If you SHOULD, and you COULD, but you DON'T = Formula for disaster.

This is one of my favorite quotes from Jim Rohn as he explains his philosophy and fundamentals of life. Each person's philosophy is the major factor in how their life works out. This comes from personal experience and other people's experiences and what you have learned from these experiences; a collection of all that you know. I learned early on from certain family members what I didn't want my life to be like.

I love my mom with every ounce of my being and admired her more than anyone, but from her experiences I didn't and still don't want my life to be like hers was. The choices she made, especially in regard to eating habits, was definitely a Formula for disaster. She did have good intentions and as I went through her papers, she had a lot of newspaper clippings on certain vitamins and foods to improve health and memory. She did do pretty well at the gym with me or her friend Mary. She was very active and if she wasn't moving stuff around in the garage to find something, she was cleaning up the yard or playing with Sophie. She was a very strong woman. Her intentions of eating right were always surrounded by, "I'll start Monday, I'll do that when THIS project is done, I'll but healthier foods when all this other stuff is gone,etc." Making that change was never something she could do for the long term.She never made herself a priority.


I recently had a conversation with someone about their intentions after they started working out. The response was "probably back to what I was doing before." - which was not much. It made me a little sad that this person didn't make themselves a priority in their own life and it reminded me of mom.

One of my other clients really enjoyed this post I had written at the gym:

IF YOU WILL CHANGE, EVERYTHING WILL CHANGE FOR YOU.
IF YOU DON'T CHANGE, NOTHING WILL CHANGE FOR YOU.-Jim Rohn


This is a great article from Dr. John Berardi and how we pause to start our health and fitness journey. I highly recommend reading it.
http://www.precisionnutrition.com/pause-button-mentality

Don't forget this is Bring a Friend Week!

Next Wednesday is our second Workshop and in honor of Heart Health month for February, we will be discussing nutrition, exercises other ways to help keep your heart healthy. It's absolutely free and we encourage you to bring those close to your heart.

Last week we held our Goal Setting Workshop and had a great turn out of ladies looking to enhance their lives, clear the clutter of what’s been getting in their way of accomplishing their goals and help build their roadmap to get to their destination. We gave them a handout of over 50 goal setting questions to really dig deep of what they want out of life. The response was great and I feel so grateful to be able to pass this on. If you’d like a copy, please shoot me an email and I’ll be more than happy to send you a copy.

I’m a big fan of Jim Rohn and I try to listen to his teachings each week. He keeps things simple, not complicated and part of our model to master the basics. As we plan our year ahead, I’d like to share his “Secret of Life Change.”

First, take a look at your life and ask yourself:

What makes life valuable?
What makes life worthwhile?
What makes life work well? (Spiritually, socially, personally, physically, economically...)

Then ask yourself,

What would I fix?

Keeping things simple, there is usually about a half-dozen things that make about 80% of the difference to change your life. The problem is not lack of information. The problem is simply, we don’t do the information that’s been handed to us. Focus on or keep looking for the few things that make a difference. The most important components. Minimize.

Seems pretty easy right? It is. Only focusing on 6 things or less. So what’s the problem?

“What is easy to do is also easy not to do. That’s the difference between success and failure.”
 
If you don’t neglect the easy things you can have success in your life. As Jim says, neglect starts as an infection and becomes a disease. Neglect is a disaster. One neglect usually leads to another and starts to compound.

Tip for Life Change: Clean up all neglect.

1. Find your ½ dozen things. If it’s your health, here are some simple things.
   1. Drink ½ your body weight in ounces in water each day
   2. Eat breakfast daily
   3. Have a protein and veggie with each meal
   4. Take your vitamins
   5. Eating each meal until 80% full
   6. Jim Rohn’s favorite, eat an apple a day. 
2. Don’t neglect to practice

Take the time to find your ½ dozen things that you can do to have success. Once you do, shoot me an email and let me know what they are!

Many of you know that I started this journey of being a fitness coach because of my mom. She was diabetic, felt self-conscious and intimidated by big box gyms and didn’t really have a roadmap to get her in the right direction. I wanted to help her and then Finally Fit was born to help more people like her.

But I’m not sure I’ve really told my story of how I got into fitness for myself. In high school, I was a closet athlete. I hung around with kids who liked to drink, smoke and watch rock videos on MTV when they actually played videos. No one played any sports. Sports is what you had to do in high school and that crowd just wasn’t for me. I always wanted to play soccer but we couldn’t afford it anyway so it didn’t matter. I liked being active and how it made me feel. So, I’d come home from school, run around the block in my converse (ouch, not good running shoes!), do bicep curls with 5 pound weights until I “felt the burn,” and do as many push-ups as I could in tempo with a song that I’m having trouble remembering at the moment. That’s about all I did until mom bought Tony Little videos and we did that together. I started to see my quads take shape and that made me excited. I still had no idea what I was doing.

Over the years I began riding and racing BMX and became friends with a lady who is still a treasure to my heart. Danette. She showed me the way inside a big box gym. She showed me how to workout. We became workout buddies. I did it for fun. I had no body shaming thoughts about myself where weight was concerned. Even though I really had some MAJOR posture issues, I didn’t see it. I wanted to lift to improve my riding skills. I sucked at that too but I didn’t care I had fun.

Then one day my boyfriend at the time compared me to his buddy’s girlfriend. I didn’t have a flat stomach like her. I had a pudge. That was the first time in my life I felt badly about my body. The fact that I was being compared to someone else made me think about how I am “supposed to look.” Among other things, I had to look a certain way for someone else. It made me angry that I wasn’t accepted for me.

Fast forward a couple years and a break up later, I found my workouts to be healing. All of my anger and frustration lead to the greatest physique I ever had. Then along came Joey who turned my entire systematic world upside down (in a good way) and my routine stopped. I gained a bit of weight during that same year. Going out dancing every weekend, drinking it up, eating crappy food and we were having a blast!! I remember looking at the photos from a trip to Vegas. My thighs filled my jeans, my cheeks were round all the way down around my chin. My arms no longer had shape. At the time, I didn’t see it. I was too busy enjoying this great relationship developing.

My body has been through many changes over the near 13 years we’ve been together. From angry in tip top shape to happily chubby, figure competition ready to pregnancy, back to competition ready then maintenance back to pregnancy.

But it’s what has happened on the inside that has completely changed my focus.

I have an auto-immune disease, Hashimotos, that developed 8 ½ years ago after the birth of our first daughter. It took 3 years to get it under control to begin even feeling like myself again. Now, after this second pregnancy, I was taken through the same symptoms all over again. Heart palpitations, fatigue, anxiety, fear, dizziness, foggy thinking, weak, and of course exhaustion. The feeling of being able to pass out while my heart feels like its beating through my chest is a scary feeling. However, this time around, having 5 years under my belt of what works best for me, it’s only taken 3 months instead of 3 years to get back on track.

As I look ahead for the New Year, having just given birth at the “ripe ol’ age of 40,” I don’t have any “goals” for what I want my body to look like.  I have intentions to carry through what my body NEEDS.

Regain my strength since delivery. Consistency with my strength training to improve my posture and improve my mobility from 3 months of sitting holding Emma and improve my stamina to keep up with these kids! On the nutrition side of things, gluten free is what has worked best with my Hashimotos. That has become automatic over the years but I need to work on my water intake.

So, those are what my fitness intentions are for this coming year. It’s not that exciting or some grandiose plan that I’ll be shouting from the rooftops. It’s basic, simple and at the same time, challenging to stay consistent.

What are your intentions for the year? We are hosting a “goal setting” seminar this Wednesday and also in honor of Thyroid Awareness Month, discussing the thyroid and how it affects your overall health and fitness.

Join us January 4, 2017 from 6-7pm at 9664-4 Eagle Ranch Road!