Hey, hey, hey! Happy Friday!
I have not been a great blogger lately. Sorry ’bout that. 😉
We are actually on our way to sunny St. George (southern Utah) right now. Woot! This morning we woke up to snow if you can believe it. I’m more than happy to be heading to palm trees, warm weather and the SUN. Yay!
Well folks, in my last post I talked about finding my motivation when I’m in a rut. I’ve learned that life is just an ongoing roller coaster, full of ups and downs. The key is to just keep getting back to work and to never quit. Enjoy the ups and learn from the downs.
I’m happy to say I’m doing pretty well right now and have found my motivation once again. I gotta say that one thing I’ve learned through all the ups and downs is that all of those little choices for better or worse really do add up!
When I find myself in a “down” spot, I realize that I usually got there by just making a lot of “meh” choices….indulging a little too much, missing workouts, slackin’ on my sleep, neglecting my stress levels and just not properly caring for my body and/or mind!
On the flip-side, when I’m in an “up” spot, it’s because I’m consistently striving to make a lot of good choices! The choices may be small and may even seem insignificant, but they make a big difference! Paying attention to what I’m putting in my body, making my sleep a priority, crushing my workouts, making sure I get some downtime and respect my stress levels.
The choices that lead to an “up spot” or a “down spot” are not usually huge and if you’re not paying attention, you might not even notice the choices that are leading you to that spot, but just remember, those choices all add up!
Anyway, with that being said, as I recently found myself in somewhat of a rut, I’ve been paying closer attention to my life and my choices and am happy to say I’m trending in the right direction once again. Woo hoo.
I identified some specific goals for myself and I found a decent app (Loop Habit Tracker) to keep track of them on! It’s not a fancy app, it’s very basic, but I just love that it allows me to identify my goals, check them off each day and see how I’m doing over time.
Here’s a screenshot of my goals as of right now….
I just love being able to see all of my goals together at once and see how I’m doing. Since we’re heading out of town for the weekend, it may be hard for me to hit ’em all, but I’m going to do all that I can!
I’m really, really trying to stay away from sugar because folks, it really makes a HUMONGOUS difference! I’ve been doing very well for the most part, but yesterday I caved and had some chocolate chips and two mini Reeses (that’s why I didn’t check on the “no sugar’ goal.) 🙁 Not bad, but I know I gotta OWN IT, track it on my goals and make sure it doesn’t cause me to continue to make poor choices and end up in a rut!
Another goal that I’ve noticed makes a HUGE difference is having a protein shake/smoothie every day.
It’s just such an easy way to get a lot of nutrition into the body, they always make me feel so good, they’re so simple to make and I just love them!
My goals like taking my vitamins and drinking lemon water every day are things I hope and would like to think are helping me, but it’s hard to really know!
I’ve heard so many good things about lemon water and the positive effects on the body and obviously there’s a lot of positive info about taking vitamins too! I really don’t get sick too often and I’d like to attribute that to my vitamin intake.
However, I’ve realized that even if vitamins and lemon water didn’t actually help my body, just keeping in the habit of doing those things helps me to stay more motivated and dedicated to my other goals and to just living a healthy lifestyle in general! So, it’s a win in my book either way!
Obviously things like flossing my teeth, reading my scriptures, exercise and getting my sleep help me in all areas of my life. These are things that are so important to me and make a huge impact on my life, but if I’m not making a conscious, deliberate effort, sometimes they just don’t happen!
*********************
Well in talking about all of these goals, I also wanted to share some of the thought processes and mental strategies I employ that help me stick to my goals!
First off, I wanna say that the mental state has EVERYTHING to do with whether you stick to your goals or not! You may have heard the quote by Henry Ford, “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right!” I love that quote and relate to it in so many areas of my life.
I think the hardest part of living a healthy lifestyle is eating a healthy diet, day after day after day! Because we eat several times a day, we have so many opportunities to make choices about what we put into our bodies. AND because we also have cravings, appetites and emotional attachments to food, it can be tough to consistently make good eating choices!
Consequently, it is vital to create healthy eating habits and to foster positive thought processes toward food. Here are the top things I tell myself and try to remind myself of as I’m trying to consistently make those good choices…
- Remain mindful and aware of the foods you are eating. It is so important to remain deliberate and in charge of the foods we eat. When we’re tempted to overeat or eat a bunch of crap, it’s so easy to say, “Ah, to heck with it, I’ll just eat this and it won’t make a big difference.” However, it does make a big difference and it also makes it much easier for us to continue to make poor food choices!
- I like to think of mindfulness in healthy eating kind of like meditation. Active meditation is a constant practice of gaining control of our thoughts and blocking out distracting things. As our thoughts wander, we’re instructed to continue to strive to focus our thoughts and become present in the moment. This same thought process can be a powerful tool in healthy eating! As we are tempted to stray from our goals or give into cravings, it’s important to stop, regroup and refocus our thoughts on our goals and the health of our bodies!
- I always remind myself that when I’m tempted to give into cravings (usually in the form of sugar) it’s usually because I’m hungry! I never have cravings or want to overindulge when I’m full and satisfied. Sooooo, I try to actively acknowledge the craving and then tell myself to eat something healthy and THEN if I’m still wanting that “crappy food item” I can have it afterward. The cool thing is that once I eat something healthy, I can much more easily resist all the crap! It’s just another reminder to me to remain mindful and in charge of my choices.
Those are the three main thought processes that I try to remember. It can be hard to remember all the time, but the more I strive to think this way, the more “second nature” it becomes. It becomes more of a habit and lifestyle and less of a chore.
Well, I hope these things can help y’all to identify goals and then crush those goals! I hope you all have a fabulous weekend. If you care to follow our adventures this weekend in St. George, I will be sharing stuff on my Instagram Stories. I’ll also share some pics here in my next post!
I love y’all! xoxo
Leave a comment....I would love to hear from you!