Thank you all SO much for the support and comments on going after my dreams of personal training certification! Knowing that I have fabulous friends like yourselves behind me will make the process of learning new things and believing I can do this much easier. I’m glad I decided to finally bite the bullet and go for it!

Speaking of biting the bullet, I bit the bullet one more way recently. Last night I took a few hours (good gracious it took longer than expected) to set up a FFF T-Shirt Shop for my lovely friends!

I almost didn’t make the shop because I didn’t want it to come across as some marketing ploy to make money off of you. I’m not into that. Good thing I would be lucky to make enough money off of this to buy Makenzie a new puzzle…so it works with my values. Honoring your requests also works with my values, so here we are.

When I made shirts for myself about a month ago, many of you showed interest and asked how to get some for yourselves. I kept getting requests, so I finally obliged. I created this shop solely in case you wanted to rock a shirt sporting your love of green smoothies, fitness, and a positive body attitude. I added the designs I originally purchased and a few new fun ones, that I’m kind of jealous of and wish I could have for my own. So, check out the Faith Fitness Fun Shop!

Moving on. I was in an incredibly good mood today. I simply woke up on the right side of the bed ready to tackle the day.  And ready to tackle another challenging workout. I would apologize for the plethora of workouts I’ve been sharing this week, but I won’t. They all work so well that it would be selfish of me to keep them to myself.

I headed to the gym this morning for another short, easy two miler. I simply pop in my headphones (tangle free), hop on the treadmill, push the 6mph button, and go for 20 minutes. I like not having to think about it and just go. Anything more than 20 minutes and I would have to mess around with the treadmill to keep the boredom from taking over.

I followed up the run part of my workout with another group of mini-circuits. They worked so effectively on Tuesday for a full-body workout that I concocted another group of exercises to entertain myself with today. Pushing my body is entertaining, no? 😉

Thirty minutes later = a sweaty mess high on endorphins! To round out my hour, I hopped on the elliptical for 20 easy minutes of cardio. Honestly, I just wanted to read some of my SELF magazine.

I have quite a few magazine subscriptions because I scored such a good deal on subscription bundles during the holidays. I love reading my magazines, but only really care to read them while doing low-key cardio. I don’t know why, but I almost crave magazine reading with light cardio. Even though I have 6 subscriptions (which I scored for less than $20 total!), I still could read more. Too bad it’s so hard to run and read. That could certainly help my relationship with the treadmill.

All together, I spent a little over an hour getting my fitness on. I kind of dropped the ball with that though. I had forgotten a play date at the library to get to and still needed to eat a real breakfast! That meant rushing home, shoveling food, and rushing back out for Makenzie to have some fun time and pick up new library books.

I hate rushing my meals because it never satisfies me as much. No surprise I ended up hungry way earlier than normal. I don’t know how I used to hoover all my snacks in under 3 minutes and my lunch in under 10 minutes every day when teaching. No wonder binging was such an issue for me then! I likely never felt satisfied because I could barely remember eating! Moral of the story = take time for your food. Those little scraps deserve some TLC (tender loving care chewing).

• How quickly do you tend to eat your meals?
• What do you enjoy reading and when? Mags w/ cardio? Books in bed? If any answer goes, a book on the beach for me. Too bad that’s not reality!

Over the years of paying close attention to my eating habits, I have discovered what situations and feelings will trigger me to mindlessly or emotionally eat easier than at other times. The biggest one is stress or feeling overwhelmed about something. I quickly have to find a way to distract myself by other means in those situations, because otherwise I will undoubtedly nose dive into our ice-cream stash and eat it all.

The past few weeks I have found another trigger. My previous “working” space.

As you may recall, I complete all of my blog work time during the kid’s mid-day nap time. I get a solid 2-3 hour block of time and I have to use it fully. This often meant that I would prepare my lunch and plop myself down at the kitchen table with my netbook to get moving on my posts, catching up on emails, and other related tasks. My fanny would chill in that kitchen chair or standing at the counter the duration of that time. Well…the duration of that time minus the little pit stops I would make on occasion to the pantry to mindlessly grab something to nibble.

I have no problem eating snacks when I want them. But I do have a problem eating snacks when I’m not hungry and when I’m not even enjoying them. When I recognized this habit I quickly made some necessary changes. I stopped trying to get things done while eating my lunch. I will sit at the kitchen table, enjoy, and pay attention to my food. I will also take this time for some quiet reflection and prayer. Then, I pack myself up and move out of the “food zone” so I don’t mindlessly meander to the box of cereal. I work more efficiently and now, when I have my snacks, I must make a conscious decision. I don’t know about you, but I much prefer fully savoring my food, so I quickly resolved this trigger issue.

However, I have another trigger that I have never fully mastered. It still gets me almost every time. Social events. I have picked up some tools and approaches that guide me to more balanced decision making while at these events, but I still have to try really, really, really hard to put them into practice. Take last night, for example.

Our church had a special gathering for those who work in the small groups community. Peter & I plan to once again sign on to lead a group this upcoming fall with our friends, so we put on our party hats and gathered with other church friends for a night of fellowship. I went in knowing that I could possibly come across a lot of good food, but that I also didn’t want to eat past full. I reminded myself to do the following:

• focus on that “feeling of health”
• pick and choose what I really want to eat/drink
• focus on the time with friends I haven’t seen in awhile
• pay attention to my hunger and eat slowly/mindfully
• simply do my best to honor the body and health God has given me

It worked! I dined on two small wraps – one ham and one turkey – plus a bit of fruit.

They also had brownies up for grabs, but I decided not to grab one. They didn’t look as thick, chewy, and fudgy as I like - so I passed. I didn’t feel the need to grab one simply because it was there. Instead, I satisfied myself with the other food and the knowledge that if I had a sweet hankering I could have some ice-cream, which I would enjoy more, at home later. Sometimes I just need to go in with a plan of action and a reminder that I have the power to choose what truly satisfies me. Although, I can’t promise I would have had the same results had there been Oreo Truffles in the mix. 😉

• How do you handle triggers for mindless/emotional/over-eating?