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Monday, February 27, 2017

Change Your Routines and Get Unstuck

Everybody has days or sometimes weeks when they feel completely stuck. By stuck I mean unable to move forward or gain ground in something. It might be a relationship for you, it may be in your fitness workouts, in your job, or perhaps you're simply in a creative rut. One can be stuck in big or small ways. Whatever it is you feel stuck in, it can make you feel very unsettled and anxious. 

One of the best ways to pull oneself out of a rut is to completely change up what you're doing. I mean if your sleeping in, get up earlier, if you're going to the gym in the afternoons switch your workout to mornings or evenings. If you're super strict with your eating give yourself a break and have a treat or if it's the other way around stopping eating so much junk food and substitute that for healthy snacks.  The idea is that you break the routines that might be making you stuck and gain some momentum by changing things up. 

Like today for instance, my plan was to head to the gym at 10 am but the weather (snowing again) changed those plans. Thanks to gym equipment at home and some motivational youtube clips I had a great workout this morning. No, it wasn't my usual gym workout but it was good to do a different workout using different muscle groups while do exercises that are a change from my normal gym routine. 

We can often become so focused on the situation or circumstance that we feel stuck in or are trying to get out of that we forget that we have choices and some control. It might be a negative attitude, a fear we hold, something that someone has said about us that might be playing a role in where we find ourselves. It may also be because our life pace is just to busy, making you feel tired and over worked. If we are always all about routines we will eventually find ourselves stuck. 

We are meant to continually learn and grow and try new things in this life. Limiting ourselves is something that comes from within and we can retrain our brains to change things up. So whether it is something small and simple like changing your gym routine, working different hours, spending more time with your kids or adding some traveling to your life. Go for it, break your routines once in awhile and you'll get unstuck. 



Thursday, February 16, 2017

Change and Challenges

Have you ever set yourself a goal that really challenges you? The month of January starting Jan. 1st I challenged myself to go without sugar for the entire month. Sugar was something I'd been reading and researching a lot about and had been wanting to cut back on for awhile. So it was a month of change and challenge for me. I do love chocolate and my husband has a big sweet tooth as well so he was often eating his treats while I ate a piece of fruit or nibbled on a few dates.  Now by not eating sugar for this time, I mean I had no desserts, no chocolate not even a mint during the month. I did not eliminate what is called hidden sugars, sugars that are found in things like maple syrup which I only had a couple of tablespoons of but I don't eat a lot of prepackaged or processed food anyway so this wasn't too big of an issue for me. 

I really only experienced a handful of days where I had strong cravings for chocolate but I did not cave in and powered through. I found if I changed up my routines and did things a little differently I could avoid thinking about what I was missing. 

As I wrote about the addiction to sugar in my last post this is kind of a continuation to let you know I survived the month. I found doing this really lets you take a step back and think about what you are feeding your body on a daily bases, I really consider now my choices for what I want to put in my body. I am eating way more fruit, nuts and seeds now in place of the sweets. Now that I know that I can handle leaving many of the sugar things out of my diet I feel so much better.  My gym workouts are better, I have more energy throughout my day.  It was a great challenge and I encourage you to give it a try if you want to boost your health and create a healthier lifestyle for yourself. 

List of Healthy Snacks to Replace Sweet Ones

- cut up fruit like apples, pineapple (my favorite) cantaloupe or whatever you like
- 1/4 cup of peanuts or walnuts
- pumpkin seeds
- 4 or 5 naturally sweetened dates
- a 1/2 cup of Greek yogurt, add your own fruit like blueberries or strawberries
- 1/4 cup of cooked oatmeal 

I hope this inspires you and challenges you to make a change in your own life. It can be whatever works for you.