S.O.S. Success challenge 2024

 Day Sixteen: Harvesting from good habits This week things took a bit of a shift. My hubby decided it was time to do our annual prolonged fast. Now, what he really said was something like, 'I think I am going to fast this week because I don't have anything going on. I'm tired of eating like crap'. Which I also knew meant... how come "we" haven't started our usual January reset yet?  In truth, I have attempted to "clean up" our diet as a family this year. And when I jumped in with friends on that diet program, there was a lot of clean eating going on. But he was in his own experience, journey, and habits, and I was navigating mine. The boys tend to eat in the middle. Well actually, this past year the youngest is brancing off on his own. So, the oldest and I eat similar and the hubby eats his wheaty foods and youngest is "exploring" right now LOL. So, I left it as HIS journey of fasting to navigate, so that he could clearly see that... a ...

 Day Fifteen: The stages of learning and how it can makes us feel like a newb I sometimes imagine myself just navigating through my workouts or desired activities with more ease, strength, ability, and drive. Celebrating after a good, intense, and maybe even sweaty workout like it was euphoric and worth it. YUM! And then...after 2 sets, I am moreso counting DOWN to when I am finally done with doing the dang thing LOL. Back in 2008, I was a WARRIOR! I was just charging through my workouts! I knew they were WAY easier than the ones I was doing the year before and I felt like a powerhouse! I felt like I was hacking the system. I felt like I could EASILY add on more way and celebrate being able to challenge and grow my muscles how I wanted to.  AND I DID! My shape and tone was amazing. We will always be growing and changing.  And as we grow, we will be going through the stages of learning: Unconscious Incompentance - We don't know what we don't know Conscious Incompenten...

 Day Fourteen: Simplify your subscriptions What have you allowed yourself to subscribe to? Our stories, our beliefs. Our lastest Netflix binge watch, email lists and newletters, signed up to get that free thing and now our inbox has over 20K in unread messages from just the past year (or maybe that's just me). I have found that much of my stress has come from adopting too many "babies" in my life that require feeding and management. Too many task that have added to an already full "mental load"...and for the most part, don't "need" to be a the top of the list for action and attention. They are not priorities, especially if they are not more FULLY helping me to maintain and gain the momentum I desire to be experiencing in my life. With my food, my physical fitness, my mental wellness... And when there is more stress, there is more time that is required to be spent in stress management and recovery. Which is great, and it also doesn't have to flo...

 Day Thirteen: Create and connect; Familiar Spaces The key to consistency and habits is creating the familiar. Our brains love the familiar. Why? Familiar is predictable. And if we can predict an outcome of a behaviour or action, we are establishing both safety and a neuropathic . A neuropathway of sequences that makes the action more efficient for the brain to execute requires MUCH less energy to perform. And boom! You found your "ease" in the doing and it doesn't seem like or feel like "hard" work, or "work at all. It becomes effortless. In order to make something automatic (autonomous) and effortless in execution, we need to input over 100,000 reps of action into practicing it. Currently, the Jumpstart exercise program is laid out to perform the exrercises stretched out over 4 times during the day. Technically, it's enough exercising for one solid workout, but in branching it off into separate workouts throughout the day, you get 4 times as many inpu...

 Day Twelve: Back to Basics I'm keeping it simple. "Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler." - Albert Einstein Part of why you are possibly stuck in your life is because what "it" is...was made more complicated than it needed to be. Meanings, blame, stories, narratives, complicated "solutions" or problems in "sheep's clothing". Maintenance of my weight loss and fat loss success didn't have to be "hard". My health didn't need to take the turn it did. I could have much more easily kept in the habits that I had established and the momentum that was running in my life, INCLUDING my ankle injury, instead of walking away from everything in a very emotional time in my life. I honestly don't know what shifted in such a significant way for me, but it did. So now,....bring things back to basics. Get enough sleep, but not too much. Get enough movement, but not too much. Eat a balanced diet (which means HOW you c...

 Day Eleven: How to begin "editing" the story you tell It hit me. The "pushback" for more rest and letting my body do more recovery, repair, and healing between workouts. I have jumped in with adding in another set to the Jumpstart workouts. It was only the one go of it. It felt good. I felt that I could add in another one and then the very strong need to just sleep came over me.  Now granted, our youngest has been messing with the sleep pattern in the house by trying this "All-nighter" thing college kids "do" (As a note, I didn't do them. Sleep ALWAYS came first for me). But I have been crashed out for what feels like days, even though I have kept up with my tracking of measurements.  I didn't bother with starting the tracking for water. My mental load couldn't go there. Being that the physical thing isn't the only thing I am focused on right now. In the past, when I succeeded in making the changes quickly, it was ALL that I had ...

 I've been in the process of deciding how I wanted to approach the cleaner eating segment of my current recovery. But first, I have decided to make sure I get the layering of hydration on point. My level of hydration tends to drop off in the winter, especially if it gets cold. I don't tend to do a lot of working out as it is, so that doesn't inspire me to want to drink more.  However, because I have increased my physical activity, especially since my ankle has been healing even more... [SIDE NOTE/BACK STORY: My last assessment from the doctor/specialist said I had developed arthritis in my ankle now. Arthritis is simply inflammation, especially in the joints. The injury began in April of 2022, so this has been a LONG road of recovery that way. SO now adding in the iron issue has made it interesting since...I can now physically do more in terms of exercising , but with low iron, I have access to less "energy" and oxygen transport, along with other metabolic process...

 Good morning. Last night I got a call inviting me to a gala this coming weekend. Immediately I thought of what I would have to wear and got a little down on myself. Honestly, I didn't plan to be wear I am at now in size. However, based on going through my journal and tracking, I am at the same size I was 4 years ago when similar happened. And I met my goal and beyond a year later with full recovery and increased mobility. So as much as my desire is to try and apply a quick fix to hopefully get me to a "size" I think I can work with, I have all the means available to me now to work with what I already have AND stay on track with my current plan. Sometimes a part of us wants to step in and make things go faster or thinks it can make things "better", but in truth, it hasn't even seen the current plan through yet to see how things can work out now. Trust the process. Play the long game. Go for the sustainable results. These are the reminders I am giving to myse...

 Before I begin today, I just wanted to state that I did do a workout yesterday. And then committed myself to rest and recovery for the remainder of the day. This morning as I assessed where I was at mentally in this journey, I realized even though there is some proficiency to how I apply the skills, tools, and resources, I am not feeling as much in the energy of "play" that sustainable change requires. There is a correlation between non-serving beahviours, thoughts, and actions and the unsustainable aspects of life.  Now of course, the experience of most things wane in and out in our lives. And what I have seen over and over again is that the "fruit" of serving thoughts, behaviours, and actions help you to experience life and living in a more sustainable way. Hydration is a requirement for our survival. Consuming nutrients helps us to have the building blocks our body needs to keep us going. Healthy realtionships help to bring us long term emotional balance and con...

 Day Five: What to do when you don't feel like it I can tell you, even getting as far as to post about it is a step forward. Journalling, talking about it, sharing about it... are all part of accountability. If you leave it unsaid, justified, and stuffed away, it wins at taking you off track...from your goal, or even just getting unstuck. This morning, I feel sore, and tired. Usually, Saturday is my down day. Let's get real.... Since January 2020, Saturday has been my down day. Before that, Saturdays were devoted to trail running with a group in our city. 8:30am, we would meet up and hit the trails with the group. Sun or snow. It IS important to note such details. It shows where patterns were interrupted and possibly where issues began. Our house smells of cigarette smoke...neighbours...and it also makes me realize that over the last week, we didn't have that. Probably because we were in a severe cold snap and they weren't smoking outside in the morning like they were i...

 Day Four: Tracking and Layering It's day 4 already and in regards to my physical appearance, I look the same LOL. My measurements are making microadjustments, but are basically the same for now. This is NOT the time to say that something isn't working out LOL. We will watch a TV show for longer before deciding that we don't like it. In the meantime, my JOB is to make sure I am am applying myself with consistency, integrity, but most of all, authentically. There is a part of me that just wants to succumb to what has gotten us "here" in the first place...low activity, sugar, and not really doing anything with the metrics collected. I say that because... I knew that the outfit I wanted to wear months ago wasn't fitting the same. I KNEW that I felt bloated and looked "swollen". I even weighed myself and saw the scale going up in numbers. I KNEW something was "off". When I discovered that my iron levels crashed to near critical (actually critic...

 Day Three: What Getting Unstuck looks like Have you ever gotten stuck or been in a vehicle that has gotten stuck? In the mud? In the snow and ice? It's winter now where I live and we haven't had much for snowfall and melting, so there aren't areas where there was snow build up and then ice that forms rutts in the road or on the side of the road where you can park.  But many years ago, the way in which they had cleaned the snow in front of our house created this one spot that turned into a rut that would trap vehicles in it. Often, early in the morning you would hear a vehicle spinning its tires outside our house and we would get up to dig them out. It was often enough that I created a kit to have ready at the front door; a shovel for digging space around the stuck tire, and one of my old kitchen mats, with the carpet on one side and the rubber on the other side to put under the tire for traction. Especially with ice, you need to get something under the tire that it can gri...

 Day Two: Measurements and Jump Start Although I have been tracking my weight and measurements for a few days, I wanted to post my starting measurements here.  And before I post them, I wanted to make note that I already feel what it feels like to look back on these measurements with gratitude, radiance, empowerment, celebration, compassion, and support. This has not been my first "comeback", but this time I am also able to look further BEYOND the marker of the goal "reached". I am seeing even more clearly into the future of my vision than when I first set out on this journey back in 2006.  My focus at that time 18 years ago was to take care of me, my newborn, and my toddler. It was to heal from the c-section that reopened a couple of times post-op. It was to have the energy and enough nourishment to also nurse the baby. And to be HERE, in my second chance at life after an NDE (Near Death Experience) during the delivery. Basically, to get unstuck and moving forward....

 It's the "zone" of day one.  I told myself I would start on January 17th, yet I began on the evening of January 13th with an intention, desired outcome, and a small inspired action, a tablespoon of olive oil. When we know that if we start now we could enjoy a few more days of progress and building momentum,  then why not start taking the action steps to get things going.  The main focus for me right now is my physical health and composition.  My 2nd focus is my career.  S.O.S. stands for "from Stuck to Out to Sustainable." Moving from where you feel stuck on a wheel going around and around in a loop, to getting of the wheel and into a space of observation, safety, openness, hope, and possibility. And then from there, forward with a set direction, support, and tools to create momentum towards the success and life that you WANT to be living. For myself, my health took an unexpected hit while in a challenge with friends to do a certain way of eating A few mon...