It has been months since I have done any Weight Lifting, High Intensity Interval Training or Long Duration Cardio. I still take walks ranging from 30-45min on an almost daily basis.

There are some good reasons for this:

1. It was causing me stress
2. I was doing some of the exercises at night after the kids went to sleep and the physical exertion was disturbing my sleep. (Morning workouts just don’t fit into my schedule)
3. I was not seeing results even though I was lifting weights and running for 45min/day 5-6 times per week.
4. Adrenal fatigue – though the doctor did some tests (not sure what) but said that my thyroid looks fine and adrenal function is linked to thyroid function. The doctor definitely did not do any comprehensive testing but just looked for some “markers” which he did not find. However I do suffer from insomnia, stress, anxiety and other such things.
5. Hard exercise causes a physical stress on the body. When the body is already stressed out this extra stress can actually be harmful instead of helpful.

Here is a good video that Paul Check gives on Adrenal Fatigue

I don’t know why I feel so let down by this. It just seems like I have tried so many exercise programs and I finally found one that I was having fun with and one that I initially saw results with. But the results stopped and the fun faded.

Yoga/stretches and deep breathing are the exercises that I need to work on right now.

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“He who fails to plan, plans to fail” This quote is so true to me!

I try to plan and set up routines and try to be as efficient as can be. I have found that I need to schedule my routines so I don’t just brush them off and not think that they are important.

A good example of this is my laundry. I need to do laundry very regularly, but it is not necessary critical that I do it every day. Yet I do know that when my kids are looking for clean socks and clothing that it is getting to that critical point and I need to reset my priorities.

The same thing can be said for scheduling in my exercise. I have to admit that I have not weight trained for about a month. I have also started  taking walks instead of running. I have to admit that I have lost my drive to be fit. It is not critical of me to workout everyday but after a while of not doing it I do miss the positive things that weight training does for me. It is crucial that I resume my fitness goals.

So with this kind of funk that I am in, I am more and more convinced that the key to reaching your fitness goals is through the mind. I did have routines set up, but they got derailed. To set them up again I have to be in the correct mind frame to do it.

To do so I need to take baby steps. I used to be a flybaby at Flylady.net. It is a free website that helps you make routines on how to organize your house, create home cooked meals and other helpful tips to become more efficient. I stopped being part of their yahoo group due to the number of emails that they sent out. But I learned the value of routines and starting with baby steps.

I have to remind myself that my day starts with the evening before. I need to go to bed early. I have so much more energy when I am well rested. My first baby step needs to be with getting to bed early. I have a lot of trouble with this. Having more energy plays a significant role in my mindsets. I am more positive, I smile and laugh more. I am much more cheery and fun.

I struggle going to bed early. There are many issues to it, but mostly because I don’t have a routine set up for it.

To set up routine and carry it through with self discipline is to do it in babysteps. Tonight I will be in bed by 10:30. Tomorrow will be another day and another babystep. I need to plan this and write it down.
My routines need to be written down and scheduled in. Without my routines I fail.

Initially I was going to do a 30 day period were I would set up my routines and then adjust them to suit my schedule better. However 30 days is still a big chunk of time and I get a bit frightened of massive undertakings so to do this I will have to break it down day by day.

A great tool that I have discovered is Google Calendar. It allows me to organize my time. I can write down my routines and my daily agenda. I then can take my daily routine and adjust it to a weekly schedule. With that weekly schedule I then take it one week at a time and do my routines for a full thirty days.

With this kind of organization I take any kind of thinking and feeling and get rid of it. Instead I take one day at a time and just do it. I don’t think about tomorrow or the next thirty days. I just concentrate on today and adhering to my google calendar for today.

I can schedule in my workout. I can schedule in my sleep. It may sound ridiculous to do so. But when I let feelings like “I don’t feel like it” control my thoughts, then nothing gets done.

“He who fails to plan, plans to fail”

Become Unstoppable with your Fat Loss Goals.

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For the past nine days I have been taking Coconut Oil on a daily basis. The dosage I have been taking is 2-3 heaping teaspoons. I have gained a few pounds from doing this! Yikers! I will continue taking it to see if this is just my initial reaction to it and see if there will be any other changes. Coconut Oil is just too healthy and after trying for a long time to find a tasty way of supplementing it into my diet, I have finally found a way that could eat it every day!

I am also experiencing a mild Candida die off. My tummy has been sensitive for the past 4-5 days. I am glad that it is not as severe as when I initially started the Atkins Low Carb diet. The first Candida die off lasted about a week and a half and I could not leave the house or eat anything because the food would just go right through me.

My weight now is 120 – 122lbs. It was 117lbs a few weeks ago. Maybe I should just throw out my scale.  My goal is just to get rid of belly fat. But instead of losing weight I have stalled and gained.

Exercise Update…

I have not been good this past week. My youngest daughter is sick with a nasty fever and cough and I have not gone running outside. It has been cold here but the sun has been shining and I have been itching to just go running. Since my schedule has been a bit off I have not done my regular Unstoppable Fat Loss Workouts either.

I have no idea if I will be able to reach my goal to lose my belly fat by April 25. There is only two short months left to go.

One thing that I love is blogging about my weight! It holds me accountable and keeps me on track so I can reach my goals. I may also start a food log and log my daily food intake. This is highly recommended by lots of “experts” but I have always found it tedious. I may have to control my meal portion sizes (Gasp!) and write down what I eat.

After listening to yesterday’s livin lavida low carb podcast about sleep, my intentions were to go to bed by ten pm.  Well that did not happen (laundry was calling me!), but I did lower the lights and took some Valerian Root. I had no trouble falling asleep and I slept deeply. Tonight I will again aim to go to bed by ten and do the same thing, lower the lights and take Valerian Root. Hopefully I will be able to wean off Valerian and adjust to this routine.

Sleeping better will reduce my dependence on caffeine which can release an insulin response and inhibit low carb fat loss. And of course if I reduce my caffeine I will have to replace it with water therefore increasing my over all water intake.

Break through the stall steps:

1.    Log food
2.    Log beverages
3.    Sleep – get to bed by ten pm.
4.    Keep taking coconut oil

The focus: Get healthy, get fit, and get lean!

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I have had a bit of trouble losing my last ten pounds. It is incredibly frustrating to exercise and eat well and still not see results. I know the reason why…

It is the lack of sleep. Sleeping five-six hours a night creates unnecessary physical and emotional stresses. Cortisol levels are increased and that can have a negative impact on insulin. Drinking caffeinated beverages like coffee and tea throughout the day also have a negative impact on insulin. I have been on a low carb diet to regulate my insulin and yet these bad habits are contributing to elevated insulin.

How To Get Better Sleep

To fix this I am going to establish a regular bedtime routines. That means going to sleep every single day at the same time and waking up every single day at the same time. I will also take valerian root to help fall asleep. Valerian root works really well for me and I can fall asleep very quickly and sleep deeply.

I would love to hear if you have had any experiences with sleep and weight loss/gain.

To your health and wellness,

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Frustration is a hard emotion to live with.  I have dealt with it on many levels.  Losing the post-partum belly has been extremely difficult.  At one point after the birth of my second daughter, I ran into a friend that I had not seen for a long time and she asked me the dreaded question – Are you pregnant again? Well I was not pregnant but my belly looked as if I was 4 months pregnant.  What an embarrassment!  My self esteem just nose- dived past my feet and sunk into the great depths of the earth.  That comment hurt me. I was feeling self conscious about my weight and ashamed of it. To have my friend tell me this brought me to tears.

That comment stayed with me that whole day and it still is with me today. 

I know the frustration.

Since then, I have tried many workout programs to get fit but failed most of them.  When you plant a seed you expect it to grow and flourish. Same with an exercise program – when you start it you expect to grow and flourish and see results.   Well let’s just say that with many programs that I started my seed had trouble growing and just withered and died.

I had set strong powerful goals that I expected to strive towards to succeed. I went after those goals. And I failed. I was extremely disappointed when I could not reach them.

I had knowledge, I had the action, I had the motivation, I just lacked the persistence.

I finally found what worked.  I have found my “tool” for Fat Loss Success.

Albert Einstein once said that Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Are you feeling the insanity???

A good weight loss program should be one that addresses the number one reason for failure. We fail because of our mindsets and excuses.

But what if you don’t do anything? 

You will be in the same position as you where yesterday.  Or worse – the seed you may be sowing may be a weed.  Your condition will then get worse just like weeds in a garden. The weeds will rob your garden of all the vital nutrients. They will multiply and soon choke out any other seed you want to plant.

Get the best tools for success. You need a map to follow so you don’t get lost on the way. Follow the 21 Day Unstoppable Fat Loss Challenge. 

A good Fat Loss Program will be one that you will stick with. Don’t let your Fat Loss goals get choked with weeds.

To your Health and Wellness,

Catherine Osthaus

P.S. What kind of life are we living if we do not want a better tomorrow? How do we achieve that better tomorrow? – With an Unstoppable mindset.

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There are many things in life to be desired for – whether you are striving to lose a few pounds, stick to a diet, to get a pay raise or to quite smoking. So what do you think will get you there? Will it be self discipline or motivation?  I actually have found the answer to this question in a parenting book!

I have been reading this book called the Secrets of Discipline-12 Keys for Raising Responsible Children by Ron G. Morrish. The word discipline sounds harsh and punitive but the true meaning of it is to train and it comes from the word disciple which means student.

So lately I have been finding myself bargaining with my children to get them to do what I ask. There are many examples of this throughout the day like “get dressed and then you can have some breakfast” or “clean up and then we can …” or “eat your salad and then you can have a dessert”. This is called bribery and it is exhausting and frustrating. This way of parenting establishes a “what’s in it for me” attitude. And if the reward is not good enough then soon the kids will lose interest in what needs to be done.

The alternative to bribing children to do what you ask them to do is to set expectations and routines for them. “No” and “Failure” are not acceptable. The only other option is to succeed.

———
An example of this would be getting a child to clean up their room. If your child is young you can set a time limit of 15 minutes so the task does not seem overwhelming. And then stop when the time is up even if the room is not totally cleaned up.

Mom says: Let’s go and clean up your room. (Notice there is no choice in this statement)
Child says: No!

Mom brings the child to the room.

Mom says: ok honey, pick up the books and put them on the bookshelf.
Child says: No!

Mom takes the child’s hand and gets the child to pick up the books and put it away on the shelf.

Mom says: ok, let’s pick up the Lego. I hold the box and you pick up the pieces.
Child says: ok!

———-

This is an example out of the Secrets of Discipline and it is what happened to me when I implemented it. My daughter had no choice but to clean up her room. I stood by and directed her movement. I told her what to pick up and where to put it away. This is what training is all about. There is no room for failure. The only other option is success – you do it until you get it!

Practice makes perfect

Once a behavior is established you need to practice it to perfect it. If you have ever been on a sports team you know how important practice is before a game. Also before you get a drivers license you need to practice how to drive before you take the driving test.

*Without practice, failure is very likely.*

Do you practice during a game or test? No, you practice before.

So with any behavior that you want changed you need to practice it until it you do it without thinking about it!

Creating Self-Discipline

Cleaning up is often horrible chore. But the more we think about how horrible it is the less likely we are to do it. So we get rid of choice and just clean up without thinking about it. The cleaning up just got less painful and with practice it will become a routine. This is self-discipline. We train ourselves to do things that seem painful until it becomes habitual.

Motivation

Motivation is defined as a psychological reason for an action. Motivation is great for short term. You can get pumped to do something but if you stop being motivated then failure is likely to happen. So what happens if you get off track? Well negative thoughts will start to beat down those motivating thoughts and soon giving up and failure are likely. Motivation is only a short term solution.

Conclusion

For true success we need to build concrete routines and practice those routines until we don’t need to think about them and just do them!

To your health and wellness,

Catherine Osthaus

Ps. Check out Scott Tousignant’s Unstoppable Fatloss program. It’s like having a personal trainer in your home. A trainer to tell you exactly what to do and how to lose that unwanted fat. There is no more choice to fail. It is not an option. Practice a routine and do it!

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