Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is about how to make far fewer small choices
Speaker 1: control what comes in. If you are intentional about what
Speaker 1: comes into your home, then you can relax knowing anything
Speaker 1: that's there will be fine. As Before Breakfast listeners who
Speaker 1: also listen to my Best of Both Worlds podcasts may remember,
Speaker 1: I had my kids pack their own lunches for camp
Speaker 1: this summer. What do they eat? I don't really know.
Speaker 1: For any particular day, they had a rule that they
Speaker 1: had to pack one fruit or vegetable, but that was it.
Speaker 1: My daughter mentioned a cream cheese sandwich and watermelon lunch
Speaker 1: as one particular culinary adventure. There may have been cold
Speaker 1: liftover pasta some other day. Not my thing, but it
Speaker 1: doesn't need to be my thing. I don't know what
Speaker 1: they put in their lunch boxes, but I do know
Speaker 1: what is in our pantry and our fridge. If we
Speaker 1: don't have big batches of candy bars available, then they
Speaker 1: can't create lunches of all candy bars with a single
Speaker 1: grape to meet the fruit rule. We control what comes in,
Speaker 1: and yes, There is plenty of snack food in my house,
Speaker 1: but it's all within an acceptable range. So as long
Speaker 1: as the adults are controlling what comes into the kitchen
Speaker 1: and pantry, the kids can choose what makes it into
Speaker 1: their lunch boxes without hovering supervision. I think this is
Speaker 1: important for kids. You can give them freedom while limiting
Speaker 1: the downside. But we can think about controlling what comes
Speaker 1: in with with adults as well, including ourselves. If you
Speaker 1: want to cut down on drinking soda, then don't buy
Speaker 1: soda at the grocery store. If you have to go
Speaker 1: out into the world to purchase a soda whenever you
Speaker 1: want one, nine times out of ten you will rethink that.
Speaker 1: If you do purchase it while out and about, well, great,
Speaker 1: it's a special treat. You can savor it knowing there
Speaker 1: aren't six more cans at home waiting for you. Some
Speaker 1: people who decide they only want to drink alcohol on
Speaker 1: social occasions make this easier by just not keeping alcohol
Speaker 1: in the house. If you are at a bar or
Speaker 1: a restaurant with friends, great, that probably doesn't happen every night,
Speaker 1: and so it is naturally going to be more limited
Speaker 1: then losing track of wine poores while watching TV solo.
Speaker 1: I have been learning to control what comes in the
Speaker 1: hard way with toys. One of my children, in particular,
Speaker 1: has an absolute explosion of small parts everywhere. Sometimes this
Speaker 1: is inevitable. We all love legos, me included, and making
Speaker 1: complex sets with my older kids is really fun. But
Speaker 1: if a child is neutral between different kinds of presents
Speaker 1: for Christmas, sets with fewer small pieces have some distinct
Speaker 1: advantages over sets with hundreds of small pieces. A single
Speaker 1: doll or truck can only create so much clutter. One
Speaker 1: hundred scented erasers shaped like food, Oh my goodness. Control
Speaker 1: what comes in, and you can limit the cleanup after
Speaker 1: the fact. You can even apply this mindset to social media.
Speaker 1: A friend of mine recently lamented that she was massively
Speaker 1: behind on direct messages on social media. Someone else suggested
Speaker 1: simply turning them off and directing people to a particular
Speaker 1: email address from all the different sites. Control what comes in,
Speaker 1: and there's just less random stuff to deal with and
Speaker 1: a greater chance that the people who do reach out
Speaker 1: to you have something worthwhile to listen to. Making spot
Speaker 1: decisions on many things can be draining. When you control
Speaker 1: what comes into your house or even into your inbox
Speaker 1: or into your life in general. You can limit the
Speaker 1: number of decisions you need to make. You know that
Speaker 1: everything has met a certain standard or fourteen clothes, let's say,
Speaker 1: isn't terribly offensive. So within that people can make their
Speaker 1: own choices. Everything is decent and not covered in holes.
Speaker 1: So fashion is up to the individual. Camo pants and
Speaker 1: camo shirt awesome. There are no such things as clashing colors.
Speaker 1: It's all good. In the meantime, This is Laura. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening, and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod.
Speaker 1: That's b E the number four then Breakfast pod. You
Speaker 1: can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast
Speaker 1: at iHeartMedia dot com. That before Breakfast is spelled out
Speaker 1: with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward
Speaker 1: to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartRadio.
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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.