There are No Shortcuts

6feb2014 – count:0

• Vitamins: B1, B3 (niacin) Zinc, digestive enzymes, omega3 oil
• 7:00am urge/habit: replaced with water and coke

Food & Exercise Log:

7am

• 5 push ups
• 1 glass of water
• 1 can of Coke (222ml – 26g of sugar)
• 1 cup of coffee

12pm

• 1 glass of water
• Delicious Asian green mess: Chicken breast, Kamut & Buckwheat noodles, spinach, broccoli, Brussels sprout, soya sauce, almond butter, grated fresh ginger, lime juice, grated lime zest, fresh cilantro, shaved almonds

3pm

• Mott’s Garden Cocktail (162ml)
• cube of swiss cheese

5pm

• 1 Taste of Nature – Quebec Cranberry Carnival (32g)
•  glass of water

6:30-8pm

• Kickboxing
• 2 glasses of water

9pm

• Quinoa, tuna, wafu sauce, rice vinegar – wrapped in raw Napa Chinese cabbage
• 1 can of Perrier with splash of orange juice, lime and maraschino cherries

4 Ugly Facts About Setting Goals

Molly Cain, Contributor
FORBESWOMAN | 1/14/2014 @ 10:38PM

http://www.forbes.com/sites/glassheel/2014/01/14/the-ugly-side-of-goal-setting/

Ok, so you’re sitting there right now and you have identified one or more things you want for yourself or your future.

Perhaps you want to buy your first house. That promotion you’ve been pining after for years. A new job in a new company that actually appreciates you. The satisfaction of crossing the finish line of your first 5k. Whatever it is, you have something in mind. And you want it.

So how do we make these things come to fruition? Well, step one is to stop “wanting” these things and instead decide you’re definitely going to get them. You do that by turning them into goals.

Here is where I’d typically start talking to you about the goal-setting process. I’d give you a few steps on breaking up your goals into manageable pieces, then walk you through each. Maybe I will sometime. But not this time.

Instead, before you sit down to create the goals that could change you as a person or change the life you’re living today, I’d like to pull back the curtain on these goals you’re setting for yourself. They have ugly sides. Here are four of them.

Not everyone will support you (loudly). When I first decided to abandon my role in the Fortune 500 world to join Haul Studios, I came across this situation. While I feel truly loved by the people in my inner circle, some didn’t agree with my decision and they voiced it through questions like, “How will you eat?” and “What happens if this fails?” and “How long will your savings last?” and “Are you really sure you’re ready?”

I got a lot of questions that reeked of doubt. And while it was ultimately no one’s choice but my own, these opinions weighed heavily on my decision-making process. I wasted a good solid year of my life second-guessing the decision before I finally took the jump.

When we set goals for ourselves, we’re feeling motivated, confident and renewed. We know it may require a lot of work, but we’re ready, gosh darn it! And just as we’ve been taught, we tell people about our goal so we can set some accountability and get that precious support. Ask and ye shall receive, right? Ah…nope.

Set your goals with the complete understanding that not everyone will back you openly. And that’s ok. Generally it’s not malicious (they also may not even realize they’re not giving you the emotional backing you’re looking for). Know that if you’re not getting the support you crave, it’s not you. Most of the time, they are:

Fearful (that you will fail)
Jealous (that you might not)
Guilty (that they themselves haven’t done it yet)
All three of these categories do not matter. That’s their problem. Prepare for this and plan to push on.

You’ll be sacrificing something else. In The 6 Things You Should Quit Doing To Be More Successful, I share a key piece of advice I received from my yoga instructor. She told me that whenever we say yes to one thing, we’re saying no to another. This is never truer than when you’re setting goals.

Let’s say you decide to finally get in shape. So you set that goal. You hire a personal trainer at the gym or you go all in and join a fitness community like Camp Gladiator or Crossfit. Then you visit with a nutritionist. And finally, you get to work. What’s wrong with any of that?

Well, for starters, you have to create an entirely new budget with a very big section called, “healthy stuff.” Then you start getting a little dodgy about happy hours and dinner invites with friends because you need to avoid the temptations. And forget a dating life to show off that new body of yours, it’s nearly impossible to find someone who appreciates a 5am wake-up call.

Simple concept, but powerful. Understand that some of your goals, even the best ones, will mean sacrifice. Everyone eventually sacrifices something, but not everyone realizes it in advance. You’re ahead of the game if, while you map out your goals, you also think about and come to grips with the things you have to sacrifice in order to make them a reality.

It could derail you. Have you ever broken up with someone (or been dumped)? Been fired? Or experienced a major failure? If you’re not one to wallow, you take that kick in the pants and start to set some new goals to get out of the rut you’re in. But could these goals be derailing you?

Actually, yes.

Goals must be set intentionally. So if you set a bunch of them to distract yourself from what’s happening in real life, you will find yourself attempting to learn Spanish while training for a marathon, buying your first home and applying for a new job – and you’ve decided you’ll get this done in a month’s time. Because you’re just that awesome (or delusional, whatever). Do you seriously think you can give adequate attention to each of these major milestones?

Don’t get me wrong. These catastrophic life events have gifted me some of my favorite hobbies and interests. I do highly recommend you deal with grief and frustration by making changes that give you a boost of confidence. But if you select too many because you’re in a whirlwind, sloppy mess on your couch and don’t know what you really want, you’ll set yourself up for disaster.

It’s like throwing a bowl of noodles against the wall to see which ones stick. An interesting experiment, but a messy one. Pick one or two goals from your list so they become less of a distraction and more of what they are…goals.

It bites back. Just imagine crossing the finish line of an Ironman, an event so momentous in competitor’s life that they get a tattoo to commemorate it. How cool would it be to finally reach your goal weight? Or getting that coveted window office with the mahogany desk? Walking across the stage to get your graduate degree?

The biggest goals are sometimes the worst. Because if you’re really a bad ass, you reach them.

Big goals, the ones you’ve always dreamt of, require dedication, hard work, commitment, blood, sweat, tears…the whole shebang. If you’re someone who responds well to these requirements, you’ll get there. If you’ve held onto this dream for years, it happens because one day you suddenly decide you’re ready to donate those moments of frustration, exhaustion and deprivation to finally get there. It is because you care so much about yourself that you will, ironically, put yourself in temporary pain (literally or figuratively) to get there.

Then one day you do! And that’s where it goes downhill.

When you finally reach one of these goals, you crumble to the ground in victory (fast forward this video to minute 1:25). You’re spent. So you decide to take a break. A really, really, really long break. After all, you “earned it,” right? And who would judge you for this? Probably no one. They’re in awe of this accomplishment.

Now you decide to allow yourself a few extra slices of pizza. You’re comfortable sleeping in and skipping a few workouts. You stop reading the non-fiction books about that job you wanted (which is now yours) and decide to head home instead of attending the networking event.

You give yourself so much lenience as a reward, that the goal you so desperately wanted has now become your biggest enemy. Simply because you met it.

The best way to battle this is to always have a goal in mind (duh). Even after the big ones. Yes, take a break. But not a long one or you’ll lose all that amazing momentum.

Enter your goal-setting process with these evils in mind and you’ll knock ‘em dead.

Molly is the co-founder and Executive Producer of Haul Studios a startup helping online personalities build and monetize their brands. When she’s not at the office, she’s burning off her ADD at the gym, hanging out with her retired racing greyhounds, being zen in yoga or expressing unsolicited opinions on @MollyCain. You can find more from her at GlassHeel.com.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/glassheel/2014/01/14/the-ugly-side-of-goal-setting/

5 Benefits of Martial Arts as Daily Exercise to Avoid Anxiety

http://www.holisticgrowthinsights.com/martial-arts/5-benefits-of-martial-arts-as-daily-exercise-to-avoid-anxiety/

By Ryan Rivera

HOW MARTIAL ARTS AFFECTS ANXIETY

All exercise has benefits for anxiety, but martial arts can be particularly valuable, especially if you take the activity seriously and do it every day. Some of these benefits include:

CONTROL

Perhaps the greatest effect that martial arts has on anxiety is that it is a tool to give you control over yourself and your surroundings. Those that learn martial arts learn discipline, and that discipline affects more than simply the movements within MA itself. That control allows you to handle your emotions in your day to day life as well, keeping you calm and focused rather than letting your mind and thoughts scatter.

CONFIDENCE

It’s easy to forget how much confidence also affects your ability to control your anxiety. When you’re confident in yourself, then you know that you’ll be able to more easily handle any events that life may throw at you. It’s not always about controlling all of your anxious thoughts. Rather, it’s about experiencing less of a feeling of “flight” when faced with a stressful situation. Martial arts provides this confidence, so that rarely will you feel there are things you cannot handle.

CATHARSIS

When you do experience a stressful day, MA is a great way to relieve much of that stress. In a controlled and safe environment, you have an opportunity to release much of that stressful energy. Any aggression you have inside you is used as a tool, rather than a hindrance. You harness it, and allow the energy to fuel your MA sequences and bouts, brining that energy outside of your body so that it isn’t being held back.

PHYSICAL ENERGY REDUCTION

Not all anxiety is caused by your thoughts. In fact, in most Americans, one of the leading causes of anxiety is simply excess physical energy. As a result of themind/body connection, that energy is then turned into anxiety, because your body has no other form of release. Martial arts uses all of your muscles and tires each of them out. Any anxiety caused by excess muscular energy goes away, and you’re left with a calmer body and a calmer mind.

HEALTHY SOCIAL EXPERIENCE

Finally, one of the most often forgotten benefits of MA as an anxiety reduction tool is that you’re always with at least one other person, performing actions that are healthy and productive. With today’s busy and complex lifestyle, this time that you spend surrounded by other people of similar interests is incredibly healthy – a type of social environment that few people normally have an opportunity to fit into their schedules. It’s a 100% healthy coping strategy that takes your mind off the troubles of the day, and the benefits of that should not be overlooked.

USING MA TO RELIEVE ANXIETY

In addition to the benefits outlined above, all forms of exercise also burn stress hormones and increase endorphins – the body’s natural pain killers. Combine those benefits with all of the advantages outlined above, and you’ll see why MA is such a powerful way to reduce your daily anxiety and stress. As long as you put effort into your martial arts practices, you’ll find that your anxiety melts away.

About the Author: Ryan Rivera has long researched the effects that exercise has on the body, and now writes tools and tips for dealing with anxiety at www.calmclinic.com.

http://www.holisticgrowthinsights.com/martial-arts/5-benefits-of-martial-arts-as-daily-exercise-to-avoid-anxiety/

TEDed – Overcoming obstacles – Steven Claunch

http://ed.ted.com/lessons/there-s-no-dishonor-in-having-a-disability-steven-claunch

Let’s Begin…

When faced with a bump in the road, sometimes we forget we have a choice: overcome the obstacle or let it overcome you. Steven Claunch, who was born without fingers on his right hand and with one leg shorter than the other and has excelled in basketball nonetheless, explains why obstacles can provide an opportunity to both inspire others and develop character.

Strive for…

‘Recovering Alcoholic’: Words That Stigmatize or Empower?

by Joseph Nowinski, Ph.D. Clinical psychologist
Posted: 02/04/2014 5:37 pm EST Updated: 02/04/2014 5:59 pm EST

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-nowinski-phd/addiction-and-recovery_b_4665947.html

If you hear someone say that they are a “recovering alcoholic” or a “recovering addict” how do you react? Can you imagine yourself saying such words, and if so how would you expect others to react?

There is no doubt that the concept of alcoholism has long been associated with a social stigma. Being an “alcoholic” was long (and for some still is) thought to be a moral failing — a character flaw or lack of willpower. The deliberate decision of the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous to enshrine anonymity as a central pillar of that fellowship attests to the stigma attached to alcoholism. The intent, of course, was to shield members of AA from the stigma and thereby protect their reputations and even their careers.

But is that stigma still as potent today as it once was? And what are the actual implications of identifying yourself as a recovering alcoholic?

Research on Identity

Social psychologists have long studied the way individuals choose to define themselves, and how that identity in turn affects them. In doing so they have followed in the footsteps of Erik Erikson, whose seminal work, Identity: Youth and Crisis, first set forth the notion that the identity we embrace as we pass through adolescence represents a kind of psychological template or road map that strongly influences the direction our lives will take.

Social psychological research has worked more on how a person’s decision to identify with a particular group can relate to their physical and/or mental health. In one study, for example, researchers found that survivors of stroke who chose to identify themselves that way and attend ongoing support groups reported enhanced feelings of well-being as compared to stroke survivors who opted not to become active in such groups. (1)

Using studies like the above as a springboard, other researchers sought to investigatehow identifying oneself as a “recovering alcoholic” (or “recovering addict”) affected that person’s well-being, as opposed to not embracing that identity.

“Recovering Alcoholic” vs. “Alcoholic”

These researchers studied a group of men and women, all of whom were attending Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and/or Narcotics Anonymous (NA) groups. They then divided this group further based on how much each individual identified themselves with the phrase recovering alcoholic (or addict) vs. simply an alcoholic (or addict). These two identities were measured by how strongly (on a scale of 1 to 7) each participant endorsed statements such as “Being an AA (NA) member is a central part of who I am,” and “I would describe myself as an AA (NA) member.” The higher the score, the more the individual’s identity was as a recovering alcoholic or addict.

The researchers then assessed each participant for their self-efficacy, or empowerment, which is measured by having them respond (again on a scale of 1 to 7) to statements such as: “I can remain abstinent,” and “I can manage my addiction.” Again, the higher the score, the more the individual experiences self-efficacy.

The Results:

• The more the individual identified him/herself as a recovering alcoholic (addict) the higher was his/her level of self-efficacy.

• Higher self-efficacy was associated with more months clean and/or sober.

• The more the individual leaned toward the recovering identity the less likely she/he was to report having relapsed into drinking or drug use during the pervious two years.

So, is it really stigmatizing these days to identify yourself as a recovering alcoholic or addict? The evidence suggests that, to the contrary, coming to the point where an individual able to embrace that identity can help to solidify his or her recovery. It most likely makes it easier for those individuals to “get active” in one fellowship or another, as opposed to having a more tepid identity with those who they see at meetings.

Allowing for the above important insight, many recovering individuals may still choose to embrace their identity primarily when communicating with others at AA or NA meetings, with their sponsors, or with trusted friends. Alcoholism and addiction themselves may still carry a stigma, but what we know now is that what an individual feels in his or her heart can make a big difference between continued recovery vs. relapse.

References:

1. Haslam, Home, et. al., 2008, Maintaining group memberships: Social identity continuity predicts well-being after stroke. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 18, 671-691.

Follow Joseph Nowinski, Ph.D. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/NewGrief

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-nowinski-phd/addiction-and-recovery_b_4665947.html

Morning Motivational Video

I get goose bumps when I watch this.

Enjoy!

5feb2014 – count:0

• Vitamins: B1, B3 (niacin) Zinc, digestive enzymes, omega3 oil
• 6:40am urge/habit: replaced with water and lemon juice

Food Log:

• 1 can of Coke (222ml – 26g of sugar)
• 1 hard boiled eggs
• 1 Taste of Nature – Brazilian Nut Fiesta bar (32g)
• large salad: spinach, romaine lettuce, green olives, zucchini, ham
• small stick of salami
• 1 Taste of Nature – Quebec Cranberry Carnival (32g)
• 1 can of Schweppes Tonic Water (355ml – 31g of sugar)
• 6 pieces of black licorice
• Cube of Swiss cheese
• Delicious Asian green mess: Chicken breast, Kamut & Buckwheat noodles, spinach, broccoli, Brussels sprout, soya sauce, almond butter, grated fresh ginger, lime juice, grated lime zest, fresh cilantro, shaved almonds, and a dash of Sriracha sauce.
• 3 slim cans of perrier & 6 maraschino cherries

 

It’s never too late…