The quick and easy! Why playing the long game gets you the results you want and more...

 Good Mawning!!

The quick and easy!

Don't we just love a good quick fix? Where we don't have to think about it and it just comes to us? Where it's a one and done and we "avoid" the mess of the process and possibly getting it wrong or messing it up?

I will admit, I applied to myself like it was a science experiment and I calculated the perimeters that would help me to achieve the success I was looking for.

I could see the end result and what that looked like... back into my pre-baby weight body and enjoying being more able-bodied and lean.

I even went as far as applying the psycho-science of Pavlov' s dog and implemented rewards to help me move along the way.

I created this system for myself, applied it, and it worked amazingly! I was 100 lbs down in a year's time! WOOHOO...

Isn't that what I wanted? To lose the weight and have kept it off (for the most part)?

But where I am sitting now and many years beyond the success, I am realizing... had I played the long game in my "quick and easy" process... had I added in the metrics of carrying forward that success with the extended plan and supports... how much more would I have enjoyed knowing that I truly live the LIFESTYLE as well as having and ENJOYING the results long term...

In the years that followed, I realized I left a LOT of good on the table.

I just wanted the pain to end.

I figured that IF I had the body back, it would fix things that weren't so great. Relationships, the mother shaming, the loss of connection...

I realized, as much as external validation of doing something is often sought after to give us the "high five" and "job well done" that we were looking for, it's not really there when we get "there".

Wherever "there" is.

The quick fix I have found (and yes, I have many of them in my back pocket ) is a great tool along the way, but the hype drops off pretty hard and fast if you don't plan for the long game. Keeping the end in mind....HOLDING onto that bigger vision and walking IN it day by day.... WOW! Does that feeling last a whole lot longer from the inside than we allow ourselves to experience.

I just gave myself a GLIMPSE of being on the path in the awesome bigger picture for my life and it gave me chills. It gave the "you're doing great, keep going" and the "you rocked adapting to that change, you are totally living this".... that internal encouragement...seeing YOURSELF in the picture (more on this this week as I explore it for myself) and enjoying what you see being played out....is so much more fulfilling than the "instant" gratification of the shiny things along the way.

Again, I'm not saying the "biohacks" and the "quick fixes" don't have their place. It worked for me to gain back the body I wanted to be in for a time.

But consider your WHOLE PICTURE of the life you want to be living. The bigger picture of YOUR life experience and how you can be enjoying it, SHARING IT (This is the part I could have done more with), and enhancing it along the way.

What does YOUR life vision look like? Or how do parts of it look like for you? Family? Leisure? Experiences? Please share with me! I love hearing about the beautiful things that others envision

#thankyouGod #biohacking #quickfix #biggerpicture #playthelonggame #InJoy #connect #internalrewards #LifeToTheFullest #holdtheVision #trusttheprocess #LoveFirst #lifejourney #oneanotherlove

Don't get fat from a bunny bearing chocolate!

It's that time of year again. Can you smell it? The fresh scent of cocoa in the air. It's on all the stacks outs and ends of the aisles in all your favorite stores. CHOCOLATE!!!

I went down the main aisle of the grocery store with my boys and I had to PEEL their attention away from the huge display that ran up the middle of the store. Easter time is here again and a new level of holiday gift-giving has arrived. I'm sure you may have noticed it over the last year, but for EVERY "holiday" or occasion they have come out with all the goodies that you can stuff baskets full of and give as gifts. Excellent marketing idea for those who spent ages trying to get people on board giving gift baskets, but NOW it involves every possible thing being tossed in. Toys, books, cards, crayons, but most of all candy! Sugary treats with their packaging changed for the season (like costumes) and to entice the eyes (at all sight levels) of those who like to buy for the occasion.

At some point, I am thinking that when people think of giving to children, that their first instinct is not always going to be laden with sugar. That the "treat" they think they are giving is a "present" left by the Easter bunny as "it" secretly hopped around all night long leaving these gifts of colourfully foil-wrapped chocolate balls and other goodies for kids to gorge on. And of course, as we think these gifts of chocolate will ONLY be eaten by the kids, then we fool ourselves as we may all be familiar with the taste of the tail of the chocolate bunny and a nibble of the tip of its ear (the easy to snap parts) as our children share with us as they have been taught to do with their toys. Those little nibbles and bites add up to a lot of sugar and a lot of unwanted and unsupportive calories. They also leave you hungry, and craving for more with your thoughts all obscured and your children running around in hyperactive circles till they drop from fatigue and exhaustion. About 25 chocolate chips (not even a handful for me) is easily 100 calories or more. That means an average-sized, well-meaning, chocolate easter bunny's appendages can amount to over 500 calories (2 ears, 1 foot, 1 tail, and the paw....flat chocolate bunny), about 1/3 of required calories for an average woman (doing average exercise). That equals almost a full lunch and snack.....2 MEALS worth of calories.

So pray that your generous, gift-basket-bearing-tonnes-of-sugary-treats friends are heavy on the chocolate giving this year (especially if you have more than one child too). And if you like to stock up a basket for your kids at this time, opt for options like coloring books, fancy parkers, pens, and pencils, fruit, carrots, flowers, seeds to plant in the garden (carrot seeds), gardening tools...the options are endless. Or celebrate this time in a way that does not shove unnecessary, and unsupportive foods into their faces and establishing an expected tradition (habit) of celebrating with sugar, gifts, and treats. Focus on the WHY of what you are celbrating this time of year and share it with your friends and family. We can also celebrate by getting together with family, doing something fun and active together, and enjoying quality time. What better time in our economy to up the standard on quality, instead of showering with quantity.

Have a great weekend and enjoyable holiday!