Pam Shaw

"FIND YOUR BAD HABITS
AND FIX UM!”

In the workout I’m currently doing, CHALEAN, the ‘trainer’ talks throughout the workout--- from instructing to encouraging to pushing! During the stretch and wind-down from one of the workouts, she says ‘Find your bad habits and fix um’. Simple as that! What’s holding you back from living as healthily as you WANT to be? When I teach the DESIGN YOUR LIFE SERIES that is associated with a 90 day planner/datebook/goal setting tool, I talk about a few of the basic principles that work to support you LIVING the life you DREAM of, not just enduring life.

• IN 90 days, you can change your LIFE! You can change your body, your marriage, and your career!
• You can’t live your values until you know what they are!
• You can’t break a bad habit until you replace it with a new one!
• Change is hard!

Although there are a few more principles in that Three-Hour Workshop, those are some of the basics. I want to focus on HABITS that might be the ones holding you back and how to replace those habits with a NEW and BETTER one to bring about the changes you’d like to see in your health and in your body!

BAD HABIT: Sleeping til the last possible second before dressing for work.
REPLACEMENT HABIT: Getting up early enough to do your workout and have a Quiet time. The FIRST three hours of your day are critical hours (in my opinion). How you wake up (what is the sound?), what you do first, what you listen to (or not), what you drink, eat, what you read, what you think (pray) about, what you do physically, etc.... these first 2-3 hours literally FRAME your day! The cycle of failure here is what time you go to sleep. And HOW you go to sleep. If you will create new boundaries for the time you (1) Turn off technology (2) Get in bed recommended no TV before bed--- although I DO have a TV in my room, I really really really try NOT to turn it on before bedtime. Exceptions—ball game series, a special show of some sort.] (3) Have a routine to wind down (4) Turn the lights off at the SAME time nightly (5) Get 7-8 hours sleep consistently (6) Wake up at the same time daily (7) Structure the first 2-3 hours of your day to be the same.

BAD HABIT: No set time for your workout.
REPLACEMENT HABIT: SET the time, and make it the SAME time every day. I [Pam] prefer to work out early in the morning within 1-1 ½ hours after I wake up. Angie prefers to work out later in the day. The KEY is to have a set time that you are committed to working out. My observation is that the later in the day I put it off, the less likely it is to get done because there are too many interruptions that can trump my private time! Kids, work, other people, my own energy level, distractions, etc! If you work a ‘normal’ job and get off at 5 p.m., go STRAIGHT to your gym! STRUCTURE is a good habit for the beginning and ending to your day. For women, I believe that KNOWING what you’re going to wear is as critical as knowing the time of your workout! Call me crazy, but until I got in the habit of getting out of bed and immediately putting ON my workout clothes, sometimes the “I can’t find the right jog bra or other footie or...” is the obstacle to working out! SET your workout clothes out (or put them in your gym bag), EVERY PIECE, before you go to bed.

BAD HABIT: No breakfast.
REPLACEMENT HABIT: EAT something in the morning and make it a good choice! Your metabolism slows down to a crawl to conserve energy when you don’t feed it. You’ve already gone on an 8-12 hour + fast from sleep. It’s time to BREAK-THE-FAST! Studies from the American Journal of Epidemiology found that those who reported regularly skipping breakfast had 4.5 times the risk of obesity as those who took time to eat! Try a mix of protein with carbs and healthy fats! My ‘pre-workout’ meal is ½ a La Tortilla wrap (6g fiber, all natural, no transfats) with PB Flax butter (more protein/less fat than Peanut butter. Comes from Vitamin Shoppe) and 1/3 of a banana sliced and wrapped. YUMMIE!!!!! But FIND your breakfast!

BAD HABIT: Lunch choice
REPLACEMENT HABIT: Decide before lunch! If you don’t have some healthy go-to’s for lunch, the most dominant person at your workplace or the person willing to go out and get the food determines your nutrition! There are MANY great choices from even fast food restaurants today. Recently, my son and I stopped by KFC to get a mixed bucket of chicken. Fried (Thomas’s choice) and grilled (mine of course). We got home. IT WAS ALL FRIED! L I was starving, and I had already indulged in my ONE time a year fried chicken at my Mom’s for my birthday dinner three days prior. What to do? Well easy! Pull the crust/skin off and eat the chicken breast. I definitely still got more fat than I bargained for, but it was the ‘best’ choice given my option at that moment. ANOTHER great option that Tosca Reno, author of EAT CLEAN, recommends is PACK YOUR FOOD! Yep, the cooler! If you’re serious about your health, a cooler is the SUPERIOR option to be completely healthy and in charge of your nutrition AND your POCKET BOOK!

BAD HABIT: GRABBING a snack when you’re starving.
REPLACEMENT HABIT: Know your hungry time of day. And know your snack in advance. This is a biggie for me. Sometime between 3:30 and 4:30, I am FAMISHED! I’d rather eat then and skip dinner 9 out of 10 days. But for my son and for the sake of family dinner, I ‘try’ to avoid this tendency. Most people have a hungry time of day! IF you plan your meals out in your iEatFit journal (pencil it in!), then you’re less likely to go on a feeding frenzie, eating everything in sight! When you do that, you can’t even back track to estimate the numbers. You then sync into a guilt-procrastination mentality and the bad habits recycle!

BAD HABIT: “I’ll start tomorrow”
REPLACEMENT HABIT: “I’ll do something now” “I’ll make a good choice NOW”. Procrastination is the THEIF of abundance. The THEIF of health. The THIEF of wealth. The THEIF of relationships. I believe next to fear, it is the enemy’s greatest tool. SAY it out LOUD! TODAY is EASIER THAN TOMORROW! It is! It really really is. We become discouraged when in 3 weeks effort we don’t see the ab 6 pack on our own body same as the DVD instructor or those (possibly enhanced by spray tan) on the covers of the magazines we browse through. Don’t get me wrong! SIX packs are truly out there (and under your skin as well!). But, for most of us, it’s a lot of hard work and discipline to even SEE an ab muscle! Starting TODAY and repeating TODAY’S effort and discipline over and over is a habit that will serve you well!

BAD HABIT: Trusting the Packaging or Commercial
REPLACEMENT HABIT: Educate yourself! Know what ingredients mean. If you can’t pronounce it, your liver can’t easily process it. Simple. Look for bad fats and hidden sugars and learn the different names of them! AVOID all fake sugars. TOXINS. Disease. Just think, “Aspartame: DEATH”. Seriously! Death to something in your body. You wouldn’t put SAND in your car for fuel because you found the beach before you found a gasoline station. Sand would RUIN your car! What makes you think that the brand or packaging of foods make them healthy for you? I hate to be the bearer of bad news or even ‘appear’ to be the skeptic, but the government isn’t watching out for your health! Because it’s FDA approved? Please! Follow the dollar. Foods that have absolutely ZERO nutritional value are on the shelf in colorful, intriguing packaging! Be as SMART as you are! These toxins are not only making you sick, they are making you FAT, and they are blocking your body’s ability to break down fat. So, rule of thumb: If it didn’t grow out of the ground or didn’t have a Mother, you can make a better choice for lunch!

ONE HABIT AT A TIME... Find your bad habits, and FIX UM! The results from these choices are NO one else’s fault! YOU are in charge! You can turn ANYTHING around in 90 days! Are you ready to EATFIT? Start a new journal or pick up your last one! START Tracking again! You deserve your BEST, MOST HEALTHY life now--- for yourself and for those you love!

For more information on a DESIGN YOUR LIFE PLANNER,
visit www.pamelashaw.com. DESIGN TOOLS