A LESSON ON SALADS

I was just writing this to a client and it is really something everyone should know. So I’m sharing!

If you’re eating a salad because you’re trying to eat healthy you’ll have to make adjustments (see below), or just go ahead and eat what you really want because it might actually be better for you.

Just because a restaurant labels something a “salad” doesn’t mean it is healthy. You have to really look at what is in it. So here is what you’re looking for.

Anatomy of a Healthy Salad
- mostly vegetables (good carbs)
- a lean meat like chicken or fish (protein)
- a little dressing (fat)

*The calories will be around 400, which is what a meal should be.

One of my favorites in this category is the Farmshop Poached Chicken Salad.

Anatomy of 99% of Chain Restaurant Salads
- a little lettuce (good carb)
- if you’re lucky, another vegetable (good carb)
- cheese (fat/high calorie, little protein)
- avocado (fat/high cals)
- nuts (fat/high cals, little protein)
- hardboiled egg (protein)
- meat of some kind (protein, sometimes fatty)
- way too much dressing (fat/high cals)
- croutons (not so good carb, fat)

*The calories can be anywhere from 800-1600! For a freaking “salad”!

How to Save Your Restaurant Salad
- Pick only ONE of these: nuts, cheese, avocado.
All of these are fine in small portions on their own, but all at the same time become a fat and calorie grenade on your salad.

- Pick ONE protein.  Chicken/fish/steak or hardboiled egg.
An exception is in the Farmshop salad, for example, because the portion of each is not excessive. So use your best judgement.

- Order dressing on the side.
If you don’t want to dip, just pour half of it on the salad to start, it will be enough for flavor, trust me.

*Note: when I say “pour half” I mean if it comes in a little ramekin.  If you’re at Cheesecake Factory and they give you a boat of dressing on the side, do NOT pour half of that on your salad. Take a table spoon of the dressing and drizzle it. An additional tablespoon if you like, but not the whole boat of dressing.

- Choose the leanest protein possible.
Avoid fried, battered or crusted in anything.

Worst Case Scenario Order
Get the house salad, dressing on the side, and a side of chicken breast or lean fish. BAM!

You can even do this at Denny’s.  Just sayin’.

RIP Salad
You may end up not liking salads anymore, and that’s okay.  If you were eating the Cobb Salad thinking they are healthy and I just killed that for you, I’m not sorry.  You needed to know the truth!

Salad Love
If you still love salads I’ve just shed some light for you.

And if you’re trying to GAIN weight, awesome! You’re on the right track with these!

Cheesecake Factory
Small Ceasar Salad with Chicken = 980 calories
Regular size = 1510 effing calories
Grilled Chicken Tostada Salad = 1130

Chili’s “Fresh Take Salads”  (Aaah, Marketing 101 at it’s finest right there)
Quesadilla Explosion Salad = 1400
Boneless Buffalo Chicken Salad = 1010

IHOP
Crispy Chicken Salad with fried chicken = 1390
with grilled chicken = 1280

Bonus Info
You can safely assume that all of these salads have an insane amount of fat as well.  I only mention calories because they matter. While calories aren’t the only way to determine if something is healthy or not, if you don’t pay attention to them you could be packing on pounds or not losing weight when you want to be.

To give a frame of reference here, I am a 5′ 9″, 36 year old female athlete weighing about 155 pounds right now.  In order to maintain my weight I need to take in about 2100 calories.  So eating a 1300 calorie salad in one meal doesn’t leave much for the rest of the day!

A pound is 3500 calories, so if I were to take in an extra 500 calories a day I would gain 1 pound in 1 week.  Similarly, if I want to lose 1 pound a week, I could cut or burn 500 calories a day.

So there you have it.  A little salad and calorie education. Choose wisely, but whatever you do, make sure you enjoy it.  If it is not amazing, don’t put it in your precious face.

BIRD SWATTING

“A bird can land on your head but you don’t have to build it a nest.”

I heard that funny brilliance several years ago and it changed my life. The point was, we don’t have to accept, think to death, dwell on every thought that pops into our heads.  We are in control of our thoughts!

I have always been a positive thinker, so hearing the nest-building funny shed some light on those times I had somehow ended up cranky, depressed or in a pity party.  In those moments, I had given a single negative thought undeserved energy. I fed it and it grew to the point of getting the best of me.  What a waste of perfectly fine days I’m sure I was having.

So I decided to take back the power over my thoughts I had apparently given away on occasion, and made myself ready for attack.  I was going to decide which thought birds got to stay and which had to get lost.

I call it Bird Swatting.
When I first started Bird Swatting it was the time of my life when my marriage finally ended, and badly.  So it was not surprising I had some days that felt like bird swatting was a second job. It took some focus and energy to refuse to dwell on negative thoughts that served no purpose in my life except to bring me down.

The effort paid off though.  Soon those negative birds flew over me less and less and I got better and better at seeing them coming and protecting my nest.

One day while running, I even said out loud, “GO AWAY!”  to the birds. I was having a hard time stopping myself from thinking about someone and I really wanted to.

My little outburst made me laugh because I’m sure people saw and heard me.  I must have looked crazy but I didn’t care.  I was taking control of my thoughts, and I was winning!

The power is addicting.  
And it is power.  We are in control of our thoughts. Which is fantastic news to those of us who strive to be better humans every day, because our thoughts affect our feelings, our feelings affect our attitudes, our attitudes affect our actions, and our actions become our lives!  And I, for one, want nothing less than a good, happy, quality life!

I am happy to say I have mastered the skill of Bird Swatting.  If it were an Olympic event I would win the Gold for sure.  Which is not to say I wouldn’t have some competition because everyone I have shared this with has become quite masterful as well.  And you can too.

Like any good skill, Bird Swatting takes practice.
It’s possible your nest has been open to any and all who fly over and need a place to land. When you decide you are going to limit the visitors you’ll meet some resistance.  Some birds are fast and they aren’t all pretty.

The doves and other pretty birdies land soft and make you smile.
They can stay.  Build them a nest, feed them and enjoy them.  These are the pleasant and fun thoughts you have about your day, your home, your family, your past.

Thoughts like, “I can do this. I am strong. Life is good. My spouse is amazing. I love my body. I will get that job.  What a beautiful sunset.  I am good enough. Something good is going to happen to me.”  These are brilliant.  Keep them, build on them, repeat them.

However, there are pigeons, crows, vultures and giant pterodactyls!
They fly fast and mean and they land hard.  You know them, they are the thoughts that hit you like a ton of bricks and lay you flat out for an entire “bad day” of depression, bitterness, lonliness, resentment, and whatever else we let ruin a perfectly fine day.  They get the swat or you’ll look like this crankypants:

Thoughts like, “Poor me. Nobody loves me.  I’ll never have a good life. I’ll never have enough money.  I could never do that. Nothing good ever happens to me. This day sucks.  Life sucks. People suck.  I can’t. I should have. I would have. I could have. “

Bird swat those!  They are ridiculous, false and get you nowhere but down. You are in control!

Be patient and stay focused.
The first day you’ll be a little slower on the draw and you’ll have to push those bitter, judgmental, pitiful, sad birds out of your nest after you’ve accidentally let them land.

The next day you’ll see them coming at least. You’ll swat them.  They’ll circle back. You’ll swat again.  They’ll dive in from another angle. You’ll get hip to it and Bird Swatting may become Bird Batting Practice.  Whatever works.  Don’t be shy.

Remember that you are in control and occasionally have to be aggressive in the defense of your precious landing pad.  I’ve imagined all kinds of weapons when the swat or the bat didn’t do the trick.  It is actually quite funny, which I think helps the entire process a great deal.  A solid reminder not to take ourselves and our thoughts too seriously.

No Vacancy
One of the best ways I’ve found to keep the vultures away is to fill my nest with positive peeps.  On purpose.  When you’re proactive, you don’t have to be reactive.

Keep your nest full, your landing pad busy, your brain focused on good things. Constantly. After a few days those birds will realize you have a new policy and they will find somewhere else to go.

Rest assured though, they will be back.  When you least expect it they will do a fly-by just to see if you’re taking old visitors again.  Sometimes they will catch you tired, hungry, cranky or just plain not paying attention.  They will dive in for the kill. Be quick. If they found a spot, push them out.

Staying healthy, rested, positive and happy will keep you mentally agile and  able to see them coming so you can respond quickly.  Do your best, stay sharp and never give up your power again.

Bird swat.  BAM!

 

No Need For New Year’s Resolutions

I don’t make Resolutions.
The way I see it is, if I want to change something in my life, why would I wait until a certain date that only comes once a year to make that change?  If I know on August 10th that something has got to change, I start on August 10th.  In some way, big or small.  I just make a change.

I had a good year.
2012 wasn’t easy but I learned a lot and I look back on it with pride and gratitude for the work that I did, the steps I took, the heartaches I got through, the trust I maintained, the joy I felt, the effort I gave, the people I helped and the growth I achieved.

Taking a que from my father’s fantastic sermon yesterday, I did good, but I can do better. 

My father is a phenomenal preacher.  He can take one Bible verse and make it relevant to every day life, and he always has great illustrations. Yesterday’s sermon was a goody.  We all left church lifted up, encouraged, challenged and excited about the year to come.

I’ll sum it up with his wonderful illustration.

Not too long ago, high school grade point averages stopped at 4.0.  Straight As meant a 4.0 and that was what students were to aim for.

These days, the playing field is a little more competitive and the average GPA of the incoming class at UCLA, for example, is 4.5.  How is that? Well, it was pointed out at some point that an A in PE is obviously not the same as an A in Chemistry. So now, in order to get a higher GPA, students are taking honors courses that will get them beyond that 4.0, headed toward 5.0.

We would agree that 4.0 is pretty great, right?  5.0 is better.

Back to my year, I’d say I earned a 4.0.
I did pretty great.  But I can do better. So my goal for 2013 is to aim higher, keep pressing, dream bigger, be better, get that 5.0.

How am I going to do that? I’m not making resolutions, that’s for sure. I’m simply asking myself this question:  How can I do better in every area of my life?

How can I be a better trainer?
daughter
friend
sister
aunt
runner
motivator
giver
lover
fighter
teacher
writer

How can I improve my nutrition?
finances
training
home
relationships

This doesn’t overwhelm me.
The answers are as simple as, in order to be a better runner I can stretch more. BAM. Done.

I asked my mom recently how I can be a better daughter and she said, “I don’t think you can be better, but I’d like to spend more time with you.”  Since then we’ve made a point to have a Mother-Daughter Day every month and now my dad and I have agreed to the same.  BAM. Done.

And so I encourage you.
Think beyond the B average,  3.0 gpa, make-a-resolution-you-are-going-to-feel-bad-about-when-you-forget-it-in-a-month.

Review your year and pat yourself on the back for your 4.0 effort and then figure out what simple things you can do to push into the 4.5 and beyond.

5.0 baby.  Here we come 2013. Here’s to Doing Better.

Cheers!

Peace Lost and Found

Peace Lost

I was given this beautiful necklace as a gift last year.  A couple weeks ago I couldn’t find it. There is only one place it could have been and I remembered putting it there. On my dresser on a jewelry stand. When I didn’t find it there, I thought maybe it had fallen on the floor. Not there.

I looked in each of the drawers in the dresser just in case it had fallen in, but after emptying out every drawer I still couldn’t find it.

The dresser sits in front of a window, so I even went outside to see if my Peace had sadly  fallen out the window and might be on the ground. No luck.

I had lost my Peace.

I knew it had to be somewhere so I tried not to worry about it, but it was on my mind every time I saw my jewelry, which is every day.

Peace Found

Last week when I was moving and packing up my jewelry, I found it.  Right where it belongs on my jewelry stand.  I didn’t see it because it was tucked under another necklace.  But it was there all along.

This is often the case with actual peace.  Sometimes we think we have lost it, but it is in us all the time. It was given to each of us as a gift.  We just need to choose it each day, each moment.

We  can either give up our peace to a person or a circumstance, or we can hold on to it for dear life.

We can let stress hold us back, or  breathe and release it, letting peace fill our souls.

We can worry ourselves into a tizzy, or  relax and activate our peace.

We can stay stuck in a place, for fear of making the wrong decision, or let peace guide us in the right direction.

We can complain about what is wrong with the world, or do our part, and as a good friend puts it, BE PEACE.

The choice is ours.

Choose peace.  Follow peace.  Live in peace.  BE peace.

If you can’t seem to find it within yourself, look a little harder.  It is there, tucked up under the other gifts you’ve been given: grace, strength, courage and joy.

Peace out.

YES, IT MAY TAKE A WHILE.

To lose the weight. To pay down your debt. To save enough money. To put on that muscle. To get the promotion. To reach your goals.

But so what it takes a few months, or even years?!  You are going to spend your time doing something.  Do you want to make progress in that time?  Why not ensure that you’ll be able to look back and be glad you spent that time wisely, doing things to get what and where you want?

If you are 100 pounds overweight and you think it will “take too long” to lose it, every day you DON’T start a weight loss and exercise program is another day longer it is going to take you.  In one year, you’ll either have lost weight or you will have gained weight, but you most likely won’t be the same.

If you have debt to pay off, in a year you can either have LESS debt or MORE debt, but chances are you won’t have the same amount of debt.  Even if you don’t use your credit cards anymore, you are still accruing interest charges on your current debt. Surprise, deeper in debt.

So how do you want to spend your time?  You can either make progress every day or keep digging a hole for yourself. So freaking what it might take you a long time to lose weight, reduce your debt, save for that house?!  You are going to spend that time doing something – do the right things.

Lose weight or gain weight.

Save money or spend money.

Work hard or don’t work at all.

Go to the gym or watch TV.

You have several opportunities every day to begin, and then to stay on track.  I challenge you to step up and live the life you want now. Don’t wait.  Don’t look back in a week, a month, a year, or 10 years and wish you had started today.  Just start.

TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS.

I’ll just get right to my point and say, actually I’m begging you, please learn to trust your instincts, sooner than later.

As soon as you learn to stop and listen to what your instinct is telling you, and then you trust and act on that instinct, you will start living a happier life.

Here is why. Your instincts are only there to protect you and send you into good situations.  Your instinct will never say, “Ooh look, see that dark alley?  You should go down there.  It looks dangerous.”

Call it whatever you like, your instincts, your gut, that inner voice, or my personal belief, God.  But whatever you call it, trust it.   It is your internal GPS system.  Follow it.

This isn’t a new concept, so why don’t we trust it more?

I believe one reason is because we use the fact that we don’t always see the outcome as a reason to not fully believe the urging we are feeling. The fact is, sometimes you will see the positive result of it and sometimes, in the case of avoiding danger, you won’t see it.  Thankfully!

If you decide not to go down the alley and instead take the longer route to where you need to go, you won’t see the danger that was waiting for you in that alley, because YOU DIDN’T GO!

If someone offers you help to your car with your groceries and you get a strange feeling and politely decline, three times because Mr. Strange is so persistent, you won’t see that you saved yourself from abduction or a mugging.

However, sometimes we do see the benefit of trusting our instincts.  Like my dad, who years ago sat at a stop light on a major street in California; he was first in the line at the light and there were cars behind him, but when the light turned green something told him, “Don’t go yet.”

He listened to that inner voice despite the honking cars behind him and two seconds later a car came speeding through the intersection running the red light. Had my dad not listened to, trusted and acted on his instinct, I WOULDN’T HAVE A FATHER TODAY.

I use these morbid scenarios because they matter!  And they are extreme and usually when we feel the instinct the strongest.   However, there are so many times in a day that the same inner voice that will keep you from danger, will help you find something you have been looking for, will tell you that you’re forgetting something in the house as you leave for your day, and will tell you to call someone who then says they were just thinking about you.

We all have stories of how our instincts spoke to us and we were so freaking happy that we listened.  This is all the proof we need to trust them over and over and over again, for the rest of our lives.

We also have 100 examples of how not trusting our instincts led us to pain and suffering, disappointment, unease, anguish, anger, worry, and so on.  Those many times, good and bad, should be reasons enough to trust, even when we might not see the outcome.  We need to stop looking for reasons to doubt them.

It’s not just “woman’s intuition.”

I am not fond of this phrase.  It discounts that you, the brilliant male, is actually a smart human being.  While I agree that women can hone in on certain things regarding their children, intuition isn’t exclusive to women.  Men, you have it too!   You may just be hardwired to be more alert to other dangers and possibilities.   I hear men say this sometimes as a reason for not acting on something, but I propose that if he stopped and thought for a second before acting, he would recognize the gut feeling that something just isn’t right.

How do we know what is really instinct and what is our own thought process? 

Good question.  And one I struggled with for a long time.  I now have an answer to this by way of Joyce Meyer.

The answer is this:  FOLLOW PEACE.

In every decision we make one choice will lead to a feeling of peace and the others will lead to discomfort, uncertainty, fear, pain, nervousness, etc.  Think about that for a moment.  Apply it to something you are deciding today.

Spend or save the extra $500 that just came your way.

Eat the entire piece of cake your coworker just handed you at 10am, or just have a couple bites, or none at all.

Move across country for that new job or stay put.

Go out with that man/woman or not.

Say Yes to marriage or No.

One will lead to peace.  Follow that one.

For example, a first date a couple weeks ago.

Correction. First and only date.  A nice man asked me out and from our conversation I was intrigued enough to say yes. We planned on lunch and maybe a ride on his boat since the weather was so beautiful.  Lovely.

He picked me up, opened the car door for me, was a perfect gentlemen.  Great.  Lunch was fine but the more we talked I realized we didn’t have much, or enough, in common, but I didn’t cancel our boat ride because maybe it was too soon to make a decision on this one.

Not more than 20 minutes later in his car, after listening to him talk (it was specifically what and how he was saying things) I realized I was no longer comfortable and I knew this would not lead to another date.  I didn’t want to get on the boat, and I wanted to go home.  Every fiber of my being (aka, my instinct) was saying, “Red flags Meagan. This isn’t right.  Don’t get on the boat and find yourself stuck in this situation with the wrong person. Be strong and tell him to take you home.”  We were driving further and further away from my PEACE.

So as nicely and honestly as I could, I said in so many words that while he is a great guy and I appreciate his being a gentlemen, I felt that we weren’t right for each other.   I didn’t know how to explain but I just knew and didn’t want to waste his time or energy on something I knew was not going anywhere.  (I left out the parts that the Flag Girls from the local high school marching band were in formation in my head waving their sparkly red flags as feverishly as humanly possible.)

Was that difficult?  Heck ya!  I spent at least 5 minutes going over in my mind how to say it, but I had to say something quick or I was going to find myself on a boat with someone I didn’t want to be with.

Did he freak out?  No.

Did he understand?  Uh, no.

Was it incredibly awkward on the ride back to my house?  Yes!

Did that change my mind?  Hells bells, no.

Do I know what craziness I saved myself from?  Nope.

Do I need to know? Not at all.

Take it from me, or learn from your own experiences, but learn.

It takes practice for sure.  It takes patience to stop and wait before acting.  It takes honesty with yourself to follow peace and not your fleshly desires.  It takes courage to say to someone, “I can’t explain it, I just have a feeling,” and then moving in your chosen direction confidently and without defending it.  But you are worth it, and hopefully sooner than later, you will realize and accept this simple truth.

Trust your instincts. Follow Peace.

IF IT IS NOT AMAZING, IT IS NOT GOING IN THIS FACE.

As we approach summer, many of us may have some  anxiety about eating well while traveling or attending countless backyard barbeques, or just wanting ice cream more often in hot weather.  If that is the case for you, I’ve recently come up with an idea that may help you as much as it has helped me.

How it works.  If it is not AMAZING, it is NOT going in this face.

If the menu or the look of something doesn’t excite me, or I don’t think it is going to be amazing, I don’t order it or eat it.

If I’ve had it before and it is not on my program, I already know what it tastes like, so I don’t need to go there again.

If I am on vacation, especially in a foreign country where I want to taste the flavor of the local cuisine (or I’m in New York), I allow myself to choose outside my usual eating plan, in moderation.  And this is when this concept is key.

Travel/vacation is not license to binge.  And yet we do, because we feel like it is a lost cause anyway.  Well no, it doesn’t have to be!  We can control our eating, particularly if we employ this concept!

If it looks or sounds AMAAAAZING,  I try it.  Enjoy it.  Relish it.  And under no circumstances should I feel bad about it, order a side of guilt with it or talk about it nonstop after I’m done.  I also do my best not to overeat it.  However, if that happens, I move on and just do better on the next meal.

I only recently conceived of this new tactic as I thought about an upcoming fun visit to New York.  I eat well and exercise and have been on a mission lately to see how lean I can get while still looking healthy, and it has worked, is working, is still working.  While I didn’t want to go to New York and limit myself too much on enjoying new restaurants and trying new things,  I also didn’t want to gain 5 pounds over one weekend, or at least feel like I had.

So I employed this new tactic, which I have been applying to my date life as well for the past two years – with great success, by the way! And yes, I realize how funny that is as you look at the title of this blog again.  But it happens to be true and highly effective, and time, energy and self-respect saving.  If it is not amazing, it is not going in this face!

Anyway, my New York trip was a wild success in all regards.  I had a fantastic time and ate at only AMAZING restaurants that I hadn’t been to before.   I chose my meals carefully, as I usually do when going out, but I also thoroughly appreciated and took pleasure in everything I ate.

Even an ENTIRE plate of fritto misto (deliciously fried fresh vegetables) at Eataly.   Even a bread pudding-type fantasma at Boqueria after an equally amazing meal.  Even 2 slices of New York Pizza at midnight after 3 too many Scotches and dancing to my favorite Blues band (Bill Sims Jr. – you gotta check him out.)

And let me tell you about that pizza.

The whole idea of drinking at night is not something I do anymore (I drink only at around 5pm, in between meals, and never late at night before bed). And eating that late at night, and carb and fat rich foods in general, let alone late at night, is NOT something I do.  However, I was on vacation and I made the decision (while sober, not after the Scotch swim) to savor  some amazing New York pizza.  Key word again:  AMAZING.

I was with a friend and told him I wanted pizza but I wasn’t going to eat it unless it was AMAAAZING.  So he, being the stellar friend he is, walked around the village with me to THREE pizza places until we agreed the pizza looked worth it!  I love this about him.  And it was worth it.  To me anyway, I can’t speak for him, but he wasn’t complaining!  There wasn’t even any talking for a few minutes.  Yum.

I don’t want to know how many calories it was and I don’t care.  It was delicious and hit the spot for sure.   Besides, I know that I walked everywhere for 3 days straight, I did two boxing workouts and 3 cardio sessions during the weekend.   So I balanced it out.  Which is often what happens when we travel; we may eat differently, but we also do a lot more walking and exploring.  Not everybody does this, and if you don’t, I highly recommend it.  It is a great way to see a new city, or new places in a familiar city that you often drive around in.

Bummer, I tasted it and it’s not Amazing.  Now what? 

The  obvious and simple answer is to STOP EATING it.  I’ll be honest though, I’m still working on this.  Even before I created this Plan of Amazing Attack for myself I would often find myself continuing to eat something that isn’t that great?  Why do I do this?!  I have so much self-control in other areas, why do I do this to myself? What a waste. I know better!

I think I do this for one of the following reasons at any given meal:

I paid for it.

• So what? Send it back.  Get it off the table.

I’m hungry.

• So what?  Eat something else.

I am not paying attention to my food, just getting it in my face.

• Sad. I want to appreciate my food.

I’m eating too fast, like I got a tip on a famine!

• Make a conscious effort to slow down. I’ve even put the fork in my non-dominant hand.

I’m eating with friends and talking so not paying attention to my food.

You may have other reasons but these are mine.  I can say I am much improved in many areas, especially at not even ordering something in the first place. But I’m a work in progress like everyone else,  and so I will continue working on this.

It is Part 2 of Plan of Amazing Attack:  Stop eating something that you realize is not amazing enough to land in your face!  Much like going on a date out of curiosity and initial interest, but then realizing there is no need for a second date. STOP.  Don’t keep going.  The food or the man is not worth it if it or he is not AMAAAAZING.

Free Crab Tomorrow!

This is funny, and it is also how our brain works.  With one simple tweak  of marketing to your brain you can have “free crab” today!

It’s been said a hundred different ways, and I believe it because I see it work in my life everyday.

“You reap what you sow.”

“You become what you believe.”

“As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”

“Where the mind goes, the man follows.”

“Positive thoughts bring positive results.”

“Whether you believe you can or believe you can’t, you’re right.”

No matter how we say it, it’s the truth. Whatever we think about ourselves is what we believe,  and our actions are based on our beliefs.   My hope for you is that you believe it so hard with every fiber of your being that you live a victorious life simply because you speak kindly and victoriously to and about yourself.

Let’s take it to another level now and fine tune our grammar.  I challenge you to omit the words “I will”, “I’m going to”, “one day”, “At some point” and so on, from your vocabulary when sowing seeds, saying what you believe and thinking positive thoughts. Here’s why in simple basic terms.

Your subconscious mind follows the orders you give it much like the marketing campaigns we see every day.  When you see the sign “free crab tomorrow” that one word “tomorrow” means you will NEVER get free crab because tomorrow never exists in the now. If the sign said “Free crab!” you could walk in the door, sit down and eat your free crab.  Yum.

So if you want something in your life today – to become a runner, to be prosperous, to lose 10 pounds, to live the life you imagine – say it as though you already have it.  Send the signal to your brain that you want it today, not tomorrow, not one day, not some day.  You ARE today, you aren’t going to be, want to be, will be.  You ARE.  You HAVE. You LIVE.

When you make a statement, you live it. Everything you do supports that declaration.  If you say you are debt free, your spending and saving choices reflect that.  When you say you are a certain weight, your eating and exercise habits reflect that.  When you say you “can’t” do something, your actions – and lack of action – reflects that.  Can’t means you don’t and you won’t, ever.  CAN makes me DO and therefore I AM.

This may sound like a funny concept but in my opinion “free crab tomorrow” is funnier.  What do you have to lose by making this simple tweak to the marketing campaign of your mind.  You are marketing to yourself every day, thousands of times a day.  When do you want to live the life you want?  Tomorrow?  I challenge you to live it today.  Eat your free crab today.

I love to look back on declarations I’ve written down and see what came true.  Many times I laugh out loud at the things I’ve done, the places I’ve gone, the people I’ve worked with, the pace’s I’ve run, the pounds I’ve lost – simply because I stated that I did it, long before it came true. When I declared it, my actions followed.

Try it.  Go get your free crab. Live the life you imagine. I dare you.

I NEVER GIVE UP

Contrary to current belief by those who are just now meeting me, I was not born as fit and determined as I am in my youtube video. http://youtu.be/G6a8-JBTHdM  While I have always been athletic and positive, I’ve had my share of struggles, weight issues and wrong mindsets that held me back.  I have a fire in me now because I choose it every single day, 100 times a day.

I have felt unworthy, unloved, depressed, and lacking purpose.  I have been in the wrong relationships, one particularly devastating that took me a few years to recover from, and I have made the same mistakes over and over and over until one day I got fed up enough to move on.

What I haven’t done is give up. And I never will.

Like everyone else, I have numerous opportunities every day to choose the wrong thoughts and let them control me. I did that for various reasons over the years and I have learned to do the opposite now.

Just today I resisted several foods that I don’t need, I didn’t call three people that I don’t need to speak to and I pushed away a few loneliness thoughts as well.  I could have given in to any of those thoughts in order to soothe myself in the moment, but I reminded myself I would be trading that for what I want MOST.  So I chose to keep going on my path, I ate healthy foods, counted my blessings and daydreamed about the life I am setting myself up for.

Yes, at times thinking positive gets tiring, sometimes downright exhausting and painful!  Like any good workout though, it is always worth it and every day, in every way, I get stronger and stronger.

In terms of weight loss determination, here is a brief timeline of a little setback I went through a few years ago that I never gave up on.

- I typically walk around at about 160-165 lbs, a super middleweight in boxing.

- In 2007 I reached 158, the lowest I’d been since age 19.  It was a result of getting out of the devastating relationship and training for my first marathon.

Morning of first marathon, 158lbs.

- In 2008 I shot up to 180, the heaviest I’ve ever been.  The result of taking a medication that (unknown to me at the time) increased my appetite and caused me to gain 10 pounds in 3 weeks.  This is especially devastating to me as a personal trainer because how can I expect clients to respect what I’m telling them about weight loss when I can’t control my own weight despite my best efforts?  I stopped taking the medication at 3 weeks when I realized what had happened but my body was already on a path of weight gain and my depression made it worse, hence topping out at 180.

2009 – 180lbs

- A couple years later I learned I have PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome) which means, among many other problems, that my body does not want to be lean or lose weight.  I didn’t know I had this for the first two years after my weight gain, so I didn’t know I was fighting an uphill battle, I thought it was just me.

- The next two years were still a struggle but I stayed focused and determined and got back down to my original “happy weight” of 160.

2011 – 160lbs

- I am currently 150lbs, the lightest and leanest I’ve ever been since I can remember stepping on a scale.  The result of:

- Never giving up.

- Hard work and then more hard work.

- Getting help from other trainers.

- Clean eating.

- Consistency.

- Patience.

- Intensity

- An unfailing positive attitude and the refusal to accept anything less than being the best version of myself I can possibly be.

150 lbs – 9% body fat. And I still can’t believe it!

Stay tuned for my next progress photo in a couple months.  I am forever a work in progress and on a mission right now…

MISSION UPDATE:

I just competed in my first, and only, bikini competition last Saturday, October 20, 2012.  For all the fun and, often funny, details of this particularl journey please visit my blog Meagan McBain Trains!

Titan Grand Prix, 149lbs, most likely around 7-8% bodyfat. 10/20/12

Pain and Simple

Just over a week ago, I ran the LA Marathon and crushed my previous personal best time by 23 minutes, rolling in at 3:58:31.  I say that so matter-of-factly, but I still can’t believe I did it.  I have never even thought of trying for a sub 4 hour marathon time.  I was aiming for a reasonable 4:15 or, God willing, an aggressive 4:10.

Passing my family just after the 25 mile marker, realizing I was about to run a Sub 4, and pointing to the One who gave me the strength to do it.

In short, this is how is happened in the physical. I ran a comfortably quick pace for as long as I could, knowing that I was banking some minutes for the last several miles when I needed to take longer walk segments.  I was prepared for my body to be tired in the last few miles so I expected the pain.

Here’s the thing, when I got to that pain point, I remembered I had been there before and I knew I could hold my pace and just run through it.  It wasn’t that bad.  I wasn’t injuring myself, it was just the pain of a physical challenge.  Running through the pain meant I never needed to cash in on my banked minutes, and at Mile 24 I finally did the calculations and realized I was about to run a sub 4!  Amazing.

So I just got back from the Santa Monica stairs.  There are 179 and they are steep.  I don’t think anyone actually uses these stairs as transportation from one point to another, they have become an exercise staple in this town.  I had planned on doing 10 sets but around 5 I started to think about how my legs were tired and maybe I would only do 7 or 8 today.

Really?  I just broke my own record on a 26.2 mile run and now I was going to wimp out on a couple stairs?  I think not.  I reminded myself that if I can run through the pain of a marathon, I can manage to bust out these stairs.  So I did.

Bottom half of the Santa Monica stairs.

It is so easy to let a little pain stop us from achieving goals.  If we will just get out of our own way and not let our feelings and emotions make our decisions, we can push harder and continue to move forward, breaking new ground.  It only takes a second to remember a time when we pushed through pain in another circumstance and then apply that to whatever we’re experiencing in the moment.

I often remind clients who are mothers that the pain of child birth was 100 times worse than what I’m putting them through.  They always laugh and always agree and then they keep going.

This can be used for any goal by the way, not just physical.  Work, debt reduction, saving money, sitting on the tarmac for 2 hours waiting for takeoff, sitting in traffic.  We don’t need to let our emotions get the best of us. We can resist the urge to complicate our pain or circumstance simply by remembering a time we were in a worse predicament or felt worse pain and yet we made it through alive and well.