Tag Archives: Transformation Challenge

Who’s Helping You Reach Your Goals?

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You may want to go it alone.

You may not feel comfortable asking for help.

You may be embarrassed that you aren’t perfect.

But study after study shows that having at least one person support you in meeting your wellness goals will dramatically increase your chances of success.

Having a wellness partner or joining a support group helps:

  • Normalize what you’re going through—You realize that everyone has cravings, gets frustrated by the numbers on the scale, and has moments of weakness. You are not a failure or a freak.
  • Cheer you on—Noticing and celebrating every sign of progress builds momentum towards successfully meeting your goals. Having someone to share these with helps keep you motivated.
  • Boost morale—Having someone to turn to when you are fighting a craving or to help you get back up if you do stumble is powerful. The only failure is not picking yourself back up and keep going.
  • Problem solve—When you are focused on the problem, it can be almost impossible to see even obvious solutions. Having someone on your side who can see the situation more objectively can help you brainstorm ways around any obstacles.
  • Make the journey more fun—going it alone makes it easier to get caught in the negative thought spiral going on in your head. Having a partner helps break the inner patterns so that achieving your wellness goals is more enjoyable.

But where can you find help?

  • Ask a friend or family member—Choose someone who is consistently positive, good at problem solving, and will be uplifting and inspiring.
  • Join a group—There are a number of on-line and in-person support groups. A few places to look include: transformation.com, beachbody.com, Weight Watchers, your local hospital, or a community group. Pick a group that does more than just air problems. Look for a focus on celebrating successes, problem solving, and offering encouragement.
  • Hire a coach—Consider working one-on-one with a certified professional health or wellness coach who is goal and success focused, and that will come up with an individualized plan to help you break through any thoughts, beliefs, or patterns that are literally weighing you down.

What can you do today to reach out for support? How will having at least one person helping to cheer you on, boost morale, and problem solve make it easier to meet your goals?

Together we can do it!

Progress Not Perfection

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My 18-week Transformation Challenge is complete and I am excited to report that I met—and even surpassed—almost all of my goals.

And I’ll admit that the recovering perfectionist in me is a little disappointed that I wasn’t perfect. Good to know that I still (and will forever and always) have internal work to do!

Progress not perfection!

One of my main goals was to measure my success by how much I enjoyed the process. This was a huge win! The past 18 weeks have been phenomenal! I truly have met my goal of living a healthy, vibrant, and fulfilling life that is meaningful to myself and others.

What this means is that I’m weaning myself off obsession and living life more fully and in balance. This is an important shift to make for long-term sustainability. Life is meant to be lived fully.

Some other wins:

  • Consistently improved my nutrition
  • Recovered and significantly improved my fitness after my surgery in December (went from struggling to do 5 to 10 knee push ups at a pop to 20 to 30 knee push ups. Personal best was 255 knee push ups in a workout!)
  • Weaned myself off all regular prescription drugs
  • Reconnected with family
  • Shifted negative catabolic energy around deadlines, money, and my body
  • Meditated daily
  • Achieved two coaching certifications
  • Definitely let go of some limiting beliefs
  • Lost 2 inches from my waist
  • Lost 1 inch from my hips and each thigh
  • Was able to get back into my size 4 shorts
  • Lost 6 pounds
  • Went from 24.6 to 21.5 body fat percentage

Significant progress right?

Where I fell short was that I didn’t meet my goal of getting down to 19 percent body fat or losing 10 pounds of fat. So I’m going to evaluate my goals—what do I want now? Why do I want those goals? Are they the right goals for me?—and will refocus on a new challenge.

For me, goals are important because there are always opportunities to strive to improve, grow, and evolve. But meeting the goals is not really the true objective. To me, the true goal is to live life to the fullest every step along the way.

No goal is every achieved alone. I would like to thank all of you fabulous readers for supporting me along this journey, as well as my amazing coach, Jenn Barley, the women in my Fabulous Friends accountability group, and the incredible folks in the Transformation Mastery Group. The biggest thanks, however, goes out to my best friend and husband, David, whose love and support makes me a better person every day. Thank you honey!

What are your goals? Why are they important to you? How much are you enjoying the process of moving towards them? What is your definition of success?

Together we can do it!


Can You Love Life And Be Fit and Healthy?

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Are you living as the person you intend to be? Do your actions line up with your desires for the life you want to create?

Often the answer is “No.” For instance, you may want with all your heart to be fit and lean, but you consistently overeat or blow off exercise.

I’m just as guilty of this as anyone else. For the past couple of months, I’ve overeaten or made less than stellar choices on the weekends. While I am happy to say that the over-indulgences weren’t nearly what they would have been in the past, I still made the conscious choices to eat and drink more than is absolutely best for me.

The good news is I’m continuing to make progress on my 18-week Transformation Challenge—I’m more flexible and am getting stronger, I’m seeing muscles develop, and my waist is a little slimmer—but the improvements have definitely slowed.

So the questions I’ve been asking myself for the past couple of days are, “Who do I intend to be and what do I need to do to Be that person?”

One limiting belief I recognized is the feeling that I have to be either or. For instance, either I am fit and lean, Or I enjoy myself with family and friends on the weekends. Is it possible to be fit and lean And enjoy myself with friends and family?

Finding balanceSwitching that Or to And feels much more powerful to me. It’s giving myself permission to  more fully be the person I want to be—and still meet my goals. The key now is to find that balance that lets me speed up my progress And still enjoy my friends and family when I get to see them.

Empowering myself with that “And,” however, may not look like I expect. I think it means I stick to my healthy eating 90 percent of the time, allow myself a little bit less dietary leeway than I have been taking, And figure out how to enjoy myself in other ways than with food.

By making the switch from Or to And, I’m opening myself up to solutions and possibilities that I might not even have noticed before. With a conscious effort to be present, creating a fit and lean body And enjoying friends and family is something I believe can be achieved.

Where are you limiting yourself by using Or instead of And? Do you feel like you have to be successful in business Or have a happy family? Be lean and fit Or are able to enjoy the foods you love?

What happens if you switch Or to And? How does that help you more fully engage in the actions that help you live as the person you intend to be?

Together we can do it!

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Keeping Yourself on Track When You Have Been Less Than Perfect

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My eating has been less than perfect this week. It hasn’t been horrible, but it hasn’t been spot on, either.

What I love reflecting on is that in the fairly recent past, not being perfect would have meant giving up altogether. My thinking would have been along the lines of, “I’ve blown it,” followed by a lot of really harsh self-criticism that would have resulted in regaining the weight I had just lost.

That old negative, catabolic assault on my mind, body, and spirit felt terrible! It truly was verbal abuse inflicted on myself. I’m so glad I don’t do that anymore!

But this morning, I became aware of a slight undercurrent of catabolic thoughts and feelings (guilt) resulting from a few higher calorie food choices.

Since I am aware of it, I’m going to address it right here and right now.

The main thing I want to remind myself is that optimal wellness is about taking care of me for the long-run.

While I have set some goals for an 18-week transformation challenge, my wellness goals will not end there. I do not have to be perfect to meet my short and long-term goals. What matters most is that I am making progress, and I am definitely doing that.

Yesterday is done. Forget about it. Focus on the choices I am making today. Yes, this weekend will be challenging being with my folks, traveling, and it being my husband’s birthday, but I have the skills and determination to make the best possible choices—and still allow myself to have a good time and truly appreciate what I am eating. As Tony Horton says, “I will do my best and forget the rest.”

And I am doing a great job of getting my workouts in, and my slight splurges have not been nutritionally out there. It’s important to give myself credit where credit is due.

I definitely have the ability to make good decisions about what, when, and how much I am eating—and can follow through with those decisions. One thing I know for sure is that consistently making those small decisions to eat healthy foods and move my body pays off so much. There is not much I love more than physically feeling good and being in alignment mind, body, and spirit.

After this little talk, I feel a huge surge of anabolic energy that I can use to help stay on track this weekend. If I am less than perfect, what’s important is to be aware of and minimize the catabolic self-talk.

Paying attention to my thoughts impacts my feelings, which absolutely results in actions that are either taking me towards my goals or away from them.

Has this example of my internal dialogue been helpful for you? What are the things you do to get yourself back on track when you have been less than perfect? How does that help you reach your goals?

Together we can do it!

 

 

Photo by Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

Making Joy a Part of Your Return on Investment

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I am in the first week of an 18-week challenge for Transformation Mastery. While I have set specific, inspiring goals to work towards, my focus and excitement is on right now.

We do not change our lives by jumping from where we are to where we want to be. We change it moment-by-moment and decision-by-decision.

Right now is when I need to be motivated. Right now is when I need to be engaged and making good decisions. Right now is when I need to be having fun!

Because while it will feel good to meet my goals, that feeling will be fleeting, and it will be so much more satisfying if I have enjoyed the process all along the way.

Just think of it as return on investment. I can put all this time and energy into this process and get a nice but short-term return on the feeling of joy I get from meeting my goals, or I can get a huge return on that investment by feeling joy as much as possible all along the way.

An added bonus is that the accumulated joy will actually help me meet my goals.

Enjoying the process includes making a conscious choice to look for and celebrate what I am doing well, learn from and let go of what I can do better, and celebrate where I am right now and the opportunities I have for growth.

This means I have a choice about how I look at my first week of a high-intensity and extremely demanding exercise program. I can struggle through the workouts the first time and get discouraged, and maybe even give up, or I can struggle through the workouts and celebrate the opportunities I have to grow and excel.

What I am laying down this week is a baseline from which I will get to measure my future success. I can use it to inspire me to keep going and try harder, and to enjoy everything from the muscle soreness I’m feeling because it’s an indicator I’m making muscles, to the challenge of learning a new workout routine.

And I want to eek out every ounce of joy and fun that I can as a return on this investment of time, energy, and dedication because enjoying the journey will ensure I enjoy the end results.

How can you begin to measure your success by how much you are enjoying the process of life leading to your goals? What difference does that make to the process, and to your ability to meet the challenges along the way?

Together we can do it!\

Photo by sakhorn38 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net