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

My 68 Day Challenge; The Whole30

To successfully achieve a goal you should spend 80% of your time in planning to ensure that the 20% you spend executing can be done with excellence.  Planning on successfully completing the Whole30 program I started my planning by reading the book It Starts With Food.

After reading this book, with an open mind, I believe that adjusting your diet for 30 days can make you feel better, sleep better, think better, and perform better.  If you want to lose weight, that is an added benefit.

It Starts With Food: Discover the Whole30 and Change Your Life in Unexpected Ways by Dallas Hartwig
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is absolutely fascinating.
To those who gave it very skeptical reviews, I ask . . .why did you buy this book in the first place? Did you not read the description first?
I will be gifting this book frequently.

View all my reviews

I'm doing the Whole30 as part of a great program sponsored by my employer The 68 Day Challenge.  It's open to the public.  Check it out!

Happy New Year 2016

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

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 1/2 Marathon in 65 Days Part 4

You can do this!  Starting is the hardest part, but I promise it gets easier.


If you miss a day the best thing to do is forgive yourself and get back on track.  It's OK to miss a few.  Just don't miss most.  If you are sitting at work and you skipped your morning run try to get in a brisk walk on a break.  Find a hallway or a staircase and get your heart pumping.  You don't need to break a sweat to be doing something great for your body.  Just get moving.

If 5 days of running is too monotonous for you, then mix it up with a Freakin Fabulous Friday.  Get in 30 minutes of your favorite exercise. Swim, bike, lift, go to a group fitness class.  Here's what Runner's World says about adding cross training to your routine

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)

Sofa to 1/2 Marathon in 65 Days Part 2

“The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself as to why you can't achieve it.” 
― Jordan Belfort

Sofa to 1/2 Marathon in 65 days.  We are on day 6.  You can still start today and complete the half

Lace up.  Let's go!  You got this!

marathon in April.  No excuses.  2 miles today.  Are you ready?  

This week's training: (days 5 - 11)
Monday - off
Tuesday - 2 miles
Wednesday - 3 miles
Thursday - off
Friday - 2 miles
Saturday - 1 mile
Sunday - 4 miles ( don't worry if you walk most of this.  Try to run as much as you can)

A peek at next week: (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)

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.

Couch to Marathon in 58 Days, Week 2

"One way to keep momentum going is to have constantly greater goals."

~Michael Korda

Here is this week's schedule.  The big one is already under our belt.  So far, we've only wanted to quit...almost every day.  We haven't built momentum yet, but I know we will.  We can do this!!!

"Success requires first expending ten units of effort to produce one unit of results. Your momentum will then produce ten units of results with each unit of effort."

~Charles J. Givens

Tell Yourself Positive Stories to Stay Positive

“Your beliefs become your thoughts,
Your thoughts become your words,
Your words become your actions,
Your actions become your habits,
Your habits become your values,
Your values become your destiny.”   
~    Mahatma Gandhi
The above quote has been stated and restated and rephrased by many different people over time.  If you Google the first line over 38,000,000 results appear. I must have heard it, read it, watched it on a YouTube video hundreds of times in my life, but today as I listened to an audio program I finally understand how it works.

Your beliefs become your thoughts. 

I always mistook that your beliefs meant your values, but notice how values come later in the phrase. 

Choose Your Attitude

Life is 5% what happens to you and 95% how you react to it, or so they say.  You can choose your attitude is another way of saying the same thing.  I am generally a super optimistic girl, but what happens when the 5% isn't really 5%?  What happens when the 5% thing is so big that you can't see past it?  There are always exceptions after all.

Randy Pausch has this to say about those exceptions,  “Another way to be prepared is to think
~Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture    

negatively. Yes, I'm a great optimist. but, when trying to make a decision, I often think of the worst case scenario. I call it 'the eaten by wolves factor.' If I do something, what's the most terrible thing that could happen? Would I be eaten by wolves? One thing that makes it possible to be an optimist, is if you have a contingency plan for when all hell breaks loose. There are a lot of things I don't worry about, because I have a plan in place if they do.”  

What is your contingency plan?
When are they appropriate?

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

4 Keys to Successful Weight Management

Here goes the journey of dropping the 6 Pounds of Chicago gained while traveling for business.  It's important to know that there is not one facet that contributes to how successful we are in weight management.  There are many things that attribute to our overall health and well being.

4 Keys to Successful Weight Management

1)  Sustenance

- when trying to lose weight many of us stress over the food we eat looking at food only as "calorie intake" or "fat consumption".  Rather we need to consider food as sustenance; the fuel we need for nourishment and sustaining life.  It's more important to make healthy choices about the types of foods we consume than anguishing over how much.  If you are trying to lose weight mac -n- cheese isn't the best option.  Cutting your calories to zero isn't a good option either.  It will leave you with no energy to get through the day and rituous mood swings.  From Food and Mood in a 2011 US News. article "Most people understand the link between what they eat and their physical health," says registered dietitian Elizabeth Somer, author of the 2010 book Eat Your Way to Happiness. "But the link between what you eat and your mood, your energy, how you sleep, and how well you think is much more immediate. What you eat or don't eat for breakfast will have at least a subtle effect by mid-afternoon, and what you're eating all day will have a huge impact today and down the road."

2)  Sweat

- physical exercise is crucial to a healthy lifestyle and to sustainable weight loss.  You have to get your heart ticking and sweat a little. 

Raving Fans for Freeeeeee

"Raving fans are created by companies whose service far exceeds that of the competition and even exceeds customer expectations," describes Ken Blanchard in his book Raving Fans. The best raving fan experiences are executed so casually that they seem to be directed subconsciously.  They are just so natural.  I have an amazing "raving fan" story to share with you about the service I received this week while traveling for business.

A coworker and I were asked to travel and it just so happened to be the week of the "snowstorm of the century".  We waited out through the worst of it then made our break when we had word that most major roads were cleared (funny what was called "clear"). Taking separate vehicles we convoyed through snow, slush, and ice to our destination.  I was in the lead car and she followed carefully, both of us with a deliberate eye on the road and iron grip on the wheel.  Stopping for anything was not a consideration as the off ramps looked more like ski hills.

I can't imagine what we looked like when we collapsed on the

Stumped on a Gift? Give the Gift of Your Time.

The hubby and I enjoyed a feel good movie on date night this week, Delivery Man with Vince Vaughn.  Man, he is tall!  If you were wondering, just like me, is he really that big or is everyone else puny?  Vince Vaughn is 6'5".  As you can tell, it was lady's choice.  Even though it averaged about 2 stars in the ratings, to all the men out there who might not want to go to this movie, you will leave the theater feeling good.  Take your wife, girlfriend, significant other...the night will end good for you ;).

There is a part of the movie that really got me thinking this holiday season. 

Marathons, Drugs That Are Good For You

In January of 2008, when I decided out of the blue, that I wanted to run a marathon, My family didn't know what to think.  I wasn't even a runner.  I had just seen the movie The Bucket List and for some reason thought that this would be cool to add to my list.

I decided that I should run a half marathon first and then go full out.  I looked for a schedule online and found

Beating Cancer through Physical Fitness

By Melanie Bowen
 

Exercise can help individuals to recover and return to good health, even after a cancer

diagnosis. At each stage of recovery, there are a variety of light to heavy exercise regimens that are suitable for cancer patients. Each of these routines offers substantial physical and health benefits. With consistent practice, cancer patients can speed their recovery process and improve their overall quality of life.

Light Fitness

A workout is considered light if the individual does not sweat or have problems breathing. During this level of exercise, individuals can normally sing or talk while they work out. While beginning treatment or recovery,

Fall Marathon Training Kick Off Month

This month kicks off fall marathon training.  I am going full out with a month of total fitness before tapering off cardio and adding miles.  I am following my own advice for achieving goals by posting my June calendar.

Step 1 to achieving your goal - put it in writing.
Step 2 to achieving your goal - share it with people who will support you

Link to calendar

Are you running a marathon or a 1/2 marathon this fall?  Let me know if your interested in sharing training tips.

Tricks to Help You Stick to It

  How are you doing on your New Year's resolution?  I don't mean planning on next year's already.  How are you doing with this year's?  Yes, I know. I am the only one still talking about it in May. How unfashionable!

It's not hopeless. You can get back on track with your fitness and nutrition goals with a little help, and a few tricks. Here are some tactics to keep you on track when that devil on your shoulder is trying to tempt you.