Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life

I love this picture of Marilyn. The pictures I love most of her are the ones that seem to show what she really was, a more quiet, introspective woman. This photo represents some of these great quiet moments I've had over the past several months, where I finally slowed down and just took some time to think. I thought about the past, the recent past and what I didn't like, and the further back past when I was happier (and I only mean "Happier" when I refer to the 'Bracket Years', the past 2 years of big time stress and underlying unhappiness- NOT now, because NOW I feel more happy, truly happy and excited every day.). I thought about what I'd like- what I WOULD REALLY LIKE- my future to look like. And I realized much had changed from before. The way I want my life to look now is much different than the way I envisioned in the past. 

That's cool. 

Anyway- a LOT of what I've been learning, and really, what I've always "preached" here is that our mindset, our attitude, our belief in ourselves is SO SO SO important. Some of my favorite quotes are:

• Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you are right. Henry Ford
• You aren't what you think you are. What you think, you ARE.
• Thoughts become things. (myriad references)

This quote is so true and it has resonated with me in particular over the past several months of my Oprah-Like A-HA moments. A whole lot of what I didn't do or accomplish the past couple of years had to do with my horribly insecure, stressed out and discouraged mindset. I had begun to view myself as a failure, as this really unattractive, undeserving of love person that COULDN'T accomplish what she wanted. Every day, I started my days pointing out to myself what I hadn't done, what I couldn't fix and then I compared myself to everyone around me that HAD done what I wanted to do. I was essentially scolding myself 24/7 saying, "You'll NEVER do anything!! You can't get it together! There is something WRONG WITH YOU!". 

That's the Kelly I told to get the heck out of my life. That's why this year I AM GOING FOR IT. I AM completely breaking free of my comfort zone, not just talking about it. Founding my company, FitFluential, was putting some big fears behind me. I had this idea for years and yet, now I see, my fear of failing at it kept me from putting my vision into place. Thank God for Jennifer and Amy who were in my life at the right time and who are amazing me every day as we build something that will share positive influences on men, women and children every day. 

I didn't used to run. You know why? BECAUSE I THOUGHT I COULDN'T. Then I kept saying "Oh I can't run, I get cramps.." THEN I hung with Amy and saw that she just STARTED RUNNING and "became a runner" and I suddenly started to think, maybe I could.

And I did. 

Change your thinking. You CAN change your life. And-- this is a lifelong thing. The "Bad Kelly" thoughts come back ALL THE TIME. The difference is now-- I recognize that biotch, and most of the time I can kick her butt OUT. 

This is so true. (If you aren't on Pinterest yet, go there. I get inspired by stuff like this every day. Amazing and perpetual online vision board material.)

So-- as you know, I've been changing a LOT about how I think in regards to food, in regards to "diet". For two years, I was in psycho mode, stressed, always panicking, and going from one extreme to another in the search for some perfect, ideal, optimal precise "fix" for my body. Every day was a virtual prison where I had labeled pretty much EVERYTHING except plain grilled fish and plain steamed green vegetables as BAD for me, and I was BAD FOR WANTING ANYTHING OTHER THAN FISH AND VEGIES. 

You can see the madness. And I kept the thoughts inside because I didn't want to be a bad example to others, I wanted to be encouraging, but deep inside I was a wreck. THANK GOD for the A-HA moments that finally awakened me. I am SO MUCH MORE CALM now-- and for real- about food. Don't get me wrong, this is a process. Sometimes those old thought patterns creep in, but again, I recognize it. And I am calm about talking myself through it. Because....

I WANT TO LIVE MY LIFE, NOT JUST 'GET THROUGH THIS DAY WITHOUT EATING ANY MORE'. I WANT TO ENJOY MY DAYS, NEVER JUST 'GET THROUGH THIS DAY'. I WANT TO ENJOY MY WORKOUTS NOT JUST FIT IT IN BECAUSE I WAS BAD THE DAY BEFORE.

BADASS. I also used to think, "I'm not a yoga person. I am so type A, no way I could sit still for that....". Guess what? This year, I've realized that I love yoga. Want more of it.  

So-- back to food. In the past, my days were consumed with thinking about what I was NOT ALLOWED TO HAVE. And while I am in no way encouraging myself or anyone to chow down on junk food all day, I am saying that taking ALL LIMITS off and ALL LABELS off of food has helped me tremendously. And the other day, as I checked in to Tumblr, I saw this great photo:

And I was like DAYUM that looks wonderful. It's nothing really outrageous-- right? But it's yummy. I think that often---our biggest stumbling block can be that we first of all, tell ourselves that we can't have virtually anything. We forbid ourselves from anything yummy. And yet is very easy to be barraged with images of the "yummy, delicious drool-worthy" foods like:

That looks DANG divine. No doubt. But-- as I was leafing through one of my 1700 magazines at home, I saw example after example of amazing "healthy" foods that are just as droolworthy. The more that I shop NOW- for groceries, and buy more variety of all kinds of foods (instead of doing what I did before which is limit my home to only canned green vegies and tilapia and tuna and coffee and unsweetened Iced tea), I find that each meal is not a jail sentence. 

Here are a few tidbits I pulled from Pinterest today:

And this:

oh, and this:

and:

Do you look at these photos and sigh and think, "Ohhhh yuk. That all looks sooo awful." No. And I could find hundreds more photos of amazing, colorful, tasty and delicious foods that are totally "healthy" and yummy. This is something I personally need to do more of- get CREATIVE....and again-- THIS IS ONLY TO SAY-- stop thinking all day about what you CAN'T HAVE and instead explore the world of what you can have. And then heck, when you want something like this, HAVE IT because when you aren't starving yourself or denying yourself 99% of foods on the planet, you won't eat the entire thing and then 2 more servings.....

Trust yourself. Expand your horizons. Change your thinking and make your fitness journey an adventure, not a prison. I'm telling you all, my days get brighter and brighter as I'm changing my thinking. It's SOOOO good. 

Do you hear what I'm preaching here?? ;-) 

QUESTION OF THE DAY: What are the ingredients in your favorite "summer" salad?