Final Week...

I’m excited to be entering the final week of the program and to see the progress I’ve made! I’m feeling more positive and confident about my body, health and wellness than I ever have before. I think my favorite part has been learning to be less of a perfectionist, and sticking to an overall healthy lifestyle even though I sometimes make less than ideal choices. I’m more able to enjoy occasional over-indulging instead of feeling guilty about it, knowing that I can still stay on track. It’s very liberating to stop being “all or nothing” about eating right and exercise. Looking forward to my final week of the program! :)

Fitness Goals...

I’m with you Stefanie... I’m definitely feeling jump-started with exercise again these past two weeks. I used to aim for an exercise plan that was pretty rigorous and regimented... but the problem was that I usually didn’t stick to it, and ended up not exercising at all for weeks at a time! I’ve since scaled it back to a plan that’s much more “do-able” for me and fits with my lifestyle. If I do more in a given week, then it’s “extra”... as opposed to before where I set myself up to feel like a failure for not meeting a my more rigorous goals. I am learning (slowly) to let go of some of my perfectionism, and live more in balance. Yay!! :)

Exercise

Hello fellow challengers,

Today I felt great, I worked out with weights this morning - paying much more attention to my muscles and form - later in the day I also went for a power walk for 30 minutes - also focusing on my form and attention - I walked in silence instead of multitasking and talking on the phone. What a difference in how I feel when I am fully present with the exercise instead of trying to distract myself from it!

Thank you Ann for your great presentation last week - it helped jump start me again!!

Motivation and Progress...

What helps keep me motivated is recognizing the progress I've made so far... There are some goals that I've had a lot more success with than others (I've had more success with diet changes and awareness/mindfulness than I have with exercise), but I recognize that it's all an ongoing growth process. What makes me happy is seeing that a lot of the changes I've made have become “part of my routine” now and I don't really have to think about them anymore. That motivates me to stick with working on my “tougher” goals... I'd love for them to become second-nature too! I'm inspired to make progress on them in these final few weeks of the program.

More on Motivation

For me, what keeps me motivated is accountability, reminders, and the way my body feels.

By "accountability", I mean someone that I have shared my goals with who will ask me how I am doing (like Meri has done for me, and us, during this 90 day challenge). When I have to tell someone what has been going on for me, it keeps it in my mind and focus.

By "reminders", I mean, constantly reviewing what I have learned about a subject, in this case, healthy eating, to commit it to memory, then habit. Something I realized today is that I need to go back and review several weeks of the Balance Program information (it's wonderful that it is all still accessible) to get a refresher and see what I may be still missing - where I may be veering off course.

By "The way my body feels" I mean really paying attention to my energy levels. For example, when I was really going strong eating very healthy, I had lots of energy - today I feel very sleepy and when thinking about what I ate today, I know why.

So, for me, staying healthy is my goal, but it still takes work to make it happen. I all too easily fall back into old habits and need to refocus to stay motivated!

What keeps you motivated?

Hi everyone! This is now week 9 for our 90-Day Challengers. I was thinking this morning about motivation. There are so many different strategies for staying motivated. For me it is always keeping my end goal in mind and instead of feeling like it is way off in a distance, I always think that every action I take is creating the outcome I want to achieve. I love the quote from Gandhi, "become the change you wish to see". To me this is a powerful message and helps me to accomplish what I set out to do. My question to the 90-Day Challengers and readers is what motivates you? Let us know!


Do you feel like you've let yourself go and want to make changes to lose weight and improve your health? Take our tour at: http://www.reallivingnutrition.com/balancetourlanding.aspx to find out how we can help.