Daily Routines Will Determine The Following 24 Hours

Have you ever reached the end of yet another busy day only to find that you didn’t achieve any of the things that you really wanted to get done? Life’s like that. We get really busy, and the time just sleets past. Does that mean that you have to give up on your goals? Definitely not! Millionaires, successful entrepreneurs, serious athletes and the like always start their day the same way. The key to gaining control over your life lies in your morning and evening routines.

Routines make it easier to keep your decisions positive

Decisions, decisions, decisions. Every day is packed full of decisions: should I have eggs for breakfast or settle for just coffee? Should I answer my email or work on that report my boss wants? Psychologists say that all these decisions wear us out, making us more prone to take easy options. We lose out on will-power. But if the positive things we want to achieve become part of our daily routines, they happen on auto, and there are no pesky decisions to throw us off track. You don’t choose to work out in the mornings. You just do it because that’s how you start your day.

Staying sane

Not all routines are good for us. Lighting a cigarette the moment you wake up or routinely staying up too late at night are examples, but positive routines are liberating. They’re also comforting. It’s nice to know that we’re doing something positive for ourselves, and that we do it every day at around about the same time. According to psychologists, good routines help to reduce stress and doctors say that stress causes all sorts of ailments, so your positive routine will have multiple benefits.

Decide what’s important to you and incorporate it into your morning or evening routine

Most of us have pretty full days. Our only ‘quiet’ times are the times when we are beginning or ending off our day. Whether you decide to choose mornings or evenings for specific things you want to do for yourself depends on you, but most of us are pretty tired by the end of the day, so more energetic activities are usually best undertaken in the mornings.

Morning get-up-and-go

Let’s say you really want to work out and get fit, but you aren’t getting round to exercising. Get up an hour earlier and start your day with some exercise. Exercising in the morning has loads of benefits. The ‘after-burn’ of calories you get after exercising carries on through the day, and researchers say that morning exercise improves your sleep patterns at night and normalizes your appetite. Plus you’ll be much more alert than your co-workers or classmates!

Chilled out evenings

Evenings are good for the more sedentary activities you’d love to get around to. If you want to get creative with arts or crafts, keep a journal or read a book, make special times in the evenings that are devoted to these activities.

Tips for creating effective morning and evening routines

Are you ready to adopt a constructive routine? It’s what incredibly successful people do, and you want to be incredibly successful in achieving your own goals too. Let’s get started!

• Choose your activities by looking at your goals.
• Prepare a schedule, write it down and stick to it.
• Get up at the same time every morning and go to bed at the same time every night.
• Have fixed times for the other activities you want to fit in.
• Review your routine regularly and check that it’s still in line with your goals.

Now it’s just a matter of getting those things done! Using your ‘you’ time constructively is the first step towards achieving all the things you wanted to do, but never got around to!

Thanks for reading.

www.sleepingottersstudio.com

Mindset and Motivation To Increase Your Drive For Fitness

Mind-set and motivation – the keys that unlock your fitness potential

Have you ever struggled to maintain your drive to attain your fitness goals? Whether your goal is to run faster, be stronger or get leaner - just like our friend Meathead, it's mindset that will help you reach it. Ok, admittedly you still want to keep the grey matter – but it’s actually the grey matter that helps Meathead stay so meaty. Ladies, increasing muscle mass is for you too. Lean muscle may weigh more than fat, but it’s a darned sight more appealing to look at! So how do you get that bundle of neurons that makes up your brain working in your favor? You know the saying “A healthy mind in a healthy body”. Let’s get hat brain working towards a healthier happier you!

Meathead hitting the double bi flex!

Think about your goals: do you really want to achieve them?

The first thing you need is the right mind-set. Just thinking “That sounds cool” isn’t enough. You need to be hungry for those achievements. So what are your fitness goals? A beautifully toned body? Extra energy and get up and go? Improved immunity from illness? Washboard abs? Be real about your goals. Own them. Choose goals that you really want to achieve rather than going with something someone said you ought to want. 

So before you get up and start working out, do a bit of a brain workout. What do YOU want to achieve? What will you have to do to get there? Be realistic. You aren’t going to get bulging biceps or perfect pecs in a week or two. You aren’t going to shed excess flab just because you went for a run. It takes commitment. It takes patience, and it will take hard work. Sometimes, you simply aren’t going to be ‘in the mood’. What can get you through the mental block? Commitment. Dedication. And you’re not going to get there unless you take 100% ownership of the goals you’re striving to achieve.

Get SMART

Your goal can be as big as you like, but getting there will be a journey. Let’s say you’re doing a long road-trip. How do you measure your progress? There will be towns along the way, won’t there? Every time you pass through one, you feel a sense of achievement. You’re getting closer to your destination. 

Your journey towards your fitness goals is very similar. If you’ve set an ambitious goal, you need milestones to measure your progress, or you’ll soon become discouraged – even if you have been making great progress.

Goals should be SMART:

Specific: Define what you want to achieve.

Measurable: How far do you want to run? How much weight do you want to lose? What percentage body fat are you aiming for?

Achievable: Setting an impossible goal is like setting yourself up for failure. If you’re only 5ft tall, you’ll never be 6 footer. If you’re an endomorph, you’ll never be an exomorph. Choose goals that you can achieve.

Realistic: Maybe it isn’t going to happen in two weeks, maybe weighing 110lb would actually be bad for you – even if you could achieve it. Be realistic about what you can and cannot do.

Time bound: With realism as your guideline, what can you achieve by when? What milestones will you pass on route to your destination and when can you realistically expect to reach them? Remember to celebrate those achievements, and be ready to move your goalposts if you see that you haven’t been realistic!

Staying Motivated

Once you’ve set your SMART goals, you should already be feeling more motivated. You’ve planned your journey, and you know how long it will take you to reach your destination. You really want to achieve those goals, right? But you need something more if you want to stay motivated. There are going to be days when you just don’t feel like making the necessary effort, and when your goals aren’t going to be enough to keep you going.

Be mindful: Try and determine where your mental block is coming from. Is it time-pressure? But your workout doesn’t take all that long to complete – how much difference can that time really make in the scheme of things? Are you feeling tired and worn out? Perhaps you haven’t been eating or sleeping properly, or you might even be overtraining. Find out why you feel demotivated and discover ways to eliminate these negative factors.

Be your own cheerleader: Having a conversation with yourself might sound a bit nutty, but it can really help. Remember how the encouragement of your friends, coach and team mates kept you motivated on the sports field? Become your own cheerleader: tell yourself that you can do it. Demand that little bit of extra effort: just two more reps, just one more set, just that little bit of extra exertion. You’ll thank yourself for the positive self-talk later on!

Stay positive: If you’re not reaching your milestones, you may become discouraged, but perhaps the problem isn’t you as much as the goals you set. Are they really realistic? Perhaps they could use a little revision. If you’re finding it really hard to set realistic goals, you may want to consult a fitness professional to get them back on track.  It’s all too easy to ask the impossible of yourself and then give up altogether when things don’t work out as planned. Taking a bit longer to get where you want to be is better than giving up altogether.

Set a routine and stick to it: Remember, it’s going to be 20% inspiration and 80% perspiration. The best way to develop stick-to-it-ness is to give yourself a schedule to stick to. Your run, walk or workout happens on certain days of the week and at certain times. Get into the routine, and you’ll soon notice a sense of unease – something ‘missing’ – when you break your routine.

Apply your mental muscle

Who’s really driving that body of yours? You are! Take charge. Be masterful. Know what you can and cannot do, and understand why you sometimes develop a mental block that threatens to derail your efforts. Most of all, have fun. Isn’t it great being able to walk, run, bend and stretch? Don’t you love that feeling of having challenged your body? That feeling of drive, motivation and energy you get after exercise is worth maintaining, and when all’s said, you’re the boss.

Thanks for reading. 

www.sleepingottersstudio.com

What Led To The Creation of Sleeping Otters Studio

Since childhood I have always had a love for art and sports.

Throughout school art and sports were the only subjects that held my attention, but instead of going to college right after high school and pursuing art, I joined the Army. 

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Now I played a ton of sports up until that point but it was during bootcamp where I was first introduced to regimented running and calisthenics. Through eye-squinting heat waves in the day, blistering cold brisk air at night, or even (my favorite) spa days full of rain and slick mud. I pushed myself and loved minute of the physical challenges. All of this led to my search for more. 

At first I would just go to the gym and walk from machine to machine, thinking that I was doing something effective. Boy was I clueless. Still, I enjoyed putting in the time and I felt good doing it. Then in 2008, I was introduced to this thing called CrossFit. “Whoa bro, WTF just happened?” T-Rex arms (a guaranteed side effect of your first week doing CrossFit) and all after my first WOD (workout of the day), I couldn’t resist coming back. There was something about the extreme physical exertion and shared pain with those around me, that made it worthwhile. In fact it made it great. As with many newbie CrossFitters who have no real weight training experience, you don’t question anything.

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Fight Gone Bad... or well...? 

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You just do. And "do", I did well. I even went through the CF Level 1 certification and started preaching CrossFit to whoever would listen. I wholeheartedly enjoyed doing it, and showing others how to use it to achieve their own fitness goals. I helped numerous soldiers succeed in the battle against obesity. This allowed them to return back to the workforce and become an effective part of the military again. The camaraderie that was built between each client and I is something that I hold dear to my heart till this day. 

As my journey through fitness continued I wanted to try new things. Not that CrossFit didn’t change everyday but I wanted to see if I would enjoy something else. I tried bodybuilding and competed in my first figure competition in October 2010. For my contest prep I hired a trainer and it was during that time that my eyes were open to the intricacies of what it truly meant to be a bodybuilder. The amount of time someone puts into working towards a competition is ridiculous and I admire all those who compete regularly. 

Lastly, for now, I tried powerlifting. Where have you been all my life? First off if you know me then you know that I love to lift heavy things and put them down. Lift, down, repeat. So it didn’t surprise me that I fell in love with the sport. I competed in my first competition in December 2014 in Pennsylvania and walked away with a state record! Woot Woot! The reason I haven’t competed again since then is because I found out I was 6 weeks pregnant at the time! Yea pretty nuts. My son was born late June and I am now working my way to getting my strength back. As any mom knows, it is a daunting task but I’m loving every minute of the work, sweat, and exertion. I will be back in shape asap! 

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Now it's been a couple years since I've been out of the military. Since my release I have been going to school for my other passion, art. I decided to dive right in and see if I could really make what I love into a career. But don't think I've forgotten about my other love, fitness... Are you kidding me? Never. Which brings me to my third-most loved baby.

Meathead.

Through Meathead I was able to combine both my passions. I wanted to create something that people could enjoy no matter what type of fitness they participate in. 

Throughout my fitness journey I have encountered numerous examples of the stereotypical meathead as I'm sure you have as well. I've seen things they do in the gym that I can't comprehend. Meathead thinks he's a force to be reckoned with. A tier one bodybuilder and guru of all things fitness. According to him his bro science is guaranteed to produce results. In his mind no amount of scientific fact will out rule grueling hard work and endless training. 

But there is just something about him that draws people to him. Wherever he goes people flock. Maybe it's his type A personality, or his charismatic smile. He probably wants to think that it's his 22 inch biceps. Either way, he is someone that you want to follow. 

Join me next time to find out who Meathead truly is. 

Thanks for reading.

www.sleepingottersstudio.com