Stick With What Works

Keep your routine through the holidays.

People want to maintain their fitness levels during the holidays.

We want to eat healthy and keep up our workout routine, but we also so many other obligations at this time of year.

Cookies to bake,

Food to cook,

Presents to shop for,

A house to clean,

Decorations to put out…

Everything needs to be done right away, now!

Everything seems more important than our fitness and wellness.

One of the best ways to stay on track with our goals and not procrastinate is to Plan ahead and stick to our routines.

Some ways to keep our routines are:

·      Rearrange our schedule. If we know we’re going to be skipping evening workouts for a party or a shopping trip, try scheduling a quick morning workout instead of taking the usual after-work trip to the gym.

·      Divide and conquer. We can break a longer evening routine into 20 to 30 minute blocks in the morning and during our lunch break. Tabata timing is excellent for working IN a work OUT. http://www.tabatatimer.com (free online timer and explanation of Tabata Training)

·      Take the stairs. Add some cardio by skipping the elevator or the escalator at the mall.

·      Walk a little farther. When out shopping, take a couple laps around the mall before heading into stores, it may help you map your route to less holiday standing in lines by seeing which stores are less crowded.

·      Park a little farther from the store. Not only will you get a walk in, you will avoid the frustration of circling for the ‘best spot’ and you will be providing free holiday kindness by leaving the closer spots for older people and people with small children.

·      If you attend a party where there is dancing, DANCE!

Workouts can turn into your holiday celebration, too.

Hum as you walk, shop, cook, clean, drive, and move through your day.

Humming presents many benefits.

It is a naturally soothing and calming thing to do.

Whether you are humming to your favorite tune or trying to free your mind, humming helps.

Humming allows you to take in more air while releasing more, which will automatically soothe the body and open up your airways which helps you breathe, and elevates your mood.

Be flexible.

Sticking with a fitness & wellness routine during the holidays requires you to be flexible and bend your fitness routine so it does not break.

Remember, maintaining your self-care is what keeps you ‘Jolly and Bright’ throughout the year and lowers your stress levels naturally.

~Patti

Your Words Have Power

Change Your Words, Change Your Life.

Begin with self-empowerment:

▪ acknowledging your self-worth

▪ defining your purpose

▪ creating an authentic personal style

▪ cultivating relationships that help you grow.

When was the last time you actually took the time to listen to yourself?

▪ Are you critical of the risks you let yourself take?

▪ Impatient with your progress?

▪ Judgmental about your decisions?

Even the words we hear only in our head have an affect on us.

We make decisions, actions, intentions based on the words we hear from ourselves.

Listen carefully to the words you use with yourself.

Language is central to how we think.

The power of our words is bigger than we think and the influence of our words reaches farther than we know.

If you would never say it to someone else, don’t say it to yourself.

If it drains you rather than adding to your energy,

Stop saying it.

If it makes you feel sad, mad, or bad, stop saying it.

If it’s a tone you wouldn’t tolerate from anyone else, don’t tolerate it from yourself.

What are you saying about your life? Your family? Your health? Your future?

Your words will shape your world.

Do you want to live in a world where you are satisfied, protected, and at peace?

Start putting God’s words in your mouth!

Try this:

1. Write down on a piece of paper a brief description of what you are facing.

2. Using the concordance in the back of your Bible, look up verses that talk about what you’re dealing with. (This will help you learn what God thinks about your situation.) Find two or more verses that say the same thing regarding the issue.

3. On a second sheet of paper write those verses down, personalizing them until they read as if you wrote them yourself.

4. Throw the first piece of paper away! Those are your words on the issue. You are now replacing them with God’s Word on the subject!

5. Carry the second sheet of paper with you throughout the day, reciting the personalized verses several times a day (like right before you eat a meal) and any time thoughts come to you regarding the issue you’re facing. This is a practical way of putting God’s Word in your mouth, and thereby reshaping your world until it is in line with God’s Word.

Be mindful to be a little bit kinder, gentler, smarter, and softer with yourself.

Listen to your internal voice and learn to treat yourself with kindness and respect.

Pay attention to the words you use and the words you speak.

Your words have the power to make you your own worst enemy, or to guide yourself toward your best self.

~Patti