Motivation Monday: Be Good to Yourself

Happy Monday, everyone!

It feels like an eternity since I've done one of these posts, but I happen to quite enjoy them, so I'm going to do one again! Before I jump into the motivation stuff, I just wanted to say that I started another blog in addition to this one! Click HERE to go check it out! I hope to continue posting on this blog, since my other one is mostly where I write lots and lots about various things in life, unrelated to health and fitness. Sooo yeah, go take a look! :)

Okay, back to some motivation!

The best thoughts happen in the shower, right? No? At any rate, I was trying to think up different messages this morning in the shower for a "Motivation Monday" post, and this happened to come to me.

Be good to yourself.

The health and fitness world is incredibly focused on being better and faster and stronger, which results in a lot of comparison. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing entirely wrong with the health and fitness world - I think that all the encouragement and information that gets thrown at people can be very good and motivating and useful. I just think that it's important to make sure that comparison doesn't take over your life.

It's okay if you don't do every single thing on every single "20 tips to be (fill in the blank - faster, skinnier, whatever)" lists. Trust me, it's okay. It's human to struggle and not be top-notch at everything.

Don't beat yourself up for being human. Instead, celebrate the successes you do have, instead of your shortcomings. Celebrate the little improvements in your life. Focus on the good. Celebrate the fact that you got yourself to workout 4 days last week, instead of 2, or none at all. Celebrate the fact that you ate 4 servings of vegetables yesterday. Set small goals to change one little thing at a time and then feel darn awesome when you meet those goals.

Along with being good to yourself by focusing on the positive, be good to yourself by taking time for yourself. Take a nap once in a while. Treat yourself to some dessert. Make time to do something that you love but don't always have time for. You don't have to be work, work, work, go, go, go, healthy, healthy, healthy 100% of the time. There should be moderation in all things, and you will be better off if you take a break once in a while. I promise!

I hope you have a wonderful day!

What is your favorite thing to do to take time for yourself?

Motivation Post Roundup + Looking Forward to 2014

Happy New Year!

I started off my day with a nice run with my family along the river (if you're familiar with the Boise, Idaho area, we ran along the Eagle section of the greenbelt, by Merrill Park). That section of the Boise river is so pretty, especially in the wintertime when everything is frosted over. Since I was running with other people, I went music-less, which I don't often do. I rarely go running without some kind of music playing in my ear. If I run without music in the neighborhoods, I tend to get bored, but boredom isn't really a problem when I'm running somewhere scenic and different than the usual. Going without music today turned out to be incredibly refreshing. For part of the run I actually ended up running separately from the rest of my family, and it felt amazing to just run through the chilly winter air, by myself amid the bare trees, and let my thoughts flow freely. I loved the time I ran with my family as well, but I really enjoyed the experience of running by myself too. It was a great way to start off the new year!

The beginning of the new year often gets a bad rap, and resolutions (particularly health and fitness ones) tend to be scoffed at. My personal take on it is that resolutions aren't bad, but unattainable ones are. If you set small, measurable goals for yourself, instead of setting out to completely change every aspect of your lifestyle at the same time, you're much more likely to be successful.

I've been off-and-on about making resolutions in the past, but this year I have come up with a couple health-related goals for myself. I made some other, non-health-related resolutions too, which you can check out here, but these are my health-related ones:

1. Run a half marathon. I am determined to finally do it! It's been something I've wanted to do for over a year, but injury and daylight savings has continually thwarted my efforts. I'm going to do my best to actually check this one off in 2014!

2. Eat at least 3 servings of vegetables per day. This one is going to be difficult, I'm not going to lie. I challenged myself to this for a three-month time period last year, and it was hard. I did find, though, that when I was working on that challenge, I ate a lot better overall, since fitting in those three servings left less room for the less-healthy food. Lately I've been eating a lot of processed food (things like protein bars and other granola bars) and I want to do better at eating more naturally. Protein bars are awesome, but I'd just like to eat things with smaller ingredient lists that haven't been processed quite as much. For me, setting a goal to eat at least three servings of veggies with help me avoid the unhealthy food and not eat as much of the healthier processed food. I'm going to do my best with this resolution, but I'm not going to freak out if I only eat one or two servings in a day occasionally.

I wish you all a very healthy and happy 2014! If your resolutions are health-related, here's a roundup of posts related to healthy lifestyle tips and motivation. Even if your goals aren't directly health-related, a lot of it still applies. If you are looking for some easy, healthy recipes to start off your year, check out the "Recipes" tab right below the blog header for a compiled list of my recipes. Enjoy!

Motivation Monday: Healthiness is a Journey
Choose to Live Actively
A Notebook and a Pen
Motivation Monday: You Sacrifice for What You Love
Motivation Monday: Just Because You're Not Sick, It Doesn't Mean You're Healthy
Eating Healthy On a Budget: 9 Tips
Motivation Monday: Getting Away From the Physical
Motivation Monday: Pinterest Motivation
Motivation Monday: Write a Mission Statement
Motivation Monday: General Tidbits About Embracing Life

What are your New Years resolutions?

Motivation Monday?

Happy Monday, everyone!

My apologies for being missing in action the past few weeks. Starting back with school kind of knocked me off my feet and I'm just now starting to get into a normal routine.

Today's post is just going to be some general tidbits and items of randomness that have been floating around in my head the past few weeks. Maybe you'll find some motivation in it?

You can't always fit everything in!
When I'm not doing much (during the summer months, for example), I fill my time by pursuing slight obsessions that aren't quite so productive. Think Pinterest, YouTube makeup videos, lots of reading, etc. On the more productive side, exercising most days of the week was essential this summer, and blogging became a part of my schedule as well. When my life gets busier (when school starts again!), I want to keep doing everything I was doing during the non-busy time, along with fulfilling my school-related obligations. Social media and books are fun, right? Yeah, I tried that for about a week this time around before realizing that there's no way I can fit it all in and still go to bed at a decent hour each night. Prioritizing has been key lately. Although I wish it were otherwise, school has priority over running or reading or even blogging. I've realized that I just need to chill out and stop trying to be a super lady. That just leads to stress, and stress is definitely not healthy!

Life works better if you relax.
This is kind of similar to the last tidbit, but can still stand independently. If you're stressed out every second of the day, it's hard to really enjoy life. And we're supposed to enjoy life, right? I definitely think so! Life is a happy place! If you need to drop one or two things off of your schedule in order to take care of the stress, do it, and don't look back! I've figured out that I'm so much happier on a day-to-day basis if I keep my schedule on the simple side, and if I don't stress out when I happen to have a busier day here and there.

Savor the run.
Running is a privilege. Having been injured and out of commission for part of the summer, and now being too busy to fit in a run sometimes, I have a greater appreciation for the opportunity to run. Don't discount even the smallest run. I'm grateful for the time and ability I have to get my little "easy runs" done during the week. If you don't have time to do your preferred hour-long workout on a weeknight, try for ten minutes. Even the littlest effort is better than none.

It's all mental.
You have control over yourself. If you want to start - or continue - eating healthy, you're the one who ultimately has the power to make that happen. Find some good motivation, stay motivated, and keep your mind on track. You have the power to choose how you take care of yourself.

Those are the general, main ideas that have been floating around in my head lately. I've been trying to focus on the most important things, and add in the less-important, more-enjoyable things as I go. Hopefully blogging will be one of those add-ins! I've missed it ! Hopefully I'm back to blogging on a regular basis! Let me know if there is anything specific you want me to blog about! Motivation, tips, workouts, recipes...? Tweet me (@tessabrynnk) or leave a comment on this post!

Thanks, as always, for reading! Have a lovely day! 

Question of the Day:
How do you transition best between less-busy and more-busy times of the year? Any tips?

Motivation Monday: Write a Mission Statement

Happy Monday! For me, I have school to look forward to this week, although at least now I have some yummy, healthy cookies from yesterday's baking experiment take with me. Okay, it's not much, but it's a slight consolation prize for being forced to sit through classes all day. Sigh.

Anyway! Back to the topic of motivation!

The other day, I had another brain-spark: to stay motivated, write a mission statement for yourself. Schools and businesses and other organizations have mission statements, so why not normal people?

Huh? Just bear with me! I'll explain!

First, get out a piece of paper and writing utensil. (What would be super extra fantastic is if you got out the notebook or planner you keep yourself organized with!) At the top of your paper, write "Who Am I?"

Then answer the question! Technically you can write anything about yourself, not just fitness-related things, but be sure to include some of those in there too. If you eat healthily about half of the time, but get thwarted by food temptation the other half, write in what you wish to be - in the form of a true statement.

Is this getting confusing? Here's an example:

I'm Tessa Kohler. I'm a daydreamer, and a romantic, and I'm obsessed with New York City, and I'm going to live there someday. I eat clean. I choose to eat food that is good for me because I care about my body enough to fuel it right. I exercise regularly, no matter how sluggish I may be feeling. I am a runner. I am dedicated and I make sacrifices because I know it is all worth it.

Is it maybe making more sense? For me, eating super clean and waking myself up to exercise in the mornings is what I struggle with. I'm not perfect at it by any means, however in my mission statement I wrote that I do eat clean and I do exercise regularly, no matter what. 

When you write down strong statements about yourself, based on your goals and aspirations, you will be more likely to actually believe that they're possible. Really, it all comes back to believing in yourself, which is absolutely crucial if you want to get anywhere with your goals.

Put your mission statement somewhere you will see it regularly - maybe next to your list of goals. Let it be your motivation and your support on those days when you feel like you will never be done with trying and failing. Let it be the thing that helps get you back on your feet, working even harder than before.

Have a wonderful week! Tweet me and let me know if you wrote your mission statement (@tessabrynnk)!

Question of the Day:
If you were to answer "Who Am I?" in only once sentence, what would it be?

Motivation Monday: Pinterest Motivation

Happy Monday! I'm back to normal life today after spending the weekend in Portland with family. It was a nice little vacation, squeezed in before summer ends.

The other day I was scrolling through my Pinterest boards, when I came across this pin on my "Motivation" board. Pinterest is a great source if I need a little motivation pick-me-up. It's also a great source for lots of other wonderful things (time-wasting, great dessert recipes, outfit inspiration before going shopping, etc!), but today I'll just stick to the motivation.

Image source: http://backonpointe.tumblr.com/post/27225292713

I love this! If you want to take any step in the direction of improving your overall quality of life by improving your health, you need to first believe in yourself. You need to believe that you have the power and ability to overcome bad habits. 

I think one of the things that stands the most in people's way when they consider making a new goal is lack of self-confidence and a belief that there's no way they would actually accomplish their goal. There are just too many things standing in the way. I'm telling you today that any goal is attainable. If you want to run a 10K, but haven't run a mile in years, don't let disbelief in yourself stop you. There are other, more valid, excuses and roadblocks keeping you from being fit. You have complete control over yourself and your thoughts. Keep them positive!

You can either be your largest obstacle, or else your greatest source of strength. Choose today to be strong and believe in yourself!

Question of the Day:

What is one of your favorite motivational quotes?

Photo source for the mountain picture I added the quote to: http://alzirrswanheartstock.deviantart.com/art/Stock-417-summer-mountains-8-131584875

Motivation Monday: Getting Away from the Physical

Good morning! Happy Monday!

Today's motivation stems from exasperation at the whole weight loss industry. Hopefully this doesn't come off sounding like a rant or anything!

So many health-related goals that people have deal with physical qualities: Fitting into a smaller size of jeans, having toned arms, weighing a certain amount, etc. If this is the ultimate goal you have in your head right now, drop it! Focus, instead, on living a healthy lifestyle. The other benefits will follow of their own accord. Tell yourself right now that you love yourself enough to improve your whole lifestyle. 

Focusing on the physical will stress you out! I promise! Focus your goals on the big picture: You want to be healthier and feel better in all aspects of your life. If you treat yourself great, you will feel great. Exercise, eat real food, sleep, laugh, smile...

What really matters is YOU. When you treat yourself right, you will radiate confidence and be beautiful no matter what dress size you are, or no matter what that number on the scale says. Starting today, train yourself to ignore the numbers and the physical qualities you see around you. Go back to basics and focus on simply treating yourself right. If you do, the particulars you find so essential will come on their own.

Love yourself today! Don't define yourself by the physical!

Have a fabulous week!

Motivation Monday: Mini-Goals (plus a challenge!)

Success. What do you define success as? Everyone wants to be successful, right?

The thing about success is that it doesn't happen overnight or on its own. It takes work. Talking about success comes back down to priorities. Are you making the area you want to be successful in a priority in your life?

Everyone says they want to "be healthy." That's their ultimate goal. If they accomplish that, then they will have "succeeded." Assuming that you, reading this right now, want to be healthy, set yourself up for success! The best way I know of to get big things done without giving up, or else just wandering in circles, is to set reasonable, attainable, mini-goals. Setting broad goals will just leave you exhausted and stressed. My challenge to you today is to set 1-2 mini-goals to accomplish this week. Here are some ideas:

-Eat 4 servings of vegetables every day.

-Drink at least 8 glasses of water every day.

-Get to bed at a decent hour at least 4 nights this week.

-Work out at least 3 days this week OR make it a priority to at least sweat every day.

-Eat when you're hungry, not just when you're bored.

-Go at least 3 days this week without eating any processed food.
-Try going at least 1 day eating fully-raw vegan.

You can pick a couple of my ideas, or you can make your own mini-goals. To make your own, think of a health- or fitness-related practice in you life that you know you can improve on (ex: not snacking, exercising more, drinking more water) and make a measurable goal out of it. "Exercise more" isn't enough. Try "exercise for 30 minutes, 3 days this week." Much better! 

Once you have your goals, write them down! Write them on a post-it note and stick it on your bathroom mirror or in your weekly planner. It doesn't really matter where, just put the post-it note somewhere you will see it.
Then, finally, follow through! Smash those goals! Let this week be a week of success for you!

Have a lovely day!

Motivation Monday: Healthy?

"Just because you're not sick, doesn't mean you're healthy." I picked up this phrase the other day, possibly from one of the vegan documentaries I've been watching lately. It pretty much sums up everything that I want to convey to people in my normal life that I see eating unhealthily. Not that I'm that annoying friend that nags everyone about what they're eating...or at least I hope I'm not! But it makes me cringe inside when I see people eat fast food for most meals, who are perfectly fine with it because it doesn't make them sick or gain weight or anything. Just because you're not overweight doesn't mean you're healthy! Your body is a machine and, like any machine, needs the proper fuel.Think about what you're putting into your body on a daily basis. Do those foods have the right nutrients to keep your body running well?

If you're that one friend, who is sometimes slightly appalled at the diet of those around you, and who is consciously trying to eat the right foods, keep it up! You're great for sticking it out! When everyone around you isn't living mindfully, be proud that you're choosing a better life for yourself. In the long run, you will be the one better off.

It's easy to get discouraged when you see people around you eating badly and not suffering any ill effects. Don't be! Think of the big picture. What really matters is that you're giving your body the fuel it needs. Take confidence in this knowledge and keep going!

Motivation Monday: What Do You Love?

A couple days ago I heard a new phrase that I'd never heard before, but liked at once: You sacrifice for what you love. This brought to mind all the things in my life that I love and I thought about how I sacrifice for each of them. Family, friends, church, and my health were some of the prominent ones.

If you love yourself, you'll sacrifice for yourself. For me, it's easier to sacrifice for friends, family, and church than it is to sacrifice for my health. It's a lot easier to think up excuses for why I should skip my morning workout or why I should eat a quick frozen hot pocket for lunch instead of cutting up veggies for a salad.

Take a few minutes to think about what you love. Hopefully, loving yourself should be right up there near the top of your list. This week, try bring that to mind whenever you're in the middle of a lazy moment and you don't want to spend extra time preparing food or going for a run. You sacrifice for what you love! If loving yourself isn't near the top of that list, I promise that consciously trying to be healthy and treat yourself right for even a week will help bring it up there. I dare you to try it!

Live Actively!

Last night I was in another inspirational/motivational mood so I jotted down some thoughts that I'm now compiling and adding to for this post!

We all have choices that we can make in our lives. True, many things are out of our control, but usually our time management and actions are things that we have a say in. So why not choose to be healthy? Choose to make your physical and emotional well-being a priority in your life. There is a great amount of strength and confidence that comes from choosing to be in charge of yourself. When you live a healthy lifestyle, life opens up for you. This may be shown in actual opportunities to interact with those around you in different ways, or it may just be that your view of the world around you shifts for the better. Either way, your life will change for the better. You will feel more confident and happier and more in control of your life.

It's not easy to be healthy and fit. No one that really knows what they're talking about, or who has a good understanding of the basic principles that go into being healthy and fit ever said it was. You have to be willing to work for it, to sacrifice for it. It's hard, but trust me, you will feel so much better really living and making conscious, healthy choices than you will letting life just happen while you passively continue choosing the same things you always have. Just do it! Choose to live actively! I say live actively partly in the context of physical exercise, which is definitely essential. More than exercising, however, I consider living actively to mean really engaging yourself in your life, making yourself and your well-being a priority, and making conscious choices in favor of your health. I tell my piano students to "practice actively," really putting their mind into their playing, rather than mindlessly plunking out notes. This applies to normal life, too. One conscious choice to improve an aspect of your life will lead to another, and another, and the effects will snowball. Once you feel the satisfaction of one benefit, you'll want more.

If you're reading this and have already made the choice to be healthier and have acted on it, that is wonderful! Do not give up! Ever! I don't mean that you shouldn't ever eat junk food, or skip a workout in favor of sleeping in. It's healthy for you to relax and let loose once in a while. Use moderation in all things, and you're good to go. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter so much if you're at the top or the bottom of the staircase; what really matters is what direction you're facing.

If you only take one thing away from this post, remember to choose to live actively and mindfully and engage yourself in your life. Choose to live up to your full potential and make your health a priority.

Motivation Monday!

Happy Monday everyone!

Lately I've been thinking a lot about the whole general subject of healthiness. I read something in either a blog or a book the other day that I've heard before, but not in a while. I was glad to be reminded of it again. What I read was that it's important to remember that healthiness is a journey, not a destination. I love that; it's so true! It's really easy to get caught up in striving to reach certain health or fitness goals that we forget to enjoy the process. Back when I wasn't able to run, I was often frustrated because I felt like I wasn't progressing. I was working toward running a half marathon, and it killed me when my training had to come to a halt. Looking back now, I realize that I have learned a lot from the two and a half months or so without consistently running. I learned lessons that I wouldn't have had the chance to learn if my training had continued normally. Every journey has its ups and downs and stagnant moments. The same goes for trying to be healthy and fit. It's important that we find the happiness and the learning opportunities in the mistakes and the triumphs and the times of little change. Healthiness is a lifestyle; a day-to-day routine. So take pride in the fact that you love yourself enough that you're trying to live in the best way possible for you. It's okay that you're not perfect! Just enjoy the journey!