About Me

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So I live in the suburbs of Austin, with my awesome husband, who is also my best friend and our two gorgeous children. We are originally from NM, however my children were born in Austin! I currently work for a national recruiting firm as the head of the accounting dept. for 2 branches. My husband and I are both prior service Army and have served in many places around the world, including Iraq and Kuwait. I love working out and running. Once in a while I will try a fitness class. I love, love, love Beachbody workout programs!

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Consistency

Consistency: 
the ability to maintain a particular standard or repeat a particular task with minimal variation


The one thing I have learned over the years when it comes to making any changes is that consistency is pretty essential to changing your life, your health and of course changing your weight. However, because our everyday lives; work, kids, significant other, school or what ever it may be, tends to have a way of getting in our ways and makes sticking to a routine difficult. We wake up in the mornings with the best intentions, for me I always make a plan for the next day right before bed time, when I wake up I know it "go time". But then life happens. I tossed and turned all night, so getting up at 5am for my planned workout seems almost impossible or one of the kids wakes up sick and all of those well laid plans get tossed out of the window and the rest of the day is laid out, one distraction leads to another and by time the day has come to and end, you have given up on working out and forget about eating healthy because you got "too busy" to make anything and just went through the drive-thru for the family dinner. We are ALL guilty of it, making excuses and never taking accountability for our decisions and actions.

So how do we change this pattern?

Here are 3 little rules that I have learned over the last few years.

1. Never tell yourself you are "just not motivated". When you tell yourself something, like you're not motivated, you begin to believe it is true. Not being motivated is not the real problem, unless you really don't want to change your life. But as long as you want something bad enough, you have all the motivation you need.
Truth be told, there are going to be days we just don't want to workout and how much easier it is to run through the drive thru for dinner, that's understandable, but it doesn't mean we are not motivated, it just means you want two different things and a decision is to be made and our results are dependent of that one small decision. Will you get what you want from not working out or eating fast food? Probably not, but acknowledging that the choice is yours gets you one step closer to reaching your goal.


2. Baby steps. Bad choices and decisions are not easily forgotten, Rome wasn't built in a day, so remember, getting to the lifestyle you want won't be built overnight either. Making changes stick will require some work and it won't always be easy, so small and gradual changes are what is going to work the best in building the momentum for long term success.
Start with something that is easy, that you know will work for you. Schedule short 15-20 minute workout sessions at a time. Continuing building upon that until you reach where you want to be and works for you. Find a workout partner or accountability group, someone who will be there to pick you up and encourage you one the days you start slacking. Create a motivation poster, cut out "reasons" that motivate you. For me, it was looking good and feeling confident again, so I made a poster of what I wanted to look like and posted it on my bathroom mirror. Every morning, I had no choice but to look at it as I was prepping for the day ahead and if I slacked that day, it made me think of what I was missing out on by not doing what I set out to do.

3. Always have a back up plan. As aforementioned, life is unpredictable and someday complicated. Having a back up plan can help to keep you on track and keep life from throwing you off your well-defined path. For me, working out in the mornings is what works for me, but getting up at 5am, 5 days a week is not always going to happen. I am human and forget to set the alarm or simply put, I am too tired and just don't get up. On those days, I know I always have my gym bag packed and in my car and will go straight to the gym right after work. I always have a back up plan to help me stay on my path of a healthy life.


Don't let everyday obstacles get you off your course, being healthy and happy should be one of the most important things in your life. If you are not happy, it's hard for those around you to also be happy. And never ever accept defeat!


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