Low/high maintenance 2016

Today, I begin the day in what I call 'shlump-a-dinka' clothes.... The weather is changing, I am enjoying the cooler temps, bringing out some old favorite sweats that have been keeping space in my dresser....I started thinking about my low/high maintenance thinking.....I decided to update a  blog I had written about this topic and repost for those who are new to my page...

Low/high maintenance is a term I coined many years back chatting with my best friend Cindy. When it first rolled off my tongue, she looked at me and laughed. You see, I can come up with these Mac-ism's every once in a while. This one happened to stick.

So here is the thought behind the term. There are areas of my life where I am  really low maintenance. On the other hand, there are a few areas of my life where I  can be completely high maintenance. So instead of living in the land of medium, I'm Low/high or High/low depending on the specific situation.

Areas of low maintenance:

 CLOTHES, I enjoy shopping at TJ Maxx, Ross, Target all those discount places and I LOVE being able to find things on sale that I actually will wear.  I buy simple classic pieces. I don't  tend to buy trendy items, unless I  really love them. When it comes to clothes, I had on my bucket list to purchase a kick ass pair of expensive jeans. But, my favorite ones at the moment are my Gap boyfriend jeans.


NAILS, another area of low maintenance for this girly. I have pedicures  to keep my toes looking clean and polished, but my fingernails? I think I spent too many years at Mercy hospital outpatient physical therapy treating patients with manual techniques. Long nails are not my thing, would rather keep them on the shorter side.


HAIR, (is a two-fer for me, both low +high) I have lots of it. I've had many people take locks of my cut hair at the salon to try and match with their colorist. My hair is on the longer side at the moment and in all honesty, usually in a bun on top of my head. Between my brothers and I, I was given the gift of a seriously full head of thick hair. They unfortunately did not fair so well :0 It takes so much time and effort to get my hair looking cute. The only time I am guaranteed to have stylish hair is when I am leaving the salon.... Thank you Aliza Margolis for your talent and strong arms ....I will on occasion take a #daily 3 picture when I leave just to remember that I do have a cute cut and style. Here is the high/low flip side to that...... I have experienced some seriously shitty hair cuts in my day. I've even walked out with crooked bangs!... no joke.. so with my low maintenance day to day  approach, I am high maintenance about what stylist chair I choose to sit....and with that there are no coupon's and worth every cent ;)


Now, I think you are asking yourself, so tell me  about some high maintenance items Mac....

EATING OUT, this is tricky because part of my high category is that I am gluten and dairy free. I have learned over the years , what I can and cannot eat without consequences. I have learned to eat instinctively. I've learned that I don't have to order from the menu.  I  have asked the waiter on many occasions if I could order off the menu, since we are a family of 5 we have to feed all taste buds....I told him what I wanted and WA--LA....a delicious salad was served amidst the sea of hot wings and  I felt completely satisfied.

EYELASHES, what? yes, eyelashes. I get them tinted. You see I don't like wearing mascara daily. On the days when I taught hot yoga (105 F, 40-60% humidity) it would be a joke to even apply! So tinting, gives me dark lashes without the extra step of applying mascara.

SELF TANNER, again you ask what? Well, here is the scoop with this one. I am a natural red head who has hazel/brown eyes. I feel healthier and cuter with a little color in my skin... My skin tan's compared to those with blue or green eyes. That was great for me in my younger years, until I was diagnosed with melanoma in 1998 at the age of 28. After that, baking my skin in the mid-day sun was no longer an option..... So back to self -tanning, the  flip side of my HIGH to my LOW, I have tried  many brands over the years, some far pricier than others , and guess which one I prefer, Jergens and St Mortiz at the moment... go figure... nothing fancy....

It is quite interesting when you stop and think about where you draw your line in the sand. Sometimes, there is no  justified reason why you feel a certain way. What are your deal breakers and what are non-issues....

 I welcome you to take a few moments during the course of your day, and check in with yourself, take some mental notes of your own highs + lows maybe you will share, or maybe just maybe you will have a giggle and learn something new about yourself you never realized before..... 
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Wishing you all the best,

#Daily3 turns 2 today!

Oct 4, 2014 is the day my Daily 3 's began.

I shifted my thinking and started looking for the silver lining in my day to day life. I decided to start taking a quick photo of 3 things I was thankful for everyday. It became my own online gratitude journal.

You see, when Scott died, a shift happened... when people asked me how I was doing I gave them 3 responses... 1)thankful the bad guys didn't kill him(being in the Seal Teams it was always a possibility) my boys do not have subconscious feelings of retaliation  2) there was no question about if he had suffered (the coroner said he was dead before he hit the floor with this heart attack) and lastly 3) I didn't have to think about bringing his body back from over seas, since he had just returned from Africa 4 days earlier...That was my blanket response.... 3 things.... why? I have no idea.... 

For those of you new to my page, I will give you a snippet on the who and the why...

My name is Macara Brachmann, I was widowed at 41. I reconnected with a boy(SR) that I had gone to high school with many many moons ago. He also had been widowed several years earlier. Our long distance relationship evolved into an amazing deep love that it is today . It is uniquely ours, 2 widows, 3 teenage boys and 2 Labradors (do I need to put in, plenty of crazy?)

Logistics:

SR and I had a long distance relationship...me in MN which had been our home for the past eight year and SR in CA. 

We decided it was time to live under one roof, so the big move happened in 2013 , returning to CA and into SR's home. It was never intended to be our second chapter home. Steve had lived is his home for 12 years and we agreed that we wanted the boys to be living closer to where they were going to go to school.It was a great house, but it was time for change. We started prepping the house to put on the market and started some serious house hunting. 

The next phase was where the whirlwind began. 

SR's house was a great house, so much so that he had an offer, FULL PRICE, ALL CASH + oh AND 20 DAY ESCROW!!! only being on the market 4 days!!!!

yup, SHIT HIT the FAN...

Life went into complete get'er done mode. You know what I mean, the panic of oh shit, 20 days to pack and find a house.... 

Well, lets just say, we didn't find a house in 20 days. We ended up moving into what I call a cozy original bungalow (can you read between the lines?) So original that we had one outlet in the kitchen! yup  circa 1950's.

Mentally, I knew moving into this place,  was only temporary.  I am a firm believer you can do anything you set your mind to. Living in the cozy bungalow with an insane commute to get the boys to school and their sporting activities,was only temporary I kept telling myself. I knew that we would eventually find our family home. It was a discouraging process but in retrospect necessary.

We moved into this cozy bungalow with the mindset, 3 months, we will definitely have found  our next home in 3 months....

After we moved in. The dust settled so to speak and I was staring at what I was calling home. Dark wood paneling, 1200 square feet, cozy for this family of 5 and 2 large pups . I  had to pull up my big girl panties and say to myself, I can make anyplace feel like home dammit. 

What was the easiest fix?.... PAINT!!!


I knew that painting the dark paneling was the easiest fix. A fresh coat of white paint went up and made a significant difference, the house felt cleaner, more like a quaint cottage. Or at least that is how I decided to spin it in my own mind.


3 months turned into 7... 

I would sit in the house and feel overwhelmed at all that transpired for us to be living there. It was pretty craptastic, I'm not gonna lie. If I told you the entire story your head would be shaking, like you gotta be kidding me....I kept telling myself, it was happening for a reason, it would all make sense at some point....

 I decided that the way I was going to change my mindset was to take 3 pictures a day of appreciation. no fancy lighting and cameras, just my phone camera + 3 things that made me smile. 3 things that might not make a difference to anyone else on the planet, but for me on that day, it did.That day was OCT 4,2014 my #Daily3 was born.... I began training my brain to look for the silver lining of each day.

This was my first post, I think to myself why didn't I start on Oct 1? Who knows.... Oct 4 was when my clarity of shifting hit.  It was absolutely nothing exciting... morning coffee with coconut oil, my dinner at the Habit and enjoying some quality time with Mitchell while the little's were at football practice....this was my transitional life... I had to find moments that made me smile.

I made the commitment to myself to post everyday.....  What happened next was such a complete surprise.  I started receiving emails from people who had found my page and were thanking me... I thought to myself... why? I started these posts purely as a method to shift my thinking going through a sucky situation and somehow someway, it is touching others.... Interesting how life works....

After a complete renovation, we  moved into our home The RNB (Rogers n Brachmann) in March of 2015.  I decided to continue to post since truth be told, it helps me stay focused on the good in my day to day life. Raising teenage boys, any children for that matter, can be challenging.... this keeps me focused on the good in each day. The re-wiring was a success! 

So although I was faced with living in that original cozy bungalow in Reseda Ca,with a 3 hour commute each day... something wonderful resulted....little did I ever consider that my #daily3 could make a difference in other people's lives.

Last year was #daily3's 1st anniversary!

this was my 1 year post... we were driving down the  I-5 back to Agoura after being in Stockton for the weekend. Not super exciting, I know, but again, this is my real life, it is not always rainbow and unicorns! Although we did have rainbows and tutu's that day :)

This life has been quite a journey in all honesty.At 46, I am thankful where I am standing today.  My heart is humbled by the response of others. I am happy to know that my nightly posts have turned into something that others look forward to seeing.

It has become a bit of a joke with the kiddos, the novelty as they say..." is all over rover".... They are not wanting to be tagged.....I think in the pretend world of social media +Instagram, I don't have the staged pics or a ton of followers..... 

Here is the good news, it doesn't matter to me! 

I am keeping it genuine to who I am and why it began....I would be lying to you if I said it was easy to find 3 things everyday... some days its tough... but all the more reason to find and post..I am embracing this journey I have been given..looking for the silver lining... that is always there...

I am not going to dive deeply into the benefits of bringing gratitude into your life in this post,I will save that for another time.  What I will say is this, when you bring the habit of gratitude into your life, changes happen....

here are just a few:

• stronger immune systems + lower blood pressure
• more joy + optimism
• sleep better

I do laugh at times. I get posts from many different people trying to solicit me. Here is my info if you are interested. I am in private practice as a Certified Health Coach. I only take as many clients as I can balance with my own life. I received my training through IIN, I am AADP certified, I  have my 200-RYT and am a contributor to Mindbodygreen.... BLISS with Mac, Balanced Living In Small Steps is my practice. I don't sell any specific products or product line, I am not getting paid for any endorsements, if I post a product, it is because I believe and have used them .. I teach my clients how to find balance in their lives...teaching them about shifting their thinking...finding their own sweet spot...finding homeostasis.... we are all different...BUT.... there is one central idea that is universal....

 Water,Vegetables and exercise are good for you

So today, I say Happy Birthday Daily 3's and thank you. I am thankful that my mindset in day to day living has shifted. It continues to make my heart full when people who first meet me say I have such a great attitude! I am thankful for the people who have reached out and lives I've touched. I hope you begin to see the silver lining in your days as I have done mine. ...   I am so very grateful for those of you who have supported this journey of my Daily3 's these past two years, thank you.  

I am looking forward to what this next year brings. I have a feeling good things are coming in 2017 ;)


Health and Happiness,