Bold & Bella

I'm a teacher. Anyone in the same profession can tell you that one of the quotes we see and hear the most is:  Failing to plan is planning to fail.  Preparation is key in the classroom. If you show up with half-baked lesson plans, the children will smell your lack of preparation, realize they outnumber you, and eat you alive. If you have well-thought-out plans, however, and you have all of your materials ready to go, things (usually) go smoothly.  The same is true for sticking to healthy eating. I know the two things seem unrelated, but stick with me here. If you're trying to make better food choices and your only plan is to depend on your so-far-unreliable willpower, the likelihood of you succeeding is slim to none. On the other hand, if you pre-plan and prepare your meals, you'll always have something on hand when you get hungry and you'll be more likely to turn down the donuts, cookies, and fun-sized candy bars waiting in the teachers' lounge.  T...

You know what the best part about being a kid is? Fearlessness. When my daughter was learning to walk, she would fall. All. The. Time. She'd take a few steps, lose her balance, fall face first, and of course cry her eyes out. Then she'd get up and try it again. When she got bold enough to try to run, it was like she was discovering our house for the first time. Her feet would go too fast for her little mind to keep up and she'd inevitably run into a wall or a table and fall flat on her butt. You would think that it would've taught her to slow it down, pay more attention. Nope. She'd get up and go full speed, again and again. As adults, we are very risk averse. If we were in my daughter's shoes, we'd only have to fall that one time. Our brains register pain and suffering as giant STOP signs and we do not proceed, much less get up and try again. As we grow up, we lose that fearlessness and replace it with extreme caution, bordering on perfectionism. We ...