Let HEALTH Be Your Motivation

The past month I took a little "break" from exercise and eating right.  Why did I do this?  I attribute it to not having the right motivation and goals.  I became discouraged because my goal was to have the perfect body.  But, day after day of working out hard and eating right and not having that perfect body I became frustrated and tired.  The thing that I came to realize is, I will never have the body of the women in the videos. I am going to be brutally honest here and get a little personal, so bear with me.  I have carried and given birth to three beautiful children.  My body has changed.  I do not now and have never been well endowed, nor do I ever plan to go through the pain or the expense to be so.  My tummy skin has been stretched from pregnancy and may never completely be the same (which I consider a small expense to have children), though this may be the part of my body that genetics has been good to me.  It isn't my hardest part to loose.  My bun and thigh area is where the fat likes to camp out.  It seems to not matter how long or intense I exercise or how healthy I eat I will not have the firm, tight, lifted buttocks that you seem to see in the magazines and workout videos.  After this past month's hiatus I came to a realization.  I realized that my goals and motivation were all wrong.  I realized that what really matters, why I should exercise and eat right is to be HEALTHY.  I realized that every time I exercise I am making my heart, my lungs, and my body stronger.  I am not saying that all is lost with looking good, on the contrary.  As  I exercise and eat right for my health I will get the BONUS of my body shape improving.  It will not look like some other person's body, because it is my body.  But, it can through consistancy and having the right goals, improve and be the best it can be.  What matters is that I am going to take care of my body.  To exercise to be healthy.  To try to eat right because that is what my body needs to fuel it. (I must say that this is the hardest part for me, curse the person that invented candy and sweets.) So, now that I have the right Motivation of being Healthy, I need to keep that motivation in sight and not get blinded by comparison. When we compare ourselves to others we are not being fair to ourselves.  No single body is the same.  We all carry weight in different areas of our bodies.  We all have different metabolisms.  We have different emotions.  We have different body shapes, different genetics and different lifestyles.  As with everything about ourselves in this life, we should not strive to look or be just like somebody else.  We can not compare the way we look or anything about ourselves with others.  What we should do is: Try to be the BEST YOU, YOU CAN BE!  So with exercise, try your best, help your body be healthy and be the best it can be.  That is what my new outlook is going to be.  Good luck, BEING HEALTHY AND BEING THE BEST YOU!

Take Care Tuesday - Finding Motivation and Overcoming Discouragement when Exercising

I find myself at times struggling to be motivated to do exercise. Sometimes it is due to feeling I don't have the time, sometimes it is feeling to tired, and sometimes it is discouragement of not having the results I should be having.  So, how do we motivate ourselves to exercise and overcome these discouragements?

Feeling like I don't have enough time:  I have found that I am more motivated when I find a time to exercise before the day gets too busy.  It is so much harder when I know I want to workout for an hour and I look at the clock and see that lunch time is in half an hour. So, for me working out is better if done 1st thing in the morning.  I am even thinking about getting up before the kids go to school to get my exercising in, but that would also mean I would need to start getting to bed earlier. You might have a different schedule than me. You might wake up early to go to work, too early to get an exercise in.  If that is the case then pick a time that is going to work for you, it might be as soon as you get home from work you exercise.

Feeling too Tired:  Ok, sometimes I feel this way and I can either give in and go back to sleep and still be tired.  Because I find when I do this then I still don't have energy.  Or I can get up and start exercising and gain energy.  I have found that if I can just start, then pretty soon my energy starts to build and I can keep on going.  It is the starting, that is the big deal!  Also, think about how great you feel after you exercise.  I love the feeling I get when I am done.  My body is awakened and emotionally I am re-energized.  It also gives you a great feeling of accomplishment after each workout.

Feelings of Discouragement:  So, my body is not perfect! After being pregnant and having three children my body has changed.  I have also noticed that as my body gets older it doesn't seem to want to change as quickly.  So, what to do?  Acceptance... accepting the fact that it is going to take more work.  I had heard something like this somewhere, sometime: that it has taken your body (insert number) of years to get this way, why should we think that we are going to change in a day or a week or even a month. I think we need to celebrate the little changes.  I know that when I start to see or feel changes then I am definitely more motivated.  Also I think we can not compare ourselves with others!!  I am guilty of this, sometimes I look at the girls on the exercise videos and think, I am doing the program, why aren't my hips and buns as tight as hers, why isn't my stomach as tight, etc.  Well, we all have different make-ups, every ones body is different.  So, take that discouragement and change it into encouragement.  Think about how healthy your body is getting every time you exercise.  Think about how you can use it to get your emotions and frustrations out.  Stay persistent and consistent.  If you start to question if all of the hard work is worth it, remind yourself that it is! Think about if there is anything your diet that is sabotaging your results, then decide to eat more healthy.  Try to make your body the best it can be, not the same as the girl on the video.

Thrifty Thursday - 5 Inexpensive Beauty Tips

We all want to look the best we can, but don't always want to spend a fortune doing so.  Here are some expensive little beauty tips that can help us look great.

Tip 1:  Use baby oil as shaving cream.  I did this the other day and it worked great. It also left my skin so soft.  ** Caution though, it is oil so be careful getting in and out of bah or show it might be slippey** I also mix a little bit of baby oil with some shimmery lotion I have that I think is a little too shimmery.  I applied it to my legs and it maked them smooth and shimmer, but not too much.

Tip 2: Read labels.  Look at the store brand items and compare their ingredients with the name brand. If they are the same and the store brand is cheaper then why not buy it.

Tip 3: Use your make-up multiple ways.  I have a brown eye liner pencil that is also the perfect shade for my eyebrows.  Light eyeshadow could be used for highlights. You can use an old clean wand from mascara as an eye brow brush.

Tip 4: Water...is our friend.  Drink enough water each day our body craves it.  About 60 percent of an adult body is made of water. So doesn't it make sense that it is important that we get enough.

Tip 5: Baby Powder use it like dry shampoo.  What I like to do is sprinkle it in my hands and rub them together and apply to roots then brush or comb out.