Welcome to the 16th edition of Weekend Wellness! Do you partake in healthy competition in life? A little friendly rivalry can be ideal for your finances, fitness, food, and fun when done right. Read on for some tips and the recipe of the week – a delicious Sweet Potato Crust Spinach and Feta Quiche.

Competition can be seen as ugly in our society. Competitive feelings though are completely natural and largely unavoidable. Even those who claim not to be competitive have likely felt competitive quite often.

Many of us get uneasy with our competitiveness, however. Competitive thoughts rarely seem kind. Instead, they are often, unsettling and fairly uncomfortable. But here’s the thing, allowing ourselves to feel these competitive feelings is in fact healthy.

Our competitive feelings are an indication of what we want, and acknowledging what we want is key to getting to know ourselves.

Competitive feelings are an indication of our desires, and when we acknowledge our desires, we better understand ourselves. If we instead suppress these feelings, we leave them to fester and impact us in a variety of negative ways – jealousy, greed, self-doubt, or self-hatred for example.

So, alternatively, learn to get comfortable with your competitive feelings. Recognize that your thoughts and feelings are separate from your actions. You can still feel a certain way but choose a positive way of behaving and acting upon those feelings.

Healthy Competition in Life

Use your competitive feelings to help motivate you not destroy others — or yourself. Being respectful, ethical, cooperative, personally accountable, and non-threatening will do you well.

There are many ways to incorporate a bit of healthy competition in life, beyond the playing field or the boardroom.

Healthy Competition with Personal Finances

Challenge some friends to save money or pay off debt. Or use the net worth of others to motivate yourself to earn and save more. Challenge your spouse to some no spend months. Or share the concept of the Swan FIRE Prowess Gauge and invite others to evaluate their efforts towards the pursuit of financial independence and early retirement for some healthy comparisons.

Healthy Competition in Fitness

Join the Spartan Revolution. Challenge yourself to improve your 1-mile walking pace. Design a mini-obstacle race in your backyard for the kids. See who can do more jumping jacks in 1 minute, you or your spouse. Sign-up for a 5K race with a friend, slowest finisher buys beer.

Healthy Competition with Food

Challenge a coworker or two to brown bag lunch for a month. Have a home ‘Chopped‘ game with friends or family. Strive to eat 10 servings of vegetables a day. Challenge your spouse or a friend to a recipe creation contest – let the kids participate.

Healthy Competition, Keep It Fun!

Play, engage with others and have fun. The things we and others consider fun is an endless list. Just about any hobby can also be made competitive by challenging yourself as well as others. Keep it healthy and fun by respecting other’s feelings (and your own), be honest, respectful, and most of all, be able to lose, as well as win. Then challenge yourself to do better next time.

Featuring

Here are a few articles I’ve recently enjoyed this week, I hope you will too!

• David at Zero Day Finance wants us to, “Never Give Up, Never Surrender”
• At Learn to Be Great, Darren, asks “Do You Have The Will to Succeed?“
• Erik, from The Mastermind Within, keeps showing us time and time again he most certainly does have the will to succeed with “An Update: Behind the Scenes at The Mastermind Within”

How do you incorporate some healthy competition in life? Any plans for this weekend? We will be spending time at the Woodward Dream Cruise witnessing a bit of healthy competition among car enthusiasts.

Have a great weekend and be well!

Amy

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Sweet Potato Crust Spinach and Feta Quiche

This crust is AAAmazing! Tender, delicious and held together nicely.

4 - 8 servings depending on how you slice it!

Ingredients

2 medium sweet potatoes

1 tsp coconut oil (or canola oil)

1  5-ounce bag of fresh baby spinach (may also use canned or frozen, just be sure and drain all water)

1/2 cup of any milk (we use Almond or Coconut milk)

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Pinch of nutmeg

4 large eggs

plus 2 additional large egg whites

1.5 – 2 ounces crumbled feta cheese

Instructions

Julienne the sweet potatoes, coat them with 1tsp of oil and one egg white. Bake in 350-degree oven for 20 minutes.

While the crust is baking, heat up a nonstick skillet over medium heat, add spinach and saute for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and cool.

Combine and whisk the remaining ingredients in a bowl.

Add spinach to baked crust. Pour egg mixture over spinach and then sprinkle with feta cheese. Bake for 30-35 minutes at 375 degrees.

Let cool for 5 minutes before slicing. Enjoy!

Notes

Original recipe from CookingLight

Note: This information is being provided to you for educational and informational purposes only. It is provided to educate you about nutrition, exercise, and personal finance, and as a self-help tool for your own use. It is not legal, medical, or financial advice. This information is to be used at your own risk-based on your own judgment. For my full Disclaimer, please view here.