Take Back Your Power One Promise at a Time

Sure, having a solid, integrated plan with strength training, interval cardio and a solid nutrition plan will help you reach your goals fastest, but that’s not what it’s all about! At the core of it, it’s about making and keeping healthy promises to yourself. Yeah, you! You still matter!  Even though your kids are number one, you still must take care of you. Here’s how to take back your power one promise at a time.

In an airplane, you are always told to put on your oxygen mask first. The same way in life, you need to take care of your health first. If you are not happy and healthy, you cannot make anyone else happy and healthy.

– Rajashree Choudhury

I completely understand if beginning a whole plan seems out of reach right now. if your confidence is completely shot right now, and that your body and life might not seem like they below to you right now….

But there is a way to take the POWER back, with simple “Power Promises.”

Take the Power Back

It starts with the understanding that every little promise you make to yourself is a gamble with your self-esteem. That’s why it really may not be the best idea right now to take on a whole fitness plan.  You might truly need to start small, with simple promises you make to yourself Each promise needs to be structured so that you KNOW you can fulfill it. If you only make promises that you KNOW you can keep – and keep them – you are doing so much more than creating healthy habits for yourself. You are creating a mindset for yourself that says “I am in control!” “I have the power!” Chris Powell of the ABC show Extreme Weightloss has set of 101 basic, realistic promises, that you can use – his “Power Promises” -from the book “Choose More, Lose More, For LIFE.”

I absolutely love this idea and believe these are the key to taking back the power over your life one step at a time. Here’s how it works. Pick one promise and focus on keeping it. Only after you master the first one, add a second, make that one happen, add a third… keep going until you transform your life! Remember each little promise to yourself puts your power on the line. Make it and you are on your way to the confidence you need to truly change your lifestyle, break it and you have the potential to set yourself back further than you were before.

I picked out some from the book and added some more mom specific ones to get you started.  There are three categories (just like those in my MIND.BODY.SOUL Challenge).

You will notice that some of them include blanks. Make them measurable. How much? often? many? You decide and stick to it! You will find my suggestions for good healthy options (in parenthesis).

Promises

Empower Your Mind

1. Set a timer to go off every hour to remind myself to breathe deeply for 1 minute. Match the exhale to the inhale.
2. Count my day’s accomplishments each night.
3. Take control of one decision each day and don’t let anyone else make it for me.
4. Say “I will” instead of “I want” and “I can” instead of “I can’t.”
5. Find something good about myself every day, instead of something wrong with me. Write it down!
6. Be 100% present with my kids for ___ (30 minutes) straight. No devices or screens allowed.

Strengthen Your Body

1. Park farther from the entrance at work and the store.
2. Exercise for _____ (ten) minutes every day.
3. Sit up straight. (and every time you catch yourself not, do _______ (10 jumping jacks).) Mom posture is real. 
4. Take the family for a ______ (half-hour) walk after dinner instead of watching TV.
5. Set a timer. Get up if I are sitting and walk around for five minutes every _____ (hour). You can use this time to do a little picking up around the house 😉
6. Limit my time sitting on the couch to _____ (one) hour(s) a day.

Feed Your Soul

1. Eat breakfast every morning.
2. Keep healthy snacks on hand at home, work, and anywhere else I eat.
3. Quit grazing on my kid’s snacks in the afternoon.
4. Drink at least half as many ounces of water daily as I weigh in pounds.
5. Plan ahead to occasionally enjoy my favorite foods in moderation so I don’t feel deprived.
6. Increase the fiber in my diet.
7. Stop eating in the car.

Lasting Transformation

Remember you are starting with ONE promise you KNOW you can keep. Your power relies on you keeping them not in how big or perfect they are.

Every promise you make and keep, builds you up! It fuels your fire! And before you know it you’re transformed into someone who is fit and healthy NATURALLY.