Day 74: When You Help Others, You Can't Help Helping Yourself!

Many years ago I had a manger who loved to terrorize her employees. She would call a person into her office and close the door. She would calmly sit in her chair and begin the conversation with something innocuous, like: "You have been doing a good job...." You start feeling a bit relax and not dreading the encounter. Once she felt that you had this false sense of security, she would then say, "However...," and the attack would begin. Usually it about something totally stupid and inconsequential, like a wrinkle in your clothing or tossing a piece of paper away, missing the can, and not picking it up. But it was the way she did it that just made all the employees nervous. She would use every fear tactic at her disposal so you would do everything her way. Eventually you learned to fear the call to enter a manger's office—a feeling that has stayed with me for quite some time.

Last Friday my manager called me into her office. With trepidation I entered. "I just wanted to say that you're looking pretty good. Have you been losing weight?" Okay, there was the "compliment". I waited for the terror to occur.

"What have you been doing to get so fit?"

I proceeded to give the generic answer of "diet and exercise". She asked more questions. I began to get into more detail of PCP, still unsure of where the conversation was going and wondering when the attack would occur.

It didn't. In fact, we had a good twenty-minute discussion about PCP, and Food versus "food", and exercises, and much more. By the end, she jotted down the PCP web address and reaffirmed how good I looked. I went back to my desk feeling very elated.

The conversation picked up a few days later, after the long weekend. She came over to my desk and proceeded to tell me how she had gone grocery shopping and, based upon what I told her, began to actually read the packaging of a number of items in the store.

"I spent an hour just reading labels, and I couldn't find a single thing that didn't have salt or sugar or high fructose corn syrup or additives or preservatives. There was nothing that was healthy! You really impress me. I don't think I could do what you're doing."

I pointed out to her about how fresh fruits and vegetables are better than frozen and canned. I gave her a list of canned goods that I knew of which contain 100% fruit or vegetable without all the nasty stuff. I even gave her a couple of recipe ideas to eat a little healthier.

That second conversation had me flying for the rest of the day. Not only was I able to tell someone about PCP, but they got the information, they applied that knowledge, and they're starting to think about what goes into their body. It may not have been a total conversion, but definitely a push in the right direction. All in all, it was a pretty good day!