#10in10 - 10 Day Health Challenge!

#10in10

10 miles of cardio in 10 days!!

EVERY DAY YOU MUST ENGAGE IN:

3 strength exercises, at least one focused on your core area.

Cardio training: no more than 20% of quota on the bicycle.

Reduced fat intake and increased raw food consumption.

CARDIO TRAINING:

5 mi each of the first 5 days

10 mi each of the last 5 days

****Break up your cardio by working out at various times of the day.  Begin and end your day with a quick run, and hit a bike ride and the elliptical briefly in the middle of the day.

Results ONLY come from hard work!

DIETARY RULES:

*Do NOT eat after 8pm

*Drink 64-128 oz of water daily.  The more, the better: try to drink a gallon (128oz).  This is especially beneficial when combined with freshly squeezed lemon juice.

*Eat as many RAW foods as possible (THINK: If you were a caveman, what would you eat?)

*Limit your use of CAFFEINE (yes, I said it!)… this causes your body to retain water (dehydrating you) and makes it more difficult to detox.  If you must consume it, try to keep it to AM hours so as not to disturb your sleep, or substitute it with green tea, which helps lower your cholesterol.

TIP: Start your day with drinking a tall glass of water (preferably with freshly squeezed lemon juice) and a morning run (1-2 miles) before breakfast.  This will immediately jump-start your metabolism and you will burn off 20% more calories.  Your first meal of the day should be your biggest, so eat in balance before setting your digestive track right with a little yoga.  Adding 1oz of Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar to your water everyday will help with regular detoxification and overall body composition.

TIP: Increase blood flow, metabolism and flexibility by doing yoga!  Download a yoga app and focus on relaxing your way through 15 to 25 min of this deep stretching every day.

TIP: Plan your meals carefully.  Breakfast should be your largest of the day, followed by a smaller lunch and even smaller dinner.  Portion your servings and don’t be afraid to stop eating before your plate is clean.  Our eyes are often bigger than our stomach and the common result is overstuffing (remember that excess calories are units of unused energy and turn to fat cells for long-term storage).  Eat some complex carbs in the AM so you will have enough energy for your workout, but stay away from starches (breads and pastas, also) for the rest of the day.  Fruits and vegetables keeps the digestive track flowing regularly and help detox the body of processed substances.

TIP: Want a quicker detox?  Buy ONE container of 100% Cranberry Juice (NOT the juice cocktail version!) and drink ALL of this throughout the period of a day, along with your normal amount of water.  This will flush your digestive track and rid your body of any slow-moving meats and starches.  Doing this at the start of the challenge will help you feel lighter and enable a more-efficient workout.

TIP: Download MY FITNESS PAL.  As you track your meals and exercise throughout the day, pay more attention to your nutritional values and needs than to your calories consumed.  Look at the pie chart and compare your ratio of nutrient consumption (fats, carbs & proteins) to the suggested ratio.  What are you eating too much of and what do you need to consume more of?

THE GOAL?

Let’s get right for the season!  We all know how important it is to FEEL as good as you LOOK!!  It’s time to get healthy after a winter of hibernation!  In 10 carefully managed days and consistent activity, you will snap back into shape and begin to form the habits of maintaining it.

****NO SIZE NO DIET: If you get in touch with YOUR health and body, treat it how YOU should individually, you will look INCREDIBLE how you should, naturally!  Let's be as beautiful as God designed us to be!

Success Is A State Of Mind

Let me ask you a question:  What will it take for you to be successful?  In other words, what do you need to accomplish in order for you to consider yourself having reached success?  Perhaps a more relevant question is what is your definition of success?  The former dictates the latter.  What kinds of standards do you set for yourself?

All of these things inevitably affect how you will succeed, and what this success will entail.  If you only do the minimum to get by, you might accept the smallest triumph as a victory.  On the other hand, if you are a perfectionist, you might sense failure when you don’t cross your T at a square perpendicular angle.

The trick to this, as is with anything, is to find the balance.  Where is your ideal medium?  This will be dependent upon your lifestyle, routines, and natural habits.  How high can you place your goals and standards before they cease being beneficial and begin becoming inefficient, tedious, and inhabiting?

Where does success come from?

Success itself is comprised of opportunity, ambition, and potential.  Opportunity is related to what is happening, being offered, or who is present in the society.  Ambition is the hunger or drive to be successful and potential is defined as how capable one is to achieve their goal.

There are some characteristics that can be traced throughout history as being present commonly among successful people.  These Include:

An Unwavering Passion.  Pursue that which you love.  Be passionate for what you do, only then will you try your hardest to reach it.  If you pursue that which you have no passion for, you risk abandoning it for something more appealing.  Commit and be dedicated.

Open Mindedness.  Have the imagination of a child.  Even the most intelligent realize that they will be forever learning.  Be flexible, at times you might start from one direction and end up in another.   Make the most of wherever you are and be open to new ideas!  The result might be better than you imagined.

Hunger.  Starvation for excellence.  Desire to be an expert, to master the craft, and to make it bend to your will.  Never lose sight of what you are striving toward.  This trait in particular helps with “hopeless” circumstances.  Sprint, don’t run.  Most people walk and even wait motionless.  Sprint.

Progression.  A forward-looking approach.  Learn from the past and move on.  Take the wisdom and experience and leave the rest.  Use it to better your future approaches.  This is the only way you will grow to your fullest potential.  Optimism is king, and the means to become one.

Creativity.  A constant flow of ideas.  Amazing problem-solving and innovation.  Love for the art of your specialty.  Never stop creating.  This is the life-line to your brand.  The most successful people always have a constant flow of new products or services to keep them relevant and profitable.  How can you be innovative?  Better yet, how can you be innovative with your previous innovations?  Offer your audience complete originality.

GOOD LUCK AND NEVER GIVE UP!

Back To The Basics

A little inspiration for my readers:

Can you remember when you were little?  Think back.  I mean REALLY little; your mother still holding your hand to the school bus little.  Do you remember how you used to act, how you used to think, feel, and be?

You were careless and were concerned with a different set of priorities.  You had other pet peeves and triggers.  Simpler things made you happy and you were more family-orientated.  Instead of worrying about what others will see you in and spending hours to pick and reevaluate your outfit, you styled yourself with whatever suited your mood and were done with it.  And I’m pretty sure a lot of us had little bloated baby tummies and did not flinch once in front of the mirror.  We loved running around, being reckless, and rolling in the mud.  Getting dirty was an adventure, not a chore.

Remember how we used to interact with others.  Without troubling ourselves over future possibilities and scenarios, we acted upon impulse.  Although taking certain consequences into consideration is sometimes crucial in the decision-making process, why should it affect the way in which we converse with others?  In other words, why should the prospective reactions from others determine our initial actions?  At the risk of sounding cliche, my perfect world is one in which all are true and sincere without the fear of judgment on their conscious.  It is your life you’re living, so why should others dictate your story line?

Dance for all that are watching.  Speak for all who are listening.  Shine for all those residing in darkness.  Be yourself for the world.  Be true and self-fulfilling first, burdened and careful last.   IT IS OKAY TO PLAY NOW, PAY LATER (thanks, Mishon).  You could spend your life dreaming of living, which sounds redundant, doesn’t it?  It is always good to work then play, to balance yourself in order to survive, but remember also that youth is for doing things you cannot do with age.  And why should your age signify the number of regrets you collected along the way?  “Playing it safe” may look appealing at the moment, but deciding not to do something could be just as regretful as the alternative.

The longer you prolong a decision, the more attention you are taking away from others to be made.  You could spend just as much time considering an action as you could spend completing it.  For example, while you are trying to decide if you are going to participate in the bull-riding contest in front of hundreds, you are diverting your concentration from other opportunities you may have.  In this time, the prize could be claimed by another contender, the love of your life could be considering introducing him/herself to you, or your favorite celebrity could be behind you in line for the contest.  I’m not trying to pressure you into becoming a Yes-man, and some decisions require more consideration, but definitely do NOT hesitate and miss an amazing moment due to fear.

There are a million scenarios that could occur as a result of participating in such a contest.  You could fly off and break your arm.  You could accidentally rip your shirt and expose yourself.  You could fall off the fake bull after the slightest movement.  BUT sometimes the pain of today is worth the memory for tomorrow.  Five years from now, does it matter if Jessica Alba point-blank witnessed you rolling ridiculously, unnecessarily, and embarrassingly off the fake bull before it even begins to jerk you?  You fall flat on your face, and happen to be wearing a skirt or extremely short shorts, slightly exposing yourself.  But what do you do when you pick yourself up?  The moment has begun and you are helpless to that fact.  But your next move makes your story.  Get up and run out the door?  Or hop up, shake it off, and get back on the bull?  Most of the time, the important factor in a situation is not what happens, but how you handle it.  The world is filled with unfortunate events, but succeeding against all odds is always admirable. 

When you are old, wrinkly, lacking full mobility, and left to your thoughts alone, what will be memorable to you?  Rolling out of the spotlight and sneaking off to blend into normalcy, or getting back on the bull, winning the contest and a high-five from Jessica?  Even if you don’t win the contest, you still might get the high-five, which might just be as satisfying.

Today, a lot of people are preoccupied with being leaders, not followers.  So when you are older, will you be a speaker or a listener?  Will you be passive, and reminisce with others of their tales, or will you recount your own, and continue to awe your audience?