Save the Children...Eat their Candy!

Ahhh candy.  Who doesn't love candy?  That's not a real question, of course everyone loves candy.  Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter.  Whole holidays with their own kind of devoted candy!  Yes, candy is good.  It seems that most people usually favor one type of candy over the other...chocolate vs. fruity.  I, myself, am hands-down a chocolate person.  I will pass up Twizzlers (gelatin rhymes with skeleton!) without a thought, skip the Skittles and Mike 'N Ikes, ignore the Jolly Ranchers and Laffy Taffy.  But put chocolate in front of me, and ooooh we've got trouble.  I will eat myself into a stomach-ache.  Yes, I lack control where chocolate is concerned.

That's why I don't normally buy candy.  Sure, I get the occasional hair up my ass chocolate craving and come home from the store with a couple of gorgeous Cadbury Fruit 'n Nut bars.  But if I have it I eat it till its gone, and if I have a constant supply...well, you get the picture.  So, these holidays come around to replenish my much unneeded secret supply.  You do have a stash spot, don't you?  Every parent needs one.  If candy is freely out in the open at my house, it is fair game for anyone and disappears VERY quickly.  Inevitably, those days come around when you just might actually die if you don't get at least a dang chocolate chip, and when that happens you best be prepared, mama!  Hook yourself up with a good stash spot. 

Now, there is good candy and bad candy.  I'm talking taste and quality here, folks.  Ever have that chocolate-flavored wax?  You know what I mean, especially if you like chocolate.  Companies out there are churning out the most disgusting, artificially flavored garbage, and because it's 'candy', people buy it and kids will eat it.  My kids won't even admit when candy isn't good - ever buy those gross-flavor Jelly Bellys, the ones first seen in Harry Potter?  We bought our son a box of them when he was 3 or 4.  He sat there and chewed on bacon, black pepper, baby powder, sardines, and soap, and though his face told us differently, he would not admit that they were gross.  I swear, as long as it falls under the heading 'candy'...kids will eat it. 

Of course candy isn't health food, that's no secret.  Unfortunately, reading the labels on candy is a necessary evil.  Besides the sugar, the fat, the fat on your body from the sugar, the cavities, your kids with a sugar-buzz...these are all good reasons to not eat it.  Now add in hydrogenation, HFCS, BHT, ridiculous amounts of food colorings, and who knows what else, and it turns into an even bigger problem.  Combine this with the 'fake' stuff - that chocolate-flavored lard I mentioned - and we're talking disgust-o-rama.  You know what's funny though?  People keep buying it.  Companies keep making it.  Have they even tried this stuff?  I would think - even hope - not.   

As many of your kids probably do, my kids get multiple Easter baskets.  The first came this past weekend, and my friend's kids got their firsts last weekend.  Coloring books, stickers, beach towels (my request, aren't I brilliant?!), some little toys and stuff.  A chocolate bunny, and one for each of them...FULL BAGS of Hershey's coconut cream-filled kisses and Reese's peanut butter eggs.  My friends kids also got full bags of marshmallow eggs, Tootsie Rolls (who eats those?), and blow pops.

For mine, one bag each is really minimal considering what they've gotten in the past.  Enter the Easter Egg Hunt.  I ended up with a plastic grocery bag FULL of foil-wrapped 'chocolate' coins, shaped 'chocolate' with a picture on the foil, those little 'chocolate' eggs with the rice krispies in them, jelly beans and robins eggs, mini peanut butter cups and a variety of kisses.  My husband ended up taking all this stuff to work.  What a waste!

That is, of course, it went to work after I sorted it.  You can't get rid of good chocolate and for the record, full-bags of peanut butter eggs must be confiscated immediately.  Cadbury eggs?  Hide 'em.  See's Candy?  You shouldn't have!  (But I'm glad you did).  Take it, stash it away for later.

You see, as long as kids aren't picky about their candy, there are certain types of candy that musn't be left in their hands.  Some kids won't even differentiate between booger-flavor beans and normal ones...and waxy chocolate vs. Godiva?  Forget it.  They will gobble it up, heedless of the quality.

This year when your kids get their Easter baskets, don't let them open anything right away.  Take it away, under the guise of sorting out the bad, hydrogenated, artificial garbage, sort out those quality candies and chocolates that only an adult connoisseur and consumer of 'the real stuff' can appreciate.  Find a good spot and hide it, then dole it out to yourself over the next couple of weeks. 

As long as the kids are left with a couple handfuls of the stuff they love, they will be thrilled.  They don't need mass amounts.  Remember when we were kids and we would trick or treat until 10 pm, and come home with a pillow case 3/4 full and so heavy we only came home cause we couldn't carry it anymore?  I often wonder why our parents let us do that!  We had candy for a YEAR, and anything that was left over by the next Halloween got thrown away, only cause there just wasn't room after bringing in the new haul.  Not any more!  My kids get to trick or treat for 2 or 3 hours, and whatever they get is what they get (after the adults pick out their favorites for 'the stash'), and it's not that much.

So, folks, here's what I charge you with:  When the Easter baskets (or Halloween bag, or stocking of Christmas goodies) come in, it is your right as a parent to sort it into three sections.  To the left set aside the really gross stuff, the over-colored, overly artificial, not-even-food-anymore garbage, then throw it away or send it to work before the kids even have a chance to miss it.  To the right set aside the really good stuff that your non-discriminating candy-gobblers won't miss anyway, and hide it away in your stash.  Whatever is left in the middle is theirs to keep.  Everybody wins.

You can thank me later...just send chocolate and I'll understand.

Who are you, anyway?

As many are, my business is about people.  I also like to get in other people's business, but that's neither here nor there.  My business is to help people get as healthy as possible, educate them so they make better choices, and heckle them incessantly until they listen to me.  FYI, I like being listened to.

Part of the social marketing training process is to figure out your 'sphere of influence'.  This is anyone and everyone that you 'touch'.  NO, you perv, not literally.  If your life touches their life in some way, they can be counted in your sphere.  Most of us have several hundred people we can count, whether we realize it or not.  Family, friends, co-workers, those are just the obvious.  The ones you might not think of...the lady at the post office, the one that stands behind you at Body Pump and admires your triceps, the cashier at the grocery store.  People that you don't even know their name, or in some cases, what they look like. Lots of people, lots and lots, influencing each other all over the place.

What we directly or indirectly influence people to do is a big part of who we are.  So, who are you?  And, now that you know that you have the potential to influence so many...what would you influence them to do?

Be trendy and wear particular clothes, or a particular bag.  Use a particular type of cell phone.  Wear a particular brand of work out clothes.  Walk a certain dog wearing a certain sweater on a particular street?  Maybe, but these things we can do without trying, and without making the other person's life any better or any worse.  I'm not a big fan of small dogs so I'd have to say maybe in the case of the dog it would be worse, but whatever.

How about if you set out specifically to influence people to only buy certain types of food or start a healthy eating plan?  Or to start a workout program?  It would probably improve the person's quality of life, and there you go being influential in a GOOD way.  Nice job, you!!  Doesn't it feel good?!

That's why I do what I do.  It makes me feel good.  It's part of who I am and I spread it around like butter, on everyone and everything I touch.  Shut up, that's not gross.  Our sphere of influence grows and changes all the time.  The opportunities that come up with these changes are invaluable to us, no matter what we are influencing.  I want to be sure that I am influencing positively, and I hope you do too.  Of course, being in business, there are business aspects to influencing my sphere too.

I was at a Shaklee event this past weekend where there were 12 guests, all part of my sphere.  They listened and learned, and bought a bunch of stuff that will improve their quality of life.  I'm influencing people in a very positive way that makes them feel good and be healthier. They will tell their families and friends, go to work and tell their co-workers, and onward and upward it grows and grows.  That's how I've grown my business as much as I have and have the success that I do, and you could too, by the way.  Sphere of influence!  And I can say with satisfaction that I'm a pretty darn good influence.  Who. I. Am.

So, have you figured it out yet?  You've got to be careful with this, cause it's a powerful tool - use the power of your sphere for good not evil!  If you would...think about it.  Then answer the question, and be sure to tell me cause inquiring minds want to know.

Who are you, anyway?

Your Garbage is My Pleasure

To my husband's irritation and annoyment, I am a big fan of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.  My insistence on recycling every scrap of recyclable anything is a common recipient of 'the eye roll' and 'the exasperated sigh'.  Where we live we have those huge garbage and recycling cans, and everything goes into the one huge can that then gets emptied once a week.  Unfortunately, our recycling only gets emptied once every OTHER week.  Not cool for the obsessive recycler.  We had to have a second giant recycle can delivered, lest I throw away something recyclable and not be able to sleep at night.

An even bigger source of husband irritation and annoyment than my obsessive recycling is my love of all things reused or repurposed.  There is no end to the ways things can be used for something other than their original intended purpose!  A trowel for a coat hanger, a hay fork for a trellis, a piss-pot for a compost bucket, a yoke for a curtain rod.  These things all might sound absurd to you, but to me...they are bliss.  If they do sound absurd to you, damn you!, you are not alone.  My husband would heartily concur.  He calls my treasures 'junk'.  How dare he!  Only I am allowed to call it junk.

My most recent acquisition is this beautiful old cement wash basin.  I saw it posted on my local Freecycle and couldn't resist.  Told the husband about it and what I wanted to do, and he played along pretty well until we got there...and saw how monstrously huge this thing is.  These poor people had this 500 lb monstrosity taking up valuable real estate in their basement.  I mean, how the heck do you move something like that?  Back in the day they probably had to build the house around this thing, it's so huge.  And, I must add...gorgeous.

Double basin, steel lined, amazingly patinaed cement. 

Husband is giving me the 'run, quick!' eye, but I hardly notice as I am deep in thought about the potential of this behemoth.  This thing is going to be the best. Flower. Box. Ever.  The homeowner even brilliantly pointed out that each side has its own little drain, so drainage for a planting wouldn't be a problem at all.  If my husband could shoot daggers out of his eyes....

Naturally it couldn't be moved that day, we needed much more muscle involved.  The homeowner's pick-up, a couple of borrowed mercenaries, a smashed finger and a dirty jacket later, and it is in my yard in all its aged gargantuan glory.  And it will be glorious.  Mark my words. 

For some reason, my reasonable husband seems to be under the impression that my new cement friend will 'junk up' the yard.  Huh?  I think not.  Let's be realistic here...this is an old farmhouse, not some McMansion with $20,000 landscaping.  An old cement wash-basin as a flower box fits right in, next to the hay fork, tractor seat, hand-push lawnmower, and don't forget the old hand-made swingset!  It's all about vision, and that's something I've got and he doesn't. His vision is clouded by trips to the curb and navigating through a crowded garage. 

I mean, hello!!  Did I mention I am REUSING this item?  Keeping it out of a landfill, like the good little green girl I am.  It's not just my personal vintage style, it's my personal philosophy!