Welcome Outdoor Adventurers and Fitness Folk!
It’s wonderful, green Spring! Blue skies, warm temperatures and light breezes – perfect training weather so, if you haven’t already, get training outside.
This month we’re very excited to introduce approachable nutritionist and self-confessed food lover, Jessica Cox. She’ll be contributing articles from next month but before she does let’s find out a little about why she’s the expert to go to for practical, healthy eating ideas.
Have you set yourself a training goal but need a little help to actually get/keep going? Check out Reading That’s Good For You and, to get a little background on what’s in your mental landscape and how it affects you without you even realising, read the Trainer’s Note.
There you go, there’s some goodness to get you ready for Spring. Remember this newsmail is for you, the Outdoor Adventurer, the Fitness Fan. Without you turning up to OGT(that’s Outdoor Group Training) the newsmail wouldn’t have a reason to be.
So, if you enjoy something on the pages, share it with your friends (how about that workout!). If there’s something else you feel would improve the newsmail, let me know.
Now, pull on your boots and enjoy the read!
Reading That’s Good for You
This month we’re looking at your mental landscape. The power to drive you to great things is not just in your arms and legs but comes from inside you. Variously known as intestinal fortitude, mental toughness, guts and motivation, it’s a force that can create its on energy and make great achievements seem easy. When it’s lacking, or more commonly, intermittent however it makes things seem that much harder. Read on then to discover how you can turn your motivation tap on! Follow the link: http://www.sportsmind.com.au/Article-Power-Motivation-Techniques.php
Trainer’s Note
Know What to Expect on the Journey to Achieving Your Goal
The Scouts’ motto ‘Be prepared’ is great advice for people preparing for a journey. Advice that holds true for those of us whose journey is less about travelling and more about transformation, as it is for many of us as we change from our sedentary lifestyles to living an active one.
In this transformation, the central processes are mental just as much as physical. It’s our changing mindset that is even more important to our eventual achievement of our goal than the number of push ups we do. Thus, getting yourself started on a new regime shouldn’t just begin with buying a new training outfit. Instead, be smart about achieving your goal and make sure your mindset is durable enough to see you through to the successful accomplishment of your goal.
Durable means hard wearing and that’s what your mindset needs to be to keep you going when you rub up against some of the forces that will face you on your journey – Adversity, Doubt and Temptation. They sound almost biblical when you look at them like that. Biblical-sounding or not they are real and they face everyone who sets out on the path to Achievement. The loftier the goal, the greater the forces arrayed against you. Despair not, for no challenge is too great once you know how to overcome these Foes.
Let’s switch our vernacular to the modern and briefly discuss what’s in your mind and how it can affect your behaviour. Your mind contains many things. Thoughts, memories, perceptions, interests, beliefs, attitudes and intentions being among the most obvious. Though obvious to mention, the way they relate and even what they specifically are is often not examined consciously. Yet they are your mindset. They need to be durable and aligned in order for you to achieve the goal you set yourself.
To aid our discussion, let’s quickly describe each of the most relevant pieces of your mind. Thoughts are your conscious expression, the ‘voice in your head’.
Memories are representations of past situations.
Situations reflect the relations between all the pieces in your mind, including your perception of the physical reality that exists at that moment in time.
Beliefs are accepted as true, usually at an age when you can’t verify their truth for yourself, eg you’re a fat kid, you’re a natural athlete. Accepted means that they can be not accepted and replaced with beliefs that better serve you.
Attitudes are patterns of thinking, emotional expressions that colour your beliefs, eg It’s not worth the effort, I love running.
Decisions are points in time when an intention is created.
Intentions are a mental representation of behaviour that is formed when beliefs and attitudes are melded, eg I’m not going to try, I’m going to push myself.
“If my mind can conceive it, and my heart believe it, I know I can achieve it.”
Jesse Jackson.
Now, let’s examine how these pieces relate to each other.
As a starting point, let’s start with the obvious: when you set a goal, you’re thinking. The goal you set, the thought you have, will trigger your beliefs and attitudes that are related. This occurs right at the start and immediately sets the tone for your journey and, ultimately, its success or failure.
Your mind allows your current beliefs and attitudes to meld to form the best possible intention to enable you to achieve your goal. When this occurs, you have made a decision. A decision to set out, or not to set out, on the path to your goal.
The decision you have made will be referred back to each time you consider a behaviour. This process allows you to shape your behaviour to changes in your situation, such as your boss asking you to work into your training time. This then becomes a matter of choice. Here lies Temptation for those who haven’t made a firm decision. If you find yourself choosing the easy path, go back to your goal. Ask yourself what do you need to achieve your goal? Ask yourself what you believe about your ability to reach your goal? What else do you need to believe for you to reach your goal?
With the answer to these questions, you know what you need to achieve your goal. It may mean that you have extended the time for you to reach your goal to allow yourself time to replace those beliefs and attitudes that haven’t served you well.
It becomes difficult for someone whose beliefs and attitudes are attacked to get back on track as they allow Adversity or Doubt to enter their mind. However just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean that they should give up their goal. They can overcome these Foes once they understand their nature.
The nature of Adversity is to pierce your Belief and allow Doubt to grow there. Adversity comes in many guises – an accident or injury, work load, friends inviting you to dinner. Adversity is an external event that interferes with your plans. As such it’s also fairly predictable. A little thought about your lifestyle currently will allow you to put in place contingencies for when Adversity attacks. For example, you’ve started your new exercise programme with great energy and enthusiasm and last night you came unstuck. You rolled your ankle. Instead of shelving your plans for 6 weeks while it recovers, you dust off your contingency plan and continue to exercise with a modified programme.
Doubt is simply a reflection of your other beliefs – the beliefs that weren’t selected by your mind when you first thought of your goal. They weren’t selected because they did not serve to achieve your goal as well. However they are still associated by you with your goal.
Remember we mentioned earlier that beliefs can be replaced. This is what Doubt is trying to do. It is also exactly what you can do to defeat it.
Belief is built stronger by sharing with others and through experience. To strengthen your belief share your goal with your friends and family. Look to discuss it. Quite apart from the good ideas other people will give you, their support for you strengthens your belief. Use your experiences to build your belief further – set yourself sub-goals as stepping stones to complete your journey.
Lastly, beliefs create expectations. Set them as high as you believe you can.
“I CAN is 100 times more important than IQ.” Anonymous.
Nutrition
Introducing Jessica Cox, our food-loving expert on Nutrition…
I have been lucky enough to have Paul welcome my contribution on board the “Prime Condition” Newsletter, providing an exciting platform to share useful, functional and easy to follow information in regards to Nutrition. I would like to start off by giving you a background on myself and what Nutrition is all about.
As an accredited Nutritional practitioner, I have an immense passion for food therapy and therapeutic nutrition. Over my years of practice I have developed an extensive knowledge in dietary planning, nutritional supplementation and the utilisation of food as a medicinal tool. Friends, family and clients alike will be the first to tell you I have an immeasurable passion for nutrition, and pride myself on practicing preventative health through nutritional care.
Optimal nutrition helps you not only achieve your individual goals, yet also attain a state of wellness, rejuvenated health and lasting energy. The powerful combination of nutrition and dietary education is the key to providing the necessary tools to maintain outstanding health. In my practice as a Nutritionist it is also vitally important to provide valuable nutritional information in accordance with personal health concerns and ailments. After all, we are all individuals!
As a Nutritionist, I passionately believe that diet and lifestyle is the foundation of our health and that it is the axis to maximising our energy levels, wellness and peak performance. As an ardent food devotee I enjoy provide my clients with personalised delicious, easy to prepare recipes. I believe that to be enthusiastically devoted to a healthy and active lifestyle helps drive ongoing commitment and appreciation for greater health and wellbeing long term.
Look forward to meeting you all! Jessica
Jessica is an accredited and practicing Nutritionist with a Bachelor Health Science (Nutrition). Jessica is available for consultations at Professional Therapists based in Brisbane City. Contact Jessica with any queries or questions at www.jessicacox.net or email jessica@jessicacox.net Source great food ideas by following
Jessica @ twitter.com/jescoxnutrition
Challenge Yourself
Go for a run. Go for a ride. Take the dog for a walk. Whatever you do, just make sure you get red hot and puffing.
Get your running habit started in 4 easy weeks!
Run for 15 minutes, 2 x in your first week
Run for 18 minutes, 2 x in your second week
Run for 20 minutes, 2 x in your third week
Run for 20 minutes, 3 x in your fourth week
Motivation Is Mental
“Without inspiration the best powers of the mind remain dormant. There is a fuel in us which needs to be ignited with sparks.”
Johann Gottfried von Herder.
“Knowing is not enough; we must apply.
Willing is not enough; we must do.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
