Author: Chipsy & Lulu

Chipsy & Lulu / Articles posted by Chipsy & Lulu

Modify Me – The Shocking Trend that has Shifted Health in the 21st Century

I remember when I was a kid in school it was rare to see other kids carrying EpiPen’s, suffering from chronic asthma, or being overweight. It just wasn’t the norm…in fact, sadly these kids were typically picked on for standing out because of it. Fast forward to my time as an educator in my local High Schools, the reality and trend has completely shifted. What now seems to be normal and accepted is to be overweight. Look around you. You don’t have to look long to see our future generations struggling with their weight at a very early age. What now seems to be normal and accepted is to struggle with fitness during activity. We see it all the time with our friends and family. Even as our own kids were growing up in a healthy and active family, it was always a struggle to get them to participate in a family hike, walk or run in the various parts of the world we were visiting…and we have athletic children. What now seems to be normal and accepted is to have some kind of allergy or food sensitivity. In fact, the school office drawers are now filled with medications and EpiPen’s for student medical emergencies. Our very own son has grown up with an anaphylactic allergy to Peanuts and a few other food items. It’s been an ongoing fear and concern for him and us growing up in a world that is surrounded by potential reactors and as a result have spent many nights in an Emergency Room narrowly escaping a catastrophic exposure to peanuts. Why? In the years we have spent building a business in the Health and Wellness Industry and having coached and mentored thousands of people through their various health transformations…it seems this a question that is mostly never asked. Despite all the compelling evidence around us that our communities around the world are becoming progressively more unfit and unwell, we don’t pause to ask “what has changed?” We have adopted the “it is what it is” mentality and “it’s out of our control”, along with “this generation of kids are too busy playing their games and gadgets on their computers and phones to get out and play”. I did some digging into clinical articles and studies produced by a variety of cancer institutes and came up with some of these harrowing figures. Although nobody really shared these exact ratios, this was the best I...

A Pearl is the Fruit of a Frustrated Oyster

The Pearl is a beautiful, sought after and cherished gem amongst many people around the world. It’s the natural result of years of pain and frustration endured by the creature that created it…. the oyster. In it as itself, not a beautiful being, but clearly capable of creating extraordinary things. Our family was recently on a trip to Palm Springs to visit family and on the Sunday, we joined along to attend Sunday Church which is always a great experience of positive music, community and a Pastor who you can count on to deliver a powerful message to the attendees of the day. This Sunday was no different. There was talk of challenge, of struggle, of conflict and on the other side there was talk of achievement, of connection and of triumph. Interesting in how he spoke of the two opposing forces needing each other as we are always in the pull between Character and Conflict and how through challenge, both are worked on equally. So, what does this mean? Have you ever found yourself frustrated in the process of working towards a goal and decided that the goal isn’t worth the struggle and frustration to attain it? That we told ourselves, “it’s not worth it”, “this will never work”, “everyone is against me”, “it is what it is”, “I’m not good enough”….I’m sure you can fill in a few more blanks yourself as we ALL run this internal dialogue continuously throughout our lives. Both Kari-Lyn and I have experienced these moments continuously throughout our 28+ years together and we anticipate that there are many more moments to come. So, if we know that these moments are “normal” and an important part of the process in reaching our goals, in fact, critical according to the lesson we heard during that pastor’s sermon as “we can’t build our character without working through conflict.” Did you receive that? “You can’t build your character without working through conflict.” Most people feel the friction of conflict and pull back. We can feel the resistance and create the external excuses as to why the things we dream about are not possible for us. That’s the easy track…but by far the hardest track because most often it leaves us with a feeling in the pit of our stomach of unfulfillment and unworthiness as opposed to fulfilled, on purpose and abundant. That’s where the lifetime of pain can come from, and because...