Category: Motivation (Page 6 of 6)

Finding Inspiration from My Birthday

March 31, 2018 / Chris Brown / 1 Comment

Yep, there are 61 candles on this cake! Inspiration from my birthday

This is what 61 candles look like on a cake!

Yesterday was my birthday.

Sometimes on birthdays I just feel older, but sometimes I feel really lucky. This year is a lucky year!

While each birthday is really “just another day” in the year, I find that the blessings of another birthday provides me with one of those pivotal times to look ahead and look behind. A way to gather motivation and inspiration to do better, be better and appreciate life more. A little bit like my very own “New Years Day” or that feeling in early September of new beginnings as the school year gets started.

I really like to draw inspiration from my birthday, instead of bemoaning another year older.

My birthday is a time to review goals and count blessings. It’s a time to re-inspire myself and to regain motivation for the things I’m working toward.

I’m grateful for my health and my fitness; for my friends and family. I’m also grateful for my good luck and circumstances.

Because my birthday is near the beginning of spring, the hint of sun and new flowers poking their heads up fills me with anticipation of warmer days and outdoor activities.

For overcoming the days of overcast and cold – when things seem too hard and I feel overwhelmed – I like to draw inspiration from other people.

I like to find inspiration in videos, from the young and the old. I find inspiration from the 90 year old who ice skates, the 70 year old who water skis, the 100 year old who still skis and from the 20 year old who isn’t afraid to share her convictions.

I admire people who take adversity and do the impossible — like the double amputee who did 31 marathons in 31 days. It makes what I am attempting to do seem much more achievable!

After watching some of the inspirational videos here and here, I can’t sit still anymore! I’ll leave you with one more video (that makes me smile and want to dance!) because it is time for me to go out for my “long” run of the week in preparation for the half marathon I’m planning to run on May 20.

Where do you draw inspiration? Do you find your birthday motivating? Leave a comment below or email me!

Keeping Momentum During Difficult Times

March 10, 2018 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

I don’t know about you, but I find it hard to maintain motivation, especially keeping momentum during difficult times.

Maybe it’s dealing with an immediate situation when a family member needs help. Or when a car decides to act up. Maybe it’s a work-related “crisis” of one kind or another. Or it could be an internal problem – the flu, a cold, a sore muscle or a sleepless night.

It doesn’t really matter the cause. There are roadblocks to keeping momentum of healthy eating, working out regularly and making consistently good choices, right? In my heart, I know keeping momentum is the key to me being strong and fit.

Here are six ways of keeping the momentum during difficult times:

Gratitude List – What am I grateful for? Who am I grateful for? What simple pleasure or beauty am I ignoring because I’m in a difficult time? I like to go though and make a mental list – or actually write down – all the reasons I have for being grateful. Some people call it counting their blessings.
Maintaining Accountability – I like to write down what I accomplished and make note of what I missed. That way, it is pretty clear how things stack up for the week. I look at my Fitbit numbers, report into my coach/trainer and post in my accountability Facebook Group. (Jill and I will be writing more on Becoming Elli’s Closed Facebook Group Community — coming soon!!) Having a community to check in with and get support is a major motivator for me. Some people call it their tribe.
Staying in the Now – Mindfulness is a big buzz word these days. For me, mindfulness means not worrying about tomorrow or next week and not rehashing my mistakes of the past week. It is remembering to stay present and stop worrying. Worry doesn’t change anything, does it? It just subtracts momentum.
That One Little Thing – I try to find that one little thing to increase my motion and activity for the day. It could be taking the stairs. Parking farther away from the building in a parking lot. Doing a little jog into the building. Wearing my running shoes whenever I can so I’m “always ready.” Sometimes it might be as simple as just going downstairs to the laundry room and running a load of wash thru the cycle before getting ready for bed.
Meditation – When I am overly stressed, I try to close my mouth. Bite my tongue, if needed. (Not too hard!) While I try to avoid making those regrettable snap replies, I am not always successful. I need to remind myself to take a deep breath through my nose and out my nose. Close my eyes. Count a few seconds and do it again. Then say something nice – not mean.
Song – When I know it’s going to be a tough day, I’ll pick a theme song for the day. I repeat it in my head over and over during the day. During some difficult days, I can’t even be bothered thinking of a song. “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey is my fallback. It’s one from my playlist. (This past week Jill wrote about her running playlist. I bet she has some good motivational songs on it that I need to add to my theme song list!)

How about you?

What are your strategies for keeping momentum during difficult times? I’d love to add a few more tools in my bag of tricks!! Please leave a message with your comments and suggestions below or send an email to Chris@BecomingElli.com.

Wishing you the best of luck to you in keeping your motivation – no matter what life throws at you!

Making Your Own Walking Desk

February 15, 2018 / Jill McCauslin / 1 Comment

I know that it is 2018 and that now bicycle desks are becoming the hot thing and that walking desks are so 2015 but today I’m feeling very pleased with myself. I own a lovely treadmill that I bought last year on a Black Friday deal. I use it for running indoors when I don’t go to the gym and for walking in the evening sometimes while I’m watching TV and need to get in some steps. So let me tell you about making a walking desk.

This treadmill takes up a lot of space in my family room so I feel that if it’s going to sit here taking up floor space and represent a significant investment in fitness, I should use it more. I decided I need a walking desk.

I looked at buying a tray to put on it to hold a laptop. I didn’t feel like investing a few hundred dollars on something. I knew that Chris (as in my Becoming Elli partner) rigged up a stand for her treadmill so she can walk while doing email and other tasks. I decided that I had to be able to come up with something similar.

My treadmill is big so I looked around my house for something that I could use. I tried a couple of things and nothing was wide enough. I began to search through closets and voila! inspiration struck.

I found a leaf to my kitchen table tucked away in a closet. The table is in bad shape after years of being used as both a table and the dumping ground for everything that comes into the house. The leaf is in great condition but if something happens to it, I’m not too concerned because it still looks better than the table.

Making my walking desk

My New Walking Desk

I laid the leaf across the walking bars and put my wireless keyboard and mouse on it. I have the laptop across the room, hooked up to the large screen TV. I can type on the keyboard while walking on the treadmill, see the screen easily, and leave the laptop safely sitting on a stationary table.

I also can forget the extra keyboard and the TV and just put the laptop on the shelf. It makes the screen a little low but it’s closer to me. That might be better for detail work.

An easy do-it-yourself solution! I love solving problems without help from anyone. Well, maybe some Google help and inspiration from Chris but the creativity is all mine.

Anyone else have any creative ideas on how to get fitness — in whatever form — into your life? If so, feel free to share. I’d love to see them. Also, if I helped you figure out how to get a walking desk, share that too.

Maintaining Weight Loss – Consistency Over Intensity

February 10, 2018 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

During the winter months, it can be difficult to stay the course for maintaining weight loss. Long dark nights. Cold blustery weather.

We are almost six weeks into New Year’s Resolutions and I find that I need a reminder about what I promised myself.

Maintaining weight loss. Developing muscle strength. Cultivating good eating habits.

Already this year I’ve not been to the gym on a regular basis as much as I intended. Maybe two days a week instead of my usual four or five.

Generally I go skiing down the slopes at a nearby resort during the winter months. This year I haven’t been outside as much as I’ve wanted to, partly due to sub freezing weather the early part of January. Then I’ve also been dealing with an unexpected schedule, requiring me to be out of town and away from home. Consistent eating habits are more of a challenge when I’m away.

I am reminded that fitness is not a race. The ocean smooths large rocks into tiny grains of sand by consistently waves washing in and out.

My big goal this year is to stay consistent with exercise and healthy eating habits. I know that this will help me with maintaining my weight loss.

Consistency Over Intensity

For 2018, I’ve picked a phrase that I want to focus on: Consistency Over Intensity. It kinda follows that mantra of many marathon runners – just put one foot in front of the other.

I think about this when I push snow around on the driveway. Shoveling some snow has helped me get steps when I really hadn’t expected to get some. I talked about that in our recent podcast episode 2. When my son was in high school, it became his job to shovel the snow on the walks and the drive. When he went away to college I returned to snow removal duties. The result was one of the rude reminders of being out of shape. By consistently getting my steps, challenging myself and going to the gym to get exercise, I’m now able to easily spend 30 minutes clearing the snow, without any problem.

I was reminded of consistency over intensity when I read a post in Weighty Matters from a Canadian doctor who writes about the food industry. “And I tell people, day in and day out, that if they’re curious about how they’re doing, the answer to that question isn’t how much they weigh, how much they’ve lost, how their clothing fits, how they feel physically, or how they feel mentally. Rather I tell them that if they want to know how they’re doing, they have to reflect on what they’re actually doing…”

Going skiing is fun. It requires a lot of gear. Fitting into those same pair of ski pants is one indication that I’m maintaining my weight loss.

We all know it is so important to stay mobile, flexible, strong and fit. Lately I have been especially reminded of that when I’ve had recent unexpected challenges of caring for a relative. By keeping myself healthy, fit and strong, I’m able to be there to help others.

Having a “go-to” exercise routine helps replace that dragged out feeling of tiredness with the powerful feel good hormones that are released after exercising – dopamine and endorphins. This keeps me coming back for more.

Being more fit and strong just feels good. It allows me to do things that I find really difficult. I guess that’s called a feeling of self-confidence, but it’s not exactly that.

Consistent change = Positive Progress

I find that too much intensity leaves me feeling a bit overwhelmed. All or nothing dieting. Over the top exercise. Too many rules and changes. I simply won’t stick with it if the plan is too drastic. I need to stay the course. Keep on keeping on.

Sometimes consistency feels boring. I’m tempted to switch out with something “not so good.” Just this once. Special occasion. (Why does it sometimes seem that there is a special occasion more often than a regular day?) Birthdays, holidays, happy times, sad times. Friday night TGIF. Sunday Funday. Stressed-out-Monday. It’s easy to make exceptions, isn’t it?

I know in my heart that consistency is the key to maintaining a weight loss. Intensity comes and goes. Heck, I know that too much intensity can easily lead to injury. And if I’m not consistent with my recovery strategies I can end up having a problem.

Motivation wanes. Huge goals overwhelm, but I know when I have a good step-by-step plan, that I can do consistently, I can reach goals that I never thought possible. For instance, back 10 years ago, I never would have dreamed that I could have run a half marathon or bike 150 mile in a weekend.

I’ve come to realize that the way to make it work is to get a good plan and work it.

At one point I liked the phrase “when the going gets tough, the tough get going.” I helped me to dig in, knuckle down and do something I was struggling with. I’m not exactly sure when my brain started completing that saying with my own “yeah, right out the door!” Some how the cynical side of my self talk popped in. It probably when was I was digging too deep, white knuckling too hard and finding that my consistency was replaced with too much intensity.

I have several strategies (or maybe they are actually tactics) for maintaining weight loss that have worked pretty well for me in the six plus years that I’ve managed to keep the weight off. And since I’ve become an exercise lover (athlete?) I’ve found that recovery and pacing are part of my training too. I’m working on an article to share with you in the future. More about that at another time.

Now it’s your turn. Tell me:

What do you do consistently to help you to get fit and strong? Or stay fit and strong? Are you working on your New Years Resolution consistently?
What is your motivation for maintaining weight loss?
Remember that song “Keep on Keeping On”? What phrase or mantra is in your head that you repeat over to yourself?

Chris and Jill are the hosts of the Becoming Elli Podcast.

Meet The Hosts of the Becoming Elli Podcast – Episode #2

February 2, 2018 / Chris Brown / 9 Comments

Episode number 2 of the Becoming Elli podcast introduces Chris Brown and Jill McCauslin, the hosts and publishers of Becoming Elli – where women over 50 inspire each other to become fit and strong.

This episode gives a short background on the hosts and provides an idea of what the Becoming Elli podcast, website and community will focus on. It also includes ideas on how to find workout friends.

In episode #2 Meet the Hosts of the Becoming Elli Podcast we discuss:

How we got inspired to create Becoming Elli
Why is it called Becoming Elli
Why becoming part of a fitness community makes such a big difference
Why we feel it’s important to develop a community of like-minded
How we are working toward becoming fit and strong
How we changed our attitudes towards food, exercise and being active
Tips Segment: How to meet other people to workout with

Links mentioned in this episode:

Strava.com – a website and an app for “athletes” who run and bike. Through an app on your phone you can become friends with other people and cheer them on with comments and “kudos”.
FitBit.com – a website and an app to track steps, calories used and work-outs. Uses wearable technology (zip or watch synced with your phone.)
MeetUp.com – a website that helps people in the same area with similar interests find each other (No, it’s not a dating app!)
Becoming Elli Facebook group – We are considering creating a closed Facebook group where the Becoming Elli community can meet to inspire each other and share info. Please email us with your thoughts or leave a comment below.Thanks for listening!

We’re participating in the Weekly Wrap to tie in with other fitness sites:

Linking up with the Weekly Wrap sponsored by Holly and Wendy.

Book Review: The Power of Habit

January 25, 2018 / Chris Brown / 4 Comments

I recently read a book called The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. And I have been able to change some habits! The book explores how habits work. The author studied how businesses change the habits of their employees as well as how everyday people lose weight, keep it off and start consistently exercising.

My big “ah-ha” with this book was to learn to change the thing I do right before the action. I found this description of the book on Amazon:

At its core, The Power of Habit contains an exhilarating argument: The key to exercising regularly, losing weight, raising exceptional children, becoming more productive, building revolutionary companies and social movements, and achieving success is understanding how habits work.

The book explains the 3 parts of the habit. Each habit has a cue, a routine and a reward. The key is understanding the pattern before trying to adjust the outcomes. It starts with the cue. The cue might be the time of day or a situation. The phone rings. Stuck in a traffic jam. An argument with a family member. The 3 pm slump.

Then, almost automatically the habit moves into the routine. And finally there is the reward.

Here’s an example:

I’m half-heartedly watching football on TV and a food commercial comes on (something like pizza or fast food.) That’s the cue.
Suddenly I am “hungry.” Then next thing you know, the routine starts: I walk into the kitchen and look in the refrigerator for something yummy.
What’s the reward? “Mmmm” the craving is satisfied with a momentary good taste on the tongue. (And later followed by the “grrr, I did it again” feeling, but somehow that doesn’t link into the cue-routine-reward habit.)

If you think about it, we all do actions with a series of steps. Making coffee, driving a car, taking a shower, grocery shopping, reading Facebook. I learned from this book, if you can breakdown and understand the cue, routine and reward of your habit, you have a chance at modifying any habit that you currently do. Making my New Year’s resolution into a cue, routine, reward type activity that comes naturally and almost automatic, has helped me to redirect myself without too much thought or decision. In fact, I’ve found that there are a lot of good things that I can do, somewhat unconsciously.

Redirect the Habit

After examining some of my habits, here’s an example of one of them where I have been pretty successful at making the redirect:

Following the cue of a commercial with a yummy cheese-dripping pizza shown during a break in the action of a football game on TV, I will still go over to he fridge and peak in. But now I have placed a pile of fresh veggies (carrots, celery, tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts whatever is on sale/in season) front and center. Instead of grabbing something “yummy” to eat, I changed the routine. I pull out the vegetables and chop them up. Then, even if I don’t eat them right now, I’ve got stuff ready for salad toppings or a soup. And sometimes, just the act of looking in the fridge, pulling the veggies out and chopping them, satisfies my craving for that food I saw on TV that unconsciously sent me to the fridge to begin with. I don’t know why it feels satisfying (the reward.) But it does. Usually halfway thru chopping, I have forgotten all about the dripping cheese from that pizza commercial because I’m focused on not chopping my fingers as I’m slicing the onion. And I’m thinking about what kind of salad or soup to make and should I add some protein.

Chopping veggies is very satisfying to me. I feel like I accomplished something, the movements are somewhat unconscious and the results are good.

Is there a habit that you are trying to change or redirect? What is your cue, routine and reward? Leave us a message below about your success or challenge with changing it.