Rachel Rodriguez • Lifestyle

The Ultimate Bucket List Experience

The most important investment decision you will make, however, this concept isn't complicated and can be applied to your health.

Asset Allocation

A few years ago I became a raving fan of Tony Robbins and came across one of his books that talks about the Ultimate Bucket Lists in Life. Maybe you like him, maybe you don't- in any case, he breaks down asset allocation into 3 main buckets that can help you build your investments depending on where you are in life and how much you want to save.

Tony Robbins states “asset allocation is the most important investment decision you will make, the concept is not as complicated as you might think.”

He breaks down asset allocation into 3 main buckets:

The Security Bucket- slow and steady will give you certainty in life.
The Risk/Growth Bucket- sexy and fast, quick returns built on uncertainty.
The Dream Bucket- have fun and enjoy life!

As I applied these concepts in my life to try it out I expanded further on them I began to see many similarities within the health industry and along with my profession as a Nutrition and Fitness Specialist.

The concept below is also not as complicated as many might think, in fact taking a different approach with a new perspective might even help you gain more insight into how you view your health.

Sustainable health is also an investment, something that small changes can also make a huge difference in the long run. Let’s break it down!

The Nutrition Bucket

Breaking down nutrition into bite-sized pieces you’ll have a mix of meals, recipes, and ingredients that are spread out throughout the day. These ingredients can be used in your favor to enhance your health and nourish the body.

I do think people want to be healthy and eat an overall healthy diet, but people get lost in the vast choices that are out there. There’s always a restaurant popping up, a new taco truck on the corner, and when time is trapped fast food just happens to be right in front of you on the drive home.

The Nutrition Bucket is also, the slow and steady wins the race. Introducing and developing a new habit can take anywhere from 21 to 52 days to fully be implemented. For example, introducing a new diet, finding out you’re Gluten-Free by making a transition or incorporating more fruits and vegetables into your diet.

Nutrition is the backbone of health and something that can be controlled daily. I even see it as a way to be compounded to have it work in your favor so that it remains a low risk.

Essentially adding in more vitamins, minerals, and healthy ingredients to your diet will help to decrease the volatility of chronic diseases, illnesses, and future health risks.

Health Allocation

Eating Habits

With a bird’s eye view, I’ve broken down my eating habits across a year’s time span into the following buckets:

75% I is organic, healthy nutritious meals mostly prepared at home

15% I leave for flexibility, vacation, holidays, eating out

10% are random events, life happens moments - yes, I also eat fast food!

Blood Work

I’ll also include getting my annual exam with the doctor, with blood work.

I use the results as markers to cross-reference what I’m doing for the year because these numbers don’t lie and tell me where I’m at with how my body is responding to the food that I’m eating.

The Fitness Bucket

Along the same lines as nutrition, there is a list of options to exercise, workouts, fitness regimens. With an overall mindset to get fit and be strong, it can be fast and volatile if done too quickly leaving many with injuries, spasms, and being breathless. Starting a new workout can be difficult and very hard on the body because of the added pressure it endures.

However, with the right consideration of your personality, the alignment of what’s feasible to where you are within your fitness level it can mean that the returns on fitness can bring you a feeling of accomplishment.

I believe the hard work and dedication to any fitness program is something that no one can take away from you. And if you add in a specific goal like I’m doing where I’m running a half marathon (Read more about The Half Marathon) the feeling that comes after the finish line is something that no one can take from you!

The inner feeling of giving yourself a gift of accomplishment, more than just a pat on the back. You crossed a finish line of achievement!

A previous client of mine hated running, add to that a pandemic where being locked indoors he hated running on a treadmill even more! We worked on his mindset of just going “on a run” and brought to life the benefits of running.

We talked a lot about how he felt during his run, how his body responded after the run and expanded on experiencing the runner’s high!

Fitness is a high-risk activity, where if you don’t move it - you lose it! I have a passion for movement, but it’s the thoughts behind this that intrigues me the most because I want to see what my body is capable of doing. I want to feel have much weight I can lift, and I want to know how far I can run!

What do you want to gain? How do you want to shape your body? What are you capable of doing?

The Lifestyle Bucket

Lastly, spreading yourself across family time, work and career can often leave you being pulled in so many directions. I know some of my clients feel as if they have no time for their own hobbies or interests. Yet, these are essential to decreasing stress levels, increasing relaxation, and boosting levels of creativity.

Building a lifestyle or living a lifestyle means so many different things. I see it as my lifestyle is represented by what’s going on inside of me and outside of me.

For example, work-life balance has been used for a long time, this balancing act. Balancing makes it more challenging as if you must give up something instead of making it part of your day.

“Juggling” so many things, as if you’re dragging yourself and one step behind. That I must choose one way or another. That I must only focus on my work and not my family.

It got me thinking what if there was a way to not have this balancing act of work and life and create the ability to shape my lifestyle?

It reminded me of a time when I was very busy. I’m a wife, mom, and business owner, my husband was going through an extremely stressful time in his career. And my son was very sick. It was about an hour before taking him to the doctor for a checkup, we’ve had 4 days of high fever ranging from 102-104, late-night baths trying to break that fever, and nothing was helping. We were exhausted!

Yet, I’m running a business. I received an invite to be a featured speaker, and as an entrepreneur when the opportunity comes you take it! The balancing act doesn’t fit into my lifestyle anymore. I run a business and I run a family, they are not separate. They are part of who I am and who I’ve become. I have one life so I lead with integrating, that’s how I shaped my life to make it work for me. It’s a lifestyle solely based on integration!!!!

My lifestyle is my dream bucket! My day is filled with small acts that weave together almost as if I’m growing a grapevine and the branches are interwoven sprouting grapes along the way. .

Having a lifestyle worth living is something to celebrate! As it reflects in the area that I’m extremely passionate about my purpose is to integrate where nutrition and fitness join to become one in my mind, scheduled within my day making it simple and doable. With the ability to shape my lifestyle how I want it!

Smash Your Grape

The overall concept is not as complicated as you might think.

Breaking down health into smaller buckets with the intention of seeing how it can be integrated into your life can be used as a different approach.

Nutrition and fitness can be used to create a healthy lifestyle worth living and create experiences that go beyond what you’re currently doing.