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Weight Loss Exercise

2013 Goals and Plans


I sent this email out to the subscribers of the blog (sign up is below this post). I got a great reception for this and I think it is probably becasue people like to see other peoples goals to see if they are going in the right direction or if they are pushing hard enough.

So I thought I would share it on the blog so you could see it as well.

2013 Goals and Plans

Here we are in 2013 and it probably looks a lot like last year. But I hope after the last few emails that I sent that your head is in a great place to make changes in your life and to expect and push for more this year then last.

I expect this year to be a great one for me as well.

The key is to make sure everything you do is in manageable chunks. You have to break up different parts of your life, have S.M.A.R.T goals for each of those parts of your life, and finally your next task to get yourself towards these goals.

This shouldn’t be complicated and it should make sense but I find so often that people just lose interest or get scared of the change that will happen in their lives.

So here are my goals for this year – see if they make sense

Career/Money – Build up the fitness website to be world class and earn a full time income so that I can concentrate on just helping as many people as possible and not get distracted by things that don’t help and are just busywork.

Family – Cut my time online in half so that I spend more, and better time with my family, more outings, more camping, and more experiences

Mental – Read more books. Break this up to reading a book each for Fitness, social media, and family/relationship book a month. Also I want to pick up a new skill every month so that I can keep growing and using my brain. Learning guitar is one of the first for me.

Physical – Move away from just weights and cardio and more Yoga, crossfit, tennis and more other sports. Clean up my diet more with more raw food and less junk. And really I suspect I could probably lose a bit of fat but expect that if I do it will come off with changing up my exercise and eating schedule

Social – For this I am the worst. I don’t get out enough and spend too many nights at home. I am going to push myself to get out one night a week actually being social with others!

I have been reading John Acuff’s blog quite a bit lately http://www.jonacuff.com/blog/ and he has this whole thing broken down into 7 things for 52 days which also seems to be a great idea

I know that this is more about me than you. Sorry. I just feel like if I get this information out there is keeps me grounded to what I really need to focus on and at the same time give you some ideas of how easy and important it is to make changes to improve yourself.

Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle
burn the fat feed the muscle is an exercise and diet program. My review of Burn the Fat shows that it is designed and written by an ex-pro natural bodybuilder but is a system that was written for regular guys and gals. Teaching you how to workout and eat to lose weight.

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General Weight Loss Tips

Trimming the Fat

I’ve been reading so many books lately that are rocking my world and changing my perspective. I would like to consider myself someone who is open (yet reluctant at times) to evolving my opinion and changing what I’m doing. Sometimes I worry that people see it as flighty and at times it can be, but I like to be aware of what behaviors are and are not working for me. If something doesn’t feel right I either try to change it, or change the way I look at it.

What book am I speaking of?

If you read nothing else this summer, please read this one. Oh my. Oh my. Oh my. I’m only a few pages in and I’m seeing the changes ahead of me. At first glance I thought this book was going to be about living on less, buying less and being a better consumer. And while it does touch on those subjects, Leo talks a lot about doing less. I could not have read this at a better time.

Lately (as you will notice from my lack of blog posting) that I’ve been a wee bit busy. We’re all busy right? Well, I’ve been piling things on. Saying yes when I should say no, getting less sleep, constantly trying to catch-up with my work and just trying to stay above water. All the while hoping that it would all take me to a place of productivity, more money and more freedom. I was wrong. I goodness I was wrong.

You remember my cough from a few weeks ago? I’m still coughing. I feel better, and the cough is less, but I’m still coughing. And the work that I am getting done feels rushed- a feeling that I’m truly not comfortable with.

In The Power of Less Leo compares two journalists. One who writes thirty articles a week compared to the one who writes only one a week. The first journalist gets praise from his editor for his productivity which boosts him up to keep going, yet his articles are not well researched. The second journalist who spends more time researching, writing and re-writing isn’t praised immediately, but respected. His article wins awards and propels his career. For a long time now I’ve the first journalist. And I really want to be the second one.

Leo talks about setting yearly goals; one or two instead of the typical 10-20 some of us (me!) set every year. He talks about trimming out excess tasks that aren’t getting you closer to your goals.

How is this related to weight loss?

My goal is better health through weight loss (or weight loss through better health!. It comes in different forms, has been mildly achieved, but still out there waiting for me to arrive. My banner begs to be changed to The Former Token Fat Girl. It’s the line blinking, waiting for me to type.

Just like a job that you show up for every day, a project with deadlines, or paying off debt- weight loss is a goal, a responsibility to myself to show up every day for, same as it were an item on my to-do list. I am just as important as the jewelry I make, the designs that are filed away on my computer and all the future interests I may have. I am more important.

My daily to-do lists make my head spin. They are paralyzing at times. They are unobtainable tasks mocking me from afar. The thing about my life is that I am my work. What I do to make a living is every bit apart of who I am. The ideas never stop. I don’t go home and settle down for the evening and turn off my creativity. When someone asks me to design a logo, if I’m lucky I will start to see how it’s going to look as a flash in my head. Sometimes I wake up with the design ideas in my head waiting for me to execute them. Often it feels like creativity is something I receive from an unknowing source. It just is.

But what I do have control over is how I spend my time and what is worth focusing on. I feel lucky that, for me, it is all intertwined. Being healthy, blogging, creating jewelry, designing…it’s all the same for me. It’s all creative, captivating and interesting. However, I’m at the point where I can’t carry so many torches. No matter how much I’d love to be a caterer, personal chef, interior designer, blogger, fitness guru, graphic design, metal smith, painter, illustrator, florist- all at the same time- I can’t. I have to let go. I have to focus.

I don’t want to mass produce jewelry, cramming in all I can the day before a show. If I only create a couple of pieces a month- pieces that are thought out, well executed and the best craftsmanship that I can produce- I will be happy, if not happier with my production. And with that I have decided to stop selling at markets and shows. I want fewer, high-quality items to represent me. Trimming the fat.

Next, there will be a major overhaul with my stuff. Getting rid of the excess, the unnecessary and unloved. The clutter that prevents the organization—the sanity.

I’m going to focus on less, fewer big goals with lots of small goals contributing to the big ones.

My big goals are:

1) Be healthy/lose weight and document the process here. To make myself a priority.

2) To create fewer, higher-quality pieces of jewelry a year.

3) To grow as a graphic designer.

Of course, I will still dabble for fun, but I’m going to stop trying to turn every interest into a career. I may change course next year and decide that I want to make handbags, or jars of salsa but that’s for me to decide next year.

Phew.

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Categories
Weight Loss Exercise

How Can You Stop Smoking


How many times have you asked How can you stop smoking and yet here you are still smoking and still trying to quit!  Quitting smoking isn’t easy and most of us who have smoked found it difficult giving up.  Some of us try over and over again and we might stay off the smokes for a few weeks but before we know it we are back smoking a pack a day again.

How Can You Stop Smoking

How Can You Stop Smoking

There are so many health risks from smoking and yet that doesn’t seem to deter many people from starting the habit and often the cravings when you try and quit are just too strong that it is easier to give in to them than to think about the health problems it could bring.

 

If you successfully answer “How can you stop smoking now” then by quitting smoking your body will have a chance to regenerate and heal from the damage caused by smoking.  If you have a family then your health doesn’t only affect you but it affects all of your family members also.  Not to mention the cost of cigarettes these days is incredibly high!

So if you’ve thought about quitting then there really is no better time than now.  Let’s take a look at our top ten tips that might help you to quit successfully.

10 Tips – How Can You Stop Smoking

How can you stop smoking now Tip 1 – You really need to WANT to quit.  I know you want to quit but do you REALLY WANT to quit.  There is a difference you know!  If you want to quit just because your wife is nagging you or because you can’t afford it, then these reasons often just aren’t enough, you really need to want to do it, deep down inside you need to want it.

How can you stop smoking now Tip 2 – When you know that you really want to quit then you need to believe in yourself and have a positive mindset.  Although you will be fighting cravings when you quit a lot of the issue is mind over matter.  You need the right mindset to be able to fight through those cravings and win the battle.

How can you stop smoking now Tip 3 – Get yourself a small whiteboard or blackboard and write on there the reasons that you want to quit.  Whether you want to quit for health reasons, financial reasons or any other reason, write them down and hang it somewhere that you are going to see it every day.

How can you stop smoking now Tip 4 – Ask your friends and family to support you in your quit smoking journey.  It can be difficult to do it on your own and having someone to support you and encourage you can help you out quite a bit.

How can you stop smoking now Tip 5 – Set a date that you will give up smoking for good.  It could be a month away or three months away, decide on a date and write it in your diary or on your calendar that this is the day you WILL quit.

How can you stop smoking now Tip 6 – Between now and your ‘quit date’ start cutting back on how many cigarettes you smoke.  Cut back in strength as well as the number of cigarettes you smoke each day.  Whenever you feel like a cigarette just tell yourself that you are going to see how long you can go without one and just try to go that little bit longer each time.  Gradually cut back more and more as you get closer to your quitting day.

How can you stop smoking now Tip 7 – Start doing some exercise each day.  Introducing exercise into your routine will give you something else to look forward to and it will also help you to feel healthier which will encourage those positive thoughts that you need for giving up.  Exercise is also a stress relief and your body will be under some stress with the nicotine withdrawals.

How can you stop smoking now Tip 8 – Avoid certain situations where you might have smoked a lot.  For example, if you always have a smoke with a coffee then you might want to either give up coffee too or change your coffee routine.  Perhaps you can try a different brand of coffee, drink your coffee in a different room or something to change the routine so you can drop the old routines in which you would smoke.

How can you stop smoking now Tip 9 – Try to avoid alcohol while quitting as it can be difficult to drink without smoking if you have always been a smoker while drinking.  You might want to avoid pubs and nightclubs for a while until you are confident you can be in those places without smoking.

How can you stop smoking now Tip 10 – Give yourself a reward every now and again.  It is hard work giving up smoking but you can do it and when you do you deserve a reward.  With the money that you are saving on cigarettes, go out and buy yourself something nice.  You have worked hard and deserve a reward for that hard work!

How Can You Stop Smoking
So what if it is really that easy? What if all your beliefs about how hard it is going to be to quit are completely false? What if, after just one session of hypnotherapy or NLP you find it incredibly easy to become and remain a happy, confident non-smoker for life? The reason why hypnotherapy NLP are so successful is because both our beliefs about smoking and our habitual smoking behaviours reside within your unconscious mind. So whilst consciously we may wish to quit, all too often our all powerful unconscious mind simply would not let us.

Check out Quit Smoking Today now.

Start enjoying the many health benefits from quitting smoking.  Although it is difficult it is possible if you are determined enough to do it.  Smoking kills – there is no doubt about that – don’t let it kill you, take action now that you know How can you stop smoking.