What’s really pulling you?
Think of your goal right now in your head, whether its weight loss, a promotion at work, that big PR in the gym you’ve been chasing or even something else in your life. Got it? Good! Now I want you to imagine a pack of sled dogs pulling you on a sled.
Wait a minute what do sled dogs have to do with my goals?
Sled dogs like to work together as a team. If you have more dogs attached to your sled, the faster that you go and helps to distribute the workload as they pull you forward. So now, lets focus back on our goal. If we think about it what is pulling us towards our goals? If our goal is weight loss our first thought is “nutrition” and “exercise”. If our goal is working on our fitness or performance then our first thoughts are probably,” exercise and “practice”. But can you think of anything else that would help us get there faster?
Here are some other powerful sled dogs that can help us reach our goals faster!
Nutrition: This is our lead dog!
Healthy eating is our base to help fuel our lives, workouts and weight loss is so important. This dog is about eating high quality foods and nutrients in good portions and focused on consistency.
Exercise: This is our second dog in command.
Our bodies were meant to move! Exercise goes hand in hand with our lead dog nutrition. If we fuel our bodies and move them this creates a fast lane towards our fitness/nutrition goals!
Sleep: This is our third sled dog.
Making sure we get enough sleep to allow our bodies to recover is imperative. If we don’t get enough rest, we can’t expect our bodies to eat, move, process anything the best that it can. We want to shoot for 7- hours of sleep each night.
Stress Management: Another staple sled dog
To make sure that we have healthy ways to deal with stress. Its important to make sure that we have a way to cope without turning to food, alcohol or other previous habits. We can manage our stress by deep breathing, walks, meditating, having a friend or counselor to talk to. If we can keep our stress managed this allows for more time in our lives to focus on our goals, family and all the beautiful things in life.
Mindset: Mindset is the big beefy muscle dog that helps to pull and believe in our sled pack.
Its monumental when it comes to success. This dog believes no matter what that we will get to our goals no matter what is thrown at us. Mindset helps our morale when dealing with any challenge. If we are positive, kind and encouraging to ourselves then we can keep pushing towards our goals no matter what!
Social Support: These are our favorite dogs.
These are the people that we love and care for that support us no matter what. These are our friends who support us when we want to make that bad nutrition choice, or don’t want to lift that last rep. These are our friends, family and cheerleaders that stand beside us day by day working closer to our goals. We want to surround ourselves with people who align with our views and will cheer us on till the end.
If we think a little bigger and realize that we have so many different factors that can help pull us to our goals, we can get there a little faster. Its important to make sure that we are focusing on multiple aspects of our journey towards our goals. If we nurture all of our sled dogs, then we can get across that finish line a little quicker. While these are the base of things that pull us, there can be other sled dogs that are important to your success, can you think of any others?
This blog was written by our nutrition coach, Heather Blosser