Things just got stoopid.

That is the one word that I will use to summarize my October Rock-It-Ober thus far.  My prior posts have been about rocking this month by starting to create and reinforce the healthy habits that cumulate to make a healthy lifestyle ultimately adding another focus each month as time progresses.

The clif notes version of my long term goals were to focus more on preparation and being proactive, rather than reactive and pushing things off until later.  Because why?  Later never comes for me.  I am better off saying that I will do this never rather than saying I will do this later.

I have to take those silly stupid steps that I spoke about last week in order to find success.  I have to get down right stoopid.

My goal for October is to focus on preparation the night before hand so that I save some time in the mornings, eventually working up to being a morning person by 2nd nature.   Somehow I jumped right into the whole morning workout thing and combined those goals in execution.  My goals for this past week were to go to the gym 2 mornings and to make it to masters swimming on Saturday morning.  I went to the gym 3 mornings in a row and made it to masters swimming on Saturday! 

I find that the night is key for morning success.  You can wake up at any time well rested and ready to go, as long as you plan ahead and go to bed at a reasonable time to allow for sleep, as well as provide yourself with the proper shut down before shut eye.  

I am doing much better with getting to sleep at a reasonable hour (typically between 8:30 and 10pm) however there is still improvement here.   I would like to consistently be in bed by 9:30 at the latest, up at 5:00am to feed the pups, out the door at 5:30am to walk them and on the way to the gym no later than 6am.   This will give me 1.5 hours for a workout in the morning and still be to work in time.

I am doing really good with the 5am wake-ups but I notice if I am overstimulated before going to bed such as watching TV or playing games on my phone I have a harder time falling asleep.  If I turn off the TV an hour before bed and make sure that my alarms are already set, I can flip my phone over and lay in bed typically falling asleep in under 15 minutes. 


I struggled at the start last week because I kept finding myself running back inside my house for things that I had forgotten.  I realized that while I did a better job at prepping, I in no way made it as easy as it needed to be.  That is exactly why I am taking steps each day.  I am not looking for perfection but rather I am trying to find what will work for me to be successful in my goals.  I have learned that I need to wake up,  go into routine, and find myself at the gym in the pool or on the treadmill before I realize what I am doing.  Hesitation can lead to procrastination.   


One thing that I spend time doing is picking out clothes for work and working out.  What do I need for work?  What about training?  Run shoes?  Bike shorts?  Goggles?  Where are my x, y, z? 

All of these things cluttered up my mind and slowed me down breaking my mojo a bit.  This weekend while doing laundry it hit me.  As I started to hang up my clothes and re-organize my shoes I decided to help things out by hanging up my clothes in ready-to-grab outfits right down to jewelry and accessories.  I was hanging up clothes anyhow so it just made sense to me to pair up all the clothes so I have one less thing to do all week.  I spent a good 30 minutes putting together all outfits with jewelry, undergarments, hosiery, shoes, etc. so that I don't have to spend time each night or morning trying to find something that fits me in body and mood.  I now have a good two weeks of outfits that all work well together, each one making me feel really good wearing them.   I just grab one out of my closet and hang it by the side door before I go to bed.  Done and done.

As for workout clothing that is a little trickier.  I have tons of it, possibly even more than work clothes.  I used to have all of my workout gear in a huge pile.  Talk about a time suck.  It was like diving into the rabbit's hole; I never knew when I would return! 

I have made strides in improving this already as I now have a set of drawers solely for workout clothes.  There are 4 drawers:  The top has all of my athletic / sport electronic accessories (HRM's, Garmins, blinky lights, chargers for the Garmins, etc.) as well as all of my swim gear (caps, goggles, suits).  The 2nd drawer has all of my sports bras and socks/headbands.  The 3rd drawer has all of my running tops and capris/pants/shorts/shirts as well as winter running hats and gloves.  The 4th drawer has all of my biking jerseys, shorts, capris, pants, and winter commuting gear in it. 

With this newer system I have cut down time spent sorting through clothes for workouts.  I still have to spend some time thinking about outfits - do I have a sports bra, the CORRECT one for the workout?  What about my socks?  The next step for me is that I am going to start setting out my workout clothes on each Sunday for the entire week ahead of me. Just gotta make my week days stoopidly simple.

This week I am learning that a little time invested up front makes for much larger gains in time later on in the week.  Now that is an ROI that cannot be beat!  

How are you progressing in your habits?  Finding anything that is not working for you?  Things that make a world of difference?  Feel free to share your experiences too, as the journey is not just about what works for one person but rather how we can learn from each other, arming ourselves with many tools in the tool box.

Bow Chicka Wow Wow! Silly Stupid Simple Steps to Success.

In an effort to keep Rock-It-Ober going full steam ahead, I have decided to keep posting this month on the theme of momentum and providing tools we can use to keep ourselves on track or tools that we can use to get ourselves back on track. Ultimately tools for setting ourselves up for success.

I am very proud to report that I went to bed early last night (after getting everything I needed around and packed) so that I could get up early today to feed/walk the dogs and get ready to go run at the gym before work. Not only did I get up to go run at the gym before work, I actually ran at the gym before work.

Bow chicka wow wow!

Now that felt good. Baby steps. Or rather Silly Stupid Simple Steps.

Huh? What?

While on my way to run a quick errand the other night, I turned on my SiriusXM radio and tuned to COSMO Radio to catch a few minutes of the Love and Sex Show with Dr. Jenn Berman. This is a nightly radio show dealing with everything and anything. All the things. Not just love and sex. It is COSMO, so you know, they gotta represent.

Anyhow, in the 3 minutes or so I was able to catch the show, a caller had phoned in about failing in her goals. She wanted to lose weight but could not get the motivation to get on the gym like she wanted to. Dr. Jenn's response was brilliant and totally hit home, echoing my points about setting ourselves up for SUCCESS, not FAILURE.

So here is another tool to put into your tool box for success: Silly Stupid Simple Steps

I realized that I already do this when it comes to my to-do lists. I will literally add something to the list that I am just about to do, if only so that I can cross it off when I am done. I feel so good about crossing something off from the list that I work on crossing another thing off of the list until I have so much momentum that I am working on the harder things to cross off the list. I use the easy to-do's as kindling to light the fire so that I can tackle the more daunting tasks. Boom.

While Dr. Jenn did not phrase it exactly as Silly Stupid Simple Steps - she is way more educated than I and I just happen to like alliteration - her general response was that if we beat ourselves up for failing at our goals, over time we feel not good enough; as if we are not dependable to ourselves. We start to feel as if we will never achieve our goals because we cannot trust ourselves to accomplish them. "I always fail." "I never can do this." "I will just quit anyhow." We set "perfection" goals that do nothing but set us up for failure. We are too black and white, all or nothing.

She said that instead of setting the goal of let's say going to the gym 6 days a week for 60 minutes a day, that we should start off with a simple cannot fail goal. Her example was the goal of "one day this week I will go for a 15 minute walk."

Silly Stupid Simple Steps. Not silly as in funny, or stupid as in dumb but rather silly-stupid as in super super easy to reach goals. The lowest of low hanging fruit possible. Simple as in not complicated, and steps as in there will be a lot of them ahead of us; we just take them one at a time.

You know you get a lot of pleasure from crossing off something from the list, or clicking the check mark on a completed task. This is the same thing! We want to build up those check marks. We want to prime the pump. Once we set up a series of no-fail steps and achieve them it alters our internal thought process. We go from thinking doubt and fear to feeling motivated and accomplished. This rebuilds our egos and renews our self confidence. Also, it builds momentum. Momentum is a very good thing. Momentum is what keeps us going.

So my Silly Stupid Simple Step towards success for this week was getting my butt to the gym this morning. There. Nailed it. I am building upon it tomorrow with the stretch goal of going to swimming in the morning with my masters team. Stretch goals are those goals that are nice if we accomplish them, but they are stretched past the goals we hope to achieve, the mandatory goals. I need to do this (goal) but would be ecstatic and over the moon happy if I could do this little extra (stretch goal). Stretch goals are the 200% achievement in the world.




So what are some of your Silly Stupid Simple Steps that you need to take to get on track? Your baby steps? If you are already on track, did you do something similar to taking easy goals to build momentum?

What are some other tools you have for motivation and building momentum in your life?

October? More like Rock-It-Ober!

Well here we are, October.  It is officially Fall and with it all the Fall things are back.  Pumpkin spiced and salted caramel everything, rich and warm colors, crisp cool breezes, trips to the cider mill, my favorite booties and leggings,  and of course shorter and shorter days.

With the increase in shorter days and cooler temps motivation can start to decrease as well.  One more pumpkin spice latte and an apple fritter, please!  I will run/bike/lift/Zumba/kumbaya tomorrow.

Hmmm.  What have we learned here on the journey if nothing else?  Tomorrow never really comes.  I promise that.

In the Fall I love lounging and cuddling an indulging.  I always have made the Fall my off season, off on everything that is.  Then I re-focus in January.  I don't know about you, but I am growing tired of letting myself go, only to get back at it in January.  I feel that my resolutions and goals are recycled each year much like the much loathed fruit cake in a tin.  THIS is the year I lose the weight!  The same weight I have been loosing and gaining every year for my entire adult life.  THIS is the year I stick with a training program!  You know, the one that I started and don't stick with.  Ever.  EVER.  THIS is the year that I xyz... when we all know I will pqr. 

Enough already. I say this not out of anger, but more out of exhaustion.  I am just over it all.  Enough.

I realize that delaying things to tomorrow is typically due to poor planning on my part for today.   I also realize that I tend to think of goals as one and done - lose the weight, go back to old habits, shocked weight is back on,  lather-rinse-repeat. 

I have decided to let the coming of a new season, my favorite season at that,  plus the start of a new month set me on my way to good habits once again.  This time not all at once. and not set on specific number goals such as weight / measurements or speed / power.  Those goals are short term.  I want to focus on the habits that lead to those other things.  Habits are lifetime! Habits evolve! Goals are definitive and once accomplished... then what? 

Ironman blues. Post-wedding letdown.  These things are real because we set our eyes on one specific thing, and lose sight of processes and daily happenings that add up to result in those things. 

When I am in my zone I am doing great!  My weight stabilizes and my workouts are consistent. My power and speed increase.  I am on top of the world!  I see improvements on all fronts.  When I get out of my zone, like I have been this entire year, I can easily get out of control on some fronts.  Ugh.  In the case of 2013, it happened on nearly all fronts. Speed, power, weight loss? All gone.   Why?  Because I fell out of habit.  I lost sight of the big picture. 


Ironically, just as I have been fighting with motivation this year due to life's curve balls I have recently been receiving messages on my email, Google+ account and on Facebook about motivation and how I do it all.  

Good question, my friends.  Good question indeed.  I wonder that myself sometimes.  

This has inspired me to make October a re-focus month for myself.  How can I do it all?  One day at a time.   Every month I am going to focus on one thing that I do and try to tweak it or really reinforce the habit.  No more off seasons, from now on just life. 

To kick this all off I am proclaiming October to be Rock-It-Ober!

The Deal:

I am making a goal of getting back into my healthy lifestyle habits one month at a time: prepping and cooking meals for the week, establishing my nightly routine of getting everything ready for the next day, logging my food intake,  spending time on Yoga and getting back into morning workouts.  This may be a lot to focus on at once, so my goal is to focus on one habit each month.  Not that I cannot do the others, but to really FOCUS on one habit. 

1. Nightly Routine - setting myself up for success by making sure of everything I have going on the next day, packing all workout and work bags so that they are ready to go, having food for the day prepped and ready to go, house picked up and run a load of dishes and clothes. 

2.  Morning workouts - Swims and run in the morning.  I need to get back into this habit as it made for a much happier day not having these workouts hanging over my head all day long.  Work and life intrudes during the day, so getting the workouts done first thing assures that I can accommodate life as it happens.

3.  Meal planning and prep.  Success for me is being able to have "grab and go" meals ready for me in my fridge or freezer to hit the road for work.  I eat 2/3 of my meals at work, so I like having things readily available that I know ahead of time the nutritional values.  Keeps the guesswork low.

4. Logging my food.  Piggy back onto #3, keeping track of my nutrition so that I know if I am eating too much or too little.  Got to get back on point!

5. Yoga and massage.  I realize that I need to keep this as part of my recovery tool and so moving forward I want yoga and massage to be a monthly part of my routine.


This month I am going to focus on #1 - nightly routine.  I feel that this is the backbone of which all other habits stem for me.  Success today started yesterday.



Here we go! 


Are there any habits that you feel really good when you are in, and really bad when you are out of?  Do you find yourself setting the same goals each year?  Are there any goals you have looming, or any frustrations that you have about your current lifestyle?   Try breaking them down into habits and work on forming foundation habits each month.  If one is too tough, don't give up just keep trying and roll with it until it is a habit, even if it takes half of the year.  Every day moving forward is... well you know the rest.  It is progress.

Are you ready to rock it?