How do I become more confident?

Building your Self-Esteem through Action!!!!

This past week, I've really worked hard at sticking to my "To-Do" list and, as a result, I've been EXTREMELY productive! There's a lot to be said for raising your self-esteem and building confidence by accomplishing the things you set out to achieve. It's hard not to beat yourself up if you have all these things that you need or want to do, but don't do them for some reason or another. As a bit of an idealist, I think that the easiest way to swim down into the depths of negativity is for your life to feel out of balance with the things you idealize as being important in life. 

When you start looking around at different aspects of your life and realizing that reality isn't quite up to par with your expectations, depression and anxiety are BOUND to plague you. One of the best ways to battle that sudden feeling of ''injustice'' or ''inequality'' between real life and the life of your dreams is to MAKE your real life line up with your dreams as much as possible EVERY DAY! 

Being able to be confident that your dreams ARE achievable is a big step towards creating self-happiness and contentment. How can you make yourself feel good, stand tall, believe in yourself and battle that self-talk that tries to tell you, "YOU CAN'T"? By making a list of the things that I'd like to get done and then being able to have it in front of me and cross it off one item at a time, knowing all the hard work that I put towards trying to get things done has paid off, really makes me feel proud of myself. 

It also gives me a sense of hope! Hopeful that I REALLY COULD do some amazing things in life if I just stay focused. Then, I look down at my list & I say to myself, "Oh, but WAIT! You HAVE been doing some amazing things, ALREADY!" An amazing feeling to set some goals for myself & get them DONE! What kinds of things are YOU setting out to do to make your life closer to your dreams? Write them down. Take small steps to map out a plan for yourself to work a little bit at a time towards achieving a larger goal. One of my favorite places to visit for good articles on things like goal setting and time management in order to increase my productivty is Mind Tools. Check out their article Personal Goal Setting: Planning to Live Life Your Way. 

I was going over Day 18: Confidence Through Action in Chalene Johnson's 30 Day Challenge to Master Organization and Achieve Your Goals (AGAIN--this IS the fourth time I've done this challenge...hehehe) and one of the assignments that she gives you is to think of 3 things that you've done recently that boosted your confidence. The things below are things that I've done this past week that helped ROCKET my self-esteem from "BLAH" to "RAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWR!" :) You're only as amazing as you believe yourself to be so, DO SOMETHING, every day to help you realize your own potential for greatness.

Amazing things I've done this past week: 

•  I started writing “my story” at the advice of Brenden Burchard to help market my services as a coach. 
• I put together the beginnings of a coaching packet for my Personal Training business that I’m trying to build & started working with my mother-in-law on her own journey to a healthier her.
•  I registered for two classes at Eastern Washington University to squeeze out 6 more credits of the 37 credits more that I need to graduate with my BA in Community Health and Health Leadership. 
• I finally started watching/reading all the info in my Coach Online Office/Coach Training Academy in Team Beachbody to help me be the most informed Independent Team Beachbody Coach that I can be in order to help people. 

☼☼☼ ~Coach Lisa 

What Happens When You "BURN FAT" or "BUILD MUSCLE"?

I keep reading a lot of posts on Facebook lately about how happy people are with the results they're seeing. This is GREAT! One thing I want to make sure of though, is that people are clear about WHAT KIND of results they are actually seeing and WHAT CHANGES they are going through. It's important to know what's actually happening in your body when you're trying to ''burn fat'' or ''build muscle''. Without this kind of awareness, your long term effectiveness during a workout will be diminished. You can build muscle without lifting ''weights'' (ie: free weights/using machines), but you still need to strength train for muscle growth using SOME kind of weight (ie: kids, furniture, gallons of water, sand bags, pulling tires, pulling/pushing/lifting your own body weight,  etc.). 

Contrary to popular belief, fat cells do NOT "turn into muscle". As adults, we no longer go through the process of "Hyperplasia", an  increase in the amount of muscle cells we have in our bodies--this only occurs in childhood/adolescence. Instead, we go through a process called, "Hypertrophy", where the muscle cells themselves increase in size. 'Toning' your muscles is what happens when you BURN subcutaneous fat. Since your body fat percentage is lower, your muscle definition shows through. 

Also, interestingly enough, current research suggests that we don't actually add or subtract more fat cells from our bodies, instead, the scientific community asserts that the fat cells themselves lose or gain lipids within the actual cell nucleus which makes the cells themselves smaller or larger, respectively. That being said, just because you are starting to look ''toned'' doesn't mean you are, in fact, GAINING lean muscle mass.  It could just mean that you are lowering your overall body fat percentage. This, along with fluid loss or "water weight" can also account for staying at ''the same weight" but noticing changes in the way that your clothing fits.

All of this is one of the reasons that learning to tape/measure yourself is imperative during your journey of fat ''loss'' or muscle ''gain''. The scale CAN be a useful tool--especially if you have more than 50 pounds to lose. It's good to know your weight fluctuations, but it's too easy to allow the scale to become a Stalin-like dictator who orders you around on a day-to-day basis, adds to your self-doubt & sidetracks you from your goals. If you're uncomfortable measuring/taping yourself, find someone close to you who will learn to do it for you and take LOTS of pics in the same clothes standing in the same spot--you'll be much happier with your results and more motivated knowing that you're being productive during your efforts.

☼☼☼ ~Coach Lisa

Related Articles:

Muscle Turns to Fat? Bodybuilding Myths Dispelled
How Fat Cells Work
Your Fat Cells Remain Constant Throughout Your Life