::bing!::

(that was the sound of the light bulb coming on)

"The idea that you can either enjoy the holidays or stay in shape - but not both - is damaging and limiting. It hurts your social life, your emotional life and your physical life. Life is not an either or proposition; it's a matter of balance. Success does not mean going to extremes. Success can be a simple matter of re-examining your beliefs, rearranging your priorities, setting goals, changing the questions you ask yourself, re-evaluating your expectations and acting in accordance with all of the above."

This is why Tom V. R-O-C-K-S!!!

This is an excerpt from his most awesome blog on Holiday Fitness

After the hurricane of thoughts and emotions that I've been going through the last couple weeks, I'm starting to look forward again. My thoughts are going back to 'is what I'm doing now getting me closer to my goal?' While the answer isn't always a resounding "YES!", it's much better than the thoughts of "Meh."

Since it's all about balance, I guess this is my re-examining, goal setting phase as I gain momentum to go back into my action phase. (I need to work on having those two things happen at the same time! LOL!)

I did a re-look at my goals and realized they need some tweaking & updating, but that's for another time. What is right for now: short term goals! Yay! In order to make it a bit more real and immediate, and still stepping out in faith because it's going to be a stretch.

My Fitness/weight goal:

I am ringing in the New Year by weighing 168 on December 31, 2008.

Yesterday I weighed 172, and AF just showed up for her monthly visit. That number is just a number and is a distant memory.

This will be achieved by doing the following:
-Planning! Plan my day to know when I will be home, and cook those nights. Plan when I have meetings or will be away from the office at lunch time, and bring my lunch when I will be in the office. Plan snacks for when I'm out and about so I don't get hungry and cranky.

-Move!! I am doing 3 sweat inducing cardio workouts and 2-3 sweat inducing strength training workouts a week.

-Eat!!! I eat clean, balanced meals that I prepare myself, but still allowing myself to enjoy the food and company during special times. I fuel my body during the day so that I am a constant fat burning machine. I am not restricting myself or denying myself - I am choosing the foods that make me feel like the supah-stah I am.

-Breathe!!! I am reminding myself that this is building momentum to be as successful as I can be and starting 2009 feeling fabulous about myself! The hard work I do today is paying my future self in health and wellness.

I also step back and look at the bigger picture. There will be challenges that I will face: Travel, fancy-schmancy dinners with decadent food and free-flowing alcohol, disrupted schedules, parties, etc. Stepping back, I realized that these things are part of life and I will face them for what they /really/ are: An exercise.

What it isn't: It's not an exercise in how fast I can inhale a plate of pasta and drink a bottle of wine, followed by finding out how much sugar it /really/ takes to induce an insulin coma.

It IS an exercise in being present in the moment. It IS an opportunity to remember that a festive gathering - be it Christmas, Hanukkah, Labour Day, birthdays, weddings, or days ending in a "Y" - is a time to connect with people who make up my family in the loosest and strongest sense of the word.

They are helping weave the beautiful tapestry of my life... why am I diminishing that by making it all about the food?

Technorati : Exercise, goals, health, motivation, sparkpeople, thoughts