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An Unexpected Gift

February 4, 2015 Lydia Buschenfeldt

S'mores cupcakesI’ve decid­ed to give myself a gift this hol­i­day season.

It has­n’t held space on my Ama­zon wish list, nor have I ever writ­ten it at the top of a hand-scrawled Christ­mas list (so it’s clear­ly not a pony).

I’m fair­ly con­fi­dent it was not a pop­u­lar item on Black Fri­day, nor will it get stolen in this year’s Yan­kee Swap.

No mat­ter how much I wish and hope and dream, I know I won’t find it under the tree on Christ­mas morn­ing — not to dimin­ish the stu­pen­dous­ness of Mr. Claus, but this is a gift that only I can give.

You see, I’m giv­ing myself the gift of uncertainty.

Yes…uncertainty.

Whether by pure cal­en­dar place­ment coin­ci­dence, or oth­er­wise, the hol­i­days come with expectations.

Expec­ta­tions based on the past year’s reflections.

Expec­ta­tions on how and what you will celebrate.

Expec­ta­tions on what you will be proud of, the chal­lenges you’ll face, and what the dawn­ing new year will bring.

And after spend­ing sev­er­al hol­i­day sea­sons expect­ing a life that has sim­ply not yet hap­pened, I’ve decid­ed it’s not the right way for me to find the true mag­ic of the holidays.

So I’m giv­ing myself the gift of uncertainty.

What hap­pens when we real­ly and tru­ly release our expec­ta­tions and deep­est fears, and become open to all of the amaz­ing twists and turns that life will bring? What if we look at every day as a grand adven­ture and sim­ply cel­e­brate the fact that we are on this earth and are lucky enough to sit in the first row of our very own roller coaster?

Maybe that’s where the true mag­ic lies — in the place where instead of writ­ing the book, we jump into the illus­tra­tions and let the sto­ry unfold.

I would be lying if I told you that I haven’t spent the past 4 con­sec­u­tive Decem­bers noodling that the upcom­ing year would final­ly be the one where things hap­pened.

My health stabilized.

We got a dog.

Did­n’t count pennies.

Start­ed a family.

Trav­eled.

Gal­loped off into the sunset.

And while those are all still dreams that I will con­tin­ue to believe in with every fiber of my being, I no longer plan on mak­ing them expec­ta­tions. When I expect some­thing to hap­pen, it gives the false illu­sion to myself that I’m in con­trol of the out­come — and in this sit­u­a­tion, I’m sim­ply not…and that’s ok.

In fact, I’m giv­ing my expec­ta­tion list a total head to toe makeover, includ­ing the one in which I still dream of being an Olympic gym­nast. I’m 6 feet tall, 31 years old, and am not con­fi­dent in my abil­i­ty to somersault…so, ya know, there may be a few items to discuss.

Sure — releas­ing con­trol is ter­ri­fy­ing. We build grand, elab­o­rate blue­prints for our lives and though they rarely go accord­ing to plan, we still some­how expect them to hap­pen exact­ly as we imagined.

If you think about it, it’s absolute­ly nuts.

If things did go exact­ly accord­ing to our orig­i­nal plans, I would most like­ly be betrothed to either my 2nd grade crush (who trag­i­cal­ly broke my heart when he moved to Pitts­burgh) or Chip — the bro­ken teacup in Beau­ty and the Beast…who, I’d like to point out, is approx­i­mate­ly 8 years old.

Come on…admit it — he is the cutest darn teacup you have ever seen in your life…and his moth­er is Mrs. Potts!

We build these expec­ta­tions in our mind of how life is sup­posed to go, and then when they fall away, we are left emo­tion­al­ly scram­bling to climb a moun­tain that is irrepara­bly falling apart. It’s exhausting.

So I’m giv­ing myself uncertainty.

I’m wrap­ping up the abil­i­ty to find peace with who I am, right here in this very moment — to find the song in the silence between what we expect and the mag­ic of the unfore­seen possibilities.

In truth, I’m let­ting my spir­it do the hol­i­day shop­ping this year.

So I choose uncer­tain­ty — wrapped in bright red paper, with a giant sequined bow.

For in a world with so lit­tle in our con­trol, I know that this mag­i­cal choice is mine.

Restarting My Hard Drive

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Based in Fairfax, Virginia, Hatch Health and Happiness offers full-service face-to-face health coaching in Northern Virginia and virtually around the globe!
lydia@hatchhealthhappiness.com
610-220-7036

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Healthy Living — Great Recipes and Ideas!

Trail Mix

Bulk Bin Trail Mix

September 4, 2018 Leave a Comment

Sure, it’s tempt­ing­ly easy to grab a bag of pre-made trail mix –col­or­ful, effort­less, and with such fun names to boot! But have you ever stopped to glance at the nutri­tion facts of that bag of seem­ing­ly healthy options? More specif­i­cal­ly, check out the sug­ar con­tent. Some com­mer­cial brands of trail mix have as much sug­ar as a 16 oz bot­tle of soda! The main cul­prit is sweet­ened dried fruit, and some brands add can­dy as well. If that deli­cious mouth­ful of sweet and salty is your taste­buds’ desire, don’t despair. There are plen­ty of ways to make a deli­cious AND nutri­tious trail mix, all with ingre­di­ents from your gro­cery store bulk bin! [Read More…]

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Purely Elizabeth Superfood Oat Cups with Granola Topping — Cranberry Pumpkin Seed

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Meal Planning

Meal Planning

July 31, 2018 Leave a Comment

One of the trick­i­est parts of most people’s healthy rou­tines is the meal plan­ning com­po­nent. Luck­i­ly for you, we have that cov­ered with the lat­est install­ment in our Hatch Video series! More…

Bloat Buster Smoothie

Bloat Buster Smoothie

June 4, 2018 Leave a Comment

Now that we are head­ing into the warmer months of the year, you may find your­self want­i­ng to spend less time in front of the hot stove top or oven. For­tu­nate­ly, smooth­ies are a great way to pack a lot of nutri­tion in one place. Check out the video below for one of my favorite smooth­ies — the bloat buster!

Pan roasted plantains

Pan-Roasted Plantains

May 1, 2018 Leave a Comment

Pan roasted plantains with mashed avocadoDespite the fact that plan­tains close­ly resem­ble a banana, they have a com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent fla­vor and are def­i­nite­ly not to be con­sumed raw (you’ll only make that mis­take once!). Plan­tains are actu­al­ly a veg­etable, chock full of fiber, cal­ci­um and vit­a­min C. Pan-roast­ing the plan­tains allows them to caramelize, keep­ing the out­side a lit­tle bit crispy and the inside nice and soft. Cin­na­mon, gin­ger and turmer­ic add a tri­fec­ta of anti-inflam­ma­to­ry good­ness and a lit­tle sprin­kle of sea salt makes these plan­tains absolute­ly irre­sistible. Enjoy as is, or my favorite way –- with mashed avo­ca­do! More…

Energy bites

Energy Balls

April 2, 2018 Leave a Comment

Gluten, Grain, Dairy, Soy-Free and Vegan

Seeds need ener­gy in order to grow, and cul­ti­vat­ing your own healthy habits can take a lot of ener­gy too! Ener­gy bars and ener­gy balls are every­where we look these days. They are super easy to whip up your­self, but many peo­ple are intim­i­dat­ed by the thought. More…

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About Lydia and Hatch Health

Lydia Buschenfeldt

I was a happy, healthy, newlywed 4th grade teacher when a random virus paralyzed my GI system, along with parts of my … More...

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Client Testimonials

Rainbow

See what Lydia’s clients have to say…

I’d say Lydia Buschen­feldt has changed my life, but that would­n’t be exact­ly true. What she does is even more pow­er­ful. Any­one can tell some­one else what changes they ‘need’ to make to live a health­i­er life. It takes some­one spe­cial to enable and empow­er you to change your own life. Lydia is that some­one spe­cial. Dur­ing every ses­sion, at every twist and turn and bump in the road, Lydia meets me where I am with an incred­i­ble amount of knowl­edge and patience, and helps me iden­ti­fy one or two steps for­ward to accom­plish the goals I have for myself. She knows that each jour­ney is dif­fer­ent, and cus­tomizes our ses­sions so our dis­cus­sions are tai­lored toward what I need in that moment to help me build the health, future and hap­pi­ness that I deserve.
— L.S.
Man­as­sas, VA More…

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Contact Lydia

Based in Fair­fax, Vir­ginia, Hatch Health and Hap­pi­ness offers full-ser­vice face-to-face health coach­ing in North­ern Vir­ginia and vir­tu­al­ly around the globe!
lydia@hatchhealthhappiness.com
610−220−7036

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