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Thursday, April 29, 2010

Overcoming Overeating - Timing your meals - Team Beachbody Newsletter Free

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Tuesday, April 27, 2010

"Shakeology made my body feel something it hasn't in a long time..." Read the rest of her email...

My friend Lisa sent me a beautiful email about her Shakeology experience.  Lisa is a lady who I have Always known to be very intelligent.  She researches EVERYTHING because she cares about what she is putting into her body and what she is feeding her family.  She only makes good well informed decisions so naturally I couldn't wait to share Shakeology with her.  After comparing a couple other "Health" shakes on the market along with Shakeology here are her unfettered findings (I got her permission to share this)...

"I tried Nature Shake, it was DISGUSTING!!! I used the EXACT same ingredients to make each shake...Genisoy, Shakeology and Nature's Plus.. 

The Genisoy didn't taste terrible, but definitely not good.  The Nature's Plus was disgusting and the Shakeology was delicious! (and I only used HALF a Shakeology serving and a full serving of the other brands!) So then comes the next test...appetite suppressant and energy... When I drank the Shakeology, I IMMEDIATELY felt a surge of energy and of mental and physical clarity which I haven't felt in a long time...The others didn't have any feelings like that. 

I felt FULL on Shakeology and remained full for about 3 hours or longer... my cravings for bad food or sweets, weren't there...that was 2 days of a very nice, healthy, feeling. The other drinks, did not satisfy my appetite, did NOTHING for my cravings nor energy... hands down, Shakeology made my body feel something it hasn't in a long time and that is something I will find a way to afford since you ultimately can't put a price on a healthy body/feeling/mind. Do I sign up on your coach site or Shakeology site?" - Lisa Byard

So naturally I'm helping her get the coach discounts and YOU can reap the same discounts to.   Make your own informed decision.  I absolutely LOVE it when I talk to someone who wants the facts because it gives me a great opportunity to show off how enormously beneficial Shakeology is for ANYONE who cares about living a good life and just wants to feel good day to day. 

Go to my Shakeology website and look at the Nutrition Data toward the bottom of the page: http://HeavenInAGlass.info 

Would you like the Big Coach Discounts that Lisa is getting?  Sign up for the Coach Discounts.  You get a 25% discount on Everything including Shakeology: http://PassionFitness.info (Click the Coach Link and Call me I will help you)

Tom
Passion For Fitness

P.S. Read some of my other Shakeology user Testimonials
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Monday, April 26, 2010

A Mother and Daughter Share with Me how Shakeology is Changing Everything

I nearly welled up as I got toward the end of this letter that my friend Kimberly wrote me. Just so you know, I got her permission to share this with all of you.

Read this Amazing testimonial to Shakeology...

Hey Tom,

I started the Shakeology about 6 weeks ago and within the first three weeks lost a total of 18 lbs. I have so much more energy and as you've seen last night I am now able to fit into clothes I couldn't just a couple of months ago. I have higher self-esteem and it shows.

I decided to start my 14 yr old daughter on it who has a lot of medical problems one of which is failure to thrive and polytheistic kidney disease. My daughter was going to the doctor about 6 times a month due to her kidney stones and the doctor needing to keep an eye on them. I am happy to report that she is no longer considered at risk for the failure to thrive and is healthier then ever after 6 weeks on the program. But the most spectacular thing is she is now seeing the doctor only a few times a month and has had no sign of stones in two weeks. That is amazing. For the first time in years she is feeling like a kid and able to do the things a kid should be able to do without the pain and frustration of constant issues. Thanks for the information on the Shakeology it has been a blessing in so many ways.

- Kimberly S. Kenosha, WI

If you would like to try Shakeology for yourself and for your family please do. The more people try Shakeology the more amazing stories like I get in my inbox and over the phone. There is no question this is a life changing Health / weight lass / meal replacement shake. If you have Any concerns about a health condition you may have please let me know so that I can send you a nutrition data sheet to get your doctors approval to try Shakeology.

http://HeavenInAGlass.info <--- Order Shakeology If you're interested in reaping the Huge 25% coach discount send me an email / call me. Tom Passion for Fitness
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Sunday, April 25, 2010

The Scheme in Pyramid Schemes

A lot of people, probably a lot of you, just wanting more time money and personal freedom have tried an "opportunity" that promises the world and you just end up getting burned pretty badly and expensively.

It makes a skeptic out of you. It's good to learn and grow more wise from our mistakes but sadly most of us who have been burned in the past become such a skeptic that it causes many of you to really miss out on legitimate opportunities that you see as just another, "Pyramid Scheme". You can avoid that danger and be more wise at the same time simply by learning what a Pyramid scheme is and is not.  Don't let a bad experience in your past rob you of your future.  Instead you should be learning, growing, doing, and repeating instead of quitting.  Quitting is average.  Most people are average and most people don't have more than most other people have.

My friend and fellow Independent Team Beachbody coach Mike Thompson wrote a brilliant truthful description of what a Pyramid scheme is and what Team Beachbody is...

"There's a distinct difference - You need to look up what a pyramid scheme is - technically, A pyramid scheme is a non-sustainable business model that involves the exchange of money primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, often without any product or service being delivered.
Not only do we have a product, but we have a product that changes peoples lives and You don't have to be a part of it to change your life - you can simply use the products.


In a pyramid - there's really one person who makes the money is the guy up top.
A Pyramid structure is when the organizers of the scheme use the assets of new investors to make profit payments to the old investors. The scheme typically has no other source of revenue other than from the new investors. Pyramid schemes, often called ponzi schemes, progress geometrically until they reach the point that the operators cannot find enough recruits (victims) to continue the payout. A bust out is a form of a pyramid scheme whereby the suppliers are like the investors, and the bust out (pyramid) scheme continually uses its new debt to pay old debt, building a "house of cards," which must, ultimately, collapse.


In Beachbody, new coaches do not pay their dues to those above them but to the company itself. Beachbody operates on profits from a product - not the investment of new coaches. Not only that but Beachbody gets profits from a greater percentage of those who are not Coaches but regular customers - 30,000 - 50,000 per week to be exact. This is business as any other business - nothing like a pyramid. 

Coaching is simply a profit sharing program. We are independant consultants/representatives that share in the profits based on commission, NOT INVESTMENT.


Those who say Beachbody is a pyramid simply don't know what a pyramid is...." - Mike Thompson

Another distinction of a pyramid scheme is that its not possible for anyone to out rank or out earn anyone in their up line. If you have a weak leader in your upline in a pyramid scheme then you're screwed. In team beachbody every coach has the potential to out rank and out earn anyone in his / her upline or downline. Each coach is rewarded based on his / her determination and productivity! I love the fact that my team is not hindered by my performance in any way. We're independents we can outperform anyone we want. The people on the bottom can work their way to TOP COACH and that is true for anyone no matter where there position in the down line / up line is!

The best way to prove that this is an awesome business is to just succeed and show everyone that it is an AWESOME business.

I'm doing that! I no longer have to work a day job AND I'm physically healthier than I've ever been before in my life. To finally bury any pyramid scheme beliefs out there, I actually have a coach in my down line on the verge of out ranking me and another one who earns more in commission checks than I do. This would not be possible in a pyramid scheme.

By now you should easily see the kind of company Team Beachbody is with such a high level of moral integrity and how it's a polar opposite of what a pyramid scheme is.

If you'd like to join my Team and even possibly Out Earn Me then Sign Up!  In fact I would Absolutely LOVE to see you Earn more money than I do.  That would just be a reflection of my leadership skills which would truly warm the cockles of my heart :-)

Tom - Independent Team Beachbody Coach and Success Story
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Saturday, April 24, 2010

Get some Guts and Own it! Light yourself on Fire and let the world watch you Burn!

Just a fair warning.  This article falls into the category of Tough Love.  If you're afraid of the power of reflection, if you're not willing to take a hard look at where you have been and are at right now then you may want to skip over this article (Or Read it anyway, light yourself on fire and let the world watch you burn!). My goal with any Tough Love article is to reach people willing to see them as they are today unfettered by anything, but willing to make some changes to change everything for their future.  Don't leave yourself in the mess my friends.

I've been laid off  more than once, I've been fired by a new boss who didn't like me, my most recent job was off shored - outsourced to India for cheap labor.  All of this was at no fault of my own except for the fact it was entirely my fault for leaving myself vulnerable to the mercy of an employer for the first 12 years of my working life.  If you work for an employer then you are just as vulnerable.  I know a lot of you are hurting out there and already have a sense of what I'm talking about.  Maybe you've already been laid off, off shored, hours have been cut, income has been cut, maybe you're forced to pick up a second job and you no longer have any free time for yourself, maybe you're looking for new work and no one is hiring, maybe the job you're applying for has forty plus applicants per position and the perspective employer is exploiting the situation with an insulting starting wage for the "lucky" hired person. 

For the love of your self and your own self worth - quit blaming your employer, the economy, politics, the government and everything else!  Likewise if you're the rare person in todays economy who is a very successful employed individual don't fall into the trap of crediting your employer for that success because then you have to credit your employer for a sudden down turn in your working life if your employer cuts your hours, your wages, or your job!

Listen to how average people selectively shuttle responsibility about their job situation.  When they get a pay raise they say, "I got a pay raise!".  When they get laid off they say, "My boss laid me off!".  When a good thing happens they say, "I did it" but when a bad thing happens they say "The Boss did it".  The same thing happens with both average kids and average adults attending school.  When a student gets an A on a test the student will say, "I got an A!" but when the student gets an F the student says, "My teacher gave me an F!".  I'm telling you that's complete bull!  If you do this you are not owning your life!  If you don't own your life you have no control over what happens to you!  If you have no control over what happens to you then who does?  Who or whatever you're blaming does and it's YOU whos empowered that whomever or whatever to have that control over your own life.  God knows I was guilty of the same thing and It devastated my life until I turned that around and YOU can to.

When you get a pay raise, or an A on a test, odds are you deserved it and you deserve credit for it.  If you're willing to own your successes you've got to be willing to own your failures to.  You can't have one without the other and expect to own your life.  Average people try to have one without the other and consequently average people are not well off.  If you loose your job or get an F on a test then make the decision to OWN IT.  That's the Only way to liberate yourself from the clutches of someone other than yourself and gain True REAL power over your life to take yourself out of the mess your in today to change everything for tomorrow. 

If you rely on the economy, politics, the government, your employer, then you Do Not own your own life, destiny, or your money.  Once I personally took real ownership over my life, my destiny, and my income then everything started to change.  Taking that kind of ownership isn't for wimps.  It look a lot of courage for me to blame myself for all that had gone wrong and landed me in a place of devastation when my job and my only income had been shipped over seas to India.  But I did the courageous thing and took ownership anyway!   It was no fault of my own that my job was sold out from underneath me but it was entirely 100% my fault for leaving myself 100% vulnerable to the mercy of an employer at a job that I liked very much.

For the first 12 years of my working life I did not own my income.  Employed individuals do not own their income.  In my opinion it's a scam.  Even at the job that I truly loved!  I loved the people I worked with, the work I was doing, the companys customers I interacted with, I loved what I was doing I was planning to work their til retirement!  But in terms of my employment and my income it was a scam without question and there is No moral integrity in that.

Now maybe you're ok with not owning your own income.  Maybe you don't mind going for the popular "job security" while in reality you're job and income are 100% vulnerable at the mercy of your employer.  If you're income is 100% vulnerable at the mercy of your employer then where is the "Job Security" everyone talks about and goes for?  IT'S NOT THERE!  IT DOESN'T EXIST!

"Job Security" is the carrot stick they keep in front of you to deceive your ambitions except there is no carrot on the end of the stick.  It's simply not there.  Even dogs at the race track get an actual Bone to chase around until the race is over then it stops so they get to catch up to it wagging their tails in delight.  In a job market we are generally treated as less than dogs and I'm disgusted with it.  The truth is they are willing to pull you away from your family forty plus hours per week under a false pretense of "Job Security".  They know how important your family is to you.  That's why they invented "Job Security" from thin air.  You need a good solid reason to spend that much time a week from your family and "Job Security" or "Income security" is it!  Except what they don't tell you is that "Job Security" and "Income security" does not really exist it's just there to get you to leave your family and come to work so you can live pay check to pay check til they no longer need you.  Is that worth your time away from your family?  Don't you deserve better?  Do you want to remain that vulnerable forever?  Believe me this applies to you if you love or hate your job. I know this from my own experience I LOVED my last job.

If you love your job that is great you should love what you do if you're going to spend forty plus hours of your week away from your family doing it.  But don't love your job for the "job security" scam.  Unless it's a government job then the whole job security notion is a Lie.  I hope that stirs up some emotion in you.  If it does that's a good thing.  It means you may be motivated to take action to put yourself in a position of less vulnerability.  If you feel nothing then it makes you all the more vulnerable to have your entire income taken from you without a backup.

I will never ever have to depend on an employer again in my life.  If I didn't do the TOUGH thing and blame myself for having no income when my last job was off shored to India then I'd still be blaming the economy and living an average life trying to make ends meet.  Average stinks!  Average people never seem to get ahead.  A few Break out of Average and those are the few that get ahead.  But to have the things that most don't have you Must be willing to do the things most aren't willing to do and you'd be surprised how incredibly easy they are to do.  But they are also easy not to do and therein lies the problem for average people.  Those easy to do things that are so incredibly life changing are easy not to do. 

If you want more than average you've got to own your life!  It doesn't matter where you've been or what your history is.  Greatness or Average in the future is determined by the things you do right Now.  Right now you can keep on keepin on and reap an average or less than average reward for tomorrow.  Or you can Own your Life, Your Income, Your mistakes, Your successes, and reap something far better than average for tomorrow.  Remember, someday tomorrow will be right here and Now.  Where will you be tomorrow?  Will you still be vulnerable and average?  Or will you OWN your life?

**** If you choose to OWN your own life let it start TODAY!****

Five frogs sat on a lily pad.  One decided to jump off.  How many were left?  All five of them!  All of them are still sitting their.  The one frog only decided to jump.  I know people who have decided to get Shakeology, or P90X, or Insanity, or join me in the Team Beachbody business opportunity.  The journey starts with a single step, not with thinking about taking a step!  Plenty of people accumulate knowledge but still dwell on the failure curve.  Knowledge by itself is useless.

Once you decide to jump off the "lilly pad" the process is Simple...  Do, learn, refine, and repeat.

Are you ready to OWN IT?

If you answered with a resounding "YESSS" then you're the person I'm looking for to partner up with, teach, learn, and grow with!

OWN IT <---Click the coach link, call me, jump off that "lily pad" and Own it!!

Tom - Independent Team Beachbody Coach
Passion For Fitness
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Friday, April 23, 2010

Shakeology VS. Slim-Fast - I'm truly Embarassed for Slim Fast

This is an opinionated article on a comparison between Shakeology and Slim Fast but first let me give my well founded opinions some context with some factual information. Refer to the image below then continue reading.
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The comparison is Sick in my opinion.  Here is why...

Slimfast uses synthetic chemically manufactured ingredients that is harmful to the body and it costs more in absolute dollars than shakeology does.  Shakeology is a Health shake / Weight Loss shake that contains 70 plus whole food ingredients carefully extracted from the earth to preserve all nutrient density.  If you drink Shakeology you're literally getting more health for less money.


Now that we've got Absolute Dollars out of the way lets talk value.

Even if Shakeology were to cost more than slim fast in absolute dollars, if you're health and living a good life has any importance to you, Shakeology wins.  The comparison is Sick.

Slim fast has more calories than Shakeology but that's not even the important thing.  The important thing is the quality of those calories.  Slim fast is overly processed thereby severely degrading the biological value and density of those nutrients.  In other words, you're not really feeding your body because the calories in Slim Fast are largely empty.  Shakeology is as nutrient dense as it can get.  All 70 plus whole food ingredients are carefully extracted from the earth with as little processing as possible to maintain a 100% bio availability to the body.   Translation: The calories in Shakeolgoy are so dense with highly biologically available nutrients that most people feel satisfied for 3 - 4 hours with just 70 calories of Shakeology.  The reason Slim Fast, or a thousand calorie fast food value meal, doesnt fill us up is because the calories are absent of nutrients so the body is still saying "FEED ME" even after a whopping 1,000 calories!

Lets talk nutrient partitioning which signals the body on how to shuttle nutrients to and from fat stores and muscle! For every 2.5 grams of carbs in Slim Fast there is only 1 gram of protein without an exercise plan in place.  If you eat the majority of your higher carb meals close to training, you selectively partition nutrients towards muscle and away from fat.  If you eat the majority of your higher carb meals without being close to your physical training session (or any exercise in your life), you selectively partition nutrients toward fat and away from muscle.  Shakeology has 1 gram of carb per 1 gram of protein. Add to that, shakeology uses yacon root as its main sweetener.  Yacon root comes from the earth and has a low glycemic affect, making shakeology VERY diabetic and blood sugar friendly. Update: Diabetics are literally reversing their diabetes Drinking Shakeology and drastically increasing their health.  They are coming out of the diabetic range (A1C = below 6.0).

What this means is that you may loose weight using slim fast but without a comprehensive approach to Healthy weight loss you're going to loose too much weight from muscle, destroying your metabolism along with your ability to manage your weight (hello yo yo dieters RAPIDLY putting the weight back on), and your new physical appearance will be a skinnier Flabbier version of your former self instead of a thinner Leaner version.

The makers of Slim Fast is a company that depends on the ignorance of the consumer for it's business growth.  If everyone knew what Slim fast does to the human body I believe most people would not touch it and they would go out of business if they didn't clean up their act.

If you would like to try Shakeology, get more health for less money than with Slim Fast, please contact your Independent Team Beachbody coach.  If you don't have one let me know and I will help you get Shakeology.  Talk to your coach, or me, about the 10% and 25% Discount options for more financial savings while you Get Healthy.

Tom
Passion For Fitness

P.S. I know a LOT of people who have tried both Slim Fast and Shakeology.  I haven't heard one opinion in favor of slim fast or even a single neutral opinion.   The user comparisons are always the same.  Slim fast is non filling where shakeology is for several hours.  Slim fast doesn't taste nearly as good as Shakeology. Slim fast doesn't give you the kind of energy Shakeology gives you.  One recent user feedback I got was from a user who tried slim fast again after a month of shakeology and nearly vomited, energy levels were way down, no satiety, just horrible.  I have another user feedback who developed some serious health problems with her gall bladder from slim fast til she switched to Shakeology.
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Maximizing Nutrient Partitioning - Learn how to control your own Body

Maximizing Nutrient Partitioning: The Insulin Myth by Jen Heath - ACSM Certified Personal Trainer (ACSM sets the Bar in the personal Training Industry. Way to go Jen!)

This is an amazing informative read.  If you take the time to read through this article this is going to help you understand why you gain weight, loose weight, ramp up metabolism,  slow down metabolism; but more importantly it's going to teach you how you can use what you learn to apply to your own life.

References
1. Reduced insulin secretion: an independent predictor of body weight gain. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 1995 May;80(5):1571-6.


2. Acute postchallenge hyperinsulinemia predicts weight gain: a prospective study.Diabetes. 1997 Jun;46(6):1025-9.

We all know people who're extremely lean and muscular, who rarely gain fat even though they eat like horses. We also know people who eat like birds, only to struggle with fat loss and body composition.

What's the big difference between them?

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How is it that some people manage to get fatter even while eating light?

I'll tell you. The difference is that the lean group has better nutrient partitioning. In other words, they're able to easily shuttle ingested calories away from fat stores, and direct them into muscle. Pretty simple, but let me explain anyway.

When you're in caloric excess, calories can either go into muscle or fat. When dieting, calories can either be pulled out of fat or they can be pulled out of muscle. Someone with good partitioning and a high metabolic rate is easily able to pull and utilize energy from fat, and direct energy into muscle.

So it follows that if we want to be maximize body composition, we should really be after maximizing this process for ourselves.


Internal Signaling vs. External Output

I often tell people that instead of focusing so much on external things, like how many calories they burn and how much they eat, they should think a little bit about how their body is working from the inside out.

The reason some sixteen-year-olds can eat two pizzas a day, wash them down with a half-gallon of Coke, and still be lean and muscular is because their internal signaling for a good body overpowers the junk they're putting into it.

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People with good internal signaling can eat all the pizza they want and still look good.

What's the difference between them and you, and what if we could get your body to function like their bodies? That's what this series of articles is about.


Hormones and Neurotransmitters

The process of partitioning is largely controlled by hormones and neurotransmitters. We have quite a bit of control over some of these, but not a lot over others.

A hormone is really just a chemical messenger that sends messages. Your body has an assortment of these messengers floating around. The ones we're concerned with send messages that "tell" your body to increase or decrease fat burning, or either increase or decrease muscle building.

These hormones have a profound effect on how easily you gain or lose fat, how easily you gain and lose muscle, your metabolic rate, and whether the food you eat ends up as muscle or fat. Your lifestyle, diet and exercise habits, in turn, have a profound effect on these hormones.

Some of the main hormones involved in muscle growth and fat loss are insulin, glucagon, testosterone, growth hormone, IGF-1, thyroid, epinephrine, estrogen, cortisol, and even neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, and GABA.


Insulin and glucagon

One of the most important factors in determining nutrient partitioning is your ratio of insulin to glucagon. Insulin and glucagon levels are most strongly influenced by diet, so we can exert great control over them through our eating habits.

Insulin and glucagon are both released by the pancreas. The job of insulin is to lower blood sugar by causing cells to open up and receive nutrients. It acts to transport glucose and amino acids into cells. Thus, insulin is a powerful growth stimulator.

The most powerful stimulator of insulin is carbohydrate intake. The only carbohydrate that doesn't affect insulin is fructose.

Glucagon has the opposite actions of insulin. It's a mobilizer. It raises blood sugar by moving glucose and amino acids out of cells and into the bloodstream when blood sugar gets too low.

These two pancreatic hormones work in balance to provide relatively stable levels of blood glucose to ensure that the brain doesn't run out of fuel.


Insulin 101

Let's talk about insulin. It's great for growth, but unfortunately, it's indiscriminate in whether it causes nutrients to be taken up by muscle cells or fat cells — so you want to learn to manage it and manage it well!

Jacking insulin too high at inopportune times is a good way to get fat. How much insulin your body responds to from a given glucose load is determined by three things:

1. How fast the glucose enters the bloodstream.


2. How sensitive your muscles are to the insulin.


3. Individual hypersensitivity to glucose: how much insulin your body secretes in response to the appearance of a given amount of glucose in the bloodstream.

The speed at which the glucose enters the bloodstream is normally controlled by the type of carbs you consume. Fast carbs are simple sugars like dextrose or sucrose. Slow carbs are complex carbs like oatmeal and fibrous veggies.

It's also influenced by what else you eat with your carbs. Having a little fat slows the glucose release into the bloodstream.

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Slow carbs.

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Fast carbs.

Insulin sensitivity could be thought of as how well your muscles soak up glucose in response to a given amount of insulin. This is highly variable and can vary almost tenfold among people at the same body-fat percentage for genetic reasons, as well as due to the impact of exercise and diet.

Both resistance training and cardiovascular training improve insulin sensitivity, but probably the most important factor is weight gain or loss. Weight loss tends to improve it and weight gain to decrease it.

Those with overall good insulin sensitivity would store more nutrients with a given amount of insulin than those with poor insulin sensitivity. We often hear that having good insulin sensitivity is always a positive thing; however, that's not necessarily true.

Obesity is associated with whole body insulin insensitivity, (also called insulin resistance), but it appears the reduced tolerance comes about as an adaptation as the body tries to avoid further fat gain because it simply doesn't want to store any more nutrients.

Having very good insulin sensitivity has actually been seen as an independent predictor of body weight gain (1).This makes sense when you think about it from a survival and set-point perspective.

Insulin is a storage hormone. Increased insulin sensitivity means easier nutrient storage. Decreased insulin sensitivity means decreased nutrient storage.

When would your body normally want to store a lot of nutrients? When it thinks it's starving or when it thinks a famine is imminent. Insulin resistance can actually be looked at as a way the body tries to spend excess nutrients. Instead of getting stored, nutrients float around in the bloodstream waiting to get burned off.

Think of how easily obese people lose fat when they start exercising. Losses of over a pound of fat per day are not uncommon. This is partly on account of insulin resistance. Insulin-resistant people eat a meal and their blood sugar and insulin stay elevated for hours!

Having these chronically high insulin levels also increases central nervous system insulin signaling, which helps suppress food intake and offers resistance to further weight gain. Problems arise when individuals continue flooding the body with excessive amounts of food even though they already have excessive nutrients floating around in the bloodstream.

First, the liver grows insulin resistant. Then the same thing happens to the muscles. Finally, fat cells grow insulin resistant. Eventually there's no place to store any more nutrients, the pancreas wears out and no longer releases any insulin, and full blown diabetes sets in.

What we really want out of insulin (from an overall body composition management perspective) is to be quite insulin-sensitive in the muscles, and not so sensitive in fat cells. From this end, exercise is the most important partitioner of all as it selectively enhances muscle cell insulin sensitivity at the expense of fat cell sensitivity.

That means if we eat the majority of our higher carb meals close to training, we selectively partition nutrients towards muscle and away from fat.

Meal timing also has a big relevance. Unless you train in the evening, it's a good idea to avoid nighttime meals high in carbs, as muscle glucose tolerance is significantly impaired compared to in the morning.

Supplements like fish oil and magnesium also make the muscle more insulin sensitive. I recommend a minimum of 6 grams of fish oil per day and 300 mg of magnesium. Magnesium forms that end in an "ate," like magnesium aspartate, are more bioavailable.


The high-quality fish oil in Flameout and magnesium aspartate in ZMA help muscle become more insulin-sensitive.


Glucose hypersensitivity

Having mentioned insulin sensitivity, probably the best predictor of future fat gain is the amount of early phase insulin release in response to a given glucose load, or what I like to call glucose hypersensitivity (2).

Glucose hypersensitivity is not something really talked about in the fitness world, but I believe it's the most important factor related to insulin or blood sugar from a body composition perspective.

Some people have metabolisms that are extremely reactive. Their bodies tend to respond with a lot of insulin in response to any amount of carbohydrate. This occurs even if they are sensitive to that insulin.

Their blood sugar swings up, but just as quickly it swings back down, and they tend to get hypoglycemic. They eat a meal and an hour later they're starving again.

This probably occurs for similar reasons that some people are very insulin-sensitive. The body or brain thinks a famine is imminent and it's something the body does to ensure that all incoming nutrients are stored as efficiently as possible. The brain freaks out when it sees glucose in the bloodstream. It wants to ensure that all nutrients are stored as efficiently as possible, so it overcompensates by releasing a little too much insulin.

In the same study mentioned above, 107 people were divided up into four groups based on how much insulin they secreted to a given glucose load and their insulin sensitivity. They were then tracked for fat gain over a 16-year period of time.

GroupYearly Fat Gain:

A: Low acute insulin secretion with good insulin sensitivity
176 grams per year


B: Low acute insulin secretion with poor insulin sensitivity
152 grams per year


C: High acute insulin secretion with poor insulin sensitivity
271 grams per year


D: High acute insulin secretion with good insulin sensitivity
672 grams per year


As you can see, the group with high glucose sensitivity and good insulin sensitivity actually gained almost three times as much fat per year as any other group!

Unfortunately, the metabolic functioning of many figure competitors probably more closely resembles this group than any other. They have good insulin sensitivity but are also hyper-reactive. This is especially true when dieting.

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Ironically, the metabolic function of figure athletes probably makes them most susceptible to fat gain.

Glucose hypersensitivity tends to correlate with acquired leanness. For reasons which will be discussed in more detail in a later article, this is partly why it's so difficult to maintain an ultra lean state for long.

Problems with excessive glucose reactivity are almost always associated with hypoglycemia. If you tend toward hypoglycemia you should take steps to ensure the slow release of insulin into the bloodstream.

This is what I'd recommend:

A: Stay away from simple sugars with the exception of post-workout. Get your daily carbs from starchy or fibrous sources.


B: Have protein with each meal. Protein also stimulates the release of insulin, but it's balanced out by the additional release of glucagon.


C: Have fat or fibrous veggies with each meal. Both fat and fiber slow gastric emptying.


D: Don't snack on carbs alone, ever.


E: Stimulate! As long as you exercise, don't be afraid of having some caffeine or other mild stimulants throughout the day.

Stimulants blunt insulin sensitivity in both fat and muscle cells, but if you exercise, you selectively increase muscle insulin sensitivity. Combine them together and you get reduced fat cell insulin sensitivity and enhanced muscle cell insulin sensitivity.

F: Gain some weight! Yes, you heard me right.

Glucose hypersensitivity tends to correlate with leanness. It can occur if you're trying to hold a condition that's excessively lean for you and will often go away just by going up in body-fat a couple of percentage points.

In the next installment, I'll talk about maximizing your insulin to glucagon ratio, the myth of cortisol, and how to take advantage of the most powerful fat burner of all, epinephrine. - Jen Heath - ACSM Certified Personal Trainer 
********************************************************
Tom - Independent Team Beachbody Coach
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Thursday, April 22, 2010

Change your life - Wake up tomorrow with more excitement than you woke up with today

I'm Tom, an Independent Team Beachbody coach!

I am inherently a terribly shy guy and even I am able to touch over a thousand lives in Network Marketing, so far! I will never have to work a day job again in my life.  Nothing spells RELIEF like that, not even all the antacid commercials you see on T.V.  :)

I'm looking for people whos core values are Personal Freedom and Autonomy. I'm not looking for the individual who is "needy" and "needs" employer provided benefits and wages for the rest of his or her life. That's fine if you need them right now by all means hang onto them til you are in a position to Own your own Life, your own income, and our own destiny. If you're the kind of person who wants to eventually no longer need those things that are keeping you back from having more time, money, personal freedom, then I'm speaking to YOU specifically. You're the kind of person I want to team up with and teach how to gain that Personal Freedom you've so longed for! I will work hard with you one on one: http://passionfitness.info Click the Coach link and Call Me.

It doesn't matter if you have no time or money to get started. Having no time or money, or to have more of it, is Precisely why I believe you should jump on this opportunity if you want it. If you don't at least get out of the starting gate I promise you'll find yourself a year from now with the same problems from a year ago of no time or money; probably continuing to cite no time and money to put it off for another year like Average people tend to do.  That devastating vicious cycle will eventually leave you penniless and dead while you're dreams continue living without you.  I'm not catering my invitation to the person who is willing to let themselves be in the same unhappy place a year from now. If I can inspire you to change so everything else changes then that's WONDERFUL, but I will not cater to a philosophy of "I have no time or money so I'll wait another year in hopes my circumstances will change before I change".  That's how average people think and that's how average people stay average. It's how poor people stay poor.  You'll never get ahead if you remain Average.  Break out of Average and become Extraordinary!

Call me / Write me.  I'm not in the convincing business you either want the opportunity to live free or you don't.  I'm a very enthusiastic results oriented individual with a proven track record for success in my own life as well as helping others find success in their own lives.  I can teach anyone who is teachable.

The ultimate testament to my leadership skills is in watching people who have signed up with Me grow their own Independent Team Beachbody business into a thriving organization that’s making them lots of money while simultaneously giving them Enormous Health & Vitality to enjoy their new found time and Personal Freedoms.  If you’re wondering if I can help you do the same, quite honestly, I can Teach ANYONE who is Teachable to have the same success or Better.  But I Will Not promise you that you'll be successful.  The largest variable in success or failure is You.  That's the burden of owning your own life.  The burden of a Job is lay offs, earning caps, unemployment, off-shoring & out-sourcing, not enough money or time, a requirement of stepping on people to move up the corporate ladder or company rank system etc.  Which burden of the two is more worth while to you?  Which Burden has more Moral Integrity?

Thank you VERY much for reading my article.  I hope to hear from you Today so that beginning Tomorrow you can wake up in the morning with a renewed feeling of excitement because you're not only going to work to pay the bills; but you're also going to work part time to start working on your Fortune!!!


http://PassionFitness.info   Click the Coach link and Call me,

Tom
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Saturday, April 10, 2010

Retrain your Taste Buds By Cynthia Sass, M.P.H., R.D.

Retrain Your Taste Buds
Oh, to have been born loving broccoli instead of chocolate! Truth is, your DNA alone doesn’t dictate what you like (and don’t like).

By Cynthia Sass, M.P.H., R.D. EatingWell January/February 2007

Even after decades of hiding uneaten peas, you can learn to prefer healthy foods. This writer’s husband did just that—and lost 55 pounds. Here’s how. (Also see Taste Tips for some common healthy foods and our suggestions for how to learn to enjoy them!)

When I met my husband Jack nine years ago, he was three sizes larger (XXL) than he is now. On one of our first dates, I watched in silent horror as he inhaled a huge slice of pizza piled with pepperoni, sausage and extra cheese—washing it down with Dr. Pepper. I was (still am) a vegetarian and a registered dietitian who teaches people how to eat well. I soon discovered that, more than pizza, Jack loved deep-fried tacos. He rarely touched fruit. Most of the vegetables he ate were battered and fried.

While Jack’s food preferences made sense to me—he was raised in Texas on beef, whole milk and bacon grease—I couldn’t imagine eating the foods he favored. I’d grown up in upstate New York with a family that planted a garden every year. But after the initial shock, I didn’t think much about our drastic eating differences. Jack was charming, smart and sensitive. It didn’t much matter that he chose chicken-fried steak over stir-fried tofu.

Even after we eloped four months later and began eating most meals together, I had no motives to make over Jack’s diet. I kept eating the foods I preferred: whole grains, vegetables and fruits (and chocolate). For a time, Jack stuck to his familiar favorites. At home, we prepared separate meals and ate them together. When we dined out, we chose restaurants that met both our needs (i.e., enchiladas for Jack; black bean soup and a salad for me). I always offered Jack tastes of whatever I was eating. Little by little, he started exploring new foods. He tasted a bite of my veggie (soy) burger, said it wasn’t bad, and eventually, he tried a whole one. Later, when he learned that edamame was soy, too, he gave it a go—and liked it. Eventually, he moved on to tofu, which now, stir-fried with vegetables, is one of his staple lunches.

Soon Jack was showing an interest in eating well and consciously starting to shift his diet in healthier directions. He replaced whole milk with 2 percent and then skim; eventually, we were sharing cartons of soymilk. Noticeable physical improvements—increased energy, improved digestion and a gradually shrinking belly—reinforced Jack’s efforts. Over two years, he shed 55 pounds—simply by retraining himself to like healthier foods. He’s kept the weight off for four years.

I’ve been thrilled by my husband’s eating evolution, but I had never really stopped to consider how a man who had eaten one way for over 30 years successfully pulled off a dietary one-eighty. Then, a few months ago at a nutrition conference, I attended a lecture on taste preferences by Julie Mennella, Ph.D., a scientist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. “What we like to eat is shaped by both biology and experience,” Dr. Mennella explained. Jack’s diet transformation was starting to make sense.

Born to be wild about vegetables?
There are five distinct tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami, which means “savory” in Japanese and is associated with meats and cheeses. When we eat, chemicals in our food are sensed by the thousands of taste buds on the bumpy projections (fungiform papillae) of our tongues. The chemicals attach to receptors in the buds, sending signals to the brain, which registers taste perceptions. Receptors also respond to the temperature of foods and chemicals that create physical sensations (think of chili with fiery jalapeños). Smell plays into one’s flavor experiences, too: foods release chemicals that travel up the nose to olfactory receptors, triggering a chain reaction of signals that amplify taste perceptions. (Prove this to yourself by holding your nose and sampling a jelly bean: you’ll taste sweet, but won’t get a burst of “flavor”—the term used to refer to taste plus smell—until you unplug your nose.

To a degree, taste preferences are hard-wired. Across cultures, people generally prefer foods that taste sweet and dislike bitter ones—which makes evolutionary sense. Sweetness is associated with foods that provide energy needed for survival (e.g., mother’s milk). Bitterness often signals the presence of a toxin. How much a person prefers sweet, and dislikes bitter, tastes depends partly upon the number of taste buds and the type of taste receptors he or she inherits. “We know that some people live in a more ‘pastel’ taste world and others, a more ‘neon’ one,” says Valerie B. Duffy, professor of Allied Health Sciences at the University of Connecticut.

One of the most studied genetic factors affecting taste involves one’s ability to detect bitter compounds. Some people inherit genes for taste receptors that are acutely sensitive to bitterness. Other people, born with genes for receptors that make for less-intense taste experiences, often aren’t able to detect subtle bitter compounds. One can gauge a person’s bitterness sensitivity with a simple test: a slip of paper containing a small amount of a compound known to stimulate bitter-sensing receptors is placed on the tongue. The taster perceives bitterness only if his receptors are the sensitive kind.

I had a chance to see this for myself during Dr. Mennella’s presentation. She asked each of us in attendance to “taste” a paper strip and raise a hand if we detected bitter. I slipped the paper into my mouth and shot my arm high into the air. It was as if someone had dumped a spoonful of dandelion root—one of the bitterest substances on earth—on my tongue. Scanning the room, I was amazed. Some of my colleagues were grimacing like me, but others looked as if they were waiting for something to happen. “What?” their faces said. “I don’t taste a thing.”

If a built-in aversion to bitter might have helped our ancestors to survive and evolve, did this mean I’d gotten “good” taste genes? It’s a logical theory—but, in fact, there’s little evidence that a particularly acute sense of taste offers health protection. In fact, in a world where we “hunt” and “gather” at supermarkets, being easily turned off to bitter may be a liability. Many phytochemicals linked with health benefits—glucosinolates in Brussels sprouts and kale, flavonoids in grapefruit and isoflavones in soy—impart bitterness. And, in fact, research shows that people genetically programmed to detect subtle bitter tastes consume fewer cruciferous vegetables, leafy greens, tart citrus fruits, green tea and soy products—all foods associated with reduced risk of chronic diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s. “We have data that show that people who were more sensitive to bitter tastes consumed fewer vegetables and had a greater incidence of colon polyps, a marker of higher risk for colon cancer,” says Duffy. “This research is preliminary but it connects genetic variations that affect oral sensations with specific health outcomes.”

Luckily, inheriting an ultra-sensitive bitter-detection system doesn’t mean that your diet is doomed. “You can temper the bitterness in foods by pairing them with other sweeter foods or cooking them in ways that bring out their natural sweetness,” says Duffy. “Salt and strong spices, such as garlic, chiles or ginger, also can make bitter foods more palatable.” Jack and I do a lot of this sort of thing at home: we sauté spinach with sweet red peppers and enhance asparagus with garlic and a sprinkle of sea salt. (See “Taste Tips")

Even after bringing the bitterness of a food to a more acceptable level, it can take time to learn to enjoy the formerly off-putting flavors. Says Duffy: “Someone who has had unpleasant experiences in the past has to unlearn connections between unpalatable bitterness and particular food flavors.” One can do this by crowding out the bad memories with good experiences of eating deliciously prepared foods.

Like mother, like son
You can’t just blame your taste buds for not liking certain foods. DNA doesn’t define taste preferences; it’s just one piece of the puzzle that involves nurture at least as much as nature. Cultivating a “taste” for a specific something (be it expensive handbags or Brussels sprouts) requires exposure. Nutrition experts frequently counsel mothers about the importance of exposing young children to lots of different tastes: it conditions them to accept a variety of healthy foods. They advise parents to try and try again, as research shows that it can take as many as 10 to 15 tastes before a child will learn to appreciate a new flavor. But our first flavor experiences occur even before we’re able to eat solid foods.

Infants are exposed to flavors through breast milk, which reflects the flavors of foods, spices and beverages in mothers’ diets. (Bottle-fed babies are limited to the standardized flavors of infant formulas, one of many reasons that nutrition experts recommend breastfeeding.) Food chemicals with distinct tastes and smells also are transmitted to the amniotic fluid that cushions a growing baby; the fetus swallows this fluid and can sense the flavors. “Taste and smell are fairly well developed in utero,” says Mennella.

A few years back, Mennella and her colleagues conducted a study in which pregnant women planning to breastfeed were randomly assigned to one of three groups. Women in all groups consumed 1 1⁄4 cups of carrot juice or water four days a week for three consecutive weeks during the last trimester of pregnancy and again during the first two months of breastfeeding. One group consumed carrot juice during pregnancy and water during lactation. Another group, the reverse (water, then carrot juice). The third group drank water both times. Later, when it came time to introduce the infants to solid foods, the researchers observed the babies as they were fed cereal prepared with water on one occasion and cereal made with carrot juice on another. After each feeding session, the scientists also asked the mothers to rate their babies’ enjoyment of the cereal. When fed the carrot-flavored cereal, infants whose mothers had drunk the carrot juice while pregnant or breastfeeding displayed fewer negative facial expressions than the babies whose mothers had sipped water. These infants also appeared (according to their mothers, who were unaware of the scientists’ research question) to enjoy the carrot-flavored cereal more than the one made with water. “Prior exposure to the carrot juice made the taste familiar, and therefore more acceptable,” says Mennella.

Of course, after I learned this, I was eager to relate this to my, and Jack’s, earliest flavor experiences. I knew that I’d been bottle-fed, as was common when I was born. But my mother loves all kinds of fruits and vegetables and, lucky for me, my birthday is in September, which means she ate loads of in-season produce for most of her pregnancy. To find out about Jack, I asked my sister-in-law, who was a teen when her brother was born. She told me that while their mother was pregnant with Jack and then breastfeeding she’d eaten the typical Texas fare she always served: beef brisket, meatloaf and fried chicken.

Do these first flavor exposures explain my husband’s early love affair with meat and how I came to love vegetables despite my sensitive taste buds? It’s possible they played a part—but likely a small one. There’s yet another layer to this onion.

Watch and learn
As kids transition from infancy to the toddler years, “nurture” overtakes “nature” in respect to developing eating patterns. “Children learn the rules of eating from their caregivers,” says Mennella. Adult role models teach kids what constitutes food and how foods should be prepared. They set rules about when certain foods should or should not be eaten.

One of the foremost experts on the development of eating behavior in children is Jennifer Orlet Fisher, Ph.D., assistant professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Fisher’s research, and that of her colleagues, shows that young children learn to prefer foods that are familiar and ones presented as “acceptable” in their homes.

During early childhood one begins to associate both positive and negative experiences with particular foods. Offering a child a certain food as part of a fun celebration or ritual (e.g., birthday cake) enhances his preference for that food. On the other hand, insisting that a child eat something in order to get a reward—“finish your peas and then you can watch television”—usually creates a negative food association. “These ‘contingency’ strategies are effective in the short run: they do get a kid to eat peas,” says Fisher. “But over the long haul, they tend to backfire.” In other words, bribing a child to eat something tends to reinforce the negative associations with that food.

The best way to teach someone that healthy foods are important (and delicious) is to eat them yourself. In a study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, Dr. Fisher and her colleagues showed that parents who ate lots of fruits and vegetables generally had daughters who consumed plenty of produce, too, whereas parents who pushed fruits and vegetables but ate few servings themselves tended to have daughters who had low intakes of fruits and vegetables. Moral of the study: If you’re trying to help someone to eat a healthier diet, show—don’t tell—them how to do it.

After speaking with Dr. Fisher, I realized that my parents never had to force me to eat vegetables or fruits because I’d learned to associate them with fun experiences, such as selecting fresh cherries at the farmer’s market with my mother. These activities emphasized that a juicy peach or a watermelon was the prize. Seeing my mother enjoy salads and sweet potatoes reinforced that concept. Could watching me enjoy healthy foods have suggested to Jack that they were “good” and encouraged him to try them for himself? Perhaps. Says Fisher: “We see other people enjoying different foods, and so we try them too.”

A whole new world
If one’s taste preferences truly stopped evolving during childhood, people who immigrate to the U.S. would always continue eating their native diets. Yet, for better or worse, most change their diets significantly, says David Himmelgreen, Ph.D., a professor of anthropology at the University of South Florida and former president of the Council on Nutritional Anthropology. “Changes in immigrants’ eating preferences stem from a combination of many social and cultural factors,” says Himmelgreen. For many, necessity drives change. For example, moving to the U.S. may mean longer commutes and extended workdays, which can force a shift toward more convenience foods. Or, if one’s traditional foods are far more expensive in one’s new home, it may be impractical, or impossible, to continue eating them.

Sometimes, education and social support motivate positive dietary changes. “When people discover the benefits of healthy foods and learn that it may not be so difficult to implement new ways of eating, they generally want to change,” says Himmelgreen.

In retrospect, I realize that an increasing awareness of nutrition probably was part of Jack’s motivation to change. Anytime I wrote a nutrition article or prepared a presentation, I tried it out on him. He’d give me feedback on what sounded too technical and what was interesting. It wasn’t long after Jack became my professional sounding board that he started making intentional dietary shifts.

And somewhat like the immigrants Dr. Himmelgreen studies, Jack’s eating preferences were shaped by a new environment: we’d moved from Texas to Florida, where we now live. Tampa isn’t exactly a health-food mecca, but you’d be hard pressed to find many restaurants that serve chicken-fried steak, dumplings and fried okra. Our home was stocked conveniently with whole grains, fruits and vegetables, which I enjoyed regularly in Jack’s company, consistently offering tastes but not pressuring him to try anything. Basically, I’d created the very sort of positive eating environment that helps cultivate healthy taste preferences in kids, according to Dr. Fisher and other experts.

People often tell me that they are wowed by Jack’s healthy transformation and weight loss. My response always has been, “He did all the work.” He did. But now I realize that I helped set the stage. What would Jack be eating today, if he’d never met me? I wondered. So I asked. “Crispy beef tacos with extra cheese,” he told me. “And wearing my size-40 pants,” he added, sitting comfortably in his 34s.

—Cynthia Sass, M.P.H., R.D., is a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association and a lecturer at the University of South Florida.
—Illustration by Serge Bloch

TASTE TIPS
Cultivating a taste for Brussels sprouts starts with palate-pleasing preparation methods. The EatingWell Test Kitchen cooks are always looking for ways to transform less-than-popular, nutrient-packed foods into unexpected crowd-pleasers. Here, a few of our favorite techniques.

Beans
Common Turn-Offs: Earthy flavors, mushy texture, G.I. issues.
What’s to love: Super-lean protein, fiber, folate. Cheap too!
Test Kitchen Wisdom: Pair with a flavorful dark meat like beef or chicken thighs. Combine with crisp ingredients for textural contrast (think celery in bean salad). Mash or puree beans to thicken sauces or creamy soups. Puree with herbs and olive oil for a creamy dip. For firmer texture, cook beans “from scratch” rather than using canned beans; change soaking water to reduce gaseousness.

Cabbage-Family Vegetables
Common Turn-Off: Pungent flavors
What’s to love: Cancer-fighting phytochemicals, carotenoids, vitamin C, fiber.
Test Kitchen Wisdom: Add assertive flavorings: bacon, toasted nuts, vinegar. Use creamy elements like cheese sauce (broccoli, Brussels sprouts). Don’t overcook (it makes flavors more pungent); vegetables should be tender-crisp, greens still bright.

Tofu
Common Turn-Offs: Soft texture, bland taste.
What’s to love: Soy protein, isoflavones, calcium (in some types).
Test Kitchen Wisdom: Dredge extra-firm tofu in flour, cornstarch or breadcrumbs, then sauté for a crisp outside, tender inside. Counteract blandness with extra-flavorful ingredients in a stir-fry.

Dark, Leafy Greens
Common Turn-Off: Bitter taste.
What’s to love: Potassium, folate, vitamins A, E & C, fiber.
Test Kitchen Wisdom: Balance bitterness with sour flavors (lemon juice, vinegar), creaminess (sauce or dressing) or richness (flavorful cheese).

Fatty Fish
Common Turn-Off: “Fishy” flavor.
What’s to love: Omega-3 fatty acids, protein, calcium (in canned fish with bones).
Test Kitchen Wisdom: Soak fish in milk for an hour (in the refrigerator); discard milk and pat dry before cooking. Serve with lemon or other acidic elements (vinegar-based sauce, flavorful salad dressing, strong mustard or hot sauce). Make fishy fish an element in the meal rather than the star (think salads, spreads, sandwiches).
**********************************************************************************

Tom
Independent Team Beachbody Coach
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Tuesday, April 6, 2010

To Parents Who Smoke

Quit.

You're going to emotionally devastate your kids as you get older.  I'm the son of a man who smoked till the age of 64.  The only reason he stopped is because he could feel himself suffocating.  Over Christmas of 2008 my dad was stricken with a bronchitis flare up so bad and so fast that it almost killed him.  His body was no longer capable of fighting off a common cold.  He even experienced some internal bleeding according to the ER doctors.  That's right, I actually had to take him to the emergency room.  He spent the next several days in the hospital while they stabilized and monitored his condition.  I was scared to death.  I almost canceled a trip to Michigan with my then girlfriend at the time.  Luckily after just a day my dad was doing fine so I continued with the Trip to Michigan for Christmas.

If you're without kids and you smoke that's one thing but if you actually have kids and you smoke it is incredibly selfish of you to do so.  A lot of my friends are parents who smoke.  I still love ya but I will never apologize for the way I feel about what you're eventually going to do to your kids.  It's not about you.  It's about your kids. You don't live on an island of isolation.  I have to live with it every day and I don't even smoke!  I have to watch my own father, who was once a very strong and capable man, struggle to breath every day.  I'm completely heart broken and angry because it was 100% preventable.  The damaged alveoli that exchanges Co2 for oxygen is irrevocable.  The damage that you do to your lungs is not reversible.  My dad is on a whole 2 Liters of Oxygen every day and night 24/7 and even still he has absolutely no oxygen reserve.  The moment he removes his oxygen feed he immediately begins to feel the discomfort of suffocating :(

Now thankfully because of Shakeology he is able to fight off sickness a thousand times better than he was before shakeology but not even Shakeology is going to bring back the functionality of his lungs because it's irreversible damage.  He didn't get a cold or bronchitis flare up this year for the first time in over ten years thanks to Shakeology.  Considering my dad only has 30% of his lungs left all it would take is pneumonia for example to kill him.  Shakeology is literally a life saver for my dad.  The first sign of a cold I have to take him to the ER because he has no lung capacity to spare!  That's our new reality now.

My dad has severe sleep apnea and severe copd.  He also has bronchitis but hasn't had any flare ups since I got him on Shakeology.  He struggles to breathe every day even with oxygen assistance.  It pains me.  My dad made the choice to have kids and smoke till the age of 64.  It's not only him who is paying the price.  It's everyone around him who cares about him.  Some days are extremely difficult for me to get through.  I'm writing this note because the past couple days have been so very hard.  Sometimes I need an extra outlet like this.  I Hate what's happened to him but I also realize it stems 100% from choice.



If you smoke and have kids, even if you don't have kids, I hope you quit.  I'm not trying to tell you what to do I don't even support government imposed smoking bans but if I can somehow tap into your moral integrity please quit smoking.  If not for yourself then for the sake of others around you because like it or not you are going to break someone elses heart and it's entirely unfair.

Tom

p.s. If I seem a bit sad at times in some of my posts it's because of a few things going on simultaneously.  This is one of the bigger things.  If it were not for my Team Beachbody business and my team beachbody workouts I would probably slip into depression and I don't wanna slip into depression.  I'm EXTREMELY thankful I acted in my best interest to pursue my dreams
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Thursday, April 1, 2010

Success is Something you Attract by the Person You Become

“Ten Simple Words,”
by Jim Rohn

My first mentor, Mr. Shoaff-over a five-year period of time before he died-taught me some extraordinarily simple things…Mr. Shoaff only went through the 9th grade. He never finished high school…never went to college…and never went to a university.

So he put his experiences and ideas into very simple language, which, I think for me-a farm boy from the state of Idaho-was so important.When I would say, “This is all the company pays.” Mr. Shoaff would say, “No, that is all they pay YOU.”

I thought, “That is a new to look at it.” I told him things cost too much. But he said, “No, you can’t afford them.” Well, that was a new concept for me. And he promised that if I would improve, then I would qualify for more money. So I learned that we don’t need to work on the company, we need to work on ourselves.

If his advice to me had been technical, I would have missed it. If it had been mystic, I would have backed away. But it was just basic, blunt “a-b-c” familiar stuff that I hadn’t thought of before. For me it was the beginning of what he called “personal development.”Mr. Shoaff also taught me that life puts some of the more valuable things on the high shelf so that you can’t get to them until you qualify.

If you want the things on the high shelf, you must stand on the books you read. With every book you read, you get to stand a little higher.Mr. Shoaff only needed to use ten simple words to forever shifted my thinking when he said,

“Success is something you attract by the person you become.”

That phrase changed my life. It’s true! Success is not to be pursued… Success is to be attracted by the person you become. Therefore, if you want to do something remarkable, put your energy into becoming a better you-the best you. Learn the skills.

Practice the skills. Apply the skills.
These simple strategies and ideas helped change my life, forever, for the better.

Thank you, once again, Mr. Shoaff.
To Your Success,
Jim Rohn

I hope this gives you a moment of true enlightenment so that you can achieve all of your dreams both in your professional life and in your business life. - Tom Birkenmeyer - Author of Passion For Fitness
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