Tag: Balance

Categories
Health Coaching Spiritual Health

Everyone’s Always Searching For the Magic Bullet, Well I Have It For you.

As a trainer, nutrition enthusiast and “health professional” you get asked all the time about trends, food choices, exercises to do.  When I start to field these questions, I realize there is one common goal that many people wish they could have when it came to their health—> the “Magic Bullet” that would make it all easier.

I know they are wanting me to say some tips like, “Don’t eat past 7pm and THERE you’ll have your magic bullet!” OR “Do this particular exercise sequence that only takes 7-minutes and THERE, you’ll have your magic bullet!”  These tactics have all been mercilessly exploited.

Unless you are one of the thousands of authors that capitalize on this human “easy fix” desire and decide to write some “Diet” book that promises to “solve all their problems, get them 6-pack abs, and fix-up their husband and clean their house while they’re at it,”  MOST trainers and health professionals will say, “There is no such thing as the magic bullet!” mainly so they can reemphasize their own need, right?  We don’t want to lose OUR job to some “magic bullet” out there, we need to be needed!

Well, although I am NOT a “Diet” author hoping to capitalize on the naive hopes of people, I am also not afraid of telling all my clients ALL they will ever need to know in order to MOVE ON and no longer require my services.  I have the “Pay it forward” mindset, always relying on God to keep business good and wanting to serve in the health industry which usually means giving most of it away.  Convince you that you can do it on your own!  

For THIS reason, I must share I DO BELIEVE IS A MAGIC BULLET THAT ALL PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT AND UTILIZE TO RADICALLY CHANGE THEIR HEALTH!

Annnnnnnnnddddd, I’m gong to tell you exactly what it is!   Here!  For FREE!

 

The Magic Bullet for your Health is……

Your Greater Purpose.

This is your destiny, your calling and the reason why you were put on this Earth.

Because let me tell you, you are not only BORN TO RUN THE RACE of life, you are BORN TO WIN THE RACE and your health is both a product of and an integral tool in your ability to run this race to win!

You're Not Just Born to RUN

Your Greater Purpose in NOT what you do for a career or even a valuable role you play (as wife, mother, daughter etc). Your Greater Purpose is your ROLE in expanding the Kingdom of God and fulfilling God’s perfect plan.

It takes understanding your inherent worth, your DNA genetics and every gift, natural desire, ability, heart, passion, personality trait, and every single experience in your life ALL mold together to propel you down this raceway to not only learn to RUN but to LEARN TO WIN.

You WIN in life when you finally learn why you were put on this planet and you passionately pursue mastering this cause for God’s glory.

 

So, you might be asking yourself, Amanda, this is no “Magic Bullet” and what does this have to do with my HEALTH?

Ahhh but it is!  It IS magic because it takes such a monumental shift if your way of thinking that elevates your Spirit to its highest expression of YOUR.  It IS a bullet because it cuts to the heart of WHY you should get healthy, what your health is supposed to help you do in life.   That’s all I’m really after in my health coaching and teaching….helping you find your WHY for Health.    

Your “WHY” is as unique as your DNA because your GREATER PURPOSE can be achieved by NO ONE but you.  You can’t achieve greatly by trying to fulfill someone else’s shoes!    If you don’t find it and do it, no one else will.  There are things planned out for you that God specifically designed YOU to do, but it will always be reliant on your choice and willingness to do them.  It takes trust, hope, faith and above all LOVE to get your head wrapped around this and to say YES to God’s call.   It is a process.

Hey Who Has Why

The reason why I know that this is THE MAGIC BULLET is because knowing you are designed for a Greater Purpose and knowing what your Greater Purpose IS significantly affects ALL the other areas of your health that truly matter.

I believe there are 4 STEPS TO TRANSFORM YOUR HEALTH:

  1. Greater Purpose- Pursuing Your Destiny for Life

  2. Great Balance- Body, Mind, Soul

  3. Goals -Strive to Win

  4. Go-To’s – Create Your Community

While I don’t have time to go over each of these 4 Steps TODAY, I can tell you the MAGIC BULLET of knowing your Greater Purpose in life DRASTICALLY affects ALL THE OTHER STEPS.

  • Understanding that you were specifically chosen for a role in this life and a destiny you are to fulfill dramatically affects your GREAT BALANCE  because you see such a need to get your Spirit aligned with God in order to know what steps to take to your destiny and you also see the need to keep your mindset aligned with God’s thoughts so you don’t fall prey to the devil’s schemes who of course, wants to convince you never to pursue your Greater Purpose and stay playing small in life.
  • Understanding your destiny calling will allow you to establish the (w)right GOALS in life to get you there.  If you don’t have your final destination in mind, your goals are going to take you off course and will distract you from learning what you need to learn.  Not every goal is designed for you to succeed either!  Some of the greatest tools God uses in our Greater Purpose pathway is to teach us through Failure. But knowing God will make your path straight and will use all for Good allows you to not fear failure, but to FAIL FORWARD, FAIL FAST and FAIL FAITHFULLY. 
  • Finally, understanding you are born for a gift to the world that only you can offer will allow you to seek and find your GO TO’s in life.  Surround yourself with your Tribe of People that “get it” and understand where you’re going in life.  They will be there to speak to your gifts and help push you forward with encouragement and love.  In the same light, knowing your Greater Purpose will help you BE THE CHANGE that lost people need to see too.  To build up God’s Kingdom and show His love and mercy.

 

So really, there is a HEALTH HIERARCHY that exists in order for you to transform your health and live your greatest life possible!  It works and I have several clients to prove it!

Screenshot 2015-08-26 08.41.24

If this resonates with you, I would be honored to help expand on what this means in YOUR LIFE and YOUR HEALTH.  The main curriculum objective in my 12-Week Health Coaching sequences both the 1:1 Health Coaching and the STRONG’her Squad, is to guide you to this MAGIC BULLET and help you renew your mind in accepting this, then your health will fall into sequence accordingly.    To learn more and to see when I’m leading my next SQUAD opening, check out the Health Coaching tab on my website HERE or contact me at amanda@amandawrightfit.com!

 

Categories
Goal Development Health Coaching

What’s the (W)RIGHT Question When Facing Life’s Challenges?

IMG_6670

As I am in the business of helping others cultivate lasting change in their lives, I have written and truly believe that if we solely rely on will power to manifest any changes in our life, we soon recognize that our WILL POWER quickly becomes our WON’T POWER because we are relying on such small, finite power within ourselves. 

 

To find our GREATER POWER we must seek and find our GOD POWER which is limitless and infinite.  We find our GOD POWER when we engage and learn from a relationship with GOD and can focus and harness from His Spirit within us.  He always provides what we need in that moment we need it.

Will Power = Wont Power

 

I have learned this 1000-fold from first hand experience, but, God did not design us to have to learn everything from our own trials.  God gives us each other to learn from too. 

As I have built A. Wright Fit as a way to share my own faults and flaws in an effort to teach others as I “Find A Wright Fit” on my path to True (read: balanced) Health, I have found God has also provided me the gift of being on the receiving end of learning through other people’s lives as well. 

Such is the case of a story I want to share with you today.   I was talking with a new friend and new potential client we’ll call “K” about some recent exciting changes she’s been going through. 

I first met K just a few months ago as she was beginning life under a new boss and an exciting new promotion at her big corporate job.  She was so honored and encouraged by her upward movement with a company she loves.  Now with her new job and new boss, she was working harder than she had ever worked before, but work that feels so rewarding. 

Corporate ladder

But, in our last encounter, I saw a less enthusiastic K.  The problem is that as she has been working her tail off, other people in her company, at her same level and position no less, are doing what many flawed people do best—lots of gossip, jealousy, disparaging and waiting for her to fail so they could be “right” about their cynicism. 

work gossip image

She came to me needing to vent.  “I feel so lucky and can’t believe it’s all happening and yet I am so overwhelmed by all this negativity and criticism around me.  “They” are so mean and I am constantly thinking about what “they” are saying about me.  I break down all the time.”

Then she said it…..


“I know I just need to be STRONGER…..”

Scrrrrrrrrrcccccch.  (Record Stops)   My ears perk up.   

What K is experiencing is something I have experienced personally and what I see ALL THE TIME from friends, family and clients. 

When we get so caught up worrying about the CIRCUMSTANCE and the NAYSAYERS, we fail to see the BIG PICTURE and the power we have in these very moments.

  • K has been looking at her situation as “luck” that she found herself under her new boss at work and up for a promotion.  God sees this as His design for her, a step so worthy of her.
  • K thinks she needs more “strength” herself.  God has been patiently waiting for her to finally use HIS power within her. 
  • K thinks this is all about her “job” and being “strong enough.” God sees this as the prime opportunity to finally build the relationship He’s been seeking with her!  This is one of just a million ways He’s been trying to get her attention.

K has been trying to face her problems at work with WILL POWER, but she has quickly realized that her new position alone is maxing out all the will power she has!  New changes and our careers can quickly monopolize every ounce of will power we have.  

And, just as I mentioned at the beginning, when we solely rely on will power, it quickly becomes WON’T POWER.  It just won’t work for the long haul.   We’ll be miserable!

Here’s the Problem with Will Power:

If she is maxing out all her will power just at her job, the other areas of her life—her health, her relationships, her Faith— are all going to suffer from not getting enough attention and balance. 

She is seeing that she isn’t able to sustain the will power to do her job really well ANNNNNDD the will power to combat the naysayers.   On top that, she also wants to date and find a healthy relationship and get married one day.  On tippy top of that, she has also come to me expressing a real desire to getting healthier and less “skinny fat” as she puts it. 🙂 

We all want it all right?!  This IS what God wants for us too. But He wants us to do it His way, not our way.  

So, as much as I love new clients, I told her honestly that I can see she’s not in a place where she can focus on health changes too as I right away recognized that her will power tank is running on empty.  Adding more things on her “to do” list DOES NOT HELP when you are already feeling overwhelmed! 

If K doesn’t find more POWER within her, she is going to continue to struggle at her new position and struggle with attempts to do all the other things she wants to do in life.  Because, in all likelihood, the constant gossip, criticism and annoying comments aren’t going to go away….this is corporate America we’re talking about! 

But, even if they do, other problems are just going to replace them until K learns the Greater Lesson she is meant to learn from God.

I wanted to share K’s story, not only because it was tremendously helpful and insightful for me to learn from but I also know that many of you have felt these exact sentiments and could empathize from your own circumstances.

  • Perhaps you are running on emotional “empty” as well?  Perhaps you have maxed out all your will power to just one area of YOUR life and here has come another problem you can’t seem to handle? 
  • Perhaps you too have dreams of having more to your life than just  the _____________ (area) but can’t imagine how you’re going to find the will power, time OR the energy!?
  • Perhaps you have recently thought that exact same phrase as K and myself, “If I were just STRONGER…..”


Don’t. Fall. For. The Trap.

The devil with prey on our challenging circumstances and cause you to think of them as a “bad sign” or proof that you are indeed “unworthy” of the life you have dreamed for yourself.  He’ll want to persuade you to give up and play small by focusing on all the wrong things. 

But what you may be needing, just like K is needing, is not a newfound ANSWER but rather A NEW QUESTION.

You see, when you experience pain, when you are going through trouble and trauma and uncertain times, you must focus on the (W)RIGHT QUESTION to get the (W)RIGHT ANSWER   (and then “You’ve Got the (W)Right stuff….baby”)

You've Got the Wright Stuff....
Couldn’t resist…..

THE (W)RIGHT QUESTION:

WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO LEARN HERE GOD?

I love what Rick Warren says about our problems.  He says, “God is not interested in your circumstances as much as He is interested in your CHARACTER.”

In other words, what character values are you cultivating as you harness your energy for your problems? Where are you putting all of your hope and faith?   

Is it in yourself and all that you are able to do (i.e. your WILL POWER)? 

OR are you praying and seeking God’s power through God’s wisdom?

Refocusing your mind and thoughts on what GOD might be wanting you to learn through prayer and reading the Word of God,  will provide you with the REAL answer and your GREATER POWER which is your GOD POWER. 

Then you’ll find, even if your circumstances don’t change, your perspective of them will, and that will make ALL THE DIFFERENCE!

God allows everything to enter into our life to teach us and be used for Good by cultivating the necessary character changes you need.  This includes bad decisions we make, bad things that other people say or do to us, and the havoc that the devil and evil will cause for us too.  ALL can be made RIGHT with God and will serve our Greater Purpose. 

So keep the Faith and keep asking God the (W)Right Question to get the (W)Right Answer!  Remember, in order to HEAR God, you must spend time in PRAYER and in His WORD (i.e. reading the Bible) and it will be revealed!

 

“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” (Romans 8:28 NLT)

  

Categories
Food & Nutrition Health Coaching Spiritual Health

Finding Harmony Among Chaos | 3 SIMPLE HEALTH INTENTIONS DURING STRESSFUL TIMES

Wild flowers growing in a crack in a rock

My life tends to turn into “whirl wind” status within a blink of an eye! I’m sure you can relate in some way in your life too!

Over the last 3-weeks my life has be thwarted and thrusted into the chaos of big changes, including:

1.) I started this very blog, new website and new business LLC all requiring patience and drive to overcome my technology learning curve. In the end, I decided to use a godaddy website builder to try and make the whole process a bit easier for me. I’m not the best when it comes to technology and I have very little knowledge when it comes to building a website. The business was the most stressful part of these past few weeks. I have worked so hard to get it started and I wanted everything to be perfect. I quickly learnt that it probably wouldn’t be!

2.) My husband and I packed up most of our life to move into a new home in a brand new city also requiring big-time patience (as I am currently on day no. 3 of trying to get the darn internet, not to mention the endless shopping for beds, plates, and the essential nick-knacks and doodads.) After one of our friends told us about secured loans, we realized moving house could be easier than we first expected. We managed to sell our old house pretty quickly and then used the loan as our deposit. I’m so in love with our new home. It’s fabulous! Once we’ve finally settled in and have some spare time on our hands, we’re thinking about making it our mission to look for wireless alarms, as moving into a new house in a completely new city comes with the unknown. How safe is it? Do we have a possibility of getting burgled? These are all things that we don’t know, but if we have an alarm, a huge portion of that worry will be reduced. So, once everything else has been sorted, (whenever that will be), this should become our main focus.

3.) Smack dab in the middle of all these changes, we did whisk away to Hawaii, not just for the purpose of relaxation (although we did some of that) but so see my husbands 2.5 year old daughter, Eden, (who lives in Japan with her mom and stepdad most of the year). So, for 10 wonderful days we were thrust into the spinning vortex of toddler-life that, while exhilarating and drenched in deep love for her….. is also exhausting because she’s 2 1/2 and quite boisterous!

I am the first to admit, I am eternally blessed to get to experience such a roller coaster ride of life! You are eternally blessed (even when you don’t feel it!) for those crazy, manic experiences of your life too.

THE QUESTION IS:

How do we best handle our HEALTH when we are in chaotic times?

I gotta admit, even as a health coach, just 1-year ago, my health habits in stressful times were anything but healthy. In fact, my most common stressful habits included: excessively eating and drinking (alcohol) and overindulging, surviving on simple carbs alone, thinking I had to do everything myself and perfectly, not getting much sleep or rest and/or hardly taking a pause at all!

Might sound familiar?!

You see, at this time of my life, I was weighing all of my food, I was counting my macronutrients, and I was really focused on the details of my eating and working out (ie. Micromanaging my health). I was hyper focused on being “perfect” in my body’s health and severely relied on my routine!

While there is a time a place for some of us to really get down to the nitty gritty of what we are putting into our bodies (especially for the last few body fat percentages to your goal weight), the real win is if we can just stay CONSISTENT with our health and avoid the yo-yo of the scale!

But, for years at this “micromanagement stage,” when life got too chaotic for me to handle and I didn’t have my go-to daily routines in place, my whole health plan would fall apart at the mere mention on “away from home” or “vacation”. I then resorted to old habits and binge eating tendencies!

What resulted was massive swings of my weight AND mood. I could gain 5-10lbs EASILY in just 1 week. As I began to see and feel the weight gain, I would get a lot more stressed and more irritable and anxious too, affecting my mindset! At one point, I was that overwhelmed with my emotions and my negative thought-process, that I considered doing something about it. My friend, who has suffered from anxiety and stress in the past, said that CBD oil made a significant impact to her mindset, and improved how she looked at the world and the goals that she had. It sounded like a good idea, but I wanted to try and do this by myself.

This usually lead me to drastic cuts in calories and more stress to begin micromanaging my diet again. Usually cutting way back on my calories or carbohydrates, which lead to a major metabolic slow down! I found that every time I gained those 5-10 lbs, it got harder and harder to lose them again once the chaos slowed! It was frustrating, to say the least!

Not to mention, by making such drastic cuts in food, I was also cutting back my energy and ability to focus throughout the day. Which caused….you guessed it… even more stress!

A vicious cycle! (Blink if you can relate :-))

Alas, I’m happy to report that since I’ve refocused my health to what I call True Health (meaning it focuses on the body, mind AND soul altogether), I have just proven to myself that my new ways are having the EXACT OPPOSITE result as those old overindulging, micromanaging tendencies!

Not only did I NOT gain weight during these 3 weeks (I actually lost a few lbs), but I feel really energized still! I didn’t need a vacation after my vacation. And, I don’t need a vacation now that I’ve moved in! I still have energy to keep going! Which is KEY to sustaining this state of stress and change I am still enduring.

The best part is, it has been SO SIMPLE and just required me to focus on 3 SIMPLE HEALTH INTENTIONS DURING STRESSFUL TIMES to have such a wondrous affect.

God Bless It! I have found harmony among the chaos!

By just sticking to these 3 SIMPLE HEALTH INTENTIONS DURING STRESSFUL TIMES, I have never handled such stress so well! They are:

Intention #1– Stay STRONG’her– I chose just 1 habit to focus on for my body!

Intention #2– Stay WISE’her– I chose just 1 habit to refocus on mindset re: my body!

Intention #3– Stay SURREND’her(ed)– I chose just 1 habit to focus on my spiritual strength (and got some bonus love from God too!)

#1. STRONG’her Intention: I FOLLOWED MY 5-STEPS TO NUTRIENT BASED DIET

(If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, check out my Infographic HERE from my recent blog introducing my approach to the best way to start looking better AND feeling better).

The beautiful thing about following these simple 5-Steps to a Nutrient Based Diet is that it can be done ANYWHERE and EVERYWHERE. I did it at the airport. I did it in the hotel. I did it at every restaurant. I did it in the midst of a move. IT CAN BE DONE! It requires NO food scale, NO calorie counting, and NO micromanaging!

In fact, check out some of the delicious AND nutrient-based meals I had in Hawaii!

(*BONUS- If you would like to see more of the nutrient-based meals I eat, follow me on twitter (@wrightfitinc) or Instagram (@a.wrightfit) where I will be posting them often with the hashtag #nutrientbaseddiet. Feel free to post your #nutrientbaseddiet meals too, tag me in your photos and I’ll re-tweet and re-gram you!)

As you can see, being on vacation or eating a nice meal out to eat does NOT mean I don’t equally focus on nutrient inclusion and diversity. Quite the contrary!

However, I DO still indulge some, because well….I’m on vacation! BUT my indulgences still fit into those 5-steps for a Nutrient Based Meal, which means, I indulge in moderation.

For example, if I wanted a glass of wine with dinner, I counted that as my carbohydrate source for that meal. If I wanted to try the house specialty of Coconut Crusted Shrimp, I sure did! But I only had 1-2 of them (for a good taste) and counted the fried part as my fat content for that meal. I would then have my vegetables steamed or salad with extra lite dressing to better balance the meal and not overdo the fat.

Also, if I knew that I was going to have a nice dinner at night, I might reserve a couple of my carbohydrate and fat servings from the meals earlier in the day so I could better enjoy the special meal at dinner!

The key was, even if I was treating myself in some way or enduring some stressful moments of chaos, I just made sure…

……. I still got my water

……..I still got my servings of green and colored vegetables &

……..I still got my protein

Keeping those core nutrient essentials helped fill up my stomach so I didn’t have room to overindulge on only the bad stuff!

2. WISE’her Intention: I FOCUSED ON MOVEMENT MORE THAN WORKOUTS

When I was feeling so stressed, the last thing I wanted to do was stress even more about working out (or not working out)! So, I let the workout opportunity come more organically than forced. There were a couple mornings that I felt like really getting in the gym and intentionally inducing some body stress for the sake of getting the endorphin rush and extra blood flow. It can definitely help with stress management!

But, on the days that a workout just couldn’t easily fit into my schedule, I didn’t sweat it (literally)! I was just more mindful of moving more on those days! With Eden, I was in the water much more with her and being silly playing (something all parents can do)! More recently as we’ve been moving, I was certainly getting a better workout by mindfully lifting the boxes, going up and down stairs with speed and “running the marathon of shopping” to find beds, plates, chairs, and all those other doodads needed to fill-up a home!

Stressing about working out does not serve your body nor does it create a healthy mindset! This happened to be something that would mentally disturb me previously, so it dramatically helped my mindset to intentionally step back from this self-pressure.

If you are similar, during tumultuous times, I encourage you to refocus your energy on movement! Then, when you have more time, get back in the gym. But when you don’t, just focus on the movement opportunities in front of you! There is an abundance!

3. SURREND’her Intention: I “CHECKED-IN” WITH MY SOUL DAILY

Sunday is not the only day to engage your spirit! I have learned that creating a daily habit of spiritually checking-in will infinitely increase my ability to handle whatever situation and stress I face that day!

For the last several months, I have created a daily habit of waking up in prayer (starting a morning prayer even before I open my eyes) even if it just acknowledging that God is God and that I have woken-up because He has allowed me to. Waking-up to Prayer first is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself. It sets the perspective of the entire day ahead of you!

I also have found great spiritual strength by the brief moments checking-in with my soul and God’s presence throughout the day. I do it intentionally when I read my daily devotional (via ebook for convenience of course) or get my daily Bible Verse pop-up reminder from the YouVersion bible app (even more convenient!). These things take just minutes of my day and can easily be done on the busiest of days!

To my delight, by doing the intentional habits, I find that these “check-ins” also happen unintentionally throughout the day too!. I start to see and recognize God in the places and faces of people around me. I saw Him in the eyes of my step daughter, Eden, when she would laugh. In the face of my husband, Howard, as he held her and again as we wept when we had to leave her. I felt God when I felt the warm sun on my face or saw the dozen beautiful sunsets in front of me. I saw God in my mom’s eternal patience as she was here helping us move in. I saw God daily when I looked in the mirror and didn’t hate the image staring back at me. God’s grace. It is ALL around us, it’s all about recognizing it!

My friends, if you are among the many who are STRESSED or going through some transition or changes in your life, you don’t have to give up on your health!

Find just 3 simple habits that you can focus on-one for your Body, one for your Mind, and one for your Soul and stick with those! You will find the balanced approach to your health, even in the midst of stress, will allow your body to maintain your true health in such wonderful ways.

Focusing on nutrients at every meal, movement and a daily spiritual “check-in” like I did, will work WONDERS on your ability to manage anything that is happening!

Should you fall off for one meal, one day, or several days, don’t panic! Let this email remind you of what you CAN do to empower yourself to handle things better at the next meal, the next day and the next several days to get you back to true health!

AND, with all of this, it bears a reminder. God loves you just as you are, flaws and all. Allow these stressful times to draw you nearer to Him and He will use it to help build more character within you and guide you closer to your Greater Purpose!