Last week I took Eoin to the dentist to get sealants on his teeth, and besides him throwing up on the dental assistant the only other eventful thing that happened was that I read an article in the waiting room that has given me a little more guidance and inspiration in the midst of my winter doldrums.  Jillian Michaels, one of my personal fitness heroes, is on the cover of Good Housekeeping this week--I know, a bit strange.  It is funny how you come across the right resource just when you need it most. 

In the article As Not Seen on TV:The Softer Side of Jillian Michaels, Jillian shares her 7 Steps to success.  She starts by sharing that "People think 'maximize your life' means 'get your sh*t together.' But it means appreciating that you are worthy and capable of having more." This was important for me to hear this week...I am capable of more.  I will share more about my personal new challenge at the end of this blog, but I want to briefly outline her seven steps first (I switched the order around a little):

1. Specifically define and detail your goals: don't be wishy-washy or vague.  What is it that you want? In one of Jillian's podcasts she had a woman that was changing careers and all she could share was that her goal was to love her work.  Jillian helped her to see that the reason many people don't meet their goals is that, "...most people don't stop to think in detail about why they pursue a goal, or what achieving it might look like in their life, or how it makes them feel." Decide what your specific goal is, how you are going to measure that success, and then make tiny goals along the way to keep you motivated.
2. Develop small goals that lead to your long term goal: Jillian suggests a goal pyramid with your long term goal at the top.  All the layers (steps) below would allow you to move slowly and methodically toward the big end goal. For me the completion of a sprint triathlon, an olympic length one, and then a half-Ironman all gave me the confidence and training I needed for successful completion of my full Ironman.
3. Do your research before jumping in: whatever it is that you want for your life, research methods for achieving that goal, people who have been successful, and then use the specific methods they suggest and adjust them to your lifestyle and needs.  When I wanted to do an Ironman, I read every book I could find on the subject and then developed a training plan that I felt would help me be successful.  I honestly think that was the key to my successful completion of the Vineman triathlon.
4. Take responsibility--you are the one that controls your destiny: Bad stuff occurs, set-backs are inevitable, but don't let those keep you from moving forward.  Jillian states it best, "Accept that yes, bad stuff happens and there are times when we are victims--it's how you respond and move forward that matters." I admit that I am struggling right now and not making the healthy choices I should be, But I accept that I can have control and I am putting my steps into place to get back on the road to flabulous.
5. Address your fears right from the start: She suggests that you formally tackle these three questions-1) What if I make a change and I succeed?  2) What if I make a change and I fail?  3) What if I don't change anything?  Face your fears head-on because, as Michaels shares, " Ninety-nine percent of what happens other than death is recoverable."  Don't let fear of failure, or success, keep you from taking risks. 
6. Use your mistakes as learning experiences:  The only way to grow is to change and refine your practices, and remember that we often learn more from our mistakes than we do from our successes. The important thing is to identify what needs to be changed and what changes need to be made to be successful.  I had one triathlon, my first one at Oceanside, where I had not trained enough and I came close to not finishing the swim portion because I was not a strong enough swimmer.  I learned from that and I continued to add more swimming sessions so I could gain the strength needed to finish my 2.4 mile swim for Vineman.
7. Look for patterns in the choices you are making: It is important that we look at our bad decisions and see that there are often patterns in the choices we make.  My pattern is that I tend to try to solve my problems through food.  I love that new Weight Watchers commercial where they show that no matter what emotions we are feeling, in our society we tend to respond by eating.  When I am happy, I snack. When I am sad, I snack.  No matter what emotion I am feeling I snack, and I really need to put this pattern at the front of my mind and remind myself that food is not the answer.

I am hoping that you can take whatever you are struggling with right now and use these steps to start making some healthy choices in your life.  I am continuing to try to get my eating under control, and I am setting a new goal in hopes that this will keep me motivated.  I know that when I have something challenging on my race calendar, I tend to have an easier time making healthy choices. 

So today I signed up for the Nanny Goat Ultra marathon. Over the next five months I will be training to complete a 100-miler.  I know this sounds crazy, but I am going to need support and encouragement over the next few months.  When you see me, congratulate me, volunteer to train with me, remind me to never give up, because I am going to need all the positive support I can get!  Game on!

At this time of year, I was reminded that that there are many kinds of peer pressure that we encounter...especially during the holidays.  I had the great pleasure of being in our school office when the kindergarten students came in to spread their Christmas joy by sharing all the Christmas carols they had learned over the last month.  One song in particular struck me as full of subtle pressure on these poor little babies. When you just glance at the title of this one song, it seems innocent at first, after all, who wouldn't be full of excitement knowing that Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, right? But as the children got into the song I remembered all the peer pressure on these poor little guys to tow the line and behave or come Christmas day they would have no presents under the tree and a stocking full of coal to remind them of all the times they accidentally lost control.  And don't even get me started on the whole watching you when you are sleeping line. Aren't there laws in our society to prevent strange adult males from creeping into our bedrooms and watching us as we slumber?  But I digress...

He's making a list, 
He's checking it twice; 
Gonna find out who's naughty or nice. 
Santa Claus is coming to town

He sees you when you're sleeping 
He knows when you're awake 
He knows if you've been bad or good 
So be good for goodness sake 

What really got me annoyed this week was the whole peer pressure behind that stupid Elf on the Shelf phenomenon.  To this point in time, I had managed to completely avoid this "family tradition," and I was hoping to do so until my sweet little Eoin was too old to believe in it anyway.  But last week we innocently visited a family that unfortunately has one of those elves creeping around their house all season long.  And these poor little gullible girls believe so strongly in the power of their elf that they accidentally convinced Eoin that there must be something wrong with him that he didn't have his own elf.  

Now I don't give my child everything he wants just because he thinks he should have it, and I was willing to weather the storm of a house without an elf, but then Eoin shared with me that the girls had suggested that maybe he should pray really hard for one and that this act might do the trick. He began to question why even the almighty had conspired against him when he had prayed with all his heart, and that is when I caved.  I am sorry to say that we now have an elf named Spencer living in our house that we have to remember to move every night, or we will crush Eoin's belief in holiday magic. And to me, that is not the worst of it.  I question why a child would want this elf in their house at all.  Spencer must have to come alive at night to move from one place to another, and shouldn't this creep kids out a bit.  Doesn't this whole premise of a doll coming alive sound a bit like those Chucky horror movies? And I thought kids hated tattlers, right?  This elf also scoots off to the the North Pole at night and reports back to Santa about all the bad things the kids did all day--sounds like tattling to the extreme to me.

Thankfully, while we have this kind of peer pressure to conform and admittedly some added pressure to eat all the delicious hand-made treats prepared for us during the holidays, there can also be some positive peer pressure to conform.  First, one pressure comes in the form of friends and family that love you and motivate you to get out there and move your body and make better choices overall.  This is honestly one of the secrets to my continued success.  I have a group of friends and an amazing husband that encourage me to consistently push myself to new fitness levels and to get out on a consistent basis.  

I also put some positive peer pressure on myself by not only signing up for different kinds of races throughout the year, but I encourage my friends and family to join me so I can't back out even if I wanted to.  Having races on my calendar also encourages me to train consistently, because I am too anal to do a race that I have not trained for. Those closet to me would say that shows my competitiveness..I say that it shows I want to avoid injury and prevent killing myself in the process.

However, this blog might be my biggest form of peer pressure of all.  Some of my friends wonder how I find time to write my blog every week, but I find that this public purging of my soul is another secret to my continued progress.  I don't know exactly who reads my blogs, but I will often run in to people who share that something I wrote motivated them or that they could relate to something I shared in my blog.  A few weeks ago I ran into a colleague that I didn't even know was reading my blog on a weekly basis.  She shared that she had been reading my blogs to find her own motivation at a time when she felt she had lost some control over her health. Knowing this about my readers helps me keep my "wandering" under some sense of control so I can continue to motivate others.  So you all motivate me because I want to continue to motivate you as well.  Peer pressure can be bad sometimes, but there are times when this pressure gives us the kick we need to get our lives back under control.

This week I would like to share that fact that I really love to cook, and except for the whole cleaning up part, I love all facets of cooking.  I love the planning and research part where I try to find the perfect recipe, I love the peace of shopping for the ingredients, but only if the kids are at home while I shop solo, and I even love the preparation of all the ingredients even though that can be very time consuming.

I suppose this might not surprise any of you at all since I love food so much, but I have this secret fantasy of one day becoming an Iron Chef (close enough to Ironman, right?) or a Food Network Star like Guy Fieri. I like to use recipes, but what I find more challenging is to look through my pantry and refrigerator and find the perfect ingredients to create my own meals.  This is why I said yes to "the box."

The story behind "the box" started with the ringing of our completely obnoxious doorbell.  I have a sign asking people not to push it, so when people choose to do so, I tend to not be very open to what the people on the other side of the door have to sell or share with me.  I have grown adept at deflecting the ones that want me to attend their churches (Sorry, I am Catholic and it would break my family's heart if we converted; my grandma is a Jehovah's Witness and she already sent me the latest Watch Tower; etc,) If they want to sell me a carpet product I inform them that we have tile and stained concrete throughout the house.  Candy pushers get, "Sorry, but I am watching what I eat and it would be too tempting for me to have that in my house." But this man was speaking about somewhat-healthy food, so I chose to ignore the fact that he couldn't read signs.

Sean and I love to buy fresh vegetables from the local farmer's markets, but honestly, lately we haven's even had time to do this weekly shopping that we love so much.  This non-sign reading, doorbell ringing man had arrived at our door to tell us about a service called Farm Fresh to You that will deliver a box of fresh, organic fruits and/or vegetables to your door on a regular basis.  I still plan to visit the farmer's markets when things calm down around here, but for now I am very thankful that every other week I open my front door first thing in the morning and there sits a box of produce.

This week "the box" contained kale, carrots including the tops, purple potatoes, apples, grapefruits, oranges, leeks, and pears.  The apples and pears I stewed into my morning steel-cut oats--totally yummy by the way. But as I looked at other ingredients, I decided that maybe I might be able to make a delicious potato leek soup, perfect for the colder rainy days we have been experiencing.  My problem is that I am really trying to make better food choices so a cream-based soup was probably not the best choice.  Google is my friend--no honestly! I can find almost anything I want to learn or discover with a quick Google search.  Most of the first few suggestions were healthier, but still not as light as I was looking for, until I found a Jamie Oliver Potato-Leek recipe with a chicken broth base to guide me. I had many of the necessary ingredients, and I was able to use the carrots, the leeks, and the potatoes from "the box" to create a delicious soup.  I tweaked the recipe just enough to feel like my future Iron Chef self, and I can't wait until the next box arrives to see what exciting meal might be hiding inside waiting for me to create my next culinary masterpiece.

This week I began reflecting on how many things I need to take into consideration when taking care of my body and my health...there are a ton of moving parts.  First, there are the basics of eating healthy and making sure to get my body moving, but as I began to think about it, I am amazed at the number of aspects of my health there are to consider.  I likened it to a juggler trying to keep a large number of balls up in the air. 

Am I drinking enough water so that I can keep my body hydrated?  Well, I can answer this one with a resounding NO right now.  I ran a spontaneous 10K this morning and not only did I not hydrate at all yesterday, but I also failed to even bring a fuel belt.  That added to the fact that they did not have enough water stops meant that I had one of my most difficult runs in a while on a fairly flat course.

How about sleep--am I getting the 7 hours minimum a body needs to rest and heal?  Not doing that one either right now.  I am staying up late working and then getting up early to get out and play before I head off for another day of work--I am lucky if I get 5 hours each night.  I refuse to skip my workouts because then I don't have the energy anyway to make it through the day.

Regarding taking my supplements, I am doing so about half the time now, which is better than the entire month I skipped them.  Minimizing stress, focusing on the positives, having a goal that I am working toward to keep me accountable, tracking the food I put in my mouth...do you see what I mean about all the moving parts that work together to make a healthier me?

Now here's where I need to pop in and clear something up.  I am actually in a really good place right now.  I know some of my friends and readers have been concerned about me being too harsh on myself.  I may come across in my blogs as if I am beating myself up and minimizing the huge progress I have made over the years.  I am an Ironwoman after all, and that was a huge accomplishment!

What I would like everyone to understand is that I share the good, the bad, and the ugly because I want you all to understand that you are not alone.  We all feel inadequate at times.  Very few of us have the time needed to keep all the moving parts or maintain all the balls in the air, and that's okay.  Being perfect is not possible, and all we need to do is do our very best to stay healthy.

I was listening to one of Jillian Michael's blogs last week entitled Setbacks and she was sharing something to the effect of people being doomed to repeat the same mistakes if they don't figure out why they make those mistakes in the first place.  I am starting to think that I may be sliding backwards a bit because I have still not fully learned that I need to love myself no matter what the outside of my body looks like.  I  need to love the strong legs and arms and all the fluffy, rolly parts in between. She also shared that we should focus on the progress and not on perfect.  She pointed out that no matter how far you get, there will always be setbacks that will pop up in your life.  If you beat yourself up because of these setbacks, you are minimizing all the incredible changes and progress that you have made.

I want you all to understand that I know that I am amazing--and I don't mean that in the conceited, self-centered way. What I mean by amazing is that I am a kind and giving person, I am a the best mom and wife I can be, I inspire others to make changes in their lives because of the changes I have made, and I am an Ironwoman, damn it!

I am amazing, but I am not perfect. And this is why in some of my blogs I share the times I get down on myself. I don't want anyone to think that once you reach one of your major goals that there will not be setbacks along the way. There will be roadblocks, but don't let them derail everything you have worked so hard to achieve. Going back to the juggling analogy, it would be like dropping one ball and then dropping all the others because you now don't have the perfect juggling performance. Keep juggling and realize how amazing it is that you can juggle in the first place.