Plan Simple with Mia Moran

You have a relationship with your own self just like you do with other people. ... nourish the relationship with yourself.  – Lee Lee McKnight

On this episode of the Plan Simple Meals Podcast, I’m really excited to talk with Lee Lee McKnight about parenting and mindfulness and how they can go together. Lee is the publisher of Perpetual You and mom to a 11-year-old and a 6-year-old.

Lee Lee talks about not finding parenting fulfilling. She said, “I just decided that I wanted to enjoy motherhood in my own way and throw the rules of all the parenting manuals out the window and just see if there’s a way that I could reclaim it for myself.”

We talk about being as present as you can with each kid at the age they’re at, and about being mindful about when you are being a mom and about when you’re working (especially if you work at home). Lee Lee reminds herself, “I’m only one person,” which means you can’t do it all for everyone at one time. She says it helps to really tune in to where your kids are right now — and to recognize that they need different support at different times.

We talk about:

• letting your kid be who they are and getting to know them as a person instead of placing your own expectations on them
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• Being in tune with what your own needs and your kids needs helps you avoid mommy guilt by giving kids what they need and doing your own thing
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• Making space to be present with your kids when you know they will or even might need a lot from you (like right after school)
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• The power of mantras and some of the ones she uses as a parent: This is right now and it’s not forever and I am the right mom for my kids
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• Slowing down and noticing what’s going on
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• Knowing and sharing your values
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• Intentional living and not taking what other people do or say personally.
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BIO

Lee Lee McKnight is #ladyboss behind The Perpetual You--a lifestyle brand curated for women living intentionally--and the mom of Henri (11) & Wayne (6).  In 2018, Lee Lee began co-hosting the podcast, Mama Now Conversations, and in 2019, she began a YouTube series on Intentional Living. She is also at work on a book about the intersection of privilege and intentional living practices. You can find Lee Lee on Instagram @wordsbyleelee or in Hamden, CT—where she’s most likely hanging out on the front porch of her family’s 1920s bungalow.

LINKS

• Mama Now podcast
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• The Perpetual You magazine (upcoming digital issue, Create Wealth by Embracing Dimensions)
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• Perpetual You on Instagram
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• Perpetual You on Facebook
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You have a relationship with your own self just like you do with other people. ... nourish the relationship with yourself.  – Lee Lee McKnight

On this episode of the Plan Simple Meals Podcast, I’m really excited to talk with Lee Lee McKnight about parenting and mindfulness and how they can go together. Lee is the publisher of Perpetual You and mom to a 11-year-old and a 6-year-old.

Lee Lee talks about not finding parenting fulfilling. She said, “I just decided that I wanted to enjoy motherhood in my own way and throw the rules of all the parenting manuals out the window and just see if there’s a way that I could reclaim it for myself.”

We talk about being as present as you can with each kid at the age they’re at, and about being mindful about when you are being a mom and about when you’re working (especially if you work at home). Lee Lee reminds herself, “I’m only one person,” which means you can’t do it all for everyone at one time. She says it helps to really tune in to where your kids are right now — and to recognize that they need different support at different times.

We talk about:

• letting your kid be who they are and getting to know them as a person instead of placing your own expectations on them

BIO

Lee Lee McKnight is #ladyboss behind The Perpetual You--a lifestyle brand curated for women living intentionally--and the mom of Henri (11) & Wayne (6).  In 2018, Lee Lee began co-hosting the podcast, Mama Now Conversations, and in 2019, she began a YouTube series on Intentional Living. She is also at work on a book about the intersection of privilege and intentional living practices. You can find Lee Lee on Instagram @wordsbyleelee or in Hamden, CT—where she’s most likely hanging out on the front porch of her family’s 1920s bungalow.

LINKS

• Mama Now podcast

Doable Changes from this episode:

• USE A MANTRA. Lee Lee shares some of the mantras she uses (and has more on her YouTube channel). Find one—or create one—that works for you. Two keys as you create yours—make it positive and make it believable. Repeat it to yourself throughout the day. Write it down and post it around your house.

On this episode of the Plan Simple Meals Podcast, I’m really excited to talk with Hélène Defrance, a olympic athlete turned nutritionist, and a member of FLOW 365. While I focus a lot of my work on moms and the demands of matching work and food and self-care with parenting, Hélène reached out to me and said, “You know, I’m not a mom but I think I’m supposed to do this program.” And she did and it’s been fabulous!

Hélène spent 10 years sailing and working toward the Olympics. She qualified for Rio, where she got the bronze, and got a world champion in 2016.

For the past two years, she has changed her focus and is now working as a nutritionist. She’s passionate about nutrition and how our food habits and digestive system can affect our health. She educates and advises people about nutrition.  

Hélène’s FLOW Situation

I felt stuck…. I was stressed everyday and I didn’t feel accomplished at any time. I had some vision ... but, for some reason I never was able to stop and think how I could get to there. Six months ago, that felt too wrong. I needed to get some help.

While Hélène was feeling this way, she was seeing private clients and serving as the nutritionist for a a big deal football team. She was doing so much and not taking it in. I love watching the women in FLOW 365 begin to see what they are doing and accomplishing.

Why Planning Matters

Hélène started out asking “Where is the time for all the other things in the planner?” As she started seeing where she was spending her time—lots of time exercising and shopping and working late but not doing the hard things—she was able to start making changes.

Key Tool: Group Meetings

I love when we all meet up online and share where we are and next steps for us.

These meetings are a chance to share and get advice from Mia and the rest of the group. And having a group of people who understand what you are doing is really special. When somebody can really hear that while you’re making the little changes that bring joy, it helps you with the momentum.

Key Tool: Daily Debrief

I’ve got my routine every night. I spend probably 15 minutes with my planner and I write things down. I look at what I’ve been doing…. I do my little debrief with myself and I really love it.

There things we don’t do because they feel hard or take longer than we think they’ll take or we busy or for whatever reason don’t start them. Debriefing gives you a chance to go back without judgement. It gives you a chance to see why things didn’t work or to move things up in your planner.

Key Tool: Word of the Cycle

At the beginning of every 90-day cycle (the FLOW planner includes a page for this), choose a word that you want to embody for this 90-day season. It’s a really simple but meaningful practice and helps you decide what you focus on or don’t focus on.

Hélène’s word was serenity and it helped her be more present, build trust and confidence, and feel more relaxed. She started a meditation practice and spent more time in nature.

FLOW Changes

Food: Being precise about nutrients, not just calories; choosing quality food from carefully chosen farms; having boundaries around food when traveling or busy

Lifestyle: Better flow between different parts of her life

Om: Meditating more. Adding in exercise but not using it to squeeze out other activities.

Work: Having more reasonable end times to the day.

Big and Little Shifts from Flow 365

Hélène describes her biggest...

On this episode of the Plan Simple Meals Podcast, I’m really excited to talk with Hélène Defrance, a olympic athlete turned nutritionist, and a member of FLOW 365. While I focus a lot of my work on moms and the demands of matching work and food and self-care with parenting, Hélène reached out to me and said, “You know, I’m not a mom but I think I’m supposed to do this program.” And she did and it’s been fabulous!

Hélène spent 10 years sailing and working toward the Olympics. She qualified for Rio, where she got the bronze, and got a world champion in 2016.

For the past two years, she has changed her focus and is now working as a nutritionist. She’s passionate about nutrition and how our food habits and digestive system can affect our health. She educates and advises people about nutrition.  

Hélène’s FLOW Situation

I felt stuck…. I was stressed everyday and I didn’t feel accomplished at any time. I had some vision ... but, for some reason I never was able to stop and think how I could get to there. Six months ago, that felt too wrong. I needed to get some help.

While Hélène was feeling this way, she was seeing private clients and serving as the nutritionist for a a big deal football team. She was doing so much and not taking it in. I love watching the women in FLOW 365 begin to see what they are doing and accomplishing.

Why Planning Matters

Hélène started out asking “Where is the time for all the other things in the planner?” As she started seeing where she was spending her time—lots of time exercising and shopping and working late but not doing the hard things—she was able to start making changes.

Key Tool: Group Meetings

I love when we all meet up online and share where we are and next steps for us.

These meetings are a chance to share and get advice from Mia and the rest of the group. And having a group of people who understand what you are doing is really special. When somebody can really hear that while you’re making the little changes that bring joy, it helps you with the momentum.

Key Tool: Daily Debrief

I’ve got my routine every night. I spend probably 15 minutes with my planner and I write things down. I look at what I’ve been doing…. I do my little debrief with myself and I really love it.

There things we don’t do because they feel hard or take longer than we think they’ll take or we busy or for whatever reason don’t start them. Debriefing gives you a chance to go back without judgement. It gives you a chance to see why things didn’t work or to move things up in your planner.

Key Tool: Word of the Cycle

At the beginning of every 90-day cycle (the FLOW planner includes a page for this), choose a word that you want to embody for this 90-day season. It’s a really simple but meaningful practice and helps you decide what you focus on or don’t focus on.

Hélène’s word was serenity and it helped her be more present, build trust and confidence, and feel more relaxed. She started a meditation practice and spent more time in nature.

FLOW Changes

Food: Being precise about nutrients, not just calories; choosing quality food from carefully chosen farms; having boundaries around food when traveling or busy

Lifestyle: Better flow between different parts of her life

Om: Meditating more. Adding in exercise but not using it to squeeze out other activities.

Work: Having more reasonable end times to the day.

Big and Little Shifts from Flow 365

Hélène describes her biggest shifts in the first two cycles of FLOW 365: I feel so much joy and I’m so positive. Everything feels like it’s fun.

BIO

Hélène Defrance is an athelete and nutritionist. Hélène spent 10 years sailing and working toward the Olympics. She qualified for Rio, where she got the bronze, and got a world champion in 2016. She now works as a nutritionist with private clients and as the nutritionist for a football team to help people improve their well being and athletic performance.

LINKS

Podcast with Jade Venables

Doable Change from this episode:

Pause before you act. Just take a minute, even 10–15 seconds to see how you feel before you eat or drink (or work or work out … or anything else). Sometimes we create rules in planning like, “I’m not going have coffee.” but every once in a while, after the pause, we realize it’s okay. It could be coffee or anything. It could be staying up late to watch a movie. Maybe you set a “rule” about going to bed, and often that rule serves you, but maybe one night you need to connect with your partner and that pause gives you the space to make a choice.

In FLOW 365, we get really intentional about how we want to feel and where we want to focus attention for the next 90 days. Pairing the pause with our intentions helps us make choices that bring more joy to life instead of just offering rules to follw. Our group provides a place to comment without judgement on our actions. And later you might debrief from you day and share that too. We plan, pause, and debrief around four key areas of our lives—food, lifestyle, OM (spirituality and self-care) and work. FLOW 365 is a high-end, yearlong program that helps entrepreneurial moms make time and space for clean food, joyful home lives and meaningful practices — alongside work, of course! It is designed to help you increase productivity without decreasing joy.

While there isn’t a space for pausing in the FLOW Planner, there is a place to set intentions and there is place to debrief. Taking time to sent intentions and then review your day without judgment help you live the life you truly want. The FLOW planner helps you fit food and the other things that “matter most” into your day.

When our kids push our buttons, it’s not a problem with our kids, it’s a problem with us. – Bonnie Harris

On this episode of the Plan Simple Meals Podcast, I’m really excited to talk with Bonnie Harris, a parenting and child behavior specialist. I love getting parenting experts on the show because as we’re figuring out how to lead healthy lives and do the work that we want to do, we also have kids. At the end of the day, we can feel bad about how we’re parenting, and it’s helpful having tools that support the way we’re trying to show up to the world as a parent. Bonnie hopes our talk will alleviate some of the pressure parents put on themselves.

Bonnie says her work right now is often focused on helping parents let go. She explains that it feels like you are saying, “Now, I’m cutting the rope and letting this little boat drift out to sea to fend for itself,” but really, you are letting go of that voice in your head that says you aren’t good enough, that you’re doing everything wrong.

Bonnie explains that our perceptions lead to feeling overwhelm, frustrated, depressed, helpless and that all of these feelings that come from our head, not from circumstances and not from our kids. These feelings then lead to our reactions. In a nanosecond, we react in ways we know is not effective. Then we regret it and go down the spiral of “I’m a terrible parent.” But it’s possible to break this cycle and Bonnie has lots of great ideas for us!

We talk about:

• The power of the connected relationship: “A connected relationship is the number one preventive measure of anything that any parent is afraid of happening to their child”
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• Separating judgement from facts and reframing what you’re telling yourself every day
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• A step-by-step process to stop reacting in the moment
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• What to do when your agenda and your kids agendas aren’t aligned and how to problem solve with your kids
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• Self care being “as critically important as getting your child a nutritious meal”—and the many different forms self-care can take (it’s not all mediation and pedicures)
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• Starting by paying attention to your reactions and thinking about what caused them
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• Making this work a priority
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• One rule for making meals more peaceful—do not talk about food
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BIO

Bonnie is a parenting and child behavior specialist. She speaks and teaches internationally and is the author of two books. She has designed and taught parenting workshops and counseled parents for more than twenty five years. She holds a master’s degree in Early Childhood Education is from Bank Street College in New York City, and works with the Connective Parenting Philosophy, which allows parents to understand where their children are coming from both developmentally and temperamentally and to respond with appropriate expectations. Bonnie lives in NH with her husband and is the mother of two grown children and three grandchildren.

LINKS

• Bonnieharries.com
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• Connectiveparenting.com
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• When Your Kids Push Your Buttons
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When our kids push our buttons, it’s not a problem with our kids, it’s a problem with us. – Bonnie Harris

On this episode of the Plan Simple Meals Podcast, I’m really excited to talk with Bonnie Harris, a parenting and child behavior specialist. I love getting parenting experts on the show because as we’re figuring out how to lead healthy lives and do the work that we want to do, we also have kids. At the end of the day, we can feel bad about how we’re parenting, and it’s helpful having tools that support the way we’re trying to show up to the world as a parent. Bonnie hopes our talk will alleviate some of the pressure parents put on themselves.

Bonnie says her work right now is often focused on helping parents let go. She explains that it feels like you are saying, “Now, I’m cutting the rope and letting this little boat drift out to sea to fend for itself,” but really, you are letting go of that voice in your head that says you aren’t good enough, that you’re doing everything wrong.

Bonnie explains that our perceptions lead to feeling overwhelm, frustrated, depressed, helpless and that all of these feelings that come from our head, not from circumstances and not from our kids. These feelings then lead to our reactions. In a nanosecond, we react in ways we know is not effective. Then we regret it and go down the spiral of “I’m a terrible parent.” But it’s possible to break this cycle and Bonnie has lots of great ideas for us!

We talk about:

• The power of the connected relationship: “A connected relationship is the number one preventive measure of anything that any parent is afraid of happening to their child”

BIO

Bonnie is a parenting and child behavior specialist. She speaks and teaches internationally and is the author of two books. She has designed and taught parenting workshops and counseled parents for more than twenty five years. She holds a master’s degree in Early Childhood Education is from Bank Street College in New York City, and works with the Connective Parenting Philosophy, which allows parents to understand where their children are coming from both developmentally and temperamentally and to respond with appropriate expectations. Bonnie lives in NH with her husband and is the mother of two grown children and three grandchildren.

LINKS

• Bonnieharries.com

Doable Changes from this episode:

• PAY ATTENTION AND PLAY DETECTIVE. Start by simply paying attention to how you react during the day. Note what you did (maybe you yelled at your kids). Notice how you were feeling. Try to figure out what you were thinking, what button were your kids pushing? Keep a journal for the week.

“One of my favorite parts of this group is you and the way that you lead and the way that you inspire … everytime I talk to you, I feel better. You always make me feel like I can conquer what I need to conquer and it’s like no big deal.”  – Heather Dressel

On this episode of the Plan Simple Meals Podcast, I’m really excited to talk with Heather Dressel about her family, her business and her experience during FLOW365.

Heather has an 8-year-old daughter and an 11-year-old son. She’s been a stay at home more for ten years, and this is the first year she said she can do something for herself. And she’s doing something really exciting—starting her own business, called Divinely Sensitive. In addition she moved to a new state recently.

In the midst of all this change, she was resistant to committing to a full year process, here’s what happened when we met in person:

I just had this knowing … this feeling that we were going to work together … When we started talking and you told me about this program [FLOW365], there was like a ping in my heart that was like, “Ooh, you need to get her information and stay in touch with her. This sounds something that it could be really great for you.

Heather’s FLOW Situation

Heather needed to focus on healing from serious chronic illnesses and disease and learning about foods that make her and her family sick. She is transforming from full time mom to a business owner. Over the past couple of years, she’s had really amazing spiritual awakening and she’s settling to this new home. That’s food, lifestyle, om and work right there.

She says, “I had so much going on, I needed support, I needed a system, a gentle, ever changing, forgiving structure that would inspire me to show up to be my best self in all of those areas.”

Why Planning Matters

I always loved the idea of planning. Planning looked like tons of notebooks and lists floating around my kitchen and everything scattered. As much as I love order and planning, I just never really found a way to make it work for me and I still struggle with consistency, but I’m definitely getting better since I started FLOW.

Just Show Up

You show up when you show up. “It goes totally in alignment with what I’m trying to do with my entire life to let go of the perfectionist and just show up and do the best I can in that moment.”

Key Tool: Braindump

I always say there is magic in writing things down. It helps us really be focused on our goals but it also lets us let go of trying to hold all the information in our heads. Heather says, “Just the braindump alone is super helpful for me. If I fully get to that, it’s like I’ve let everything out, I’ve looked at it, I’ve read it, and it kind of sits with me.”

A braindump, or as I like to call it a Master List, can be super helpful, but for Heather, they used to be overwhelming. Here’s what changed:

A huge shift for me was doing this dump list and then breaking it down in the back of the journal to the food, work, om and lifestyle. I’m a really visual person and so seeing everything in the way it’s organized in the journal is a lot less overwhelming for me than looking at pages and pages and pages of list.

And what’s on our list can change season to season. Right now I might be really focused on work, but in a couple of months I might feel pulled to really reconnect with my food. But when you see it written down, and you don’t put it on your calendar it isn’t going to get done.

Key Tool: Week

“One of my favorite parts of this group is you and the way that you lead and the way that you inspire … everytime I talk to you, I feel better. You always make me feel like I can conquer what I need to conquer and it’s like no big deal.”  – Heather Dressel

On this episode of the Plan Simple Meals Podcast, I’m really excited to talk with Heather Dressel about her family, her business and her experience during FLOW365.

Heather has an 8-year-old daughter and an 11-year-old son. She’s been a stay at home more for ten years, and this is the first year she said she can do something for herself. And she’s doing something really exciting—starting her own business, called Divinely Sensitive. In addition she moved to a new state recently.

In the midst of all this change, she was resistant to committing to a full year process, here’s what happened when we met in person:

I just had this knowing … this feeling that we were going to work together … When we started talking and you told me about this program [FLOW365], there was like a ping in my heart that was like, “Ooh, you need to get her information and stay in touch with her. This sounds something that it could be really great for you.

Heather’s FLOW Situation

Heather needed to focus on healing from serious chronic illnesses and disease and learning about foods that make her and her family sick. She is transforming from full time mom to a business owner. Over the past couple of years, she’s had really amazing spiritual awakening and she’s settling to this new home. That’s food, lifestyle, om and work right there.

She says, “I had so much going on, I needed support, I needed a system, a gentle, ever changing, forgiving structure that would inspire me to show up to be my best self in all of those areas.”

Why Planning Matters

I always loved the idea of planning. Planning looked like tons of notebooks and lists floating around my kitchen and everything scattered. As much as I love order and planning, I just never really found a way to make it work for me and I still struggle with consistency, but I’m definitely getting better since I started FLOW.

Just Show Up

You show up when you show up. “It goes totally in alignment with what I’m trying to do with my entire life to let go of the perfectionist and just show up and do the best I can in that moment.”

Key Tool: Braindump

I always say there is magic in writing things down. It helps us really be focused on our goals but it also lets us let go of trying to hold all the information in our heads. Heather says, “Just the braindump alone is super helpful for me. If I fully get to that, it’s like I’ve let everything out, I’ve looked at it, I’ve read it, and it kind of sits with me.”

A braindump, or as I like to call it a Master List, can be super helpful, but for Heather, they used to be overwhelming. Here’s what changed:

A huge shift for me was doing this dump list and then breaking it down in the back of the journal to the food, work, om and lifestyle. I’m a really visual person and so seeing everything in the way it’s organized in the journal is a lot less overwhelming for me than looking at pages and pages and pages of list.

And what’s on our list can change season to season. Right now I might be really focused on work, but in a couple of months I might feel pulled to really reconnect with my food. But when you see it written down, and you don’t put it on your calendar it isn’t going to get done.

Key Tool: Week at a Glance Pages

The FLOW planner has a number of sections, and Heather’s favorite is the Week at a Glance page: I never took time to think about how I wanted my week to feel. Who has time to think about that? It’s just revolutionary for me. What is my vision for the week? What do I want to receive this week? What do I want to give this week? It’s just give deep meaning to your week which is so awesome.

Key Tool: Big Rocks

Imagine a jar that you need to fill with sand and rocks. If you put the sand in first, there is no room for the big rocks, but if you put the big rocks in first, the sand flows around it. We use this practice with planning by choosing the three big things to focus on each week. Heather says, Even Superwoman can only do so much in a day. It's definitely helped me scale back to the point where I can feel successful. I don’t have huge lists that like at the end of the day, I’m like, “Great. I have 70 things on my list and I only got two done.” As opposed to “There are the three big things that need to happen this week. Let’s break it down and figure out what has to be accomplished to get those done.” That’s been a huge shift for me.

FLOW Changes

Food: My kitchen feels a lot less like a prison than it used to.

Lifestyle: Settling into a new home

Om: Making sure spiritual practices don’t get lost in the shuffle—creating an altar with Goddess statues and crystals that are meaningful to her goals, listening to music and chanting to connect with her love of singing and with her body

Work: Creating time for starting a new business

Big and Little Shifts from FLOW 365

I definitely feel more organized because I allow myself to take the time that I need to plan without feeling guilty. That was a huge shift for me. I felt guilty sitting down and taking time out to plan anything that wasn’t like what I’m buying at the grocery store or something directly going to affect my children or my husband or my life like that.

I’ve seen my life as very small. I was thinking very small.

I feel like FLOW365 has opened me up and really inspired me to understand that I don’t have to be perfect, but I still can accomplish all of the things that I want to accomplish.

“One of my favorite parts of this group is you and the way that you lead and the way that you inspire … everytime I talk to you, I feel better. You always make me feel like I can conquer what I need to conquer and it’s like no big deal.”

We also talked about:

• How being a mom and dealing with illness or a chronic condition can be more work than a job

BIO

Heather Dressel was a stay at home mom for years before launching a Divinely Sensitive. Heather is a highly sensitive empath herself, and launched her business to lead a community of women who identify as highly sensitive or empaths or both. Divinely Sensitive provide resources and support as they learn to honor their unique sensitivities and unleash their superpowers. Heather is currently active in FLOW 365.

LINKS

• Divinely Sensitive

Doable Change from this episode:

Make a dump list. Take a piece of paper or a blank spread in your journal and divide it into four sections for food, lifestyle, OM (spirituality and self-care) and work. Dump all the things in your head that you have to do or want to do into those sections. Just getting it out of your head makes a difference. You can relax a little more. You can see where you are out of balance. And you can see what you can start to focus on.

We do this practice every 90 days as part of FLOW 365. FLOW 365 is a high-end, yearlong program that helps entrepreneurial moms make time and space for clean food, joyful home lives and meaningful practices — alongside work, of course! It is designed to help you increase productivity without decreasing joy.

It is such an important part of my own practice that it is built right into the FLOW Planner. The FLOW planner helps you fit food and the other things that “matter most” into your day. By scheduling food tasks, exercise, your big dreams and downtime along with appointments and work and getting the kids to and from activities, you can love your life more and be present in the “flow.”

“Am I good enough? Yes I am.” – Michelle Obama

We all have our own journey, but so often there is something, sometimes one little thing that we take from somebody else’s experience that helps us. This is me being 100% real about what I think about, what I do (and sometimes what I don’t do). I’m still figuring out the flow between work and family and wellness. Here are a few lessons I’m learning and continuing to play with.

1. I am enough.
2. I spent most of my life thinking I wasn’t thin enough or rich enough or smart enough. A few months ago I was trying to figure out the next steps in my business, and I actually had the thought, “I am not man enough.” I’m still tested by the idea of being enough, but the why behind putting time into my wellness is to remind myself everyday that I am enough.
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6. Freedom does not mean no rules. Boundaries are so important. In order to feel well in my body, I had to understand what I should eat. I’ve had a rule around not eating gluten and dairy for 10 years now, but many rules are shorter lived. I like to call them experiments: ditching coffee for a week, committing to a cleanse for 21 days, gifting myself a good nights sleep. This year I am working on work boundaries. I’m making the effort to work 8–3 while the kids are in school, keeping weekends for family, and planning for sick days or vacation days.
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10. Big Rocks have to come first and be non-negotiable. Big Rocks are three things that move you towards your dreams. They do not have to take the most time, but every day I do them, I feel like I got something done. Where do you want to be 10 years from now? What small thing can you do today to move you towards that? Think about 30 minutes writing the outline for your book, 1 hour prepping food for a cleanse, 10 minutes sharing your passion project with a friend, a day cleaning the basement.
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14. Planning is my best tool with the highest ROI.  A big part of planning is committing and making space, so the act of planning really makes me consider what things even belong in my day. Productive does not mean busy. When I plan, I’m not always reacting. Instead, I make sure I’m making space for the things I want to do and to get done the things that need to get done.
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18. My plan is not a set and forget thing.
19. My planner can look a little messy, but I found out recently that is OK! I went through a phase where I wanted super beautiful, Instagram-worthy pages, but lately I realize the messier the better, because life is messy. Sometimes by Wednesday my meal plan is off, a kid gets sick, or I don’t have time to cut all the veggies for ratatouille the night I have it planned. Sometimes I don’t get something done at all for work or around the house, so I need to make more time to do it later in the week. Sometimes I ignore a timeblock all together, but if I am going to take my planning seriously, I have to move it somewhere else. I actually go back and account for changes I make in my planner. Messy, but it makes my planning real and helps me stay accountable.
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23. My money is an important part of my wellness journey.
24. I have a lot of really limiting beliefs about money and my worth. My MO has been to ignore it, but I know that doesn’t work. I feel very much at the beginning of my journey on this issue. In the past few years I have gotten more confident being honest about money. I think more about what I need, why I’m willing to spend on things (maybe it was ethically made or supports a friend in business), and what causes I want my money to go to.
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28. Measurement is not all bad. I was inspired by an amazing coach named Christie to really ritualistically acknowledge money as...

We all have our own journey, but so often there is something, sometimes one little thing that we take from somebody else’s experience that helps us. This is me being 100% real about what I think about, what I do (and sometimes what I don’t do). I’m still figuring out the flow between work and family and wellness. Here are a few lessons I’m learning and continuing to play with.

1. I am enough.

Doable Changes from this episode:

• EXPERIMENT WITH A BOUNDARY. I like to experiment with rules around my food and wellness and work. That means I’m not committing forever, but maybe for a day or a week or a month. Try ditching coffee for a week, commiting to a cleanse for 21 days, gifting yourself a good nights sleep, setting an end time to your work day and shutting off communication then. See how it feels. See if it’s a rule you want to keep or tweak.