How to Stay Motivated Through Life’s Challenges

You guys, having a hubby with a broken ankle, on crutches, and not able to do a whole lot is tough business (you can read about his accident: HERE) Being honest here, I’m exhausted. I’m taking care of all sorts of things these days. I’m kind of an introvert, so going out to run errands and get groceries has become his thing. I know, I’m a lucky girl to have him take care of all that for us. Anyhow, it’s been challenging these couple of weeks tackling it all alone. I’m not complaining, just keeping it real. It does make me realize how good I’ve had it with a hubby who helps so much, but boy do I miss it now! So, what’s the point here? The point is, I have a million things to do and my workouts and training runs were starting to suffer. I was not working out regularly and I kept my runs short. But the other day I had a good 3 mile run and felt amazing. I was able to tackle the rest of my day with more energy and I just felt in better spirits. I’m sure my family noticed too. Cranky mom was gone! Hello, fun mom! After that run, I have made it a priority to go back to my regular workout schedule and improvise when I have to, but really make an effort to not miss it. While things have been sort of crazy in my life, here are a few things that have kept me motivated through it all:

1. Plan ahead. It really helps to plan your day. I’ve been using Jenny Collier‘s free printable planner. You can check it out HERE! I specifically use the Daily To-Do list and weekly meal planner. I try to get up a little earlier and with my coffee in hand, I work on my to-do list. I put it all down, from dropping off the kids at school to doing laundry. And of course, I put my workout time in there too.

2. Be flexible. Once you have your day planned out just right, things sometimes don’t go as planned. I’ve learned that remaining flexible to what life throws your way is key. So, you slept through your 5am alarm and weren’t able to get your early run in, can you make/find time to do it later? Your appointment is running late and your going to miss your Body Pump class. Can you adjust your day and make it to a later class? Hey if all else fails, you can do a quick workout at home and get your sweat on anyhow! Maybe include the kids too! You’ll feel so much better knowing that you still got that workout in even if you could have easily called it an “unscheduled rest day”.

3. Be realistic. As much as I’d want to, I know I can’t do it all. By the end of the day, some things just aren’t going to get done and I’d much rather it be folding laundry than my workout! Seriously though, sometimes a good run is way more beneficial to everyone in the family than whether the book shelf got dusted. Just sayin’ 😉

4. Don’t forget your goals. Think about why you started working out. Was it to lose weight? Get healthy? Are you training for a marathon or your first Spartan Race? Whatever the goal is, keep it in mind. Don’t give up on your goals just because life gets hard.

Do you have any tips to share on keeping motivated when life gets complicated? I’d love to hear them!

2015 The Year for Finding Balance

I’ve been on this “fitness journey” for almost 3 years now. Like all these stories go, I was tired of being overweight and sluggish. I’m not saying my life was terrible and depressing, far from it! I was enjoying life, with maybe a little too much indulgence 😉 One day it just clicked. I needed to do something about my weight. So, in February of 2012, I joined a gym. One of the scariest things I’ve ever done is walk into a Body Pump class alone. But, as embarrassed and unprepared as I was, I kept going. I also started running and the weight started to come off. Slowly. Since Feb. 2012 and into the first part of 2013, it was all about the weight loss. It took 15 months or so, but I lost 30 + lbs. and I was feeling great! I was sure I would meet my goal to lose 50 lbs by the end of 2013. Well, it didn’t happen. I ran my 1st Tough Mudder in April of 2013 and I became hooked on obstacle course racing and running. I ran 6 races in 2013 and I couldn’t get enough! I blogged about 2013 being the year of the races. Never in a million years would I have said that crawling through mud and barbed wire, climbing over 6 ft walls, and running 13.1 miles would be my idea of fun. My friends didn’t recognize me. I was a changed person. Changed for the better. I was training hard and eating good, maybe too good! Hence, I didn’t lose the weight. I gained some, actually. My trainer says it’s muscle, I’m pretending I believe her 😉

Well, here came 2014 and I stumbled on a challenge to run 14 races in 2014. I was so on that. I’m running my 14th race today, but more on that later. All of this year I’ve been focused even more on running and training and getting stronger. I ran another half marathon, I did 2 Spartan races, 1 Tough Mudder, some trail races, and fun 5Ks. It’s been a very active year, but again, my weight has not changed. I’ll admit, it’s even gone up. I’m not happy about that. Sure, I feel stronger, but a part of me still knows that I’ve been totally slacking lately when it comes to making good food choices. I’ve let myself become overindulgent again, allowing way more “cheat meals” than necessary. I’ve tried to fool myself into believing that I’m “maintaining” but the truth is, I feel myself going down a path I don’t want to go down again. So, after thinking a lot about my fitness goals for 2015, I’ve decided to call this “The Year of Balance”. I want to focus on eating healthy again. I want this extra weight to come down. I no longer have a magic number that I want to reach on my scale (we broke up) or a must-have pant size. No, I am no longer going to allow myself to be hung up on a number. I know what I want my body to look like and that’s the goal I’m setting. Of course, I’m still going to be running in races and obstacle courses, they keep me focused and give me something to work towards. Plus, it’s fun 🙂 I just won’t be using my races and training as free passes anymore. No more, “It’s OK to eat this or that, I’m running 6 miles tomorrow.” Or “I’m carbing up!” OR “Good thing I work out” as I stuff the doritos in my mouth! Yeah, it’s time to be accountable for my eating habits and my results. It’s time to for balance.

Of course, I’ll be sharing lots more on goals and reaching this balance in the next few posts and throughout the year in my monthly goals blog posts. I will also be sharing my racing schedule for 2015 soon. Now, I’d love to hear about your goals for 2015 and how you intend on reaching them!

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Let’s Stop Comparing.

Did anyone else watch the NYC Marathon on TV this past Sunday? I watched bits of it and was so inspired. I know I will never-ever-ever run as fast as the top female finisher! She ran 26.2 miles in 02:25:07. Amazing! To put things into perspective, I’m hoping to finish my first half marathon, 13.1 miles, in around 2:30. Of course, running is her life, not a hobby. She’s an elite athlete and to compare myself to her, for any one of us to compare ourselves to her, would be wrong. It’s unrealistic and not healthy. So, why do we still do it? We may not compare ourselves to top athletes, but we compare ourselves to other women. We’re bombarded by stories on social media about all these amazing success stories and we start to feel bad about ourselves. We start to second guess ourselves, second guess our own progress. I know it happens to me. I’ll be like, “It only took her 3 months to lose 30 lbs, it took me a year! What’s wrong with me?” “She can do how many pull ups? I just want to do 1!” I could go on and on, but you get the point.

Let’s stop comparing ourselves to others. The only person we should compare ourselves to, is ourselves. Let’s focus on becoming better than we were, not better than so and so. We are all at different stages in our lives and journeys, so why compare our middle, with someone else’s end. How do I know what it took for that lady to lose 30 lbs in 3 months! Maybe it was hard for her, maybe it was easy for her. I don’t know. I only know that it was her journey, her story, her moment. Not mine. It took me over a year to lose 30 lbs and I’m ok with that. Why? Because it’s my story, my journey.

Let’s look back at who we were last year, last month, last week, and be proud of the progress we’ve made, the goals we’ve reach, and the hurdles we’ve overcome. Not just in fitness, but in life too. That is much more rewarding and much more realistic. Let’s be happy with ourselves. Let’s live our life fully and wholeheartedly. Let’s promise to stop comparing ourselves to others and focus on ourselves this week! Write down 5 things you’ve done this year that you are proud of and start feeling good about yourself. Deal? Deal!

Let's stop this and start living our own life! — Let’s stop this and start living our own life!

Let’s Get Started….

I do not claim to know it all, because well, I know I don’t know it all. I’m no fitness guru and definitely not the perfect mom, hence the title to this shiny new blog, “I’t’s a Messy Life”. Yes, my life is messy and I’m pretty sure yours is too. And if it’s not, why haven’t you shared your secrets with the rest of us?

I started to make some life changes in February 2012 and you can read more about my story HERE. It was a rough start, with no direction, no clue what I was doing, and definitely no plan. I tried every class at the gym, I thought if I worked out I could eat more because I was burning more calories (ha, reality check, that is not the case!). Slowly but surely I found a routine, I started changing my eating habits, and the weight started to come off. But the best thing was that I started to FEEL better! I actually enjoyed working out because it put me in a better mood and gave more energy. You working moms know how much energy is needed to get through the day, right?!?

There has been no magic pill, no easy way out, just lots of sweat (literally) and determination. It didn’t hurt that I’d signed up for Tough Mudder and was scared to death about….well, dying. Thankfully, I didn’t die. I got my orange headband and free XX beer and found a new me in the process.

This new girl takes pictures of her Paleo (and sometimes not Paleo) food on Instagram, checks in every time at the gym, and even poses flexing her biceps. Who am I? Yup, my old friends don’t recognize me and my husband says he has a new wife (I don’t think he’s complaining, though).

This journey is just beginning. I am just now starting to see and feel the benefits of healthy eating and exercising. I’m not perfect. My life is messy. There are days I’ll eat those nachos, I’ll work too much, stress out, and feel like a horrible parent. That’s where this blog comes in. I’m hoping this will be the place I can share my stories, ideas, challenges, failures, and dreams! I’ve got big plans for this little blog and I hope you’ll stick around and join me in the ups and downs of life, fitness, Paleo eating, and parenting.

xo,

Jessie

And because I'm just putting it all out there today, here's a comparison of where I was and where I am now. Yikes! — And because I’m just putting it all out there today, here’s a comparison of where I was and where I am now. Yikes!