Motivation and Focus

"One of God's greatest gifts to us is the joy of trying again, for no failure ever need be final". -President Thomas S. Monson

I've heard from several of you, and I myself have felt some frustration in how I've been doing. I want this week to feel like a fresh start! I don't want anyone to feel like they're "behind" or that the challenge has gone too far without them. Since we're now about halfway through the challenge, I want this week to be a week of re-commitment and motivation.

I know I've gotten distracted with trying to be perfect, then failing and getting frustrated and throwing my hands up in the air. When I really looked back on WHY I'm doing the challenge, and started it, a big majority of my motivation came back. I have a goal to only gain 30 lbs. in this pregnancy. That's my goal for the challenge. I DO NOT want to end up having to lose 60 lbs. after I have this baby and feeling miserable and SO behind postpartum. I want to be able to leave the hospital feeling confident that I only have a short way to go and can get back into the swing of a healthy lifestyle almost immediately. I didn't do that with my last two pregnancies and I know it's because of the way I let myself go while I was pregnant. I know I can do it, and I want to prove that I can this time around, and once I remembered to focus on that instead of my little setbacks, I found motivation to start fresh.

So, I'm changing things up a little this week, starting with points. If you've been "behind" on your points, this week, you have a chance to catch up! So here's the changes:

If you earn at least 7 more points this week than you did the first week, your points for this week will be doubled. So, for example, say you earned 15 points the first week. If you earn 20 this week, you'll get 40 points for the week!

Brainstorm back to the reason you decided to join the challenge. Think about what you told me this week that your motivations, successes, failures and frustrations are. Focus on correcting or improving on that this week. This would be a GREAT week to incorporate hanging motivational quotes or your goals in a place where you can see them frequently.

Make this week be your fresh start too! I want everyone to go all in this week! You can do it! Start fresh! Remember why you're doing this, find your motivation and aim higher this week!  Keep your motivation high! Don't let yourself get discouraged because you had a bad day or caved on a craving! Stay upbeat and push yourself to get to where you know you want to be. Push through excuses! This is going to be kind of a rough week for me because I'm working more this week than I have in the past 2 months and night shifts have been KILLING me with my diet lately! But, life will ALWAYS bring setbacks and legitimate reasons to make excuses, so I'm not going to let myself do it! I HAVE to start doing better or I'm going to end up 20 lbs. overweight again!

If you're feeling frustrated or discouraged because of something else, let me know! I want everyone to feel confident and like you're getting somewhere, NOT like you're plateauing or treading water.

I wanted to continue this week with success stories. Those are always SO motivating to me! If you have one, even if it's that you're finally sticking to goals for the first time or something else you've accomplished that you never thought you'd do, either post it on FB or message me about it and I'll make a post about it. You never know what type of insight you have that might be the light turning on in someone else's head to get them on a roll!