When my alarm went off this morning all I wanted to do was go back to sleep. But I know I prefer to get my exercise out of the way in the morning so I have more time after work to relax or fit in another workout if I want. I never used to train in the morning but halfway through Maxine’s’ Challenge I made the shift and loved how much time it gave me after work. They say it takes 21 days to make a new habit. I really struggled at first but I found that the more it became my new routine. It was hard work to make the change but I now believe it’s better to wake up and workout than to go back to sleep because really what is another hour of sleep really worth?
It still took quite a few minutes to convince myself to get out of my comfy bed and hit the gym but I just had to remind myself that by the time I would fall asleep again my alarm would probably go off so it was better to just it out of the way. And once I was at the gym I hit beast mode and had a great strength training session which got the endorphins pumping and put me in a great mood for the rest of the day!
~~~
I thought I was up to the challenge and try a hardcore green smoothie today. I’m not big on fruit or yoghurt so I never really got into fruit smoothies. Earlier this year I started green smoothies and found that if I tried combinations with the greens and fruit that I liked then I enjoyed them. I even started adding kiwi fruit which has always freaked me out lol! But then I learned how even though green smoothies are good for you and a great way for fussy people like me to get their daily serves of fruit and veg they can also be high in calories and high in sugar.
I stopped having green smoothies during the Maxine’s Challenge as I tried to follow the meal plan as strictly as I could. Because of the meal plan I didn’t really look at the Lorna Jane Nourish cookbook that was given to me on my 30th. I finally went through it on the weekend and there were some great smoothies I wanted to try. And then there were strong and hardcore greens smoothies which had little or zero fruit. I went for a hardcore one and in my first sip I thought it was horrible.
Kale, spinach, parsley, Lebanese cucumber, lemon juice, spirulina powder and coconut water blended together was not a yummy concoction. But as I forced myself to keep gulping it down I found it didn’t taste as bad as I first thought. I don’t know if my taste buds were just getting used to it or if the spirulina powder hadn’t mixed through properly and had just overpowered my first taste. I probably won’t make this green smoothie again but I am glad I tried something new. And like my mum used to always say to me as a kids when trying to make me eat my fruit and veg “just try it, it won’t kill you”. Mum’s always right :)
~~~
We are all scared to step out of our comfort zones because we feel safe sticking to what we know even if we’re not happy. We fear stepping out of our comfort zone because we think that if we do we are stepping into our terror zone. Anything new can feel scary or even terrifying but new things can also be exciting and exhilarating.
What I learned on my ‘change your thinking’ course is that when you step out of your comfort zone you are actually stepping into your learning zone, not your terror zone. In your learning zone you discover two things. You either like it or you don’t. If you like it then your comfort zone has actually grown with you. If you don’t like it then you just step out of the safety of the learning zone back into your original comfort zone.
At no point do you actually step into your terror zone which means there is nothing to fear about trying new things, making different choices or exploring new ideas. Change begins at the end of your comfort zone and that’s where the magic happens xx
findingNQ 