Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Attitude of Gratitude

Happy Thanksgiving!  This is the season of gratitude.  Gratitude translates into a mindset and is a mindset that carriers much beyond Thanksgiving Day.

In taking on our day to day routines and our journeys toward small and large goals, one thing is a constant - you mindset has to be in a place to accept the challenge and to take the actions necessary to move forward.  Do you work on your mindset as much as you work on every other aspect of your daily life?

I do my best to follow a similar routine each morning.  One part of this routine is writing in a journal.  This is a place where I gather my thoughts and reflect on celebrations and things that I am grateful for.  I try to keep this time to focusing on positives and avoid addressing the obstacles that I have faced or am currently facing at this point in my day.  The positive allows me to kick the day off on the right foot and set my mindset to address the challenges that I may face throughout the day.  I find my day follows a much better path when I include this piece in my routine.  

Take the time this week to reflect on what you are grateful for.  There are many things big and small and each one of those has an important spot in our overall journey.  When you find yourself facing an obstacle - stop and remind yourself of one or more of these many items and press on with a new mindset.  Obstacles exist for a reason.  It has been reiterated to me from several directions over the past few weeks - reacting to and learning from the obstacles is a necessary part of the journey.  Set your mind to accept this.  

One Day!  One Step!

Monday, November 16, 2015

A New Perspective on Conference Attendance



I spent Thursday and Friday last week attending a fantastic conference in Downtown Denver.  The information provided by the conference indicated they would be providing a coffee and tea bar, but that all other food would be on our own.  The conference ran from 8:30-4:30 daily.  I packed my backpack with some of my typical snacks and headed out.  

First to reflect back a bit.  I have attended a fair amount of conferences in my day.  I am typically the one that snacks throughout the day and can’t wait for the meal breaks when they come.  I am also typically the one that comes back after lunch and feels like a nap would be a much better alternative than sitting through the next session.  My expectation, with my snacks in my backpack (although much better snack choices than in the past), was for this conference to by the typical.  

I arrived at the end of day one and reflected back on the events of the day.  I drove in enjoying my usual cup of decaf coffee.  I brought with me my 1:1 smoothie which is my typical breakfast and had that when I started to feel hungry around 10:00.  There was a snack provided at the break which included make your own trail mix.  I selected a small bowl, mostly filled with nuts and a few dried berries. (I wasn’t hungry at the moment it was offered, but the selection was too good to pass up!) The lunch break ended up being about an hour behind the original schedule.   I stepped out with a friend for a sandwich and a cookie.  Upon returning we were back at it.  I did not experience my usual need for a nap and found that I remained engaged for the afternoon.  The afternoon snack provided was fresh baked cookies and milk.  I was not hungry and opted to pass on the cookies and in fact did not snack at all that afternoon and enjoyed a late dinner.

I took time throughout the day to observe what other conference attendees were eating, many snacking throughout the day and the choices made with the foods served, and also to notice whether I was able to observe ebbs and flows in their energy.  The delay in the lunch time was the biggest obstacle I observed for people.  Attention dulled and people became anxious.  Post lunch, not seeing what people ate, I noticed people were drowsy and the energy upon returning from lunch quickly disappeared.  Interesting and now, with the training I have received over the course of the last year and implemented in my own life,  I was able to observe the impact of blood sugar types.  

I have spent nearly a year revamping my nutrition choices following the guidelines of Metabolic Efficiency.  The changes in my life have been substantial - body composition, weight, training performance, sleep habits and more.  The conference this week and my observations both of myself and others further reinforced to me - “this stuff works!” I did not experience any blood sugar spikes throughout the day and was focused and attentive throughout the two days.  This transition has been an adjustment but like everything else in my life, I chose to make the transition one day and one step at a time.  There are struggles and obstacles along the way and I continue to grow in my comprehension of the true impacts that it has on my life.  It is nice to have reinforcement of my choices and I am excited to press on with this knowledge and the opportunity to continue to grow personally and to share this with others.

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Pressing the Reset Button



Do you remember the days of playing Atari or Nintendo (that just dated me a bit!) and getting frustrated with the outcome and instead of finishing the game you pressed the game reset button instead?  I remember many games with my older Brother and seeing the potential that I would lose again and quickly pressing the button.  Boy did that make him mad, and I am sure that there were a few arguments and potentially bruises that resulted from the decision!  Other than a little bit of sibling bonding (as we will call it), there was no major impact of the reset button other than providing new optimism at the possible outcome of a win.

Fast forward to today and what I have been working on for the past three weeks - pressing the reset button.  I came home from my race in Arizona feeling a bit defeated all around.  Our busy schedules, parenting, new activities, job adjustments and no immediate finish line or goal that I was seeking.  I found myself going through the motions of the day and reflecting back at the end of the day to determine that I hadn’t really accomplished anything that needed to be done and that my overall mindset was “trashed.”  As much as we try to avoid the downward spiral, it happens to all of us but fortunately through education, experience and life I have learned that there is an option for the reset button in life as well.

I took the weekend off - a little coaching, a little training and worked on a project that I treasure that I tend to put off and decided that Monday was the day.  Monday, 11-9-2015 I pushed the reset button.  The button stuck a bit and Monday was not exactly as I imagined but I have been making forward progress since and excited about the new opportunities that I am seeing now.

My reset button involves going “back to basics” - to the things that I know work for me and sticking to them.  My biggest item is my morning routine.  I wake up with enough time to read the Facebook Times, something that I enjoy, reading at least 10 pages of a non-fiction book themed toward mindset, education or topics that are of interest and will help me expand, and finally journalling.  I don’t always write a novel but it brings reflection, opportunity, gratitude and more.  I have been fortunate to have coffee delivered to my bedside every day this week by Mike and value the fact that he supports and respects this ritual.  

The next step has been to finish my morning routine by showering and getting to my desk.  This was a spot that I’ve been getting lost and I am working on.  Next I work on developing the task list, focusing on the must dos, the lower priorities and start chipping away one step at a time.   I ensure daily that I make time in my schedule for my workout as I know this is not only something that I want but that I need and I focused on being planned and prepared for what is to come in the next day, week, etc.  

We all break the path of what we should be doing getting caught reading Facebook, emails, articles or busying ourselves with something that is not a priority item.  It’s normal but the key is that we are able to get back to basics and live our lives as we attend to.  

As we near the end of 2015, it is time for reflection.  Are we in the place that we planned to be, have we reached our goals, established a path for continued development and are we on track or is it time to press the reset button.

One Day...One Step.

Monday, November 2, 2015

Reflection: One Year Ago Today



Life is about the journey.  I do my best on a daily basis to take life One Day and One Step at a time.  I write One Day One Step each day that I journal to remind myself to focus on the step in front of me not the step I plan to take in the future.  If I don’t get through the current step the ultimate goal or milestone that I am planning to achieve is not likely to happen.

Our ultimate finish line is the result of the journey to not only get to the finish, but every step that it takes to get there.  Last year on this date I was running my first marathon in New York City.  The journey to the start line involved over 550 training miles, mental preparation and unlimited support from my inner circle. The 26.2 miles of the actual event was a small piece of this journey.  

Toeing the start line, you know that the training is done.  It is now time for execution and with 26.2 miles in front of you, time to reflect on your journey that brought you there.  I remember the string of emotions - excitement, fear, nerves, doubt, confidence and more.  The experience was one that I will never forget.  It was one of the hardest days of my life due to a lot of things but ultimately I came away with a life lesson that has been so important in the past year.  The importance of mind over matter and the importance of breaking things into smaller chunks - one day one step.  

Watching the TCS NYC Marathon coverage yesterday brought back the full gamut of emotions.  I embraced people’s stories and the reflections on their journeys seen on Facebook and through the media coverage.  I found myself glued to the TV, the videos that were posted and to blogs.  A race like this has different meaning to everyone involved.  Keeping this at heart can change your overall day on the course as well.  It takes one person - whether you meet them waiting at the start, talk to them during the course of the race or connect with them after the fact due to sharing something in common.  These are connections that will be carried forward far beyond the finish line.  

I am so happy to have had the NYC Marathon as a major milestone in my journey.  The support from family and friends was absolutely amazing and I carried away many new friendships and connections that I treasure today.  Steps throughout the journey are there for a reason.  Embrace them and carry the lessons forward with you as you go!