Mrs. Accountabilitee

Embrace Life Lessons

I have no idea what prompted the post below five years ago, but there are at least two or three things in it that I can apply to myself today. Usually when you hear people say “learn from your past” they’re referring to learning from past mistakes, experiences or things of that nature. Today I’m learning from my past, but it’s really a lesson as well as a reminder from my younger self. When this post came up on my Facebook timeline this morning I could’ve read it and kept scrolling, but I didn’t. I read it several times, embraced the lesson and thanked myself for being right on time. You never know when a lesson will present itself or how, but when it does be sure to embrace it, take heed, and make the necessary changes.

No Excuses!

Earlier today I was literally seconds away from quitting when I really didn’t need to and God showed up and put me right in my place! So, today I was scheduled to go see my trainer at 7:30pm. I woke up this morning with stomach cramps and I just felt like it was gonna be one of those “blah” type of days. I was determined that I was going to reschedule my session as soon as I got to work, but I didn’t do it. As I was leaving I remembered that I hadn’t reached out to my trainer to let her know that I wanted to reschedule so I said that I would do it from the car. I was tired, my energy level was at zero and I still didn’t feel well. I started composing the message to my trainer and got distracted. By this point you would think that I would’ve gotten the hint that it wasn’t meant for me to cancel, but nope! I drove almost all the way home feeling bad about potentially cancelling so late in the day and trying to figure out where else I could fit it into my schedule before the end of the week. I stopped at Wawa on my way in and before I got out of the car I started typing the rest of the message to my trainer. I was two words and a period from hitting the send button when the text message below came through.

I started laughing hysterically! I was like “Ok, God! I hear you!!!!” As you can see I quickly responded and said “Yes ma’am!” I deleted the entire paragraph that I had typed to my trainer and replaced it with “Hey, my friend wants to come train with me again tonight!”

You see I started this journey to better myself, but I also did it in hopes that I would inspire someone along the way. The moment my friend showed interest in training with me after watching my training video I setup the time and day to make it happen asap. Our first session together was definitely challenging, but we rocked that workout last week and she was ready for more! I have to remind myself that you must know the extent of the things that you ask for when you ask for them. Sometimes what we ask for seems so simple, but there’s so much work that needs to be put into it and we don’t even realize it at the time. I asked God to help me inspire others along the way and today he gave me a gentle reminder that sometimes that means pushing yourself and putting in work whether you feel like it or not! Life doesn’t stop because of some pain or feeling uncomfortable. It’s easy to get up and get moving when nothing is wrong, nothing hurts and you have lots of energy. The true challenge is how you handle that same scenario with a few obstacles in the way.

I almost gave up today and it was so unnecessary! After I confirmed our training time I went home and went straight into Mommy/Wife mode. I got everything done that I needed to get done and I raced out of the house to our training session. I’m really glad that we went because it was definitely an awesome workout!

Today’s lesson: “Be more powerful than your strongest excuse.”

I can make excuses when things get challenging or I can make improvements and push through the obstacles that I face. I choose the latter.

~Mrs. Accountabilitee

Stop beating yourself up!

I had to remind myself of this just today as I laid across the couch feeling like my head was about to explode. I’ve been dealing with horrible sinus and allergy issues for months now and today was one of those days where I just felt useless. I was beating myself up because I had to accept the fact that my video for this week wouldn’t go up as planned and most importantly, as promised. After working 13 days straight and still trying to keep up with my day to day responsibilities at home I was really exhausted! Yesterday was my first day off, but I don’t know that I can actually call it that. After going to two events earlier in the day we also had to host an event. By the end of the night I flopped in the bed and I slept for like 10 hours! My body was like that’s enough!!!

I said all of that to say, life goes on! Far too often we end up beating ourselves up about something that we didn’t do, something that didn’t go as planned, or something that we could’ve done better. What we have to realize is that life happens and everything will not always go as planned. Instead of dwelling on the negative, give yourself a break and adjust accordingly. Remember… “Things might not always go as you planned, but they’ll always end up as they should.” Instead of giving myself a hard time tonight I’m going to take some more meds, drink some tea, and take it down. As for this week’s video, it’ll be up sometime next week in addition to the video for that week. Better late than never right?

Goodnight!!!

~Mrs. Accountabilitee

Keeping Track of My Food

Over time I’ve learned that I make better decisions when I keep track of the things that I’m consuming. However, I never really stuck with it due to my inconsistency. This time around I vowed to enter everything that I eat in MyFitnessPal. I figured that I may actually stick with it this time since I’m working on my consistency throughout this journey.

I usually try to enter the food that I want to get before I even make it or buy it so that I can decide if it’s really worth the calories. There have been so many instances where I changed my mind immediately after entering a meal or a snack into the tracker. Some stuff just isn’t worth it! It also helps me get a better understanding of why I did or didn’t see progress during any given week. If I didn’t see the results that I thought that I should see I’ll go back to my meals and water intake for the week to see if I can figure out where I could’ve improved.

I have my MyFitnessPal app connected to my Fitbit app so when I log meals and water in MyFitnessPal it shows my calories consumed and the ounces of water that I drank on my Fitbit app. Also, when I log my weight with my Fitbit Aria scale it automatically updates on MyFitnessPal. Another feature that I love is how my calories adjust automatically on MyFitnessPal based on my steps and activities that are being tracked via my Fitbit. I love it! It helps me avoid entering information in multiple apps. To be completely honest, if I had to deal with adding information in multiple apps I probably wouldn’t stick to it.

I use another site by the name of Calorie King. I’m not a member of Calorie King, but their site has some pretty useful calorie information that you can see without signing up. This site not only gives you the calories for food, but it also gives you suggestions to burn the calories. I ran across this site a few weeks ago when my manager took us out to lunch. Everyone was ordering dessert and I was thinking about getting a slice of lemon cream cake. The calories for the cake weren’t on the Olive Garden menu so I decided to Google it. As I’m looking at the Calorie King website to get the calorie and nutrition information I saw the Burn It section pictured below.

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When I saw that it definitely made me think twice. Was this little slice of cake really worth walking for 169 minutes? Or jogging for 70 minutes? I was like if I walk or jog that long I’m eating more than this skimpy piece of cake! LOL! This really helped me put things into perspective so that I could make the right decision. For those that really don’t pay attention to calories this is a good way to help them understand how much it’s going to take to burn off the food they’re about to eat. I know that it’s very likely that this is a little off because everyone is different, but it’s enough to make you think twice. Sometimes thinking twice is just what we need to avoid making impulsive decisions.

If you’re on MyFitnessPal be sure to send me a friend request. My user name is TiannaJackson. If you’re not on MyFitnessPal and you’re looking for a free app to track your food make sure you check them out.

Reward Yourself!

If you’re anything like me, you’ll agree that rewards can be very motivating! This is exactly why I created a reward system for myself while I’m on this awesome journey to becoming a better me. Meeting your goals can be very difficult. It takes a lot of determination, discipline, ambition, sweat, and even tears at times to successfully complete a goal. Unfortunately, it’s almost too easy to give up when things get hard and you feel like you can’t push any further. To avoid quitting and starting over each time I get frustrated I decided to motivate myself with mini rewards along the way, a bigger reward upon completion of my 35 by 35 challenge, and a cumulative reward that will continue to increase even after my 35 by 35 challenge is complete.

My mini rewards along the way will be for smaller milestones that I accomplish over time. Those milestones include, but aren’t limited to losing at least 10 lbs, completing my personal training sessions for the month, better organization, losing inches, etc. I recently accomplished two of my smaller milestones which were losing 10 lbs and completing a month worth of personal training sessions. I combined those two milestones and treated myself to a massage yesterday afternoon. That was the perfect treat for me and now I’m looking forward to reaching my next goal. Make sure that you pick rewards that you know will motivate you and are well within your budget. Here’s a few ideas just to get you started…

Take a day off of work to relax
A facial
A new pair of shoes
An outfit
New perfume/cologne
A spa pedicure and manicure
A new hairstyle or haircut
Concert tickets
Girls/Guys night out

My bigger reward for the completion of my 35 by 35 challenge is still up in the air. I was thinking about a birthday party, a weekend trip, or a full day of pampering and shopping. I’m really not sure which one I want to go with just yet. Any of the three will definitely motivate me though so I’m still pushing towards my goal.

My cumulative reward system is my “A Better Me” jar shown below. I purchased this jar and the stickers for it from Michaels. I spent about $6 total and it took me about 5-10 minutes to get it just right. I came up with this system to reward myself for the individual tasks that I complete as well as weight loss. I add $1 to the jar for every workout, every mile that I complete, and for every pound that I lose. This is my way of patting myself on the back for a job well done. I plan to let the money in the jar accumulate over the next few months and at the end of the year I’ll use the money for some workout gear, my training sessions, running sneakers or anything that pertains to fitness. On January 1^st I’ll start fresh and let the money add up for another few months. The goal is to have enough money in the jar each quarter where I can treat myself to something that will help me along this journey to being fit and healthy.

Remember rewards can be motivating! Don’t forget to reward yourself!

Thank you so much for reading! If you have any ideas for mini rewards or if you have any suggestions for me regarding my bigger reward, please leave a comment below! Also, let me know if you plan to use a rewards system to keep yourself motivated. I would love to hear from you!

~Mrs. Accountabilitee

35 By 35 Kickoff!!

A few weeks ago I decided that I wanted to challenge myself for my 35th birthday. Initially, my challenge was to lose 35 pounds by my 35th birthday. At the time I had about 70 days until my birthday so I felt like I could achieve it, but it just didn’t feel like enough for me. I couldn’t bring myself to commit to it. I slept on it and prayed about it for days before my uncertainty finally cleared up. My mind was focused on my weight, but God said “It’s deeper than that!” So, here I am with a list of 35 things that I need to do before my 35^th birthday. The list will be revealed one by one (in no particular order) via my new “Mrs. Accountabilitee” Youtube channel. I hope that you will all follow me as I complete this amazing challenge and bring in my 35^th birthday the Mrs. Accountabilitee way!

The link to my very first video is below. Please be sure to like, comment, subscribe and share!

By the way… I may just have a few things lined up for my viewers as well! Stay tuned for details! 😉

Know When to Check Yourself!

I had an Ice Cube “check yo self before you wreck yo self” moment today that I really need to share. I’ve been saying some things for the last day or two and I finally “heard” myself this afternoon. I knew what I had been saying, but what I was doing when I said it never really hit me. My words were literally going against everything that I’ve been trying to work on.

I was on the path to quitting before I even started!

Let me break it down for you…

Not too long ago I made a decision to go back to my trainer Jasmine. I had been away for far too long and I knew that I needed to get back in there. I reached out to her before I changed my mind and made an appointment for my first session which is tomorrow. I swear I’ve been counting down like it’s dooms day! I really wasn’t looking forward to the workout out of pure laziness. Over the past few days when people would ask what I was doing on Friday or over the weekend I would mention my training session. However, each time I talked about it I kept saying “I’m SUPPOSED to go to see my trainer, BUT…” or I would say “I have a session with my trainer, but that’s IF I GO.” The first two times people laughed it off, but the 3^rd time I said it I was actually listening to myself and realized that I was setting myself up for failure. My good friend put me in check too! She said “Alright now Mrs. Accountabilitee! You better quit playing!” I can appreciate a friend checking me because I’m that friend that will check you when needed. I think the bigger picture for me though was that this blog has already begun to do one of the things that I intended for it to do without me even realizing it. I was being held accountable by one of my subscribers who also happens to be a good friend. When she used my name to check me a light went off in my head to remind me that people are watching and failure is NOT an option!

I’ll be at Monstermode Athletics tomorrow afternoon to start my training journey again. This time I am not giving up or allowing a crazy schedule to get in the way of what I need to do. Also, because I was giving up before I even got started I decided to add more to my day as a consequence. Negative talk will not be tolerated or there will be consequences! I have my alarm set for a little earlier than usual so that I can get a workout in before I go to work. Since I wanted to complain about one workout I’m going to reward myself with two! I decided on what I needed to do and now I’m committing to it so that I can succeed!

Accountabilitee starts with me! 😉

Gratitude, Humor, and Creativity

Gratitude…

I slept through 5 alarms yesterday because I only had about 4 hours of sleep the night before. I could’ve been irritated about my lack of sleep and waking up late, but why would I? I slept through 5 alarms before finally waking up, but somebody didn’t wake up yesterday morning. Instead of allowing myself to focus on the negativity I just simply thanked God for allowing me to open my eyes.

Humor…

As I said my morning prayers I thanked God for allowing me to see another day. I also prayed for God to help me stay away from any and all negativity and to clear my mind from anything that wasn’t going to help me be productive. I prayed and meditated while I was driving so that I could prepare for my work day. About 2 hours after I got to work (BEFORE I drank my coffee) someone said something to me that would’ve irritated me any other day. However, instead of getting upset or irritated I found myself laughing at the situation. I giggled about it with a friend that witnessed the interaction and I moved on like it never happened.

Creativity…

I’ve been working on a birthday challenge for myself, but I didn’t want it to be simple. Yesterday I took some time to think about all of the different things that I wanted to incorporate into my challenge and how to execute those plans. Knowing how I am I had to make sure that I could keep it interesting over the course of the next couple of months, so I had to use my imagination and put a spin on my original plans. I’ll be posting about my birthday challenge within the next few days!

I purchased this inspirational journal (shown above) from TJ Maxx last year and never used it. I opened it yesterday not knowing that I would turn the page and read a piece of inspiration that I had already applied to my day. It’s funny how God works! With a minimal amount of sleep, sleeping through alarms, and dealing with attitudes from others I could’ve easily greeted my day with negativity. Thankfully, I chose not to. Greeting my day with gratitude, humor, and creativity is why I was able to get through my day with a smile on my face.

Remember to claim your day! It only has to be as bad as you allow it to be. There’s positive in every negative, but we have to be willing to find it.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words…

This rang true for me back in June. I had my husband take pictures at my sister’s bridal shower that I hosted at our home. After the bridal shower we sat down to look at the pictures and they literally told a story. I felt like anyone that would look at these pictures would definitely feel like they were there with us. The pictures captured all of the emotions that we experienced and all of the creativity that was put into the shower. As we scrolled through pictures smiling, laughing, and tearing up again I came across THE PICTURES. These pictures wiped the smile off of my face and sent me flying back down off of my natural high crashing right into reality. I look at myself in the mirror every single day, but for some reason what I saw in that picture isn’t what I thought I’ve been seeing in the mirror. Not to say that I didn’t think that I needed to get in shape because I really did, but I was still in shock. There is a beautiful picture of the bridal party in our yard and all I could focus on was my midsection. Then I started to beat myself up with questions like “Why did I pick that shirt?”, “Why didn’t I see this when I looked in the mirror?” “Why didn’t I suck my stomach in more?” “Why didn’t I stand at an angle?” “Why do I look so puffy?”. The truth of the matter is that picture revealed exactly who I am at this point in my life. I am overweight. I am unhappy with my appearance. I am not healthy or fit. My weight has gotten out of control and I need to do better. I KNOW better. However, knowing better and doing better are two totally different things! I saw the writing on the wall 2 years ago right after my wedding and I wasn’t consistent which has led to me being 40 pounds heavier today. I refuse to have a pity party about my situation because I did it to myself, but what I will do is have a celebration when I turn things around. The great thing about tomorrow is it’s a new day, a new beginning, and a chance for you to be better. Your do-over doesn’t have to be January 1^st, the 1^st of the month, or even a Monday. You can start whenever you’re ready. Right now I’m ready to attack this head on. My first goal is to take a picture that tells a different story than the one that I took at the bridal shower. I want my picture to show a confident woman that isn’t perfect, but is striving daily to be her very best. I want it to show a woman that wants to be healthy and fit for herself as well as her family. If a picture is worth a thousand words I want all of my words to be positive.