Be a CHAMPION of your Mind Games

In this Fitness Resolution Series, I have been sharing tips to get you to stick to your goals and actually do it! I first had your state your general goal, then last week we talked about goal planning and now this week we will battle the biggest obstacle. Your MIND! How many times do we hear that we become our biggest enemy by discouraging ourselves, talking about ourselves . . . or being the most important person who doesn't believe in our dream?

I most certainly am guilty of that. Lately I have allowed myself to be consumed in negative thinking that I have discredited what I'm worth even when others encourage me. I know it is because I have been slacking in my relationship with the Lord, and even that has only slacked because of the devil filling my head with negative thoughts.

So one day I sat down with my BF and we brainstormed inspirational thinking and put together this acronym to help you on your way to positive thinking when it comes to looking at yourself in the mirror or how you approach each rep, each second of your workout!

Oh and as a side note, those of you who don't know, I used to be an English teacher and using acronyms to teach a concept is a fave among us teacher nerds! lol! So here it is:


C-onquer your minis
You already set up your mini-goals when you did the S.M.A.R.T Plan. What this does is prevent you from feeling defeated. For each mini step you complete you set your mind into a position of knowing that you are moving forward. Focus on the idea that it isn't about how far you have to go, but rather how far you have come!

H-old yourself up to a higher standard
Don't beat yourself up over things you shouldn't do or eat, but also hold yourself to a higher standard. Make the right choices but if you make a mistake, let it go. You must believe in yourself enough to know that a minor set back, a missed workout, eating 3 pizza slices, isn't the end! The next meal is the next chance to make it right. It ain't about winning every battle, it is about believing in yourself that you WILL win the war!

A-mple positivity
You must be present to your negative thoughts. Be active in your feelings throughout the day. If a negative thought comes in your mind, take a mental stop and fixate on the opposite of that thought. Keep a mini-notepad around and write the positive opposite down. When a down time come, as it will in any journey, you can pull out those thoughts and read them to lift yourself back up. Get on Pinterest and read inspirational quotes. I even have a whole board devoted to quotes I'll read often to motivate myself. You can check out my board HERE.

M-otivate
Encourage others. Get on Facebook and share quotes that you love. Get a partner, a buddy, someone you text or Facebook often to hold each other accountable. Get on MyFitnessPal and take part in a community of people wanting to make good food decisions. When you try to help others who want the same goals as you, you feel empowered. You will feel accountable. (I guess that is why I do this blog!)

P-ump yourself up 
Pick your own theme song. When you are feeling down or negative, play that song. Heck even football teams have a song that pumps them up when they run out on the field! Listen to it on the way to work, the gym, to your next social gathering, own yourself! My two songs are Britney Spears' (no surprise there) Work B**ch and Katy Perry's Roar.

AND because Pug Fest is tomorrow, I must share a pic of my beloved pug!

I need you to share with me any profiles you have: MyFitnessPal, Pinterest, Instagram. . . if you are on those sites, let's motivate each other! Also, what is your theme song? Maybe we can build a motivational playlist!

Comment below or comment on The STRONG Life Facebook Page. We got this!

New Year Fitness Resolution Series Part One: Think SMART

This first post in the New Year Fitness Resolution Series came out later than I planned thanks to a few bumps in the road that I have had to deal with this week. More details to come as I outline my journey to being STRONG in future posts, but for now let's focus on our commitments to making our Fitness Resolutions actually stick this year!

Last week I had you write down your general Fitness Resolution statement and this week we will hone it down so that you can make it realistic and attainable. One of the ways that we fail to get anything done is not making a detailed plan on how to get there. I wrote about this topic way back in July of 2012 (whoa) so it doesn't hurt to talk about it again.

Now that you have set your overall goal, now you gotta get S.M.A.R.T about it! I'll explain what I mean if you haven't heard about setting smart goals before as I apply thinking SMART to my Fitness Resolution Goal.



(S)pecific - Give yourself an actual number or one sole thing to focus on
It is not enough to say you want to lose weight, or be healthier or more fit. If it is too general it will be harder to hold yourself accountable to it. You want to lose weight? Great. How many pounds? You want to be healthier? Great. What is your vice? Sugar? Okay, let's make a goal to cut out sugar from your diet. You want to be more fit? Cool. Fit how? Run a mile in less than 10 minutes? Crank out 20 real push-ups? Now we are getting somewhere! You gotta give yourself something specific to work towards. For me it's that pesky 30 pounds that creeped up on me last year. ;-p

(M)easurable - How will you track your progress towards your goal?
I can say I want to lose 30 pounds but I'm not going to get anywhere if I'm not finding a way to measure that progress. Exercise and healthy eating will get me there. I will use Myfitnesspal to make sure I stick to my calorie goals each day. I will use my chart to track my workouts each week (more on this in a later post). I will also use a scale to weigh myself weekly to be able to track that progress as it goes down. Now I've made my goal tangible and trackable.

(A)ttainable - Be realistic! Think baby steps.
Lose 50 pounds in a month? Yikes! If you find a way to do that, than kudos to you! You reached your goal! BUT you'll likely put it right back on right away and in the mean time, you probably developed unhealthy habits. A goal that you give yourself needs to be a journey. It needs to be transforming. Lose 2-3 pounds each week? That's realistic. Now I'm getting somewhere. If you've never run before, you likely aren't going to be running a marathon next month. So what's the baby step you'll take? I took my 30 pounds down to 2-3 pounds a week. Take that running a marathon goal down to running your first 5k. You want to be the 2014 Burpee-thon Champ but can only bust out 5 burpees before having to take a break? Shoot for 10 burpees before dying. Then your big New Year goal becomes less daunting and you feel better as your reach the attainable baby step goals along the way.

(R)elevant - Light yourself on fire. Give yourself a purpose. A reason. Answer the WHY part of your goal. 
Why do I want to lose 30 pounds? Of course there is the vanity reason. I wanna look good. I want to fit in my clothes again. I want to feel confident. And of course there is the healthy aspect. But why now? What's going to be the real drive that will make that goal relevant to my life? Maybe for you it is a wedding, a reunion, a trip. I want to inspire people. It is not enough for me to live this life and leave no imprint behind. I know I am better than my current situations that bring me down and that God has a greater purpose for me. I want to hold myself to a higher standard because I know my value. I will not be taken for granted or unappreciated or disrespected. So eating crap and gaining weight was the ultimate way that I disrespected myself. I keep allowing outside influences affect my self-worth when it should be God defining my worth. Why do I want to lose 30 pounds? I want to be an example of a STRONG woman in order to leave my imprint in the world.

(T)ime-Bound - You need a deadline. 
We've all done it. Procrastinate. I am absolutely horrible with it, so if you struggle with this, we are in this together! When I come up with a fitness program plan, I like to do it in the 30-Day or 90-Day set up. Each month I'll have my 30-Day plan to lose 10 pounds. 30 pounds in 90 days. Starting next week, along with a weight-loss challenge we are doing at my work, I am going to begin my 90 day or 12 week journey. By April 13th I will be 30 pounds lighter!

Now it is your turn. Go back to that piece of paper or journal from last week where you wrote your New Year Fitness Goal and answer those SMART questions:

1) What is your specific number or sole thing you want to accomplish?
2) How will you track your progress to reach your goal?
3) What are your baby-step goals that will lead up to your big goal?
4) WHY do you want to reach this goal now?
5) What date is your deadline to reach your goal?

I just put my goal and plan out there. Now I feel like I have to do it now that I put it out for everyone to see. Talk about accountability! So, won't you do the same? Share in the comments below your answers to those questions or head on over to The STRONG Life Facebook Page and share your answers. You'll be glad you did because I'll be right there to cheer you on as you go on your own journey. :-)


P.S. Today I celebrate the 1 year anniversary of my boyfriend, my partner, and I being together. Time sure does fly and I am looking forward to us growing together in our journey to live according to GOD's will and plan for us. Here is to our next year together baby! I love you! MORE CHANGED LIVES ;-)

Whatcha Gonna Do About It?

I sat down to write my post for today thinking I was going to write the first post in my Fitness Resolution Series, but a few things happened recently in my life that led me to be inspired to write this post instead. No worries though, that first of the 4 post series will come later this week!

So this is the first post since my return for the Inspiration Category and I thought sharing this would strike a cord with someone. The mid-week is so symbolic because the beginning of the week has past and now at the "hump" you can move forward to make the rest of your week better. That, and the weekend is closer am I right? haha

I have been struggling lately with hope, purpose and warding off negativity in my life that has been bringing me down where I know is making me not myself. Who I am today is not who I was a year ago and not who I want to be. That is probably the biggest reason I chose to dive back into blogging so that I can focus on positive and give myself a path towards being ME again. Those of you following me now are so important to me because it leads me to believe many of you have been feeling similar to how I have been feeling. We are not meant to live our life journey alone!

My bf and I watched a sermon recently from People's Church Pastor Herbert Cooper of Oklahoma City (my hometown!) and he shared his steps for healing from hurt and the first one was to tell somebody.

"Admit your faults to one another and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous man has great power and wonderful results" ~ James 5:16

Here is one fault I am fighting with right now. . . happiness. . . Not the "my-life-is-perfect-so-i'm-happy" type happy but the "I-have-peace-with-my-life-and-where-God-takes-me" type happy.

I came across a post from IFBB Bikini Pro, Jessica Arevalo, that I just happened to coincidently come across when my bf sent me this fit pic of her today.

When I recognized her, I hopped on her Instagram and found this quote from her. If this isn't great advice, I don't know what is! I knew that I had to change my post plan and share this with you all. Here is her quote and a pic of me when I last remember being HAPPY!

I don't want selfish happy, I want the spiritual at peace type happy! Make that list, what makes you unhappy today? Go through each one and plan what to do about it! What can you do today to get you in that direction? It can be big or small. This post is my first step :-)

Leave a comment or go on to The STRONG Life Facebook page and let me know your first step. We must confess to each other to lead to healing, to lead to strength and being our best for HIS glory!

The Resolution to Train Mean!

You might have seen at the side of the blog the main categories include Training Mean, Eating Clean and Inspiration. Since I'm easing myself back (ideally at least one post of each category a week) I'm doing one or two posts to help myself reach my end goal of being a blogger again!

So when I thought (lots of thoughts) on what to start with for my first real post I figured, "Might as well go with Training Mean!"

Working in the fitness industry the most common thing I see, well we all see, is that come New Years we are all gonna lose weight! Right?

Not gonna lie. . .

I'm one of them, I already admitted that I have gained 30 pounds last year. . . :-/

The bottom line is we all wanna feel better, be better, and let's be honest in our vanity, we wanna look good. However, what good is looking good if we don't feel good? (the purpose of my blog!) ;-)

But like I mentioned before I'm going to focus this post on Training Mean so we will look at the mental development of that.

Alright, so take out that journal or piece of scrap paper, and write your New Years Resolution for Fitness. You will use that for the next few steps that I think might help you keep on track. In the blogging world, this is what we call a set up for a Blog Series! For the next 4 weeks I will have posts focused on getting that Fitness Resolution to happen.

I guess if I am making you do this, I'll do it too. . .

My New Years Fitness Resolution is:

Now it is your turn! Share in the comments below or head on over to The STRONG Life Facebook Page to let me know. In fact, if you want to take a pic like I did, post it on the Facebook Page! One of the keys to success is accountability ya know!

Next week I'll cover the first step towards making sure you stick with it.

No go. Tell me. What is your New Year Fitness Resolution?

It's Been A While

It most certainly has been a while but there is something about timing in life that even if you want to do something (like blogging) it just doesn't happen if the heart ain't in it or if it isn't aligned with God's plan yet.

I used to blog about wedding planning, etiquette and marriage/faith related tips in a blog I ran for two years and when I started studying for my Personal Training Certification and embarking on my own fitness transformation, I retired one blog to begin this one! Over a year ago when I started this blog I was married but circumstances caused me to have to change my focus for this blog and for myself. The very last time I posted here was over a year ago just after my divorce was finalized. It was a tough time in my life but alas God had other plans for me indeed. A lot happens in a year. . . I found a new love, found a new job that allows me to help and support others, and 30 gained pounds :-/ Yep, that happened. . . but life has been testing me to the point where I am finally ready to get back and share my journey in the hopes to inspire others!

I did debate on deleting all of my old posts, especially the pre and post divorce ones since that time in my life no longer impacts me in the immediate sense since it has been over a year ago but then I realized that there might be others going through a similar situation and if any of my words from when I was recovering and rebuilding myself at that time can speak to someone, then I certainly don't want to miss that chance! Also, it is a part of what made me who I am today and I'm not ashamed of that. But for the record, I am with a great man now for just about a year and loving the ability to apply what I have learned from my past with someone who is a true partner for me to grow with <3

I'll probably begin by doing one or two posts a week to get into the swing of things but expect to find posts on faith, fitness, food and Mila (what? didn't think I would do something without a little #puglife in the mix did you?)

Be sure to LIKE my page on Facebook The STRONG Life to not miss my latest posts and extra inspiration!

~Melina