Magic makers, we are going to get a little woo woo today. I am working on a new certification, and I absolutely love it! So much so that I felt compelled to jump on here and talk to you about this!
This certification is about what it takes to keep the weight off. IT IS NOT a superfood! It is NOT a magic diet formula or workout formula! It actually consists of ALLLL the stuff that happens inside your brain! And it is called Existential Health!
Existential Health it’s about your search for meaning. What am I meant to do in this life? Of course, it can be these huge things, but at the end of the day, all of us are searching for a meaning or purpose in our lives. Some people think the meaning and purpose are the size of our body, how we look, and our scale weight. In our search for meaning, we want our story to have a clear plot, especially when it comes to weight loss. But weight loss isn’t linear, and because we want meaning, we don’t understand why things don’t always work! And as humans, we are driven to solve puzzles, aka our search to find meaning. Many of you listening here are trying to figure out this whole thing called weight loss and for many, it seems like a never-ending freaking puzzle!!
So, let’s stop and ask ourselves. What is YOUR big life question?? Some of these need to be answered so we stop spinning our wheels.
● What am I meant to be in this world?
● Who am I?
● What am I doing with my life?
● What SHOULD I be doing with my life?
● What is the point of life in a positive way?
● How are things going?
I preach journaling all the time. If you said to me 6 years ago, would you journal? I would have laughed in your face! Now journaling is how I work through things. Instead of it staying in my head… I like to get it out on paper! And 99% of the time I don’t read back through what I wrote, but every month, I reflect back a little on what I wrote. What did I accomplish? What did I set out to do? What is left for me? It gives me that reset and what I am actually working towards.
And this all comes back down to what am I trying to accomplish? What is my meaning? When you ask yourselves these big questions of your why? It becomes part of my 5 C’s. Get Clear, what is it I am trying to achieve? And then, how do I connect to it? People will call this your why. That WHY is your meaning. Your why is your motivation. This helps you to make a decision from a place of power vs a place of weakness!! And this right here is a huge existential mindset shift. What does connection mean to you? Do you ask yourself these big questions or just blow through life? If I want something new in life, I have to ask myself better questions. – Tony Robbins You have to narrow down what is realistic in your life and what can you be excited about?
If you are new here, then you are going to be new to my concept of our non-negotiables. I have all of my clients come up with non-negotiables. For me, a non-negotiable that I refuse to give up is my coffee with cream and sugar every day! That is something I need to have. These can also be healthy things that you currently aren’t doing or aren’t doing consistently that you want to make sure you are doing daily. Some days you may nail it, other days may be a C+ but always see how you can improve your actions. Don’t be negative about it. This is about self-coaching and giving yourself grace.
So, come up with 1-3 non negotiables. Look at the time you are at in your life. What kind of season are you in? Look at where you are at in that time of the year. This will help you to better decide on what you can actually do day in and day out! Here is an example of a non-negotiable.
1. Eat a big ass salad every single day. This gives me 400-800g of vegetables every day!
2. Move my body at least 30 minutes a day 5 days a week. This gives me the flexibility to sometimes have an actual workout and sometimes it’s a walk. At least 3 of those days make it a strength training workout.
3. 7 hours of sleep every night!
I picked those because I know no matter where I am on the planet, I can hit those 3 items every day! ( Tip… If it is something you are already doing, it’s not non-negotiable. This needs to be something new that will get you closer to your weight loss goals.)
Alright, so figure out your why then pick those 1-3 things! These 3 things have to also be daily tasks that I am excited about doing. If you are excited about it, then it becomes a habit, it gets into my routine and that will give me the results I am looking for. That will give me consistency.
I am working on a new program right now, called Metabolic Recharge and we are going to cycle through different nutrition protocols to help boost your metabolism. I asked the girls what the 1-3 things are they won’t give up. For me it is coffee like I said before. I am not going to not have cream and sugar in my coffee for my first 2 cups. This daily act brings me joy, it makes me freaking happy! What are the things you like to have regularly that we can say, how do we make it work? Negotiation. Give and take!
When you start to feel yourself start to feel “Ugh this is hard, I am just going to give up.” Go back to your why! This is why I am doing it! And your why DOESN’T have to be world peace! It can be I just want to button my pants without the button digging into me! The ultimate reason I tried to lose all the weight was because I didn’t like how I looked in the mirror! That was my why.
Once you have your why, find someone you admire! What are they consistently doing? Do they embody what you want to do? And I don’t mean they get to where they are by taking freaking fat burners! What are they honestly doing and is it something you can do! But keep in mind, pleaseeee!! Not everything on the socials is accurate either!!!
Then… Be flexible with your approach! Many of my clients say they want to go back to what they were doing things before and I ask.. Well why did you stop doing it?
● Because it got hard
● Because it was no longer sustainable
● Because it didn’t work with your life
● Because your REPS were not in alignment.
This has to be realistic; you have to be excited; you have to be able to make a plan in your life and it has to be sustainable for MORE THAN 30 days! If we are flexible, when we see things start to not work, what are the dials I need to tweak in this? Hunger, energy or cravings? How are they. If they are off, something is amiss!
(I talked so much about this in a previous podcast called Stop Trying To Be 30 )
Lastly… Journaling! You don’t have to journal every week. No.. But if something is not working, for the love of God yes! You have to have a food log, that is one type of journaling!! Your food will always tell you what is going on. Journaling is both food, weights and mindset!! Log your workouts. And journal for your mindset! It is what is going on in your noggin too! Here are some prompts to help you with the noggin work if you struggle with getting started with this.
1. I consider myself a FILL IN THE BLANK kind of person.
2. I am a FILL IN THE BLANK .
3. People who know me well would describe me as a FILL IN THE BLANK.
You can’t get this wrong… you are describing yourself and how you identify. How you identify is a huge piece of the weight loss! We journal because it helps us redefine our stories! It helps us to understand a point in time and why it’s happening. And it helps us to make better future decisions!
I want to leave you with this concept. As I started the show off, I am working through this new certification. And it is all about restoration and recovery and I cannot wait to share more as we finish it. But that concept is called IKIGAI – Japanese for your reason for being. It is all about WHAT brings your joy!
So MAGIC MAKERS! I challenge you, ask yourself that question. What brings you JOY? There are more things in our lives than the gym! Think about that! On the other side of this. You can ALSO find the joy in the SUCK! In the suck, it is a lesson. Asking you to lean on your fear. I want you to think about why you have been failing. When things get hard you throw it by the wayside? Why are you doing this? Are you setting your non-negotiables too high? This concept is from Japan, and they are CRUSHING the aging process. And none of it is about eating some super foods! They have the highest rate of longevity and that is what we are all chasing.
If you notice in Japanese culture, it is WHAT BRINGS ME JOY? What brings me meaning and purpose? They’re not like, “Did I go to whole foods and buy the most organic super food I can. Or how many hours of working out can I get done?” Instead, it was ALL about joy. So, I want to ask. Do I have joy in my life? Am I doing things that bring me joy? Because if I feel more joyful, I might feel more adventurous when it comes to changing my thoughts about what brings me health and fitness!
Health is an inside job as much as it is an outside job. Fitness is an inside job, let’s start to break up with organic this and that and take a big nosedive into AM I HAPPY? Is what I am doing in my life bringing me joy? Rona times, the big resignation. My job doesn’t bring me joy. And here we are like YES, we are finally looking for that joy in our lives. And it could be joy for your job, but I’m hoping that it’s joy for your health. What makes me not only mentally healthy but physically healthy as well as nutritionally healthy!
Let me know how this is landing with you! Does this open any mind doors for you? Because it sure as hell did for me ladies!
LINKS
Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/kimbarnesjeffersoncoach
Facebook Group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/fitgirlmagic/
Website:
https://www.kimbarnesjefferson.com/
Podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fit-girl-magic-healthy-living-for-women-over-40/id1476883661
5 Summer Fitness Mistakes https://kimbarnesjefferson.lpages.co/5-summer-body-tips
Stop Trying To Be 30 Podcast:
https://www.kimbarnesjefferson.com/ladies-stop-trying-or-be-30/