Mmmmmm chocolate, chocolate, chocolate

Happy Easter to you all!!

Whatever this period means to you – whether it be religious, chocolate indulgence, family or holiday time, I wish you a fabulous and safe weekend.

Let’s talk about chocolate …

Easter is a magical time for us a family as we festively decorate our home, deliver (and eat) loads of chocolate and wait for the Easter Bunny to arrive. And I don’t know about you, but to me Easter is a perfectly acceptable and justified weekend to eat your body weight in chocolate because that’s what the world does too (and the calories totally won’t count because it’s Easter!) so it must be ok.

But let’s be honest. This ‘justified’ time period isn’t just on Easter weekend…. It actually starts many weeks beforehand. The supermarket’s seem to fill my subconscious with ‘Easter is approaching, better buy some easter eggs before they’re all gone..!’ and so I do, just to be safe. But slowly over the following weeks, all the eggs I’ve purchased surprisingly disappear ..! Clearly my family have found my stash! So, I have to rush out before all the shops close for 4 days to buy ‘replacement’ Easter eggs (however this year I had to buy replacements for the replacements eggs).

And don’t even start me on Hot cross buns appearing in the shops in January!

Chocolate consumption then continues into the chocolate fuelled Easter weekend where it accompanies all meals and snacks in between….

But it doesn’t stop there! There’s the week after Easter where I (actually I think it’s my husband) have over purchased chocolate or the Easter bunny has over delivered (naughty bunny) and we need to finish off ALL the Easter eggs, because they clearly they can NOT be thrown out?

So I’m painting a pretty drawn out chocolate eating frenzy here, but that’s what it’s like for me. I’m being honest and I find this ‘month’ of eating chocolate a huge challenge – delicious – but a challenge.

So let’s change focus … let’s plan

Like every weekend, I really want to do at least one activity as a family at Easter – which I’ve got to say is like pulling teeth given the resistance from my family. And despite my best efforts, we haven’t built this into a regular good habit yet, because like most families, we’re pretty knackered from the previous week. But quality time together is super important to us as a family, even if I’m the only one that knows it, so I persist.

So!

Every weekend we start with creating a list of what we have to do (chores, boring), what we want to do (fun) and what we can put off till next weekend (haha).

The purpose of this planning is so we feel we’ve shared the load, achieved (boring) housework, rested, built in quality family time and that the weekend hasn’t magically ‘disappeared’ from us leaving us tired and reluctant zombies on a Monday. Instead, we’ve been able to clear the decks and reboot.

So! my challenge(s) this weekend

Needless to say, my challenges this Easter weekend are

· Chocolate coma vs healthy balance of food

· Movement vs couch potato

· Sleep vs staying up too late

· Creative time vs couch potato

· Sociability vs couch potato (can you see the draw my couch has on me here….? Bad couch)

And just because I’m a coach, I’m not going to spout that I’ve got this sorted. I haven’t. I am a work in progress, and just like everyone else, these challenges are front and centre.

But I do know that I have a choice. A choice that is mine and that I own and am accountable for. I am choosing how much chocolate to eat so I don’t get to be whiny about it if I eat too much. And we will plan our time (if it kills me!) so we’ve gotten the most out of our weekend vs sat on our devices.

SO if you have some challenges this Easter weekend, or any other weekend, write them down and make a plan. Mitigate any obstacles and consciously choose what you’re going to do about it. Be purposeful. And be kind to yourself – never forget that.

SO! What next for me?

Now I am going to read this blog again, dive into the weekend and follow my own advice. haha