Get Your Mind Right and Get in Shape

Are you like me and have limited time to sit down and read a book or article? Or you’re on the go and you REALLY want to read but you’re driving? I love listening to books on Audible for this very reason. I got you. I recorded myself reading this so you can listen at your convenience.

You’re welcome. :)

Let me just preface this article by saying that 9 chances out of 10, you’ve heard all of what I’m about to say here, but you know deep down, you need to hear it again (that’s why you clicked on this link – thank you by the way). It’s like when your parents used to tell you something and not only did they sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher when they were talking to you, what they were saying literally went in one ear and out the other. Then someone else’s parent would say the exact same thing and the light bulb turned on for you. You needed to hear those same words from someone else for it to click in your brain. I’m here for you.

I’m not a professional dietitian nor am I a certified nutritionist. I’m not gonna tell you what to eat. What I’d like to do is open your mind to…changing your mind. I have certainly come a long way from consuming Snickers and a Coke for lunch in my high school years. Yes, you read that right, a Snickers candy bar and a Coke (not a Diet Coke either). That was pretty much my lunch combo for my entire senior year in high school, except for the occasional Friday that I ate that ridiculous rectangular slice of pizza. I was a cheerleader in high school, but clearly not a very good example of a healthy eater and to be honest, it wasn’t something that I even thought about.

Eating healthy was as far from my thought process as the existence of a smart phone app in 1988. It wasn’t until the following year when I made the cheerleading team at the University of Texas at Austin that I had the rude awakening of having to get in shape. Not only were we required to be at 15% body fat, we were dunked under water and tested for it to make sure we had the correct amount of muscle mass. I just knew I was gonna drown. To make sure we maintained our weight, we would have to do things like run a timed 8-minute mile AFTER a full 2-hour practice that involved a 15-minute intense and sweat inducing cardio warm-up led by our aerobics champion advisor (I’m not even joking). We also did jump drills, stunting and tumbling. It’s no surprise to me that cheerleading is now eligible to be an Olympic sport. We were doing all the things back then and now present-day cheerleaders are accomplishing some incredible feats.

But back to 1990 UT cheer practice expectations. If we didn’t complete the mile in 8 minutes, it was immediately followed by another mile to be completed in, yep, 8 minutes. If it wasn’t for the fact that I was going to get the opportunity to be on the sidelines at a college football game and cheer in front of a large crowd (one of my goals since high school), I would have quit.

That fitness stuff was just way too much. I recall one time we weighed in and my advisor told me I was 2lbs over my weight. Two pounds is nothing! No big deal right? Well, she followed that statement by telling me that I would not be allowed to travel to my first football game to cheer at Penn State if I didn’t lose the weight by Thursday at the next practice (it was Tuesday and only a day and half before the next practice). First of all, since I was petite no one had ever told me I needed to lose weight. I was offended, shocked and scared all at once. I left practice with one mission, drop 2lbs. There was no way I was going to miss traveling with my team and lose out on my first collegiate football cheering experience.

Starting the next day, I ate fruit for breakfast, plain tuna with pickles and 1 slice of dry ass wheat toast for lunch, a salad for dinner and drank only water. I must have ran on the treadmill for a total of 4 hours during the 24 waking hours before the next practice. By the time weigh in rolled around, I had dropped 4lbs. Go ahead, cheer for me, but I was annoyed that I was stressed out and vowed not to feel that way again. I suppose that was the moment my mindset shifted to more of a lifestyle change because I didn’t want to be caught off guard and pushed into a corner like that. BUT I was the one who showed up unprepared with a disregard for my health, when it came to food intake so I got it…lesson learned. That was on me.

I know what you may be thinking - this petite chick is trying to tell me about staying fit? Please.

Understand, that I was a 5-year undergrad student. During my fifth year, I did not cheer or even bother to work out. I quickly saw how inactivity affected my weight. I definitely put on some pounds after I stopped cheering and graduated college. Now, I’m 50 years old, I’ve had 3 kids; and I have managed to stay within 15lbs of my college weight after all these years.

It didn’t have as much to do with the food I was eating as it had to do with my mindset. Below are 10 tips that have helped me through the years.

TIP #1: GIVE YOURSELF THE POWER

This mindset is what kicked it off for me after I almost lost out on cheering at the Penn State game. I was really irritated that I felt that pressure, and that pressure could have very well been a reason for me to develop some sort of eating disorder. But I DECIDED to go the route of giving myself the power to choose, so that I didn’t end up possibly missing any other opportunities in the future.

Here’s how it worked for me. I’d go to the dining hall and see the food choices. There was usually some sort of burger and fry combo or grilled chicken and salad option. I would literally say this to myself, “I could choose the burger and fries, OR I could be just as satisfied with the salad and chicken. If I choose the salad and chicken, it will help me stay where I need to be weight-wise, AND I’ll feel better physically.” The choice became a no-brainer. I then began to do this every day. Besides, it was MY choice and I had the power to make that DECISION and it was a smart one. Then I’d pat myself on the back, and have a soda with my salad and chicken.

TIP #2: MAKE SMALL ADJUSTMENTS

What’s that saying? “How do you eat an elephant? One piece at a time.” Wait no, don’t eat an elephant. What I’m trying to say here is, pick ONE small thing that you will change or replace. For me, it wasn’t until 15 years later that I DECIDED to stop drinking so much Coca-Cola. After I graduated college, moved to California and started my first job, I literally would have a Coke for breakfast (this is before I started drinking coffee), a Coke for lunch, a Coke on my way home from work, and, you guessed it, a Coke for dinner. Finally, one day I said to myself, “self, what the hell is up with you and all this damn Coca-Cola? What would your college cheer advisor say to you right now?” I DECIDED that I would switch my Coca-Colas for raspberry iced tea. Yeah, I know, the tea still contains sugar, but I was weening myself from the soda. For the fizz that I was missing, I ventured into Perrier water with lemon, and again celebrated a personal victory each time saying that I gave myself the power to choose a healthier option. After giving up soda, I dropped 5lbs and kept them off.

At the time, I had no idea that liquid calories could do that kind of damage. Again, lesson learned.

TIP #3: GET MOVING

Whatever it is. Find it. Do you like to dance? Yoga? Riding a bike? Boot camps? You need some accountability? Join a class. There’s a gazillion classes online, in person, in your neighborhood, with your friends….you have choices, so DECIDE and get to it. Get a Fitbit or get on the Nike app to compete with other folks or do the walk/run challenges in the app. But get moving. Walk around the block 3 days a week then walk around 2 blocks the next week. Start somewhere. Try something new.

In college, I just went ahead and signed up for the step aerobics class so I’d be forced to do it for a grade. College was the first place I did a group workout. I was hooked because I loved the challenge and accountability that came with having to show up. Do something and build it into your day. Make it a non-negotiable moment. Everyone should know that that’s YOUR time and don’t let them stop you. Plus, you’ll enjoy the feeling of accomplishment afterwards. Stop making excuses. You can have excuses or you can have results. Get yo ass up, move and get the results you’ve been looking for!

TIP #4: GET OFF THE SCALE

Okay…get on there for a starting point if you must, but don’t get on that thing daily. (I really think college jacked me up with the scale which is why I’m anti-scale to this day). Getting on the scale every day is doing nothing but setting you up for frustration.

I like to judge my progress by how I feel. Do you feel sluggish and tired at 3pm like everyone else at the office? Then you probably could use some better fuel for your body. You can also get a sense of your progress by how your clothes fit. It’s always nice to be able to fit into those jeans that you pushed to the back of the closet. Shoot, it’s like you have a whole new wardrobe full of clothes you bought eight months ago. Let getting into a sleeveless fitted top be your judge and not the scale. You’ll possibly be annoyed and frustrated by getting on it every day. Stop it.

TIP #5: THERE’S NO COMPARISON

Our bodies are all different. So please, stop scrolling social media thinking you should look like the influencer who figured out the exact angle to accentuate all his/her body parts to look perfect after the 29th time she/he/they took the photo. Get comfortable in your own body and as long as YOU feel good in it, who cares what the influential certified Instagrammer with 217k followers looks like? At the end of the day, you have to feel good in your own skin. That Instagram influencer is on to the next selfie and not even worried about you. Give yourself the power to compare yourself to…yourself of yesterday…are you making better choices than yesterday? Than last week? That’s the comparison you should be making.

TIP #6: YOGO (YOU’VE ONLY GOT ONE) BODY

Why would you put so much garbage into the one body you’ve got? You may believe in reincarnation (for the record, I do), but right now, I’m only conscious of the one body I have in the here and now. In 2021. If you’re reading or listening to this, you’ve made it past Covid (the variant is still out there so don’t get it twisted). You made it out alive so now you should put the one and only body you have on a pedestal and honor it. You should be thanking your body for carrying you through that mess of 2020. How can you mistreat it now? It had your back (well, it can’t help BUT to have your back).

Treat your body with love and kindness. Your body’s energy output will be based on what you put into it. No, not all of us are athletes, but if you let yourself think like one for 2-3 days out of the week, it’s a good start to changing your lifestyle. I’m pretty sure Olympian track star and new mother, Allyson Felix only put the healthiest of food in her body as she trained and qualified for the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo. No, we are not competing for a gold medal, but even having that mindset for 2 days a week could be the start of a new healthy habit. Be nice to the one body you’ve got and take care of it on the front end; before you end up making constant trips to the doctor’s office or the hospital only to end up with a long list of prescription meds whose side effects are worse than your symptoms. Don’t do that to your one and only body!

TIP #7: STOP CALLING IT A DIET

This is a challenge for most because you say to yourself that you’re going to stop eating this and this and this and then you begin a diet that consists of rice cakes and water. Bleh. This NEVER works for me. Once I tried the lemonade fast where all you consume for 10 days was this crazy concoction of water, lemon juice, cayenne pepper and a little bit of honey. I was thinking, I like lemonade and I have pretty strong will power. I can do this! Shoot, I barely lasted 3 hours and by lunch I was screaming, “I NEED FOOD!” I’ve found it easier to just DECIDE to choose the things that are best for me. Again, I need to give myself the power and calling it a diet is basically letting someone else tell me I can only eat certain things and that’s just not gonna work for me. It was a constant argument in my own head that would go like this:

Me: “You can’t eat that”
Also me: “Oh yes I can, it won’t hurt me.”
Me: “That’s not healthy.”
Also me: “YOLO”
Me: “You’re weak.”
Also me: “No I’m not, I’ll just work out extra hard tomorrow.”
Me: “No you won’t, you said that last week…”

You get the point. Besides, let this sink in, your diet is simply what you eat every day so what does your diet consist of? Make it balanced and cut the self-inflicted arguments over food. That’s just unnecessary stress.

TIP 7A: DON’T DIET FOR AN OCCASION

You already know why this doesn’t work. Not permanently anyway. You’re trying to lose weight for…”fill in the blank,” the wedding, the reunion, the vacation. This is short-term thinking and non-sustainable. Until you DECIDE to make your choices a lifestyle instead of for an event, you’ll be right back at square one the moment you get to said event. You’ll send those good eating and workout habits out to sea while you’re on the beach. Tie your fitness to something more meaningful. Like things that we’ll discuss in Tip #10.

TIP #8: DON’T BEAT YOURSELF UP ABOUT IT

So you fell off the bandwagon and ate the donut holes, or you had a few beers. So what! Just make better DECISIONS for yourself at the next opportunity to eat or drink. There’s no need in depriving yourself from the things you like (unless of course there’s some allergic reactions involved). Besides, for your next meal, you can DECIDE to use tip #2 and replace your potato chip snack with carrots or something else crunchy (because a lot of times I found that as long as I had the texture, it was just as satisfying). Until then, have the hamburger and fries but tomorrow, don’t do that again, pick something else….healthier.

TIP #9: HYDRATE

Are you one of those people that drinks everything else, BUT water? Remember, I used to drink Coke on a daily basis. I didn’t realize what the lack of water was doing to my body. I discovered that I was 5lbs heavier with the soda for sure. When I implemented straight up water (not Perrier or flavored waters), I noticed that my skin was smoother, my hair was healthier, my eyes were clearer and I felt lighter. I also didn’t eat as much when I drank water before meals. Yeah, I went to the bathroom a lot but, I’d rather do that than be heavier with dry crusty skin.

I read somewhere that your goal should be to consume half your body weight in ounces of water a day (e.g. if you weigh 140lbs, you should consume 70 ounces a day). Some people push to drink a gallon a day. Whatever you do, start somewhere and make it a goal to consume H2O daily. Since I’m a competitor, I give myself goals during the day. I’ll have my cup of coffee (with hazelnut creamer - I’m currently trying to ween myself off this), then I’ll fill up my 33-ounce bottle with water and push to finish that bottle before noon. Then I’ll refill it and consume it before I leave the office for the day. I also keep a bottle of water on my nightstand every night and that will be the last thing I drink at night and the first thing I drink in the morning.

TIP #10: MAKE A DECISION

This is where you go deep in your thought process about taking care of your one and only body. Make a DECISION to choose something more important than looking good in your swimsuit on vacation. My children became my reason to continue on my fitness journey. I DECIDED that I want to be around for my kids when they’re older, not only to embarrass them around their friends, but I want to be at their graduations, their weddings, the birth of their children and everything else they do. I want to be around to see my little humans succeed. Besides, I’ve already told them that I’m going to beat their kids in a foot race so I gotta take care of this bod. I also want to do all I possibly can to take care of myself when I’m older and not have to rely on them to take care of me. I have a few questions for you:

First, what is your why? You know deep down you have a reason to stay around.

Next, why be around those you love when you feel grumpy and irritable because you haven’t made your health a priority?

And do YOU want to be around someone like that?

Some people wait until they have to go to the doctor and are told they have to lose weight or they’ll die. Why don’t you just be nice to your body and make it a goal to not really need the doctor for anything other than a yearly check-up? I know, some things are out of our control with accidents, injuries, illnesses, Covid. But we CAN do what’s in our power to make the best choices for our body. It feels good to feel good is one of my mottos. I DECIDE that I want to live my life every day feeling good and that starts with making choices that help me achieve that goal. Besides, my kids are watching me and I want them to beat their grandchildren in a footrace too.

I’ve learned lessons from the experiences I’ve had when it came to fitness. Taking note of how I feel after a workout or when I choose the healthier food option, is what helps with my mindset about fitness. Wanting to feel good and avoid trips to the doctor’s office, helps me stay committed on a more consistent basis and not just for an occasion. Next time you have an opportunity to make a DECISION about what to put in your body, check yourself before you wreck yourself and make a healthy choice. And no, I’m not saying that you have to eat rabbit food for every meal, but instead, make 8 out of 10 choices healthier ones. Your body will thank you for it.

Finally, you may have noticed the emphasis on the word DECIDE as you read through or listened to these tips. Anything that you want to accomplish begins with a DECISION. Something triggers you and you make a DECISION to eat right, to begin your workout routine, to write the book, to ask for the raise, to leave that toxic relationship. In my opinion, that DECISION is the catalyst that gets you on the intentional track to achieve your goal – whatever that goal may be.

In closing, I’m going to tell you like I’ve told all the cheerleaders I’ve ever coached - “Get Your Mind Right” and DECIDE already. Besides, YOU have the power to do it.

Go ahead and leave a comment below. What are your thoughts? What are some things that have helped with your mindset? I want to know!

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10 Tips to Get Your Mind Right and Get in Shape