A New Reality In 5 Minutes!

Hi Motiv8ers,

Happy Awesome Monday!!

So why are you here today? Maybe to learn how to be happier and less negative? Or to learn how to be more productive and stop holding yourself back? Or to learn a new way to start your morning?

That all sounds great, right? Well, good news! You can do all of this on your own without the help of anyone or anything. All you need to do is give yourself some attention for at least five minutes every day.

Before I go further, watch this short three minute video from Dan Harris from ABC news.

Pretty crazy right? Who knew that meditation can really affect the brain so much? I also found it fascinating that he feels that soon, meditation will be as normal in our lives as brushing your teeth.

Now let's get into the topic of the day: How you should start your morning!

Do you know what causes most of your stress, anxiety, depression, or shame? It isn't your job, or the people you work with, or the life that you live.

All of your stress is produced by your own mind and how you perceive your environment.

What if I told you that you could live the same life you live now, but be completely happy and in love with it? You would probably say I was crazy and full of sh$&. Right?

Let's get into the details of this.

The Monkey Mind!

In Buddhism, they call an out of control mind 'The Monkey Mind.' If you let the monkey take over, there is no telling how much trouble it will cause. The monkey mind is described as the story you tell yourself over and over again in times of negative emotions, like anger, greed, fear, or the feeling of lacking something, that holds you back from doing what is most important.

Here are a few examples of an out of control monkey mind....

1. You wake up in the morning for a 5:30a workout. But instead of going, you come up with a list of excuses that helps you justify why you shouldn't go. It's too cold out, my back is sore, I'll workout in the afternoon, I slept only six hours. Why would I ever think working out this early was a good idea??
2. Someone says a mean comment to you. Instead of just thinking that this person might have had a bad day, you go down the rabbit hole. Who does that person thinks he or she is? They don't know who I am. I'll put them in their place next time! Why doesn't that person like me, or do they really believe what they said about me, am I a bad person? This can lead you into a depression for sure.
3. You are writing a blog post that you know will help others but you can't seem to get the words out and your frustrations start to build. Who is really going to read it anyway? Why would others listen to me? Am I wasting my time? What is the point? I am never going to finish this post! Your stress builds and might even cause you to give up.

Think about your life. How many times has your monkey mind put you in a bad mood and caused a ton of stress?

I can think about how this happens to me almost every day.

So how do you calm this monkey mind?

You have to learn how to be aware of it. The mind is a powerful thing and can think of hundreds of topics in just a minute.

You have to learn how to train the mind to focus on what is important and learn how to let go of the thoughts that are not.

The only way to do this is through MEDITATION. All you need is just five minutes a day. You can do it in the morning, the afternoon, or before your big meeting at work. I have found that five minutes in the morning is best, but really anytime is good.

Many people think that meditation is hard because they can never seem to calm their mind or sit still. Calming the mind isn't the point. The point is learning how to be aware of your thoughts and focusing on what is important. That is why beginning meditations have you focusing on the breath. Put all of your focus on breathing in and breathing out. Eventually your mind will wander and go off on a day dream, but as soon as you realize this, refocus your mind back to your breath. The more you do this the more you will improve your focus and learn how to tame the monkey mind and keep it focused on what is important.

The Headspace app is a great tool to help you learn how to start meditating. Check out this one-minute video, from Headspace, that describes the topic above perfectly.

Does It Work?

The last thing I want to cover is something I bet most of you are thinking. I even thought about it when I first started meditating.

I think about my thoughts and life all the time and I never seem to improve my negativity! How is sitting on a chair, closing my eyes, and focusing on my breath going to help me improve my stresses at work or in my life?

I use to think this too, but I have found that meditation is different then just thinking about your stresses in the shower or in your car. I have found that closing my eyes and really paying attention to myself for 5 to 10 minutes has helped me solve my problems versus letting them build up. I always find a solution to my problems during meditation and when I practice regularly my day is always perfect!

Now For The Challenge!

So crew, I challenge you! Can you set aside five minutes every day this week to spend time paying attention to yourself? I promise that if you do, you will see huge improvements in your life.

Here's what to do:

1. Find a quite comfortable place to sit. In a chair or on the floor.
2. Set a timer for 5 or 10 minutes.
3. Start with just focusing on the sounds around you. 
4. For 2 minutes, just focus on your breath. Think about breathing in, then breathing back out, over and over. Every time a thought comes up, recognize it, let it go, and return to your breath. Maybe even count your breaths. See how high you can count without letting your mind wander. If you forget which number you are on, start over.
5. For the last minute or two, think about everything you want in life. This is where you get to let your mind do what it wants. What job do you want, your family, your friends, what vacation you want to go on, how much money you want to make, or the type of person you want to be. Visualize having all of it. 
6. Then ask yourself "what can I do right now to push myself closer to those desires."

Then, all you have to do is go out and be a force of awesomeness! =)

Motiv8ers, I hope this post has helped you, and if you have any questions, post below!

Also post below if you are taking on the challenge with me! =)

If you are looking for more information on this topic check out the book below!

Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics: A 10% Happier How-To Book

Crew Stay EPIC and Don't Forget to Be AWESOME!

Coach Ty Out!

3 Steps To Take After A Diet Program!

Hi Motiv8ers,

Yesterday was the last day of our 7 Day Rescue Motiv8 Challenge. It was awesome seeing everyone's food posts and thanks to everyone who shared their experience on the Motiv8 HQ Facebook page!

The next question is, "what do I do now?"

The challenge is over, so do I continue on this path or do I go back to my old ways?

Today's blog post focuses on just this topic. What to do now?

Today, I'd like for you to take a good five minutes and review the three steps below.

3 Steps to Take After A Diet Program!
Motiv8ers, now that our challenge is over, it's important to spend a little bit of time reflecting on your experiences. Check out the three steps below to help you decide what parts of this challenge you would like to adopt and what parts you would like to discard.

First Step: Review how you felt during the challenge.

Take out a sheet of paper and write down how you felt over the seven days. Think about the topics below, then write down if you felt better or worse for each topic.

• Did you have more energy or less energy during the day? If you had less energy, why do you think this might be? 
• Did you feel more focused at work or less focused?
• Did you have more energy or less energy at your workouts?
• Did you have cravings for the foods you were avoiding or were you satisfied with your meals?
• Do you feel like you gained weight or lost weight?
• Did your mood improve during the day or decline?
• How was your sleep? Did you feel fresh in the morning or worn out?

Crew, take some time to really think through each topic. This review you will help you figure out if the 7 day challenge was good for you or not. If you liked the challenge, then how can you adopt the challenge into your your daily life. If you didn't like the challenge, really think about what you needed that you didn't get during these past 7 days.

Second Step: Ask yourself if you could make this diet a new lifestyle.


Many of us start a diet, see success, but then find ourselves falling back into our old bad habits and gaining back all the unwanted weight that we lost. So in order to make your results stick, you have to fully commit to making this diet part of your new lifestyle.

The mind is a powerful tool. Have you ever heard the phrase "you are what you think?" If you want to be healthy and strong but you always think of yourself as out of shape and overweight, there is no way you will be able to adopt a new healthy lifestyle. You might be strong at first, but you will always fall back into your poor habits because your mind doesn't believe you can do it.


So if you decide that this diet is for you, you have to think of yourself as the type of person that eats this way and that sees the results you are looking for. Believe that you can be healthy and make this type of diet your new norm.

Make this new lifestyle who you are and ignore what your environment or social circles are telling you. If you feel good eating this way, don't allow your friends, family, or coworkers to persuade you into falling back into your old bad habits. Become a new person and embrace the new strength and power that your body will feel as you become a healthier, happier person.

Third Step: Learn how to have balance.

Motiv8ers, the 7 day challenge's goal is to help you have a healthier relationship with food and learn how to eat when your body needs the most healing. It isn't saying that you have to stop eating the processed sugar, dairy, junk food, alcohol, etc. The goal is to help you have the right relationship with these foods.


Think of food as having a purpose.

You eat proteins when your body needs to repair and heal. Carbohydrates are taken in when the body needs energy or needs to refuel after a hard day or workout. Fats are designed to help lubricate the body and organs, give it a little bit of energy, and help with brain health.

Think of your junk food as party food or special occasion food. You have it when you are at a party or when you are celebrating or out with friends. But in your day-to-day life, you need to stay away from those foods that causes your body the most stress. Instead, you focus on the foods that give your body energy, helps it heal, and makes you feel great.

For example, I used to have a problem with the Clif Shot Bloks. These are energy chews that are supposed to help you sustain your energy during long endurance events like a marathon. But I was using them to give me energy before a workout and eventually I started eating them as a snack. It got so bad that I was eating two packages a day. I felt like I needed them to be energetic in the workouts I coached. But they were causing me a lot of problems and I wasn't even aware of it.  They were spiking my blood sugar which made me feel a bit tired later in the day. The biggest problem was they were giving me canker sores in my mouth. I would get one or two small sores every week. It was caused by the processed sugar. I thought it was something I was just prone to and I would have to live with, but once I took them out of my diet the sores went away quick. And, for almost a year now, I have kept the sores away. Which makes my life so much happier. =) I still eat the bloks but only how they are meant to be eaten. During a long run which only happens once every two or three weeks.   

Conclusion:

Motiv8ers, it comes down to this: A diet program is not meant to help you get a quick fix so that you can go back to your old ways.

A diet program is used to help you make a lifestyle switch. To help you become a healthier new version of yourself.

So ask yourself what you liked about this challenge. Can you adopt this challenge into your lifestyle and make it your new norm? You started this challenge because you needed something different, or what you were doing previously wasn't working. In order for you to become a new healthier person, your mind, your habits, and your lifestyle has to change.

So Crew, use the steps above and start this week with making a conscious decision to take another step forward in your health.

Crew, that is all for today!

If you enjoyed this challenge and would like to have more challenges in the future, post below or post on our Motiv8 HQ Facebook page.

Also, if you would like to do some further reading for more info on a plant based diet, check out these two books below. I highly recommend them:

 How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease

By Michael Greger

The Engine 2 Seven-Day Rescue Diet: Eat Plants, Lose Weight, Save Your Health 

By Rip Esselstyn

   Coach Ty Out!

The Seven-Day Rescue Diet!

Hi Motiv8ers,

If you are on this page it means you are curious about this 7 day challenge and how it might be able to help you start seeing energy and health improvements.

Before I go into the details of the challenge, I just wanted to say that I have been following a whole foods plant based diet for the past nine years and it has given me the body, the energy, and the strength I have always wanted. When I talk to people about what I do for a living, such as coaching numerous boot camps a week and running ultra marathons, they think I can eat the way I do because I exercise so much. But that is completely backwards. I can do what I do because of how I eat. I would never have the energy, or the body, to be able to perform at the level I do if I wasn't for the healthy whole foods diet that I believe in and follow.

So take this challenge seriously, it just might give you more energy than you could ever imagine!  =)

Let's get started!

Time Frame?

January 29th through February 4th

Who can do the challenge?

Everyone! This is a free Motiv8 Challenge.

Where can I get support?

The Motiv8 team and crew are here to help you stay Motiv8ed for these 7 days. Join our Facebook group, Motiv8 HQ, and every day, starting today through February 4th, I will be posting tips on how to stay Motiv8ed, how to make this transition easy, and pictures of the foods I will be eating. Again, click here and join the Motiv8 HQ group.

What is the Engine 2 Seven-Day Rescue Challenge?

Engine 2 is a whole foods plant based diet program that is sponsored by Whole Foods Market. It is owned by Rip Esselstyn and his Engine 2 team have been working to change the American diet for the past eight years. He transformed a Texas BBQ-loving fire station into a plant-based powerhouse, and now he’s dedicated his life to showing you how to live an easy and satisfying plant-strong life. More than 15,000 people joined the challenge during his inaugural kickoff.

Backed by substantial medical research and results from his own one-week, plant based retreat in Sedona, Arizona, even Rip was astounded by the true transformations that resulted in just 7 days of a Plant-Strong diet. Better digestion, happier outlook on life, better blood sugar, prettier skin, more energy, less inflammation, and better sleep are just a few of the benefits you will see in just 7 days.

Now it’s time for YOUR transformation!

To celebrate the launch of his book, The Engine 2 Seven-Day Rescue Diet, Rip is inviting YOU, your friends, family and loved ones to take the Seven-Day Challenge, FREE.

How can you get started? 

Just click on this link: http://engine2diet.com/7drc/

You will need to sign up for emails in order to download the free PDF of the challenge. But trust me, these emails are awesome.

Are there meal plans? What will the meals look like? 

The challenge gives you an easy-to-follow guide to help you build your own meals. Most of the meals are in bowls and they show you how to build a healthy bowl to keep you full and feel great.

Why this challenge and not others like the Whole 30?

Last week I wrote a blog called the "1 Pound Diet." Click here to check it out.

We all love to eat. Eating a lot of food is just what we love to do and the thought of not feeling full after a meal is frustrating. The 1 Pound Diet was about how many pounds of food our stomach wants each day and how many calories are in a pound of various foods. The foods that are the lowest in calories are foods that are whole, have lots of water weight, and have tons of fiber. If you eat these foods you could eat as much as you want and never go over your calorie goals for the day.

That is what this challenge is all about. Showing you that there is a way to eat where you will never feel hungry and you can eat as much as you want. All you have to do is stick to a few simple rules!

What are those simple Rules? There are 7 of them!

1. All Vegetables: Leafy greens, potatoes, squash and more

2. Whole Fruit: Fresh or frozen (thawed - no smoothies!)

3. Intact Whole Grains: Brown rice, oats (steel cut or rolled), quinoa, farro, bulgur

4. 100% Whole Grain Items: Breads, pastas and tortillas (watch out for added oils!)

5. Legumes Baby!: Black beans, lentils, pinto beans, chickpeas, split peas, oil-free hummus

6. Extra Flavor: Herbs, spices, vinegars, hot sauce, mustard, ketchup, BBQ sauce

7. Beverages: Water, tea, coffee (For cereal only: Unsweetened almond, oat or soy milk)

Things to Avoid!

Meat
Poultry
Fish
Eggs
Cheese and other dairy products
Extracted oils: olive, coconut, canola etc. Refined breads and pastas
Refined sugars
Processed vegan meat substitutes
Smoothies
Juices
All coconut products
Nuts (except walnuts) & Nut butters

Things you might be confused about!

Meat?
I know many of you are thinking "why no meat?" Meat takes a long time for the body to digest which can prevent the body from performing at its highest level. Give this challenge a shot and see how you feel. You might be surprised at just how great you feel in your workout when you have tons of energy from vegetables and fruit.

Why no smoothies, juices, or nut butters?
These three categories of food are usually considered to be healthy but they can be a highly concentrated amount of calories. If you are an ultra athlete like me who needs 2500 or more calories a day, you might want to take advantage of these categories. But if you are someone who is looking to lose some weight and have a healthier relationship with food, I challenge you to avoid them until you are starting to reach your goals and exercising more.

Why no oils?
Again, oil is a highly concentrated amount of calories. Remember in the "1 Pound Diet" blog we stated that one pound of olive oil has 3,998 calories. That is a lot. Oils get a lot of people in trouble when they start to diet. They think they are eating healthy but the oils are still causing them to have too many calories.

Bread?
You'll see that bread is recommended above. Now don't go out and start eating your favorite bread. The only types of bread I recommend for this challenge is the Engine 2 products that you can find at Whole Foods or the Ezekiel bread that you can find at most HEB's.

Be careful with sauces!
As you can see above, BBQ sauce is recommended. But remember, this is a no added sugar and no oil diet. If you buy BBQ sauce, or any other sauce, make sure there is no sugar and no oil. You just have to look at the labels.

What might a meal look like?

Motiv8ers, if you have more questions, post below or email me at ty@motiv8fitness.net.

Again, this challenge starts next Monday, January 29th. I will be posting updates and tips every day on our Facebook group which you can find here.

The challenge is only for 7 days. It isn't that long. So put your criticisms, excuses, self-doubt, or disbelief's aside and give it a shot. It definitely will not hurt you to give it a try!

Crew, my goal is to make you as epic, awesome, and healthy as possible and I know this challenge will do just that. Let's do this together. =)

Stay EPIC and Don't Forget to Be AWESOME!

Coach Ty out!

Ty's Experience with Turning Mountains into Hills!

What's Up Motiv8ers!

So, the information I've put out over the past two weeks has talked about goals and how to reach them. Today, I would like to share my experience with putting those concepts to practice. Have to practice what you preach right? =)  I hope that this post, and my experiences so far, will help inspire many of you take action on the goals you have been procrastinating on.

 A quick reminder:

Two weeks ago, we talked about turning your mountains into hills, which means taking your big goal, like running a marathon, and breaking it down into simple easy-to-do tasks.

Last week, we talked about actually focusing on the small actions needed to reach your goals. If you want to refresh your memory on these blogs,  click on the links above or just scroll down.

Lets get started.

So, it all started with this book. "Mindlift: Mental Fitness for the Modern Mind"

This book is a really fantastic read! It gives 50+ tips and tricks to help keep your mind productive, healthy, and strong. If you are looking for something to help increase your focused awareness, enhanced mental fitness, and limitless personal freedom, this is the book to check out.

I have gone through the book twice now and the topic that has stuck out the most is how to actually conquer tasks that are easy in concept but difficult to execute and start.  For example running a marathon is an easy concept.  Just put one foot in front of the other until you reach 26.2 miles.  Easy concept but hard to execute.  Also eating a healthy diet.  Just eat a whole foods diet full of vegetables, fruits, legumes, and lean meats with no processed junk.  Easy concept to understand but hard to execute.  Basically, once the brain labels a task as hard your chances of starting that task greatly decreases.  So how do you start? You start small.

When I read this, I began to think about all the goals I hadn't accomplish yet and why I never started them. In that moment, I told myself that I wanted to put some focus into starting small and see if I could actually get started with a few of those goals. So I started small!  =) I came up with a small list of goals that I new would be easy to start with.  Check out my list below first and then I'll go into detail of each one.

Coach Ty's Goal List!

1. Eating greens and vegetables more consistently each week
2. Running 6 times a week
3. Writing this blog a little at a time instead of all at once
4. Cold showers

These sound like easy goals, right? But I just couldn't seem to get started on them.  So, I took the concepts from the book and the tips from my blogs to the test. This is what happened over the past two weeks.

1. Eating more greens and vegetables on a consistent basis each week.

Over the past year I have been thinking that I really need to eat more greens, but every time I buy greens or vegetables from the store they just seem to go bad in the fridge. I am not a big cooker. I love to just use the rice cooker and pop a can of beans and call it a meal. So anything that takes more effort than a rice cooker, I lose interest. And really, I just didn't want to spend the time finding recipes.

So what did I do?  My fiance, Alicia, and I found a company that did all the hard work for us. The company is called Lettuce.  Every Saturday, Lettuce sends us a bag full of vegetables, spices and salsas, along with three easy-to-follow recipes, to match the vegetables in the bag. All you have to do is have a few basic things to go with the recipes like rice, pasta, beans, etc. These are all basic things that I have on a regularly basis anyway, so it wasn't hard. 

Check out some of the pics below of all the cool meals we have been making. Before Lettuce, I never would have put in the effort or mental energy to make these meals. So has it been a success? Definitely! And it has been a blast cooking some very cool meals with Alicia.  The biggest point here is that lettuce laid out the steps in an easy way to follow and understand which helped me take action.

2. Running 6 times a week!

Every week for the past few months, I've told myself that I need to start running more consistently during the week. Especially Monday through Thursday.  Those are my busiest days.  I have some big races coming up in 2018 that I need to prepare for so it is important that I get in some good training. But my mindset towards running on those days has always been, I'll run if I have time.  Work comes first.  Which means basically I never had time to run.  The work excuse always got in the way. So what did I do?

First, I made the commitment to run every day except for Wednesday, since it is my busiest day. Second, I said that I will run at least 2 miles on every run. 2 miles sounds easy, so it became my small step. Then, I placed all of my runs into my weekly schedule. That way, I couldn't pull the "I don't have time" excuse. Finally, I told everyone about it. I told my Motiv8ers, Alicia, and friends so I would stay accountable.  How did I do? Pretty well. This past week I fell off only one day and the added pressure of everyone asking how I was doing helped a lot too.  It got me to run on Thursday when I really didn't want to. I definitely felt proud of myself for taking the small step to making something so important to me a big priority.  Oh and did I still have the time to put in all my work?  Definitely.

3. Writing this blog a little at a time instead of all at once

Now this was a big one for me. Here's the problem. Every Monday morning, I write the Motiv8 blog, email, and then post it onto social media. This process takes about 3 to 4 hours and causes me so much anxiety and stress that once I'm finished, I am mentally exhausted. Because of this, I kept telling myself "this week, I'm going to do a little bit each day so I don't have to do so much on Monday." But did that actually happen? No way. This went on for months. I just couldn't make it happen.  Why?

Basically, my brain was hardwired to only start something if I had time to finish it. For some reason, sitting down and only writing a little over 20 minutes was uncomfortable to me. I didn't want to write something that wasn't perfect. But this mindset was complete BS. Once I recognized my problem, I decided to get uncomfortable and smash this little problem. What did I do?  I started small.  I told myself that I had to write a little bit each day even if it was only for 10 minutes and even if it didn't make sense. And what happened?

I made the effort to write more in the week. For the past two weeks, writing the email and blog on Monday has been a breeze because I had so much material to work with. All I had to do was edit the material and make it look nice. Now a huge part of my weekly stress is starting to go away, so this is a win for sure!  =)

4. Cold Showers

I know what you are thinking, COLD SHOWERS? Why on earth would you want to do that? But there has been a lot of science proving that cold showers are great for your health and gives you a mental boost in the morning. Of course I am all about this =) But...I hate the cold and a cold shower sounds horrible.  But once I read Mindlift, I knew I had to take action. So I committed to taking one cold shower every day, but I made my steps small. Really small.  =)  At first, all I did was put my hands in. That's all I could take. Then the next day I put in my head and hands. Then the third day I started with hot water and slowly got cold. Once it was fully cold, I put my whole body in for five seconds. Today I'm up to three minutes.  =) It took me about a week and a half but it's getting a lot easier and man, do I really feel good after a cold shower. Do I recommend them now?  Heck yes!

If you want to see the health benefits check out this video here.


In conclusion: 

Motiv8ers, why do we talk about things we want to do but never start? Because it is fun to talk about new goals you want to try but in reality it's really uncomfortable to start something new. Disruptions from your normal routine makes your brain say "nope, stay away from that." Your brain just doesn't want to work hard.

But once you understand this and know that you only have to get uncomfortable once, you can start expanding your comfort zone and making yourself into a smarter, healthier person.  I know I have already started to reap the benefits.

When you have a spare minute, check out this book as well.  It was really got my brain thinking.

"Mindlift: Mental Fitness for the Modern Mind"

Motiv8ers, start getting a bit uncomfortable, start small, find tools to help you make actions easy, and began to improve your life. All it takes is being a little more mindful.

Stay EPIC and Don't Forget to Be AWESOME!

Coach Ty out!

Why Meditate & How to Conquer Negaitve Self Talk!

Hi Motiv8ers,

Coach Ty here with another great tip from the Motiv8 Team.  Sit back for a few minutes and let me help you on your journey to becoming a fitter, healthier, and a happier Motiv8er.  =)

Ok, let's get started.

Motiv8ers, how is your Mov-ember challenge going? Did you get in your four workouts last week?  Do you have your four workouts planned into your schedule for this week?

For some of you, getting four workouts in a week is a really hard endeavor. Why is that?

Because your daily habits and routines don't support the habit of you exercising that much each week.

You might say, "I am planning four workouts into my schedule but I just can't seem to get myself to do it!" "I'm following your advice from the last blog post about planning out each day before it happens, but I still find myself being unproductive."  

If this is happening, then it is your mind and limiting beliefs that are holding you back.

Motiv8ers, today's post is all about CONQUERING THE NEGATIVE SELF TALK!

Attention and Focus

Crew, whatever you set your attention and focus to will improve.  If you focus your attention on finances, they will improve. If you focus your attention on your health, it will improve. Whatever you focus on consistently over time will start to improve. This theory also holds true to our thoughts.  Whatever thoughts you pay attention to will become your norm over time.

One problem so many of us have is focusing on thoughts about events in the future that haven't even happened yet. We create a whole story about what we think will happen and 85% of the time that story isn't fun and may cause a lot stress and anxiety. The event hasn't even happened yet and you are already a nervous wreck. This anxiety or stress may prevent you from showing up to a meeting, stop you from going to workout, or prevent you from starting that new healthy diet.

If your mind always focuses on the negative, you will start to produce more negativity!

And then your productivity begins to crash.

So how to you fight your negative self talk?  Because for many of us, self talk has its claws dug in deep...

MEDITATION!!!

Motiv8ers, meditation is a tool that you need to have in your life. The mind is a powerful tool that you have at your finger tips, but if you don't spend time each day taking care of it, it will be your down fall. 

What do I mean by this? Meditation isn't about calming the mind and finding your zen. It is more about learning how to manage your thoughts, recognizing the thoughts that help you, and how to let go of the thoughts that harm you. Have you ever heard of mindfulness? Being mindful of your thoughts allows you to take control of your thoughts, rather than letting your thoughts control you. Thoughts will always be in your mind, but meditation you can teach you how to stay focused on what is important and not allow negative thoughts to take control. Watch this one minute video to get a better perspective.

That is a different way of thinking about meditation, right? The goal is to observe your thoughts and let them pass you by. Don't follow the thoughts and get wrapped up in a story that you created that isn't even real yet. Just observe and then go back to the focusing on the task at hand. By doing this more, you will find yourself learning how to be happier, have better focus, treat others better, keep anger under control, and be a much more positive person. Pretty cool, right?

Let me give a quick example. Your focus is to make your morning workout. You plan it into your schedule and prep your clothes. Tomorrow morning comes and the alarm goes off. In that moment, once you wake up, you instantly think "This bed feels good," or "I can workout tomorrow, " or "Today is going to be hard, I need more rest," or "Ty is going to make me do burpees, I am staying home."  Before you know it, you have created so many excuses of why you shouldn't go. Now it's past time to leave for the workout, so you decide to stay home.  You got wrapped up in a story that you created and it wasn't even real yet. Later in the day, you're frustrated and angry at yourself for not going to your morning workout.

But a mindful mind would acknowledge those thoughts as just thoughts.  A mindful mind would let those thoughts go and  allow itself to come back to the main focus which was "to show up to their morning workout."

Sounds too easy to be true, right? Well, give it a try and find out for yourself.

All you need is just 5 to 10 minutes a day. Here is a tool to help you get started. I like to use a guided meditation program called HeadSpace. This app has a free version for any smartphone. The free version has ten 10-minute guided meditation sessions to help you get started.  Trust me, it has helped me and is awesome. I use it almost every day. You only need ten minutes and a comfortable place to sit. Check out their website here. Finally, check out this video from HeadSpace to learn how to get started with meditation.

Motiv8ers, now that you have some HeadSpace, let go of all the bullshit going on in your head that is holding you back. Stop saying negative things to yourself and start taking action on the tasks that you know will improve your life.

Take a few minutes each day to pay attention to yourself and see a whole new you.

Motiv8ers Stay EPIC and Don't Forget To Be AWESOME!!!

Coach Ty Out!

  

How to Become More Productive

Motiv8ers, are you finding yourself not being able to stay productive through out the day or week?  Are you finding yourself cheating on your clean eating challenge and wondering why cheated? Are you finding it hard to motiv8 yourself or make time for your Motiv8 Workouts? If so, then this Motiv8 tip will definitely help.

Have you ever heard of the phrase,"Decision Fatigue?"

Think of your brain as a muscle just like the muscle in your bicep. Each day that muscle (your brain) has only so much mental strength or energy that it can use through out the day. You can train it to be stronger but it can only do so much.

So if you have a limited amount of mental energy each day, you want to make sure you use it for what is important right?  Things like:

-Making decisions for your job

-Finishing job tasks

-Talking to clients

-Making the right decisions for your family

-Focusing on taking those small steps each day to push your dreams forward

All of these things need our attention but many of us find ourselves in a constant state of being unproductive and not having anytime to do what is important. Do you know why this is?

Because many of us waste our mental energy trying to make little decisions in the moment that we should have planned out ahead of time.  For example:

-What am I going to wear today

-What should I have for breakfast

-What should I have for lunch

-Should I workout today or not

-What task do I need to do next

-Do I go to grocery store now or after work

Motiv8ers, if you wait too long to decide the above tasks, you could end up making the wrong decision and making yourself frustrated in the process.

Which brings me to my main point.....The more decisions you have to make in your day, the less productive you will be. The more you plan out your day and the less decisions you have to make in the moment, the more productive you will be. FACT.

So crew, take out the small decisions in your day and be more productive. The night before you go to bed, take out a note pad and spend a few minutes mapping out your whole day. What are you going to eat, when are you going to workout, what clothes are your going to wear. Plan it all out.

Then in the moment you will have a less chance of making the wrong choice because the decision of what to do has already been made. You just look at your plan and execute.

This can be tied into your diet as well. If you wait for the moment to choose what you are going to eat most of the time you will pick the wrong choice that isn't healthy for you at all. But if you prep your meals the night before or plan on going somewhere healthy for lunch you will be more likely to be successful, allowing yourself to be happier and healthier.

For Example: Last Sunday I went to the grocery store and bought a ton of food for the 28 Day Clean Eating Challenge. That night I prepped my meals and planned out when I was going to cook later in the week. So far I am on my third day of not spending any extra money on food and I have been eating really well.  And this productivity is paying off.  My energy has been great, I've been saving money, and I can definitely tell I am healing faster from workouts, which is great too.  Here was my grocery pic.

 

Motiv8ers, prepping and planning out my meals for the week is new for me.  I am usually a day by day kind of person when it comes to food. I do eat healthy the majority of the time, but it's hard to skip the the foods that look super tasty when you go to Tacodeli or the pre-made food section in Whole Foods. So this challenge is definitely forming some new healthy habits for me that I know are going to stick, help me be a better athlete, be even healthier, and be more productive.  Hope you take on the challenge as well. =)

Crew, plan out your day before it happens so you can be productive, healthy, and the happiest person you can be.  Don't wait for the moment to make the small decisions in your life.

PLAN YOUR DAY BEFORE IT HAPPENS AND FIND YOURSELF BECOMING SUCCESSFUL!

Stay EPIC and Don't Forget to Be AWESOME!

Coach Ty Out!

Heart Rate Training for Weight Loss!

Hi Motiv8ers,

Hope you are having the best day. 

Below are three tips that I posted on the Motiv8 Running Crew Facebook page that got a lot of attention and is a topic that I have been hitting hard in our workouts.  I wanted to post these three tips in a place where they would never disappear and give you easy access to find this information again if you needed it.

Motiv8ers loosing weight, getting stronger for an upcoming race, or just improving ones over all health is always the biggest topic at our workouts.  We have been hitting the topic of nutrition hard to help you loose that unwanted body fat and give you the energy you need to help you feel awesome.  But, there is another tool that you can use to help shed off that unwanted body fat and help boost your energy.  That is....

Heart Rate Training!

Motiv8ers check out the three tips below and if you have an questions don't hesitate to post below.


Tip #1 Heart Rate Training! Why do it?

Motiv8ers have you ever wondered what good is a heart monitor or how do the hell do you use a heart monitor to help improve your running, biking, or to help you loose weight? Well let me give you a few training tips here that will give you some ideas.

First, in my research and experience I have found that in order to improve your running quickly and see improvements fast, you need to workout in the extremes. Make easy days easy and hard days really hard. I find most people pretty mush hover in the middle. The Grey Zone. They make easy days to hard because they want that feeling of accomplishment from a hard run and they don't push themselves hard enough on hard days because it is way to uncomfortable. 

Pushing to hard on easy runs prevents your cardiovascular system from recovering from a hard workout the day before and might start the process of a new injury because you are not letting muscles rest. This in all, will be wearing you down instead of helping you get stronger and faster.
So how do you know if you are pushing to hard on easy days or not pushing hard enough on hard days? You follow your heart rate!

Crew below is a graph that maps out the Heart Rate Zones! There are 5 zones and it is very important that you understand all 5. Also below I'll write out which zones you should stay in for each type of workout. Lets get started.

Note: This is for running workouts. If you only do Boot Camp then ask me in class about which zones you should be in for your workout.

Easy Runs: Zone 2 or low Zone 3
Tempo Runs: Zone 3 or low Zone 4
Easy Long Run: Zone 2 or Low Zone 3
Training Long Run: Zone 3
Long Intervals like 1/2 mile or Full Mile repeats: Zone 4
Short Intervals like 200m or 400m? Zone 5

Example: Yesterday I ran an easy 5 miles. Goal was to stay in Zone 2. Which means I had to keep my heart rate under 131. That is super low and my avg. pace was 9:30. Which for me feels slow and I wanted to push harder. But the training says don't. Hold back so your body can heal. And, Today I am going to do a 3 mile tempo run. Heart rate target for me is in between 148 and 152. Right at the top part of Zone 3. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

Crew there is so much more advice I can give on this topic but for now lets stop there. Check out the graph, ask questions below, and lets start improving our running ability.

Tip #2 Do you eat a little bit the morning of your workouts or long runs?

In my opinion it comes down to what your goals are for that run. If you are already a fast runner and you are going to be pushing this long run hard, to help you get a PR on an up coming race, then I would say yes, eat a little bit before like a few pieces of fruit. This will give you a little bit of extra sugar/energy to burn during your run. Then while running start the process of gels every 30 minutes.

But if your goal is weight loss, or you are getting ready for an upcoming ultramarathon, then I would say no. Don't eat before you run. For weight loss and long distance racing it is important to train your body to burn fat for fuel. Only using your sugar,glycogen stores when you absolutely need to.

When you first wake up in the morning, your insulin level is quite low and most people are just starting to enter the fasted state, 12 hours after eating the last meal of the previous day. The worst thing you could do is to eat food, spiking insulin and glucose and immediately shutting off the fat-burning process. As soon as you put sugar into the system your body switches to that. So don't eat before the long run and fully enter the fasted state and burn stored body fat.

Note: it is important to not let your heart rate go above Zone 3 during this run or your body will switch from fat burning to burning Glycogen/sugar. As soon as your body enters Zone 4, which is an anaerobic state, your body needs a more efficient energy source to burn, which is sugar or glycogen that is stored in your muscles. This energy will burn out fast and at that point you will need to start the gel process.

So in conclusion. If you are training for a fast race to PR then eat before your long run. If you are trying to loose weight or train your body to burn fat for an ultra marathon, then don't eat before your long run so you can stay in the fat burning zone and remember to keep your heart rate low.

Last thing. If you don't eat before your run and want to stay in fat burning but your long run that day is going to take you around 3 to 5 hours then I would start eating a little bit every 30 minutes starting on the first hour. Just to make sure you don't crash and especially if you are new to this process.
Motiv8ers post below with your thoughts and do you eat before your run?

Tip #3  Zone 2 training for weight loss and base building for a marathon or half marathon!

Crew lets start with weight loss first. If you don't know what I mean by Zone 2 training then check out the picture above. Zone 2 is 60 to 70% of your max heart rate. As you can see this heart rate will improve general base fitness, improve recovery, and boosts your metabolism. If your goal for most of your cardio is weight loss, then staying in this zone is very important. Because look, once your heart starts to move into the Anaerobic zone, meaning high zone 3 or zone 4, your body needs a more efficient source of fuel. That fuel is glycogen, which is stored sugar in your muscles. Keeping your heart rate in Zone 2 will ensure that you are not working to hard and will keep you in that fat burning zone. For maximum fat burning do low intensity cardio in the morning before you have your first meal. You will start your cardio in a fasting stat and through staying in zone 2 you will see maximum fat burn. To understand this process more re read Tip #2.

If you are a Motiv8 boot camper in the morning and your heart rate gets high every day that is fine. Just don't eat in the morning so you can start in that fat burning zone and over the weekends just try to get in some low intensity cardio in the morning to maximize your results.

Now for marathon training. The theory is this. If you are new to running and you have never ran a marathon or half marathon before then you need to train your body to handle the work load. Your bones, joints, heart, lunges, and muscles are just not used to moving the amount needed to get through a marathon. To ensure that you are not over training, and to prevent an injury, you need to do a lot of easy miles first. Lets say you want to start training 5 days a week and we are going to do base training for the next month and a half to get you ready for the real marathon training coming soon. 4 of those runs need to be in Zone 2. The goal is to be moving your body and getting it used to putting in the miles. And don't get discouraged if your zone 2 is only a fast walk. Your heart rate will improve over time. This training will make sure you are not pushing the system to hard and help you start building that base you need without getting injured. Your recovery will be fast and you will find that your energy will stay stable. You won't have that extreme fatigue and tired feeling through out your week from training.

Now that one workout a week needs to be a run that you push pretty hard. You will push this run or workout in high zone 3 or zone 4. This run will help you improve that heart rate over time. But only one per week.


Motiv8ers I hope these three tips have helped you.  There is still a lot to discuss about on this topic so please join the Motiv8 Running Crew page or the Motiv8 HQ page for updates and to ask any questions you might have.  There is a ton of info here to get you started and use it to help you get started.  Remember I am right here to help you along the way.  Just reach out to me with your questions Motiv8ers.

No Stay EPIC and Don't Forget to Be AWESOME!

Coach Ty Out!