 |
Archive for March, 2011
Saturday, March 26th, 2011
I received a text from a fellow athlete yesterday. She wrote: Can you verbally kick my butt, about putting healthy food ONLY in my mouth!!!!!
Yes, I could and I did. However the thought lingered in my mind and as I watched March Madness on TV later, I was acutely aware of the way commercials pelted me with the goodness of junk food. Eat this and drink that because it will make you beautiful, popular, and insanely happy. Feed your hunger because you deserve it. What’s the point in eating moderate portions of food that’s good for your body when you can abuse it with fat laden, nutritionally-void crap that is purported to solve all of your problems? We’re being brainwashed at every turn and it’s just as bad on the radio. The barrage is endless!!! We need to offset the visual images tossed our way by the media.
Sometimes it’s best to fight fire with fire. All serious athletes know how to visualize. Most of us imagine success’ and challenges with as much detail as possible in preparation for big events. So why not do that with food? Imagine that a bowl of ice cream will immediately turn into rolls of sweaty fat on your stomach. Imagine that the golden arches are really a picture of your butt and keep driving. Imagine that those chips immediately become layers of cellulite on your thighs. Make the visualization as gross and as detailed as possible. Then imagine that fruits and vegetables clean and heal your system, shrinking your stomach as they pass through, dragging fat deposits to your colin. We are what we think about people! Let’s recruit our minds work for us instead of allowing them to work for the fast food industry.
Once you decide you don’t want the junk, you won’t feel deprived giving it up. We don’t miss things that we don’t want in our lives. If you want to become beautiful, popular, and insanely happy, you have to become the best possible version of yourself. Life is too short to settle for anything else.
Never settle for good when great is an option! Great is always an option.
Tags: health, life, success, visualize
Posted in health, perspective | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011
My kids are joyfully home from school due to a spring snow storm. I took my fourteen year old to the Y like I’ve done numerous times so he could shoot some hoops. He has a routine of warm-up drills and if I have the time to hang out, I feed him the ball. Today his shot was a little off so I kept pestering him about it. I wasn’t helping and we both learned a valuable lesson about letting go of the little things.
Sometimes as parents we don’t realize how our “coaching” sounds to our kids when they’re having an off day. Fortunately Matt was able to see the problem from both points of view. In the end he concluded that nothing is gained by letting little annoying things bother us. Today, I was the little, annoying thing bothering him.
Tags: adversity, choices, kids, parenting, success
Posted in adversity, parenting, perspective | 2 Comments »
Friday, March 18th, 2011
It would be great if people treated each other with respect all of the time. They don’t. It would be great if schools could completely eliminate the bullying mentality from their corridors. They can’t. They can control it to some extent but kids who choose to be mean will find other ways to be mean like sending harrassing texts or inappropriate facebook messages. There have always been bullies in the world and they extend well beyond the school yard. Obviously, as parents, we don’t want our children to struggle with the teasing and torment thrown at them by mean kids. However, there can be some benefits.
1. Our children’s first bullying experiences are rarely their last. Even as adults we have to deal with bullies, sometimes in relationships, sometimes at work, and let’s not forget world leaders. Those early experiences can give our kids the tools they need to handle the more sophisticated bullies that they will likely encounter later in life.
2. A bullying experience can teach a child a lot about compassion. My fourteen year old was bullied for three years in elementary school. He was a giant among his classmates and never fit in. He hated going to school and the tears broke my heart. But now, he has a great deal of kindness and compassion for the underdog. He’s past those challenges but he’ll never forget how it felt. Dealing with adversity can ultimately make us better, kinder people.
3. Bullying is an opportunity to build self-esteem in our children. We have to teach them that no one else can define who they are in the world. They define themselves. We have to reinforce how amazing they are and help them focus on their gifts. We have to keep them looking forward and spend extra time affirming them. We have to listen to them, try to understand the struggle and of course, step in when appropriate. The mean kid is generally the one with the problem and if we can help our children understand that, in the long run, the bully will lose.
It’s not the events in our lives that matter, it’s the way we handle them. If we can help our children navigate the rough waters of bullying, maybe the rest of their lives will be smoother sailing.
Tags: adversity, bullying, kids, life, parenting
Posted in adversity, bullying, parenting | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011
It’s March. The February Challenge is over or is it? What did you learn this year? In a perfect world the Challenge wouldn’t be a challenge at all. A slightly modified version of the first five rules should be the way we live just because we value the quality of our lives. We should exercise for an hour everyday, including strength training several times a week. We should sleep 7 hours a night, drink at least 6 glasses of water a day, and yes, eat all of those fruits and vegetables. Our bodies are the incredible vehicles that we travel through life in so why wouldn’t we take great care of them? Why perform like a Minivan when you can perform like a Porsche?
That said, we do get off course, taking detours for one reason or another. I felt like I was driving around potholes most of the month, sometimes for reasons beyond my control. The detours should be expected, but so should getting back on course… because we’re worth it. We perform better when we take care of ourselves.
February was a great month to re-focus. It was a starting point. Now you’ve got the rest of the year to challenge yourself. Be a Porsche!
Tags: fitness, habits, health
Posted in health | 2 Comments »
|
|
