Backward and Forward

I just realized that tomorrow is New Year’s! I got to thinking about this past year and all that’s happened, and it seems so long and so short at the same time.

In January, I made the decision to join my school’s Biggest Winner weight loss program. Being in the program meant that I joined a CrossFit class taught by an instructor from our local CrossFit group. Monica intimidated me so much at first, but I eventually got over it and focused on our workouts each evening, which were HARD. I had never been fit in my life, and I was determined to do my best! After 4 months of training and eating healthy, I lost a totally of 37.5 pounds, and I was the most fit I had ever been in my life! 

The Heels and Wheels race, which Jaimi and I
finished together in April. So much fun!

After school was over, I had a few weeks off, and then joined 3 other students from our school, and we travelled all summer to camps and churches to represent our school and to teach students about Jesus and his love the whole time. Seth, Jaimi, and Emilee became my family for the whole summer, and we all had an amazing time! There were ups and downs, but we all got along in the end, and I know I’ll remember this summer for the rest of my life.

My awesome team! I'll love them all forever.

The third phase of the year was this past semester, when I tried to continue the Biggest Winner program. I started in January at 231.5 pounds, and ended at 194 pounds in April, so my goal was to try and just get it lower. I started this semester at 197 pounds, and ended up lowering it to 193, staying the same for the most part. Honestly, my eating should have made me gain a bunch of weight, but I think it was the CrossFit class that helped to keep it off. I got lucky for sure!

January to December 2013

I feel like I’m starting on the same square in 2014 as I did this year, but this couldn’t be more false. I have a plethora of knowledge about eating healthy, staying active, and keeping in shape that I didn’t have at this time last year, and I’m also carrying almost 40 pounds less than I was in January. If anything, I have a huge advantage over last January 1st! I just can’t get cocky and think that my goals will be handed to me on a platter; I’m going to have to work for them every day! 

I learned to have fun while working for my goals in CrossFit!

The only thing holding me back from being the best I can be is myself; once I choose to live for something (or more importantly, someONE) than me, my life gets put into the right perspective. So if I haven’t clarified yet, it is at this point that I would like to recognize God, because it is his hope and his new mercies every day that have brought me this far, and will continue to push me to live for him. I know that he wants me to live every day for him, so I will discipline myself and find others to keep me accountable to my goals in the next year. THAT is the true key to reaching goals!

My two roommates last semester. They helped keep me
accountable even when I didn't feel like it!

What’s holding you back from reaching your true potential? Have you actively chosen to let God be the center of your goals? I’ve learned that it’s not a one-time thing. I have to choose him every single day! If you haven’t already chosen God to guide you, will you? Every day is a new chance!

Here's to doing our very best next year!

Ready. Set. Go!

A Different Kind of Goal

Hello!

I haven’t really established much about this blog yet, but I’ve made the decision that this won’t always be about fitness and health… otherwise, that would be the most boring thing! My goal in this is to express myself through my words, but that’s something I’m not really the best at yet. Hopefully it’ll get easier and better in time!

Flowing straight from that, I had a sudden epiphany in the bathroom today on another goal I want to make for 2014, only this goal isn’t health related at all. My new goal for this next year is to read 50 books that I haven’t read before! That’s about one book a week, which is going to be challenging, especially when I’m traveling next summer, but I think it’s do-able (I even adapted this from another person I know who read 100 books this year. That’s one book every 3 days! I’m pretty sure I’m not up for that one yet!). My goal is to spend less time online and watching tv and instead spend more time soaking in knowledge from other people. Maybe some of it will rub off on me. ;D Even though New Year’s hasn’t happened yet, I’ve already started reading a couple books, and they’re really good ones! Hopefully I’ll tell about them along the way, and they’ll give me something else to focus on instead of health stuff.

Now that I’m done with that little tangent, I’ll share about my goals I revealed the other day:

-Complete 100 60-minute workouts: I mentioned earlier that I’m in an exercise program called “RoyalFit,” which is a modified form of CrossFit exercises that we do on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at school. I’ll be taking those classes, but I want to do 100 hour-long workouts throughout the year that are outside of those classes, to give me a little extra motivation. I’ll find somewhere to keep tally and hopefully get started on that as soon as the year starts!

-Heels & Wheels race: Last year, I competed in a race at Johnson University with my friend Jaimi. This race consists of a 5k run, and 18k bike ride, and a 3k run. Jaimi biked while I ran this year, but I’m going to do it all on my own this next year. This means I better get my butt in motion ASAP to start training for it this year! It’s in April, so I have just over 4 months to get ready for it this time around!

These are the two easiest goals on my list for the year, which kind of scares me, since they’re both huge in my eyes! My aim might be a little high, but I can’t wait to look back this time next year with an accomplished list! I just gotta remember that every day is a new chance to keep trying.

As I start to feel my way through what I want to say on here, I hope you’re starting to feel some encouragement and energy about your own goals! What do you want to accomplish that you’re scared to try? You’ll never know if you can do it until you set it in your mind and go for it! With that, I’m signing off and saying good-bye until next time!

Beefin' up for my Before Pic

Mom, dad, my sister and I all went out for Mexican today, and while that stuff is delicious, it probably doesn’t help me too much with eating healthy (cough cough). New Year’s is in 5 days, and that’s the day when I’ll starte getting back on track for real.

Today, I did some measuring, and I think I’m a short 30-pound trip away from my health goal. This isn’t impossible at all, and I know I can do it! As far as motivation goes, I have one trick  up my sleeve to help keep me excited about staying healthy, but I’m saving that for another day, when I feel like getting it put together.

I know today’s post is pretty abbreviated, but I’ll take some time next time I post to explain what all is involved in the two challenges I revealed yesterday. 

Until next time, we got this!

Joel's Goals

Hi, I’m Joel! Here’s what you need to know about me if you don’t already: I’m a sophomore in college studying youth ministry, I love my family and friends A LOT, and I do my best to please God in everything I do. So, you’re all caught up!

2013 is quickly coming to a close, and I had no plans for next year until this afternoon. So I brainstormed a bit, and thanks to some inspiration from one of my best friends Jamie (jaymootojayme.blogspot.com), I’ve started this blog and I’ve got a list of goals for 2014! Before I tell about those goals, here’s what’s happened this year:

-Started the year at 231.5 pounds, ended it around 195. 

(I’ll wait til the official weigh-in in January to find out the exact weight)

-Started taking “CrossFit”/RoyalFit classes. I attend Johnson University in Tennessee, and we have a fitness program that meets 3x a week, which I’ll tell you more about in the future!

-Travelled all summer, representing the college. This was a tough time for staying healthy, and I lost a lot of motivation then.

-On December 26, 2013, while I was writing this post, I finished an entire bag of Trolli Gummy worms. That’s 1200 calories and a good indication of where my motivation is currently at.

I have these goals in mind, and I’m more than ready to be at the end of them, but I know it’s gonna take a lot of work in the coming year. So here’s the deal. I have seven major goals that I want to achieve in the next 365 days, and they’re all typed up and ready to go! However, I’ll only be revealing a couple of them at first, and then the others when the time is right. Hopefully this will give me the motivation to keep up with this blog and to keep sharing when things are both good and bad. So here’s a look at the first two goals:

These are being revealed in no particular order, since I wrote them as they came to my mind, and decided to keep them where they were. Some of them are a bit obscure, so I'll talk about both of them tomorrow and what all they entail. Next year is going to be awesome!

Um. I’m not really sure how to sign off of here each time. I guess for today, I’ll just say that I’ll see you next time!