Dawn

I had a very rocky childhood. No two days were ever alike in my childhood. My Mom, a socialite, and always on the roll going to parties or having parties. Nice parties. Weekends were full of people spending time together having a party. We had a pool in the house of my teen yrs. People sat in the sun, swam in the pool and partied into the night. Not consistent and I need consistent.

Then there were the mornings. I remember in my teen years having to get up at the crack of dawn for high school. I would shuffle out and my Mom, she would be up and sitting with coffee in the quiet of the morning. The parties had slowed down, way down by this point. She studied at dawn for Ins. tests. She sat quietly by herself at dawn with her coffee probably gathering herself before trying to wake my sister who never slept. Prying her from bed was an all out attack on the quietness of dawn.

I am a dawn person, who finds herself in a season of working into the evenings. Sleep comes a bit later, and my dawn is a bit later.

It is here I gather myself before my day takes me away. My routine includes a check list of what I need that will help me meet my goals. I know this is basic and many will roll their eyes. But others look back at me with a blank stare when I share this little tidbit about getting organized to be successful. I’ve been blinked at in the gym a million times. Maybe you stay up that little bit later and THEN you go over your mental list of things that must happen to meet your goals.

In life, I’ve got to pack it up and take it with me, because my goals? They will require new attitudes, new skills, and consistent routine. I cannot get to where I am going, with out a lot of thought, and preparation. Crack of dawn or last thing at night, it’s a must. Things just don’t happen by accident.
But I am a dawn girl, a morning person, a Rise n Shine kind girl. I take pictures of sunrise, not moonscapes. My plans come alive with the dawn!

How they roll

This is what I wake up to often. Standing in the cold, catching a peek at dawn. It’s the very first part of the day. My biggest rock, my early morning is what the rest of my day will rest on.

5 years ago, I figured myself out, I am a morning person. I also figured out I could get up as early as 4:30 (back then) and get everything BIG done. Quiet time, coffee, plan my day, exercise” and still be out the door at 7ish. The rest of the day went as much according to plan as possible, because I got up and planned and I got that big rock rolling into place.

I’m up way early today because I have somewhere to be this morning, matter a fact for the next few mornings, I will be out the door very very early.

Sitting down with coffee, I immediately ask myself, what am I eating today? YOU have to do that when you are on a specific plan.

I asked myself, WHEN will I exercise, now or later? I teach tonight, later. I am on an exercise plan.

I asked myself, where are my exercise clothes, and what foods will I leave the house with because I am on a specific plan that just simply needs to happen day in and day out. Rolling the big rock into place.

If I slept in, I’d be asleep right now, tucked down deep in my covers. But I’m not, I personally can’t afford to wake up and chase the day, hoping I have everything I need. (Do you know how many people come to the gym, and they have to turn right around and leave because they either forgot their shoes or pants?) Up early and organized, it’s how I roll.

No pats on the back needed, millions are just like me, they have a plan, they are prepared and they execute. It’s just how they roll.

When you see some one at a gym who looks fantastic, it did not happen by accident. The have a foundational plan they follow from eating to exercise. They calculate to with in an inch, an ounce, a calorie, a pound and an hour. That’s how they roll.

Stones

Back to the pile of rocks. Everything is built on the biggest one. Everything that follows stands strong or barely based on that first rock. I can hear some of you, “yea, yea, yea” with rolling eyes, impatient at the most foundational truth.

Amazingly I’ve been going around and reading alot of health and fitness blogs and I’ve met with a bunch of new people in the gym. I’ve found 2 interesting things. The Bloggers… are most often blogging the most basic information about diet and exercise. Information we ALL KNOW. The people… are still looking past it, seeking a one hit wonder. Eyebrows raised, seeking the secret ingredient for their success. Seeking something new.
There is nothing new under the sun! Oh wait! There are new diet pills on the market, yet to be pulled back off. There are new gadgets or gimmicks on HSN. There are new workouts, trendy routines and programs out there. All jumping on the bandwagon for the New Years start ups.

Yet People still want to be transported past all the work, right to their dream weight, dream goal. We’d lose something along the way if we COULD be teleported. We’d lose the DEVELOPMENT of the very skills it takes on a DAILY BASIS to sustain the changes we’ve made. Actually I think We’d LOSE something even bigger. If we’ve not worked for it, we OFTEN don’t value it. We’d lose a value for what we have established.

I can tell you from experience, I worked hard to develop a lifestyle of eating right and daily exercise. Routine and habits, food preparation and shopping. Exercise routines I could complete. I put the work in and developed my abilities. Now as I seek to go back to that lifestyle and reestablish it in my life, I know exactly what to do, and I know there is no teleport anywhere for me to hop on!

I can also tell you from experience WEIGHT COMES BACK ON A LOT FASTER THAN IT COMES OFF. I also know the longer it takes to COME OFF, the more lifestyle skills I’ve had to develop to get it off. It took me a year to get to my goal. I kept it for 18 months and then let it slide.

I’m back at 1 Rock Plaza, building that base of lifestyle.

Thoughtful #2

There has been much dialog from yesterday’s blog. People trying to understand what a cairn is? Trying to understand what I really mean about “thoughtfully picked, and thoughtfully placed”.

Recently I went hiking with a friend and I passed a pile of rocks and I thought I could just reach down and stack the stones up and create an impressive instant cairn (like the above picture). No such luck, there was NO thought, just grab and stack, biggest first, but I did not thoughtfully place them, I just was in a hurry. Nothing worked, so I left the pile and kept on trucking. That experience reminded me of the thoughtfulness NEEDED to stack and BALANCE the stones. It needed some thought and I did not give it thought.

I had a wonderful breakfast with friends. Friends I’ve walked a long ways with. A friend in particular who has not only walked a long way but walked away. We see it all the time, people just disappear from the gym. Why? Because it takes alot of effort to get there, sustain there and keep going back when other parts of our world change. The great thing about movement is it can be done in so many ways, with just some thoughtful picking and placing.

I gently nudged my friends towards a workout that they could indeed handle. It was carefully picked and carefully placed in their lives exactly in the spot that their schedules would allow. Then I picked another day and time and then suggested a 3rd. Because they CAN. It was not, “just show up and DO something!!!!” It was, “come at THIS time, and do THIS for 20-30 mins” then go home. Come and do it again here and here. Some times it’s lowering the bar so we can begin stepping up and over all over again. Thankfully my words pushed em, and I did not have to get behind them and push! They’ve got it. I’m just back there giving it a chance to balance up, stone upon stone til it’s standing tall.
I guarantee a great deal of thought went into the building of the cairns in the picture above. They did not happen by accident but ON PURPOSE and they stand beautifully tall.
I watch people thoughtfully placing exercise in their lives, and slowly begin to stand tall.

Thoughtful

This picture reminds me of the work it takes to build something in our lives. Stones THOUGHTFULLY-PICKED, THOUGHTFULLY-PLACED, one upon another IN-AN-ORDER, finding their unique balance to stand tall. If you have ever made a cairn, you know just how THOUGHTFULLY each stone is picked and placed to insure that unique balance.

I’m rebuilding (seeking my balance) THOUGHTFULLY- resurrecting something that I had allowed to crumble to a degree in my life. Fitness. In order to do that, I’ve re-introduced gym work into my mix. Saturday I went to the gym to work-OUT. Not work. I was hard at work, soaked and leaning against something recovering from the effort and a client of mine walked by. “Oh? You work out hard”. I just chuckled. I don’t usually go to the gym on Sat. She waved and headed up stairs and yet her eyes really didn’t leave what I was doing. A few minutes later on another piece of equipment a client I had worked with in her “start up” phase was strolling by. She stopped and smiled. I caught her FOLLOWING THROUGH and she was happy to be caught at the gym, following through on her commitments. She beamed as I reminded her of her goals and my pride at seeing her.
Both these women watched me progress through my work. Both of these women were thoughtfully there. It was no accident! Me too, I was there on purpose.
Me, laying down one more stone of work, on top of the last stone.
Me, following through on many words I’ve said out loud to others.
Me, following my own professional advice.
Me, kinda in the fish bowl.
Me, up and attem again today, plotting and planning that next stone, THOUGHTFULLY-PICKED, THOUGHTFULLY-PLACED.

Happy Place!

What do you like to do? What is your favorite workout? There are two camps, those who like cardio and those who like resistance training or weight lifting. Personality, and body type draw you to one camp or the other. When you switch camps, the weight lifters hate cardio and the cardio peeps are not happy or given to the difficult work in the free weight area!

There is a third camp, CLASSES. Are you a class groupie? You love to step into a class and be surrounded by people and you like to suffer together or you like the fact that a class picks you up and carries you along, instructing you into places you would not go on your own.

I’m a trainer and a spin instructor. Left to my own I am a cardio exerciser. I don’t much care for weight lifting and resistance machines. I like a long ride on a spin bike, or cardio machine.

I think the most important thing is TO KNOW YOURSELF, and start in your HAPPY PLACE! If you are trying to start up and build momentum, go with what you KNOW and go with what you LIKE. Don’t apologize, just get up and moving, and as you get a basic foundational level of fitness then branch out.
Don’t make this harder than it is, by getting up at 4:30am for a 5:30am gym visit, unless that is your happy place!
Don’t go to a grueling spin class and die, unless that is your happy place!
Don’t head right towards the weights and pick up a 50lb wt for your first bicep curl, unless that is your happy place!
Don’t go after work, if you are dead tired, and can’t function, unless that is your happy place.

If you want to work on your weaknesses, that’s great, but wait until you have YOUR STRENGTHS ROLLING…Go-To-Your-Happy PLACE!
I believe you will have a better chance at strengthening a weakness, if you are in a strong place first. Go to your happy place and enjoy it as you rebuild your strength!

Orbit 2

Every moment of a space flight is filled with work and objectives. Once they break thru the earth’s HOLD, get into orbit, they go some where like the moon, or a space station or to docking and all along the way, they work.

In diet and exercise, once you get past the start up atmosphere, and you have settled into routines/orbits.
You need to get to work. A few suggestions.
1. Read all about your diet. Study your diet and all it’s objectives and facets. Usually you have gotten a book, so go back to all the pages you skipped to get to the diet, and read the tenants and objectives.
2. Start paying attention to the foods you are eating, the portions, the calories they hold and THEIR EFFECTS ON YOUR BODY. (Example carbs. They don’t bother my husband, he eats a high carb diet, never gains weight, and it doesn’t make him tired. Me I don’t metabolize those foods the same, I gain weight, want more and loose all energy.)
3. Research different exercise principals for resistance training and cardio. Explore different activities and classes. What do you like? What do you hate? What burns the most calories?
4. Visit your goals regularly, spend time connecting to them mentally and emotionally. FOCUS!

As you do this, you will become stronger, your body will begin to truly change, and you will MOVE towards the goals, and if you are lucky you will have created enough skills to sustain this lifestyle because if not, You will see Christmas coming and New Year’s Eve will follow and it will be time to try all over again!

Orbit?

I grew up in Central Fla. I am a space-brat. You could see every launch of every thing from my yard. I’ve watched every thing almost. Walter Cronkite, Frank Reynolds, Jules Vern, where the commentators . All the 60′s 70′s and 80′s space-stuff. I remember how they would hold up models of docking space craft and even turbulence going thru the atmosphere to get into orbit. One of my most favorite movies? You guessed it, Apollo 13. I even follow them on Fb. I love the launch sequence into orbit in the movie. How every thing that can be shaken is, then they break thru the atmosphere and it’s completely still and they are weightless. They undo their gloves and helmets and everything floats in a weightless atmosphere.

Starting up diet and exercise is alot like that you know.
We pack up and head for the gym, we pack up the fridge and head for the diet. We get our flight plan and we strap in and take off. Initally it is ALL TURBULENT, yet we know we will break through ourselves and into the orbit of our routines that will take us to our destination.

In real life, and in the movie, they get into orbit AND GET DOWN TO WORK! Launch was more of a ride, orbit is more of a working out of objectives. Problem is when we have used all our strength to get into orbit, we tend to LET DOWN instead of GET DOWN TO WORK.

In diet and exercise, we do everything we can to get into a habit/orbit. It can be a very rocky, bumpy time, turbulent and the desire to abort is often constantly present in our minds. (In the movie, Jim Lovell stares at that red leaver often during ascent)

Once we get settled into our groove, we take off the gloves, and, and, and, and….here is usually where the first step towards EPIC FAIL happens WE LET DOWN our guard. “Oh I was doing so well, why not a little something off the plan. I’m doing good, what’s a cookie, ice cream, pizza?”
Right after that comes the emotions, GUILTY!, GUILTY, GUILTY and then those fated words, “Ok, since I’m gonna have to start all OVER, might as well order up and eat up, right?”

If you make it into orbit, you are lulled by a false confidence that creates the first bite, which often leads to the first binge, which leads to feeling wasted and snowed and exhausted, so much so you cannot possibly go to the gym-right? Then defeat follows. Next thing you know it’s Christmas and New Years EVE and resolutions are staring you right in the face….
Stay tuned for pt 2, “Orbit Check list”

No chucking, no changing!

For so many we are now 2 weeks into your New Years Resolutions. 2 weeks of trying to change old habits for better healthier habits. Food, diets, exercise, time management. Pre-cooking meals and keeping the workout clothes cleaned and packed!

Gyms are hopping, diet boards are full of traffic, people are moving.

And yet here are those who are starting to slow down a bit. Probably the #1 reason for the slow down is they are NOT seeing the EXPECTED results they had hoped for after these last 2 weeks of trying so hard on so many fronts.

In the real world, 2lbs a week, weight loss is the healthiest. In the real world we don’t exercise 8 hrs a day, on a ranch, and are isolated from trigger foods and trigger worlds. In the real world, we are balancing our jobs, families and our personal goals, and squeezing them in to a 24 hr cycle, expecting great things now that we have declared a resolution or goal.

We ARE expecting so much by this point. Certainly more than a few little lbs in wk 2. You begin to fight with discouragement, DISAPPOINTMENT and defeat due to impatience.

A new war beyond hunger has begun- unruly attitudes and feelings are starting to rise up to be wrestled with internally. You did not have a big a loss this week as the first, so You want to chuck it or change it! I would say, HOLD ON! No chucking, No changing. Keep on with what you are doing. Do it til you are doing it well and it becomes habitual. If you don’t create habits nothing will last. Weight loss and lifestyle are NOT INSTANT.

This information age allows us to roam the internet with a simple click, and be there in an instant! Weight loss and lifestyle are NOT INSTANT.

Don’t touch a thing, just trust that your body is adjusting, keep exercising and eating healthy. No chucking or changing. It could throw your body’s adjustments off all the more.

If you truly understood all that goes into loosing 1lb of fat, you would just work on YOUR PART- Compliance with a healthy diet and reasonable exercise, and you would look a bit more long term rather than in the NOW! Everything you can take off today, will be back tomorrow, if you don’t change YOU! No chucking, no changing, motor on!

Fresh

Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going. -Jim Ryan

What motivates you? What gets you rolling? The longer you go, the more you will know about yourself and what kind of exercises you like, what kind of challenges inspire you to reach for them, and what keeps fitness fresh in your life.

I am finding in yr 6 of my make over and now do-over keeping it fresh is a huge challenge. I’ve walked all over the mtns of north Ga. this fall trying to keep it fresh. I dug out exercise equipment and turned on videos to keep it fresh.
Now I’ve turned on previous episodes of a popular weightloss show, to keep it fresh.

Keeping it fresh, motivates me. One of the things on the calendar this year is small groups centered around an activity for people to try out. Hiking, biking, swimming, jogging, running. Keeping it fresh will keep you going!