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?