Okay, so along with posting my marathon training recap last
week late by 5 days and not posting a weekly weigh in post at all the week
before last, I also did not post a Let’s Get Random post last week. Bad
blogger! I cannot apologize enough for my lack of enthusiasm about
blogging last week. I was going through some hormonal issues and was just
feeling “off” and disinterested in everything that wasn’t actually going
outside and running.
I attended a day of training geared toward women last week,
so I’d like to go over that as best as I can in this post. First, I went
over part of it with last week’s Weekly Weigh In. That would be the SMART
goal approach. Some of you may already be familiar with it as it is a
very good way of approaching your goals and making sure that you can actually
achieve them. So, even though I already did a decent little overview of
the SMART goal approach on Saturday, let me go a little more in depth with how
to fully utilize this approach here.
S = specific. This means it’s simple, sensible and
significant. There are 5 questions to ask yourself when determining your
goal.
• what do I want to accomplish?
• why is this goal important?
• who is involved?
• where is it located? (may not be applicable)
• which resources or limits are involved?
M = Measurable. This means it should be meaningful and
motivating. Questions you should ask yourself for this are:
• how much?
• how many?
• how will I know when it is accomplished?
A = Achievable. That means it is agreed and
attainable. For this, you should ask:
• how can I accomplish this goal?
• how realistic is the goal, based on other constraints,
such as financial factors?
R = Relevant. This means it should be reasonable,
realistic & resourced, and results-based. You should be able to
answer “yes” to these questions:
• does this seem worthwhile?
• is this the right time?
• does this match my/our other efforts/needs?
• am I the right person to reach this goal?
• is it applicable in the current socio-economic
environment?
T = Time-bound. This means it is time-based, time
limited, time/cost limited, timely and time-sensitive. For this one, ask
yourself:
• when?
• what can I do six months from now?
• what can I do six weeks from now?
• what can I do today?
**Resource
Another thing we covered in the training was the DISC
personality assessment. The letters stand for Dominance, Inducement,
Submission and Compliance. This one is far too complicated for me to go
into super detail about, so if you’re interested in finding out more about it
and taking the assessment test yourself, you can go here.
With the DISC segment of the training, they had us take our
tests from the way we are at work. Well, I broke out a second color of
pen and also did it based on how I am in my regular life. Let’s just
suffice it to say I’m a completely different person outside of work than I am
at work. And I’m 100% okay with that. My job takes a different
personality to do than what my regular, everyday life takes.
We also had a segment on motivation. This was my
FAVORITE part of the day. I love motivation. Love, love, love
it! Most of my notes from this segment were copying down quotes.
“Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.”
– Carol Burnett
“You must make a choice to take a chance or your life will
never change.”
“Set goals for yourself, if you don’t know where you’re
going, how will you ever get there.”
“Goals are dreams with a deadline.” –Diana Scharf Hunt
“Amazing things rarely happen in your comfort zone.”
**this one should be one of my mottos/mantras!
“Value the process. Sometimes you win. Sometimes
you learn.”
“Remember why you started.”
“There is no such thing as a smooth mountain.”
She encouraged us to use washable and/or dry erase markers
to write inspirational and motivating things on our bathroom mirrors so that
they would be literally in our faces and easy to include in our days.
Plus, it’s an excuse for me to clean my mirror…haha!
She also informed us that the whole it takes 21 days to form
a new habit is bunk. Science and research report that it is closer to 66
days to actually form a new habit. That seems more realistic to me as
well. I know that after 3 weeks, I’m usually still struggling to do
something new on a regular basis. And after 2 months, it’s definitely a
part of who I am…if I can get myself to stick with it that long, of
course. And if you google “66 days to form a habit,” a bunch of articles
pop up, so it’s really easy to read up on and get the scoop for yourself.
We then wrapped up the day with a segment based on the book
Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg. They had us watch a TED talk clip where she
speaks a little bit about some of her philosophy in her book. The main
points are:
• the leadership ambition gap: what would you do if you
weren’t afraid?
• sit at the table (actually a very interesting point)
• success and likeability
• it’s a jungle gym, not a ladder
• are you my mentor? (as opposed to asking “will you be my
mentor?”)
• seek and speak YOUR truth
• don’t leave before you leave (very profound in my opinion)
• make your partner a real partner
• the myth of doing it all
• let’s start talking about it
• working together toward equality
An excerpt from the book’s description goes: “in Lean In,
Sheryl Sandberg examines why women’s progress in achieving leadership roles has
stalled, explains the root causes, and offers compelling, common sense
solutions that can empower women to achieve their full potential.”
Now, while a portion of this class had nothing do with me as
I am a single, never married woman with no children, so the stuff about
partners and children and family do not apply to me. But the rest of
it? 100% applicable. I am seriously considering buying the book and
reading it.
Speaking of books! Now I’m going to veer off as my
overview of my day in training is complete. I signed up to do a book
exchange on Facebook. By the way, if you’re interested in doing this,
just go to the Facebook page for my blog and send me a message saying you’re
interested in doing the book exchange and I’ll message you back the information
you’ll need. I received the name and address of a person, I bought 1 book
and had it mailed to her. I chose the 4 Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz to
send to her. In return, I posted a call to arms or whatever on my
Facebook page, and will send out another person’s name and address to all that
respond to my posting. Then they will post on their page, and she will give
my name and address to people and I will receive books as well! It’s a
win-win. You buy one book, pass it along to your friends and family and
you get who knows how many books in return! I’m excited to see what books
I’ll get!
I’m seriously still struggling with my diet and how I
eat. I loved paleo, but with my hormones all out of whack due to the
whole “birth control pill fiasco” I have been having, it’s been harder than I
want it to be. So I stick to it as much as I can. But it’s probably
only like 65% paleo and 35% whatever. And the whatever is “supposed” to
be healthy, reasonable selections, but they’ve been mostly unhealthy and junky
choices. Ugh. But I’m trying, I really am. That’s why I
stopped posting the weekly paleo experience posts. They were more a log
of how NOT to do paleo than they were about how I sticking to paleo and how
awesome it was. And, let me tell you, it was awesome. I loved
it. I felt great. But now is apparently not the appropriate time
for me to do paleo.
I’ve gotten my BC pill situation straightened out and I’m
back on the pill I was taking originally. Thank goodness for awesome
pharmacists that care about the people that they dispense medication to!
But about 24 hours after being back on my original pill, I noticed a dramatic
change in my attitude toward food. I simply wasn’t inclined to or having
urges to over eat or eat junk as much. It was still there, don’t get me
wrong, but it was dramatically reduced. As each day passes, the urges
have gotten less and less. So, I’m hoping I can be back on track with an
at least 80% paleo diet next week. I really do feel so much better now
that I’m back on my original pill.
