Where would we be if others had not been Persistent? March - Women's History Month

A few persistent women in American history would include Amelia Earhart, Rosa Parks, Condoleeza Rice, AAGPBL (All American Girls Professional Baseball League)Rosie the Riveter, The Statue of Liberty to name a few and a woman named Julia Archibald Holmes.
August 5, 1858 over 150 years ago, 20 year old Julia along with her husband James and two other miners reached the top of Pikes Peak in Colorado. People told Julia that she couldn't make the tough climb up a 14,110 foot high summit. Her response? To wear an outfit she called her “American costume”, which consisted of bloomers, a short dress and moccasins. Upon returning from the climb Julia wrote in her journal “I have accomplished the task which I marked out for myself. Nearly everyone tried to discourage me from attempting it, but I believed that I should succeed.” Julia Holmes exemplified her passion for women’s rights to overcome obstacles to achieve her goals.

How Persistent have you been in achieving your goals? Do you set goals? Have you marked out a task for yourself? Do you find yourself constantly saying "I'll do it tomorrow, Monday, New Years?" Do you have a support group or are certain people telling you that you can't succeed? If you are having trouble with setting, organizing and obtaining your goals here is an easy way to get started.

1. Daily goals. This should be something you strive to do on a daily basis. This could be organize a closet, eating breakfast, remembering to pack healthy snacks when you are on the go, etc.
2. Short term goals. This goal could be anywhere from a few weeks to a couple of months. Strive to keep these goals in a "short" time frame. If you are finding it's taking longer on a particular goal simply move it to your long term goal list. Things to add to your short term goal list could be to incorporate exercise into your daily routine, remove white from your diet (white flour, white bread, white sugar, white rice, etc.), add whole grains to your diet, exchange non-organic items in your menu with organic ones, add 2-3 days of strength training to your routine, etc.
3. Long term goals. This list should have goals that you either are unable to do in the present maybe because of time or money but you would like to complete them in the future or you have a goal that will take longer than a couple of months to accomplish. Things to add to your long term goal list could be to take a college class you never got to finish, sign up and train for a 5k, 10k, half or even a full marathon, volunteer for a cause that's close to your heart, work towards a new career, etc.

I find writing goals down and posting them in an obvious place where anyone can see keeps me motivated and driven. Example: My husband will look on my bulletin board in the kitchen and ask "did you do your core and legs today sweetie?" I know he'll ask and it would KILL ME to say no. I would be admitting defeat which is not in the cards.

Remember, goals work best with a time frame and an approximate completion date. If you finish a goal earlier than planned, celebrate! If you don't reach your goal in the time you allowed, it's OK. We are a hurry hurry society and always want instantaneous results and if we don't reach them we are the first ones to beat ourselves up. Rework your list and say to yourself "it's OK I didn't get that done when I would have liked to, now I realize that (blank) takes longer than I thought."

"Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein."
~H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Welcome to the 3 Peas of life.

I shall begin my very first post with an introduction of what it means to balance the 3 Peas of life! No, I'm not talking about the green kind your momma made you eat when you were a kid. I'm talking about the 3 P's of life. Persistence, Patience & Portions. What do they have to do with life you ask? Over the course of the past year these 3 little words kept sneaking up on me when I wanted to quit, give up, throw in the towel, whine, moan, complain, (shall I go on)? Please let me explain...

Persistence = running my ass off!
I was never a runner...ever! I was a cheerleader and a baseball player growing up. I thought "how stupid it was for people to run around a track, where was the excitement?" But with my new found hope of loosing 40 lbs. (which btw I did) and the help of amazing and talented friends guiding me and encouraging me every step of the way, (you know who you are ;) I discovered their secret... there's a secret to running. Once I learned it and started to apply it to my running I was able to be persistent on upping my mileage, speed and intensity. However, I'm always learning and pushing myself to be better and that's what makes running fun!!

Patience = a stiff Jack and Coke!
I will be the first to admit, I don't have patience. I think most people have lost it as well over the years. We are a society full of multi-tasking, road raging, red faced, hot headed people. I am not patient with people or myself. I like results and fast as hell. Going on this new mind, body and soul life changing challenge thing, I have to admit that I was very impatient when I didn't loose the scheduled amount of weight, run as far or as hard as I wanted to, or do as many push-ups as I wanted to do this week over the previous week. I had to learn everyone is different and I am not like everyone else nor is everyone like me and there will always be someone who runs faster or longer than me, lifts more, has less wrinkles or can get rid of their damn cellulite faster... Ugghh.. never mind...

Portions = not eating the entire damn plate of chicken wings and drinking a 6 pack of beer!
Yes, there I said it. I love bad food and good beer. But that doesn't mean I eat or drink them everyday. Being a proud southern gal we fry things, everything. If we had thought about it we would have probably fried cereal. Chicken, steak, squash, green tomatoes, okra, on and on and yes, all fried in fabulous wonderful tasting fat artery clogging lard. I had to learn over the course of this past year how to cook in a new way... a healthier way! And guess what? If you do it correctly, it does taste great and I'll share recipes, tips, gadgets and all the other wonderful things I use and love.

I started this blog in hopes of inspiring people, to get people to perspire from exercise, and help people find the tools for a healthier life. This is a place where I strongly encourage people to share their stories of life, weight loss, weight control, healthy living, or simply tips and ideas that they would like to share with others in hopes of helping make life a little more doable.

"Be persistent and never give up, patience sometimes really does pay off and portion control does not begin and end with food!"
D-