Sandra Bragg: January 2016

Inspire

3:04 PM

I’ve seen this trend over the last couple of years of choosing a word to focus on for the new year instead of a specific resolution. My dear friend brought it up this year and it got me thinking about what word I would choose.

Last year, although I didn’t specifically choose a word or set out to embrace any one idea, in hindsight the word is sort of obvious. “Self” is the word that best highlighted the changes I made last year. For a long time I didn’t treat myself right, I didn’t love myself right and I didn’t put in the time to take care of myself. So last year, I tried new things, I pampered myself, and I worked on loving myself for who I was in the moment and not who I used to be or who I wished I could be. Although on the surface “self” can seem like a selfish idea, I think it was a really important thing for me to focus on because I’m more than a wife or a mother and I needed to focus on myself to find out who I was becoming.

This year, after a lot of consideration on the things I love and care about, I decided that I really wanted to focus on the word “inspire”. I know that I struggle with the idea and want of “keeping up with the Joneses”. This is a dangerous rabbit hole to go down for so many reasons but namely because it is driven by jealousy. I don’t want to be driven by jealousy. But, if you change the focus and focus on those who inspire you and not those who you are jealous of, you flip the perception.

I want my focus on to be on those things and people that inspire me. As I’ve thought about this word, and thought about the inspiration in my life, I realized one pretty neat fact and that is that I don’t need to go far to look for inspiration. One thing I dedicate a lot of time too and care a lot about is crossfit and in my box there are many fierce females that inspire me in so many different ways. (The guys are awesome too but females just tend to inspire me more.)

Additionally, I want to look at my own actions and see how I can change them so that I’m not a negative person, so that I don’t evoke negative aspects in others and perhaps share a little inspiration. I don’t plan on going out of my way to inspire, but I do plan to dedicate my words and actions to more positivity so that I don’t demotivate others.

Last year had so many amazing points and I learned and changed so much by focusing on “self” so I can’t wait to see how my perspective changes and what else changes by focusing on inspiration and not jealousy.

books

The Giant List of Classics to Read

3:30 PM

advocare

Inspiration (Advo)Nation

3:00 AM

It was in September when Joseph and I tried our first Advocare Challenge. To put it simply, we were both depressed, overweight and feeling lost, so when our box held a challenge, we jumped in. Speaking for myself, I lost 12 pounds, 10 inches, was feeling good, happy, and focused and looking great, all in the span of 24 days. So, when Joseph decided he wanted to take this on in a more professional capacity, I felt good about it because I saw firsthand how wonderful this company changed my life.

This past weekend, we went to Advocare’s Atlanta Advonation. It was a day long conference with training, stories and giveaways (where that sucker brother of mine, Stephen won a year’s worth of spark. No, I’m not jealous at all…. ). We learned a lot of interesting things that we didn’t know before. One portion of the day had Dr. Dudrick (the man credited with creating feeding IV) doing a question and answer, and he was a spicy man with a fun sense of humor. He did a great job of representing the science and knowledge that goes behind the different products Advocare creates.

But, what really hit home for me were the stories of the individuals whose lives have been changed by Advocare. One woman, who found the product at 250 pounds, who has lost half her body weight and is super gorgeous just resonated with me. Then there was the man, who on his vacation, left the same day he arrived when he couldn’t fit in the rides, but then a year later, after using the product, went back and rode all the rides. The wife, who felt unlovable and unattractive and lost until she trusted the product and lost 30lbs, found her intimacy with her husband again and created a stronger marriage. These people, their stories, they resonated with me, they made me cry and I saw myself in them, and I understood the hope they had found, and the hope they had held onto.

And what I love about the first woman I mentioned, Ann, was what she said at the end of sharing her story when she had first started. Because she had a lot of weight to lose, and clearly her story wasn’t over after 1 challenge, or 2 challenges was “While I am still on my journey, come see me next year and I bet you won’t recognize me.” And that hit home so hard. Because for the first time in my life, I feel confident in that statement. Because, Joseph and I have been doing this for a few months now and we haven’t gained all the weight back, in fact during the holiday’s he lost and I held steady.

I know the struggle to lose weight, to not feel comfortable in your own skin, to feel like a failure, to not understand why food has to be such a fight every single meal. I understand. It’s hard. It’s an addiction you cannot avoid. It can beat you down and it can make you feel worthless, this inability to just eat right and be healthy.

So Saturday was great. We learned a lot. We had fun. Some of us won prizes. But, I was reminded that I’m not alone in this struggle to be healthy and that I am using the best tools and surrounded by some of the best people possible.

You will not recognize me in a year.