In the last episode I talked about living in love and I wanted to give you an update on this experiment. I’ve been forgetting and coming back, and making it the focus of my meditation. Bringing in love to tmy energy centers as often as I can remember and doing things that I love: Ceremony, meditation, singing to the trees- I even bought myself a little cactus because it is what I love and it is a fond memory from childhood. So it’s sitting on my desk now, brightening my day. I’ve been spending as much time as I can in the woods, which I love, and listening to podcasts that are inspirational, all in the pursuit of love.One of the podcasts I was listening to was Rachel Rodgers, and she talked about making decisions around money that are either in alignment with being broke or being wealthy. She talked about “Broke-Ass decisions” or Million Dollar decisions. Immediately I started thinking about how this same exact thing is true in health, nutrition, and well-being. We are either making decisions that are going to serve our future health and wellness, or they are “broke health decisions” that serve the immediate wants that we have.
These “broke” health decisions are usually quick and easy: stopping at a fast food place on the way home, grabbing chips and a soda for dinner, or eating the ice cream to power through a night of work. They come from a place of lack or not enough: not enough time, money, energy, or knowledge.
The opposite is what I’m going to call the “upgrade decisions.” These decisions that put you in a place to upgrade. It might look like taking the time on Sunday to prep your meals and shop at the grocery store. It takes a little more time on Sunday, but saves you time in the long run. It might mean choosing to take a little longer to make dinner, but it upgrades your health so you don’t feel crappy and it keeps you up all night. Instead you wake up feeling energized.
I know for me when I get up a little earlier, go to the woods, run and meditate, I have a much better day. It takes more time than NOT working out (it’s a bigger investment of time) AND I have a bigger return. These upgrade decisions are like investing in your health portfolio! Each decision is an investment, over and over and it’s building your bank account towards wellness.
Our health portfolio starts to build on each decision, each investment towards wellness. These upgrade decisions make up so much of our day, but we don’t think they have anything to do with our overall health and well-being. They do. In fact they have everything to do with our well-being: how we feel physically, emotionally, mentally, energetically, and spiritually.
I’ll give you an example from one of my clients. She is making huge changes with the foods that she eats, and what she thinks about food, as well as the emotional connection. She was talking about how she knows what is healthier to eat, and yet it is just easier sometimes to pull through the drive through when things are busy. She talked about the tradition they have as a family to get a burger, fries and a milkshake after a bike race. When we talked about what her goals are with her health and her well-being, neither of those were in alignment with her goals.
She didn’t want her family to give up the tradition they have but she also knew it wasn’t beneficial for her. So we talked about how she could support herself in eating what she needed. She could order the veggie burger from the restaurant, skip the fries and bring a pre-made chocolate protein shake. Her family could still have what they want, and she could still take care of herself. That’s an upgrade decision. It’s one that takes an investment of time and thought, but the rewards are so much greater than the immediate gratification.
I’m going to lovingly and wholeheartedly tell you a little tough love. If you keep making “broke” health decisions, you will keep getting what you’ve always had: lack of energy, feeling stuck, and wondering why you can’t move forward. Stop making these broke health decisions. You are worth the investment of good nutritious food, good sleep, movement that your body craves, and joy. You are worth joy. How do I know this? Because you are alive. You are worth it not because of what you’ve done or what you haven’t done, but because you are here in a body on this earth.
If you make even just one health upgrade decision today from a place of love: love of body, love of self, then that is a huge win. Plan out your meals for one week or one day, shop at the grocery store, plan when you will exercise, when you will go to bed at night, when you will meditate, time for watching your thoughts, and how to add in to your day the things that you love. Part of this is knowing what you want and what’s important to you.
If your health and well-being is important to you (and my hunch is it is because you are listening to this) then returning your thoughts to the “why” is going to do so much more for you than trying to use willpower. That will help power your upgrade decisions.
Make reminders for yourself. What do you want? How do you want to feel? Will this decision lead to what you want and how you want to feel? That’s what I want you to be thinking of each time you make a decision.
Stop making broke health decisions and start making upgrade decisions to move you closer to your future self. These decisions are based in love, based in long term thinking and each time you make these decisions they are investments that you are putting in your health bank account that will give you dividends beyond your wildest dreams.
