Enemy Within

Beware of noman more than yourself;

we carryour worst enemies within us.

- CharlesH. Spurgeon

The enemy within knows everything about us.  Our failures, fears and faults.  We have shared the deepest mostintimate parts of our soul with him. He stands at the edge of our sub-consciousness and declares what choiceswe should make.  We can make nomove with his consultation.  Mostof us walk through life, not realizing the grasp of his power, which enslavesus.  His voice is so ingrained, sofamiliar and so comforting, that we seldom think about another way.

This is a mysterious force yet when I talk aboutit with people, they understand it, because we have all experienced it.  It’s the part of us that seems to minimalizeour success and magnify our failures. It drives us to be better then tells us that we should stop because ourefforts will never add up.  “Whoare you to question me?” it demands, and our obedience is almostimmediate. 

“You want to get into shape? Go to church? Makenew friends? Change for the better?” it questions.  Then reminds us of all the times we have tried and failed inthe past.  Quite simply the enemywithin explains how there is comfort found in much simpler pursuits.  “Put it off, watch some more TV, thereis no harm in that.” “Sleep in, you can go to the gym tomorrow morning, you hada rough day yesterday, you deserve the extra sleep.”  He hides his deception in words that sound like he has yourback.

This is not the voice of a friend, yet we listenwillingly. 

There is another voice, calling ever sofaintly. 

It says, “You can change! Go for your dreams! Youare strong!”

Feed that voice.

Starve your doubt.

Start living your life!

Getting Through Winter

In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.

- Albert Camus

Change is among us.  The long bleak winter has fought its last battle and the remnants of that occurrence are too scarce to even prove it happened.  The birds are coming back; little sparrows and red bellied Robins.  The squirrels playfully run through the trees, chasing one another.  The days are getting longer, the air is getting warmer and we know that spring will be here soon. 

As we all know, different periods in our lives are often referred as seasons.  Read through the descriptions and try to identify where you are.  Being able to see what season you are in is a good way to identify ways to move to a better season or reinforce attributes to keep you in there.

Summer:

Feeling very content and satisfied in your life. Each passing day is more or less carefree. Working out and eating healthy are done without a second thought.

Autumn:

Perhaps things are going well but the signs of change are obvious; a child getting ready to go off to school, a loved one coming to the end of their life or perhaps a marriage is starting to become more strenuous by each passing day.  Our discipline to fitness is slipping and we start to remember how much we love chocolate chip cookies for breakfast.

Winter:

A very difficult time in life.  Nothing seems to be going right; you feel lonely, depressed, anxious and/or scared.  The gym is being passed up for more sleep and the daily consumption of food is a good reminder why heart disease is the biggest killer in America.  During those times, its good to remember this: you don't have to say in winter forever, start making changes now!

Spring:

The day-to-day difficulties are starting to feel more manageable.  Decision-making comes with less anxiety.  The desire for healthy food and a good workout stir deep (for some its very very very deep, but it's there) within you.  Take full advantage of those quiet desires to make healthy choices because they can do much more for our overall well-being than we can really give credit to.

No matter the season you find yourself in right now, you have the ability to make improvements.  If you are in a summer season, set lofty goals, dream big.  You can achieve much in summer seasons!  If you are in a winter season, set small goals that can easily be obtained.  Reaching small goals in the winter of life is a great way to get that feeling of spring.

Don't let winter make decisions for you, take action.

The Key: Identify attributes of your "summer," then do those things! Continuing to do autumn things will eventually lead to winter, but continually doing winter things doesn't always lead to spring.

Mr. Snowman, defies winter by

 moving to the warmer climate.

Boosting Your Emotional Immunity

For many years now, science has been trying to separate objects down to their atoms in order to get a better understanding of how things work.  Even an atom isn't just an atom anymore because they are made of protons, neutrons and electrons.  I wish I could stop there but science demands we divide the neutrons and protons down even further into quarks and gluons.

When scientists breakdown an atom like this, it really helps in understanding how the atom works.  Applying this logic to humanity would mean that the more we separate a man, the better we can understand him.  But does breaking down a human into separate parts really help us to understand a person better?  Can we say that one is made of the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual?  We can in the sense that the four aspects are evident, distinct and identifiable.  There is no doubt some overlap but how much and have we been underestimating the connection between the four realms of a person?

I came across an article in the Journal of Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice that strongly demonstrates overlap of the physical and emotional.  In fact, the correlation between exercise and decreased anxiety and/or depression was so strong that introducing exercise in a clinical setting was be advisable in many cases.  Pilates everyday keeps the shrink away... (Sorry, I'll have to work on that).

This was one study of many that report these same findings.  The world of western health care is starting to embrace the mind/body connection more readily as of recent years.  As more and more research comes out, there surely will be more "prescribing" of exercise along with traditional treatments in order to deal with various mental health issues as well as physical ailments.

I'll be the first one to admit it, when my life gets stressful and busy, the first thing in my routine that gets cut is exercise.  It's as if I need that time I would have been running to worry about what all is going on in my life.  If we would only take the time to continue exercising through whatever life circumstances, we would be able to enjoy the benefits of decreased anxiety and depression.

Friends Michael and Dylan in CO hiking up Mount Sopris.

 Hiking is one of my favorite forms of exercise.
Definitely hard to be stressed on a trip like this! 

Friend Jagen crossing the finish at the  

Stump Jump 50k in Chattanooga TN

Accomplishing physical goals = emotional bliss :-)

Name your physicial activity of choice.

Reference:
Stathopoulou, G., Powers, M. B., Berry, A. C., Smits, J. A. J. and Otto, M. W. (2006), Exercise Interventions for Mental Health: A Quantitative and Qualitative Review. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 13: 179–193.

Take Captive Every Thought

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."  

Winston Churchill

Just as much as we humans are what we eat, we are what we think.  Eat junk, feel like junk.  Think junk, be junk.  I have never met a person who talks (or thinks) negatively about themselves and also has a positive outlook on life.

We all have a tape player in our mind, endlessly looping a stream of conscious (and even more dangerously unconscious) thoughts.  If we find ourselves feeling down or anxious, it's really important in those moments to step back, be quiet and examine our thoughts.  Often times, those thoughts aren't quite true.  That's not to say that they aren't based in some truth, but often times, we blow things out of proportion.

It goes something like this:  Say you have a job interview coming up and you are feeling overwhelmed/anxious about it.  There is a good chance that the thoughts going through your mind in that moment aren't, "I am well qualified for this, I'm such an awesome person that the interviewer won't be able to resist hiring me, I have so much to bring to this company that not hiring me would be detrimental to their fiscal future, etc." In the moment, our thoughts are probably more like, "I just barely meet the qualifications for this job, I have such little experience in this field, I'm going to bomb this interview, etc."

2 Corinthians 10:5 says it like this in the NIV (emphasis mine), "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."  Let's use this verse as the first step.  Sometimes its hard to know what to do with that negative thought after you recognize it.  A negative thought such as, "I just barely meet the qualifications for this job," requires a bit more observation.  Once you have taken your thought captive (recognized it), take time to examine it; write it down, study it, ask yourself if you have heard this sort of talk before and if so who was it coming from?  I have spoken with many people who've said these sort of things (myself included) yet didn't see the underlying assumptions.  "Not qualified" could possibly assume: worthless, a bad person, incapable, failure and so on.   

Please challenge your negative thoughts.  Write out a list of reasons your aren't a "failure," "bad person," or whatever.  Ask a friend for some help making this list could be extremely beneficial.  When you commission a friend, you can hear it from someone outside of your own voice which in turn, can make it easier to believe.

I'm sure I have sabotaged my own fair share of opportunities by my negative thinking.  When life gets hard, we can't just throw up our hands and think, I guess I'm just not cut out for this.  We have to think positive and continue forward.  Set backs are a given, failure is faulty thinking.

Now let's broaden this out to physical fitness.  If you want to get into shape, what sort of things are you telling yourself about starting?  I often hear, "I will never be able to lose the weight and if I do, I wont be able to keep it off", "I just can't find the time during the day to fit it in", "Gym memberships cost too much money," etc. etc. etc. Sabotage after sabotage after sabotage.

The scariest piece of this whole puzzle is this: we do have what it takes to get the job we want, to be in shape, to live the lives we want to live, we just have to rid ourselves of the negative self talk, replace that old worn out tape player telling us we are no good, and start being the people we were designed to be.

Source

A Happy New Year's Cliche

Source

• What is one thing you would do if you knew you could not fail?
• If you had a magic wand and could change anything...
• A genie is able to grant you one wish...
• If you woke in the morning and a miracle had occurred, what would it be?

It's the beginning of a New Year.  One of my least favorite things about this time of year is all the cliche saying floating about, see above for a couple more :-)  I usually try to avoid these types of questions and conversations because those asking the question (most of the time) mainly just want you to hear their answer, not the other way around.  But it is still important for us to examine these questions quietly in our minds or in a conversation with a close friend.  If we take them seriously 2013 could be a real turning point in our lives.

I used to not believe in making resolutions, simply because I hate the feeling I get when I don't live up to them!  What that comes down to is me, putting too much pressure on myself to live up to some unattainable standard.  Or my goals were simply too vague, lacking much needed specifics.

To avoid the New Years resolution let downs follow these simple tips:

1. Break your goals into small manageable pieces.  Instead of saying "I resolve to loose 50 lbs," try something like, "I resolve to loose 1 lb a week."  This way, we can meet our goals gradually and the weekly "wins" will provide motivation and momentum.  
2. Start small.  If you want to be working out 5 days a week but currently can't locate your gym pass, it's likely you wont be able to get yourself to the gym everyday (I still struggle getting all my planned runs in every week).  So, start small, 2 days a week to start with.  When you feel like that is no big deal, move it up to 3 days a week.  Or You can even say, "In March I will start going to the gym 3 days a week, then June 4 days a week..."  Going from nothing to that ideal overnight is really hard to do.  You might find yourself putting a lot of pressure on yourself which leads to feeling overwhelmed, to disappointment, and eventually giving up.
3. Believe in yourself! Be your biggest cheerleader.  If you find that you are feeling overwhelmed and disappointed, simply reassess your goals.  You might be trying to do too much too quick.
4. Expect the failure.  We are going to slip up, it really is inevitable.  Knowing it will happen at some point will make it easier to live with yourself after it happens.  Just own it, and move on.
5. Avoid haters! I want to dedicate a post on how to identify and avoid haters in the future but for now just avoid those who do not put positive into your life.  If they doubt you and make subtle remarks about your slow progress, just ignore them and move on.  They really aren't worth the time of day.

So after reassessing your goals or resolutions in comparison to the above five tips, what do you resolve for 2013?

Start

Beginning the journey is often times overwhelming.  When thinking about health, a lot of people immediately think getting into shape is one item on their new year's resolution list, but there are often many other "priorities" that come before that.  You know, things you have to do before getting to the gym even becomes a possibility.  What some call priorities (haves), I see as road blocks.  For example, many people think that they have to stop eating _____ , have to get a gym membership, have to buy a new pair of expensive shoes, have to lose sleep because there is just not enough time in the day, have to lose a few pounds through dieting first.
 
Basically what we are doing is sabotaging any chance of getting into shape by making it seem like the gap between here and there is uncrossable.  It seems when folks think about getting in shape, they image a version of themselves looking like a Greek god and say to themselves, "Ya right that's impossible." Why such a huge goal?  Let me simplify with this; Start.  Forget about what unhealthy food you have ingested over the course of the past week.  Forget the people who doubt you and always try to find a way of cutting you down subtly or outright (I call 'em haters, but more on them in a future post) Forget about all the excuses you give yourself and start! What you will notice is that once you get into whatever sort of workout you choose, you will shed some bad habits along the way.  Your body will crave water, healthy food and get this, a consistent workout schedule. 

source 

Is this what "in-shape" is to you?

But you know the drill, you wont be fooled by what I have stated so far, because you know that once you start working out, all the bad habits don't just magically disappear.  It might take a year before you start to find somethings you use to crave at least moderately of disgusting 50% of the time. Now I'm curious though.  What sort of purpose do our bad habits play?  Sure cigarettes, coffee and alcohol can be hard to kick because of their addictive qualities, but do we crave Oreos (which are actually vegan) because we are addicted to them?  I say probably not and the reality is that we will crave unhealthy foods because their sugary, fatty or nutritionally void qualities provide us with a psychological comfort.  A child can get pretty peeved when they don't get a cookie because in their mind, their immediate happiness is tied to having that cookie. 

The deeper question for us adults is posed, "What is the particular food or drink fulfilling in us?"  Will another cup of coffee make your day better?  Will starting your day with some doughnut holes really bring comfort to your morning?  I find for myself that when I don't let myself be fooled into thinking that a sugary snack will make my day be brighter, I actually have a better day.  This is because I'm not fighting the sugar crash for the next couple hours.  I have also found that when I really don't want to go for a run, those are the days when I need it the most and afterward, I'm awake and ready for that day's challenges. 

So here's a couple questions.  What is your roadblock? What can you not start your day without? Share below!

Motivation, Perspective and Change

I'm not exactly sure what made me say "yes" to running a 10 mile race the very next morning, without training.  I assume it had to do with one main thing - Motivation.

My good friend Antho was convincing as he spoke about an upcoming ten mile race.  He made mention of the adrenaline buzz coursing through the veins of all the runners, so intense you can't help but notice it upon your arrival to the starting line.  He talked of an overwhelming feeling upon crossing the finish line — realizing you gave it your all. He topped it off by explaining the self-esteem boost you get after finishing such a distance that caries you throughout the next week.  Being a runner in Jr. High and my Freshman year of High School, I knew, to some small degree, what he was talking about.

Antho's pre-race pep-talk was able to motivate me enough to get me through one race but then what? Sadly our motivation to stay in shape doesn't stay at a consistent 100%.  Heck, if it stayed at 75%, I would be much more productive.  But something happened during that race, my perspective changed.  What I mean by this, is that I saw a lot of disadvantages of how my physical well-being was at that time... I saw how out-of-shape I really was.  Instead of finishing with the rest of the 24 year olds, or even mid-pack, I finished in the back with, well... the people who finish in the back.

My new perspective of myself as an out-of-shape wimp isn't what has kept me running, it is a desire to improve, to push myself beyond what I think is actually possible.  My perspective now is that we can do a lot more than we can really imagine, if we just go for it.  You know, Nike, Just Do It.  This perspective fuels my motivation and pushes me to change every day.

 (Antho and I after finishing the Des Plaines Trail Marathon)

These principles apply to running and getting into shape.  But they also apply to just about anything we see as a challenge in our lives.  For me, running has shown me a way to meet those challenges more confidently. 

If you are taking a look at your life and see areas that you would like to change, ask yourself the following questions:
-What are the disadvantages of the way things are?
-What are the advantages of doing things differently?
-What do you see as barriers to getting where you want to go?
-What personal strengths do you have that can help you succeed?

Forget the "how," allow yourself to daydream about advancements in your well-being, the how will follow.