Life Is A Balance Of Holding On And Letting Go

I'll be the first to tell you that no matter how hard I try, I cannot maintain a 100% natural, organic, fresh food lifestyle 24/7.  I'm not sure I know anyone who can unless they spend the majority of their Sundays meal prepping for the entire family.  We all have busy lives filled with work obligations, kids activities, husband/wife date nights, chores, family time, and the list goes on.  "Cheat" days are absolutely necessary.  I don't even like to call them cheat days anymore, since that makes it sound like a bad thing.  Nobody needs that much pressure on themselves all the time.  In my opinion, it almost turns your normal, everyday life into a list of tasks or bullet points to be checked off instead of being able to go with the flow and enjoy the freedom of not always having a plan.  Unless you are a paid bodybuilder/fitness model whose livelihood depends on your meal plan OR you have a medical reason to follow certain guidelines, I believe you're creating more stress than needed.  Stress is the number one epidemic of our civilization.  If you're doing more stressing over ingredients and meal plans than the good it gives you to consume them, ya might need to regroup ;)

So here's what we do.  We follow the 80/20 rule on most things.  There are some products I absolutely won't compromise on, (like milk) Usually this rule works for most families.  Eighty percent of the time we are on top of our game with fresh, chemical free, non packaged foods.  Twenty percent of the time we are going to order a pizza, go out to a restaurant, or splurge on some maybe "not so great for you" foods.  And you know what... THAT'S OK.  Sodas or sugary juices are not something me or my kids even want as an option.  They think most fast food is gross.  They love veggies and sushi, fresh venison and fish.  If you teach them how wonderful these foods are in their non-processed form, they grow up to love them just like we do.


The key here is BALANCE.  I've learned over the years that balance is a very important practice to maintain.  As much as I'd like to be supermom or superwife all the time, give my jobs my complete dedication, keep my house immaculate and all the laundry done and stay on top of studying and go to all my friends' get togethers..... you get the picture.  If you give too much in one area all the time, other areas will suffer.  Priorities must be in line in order to create the life and household you envision for your family. 


Step 1
Boundaries -
You have to be able to set appropriate boundaries in order to be able to say "NO" to things that don't align with your priorities.  Please, please, please read the book Boundaries by Dr Henry Cloud and Dr John Townsend.  It changed my life.  Setting boundaries is a way of caring for yourself.  It is absolutely necessary for healthy relationships. I didn't even learn about healthy boundaries until I was over 30 years old.  Had I known in my teens and twenties what I know now, I would've saved myself from an immense amount of turmoil and bad decisions!


Step 2
Plan, but stay flexible -
Set up a guideline, not a strict regimen.  If you have a guideline to follow with your meals and schedule, you're more likely to stick to it.  Remember that if you stray from this guideline a couple times, IT'S OK! Don't stress it! Just gently push back to it.  Creating healthy habits takes time. Email me for a sample meal plan if you're ready to take that step.


Step 3
Meditation/Prayer -
One of the things that makes a dramatic shift in how I react to those I love and those I associate with professionally is my alone time.  I believe we all need time to ourselves to decompress, process our thoughts, pray and meditate.  During those times we can breathe and wait for God to give us guidance.  We can read devotionals or do a Bible study.  The point is to figure out exactly what needs to stay in our lives and what we need to let go of. 


Learn to live between effort and surrender.