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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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Speaker 1: Today's tip is about how to make far fewer small

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Speaker 1: choices control what comes in. If you are intentional about

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Speaker 1: what comes into your home, then you can relax knowing

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Speaker 1: anything that's there, We'll be fine. As Before Breakfast listeners

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Speaker 1: who also listened to my Best of Both Worlds podcast

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Speaker 1: may remember I had my kids pack their own lunches

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Speaker 1: for camp this summer. What do they eat? I don't

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Speaker 1: really know. For any particular day, they had a rule

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Speaker 1: that they had to pack one fruit or vegetable, but

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Speaker 1: that was it. My daughter mentioned a cream, cheese, sand

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Speaker 1: much and watermelon lunch as one particular culinary adventure. There

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Speaker 1: may have been cold liftover pasta some other day. Not

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Speaker 1: my thing, but it doesn't need to be my thing.

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Speaker 1: I don't know what they put in their lunch boxes,

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Speaker 1: but I do know what is in our pantry, in

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Speaker 1: our fridge. If we don't have big batches of candy

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Speaker 1: bars available, then they can't create lunches of all candy

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Speaker 1: bars with a single grape to meet the fruit rule.

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Speaker 1: We control what comes in, and yes, There is plenty

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Speaker 1: of snack food in my house, but it's all within

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Speaker 1: an acceptable range. So as long as the adults are

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Speaker 1: controlling what comes into the kitchen and pantry, the kids

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Speaker 1: can choose what makes it into their lunch boxes without

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Speaker 1: hovering supervision. I think this is important for kids. You

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Speaker 1: can give them freedom while limiting the downside. But we

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Speaker 1: can think about controlling what comes in with adults as well,

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Speaker 1: including ourselves. If you want to cut down on drinking soda,

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Speaker 1: then don't buy soda at the grocery store. If you

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Speaker 1: have to go out into the world to purchase a

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Speaker 1: soda whenever you want one, nine times out of ten

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Speaker 1: you will rethink that. If you do purchase it while

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Speaker 1: out and about, well, great, it's a special treat. You

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Speaker 1: can savor it knowing there aren't six more cans at

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Speaker 1: home waiting for you. Some people who decide they only

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Speaker 1: want to drink alcohol on social occasions make this easier

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Speaker 1: by just not keeping alcohol in the house. If you

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Speaker 1: are at a bar or a restaurant with friends, great,

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Speaker 1: that probably doesn't happen every night, and so it is

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Speaker 1: naturally going to be more limited then losing track of

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Speaker 1: wine pores while watching TV solo. I have been learning

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Speaker 1: to control what comes in the hard way with toys.

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Speaker 1: One of my children, in particular, has an absolute explosion

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Speaker 1: of small parts everywhere. Sometimes this is inevitable. We all

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Speaker 1: love legos, me included, and making complex sets with my

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Speaker 1: older kids is really fun. But if a child is

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Speaker 1: neutral between different kinds of presents for Christmas, sets with

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Speaker 1: fewer small pieces have some distinct advantages over sets with

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Speaker 1: hundreds of small pieces. A single doll or truck can

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Speaker 1: only create so much clutter. One hundred scented erasers shaped

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Speaker 1: like food, Oh my goodness. Control what comes in, and

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Speaker 1: you can limit the clean up after the fact. You

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Speaker 1: can even apply this mindset to social media. A friend

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Speaker 1: of mine recently minted that she was massively behind on

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Speaker 1: direct messages on social media. Someone else suggested simply turning

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Speaker 1: them off and directing people to a particular email address

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Speaker 1: from all the different sites. Control what comes in, and

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Speaker 1: there's just less random stuff to deal with and a

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Speaker 1: greater chance that the people who do reach out to

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Speaker 1: you have something worthwhile to listen to. Making spot decisions

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Speaker 1: on many things can be draining. When you control what

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Speaker 1: comes into your house or even into your inbox or

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Speaker 1: into your life in general. You can limit the number

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Speaker 1: of decisions you need to make. You know that everything

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Speaker 1: has met a certain standard or four teen clothes, let's say,

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Speaker 1: isn't terribly offensive. So within that people can make their

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Speaker 1: own choices. Everything is decent and not covered in holes.

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Speaker 1: So fashion is up to the individual. Camo pants and

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Speaker 1: camo shirt awesome. There are no such things as clashing colors.

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Speaker 1: It's all good. In the meantime, This is Laura. Thanks

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Speaker 1: for listening, and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,

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Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me

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Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with

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Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod.

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Speaker 1: That's b E the number four, then Breakfast p o D.

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Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: podcast at iHeart media dot com. That Before Breakfast is

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Speaker 1: spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much, I

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Speaker 1: look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a

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Speaker 1: production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I

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Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H