Our guest blogger, Kris Parmelee, is the mother of three school-aged boys and the wife of an Indianapolis police officer. Parmelee is also the owner and operator of Avec Moi, a take-out spot for healthy, homemade food to go located in Broad Ripple.
Two years ago, after more than 10 years as a fundraising consultant, I started a new business venture in the food industry. This was a drastic change and required an extensive amount of time and energy. So, I am just going to come right out and say it: my focused efforts on the start-up along with an approaching a major milestone (almost 40!) allowed a slew of unhealthy habits to creep up on me. Now, it’s time to take control and get back to my healthy lifestyle!
It honestly did creep up on me. It reminds me of something from my previous job called Mission Creep. Mission Creep occurs when a nonprofit organization slowly—and without anyone even noticing—shies away from their core mission. Just like a nonprofit, my mission has crept.
My mission was very focused on clean living, good health and an optimistic attitude.
For me, clean living meant I made choices that kept my body clean of as many chemicals, preservatives, artificial flavors and colors, dangerous sun rays and more. My skin was more radiant, my hair was shinier and, well…my pants fit. My definition of good health focused on staying active, getting plenty of rest and being social. I could easily play a two hour tennis match. I cut time out of my days to care for myself. I worked out with a trainer and did cardio. I wore a bikini.
My optimism has never really left and I am calling on it now to help me make cleaner choices again and get healthy! But, some things have changed and I am going to have to go about it a little differently than before.
Money Creep: A job change, or in my case, a whole life change causes financial stress. Money is tight. No more personal trainers and gym memberships; I have to find a way to make it work on little to no money. It will require searching out opportunities for inexpensive fitness classes, using the outdoors and making do with the free weights I have at home.
Time Creep: Life is busier than it was before and it will only continue to get busier. I have three boys who are active in school, sports and with friends. My husband works; I work and have errands, meetings and appointments. It will be more difficult than ever to continue to remind myself I must carve out time to take care of myself.
Habit Creep: My old “good” habits have been replaced by new “bad” habits due to increased convenience. For example, my old daily habit of an orange and an egg-white only omelet has been replaced with muffins, bagels, even cookies on the go. I will need to replace those bad habits with good ones all over again. That will be painful!
Energy Creep: Did I mention life is busy? I do get tired and unmotivated. By the end of the day, my energy is zapped and all I want to do is plop on the couch and watch something on the Bravo channel. I will need friends and a community of people who are fit, active or fighting the similar fight to keep me going.
It’s definitely creepy. The other day, a customer and I were lamenting about gaining weight over the holiday. She joked and said, “who would buy food from a skinny chef anyway?!?” Well, the truth is most of the food we offer at Avec Moi is healthy. So, the girl cooking it, selling it and sharing it with others really should be healthy too!
Tags: eating healthy, family health, healthy goals, obstacles to healthy goals
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