Keeping After Your Goals

Quick shout-out to Gretchen Hughes for requesting this blog post! I needed some prompting and she provided the perfect suggestion!

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Hot off the presses this morning is a way to keep after your goals. Seeing as how we've ventured into the second month of the year and my hubs is noticing a decline in the competition for parking spots at the gym at 5:45am, some of you have lost sight of the motivation behind your goals. Is that it? A lack of motivation? Or is it poor planning and preparation. Nothing to keep you going besides the knowledge that you have a 20 year reunion in a few months and you don't want to be flabby for that?

I know the drill. You set out on Jan 1 with a goal to lose 30 lbs and tone up by June 1. Then the Girl Scouts start knocking on your door at the make-it-or-break-it point in your transformation.
One cookie won't hurt... I can work that off this afternoon during my walk around the block.
One box wont' hurt... I still have four months to fix this little snag.
One extra rest day this week won't hurt... I will make it up by doing two workouts tomorrow.

The next thing you know you are skipping the reunion and watching reruns of Friends surrounded by boxes of Thin Mints and Tagalongs.

That's NOT going to be me. I have not only a goal, but a plan to get there. Do you???

I'm sure my scenario above is cliche, so I'm going to focus on something I know a good many of my friends struggle with daily. It's really more of an addiction issue than anything. I avoid it like the plague because I know my tendency towards wasting immense amounts of time surfing. A time-sucker is a mild description.

Pinterest has created a revolution in the ways the creative (and not-so-creative) get inspired, share ideas and store everything from recipes to outfit ideas and party-planning tips all in one spot. All those fabulous ideas!!! Logging in to your accout you imagine yourself whipping out the pinking shears and inspiring awe at your next bunco night with hand-made banners and mini cakes in the shapes of dice...

http://livesmilecelebrate.blogspot.com/2011/07/bunco-party.html

http://catchmyparty.com/photos/1106593

Beautiful, isn't it?

Three hours and no project progress later all you've done is pin another 13,000 ideas to your boards with no time to complete any today.
"Tomorrow is a new day!" you say.
"I'm going to make that tomorrow!" you say.
"I have a great Pinterest project" you tell your friends.
"Oooooh! I can't wait to see it!" They say...

...and you got NOTHIN'. Nada. Nil.

So here's my suggestion, and I'm by no means an expert on accomplishing goals, but I can share what I've done in the past that worked for me!

1. PLAN!!!
Plan your project ON PAPER. Not on the computer. Stay AWAY from the computer... let's make that ALL ELECTRONICS since I know you have the Pinterest App on your phone too. Make your goals accomplishable in increments. Goal A might be to collect the instructions and materials for the project. Goal B could be to complete the first 5 steps of the project. Goal C may be to complete the entire project without being distracted.

2. FOCUS!!!
When it is time to approach your computer, avoid ogling the new pins your friends have sent you. You are on a mission. You have a project to complete! Do NOT open four tabs in your browser. Stick to the board you are working from. If you think you'll wander, set an alarm on your phone to go off every 2-5 minutes and put it with your PLAN! Peeling your eyes away from the computer screen to turn that alarm off will remind you of your plan... just in case you strayed. (Not that you would ever!)

3. TIME LIMIT!!!
Impose a time limit on yourself and give yourself a 10 minute warning. If you have two hours to work, set a timer for 1 hour and 50 minutes so you know your time is coming to an end. Then set another timer for the full two hours. When time is up, time is UP!  (See... in a twist of irony my timer just went off telling me I have to put this post on hold while I go get my son from school! It keeps me accountable for those major life committments...)

4. REWARD YOURSELF!!!
Create a rewards system for yourself when you reach a goal or accomplish a project. It could be treating yourself to a coffee from your favorite coffee shop or getting to spend 30 minutes wandering Pinterest.
Make sure you've earned your reward though... don't just go handing them out willy-nilly or you'll fall back into your old rut! 

Now that you have a plan, get after that project... and share a picture on my Country Girl at Heart page on Facebook when it is complete!

Resolutions Smesolutions

Here we go with the New Year's Resolutions Nonsense. I'm not one for resolutions or the "giving up" of things. I like what I like when I like it. I gave up the gym over 18 months ago in favor of investing in a few tough and effective workouts I can do at home. There's diversity and flexibility. I can do whatever workout I want whenever I want. Just like I like it. 

I kicked off my at-home workouts in May of 2013 with Les Mills Combat (LMC). I was impressed with the changes I saw and felt. LOVE!  
Then I wanted some diversity so I dug deep and took on ChaLean Extreme (CLX) and found some serious definition in my legs and arms! LOVE! 
Then I tried T25. No offense to Shaun T, but that isn't the workout for me. While the lickety-split, 25 minutes and done pace was awesome, all the jumping caused me knee pain that plagued me throughout and I finally called it quits. DISLIKE 
This last summer 21 Day Fix came on the market and I jumped that bandwagon before it was a bandwagon. Again, LOVE! 
PiYo was a borrowed workout from a girlfriend and one I highly recommend for anyone looking for low-impact with high intensity. (Seems like an oxymoron doesn't it!?) The flexibility I gained from just a few weeks of PiYo was amazing. LOVE! 

So where am I now? I hit a low after my sister-in-law's wedding in October. I was hitting it hard and doing great until the day before the wedding...

After the wedding, well, I took a little break. And that little break made me lazy. Workouts dropped from 5-6 days/week to 3-4 days/week. Around Thanksgiving I got even lazier and workouts became 2 days/week. As of yesterday I had done one workout in three weeks. What's the point? Why suffer through that one workout for what boils down to no point at all? Because it was driving me nuts to not work out. I could feel it in my muscles and my mind. Everything was suffering. That one workout a few days before Christmas did me a ton of good mentally.

The winter blues have set in and I can't seem to get out of the "funk" I've been in. The funk has been keeping me from my own home gym. Down the stairs. In my basement. 30 seconds away. They (I don't know who "they" are yet) say that if you live more than 10 minutes away from your gym you won't go. I agree. I also think if you have the "funk" I have you won't workout even if you live in your gym! For weeks I would dress in my workout clothes first thing in the AM with every intention of kicking ass during my workout that day... only to change out of workout clothes and into my pj's at night with not so much as a bead of sweat on my dri-fit. 

Today I looked up an old friend. Chalene Johnson and her CLX workout that I love so, so, so much. 

This time around I'm going to focus on upping my weights again. I have to start slow and be careful with "wimpy" as I call my left wrist, but upping the weights is the only way to make progress. I'm mentally preparing for the increase in appetite I'll see with the workouts and looking forward to breaking out the shorts when spring arrives March 1st. (I'm an optimist... remember 2013?) 


Tonight my bestie and I chatted about motivation. She's motivated by a trip to Vegas in February. (A trip I hope to get to go on too!) I'm motivated by shorts weather, past compliments on my legs after a great round of CLX and a 20 year reunion in June. 

I typed up my workout chart complete with meal and water tracking and workout accountability. I have kids who love it when I work out. "Do another one, mommy!" And I have a lineup of killer supplemental workouts on my shelf. Some LMC for the days I want to kick and punch, some yoga when I need to recharge and some rewards for myself along the way! 

I have a goal and a plan to get there. I have the means and sporadically I have the motivation. What I need is to remember to take it one day, one workout, at a time. To keep on the path that keeps me feeling good. The sun will shine again someday and the motivation will be easier to find each morning. Until that day, here's to digging deep and keeping after that goal.