Mar 6, 2018 | Blog
Yesterday, I kicked off a 5 part series on specific mindset shifts that have changed my life. We are all capable of making different choices, but lasting change requires not just that we act differently, but that we think differently. Changing the way you think is often more challenging but also, more impactful. To read the first post in this series, click here.
If you’d rather listen to this blog than read it, please click the play button. Otherwise, keep reading below!
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The other day I was out to dinner and the waiter brought a basket of hot bread to the table. I picked up a piece, smelled it and set it back down.
“Not worth it“, I thought.
For most of my life, I’d have gobbled that bread up until the basket was empty & then secretly hoped that the waiter would refill it.
As I drove home I thought, “Did I used to just think everything was worth it?”
When I’d eat a stale pack of hostess cupcakes from a very questionable gas station, did I think it was worth it?
No. I don’t think I did.
I just didn’t think about it. “Worthiness” wasn’t part of my decision making criteria.
There wasn’t much to my decision making criteria beyond, “I want it.”
I didn’t want to deny myself. I had no practice in thinking beyond that initial impulse & desire.
That brings me to the 2nd major mindset shift.
I evaluate whether or not something is worth it before I eat it.
And if I think it is worth it, I check myself after the first bite. Was I right? Is it worth it?
It doesn’t matter if it’s the bread, a drink I ordered, a protein bar or basket of sweet potato fries. I ask myself,
Is it worth it?
Am I going to enjoy it?
Considering that question reminds me that I can have anything I want, but I can’t have everything I want.
That’s true of food but it’s also true in life. I can give into every single indulgence & temptation. But if I do that, I can’t have high energy. I can’t be fit. I can’t be my heathiest self.
When I was at my heaviest, I ate lots of things I didn’t really enjoy. I’d eat an entire bag of average tortilla chips. They weren’t delicious. I ate them because they were there.
I’d scarf down $30 worth of sub-par chinese food. Was it good? Not really. Worth it? Jesus no. But, it was there.
That would never happen now.
I routinely leave drinks unfinished because it’s not worth it. I routinely throw away a protein bar or leave a bread basket untouched because for me, at that moment, it just wasn’t worth it.
Here’s an important clarification: sometimes I think it’s worth it before I start eating but a bite or two shows that it’s not in fact worth it.
Taking a bite isn’t a commitment. Just because I’ve started doesn’t mean I have to finish.
In fact, I’ve found that the first few bites are the best. After the first few bites, I’m not usually paying much attention.
I try to build the habit of asking myself again, after a few bites, “Is it worth it?”
Also, sometimes I just don’t know. When I’m on the fence, not sure if something is worth it or not, I’ll ask a couple additional questions like,
Would I go out of my way to get this?
Would I pay for this?
The other day, while at a conference, there were a couple of Andes mints included in my conference lunch. I wouldn’t go out of my way to drive to the store at buy Andes mints, ever. So, they aren’t worth it.
What is worth it, for me, varies depending on the day. .
I love ice cream but most ice cream isn’t worth it. A random red velvet cupcake from the grocery store bakery? Nah.
The Andes mints in my conference lunch? No. Not worth it.
Tequila shot with a friend? It depends.
Sometimes the answer is yes. Sometimes no.
That’s why we have to keep asking the questions.
Is it worth it?
Am I going to be glad I ate this?
Will I feel better tomorrow if I say no?
If I say yes to this, what am I saying no to?
We can have anything we want, we just can’t have everything we want.
To read part 3, click here.
Mar 5, 2018 | Blog
Today I am kicking off a 5 part blog series on mindset shifts that have completely transformed my life. This is part 1 of 5.
If you’d rather listen to this blog than read it, please click play. Otherwise, keep reading below.
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I’ve been reflecting on what is different in my life and, more importantly, how I created those changes.
There’s the obvious stuff: I believe in myself and my ability to make things different. For most of my life, I doubted that I’d ever change. I trust myself around food – that certainly was not the case for about 3 decades. Food doesn’t consume my thoughts. I’m not obsessed with everything I do, everything I eat, and every pound on the scale. I am not swinging wildly from one extreme to the other. Most obviously, I used to wear a size 24. The jeans I wore this weekend are a size 10. That’s pretty damn different.
But, I really believe that the way we think is what drives our choices. Given that, what’s most different about the way I think?
The first thing is my approach to those moments, days or weeks of struggle, lack of motivation, frustration & inconsistency. I still have those moments, on the regular, but a huge shift is how I respond to them.
The Old Way:
In the past, when I wasn’t getting results, felt like I was stuck or was in a period of no motivation, my perspective was that I needed to find something new.
I needed a new approach. Sometimes that was a new diet. Sometimes a new book on mindset. A new trainer or workout plan. A new journal. A new strategy. New. More. Different.
I was always looking for the next thing.
I needed to know more. I needed a bigger arsenal of tips and tricks and habits.
My struggle was only because I hadn’t found that thing.
More more more.
All it got me was more of the same. More inconsistency. More hopping from one thing to another and never choosing to create consistency.
The New Way:
I still struggle. I get down on myself. I get frustrated. I have periods where my body seems unresponsive to what I’m doing.
But I’m DONE looking for “more”.
The answers are not outside me. They are inside me.
I don’t need to know more. I don’t need a new idea or approach. I don’t need a new strategy or tatic. I don’t need a book or a podcast or a pep talk.
I already have what I need.
I’m just not doing what I know.
The constant seeking is a distraction from action.
It’s not about looking outside me for answers in the world.
It’s about looking inside me for answers in my heart and in my head.
Ultimately, it’s about answers in my practice. My answers are always in what I do, how I act & the choices I make.
That’s the shift.
If I feel unmotivated, I don’t need a song, book, or podcast. I need to create motivation.
I need to be the change.
I don’t need a new tool or tactic. I need to get serious about being consistent with what I already know.
Too many people are telling themselves they are stuck and they need more ideas.
Honestly, if anything, you need less. Far less.
Are there things you don’t know? Sure. Of course.
Are those things required for you to make progress? Not likely.
And: you will learn infinitely more from your own action & practice than from any book, podcast or strategy in the world.
ACTION IS THE ANSWER.
Do something.
Stop thinking about it. Stop searching for it.
There isn’t one of us who can’t say where we could be more consistent. There isn’t one of us who can’t say where we could be more disciplined. There isn’t one of us who can’t say where we could make an improvement.
Put your focus there.
That’s the shift.
To put it simply: I used to be a searching. I used to look to everyone except myself. I wanted their ideas. Their strategies.
If I was failing, I assumed it was because there was some missing piece of the puzzle that I had to go find.
That was a distraction from what mattered most: MY WORK.
The missing piece was my commitment to consistent action.
That’s where people are missing out.
We are in the information age, which is awesome, but it can be deceiving & distracting, especially if all the complexity blinds you to the transformative power of SIMPLICITY.
Don’t let learning take your eyes off doing.
What you need to do is act.
And when you aren’t sure and you’re struggling: don’t learn more.
Do better.
What is one thing you could do today that is an improvement for you?
What is one thing that you know you need to be more consistent with?
Earn easy in your practice today.
To read part 2, click here.
Mar 2, 2018 | Blog
A question I get all the time is: “What do you order when you go to (insert restaurant or type of place here)”
I thought I’d take a few minutes to answer several iterations of that question. If you’re curious about a different type of cuisine or part of my personal strategy, drop a question in the comments and I promise to respond!
If you’d rather listen to this blog than read it, please click here.
Let me add a little disclaimer before I answer this: what I order isn’t neccesarily what you should order. What I order is based primarily on my preferences – what I like and what I don’t like. It’s also based on my goals, what satisfies me, what doesn’t, what triggers cravings for me, what doesn’t, etc.
This morning I posted in my Instagram story a couple Starbucks cups and someone asked, “What do you order when you go to Starbucks?”
Nine times out of 10 I get a venti (large) dark roast – black. Every once in a while I’ll get an Americano, also black. Drinking sugary drinks just makes me crave more sugar. No thanks!
I get dozens of direct messages on Instagram each week when it’s obvious from my pictures that I am out to dinner. I probably eat dinner out 2-3 times each week – sometimes more, sometimes less.
It is super, super important to me that I enjoy my food. I’m never going to eat like a rabbit or order something I don’t like just because it’s “healthy”. Nope. I eat foods I love that love me back. I get a lot of questions about what that looks like for me. Here are a few examples:
- Last night I went out to dinner and I ordered filet mignon and a side of brussels sprouts. I also started with a simple green salad.
- Last week at a seafood restaurant I ordered a grilled swordfish steak that came with gnocchi and brussels sprouts. I had one of the gnocchi and decided it wasn’t worth it. My boyfriend ate them.
- A couple weeks ago I went to an event at a bar and got chicken wings. I won’t do wings that are fried/battered but when there is a dry rub (especially a spicy one), I’m all in on that.
- I love a good cobb salad but I omit any candied nuts, croutons or dried fruit.
When you drink alcohol, what do you drink?
It’s always either a dry red wine or tequila. I love margharitas, but NOT when they are sweet. I ordered one last night and told the bartender “all heat. no sweet”. I wanted a spicy drink but not a sweet one. I don’t drink very often and when I do drink, it’s not very much. If I order a drink and it’s not amazing, I just don’t finish it.
What do you snack on?
I feel my best when I don’t snack. I think it’s because I’m making fewer food decisions. I don’t want to give any of my energy to the questions that used to dominate my days like “Should I snack? Am I hungry? What should I have? How much? Now? Now? How about now?”
That is exhausting.
Instead, I structure my meals so they fill me up. The key to this, for my body at this time, is lots of non-starchy veggies.
I don’t tend to be hungry in the morning (but if I am, I’ll make breakfast) so my “brunch” tends to be a meal with lots of non starchy veggies, some fat and some protein. This often looks like some version of my famous cabbage salad bowl.
Dinner looks the same: mostly non-starchy veggies. Some fat. Some protein. My favorite non starchy veggies are brussels sprouts, cabbage and cauliflower.
That strategy allows me to avoid snacking because I’m simply not hungry. Having lots of snack options around just makes it more complicated for me.
If I do snack, I’ll grab a packet of Artisana Coconut Butter or a handful of nuts.
Do you have any other “what do you eat” questions for me? Leave them in the comments and I’ll happily update this post with them!
Mar 1, 2018 | Blog
My favorite quote says: the measure of my success is my joy.
If you’d rather listen to this blog than read it, please click here.
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I wrote it on the front of my journal. It’s the background of my phone. Eventually, it might even become a tattoo on my forearm.
I can’t help but wonder what my life would look like if I heard that quote and lived by it earlier in life….
Even now, I have a choice. I can like the quote and be inspired by it. I can do that without ever acting on it. The other choice is to pursue it. To live it. To intentionally pursue joy as a success target more than I pursue money, weight loss or status.
Here’s what I know for sure:
I don’t want to wonder about that same question a year or 5 years from now.
I want to pay more attention to pursuing joy NOW.
I don’t want to look at myself in a month, a year or 5 years from now and say, “I didn’t pursue joy. I spent all my energy on things that matter less…”
For too long I defined success in other ways: money, relationship status, weight, fitness…
The measure of my success is not the size of my jeans.
The measure of my success is not how I feel about my naked body.
The measure of my success isn’t how clean I eat.
The measure of my success isn’t how much weight I can lift or how frequently I workout.
The measure of my success isn’t the number of podcast downloads I have.
The measure of my success isn’t the amount of money I have in the bank.
The measure of my success is my joy.
All good, right? Except: What do we do about it?
If you’re like me, you might feel stumped when it comes to creating more joy in your life. I had so many questions when I first saw this quote.
What is joy for me?
How do I create joy?
Where do I turn when I don’t think there is much joy in my life? How do I start? What do I do?
I will never forget all those years when my mom would ask, out of nothing but parental worry, “What lights you up? What makes you happy?” and I didn’t have an answer.
I knew I enjoyed food. It certainly brought me pleasure. But it didn’t bring me joy. Even when I was eating, I was far from joyful.
I didn’t know where to start…
Here’s my approach to tough questions: try my way to the answer. Work my way to potential solutions. I refuse to stay stuck on a question. I’ll simply try my way to a solution.
I started a list. What might bring me joy?
- Being with people I love
- Singing & dancing
- Letting go of the need to be cool and just having FUN
- Laughing until I cry
- Swinging on a swingset or riding waves in the ocean
Then: which of those things can I make time for this week and how?
Here’s what it looks like for me lately:
- I walk to the water to watch the sunset when I can.
- I started going to an adult gymastics class where we jump and flip and do silly things adults don’t normally do.
- I started taking aerial yoga and guitar lessons.
- I try to connect more with people I love.
- I give myself permission to stop working and have more fun.
I am actively LOOKING for ways to have more fun and create more moments of joy in my life.
Because the measure of my success is my joy.
How about you?
Feb 28, 2018 | Blog
Not long ago, I started taking guitar lessons. Left to my own devices, I fill my time with work, so I decided to get intentional about adding in activities that bring me joy & challenge me. I certainly wasn’t going to drift to joy! Plus, I love to learn and when it comes to guitar, I have nothing to do but learn!
Right out of the gate, it felt hard.
My forearms and fingers would get tired. Every single note took so much effort, coordination and attention.
It felt like my fingers were too small & the guitar was too big.
Nothing came easily.
My teacher encouraged me to practice every day. It was a chore.
Every minute of practice took effort. There wasn’t any part of it that felt easy.
There are only two approaches to this kind of situation:
- You put in the work when it’s hard & it eventually becomes easy.
- You avoid the work because it’s hard and it will remain hard.
The more I practice, the easier it gets.
The more I practice, the faster it becomes easy.
I am in control of what feels hard and what feels easy.
So, I practice.
There is true in every area of change.
It’s hard until you earn easy.
I thought of this last night at adult gymnastics. Walk-outs to a push-up on the balance beam felt hard. I thought, “I can’t do it.” Then I quickly thought, if I practiced regularly it would feel easy. The more I practice, the faster my progress to easy!
I get it: eating well can feel hard.
Resisting temptations can feel hard.
Consistency might seem hard.
But it’s only hard because you haven’t done enough work for it to be easy.
Easy is earned.
These things aren’t inherently hard. They aren’t permanently hard.
They are only hard because you haven’t practiced enough.
There are tons of things in my life that once felt hard that are now so easy I do them without thought:
- Publishing a podcast
- Driving
- Push-ups
- Explaining the relationship between insulin & fat loss
- Power cleans
- Flossing my teeth
I did them so often that I got good. Efficient. Proficient.
I want you to think of this the next time something feels hard.
It is only hard because you haven’t earned easy. There are only two approaches you can take:
- Put in the work when it’s hard & it eventually becomes easy.
- Avoid the work because it’s hard and it will remain hard.
Which will you choose today?
Get consistent and watch hard become easy.
Feb 27, 2018 | Blog
I got an email the other day in response to the “Becoming A Warrior” episode of the podcast (episode 457).
If you’d rather listen to this blog than read it, please click play. Otherwise, keep reading below.
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Here’s part of what the email had to say:
Elizabeth,
I enjoyed your podcast about being a warrior. I want to be a warrior, but it’s so much easier to be a victim.
I get it. I understand. You know what it made me think of? The most random thing ever…
Learning to type. Did you have typing class in school?
Prior to this class, I used the computer regularly. Sure, I hadn’t been taught to type, but, I’d hunt and peck on the keyboard with reasonable efficiency.
Learning to type “the right way” felt so hard – much harder than continuing to do it my way. As I went through the drills in class I remember saying things like, “This is slower! It’s harder! I can go faster my way!”
Initially, doing things correctly was both slower and more difficult. It took more focus and energy. It felt hard.
But that’s the wrong comparison.
These days, I realize how painfully slow it is to hunt and peck. If someone at the post office or store is using “hunt and peck” to enter my information, I always wish I could take the keyboard from them and do it myself. It’s infinitely faster to type properly. It’s infinitely easier to type properly.
But, I had to put in the practice and the work to get to that point. And that’s really the only true, honest comparison.
You have to put in effort and practice to get to that new level of efficiency and ease.
I have lived as a victim, giving in to every temptation, overeating and breaking promises to myself. It was awful. It was a hard, unhappy life. It certainly wasn’t easier than the way I work to live now.
I’ve also made many gradual improvements over years of effort. The change was, at times, a lot harder than saying “yes” to a cupcake. But, even then, it wasn’t harder than being depressed and hopeless.
It is infinitely easier to go through life and make great food choices when I’m not chronically hungry and when I’m not facing overwhelming cravings.
It’s infinitely easier to go through life making choices that make me feel amazing than making choices that make me feel awful.
But to be able to get to that place, just like with my typing class, you have to do the work. You have to put in the practice, even and especially when it feels harder and uncomfortable.
That’s the only way to ease.
If something feels hard, it means you need to practice more. Practice makes things easier, not quitting.
REMINDER: Get on the wait list for the Spring Fat Loss Fast Track! Registration opens to the wait list in mid-March before our April 1st kick off!
Feb 26, 2018 | Blog
Yesterday, I posted one of the things I believe in most on Instagram. It said:
People are so busy connecting to the problems of their past that they cannot see the potential of their present or the possibilities in their future.
If you’d rather listen to this blog than read it, please click play. Otherwise, keep reading below.
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We get so worked up about past patterns.
We focus on frustration and disappointment about what we did or failed to do.
We argue for our limitations and project past problems onto present moments.
In response to that post, someone on Instagram sent me a direct message that said:
That’s me. In hell.
That’s not the first message I’ve received from this person and her messages have a theme: THE PROBLEM. You might think, well of course people share their problems with you, Elizabeth. That’s why you’re here. Nope. Not so. I help people find solutions. I don’t give them solutions. I help them act on the solutions they’re seeking.
But that’s the rub – they have to be seeking solutions. That’s very different from clinging to a problem.
I responded as I have several times before.
YOU are in control. You can change, but you have to want to be the change.
She said: I do want to change but I can’t seem to do it.
Yes, you can. But you’re so busy focusing on the problem that you can’t see what is right in front of you:
One good choice.
You are always capable of one good choice. One great choice, even. One choice that makes now better than before.
You simply can’t see that when you’re too busy arguing for the problem and being a victim of the past.
You aren’t a victim of your own choices.
Remember that Rumi quote? Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open?
Have you ever been in a bad mood and someone was trying to cheer you up but you didn’t want them to? You wouldn’t let them?
You wanted to stay in a bad mood. It didn’t feel good, but you didn’t want to shift your energy away from the problem.
This happens all the time with change. There is an easy way to make an improvement in this moment or in your next choice, but you simply don’t want to. You hate the problem but you don’t want to do the work to create change.
You don’t want to shift your energy away from the problem and to the solution.
And that’s okay. But stop putting negative energy into how badly it sucks.
You are where you are by choice.
You can be somewhere else by choice.
When you’re ready to choose to be somewhere else, you can start with these questions.
What can you do to win the day?
You are capable of one great choice – what will it be?
What can you do to make today better than yesterday?
More of this message is in Tuesday February 27th’s episode of the Primal Potential podcast. Don’t miss it!
***
For more mindset coaching, hop on the wait list for the Spring Fat Loss Fast Track! It kicks off on Sunday April 1st and all the details go out to the wait list first!
Feb 23, 2018 | Blog
As you guys know, I’m currently writing my first book. In that process, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the most effective, efficient & permanent ways to create change.
If you’d rather listen to this blog than read it, please click play. Otherwise, just keep reading below.
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My issues with food started when I was really young. My mom severely limited what I ate, when I ate and how much I ate. As as result, I started sneaking food and overeating when the opportunity presented itself at a very, very young age. The intensity of my food seeking & sneaking only increased as I got older.
Side note: Have you listened to the podcast episode I recorded with my mom? It is INTENSE. Super real.
There were two major problems created by my pattern of sneaking food & using food as a means to feel pleasure or relief:
- Repetition changed my brain
- Food became my primary (only?) pathway to pleasure
You read that first one right. Repetition changed my brain. Literally.
Our brains are very impressive machines. For anything to happen – a choice, behavior, any action and reaction – there’s an intricate network of communication that has to occur in the brain.
That network of communication happens between neurons that fire electrical signals to each other. The messages get passed from one neuron to another as it transforms from a thought to an action.
With repetition, these neurons increase the strength of their connection. With enough repetition, it becomes a deep channel, increasingly efficient and effortless over time.
That’s where we get the phrase “neurons that fire together wire together”.
Through years of repetition, I created a communication channel in my brain so strong that it fired effortlessly and automatically.
That’s one of the primary reasons it can feel like change is so hard. This is one of the mechanisms behind the sense that we made a choice or acted on an impulse without thinking.
We’ve made that neural pathway a deep groove. A hard wired connection.
Here’s the good news: we can change that and we have 2 primary ways to do so:
- Create a new neural pathway
- Stop firing the existing one
In my example, I could create a new, stronger pathway in my brain through repetition. That would certainly take some time. Afterall, this strong pathway of turning to food in response to emotion and seeking pleasure and relief from food is one that has been building and gaining strength since I was 4 or 5 years old.
I make change significantly easier when I simultaneously practice abandoning that strong, original connection. If I can do this in tandem with creating a new pathway, my progress will be exponentially faster and easier.
That’s where I came up with the idea of 100 denials. One hundred is an entirely arbitary number, but I set a goal for myself to not act on the urge to seek pleasure from food purely for the sake of pleasure 100 times.
Don’t get me wrong – I want to love the foods I eat. I’m not talking about not enjoying what I eat at mealtime. One of my #1 food rules is to eat foods I love that love me back.
My 100 denials is about denying the impulse to choose food as a solution in times when hunger is NOT the problem.
One hundred denials is about 100 times saying “no” to that urge to grab a piece of chocolate, eat when I’m not hungry, eat in response to emotion or sneak something when someone isn’t looking.
This might not be an appropriate challenge for you.
Maybe the pathway you need to change is about complaining. Maybe it’s about not hitting the snooze button. Maybe it’s about snacking.
The point is this: yes, change feels hard. There is a physiological reason for that. There’s also a physiological solution.
Don’t continue to strengthen that neural pathway through repetition.
Challenge yourself to be the change. Challenge yourself to starve that pathway of energy and not give it any more strength or authority.
I’ll be sharing my 100 denials, most often on my Anchor channel, so be sure to check that out!
***Reminder***
The wait list for the Spring 2018 Fat Loss Fast Track is now open! Be the first to grab your spot!
Feb 22, 2018 | Blog
There is a super common motivation mistake I see all the time. In fact, I often catch myself making it! Today I don’t just want to point it out to you (though I will), I want to give you two powerful ways to fix it.
If you’d rather listen to this blog than read it, please click the play button. Otherwise, keep reading below.
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Once I tell you the mistake, you’re going to realize just how simultaneously obvious and insidious it is. Ready?
You don’t take action on what inspires you.
I’ll give you a recent example. Just yesterday I shared a post on Instagram that was originally posted by Agent Steven. Here’s the post:
People loved it. Of course they did. It’s inspiring. It makes you say, “Yeah!!!” People commented, “I love this! I’m printing it out! This will be my fight song this year!”
And that’s awesome. But it’s also where people stop.
This is the biggest motivation mistake.
We see something we like. It makes us feel excited and empowered for about 30 seconds. We screenshot it, like it, bookmark it…
And then we move on.
There’s a graveyard of things that once motivated & inspired us that we never acted on.
They inspired us but failed to change us. Because we didn’t decide to act on them. They went to the idea graveyard full of potential & promise.
There are two things I want to challenge you to do differently. Two ways to fix this insidious motivation mistake.
- When something inspires you, immediately ask yourself: What will I do differently today because of this?
- Add that motivating thing (quote, image, idea) to your calendar on at least 10 future dates with that same question.
Let’s use this post as an example.
I too was moved by this post. That’s why I saved it and shared it. If I’m looking at for the first time, I’m going to ask myself that question:
What will I do differently today because of this?
There are tons of options, but I’m gonna focus on one idea. Be fierce. I love that. What can I do differently today to be fierce? I will run a mile as fast as I can. Why not? I never do that, I hate to run, it will require that I be fierce and determined. It’s outside my comfort zone. Done. Doing it.
Maybe your choice is to de-clutter your car or your desk. Maybe it’s to actually unfollow negative people on social media. Maybe you shut your mouth and don’t participate in the gossip while you share that glass of wine with your friend.
DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT.
But that’s just step one.
Then, you’re going to go into your calendar. Because this idea or image is going to fade from your memory, I want you to schedule it for the future. It’s potential to change you won’t end today. You’re scheduling it in for future motivation.
Copy and paste the quote, image or idea into 10 different appointments (on 10 different days) with that question: What will I do differently today because of this?
When you do this, the days of your calendar become populated with quotes, images or ideas that inspires you and that action question: What will I do differently today because of this?
Now the things that motivate or inspire you will change you.
Side note: limit yourself to one idea/quote/image per day in your calendar. You don’t need your calendar cluttered with 6 different ideas. One per day is plenty!
