I used to ask myself, “how do the super achievers do it all?’ I spent many years grinding at my business and other areas of my life so I certainly felt like I was doing the work of any super achiever. Physically and mentally. People would even often tell me “I don’t know how you do it all!” Even then, I really didn’t feel like I was a super achiever. I would often think “gosh, when am I ever going to *get* THERE?”

Where is THERE anyway?

In my quest to simplify my business and life, I realized that it was focusing on the basics every day that were going to yield me the best results.

The same is with beginning any exercise or nutrition program. Focusing on keeping it simple and mastering the basics will also give you the best long-lasting results.

This simple concept can really be applied to any area of your life.

So, if you’re stuck in a rut, how do we recommit to ourselves?

How do super achievers do it all? The answer is, they don’t.

They have their priorities clear in their mind and they DECLINE everything else that comes their way. Yup, just say no.

Remember Jim Rohn said if you have more than half a dozen priorities you don’t have any…
What top 3-6 DAILY habits or non-negotiables as I like to call them do you need to recommit to yourself and your priorities?

Put those on a graph sheet or somewhere that can be easily seen and checked off DAILY.
Only allow yourself to allocate time to your calendar to something that significantly contributes to the accomplishment of your priorities and here’s the scary part, say no to all the rest.

As I’m setting my May non-negotiables in my planner, I’m reflecting on how I used to stress out about EVERYTHING that needed to get done. I hope this serves as a bit of peace of mind to Recommit to YOU and become a super achiever.
You got this!
Make your move

It’s been a habit of mine lately to combine my reading with walking on a medium to high incline on the treadmill. I’ve been rehabbing an injury and as much I’d like to start jogging again, it’s just not the right time. I usually fall asleep when I read just about anything so this makes me happy that I’m finishing my third book of the year so far.

Anyway, as I was reading this morning I was reminded about a specific part of priorities that I wanted to share with you. We often have so many things on our to-do lists that have us running around crazy and overwhelmed. I hear it all the time from family, friends, and clients and sometimes even in my own head.

What I read this morning helped put things back into perspective and it’s interesting how this is what I read this morning on a day I decided to change things up a bit:  “Any time you feel overwhelmed, there’s a good chance the culprit is a lack of clear priorities.”

Think about that for a little bit. You might be thinking “well everything on my list in important!” I know. I used to be that way. I’m old school. I love paper planners.  I found (and still do) that checking off things on my to-do list made me feel accomplished and productive.

Here’s the thing, the list kept getting longer!! Have you ever felt like that? You start one thing then you’re reminded of all these other little things that you jot down to get done too. And I always have to write something down or I’ll forget. Is that successful? Not really.

“Success has less to do with what we can get ourselves to do and more with keeping ourselves from doing what we shouldn’t” – Kenneth Cole.

We know we shouldn’t be spending hours each day on our phones for games and social media, or coming home from an exhaustive day at work and plopping ourselves on the couch to unwind, or even wasting our attention and energy on people who cause you to lose focus on what’s really important.

Here are three tips for you to RECOMMIT to YOU and your success:

• Understanding your value. “If you’re falling short on your goals, it’s because you waste time doing low-value work. That’s it. That’s the only reason.” – Darren Hardy
  • Are you spending too much time on social media or games?
  • Are you going to meetings you don’t actually need to attend?
  • Are you spending ten minutes here and there chit-chatting in the hallway?
  • Are you checking your phone first thing before you even get out of bed?
• Know your vital priorities. Vital Priorities are the day-to-day or quarter-to-quarter areas of focus and tasks required to accomplish a goal. Jim Rohn always said if you have more than six priorities you don’t have any. Jim Collins says if you have more than three you don’t have any. Either way, you get the picture.
  • Write down all of your priorities.
  • Next, narrow your list down to the top three. Ok no more than six, if three freaks you out a little.
  • Throw the rest of the list away! Jim Rohn says stop majoring in minor things. You’ll find that your enormous to-do list isn’t really that important. I do have a confession though. I still keep my list after I’ve narrowed it to my 3-6. Why? After looking back at it in a few months I can really look at it and say “nope, not important” and have that final cross off the list (and it’s still so satisfying)! Or there are those occasions where I find I still like the idea and don’t want to forget it. It’s not a priority but has shifted more towards an idea or brainstorm list. 
• Do the work and be consistent!
  • Tony Robbins talks about the 2mm shift. Making that 2mm shift daily, consistent and intentionally will create the radical difference. The beauty of this is taking those moments to pause and feel the shift happening!
  • You are only one or two key habits away from a massive transformation in any area of your life but if we aren’t consistent the shift and transformation won’t happen.

I hope those tips help you in the area of your life that you need it most.
Make your move,
Rebecca

Remember how I said you have to get better at making change if     you want those changes to “stick?”

Well there’s one more thing you need to get better at and that’s       knowing yourself.

Knowing what YOU need and want in order to get where YOU want to go.

I KNOW that chocolate and tacos are non-negotiables for me. Knowing that I can still have them every now and then make me smile!

However, I need to be CONSISTENT in something else to be able to enjoy them.

Balance!

Every day make ONE small positive change to your health and/or nutrition. It can be the same small improvement every day, or a new one.

The biggest changes in life come from just moving 2mm each day in the direction you want to go.

!I’ll tell you a little secret...

I don’t like to cook. I don’t get fancy when I do cook. I prefer to keep things simple and of course quick.
When I find myself in between hangry and eating everything in the cupboard, I can always rely on this quick and simple meal.

It literally takes two minutes.

Quinoa/rice blend 90 seconds in microwave (I’ll usually use just 1/2 cup when it’s ready).
Grab your spring mix
tuna or salmon packet
feta cheese
strawberries
balsamic vinaigrette
Can also add avocado
Mix it all together and boom you’ve got your quick meal with the good fats, carbs and protein!

I was 6 years old when I realized that I could lose my mom forever. My mom’s friend was driving us in her Volkswagen Bus to the 4th of July parade in our small town. When we parked, I looked over at my mom still sitting in her seat and all I saw was blood. All over the seat. As I found out later, my mom had uterine fibroid tumors and one of them hemorrhaged. I remember the ambulance carting her away and scared to think of what was happening to my mom. My grandmother had passed away about a year and half prior to this and I was just beginning to understand what death meant. I believe it was this defining moment in all of my six years of life that had me cling to my mom and I would do anything for her. From that moment on, my worst fear in life was losing her. I only had one fear in my life. One fear that I would cry myself to sleep at night as a kid. Sure I was afraid of trying new things or meeting new people, but I embraced that kind of fear. I challenged it. But the fear of losing my mom…that was almost paralyzing. Something that would inevitably happen. I was so full of fear and panic at times and I would do anything for her, to make her “invincible.”

Fast forward about 10 years, I was a 16 year old nerdy, introverted, artistic, 80’s hair band fanatic. My mom was experiencing symptoms that she didn’t understand. Her sister Sharon encouraged her to see a doctor to see if she was Diabetic. Her doctor told her she was just fat and needed to lose weight. Her NEW doctor did the appropriate tests to confirm she was indeed Type II Diabetic.

When she wanted to get in shape I was totally onboard. Anything to prolong mom’s life. She wasn’t dying, but my memories always took me back to that day. What I saw. I wanted to help in any way I could. We walked almost every day after I got home from school. We got VHS workout tapes of Richard Simmons and Tony Little and worked out a few times per week to the videos. I didn’t exactly fit in with the athletic crowd and that’s about all I knew how to support her.  We didn’t know what we were really doing but I liked how each workout felt. We had a good start to things but ultimately, there was always work to be done and a project that needed to be completed. We were inconsistent but got to it when we could.

Over the next couple of years while I was still in high school I began to put connections together that bad foods and lack of exercise made for an unhealthy body. Seems like a no brainer now but at the time, it wasn’t talked about. I began looking at my family and those who ate and drank and were overweight. I noticed a lot of my friends were that way too. I started putting the pieces together and decided what I DID NOT want my life to look like. Realizing later what the meaning of an addict is, I knew I could easily fall into that trap and I worked like hell to not follow in the footsteps of some of my family and friends who had turned to alcohol, drugs or food. Instead, I became a workaholic, but I digress. That’s another story. I began racing BMX with some friends and one friend in particular took me to a local gym and taught me the ways of strength training. I was hooked. We raced BMX and lifted together for several years and my love for fitness continued to grow.

More importantly, I wanted to continue this path to help mom become healthier. I was there during her struggles and I remember feeling helpless not knowing what to do. We’d continue to walk but her work would often take priority over exercise. Eventually, nearly 10 years after graduating high school, I decided to switch my bachelors from Art Studio and Art History to Exercise Science and Nutrition. I had to continue to help mom in some way and this was the direction I needed to go.

December 29, 2006, just months after graduating the University of New Mexico, my mom suffered a heart attack. Thankfully she recognized the symptoms immediately and was able to call for help. She had 90% blockage in her right coronary artery, had two stents put in and got a new lease on life. After her heart attack she was totally onboard putting herself first and making changes. I created a meal plan for her and we eased into walking again that ultimately lead to her losing 30 pounds in 6 months. She had never felt better and her cardiologist said she was one of his star patients!

Things were great until her thyroid levels changed and needed her thyroid medication adjusted (something that I would learn later from my own personal struggle). Mom gained her weight back very quickly and we were both confused, frustrated and a bit pissed off.
It would be two years later to realize just what all of that felt like. I had given birth to our first baby girl and within 6 weeks my thyroid levels were so far off the spectrum I was prompted to see an endocrinologist immediately. At first, I was diagnosed with HYPERthyroidism and 3 months later with medication, I was feeling fantastic.

Three weeks later I went from feeling phenomenal to feeling extremely lethargic and foggy headed. My hair was falling out, my speech felt slurred, my body felt weighted down with bricks, and it would feel like my body was nailed to the bed and could not wake up. My lips, jaw and entire body would go numb and start cramping up. I was told “this is the new you now and it’s probably just new mommy fatigue” and basically to get used to it.
Fantastic.
My thyroid levels went so far down the other end of the spectrum and was diagnosed with HYPOthyroidism and Hashimotos, an auto-immune disease where anti-bodies are attacking the thyroid gland. I remembered what happened with mom and her immediate weight gain. I admit I was fearful I was headed down that same path.

I call BS. There is NO way this is the NEW me.

It took three years for my thyroid levels to finally balance out, blood work every six weeks, different medications that didn’t make me sick and learning the importance of the adrenals and nutrition for auto-immune. I had to get brave with my doctor and request things she didn’t approve of and fought me on. When she finally agreed she phrased it “WHEN this doesn’t work, you’ll go back on this other medication.”

Seven years later and it’s still working and I am ME again.

Mom continued to struggle with her thyroid which affected her weight and emotions that contributed to her stress eating and continued fighting her diabetes due. She wanted to be healthy, she wanted to lose weight, and she fought and struggled for it. It was a viscous cycle for her.

March 22, 2014, my greatest fear became a reality when my mom, my best friend, passed away after suffering a stroke just 2 days prior. My birthday is March 19th and I like to think she held on as long as she could so this didn’t happen on my birthday. Her close friend passed away on her grandson’s birthday and I remember mom saying “you couldn’t hold on one more day?”

The hardest part of all of that was that I was the one who had to make the decision to let her go. After all of these years trying to make her “invincible.” It was either to let her go or have the option of a surgery that would relieve some of the pressure in her head. She wouldn’t have had any quality of life and would’ve only lived another 2-3 months as a vegetable. We had conversations over the years and even two months prior to her stroke that if something like that happened to her, to not let her live like that. Even though those were her wishes, it was the most unimaginable thing to give the ok.

My siblings and I brought her home and made her as comfortable as possible. We knew it would be only a matter of hours before it was her time. Mom was spent the last ten years or more devoting her time and energy into her church. When we called her Bishop to let him know about mom, he didn’t hesitate one minute and came as soon as he could to give her a blessing. 20 minutes later, she was gone. She was waiting for him. I felt a warm pressure on my back as I lay over her legs. My sister felt a sweeping motion across her face. One of my clients who is a hospice nurse later told me that her patients’ families experience that all the time. She likes to think that the pressure was a hug and the sweep across the face was a kiss. I cherish that and know that she is finally ok.

They say that the Lord doesn’t give you more than you can handle. While I admit I’m more of a spiritual, talking to the universe hippie of sorts that quote kept running through my mind as this greatest fear was piling on our family.

There have been many challenges that I continued to face since my mom’s passing but with each challenge that seemed impossible to get through, that quote always comes back to me and there has always been another door that opened.

I have a question for you.

Are you setting the right expectations for your health and wellness?
If you’re like the rest of us you’ve likely tried to change everything all at once.

What happens?

It doesn’t work!! Something gives usually within the first week and we either give up all together or get so mad at ourselves we feel inadequate, like a failure or that this is NEVER going to work!

As humans, we can really focus on one thing at a time. When we focus on one thing, we become really good at it!! You know that Bruce Lee quote I shared a few weeks ago? “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” If you know me, you know one of my mantras is “keep it simple, master the basics.” But I wasn’t always this way. I used to pride myself in taking on so many tasks, challenges, clients, classes, certifications, etc. Between full-time work, full-time school, getting married, having kiddos, running a business, figure competitions, Spartan races, even a triathlon, and everything in between, I was ALL IN!!

I was THE BEST (in my opinion of course) at multi-tasking! What happened? TOTAL BURNOUT. It was only a matter of time for me to be running on all cylinders for so long that this would happen.

Something else happened. When the events ended, the challenges ended, the ALL IN training ended. I could quickly see how when so many people finish a challenge, they revert back to their old habits. There was a feeling of “now what?” It was always go, go, go, go and wondering if there was going to be a time to just BE.

Once on got CLEAR and FOCUSED on what I wanted to achieve for my LIFE, then I could work backwards and narrow things down to fit my lifestyle, family, goals and really live life by design. It’s been so refreshing to be able to wake up and enjoy without having this anxiety, stress and seriousness about everything!

All of these experiences have given me the tools to be able to share with you. I feel it is my personal duty to help women live a life of strength, independence and wellness from the inside out!

For those who have worked with me in the Finally Fit space, more than likely you’ve gone through my Recommit to YOU in 42 program that focuses on just that. Recommitting to YOU. I’m SUPER EXCITED to say this is going to available for you online beginning October 15th!

This program is for you if:

• You need to get moving again!
• You feel more comfortable doing this in the privacy of your own home
• You NEED to get your energy back
• You NEED to make yourself a priority
• You may have an experience with weights and even been a client before but need a refresher

 
This program is NOT for you if:

• You are a seasoned weight lifter
• You already go to the gym 2-3 times per week consistently
• You are comfortable in the gym and know your way around with your eyes closed
• You’ve been committed to your health and fitness for years.

 

I'm currently taking my beta testers through the online program and excited to launch this October 15th!

Stay tuned!