Self Love: May 2010 Archives

The other day I was talking with one of my long-time clients... a fellow recovering achievement junkie like myself, who was totally stoked about the new job he landed recently - a promotion, more direct reports, more money and more travel - but realized that once again he was falling back into old achievement junkie patterns. So I asked him to run down his entire day for me. He ran me through his entire treadmill routine... emailing before brushing his teeth, no time for meditating, yoga or breathing much for that matter, skipping lunch (no time) or eating it while glued to the computer screen, maybe getting in dinner before 7pm and finding little time for fun and friends without his fifth appendage (his iphone) distracting his attention and pulling him into the vortex of 'to dos'. Other than the people he worked with, he and his computer were having his most intimate relationship.

What struck me in our conversation was that this entire cycle of achievement junkie behavior (which admittedly I used to fall into myself) started from the moment that he opened his eyes. It starts that way for all of us. From the moment we open our eyes, the choices we make in how we spend the first hour of waking determine the flow of the rest of our day... and determine whether that day becomes one that nourishes our body and soul treating them like the temple they are, or whether it becomes another day that our bodies and souls become slaves to all the 'to do's' of the day. Even if those to dos are things that we enjoy, is being a slave through them really want we want?

So I got curious - that's what us coaches do, we ask silly questions to see what pops up. I asked my achiever client and his workhorse body, tell me the first 3 things you do as soon as you wake up. I was super curious about what he was putting into his body before he even stepped out the door... this was his answer:

1.  Coffee. I make a cup of coffee and start drinking it. Okay, check caffeine and adreneline taken care of.
2. Cigarette. I go outside and have a smoke. Okay, check, breath, albeit full of nicotine and toxins, but breath none the less.
3. Computer. I go to the computer, check email and surf the net. Great, information filling the brain, check.
   

 
The three C's! Wow. We took a moment to pause after he answered the question, and I asked him,"So what do you notice?" Another vague but sneaky coaching question. And his answer, "I am fueling my body with toxic junk before I ever leave my house. No wonder I crash about 11am, have more coffee, skip lunch alot, and then by 4pm I am dead tired, and have no energy for fun, friends  or taking care of me."  I pointed out the fact that he had infact made his body into a sweat factory. And he agreed, 'It's like here you go body have some porridge and get back to work!"

The thing that I love most working with achievers is that once they realize that something isn't working they will jump full in to making a change.

So I invited my client to join us all on the
My Body is My Moving Temple 40-day self love practice, and went on to invite him to make his first order of self love practice to change the first three things that went into his body everyday to...

1. Breakfast Tea. My acupuncturist told me that putting something warm into your body first things was the best way to tell your body, hello, its time to wake up. Welcome to the day. He also told me that coffee was the devil to your body temple, and even with clients who smoked, he asked them to give up coffee first. That says alot. Turns out that my client already had lots of great herbal tea and a good tea cup (the cup is super important. get one you love. My cup says I LOVE ME on it, of course!). I am a big fan of Mighty Leaf teas, Gypsy Tea and Yogi Teas myself... Licorice is my fave! By breakfast tea, I mean herbal, not black liquid.

2. Breath.  Sans toxins begotten from puffing on the smoke stick. Just sit, set the timer on your stove, Iphone or blackberry for 3 minutes and breathe. In and out. Everyone can do this, no training required. You can get fancy and do alternate nostril breathing, where you plug one nostril while leaving the other open and then switch. Or you can do more advanced yogic techniques like breath of fire. But most importantly just close your eyes and breathe!

3. Breakfast Shake. I've already written about how trading in my breakfast sausage for a breakfast shake has changed my life... in fact i am sipping tea and a shake right now. I do them together. Fill it with super foods. Its portable. All you need to do is shop for food, get a blender and you are good to go! An achievers dream. 

BONUS... I also added a fourth part of this self love practice, and that was taking a half day every week with no computer, no iphone, and only personal phone calls. He chose Sunday mornings til 2pm. A good choice, I myself have Christine Morning every Sunday, and it's better than chocolate!

My client accepted the invitation of 4 B's instead of 3 C's for fueling his body temple every morning. And on Sunday, after 2pm, I got an email saying he was 2 days in, successful! Gosh, I love achievers!

So now, you and YOUR body temple. Here is my invitation to you.

1.  Write down the first three things you do each morning.
2.  Write down the first three things you fuel your body temple with each morning.
3.  Make a conscious choice to change whatever fuel you are putting in that is not treating your body like the temple she/he is.
4.  Listen to this weeks Self Love Studio interview with Dr. Deanna Minich on Fueling Your Body Temple. You'll learn lots about your energy system, about cravings and about what you put in is what comes out. My favorite line from her book is this...

THE BOTTOM LINE IS THIS...
EAT THE ENERGY THAT YOU WANT TO BECOME!

I've never been a big breakfast person, but over the years I developed certain A.M. habits that seem to fit my sensibility and my body needs, or so I thought. The whole-wheat bagel with butter and agave. The scrambled egg whites (okay well sometimes just whites). The organic turkey sausage patties, never links, from Whole Foods. Yummy vanilla granola with a dollop of Nancy's organic yogurt and a squirt of Agave. Way better diet than the Coco Puffs and Snap Crackle Pop I was brought up on, and way tastier than the Cream of Wheat my mother tried to force feed me during the cold winter months growing up in Chicago.

And then I met Shakaya Breeze (her name even sounds like a shake!) I am not sure how it even happened. What started as a phone call inviting me to be on her super duper wellness tele-series as a guest -- which I did and loved --  turned into her daring me to try her raw shake recipes and drink my breakfast. All this before she even knew that I had been contemplating doing a cleanse and a 40-day self love practice called My Body is My Temple. I took her challenge as a sign from the universe that something needed to change. And I didn't like it.

I told Shakaya, "Sure send me the recipe and I will think about it..." while at the same time underneath my calm and graceful consideration of her invitation, my inner self was screaming in my head, 'Are you flipping kidding me?? Drink our breakfast. No way. We don't do that. We will starve. Our stomach will go crazy by 9am. Only crazy dieters drink their breakfast. We need solid food!' My inner self, scared to death of starvation, kept going, "You don't like raw food. It makes you sick. Every time you try it you feel funny. Shakes are good for people with different body types than you." Now she was getting rational, sneaky.

The truth is I was totally freaked out about the idea of drinking a shake every day for breakfast. Which is exactly why in the end, I took Shakaya up on her invitation (remembering that I love living by invitation!) One of the big reasons I decided to do the 40-day self love practice of My Body is My Temple is because I wanted to challenge all of my beliefs about food. I wanted to rewire any food patterns that were no longer serving me. So even though I didn't want to admit that I had negative food patterns running my life... when my inner self went bezerk and started spewing fear all over the place at the idea of giving up solid yummy staples in exchange for a shake I had no choice but to face the truth. It was time to trade in my breakfast sausage for a shake.

And here is what I learned:

1. I won't starve. Turns out I can get just as much if not more protein plus other good things for my body by slurping through a straw.
2. Super foods. Who knew they existed? Chia seeds. Maca powder. Cacao chips. Coconut water. Kiwicha. I found an entire new section in the grocery I never about. These foods go right in the shake and are like super powered with energy that go directly into my cells, making my temple really happy. There's no super food in sausage!
3. Shakes are meant to be chewed not slurped. I put apples, cacao chips and other things that let me kind of chew my shake, which tells my brain something different than if I just drink it. So it does fill me up. Don't know why it works, just does.
4. Makes traveling easier not harder. I had to go to NYC for 7 days and was a little concerned I would have a problem doing my shakes, but then I found "NAKED"... not me naked, but the brand of shake. Can pick it up at lots of convenience stores, groceries, etc.
   
5. It's faster and it's portable. Enough said. 21st century woman, of course i love this.

It's been way over 40-days now, and I am happy to report that after my 40-day practice of ONLY having my breakfast shake / 7 days a wee, I committed a very self-loving act... I changed my practice to 6 days of breakfast shakes, and one day of whatever I want for breakfast, usually on Sunday. Today, Sunday I had a poppy seed danish, a latte, and what else, but two breakfast sausages!

I invited Shakaya to be my first interview on the My Body is My Moving Temple series on Self Love Studio. To get the free download of our interview, visit http://www.selflovestudio.com

And if you dare to trade in your version of sausage, here are three fabulous Shakaya Breeze recipes...

BEVERAGE
 
CREAMY-DREAMY CHAI-LATTE-CHINO
TRY TO CONTAIN YOUR EXCITEMENT! This is better than STARBUCKS! I've never drank coffee, but this is so AMAZING it will DELIGHT your tastebuds and soothe your nerves.
 
1 C raw Cashews
2 C Water
1 frozen Banana
4 pitted Dates or 2 T Honey
1 t Vanilla Extract
A few pinches of CARDAMON, CINNAMOM and NUTMEG
Blend away to HAPPYLAND...;)
 
 
BREAKFAST 
HAPPINESS IN A BOWL
 
1 C Almond Mylk
½ C Goji Berries
½ C Chia Seeds
2-3 T Agave Nectar or Maple Syrup
pinch Sea Salt
pinch of spices like nutmeg, cinnamon or cardamon
drop of Vanilla ~optional
 
Pour the mylk into a favorite bowl and add sweetener to-taste along with salt, spice and vanilla.  Add goji berries and chia seeds, stir and let set about 15 minutes until it is like tapioca. This is comfort food for the soul and will spread a smile across your heart!

DESSERT
SHAKAYA'S KEY-LIME MOUSSE PARTY FOR ONE PARFAIT
 
3 Limes squeezed
2 Avocado ripe and pitted and peeled
4 T raw Honey
A dash of Vanilla
1 C fresh or frozen Berries
 
PROCESS everything but the berries until creamy and smooth.  Layer in a pretty glass with berries in the middle and on top.  Garnish with a sprig of mint. Sooooo sweet and tangy, this dessert is a delicious little guilt-free splurge, and you deserve it!