Shannan’s Journey

Don’t wait one more day to get the body you’ve always wanted. Stop procrastinating and start now! Not Monday, not tomorrow, not after your friend’s wedding - today! The truth is that every day we make hundreds of little choices that determines the direction of our life. This is true for every area of our lives - especially our health. Make smart little choices everyday and the end result will be worth it. Here are some ideas to get you focused:

• Peer pressure? Whatever…instead of joining the crowd and eating that fat-laden dish just because you go out to eat, be a leader among your peers to choose a hearty vegetable salad with grilled chicken or fish with steamed vegetables. Then enjoy that glass of wine instead of feeling horrible for downing 1000+ calories in one sitting. And don’t announce you’re on a diet - just stand strong in your decision to nourish your body versus bombard it!
• Friends always wanting to meet up for coffee or happy hour? Recommend going for a walk instead! Meet up at the park and go for a good-paced walk while you chat. Time flies and you’ve burned calories while shooting the breeze! and if that just isn’t gonna happen and going to a coffee shop is where it’s at, then learn to order the right thing for your diet or meal plan that won’t hurt you in the long run….
• Tough to hit the gym? Schedule it in and do it. If your days get away from you, hit the gym before work. Not a morning person, take your gym bag with you and leave it in the driver’s seat of your car as a reminder to yourself to go to the gym before calling it a day.
• Have to eat out a lot for work or social events? Repeat after me: ‘I’ll have the [fish/chicken/filet] grilled with light oil, double veggies with no butter, instead of potatoes, and no thanks on the bread basket!’.
• Too tired to cook when you get home? Instead of zapping a high-sodium microwave dinner, or even worse, hitting the drive-thru, go grocery shopping on Sundays and prep food for the week. Chop veggies, hard boil some eggs, boil brown rice, grill some chicken and brown some extra-lean ground turkey. It will all stay good easily through Thursday and chances are you will either eat out on Friday or have time to cook a nice home-cooked meal!
• Save money and calories and pack that brown bag each night with a healthy lunch and snacks. Then it’s ready to grab on your way out the door! Pack it right after dinner while you’re already in the kitchen so you only have to clean up one mess - and if you have leftovers from dinner - bonus…lunch is done!

So what’s the #1 secret to success you might ask? Consistency. You’re bound to slip up here and there - you’re human. But the key is to get back up and keep going. Frustration is just part of working toward and maintaining a healthy body. It’s not something with a clear start and stop - so make smaller goals to keep you motivated and surround yourself with supportive people to lift you up on tough days. Trust me - there are days even I don’t want to work out – yes it’s true! But the choice to forge ahead or to give up will define the outcome. So get off your hiney (after you’re done reading this, that is), shut down the laptop and go outside and enjoy the fresh outdoors. Spring is here - and that bathing suit is calling your name. Don’t wait to get in the best shape of your life - do it now!

All my best…

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 4th, 2009 at 7:05 pm and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.