5 LIFE CHANGING HABITS

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Lets get into the habit talk!  Habits are so important and they mold us into the people we’re and the people we become, so it’s a must to create good ones right?  I’ve been doing this changes in my life consistently for a couple years now, and some even just a few months.   I’ve noticed this biggest difference in my life doing these things, so I wanted to share them with you!  If you’ve been following my stories for a while now, I’m sure you know what these are since I talk about them non stop.

  1. WAKE UP BEFORE OAKS.  First and foremost, on a perfect day this happens, but lately he’s been getting up with me at 6:30 when normally he gets up at 7:30-8 so I admit it’s been throwing me off a bit because I need time to myself in the morning before starting the day.  
  2. NO PHONE/SOCIAL MEDIA.  I recently started doing this about 3 months ago and WOW.  Everyone should do this.  We’ve all been there opening up our social media RIGHT when we wake up and RIGHT before we go to bed.  This raises our cortisol levels and that immediately sets the tone for the day.  I don’t look at social media at all right when I wake up, or right before I go to bed and MAN am I a much happier person! I love social media and connecting with all of you, but I needed to learn to balance it and found looking at it right when I woke up caused me so much stress.   I look at it 3x a day now in 20 minute increments.  So Instead, I’ll sit in peace and quiet and meditate, then I’ll listen to Lewis Howes podcast.  His seems to be the most inspiring in the morning.  Then I’ll turn on some Bosa Nova pandora, or smooth jazz while I cook breakfast, BUT thats not until number 5.
  3.  DRINK WATER.  Right when I wake up I drink a large glass of luke warm water. Think about it, we haven’t drank any water for 7+ hours now.  Our body needs it asap to get hydrated to start the day, so I start my digestive system with that and I can definitely feel things start to get moving if you know what I mean.
  4.  GRAB MY COFFEE & MEDITATE:  Now the reason I need to get up before Oaks is I really want to sit and meditate beforehand.  I need that 10 mins of calm serenity before my hectic day begins, because who know if he’ll wake up ornery or crying, ya never know.  So I’ve noticed that if I get up before him and get these things done, I’m a much happier, PATIENT mama.  Lord knows we need our patience when it comes to raising toddlers.   SO onto mediation.  I use the app called Headspace and Andy walks you through the whole thing.  It’s all guided.  I’ve been doing it for so long that sometimes I just meditate on my own because I started to find that his voice was to distracting, BUT this was after doing it guided for a year.  I’ve noticed a difference in managing my anxiety and stress now when I do it.  I started to notice a difference after about a 14 day streak of doing it.  I look forward to it everyday now.  It’s my heaven and I find so much peace in doing it.  
  5. MOVE: Find your movement in the morning.  I do my work out in the mornings and LOVE it.  But you don’t have to do anything crazy hard, just go for a walk if you want.  Just do some sort of movement to get your body awake.   If I don’t work out before 8am now, I feel like I can’t past that time haha.  It’s become such an amazing habit.  I love mornings and I used to not like them at all.   I do a work out from LOVE HIIT BG, or a new work out from my new program I’m currently working on!  Follow @lovebylynnfitness for updates and new works outs.

Starting my day like this has been amazing!  I feel more at peace and more productive throughout my day.  Now, If I don’t do these things, I don’t get down on myself!  I used to let that stupid chatter get in my head of the loser crap, but now I’m kinder to myself.  We can’t be perfect, but we can do our best under each circumstances of the day.  Thats all that matters!

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Have a great day!

xoxo,

SARA LYNN

2 THINGS TO ENHANCE MOTIVATION

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The hardest part about actually sticking to a consistent routine, is constantly finding the motivation and your WHY.  (which your WHY- is going to be another blog post) but for now we’re going to talk about my 2 things that have CHANGED THE GAME for me.

I consider myself a very motivated person when it comes to fitness. I enjoy it (duh- thats why I’ve made it part of my career)  I enjoy it and get so excited about it everyday.  But that doesn’t mean I don’t have days that I just have no motivation to do it! 

These two things I’m sharing with you, have kept me going and just ENHANCE my motivation daily! So here we go!

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NUMBER 1 – HEART RATE MONITOR.  I never thought this thing would be so incredibly helpful throughout my work outs.  TJ kept telling (my husband- if you’re a first time reader) that I needed to get one, and I just kept thinking “blah blah blah… I don’t need it, I’m motivated enough haha”  But really, I can’t believe what a difference its made in my overall intensity of the work out.  Heres why I love it so much.

  1. It monitors your heart rate, so you’re in constant competition with yourself trying to beat your record,  points , or just to simply keep your heart rate up.  The higher your heart rate is, the more calories you burn and points you get using the monitor. 
  2. It’s fun to experiment and see what work outs are the hardest for you.  
  3. It pushes you to go harder and harder.  You don’t realize how hard you actually have to work until you get this thing.  It’ll push you beyond what your mind tells you, you can do.  Our minds give up before our bodies do, so this will constantly be pushing you harder.
  4.  Now I can’t work out without it! It feels weird not to be able to monitor my heart rate very well.  
  5. Overall, its going to push you and motivate you to work out harder and keep your heart rate up!

This specific heart rate monitor is from the VASA gyms, located in Utah and parts of Colorado, SO if you are near any of those you can go buy these there.  The cool things about these, is you can add each other on the app and see each others work outs.  The one I linked is identical to the one I’m using.

Now, a lot of you have asked if I log my work outs into my fitnesspal so it docs the calories off for the day.  I don’t do this because then I’ll think I can eat more than I should haha.  Not saying its wrong of anyone to do, its just a personal preference.

Do any of you already use a heart rate monitor?

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NUMBER 2- WIRELESS HEADPHONES.  K you guys, where have I been though?  Wireless headphones have been around for so long, and I’m such an active person, yet I’ve never tried them until now.  I think the reason was, I just never trusted to spend the money on them because I had no clue which ones to buy.  But these ones, are amazing you guys!  Another life changing moment of mine.  These specific ones I really love.    Heres why I love this specific pair and why its been a motivator for me.

  1. You’ve got to have a good playlist ready for your work out! It makes the world of difference.  It’ll give you an energy boost, if you’ve got some good jams going.  Heres a post I did on my favorites. THINGS TO SPICE UP YOUR FITNESS ROUTINE.
  2.  Theres no wire, so you don’t need to carry your phone around.  I would always have to take off my headphones, for jump squats or burpees, basically anything that moves a lot, and set my phone down.  There is nothing worse than doing burpees with no headphones while listening to gym music and hearing people grunt and breath hard.. can’t do it.  So no need for putting your phone in your pants haha , like I used to.
  3. They come with all sorts of inserts to fit your ear perfectly, so they won’t move or fall out. 
  4.  The base will just have you grooving through your work out and you may do a booty pop in between sets, or just drop it low, ya know? 
  5. Their BLUSH, cutest color on the plant, oh and they come in 5 other colors.

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TOP / BOTTOMS

ALSO LOVE THESE BOTTOMS 

& THIS TOP / ANOTHER CUTE TOP

Have a great week!  Let me know if you liked this post, or if you use any of these now!  Tell me your favorite ways to keep you motivated below!  Love hearing from you guys, and getting to know you better.

xoxo,

SARA LYNN