based on values; a natural system is based on principles. In the short term, cramming may appear to work in a social system. You can go for the "quick fixes" and techniques with apparent success. But in the long run they just don't work."

Monday - off

Tuesday - 2 miles

Wednesday - 2 miles

Thursday - off

Friday - off

Saturday - Race Day

Sofa to 1/2 Marathon in 65 Days Part 6

Oh no!  I'm late for this post.  What to do when you don't have a schedule - wing it.
-run your favorite distance
-run your fastest mile
-run your furthest distance
-run your favorite course
-cross train
-do anything just don't skip a day because one will turn into two, then three and then you're back on the sofa


This week: (days 33-39)
Monday - off
Tuesday - 2 miles
Wednesday - 4 miles
Thursday - off
Friday - 4 miles 
Saturday - 2 miles
Sunday - 10 miles (don't worry if you walk most of this.  Try to run as much as you can)

A peek ahead to next week: (days 40-46)

Monday - off
Tuesday - 2 miles
Wednesday - 4 miles
Thursday - off
Friday - 4 miles 
Saturday - 2 miles
Sunday - 8 miles (don't worry if you walk most of this.  Try to run as much as you can)

Sofa to 1/2 Marathon in 65 Days Part 5

The weather is finally breaking - woot woot!  There goes the last excuse for getting off of the couch and getting moving.  Don't worry if you are not fast.  Fast is relative.  Just move.

If you are a seasoned runner and you haven't started training yet, but you have been running, there is

still time for you to jump on this schedule and complete a half marathon on April 18, 2015.

This week: (days 26-32)
Monday - off
Tuesday - 2 miles
Wednesday - 4 miles
Thursday - off
Friday - 3 miles 
Saturday - 2 miles
Sunday - 8 miles (don't worry if you walk most of this.  Try to run as much as you can)

A peek ahead to next week: (days 33-39)
Monday - off
Tuesday - 2 miles
Wednesday - 4 miles
Thursday - off
Friday - 4 miles 
Saturday - 2 miles
Sunday - 10 miles (don't worry if you walk most of this.  Try to run as much as you can)

Try Something New in 2015 Martian 1/2 Marathon

Join me on April 18th for the Martian Half Marathon.  I will be helping people cross the finish line at 2:20.  You can do this!!!!

Sofa to Half Marathon in 65 Days Part 3

We can all find a million reasons why we can't exercise.

The Oscars kept me up too late
I have bad knees
I am too busy
Can't breathe
It's too cold
I don't have good shoes
I don't have cute clothes

All you need is one good reason why you should.  
Here's mine

This week's training: (days 12 - 18)
Monday - off
Tuesday - 2 miles
Wednesday - 3 miles
Thursday - off
Friday - 2 miles
Saturday - 2 miles
Sunday - 5 miles (don't worry if you walk most of this.  Try to run as much as you can)

A peek ahead to next week: (days 19-25)
Monday - off
Tuesday - 2 miles
Wednesday - 3 miles
Thursday - off
Friday - 3 miles
Saturday - 2 miles
Sunday - 7 miles (don't worry if you walk most of this.  Try to run as much as you can)

New Year's Grateful-utions

We've already had our first snow with a little "stick" here in Michigan.  It's one thing to see a few flurries.  There is new meaning when you wake up and see snow caps on rooftops.

Snow means winter is coming.
Winter coming means Christmas is coming.
Christmas coming means New Years is right around the corner and New Years means . . .
resolutions.
The time of year when we all resolve to be better us'es.  (yep, I made that word up).

As  2014 comes close to an end do yourself a favor.  Before you consider making a list of everything
you need to improve upon in 2015 make a list of everything you are awesome at.

Skin In The Game

At a networking breakfast yesterday, someone mentioned leaving the skin on kiwi when you make

smoothies.  It just didn't sound right to me, but then someone added "my kid eats kiwi with the skin on like an apple".  OK, but kids eat worms too.  I still wasn't 100% sold, but I tried it this morning anyway - you couldn't tell they were in there.  Believe me, if anything was funky our 10 year old would have called us out.

Thanks for the great tip. 

I did some research this morning, there's actually a California Kiwifruit Organization.  I found out that by leaving the skin on the fiber value is tripled and more of the vitamin C is retained.  Hey, I just like that it's a shortcut in the morning.

According to Wikipedia to have "skin in the game" is to have incurred monetary risk by being
invested in achieving a goal.  In my smoothie recipe having skin in the game is to retain more of the vitamins and add fiber.

Hide the Spinach

Sometimes it's not the foods our kids (and husbands) won't eat, it's the way they are prepared.  For instance, most people steam brussel sprouts. Yuck!  You can't get most people to buy in to them this way.  Try roasting them with olive oil, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, and orange peel. DELICIOUS!  The same goes for asparagus.  Steamed, not so liked.  Grilled or roasted it takes on an entirely different flavor, and texture, that will get more wins and empty plates.

I find that the best way to make sure that my family gets enough vegetables is to hide them in a fruity flavored smoothie.  Sometimes I sneak a few too many veggies in there and I am busted.  Sometimes I hit a home run like with this limey flavored smoothie.

"All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better."
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hide the Spinach, An Antioxidant Smoothie

The Difference Between Won't and Can't; Raising Kids Today

“The scholars who research happiness suggest that more money stops making people happier at a family income of around seventy-five thousand dollars a year. After that, what economists call “diminishing marginal returns” sets in. If your family makes seventy-five thousand and your neighbor makes a hundred thousand, that extra twenty-five thousand a year means that your neighbor can drive a nicer car and go out to eat slightly more often. But it doesn’t make your neighbor happier than you, or better equipped to do the thousands of small and large things that make for being a good parent.”  ~    Malcolm Gladwell, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

 

 

I find that as a leader I am more often wanting growth and development for people more than they want it themself. 

Indoor Cardio; Speed Intervals

Do you know which one is me?

“The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.”  ~Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

I am going to share a secret with you....

Day 3 - Losing 6 Pounds in 2 Weeks

“We are never so much disposed to quarrel with others as when we are dissatisfied with ourselves.”  ~ William Hazlitt

We are always our toughest critics.  When starting any weightloss endeavor you must have a goal and a timeline that are reasonable and you must cut yourself some slack in the middle.  Day 3 has not been my best day, but I am not going to sweat it.  I was thrown off of my game by a snow day - the 7th snow day this season - and I had a fun day with the kids and got to try out a new recipe.  Not the best day for moving me towards my goal, but still a fantastic day.

Here are my measurements using the 4 Keys to Successful Weight Management

Day 3

Day 2 - Losing 6 Pounds In 2 Weeks

Feeling good after day 1.  Celebrating the small successes help motivate you to stay the course.
"There are two possible outcomes: if the result confirms the hypothesis, then you've made a measurement. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you've made a discovery". ~ Enrico Fermi
Here are my measurements for Day 2 of my 14 day weight loss journey using the 4 Keys to Successful Weight Management

DAY 2

Sustenance - fuel

Breakfast -1 Greek yogurt, Fage 0% peach
Snack -2 chocolate chip cookies (I gave blood. They were my reward ?)
Lunch -mujadara (2 cup serving)
Snack -veggie sticks (2 cups carrots, celery, cucumbers)
Dinner -1 slice Hungry Howie's cheese pizza
Snack -2 pieces dark chocolate

Sweat - exercise

Day 1 - Losing 6 Pounds in 2 Weeks

They say to new moms that "it took you 9 months to put on the weight, give yourself at least that much time to take it off".  Not many women whom I know bought into that.  Most of us thinking of a much nearer birthday, or formal event that would require a slinky black dress and setting our sights on that date as the target.

I am going to use that rule to take off weight gained during business travel and log measurements that I feel are important to achieving this goal, The 4 Keys of Successful Weight Management.  2 weeks to put on the weight, 2 weeks to take it off.

“Measurement is the first step that leads to control and eventually to improvement. If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it. If you can’t understand it, you can’t control it. If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it.”  ~  H. James Harrington

DAY 1

Sustenance - fuel