NSV Thursday

Yup, that's surprise on my face.

So this happened last night ^ ^

And that's my NSV, boom.

Okay, yes, that's my NSV but you KNOW I have more to say about it!

A very good buddy of mine (who is on her own healthy journey and has lost more than 90lbs; so proud of you Charmissa!), and I have started a wellness group at our company.  It was all her idea, I'm just along for the ride and thankful she asked me to assist.  Basically, we get together every other week with our colleagues and provide an opportunity  to share tips, resources, ideas for being active, and generally leading a healthy life.  Each week, we provide a topic for discussion and this week we will be talking about adding something new into your life.

The concept behind trying something new is that when you're starting out on a journey, attempting to try to CHANGE your entire routine is completely scary and overwhelming and utterly daunting.  You've got your routine that has worked for you, maybe you have a family that you're working around, too.  And whammo!  This happens:  "That's it!  Today is the day we're never eating anything unhealthy again!  I just went to the grocery store and spent $400 on vegetables and paid for a gym membership; we're doing this!"  We have ALL done this...in high hopes of being able to maintain it. But how often have we all tried that only to realize that it doesn't always work?  And two weeks or a month into it, we abandon our new plan?  Maybe you abandon it because your family hates all the food you're making...maybe you abandon it because it's just too expensive...maybe you abandon it because what you've decided to try just doesn't fit into your life in some way.  It happens to all of us.

But here's a great concept...what if we just decide to add a little something new to our routines?  Nothing big, just something really sort of simple.  Charmissa reminded me how when I started out, my ultimate goal was to lose weight, but I decided to START out by just changing my recipes to incorporate healthier ingredients.  Not a big change, just a little change.  Still eating things I loved, just making them a little healthier.  Once that became a routine, I began to incorporate some exercises into my week...I tried lots of different things, and some I liked and some I didn't.  A year ago, about this time, my friend Katie from KTJ Weighing In announced a Virtual 5K so I decided that I'd try to train for it.  It just so happened that on the same day of the virtual 5K, June 1st, there was an actual 5K locally, so I took the plunge and signed up for the race.  (Read about it here.)  I tried something new, decided that I would commit to just this one race, and if I hated it, I'd never have to do it again.  But the thing is that I loved it...it was hard...but it was amazing.  I never would have been able to experience that feeling if I hadn't tried something new.  And here I am, almost a year later and I'm a runner now!  I knock out 5K's on my own all the time and a lot of the times, I try to run 5 miles or more!

See how little things can lead to big things??  And you don't have to burden yourself with some grand big plans to make huge changes to do this...just try to add a healthy component to your day, your week, etc.  It doesn't even have to be a physical thing...like I mentioned above, I started to introduce new ways to cook foods and make them healthier...now that's just how we eat.  Again, my buddy Charmissa reminded me how hard it would have been (and probably disastrous!) to say to my Hubs, "This is how we're going to eat now.  Quinoa and chick peas for life!"  Uh, yah, never would have flown.  But ever so slowly, he started to try some of the things I introduced.  Some stick and some don't - he's still not a fan of quinoa.

Back to the pic above.  That's me, last night, deadlifting 145#s, for the first time.  I tried yet another NEW thing; it was amazing.  And I can't wait to do it again...and to lift heavier.

Get out there, try something new, and see where it leads you.  I guarantee you'll be so proud of yourself for doing it.