Life Behind the Scenes – Christmas Card Edition {Perspective Shifts}

Consider this our Very Merry Virtual Christmas Card and a look into life behind the scenes at Cotter Crunch. Yep, grab your Pumpkin Latte or Tea Latte and let’s get real, let’s put things in a NEW perspective for the Holidays. Sound good? It’s a date!

  

All right. Here we go. Breathe in breathe out. Consider this a Merry Christmas/Happy holiday Cotter Newsletter with a perspective twist! Ok?

It is almost 2019, but first, 2018 deserves some love.

You see, I wasn’t even going to share anything personal this week. Honestly I had a bunch of recipes lined up to repost and update. But then I thought to myself, my brain is tired, I am tired. Publishing new weekly content all year long can be exhausting. But in the best possible way! Gosh I love this job! And I am so thankful to have this space and you all to share it with.

So here I am, trying to figure out how to say Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, yada yada yada … let’s get going on 2019. Yes all of that HUSTLE is wrapped up in my head. Move, move, forward, forward, go go go.

But today, for a split second, I thought to slow down..

Have you ever had that moment? Those moments when you can see your thoughts in head and you think, why am I thinking that?

That’s exactly what happened to me. I needed that little wake up call.

Why was I pushing to move forward when this is the season of slowing down for the new year?

 Why must I feel like I need to keep going keep pushing keep “Keeping up with the Joneses” of the Internet?

Yeah Social Media has it’s pressures, but we are the only ones that are allowed to dictate our thoughts and our actions. We choose to be our true selves.

And so on this very day, I told all those hustle hustle thoughts to stop. They don’t define me.

Your thoughts don’t define you. Your behavior does. (mind body green)

THE PERSPECTIVE SHIFT! Create a behavior of Gratitude!

Take this moment to write out everything that you are thankful for from this past year and everything new and exciting you are looking forward to next year.

I’ll go first and then you go! Feel free to share in comments or email me .. I’d love it!

I am thankful for a very very very overfilled and growing year. One that I did not expect but learned a lot from. From publishing a cookbook, to putting it on our first Foodie Bootcamp workshop, to hiring a business coach, new Cotter Crunch team members, to saying yes to travel opportunities, challenging projects, and even putting together a magazine issue. I guess you could say this was the year of yes. And while I I know there’s a season for everything, this is definitely a season of pushing past my limits. And I learned from it.

The perspective shift. Let your yes be yes, and your no be no.

And most importantly, give yourself 48 hours before you say yes.  That is what I learned from the overload of this last year.

I am thankful for hard times and confrontation in 2018. This goes with any relationship. Marriage, friendship, family. We had some of those this year. And why my soul ached, it brought me closer to my God and on my knees to pray. Something I should do more. Trust God.

I am thankful we didn’t buy a house, even though I gave my husband so much crap and pressured to do so. He was right. It wasn’t the right timing. Did I just say that? Yes, I the wife confess to being WRONG!! Ack! But we need to save more and make a plan for the future, financially. Ugh being a grown up is hard. The end.

The perspective shift. Just because you desire something now, doesn’t mean it’s the right time go through with it. 

I am thankful for living in such a wonderful gorgeous space. Sometimes I forget that I live in the mountains. And then I wake up, and I see the sunrise, or get out and go for a hike with my husband and dog. And my eyes can’t escape such beauty. Corny. But true.

And speaking of dogs, I am so grateful for this little joy of ours, Oakley. Joy as in constantly going hyper active Velcro dog that makes us laugh like no other. She has brought laughter back into her life. She’s also brought sleepless nights, lots of cleaning, but also, lots of snuggles. If we don’t have kids, so I will take about three more vizsla puppies .

The perspective shift. Dogs (pets in general) are good for the soul and your mental health! 

I could go on anon about what I’m thankful for. The more I sit here pondering it, I can actually write a novel. Maybe I need to do this more. Maybe I should actually start a gratitude journal I had planned on back in January. Or maybe it’s just putting out on the Internet so that I’m aware of it. Either way, I feel like I can breathe. And my heart is full. Tired, a little stressed, but so so full.

Moving on to next year. I don’t wanna jump too far ahead. Because let’s face it, we take things one day at a time here. But I am looking forward to 2019. I feel a little more grown-up. Even though I’m already 35. As for Cotter Crunch, I feel a little more organized thanks to an amazing project manager (Alex) and brand manager (Elle).

I’m excited to jump into more of what my readers requested.

• More meal prep challenges with anti-inflammatory recipes and so much information for you all.
• More gut health recipes!
• More kid friendly and food allergy friendly recipes for you hard working mama’s!
• More in the kitchen videos and live interactions with my audience.
• More “how to” posts with gluten free recipes!
• More real life. More behind the scenes of our flawed life And all things that you may not know about me but probably can relate to. Yeah that’s gonna be 2019.

So I invite you to stay tuned. You can sign up for my email list here. Or you can just simply say hey, you’re a few suggestions I’d like to see in 2019. I’m all ears. We’ll be ready for January! It’s going to be a renewal month. Inside and out!

But for now let’s take this time to shift perspective and share things we’re thankful for!

And…. GO!

Cheers,

LC

P.S

Stay tuned next week as we share the end of year newsletter and our favorite recipes from 2019!

LC