Gratitude Helps Attitude: Day 141

Evolution Two – week nine

Monday, July 20, 2009

Hello Folks,

I am pretty tired today, so I am going to keep it short. One thing that has been on my mind is how important it is for me to be grateful. I think attitude can affect how our days go and how we see life. Since I am still breathing I am feeling pretty lucky. So many people have passed away recently and it makes me think about how precious it is to be alive. That is the energy I hope to send out to the universe...thank you for today.

Exercise: Interval (run 30 min., bike 25 min.), Pyramid training

Menu: Raw food experiment

Until next time…

Think, Believe, Act, Achieve

Dakota

Today’s Mantra: Gratitude can strengthen attitude.

How To Re-Inspire Yourself: Day 140

Evolution Two – week eight

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Hello Folks,

Today I want to talk about how I get my inspiration after working out and watching my nutrition for 140 days. When my workout starts to feel like “ground hog day” and my meals start to look all the same, I go on-line for inspiration. I love to look at articles that talk about the latest nutritional information out there. Here is one website I find interesting...

http://store.rawreform.com/index.php?osCsid=ece91959eb06b5e5746833e433f4904d. The site was started by a woman named Angela Stokes who struggled with her weight and discovered a raw food diet that help her gain control of her weight and life again. It is very inspiring and an interesting sight to check out. The idea of always eating live foods is appealing to me. I have been doing some experimenting with eating raw food, but I am still finding my body responding really well to fish and poultry, so I am only partially practicing raw food eating.

I also like to check out sites that demonstrate the latest in exercise programs. The most popular programs out there of course include cardio/interval training and some superset resistance training workouts. I do get some really good ideas for my workouts that I like to incorporate from various on-line trainers. Some of my favorite sites to go to are http://www.iwantsixpackabs.com/abs.html and youtube exercise videos by Craig Ballantyne at http://www.turbulencetraining.com/youtube-videos.shtml. Both sites have very intense workout ideas and useful information.

I also like to look at other success stories. The only way I think I can psychologically believe in the possibility of achieving anything is to learn from others who have overcome their own obstacles. I think the secret to success really has to do with watching and copying and incorporating all of the techniques that others have used. I like to look at Adam Water’s site at http://rtp-blog.com/ or go to youtube videos made by everyday people who have recorded and achieved some of their fitness goals.

Exercise: Interval (bike 30 min., stepper 10 min., row 5 min.), bodyweight training

Menu: free day

Until next time…

Think, Believe, Act, Achieve

Dakota

Today’s Mantra: Learn from those who came before you.

Still Under The Weather: Day 139

Evolution Two – week eight

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Hello Folks,

I was still feeling a little under the weather today, but I decided to make the best of it. I had to get a few things done at home today...and frankly I am feeling like a homebody, so I am going to get out before I have a freak out. Seriously, I need to get some vitamin D...you know, sunshine.

Anyway, talk to you tomorrow!

Exercise: Interval (run 30 min., bike 25 min.)

Menu: Veggies and Protein

Until next time…

Think, Believe, Act, Achieve

Dakota

Today’s Mantra: For everything there is a season.

Trick The Mind Before It Tricks You: Day 138

Evolution Two – week eight

Friday, July 17, 2009

Hello Folks,

Today explained why my appetite went up the last the couple of days. Whenever I get my period I find myself craving more food. I am not a craver of chocolate like some, but more of a craver of bagels and cereal and stuff like that for some reason.
I also wasn’t feeling particularly well today; probably due to a combination of things. I decided to take it easy today, even though I had planned to run lots of errands. I have been thinking about incorporating more visualization techniques into my training. I know that when I focus my progress during a workout I see better results.

As usual this all is an experiment that continues to unfold as I go. There are a few surprises along the way!

Exercise: Interval (bike 30 min.)

Menu: veggies and protein

Until next time…

Think, Believe, Act, Achieve

Dakota

Today’s Mantra: Visualize yourself as though you were already there and trick the mind into believing in yourself.

Awareness And Hard Lessons: Day 137

Evolution Two – week eight

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Hello Folks,

Today was not supposed to be my free food day. I was going to have it be on Sunday, but the forces that be were at play. Usually, on my free day I eat various samples of all of my favorite treats, including ice cream, and I am more flexible with my meals. Since I didn’t plan well enough today and I had a few “opportunities” to eat less than optimal nutritionally valuable food, I ended up changing my Sunday free food day to today.

Frankly, I am frustrated about this, because I ate a piece of cake I would never have bought or chosen to eat on my own. I don’t want to fall into the category of putting too much energy into the food issue, because I know it can be unhealthy; But let’s face it, when you are working in an environment that doesn’t support healthy food choices and you are surrounded by a lot of less than optimal options for nutrition, there lies some challenges to a healthy lifestyle. As a result, I am dealing with some of my feelings around this day. I decided to eat the piece of cake (probably packed with 600 calories and no nutritional value), because I thought it was the balanced thing to do, and now I am feeling unbalanced in body and mind.

What I realized though, is I ate it because I didn’t want to be the only one who didn’t eat it and feel left out. I also ate it because I thought it would mean that I wasn’t being freaky about food. However, what I should have done was what I wanted to do in the first place, and not it eat it (I didn't crave or desire it in the first place). Usually, under those circumstances I save it for my free day or figure out how to get rid of it.

The funny thing- is that- if it had been ice cream (my favorite free day dessert) I wouldn’t have these feelings. I am feeling mad at myself for eating something I didn’t want to eat for the wrong reasons. Since, I can’t change what I did I am going to share with you what I learned.

Don’t eat something you don’t want to eat to please others or to prove to yourself how balanced you are...

Use the moment as a learning process to teach you something about yourself.

The final thing I want to add about this is that I feel a little sick now. My body did not react well to the food. My body is reminding me of the consequences. Also, when you look at the amount of calories versus nutritional value, you realize what a waste of calories it is to eat food like that regulary(everyonce in a while is good (the middle way)….and for me especially so, because I didn’t want to eat it in the first place.

One thing I like about my free day is that I go out and get all of the foods I love. I especially love bagels, ice cream, hot tomales, dried mangos, and sometimes pizza. My body doesn’t react too well to most of these foods, so that is why I reserve them for the free day. I have a funny free day palate.

Now that I have splashed my feelings all over this blog, I am going to let it go and use it as my lesson for the week...and know that I am choosing to have these feelings because of my own beleifs. Someone once said before you make a decision, ask your wise self what you would do and see how "correct" that feels. Fortunately for all of us, there will always be more opportunities to test our learning curve.

Exercise: Interval ( bike 36 min.)

Menu: Free

Until next time…

Think, Believe, Act, Achieve

Dakota

Today’s Mantra: Listen to the small, still voice within.

Counting Down The Days To Quadathlon: Day 136

Evolution Two – week eight

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Hello Folks,

Since I don’t if I will have time to write this afternoon, I am going to blog this morning. I am getting closer to my Quadathlon event and feeling a little nervous about it. This is the first goal that I set for myself before I turn 40. My main reason for doing it is to support my fitness goals, but also because I have always wanted to do a multiple sport event. I used to run in races, but I never did triathlons or anything like this 4 event race.

I am mainly wanting to finish the race, but since I have been training pretty hard I am thinking I want to push myself to see how well I can do. One of the reasons that I haven’t done many events like this besides laziness is that I had knee surgery in the past and my knee is achy a lot when I run on hard surfaces. I have been really aware of taking good care of it so that I can continue to exercise. I mostly run on soft surfaces, because hard surfaces really pound on the knee.

I better get ready for work. Talk to you later.



Exercise: Interval (bike 45 min.), Metasurge training

Menu:veggies and protein

Until next time…

Think, Believe, Act, Achieve

Dakota

Today’s Mantra: Everything in the past died yesterday; everything in the future was born today.

Willpower Vs. Habit: Day 135

Evolution Two – week eight

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Hello Folks,

Today I am thinking about habit versus willpower. The unconscious mind is connected to habits and apparently it controls a very large percentage of what we do each day. The conscious mind is connected to our will or desires (what we want). But what we want and what we think we want may be two different things. So how do we put the two together? Form new habits....consciously through our willpower and intense “emotional” desires - tell our unconscious mind over and over again what we want to do. How do we do this?

1. Set goals: short term and long term
2. Set achievable goals ( who can believe in a goal that sounds impossible to achieve), make it a real goal, but don’t short change yourself either, make it a step up from where you are.
3. Imagine yourself achieving those goals (in the early morning or evening is best) studies have shown that the mind does not know the difference between real or imagined – Brain plasticity will aid in this process.
4. Do it for 30 days (it takes that long to form a new habit)
5. Remind yourself why you are doing it over and over again
6. Focus on what you can achieve not what you think you can’t achieve – remember your mind believes what you tell it –
7. Use every failure as a way to point you to success.
8. Positive thinking may be annoying, but it works - use it.

If you take a brief look at your life and ask yourself about times when you got what you wanted and really studied how you got it, you will find that you got it because you had an emotional reason for wanting it; your mind was focused intensely on getting it and you took the steps to get it.

For example: I remember a time when I really wanted a job that was better paying than my previous jobs, a job that gave me more responsibility. I had been reading and listening to stuff by Tony Robbins, a well-known motivational speaker, and I was pretty certain that I had to overcome my fear of responsibility in order to get that job. I had turned down many jobs that offered me more pay and more responsibility in the past.

Four years before I read and listened to his works, I had imagined myself working for a certain company when I returned to New York. And when I did return I went right to that company and put in my resume. They said they weren’t hiring at that time. I told them to keep my resume if something came up. A week later I got offered a position as a manager and was also offered what I was hoping to make in wages. I knew it meant more responsibility, but I wasn’t afraid of that any more. I also learned from that job how much I really enjoyed having more creative “control” over my role as an employee, it was very liberating. And, truth be told, Initially I saw responsibility as loss of freedom.

I think it is interesting to look at your past to see how it can be a teacher.

Exercise: Interval (run 30 min., bike 25 min.), Continuous training

Menu: Raw food experiment

Until next time…

Think, Believe, Act, Achieve

Dakota

Today’s Mantra: Fake it until you make it!