Become A Change Optimist

I am an eternal optimist and that certainly helps when you are trying to motivate people. It is especially helpful when you are asking people to change their bodies and change their lives. I am blessed to get an inspirational email and a good article that I saw recently was, “Become a Change Optimist” and here is a little excerpt”

“Everyone experiences change–it may be a job change, relationship change, health change, or a change you’ve initiated that suddenly seems daunting. If you find change difficult, you’re not alone. Many people think change is hard. But it’s possible for the change you’re going through to be easier, smoother, and less stressful–you can find the positive in transitions and learn to love your life more…you can become a Change Optimist.” Continued…

Americans still unclear about stroke warning signs

I for one really don’t know any of the warning signs of a stroke.  I only know that when I was under a lot of stress last year with a failing business, I thought that I might have a stroke.  This article is from Reuters Health:

“Fewer than half of Americans can recognize the top five warning signs of stroke, information that could help save thousands of people from death and disability, the U.S. Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention said on Thursday.

Their report uncovered significant disparities in awareness, with whites, women and people with higher levels of education much more likely to be aware of individual stroke warning symptoms and call for an ambulance than others.

“These findings indicate a need to increase awareness of stroke warning symptoms in the entire population, and particularly among blacks, Hispanics, men and persons at lower education levels,” the CDC said in its weekly report on death and disease.

Stroke warning signs include sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side; sudden confusion or difficulty speaking; sudden trouble walking, dizziness or loss of balance; sudden trouble with vision in one eye or both; and severe headache with no known cause.  Continued…

Early exercise aids against breast cancer

As a parent of an active 3 1/2 year old, I was heartened to see this article and know that she is starting out life on the right foot so to speak.  This article appears in CNN Health and is from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis:

“New research shows exercise during the teen years — starting as young as age 12 — can help protect girls from breast cancer when they are grown.

Middle-aged women have long been advised to get active to lower their risk of breast cancer after menopause.

What’s new: That starting so young pays off, too.

“This really points to the benefit of sustained physical activity from adolescence through the adult years, to get the maximum benefit,” said Dr. Graham Colditz of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, the study’s lead author.

Researchers tracked nearly 65,000 nurses ages 24 to 42 who enrolled in a major health study. They answered detailed questionnaires about their physical activity dating back to age 12. Within six years of enrolling, 550 were found to have breast cancer before menopause. A quarter of all breast cancer is diagnosed at these younger ages, when it is typically more aggressive.

Women who were physically active as teens and young adults were 23 percent less likely to develop premenopausal breast cancer than women who grew up sedentary, researchers report Wednesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.”  Continued…

Half of Americans on Medicine

Yikes! That to me is pretty shocking. I don’t go to the doctor and don’t take any prescription medicines. No, I don’t have a death wish and it may not be smart in some people’s minds, but I exercise, eat to nourish my body, take supplements and keep my stress down and that formula is now working for me quite well. Here’s an excerpt from the article that appeared in Time, if you want to read what other people are doing:

“For the first time, it appears that more than half of all insured Americans are taking prescription medicines regularly for chronic health problems, a study shows.

The most widely used drugs are those to lower high blood pressure and cholesterol — problems often linked to heart disease, obesity and diabetes.

The numbers were gathered last year by Medco Health Solutions Inc., which manages prescription benefits for about one in five Americans.” Continued…

4 Bad Habit Makeovers for Your Little Ones

You may wonder what this has to do with health and fitness, but believe me, as the father of a 3 1/2 year old and 1 1/2 year old, the actions of your kids have a lot to do with your mental and physical health.  I know that you parents will enjoy this article that appeared in CNN.com Health:

“Raising kids, I used to think, how hard could it be? Anything you can carry around in a car seat can’t be all that big a deal, right?  Given this line of reasoning, I deserved every bit of grief I got when my first child, Lucy, was born. Of course, it wasn’t really my fault. I never slept. I breastfed round the clock, taking breaks only for wrestling matches with my unspeakably tight pre-pregnancy pants. My hormones mocked me. So I did whatever it took to survive.

Rather than listen to Lucy cry, I rocked her to sleep. If she woke up in the middle of the night, I let her stay in my bed, even though it meant I’d lie awake beside her. Then, when she was a toddler, I gave up on teaching her how to pick up toys. (I could do it faster and better.) And it wasn’t just toys I was picking up; it was Lucy herself, who always seemed to get a case of rubber leg anytime we had to walk more than a few blocks.

I assumed she would outgrow these habits. But she didn’t. She just got heavier, something I felt acutely when I was nine months pregnant with her baby sister.

This couldn’t go on. But was it too late to change the bad habits — mine, as well as hers?”  Continued…

Failing the Faithful

Anyone who reads my blog is either very faithful or has a lot of time on their hands, since I only post about once a week and I’ve been getting nominated for most boring blog on the Internet.

That is changing as I write because I now am going to focus all of my attention on my blog and my message board posts - informational and business - and it will now be worth it to you to stop in and read.

You may think that I finally figured out that spending the better part of a day creating a newsletter would be my motivation to “downsize” to a blog that I can update at will and that certainly played a part in my decision.

The greater motivation was a survival instinct and rather than paying, in my case, $446.30 next month to renew my contract with my newsletter delivery service, I would instead use my wonderful, free WordPress blog and the free Beachbody Message Boards to convey my thoughts and wisdom and what little knowledge I can still access in my old brain.

When it comes to survival of the fittest, part of criteria for survival is being smart and I just need to be smart.  So all of you faithful readers of my blog will now be seeing what all of my subscribers saw and hopefully they won’t abandon me and come here to read it when all they used to have to do was go to their email in box!

A Muted Tooted Horn

I don’t much like people who talk about themselves. Bragging is really, really annoying and I stop listening. But, I must admit that talking about what you have been able to accomplish in the right way is a great way to inspire and motivate other people. That is the essence of the Beachbody Message Boards - not to brag, but rather to inspire.

In my world, most success stories revolve around losing weight and I find a lot of satisfaction in being able to read and hear so many great success stories. These are people that I see and work out with in the virtual SuperGym where I am a proud member. People are always upbeat and always trying to do their very best in every workout that they do. I wish that all of you would at least become a free guest member so that you know what I am talking about and can experience it yourself.

And so it is that I only offer a muted toot of my horn. Not because mine is not a significant success story, but rather because it is success story that far fewer people can relate to in a world plagued by obesity.

Twenty three years ago this month, I had a car accident that transformed me from a super healthy, elite runner to a sickly, whiney, angry guy who struggled every day just to get through life. After three years, 13 different doctors and botched treatments and a botched surgery, I was diagnosed with CFIDS - a chronic illness that was a side effect of all of the “mistreatment” that I received.

At my worst, I couldn’t walk up a flight of stairs. At my best, I was finally able to work as a personal trainer because the lifestyle gave me a way to be fit, since my ability to run had all but deserted me, and at the same time help other people with their fitness. But the overriding fatigue that I felt made life for me an act of will every day and that will was often tested.

Personal training, as I got older, was less feasible as an occupation and I turned to the Internet as a way to express my passion for fitness and as a way of making a living. I became a Polar Authorized heart rate monitor dealer and did my best to be successful. But that business, with it associated high level of stress, began to erode the gains that I made in my health and when it failed, I realize now, it was a very good thing.

So my success story began in late December 2006 when I heard about becoming a Beachbody coach. I signed up as a coach, bought P90X so that I could start working out at home and not have to beat myself up every day because I couldn’t run like I used to, started using Beachbody products, lowered my stress by becoming a coach and saw my health gradually being restored.

Now, just over a year later, I consider myself to be completely healthy. I feel no effects of the CFIDS whatsoever and in fact, at 57, work more than 60 hours a week, work out 6 - 7 days a week, take no prescription drugs and thoroughly enjoy my life as a full time Beachbody coach, supporting his family, including his 3 1/2 year old daughter Grace and 1 1/2 year old daughter Carly.

I hope that my success in overcoming a chronic illness will inspire you to overcome your challenges. Exercise and good nutrition and a low stress lifestyle combined to restore my health. It will work for you, too, if you are ready to make the commitment to change.

Lucky Us - An Open Letter to My Coaches

Does anyone count their blessings anymore? I sure do. But I also know that it is hard on a bad day, but even on the worst day, there are many things to be thankful for. One of the blessings that I don’t have is a coach to give me ideas. The reason that I haven’t sent out a newsletter in a few weeks is because I am not blessed like most if not all of the rest of you are to have a job other than being a Beachbody Coach. I went from having a business and being a coach to just being a coach and I have to hustle every day to succeed in this business.

I am constantly seeking out advice to be the best coach that I can be so that you can be the best coach that you can be. Your success has been entrusted to me and that is a huge responsibility. When Carl Daikeler had the audacious idea of entrusting the success of his company to the people who were benefitting from buying and using his products, it was an incredible leap of faith. His reputation and the reputation of the company has been placed in our hands because Beachbody is giving us their customers to guide, motivate and inspire.

Carl and Kevin and Pete, to name just a very few, inspire me and I need you to hear and feel my passion and enthusiasm. But I can’t just give you ideas and “rah rah” about this business. I also need some time to implement my ideas and the ideas that I have been able to glean from Kevin or Doug and test them and accept or reject them before I blindly pass them on to you. You certainly don’t need to waste your time on the trial and error that I have to use.

And so it is that I was lucky enough to get an idea from Brian, via Monica, about using MeetUps.com to schedule home presentations. He told me in an email that I read early last Sunday morning and within hours, I had signed up and scheduled a presentation which happened this past Sunday evening - http://weightloss.meetup.com/830/.

Now before you start thinking that I want you to spend $12.00 a month to join MeetUps.com, that is not the point. The point is that I have now experienced the power of home presentations and realize why all of the top coaches use them so successfully. Those top coaches grasped very early on how lucky they were to be a part of Beachbody and what the responsibilities and rewards are for being entrusted with helping other people. Carl and Kevin and the rest of the Beachbody management team are helping us to help other people to succeed. Once you fully grasp that, you can start looking people in the eye and telling them about what we do and telling them how you count being a Beachbody Coach as one of your many blessings.

Food And Mood - We Are What We Eat

If you’re putting a lot of effort into your workouts and supplements but still not feeling the rush of energy and joy you read about on the message boards, the reason might be your food choices. The next time you reach for “fast food” or decide to simply skip a meal, consider the effect your diet plays on the way you feel. After all, what good is having a beach body if you’re not able to enjoy it?  Continued…

Couples Who Laugh Together, Last Together

So much of our attitude about life and our capacity to meet life’s challenges depends on the quality of the relationships we have, especially our most intimate relationships.

When they go sour, life tends to feel bleak. Because the quality of our relationships has a powerful effect on physical and mental balance, as well as our sense of satisfaction in life, it’s important that we keep our relationships rewarding and fresh. The data on divorce provides compelling evidence that we are not succeeding at all. Nearly half of all marriages end in divorce — cohabitation couplings are far likelier to end badly — and of the marriages that endure, many are less than happy.

Most people know the value of a good relationship and no matter how often they have lost at love, they keep on hoping. As a result, advice on how to make relationships work fills shelves and shelves of bookstores and hours of talk-show time. Some of it is even good, the product of careful research on happy and unhappy couples.

But of all the elements that contribute to the warm atmosphere of a good relationship, there is one that seldom gets translated into advice or even therapy, yet it is something that everyone desires and most people would like more of: laughter.  Continued…