Do Good By You

I have battled with food for majority of my adult life. Thankfully, I have no health problems but I simply feel better when I eat a well-balanced diet. 

Why is it so hard to do good things for ourselves? Exercise energizes us and releases endorphins yet we never can seem to make time for the gym. 

I recently had a revelation:  Good brings good. Bad brings bad. 

Let me elaborate. I'm not talking about eating one bowl of ice cream makes you a terrible human. I mean if I (personally) eat a steady diet of fast food and microwave meals, I start to feel pretty awful. My skin gets clammy, my energy drops, and I get short of breath. However when I eat a protein packed breakfast, lots of greens for lunch and a balanced dinner but give myself sweet rewards (fruit, chocolate or sorbet) throughout the day I feel happy and perky and pretty much...really great. 

I am not a person who can "diet." I have to "lifestyle." 

A "one time fix" doesn't work for me because old habits die hard. I needed to completely overhaul how I thought about what I put in my body (and my kids bodies) in order to be successful in achieving my goal of overall wellbeing. 

The same holds true for parenting, I've learned. I can't just let bedtime slip over time or let naps happen as they may. I can't discipline sternly sometimes and be lackadaisical other times. My husband and I have to be on the same page to 100% start bedtime at the same time every night. Naps are necessary for the one year old; they can't simply be left to fate because he is definitely hitting that "toddler FOMO" (fear of missing out) stage. He WON'T sleep unless you make him. 

Our whole world came spiraling out of control when a few nights in a row of, "They aren't tired, I guess they can stay up" met a few days of, "But it's summer so let's go have some fun!" Good choices bring good results. Bad choices bring....mass chaos. Well, at least in my house. 

Regardless of what your parenting techniques (or food habits) are, if they're good for you, they're good! Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise. Stick with your parenting lifestyle. You don't have to go on a parenting "diet" because someone else's family appears better or behaves more sweetly under pressure.

Do good by you!

Who knows what others tricks are anyway.