I’ve signed up for obstacle course races even though I am unable to do a pull up (YET–see…still working on that mental game). I work with a nutritionist, focus on macros and eating more protein, challenge myself to complete programs like 75 Hard, lift heavier weights than I ever thought I could, bore my kids with anecdotes from podcasts I listen to or books I read regarding health and fitness (I get lots of eyerolls ). Basically I spend a lot of energy focusing on how to better myself.

Why is that crazy?

So when I tell people about my schedule and my activities, I get a range of responses, beginning with the blank stare and ending with “that’s crazy, I would never do that.” My question is…why? Fitting in a workout where I can, which just so happens to be early, is bonkers? Wouldn’t it be crazier not to fit in a workout at all, and go through life sluggish and unhappy?

Signing up for races and training for them. Nuts? Or motivational? Setting a goal and reaching it…proving to yourself that you, in fact, CAN do hard things. Why is that considered crazy?

Participating in programs like 75 Hard, that challenge you mentally and physically. Insane? Or…training yourself to be disciplined in your health journey? The rules, while challenging, are not necessarily crazy. Why do we think giving up alcohol, following a diet, exercising outside, taking progress pictures, drinking a gallon of water, and reading 10 pages a day of a book — for 75 days — is crazy?

Redefining the word

What does it say about us as a society when we categorize healthy behavior in this way? Here’s a radical idea — being sedentary, feasting on the Standard American Diet (there’s a reason the acronym is SAD), bingeing streaming services, not drinking nearly enough water, and drinking too much alcohol…that is what is insane. And the vast majority of us repeat these patterns day in and day out and wonder why our mental health is suffering, we feel lethargic and crappy, our hormones are out of whack, and that extra weight hangs on for dear life.

Here’s your wake up call to use the proper definition of ‘crazy’ in this instance: passionate. Excited. Fanatical. In that sense, absolutely YES. I am crazy. I am passionate about bettering myself. Excited to see what I can accomplish. Fanatical about learning what my limits are and exceeding them. I’m not letting society’s definition of what is normal dictate how I live my life.

Why would you?

The post One Sandwich Short of a Picnic first appeared on Sore Not Sorry.

Scale Results

To be fair, I’ve been trying to disassociate myself with the numbers. The data is good to be aware of, but at the end of the day, it is just data. And I have made progress, and the numbers are moving in the right direction, just not at the rate that I would prefer to see.

So, now we pivot.

The good news is, the added calories did not make me gain weight. Just the opposite, I actually lost both weight and body fat. I could continue with this progress and I would still reach my goals, it would just take a lot longer. Mind blowing information for someone who has tried every diet known to mankind (except Whole 30) and always thought a deficit meant I needed to severely restrict calories. Now I know my maintenance calories can be a lot higher than I originally thought.

How to Pivot?

I will know for sure what the next phase of my plan is sometime in the coming week. For now, I’m continuing to focus on meeting my protein number. I think what will happen is I will have to be in a larger deficit for a short period of time, while still hitting a high protein number. The larger deficit should be fairly easy to return to, the hard part will be meeting a higher protein goal while keeping my calories in that deficit.

One Caveat

I chose this option of quicker results for two reasons: one, the holidays are coming up and starting in a good place might allow for me to feel more comfortable with a few indulgences here and there. I want to be able to enjoy different foods with my family and not feel like I am doing something to set myself back. Two, I still have over 30 days on 75 Hard so I have the leeway to challenge myself further and get the most out of the program. Why not make 75 Hard even harder? #stayhard

Caveat being — there is nothing wrong with continuing with the snail’s pace progress. It is still progress! Things are still moving in the right direction, I still lost weight and body fat, my muscle mass essentially stayed the same, if I kept this up I would continue those trends (while hopefully adding muscle mass) and in what might feel like 87 years, I would reach the end result I was after. Mentally, I don’t want this process to feel like 87 years! I want to reach my goals and tweak my maintenance phase so that I can live happily and comfortably forever and ever, amen.

I want to step off the roller coaster for good. I also can’t wait to see what happens after I try the slightly more drastic approach!

The post Pivot! first appeared on Sore Not Sorry.

“When you have a great and difficult task, something perhaps almost impossible, if you only work a little at a time, every day a little, suddenly the work will finish itself.”

Karen Blixen

Deciding how to prepare myself mentally for the wall I know is coming in a week or two is a battle in and of itself. Around Day 50, I just want the experience to be over. My self-talk revolves around, ‘hey you’ve done 50 days, that is amazing!’ and ‘why would you want to keep going? What do you have to prove?’

One half the battle … Keep your promises

I don’t have to prove anything to anyone, but I do have to keep promises to myself. For the longest time, I would tell myself I would do something, whether it be pursuing a goal or vision, finally buckling down and focusing on health, or even something as simple as keeping a home routine so my house was clean and comfortable most of the time. I planned, prepped, visualized, but didn’t follow through and keep my promise. Excuses became my self-talk.

Every day I complete these tasks is one more day I keep my promise to myself to finish strong. That means more to me than anything, and is why I started this program to begin with.

Another half of the battle … Decide

Decide. One simple word with a lot of meaning: To choose something, especially after thinking carefully about several possibilities. Once you decide your course of action, you don’t have to think about it anymore. You don’t have to have an internal debate over how much water you should drink, or how much protein you should eat, or whether you should have a glass of wine on Thursday night or save it for the weekend. This program makes those decisions easy–just follow the rules–but what about when the program is over? Make your own rules and decide to stick to them. And keep your promises. Don’t talk yourself into a big piece of chocolate cake when you promised yourself you would not go over X grams of sugar per day.

As for me, I needed this reminder as much as anyone else. I am not going to second guess or question my decision to complete this program. I am just going to do it.

The post Half the battle first appeared on Sore Not Sorry.

Top Ten Takeaways from Dorm Move In

1. Find a lot of rest stops. That gallon of water is NO JOKE. Buc-ees for the win!
2. Make sure to pack extra snacks so you know you have something to fall back on.
3. Dorm move in counts as a workout.
4. Count your wins! You followed your diet, didn’t cheat, and didn’t stress eat or head to the nearest Mexican restaurant and order the “biggest beer you have” as we overheard one frazzled dad doing at lunch. (You also didn’t eat the fried cheesecake dessert that your husband ordered for everyone to share…#winning)
5. Bring a gallon jug so you know how much water you have left to drink. So much easier than trying to remember how many little water bottles you drank so far! (Hat tip to my friend Jordan from Mama Bear Fuel for the advice!)
6. Brag to everyone within earshot that you lift weights heavier than their full IKEA bags (on a cart) as you carry 2 bags at a time up 4 flights of stairs. (Just kidding. I thought it but didn’t say it out loud.)
7. Whisper to yourself over and over “this is why I work out” as you lug said heavy bags, boxes, & cases of water down the stairwell in the parking garage level 3, 1/2 mile to the dorm, then up 4 flights of stairs. Lather, rinse, repeat at least 4 times.
8. Be grateful that you didn’t have to drive. Reading in the car (I would have gotten it done at the end of the day either way, but it was nice to be able to front load my day as much as possible)!
9. Forget the progress pic in the hotel? No worries. Took a progress pic with my beautiful freshman all ready for campus life.
10. Did I mention always knowing about at least 2 nearby restrooms at all times? So much water!

The post Day 21 is over and done first appeared on Sore Not Sorry.

What this means is I need to be more creative than sugar or alcohol in my attempts to recenter myself and trudge through a fairly miserable week.

What I’ve Tried So Far

I’ve put on music from my late teens/early twenties, and for a while I forget about the worries of the day and just try not to throw out my back while I dance in the kitchen. Sometimes, though, the music that pops up reminds me of other unpleasant memories and that brings me right back to the funk I started in.

Writing is the next option on my list. The problem is, when I get in a mental funk I have no idea what to write about. You hear all the brainstorming tricks — mind mapping, brain dump, etc — but when my mind gets to the funk part, I draw a complete blank.

I already exercise very early in the morning. Not because I enjoy waking up that early, it is just the best time for me to fit it in. I could exercise again, and I guess I do get moving with the dancing, but changing from my comfy house clothes to workout gear to do an actual structured workout is not appealing. So while I technically could do another workout, I probably won’t.

Tonight I got some reading done. Though the book I’m reading, Winning by Tim Grover, isn’t exactly the type of book that makes you feel better about yourself. It isn’t supposed to! It is supposed to shine a light on all the ways we can win but we choose not to. Which is great on a normal day for me, but today it just hit different.

What Gets You Out of a Funk?

I’m all out of relaxing ideas. Sleep is last on my list. Might be nice to just put the day behind me and start fresh tomorrow.

What do you do when you get in a funk? Anything else I should try?

The post What the Funk first appeared on Sore Not Sorry.

Instead of thinking how hard your journey is, think how great your story will be.

Week 1 of the 75 Hard Program created by Andy Frisella is in the books. I’ve challenged myself to complete this program before, and this is my second time around the block. The second time has less initial excitement, to be honest. There is no wondering ‘can I really do this?’ because I know I can. I’ve done it. I didn’t see the physical results I wanted to see, but I gained a new perspective on just about everything else in life, so I call it a win.

Lessons During Round 1 of the 75 Hard Program

The first time around, I was a little bit complacent at first. I thought, ‘I already do most of this stuff, so this won’t be so hard.’ Boy, was I wrong. By day 50 I didn’t want to take any more progress photos! I got tired of fitting reading into my schedule (those who know me, know that is not like me at all.)

I learned a lot about myself during this process.

My biggest takeaway, and the lesson that helped me the most: I need to front-load my day. I need to wake up early and get as many tasks checked off my to-do list as possible before about 3 pm. Otherwise, I drag my feet and avoid the tasks important to me. Or I lose sleep–and believe me, you don’t want to see me when I am low on sleep.

The second thing I learned is I really like the easy way out. It was a constant mental battle with my whiny inner voice. I had to tell my whiny voice to shut up and get things done, and then I had to push through and do it. Most days…I was able to go to sleep at my normal (admittedly early) bedtime and wake up recovered and ready to face the next day. We all have this whiny inner voice, but how often before this program did I actually persevere and do what I promised myself I would do? Not as often as I should have, that is for sure.

Starting over again

After completing the first 75 days, I procrastinated starting Phase 1. I made all the excuses. Once I started, I realized I wanted to complete the Live Hard year, but quickly understood that I had waited fifteen days too long to start. I wouldn’t complete Phase 3 by the required date. I knew if I really wanted to complete this year, I had to start all over.

That is an entirely different mental challenge to overcome. My whiny inner voice is complaining about starting all over, like a pre-teen child who doesn’t want to do their chores. Having three teenagers…I know all about the pre-teen attitude. It’s a little humbling to admit that I have these tendencies, too.

The first book I read this time was The Power of One More by Ed Mylett. One of the lessons is to focus on one more day. (By no means is this every lesson in this book, and I highly recommend it for everyone.) This concept of just reaching for ONE MORE one more is continuing to be a fabulous reminder to me to take everything one day at a time. I am trying not to think about how many days I have left. I’m focusing on today. What can I do to make today successful?

There are a couple of things I’m doing differently this time around.

Number 1, I’m focusing on recovery. One day per week will be full recovery. This doesn’t mean I don’t move, or I sit around on the couch wishing I could eat bon bons. My recovery workout options are walking, yoga, stretching, foam rolling…basically anything that keeps me moving and also keeps my heart rate in a lower zone than my usual workouts.

Two, I’m focusing on a much higher number for protein in my diet. I’m not going to lie, this one has been very difficult so far. It feels like I am eating SO. MUCH. I am full by lunch and almost don’t even want to eat dinner! But, I am working through it and gradually getting used to the new numbers. I’m excited to see results!

10 more weeks to go!

Okay, I know I said I was focusing on one more day at a time. And I am! But I want to update here weekly with any new happenings, discoveries, or insights. So for the next 10 weeks you will hear all about my struggles and successes on this journey (you’re welcome). I have a few battle buddies going through this with me. We are all succeeding so far! I’m excited to see what we all accomplish. I know the Spartan Beast is in our future…two of us are doing Hyrox doubles…and one of us is doing some 100 mile bike race in the hottest month of the year (you know this one isn’t me, right?)! We’ve got a lot coming up this fall and it will be an experience, for sure. So buckle up and get ready for a wild ride!

The post 75 Days, 0 Compromises first appeared on Sore Not Sorry.

Part of the 75 Hard program is 10 pages of daily reading, and not the fluffy romance novels I normally gravitate toward. I like those for the same reason I watch the Hallmark channel — it’s happy and doesn’t require me to think! The 75 Hard program, however, does require thinking. Good thing I’m an avid reader and enjoy digging into new books. Below are my 10 favorite nonfiction reads from the past year, in no particular order:

1. Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins.
2. Mindset by Dr. Carol S. Dweck
3. Chasing Cupcakes by Elizabeth Benton
4. Living With a SEAL by Jesse Itzler
5. Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink & Leif Babin
6. Atomic Habits by James Clear
7. The Illusion of Money by Kyle Cease
8. Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy
9. Relentless by Tim Grover – caveat…I don’t really think I’m relentless, but it was interesting to read about those who are.
10. The Power of One More by Ed Mylett

I’m starting 75 Hard over again next month (trying for that Live Hard year!) …anything I should add to my “must read” list?

The post My Top 10 Nonfiction Reads first appeared on Sore Not Sorry.