STRENGTH:
Power Clean 5-5-5+
AMRAP in 15 minutes:
10 Pull-ups
10 Ring Dips (or 15 Box dips)
10 Lunges
How to Win the Mental Battle in Life
This is a really fantastic article on getting back and staying on the “wagon”. Taking all of our excuses and throwing them out the window. Whether it be personal or professional goals, this article gives wonderful and practical tips on letting go and moving forward. The article was too long to post in it’s entirety on the website, I encourage you to read the beginning here and follow the link and complete the article. It will encourage you to win at nutrition, fitness, family and life!
HOW TO WIN THE BATTLE OF LIFE
courtesy of Fitness Spotlight
Honestly when it comes to health and weight loss, you probably know what you need to do. Are there really any true breakthroughs that will help you? Not really. Are you shocked when you hear to “eat less overall, eat healthier foods and exercise more”? Nah.
At some point most everyone has been lean and then maybe life took over, things became busy, emotions were more important, things happened….who knows. But that’s life….things are supposed to happen. Nothing stays the same, it never does. People come, people go. Relationships start, relationships end. People get jobs, people lose jobs.
We can all survive these things physically….and sometimes these small stressors are what help us to take control, adapt and move on in a more positive direction (remember the whole stress response system of the body and how it adapts better to small stressors? Like with intermittent fasting).
The real problem is when events/emotions of the past take over our lives on a more daily and consistent basis….that these acute events can turn into an emotional or mental downfall. The acute stressor that we should of moved on from now becomes chronic and ongoing, that is the most dangerous part. The mental battle is probably the most important one to master….because I’ll let the secret out,losing weight and eating healthy is really EASY….but doing it consistently while not allowing events around you and your emotional states to turns against you, is NOT.
Your mind can be our best friend….or your greatest enemy (and it’s the only true enemy you will ever have, as there are no evil forces outside of us making us do things). There may be influences in life good and bad, but we are still in full control and have a choice…..so choose to get that control back once and for all!
Realize You DO Have Control 100%!
This is Step 1.
You have full control over everything in your life such as…..if you put healthy or sugar-loaded foods in your mouth, if you make time for exercise or blow it off for another day, if you stay up late or go to bed early and get sleep, what you do for a living and how many hours you work, and most importantly…..what you think about yourself and the actions you take because of it.
Stop Blaming Yourself or Anyone Else!
I think most people really want to either blame someone or someone else. You can look in the mass media and it’s full of finger pointing. It must be the fast food industry making us fat….no wait it’s the high fat products….or it could be that TV/video games forcing us to sit down and not be outside playing in the fresh air.
In the end my response is going to be “Who Cares?”. Or a better question may be “Why do you need to have someone to blame? Just take responsibility for your actions and fix the problem!”
The blame game doesn’t help fix/solve the issue at hand. You can blame a fast food restaraunt if you like, but that doesn’t mean plenty of healthy lean people don’t drive it past daily and decide (personal choice) not to stop in. Heck I could walk into a McD’s if it’s the only option and still be able to eat a hamburger without the bun, no fries and water to drink. Chances are I am not going to get overweight on that diet!
What you need to do is understand our healthy choices, take 100% control and then make those choices. You can eat out all the time and pick something (or make something healthy) off the menu. You can take the bun off a burger. You don’t have to order a soda or milkshake. You can sub out veggies for fries with any meal. We do have a choice….no one is forcing us to do anything, even if the media loves to paint a picture that way. Making someone/thing else as the evil force in our lives for everything bad, takes the control away from you….and that loss of personal control can spell disaster.
What is even more scary is the amount at which we can blame ourselves! Why do we need to make ourselves the bad guy? Nothing good ever comes from it. So realize you are NOT to blame Why? Because you are not blaming anyone, remember? If you take an action, then whatever happens has happened. You can’t change it and blaming yourself will not change the outcome in the past. All you can do is move forward and take other actions.
Learn from the past, but then let go of it. Who cares if you used to weight 50lbs less or had a higher paying job, how does that really matter now? You have a choice, to either think anything is possible and move forward…or forever put your life on pause to live in the past and become part of it. The latter is not living.
To continue reading about mastering the simple things, excuses, why food is not your friend, etc……..click HERE
REALLY? Why wouldn’t you eat Paleo? Veggies, fruits, lean meats, nuts, seeds, and cheesecake??? Ok, so this is not strict Paleo, but it’s ingredients are a heck of a lot cleaner than the traditional cheesecake. Look at the two and compare. See the difference? 1 1/3 c sugar compared to a couple tbsp. agave nectar? Not to mention all the cream cheese and sour cream thrown in there. You think that is high quality dairy? Doubt it. The Paleo recipe takes whole fruits, good fats like coconut oil and nuts, and makes a much better option for us all! Check out 
