Workouts are supposed to be tough, they are supposed to be challenging.
Unless you are in a maintenance stage and perfectly happy with your body (which,
usually, is not the case), then you are asking your body to improve from it’s
current condition, which inherently means, pushing past your comfort zone or
GETTING UNCOMFORTABLE!

I think some of you have a misconception that people like me bound out of bed
and go “gee I can’t wait to workout today”. Wrong! Most athletes, myself
included, have to drag themselves out of bed just like you, with the little
devil on their shoulder, screaming “but I don’t want to, not today, just let me
sleep in, Plllleeeaaaasssse”. So what’s the difference, one simple thing,
discipline. We have disciplined ourselves to tell that little devil to shove it,
at least 90% of the time.

So how do you discipline yourself? Start by acknowledging your successes,
little victories. Every single day write down something you did right, something
that went better in your workout, some improvement that you noticed. Did your
jeans fit a little looser, today? Did you make it further up the ramp on your
morning jog? Did you hit the snooze button, one less time?

If you journal your workouts and write down your improvements, it’s
scientifically proven that you will improve faster and to a higher degree.

Here are some ways to tell if you are rockin’ it at camp.

-You show up, 3 days a week.

-You work out on your own, on the off days.

-When you show up you actually give it your all.

-You notice improvements, in the following areas: You’re able to run further,
or it’s easier to run the same distance you used to, you recover quicker. You no
longer feel like puking, regularly at camp. You notice improvements in your
strength. You’re not as sore. Your clothes are fitting better. You’re feeling
more energetic the rest of the day. You’re sleeping better at night. You’re
friendlier. These are all signs that you are Rockin’ it!

Ways to tell if you are doggin it-

-You make it to camp once or twice a week.

-You don’t work out any other time but at camp.

-You show up to camp, but really don’t put any effort into it. As if somehow
just showing up was enough.

-You haven’t noticed improvements in the above mentioned areas.

-Everyday there’s a different excuse as to why, you can’t work out.

-You experience pain that travels around the body, today it’s my knee,
yesterday it was my ankle. This is called “chasing the pain” your body has
learned that by sending you a pain signal it can get out of something. Yes, the
body is that smart!

Watch out for these pitfalls. When you get back in touch with your body you
will know. When you are doggin’ it and when you’re rockin it or if you just need
a little break that day.

Last Friday, my training plan called for an 8 mile run, I knew I was not
feeling it, but I went out there anyway. (*If you ever feel real low energy one
day, go ahead and start your workout About 20 minutes into it you will either
turn the corner and start feeling better or you will feel worse, if you feel
worse it’s time to pack it up and go home.)
And about 20 minutes into the workout I felt really bad, so I hobbled home like
a sick little puppy. Before I let myself beat myself up too badly I looked at my
workout journal. Turns out I had, had a pretty Rockin’ week and had just hit a
mini wall. So I got in the tub, had some chicken soup and took 2 days recovery
instead of just 1, because that was a sign that I had pushed a little too hard
that week. Today I’m back on the horse and feeling great. Had I not been
journaling my workouts I would have not only felt physically bad, but I would
have been beating myself up for nothing!

So journal your workouts, how you feel and how you are improving everyday!
And you’ll be successful, in your journey to optimum health.

How can a decision be a bad thing? Decisions are great right? They move us forward, they change the world, without decisions we’d be nowhere. Well let me introduce you to the decision trap.

The decision trap is the point at which you placate yourself by making a decision. Let me create a scenario for you. You just got up from a really big lunch, you’re feeling good, you’re full, but you’re feeling a little guilty, so you make the decision that starting tomorrow you’re going to cut out the carbs. Protein and veggies all day, it’s going to be great! And you’re going to keep that going for 2 solid weeks! It’s going to be amazing! After all you’re mind is set, You’ve made the decision. And now you feel good about yourself.

What I have just described is the decision trap. The decision you just made is absolutely useless it will last, at best, until tomorrow morning when you wake up and then it will be thrown out the window.

Beware of the trap. But how can you tell when the decision, is a solid one, that has some substance to it? Well one way is to call your self on the game. If you are sitting on the couch telling yourself you will start working out tomorrow, get up and go walk, even if it’s just for 10 minutes, reinforce the decision you just made with “action”. That is how you break the cycle.

When you make a decision, be careful that you are not just making yourself feel better at that moment, you’re brain is so smart, it knows all the tricks. The decision relieves your guilt and makes you feel better. By recognizing the pattern and calling yourself on it you can stop the habit, simply but recognizing that it is happening.

Once you make a decision, the next step is to take action, even if it’s a tiny little step, that reinforces the decision and will wake your brain up, that this is more then just “smack” you’re talking here. If you make the decision to go on a diet tomorrow and you immediately go to the grocery store and purchase said items for the diet, you’re brain will start to go “hey maybe she’s serious”.

Step #1 making the Decision to do something. This is actually the easiest, of the steps.

Step #2 Taking Action, taking a step in the direction of that decision. At this point you will probably meet with a little resistance, that is normal. Picture the universe, sending you a little test. It’s asking you “Are you sure this is something you really want?” That’s when you push back and twice as hard and say “Yes!” And like magic at that point it will get much easier.

Step #3 Follow through- Follow through is everything!

There’s a saying that goes. You don’t make the decision to jump out of a plane until you’re floating in the air.

So now that you’re in camp, make sure you follow through! Teach yourself that your decisions mean something. Your word needs to mean something to you, first and foremost!

Ok think about your physical body and answer this question as quickly as possible.

I hate my_____! (fill in the blank) That was, way too, easy right?

Ok now, try this one, I love my ___________! Did you find that a little more challenging to answer? Hopefully, not.

My point is that we all have that body part, we hate! Yes, each and every one of us. I have never met a person that didn’t want something to be different on their body, bigger, smaller, wider, narrower, longer, shorter, rounder, etc. etc. etc…

And, in my experience, the really weird part is the more weight someone has to lose does not necessarily determine the level of unhappiness with their body. People seem to be equally unhappy with their bodies!

So today’s exercise is one of the toughest exercises we have. I would like you to look in the mirror and accept yourself as you are, today. Stay Do Not leave, I know I lost a lot of you right there, but read on. I suggest that, you must! I repeat! Must learn to love and respect your body, now at the point it’s at, today!

Why, because your opinion and attitude towards your body will remain the same whether you lose the weight or not. That’s right if the song you sing says, you’re slow, then you will tell me you are slow whether you run a 20 minute mile or a 7:00 minute mile. You have to learn to change your opinion, now, because it doesn’t work the other way around. This is one of the grooves in your record. If you’re constantly calling yourself fat, you will continue to think you’re fat whether you have 10 lbs to lose or 100 lbs.

Wouldn’t it feel nicer to change your body from a place of love and respect, rather then distain? Think of it this way, If you had a 4 year old and you were trying to get him to learn to pick up after himself, do you think it would be more constructive to tell him you hated him because he left his toys all over the house or Do you think you might have a more positive outcome if you explained the benefits of putting the toys away, and praised him when he accomplished what you were after. Seems ridiculous when you say it about a four year old, right? Then why do you treat your body differently?

In Japan, a man by the name of Masaru Emoto has spent years studying the effects that his thoughts and words had on a glass of water. I’m not going to go into the whole study here if you want to see it in action, rent the movie “What the bleep”, (a totally trippy movie about Quantum physics). In his study he took a glass of water and wrote a word on the glass, like “Love” and let it sit. He then took another glass and wrote the word “Hate” on it. He placed the glass, in the same setting, all things being equal. What he found time and again is that when the water was placed under a microscope, the water that came from the glass marked “Love” would have beautiful shapes, like snowflakes and the water that came from the glass marked “Hate” began to stagnate, more rapidly. We played with this ourselves at home by taking two, fresh, strawberries and placing them in separate containers. On the outside of one container we wrote the word love and on the other hate. The results were quite interesting and even though we were skeptical the strawberry marked with hate, grew moldy much more quickly then the one marked love. Coincidence, maybe, but in the end, which state would you rather walk around in? I’ll choose happiness and love and if I’m wrong at least I enjoyed the ride.

I want you to imagine the effect those same thoughts have on your own body. You are made up of millions of cells. Each of those cells is like a little self contained universe, every time you think a negative thought about that body part, every cell in your body hears you and reacts. If you say I’m fat, I’m ugly, guess what, You are absolutely right! And you have just given yourself a command to make it so. You create your reality and your brain will always find a way to make you right.

You will always have something on your body that you would like to be different, that is human nature and that is actually a positive trait, to always be striving to better yourself. Imagine if everyone in the world didn’t have that need for things to be improved. It is part of our make up, as human beings, to want things to be better and to always be looking for what is wrong. But that does not mean that you have to Hate that which you want changed. You can do it from a place of love and gratitude. You can thank your legs for everywhere they have gotten you, for the fact that you have them at all. You can thank your stomach for helping you bear children. You can love your stretch marks and be grateful to them.

Now does that mean that you should just give up changing your diet and exercising because I’m saying accept yourself as you are? Absolutely not! I cannot stand the people running around saying big is beautiful and promoting obesity and an unhealthy lifestyle! What I’m saying is that change can occur from a place of respect for your body and your health and the more you can learn to love yourself right now. Exactly as you are the better!

This change, in attitude, is actually very difficult to do, because it is so engrained in your habit pattern to talk to yourself from a negative perspective. You will have to train yourself to be nice! Figure out what you say, to yourself, most often throughout the day. We all have a self dialogue, or maybe you think more in pictures, how do you picture yourself? Part of your work now is to stand in front of a full length mirror and truly look at yourself. Look in the mirror and say “I deeply and completely accept myself”. Think of all the good things your body has accomplished for you. Start listing reasons why you are grateful for your body. When you can look in the mirror and feel a genuine sense of gratitude and love for your body, then change can occur from a positive place and your goal is accomplished. You would be shocked at the amount of people that aren’t even capable of looking in the mirror. If you have learned to avoid looking at yourself, then it may take weeks, to change this pattern, it may happen quickly, you’ll know when you catch yourself thinking positively about yourself, rather then beating yourself up. Treat yourself with respect first and then others can do the same.

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