How many times have we heard; “You have to sacrifice what you want now to reach your goals.”, or “Suffer now, but reap the rewards later.”?

Except it’s not really about sacrifice. For one, it’s more about creating enough self-confidence, one small promise at a time, to actually want to do what’s best for you. Next, it’s about accepting that you will be uncomfortable sometimes. But that’s about it.

How long will I have to endure this suffering?!?

Best of all, that uncomfortable feeling lasts for maybe 5 minutes max. Once you change into your workout clothes and you’re headed out the door, you’re fine, and you know it. But starting is so…. “Uncomfortable”.

So in the end, you’re not sacrificing much, just a few seconds of feeling ‘euuugh’, really.

You’re deciding to accept feeling uncomfortable for a few seconds while you grapple with your emotions, until that decision is made to go through with it.

Sure but, I’ve promised myself to get healthy for like the 100th time today already.

So, how to actually go through with your decision? We break a hundred promises to ourselves every day and all it does is shatter our self-confidence and keep us stuck in a rut. We stick to our story of being a lazy procrastinator and use that as our excuse to not really try.

And just think about the word sacrifice itself. It’s dark, scary, and it honestly just makes my stomach churn. It screams sorrow and pain. Who’s ready to be in pain to get some possible future happiness? Hmmm nope.. Not me.

So, how do you actually change?

The most important thing is a tool for the uncomfortable moments is key. I cannot recommend this book enough, ‘The 5 second rule’ by Mel Robbins. It’s a serious life-changer! A legit tool for doing the sh*t we don’t wanna do. Obviously, there’s a reason we don’t do what we know we should do; we just talk ourselves out of it within a matter of seconds. With the 5 second rule, counting backwards 5-4-3-2-1, we forget what we were being fearful about because we’re focusing on the countdown (specifically counting backwards as it takes more mental effort) and by ‘1’ you’re at blastoff with nowhere to go but.. onward & upwards.

Because maybe, just maybe, change doesn’t have to be this horrible experience. Maybe we can actually make it rewarding and fulfilling..albeit uncomfortable for just a few damn seconds a day, many times a day.

So go ahead and curse that activation energy requirement! And then, do it anyway.

Screw Sacrifice

Most importantly, forget about the word ‘sacrifice’. Our society seems to idolize ‘sacrificing’ comfort to reach new levels of success. “Sacrifice your comfortable relationship to force yourself to learn independence!”, “Sacrifice your free time to work your ass off!”, “Sacrifice that piece of chocolate or sacrifice your waistline!”.  

Now, I’m not saying we can have our cake & eat it too (…unless of course, it’s wickedly delicious and blood-spiking sugar free). I know it takes effort to change old set in habits. It’s not easy for anyone. Struggling with snacking, procrastination, and regular exercise are just some of mine.  But I try to remind myself; effort and sacrifice don’t have to be the same thing.

Sure, it’s effort to work out more, but it’s not a sacrifice. I’m not sacrificing couch time, I’m getting an awesome release of dopamine/serotonin/endorphins i.e THE HAPPIES. Plus, a GIANT confidence boost because hello, I’m sticking to a promise I made to myself, which equals; yeyyyy! This only leads to more thoughts like, “I can do alllll the thingsss I want! Look at me gooo!”.  

THE mental shift.

That end result we so crave; the healthy body and mind, it’s not actually an end goal. Because every time you follow-through on your decision to do it, you’ve already got the healthy mindset and bod going for you.

The only purpose of our goals is to get us moving, growing, learning, and enjoying. So basically, living life and liking ourselves because we actually follow-through.

So why don’t we attempt to do this with a little fun instead of gloom and doom ‘sacrifice’? 

Finally, there’s really no sacrificing when there are so many healthy options for food that makes your taste buds explode. “Sacrifice your brownie or your belly??” Hell nooo! Here’s my fave veg-packed brownie recipe inspired by Paleo Gluten Free Eats.

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Fudgy Dark Chocolate Brownies with Frosting

Incredibly moist brownies with a frosting that kills. 

All natural, Gluten, Dairy & Processed Sugar-free.

Course Dessert

Keyword Brownies, Chocolate, Fudgy, Healthy

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 1 hour

Ingredients

Frosting:

• 1 avocado pitted peeled
• 1/2-2/3 cup Dutch 24% fat cocoa powder to taste
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup soft medjool dates
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Brownies:

• 1 cup mashed sweet potato at room temperature
• 1 avocado pitted peeled
• 2 large ecological eggs at room temperature
• 3/4 - 1 cup Dutch 24% fat cocoa powder to taste
• 1/4 -1/2 cup soft medjool dates
• 2 tbsp honey or maple syrup optional
• 2 tbsp raw almond butter optional
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Instructions

Frosting

1. Blend all the ingredients for the frosting in a food processor then place in the fridge.

Brownies

1. Blend all the ingredients together in a food processor and bake in a wax paper lined 5x8 pan for super thick fudgy brownies at 350 F/ 180 C for 30 min or until set. Let it cool, then store in the fridge.

Recipe Notes

Enjoy!