Perception is Key

While on vacation with family I acquired a new client... The best one I could ever have. That client, let's call her Ashley, wants to lose weight and live a healthier life style. She is ready for a change, committed to working with me and is excited for her journey. I was able to do some menu planning and cooking for her while we were away. As you know salmon is one of my top 3 favorite foods (after salsa and EGGS!) and I let Ashley know that the dinner I was making her was my own recipe that I call "skillet salmon salad cupcake style". She looked somewhat less than thrilled but agreed to watch me cook and she even ended up taking notes. I coked salmon in a skillet with a tiny bit of olive oil and a good amount of Cupcake Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon over medium heat on an electric stovetop (hey... I was on vacation!). She scowled when I poured that red wine on our beautiful, pink fish but she kept watching. While the salmon was sizzling I cut up veggies for our salad and plated our salads. I tossed the salads onto small lunch sized plates and gently laid the salmon on top of both of our salads. When I presented the finished meal to Ashley she looked at the heaping lettuce and mixed greens, the diced and sliced vegetables and the steaming hot salmon and said, "Wow, I will never be able to eat all of that!". But if I had placed that same exact meal on a large dinner plate and the meal didn't fill the whole plate Ashley may not have been as mentally satisfied initially. So much of life is based on perception. Have you ever noticed the arrow in the FedEx name on the trucks as they zoom by you on the road? After my mom pointed that out to me I cannot look at their trucks without seeing it. The moral of this story?..... Fill your small salad plate overflowing with healthy foods, excite your pallet with new taste sensations. Perceive life in a positive manner and you will get positively what you want from it. Ashley has lost 7 pounds so far and that was after meal planning and cooking with me for just 6 days! I am so happy for her and her new perception of food, health and life.
Every day is like the bike ride I took while at my mom's house. The up hills were the biggest I have ever biked but the whole time I sweated and panted to the top of each hill I kept telling myself that the down hill thrill was going to be worth the uphill kill and it was!