There is just ... your life

But in reality, there’s no “after”.

There’s just… your life.

What we want for you

At PN, our goal is for you to “return to the wild” with fresh eyes and re-invigorated spirit.

• We want you to live your healthy values and choices in ways that work for you… not blindly follow what “experts” say.

• We want you to stay honest and ask, “How’s that working for me?”… not to get stuck on rigid, abstract “rules” and “shoulds”.

• We want you to use and enjoy your body — to have adventures, get out in the bigger world, and do fun stuff… not to shrink your universe to calories and carb grams and minutes of intervals.

• We want you to use your health and new knowledge to help other people… not to become a self-involved, body-obsessed bellybutton-voyeur.

• We want you to feel joy, happiness, and creativity… not anxiety, fear, and focused on “flaws”.

• We want you to build your best self while accepting your “shadow self” — but not feeding the dark side.

• We want you to find and develop your strengths… not to obsess over your “weaknesses”.

For you, we want deep health — the alignment of body, mind, spirit, and life.




this is what I want for myself and my Bridget.


HOW????

To do all those wonderful things, we want you to stay focused on right now.

On living your deeper purpose and values. 

On experiencing whatever life offers you in this moment. 

On making your fitness mission statement a reality. 

On doing the few things that truly matter. (In PN Coaching, that’s reading your lessons, doing your habits, and doing your workouts.)

So the key is to live in the moment, to act in a manner that is true to your deepest values and forgive yourself for messing up, and keep living in the moment.

Fitness Mission Statement

New Habit: Create and Practice Your Fitness Mission

eek, this is a big one.
For the longest time I seemed to have a real push to go at the gym hard...
lately I have been happy with just going, doing my best when I am there, but not obsessing over going and being there all the time. I like this approach, it gives me freedom and flexibility to do other things I love, and need to do to take care of my home life.
Often I do one thing at the total exclusion of all others
for example right now I am totally obsessed with scrapbooking. I want to scrapbook all the time. I am not doing my laundry, i am not doing my grocery shopping, I am not doing my exercise etc...

I guess I need to either quit my job or win the lottery so I will have time to do everything I want to do.
ok back to the topic at hand... Fitness Mission Statement

How do I make a mission statement?

Ask yourself:

• Who am I? (And who have I become?)

• What do I stand for?

• What is truly valuable? Truly meaningful?

• Why is making healthy choices important to me? How do these choices help me accomplish my purpose in life?

• Where do I want to go, and what behaviors will get me there?

• How will I know if I’m making progress?

A mission statement is a clear, simple statement of what you want to do. What you want to live. Who you are and want to be. 
And what will guide your food, fitness, and wellness choices. Every day.

ok, here goes nothing 

I am a mother to Bridget and a wife to Ben.
I want to be the best me possible, fit, healthy and happy.
What is valuable and meaningful to me? Bridget and Ben, experiencing life together, seeing new sights and experiencing new and fun experiences.
Why is making healthy choices important to me? - because inorder to adventure I need to be able to move, climb, run, jump, wiggle, fit, be happy and be comfortable in my own skin.
having a healthy and active lifestyle will help me 'fit' my skin and be able to bend and move comfortably. The fitness aspect will give me the 'feel good' endorphins I need to stay happy and energized. I will also model this lifestyle to my Bridget, and she will be healthy and happy throughout her life. 
Where Do I want to go? - I would like to lose 20 lbs and to get there  I need to eat slowly, and eat less and more healthy foods like fruits and vegetables.
How will I know If I am making progress? the number on the scale will go down. (185lbs)
Move more and eat less

Learn your unique hunger cues and patterns

Understand the distinction between physiological hunger (needing to eat) and psychological hunger (wanting to eat).

From the lesson:

• Hunger (and satiety) is the result of a complicated interplay between chemical and mechanical signals in our bodies.

• Physical hunger is normal and natural.

• Our hunger systems evolved in an environment where food was scarce and unprocessed, and in which we had to expend lots of energy to get it. These systems get out of whack when there’s lots of food around, especially refined foods that fool our sniffers, tasters, and digesters.

• Eat a little less when trying to lose body fat, but not too much less.

• When you follow the PN habits, especially eating the right foods, at the right times, in the right amounts, you let your hunger-regulation systems do their jobs properly.

• You can help yourself feel more satisfied by choosing whole, unprocessed foods and eating slowly and mindfully.

How to feel satisfied, even when eating less

Here’s how to use our natural hunger regulation systems to your advantage.

• Eat slowly and mindfully. Pay attention. Breathe.

• Make food that looks beautiful and smells good. Taste it properly, like tasting a fine wine.

• Share mealtime with others, if possible, in a relaxing setting.

• Eat whole foods. Chew them properly. Enjoy the complexity of their taste.

• Get plenty of protein, along with healthy fats and fiber from colorful veggies.

• Stay active. Our bodies work best when we move.

• Relax. Recover and de-stress. Get at least 7 hours of sleep.

Letters from Coach

Hi Fiona!

I know it's just about 10 min to go until our GTM this evening, but I wanted you to know that I've missed you the last couple of weeks. If there's any chance you can make it tonight (even from your gym), I'd be delighted to hear your voice!

xo

V
--------------------------------

Hi Veronica,

Sorry I didn't jump in on the call last night.

I was at the gym, but trying out the newly renovated area in the basement at the gym... so I had no signal

Good news is - the basement isn't great for working out, the ceilings are really low, and the air circulation not great.

So doing my post workout cardio down there is rather stuffy and hot, I will not be repeating that.

So next week, I will return to upstairs where I do get reception, that way I can participate in the GoToMeeting.

A quick update... 2 weeks ago was awful for me - super super stressful and I almost fell apart :)

then I was able to get it back together on Sunday, and this past week I have been back on track with my workouts, doing my actions and eating mostly clean.

The good news is that the 3 lbs I gained during my week from hell is back off :) and I am back where I started in terms of lbs

I am getting really good at this getting back on track business. I get a lot of practice :) I am like a 3 year old skater... practicing 'falling' :)

Thanks for checking in on me.

ps I did not get to try the vegetarian day :)

I would have to do a lot of pre planning to get it figured out, and I had planned my protein for the week on sunday.

I might try a vegetarian day for next week... I will see

Have a super weekend, Im looking forward to your video :)

ciao,
Fiona

----------------------------

Thanks for writing back, Fiona!

I'm so sorry to hear that you had a week recently that nearly broke you! Here's a secret: getting back on track is one of THE most important skills you can master this year. Your telling me that you're getting really good at falling - and getting back up! - means more to me that if you said, 'hey, this year's been a breeze! I've never once lost my footing in this entire process!' Do you have a process of getting back on track, or is it more of a mindset of resilience?

Keep up your awesome, Fiona! I'll look forward to seeing you next week - and maybe hearing about your plant-based experiment!

Hugs!

V

PN award

I received an award from my PN coach today.
I know it is just  for fun, but I love it :)

Pick something, and do it a little better

Today I got a new habit

Pick something, and do it a little better

1. Think about your exercise and nutrition habits and come up with the one that YOU want to try to work on.

2. Then, just do a little more, or a little better.

 eek I love this habit

I totally know what I want to do

I want to do the 80% full habit

I 'missed' this one the first time around, I was on our cruise to Europe. (while on the cruise I practiced slow eating) so I never really got to put this one into practice, and I am dreadful at this.

I know that this is a great one to practice for the next two weeks

me = excited

 

Resilience

This is a great discussion, thank you for the honesty and creative solutions. I might have to give some of them a try.
(@ Clare, I love Mariane Keys too!)

I had something happen to me about 8 years ago that I needed to 'bounce' back from, I am still working through it but find that I am less and less negatively affected by it.
background: When I returned to work after a long (1 year) maternity leave. In Canada we can take up to 12 months after the birth of a child, and can still expect our job to be waiting... or so I interpreted. Upon my return from Maternity leave, I found that the person I hired to temporarily replace me was now my boss. I was infuriated, I felt betrayed, I felt it was illegal (very grey area), I was so angry.
I spent years seeing a psychiatrist once per week, on a variety of antidepressants (celexa for 5+ years) and went through a variety of 'coaches' in various areas of my life. I seriously thought there was something wrong with me. I was struggling at being a new mom and feeling like a failure at my career.
I remember feeling 'stuck', I was terrified of moving, of change. Part of it was because I felt like a failure (if my company that I had given 12 years too didn't want me or need me, well then who else would), and the other part was I was severely depressed. I kept saying "I can't change or I won't change",  the best thing for me would have been to change jobs to get out of the toxic (for me) situation, but I was completely paralyzed by the idea of it. I don't know how I did it, but I was able to change companies and jobs. And this was the beginning of my resilience training. Action. If you don't like where you are, then move. I have been trying to practice this for the past 8 years, with some success.

Fast forward 8+ years, and thank goodness for time's ability to provide perspective. I can honestly say the anger that I held inside me for the perceived injustice that I felt was perpetrated against me, is *almost* gone. I wasted years of my life feeling like I was betrayed, and now I know that perhaps I was betrayed... but I was betrayed by a company, that was just doing what companies do... make money.
not a person, but a 'thing', a company.
it is hard to be angry at a thing, because in all reality the only person my anger was hurting was myself.
I like to think that my journey over the past 8+ years has not been wasted. I have learned a lot about myself and about how to adapt to change. Embrace it! change will happen even if you don't want it to.
Now I am trying to reverse some of the damage my anger and negative self image inflicted upon me. (weight gain and isolation)
Resilience is hard, but the good news is we get better at it each time we 'fall down', it is just practice.

It is so important that we each find the 'magic' potion that will get us moving again, moving past what ever it is that is bothering us. Unfortunately it is different for everyone, and may be different for you at different times along your journey. But I really think that what we are learning here at PN, by doing all these exercises is a massive database on ME... or as PN likes to call it "the Owners Manual".
I identified my Achilles heel way back on July 22 (day 2 of coaching) and I still struggle to overcome it every single day.
I have made my magic potion, my new 'mantra', my new focus for 2015
it is the word: ACT

short but powerful word

It also happens to be the very first lesson we learned about the power of the 5 minute action. I am building my resiliency and grit by learning to act even when I don't feel like it. To put my work out clothes on and my runners on, even when I don't feel like it. To commit to doing 5 minutes of exercise. To ignore the 'overwhelming' feeling that I have fallen off the wagon, and simply logon to PN coaching and just doing the habit and work out they tell me to do today. To ignore all the other habits and just ACT on the one thing I am supposed to do today. If I have fallen wayyy off course, just to pick one thing and ACT on it, like eat slowly or get out for a walk outside in the fresh air.
I am learning how to ACT, and how the idea of a 5 minute action can be my secret potion, my magnetic north, my recalculation... my resilience puzzle. It might not settle anything in my 'head' (e.g. anger or resentment) but it tends to push out negativity by replacing it with something that I am doing for myself, and by acting I find I can not 'think' too much because I am too busy doing or acting.

Here's to not being in the same place July 21, 2015!!!