Welcome to Mellie's mind...

Where thoughts can be funny, can race at all hours of the day and night and can sometimes not make any sense!

Enjoy the ride!

Monday, July 18, 2011

"I don't have time to workout, my life is too busy."

"I don't have time to workout, my life is too busy."

These words make my blood boil and make me laugh at the same time.  People can make as many excuses as they want for the reasons they do not want to workout but in the end we all have the time to do it.  Gyms are open 24 hours a day, we have the ability to wake up early and get a workout in before work, we can workout when we put our kids to bed, we can workout with our spouses... there are a thousand excuses and a thousand ways around them.  Bottom line... you have to want to do it.

If you are happy where you are, if your weight and your clothes are not an issue..WONDERFUL!  But if this is not the case for you don't sit and give me, or other people around you, reasons why you can not workout.  The truth is you don't want to!  You have it in your mind it's too hard and you're too afraid.  Just say that instead of some excuse because you are not fooling anyone and you will have more respect for yourself.

I read a quote somewhere that said:  "Working out is like driving in a dark tunnel and enjoying the light when you come out."  This is so true.  Working out at first is a dark, dark tunnel.  When I began my journey over a year ago I use to dread working out.  I would try and find every reason why I could not workout.  I had something else I had to do instead of working out, I did not feel good, the kids were sick, I was too tired, a baby kept me up late, it was my time of the month..... etc etc etc etc etc.  There would be days I would sit on the floor and let my treadmill just move so that my family would think I was working out.  I hated it.  I hated walking into the gym.  The gym was too busy, it was too bright, too cold, too hot, too loud, too quiet, the kids were sick, the kids were tired, I didn't like the daycare staff.. etc etc etc etc.  At the end of the day I was left alone with my excuses no closer to being healthy and just trying to justify the extra 75lbs I was weighing by body down with.

Finally, I just got mad.  I got mad at my husband, I got mad at myself, I got mad at my past I was just mad!  I told myself I was going to just go through the motions, do the work and just see what happens.  In reality my goal was to prove I could not lose the weight, that lifting weights and doing this or that was not going to change me.. I had reasons for being overweight... I was on a mission, a mission to prove to everyone it was harder for ME to lose weight.

Sound familiar to anyone reading this???????

Reality was, I did the work and the weight began to fall off.  My clothes started feeling better and I started feeling more comfortable in the gym.  I was still in the dark tunnel but I could see this little tiny light shinning at the end of this long road, so I just kept pushing forward to it. 

It was not all roses and candy for me, it was hard!  It was blood, sweat and LOTS of tears but I finally emerged out of the tunnel and felt the sun shine on my face for the very first time.  Coming out of that tunnel, I had never felt the sun so bright and warm on me as I do now.  I am a new person.  I am alive, healthy and in the best mood EVER!  People notice how great I look, how hard I have worked and the changes I am making.  Having this feeling not only feels great but it also motivates me to keep pushing through to new goals.

Let go of your excuses, plan your life around your workouts and get busy living again or possibly for the first time in your life.  Excuses will always be around, but it doesn't mean you have to let them run you.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

If only.....

I think Tim McGraw says it best with his lyrics:

"I think I’ll take a moment, celebrate my age
The ending of an era and the turning of a page
Now it’s time to focus in on where I go from here
Lord have mercy on my next thirty years"

My High School reunion is coming up, 20 year reunion.  How does that happen?  I recall being in my teens and hearing the words "20 year reunion" and thinking of a bunch of old people sitting around talking about the glory days... now I am weeks from my own.

The other day I found myself lost in thought thinking about my High School years.  Those were not easy carefree years like I am ensuring my two boys are currently having.  There were a lot of things going on in my life, some not so positive or healthy.  I found myself wishing.. "If only I could go back and do it again, I would make High School so much better."  My mind tells myself all of the things I would do differently and how I would be a different person and how I would not waste my education and time on such silly things that I did... the words repeat over and over in my head...

"if only"
"if only"
"if only".....

I really found myself getting sad about the time wasted and the opportunity wasted until... I had a God smack.

What was there to be sad about?  Here I am 38 years old, I have a great life a great family and I still have AT LEAST another 20 years in me!  I tell one of my clients all the time "don't worry about what you did, worry about what you are going to do to change your life!"  That is me....

I do not need to worry about what I did not do in those High School years and start planning on what I WILL do in MY next 20 years!

 I really believe you can turn around your moods, your behavior and your feelings if you just look at the situation with a positive spin rather then a negative.  So rather then letting the words "if only" ring in MY head I am going to let these words ring out instead....

"I will"
"I will"
"I will"

Watch out for ME in the NEXT 20 years!

Take it away Tim McGraw.......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imsm-jIjVio

Saturday, July 2, 2011

The skinny on Skinny Bitch

Off the suggestion of a potential client I read the book Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin.

I have to say that I was extremely disappointed. The authors spent the majority of the book quoting other authors and scientist in regards to the poor quality of our meat, farms and the back dooring our politicians do with meat companies.  Unless you live under a rock, this is not new news.  Unless you have not turned on the TV, radio or even searched the web you already know if you are not buying organic you are buying food that is covered in chemicals and injected with growth hormones.

Their in your face tactic and approach was just them swearing in the book and calling their reader a fat pig, lazy, an idiot and a bunch of other names.  Personally, if I was still 75lbs over weight this would not motivate me, it would infuriate me instead.

I wish they would have just said what this book was about, it is about being vegan, when they finally got past all the swearing, name calling and statistics about the food we eat it comes down to a short book about being vegan.

I have no issues with being vegan, I know that some people react differently to animal products and dairy but call the book what it is... a vegan book, and a pretty short one at that.

Friday, July 1, 2011

Getting healthy is the harderst thing I have ever done.

Yep, I said it.  Do I need to say it again?

Getting healthy is the hardest thing I have ever done!!!

I have not lived an easy life.  I grew up without a father, a mother who was more interested in her own needs then the needs of her three kids, I have been homeless, divorced (a couple of times) a single mother for years, suffered from depression, and unemployed.  NONE of that compared to my journey of getting healthy and changing my future.

My journey started 6 years ago after the birth of my third child, a daughter I had with my new husband.  My husband was very motivated to "help" me get off the baby weight.  We had everything we could possibly need in the garage and he would spell out exactly what I needed to do, it was all there for me all I had to do was the work. THAT was the problem, the work.

Sure, he would tell me what exercises I needed to do, but I had no clue what I was trying to achieve. On top of that I continued to starve my body thinking if I ate less that would get me down to the weight I wanted to be at.  Or if I was not starving myself I was making myself and my family instant potatoes, mac and cheese, canned foods I had no idea that the little work that I was doing was being wasted because I did not have the entire plan in place.

Over the next three years I had two more kids and continued an endless battle of trying to lose weight.  But that was the KEY.... I was trying to lose weight.  My goal was to get skinny, get the scale down to a smaller number and try and look like the wife I thought my husband wanted me to be.

At one point in our lives we have to say to ourselves and to those around us:  "I am NOT going to try and lose weight anymore.  I am NOT going to go on a diet anymore."  Instead we need to be honest and be true to our bodies and say:  "I am going to get healthy."  

We live in a society that pushes images of skinny girls on us and makes us feel if we do not look like that too we are not worthy.... BUT we are!


I am happy to be in a better place in my life., I am healthy, I feel great and of course the weight came off. Now I am happy to be heading into the next chapter of my life.. getting others healthy as well.


Watch out... here I come!

Funny things my kids say....

09/08/08 One day when Elianna was crying Gabriella gave her binki to her. Gabriella came up to me and said....
"Mom, I saved the day!"

Gabriella and Michael were walking up the stairs together when she looked at Michael and announced to him...
"I am the Girl in THIS big house!"

Gabriella: "I like all my family!"

If I tell Gabriella that we are going to do something she will say...
"Okay Mom, that sounds like a great idea!"

Gabriella and I were making cookies together one day. She asked if she could eat some of the cookie dough so I gave it to her. She looked at me and said...
"Your the best mommy in the world."

Gabriella's babysitter, Cindy, told Gabriella that she had to pick up her toys and get ready for her rest. Gabriella aksed Cindy..."If I don't pick up my toys I go straight to bed?"
Cindy responded, "yes."
Gabriella said "I'll just go straight to bed then."

Daddy walked outside to go to the BBQ in the backyard. As soon as Gabriella heard the door open she started to scream.. "wait for me, wait for me."
By time she got to the backdoor it was already closed and daddy was outside. She stood at the glass door in a real quiet voice she said... "Oh, dear."

Reuben and Gabriella were playing in the cupboard in the kitchen, they had closed the door and were sitting in there together in the dark. Gabriella flung the door open and announced..
"Welcome to outer space Reuben!"

Gabriella introduced Reuben to a little friend of hers. When the little girl said "Hi Reuben" Gabriella said.. "NO, his name is BABY Reuben!"