Category Archives: Goals

In Need of a Reset?

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For me, its always ‘all or nothing.’ And when you’re trying to live a healthy lifestyle, that mentality can be so destructive.  Especially if you’re a perfectionist, rule follower, like me.

Yes, I’m a joy to live with. Ask my dear hubby. Last year I took a personality test and it compared me to Judge Judy. Mhm.

But I digress.

When I did a 30 day clean eating challenge last June, I succeeded with flying colors. Not one intentional cheat. I gave it my all.

And when I cheated two weeks ago during a weak moment at work, I quit and never looked back. Yeah, I’m ashamed to say, that was my nothing.

Thankfully, I have friends in my life who don’t let me get away with excuses or thoughts of quitting. Instead, they challenged me to ‘reset’ and ‘take baby steps.’  I love those words. Notice they don’t include all or nothing?

So, this is me officially hitting the ‘reset’ button. Starting today, I’m challenging myself to make wise food choices this week. I plan to blog frequently for accountability and will check-in on Friday to give you the low-down on my success (or failure).

Challenges that await me this week: my twins’ celebrate their 4th birthday today (read: CAKE), my work Christmas party is Tuesday (Read: MORE CAKE) and I’m certain a long day at work will be met with the temptation to eat out and somewhere unhealthy.

So, there you have it. I’m not perfect (not that I thought I was fooling anyone). But I do want to lead a healthier lifestyle, so I’ll start with this week. Check in on me to see how I’m doing. If you see me out, slap that piece of sugary death from my hand and encourage me to make a better choice. For real.

RahSig

Stop Giving Me Christmas Cookies, Please

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It’s the most wonderful time of year. Really, it is. I love Christmas time. I love December. I love winter. I love it all.

Now, you can go all Scrooge and bah-humbug and “I hate snow” on me, or you can get over it and allow me to bask in my favorite time of year, please. Good? Thanks.

Here is one thing though that I do request. Please stop giving me Christmas cookies as gifts. I feel bad that I have to say this, but I’m going for it. I am a disciplined person, for the most part, and I really don’t eat a ton of sweets on a regular basis. This stays the same for me throughout December. Just because chocolate fudge abounds and cookies in the shapes of snowflakes are everywhere doesn’t mean that I eat them nor do I want to eat them, nor do they make great gifts for me, nor do I think that because it is December that this gives me a license to somehow change my diet. Wow, that’s a lot of nors.

It is really funny what happens when you lose weight and live a disciplined life of eating healthy. People come out of nowhere telling you that you should have everything in moderation (as they stuff their faces with their 12th cookie of the day). I grin and thank them for that piece of advice and then continue to live my life very happily eating in moderation lots of veggies, fruits, eggs, bacon, meat galore, potatoes and even once or twice a week some ice cream.

So, thanks for the cookies this time of year, but no thanks. Instead, I like Starbucks coffee, black and dark – that will do just fine.

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StephSig

The Underdog

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Many, many weeks ago, I began a weight loss competition with a friend of mine. After a chaotic summer of off-again-on-again paleo yoyo, this competition was meant to inspire motivation and squeaky clean eating. However…

…I’ve found it hard to keep on track. It has proved more difficult than when I started my healthy lifestyle change wayyyy back in August of 2o14. Why? If you read Rah’s post last week, you joined the conversation on perceived failure. In my case, the feelings of failure kept heaping on as I would exercise and eat right at the start of each week and then slowly fade off until I hit the weekend. In my mind, this would equate complete failure. In working towards a long-term health goal, handling failure well is critical to success. eighty.pngIt took a friend to saying “stop it, get over it, and move on” for me to really snap out of it. An 80% is not failure. It seems simple but it worked just in time to finish out this competition. Did I mention that there is $$$ on the line? And I don’t want to pay up? I wanna go Kanye on the competition!!!

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The big weigh-in is December 13th, less than two weeks away. And I’m WAY behind my competition. Like, 10 pounds behind him. But I’m an optimist and there’s a reason people like to root for the underdog, right?!?!?! *Cue the drama* I’m doing this for all the women of the world!!! For all the underdogs!!! For the people who fall and get back up again!!! *I warned you about the drama* 13 days left. Stay tuned!!!

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BeccaSig

When You Fall

Posted in Goals, Motivation by

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This is a pretty good visual of what my week was like. Overall. Not just eating, but definitely eating.

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And then this kid runs up on my lap and most of it seems to melt away.

How do you respond to failure? When you set a goal and don’t reach it…or fall flat on your face halfway through, what comes next?

For me, and boy do I think some of you can relate, I give up. I believe the lie that I failed because:

It was too hard…
I’m too undisciplined…
I don’t know how…
I don’t want it bad enough…
[Insert your lie here]…

Is it hard? Sure.
Do I struggle with discipline? Heck yeah.
Do I not know how? Sometimes.
Do I not want it bad enough? To be honest, some days I dont.

But do all of those things – true or false – equal failure? No way.

I consider myself to be a fairly deeply spiritual person. I have a relationship with Christ and He is changing me daily. From the inside out. And that means that I’m a work in progress. I make mistakes, but I also experience huge victories.

So what if I had McDonald’s this week, enjoyed too many desserts and didn’t exercise. Does that equal failure to the point of giving up? This week, I’ll strive to be better. Because this isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon. And though I’m hopeful for results, that isn’t the end goal. The end goal is caring for my family well, teaching then to make wise choices so they can live long, healthy lives by God’s grace.

So ask yourself: What lies am I believing about my supposed failure? What truths can I speak into my own heart this week to overcome those feelings of giving up? I think by now, you know that applies to so much more than just healthy eating. And that’s kind of the point, right?

Stay tuned for a couple of super simple, healthy and fast recipes for wise decision making this week.

Peace out Fit Followers,

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Goals – A New Way to Think About Them

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It’s been three weeks since I put my goals out there for the rest of this year (work out consistently 4 times a week and lose 8 lbs over the next three months). Well, reality check. I have lost 0 lbs and have averaged getting to the gym twice a week over the past three weeks. Why’s that? Because I focused too much on the long-term (what I need to accomplish in the next three months) verses getting focused on the short-term (what I need to accomplish today).

Do you ever find yourself doing the same? You have these huge, awesome goals – I want to get back down to a size this or weigh that or lift this amount of weight, and the numbers are huge or really small (depending on which way you are looking at it), and probably very achievable, but we never get there because we focus too much on them.

So, I’m kicking off this whole thing again. That’s right, it’s a Friday and I’m starting fresh. There’s no waiting until Monday, it doesn’t matter that it’s the weekend – this starts now. I do have those long term goals, but in order to get there, I need to focus on today. Just get me through today, get to the gym and eat well. Then tomorrow, do the same thing again.

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Focus on each day before you, making the right decisions that day, and those long-term numbers will come. I’m in for this, so let’s hope the next reality check in a few weeks is a delightful one. Hope you join me!

StephSig

It’s All About Me

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I live in a world where I am constantly told what I need to do for others. This is my job, my faith, my family and relationships, my life. This isn’t a bad thing – seriously. I very much love living by the “love your neighbor as yourself” law that was given to me by JC.

However, when it comes to fitness and eating well, I think we forget that part about “loving ourselves.” I do an excellent job (I think) at taking care of and caring for others. I think a lot of us would say that about ourselves. How often do you hear yourself say, “Oh I can’t do that, I’ve got to go help out…” So, I can’t take the time to cook a good, healthy meal for myself because I’ve got to help my kids with their homework, help my church with their food drive, help my boss get their stuff together for a big meeting – so instead, I’ll just go grab McDonald’s or Taco Bell on the way home.

The same goes for working out. Who makes time to actually go to the gym and get a good workout in when we are doing so much for everyone else? It’s hilarious how our giving and loving of others becomes our excuse to fuel our own laziness. Boom. I said it. It’s time to simply stop and start to love ourselves and let the laziness go.

I’m living by this challenge now because I have become one of the worst offenders of this rule. I run a non-profit that helps women who were sex trafficked. So, not only do I run this thing, meaning all of my staff and volunteers and donors want time, communication, ideas, everything; but then there is the added piece that these are women who were sex trafficked, so the whole heart breaking for them is pretty huge.

So, it’s time to take some time for me. It’s time to put the work, the spouse (although he can come with me and often does), the friends, the everything around me aside and simply take some time to keep myself healthy, fit and feeling awesome. Why? Because if I don’t love myself in this way, I won’t be around for very much longer to love others. Anyone with me?

StephSig

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Living Up to Our Name

Posted in About Us, Goals by

Why hello there. Welcome to our little blog. We are the “Fit Chicks from the Mitt.” You can read more in depth about us in our About Us section, but suffice it to say we are three friends, all from Michigan, who love each other dearly and have something to offer in this facet of eating well, living life fully and having a ton of fun.

To start off our very first blog post, we thought we would let you know our goals for the short term. So, you are hearing from all three of us in this blog. In future weeks, you can expect updates from each of us, points of views from all of us, recipes we make up and try, and lots of hilarious anecdotes along the way.

From Rah:

I stink at goal setting. There, I said it. Correction, I stink at accomplishing goals. I’m great at accomplishing things, but the accountability of goal setting first is hard for me. I’d rather not tell you what I’m striving to achieve beforehand. Ya know? That said, the achievements in my life that I’m most proud of were really goals, that I set or were set for me and I reached them. When it comes to healthy living and eating, my immediate goals are simple – feel good about what I eat, how I feel when I eat it and how I look as a result. I’d like to lose another 10-15 pounds to get closer to my goal weight by Christmas. That’s a super specific goal, but its something I’d like to work towards. Which means I have exactly 101 days to do that.  Completely accomplishable. Anybody want to join me?

RahSig

From Steph:

I’m a massive goal setter. I set goals in my work, in my workouts, in my cooking (last Thanksgiving I did a pumpkin challenge and incorporated pumpkin into all of my dishes), in pretty much every facet of my life. Sometimes though, once I smash the goal I had, I will get lazy again about that goal that I crushed. This is called maintenance. I’m incredibly disciplined when I have a number to reach, but once that number is passed, I am horrible about staying disciplined to maintain. So, I lost 34 lbs and then I gained probably 12-15 back. Yeesh.
So, my goal with this blog is to be real about the struggle of maintaining this life of discipline, to be real about the struggle of finding time in my day to work out and to be real about the struggle to get those 12-15 lbs back off (they were the hardest to get off last time, and are proving so again). My short term goals? Work out consistently 4 times a week for the next 3 months, and lose 8 lbs in the next 3 months.

StephSig
From Becca:

I’m great at making short-term goals but the long-term, more difficult goals rarely get a commitment from me. In April-ish 2015, Fit Chick #3 (Steph) asked me what my big, huge, long-term weight loss goal was. I freaked out as I thought about it. Then she mentioned a number and I laughed. I didn’t even know what to guess because I hadn’t been under 200lbs since probably early high school. Then something happened. I thought back to the goals that I had crushed in prior months (32lbs lost my first month, 65 total throughout the year) and still in 99% disbelief, I shared a number: 155 pounds. Typing that still makes me laugh. I still feel unsure about my very big goal, but I share it because I want it. I’ve learned that sharing my goals helps me push myself in reaching them. I’ve also learned that setting slightly-bigger-than-I-think-I-can-reach goals are helpful to me. That being said, my short-term goal is to to workout at least 7 times each week and to lose 40lbs by Christmas.

My goal in sharing with others is to share my own ups and downs of long-term, big-time weight loss. 2015 has been a rocky summer in the health and fitness department but its true that we can’t start the story over but we can start now and change the ending. Or something like that.

BeccaSig