[Choose-your-own-adventure experiments]

How To Create Your Own Eat, Play, Love ExperimentsEat, Play, Love Experiments Made SIMPLEThe Only 3 Ingredients You Need to Succeed (For Every Component of Your Winning Experiments)Behind The Curtain: How I Eat, Play, Love (I’ll Show You Mine)

What If Self Care Was The New Self-love?The New Health Care?The Best Beauty/Anti-aging Cream Money Could Buy?The Cure And The Prevention? I Believe Self Care Is Self Love. Self Love IS Self Care. What If The Answer Was: Do Less. Care More. Do YOU.

What If We Removed EMOTION From The Equation?(Your Body As A Business)

PICTURE THIS:The Business (you & your body)The Strategy (long term AND short term)The Departments (Body, Beauty, Brain…Physio, Psycho, Neuro)Those You ServeHow To Serve Yourself FirstHow’s Your Body As A Business Being Run?Care/Prepare? -OR - Repair/Despair?

’

What if you were the Client AND the CEO? What if you could:

PICTURE THIS:Meeting yourself (and your body) where you are...and letting yourself just be there. Forgiving yourself for where you’re NOT. Giving yourself what you need. Asking yourself what you want.

Eat: Ditch the guilt, shame, blame, and comparison…and eat with freedom, permission, choice, and pleasure. Play: Make it fun. Do what feels good and makes you smile. Dance like no one’s watching. Move like you did when you were a kid, and do something that energizes you. Get comfy in your own skin. Love: Love yourself first. Take care of yourself first. Deem yourself worthy of the time, effort, love and care-- give your head, heart, and your body what it needs to be strong and on steady ground. No one will care about you as you have the capacity to care for yourself. And when you do, you'll find that you can truly give your love and care to others.

The 3 Simple Ingredients You Need to Be Aware of For Success:

#1: The ‘What’#2: The ‘Why’ #3: The ‘How’

All 3 Are An Awareness Awareness.

What are you doing/eating/spending time and energy on? Can your brain predict and respond? Is it stressing you out? The things that are way too complicated, too intense, or too stressful, you can COUNT on the fact that you won't do them very long. Your brain won’t want to….and it won’t let you. It's just science.

Why are you doing/eating/spending time and energy on it? Is it because you desire it? Or because you require it? When I feel like tidying up my house, it's fun. I put some music on, get in the zone, and it feels good while I'm doing it. And my brain sets off a cascade of happy hormones like dopamine, serotonin, and (if it makes me feel comforted and safe), some oxytocin too. If I'm forcing myself to do it against my will, the experience is completely different AND my brain is setting off a cascade of stress hormones like cortisol, adrenaline, and epinephrine. Too much of those are no bueno for your health or your waistline

How are you feeling before, during, and after? (Yes it matters!)Are you feeling Grrrrrr or stressed out because of #1 or #2?The biggies (that most don't really think about) are the feelings of shame, blame, guilt, and comparison.It’s not the cookie that's fattening. It's the guilt, shame, blame, or comparison that comes alongside the cookie that's the most ‘costly’.You might not FEEL like this is stressful or notice it like you would typical stressorsThese feelings before, during, or after you do (or don't) do something….do or don’t eat something… do or don't follow through on a commitment to yourself…..do or don't do anything… These feelings are what set off the cascade of stress hormones like cortisol, adrenaline, and epinephrine.

’

Yoga is what caused me to originally come up with the permission slips. When I first started, these are the conversations I used to have with myself (during yoga or ANYTHING really):

What if I'm the fattest one there?Will I be the least experienced? Will I be the only one who can't do it all? Will I be the odd ball?What am I going to wear?Do I really feel like getting sweaty/dirty/stinky?Do I really want other people to see my butt sticking up in the air, my thighs jiggle and boobs bounce when i run, or see my fat ass...period?Do I really have the time? (what else would you be doing?)Do I really have the energy? (what else would you be doing?)Do I really want to? (what else would you be doing?)

This is what I wrote in my journal a year or so ago:

If you give your body L.A.C.K. (love attention care knowing)If you give your joints more awarenessIf you give your tissue (fat, fascia, muscle) more awarenessIf you simply notice your stability, balance, coordination, and the movement itselfIf you teach your body something new in a slow, controlled way

You will move better, feel better, walk better, have better health, skin, vitality, more focus and energy...

Here's the thing though: For this to work you need to give yourself permission to meet yourself where you are and just be where you are.

You hear about setting intentions before you practice or exercise? I say, set a PERMISSION!

(Now) I am that gal you'll find bouncing her head and grooving in yoga, using my paddle as an air guitar, and walking as I'm lip-syncing like I'm doing karaoke.Because the truth is: Nobody cares! They are so focused on their own ‘stuff’ that they aren’t concerned with what I’m doing. (And if they are: Who cares?)

Change your relationship with movement or with exercise. Don't make it about keeping up, fitting in, or performing to a certain level or quantifiable. Find a place and a space where you can be exactly where you are.

Stand still first. Then move slow. Then pick up the pace as needed or as desired.

Give yourself permission to be free of judgement or criticismGive yourself permission to be free of comparison to your former self, your future self, or anyone else.Give yourself permission to be free of obligation or punishment.Give yourself permission to be from keeping up with or measuring up to any one or any blueprint.Give yourself permission to give your body whatever it needs that day.Give yourself permission to be a student, a beginner, an amateur, and imperfect.Give yourself permission to be a woman who’s there purely to have fun and enjoy each moment of the experience -- the epitome of "dance like nobody's watching".Give yourself permission to PLAY!

’Bathing Suit Acceptance (body acceptance)Made me become a ‘freshman’Strictly for fun, to play, to act like a kidDance like no one’s watchingPhysical Therapy/Occupational Therapy (Vestibular System: Balance + Horizon line)My first ‘real’ experience out in natureSunset and MoonriseI’m an island (THAT is self-connection: when you can feel like an island and feel content)The soundtracks of my experiencesHelped me with my fear of water (chicken or egg? My body image or an actual fear of water?)

Anatomy of a ‘Perfect’ Workout:

Safe/JudgementFree, No competition (no end marker or result), You pick what the goal based on what you need that day (do you need sympathetic or parasympathetic?) Starts on ground, then standing, then movingEvery system is relaxed thru the breath: gastro, endo, nervousSenses are being honed in (smell, eyes closed, music)Body leaves with more body awareness than it started withSlow is smooth, smooth is fast (take longer to get in position, only hold for 1-2 reps/seconds...then lengthen and relax....then do it again)Focusing on the breathe. Enjoy: Find your groove or find your flow.

’’

Feed yourself love and care through words, connection, your thoughtsFeed yourself love through food and nutrientsDrink a cup of love for your soul (whether that’s coffee, tea, soup, juice)Slow down and breathe. Arrange your food with love on your plateTake a bath. Rub lotion all over your body. Give yourself a gift. The gift of time, experiences, a physical gift.Get a massage or a facial or any relaxation treatment.Smile at yourself in the mirror. (Stick your tongue out. Make yourself laugh!)Play dress-up in your closet. Curl your hair. Paint your nails. Have a dance party like no one is watching. Practice ‘fat acceptance’ (Dance your fat off. Map your fat. Own it in the mirror)

My HuffPost Article: The #1 Stressor You Need to Eliminate in 2015 (And 62 Ways to Do It)

(In Your Lesson Dashboard)

Z-Health + Vitamin String QuartetWinsor Pilates + Vitamin String QuartetDance Party + Ditcherella Soundtrack Paddleboard + Empowered SoundtrackAqua JoggingHot Tub/Cold PlungeWalk/Run + Pumped Up SoundtrackYoga + Yanet’s Amazing Soundtracks (My Permission Slips for Yoga)Dry Brushing (Fat Mapping) + Wild Card SoundtrackHeat (Fat Mapping) + Wild Card SoundtrackTouch/Lotion (Fat Mapping) + Wild Card SoundtrackTextured Breathing (Shapes, fabrics, filling up a balloon inside of me) (Instrumental Only)Colored Breathing (different colors) (Instrumental Only)Rhythmic Breathing (to a beat) (Instrumental Only)Practice Relaxing

Get my body stillCover my eyesMusicEssential Oils (Peppermint/Lavendar)BreatheHead/Neck/Cranial NervesIsometric Squeezes/HoldsGround Walking

Play dress upGet to know your fatSpecific activity you want to do but aren’t: Example: paddleboard, tai chi, golf, cute one piece on beach, learn a new language, take an art class, go on a date, etcDance partySense + Map your bodyCreate self care experimentCreate self acceptance experimentCreate know, like, trust experimentPractice mindful eating: Pay attention to what, why, howSeduce your husband/partner and find your sensual/sexual side

Create soundtrack(s) for X activityCreate a positive distractions listFind your own sensory cocktail recipeGo to a meetup.comJournal/do morning pages for 7 daysCreate a morning ritualCreate an evening ritualDo an organization/feng shui/environment experimentMake it a point to get outside in nature more/ experience grass, sand, h2o…sunrise, sunset, the moonDo a ‘purge’ of your closet and belongingsThrow a partyTHE SKY IS THE LIMIT!

Self Care Is The New Self-love, The PREVENTION And The CURE, The Best Beauty Secret Or Anti-aging Trick Money Can Buy. Self-care Is The Easy ButtonTake The Emotion OUT: How Would You Act If Your “Body Was Your Business” (And You Were The Client AND The CEO)?Self-Care Made Simple: Eat, Play, LoveEat, Play, Love Made Simple: The What, The Why, The How

Check out the Non-Dieting Mindful Eating Tracker

Start thinking about your Long-Term Living Way of Living (Your Homeostasis)

THINK: What’s a way of living that I could EASILY and HAPPILY stick with the rest of my life?