Years ago, I took a public speaking class. We were allowed to make speeches on any topic of our choice. One of the most memorable speeches was the one made by one of my classmates who spoke about how to make chocolate chip cookies. I recall that her speech was very well received, perhaps because her closing remarks included the distribution of freshly baked and warm cookies! I regularly bake cookies in my home. My family enjoys the finished product as well as how wonderful the house smells while they are baking. For us, the “perfect” chocolate chip cookie is chewy on the inside and very slightly crisp on the outside. It is not too thin and not too thick. It contains a favorable chip-to-dough ratio. If my description is beginning to remind you of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, the 19th century fairy tale in which Goldilocks wanted her porridge to be “not too hot, not too cold, but just right”, then allow me to elaborate. Everyone’s description of the “perfect” cookie is different. It doesn’t matter if you prefer yours thick or thin, with or without nuts, or if you favor semi sweet, bitter sweet or milk chocolate chips. The point is this: two people can each use identical ingredients (butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour and chocolate) with the intention of creating the very same thing (delicious chocolate chip cookies), but end up with completely different results. Haven't you tasted cookies that were dry instead of moist, were more cookie than chips, or were as hard as a hockey puck? Didn't it make you wonder what went awry during the baking process? Even putting all of the ingredients together in the same order and at the same time is not a guarantee of success. You need to honor the proportions of the ingredients, have a certain order in mixing them together, and blend them for a specific time. Can you tell I have spent a lot of time over the years trying to perfect my personal recipe?
The same concept applies to our lives. Just because you have all of the same "ingredients" as the next person, doesn’t mean your results will be the same. You can both have the same running shoes and athleisure apparel, but if your neighbor puts them on every day and goes for a long walk or a run and yours are adorning the shelf of your closet, your results will most definitely not be the same. Two people can each fill up their fridge with healthy ingredients like strawberries, asparagus and kale, but if those berries get mixed in with ice cream instead of a protein smoothie and the asparagus gets smothered in hollandaise sauce and cheese rather than garlic and olive oil, it will soon become a "Tale of Two Opposites" and a recipe for disaster.
They say that “summer bodies are created in the spring”. The Spring Equinox is actually two days earlier than usual this year. This is the perfect time to embrace the changing of the seasons by bringing healthy foods into our homes and getting ourselves up, out and moving. The benefits are innumerable - increased amounts of energy, a boosted immune system, and a lifted mood, in addition to reduced inflammation in the body, weight loss, and improved health.
One of my friends has to have major surgery in a few weeks. Her doctor told her that she would have to be inactive for 6 weeks after the surgery. She admitted to the doctor that she is not active at all, rarely leaving her home, choosing not to exercise, and intentionally "hunkering in her bunker". She said 6 weeks of inactivity would mirror her current life. She told him she would probably lay on the couch without getting up for 12 or 16 weeks! He was surprised by her candor and told her that the patient he had seen right before her is much older and was devastated that she would be missing her daily morning fitness classes, afternoon laps in the pool, and long evenings walks with her friends. She vowed to heal quickly so she could resume her very active, fulfilling and fun life. It is another tale of two cookies...two people who are facing the same surgery with the same set of "ingredients and instructions", yet the recovery process will look completely different.
Which "cookie" are you? Are you the one that sits on the shelf for long periods of time, looking for a reason to stay inactive longer? Or are you the one who is grabbing big bites out of the "cookies" of life? Only you can write the end to this tale...I hope it’s a happy ending.