Let The Gym Be Your Reflection Letter

Empowered Training
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   What is your place of peace and tranquility? Your social hour, or a place of change?

   With the New Year fully in effect, we search for the changes we will make with the days and months to come. We ask ourselves, how will we make this year different and how can we be different? With all the negativity that we see in the papers, television and social media, it can be difficult to be optimistic and find the “good” in the world. Well….what if there is a way to break from it all and what if there is a possible way to begin a new and exciting journey for your health, mentally and physically.

   Our generation is filled with jealousy, selfishness and a lack of confidence. Anxiety is at an all time high as we are becoming increasingly hyper-exposed to everyone's life situations and stress. We compare our life to others’ and complain about how life is unfair and how lucky the next person is because of the glamorous life they seem to have. In a world where everything is recorded and people’s mistakes and imperfections become judged, it might be hard to wake up every day happy and excited that to take on whatever the day brings. So what do you do? How do you break away from the constraints of society?  

    I encourage you to try this: write yourself a reflection letter. It seems like an absurd and almost impossible idea with how frequently and consistently negative mental talk seems to occur, but it’s an important and useful strategy. List a few positive things you’re proud of, or what you accomplished this week, and most importantly: write what you’re going offer yourself. 

   One of the best things you could offer yourself is time at the gym, working on strengthening the greatest tool you’ll ever own: your body. Fitness is one of the best and healthiest ways to relieve stress, overcome self doubt, and gain control of your life.  Getting in better shape physically and mentally can only increase the amount of confidence and self-love you feel. Refocus that negative energy into positive action items you can pursue every day…and while society wants you to think January’s the month for fresh starts, it usually ends up becoming the month of overwhelm. What nobody tells you is that ANY month is the true month for new beginnings -- when those who want it the most rise from the ashes of burn out. 

 

   Let the gym be your reflection letter. Let every sweat drop and muscle gained be your way of telling your bodyI want something serious. Let 2016 be another year of successes and happiness.  

 

7 Ways to Stay Motivated In The Gym

Empowered Training
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We love to look great, stay healthy and push ourselves each day. Health and exercise is part of our daily routine and well, it’s OUR lifestyle. Doing it every day and staying committed to the gym can be tough when you find yourself stuck in a regular day to day routine.  Coming from experience, I personally know the feeling, and it sucks! It takes away the excitement you once had, and instead of it feeling like a lifestyle routine, it begins to feel like a work routine. After seeing first hand, talking to members and things I find to be pretty effective, I have come up with 7 tips to get you engaged and find the excitement into your gym time….

  1. Gym partner- Finding yourself that SWOLE-mate to lift and push you more than you normally do, can do more than just build a stronger relationship. A gym partner that is as serious as you about the gym, will hold you accountable and push you both mentally and physically to help you achieve results.

  2. Change the environment- Changing the scene can make a huge impact. On nice days, take the exercise routine outdoors. When you have beautiful weather, take advantage. Go for a run and after every few miles, stop and do body exercises for a certain amount of reps or time. Rest after and continue. Most local parks have a fitness trail that you follow and gives you an exercise when you reach a check point.

  3. New routine- If you prefer the weights and machines, try changing the way you train. Example, try switching cardio for strength training first and then finish with cardio. Another switch could be the machine or exercise that you do and the reps, sets and rest time. Play with your routine and see what works with you and gives you a challenge.   

  4. Playlist- We all love music, so why not create a playlist that you can pump iron with. Same with the playlist, add and change the songs from time to time.  

  5. Keep track of progress- Record every exercise you do. Write down how many sets, reps and rest time. Each week you repeat the same pattern, you’ll see where you are getting stronger and where you need improvement.

  6. 15 minute prep – Sometimes all you need is a quick prep. Warming up with a motivational audio. Or driving around and taking the long route to prepare yourself with a playlist or just the peace and quiet you have to yourself. 

  7. Rest- If you find yourself doing all of the above and nothing works, try taking one or two weeks off. Maybe your body just needs a rest and often times we ignore the warning signs our mind and body send. Listen to your body and rest, guarantee you’ll feel better when you get back. 

 

"Empowered Training...Change your mind, change your body, change your life!"

Don't Lose Focus

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                As the summer vacation officially comes to an end, teachers and college students alike are preparing for a new year with new opportunities. Most students are excited for what the school year will bring, wondering what they will achieve in the end, and how far they will go. But how many of the students that start out with a plan actually follow through with it?

                You know that hyped feeling on your first day with many new goals, ideas and excitement of what you wanted to get accomplished in the upcoming semester. You started the first day checking off all the things that you needed to do to start your journey to the new goals you set. The first day goes well and you go home feeling accomplished.

              Before you know it, the first week goes by and you manage to check off everything you needed to do. Perfect. Now the second, third and fourth week pass by and what tends to happen? You slowly begin to fall off. Each week that passed by you found yourself not being able to check off everything that you checked off on the first and second week. Eventually you find yourself losing track and falling off course. Flash forward and it’s the end of the year. It flew by and all the motivation you gave yourself and at the beginning is no longer there. Why? Because everything you told yourself you would get done, never got done. You beat yourself up and begin to believe that it’s impossible to set goals.

I don’t blame you. I’ve been there.

               I’ve had the same issue of thinking it was impossible to get anything done. I‘ve found myself repeating the same excuse “I’m too busy, and I just don’t have any time for it.” A favorite line that I would hear many of my friends and family say whenever they “failed” at getting something done. I encourage you to not think of it as failing, but rather that you haven’t yet found the solution. If you feel like you failed, reframe your mind to look at it as being temporarily stuck. Just like a exam: if you can’t answer one question, it doesn’t mean you failed. You can always go back to it when you have an idea of what the solution might be.  With that in mind, let’s talk about solutions to help us stay on track with our goals.

                Firstly, instead of saying that there is not enough, accepting it, and getting comfortable in that excuse, do your best to manage your time. The key to understanding time management is knowing how to use the free time you get to your advantage.

              Find some alone time to sit down for 30-45 minutes with a plank paper and a pen. On that plank paper, you want to outline your weekly schedule Sun.-Sat. Write down the days you go to school and the time you are in each class. Same for the days you work. Write down the days and time you are out with friends and for how long. Write down the days you dedicate to school work. Once you have everything written down, take another sheet or make a chart on your computer with 7 columns. Labeling the top of each column with one day of the week. On the left side make as many rows as you need, because this side will have the hours of the day. Make sure that the first row is the earliest hour that you wake up on and the last row is the latest that you go to sleep during the week. Now that you have your chart created, plug in the days and hours you wrote down in its rightful spot. Be sure you also add in the amount of time you spend traveling to and from school and work; when you wake up and go to bed. Once you have your chart filled in, you will be able to see all the free time you have in each day.

              This is a system I have found works for me and that have worked on many of the successful people that we hear and talk about today. Think of all the free time you spend on social media. Why not put that time to good use to benefit you with what you want to accomplish? Fill each free time spot with something productive that will help you move closer your goals. Think of small steps and doable activities that you can start with. Eventually progress to bigger tasks. You will be shocked by how much you can get done.

              The second thing that will help you stay on track of you goals is getting plenty of rest. Without the adequate amount of rest, you will be too tired to follow your plan.  Each day should be planned with at least 7-8 hours of sleep. You will be shocked with how much you can actually get done in a day. Just imagine what you can get accomplished in one month!

                It important to have control and stability with your day. With only 24 hours in a day, how much time do you spend actually getting work done and being productive? Plan out your day, write down your daily goals. Start out the day with 2 goals that are easy to check off and spread the rest of your goals through the day. Write no more than 7 doable daily goals and keep them in your pocket for a constant reminder of what you need to get done. Trying to keep it all in your head will eventually bombard your mind with too much information to process. Writing down your day allows it to get it off your mind so you can focus on one task at a time.

              Don’t feel bad if one or two days don’t go as planned. It’s only natural. Things happen, but just make sure that when they do happen, you refocus and pick your planning routine back up every night before you go to bed. It will take some getting used to, but once you have control of your time, you’ll have more control of your life.

“Plan Your Work & Work Your Plan”

What Will You Do On Your Next Vacation?

     We can all use a break from time to time. Mini vacations or even a staycation. Whatever you find or can make time for and get away for peace and relaxation. In my case, I am currently on my vacation for 2 weeks visiting family in El Salvador. 

     How often do you hear people complain about their vacations because one or two things didn’t go as planned? Or because they have to pack, and they don’t want to live out of a suitcase? My favorite one, “It was an ok vacation, I didn’t know what to do so I stayed home the entire time”, but my question is why? Why stress, complain or just stay indoors when you are finally given the time to do something fun and exciting. You complain all year about needing a break and when the opportunity is in front of you, you let it pass by being bored and unhappy. Now I’m not saying you have to do something crazy and out of the ordinary like cliff diving, but I’m saying that whatever gives you pleasure and makes you feel relaxed should be the thing or things you do on your time off. Take a few minutes to make an agenda of the things you been meaning to get to but never had the opportunity. Make time to catch up on a few books you been meaning to read, get fresh air and don’t feel guilty if you wanted to sleep in a few extra hours. In the meantime, all the stresses of work and your personal life should be forgotten. Let it go, relax and breathe. Stress will never go away, it will be waiting when you get back so don’t let it suck the fun of all your ‘you time’. The time you get to vacation, you should really enjoy it. Make every moment count and reflect on all that you have accomplished. Organize your thoughts and see where you want to keep moving towards when you get back. Usually the answers to most of your problems come when your mind is at ease. For me, it’s been nothing but relaxation and a clear mind.  

     These past few days have been refreshing. I have come on vacation with my family for 2 weeks, visiting family in San Salvador, El Salvador to be exact. Traveling and doing a lot of site seeing with family has been quite an experience. Never staying in one spot for more than 2 days, I haven’t had the time to update my weekly Monday blog. As much as I don’t like getting pushed back on tasks that need to be done by certain deadlines, I didn’t mind as much with this one. I have been visiting family and hiking mountains that I never once stopped to look at the time. It’s a great feeling knowing that for 2 weeks I don’t have to live my life by a clock. I came here with an agenda of tasks that I wanted to accomplish. As much as I want to get them done, I decided that for these 2 weeks only, I was going to take each task as it came, example this blog. These past few days have not only been time to vacation, but time to think and reflect.

     This is your time, your moment, to enjoy with your family and have stories to tell for years to come. Take the time to do what you been meaning to get done, because at the end of it all work will always be there and so will stress, but the time you have with loved ones and for yourself won’t.

“Take Vacations. Go as many places as you can. You can always make money, You can’t always make memories.”

 

 

"This time next month, I will be different."

              Ladies, what is the one thing that you love, but hate at the same time? If you guessed your husband, then you’re wrong. Great guess though. Actually, the answer I was looking for was food. Speaking in general terms women seem to lose weight at a much slower pace than men. Most men lose and drop weight quicker than women. As unfair as it may be, it is the harsh truth, but I want to give you the right tools you need to build the foundation to a better you.

                As a trainer, I often hear women talk negatively about their bodies. Ladies, you need to understand that by bashing on the situation will not fix it. Face it, it is what it is. If you want to see the change, you have to make a change. For starters, begin by looking into the mirror. Learn to embrace your body and who you are.  Embrace it and tell yourself, “This time next month, I will be different”. I say this because any women that struggle with weight loss knows how hard it is to lose weight. They don’t know what to eat and when to eat certain foods. They know the struggles of finding time to work out when they are constantly looking out for others and not too much on themselves. I know this from working with many female clients who once had this issue. So I get it! BUT, what you ladies need understand is that for every problem, there is a solution. I want to help you get a better start to a new you.

                First thing you want to do, like I said, is embrace who you are right now. Learn to silence the negativity and tell yourself every time, “This time next month, I will be different”. What I mean by this is by seeing yourself every day, you are creating the image of your future self in 30 days. By being negative about yourself you are mentally defeating yourself. Never giving any change a chance. You need to first understand that change comes from action. Action comes from having a vision, and that vision comes from having a positive attitude.

                Now, we move onto the basics. The basics meaning working with what you have control of. We all know that the key to results is watching what you eat and being physically active. If you do, then you are on the right track. So, if you know that eating less than what you burn in a day helps to lose weight, and eating more than what you burn makes you gain, then you know that the first thing you need to start doing is eating in portions. Controlling your portions will not only help you to lose weight, but it also helps to build the foundation to understanding the importance of it. Doctors say that you should have at least a serving size cup, or no greater than your own fist, because the size of your fist is the size of your stomach. Begin by reducing the amount of food you put onto your plate every time you eat. Don’t go from large meals to small meals in a heartbeat because you are not mentally and physically ready for it. Start off by having small portions in the evening. Gradually work yourself into the habit of having small meals every time you eat. As for physical activity…

              You hear “physical activity” and you assume hard tiring work that requires every bit of energy. Wrong! Physical activity can be as simple as taking any 30 minutes of free time to go for a power walk. Ask a friend to join and help each other to make a change. Those 30 minutes will eventually become easy and soon be 45 minutes and soon 60 minutes. Physical activity can be anything that requires you to move around more than the norm. By norm I mean anything that doesn’t involve the daily slow paced or no movement that happens in your everyday life. It’s important that what you choose as your physical activity that you make it fun and exciting. If you are making a change and going on this journey to a new you, wouldn’t you want to enjoy it and tell your friends on how easy and exciting it was to lose weight?

             These steps are your basic tools to creating the foundations to a new you. It all starts with how fed up you are with being where you are and wanting to make the change. Let the frustration out of your mind and learn to accept the way you are and the only way to change is by action. Action comes from telling yourself, “This time next month, I will be different”. YOU are in control, YOU have what it takes. You have to take control of it and make it happen and YOU have the power to create your own happiness.

“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve”