Posted by Caroline on Jun 6, 2013 in Blog | 0 comments
Last weekend was my first race as an Earthfare Athlete. Guess what… it wasn’t perfect.
Here’s why:
1. I didn’t think I had trained nearly enough
2. I’ve never down an off-road triathlon before
3. It rained. A LOT.
But it taught me a big lesson. It’s the same lesson I keep coming back to over and over again.
Let Go of Perfect… because it doesn’t exist.
Here’s how it all went down.
Paul & I camped the night before. We had a sweet little, private campsite next to a creek. Just as we were getting into the tent to call it night, it started to drizzle. No biggie, Paul said– a bit of rain will be good for the trails. And then it poured… all night. Not so good for the trails or for me.
But onward ho in the morning. We packed up our stuff and headed to the race. Meanwhile, it’s still pouring rain.
Getting gear ready, figuring out the transition zones… all in the pouring and now cold rain. Not having fun.
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Posted by Caroline on Jun 3, 2013 in Blog | 0 comments
If spending time in the kitchen isn’t your favorite thing to do, you aren’t alone.
Lots of my clients don’t like spending time chopping and prepping food when they start working with me.
But I have a secret for you, once they start to see how good they feel with some home-cooked food…. their time in the kitchen starts to shift.
I always encourage clients to think of time in the kitchen as the ultimate act of self-care and to find ways to make it more fun.
My personal journey in the kitchen isn’t a glamourous story. My Mom isn’t a huge fan of cooking- in fact, she finds my passion for cooking totally bizarre.
So, I knew the basics of cooking but not much else. I really started to teach myself once I got married. At first, I followed every recipe exactly. I had zero confidence in my ability to deviate from the recipe! ZERO!
That began to shift when we started gardening and getting a CSA. Suddenly, I had piles of veggies that I need to turn into dinner. I started improvising more and trusting my instinct.
When Paul got cancer, I became obsessed with cooking. It’s one of the ways I felt like I had a tiny bit of control over our crazy life. I read cookbooks like novels and experimented with new foods all the time. Paul sometimes asks, “Can’t we ever have the same meal twice?” (Answer: No!)
Now, I think of cooking as my art. Honestly, I’m not very good at drawing, singing, or dancing but my artistic side flourishes in the kitchen where I love to experiment and create nourishing meals. The brighter and more vibrant the colors…. the better!
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Posted by Caroline on May 30, 2013 in Blog | 0 comments
Last week, I shared that I’m creating new habits of eating slowly and chewing more. I’m happy to say that it’s paying off big time with a happier GI tract. The added bonus of chewing more is that I’m so much more in tune with when I’m full. I’m finding myself leaving food on my plate at nearly every meal now and eating less.
The interesting thing is, I’ve tried to slow down my eating so many times before. I’m a health coach…. I know eating fast isn’t good but I just couldn’t break the habit in the past. Just because “we know” something isn’t good doesn’t mean we can easily change it.
It’s reminding me that creating healthy habits isn’t easy. What I’ve found in myself and clients is that to really make a change, you need to peel back the covers and figure out what’s under the “bad” habit.
I had to get radically honest with myself and think about what really drives me to eat fast. I realized that the deep-seated issue beneath eating fast is a fear that I don’t have enough time. I don’t have time to sit and slowly eat a meal because there’s work to do, books to read, yoga classes to take.
Who has time to eat slowly? Or so I had been telling myself.
I also started to see this coming up other places in my life like when I pack too much in my day or stay up too late working. As my mentor says, “How we do one thing is how we do everything” and oh, it’s so true.
So, my real work is to trust that there is enough time and that I’m not missing out if I sit and linger over my food or schedule one less thing in my day. My real work is to learn to savor the moment, enjoy the quiet, and trust that I have plenty of time. Getting right with that is allowing me to create the new habit of eating slowly. Powerful stuff, eh?
I love digging deep and doing this type of work on myself and with my clients because I know it’s where the real change happens.
This is the juicy stuff!
If we don’t get to this level, the new habit won’t stick and we end up with the same busted New Years Resolutions every year.
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