My Mom Calls Me "The Bag Lady"

When it comes to setting goals, we’ve all heard various quotes about the importance of planning and being prepared, and below are some of my favorites.

“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” – Alexander Graham Bell

“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” – Colin Powell

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” – Antoin e de Saint Exupery

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin

I can honestly say in my own personal health and fitness journey I’ve learned that’s been the key to my success. I wasn’t always this disciplined in preparing for my week, or even each day. But, because I don’t just blow off all this knowledge the trainers have passed on to me, I continue to listen to them put it into practice and work on changing my habits. I wasn’t always in the habit of planning my weekly meals, let alone prepping them for the week. I didn’t always plan my additional cardio or runs for the entire week around my scheduled sessions. But over the past five plus years, that’s exactly what I’ve been able to do. For the past couple years I’ve been very disciplined about planning and preparing for my week. That includes my meals and workouts, and then each night preparing for next day based off my weekly plan, which leads to what you see in the picture.

As you can see there are five items, and those items include two workout bags, backpack, lunch bag, and my purse. This is what I do each night. I get everything ready for the next day. In the duffle bag I pack my workout clothes, two to three changes depending on what I’m doing the next day. The mesh polka dotted bag has my essentials to get ready at the gym after my workouts, and it also serves as the bag I put my sweaty workout clothes in when I’m done. I do this because I typically start my day around 5:00 AM and don’t get home until after 6:00 PM and I don’t want sweaty clothes enclosed in a bag all day with my other clean workout clothes or in a bag that’s not able to “breathe”. Then my backpack has anything I might need throughout the day, my Bible, daily devotional, my writing journal, whatever book I’m reading, my food/workout journal, and my laptop. And the last thing of course is my purse. Where else am I going to put all that money? Ha! During the week this is what I typically walk out of the house with just to turn around and lug it all back in that same night so I can do it again the next day. And on Wednesdays I have another bag with my boxing gear that I also have to take with me. Multiple times I’ve tried condensing or figuring out a way to lug around less baggage, but to be honest, I need everything in these bags daily.

I talk about the importance of being healthy, not just physically, but mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Everything I need to be prepared each day to become a healthier me is right there in all those bags.

• Physically, I’m prepared by having my workout bag packed for my workouts, having my lunch packed for what’s on my meal plan, and having my food/workout journal nearby keeps me on track.
• Mentally/Emotionally (these always seem to connect), I’m prepared by having my book of choice I’m reading, my writing journal, and laptop so when I start feeling stressed or the anxiety start to kick in, I have what I need to get through it. I’m able to create space and read or work on my blog at lunch, or just taking time to meditate and journal.
• Spiritually, I’m prepared by having my Bible and daily devotional so when I need just more than self-meditation and journaling, I can read scripture or my daily devotionals.

So, yes, I walk out of the house each morning as "The Bag Lady", but when it comes down to it this is why I’m able to be successful each day. I’m not perfect, I have bad days and even weeks, but because I take the time to prepare as much as possible I get through those days and weeks a lot better than I used to in the past. Being prepared has helped me meet many goals, be successful, and allows me to continue to grow as a person and continue to better myself. What do you do to make sure you’re preparing for success?

Stay In It

Setting goals are great, but what are you going to do to meet that goal? Right now my main goal is to run 1/2 marathon in December, but in order to be ready and to accomplish this goal I've got to put in the work. So, what am I doing? First, I wrote my goal down in various ways for me to always have my goal in sight. It's in my journal, it's on my whiteboard at work, and I've posted it on FB in multiple groups. I've made it public. My friends, family, coworkers, everyone on FB, and more importantly my trainer and know my goal. These first two I feel are important because these are two great ways to have accountability. And making sure my trainer knows, he knows how to help me reach that goal. The next thing I did was I found a training program to follow and then I'm making sure I get my training in daily. What does that mean? It means if I have to get up at 4 AM to get the training in, or if I have to go at 6:45 PM after a long day at work when I really just want to go home, then that's what I do. What works for me is I plan a week at a time. When I'm doing my weekly meal prep/planning, I'm also looking at my schedule and figuring out when I can get my training in. If I don't do this, if I don't figure out what I need to do and make a plan to do it, then December will roll around and I'm not going to be ready to run the 1/2 marathon like I want. Yes, there are days I would rather just go home after work, there are days I would rather just shut the alarm off and go back to sleep, but I know that won't get me any closer to my goal. And what's even better, is when I actually get in there and do the work, once I'm done I feel better. I feel better physically, mentally, and emotionally. I have talked myself out of going to do my training, and when that happens, I end up feeling worse. I'm still tired and then I start regretting it and mentally and emotionally beat myself up. And I'm human, it's not that I don't ever have these feelings or thoughts, but I've learned over time what I need to do. So when this happens I have to tell myself to shut up, I get out of my head, and then I get in there, and as one of my favorite hashtags says I "DO THE DAMN WORK"! So, what are your goals? And more importantly, what are you doing to meet them?

Turkish Get-Ups

I know, I know…..it’s been several weeks since I’ve posted anything! But it’s not that I haven’t had things to write about, or that I’ve been slacking, it’s just life has been kind of crazy busy for me recently. For those who don’t know, my full time job is with CommunityCare health insurance, and I’m a Supervisor in Member Services over the Medicare product. We’ve been busy preparing for Medicare’s annual Open Enrollment, which just officially started a couple weeks ago. So between work, making sure I’m getting my workouts in, and making time for myself, friends, and family I just haven’t had the time to sit down and write a post. I do make time to meditate and journal, which is where a lot of my blog posts come from, compiled thoughts from my personal journal. I did have a rough couple weeks recently, but overall life is just freaking awesome!

A quick update! I ended up being down 28 pounds following a new nutrition program Michael offers. I'm still doing some boxing to help keep that variety in my cardio. I’ve completed my first 10K and I’m now training for my first half marathon, which I will run in December down in Dallas! So excited!

But, for today’s post the subject is Turkish Get-Ups! And the reason is because recently I had a conversation with someone about our favorite exercises and I always find it interesting to hear what others enjoy doing. Plus, I always seem to learn something! And Turkish Get-Ups are my all-time favorite exercise, and unless you’ve been working with a personal a lot of people have no idea what these are! I don’t know why these are my favorite, because they are hard as heck, but I just love doing them! It’s one of those exercises that work every part of your body from your legs, core, and upper body. The inserted picture of me is one of my favorite pictures that Michael took of me a couple years ago. And I’ve also inserted a YouTube video below of how to do Turkish Get-ups. These can be done with a kettlebell or even a dumbbell. Or if you’re just attempting them for the first time, don’t use any weight at all, and focus on your form. Just be sure, even though you aren’t holding a weight, you continue to keep that arm up straight at all times! J

Hopefully with things slowing down a bit I’ll be able to post at least a couple times a week. Life is good and I’m blessed with amazing readers, family, and friends! Have a wonderful weekend! Love you all!