Episode 47 – Don’t celebrate every day

• You may wonder about this Strange title
• Shouldn’t every day be a celebration?
• Sure
• But lets clarify what we should celebrate
• I say – always honor your life, your aliveness – the fact that you are here
• Your wisdom, vitality, beauty
• The quality of your life, the relationships you have, your family
• How should you celebrate this:
• Well – QFY is all about finding back to yourself
• That journey back to recognizing who you are is at the same time a celebration of your life
• You are waking up to YOUR life
• You start to recognize areas in your life that you have shut off, or ignored and neglected
• THAT IS coming alive
• This celebration of life starts on the inside
• With an awareness of the magnitude of this amazing life
• And once you start doing the inner work –
• it expresses itself on the outside by how you show up in the world
• By your thoughts, behaviors and actions
• You will notice that you are more in balance
• Your actions show your level of gratitude and appreciation for this life
• You are present
• You accept that the good life is right here, in this moment
• Recognizing this and living like this is celebrating life
• Unfortunately the way many people celebrate doesn’t reflect their inner world
• they celebrate by numbing themselves
• encouraged by advertising and media people indulge in the pleasures life offers 24/7
  • by buying more and more things
  • by consuming more in the form of food and media and entertainment
• there is nothing wrong with a little diversion when you just came out of 2 months of hard work without a break, or a stressful time in your life
• but what I specifically want to talk about in this episode is the celebration of life where we go all out, and almost every day
• the celebration that is really not a celebration but a distraction
• when we haven’t really accomplished anything, but we just feel we need to pamper ourselves somehow
• Cake, entertainment, alcohol flowing, the whole shebang
• Just like in a wedding
• • We start Monday with big sweet something latte because lets face it – its Monday – we need something to motivate us
  • Luckily someone also brought Cookies to the office
  • There is Birthday cake on Tuesday
  • A huge catered lunch on Wednesday
  • Happy hour with co-workers on Thursday
  • Donuts on Friday morning and a venti Frappuccino from Starbucks to celebrate that its Friday
  • And now the weekend starts and its time to hit the favorite restaurants, bars, clubs, bakery, delis, etc.
• Everything is accessible and you don’t need a ton of money to afford it all
• In fact, the more money we have disposable, the easier these treats can be justified
• Milkshakes, carb-loaded baked treats in every coffee shop, chocolate bars, chips, specialty candies and chocolate, artisan ice cream, alcohol,
• Aside from the fact that most of these are outright bad for our health,
• We turn these foods into everyday things
• Foods that people 50 years didn’t eat on a regular basis
• Foods that are so calorie-dense, they provide enough energy for 2 days
• And they become an issue – reflecting in bad health, obesity, issues with focus and mood, depression, and more
• Improper and excess nutrition is the culprit of many health-related issues
• We are constantly in celebration mode
• We feel we need to reward ourselves all the time
• This is furthermore encouraged by media
• Every article on stress I read says something to this extend:
• Indulge
• Eat ice cream when you feel down
• Reward yourself – you deserve it
• Where did all this rewarding come from?
• Is our life really so challenging and painful that we need reminders to celebrate more?
• Or is the media just encouraging us to consume more so it can make more money?
• Will Haagen Daz solve our problems?
• No wait, I forgot, Ben and Jerrys will do that

• I propose this:

Live a simple life

• Stick to your routines, let them guide you
• Eat healthy and controlled
• Small portions, just enough to provide you with energy
• Not an overload where you cannot move afterwards
• We talked about routines yesterday
• If you view them as your helper instead of as punishment, then it will be easier to follow them
• lets get back to simplicity
• Prepare your meals at home if you can
• I cook 5 days work of lunches in 2 hours on Sunday.
• Skip the treats and reserve them for special occasions
• I realize that they are abundant everywhere but you can say no
• During the week I never stop at any stores or gas stations. I avoid those temptations.
• There is plenty of food in my fridge and I eat that.
• I tell myself – when I am tempted to buy something fancy at a Deli – there is food in the fridge. Why waste it?
• And even when I think I dot have much to prepare a meal – necessity makes you resourceful
• Meals don’t need to be elaborate
• You can easily whip up a nice dish with a few ingredients – some veggies, maybe a hard-boiled egg, a salad, or some left-over meat lightly stir-fried with a potatoes chopped in.
• Simple, nutritious, few ingredients that you control
• Forget about diets
• Adopt a healthy lifestyle permanently and you will not need any more diets
• Enjoy your favorite ice cream from time to time, but it should not live permanently in your freezer, replenished every week when you buy groceries
• Make it something special
• Then you have something to look forward to
• Take responsibility and control your environment and that includes the food you eat
• Think before you eat and drink
• Just because you have 2 business dinners back to back doesn’t mean you need to go all out each time
• Order small. Avoid the alcohol.
• Don’t even look inside the donut box the next morning
• Have confidence in yourself – you brought your own food, so ignore everything else
• Celebrate when its truly time to celebrate. Not because its Friday or because you had a rough week.
• Celebrate tough goals accomplished, reunions with friends, or other special milestones in your life
• Those occasions will remain in your memory, together with the amazing you food you had
• The donut you have every week will only remain on your hips, not in your memory – you made it
• Learn to celebrate life the right way

• Save your hard-earned money and don’t waste it on food and drink that you later regret
• Instead – create wonderful experiences and memories that you can share with others in years to come
• Skip the happy hour that is the same boring thing every time anyway and instead go to an art exhibit or see a play
• Text an old friend and invite her to a networking event
• Expand your horizon
• Feed your mind and your brain with new knowledge
• Stop by a park on the way home, or the ocean if you have one and go for a walk there instead of perusing the grocery aisles
• Live life
• Control urges, learn to resist and hold off, learn to look forward to something that’s less immediate like food, but more rewarding in the long term
• And most of all – live simply
• Evaluate what you really need and enjoy what you have
• And when life calls for it – go celebrate. Have a Manhattan and oysters and whatever you like.
• It will be most memorable to you then.