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Huge Happy New Year!

Have you noticed how many posts there are emphatically good-riddancing 2016?

Do YOU have a word to sum up your 2016?

My word would have to be: Frustrating!

Sure, I can focus on the positive and think of all the awesome things I experienced and all the valuable lessons… however, in all honesty I’m pretty super keen to welcome in a fresh, focused and full of potential 2017 with grateful, wide spread arms!

If you can relate then I think you’re going to like todays show:

Creating Your Ideal Plant Strong Day.

It’s not really about goal setting. Or new years resolutions.

It’s more about laying the foundation for the results you would most love in 2017.

Now those results may be in any aspect of your life however my primary focus today will be to share some of the strategies I’m using to live my ideal plant strong day every single day. And just to be clear by Plant Strong: I mean rock around 24/7 in a fit, healthy, strong plant based body you love. A body that’s sustainable for you and the planet. 

As you lay the foundations for the results you will achieve in 2017 it’s also useful to reflect on your results of 2016.

An effective model for reflection is: Continue | Start | Stop.

I’ll explain it more as we progress and as we apply it in the second step to Creating Your Ideal Plant Strong Day.

Let’s get rolling!

Creating Your Ideal Plant Strong Day Step One: Someone To Model.

For better or worse the one thing that is never lacking today is… information.

Whatever your goal, someone has achieved it already and their strategy for success – their habits, beliefs and personal non-negotiable standards are readily available for you to model.

The tough bit is: Who To Choose?

This is a decision I’ve struggled with in business. It’s not merely about who appears to have the results. It’s about who really has the results. Perhaps that’s slightly more easy to decipher (more visible!) so far as health. However it’s also not merely about results. There’s also the matter of lifestyle. What is achievable and sustainable for someone else might not fit in with your ideal lifestyle.

In this respect Your Ideal Plant Strong Day needs to be aligned with and supportive of Your Ideal Plant Strong Lifestyle. It’s not a short-term-quick-fix type of scenario. 

Ideal means you can do it every day to achieve awesome results. It also means it does not come at the expense of other things that are important to you. Or, to get my acronym on I.D.E.A.L. means:

It’s

Done

Even 

After a

Long day / Late Night / Lack of Sleep / Little sick or a Laziness attack.

Here are 3 key considerations when choosing someONE to model:

A) Do your best to pick ONE person for one aspect of your life. Otherwise it’ll be tempting to pick a bit of this and a bit of that and never follow anything or anyone thoroughly enough to get the results your seeking.

Equally you’re inviting overwhelm if you want to model everyone who has the results your seeking. They’ll all do it slightly (or hugely) differently. On that, apply only those aspects of what that someONE you’re modeling does – again that’s their habits, their beliefs and their personal non-negotiable standards – that feel congruent with your ideal lifestyle.

B) Choose that one person based on both their results and also the lifestyle they lead that enables them to enjoy those results. So if you hate the idea of walking up at 4.30am, lifting heavy weights 4-5 days a week and spending several hours a week planning and prepping your primarily low carb high protein primarily one ingredient plant based food… then I’m not your lady to model!

C) Take those habits and standards that you can see are effective for that one person and align them with YOUR beliefs and values. We’ll cover this more in step two however it’s what will pull your through when you’re all out of discipline and will power.

Getting up at 4.30am may sound tolerable in theory. However discipline alone and the thought of that future goal you’re yet to achieve makes it seem a lot less tolerable on that cold and rainy winter morning when your alarm blasts you awake a measly 5 hours after your collapsed into bed after an unexpectedly late night. What gets me up, is the belief that: Successful people take the right actions consistently irrespectively of whether they feel like it or not. It’s almost as compelling as my belief that: Lazy people take the right actions only when it’s the path of least resistance and as such, deserve ordinary results. 

To be clear it does not matter whether a belief is true or right. All that matters is does it get you to take the action you want to take?

Your values are equally as compelling. If I hold Freedom as my number one value and I believe rockin a fit, healthy plant strong body equals freedom then I’m going to be drawn to taking the actions that let me achieve that body and subsequently that Freedom.

Creating Your Ideal Plant Strong Day Step Two: Affirming and Supportive Beliefs, Thoughts and Language. 

As you might have heard me say: If your MIND is stuck you’re wasting your time moving your body.

So if your gut reaction when I mention exercise and clean eating is: Hard. Boring. Time Consuming. Or perhaps, “I’m naturally a couch potato and I love junk food too much!” or “It’s never gotten me a result in the past why even bother?” Or even, “I’m too busy for that!” Well you know this, however now is the change to change it – those beliefs, thoughts and language (or self-talk) are UN-affirming and UN-supportive!

At this point we’ll reintroduce the Continue | Start | Stop model as a reflection tool for 2016 and a habit creation tool 2017.

When reflecting on last year regardless of how awesome or UN-fun it was as a whole I imagine you can find some wins or success’s or positive habits?

Let’s get specific and decide on 3 wins, success’s or habits that you know deserve to stay in Your Ideal Plant Strong Day. 

They can be your ‘Continue’ habits. Perhaps:

• Writing down 3 reference points for success each evening.
• Journaling 3 daily gratitudes.
• 10 minutes of meditation each day.

If you like the look of any of those habits and you’re yet to start them? All good!

They can be your ’Start’ habits. Or perhaps you have other start habits in mind? Some of mine are:

• 24 hours digital detox every week.
• 10 minutes of journaling each day.
• Reframing negative self talk when it pops into my head to something more supportive.

Which leaves us with your ’Stop’ habits. Perhaps:

• Stop using the excuse “I don’t have time” and insteadeither prioritize it or admit “It’s just not a priority right now.”
• Stop getting sucked into social media and playing the comparison game to your disadvantage with the carefully filtered highlight reals of other peoples lives.
• Stop adding negatively emotive words to things you wantthe results for doing / eating: “Hateful, hard cardio!” and Stop adding positively emotive words to things you want the results for not doing / eating: “Delicious, irresistible hot chips!”

Creating Your Ideal Plant Strong Day Step Three: Systems to Hold You Accountable. 

It must be time to make this actionable. My recommendation is to start super achievable.

Rather than the perfect Plant Strong Day aim for the I.D.E.A.L. Plant Strong Day so that: 

It’s Done Even After a Long day / Late Night / Lack of Sleep / Little sick or a Laziness attack!

FIRST, there are 2 things that need to be locked and loaded as non-negotiable appointments in your calendar. That’s exercise and meal preparation. Now that might sound boring however how boring is it talking about a consistent, effective exercise and eating routine that gets you results and not ever achieving it? 

Consider what that someONE you’re modeling does and then start with exercise and meal preparation appointments (Yes, with yourself!) that are almost too achievable. You can always upgrade them.

• So perhaps a 20 minute walk first thing in the morning.
• Maybe a 90 minute block for food prep after lunch on Sunday.

If you’re up for more than a 20 minute walk each day I’ll link to a post I did on Your I.D.E.A.L Training Plan in the show notes for today.

If you’d like some ideas for your food prep I’ll also link to a post on Turn 3 Mass Cook Ups Into 9 Different Meals.

NEXT, do you respond better to internal accountability or external accountability? There’s no right or wrong however if internal accountability works best for you (as it does for me) then organising a training buddy or asking your partner to point out whenever you resort to unsupportive excuses like “I don’t have time” or negatively emotive words like “Hateful, hard cardio!” is not going to be so effective.

Consider what has worked for you previously in any area of your life in which you initially struggled and than achieved great results? This is modelling your own success!

• So perhaps a food diary kept you accountable even though no one else ever saw it.
• Maybe a public progress thread in an online forum was more incentive to DO what you said you were going to do?

FINALLY, set a specific timeframe to stick to. Perhaps a month for starters. Or possibly 12 weeks.

It’s whatever feel like a good starting point to you. Because it is only a starting point. That’s why you’re not aiming for perfect. Your Ideal Plant Strong Day is going to be an ever evolving work in progress.

If you’d like a little more direction and support for your Ideal Plant Strong Day then check out my FREE 7 Day Plant Strong Jumpstart. Over 7 Days I’ll share how you can create the MINDSET that will make your best Plant Strong choices easy and sustainable.

Whether you want to Lose Weight. To Gain Energy. To Get Healthier. STRONGER. FITTER. FIRMER. To play your part in stopping inhumane and unsustainable animal agriculture.

The premise and promise is you 100% can be Vego or Vegan and eat primarily one ingredient foods and keep it High Protein Low Carb… Oh, AND also rock around 24/7 in a strong, healthy body you love.

Here’s a link to the 7 Day Plant Strong Jumpstart:

That’s it for me today. Thanks so very much for sharing todays show with me. I appreciation it.

Whether you’re happy to say goodbye to 2016 or grateful for the lessons, opportunities & relationships it provided may 2017 bring you much #happiness #health #love #success #compassion and my number 1: #freedom!

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