Dear Michael,
I want to give you a free gift. Within the first couple of weeks of January, most people give up on their health and fitness goals. That’s not going to be YOU this year! At the bottom of this email, I have attached our GPS System workbook. GPS stand for Guide to Personal Success. I guarantee that if you will openly and honestly read through and answer the questions in this workbook that you will be 10X more likely to accomplish your fitness goals. Are you up for the challenge? I also wanted to share with you a great a article that are very own Karina Vanya wrote about gratitude. After the holidays everyone forgets about the importance of gratitude, but it all starts with counting your blessings. Here’s Karina…
“How many times have you said something like this to yourself or even out loud to someone else?
“I can’t eat _______” “It’s NOT FAIR not fair that my husband can eat pizza and not gain weight” “I have to work SO HARD to get results” “I wish I didn’t like to eat so much, then maybe I could be thin” “I’m so fat, I’ll never be fit again” Do any of these statements sound familiar??
You know, most would never think to make a connection between being grateful and their fitness journey. But at this time each year, as we begin to allow ourselves to focus on things around us for which we are thankful, I would like to encourage you to consider a few things with me.
By focusing on the things we don’t like about our bodies, rather than appreciating the things our bodies DO FOR US each day, we inevitably find EVEN more reasons to be upset with ourselves and we can start to despise our journey. This can really leave you susceptible to temptation, I mean if you’re NEVER gonna get to your goal anyway, what’s one donut going hurt anyway, right?
WRONG! Your journey is made of up weekly, daily and hourly choices. Every thing counts! Can you start to see how being upset with where you are can lead to even MORE distracting and self defeating thoughts?
BUT- If you begin to LOOK FOR the progress, the positive changes you’ve made you will be so much less likely to feel sorry for yourself. This simple act of acknowledging what IS rather than always looking at what IS NOT, we begin to feel more IN CONTROL and less likely to be a victim in our own mind. Think about it…One cannot effect changes in their lives if one is a VICTIM of IT! When i suggest you start finding things about where you are NOW in your fitness journey, this can be something really significant or something really small. Ex: I can now climb the stairs and I’m not winded. I am working out 3 days a week now and I used to struggle to get in one workout a week. I now start each day with a huge glass of water rather than a big cup of coffee.
If you think there’s nothing for you to like about your body now, I encourage you to LOOK FOR IT! And i assure you, no matter how unattractive, fat, unfit or difficult you feel your journey is, there is someone who has it worse than you!
Your journey to fitness is FULL of things to be thankful for, EVEN IF you haven’t noticed them yet.
What could you find about your body JUST AS IT IS right now that you are thankful for?
-your healthy heart
-your smile
-your thick pretty hair
your hearing, good vision, sense of smell
By LOOKING for things to be happy and grateful for you start to see MORE of it.
Here’s some homework to help you out…Start by practicing gratitude DAILY, think of it as a muscle that needs “exercising” each day:) Try this for a week, and see if it doesn’t help your outlook about working out and eating clean! Just watch as you start to find it easier to stay on track!
Start small, write down 1-3 things you are thankful for RIGHT now, just as you are TODAY!
SHARE it with someone. Read it every morning, maybe even put the list up where you see it daily, read it before bed each night. As you start to see even MORE things ADD THEM to the LIST!! Take this challenge and see if it doesn’t just make your challenges a little smaller and staying on track just a little (LOT) easier!” – Karina Vanya
