beFIT – Andrew
Most of us would like to be at least a little bit stronger. Gaining strength and muscle mass takes a lot of time and hard work though. It’s important to maximize your training to fit your overall goals.
I set a goal of benching 300 lbs in the next 12 months. I benched 235 back in March of this year and have been working on increasing that since then. My main workout has been sets of 5*5 and trying to increase 5 lbs each week.
I have been using an online calculator to estimate my progress so far. I benched 225 lbs 5 times so I should be close to a 260 lb max now. Gaining another 40 lbs on top of that is going to be the hard part.
There are many good training programs that you can find for free online to help make progress toward your goals.
I encourage you to set a fitness goal, do some research, and start your fitness journey.
beDRIVEN – Ryan
What’s a goal that you’ve been putting off for a long time? Why have you been putting it off? Too many distractions? Not enough time? Too much else going on in your life?
We all know that those things are excuses. The problem is that they’re VALID excuses. It’s easy to set aside the things that we want to do or should do because “it’s just not a good time right now because _____,” or “I’ll get to that once I get through ______.” Fill in the blanks for the things that are keeping you from your goals right now.
I’ve found that boiling down your goals to uncover your ‘One Thing’ helps to keep the drive alive and the excuses at bay.
Here’s an example of a very broad goal and how you might boil it down to your ‘One Thing’ – “I want to lose weight”
That’s a great goal, but, why? Why do you want to lose weight?
“I want to lose weight so that I’m healthier overall”
Getting closer. Being healthier overall is a great goal… but is that going to keep you getting up at 5am to workout before the day gets out of hand?
“I want to lose weight so that I’m healthier overall and can continue to run around and play with my kids long into the future”
There it is! For me, that could be something that gets me out of bed to work out even on the days when I’m completely exhausted.
Take some time this week to think about your goals. Think about WHY you want to achieve those goals and see if you can whittle them down to uncover your ‘One Thing’.
beNOBLE – Mike
I sat down with my wife, Sara, last night and talked about our upcoming winter schedule. After a few minutes of talking, it was clear to see that it was going to be busy. It’s not hard to fill up every night of the week with activities as our boys get older.
We talked about the concept of being busy to be busy vs being intentional. We want our boys to be involved in activities, learning and growing with new skills. However, we can easily start to let them slip away if we are not being intentional with what those activities are and how we are specifically spending time with them.
So, one thing we are implementing into the busy schedule is one night a week where either Sara or I will take one of the boys and go do something (dinner, dessert, activity, etc).
This could go in our beCHILL pillar as well as this should be something they enjoy, but I think it is crucial as a parent to get one on one time with your kids, especially as they get older. Don’t let these important years in your parenting life pass you by.
These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
Deut. 6:6-7
beCHILL – Matt
Fall is by far my favorite season. I love jeans and sweatshirt weather, football on tv every night, bonfires in the back yard, chili cook offs with friends, leaves changing colors and Oktoberfest beers on tap. In some ways, each of these fall activities have become an informal tradition. They can be counted on every year and they each have a role in transitioning my mind into the current season. I think that I would feel lost throughout the year without these traditions.
Our family has begun or continued some traditions over the past few years but this year I want to start new traditions. Think about a family tradition that you can start this year that someday will be passed on to your kids and their families. Make it unique and make sure that it finds a place on your calendar that you can keep year after year.
Maybe it’s tied to a season such as carving pumpkins on Halloween or taking a family trip to the same park every year. Then think about who you can bring into your family tradition. Take a minute to share one of your favorite family traditions with us this week.