I’ve heard it said many times and have experienced the feeling first hand, time is something you can’t get back. My follow up to that sentiment is, well then, we’d better enjoy how our time is spent. That may make you picture laying poolside in Mexico while a tall dark and handsome man brings you drinks, and while I’ve had that experience and it can be nice, its reward is fleeting. Ultimately laying around loses is luster and the human spirit ends up craving more, if we choose to answer the call, we find ourselves on a path to understanding our purpose. We long to know why we are here and how best to use our talents. The happiest among us figure that out and sink deep into our mission. As I have experienced in the last couple of years especially, when it became apparent to me that my mission extended past my own dinner table, there are inherent risks to walking your own path. Striking out on the path to our purpose is incredibly lonely. We have to learn to trust our own gut and befriend our inner critic. In so many instances, we have to teach ourselves not to compare ourselves to others or care too much about what the masses think.
Over the past few months, my time has been spent preparing for the next step on my path for my purpose, and although I’m still writing everyday, opening a facility that not only trains sport, but trains the entire game of life, has taken a lot of my time and focus! Man there are a lot of details. But this is a place where we are building something special. I can take the conversations from the pool deck and the gyms that I have had over the years that have turned into a coaching business and have a physical space (it’s beautiful by the way!) to make greater impact on athletes and parents alike. I’m so excited about the opportunity that I have to bring Optimism & Resilience training to help us navigate the inevitable challenges of life - and boy to they seem to be varied and many these days - to find flow in our lives. The beauty of optimism though is that in our hearts, we believe that we have the power to make the next moment better, and with that belief, find the energy to work hard to make that optimistic ideal a reality.
It’s not lost on me that learning to trust my own gut, means making sure that my actual gut is healing. Did you know that your gut is considered your second brain? It is sensitive to our emotions and passes information on to our brain through our enteric nervous system. In short, when we improve our gut, we improve our entire well being. My journey to nutrition follows me from my grandmother, she was always cutting out the latest article on what vegetable was found to fight cancer or preaching the value of not eating too much sugar. When I had Matthew, and began to learn about how our gut influences our brain, and saw the benefit to his system when I cleaned up his diet with the help of his doctor and greater mental clarity was the result, I became more curious and have been learning ever sense. This podcast lead me from practical life nutrition training to getting my Precision Nutrition Coaching Certification that will help me help others not just look, but feel better. What we put in our bodies, and our relationship with food matters to more than just our looks or our waistline, it matters to our brain. Some of us seem to be more resilient than others, or have a bit more of a toleration for a less ideal diet, but all of us will reap the benefits of deep health the more we turn to nutrient dense whole foods and also lock in on the power of our habits and choices to help us feel our best. In essence, nutritional choices are no different than life choices, when we understand our why behind them and the impact that small habits can make, we undergo a powerful shift that effects our entire life. If you aren’t feeling your best, or this sounds interesting to you, let me help.
Our time and our energy are precious commodities. As younger athletes, we learn through sport how to balance and allocate our time as to get better on and off the court. As life goes on, my goal is to build efficiency in my own life by training my body and mind to be able to pull off adult life and still have time to play the games I loved as a kid. It’s a work in progress, and it’s happening. Lock in on what you want out of your day and make it happen…it’s feels like a risk at times, but I’ll take purpose over pleasure any day of the week.
