Make that Change

We often start from the outside to try to make change on the inside.  Life isn't life without making changes in your.... well, your life. You may be thinking of making a personal change, your job, school, weight loss (or gain), or emotional changes you are seeking, however, change must start from the inside, before it can be seen on the outside.
The first step is to make a decision where you know exactly why you want to make that change.  Any change that you are going to make are useless without a reason to achieving those changes. Without that reason to keep you determined, you'll swerve off the road again and again.  Since I am a fitness professional, we will concentrate on your fitness goals. 

Before starting any fitness goal, please tell yourself you are making the changes to your body because YOU want to for the health benefits and NOT because of a wedding or school reunion you will be attending in a few months.  If you are doing the latter, your goals and all the hard work will last for only a few months.  IF you are making changes to your life because YOU wanted to and not for ANYONE else, then you are on the right path to making some serious changes in YOUR LIFE!  Below are some notes that I wanted to share with you. Hopefully these notes will help you in reaching your goals. With these notes, I gave my own life experiences. 

1. Put yourself FIRST to make these changes permanent! There will be people who want to keep you right where you are.  Your desire and effort to make changes may make them uncomfortable, but it's not about them.  It's not because they don't want you to succeed or love you.  In most cases it is forcing them to look at themselves and that's not always easy.  Do it for yourself. 

2. Tell your close family member and close friends about the changes you are trying to make in your life. By doing this, it will keep you accountable and motivated.  For me, I wanted to get my artistic juices flowing in my blood again, but I did not feel I had the creativity anymore and it made me real depressed. Instead of being negative about it, I decided to try a new media (I always painted with acrylics on a very large scale). I never sketched with colored pencils and never did any type of art on a small scale.  I use Facebook to keep myself accountable and motivated.  I visit my Facebook Friends (almost 2300 of them) photos and pick interesting photos to sketch. Once I am finished sketching the photos, I post them in a folder and tag them on the sketch!  No one on Facebook will know who I am sketching until I post the new sketch and tag a friend on it! This is very exciting for me and it makes me feel AWESOME that I am making someone happy and surprised!  I made this my goal for 2014.  I am currently on my 3rd sketch (not counting two that I gave up on LOL) and by doing this where the world can see my progress, keeps me motivated to sketch more (also a great tool to practice, practice and practice!)  If you would like to see my progress, please visit my Sketch Album (once you are there, you could "Friend" me too! 

3. Picture the life that you want.  I am not saying to clip out celebrity photos. In order to see a change in the future, one must visualize the change in order to make that life a reality. Setting small changes (like the Fitness Motivators Challenge that some of you are doing now) will help keep you motivated. This is one major reason why Donna and I created the Z-Box Fitness portion called "Z.E.N.".  Our Z.E.N. means... Go within your Zone and Envision Nature and Nurture yourself from within.

4. Changes (and goals) are taken in small steps.  We live in a world of instant gratification and many believe we deserve everything we want right now.  If we do not get results in a timely manner, we throw in the towel.  Know that change takes time. Embrace each day and when you enter into the new day, take each step of the day and make it the best day possible.  You will be one step closer to your goal. Many times Donna and I would hear from our students "I need to get fit and trim within two months, because I am going to Vegas.... going to a wedding... class reunion....etc....etc..." However, these same people are only attending one of our classes and not doing anything else the rest of the week.  They get angry and give up on their goals or they complain to us that "this class isn't working...". First of all, in order to achieve any type of fitness goals, there is no instant gratification.  Answer this question... Did you gain weight overnight? No, it took time to gain weight and it will take time to lose the weight. 
One must be active at least 30 to 45-minutes per day. The simple way to put it... Whatever calories you put into your body, must be removed from your body with activity. If you are putting calories into your body and you sit around all day, where do you think those calories are going? MOVE and GET ACTIVE!  I promise, if you get up at every commercial, maybe let the dog out... get the laundry out of the dryer and bring them to the couch to fold... wash the dishes... dust the furniture... do some leg lifts, squats, bicep curls.... YA GET THE POINT... then you are burning calories.  In no time, you will want to do more and more and all of a sudden you realize you are more active!  STAY POSITIVE! The small and seemingly insignificant steps WILL have a huge impact in reaching your goals.  Remind yourself of that simple fact every day.  In time, your confidence in the process will grow.

5. It is okay to have a down-day... Just get right back up! Reaching frequent, smaller goals is something to celebrate!  It gives you the confidence, courage, and motivation to keep moving forward! Don't give up on yourself!  From time to time you will need to review your eating habits, intensity of workout, and activity level.  Think of it this way... You depend on your car to get you from Point A to Point B. You have to maintain it to keep it from breaking down.  You give it a tune-up, get the oil changed, and even put gas in your car.... Sometimes the car may need more than a tune-up or gas, you take it to your mechanic and there is a problem with it and it needs to be fixed.  You deal with it, pay for it and move on.... Right?  Need I say more?

Donna and I know the meaning of "change".  Growing up, when most children are used to living at home with their families, attending the neighborhood schools and having friends, Donna and I lived in different foster homes and had a few too many schools that we attended. Turning 16 years old, we ended up having our first apartment, because "we aged out of the foster system". Needless to say, we had many changes and had to deal with them no matter what. With our changes came poverty, homelessness and decisions to survive. Instead of being just another number, we were determined not to become part of the melting pot statistic.  We made positive changes in our lives, with most of the changes being small steps, but we never gave up and we still continue with our goals today.  The meaning of adding this part to my message, is to let you know that you are not alone in your journey.  No matter what your goal is, know that you have it deep within yourself to make that change.