This Mini-Goal Idea is Genius

Remember a couple of weeks ago when I started my Awesome Every Day Challenge for August? Best idea ever. I started with the intention of streamlining my diet, becoming more disciplined, and trimming out mindless nibbling. Instead I ended up revolutionizing the way I eat on the weekends. Totally unexpected but completely welcome detour!

It's simple: I set one small mini-goal for each day. Just one nutrition or fitness thing to focus on. If I achieve it, I get my star. And get this - for three weekends in a row, one of them being travel and another hosting company, I have earned all my stars.

That has not happened, like, ever. I always screw up the weekend, especially when I am traveling or entertaining.  Either I'm not disciplined about using my tips for weekend eating or I just let one nibble lead to another and before I know it that little voice is telling me that its okay because its the weekend and I'm supposed to indulge on the weekend. Says who? A nation of obese Americans? The television commercials trying to sell me fast food and chocolate? All the people who claim that everything is okay in moderation but then complain that they can't get in shape because they lack the discipline to make it happen? 

I opted out of that club a long time ago. And hopefully, now my membership card is torn up for good! 

The secret here is in the simplicity of the mini-goal. When I headed out of town for the weekend, I set a mini-goal to avoid crackers when I was traveling. I knew that eating crackers opened the door to eating more not-so-good stuff, so I locked that door and threw away the key. But what happened was way more than just not eating crackers: I was motivated to do even more healthy things, above and beyond my one mini-goal. As a result, it was by far the healthiest on-the-road weekend I have EVER had.

After that first initial success, I was pretty surprised. I didn't expect to do so well. The next weekend I had company coming and I wondered if I could do it again. I did, and it was even easier. The mini-goals kept success within easy reach, and thanks to clearer thinking and zero cravings for sugar now that I have detoxed it out of my life, having a healthy weekend was easier than ever.

And, my calendar is proudly displaying little gold stars on every single day this month. I'm really excited about it! I hope this is more than a lucky trend and actually a lifestyle change that is here to stay.

Are you setting mini goals for yourself this month? Tell me about them! Get out there and get healthy, one mini-goal at a time. 

HH

August Calendar Challenge: Awesome Every Day!

I'm off to a great start!
Earned my exercise sticker for today. :)

It's a new month! A transition month, too. We move from the long, lazy days of summer to the busy, frenetic back-to-school routine in the blink of an eye. It's a month of new beginnings! And new shoes! :)

As you know, tracking data is a huge part of building sustainable wellness habits. There are a lot of ways to track data, exercise and food logs being the most popular. But for me, visual feedback is uber effective so I still put my happy little stickers on my calendar every day. Each day I can earn one sticker for good nutrition and one sticker for exercise. And, I can almost always attribute any weight gain or general "not feeling it" feeling to the number of stickers on my calendar. If there are lots of gaps between stickers, I can bet that my waistband will be feeling a little snug.

I've got no patience for that.

Welllll, July was a bit hit-and-miss with the stickers. I went on vacation for two weeks, and while I did pretty darn well, there were seven days when I got either just one sticker or none at all. Gulp. That's a whole week of me goofing around. So, it shouldn't be a shocker that my clothes aren't quite as comfortable as they were a month ago.

But today begins a new month! My goal is to earn a sticker every single day. Yeah I said it. It's lofty, but a big goal is exactly what I need to get my head back in the Awesome Every Day game that I've been missing! I've already gotten in my workout for today so now the real challenge begins: staying at or under my calorie goal, because as we all know that awesome physiques are made in the kitchen, not necessarily the gym.

So we're off! Care to join me? Grab a calendar and a pack of stickers and start rewarding yourself for good work! To make it even more interesting, plan a nice prize at the end of the month if you make your goal. Mine is a new pair of jeans. I tried them on last weekend!

Get out there and get healthy, old-school gold sticker style!

Related posts: Your Brain on Goals: Sticker Shock! and Four Champions of Change: Data

Active Recovery (I'm trying to be good!)

Free image by David Castillo Dominici via www.freedigitalphotos.netI know I'm tired when I don't want to go running. 

My legs are tired. My arms are tired. My eyes are tired. I'm just plum worn out. 

I stayed up until past midnight watching the Olympic opening ceremony, then the baby has been teething so we're getting no sleep, then I woke up Saturday and ran ten miles, plus I worked two hours organizing a storage unit, and then stayed up late  Saturday night watching the Olympics again. All of that after a week of amping up my strength workouts and fatiguing my body means I am just really, really tired.

It happens. But I still want to keep training because I'll get mean and cranky if I don't! BUT, if I keep this up I'm going to get injured and not be able to train at all. So, I am trying to be good and listen to my body and get some rest. When I got up this morning to workout, and the whole time my run was just looming in front of me like a big boulder that I had to climb over, I listened to that little voice in my head telling me it's okay to not be a machine every day. 

I hate that voice.

But it was right. I finished my strength workout and put my running stuff away. I got on the elliptical and did intervals, which was also good cardio and a nice break. Maybe I'll run tomorrow. 

I'm really bad about overtraining. I just go go go and never give myself a break, and then I get so tired that I can't function at all, which pretty much cancels out all of the great training I did. So, these tips from Women's Health were a perfect reminder for me today that active recovery can be a great way to give your body the rest it needs without feeling like you're slacking off from your workout. It's great for people like me, who like to feel like we're giving it our all every day, even on days when we shouldn't.

Get out there and get healthy today, even if it means doing nothing!

Miles of Smiles

This has circulated the web for a while but it still makes me smile because it is so true. I honestly cringe when I see pictures of myself running. Either I am grimacing, my skin has been captured in an unfortunately timed jiggle, or I just look like a big ole dork. I'd much rather remember how I felt when I was running, not what I looked like!

Kind of like dancing. :)


Get out there and get healthy today, no matter what you look like!

The Alternative to Exercise

As perfectly acceptable for calorie burning as it is to spend an hour on the elliptical machine, it sure is unfulfilling. But, on days when it is 32 degrees outside and I can't bring myself to bundle up my baby and make him sit in a stroller for an hour so I can go running, that's what I am left with. It's cool, because the exercise must happen. The alternative (having two pairs of pants that fit) is unacceptable to me.

I much prefer intense workouts when I can sweat buckets and defy physics and really feel myself work and grow stronger. But, for now I workout at home, and that's okay. The exercise must happen. The alternative (the heart disease, high cholesterol, and increased stress that will find me if I don't) is unacceptable to me.

I don't have one of those naturally lean, muscular bodies that most fitness pros sport. Mine is much more...baroque. 

What my body would look like if left to its own devices.
Except I would not be a man.

So, I have to count every calorie and then sweat them out in order to control my very stubborn will-not-be-contained waistline. So I do it, every single day, because the exercise must happen. The alternative (not being able to breathe when I bend over to tie my shoelaces) is unacceptable to me. 



Which brings me to the issue of the day: finding time to exercise. Last week I made the point that I simply make the time, but I realize that's sometimes easier said than done. 

I mean, I have stuff to do! Waiting around for the baby to take a nap so I can get on the elliptical means that I don't spend that time writing, working, or doing other productive things. But the exercise must happen. The alternative, as you know, is unacceptable to me.

So I don't do other things so I can exercise. I do my strength training and yoga before anyone else wakes up. I have the flexibility to go running in the morning now because I work from home, but when I worked in an office I did it at lunch. I go to bed early so I can accommodate a morning workout, and when I exercised at lunch I did my errands and visited with friends at other times. It was inconvenient sometimes, but I did it anyway. I made the time.

So, yeah, getting on the elliptical machine for an hour is not how I want to spend my time. I'd rather sit at my desk and look at pretty things on Pinterest. But the alternative, a life living in the body I used to inhabit, which was rife with fatigue, stress, and frustration, not to mention three sizes larger, is simply

unacceptable

to 

me.

That is why I make the time.

Get out there and get healthy! You can make the time. The alternative is just unacceptable!