297.4

Motivation is so much more than ‘I want to.’ Motivation is doing, it is taking the action, it is moving forward. Motivation is a habit. To always act with motivation makes you a force, it makes you powerful. One interpretation of Newton’s first law is that once moving it takes more energy to stop than it does to keep going.

I  f I allow myself to think about something too long I will end up not doing it. This has been proven by me over and over. I truly believe that no one can change another persons thoughts and actions but by small, subtle pushes in the right direction, I can change the way I think about and do things. Sometimes I have to trick myself.

One morning I woke up and was going to go for a run and was sitting on the end of the bed and caught myself thinking about running. I realized that the more I sat there the less likely it was that I would ever get out there and run. instead of sitting still I began to get ready, putting on socks and shorts, finding a t-shirt, putting my shoes on, grabbing my stop watch. Now, even though i was still thinking instead of running, my little ruse had allowed me to be in a position to simply walk outside and start running. It worked. Many times since then, when I don’t really feel like working out, I will get dressed to work out and more often than not, I go on out there and get my sweat on.

Motivation is where you find it. More often than not, it is right there inside you.

So what are all of the extra numbers about in the food lists? The protein, fat and carbohydrate numbers or PFC’s are what are referred to as macronutrients. When you zoom out on what you are eating, say in an entire week instead of just one meal, you can get a good idea of where your calories are coming from. Once you know that it can be easier to make small changes that will add up down the road. For instance, I notice that I use a lot of oil when I make eggs. I use the oil to keep the eggs from sticking, to a teflon pan! I eat eggs about 5 times a week, using no oil saves me 200 calories and 23.5 grams of fat a week. That doesn’t seem like a lot, but if that becomes a habit, I consume over 10,000 calories less a year, that’s 3 pounds or 12 chocolate milkshakes.

Small changes over time make a big difference as you can see. Changing the way that we look at what we eat and making little tweaks here and there will bring us closer to the goals we seek. Does the notebook begin to make more sense now?

I am going to start making up recipe cards for some of my favorite meals. That way I can concentrate more of the calorie and macro information in one spot and spend less time writing everything down and figuring it out over and over. But until then:

Breakfast
4 eggs(320 cal.)P28F21.2C0
14g. coconut oil(40 cal.)P0F4.7C0
1 Can tomatoes and chilies(50 cal.)P2.5F0C10
Total=410 cal. macros P30.5 F 24.9 C 10

Lunch salad
9 oz. imitation crab(330 cal.)P18F4.5C54
4 oz. spinach(28 cal.)P3.2F0C4
green apple vinaigrette dressing(399 cal.)P.3F35.5C4.9
total=757 cal. macros P 21.5 F 35.5 C 62.9

chicken and rice
7 oz. chicken thigh meat(413 cal.)P52.7F21.7C0
1 1/2 cup rice, boiled(90 cal.)P6F0C72
sweet chili sauce (300 cal.)P0F0C75
total=803 cal. macros P 58.7 F 21.7 C 147

My Workout

Jump rope 100 singles
Push mowing 2 hrs.

Your workout
If you want to get to wearing out that new jump rope, walk a mile to warm up and try doing 25 single jumps today. Jumping rope is a very complex movement that happens so quickly that to do it well you have to use muscle memory, that is the body needs to be able to do it without thinking. This takes practice. It feels like it will take forever to learn, it will not, trust me.

If you have questions you would like to ask or a blog topic you would like me to take a stab at, feel free to message me.

P.S. The CrossFit Games are now streaming live on YouTube, check these people out, they leave it ALL on the field.