Best of Me is Yet to Come

For this installment of Picture of the Month I chose this picture of how the best of me is yet to come. Firstly let me apologize that I haven't posted on my blog in a while, I have recently been extremely busy with work and trying to get certain goals accomplished regarding it. Well, I also can't discredit the release of patch 2.1 of Diablo 3 and now the Warlords of Draenor expansion for WoW. Anyhow without further ado please let me jump right into why I like this motivational picture.

 I feel this picture has two messages built into it, both of which are a realistic but inpiriing messages. The first message is how as we start down the path to getting physically healthy and fit we can look forward to discovering the best of ourselves. After I started my endeavor to get in shape and become healthy I learned a great deal of new things about myself and how they can be applied to all sorts of other areas of my life. I learned that working out is hard and you constantly have to apply yourself at it to get results. Despite it being hard, with continued effort and determination you do obtain results each and every day you continue to devote yourself to it. This helped me to unlearn some of the helplessness I had developed and realize that any goal I set my mind to in life can become a reality if only I put my mind to it and continue to pursue it with determination. Besides this mental epiphany I also felt more confident about my physique and had much higher energy levels.

The second message I feel is the "Under Construction" subtext. To me this does tie in with the first message a bit, but this indicates that it takes time and there is a "construction" process that needs to occur along the way. I feel this is the hard hitting realism of the motivational picture. For instance when you decide to start something like working out to get in shape, despite all the bogus bull crap on TV about miracle diets, pills or workouts, it will take time to get there. Sometimes it might seem like a huge undertaking, I know for me it felt that way, but you just need to not overwhelm yourself with how far you must go but on how to get there step by step. Say for instance you were going to build a house by yourself, instead of trying to figure out how to put the house together all at once you would focus on how to build the house one element at a time. You would start off making the foundation, then the floor, then one wall at a time and finally a roof to finish it off. Once I realized how to apply this process to my goals they seemed far less insurmountable.I do this by creating incremental short term goals that I can work on each day or week to continually make progress towards the large end goal. To me that is the beauty of this motivational picture, because once we realize this ABSOLUTELY ANYONE can accomplish their goals. It all boils down to continued determination and working on it bit by bit till you achieve your goal. And this process can be applied to anything from losing weight, getting a new job, creating an invention, or even grandiose things like changing the world!! Hope all reading this find it motivating and have a great day. ^_^

Dreams Don't Expire

This PotM (picture of the month) is all about being determined in achieving our dreams. I decided on this picture because I felt it was a good testament to how I feel sometimes. In my particular case I've been working on losing weight, and improving my strength and health over the past 3 years(since I started in 2011). Occasionally I feel like I'm not making progress but then I remember how far I've come and how much I've improved in my strength and health.  I have to take a step back and remember how I am still continuing to make progress (as slow as it may seem at times) and am well on my way towards accomplishing my dreams and if I continue on they will become reality.

I know a lot of people suffer from this dilemma other than myself. It can be numerous factors that cause us to have doubts of being able to reach our dreams and goals. For some people thinking about the sheer time it might take to get to where you want is overwhelming. This can be daunting and make you want to give up because it seems so far away. It is important to have your end goal but if it is something that will take a long time to accomplish remember to set small attainable goals along the way that will help to keep you motivated in continuing towards your dreams and goals. The time it takes to get toward your goal can definitely be daunting at times. If you really sit down and think about it though, whether or not you are struggling towards making your dreams a reality the time will pass by anyway. What better way is there to spend that time than working on accomplishing your dreams or you could let that time pass by anyway fretting about how much time it will take. This was best stated in one of my favorite inspirational quotes, "Never give up on a dream because of the time it will take. Time will pass anyway." by Earl Nightingale.

 Another thing that can be a big deterrent for people is if they run into road blocks or failures. Sometimes these setbacks can be a huge hurdle to get over, but more than likely we will run into them somewhere in life whether it's our goals / dreams in being fit and healthy or our success in relationships or success in our careers or any aspect of life where we set goals for ourselves. What matters when we run into these roadblocks is that we pick ourselves back up and shake it off and learn from our mistakes. If we learn from our mistakes we can then also realize that it isn't the end, that we are still alive and there is still time to work towards our dreams. Just because there was a bump in the road doesn't mean our dream has to end.

Hopefully this PotM will provide some motivation if you are having doubts about how long it will take or you are encountering setbacks in your path to your dreams. Just as this picture says there is no expiration on your dreams, as long as you have the will to keep on pressing towards it you can and will accomplish it.

What is Defeat?

Here is the new PotM (picture of the month) that I chose for this go around, Bruce Lee and his quote "What is defeat?". Defeat, or failure, is something that we will all experience during our life times and how we respond to it will have a drastic influence on the outcome of our success in the future.

Before I delve completely into the meaning behind this quote from Bruce Lee I wanted to talk a little about the man himself. Bruce Lee was born in Chinatown, San Francisco on 27 November 1940. His parents moved back to China and he was raised in Kowloon until the age of 18. Bruce Lee then moved to America to go to college and try to make it on his own. To help pay his way in America he started teaching martial arts. He initially learned Wing Chun style in China but went on to develop his own style of martial arts known today as Jeet Kun Do. Bruce Lee is well known for such movies as Enter the Dragon, The Big Boss, and Game of Death. Bruce Lee Died on July 20, 1973 shortly after finishing the the film Game of Death. Though Bruce Lee's life was short, as he died at the age of 32, he accomplished many great things for the world of martial arts and the way westerners viewed people of Asian descent. Undoubtedly Bruce Lee knew very well the harsh taste of defeat in both his martial arts and in his personal life, however he chose to use it rather than be dragged down by it. His philosophy and way of life, I believe, go to show the validity of this statement that he has made about "What is Defeat".

The full statement is "What is Defeat? Nothing but education; nothing but the first step to something better.". To me this is about how, in our own lives, we view defeat or failures. Many people, in my experience, think that a defeat or a failure is a bad thing and that it means we can not accomplish what we set out to do. This statement is implying that defeat as a bad thing is completely incorrect, which I agree with 100%. If we let it, defeat or failure will surely get us down and make overcoming things harder because we let it affect our determination and mentality. Instead if we approach defeats or failures like Bruce Lee suggests in his quote as education we can use these and learn from them. If we learn from our defeats and failures instead of letting them overwhelm us we come out the other end of the situation as a wiser and stronger individual (whether that is physically or mentally). This is how we can take these negative situations and turn them into positives to move on towards something better.

I truly believe the greatest people throughout history are people who do exactly this and learn from their defeats and failures and go on to overcome them. As an example take Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln went into bankruptcy twice, failed to get elected multiple times, and the first lady he was engaged to died before they were married. Even with all these trials and hardships throughout his life he wound up becoming one the most influential and remembered US Presidents in history.

Defeat or failure can happen for us numerous ways when it comes to learning how to become fit or lose weight, but remember folks just because you experience a defeat or a failure doesn't mean it is the end of things. Stand up, learn from it, and continue to press on towards completing your goals and dreams!! I hope in the future I will continue to learn from my defeats and that you all will too.

"One Bad Meal"

Today's PotM (picture of the month) is all about cheating on your diet with "One Bad Meal". I can't over emphasize how important it is to have a good diet and stick to it. Your diet is the most important factor to helping yourself lose weight. Because no matter how hard you work out if you eat too many calories and are not at a caloric deficit you will not be very successful in weight loss. However one bad meal won't break you and in fact I would recommend, depending on your personal diet and eating schedule, to have a cheat meal once every week or two weeks.

Just as the picture indicates being on a diet is a change in how you eat overall for the majority of your meals. If you stick to eating clean for 20 of your 21 meals for the week or 41 of your 42 meals for 2 weeks or however your meal schedule breaks down you will still be able to get results. When you do cheat though just make it a small cheat and plan for it. After your cheat meal is done enjoy it and make sure to get back on your diet. Having a cheat meal every so often that is planned for and scheduled can be helpful for many people. Let's face it if you are like me and you love to eat all sorts of things that are tasty treats it can be very helpful to help curb your cravings. If you are constantly eating a particular set of food because it's easy to make and healthy for you sooner or later you will get tired of it and have cravings. So once in a while plan to indulge those cravings so that they don't get out of control. Humans are creatures that enjoy diversity so give yourself a little treat once in a while and eat something you love, just make sure once your done get back to your diet and don't beat yourself up over it.

A lot of times people get too down on themselves for eating a single bad meal and start to beat themselves up over it. If at all possible please try to avoid this. Having one bad meal is not the end of the world and having negative thoughts like I cheated, I ruined my diet, or I failed my diet are steps in the wrong direction. When you start being negative and getting down on yourself like that it just leads to bad results. Have you ever heard the statement "I think, therefore I am"? If you continuously think things like I cheated, I failed,  or I ruined my progress you quite simply will wind up doing so.

So again if you have one bad meal that is fine, just remember what counts is what you are doing with the other 95% of your diet that will make the difference in achieving your results. Worst case scenario if you do this you will lose 1-2 lbs instead of 1.2-2.2 lbs. If you struggle with cravings and wanting to eat tasty stuff try incorporating "One Bad Meal" into your diet and see if it helps you!!

Hard Work!

The new PotM is all about hard work!! I really like the message behind this picture, not to mention it is a really cool concept for the art. I do believe this picture ties back to propaganda for WW1 and WW2 when women were needed to fill the roles of the jobs typically done by males since they were all sent off to war. In the traditional poster it was a woman called "Rosie the Riveter" and she was doing this pose saying "We Can Do It!". To view a copy of the original picture click on this LINK and look at entry 21 about two thirds of the way down the page. It was a very famous and iconic image used to help motivate females and promote the power of what women can accomplish (Rock on girls!! ^_^).

Alright back to talking about the message in this picture, Hard Work can out-do Genetics!! I love this statement because it is such a simple truth that so many of us don't fully understand for ourselves and I feel it applied to me also. For a lot of us we think that we are destined to be fat because of bad genes, this couldn't possibly be further from the truth. Yes bad and good genes make a difference in our disposition to put on or lose weight and be in good shape, but bad genes do not make it impossible. Bad genes only make getting in shape slightly more challenging. Ultimately it comes down to diet (mostly diet) and exercise that will determine if we become overweight. Claiming you have bad genes is just an excuse and should be cast aside because they can be overcome!!

This is the beauty of fitness and good health because everyone can attain it. Yes it will take some hard work, a bit of dedication, and willpower but everyone can become healthy and strong if they put their mind to it. For those of us with bad genes we will have to do a bit more hard work than the rest but we can still get there. Results don't just magically happen for anyone, they happen for the people that go out and try hard. So let's all make sure to get out there and work hard and if you do you will see results!! Not only does hard work apply to overcoming genetics and getting in shape, but it applies to everything we do in our lives. So make sure to put forth your best effort everyone and make your health and your life the best one it possibly can be with hard work because you only live once!!

Life Change

This week I picked something for PotM (picture of the month) that was resonating with what was going on in my own personal life, change. I decided on this topic because there is a large change taking place in my life this week. I am moving from Fairbanks Alaska to the Denver Colorado area. As I am writing this post I am currently sitting in a hotel room in Prince George Canada.

For those of you that know me this was a very big change for me. I was born in Homer Alaska and grew up there all through high school. Three years after I started college at the University of Alaska Fairbanks I moved up to Fairbanks. This was the first place that I lived after I moved out of my parents house. Up until a few days ago I had been living in Fairbanks for the last nine years. Everyone I have known and everything I have accomplished so far have been up in Alaska. But despite all that I chose to move to the Denver Colorado area. I chose to move  because I was finally ready to press on with my life. I wanted to work on my goals of furthering my career in the IT field. Despite all the things and the amazing friends I left behind I know this will be a step in the right direction for making progress in my life.

As the quote by Confucius in this picture indicates we must change what we do in life often to make us happy and to continue to learn new things. For it is only through change that we can press on in life and see what the world has in store for us. As in my own personal situation you can see how it is hard to leave the people and things that are important to you behind and press ahead towards life changes. However if you stop and put things in perspective you can see that when choosing to make a change for the better in your life that the  positive gains will outweigh the negatives.

This very same principle of making a choice to work towards a life change for yourself applies to your health and fitness as well. Choosing to lose weight and get in shape always works best when you come at with the approach to change your life for the best. If you merely approach the situation with the mindset to work at it for a few months and lose weight and stop after you reach a goal weight you will often experience failure. Your health is like a lawn in the summer. If you mow it once and trim around the edges it will look nice for a while. If you then stop maintaining the lawn it will become overgrown, weeds will pop up, and it will turn yellow and deteriorate in places. To successfully have your lawn look good and stay that way you need to constantly maintain it, you must mow it, trim it, pick the weeds, and give it fertilizer. This is the exact same as your health and fitness you must continuously work at it to keep it.

So hopefully this PotW will inspire all of you  that are reading this post to make a Choice to take a Chance and make a Change to better your life by getting fit and in shape. You will have to work hard and be dedicated to maintain your fitness but I guarantee you will never regret the sacrifices you make to get there. 

Onepunch-Man Fitness

Here is the first of many images for Picture of the Month (PotM)!! Today's picture stars a Manga character named Saitama from the series Onepunch-Man. Onepunch-Man is an action/comedy/supernatural style manga. The story revolves around the main character Saitama who originally was an ordinary human that discovers he wants to be a super hero. Saitama then trains vigorously for 3 years and becomes ungodly powerful. So powerful in fact that he now defeats all his enemies with only ONE PUNCH!! Saitama meets with several other heroes and joins a hero alliance and works towards saving the world while increasing his hero rank. Saitama however is frustrated that all his battles now are instantly over and never provide him with any excitement because they always end after only one punch. 

I like this manga because it has a humorous story, amazing art work, and despite the fights ending with one punch the author still incorporates many awesome fight scenes. It currently has two different versions out. The one I linked to is a combination piece where the original author teamed up with an awesome artist to redo it. The other version called Onepunch-Man (One) is done solely by the original author (the author's pen name is ONE). One's artwork is somewhat under par but this version of the story has progressed further along than the redo with the plot.

The other reason I chose this for my PotM is because Saitama in this frame is explaining to the other heroes how he became so powerful. When you understand how powerful Saitama really is you know that this workout routine is completely impossible to achieve the strength he has. For example Saitama can defeat huge enemies that destroy sky scrapers in the blink of an eye (it's meant to be a humorous panel because Saitama is saying it so seriously). Anyhow despite the humor intended by this panel it does speak to a truth that all people aiming to get in shape can appreciate. If you build your workout and diet and work hard and stick to it every single day you will see results. Working hard EVERY SINGLE DAY is the point I wanted to drive home with picture. This doesn't necessarily mean working out everyday, but it does include working hard at eating right, getting enough rest, and everything else needed for improving your health. If you can do that you will get results and you will reach your goal.There will not be any shortcuts and it will take time, sweat, a few tears, and maybe a little blood but you can get there!! This is the awesome thing about health and fitness that anyone and everyone can get there with hard work and determination. So go out there and work hard everyone and you will see results!! ^_^