This image has become major motivation for me recently. My entire life I have said, "if it is not something you would want your kids to do than don't do it."
Now, I don't have kids, but it doesn't make the statement any less true regardless.
Throughout my life I have witnessed a fair number of adults smoke, drink, curse, eat unhealthy, and participate in all number of things society deems children should be "protected" from. All the while watching these same adults hide these very things from their kids; with the guise of protecting some level of innocence, (which is truly only ignorance), the child may have in regards to the "topic" at hand. These are the same parents whom always say, "my kids think I'm so dumb, like I wasn't going to know they were doing something they shouldn't..."
Well parents, kids think and know the exact same thing. They know the bad things you are doing and hiding from them. Difference is they don't understand them. Yet they do understand enough, by the way you are treating it, to know they certainly can't talk to you about "it".
Yet, that point runs us down a different slippery slope altogether. So let's get back on track here ...
Here we have miss Britany Spears doing one of the most strongly admirable things of her career - showing you how she really looks as compared to how we normally see her: photo-shopped.
In other words: STOP comparing yourself to the media driven images of beauty - they don't even exist!
The same thing goes for that number in your head. The number in your head you are obsessing over. The number that means you are finally fit and trim. The number you are using as the ultimate measure of your success. STOP IT! Stop using that number to determine your success or failure - that number will never equate to your expectations!
Now take these two concepts and FIND a value driven motivation that you would share with your kids; regardless of if you have kids or not.
Examples? Well how about:
- Hanging a dress you want to wear this summer in a prominent place and trying it on every now and then?
- Measuring your moods on days you successfully meet all your health goals compared to those days when you don't?
- Measuring your energy level on days you successfully meet all your health goals compared to those days when you don't?
- Complete your first or fiftieth 5k or other physical challenge!
- Try out a new healthy recipe every month and build a cookbook and monthly menu that make you feel proud.
- Do at least 30 minutes of exercise a day.
- Reward yourself with non-food motivated items - new clothes, toys, go see a show.
- Grow something yourself! Maybe it is just a couple herbs in the window, maybe you tackle a whole garden in your yard.
- Make time for relaxing activities like stretch focused yoga, meditation, reading, or writing.
Whatever you do stop making this about the unattainable and start focusing on what being health and fit "feel" like. That is what is important, not the scale and most certainly not unattainable falsified images of beauty.
Comparison analysis, like the two suggested above, are always very helpful in understanding this point. Even if you just do it for a week, tracking your mood and energy level throughout the day helps one discover, with a high level of certainty, what it truly feels like to be healthy. That feeling for each of us is of course truly personalized - so it is important to try and take the time to discover it for yourself - it is so worth it and it gives you so many more truly effective things to focus on.
Which brings me to this weeks "Do Life" motivational challenges:
- Try out a new healthy recipe every month and build a cookbook and monthly menu that make you feel proud.
- Do at least 30 minutes of exercise a day.
- Reward yourself with non-food motivated items - new clothes, toys, go see a show.
- Grow something yourself! Maybe it is just a couple herbs in the window, maybe you tackle a whole garden in your yard.
- Make time for relaxing activities like stretch focused yoga, meditation, reading, or writing.
Whatever you do stop making this about the unattainable and start focusing on what being health and fit "feel" like. That is what is important, not the scale and most certainly not unattainable falsified images of beauty.
Comparison analysis, like the two suggested above, are always very helpful in understanding this point. Even if you just do it for a week, tracking your mood and energy level throughout the day helps one discover, with a high level of certainty, what it truly feels like to be healthy. That feeling for each of us is of course truly personalized - so it is important to try and take the time to discover it for yourself - it is so worth it and it gives you so many more truly effective things to focus on.
Which brings me to this weeks "Do Life" motivational challenges:
1.) Now that you know your caloric range, have removed some bad habits, and added some good - well it is time to meet your caloric intake diligently all week long. Do not go over it and try to stay as close to it as you can. This may mean eating more or less than you are use to, but try and make that calorie count daily - let's see what that really does for our progression. Make sure you are getting your water intake met!
2.) Park the farthest away from the entry door ANY place you go! This one sounds simple but it could have huge impact. Studies show that just adding an additional 10 minutes of activity to your regular routines in everyday life could equate to a loss of 25-50 pounds of fat per year! So, if you park far away and opt to walk in - well, those extra ten minutes will get added to your everyday life quicker than you think! Try it!
Bonus Challenge: Remain exercising to the videos I shared or your own fitness levels and goals for at LEAST 30 minutes a day at LEAST 3 days a week. Spend at least 1 day in a 20 minute meditation AND here is the new and important and most challenging aspect - get AT LEAST 7 hours of sleep per night the entire week! Whew! That is going to be a challenge for me.
I was going to have you not use your scale at all this week, but I realize that it is one of the tools we are using during this entire challenge. So keep looking at it that way, just a tool you have in your arsenal of tools to help you measure and remain accountable for your goals. Yet do not let that number on the scale be the end-all-be-all in your health journey. See it, acknowledge it, and then move on!
This week we will rock!!!
~TigressSky~
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