JessVersteeg

April 8, 2013April 7, 2013

It’s food, not candy: FREE CHOCOLATE!

So there I was at EXPO Manger Santé in Montreal a month or so ago and I find myself at this booth that’s giving out free chocolate. So obviously I’m right up in that getting a free tester of all of these different kinds of chocolate. Dark chocolate, spicy cinnamon, sprulina, coffee etc. It was amazing. As I talked to the guy (I later learned his name is Jake) wearing this white shirt that HEAT across his chest, he told me about their chocolate. He dared me to try a 100% cacao nib and promised it would be gross.

I’ve eaten unsweetened Baker’s chocolate before. It was revolting. A few months prior I had tried a 90% chocolate bar by Lindt and also found it inedible. My problem is: refined sugar messes with my system. I get dizzy and light headed if I eat it frequently. So I don’t. But how do I live without chocolate? I keep to small doses of As Dark As Possible Chocolate.

I took Jake’s word for it and Willy and I tried the cacao nib. It wasn’t revolting. The 70% chocolate was smooth, like a mousse. It was strong and dark. It was totally different.

I noticed it was sweetened with their own Cane Sugar and so I asked about the glycemic index, which is usually what matters the most to me (I need things with a lower glycemic index than even honey, more on par with agave or even lower). He said they were getting this tested now to be sure but believe the GI is on par with a handful of blueberries. SOLD.

I used to prefer Camino chocolate (which I now find has a bizarre sweet taste, even the dark stuff – but like because its Fair Trade) or Lindt. I had a Lindt square the other day and it was waxy in my mouth. I (snobbishly) gave my second square back because it felt awful in my mouth. I was shocked.

So there you have it. LOVE this stuff. Their motto: “It’s food, not candy.” It’s raw, gluten free, dairy free/vegan, organic, “better than fair trade”, low glycemic impact etc. I have no sweet clue why they named their chocolate “Giddy YoYo” — clearly they’ve never heard of Yo Gabba Gabba or they would have chosen otherwise.

They have kindly given me 6 different flavours of chocolate that usually retail at $5 a pop (pricey, but worth it on so many levels) and a T-shirt. One winner will get the T-shirt and 3 chocolate bars. Another winner will get 3 chocolate bars. As the week (and the giveaway) goes on, I’ll post more info regarding their fair trade certification and other helpful tidbits.

The flavours are (not all pictured) Ginger, Orange, Mint, Original, Mocha, Spicy, Banana, Spirulina (1G per bar!), Vanilla Pink Salt 85%, 89% Dark, Maca, and Sweet.

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April 6, 2013April 2, 2013

Giving up before we start

Near the end of season four of How I Met Your Mother, Ted and Robyn have an honest conversation about his fears about starting his own architecture business. As I was watching this dialogue go down I knew I needed to blog about it: Ted says what so many of us haven’t been able to put into words about our dreams. I can’t seem to find a clip online so you’ll have to read the transcript.

Robin arrives home to find Ted looking extra-glum and staring off into space. She asks if he’s okay, and he says, “What if I don’t think of the books?” Robin says, “Excuse me?” Ted explains. “There’s this famous architecture story about an architect who designed this library. It was perfect. But every year, the whole thing would sink a couple inches into the ground. Eventually, the building was condemned. He forgot to account for the weight of the books. This company — it’s just me. What if I don’t think of the books?” Robin replies: “Okay, first of all, nobody goes to libraries anymore, so who cares about that guy? Secondly, you need to get on the phone and start calling clients.”

Ted explains, “The longer I put off starting my own firm, the longer it can remain a dream and not something I screwed up at. It’s like I’m giving up before I started.”

Robin laughs. “You want to talk about giving up? I used to describe my ideal guy as ‘funny, smart, passionate, challenging’, and now, apparently, I will settle for ‘in my apartment’. Didn’t you think you’d have it all more figured out by now?”

We do this, right? We sabotage our dreams by letting them stay dreams, rather than taking a step in their direction.

After this conversation with Robyn, Ted picks up the phone and makes his first try on a sales call. We learn quickly that he has actually just called Robyn’s cell phone and he was practicing his pitch on her. We laugh because he’s putting it off again except that he isn’t quite: it’s one step closer to making the real pitch.

What’s one step – even if seemingly insignificant – you can take towards your big dream, your exciting Bucket List goal? I’d love to hear about it here in the comments.

April 4, 2013April 2, 2013

Easter Weekend Project

Four days off in a row. How awesome is that? This is the first year we didn’t spend with family. Usually we end up spending one or two days at my dad’s but this year we’ve stayed home in Montreal for all of our holidays except Christmas. I never knew how awesome four-days-in-a-row is when you aren’t obligated to do things other people want to. I was telling my dad this yesterday when I called him to wish him a Happy Easter. It was really relaxing to not have to visit family, even though I love them. They totally understood, which is very nice.

I spent a lot of the weekend writing. It was wonderful!

I’m slowly moving ahead on some of these smaller goals that lead up to (I hope) getting published one day. This one is the easy first step: an ebook related to this blog. Now, I know, it maybe doesn’t sound thrilling (or does it?), but I promise you it’s actually pretty not bad!

As I took all the most-popular posts from this blog and the other posts that are very key to what I think will help someone define goals and move towards them, over the course of the long weekend I wrote an ebook. It is meant to be short and to the point. It is meant to be given away freely. I think it does a really good job of streamlining what I’ve learned in the last several months about making life changes to structure your life to reach your goals.

So the next step is to get it edited and reviewed by a few people and then release that bad boy.

I’m excited!

April 2, 2013April 2, 2013

Using Information To Reach Your Goals and Build Stronger Habits

Last fall I was forced to sit through a seminar at work about Leading with Data. I was about as excited as you were when you read the above title. As it turns out, it’s really helpful. I’ve applied this to my personal life and again finding it useful. What am I talking about?

Unless you’re a data analyst or took a business degree, you probably are going through life a little like me: you have an idea of what’s going on but you’re not sure. As I’ve learned, real data is helpful because it’s raw facts. You can’t argue with facts. This spring I wrote about how I didn’t do a good job in December of using my light therapy because I didn’t feel like it. The facts said: if you don’t use this you will feel worse. I trusted my feelings instead of the facts. Guess which one was right? The facts. I ended up having a crappy Christmas again because I just felt really blah. That could have been prevented if I had trusted the facts (“No, I need to do my light therapy whether I feel like it or not.”).

Why real data helps

Data helps in achieving goals because we have real information about how we’re doing. It helps us to evaluate and adapt based on how we’re actually doing. Am I eating veggies every day? More or less. I have that info tracked in LiftApp. As I begin to track it, I become more aware of it as we talked about in my post on Keystone Habits. Now I can say, “I’ve flossed once a week for the past four weeks” because I’m tracking that behaviour on LiftApp. If I scour my memory for those occasions I can remember one or two. If I rely on my memory, I wont have the full picture of what is really happening.

Take the info, adapt

After you have a bunch of data about the habits or goals that you’re trying to track, take some time to consider what it says. Are you having a hard time getting out of bed on Mondays and so you never manage to go for a run or write or do whatever it is your goal is to do that morning? You maybe haven’t noticed this pattern before, but you see it in the data. I never wake up on time on Mondays. OK, so what are you going to do to make sure you do get up? Maybe you need to go out and buy a coffee maker that will automatically turn on. Monday morning you’ll smell that coffee when you wake up and all you need to do is stumble out of bed and get it.

How to track?

There are several ways you can track your habits and goals. In your personal agenda, on your calendar, in a small notebook like a small Moleskine or FieldNotes that you carry with you. Maybe just a note on your smartphone, or perhaps in Evernote, or LiftApp. Think about what it is you want to know more about and think of a way that will be simple enough that it wont be a bother to input the information every day.

Respond

Ok guys, I know this is a really nerdy post. I want to know what your immediate reaction is: ‘I’ll never do this’ or ‘I don’t see why it will help me’ or ‘I’m skeptical, but I’ll give it a whirl.’ Go ahead and leave a comment here.

March 31, 2013

A few random things

1. I didn’t announce the winners on Friday because I had some blog maintenance issues. The winners (Sarah & Audrey) have already received their copy of the books.
The blog maintenance issues were related to me migrating over to a self-hosted WordPress website, which I am very excited about because now I have complete control over what goes down here – no more paying WordPress for them to put ads on my site (I know, right?).
You wont be able to follow my website within WordPress.com anymore (I don’t think?). The other option is through RSS or subscribe to receive my posts by email. You *may* need to update your RSS stuff? I have no sweet clue how this stuff works. I know just enough to make things (sort of) work.
Happy Easter! I’m seriously loving my 4-day weekend. Went for a run this morning, then ate a our first Easter meal at our own place, not visiting any parents this year. It was nice.

March 28, 2013

The role of ‘productivity’ in reaching our goals

Don’t forget the giveaway that finishes tomorrow. Click here for more details.

As I’ve been working on this blog and flushing out my ideas, I’ve realized that maybe I haven’t really been clear about the link between productivity and reaching my goals. In my head it’s clear, but you might be thinking “if this blog is about reaching her goals, why does she talk about productivity so much?”

Why productivity?

When I was thinking through topics I know about and enjoy learning more about productivity was on the list. I didn’t want my blog to be just another talking about the exact same things as everyone else, but more importantly, I wanted it to be something that was true to me. Over the last few years I’ve learned things about working more efficiently that I’ve tried to pass on to others, but didn’t really have one place I could send the people I was teaching. This blog is now that one place.

More than that, I do believe that if we can harness some of our wasted energy we have more to put in other places that require more energy. This is where productivity comes in. If I build good habits now, I’ll be that much more likely to have success in accomplishing my goals as my life becomes more and more complex. I’m still in the early stages of a lot of these goals, as you very well know. I’m determined to do my best to make them happen, which involves tweaking things in the process to achieving those goals.

What do you mean?

Here’s an example: if I have a weekly routine of work, meal planning and prep, getting groceries, running, my morning routine etc. then I don’t have to think about it. I have a lot less resistance due to less decision fatigue. If that freaks you out because it’s too repetitive, I agree. However, I’ve learned that there is tremendous freedom in structure.

Your turn

Have you had an experience where you found yourself running on optimized performance or running on all cylinders because you had planned and structured your life well? Do you think you could never organize yourself well enough to do that? I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments.