January 2 - Goals, Resolutions, & Motivation

If there's one thing you need to know about me, it's that I am very disorganized when it comes to anything. You should see my car -- even after I clean it out, somehow, I still manage to let the junk build back up. So this is my first attempt at displaying an organized layout of my thoughts and ideas. 

Today, I want to reflect on my goals, resolutions, and motivation a little more. I was reading Kayla Itsines's book, The Bikini Body Motivation & Habits Guide, and it got me thinking about past attempts in getting back in shape and healthy again. 

Kayla does a great job explaining why women have a hard time staying motivated in going to the gym and changing to a healthy lifestyle. She says women have a hard time staying motivated because of how they feel about themselves, and I can relate so much. When I first started working out back in September, I was super focused and driven to lose weight and look great for when I had my first dress fitting, but when that time rolled around, and I did not see any results, I put myself down and fell off the cycle. Every day, I would wake up early, about 4:30, and tell myself I should get up and try the gym again, only to hit snooze and sleep in another 30 minutes and skip the gym entirely. Once I was in that habit, it was nearly impossible to get up and do anything. 

As I continued reading this great book (seriously, check out her series on workouts and motivation if you need a little push in the right direction. Kayla is a hero!), I realized there were things I absolutely had to change if I want to get back on track, old habits needing to die immediately. Kayla encourages her readers to find and create goals, resolutions and motivational keys to continue to follow and chase, which is where I am at today!

So... what is a goal?

goal

Definition: the object of a person's ambition or effort; an aim or desired result.

I have always struggled with keeping up with goals. Not many of the longterm goals I set were ever accomplished, like dealing with weight loss or starting and enjoy a new hobby. I tend to get sidetracked or demotivated very easily, whether it's a video game session or staring at my phone for hours on end. Okay, hours may be over exaggerating, but still. I could be doing other things instead, like walking my dogs or hitting the apartment gym for a quick elliptical or treadmill session. It's all about keeping a good habit up that ties with goals, and eventually, I'll be where I want to be! 

That's why it is so hard and frustrating when I'll be back at work, and the bad habits may come back and interfere with my goals. My students are sweethearts, they really are. But they make dieting super hard when their parents buy their teachers things, like tacos and sweets. Or maybe I'll have those days when I am swamped with work and I get so frustrated, I just start snacking on the leftover cookies and donuts our sweet principal buys us. I just need to pull up my big girl panties and tell myself no, that that is not what I want and won't help me accomplish my goals at all! 

Creating a solid list of goals on this blog that I can refer to will definitely keep me in the right direction and keep me on track with my health goal. C'mon Chance, kill it!

Goal List - 

Weekly

1. Hit the gym 5 times during the week. During this week, I want to meet with my personal trainer Daniel one time a week, and other days, go to the gym 2 times a day, 2 days out of the week. 

2. Weigh in once a week. The good thing about working in an awesome school with a good community is that they have health challenges for the staff all the time! We run a challenge called the Biggest Loser, and the main goal is who can have the biggest weight loss percentage. Last semester, I finished in 2nd by losing 5% of my weight, going from 187 to 175, so that's a great start to where I am at now!

When I weigh in, I want to write that number out in a place I can look at and notice any changes. I plan on writing that weight on my kitchen calendar for myself and Travis to see! 

3. Complete a steps goal. I want to increase the number of steps I have each day, which should be no problem since I teach in an open computer lab! The students won't like that I will be up monitoring them more,  but they can just get over it!

Daily

1. Drink more water! I have a tendency to reach for sugary drinks, like juice or soda, when I am thirsty and skip out on water entirely. I definitely want to increase my water intake by drinking 12 cups of water throughout the day, especially on those days I will be working out more than once. 

2. Complete my fitness and food diary, all while staying within my daily calorie goal. This one is the goal that always gets me in trouble. There were days where I would be killing it, entering every little thing that entered my body, but then I would slip up and have a soda. I'd feel so ashamed about putting that gross drink into my system that I would not record I ever had. I just need to own up when I slip like that and put it in my diary so I can get a full account of what I am eating. I was only cheating myself, so I need to change that ASAP!

3. Include at least 10 minutes of LISS a day, and increase my minutes! A majority of my workouts include about 5 minutes of the treadmill or elliptical to warm up my muscles before moving on to an interval workout with 5 more minutes of cardio at the end for a cool down. I want to keep my heart rate up by doing more LISS. LISS stands for Low-Intensity Sustained State, and it mainly has steady cardio exercises, like walking, jogging, and even swimming. I was to increase my LISS time to add a little more to my workout each day!

resolution

Definition: a firm decision to do or not to do something.

To be honey, I have never done a New Years Resolution. It just seemed to me like another form of goal setting, and I'm already terribly at keeping up with my goals. However, after looking at the definition of the word, I can see where the differences lie. By committing NOT to do something, for example, all of those unhealthy habits I was practicing,  resolutions are the perfect tools for following any driven goal!

I am very fortunate to have an amazing partner in crime to help me follow these resolutions and avoid any slip-ups. While I was coming up with my health and fitness goals, Travis made the suggestion of what our year resolutions could be -- cutting out junk like soda, candy, and fast food and make it a priority to follow the healthy road. Love you, babe!

motivation

Definition: the general desire or willingness of someone to do something.

All I ever wanted to be was body confident again, to be the woman who can where whatever I want to and still feel young and peppy. I can get there, nothing will stop me!