Carb(s)uga(r)ebi(f)ats

Ingredients.

A substance that forms part of a mixture.

Many commercial products contain secret ingredients that are purported to make them better than competing products.

How many people pick up a new food, look at the label, check out the ingredients, and/or nutritional facts? In New Zealand, we might even look at the ‘health star’ rating. How easy is it to pick up the product, read the label, and take it as it is? Most of the time we don’t even question it, we just trust exactly what the label says.

How often do you look at your own ingredients? Your nutritional facts? Do you know what percent of sunshine you need for happiness? What amount of chocolate per day to keep you satisfied? How often you need to workout to make your body feel good? Do you even know what ingredients you are made of? What if we thought of our bodies just as we did food?

Let’s think of our ingredients as the components that make us feel the epitome of being a human. Ingredients are what keeps us going and when we have the perfect mix, we are our best selves. Remember, that products are made of different amounts of ingredients so we don’t need the same amount for each part.

Once we get our ingredients down then we can start to think how much of these we need as part of our ‘daily value’.

Doing this for the first time ever, I would have to say my ingredients would be: happiness, physical exertion, drive, motivation, relaxation, alone time, family/love time. I’ll leave it at that for now. It’s difficult to think of because I don’t actually think happiness should be classified as an ingredient. I would say happiness is a result of my mix of ingredients, but we will figure that out later.

Now think about how much time you feel you need to spend on each of these ingredients to get the buckets filled. It may help to break down your main categories, into sub categories. For example: Physical exertion = running, lifting, hiking, swimming, house work, windsurfing, etc.

Continue thinking about the similarities between your ingredients and food ingredients. What are your carbs? The essentials? Where do you add in your sugar? Some good fats and cheat fats?

May be helpful to create a real ‘Nutritional Facts’ grid for yourself:

Ingredients (to fill yourself): Physical Exertion (PE), Drive (D), Motivation (M), Relaxation (R), Alone Time (AT), Family / Love Time (F/LT)

**Daily Value does not have to equal 100%, due to the fact of filling up different buckets (food groups). Table is example, not completely accurate as DVs can’t all be that high

As commercial companies do, feel free to add in your secret ingredients. There are billions of people in the world (commercial company) so what is it that sets you apart? What do you believe makes you unique? Write that ingredient down and make sure to never forget it. Continue to add in your secret ingredients and fill that bucket people!

Just like food, our ingredients aren’t going to match the ingredients of another person. That’s what makes you, you. Continue working on your concoction. If you’re not sure you have the right recipe, try different amounts of the same ingredients, you will still get a different product. It may be sweeter, maybe a little salty. Just keep experimenting until you have the recipe that tastes best for you.

I challenge you to find your ingredients and make sure to search for the secret bits. The truth is, they are all there, but maybe they aren’t always written on the label. They don’t have to be. No one else has to know them. We aren’t going to be to everyone’s liking. Everyone has different taste buds, but we will be loved. We’ll love ourselves and those around us probably have some ingredients in common. Perhaps, our friends and family add to our ingredients and that’s what makes us full.

Find your mixture. Perfect the recipe. Be the most expensive meal on that menu!