Get Your Hands Off Your Knees

I was probably 13 or 14 when I had a camp basketball coach yell at me, "Never let anyone know that tired.  Never!  Get your hands off your knees!"  At first I was embarrassed and angry because he was calling me out, but he was trying to make me tougher.  The truth is that my hands were on my knees and I was letting everyone know that I was tired.  Eventually I realized that resting wasn't helping my cause, and if I wanted to win I needed to stop thinking about how tired I was and get my hands off my knees.

20 years later his voice still whispers to me when I feel weak or tired.  When I'm in the middle of a hard workout and I want to stop or rest to take an extra breath or when I feel like putting off a work/school assignment until later I hear, "get your hands off your knees!"  When I am on a long run and want to stop or walk before I reach the finish line I hear, "Never let anyone know you're tired."

When life is making you tired remember what my coach told to me years ago, and apply it to your own life.  When you want to stop mid-workout to get a drink of water, don't.  When the barbell gets heavy, don't put your hands on your knees!  Take a deep breath and pick the damn thing back up, and show it who's in control.  When your job becomes overwhelming and you feel unappreciated, don't let them see you sweat.  Keep a cool head and keep doing your job. 

I'm finding that as I grow older, this statement resonates with me more and more.  It is so easy to find excuses to slow down or even quit when a situation becomes tiresome.  It's easy to complain about how exhausted I am or how difficult a particular task is to anybody that will listen.  In my opinion, complaining is equivalent to putting my hands on my knees and letting the world know that I'm tired.  I used to pride myself in the fact that no one knew I was tired on the basketball court, and I still try to uphold this principle in adult life whether it involves work, school, or the gym.  I challenge you to take my coaches advice and apply it to your life.  Who knows, it might help.

I Am MissFit: Challenge For Change- Day 8 "The Break Through"

Anyone who has been following The MissFit Movement blog knows that we are in the midst of the I Am MissFit: Challenge For Change.  Today marked day number 8, and I can honestly say that today was the first day that I felt I actually took a whole-hearted step in the right direction. 

I don't know what in the heck got into me but I woke up on time (I only hit the snooze button once), I made a to-do list (and followed it), I did all of my homework (nothing changed...I still hate statistics), I finalized the I Am MissFit Trademark application, and had time to relax.  I think I had a bit of a break through today!  Can I tell you that if my flexibility was better, I'd pat myself on the back...



Proof that I made a To-Do list (yes, I have the handwriting of a 2nd grader...deal with it.)

I think the key lays in keeping the right attitude and perspective.  Ultimately, the changes that I want are in my best interest and will do me nothing but good.  But in order to accomplish anything I have to keep a positive outlook and look forward to tasks rather than dreading chores.  In life, I feel that there are only two types of people; 1) people that do 2) people that don't.  The people that do are usually happy and live the life that they want, and the people that don't usually live a miserable existence, find excuses as to why they can't or really why they won't.  I don't know about anyone reading this, I can only speak for myself, but I want to live with joy and that will lead me to the life that I want. 

That leaves me with one option; I want to be a doer.

I know that each day is different and that I will be faced with the unknown and unknowable from time to time, but that isn't a reason to throw my hands up and surrender.  In most circumstances we are more than equipped to handle any situation, we just need to have the right attitude and faith that our actions will take us to our desired destination.  If we want to win, we have to find a way to win.

Who knows what day 9 will bring.  Here's to keeping a positive attitude!

Until next time, be well!

L. Brittney

I Am MissFit: Challenge For Change- (Humbling) Week 1

Thank God this challenge is 45 days!  The first 5 days have been very difficult for me.  It turns out, change is hard! 

Here's a little reminder of the challenge that I have posed to myself:

• To give more than is expected of me.  Everyday I will give of myself 100%, because there are a lot of times that I hold back and that limits my potential.
• To be more organized.  Everyday I will strive to be more organized in my work and school life, in hopes that it become a habit.

Recap of my week:

Day 1, Monday June 10, 2013: Over slept.  All of my personal training appointments were cancelled due to construction.  One might think that this would have been the perfect time to get organized or do some school work, but I played way to long in the gym and tired myself out.  I was pissed at myself, but better luck tomorrow...

Day 2, Tuesday June 11, 2013:  Woke up feeling exhausted, which is weird because I had 7 hours of sleep.  I got some advice that I should eat some more carbs, so I made that happen.  Instantly I felt better.  I even hit a snatch PR later that day!  I believe I hit the PR due to the fact that I let go of any fear or anxiety and gave it my all.  Because of that, I treated myself to an almond mocha smoothie from Smoothie King.  :)

Day 3, Wednesday June 12, 2013:  I had to be up super early to run the 5:15am class.  I hadn't done that in a long time so I was excited for it.  I think that the added carbs helped my energy levels, because I was very pumped!  Although the start of my day was great, it didn't hold.  I ended up getting off track with my to do list due to procrastination.  At this point, my good intentions are failing me.  I started to rethink my approach to this challenge.  Am I going to be able to change?  I must find a way!

Day 4, Thursday June 13, 2013:  This is a better day.  I wake up on time, but I feel extremely overwhelmed because I have a full day at the gym plus a huge workload for school.  I decided to take a rest day from working out for a couple of reasons, but mainly because I was tired and my hamstring wasn't cooperating with me.  That was a disaster waiting to happen...so I opted out.  I let my dislike for my Statistics class get the best of me, I put off the homework assignments that were piling.  Besides, the NBA finals were on...

Day 5, Friday June 14, 2013:  I woke up on time.  I had my 2 usual personal training sessions that morning.  My energy levels were great!  I had a few meetings, and I even snuck in time to get my eye brows done :)  When I got home, I started to evaluate my actions during the 1st week of the challenge.  I have so much changing to do!  I can do this!

Like I said earlier, change is hard!  The first thing that needs to change is my attitude.  I am determined to take the necessary steps to get the wanted outcome.  I will be honest, I thought that my actions would be different because I took on the challenge to change.  Heck, I'm the one that started this Challenge For Change...so I feel there is a little more pressure on me to produce.  But the truth is, I can only take this one day at a time and try my hardest!  Bad habits are hard to break.  I have 45 days....I will stay patient.

Weekly Wrap-Up

Hi All,

Because one of the challenges for myself is to be more organized, I have had to re-route my days.  I am going to be posting a weekly wrap-up that will summarize my week and the progress (or not) that happens for me. 

L. Brittney 

I Am MissFit: Challenge For Change- My declaration

Today is the first day of the 45 day I Am MissFit: Challenge For Change.  I'm not sure if it will have much of a following or if anyone will actually take part in it, but it won't stop me from participating in the challenge myself.  Personally, I need to change a couple of things about myself and figured that I'd invite anyone, heck everyone, to join me in the process.

Recently I took a mini-vacation to Florida to "try to relax."  As I was lying on the beach soaking up the sand, I began to evaluate my life and the outcome was simple- I need to change.  I tend to be extremely self-critical (...but who isn't) and honest with myself, but the one thing that I feel I lack when it comes to changing habits about myself is "follow through."

I asked myself, "how can I commit to the changes that I need to make in my life?" And then I had what they call an "A ha moment."  I thought, "why not pose a challenge on The MissFit Movement blog to other women looking to make a commitment to change something in their lives?"

I am a firm believer in what I like to call "walking the talk."  I know that by publicly posting what I want to change about myself, I will have to hold myself accountable and follow through because people are watching.  To be completely honest, maybe no one will be watching me at all, but there is a possibility that someone will be watching...and that is enough motivation for me.

So for the next 45 days I will take at least one action, daily, towards the changes that I want to occur in my life and document it for all to read. 

My I Am MissFit: Challenge For Change is:

• To give more than is expected of me.  Everyday I will give of myself 100%, because there are a lot of times that I hold back and that limits my potential.
• To be more organized.  Everyday I will strive to be more organized in my work and school life, in hopes that it become a habit.

For the next 45 days I will be posting my journey.  It is said that the definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing over and over again expecting a different result, so this better work because I don't want to be crazy.  I am not really sure what is going to happen, but I do know one thing...I will change!  Stay tuned.


In Good Health,

L. Brittney

I Am MissFit: Challenge For Change

Let's face it, there are things that we aren't particularly happy about in our lives that we would like to change.  Have you ever found yourself thinking "I should eat better" or "I should be more organized" or "I wish I had the will power to workout more" or "I wish I was more adventurous" or "I should take up a new hobby" or "I wish treated my family better."  Stop wishing your circumstances would change and do something about it!  Like Tony Robbins says, "stop shoulding all over yourself" and take the necessary steps to elicit the change you desire in your life. 

Not all change is improvement, but without change there can be no improvement.  Max Depree reminds us that, change is necessary for growth, because in the end "it is important to remember that we cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are." 

If you had 45 days to change one thing about yourself that you wanted to improve, what would it be? 

Would you change:

• how you eat?
• how you exercise?
• how you treat others?
• how you treat yourself?
• how you think?

Do you want to:

• get stronger?
• be more adventurous?
• learn a new sport?
• get organized?
• lose weight?
• be more positive?
• be more disciplined?

This is a challenge to create change within ourselves to inspire change in others.  Be a change agent .  When others see you taking necessary steps to change an aspect in your life, you give them the needed courage to make changes within themselves.  We all know that significant change doesn't happen over night, but the decision to make change happens instantaneously. 

This challenge has no grand prize.  There are no game rules.  The only rules that apply are that hold yourself accountable by posting your challenge for change to The MissFit Movement facebook page.  Starting June 10th, for 45 days make a commitment to yourself and to the MissFit community that you will take the necessary steps to become the MissFit that you want to be.  Let's make a change together. 

Over the next 45 days, how will you challenge yourself to change?  Make your declaration here and feel free to post comments, pictures, even videos of yourself taking action!  Let's have some fun and affect some change in our lives!     

Start posting today!