January 29, 2006

What a fun week. I saw one of my very good friends this weekend, Dave Slagle, who also works with my favorite supplement store, Max Muscle. I also received an allergic rash from a charity crab feed with my family. (I knew I was allergic but loved crab too much to not eat it)

Each week I have been making small goals to transform bad habits into good habits. And each week, while I don’t always hit my goals, as time moved, I moved with it, and whether I realized it or not, I progressed.

As I mentioned last week through trial and error, today, I now better understand what provoked my weakness and strengths. Last week my goal was to turn off the computer at 10pm and wake at 5am each morning to train. The week before that I quit buying sugar free gum. The week before last I wanted to run a minimum of twice a week. This week I threw away the big bag of Splenda I used to flavor my coffee, my oatmeal, my salads and my other meals I hated to eat because it didn’t have a sweet taste. While I made small goals that were imperfectly achieved each week, I also made an effort to stimulate my strengths to create a counter-effect on my weak points.

So what are my weak points? Well…I have a job that consumes me most of the day and I can’t work out unless it’s very early. I tend to get very busy and forget to eat every 3 hours. I follow an unrealistic workout plan, that includes some days with 2 intense, cardio sessions a day. I have an all or nothing personality, if my eating derails, I binge. And lastly, I love sugar, and now experience a lot of stomach cramps and bloating over-consuming artificial sweetners.

So what did I do? I first reflected.

Recognizing my personal battles helped me create unique plans that targeted my goals based on reward, repetition and reinforcement. It is important to constantly re-develop goals weekly to trouble shoot your problem areas.

I love fat free, high fiber popcorn so I rewarded myself with 2 cups after every protein shake. I alarmed my clock and had my boyfriend hold me accountable with an additional early phone call to assure my wake at 5am each morning. I stopped performing cardio at night and focused all my effort in my early workout. I drank a lot of water when I craved sweets and I purchased protein bars, beef jerky and nuts whenever I was on the road and couldn’t eat.

You will observe that while my workout and diet plans are similar each week – my weekly goals always change. My plans are the ideal, and as a human being, my ability to perfectly execute the plan to the last word is almost impossible. I have weaknesses. I have distractions. I am human and I am not perfect. But the beauty in dreaming for an ideal plan and ultimately and ideal body, is that each week you discover newfound, inner weaknesses and strengths when trying to achieve a state of perfection.

Desiring to achieve something you are not yet to want something you have yet to receive to dream of something that has not yet become a reality…takes discipline. In this wake of personal ambition, you see both the strong and weak attributes that make up you. It takes a lot of mind discipline to battle yourself in this chosen contest with yourself to believe that you are something, even though there is mental evidence trying to prove that you are not…to become a winner of thyself, takes discipline.