How to Keep Your Training Mojo Going

How do you keep your training mojo going?

1.  Find A Training Method That You Love

Let us delve into your psyche.  Having you ever been taught something like art, singing, violin, hockey, football etc., and the teacher keeps on making you do drills that bore the ass off you. Even better, have you ever taken a subject at school and there is no way on this planet you can learn it as it just does not interest you?

This is similar to how your training mojo gets stood against a wall and shot.  You want to get fit. You want to lose weight or whatever it is.  You see a training method that millions of people profess to be the best.  It works, there are photos and proof, plus all the reviews say so.  Week one you love it, week two you stop doing it every other day, week three you avoid a couple of days by week four you dread it.  Why?  Because it is freaking boring as hell.  It is not what you actually want to do.

You started running but 'everyone' tells you running doesn't build muscle and you should be building muscle. You stopped.

You started weight training, but 'everyone' told you to lift heavier until you actually dreaded failing. You stopped.

You started a system like P90Xor any other programme and it was mind blowingly hard.  You can't do the moves and feel defeated.

Stop looking to other people to tell you what is best for you.  Only you can decide this.  If you like running . . RUN.  It is a wonderful thing to do.  Running is a great cardio exercise.  Not only does it get you out and moving, but you do it at your own pace and after a while it becomes not only training but can also be meditative.  If you want to build bigger muscles learn to sprint train.  Research it all it isn't as if there aren't a gozillion articles and books on how to run/sprint/do marathons etc.

Find something you actually love doing and allow yourself all the time you need to become the best you possibly can at it.  People stick to what they love.

2. Learn Your Limit

Always go at a pace that suits you. For instance, if you are, let's say, lifting as heavy as you can, even though it is KG's/LB's behind what you perceive as the weight you should be lifting KNOW YOUR LIMITS.  It is great to push yourself to progress. It is a fool who tries to push themselves beyond what they are capable of too soon. This can lead to serious body damage.


Leave your ego locked away before you start your training.

3.  Stop Trying To Keep Up With The Experts

If you have started any form of training program do not try and keep up with the instructor/pro's.  Learn what you can do with your body and what areas of training you need to progress in.  Use assistance when you train, if needed, such as resistance bands for pullups/dips, blocks in yoga etc.  Any professional athlete/trainer that is good will tell you that you only get good by starting at the beginning and working your body to get better.

4. Beware of Workouts Routines

Ever seen those workouts on-line like this:  

Warrior Workout

400 pushups 

200 lunges 

100 pullups  

300 dips

 40 burpees 

repeat 5 times.  

If you have problems doing 10 pushups then these are not for you!  I have noticed a lot of these type of routines especially in  calisthenics and they are HARD.  As a beginner doing 15 pullups is torturous if not impossible and these routines can leave you feeling like you have failed.  You haven't, you have just taken on too much too soon.

If you want to learn calisthenics make up your own basic routine which should incorporate pushups, squats, pull-ups and dips.  Begin by doing small number sets ie 5 reps of each exercise and repeat for 15 minutes, then you can up your game by competing with yourself.

5. Is This Exercise Helping Or Harming?

There are many exercises out there that are pretty much of no plausible good for your body, they may be popular and may even be practised at some gyms but you may end up injured or cause your body imbalances through ignorance.  If you want to aid your fitness find out about functional movements.  We as humans naturally climb, run, pick up heavy things, swim, walk, dip down, jump, squat but there are certain training methods out there that are very questionable.   As stated above do your research on whether a certain exercise will harm of help.  

6.  Stop Feeding Yourself Mojo Assassination Thoughts

Stop "believing" you can do this and start KNOWING.  Belief is what people have for fairies, unicorns and Santa.  Knowledge is solid.  Know you are getting fitter.  Know that you are getting slimmer.  

Desist with the assassination talk of things are too hard, results are not happening fast enough, you are not good enough or, the worst of all "I can't . . . . ".  You can, you will, you know it.

7. No Pay, Still Gain

Many people stop training as they find a myriad of excuses not to go to the gym ie too expensive, too crowded, too far away, too full of know-it-alls, no parking (really you drive.  Get a bike) etc.  The answer is ludicrously simple.  Train at home in your garden, bedroom, garage, spare room, the choice is yours.   You DO NOT need equipment to start training.  You may progress to building up a home gym, but all you need for now is your body and a maybe a timer. Heck, you don't even need training gear.  You can build your body strength and shape through calisthenic and can do that butt naked if you so chose. 
Push ups, squats, burpees, jumping jacks, plank, yoga need no equipment.

8. Am I There Yet?

When you were a kid on a journey with your parents, did you keep asking "are we there yet?".  Only to be told "NO, WE ARE STILL NOT THERE" and the journey would seem to last a lifetime.  Can you guess what could possibly be stopping you from seeing the results in your body you want?  IMPATIENCE!  

If you have read in a brochure/seen a commercial /noticed a "latest thing" on line that doing XYZ training will get the results YOU want  in 30 days and you truly believe you can drop 15 kgs, get six pack abs and a contoured body and be able to maintain this all from scratch, within that sort of timeline then click your heels 6 times Dorothy as you are no longer in Kansas.  Meanwhile, back in the real world, you have to teach yourself that gentle progress, no matter how slow, is how to keep your body beautiful.  We have to work and enjoy working, at making our bodies our temples.  If you don't like the work, go back to paragraph #1.

9. Stop Comparing Yourself To Others

Unless you are Dana Linn Bailey, Larissa Reis, Matus Valent, Vinn Diesel then you will NOT have their bodies and, if you do, keep an eye on your front window as the police will be there to question you soon.  You keep your mojo ignited by loving your body no matter what stage of the game you are at.  This body you own, in its present condition, is the body that is going to get you to the body destination you are aiming for.  There is no problem in being inspired by what others have achieved, in fact nodding your head and thinking how awesome they have enabled themselves to be can add fuel to your stoked mojo furnace.  Just don't wish to be them and have their bodies.  Know that you are you and are capable of making your fitness, health and body supreme.

10. No One Is Judging you

You are the only person that has any true sway on what you do.  This applies to your body, your education, your career, your happiness etc.  Sure, you can blame others taking away from yourself any power over yourself or your life, but, you are not going to do that as you have an inner strength that is way more dominant than any of this petty stuff.  

If you are hurt or upset by what someone says about you that is your choice.  Yes, you have a choice in all.  Only you allow yourself to be hurt.  Only you allow your mind to dwell on irrelevancies like what someone else may be thinking.  As the saying goes, what others think of you is none of your business.  The sooner you learn you are a supremely powerful person, you are in control of your own thoughts, your own deeds and the only judgement you care about is the one you give yourself.



.. . . . and if you think you are too old, too ill etc just click this link!

To keep your mojo going.  Do what you love, love what you do, allow yourself to enjoy the journey, know you are an amazing capable being and you will get so much out of this.

ENJOY!

Love and hugs

Cathi

How To Survive Divorce

How to survive divorce with your sanity intact and your happiness beast mode on, is the subject de jour (ooh hark at me and my french ways).

Well I have been there and done that so thought it only polite to share the "how to" bit.

THE BLAME GAME

The issue that first hits the stumps is the

"Who's fault is it"

No matter what you would love to say on this one, whether it be a cheating husband/wife, one half saying the other "just doesn't understand" the answer is very, very simple and the sooner you get this the quicker your happiness and life status quo will return.

THERE IS NO BLAME, PEOPLE JUST CHANGE!

Now, to the spurned lover this will sound incredibly harsh and even somewhat unfair, but it is, and always will be, the truth.

We as humans are ever evolving creatures, I shall put myself in the petri dish here for analysis.   I am a lover of this thing we call life, I enjoy it and think it there to be enjoyed, however my idea of enjoyment and my ex-husbands were quite different.  He loved playing on gaming devices, going to the pub and basically not being very near me.  I on the other hand am a tactile person and had a rosy picture in my head of family days out at the weekend, walking together, cycling together, getting fit together . . . . it took me 18 years to realise my dream would never come true.

The main turning point was realizing the vast chunk of my life had been spent in a pretty much exercise free zone.  Yes, I walked the dog and went pootling with my daughter's on the bike but never even realised our local swimming pool had a gym, and, even if I did would have considered it a Men Only zone.  Skip on a few years to 38 and suddenly I realise I am so unfit it is ridiculous and have spent way too much of my life wishing to be a different shape.  I start looking into fitness . . very cautiously you understand, this was an alien planet as far as I was concerned.  Skip to 39 I made a promise to myself to be fit for 40, this is when my whole world suddenly got turned on its head.  I trained hard, very hard, in retrospect TOO hard I lost ALL of my excess body weight, but in doing so a new passion had arisen, another crack in the ice of an already globally warmed iceberg in the marriage, I adored training, I was hooked.  I wanted more knowledge about it and here lay another issue for this was yet another passion that was NOT shared with my husband.  He was a construction worker and considered lugging plaster boards up and down the place good enough exercise for him.  So, the petri dish develops more globs in it as my changes kick in.  I am no more the happy little round house wife that cooks meals and hopes her hubby will be back before 8pm, I am now a very happy woman realising a passion and realising that her husband is not and never has been the man she actually wanted.  I realise I just don't love him.

Who is to blame here?  Me for wanting more out of life or him for not providing it?  Answer neither of us, we were just different beings with different needs and passions.  No one was to blame, life just happens and we have to deal with that.

 The man I married was not my soul mate, no matter how hard I tried to bully him into it.  As you can see we are both at fault as we were a) not living the life we truly wanted and even worse b) trying just to "tick along" as society says married people with children should stay together for the children's sake.  I say STUFF THAT!!

WE HAVE TO STAY TOGETHER FOR THE CHILDREN 

NO YOU DON'T!!

Ahh the ego such a pampered lover.  It tells both you and your partner the best thing you can do, even though your marriage/relationship is in tatters, is to stay together for children as this is what society dictates.  Yes, of course it is the best thing.  Just like if a child is growing up on the Gaza Strip it may as well stay there in times of non bombing and violence as that is what it is used to!  Sod moving the child to Barbados where there is a chance of peace, tranquility and somewhere to relax, readjust and focus on THEIR little lives.  Let's keep them in the purgatory of being pulled from one parent to the other, constantly seeing or hearing the two people they love rip each other to pieces and having to deal with all the whispered slurs from one, or boths parent about the other.  Let them have their whole childhood focussed, not on their study, their passions or their future but on your messed up relationship with each other . . . anybody seeing a problem yet?

The best thing for you is just the same as the best thing for your child.   MOVE ON.  Yes a divorce is hard on all parties involved there is just no getting around that, it hurts, but here is the readjustment point . . EVERYONE HEALS!  Your children will get through the mess quicker if they are not being used as weapons ie "I'll take the children away from you if you [insert random demand]".  Why not put on your big grown up pants and sit with your child and find out how they feel.  It is worth noting your ego may take the biggest kicking of its life at this point.  Let them tell you who they want to live with for now.

 . . . back to me, my children wanted to stay with their father because he had the big house and a better job.  Fair enough!  I got to see my youngest daughter a few times a week.  Don't get me wrong it hurt like a red hot knife through my soul, but, after precisely 3 months my eldest daughter had moved out to live on her own and my youngest daughter was pleading to live with me, which I grabbed with both hands it has to be said.  It turns out a big house and wallet don't provide the things they truly wanted.  I now live very happily in the smallest house you can imagine with my new partner (who really IS my soul mate) and my youngest daughter.  I never asked for a penny in child maintenance, told my solicitor I did not want any of my husbands earning, I even gave my husband the house we had built, (later found out he had not been paying the mortgage so had to sell it).  The point here is, your marriage is defunct, you have to move on for the sake of your sanity and, if you have children, for the sake of their future.  If you are using your partner's income as your own then it is time for you to stand on your own two feet or at least come to a FAIR decision, but, I guess that bit should be left to the solicitor. Remember the more money you get through the divorce the chances are the richer your solicitor will be!  If you are in the UK and using Legal Aid and get some settlement in the end from a sale of house or whatever, between the solicitor and Legal Aid they will rip as much of their losses back from you as they can in my case £7,000+!  

The moral of today's little literary outpouring is;

We have to learn to move on with our lives.  Stagnating in any situation that makes you unhappy will turn to depression, which in turn will end in illness, it is how our bodies and minds symphonically work.  Surely it is better to take responsibility for your own life, to live by design not by default, to stop waiting for others to pick up your slack and to realise the best money to have in your pocket is not that gleaned from someone else by a solicitor, but that you have made by yourself.  Divorce is as hard or as easy as you want it to be, the trick is not to push so hard at each other but learn to bend without breaking.  Life is full of lessons and we just have to be aware enough to realise they are being taught.

Right, I am off now to hug my soul mate and make my daughter (who has just passed her triple science exam with 100% allowing her to take it as her GCSE triple option, which in turn allows her to further her life into becoming a vet) her dinner before I cycle into town to teach a fitness class.

Be happy, lose the ego, love life.

When Did We Start Blaming Everyone For Our Own Fuck Ups?

When did we start blaming everyone for our own fuck ups?  From education right through to what we eat, we have turned into a world that just does not take responsibility for its own actions.  We also have turned into a world that has to sue everyone, for everything.

"It's the fast food companies fault we are fat"

"It's the education system that is failing us all"

"Society has made my child an ignorant prat"

"My marriage fell to pieces because it was his/her fault"

"I tripped over a pavement, I'm going to sue the council"

"He said I was an ignorant pig, I'm going to sue him for deformation character"

"They get paid more than me, I'm going to sue"

Someone actually sued (and won!!) McDonalds as she had scalded her lap with coffee whilst driving!!!

. . . . the list goes on, and on . . and on

The point that has to be made here is, at 43 I have realised one HUGE thing.  I am responsible for everything that happens to me in my life.  When I put on weight, it is not due to the pressure placed on my by advertising, I have never been quietly sitting at my computer when a Ronald McDonald employer of the week has stormed my house, grabbed me by the hair, stuffed me in the back of a van and force fed me a Deli Special of the Week, neither has any supermarket employee forced me into the dreaded "middle" of the shop, where apparently all the bad shit happens and you get sucker punched into buying all sorts of weird and wonderful things.

Now I do understand there are some quite legitimate reasons for taking someone to court/suing them such as gross malpractice, health and safety neglect etc but it is the daft stuff that is mentioned above, people just seem to want to find things to sue people for and, you get what you wish for I am afraid folks.

A story to learn by here is, friends of my partner played the suing game, suing for accidents they had at work to the point where he would DELIBERATELY hurt himself, they actually bought and paid for their house through all the claims they made.  Now I am a firm believer in you get what you bring to you, so if you are constantly telling people how poor you are, you will remain poor, if you are constantly telling people about your fear of being attacked, you will get attacked and so on.   Then what they had been focusing on came to pass, the man who had even gone to the lengths of severing a finger to sue, ended up having a serious motorbike accident and becoming paralyzed at which point, his wife left him.  So be careful what you wish for people!

So, to sum up.  When you realise you are responsible for everything that happens in your life, you will then be able to start making a more positive step to creating your dream life.  If you want to be slender, take a look at what YOU are shoving in YOUR face.  If you are in an unhappy relationship LEAVE IT and please don't do the "but how will I survive without the house, the money, the car (insert appropriate high end item)", the truth for you people is, easily.  I left my husband with £70 to my name and I survived very happily, yes you have to go through some pretty gritty times, but as long as you keep your ego in check, let the past stay in the past and look to making you a brand new happy future, you will, without doubt succeed.

Becoming responsible for yourself is the most empowering thing you can possibly do.

Now, off and empower yourself