Strength & Weakness

I had the opportunity to participate in a seminar on Friday called “Strengths Finder”. It’s a Gallup University Class that tells you to answer a set of questions and it gives you you’re top 5 of 34 strengths. It was not the first time I’ve taken a test like this. I’ve done the color ones and the personality type ones… this was slightly different because it called into play the very logical side of you. How does your brain work? (At least this is what I got out of the class.) All of my strengths were really great and it was interesting to see how my brain worked from this perspective. Overall nothing was super surprising as far as my top five strengths but I had the epiphany while in the class.

One exercise that he had us complete was to list “Something Very Important to You”, “Something at Which You Excel”, “A Challenge”. My lists were as follows:
Importance: Family, Relationship with God, Hard Work or Good Work Ethic, and Achieving my Goals.
What I Excel at: Puzzles/Problem Solving, Numbers/Math, Strength Training, Communication, writing, reading, Crafts and Prophetic Vision.
My Challenges: Losing Weight, Spelling, Patience, Organization, Tardiness, Procrastination, Listening, and Tolerating (my definition of) Stupid People.

So we went over all of our lists and then he did something that caught my attention.

He told us to cross out our Challenge list

AND

highlight our Excel or “strengths” list.

This surprised me the most because I think as a society we always look to our weaknesses and try over and over, often to no avail, to make them better. From the studies conducted with this class and others at the University they have found that if you focus on your strengths your success is exponentially greater than if you focus on your weaknesses. FACINATING!!!
They used the example of children who were learning to read. They took a control group where the average reading level was 90 words per hour and another group that the average level was 350 words per hour. The second group obviously had a built in talent or “strength” for reading the first did not. They then provided educations for increasing reading ability and found that the first group went from 90 words per hour to 300+ (can’t remember the exact number) and the second group went from 350 words per hour to 2900 words per hour!!! The difference was INSANE!!! Then he said, “if you were investing, where would you put your money? Group number one, “building weakness” or group number two, “building strengths”?

DUH!!! Where do you think?

Then he said the thing that struck home:
A focus on fixing weaknesses prevents failure.
A focus on building strengths leads to excellence.

I took the information that I had and applied it to what I’ve been doing with my weight loss. I made a list of my weaknesses; at the top of that list: Food Addiction. Then made a list of my strengths; top of that list: Strength Training. Here’s the thing. I’ve been focusing SOOOOO much on trying to get my food cravings/addictions under control and I haven’t been strength training AT ALL! I’ve been so picky about food and when I mess up I’m frustrated and aggravated because I’m a big loser. (I’m exaggerating a bit I’m not hating myself or anything, I just realized where my focus has been.)

So, I’ll stop rambling now because I’m thinking you all get the point. From here on out I’m focusing on my strengths. I made a list of all the things I’m good at and this is where my goals are going to be focused in April. So far I’ve been working away at this weight by focusing on improving my weakness. Let’s see how things go when I start to improving my STRENGTHS!

Alright, my challenge to you is to answer these questions:
WHAT ARE YOUR WEAKNESSES?
WHAT ARE YOUR STRENGTHS?
WHICH LIST ARE YOU FOCUSING ON?
HOW’S THAT WORKING FOR YOU?


P.S. In reference to my “Balance” entry I LOVE, LOVE, LOVED the idea to make a list each night of the top 6 things I MUST get done the following day. It took me about 5 days to implement the process… had to put making the list on my list! LOL! But now I’m on a roll and feeling MUCH, MUCH, MUCH more relaxed and accomplished. Thanks Jacqui!!!

Balance

This is not really anything new but it’s me just putting stuff down on paper. Sometimes I find that when I talk stuff out (or write it out) it comes together a bit better in my mind. I’m finding in my life that I’m struggling to find a balance and it’s frustrating.

These are all of the things that are important to me: (in alphabetical order)
My: accomplishing my goals, exercise, family, health, improving, Jack(hubby), Jade (daughter), job, learning, losing weight, marriage, ministry, relationship with God, reading, setting goals, spirituality, walking…


That’s not really the longest list in the world but most of it is pretty general and ALL of it is pretty time consuming. Now I’m not kidding myself that I’m the busiest person on the planet or anything and realize that there are far more people out there that have more going on than I. But this is me and what I’m working with and in my life, it’s a lot. I’m really struggling to find a balance.

I feel like when I’m focused on my family and my job my church life suffers. That makes me sad. I feel like when I’m focused on me and my weight loss goals my home life suffers… and so on and so forth. Plug in any combination you want. The point is, I feel like something has to give or nothing gets done.

I know I can’t do EVERYTHING I want/need to but I wish that I could. I have never been very good at time management so I guess that’s something I need to work on. HA HA… just one more thing to add to my list.


I know this is kinda sporadic and rambling. Maybe you all have some suggestions. How do you juggle your lives? How do you prioritize. I guess I could make a list? Maybe I need to be more specific about what’s important and try to plan my days better? Maybe I need to get a day planner? I’ve tried having planners. I found that I just carried them around without ever putting anything in them. Or I’ll spend time putting a bunch of info in there and then never look at it again. HA HA HA, effective huh? I guess I need some balance and I’m open to suggestions.

I think I’ll need to start small.

I’m thinking that this, like my weight loss, is going to have to be something that I implement over time. It’s going to take making a conscious choice, a conscious effort every day to get to the point that I’m making a real difference in my life.

The great thing about me now is that I’m TOTALLY good with that. Even if it takes a year to work out I know now that slow and steady beats the hell out of giving up on myself. I’m taking such big steps to change my life FOREVER that I’m ready to branch out into every aspect.

On a personal note: Today I’m wearing Capri’s that I bought in 2005. The year that my husband and I met. :0) I wore them when we went back east to meet his parents for the first time. It was one of the moments in my life I was the most fit! I’m still about 30 lbs. heavier than then but my body is shaped so differently. I’ve got some muffin top action happening but I’m thrilled as hell to be wearing them! I was talking to jack and I’m so close to the 280’s that I can taste it! I haven’t been in the 280’s for so long I can’t even remember when.

Right now I’m 37 lbs. less than my PRE-PREGNANCY weight! HOW FANTASTIC IS THAT???

Would you give a beer to an alcoholic?

I have had a PERFECT week! A perfect week until yesterday that is. Then yesterday there was ice cream. I had done so well all week that when the opportunity for ice cream came I jumped on it. One dessert a week is reasonable. I’m not “dieting” I’m changing my lifestyle. I’m being “realistic”! Those are the things I’ve been telling myself and for the most part that is true.

I’m so proud of what I’ve accomplished these past months. For the first time in my life I have consistently lost weight for 8 months in a row. I have not gained once! Some months have been great, some not so great… but I have lost every singe one!!! I know some of you are like, “tell us something we don’t already know.” So here you go.

I was eating my ice cream and it was SOOOO good and I was kidding myself that it was worth it. But it wasn’t long after is started eating that the old patterns began to crop up. First I had checked the calories and figured I would have just the ½ cup for the 110 calories. That was a nice treat with a reasonable amount of calories. But after that first ½ cup I told myself, “That was SOOOO good. Just one more ½ cup won’t hurt. That’s still a reasonable amount of calories.” So I ate that full cup. But once that was gone I wasn’t “satisfied”. I kept thinking of all the reasons it would be ok to have more. I thought, “I’ll go for a walk and work it off.” After the walk I felt great… so I ate more ice cream. And the same cycle began again. ALL NIGHT! I would walk then eat, walk then eat. I kept thinking to myself that it was ok, because at least I could just walk it off.

Today however, I’m thinking WHAT THE HELL WAS I DOING??? Seriously!?!?!? I was out of control. So all told I probably ate 2 cups of ice cream and although I walked to “make up for it” here is the problem. Once I started I couldn’t stop. I had a perfect week and it was shattered with just one bite of ice cream. Allowing myself to give in just a little I ended up losing control. In reflection I keep going back to a conversation Karilynn and I had the other day.

She had talked about many of us allowing ourselves a treat hear and there because we were doing so well. We talked about rationalizing eating crap because we were going to exercise to make up for it. We had, had that discussion and here I was living it! That’s exactly what’d I’d been doing. I’ve been giving myself breaks, allowing little treats here and there under the pretense of being realistic. But here is what Karilynn said that really stuck with me, “Would you give a beer to an alcoholic? Would you tell them, ‘come on… you have to give yourself a break every once in a while. You have to be realistic!”

DUH! Hell no! I’d never give a beer to an alcoholic and I’d never rationalize that for them. So why do I rationalize it for me? I’m under no delusion that I will spend the rest of my life NEVER eating anything sweet or tasty. I’m not going to cut out cake and cookies etc forever. But, right now… in this moment my goal is to undo what I’ve done over the last _ amount of years. I will lose this weight and I will reach my 100 lb. goal by September! I WILL! To do that I have to be honest and realize that if I’m eating crap and then exercising to make up for it I’m just breaking even!

If I want to lose then I have to exercise and NOT eat the crap. I’ve got to be on menu and exercising without the pretense of “reality”. The reality is: I am an addict. I didn’t get here on accident. I got here by making a bunch of poor choices and the only way I’m going to get out of here is to make GREAT choices. I can’t cut myself slack or tell myself I deserve it. I don’t deserve to be where I am! I deserver far, far, far better than that and damn it, I’m going to give myself what I really deserve. So, Here is to another perfect week! This time for real!

Hope you’re all doing great! This month is going to be fantastic!!! It is already!

You Bet Your Sweet Skinny Ass I’m In!!!

For those of you that haven’t seen Karilynn’s blog you may be wondering what the heck I’m talking about. Well Karilynn called me out on her blog for a side competition this month and I’m TOTALLY IN!!! I have to admit that there has been this nagging desire to kick Karilynn’s sweet bottom at a competition. I didn’t really think there would ever be a chance since she’s come so far already. I knew, or at least thought I knew, she was at the end of the road when it came to competing. Today when we were talking she said those last few lbs were bugging her and she was thinking about starting up a side competition… I told her I’d kick her butt. I didn’t’ really think she’d call me out on it. But alas, a few minutes ago I read her blog and what do you know… she did! So, as they say in the movies, “It’s on! Like Donkey Kong!!! (At least I think I heard that in a movie LOL)

For those of you that are watching any encouragement would be much appreciated. And… if you could all add in some prayer with that, I’m sure it can only help.

For those of you that will be joining the side competition. GOOD LUCK! Let’s kick some “skinny b” butt!!!

no excuses

1.6 Lb loss… not great but a loss none the less. I’m not going to make excuses about why it’s not better than that. I exercised more and was conscious about food but looking over my food journal I could have done better. So this month I will!!! I did however lose approximately 3% body fat which is almost 9 lbs. of fat but I seemed to have put on 7 lbs. of muscle. I couldn’t figure out why because I was running and not doing much in the way of “weight training”… Karilynn helped me realize that pushing a stroller while running is resistance training. LOL… didn’t really think about that.

Mentally I want to beat myself up… my years of bad habits is telling me to go over what I did with a fine tooth comb and pick it apart. But the new me, the me that is not dieting or binge exercising, is screaming TO HELL WITH THAT! I did review my food journal and my exercise journal and I found a few things I can improve upon. I highlighted those things and I made a list of clear goals for this month and I’m going to do even better.

So, here’s sunshine and springtime. Here’s to a new month! HELLO MARCH! So glad you’re here! I hope March treats you all well and that you’ll throw all those lousy excuses out the window!

So this picture is not pretty but I feel compelled to share it with you. This is my original picture from this competition and this month’s. I didn’t do a great job picking my outfit because it is so hard to see because of the colors… but if you look closely you will see that these pants are buttoned!!! (I decided to go into Photo shop and lighten them up... i think you can tell a big difference by doing that.) It of course made my “muffin top” look somewhat like a “mushroom top” but they’re buttoned so I almost wet my pants when that happened. LOL… in fact Jen and I laughed so hard I really almost wet my pants. It was fun. I can’t wait for next months pictures. They are going to be EVEN better!!!

Feb sucks!!!

I'm busting my ass but getting crap for results. UGH!!!!
I'm frustrated... SO GLAD MARCH IS HERE!!!!!