I lost two days of actual meditation. Perhaps I need to switch my post to "mindfulness," but I won't.
We relocated from our place in the desert to spend a week in Newport Beach. My daughter is here for a couple of days, too. The transition between resorts throws off the schedule because of checking out and checking. You are temporarily "homeless" during the scheduled time for working out and eating lunch. We also missed our morning yoga and meditation due to the wind storms which made us pack up earlier than we had anticipated to get through San Gorgonio pass.
Nevertheless, I was able to get my 10,000 steps in from loading the car and the walk we did in the late afternoon.
Mindfulness is a good word. I am very aware of the quantity of food I am eating in relationship to my hunger. I believe my efforts are paying off in my attention and awareness even though the scale is not showing progress.
Reminding myself that I am building muscle to perfect my body composition aligns with my goals as a creator. The scale is not getting me down. I see the subtlest changes in the mirror and remember when I went through this before. My muscle memory has kicked in, and I'm on my way.
But on my way to what?
During my meditation, I noticed that the image of myself has changed from a vague, thin woman dressed in white cotton (a yogi) to an action hero shape. A white t shirt replaces the white tunic, and my shorts show the muscles in my legs. Now this, is me.
Today is the President's Day holiday. We're playing pickleball and climbing the hills where we are staying for our cardio today. I still have some big goals related to my job to complete before tomorrow, but I will remain confident in my ability to get the wildly important done. My health is wildly important, and it won't be sacrificed for a task that can literally wait until tomorrow.
For my weight training this week, I've switched to Steve Zim's 6 Weeks to a Hollywood Body. The reason is that he focuses on movements that effectively activate the muscles to achieve the look you want. Since I am a big fan of minimum effective dose (see Tim Ferriss, The Four Hour Body), I like the idea of targeting the muscles with a modification to the traditional weight training. Also, because my shoulder is hurting like it did when we did bootcamp back in 2014, I know that I'm going to have to do something differently than before.
I wish I had a hard copy of Steve's book, because flipping around in the Kindle reader is not easy. The book is not optimized for searching even though it says it is. The information is good, but if you choose to buy the book, get a used, hard copy copy on ebay.
This is the video of Steve at Google. There is a lot of good information here which may lead you to try his book.
So Steve also likes keto, but his version focuses on protein and slow carbs. The diet is a lot like The Four Hour Body with the exception of Steve promoting 5 small meals per day. The book is 14 years old, and the folks who are into intermittent fasting may say this is old science. I say, through his methods, people changed their bodies quickly. Chris Evans went from lean to Captain America in only a matter of a few weeks with Steve's help.
So I'll admit the super hero image is in my imaginations when I picture myself now. I am watching some videos of the workouts, and then visualizing the targeted muscles during my training session. I added Steve to my virtual masterminds board.
"You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with." Jim Rohn
I'm also switching to Steve's 5 meals a day. This is trickier than people realize when you have meetings scheduled. I do have my protein shakes to get me by, though.
Steve wants you to eat within the first hour of waking to send signals to your body about consistency so that it does not store fat. Like a lot of people, I have a hard time eating first thing in the morning. Tim Ferris also is a proponent of 30 grams of protein within the first 30 minutes. Here's what I am going to try for the next 6 weeks, 2 scoops of vital collagen in my morning coffee. This is 18 grams of protein and it is 70 calories. I am hoping that this will trigger my body's response that it has been fed.
I can very much get into the 5 meals a day. The thinking required for my job just doesn't jive with skipping meals. Remember when you were in school and you'd come home ravenous? Of course I'm not a child with a growing body, but I notice very much when my energy is depleted.
In many ways I have to do this for my job. I want people to be able to focus on my ideas, not my shape. How can you lead when your appearance sends the message that you don't believe, or you are not in control?
I am strong enough to do this. I owe myself and my daughters the proof that our family "shape" is inevitable only if you stop trying.
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