If you went through the 28 day “A Better Me Challenge” with us, you are familiar with our “secret weapon.”  I call him the secret weapon because he brought us encouragement and challenged us every week to go further, dig deeper, and to be better.  I’m talking about the dynamic motivational speaker and life coach Byron Davis. The sad truth is most people will spend more time planning for their vacation than they will ever spend planning for their life. And we all know that those who fail to plan, are just planning to fail. Today your assignment is to listen to Byron as he teaches us in just 6 minutes about Unleashing Your Heroic Self! Not only do you get a “power shot”, but you also will get the chance to download a FREE copy of “Your Epic Life Plan” which was written by Byron Davis!!!   Listen to the video for more information.

After you watch the video click here to get your FREE no strings attached copy of Your Epic Life Plan! He’s not even asking for your email. Don’t get caught living someone else’s dreams. Journey through this FREE workbook and learn to live your passion, play to your strengths, and take hold of dreams, NOW!
What you waiting for? Get “Your Epic Life Plan!”

Baby and Big Step 27

Spiritual

What a journey we’ve been on right?  Today I’d like to share with you a video by one of your fellow challengers. I had NO idea that she was going to do this. It was a blessing to see how much A Better Me Challenge has touched her.  The reason I want you to see this is because you can tell she really poured herself into this challenge, as I hope you did. It shows that if you put your mind, body, and spirit into something you can go far.  I hope you enjoyed A Better Me Challenge as well.  Your action step today is to watch this short video by Unitha Muhammad.  After the video read the rest of your assignment below.

Part two of your action step is to write in your journal the lessons you have learned over the last 28 days. It may take a few days for you to complete all of this. Take your time, don’t rush this. This is very important. Taking note of where you have come from and where you are going is extremely important. Give thanks for your growth, for what you’ve accomplished. Accept grace for where you’ve fallen short. If you stopped the challenge at some point, start back up again. In a few months, revisit your journal entries to see how far you’ve come.

We’d LOVE to hear from you. Please share any lessons you’ve learned with us below in the comments, and/or on our Facebook page.

Annett Davis, Olympian & Founder of Fit Moms Fit Kids

Hi Ladies!  I’m excited to tell you about a blog post I did over at OnceAMonthMom.com.  She has a series going on there about gradually switching over to Real Whole Foods in 2012.  The series is called “Get Real.”  Each month has a new topic and reasons why to switch.  This is something that I have wanted to do for awhile, so I will be following along with the series, eliminating things as the months go on.  Take a short detour over to read how I did this month on the “Get Real” series action steps.  Click Here!

Baby and Big Step 26

Mental

Today is your final metal action step.  I struggled trying to figure out what I could leave you with.  After much thought and deliberation I decided that I would encourage you today.  I will be giving you little tidbits of wisdom, and hopefully inspiration.  We’ve had some tough steps along the way, as well as some fun ones.  What I think we all need most is a mindset of determination.  We also need to continue our journey with truth and grace.

A lot of times during this challenge people have written me discouraged because they didn’t see changes in their bodies after just 2 weeks time.  Remember ladies it didn’t you 2 weeks to gain the weight, or lose the muscle definition you once had.  It won’t take you a month to be back to your goal weight looking like a rock star either.  Getting to our goals takes patience. (I’m talking to myself here too.)

When you look in the mirror and don’t see what you’d like to see, that’s a great time to practice grace.  We all fall short, we all make mistakes, you aren’t any different.  Give yourself a little grace.  Forgive yourself.  Love yourself.  This may be a revelation for some of you who are perfectionists, YOU ARE NOT PERFECT.  You weren’t created by God to be perfect, you will never be perfect. If you were you’d have no need for anyone else.  You’d be the only person on the earth because you’d be able to do everything alone.  No need for husbands, children, God, friends.  Sometimes just being able to accept that and believe that you aren’t perfect will take weight off of your shoulders.  Just because you have made mistakes doesn’t mean that you cannot still reach your goals and dreams.  You mustn’t be so hard on yourselves.  I know I’ve said it once, but I must say it again, give yourself a little grace.

Don’t be complacent. Sometimes we decide that we are okay right were we are.  That place could be 30 pounds or more overweight.  Honey, that is not okay.  Your body was made to run an an optimal level.  Would you accept it if your husband was kind of faithful to you?  No!  It’s not okay if he’s not 100% faithful.  Your relationship is unhealthy otherwise.  Likewise, you are unhealthy when you carry too much excess weight, and are not fit.  Don’t take the easy way out.  Don’t get comfortable and be satisfied with being stuck in your current situation, when being healthier is possible.  Would you like it if your child, whom you knew could do better, didn’t apply themselves and got a D average in school?  No, you wouldn’t let that happen.  You’d encourage them to do better, to do more.  Ladies, I’m encouraging you to do better, to do more.  This challenge is about becoming A Better Me, the best that YOU can be.  Don’t settle for less.  You deserve more, and so does your family from you.

Own your stuff. This challenge is about facing the truth, the good, the bad, and the ugly.  What things have you been holding back from achieving or striving for during this challenge.  Have you still not forgiven?  Is your pantry still full of the same stuff that made you gain the weight in the first place?  Have you not implemented a workout plan?  Are you working harder and smarter when you workout?  Do you need an accountability partner because you’ve decided you just can’t do it alone?  Are you not drinking water, and snacking late at night?  Whatever it is, you need to own your stuff.  You need loving truth tellers in your life to help you walk into your destiny.  The new rule for you in your life is that there will be no more complaining, and no more blaming.  Take responsibility for the only thing you can control in life…yourself.  One powerful thing I heard in a sermon by Mike Breaux yesterday was “self deception + self reliance = self destruction.”  We cannot lie to ourselves anymore.  We must face the truth, and be honest with ourselves at all times.  We cannot depend solely on ourselves, we got ourselves in this mess anyways 90% of the time.  You need support from God, your friends, your family, someone who you can depend on.  As I have said so many times before, YOU CAN DO THIS (but you don’t have to do it alone)!

Your action step today is to journal about what’s still holding you back from moving into the direction of your goals and dreams.  What lies are you still telling yourself.  What is the truth behind the lies.  What needs to be done to turn things around in your life?  Who is your support (your truth teller)?

Annett Davis, Olympian & Founder of Fit Moms Fit Kids

Baby Steps- Day 25

Physical

Remember the other day I wrote the highly quoted phrase, “You are what you eat.”  What you also need to pay close attention to is not just what you eat, but what you drink!   Did you know you could be adding thousands of extra calories to your diet in just one week depending on what you drink? We tend to waste our daily calories by drinking things that don’t do too much for our bodies. Water makes up about 60% of your body weight. Our cells and vital organs need water to function properly. Let’s give our body what it needs!

The Institute of Medicine determined that an adequate intake for women living in a moderate climate is 2.2 liters (about 9 cups) of total beverages a day. I’m sure you’ve heard people say to “drink 8 glasses of water a day.” Remember that liquid includes the liquid in your food as well. Some experts say to drink about half of your body weight of water a day. For instance, if you weigh 150 pounds, you should drink about 75 ounces of water a day.  One thing to consider when determining how much water to drink in a day is your environment. If you live in high altitude or in a dry climate you need to increase your fluid intake.

If you exercise (which you should be doing) your body loses extra fluids.  The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that people drink about 17 ounces of fluid about two hours before exercise. During exercise, they recommend that people start drinking fluids early, and drink them at regular intervals to replace fluids lost by sweating.  You’ll need to drink at least an extra 2.5 cups of water when you have a short workout. Those of you with an intense workout you’ll need to drink even more fluids.

When you’re drinking enough fluids, urine flows freely, it is light in color and it has no odor. When your body is not getting enough fluids, your urine gets darker in color, and its odor increases because the kidneys trap extra fluid for bodily functions.  Who wants stinky pee?  LOL.  Drink your water ladies!

Just think, by drinking water your pee won’t stink, you’ll be hydrated so your body functions at a higher level.  What a lot of you will really like is that drinking water can possibly help you lose weight!  Just think about this…every time you drink a can of soda you are drinking about 140 or more calories.   A 32 oz container of Gatorade can cost you 200 calories, not to mention the sugar and other stuff in it.  If you cut that out, you could be saving yourself almost 1000 calories a week!!! Let’s say you are a 2 can a day gal, you’ll be cutting out almost 2000 calories a week!  You could lose about a pound a month or more just by cutting out the extra calories you usually drink, and replacing them with water! Don’t drink your calories.  It’s not worth it.  Water is good for you.

Here’s a handy quiz that you can take to tell you How Much Water You Need.

Baby and Big Action Step

Your action step is to drink water daily.  Calculate and drink the recommended amount of water for you.  If you want to take a Big Step, stop drinking things that boost your calorie intake, unless you make fresh juice or a smoothie at home.  If you want to drink something else besides water try non-sweetened drinks like herbal tea, or almond milk.  From now on let’s drink our daily requirement of water.   For a little fun post the number of cups of water, or ounces of water you drink on Facebook without an explanation.  So you may type “80″ and that’s it. 

How much water did you drink today???

Annett Davis, Olympian & Founder of Fit Moms Fit Kids