S.M.A.R.T.

This week, I have done well once again. Wade and I drove to see Ben at Hastings along with his mail-in ballot so he could vote. He was supposed to have come home last weekend but plans changed when he was scheduled to work at the YMCA on Sunday. That changed when Nebraska was hit with the same storm that blew through Colorado and they canceled the games he was going to referee. Alas, we had not sent the ballot so we drove it to him. An excuse to see him? Maybe. A hand delivery to help him be a responsible citizen and contributor to our country in whatever way he chose to fill out his personal ballot? Absolutely. Even out of town, my food choices were not terrible. Overall, I lost weight and that’s all that matters to me right now. 

On Tuesday afternoon, I drove to Berthoud with another mom (one of my best friends in the world), Tammy, in my passenger seat to watch our children play football. It was cold and colder. Then, the sun slipped behind the mountain peaks and it got REALLY cold. Since losing weight, I don’t tolerate the cold as well as I used to and it is a little irritating to me. I used to judge the cold weather in three stages: Lacy is WEARING a coat (below zero); Lacy BROUGHT a coat (near freezing); or Lacy THOUGHT about bringing a coat (chilly). Anymore, if it’s below 60 and there is wind and I am in the shade, I am bundled up and swaddled like a newborn. No joke. I don’t know that I ever really couldn’t tolerate the heat or if I was just a fat girl. But, I am looking forward to the summer a little more than I ever have before. That’s actually something I want to write about sometime so I’ll put a pin in it for now. Anyway, back to the story. I was driving back with Tammy and we gained another passenger, Kelly, who decided to ride back with us so she didn’t have to wait in the cold for her son, one of our coaches, to finish packing up team gear before she could get warm. We were having a good time chatting and laughing and catching up with each other and then I started telling a story. I must have been very involved in the telling of that story because I missed my exit off I-25 to come back to Brush through Greeley. My bad, but not the end of the world. I went to the next exit, we all got a good laugh, and we ended up where we would have been but about 10 minutes later by then. As the week finished out I hadn’t really thought about it much, but last night before I drifted off to sleep, I thought about something I may have learned this week that could be characterized by driving right by that exit. It has to do with ambition, momentum, focus, plans and goals.

I am a fairly ambitious person. I have a lot of things I want to accomplish in my life both in my business and in my personal life. I am motivated to make a difference in my life and the lives of those around me. But right now, for the intent I am writing this, I am going to focus on my weight loss in general. That is what this blog is about anyway. But honestly, this will apply in EVERY area of our lives, if we will just use it. I have had a lot of momentum behind the ambitions I have had about getting my weight down to a healthy “for me” level. I was on a roll in the weight loss category. I lost 50 pounds my first 3 months of eating differently and exercising. Then it slowed a little bit. Now while that is normal, it made me realize that momentum without focus is useless. What I mean is that just like my car was traveling along the interstate at a good clip, when I passed the exit I should have taken, we had to plan accordingly and take another exit a couple miles down the road and double back to where we should have been. Now, normally, for me, it would have fed into the “winding dirt roads” category I wrote about a couple weeks ago. But when you just want to get to where you’re going, it’s a little inconvenient and even irritating to have a detour of that nature. The momentum I had built up the first 6-12 months of my weight loss journey was slowed down because life happened. Things beyond my control had taken my focus off of where it should have been and onto other things. I have had to really try hard to get my focus back because I feel the ambition I have turning into momentum once again. And if I don’t focus, I will end up going in circles. Literally.

The focus I have, however, is also useless if there is not a plan attached to it. I am focused once again on healthier eating and other habits. What I have not been doing is planning out my activity in this regard like I should. Those who know me know that I am HIGHLY organized and I have a planner and everything goes in that planner. I am a list maker. I live by my stupid lists. I formulate my lists every morning that contain the activity I have to do for my business from my planner and then add anything else I know needs done personally and otherwise. And if I happen to do something that is NOT originally on the list, I will write it down on the list just so I can check that activity off. There’s nothing in the world more satisfying to me than making my lists and systematically checking things off. Bible study/prayer time, then my coaching call with the Dockery’s and then exercise, right? Well, not necessarily. As the weather has gotten colder and the mornings are darker longer, I have not been walking as I should, for a couple reasons. For one, my trigeminal neuralgia is triggered by the cold and wind. I don’t want that headache. And two, did you read the blog where I confessed my fear of the dark? I do yoga (not well, but I do it) and I ride my stationary bike when I don’t walk, but if I’m honest, THOSE things haven’t been happening like they should either. I know I need to move if I am going to keep momentum going in the battle of my bulge. So I am planning. I got a fob from the school district here that will allow me access to the indoor walking track in our main gymnasium. Tomorrow at 6 am, I am going to start walking indoors. I have it written down in my planner; it’s as good as done. I will start with 30 minutes and see where I can go from there. My goal is 2 miles as I had been doing, but I don’t know that I’ll reach that. I’ll report back to you next week so long as the shin splints I KNOW will happen (from lack of walking) haven’t killed me by then. Yes, prayers are welcomed. 

Lastly, however, I don’t think this plan I have come up with to help anchor my focus will ever get me anywhere if there are no goals attached to it. Ambition attached to momentum attached to focus attached to a plan attached to goals. I have redone all my goals for my weight loss. I won’t share them right now, as I just don’t want to bore you with all that. However, I know there are some “end” goals I have written down that I am not sure I will ever even achieve. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that because between those “end” goals and where I am standing are other goals that I CAN achieve. In fact, I know I can crush some of those short term and midterm goals and I am looking forward to that. The point of goals is to keep ourselves on a path and in a plan that would have us succeeding even if we don’t reach the ultimate goal we set for ourselves, isn’t it? We’ve all heard that we should aim for the moon and if we don’t make it we’ll land among the stars, right? Yeah, that. I am human and I will fail. But I will NOT fail in my pursuit to reach the most attainable of these goals. They are SMART goals. I am sure most of us have heard that acronym. S.M.A.R.T goals = Specific, Measurable, Attainable (or assignable), Relevant (or realistic), and Time-based (by when) goals. If a goal doesn’t meet all these acronyms, I don’t keep it. I will share one with you. It’s truly one of the “end” goals. I want to be able to run a full 5k. I can walk one, but I would like to be able to run the entire 3.1 miles. I don’t know that it will happen for me, but that’s more about my arthritis and physical condition than it is about my athletic ability and stamina that will come with practice. I have never run that far in my life. But it would be nice to be in the best shape of my life in my forties. And I will be. That’s another goal.

More important to me than anything is to get myself into a position where I can be of use to those around me for a very long time. I want to be able to follow the activities of my children wherever that may take us. Baseball in college for Ben. Maybe football in college for Franklin. It’s totally up to him and if it happens, I want to watch him wherever he finds a home. And I know how much better I feel when I do the RIGHT things for my body. I want to be proud of myself and KNOW without a doubt that I am doing good and doing the best I can. When I am focused, with a plan, and goals, I am unstoppable. Well, unless there’s donuts or something else to eat. But if that’s the case, I can just walk a little farther than normal. 

#loveyourjourney #youreworthit #bettermewithNewYouCBD #Endo30 #itsuptoyou