Passion Fitness by Tom Birkenmeyer :: Self Development :: Exercise :: Entrepreneurial

Just a "few" Health Triumphs from people I know. Not copied and pasted from infomercials

2011-08-07T15:09:00.001-07:00

Because of investing in my health (instead of material STUFF) I've spent the last 5 months sick free, I used to be sick every week. - Melanie Dickinsons Beautiful testimonial of SELF Investment :-)

Jen Deane says her daughter wont drink chocolate milk anymore! She will only drink Shakeology! I love it! As a parent it makes her job EASY to make sure her child is getting all her nutrients so she grows into adulthood READY and HEALTHY to make a beautiful life as she becomes more independent :)

Hey you....I got my shakeology in today.....soooo happy..had one this morning..was soo good..made with blueberry's and bananas ...was ooooo sooo goood.. loved it . thank you for giving me information of this product.....:) - Sherri Ashford makin me feel all good for sharing shakeology with her :)

I have to say I was surprised after having my greenberry shake for dinner last night that I wasn't hungry. I even turned down the ice cream that my son couldn't finish. I woke up this morning no more hungry than usual. Very promising!! - Bridgette Grace trying out her first bag of Shakeology for the first time. Very promising she shared with me:)

Hey! What I wanted to tell you is that after drink 1 shake of Shakeology, the pain from my periods completely quit!!! It's awesome!!! =) - April Dolphin-Girl Goodman just tried Shakeology for the first time at my personal recommendation :-) GUYS how much easier would home life be for you if your other drank shakeology? Think about THAT!

I have lost 3 pants sizes since starting to drink Shakeology! It makes living a healthy life styla SO much easier!!! - Denise Pearson

“I just got done showing Shakeology to my Doctor. He's a Vegan/raw foodist and he flipped when he saw it. Other than the whey, it's everything he already makes on his own. Said it was the absolute best thing I can put in my body. We did a test of my cellular health and I was in the top percentile! yeah, I'm sold.” – Markus Zimmerman

My friend Tina Pfeiffer is pure awesome made me feel good just now with these words, "Thank~you Tom,if it wasn't for you my husband would probably still be puking up blood and I would be feeling miserable,crampy and looking 9 months pregnant..You are awesome :) (((((hugs))))"

chronic lyme disease fibromyalgia and spinal meningitis NO MORE PAIN thanks to Shakeology. This is my friend Tracy and I shared Shakeology with her :)

Poem my dad wrote for my 34th Birthday http://youtu.be/INTl6E8WtZE

I think I'm still in shock that I've had no pain for over one month now. Especially for having suffered for so many years. My only regret was waiting. HUGE thank you to you for introducing me to this and helping me live my life again. I hope I can help to change the lives of others suffering from the same disease! :) - Tracy Christensen

Everyday I have a CHOCOLATE SHAKE!!! I LOST OVER 50lbs with a CHOCOLATE SHAKE EVERYDAY! The chocolate was the easy part. The p90x is for the Warrior in you!! BRING IT!! - Dan C. Lenegar lovin how hes feeling from Shakeology and P90X!!!

Down 5 pounds!!! I think I'm in love!!! - Denise Tennyson Ebler

Make that 57 pounds and 4 pant sizes!!! - Morgan Burian happy with her health results from shakeology!

I've only got one mom & dad. I'm going to keep them around with the highest quality of life for as long as I can. That's why I MADE THEM try Shakeology. I almost lost both of them a couple years ago. Now their doctors are saying their blood panels are beautiful & have no right to expect to be living as well as they are today from where they were 2 years ago. I told the doctor I gave them Shakeology.

My mom told me again earlier today how beautiful her blood sugars are. Dramatically reduced her insulin. Sometimes she doesnt even need her insulin. I'm glad I made my mom try shakeology a year and a half ago

My Happy buddy Kimberly Savage-Pittman drinks Shakeology and she says, "I have been oppressed for ten years and I'm so happy and energetic with weight loss and improved health! EVeRyOnE needs to know about this shake! IT ROX! Yeah baby!"

My friend kim lost 85 lbs and got off her blood pressure medication doing the same stuff I'm doing. Amazing.

I find inspiration week by week. When I stay true to working out with Beachbody workout programs, I see the results. With my dedication to improving my fitness and health, I am seeing real results! I have so much more muscle tone, I am getting more firm beautiful curves, and I am able to recover from cardio exertion much more quickly. For a life long asthmatic that is saying a lot!!! - Denise Pearson

Cherokee Schill simply compared the cost to the Benefits and decided she was worth the cost for these benefits - I have been drinking shakeology faithfully since January. Down 45 pounds, dont catch cold. Allergies are not bothering me. Hair is shiny, skin soft and eye's sparkly.

Becky Grisham Pohlmeyer says "fit in some clothes that didn't previously fit" She's doing BB stuff to :)

I replaced i meal with shakeology..followed the eating suggestions...and lost 10 pounds in 2 weeks. :) - Kathy jason Brady lovin her Shakeology and her new smaller jeans :)

My fasting number this morning was no longer in the "diabetes" range but in the "pre-diabetes" range...with NO meds! I am so amazed. - Kristie Moe. She shared this tid bit of info with me on my facebook Like Page. This is her feed back ONLY 1 WEEK into it. I'm so glad she joined our Team Passion

You can't make this stuff up; after only 3 days drinking Shakeology, my fasting blood sugar was 75 points below my avg. Rock on! I have more energy. It is amazing. I am sleeping at night! I replace my breakfast with Shakeology. It comes with over 60 recipes for different shakes & smoothies. I am still eating regular food, too. It is easy & I don't feel hungry. I am completely impressed. - Kristie Moe

We've been independent from foreign tyranny for a long time. Today it's the tyranny of our minds that keeps us broke, unhealthy, under the rule of a boss, and the thief in our minds stealing our promises. Conquer your mind this independence and begin a brand new Liberation from a more interpersonal tyranny so you can live the life of your own dreams in the land of opportunity :-)

after my third daughter was born (my three girls were born between May 2005 and August 2008) I started P90X in June 2009 - then started Shakeology early last year. I am in better shape and weigh less now than I did before having children. I LOVE BEACHBODY!!!! - Debi Rogers Mikolowsky

My booty is serously getting in shape with BBL...I love the program..50 min of Rio Extreme is like over 2 hrs of gym time..cardio, toning, abs, back..everything in 50 min..love it.. - Becky Grisham Pohlmeyer

Very happy to announce...took this long to really sink in...I verified SIX times lol....I lost 27 lbs! Started June 21 :) A couple of people have shown interest too :) BUT I LOST 27 pounds! (still in a bit of a shock lol) - Lee Campbell. Another day another hour another success story in my Team of people helping people :)

Week 2: Day 6--BBL Cardio Axe & High and Tight. Tomorrow is a REST Day! So happy about that! I am already seeing changes in how I look. Love these fast results with Beachbody products. - cherokee schill

all together i have lost 6 off of Chest 6 off of Waist 6 off of hips and 4 off of arms and 4 off of Legs and a total of 25 lb since Feb - my friend Peggy M Kirk very succesfully getting healthy setting herself up for real long term success with Shakeology and turbofire :-) Go peggy!!!!! Not just losing weight but changing her body composition to!

My fasting blood sugar this morning is 148 - down from 295 just last Friday (5 days ago). Unbelievable! With each day that passes, the results are more remarkable. I have only been using Shakeology and working out with Power 90 for 5 days! I can't wait to see the results after a year! I am weighing in again on Thursday morning. We will see how much weight I lost this week. I have NEVER been excited to step on a scale - Kristie Moe

I have fibromyalgia from chronic Lyme Disease and have 2 really bad knees from it and I just had back surgery in September. But since Shakeology I've had next to NO pain!! :) - Tracy Christensen. Tracy made me very glad I introduced her to Shakeology with her testimonial!

After only 2 weeks and 2 days on P90X I can see everything on my body moving to where it's supposed to be!!! - Jacqueline Koepfer. She's also drinking her shakeology every day :-) Go Jackie!

after my third daughter was born (my three girls were born between May 2005 and August 2008) I started P90X in June 2009 - then started Shakeology early last year. I am in better shape and weigh less now than I did before having children. I LOVE BEACHBODY!!!! - Debi Rogers Mikolowsky

I don't need my pills for indigestion & irregularity anymore. Shakeology is taking care of that. This is really amazing Tom I'm saving in groceries and pills - My Mom!!! Go mom go!!!! Shakeology really is perfect for broke people who want to get healthy and feel better.

My friend Tracy Christensen has late stage chronic lyme disease and fibromyalgia. She's only been using shakeology for about a week now and already her symptoms are lessoning :-) And she loves the way shakeology tastes she really looks forward to drinking it every day she says "man this stuff is awesome!"

I have noticed more energy and better digestion on shakeology, plus losing weight and I haven't started a P90X or Chalean extreme or turbo fire yet! Amazing shakeology! - Kimberly Savage-Pittman

I have now lost 10 pounds in less than a month with Skakeology and exercising. Yeah, I hit my goal early:) - Vicky Schroder

I noticed my abs protruding a little this morning!! :) - Tracy Christensen doing P90X and Shakeology! That's right ladies you to can get a tight toned tummy if you do the right thing. Some activities are just better than others. P90X is better than others :)

My mom lost another four pounds this week :) Shakeology is the difference she's been loosing weight for MANY consecutive weeks now this is a set up for long term success and a life style change :-) Go mom!!!

I wanted to let the whole team know that with being on Shakeology for 9 full days now I've lost 16lbs!!!!!!!! How can you beat that! And I'm still going and going like the little energizer bunny! - Cara M. Naylor Experiencing some pretty awesome initial weight loss!

That stuff is just awesome! I've only been on it for two days - my friend Tracy Christensen called me to tell me how she's enjoying Shakeology this morning :)

I have noticed more energy and better digestion on shakeology, plus losing weight and I haven't started a P90X or Chalean extreme or turbo fire yet! Amazing shakeology! - Kimberly Savage-Pittman

My wifes type 2 diabetes was reversed thanks to Shakeology. – sean Knowles

Ok third day on shakeology and I have a lot of energy. I usually have to take a nap after lunch because I am so tired ,but that hasn't happened in the last 3 days! I love the taste of the chocolate! I actually feel guilty drinking it cause it tastes so good! I want to share this with everyone this stuff is great!!!!! ~ Renee Blecke-Kantner. This is beautiful. Lifes getting better!

My daughter experienced the awesome benefits of Shakeology. She has suffered for years with RA and a few days worth of shakes and she has more mobility than she has had in years. And I just received my first beachbody check in the mail. I have had a great week!!!! – Belinda Nadeau

I am at roughly a weight loss of 45 pounds and 2 pants sizes. It's been roughly 7 months of weight loss and it hasn't rebounded. - Morgan Burian. My friend Morgan accomplished this with Shakeology and physical activity and a beautiful set up for long term success :-)

Hi Tom! Yes, I am enjoying the Shakeology very much. As if the taste of it is not enough, the energy I feel when I use it is phenomenal! PLUS, I can tell that my digestive system is becoming more regular and it feels wonderful! - Rikki Lee See

You had mentioned something about how much energy one can get just from using Shakeology and I said something about needing coffee...well, today, I used ABSOLUTELY NO COFFEE and the energy I have despite that, is more than any pot of coffee ever offered me! It is unlike anything i've ever experienced before! My body literally buzzez and hums with this...RAW energy! Is this normal??? - Rikki Lee See

A week ago Sunday I broke seven ribs, had two liters of blood in my lung, walked around like that for three days before going to the hospital and needed surgery. Yesterday the surgeon was blown away by how fast I'm healing up. I just think it's amazing what our bodies can do when you give it everything it could possible need. Shakeology every single day :-) - Steve Lantagne

P90X allowed me to do 40 push ups. (military) I thought the kids were going to die..they couldn't do 12...and I am girl and I am over 40 so there!! Get off the couch and do something - Christine Gialamas

My friend Jackie Koepfer has a friend who suffers terribly from acid reflux & heartburn. Jackie introduced her to Shakeology :) The other day she was able to enjoy one of her fave cheat snacks, a Nachos and cheese, & was not accompanied with any heart burn or discomfort whatsoever!!! She's a very happy shakeology drinker :-)

My digestive problems were never diagnosed as such but after surgeries and alot of doctors left scratching their heads, Shakeology was my cure also!! – Belinda Nadeau

The only thing that has ever been able to blast me past my weight loss plateau is shakeology - melissa mysinger

I met my original weight and size goal and I owe it all to Shakeology due to my crazy work schedule and inconsistent workouts. :) - Shelly Larson

I'm a diabetic who was injecting insulin twice a day. I started drinking Shakeology, and now my tests show my blood sugar levels are normal. - Dean L from my state of Wisconsin

As far as I'm concerned, 6 weeks of only a minor headache as opposed to 2-6 full blown migraines is reason enough to believe in this product. – Sandra Becker

"Pure energy like I had when I was a kid." This comes from a fellow shakeology drinker. She aint lyin I hear this a lot from my users and this is not the result of caffeine or any stimulants of any kind. It's a calming kind of energy and mental focus. Could you use that? Sick of being sluggish and feeling like poo

So my husband Shawn and I started p90x this week! Loving it!! Also I've already noticed a drastic change in how I'm feeling from the shakes!!! It's crazy!!! Its been two mornings in a row now that I've felt normal!!! ( I have IBS ) I cannot tell you the last time that happened;) ! YEAH!! Thank you all so much!!! I'm so excited to keep kicking! - Andi Barber

Check out this for inspiration. Michelle Kolpiens first month on Shakeology, she is down TWO sizes and well on her way to being down THREE sizes. She also had a difficult time getting to the end of her day without being tired. Now, she doesn't have that problem! A special thanks to her success partner,Jacqueline Koepfer,for introducing her to a program that allows her to help people advance on their healthy journeys!

Can't Express Enough how Wonderful Shakeology is My Husband who has suffered with Gout in his knees for years has been drinking Shakeology for 4 months now and doesn't suffer any more !! and doesn't have to take Medicine for it !!! - Peggy M Kirk

"ever since I'm on Shakeology I wake up in the morning and I can't wait to get my day started now I feel great in the morning!" - Vicky Schroder

My friend vickie lost 7 1/2 pounds in a week and a half. I'm glad she joined this team she's kickin some butt with her weight loss and health!

My son has aspergers as well and it has absolutely helped him!! Focus, patience and control of his urges are just a few of the ways. He is 12 now and for the lst three months we have been drinking the shakes daily. His grades have improved, his behaviors and most importantly his attitude. I love this stuff!!!! – Ilene Knopf Weinstein

A soldier, Mike Mullaly, from a combat zone in Iraq talks about how he's staying healthy, building his beachbody business, & providing for his family back home under very difficult environmental variables. Some of us think we've got it bad. You don't have half the REAL dangers & logistical problems this soldier has & most people procrastinate anyway. This soldier is my hero nothing is going to stop him from building his dreams and paying it forward even from one of the most dangerous & hostile locations on the planet.

There are stories like this all over the place from skeptics who have discovered Shakeology! I have seen a big increase in energy, a much better weight maintenance, faster healing (from cuts, blisters), never get sick anymore, hot flashes are gone... it's just amazing! I never go a day without Shakeology because it's the best thing for my body! - My buddyAngela Gee Bray Living better :-)

After only a week, the shocking results started: the colitis flare-up I was experiencing was almost completely gone! - Brooks from Oklahoma

I'm a diabetic who was injecting insulin twice a day. I started drinking Shakeology, and now my tests show my blood sugar levels are normal. - Dean from Wisconsin

Linda Abshear tried Shakeology, was so impressed at how much better she feels after just 3 DAYS, and how she's never slept better, that she decided to sign up for the coach discounts with her coach Lyndia Horton Wagner. This is also lyndias first person shes brought into this blessing! My Fave thing is to see people live better :) Way to go!

People are afraid of being scammed - or afraid of change. If they would just try a couple of days with Shakeology, they would know this is the real deal. I haven't had this much energy in a long time....or slept so good! – My friend Linda Abshear livin goooooood

Since I started drinking Shakeology I have only had to use my inhaler once and that was when I decided to start jogging. Before I would have random asthma attacks and would panic if I didnt have my inhaler with me at all times. It took about a month before I noticed a difference. – Cherokee Schill

I'm saving $45 co payment for migraine pills that I spent bimonthly now that I'm on Shakeology - Sandra becker proving Shakeology pays for itself with extra free spending money left over for whatever

My friend Tabbatha shares with me on my wall, "My iron is normal because of Shakeology for the first time since I was a child... & several other levels as well... When I have gone off of Shakeology I can tell... after a week off I feel totally whooped & I have caught slight colds.. Cure.. go back on"

i lost 9 more lbs Tom so proud of myself....down 74 lbs...***BIG SMILE**** - Beth Marsh! Beth is not losing initial water weight that 9 more lbs is pure FAT she is releasing from her body :)

62days in....36lb loss.....went from a 40in waist to a 34. Was 236lbs...now 200lbs!!! SAWEEEEET!!! - A very enthused Daniel C. Lenegar. Well of course he's enthused! Wouldn't you be with that kind of hard work and stellar results? ;) Let Dan inspire you!

Today for the first time I did all of the Hip Hop Abs extreme exercises with NO breaks and NO modifications. I am wearing shorts that a year ago I would be ashamed to be seen in! Ashamed of my body NO MORE! :) - Cherokee Schill started where she was, stayed in it, and now she's getting LOTS better :-) Proud of you Cherokee!!!!

My mom lost another 4 1/2 pounds it's not initial water weight! It's shakeology :-) And my Brother who was on the virge of a heart attack just had his blood checked again today after ONE MONTH on shakeology... Dr says his triglycerides , BP, and cholesterol are all WAY DOWN. THANK GOD FOR THAT. My skeptics, come off the fence and try Shakeology MESSAGE ME for yourself and your family

Shakeology is by far, the best product I've ever purchased. The biggest skeptic in the world is sold on a product I now believe in. – Sandra Becker

this is cool...I think I'm out of my slump....I've been losing about a pound a day since Friday! - bud phillips. Hes a shakeology user. Oh yes he is!

Finally found some jeans I like.. and guess what.. down 4 jean sizes over last summer.. YIPPEE for me,, just saying!!!!! haaaaaaa Love it.. and what is still to come! Next year, who knows!!!!!! - Pamela Holloway Swan

Ryan Benedict lost over a hundred pounds using P90X and Insanity. Now hes on our team as a Beachbody coach bringing it to the people. Ryan gets to share this GIFT along with us and with a 100 pound weight loss story he's gonna inspire others to step up and LIVE better

The nerve endings in William P Woodling back are regenerating in only 7 - 9 months where BEFORE Shakeology they would take 10 - 12 months. This is a big deal to him of a back injury sustained. But it goes to show that Shakeology is a POWERFUL tool that feeds your body the nutrients it needs to keep you healthy and feeling really good. It also helps the body regenerate new cells more efficiently :-)

Sandy Lacey lost SIX POUNDS in the 3 day Shakeology Cleanse and Jacqueline Koepfer shares with me that it's the only cleanse she's ever done that she doesn't feel hungry on. So why again are some of you on torture diets that don't really set you up for LONG TERM success anyway? Shakeology baby every other meal shake that I know of kinda Sucks with a capitol S

Fellow Beachbody coach Sarah Murphy was on the Oprah show because she lost over a hundred pounds using shakeology! This is shortly after Oprahs O zine published a very flattering ten page article on shakeology. This is the best opportunithy to solve health and income problems simultaneously in the world, period. Who wants to play?

Aaron Burgess Lsw just did the 3 day shakeology cleanse and what's he doing now? He's drinking another shakeology he says He's LOVING it. I know the feeling every day I drink it which is ever day :) Why are some of you on torture diets?

i was the number one skeptic about Shakeology but just had to see for myself how it would work. i never even thought it would help with my migraines, but turns out that it did. im sure it hasnt cured them but i have been hospitalized and on SEVERAL medications for migraines with numerous side effects including dizziness, numbness of hands and feet, loss of memory etc... - Sandra Becker

this is my first summer not being over 200 pounds and I'm loving it! Still got about 20 to go to reach 150! I'm so much stronger too! - Carmin Perdue Harris she's a product of these awesome beachbody tools and over 60 years old!

I can attest to this myself. I haven't had a full-blown migraine in almost a year and a half since I've drinking Shakeology! - Lyndia Horton Wagner.

And another migraine sufferer, Ilene Knopf Weinstein, "I suffer from migraines also, i just never realized...until now...that they have definately subsided since I started drinking Shakeology. I am going to have to take note...and see if I get anymore....interesting phenomenon!!!! This stuff is pretty powerful!!!"

Migraines sufferers? You NEED to know about this. Sandra Becker, "Before drinking Shakeology, I kid you not, I was averaging 2, 4 or even 6 migraines a month. Three weeks on Shakeology---ZERO migraines. If I make it through 1 more week without one, that's ONE MONTH migraine free! All i can say is WOW."

I'm seeing weight loss I haven't in years, energy levels, etc. I'm going to share with anyone and everyone who will listen! I've seen so many benefits myself that I couldn't be happier - Sandy Lacey talking about Shakeology and sharing this GIFT with others

"Woohooo! I got my first check this week :)" - Monique Bailey And she just started her beachbody business a couple weeks ago part time!! And this is all profit not wages. Profits are better than wages :-) It's the begining of Moniques fortune that she's building in her spare time how exciting is this?!?!

A VERY excited Melissa Wedel texted me from her new iPhone that she was able to pay for with her increasing BB checks. She also just paid for her girls private school bill in full, nothing structured, for the next YEAR! It came to $11,800. THANK YOU BEACHBODY BIZ OPPORTUNITY!

my earnings are moving on up....I am happy to say : ) – Christine Gialamas

Josef Koelbl III - As a Team Beachbody Coach I make enough to pay for one of my cars!

Melanie Bolen - I bought the car I've been dreaming of for myself for my birthday this year.

Just wanted to say thank you cher! Thanks for turning me onto shakeology! Week 1 down with a loss of 6.5lbs! Woah baby! - ryan reese thanking cherokee schill for introducing him to shakeology! And I introduced cherokee to shakeology. See how significants and creating waves of positve impact works? It's sooooo powerful :)

My friend Pam just called me and told me her friend becky had been stuck at a frustrating weight loss plateau on weight watchers...But wait there is more!!! Pam introduced Becky to shakeology, cause thats' what friends do, becky blasted past that stupid plateau with shakeology and still doing weight watchers to :) Becky is so excited about what shakeology has done for her that she enrolled for the coach opportunity!

My house guest from australia wakes up from sleeping this afternoon and the first thing she says to me is , "Tommy you're going to make me my shakeology now right?" I think I've got another hooked! To try shakeology is to love shakeology :)

Lisa varela says~I love what Shakeology has done for me in regards to my FMS. I have had Fibro for almost twenty years and I haven't felt this good since before I got it. Shakeology is a God send for sure. I can workout, clean my house and spend time with my kids without getting sick. I love it and wouldn't give it up for anything!

This just in from my friend Pam Lawbaugh! "When I went to put my black dress slacks on Sunday for the bridal shower they were loose. I had to get a belt to hold them up. Shakeology is truly wonderful!:)"

"tastes like a Mudslide!" my friend vanessa trying shakeology for the first time ;) Oh how I loooooove mudslides I havent had one of those in a while gee I wonder why :)

The kids LOOOOOOVED their sample of chocolate Shakeology. A mother of two brought her two babies out the other evening to my shakeology tasting and they were caught licking the bottom of the cup trying to get every last drop out :-) It makes it easy for their mom to get her kids the best nutrition possible. Blessing!!

Angie Perrault says, "Let me tell you, after 3 weeks of using it consistently you will have so much energy!! Every day I am getting more and more pumped about the possibility of helping others feel better too, which in turn makes me feel even better! Funny how that works? :-)" She's talking about Shakeology the business opp :)

Been using shakeology for er two months now.Have lost over 14 pounds,regained lost energy,Had a very bad case of heartburn and acid reflux to the point of throwing up blood and losing hours of sleep.Haven't had a single case of it since using shakeology.~Paul Pfeiffer

I have had digestive problems for years. Been on shakeology for a month now. Am able to enjoy foods I haven't had in years. Just put that on my page yesterday. – Belinda Nadeau

My friend Jessica Frank told me she has had fewer colds, and less physical ailments because of Shakeology. And her man Zach lost 25 pounds!! It's Shakeology as prevention it's beautiful!!!

Daniel Kauppinen - I use to have issues all the time also and have never felt so good either. I can actually sleep laying all the way down now to. I can’t tell you many things that I have been freed from.

Belinda Nadeau has an inspiring story of unintended side affects :-) "I must say when I started Shakeology, my goal was to lose weight. I have suffered for years with stomach issues...not being able to eat ALOT of different foods. I can't eat Italian food, mexican food, thai food, or anything with spices or acidic qualities. I had BBQ sauce on my chicken tonight!! Thank you Shakeology!!"

Belinda Nadeau I am so shocked with this awesome "side effect" of Shakeology. I don't know if others have noticed any difference in their eating patterns, but it's so nice to eat something that use to cause the worst pain imaginable. The doctors have no idea whats wrong with me, but I think I may have found the cure that they couldn't. :)

Since I started P90X about 2-3 weeks ago I have tightened my belt a notch so my pants don't fall :), I have increased muscle in my arms shoulders chest (I can feel the difference in my clothes), my flexibility has increased, and very best of all, my back feels so much better and the sciatica is almost gone and I can feel my left leg gaining strength. You have no idea how much that means to me. – Greg Dubois

Tricia O'Neill writes to me, "Just wanted to keep you updated considering you helped me find shakeology. Today I went down a pants size. I'm so excited. The pounds keep coming off. I should have no problem reaching my goal weight by my wedding day in August of 2012. Thanks again!!!"

It is delicious!!! You weren't fibbing!!!! – Lori Leibold VanNatta

Monique Bailey had some exciting news to share with me today, "*drumroll please*... down a little over 10 lbs!" She is drinking Shakeology and doing P90X... She's so impressed with it and the people she has met that she just enrolled for the Beachbody Coaching opportunity to. Wow what a bright future!!! Puts an extra spring in your step when you get out of bed every morning

it took me weeks to get even my parents to drink it....It wasnt until I showed them my blood work and the changes in my sugars and cholesterol that they decided to "try" it. Now my mom is a coach and my dad begs me every day to make him a shake. – Ilene Knopf Weinstein

My parents have been drinking shakeology for a little over a month now. My mothers sugars are almost normal! and she was suffering from major diabetes headaches when she ate badly and we were getting ready to increase her insulin!!! she is now coming off her meds all together and is exercising and losing weight! Dads sugars are now under control and he is getting ready to cut out his meds as well! Shakeology has changed the blood chemistry in my household and family for the better! – Ilene Knopf Weinstein

Tom just thought I would check in and tell you that I am down two...Count 'em TWO pant sizes. Pants that I could not even lay down and squeeze closed are now loose on me. So all that stuff you said way back when I was still skeptical...Well it is all true. :) - My friend @Cherokee Schill coming clean and shrinking ;)

I lost 18 inches doing shakes and Turbo Jam...now I am doing "gulp" Asylum...what am I going to be when this is done?! - Ilene Knopf Weinstein. She’s a Lean Mean Ilene Machine! LoL

This is interesting from Ginny Ulch, "Noticed a really cool thing on the Shakeology. When I developed my health issues, my pinky fingernail was curling down (someone told me it was heart problems-scary!). I would have to file it to keep it from looking weird. Was doing my nails the other day and it is growing in straight and strong! After only 7 weeks!"

Leah Burlington shares on my wall, I went from a 13 to a 10 in a month of Shakeology!! Woohoo! It makes your tummy flatter fast,cleans out your system, and gives you energy...I Shakeology!

Pamela Holloway Swan is on the phone with me right now she's gloating about having to shop for new SMALLER jeans she is shrinking and getting leaner :) Shes drinking Shakeology and doing her Beachbody workouts

Holy crap that's really good! Tastes like desert and that's awesome because I love desert!! Two thumbs up! - Angie Perrault FIRST time Experience with Shakeology. She recorded her first experience on video check it out: https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150154701948927 The chocolate banana Nutter recipe ;)

Lovin' that I am comfortable in my lean body to wear a dress today! -These arent my words I dont wear dresses this is Laura Henry!

It tastes like chocolate only better it's DEElicious - I was just told this five seconds ago by a 7 year old little boy who is a chocolate fiend his mom informs me. Parents... GET YOUR KIDS SHAKEOLOGY AND WORRY FREE ABOUT THEIR NUTRITION

Angie Perdomo gave a shake to her mom on Tuesday to try. She was very hesitant at first to try it but she actually ended up LOVING IT!! Her mom is going to dramatically increase her health and feel good. I've also got my parents on it and their blood panels are ten times better than they use to be.

my kids just came home from a weekend at their fathers and the first thing that they asked for was a Shakeology!!! Gotta love that!!!! - Ilene Knopf Weinstein.

My new friend Lorae was told she would never walk again without spinal fusion surgery and even then she was told she'd only have a 25% chance. After the the surgery she began doing Power 90 and P90X to make sure she was in that 25%. Not only is she no longer bound to the confines of a wheel chair but she is training for triathlons because she simply made the decision and she used P90X. How inspiring!!!

you will be pleased to know i hit my first weight loss goal of losing 10 lbs and lost 14! next goal is ten more pounds=) and im drinking shakeology every damn day - my texas friend Char!

Amazing! So glad I joined. Just a week in and I have already lost 3 1/2 lbs and my energy level is up - My friend whom I introduced to Shakeology and Beachbody Belinda Nadeau. This makes me very happy :)

Hip Hop Abs really works! I have lost HALF AN INCH off my waist and it has not even been a whole week!!! – Cherokee Schill

I'm on day 3 of the Shakeology 3 Day Cleanse. I'm down 5 pounds, my pants fit better and I have NO cravings. :) – Katie peavey

Shakeology makes my clothes fall off :D It could do it for you too!!! – Pamela swan

Would like to give a big thanks for my friend Tom Birkenmeyer for introducing me to shakeology which made it possible for me to lose about 21 pounds so far - Tricia O'Neill look her up she is doing great with her weight loss and fitness!

I got good news. I lost 15 lbs. so far. I'm very happy about it. :) Go Shakeology! I especially like it for breakfast - My friend Pam :-)

two days w/o shakecology and my hands are back to shaking and fainting spells. I am Vit. D deficient and shakeology helped SO much. I haven't felt like this since before I started drinking it. but i'm going to make a shake RIGHT now. I really can't believe how much it helped me till now. - teah davids tellin me about the difference shakeology makes for her

After my coma I could barely move my hands( fingers/ toes still numb 6.5 yrs later) p90 from my wheelchair, then turbojam when i could stand again.. music moves the heart... and the feet, i could not thank them enough..my drs were amazed - My friend Ellen Wilson. Amazing story people are showing doctors up with TEAM BEACHBODY products

Emiko M - YUM! I got the choc shakeology last night and tried it this morning...VERY pleasantly surprised! I blended it with 1/2 banana, 1 T of natural PB, and ice/water.

Arlene Paraiso - Shakeology is like no other

Michelle Habada Bruenig - this is my 4th day having my Chocolate O's! 4 days, down 3 lbs! Just wanted to share! I hope you are having a WONDERFUL TIME on your cruise! xoxo

Michelle Habada Bruenig - since I have started Shakology last Monday I am down 5lbs now. xo

i was a procrastinator too but when i finally tried it, it was everything Tom said it was and more! – Kimberly Williams

Cherokee Schill says, “I was pushing 215 when I started this. Im now down to 195. I still have 45 pounds to go. Drinking my Shakeology right now.”

I have hip dysplasia and arthritis in my knees and my husband has degenerative arthrits in his spine and all his joints. He also does P90X and is pain free. - Lisa And Dan Drinking Shakeology and doing their workouts living pain free. You'd think their story is a miracle it's really amazing

Lisa Barron Kauppinen just called me to tell me the pain in her hips from her arthritis is gone! It's a combination of Shakeology, Joint support formula, good over all nutrition, and exercise. She's doing a combo of p90x, insanity and power half hour

Nicole Jones - I too had terrible migraines at least 4 times a month, now, NO MORE! woot!

I too had terrible migraines at least 4 times a month, now, NO MORE! woot! – Nicole Jones talking about Shakeology and the much needed relief it’s given her

Peggy M Kirk had a really AWESOME 1st experience. She says to me, "Got my Shakeology yesterday in the mail and this morning I tried chocolate covered strawberries... WOW is all I can say. Can’t wait to try all the recipes. I just got done with my workout and I can tell a huge difference by just drinking Shakeology one time. I am speechless it felt like I had extra fuel inside me I am completely amazed."

Brent Towle told me that his problem knees are 90% better after only four days of Shakeology

“the plateau has been breached!!!! After 3 days on the Shakeology cleanse I am down 7 pounds!!! and I feel GREAT! Stuck in a rut? Need to get things moving get you some Shakeology and bring it on!!” – Jennifer Chubb

This isn't that initial weight loss phase from starting something new. Anyone can do that. Jacqueline Koepfer enthusiastically shared with me she dropped yet another five pounds as she stepped on the scale this morning :-) And get this.. She's doing it drinking something she looks forward to every day because it tastes so good and fills her up. Shakeology BABY! Way to go Jackie I'm proud of you :-)

My friend pam very enthusiastically told me everyone around her is telling her she's looking thinner and healthier all over including in her face and in her body. Pam is feelin pretty good about that! She can't thank me enough for introducing her to Shakeology!

Down another 8 lbs. in the past 9 days! Creepin into the 270's!!!! Feelin good and glad I decided to do this...total weight loss so far is 33 lbs! - BB coach Dan Siltala movin in the right direction with Shakeology and his BB workouts!

I find that when i skip a day without one i don't feel as well, and my energy level drops - my friend Kimberly Williams talking about... You know :)

Elizabeth Karmenzind called me on the phone this morning and told me she has lost 60 pounds since being on Shakeology and she feels Healthy :-) That's important! She's not just loosing weight but she's drastically increasing her health

Melissa Carney Mysinger shares on my wall with me - Four...Four....Yes 4 days on Shakeology and down...wait for it...wait for it...THREE pounds! Shakeology Rocks!

Daniel C. Lenegar called me on the phone today to tell me his skin looks and feels younger since he's been drinking shakeology. Masculine men take care of their skin! He also said digestion is better, workouts are better, everything is better. My response to him was, "Dan that's so cool your a dood and you noticed what Shakeology is doing for your skin!" LoL

My friend Lisa Barron Kauppinen VERY enthusiastically shares this morning - For the first time in 7 years, when I stand up straight and look down I can see my feet. WOOOHOOOO. Thank you to me for doing all the work, to Beachbody for P90X, Insanity, and Power Half Hour, and to Tom Birkenmeyer for introducing me to Beachbody. - You're VERY welcome Lisa :-) *high five!!!*

Thank you Tom! I have to tell you, I was getting so frustrated at that stinkin' plateau....NOT ANY MORE!! hehehe BRING IT ON! =) The only downfall to the Shakeology is that it is soooooo good I want more, but it fills me up so that I can't even finish one serving!! Hahaha Gotta love that! I was at a plateau for 3 weeks and didn't lose anything. The frustration is gone! =) – Jacqueline Koepfer

“I'm down 1.5 pounds after only one day on Shakeology!! AMAZING!! Especially since I plateaued and have stayed the same weight for 3 weeks! I'll reach my first goal in NO TIME! I am going to get some rum extract tonight so I can try the Chocolate Bananas Foster recipe tomorrow! Woohoo!! I LOVE THIS STUFF!!!” – Jacqueline Koepfer

OH MY GOD!!! YUM!! way better than slimfast!!!! can't wait to actually try some of the recipes!!! --- this is soooooo good!! :) – Danielle Renee Birmingham

I made a chocolate shakeology with a 2 shots of coffee and a tsp. of pure vanilla extract. It was fantastic as I knew it would be. My surprise was when my husband, who's so not into healthy shakes tried it and said, "Wow I'm shocked. That's really good. I don't suppose you have time to make yourself one now?" – Melissa Mysinger

Jacqueline Koepfer remarks to me right after her first time trying Shakeology, “OMG! This shake is amazing!! Yum!! I did it with just almond milk 1st and loved it. Then I added pb and banana! Wow!” ©

“IT'S HERE! IT'S HERE! I just used almond milk and banana. Oh my gawd NOMNOMNOM. I may need another bag. I wish I taped my kids reactions when they tasted it. Unreal! I've never seen them react like that to drink/food, not even to candy/ice cream.” – Jeni Bellows and kids Day one of Shakeology

Denise Pearson Says, "The most effective baby step I have EVER encountered is drinking Shakeology. It makes other things fall into line for me… Whole food nutrition → sustained energy → more energy to workout → improved cardiovascular health → more effective workouts → weight loss and toning." I like how you put that so sequentially Denise VERY cool

I've been drinking Shakeology for months, the taste and consistency is fabulous! I feel fantastic and I've noticed that since I've been drinking Shakeology every day since my surgery (my surgery consists of ALL my bottom teeth removed and bone shaved!) I have incredible energy and really minimal pain. I'm going back to the Gym tonight,the surgery was done on Monday of this week. I'll be 55 March 6th. - Penny Tomei.

A friend of mine, Catherine Patin with A neuro disorder called Autonomic Dysfunction tossed her walking cane aside only TWO DAYS into drinking Shakeology. Told her doctor who is now VERY interested in Shakeology because of what it's done for her. Smart doctor. Everyone with a similar condition as Catherine should try Shakeology for the same reason diabetics, over weight, migraine sufferers, Kidney stone sufferers, acne sufferers etc should all be trying to Shakeology. IT WORKS. You WILL live better and feel better

My Stella Awesome friend Char, "Whenever i am on i feel loads better! thank you again for recommending them for me with my busy schedule they rock! oh and hiiiii i miss your face!" - she misses my face :-) Sweet! Ohhhhh yes.. I shouldnt neglect to mention she's talkin about Shakeology that I introduced her to. There is crack in it.

Only 1 week into it, "people tell me I look thin in the face I think I’m loosing weight too and its been a week” – This comes from Candice Adams who was brought in by my friend and coach Trisha Hanson. Wow only a week into Shakeology?!?! Proud of you both!

Tammy Sawyer very enthusiastically says, "I was eating raw and vegetarian, very active and kept gaining weight Shakeology took it off :-)" Well, wouldn't you be enthusiastic to? Yes :)

Patricia Nazzal shares with my coach Stacie miller, "Thank you Stacey!!!! Finally I tried it!!! I actually was worried it would be like all the other nasty protein shakes out there....? However I drank it this am and absoutely loved it!!!! Its so yummy!!! Tasted just like a chocolate milk shake and better ;)" She's talkin about Shakeology. Little does she know it's not a protein shake but a full Meal shake :)

I've been using Shakeology for about 6 days now. I've got Chocolate and my wife has the Green Berry. I absolutely love it. – Ron Barnhart

Other "meal replacement" shakes that I've tried didn't taste very good and I'd get hungry real quick. Shakeology has a great taste and what really surprised me was how well it fills me up. It actually fills me up more than the breakfast that I used to eat. - Ron Barnhart

I agree with Tom...the math is just too obvious to miss for those who really want to improve their health. Even beyond the money you can save, it would be so easy to make a healthy switch that would easily cover the cost. - Ron Barnhart

For example, how many people are buying 2 or more 20-oz sodas per day (I know I used to about 10 years ago)? Or, how many people go to starbucks once a day? Replace just one unhealthy item like this and all your doing is redirecting dollars you already spend. No additional output required and you replace a health-draining item with a health building item. For me, this is a very easy decision. - Ron Barnhart

I feel a huge difference when I miss making it in the morning...people that say they don't need it should try it even for a week, then ask themselves that question again. As far as the money? If you add up the cost of all the food that a lot of people eat through out the day on the go (in a lot of cases fast food) they would save money in their lunch expenses alone, not to mention feel a thousand times better! :) – Lilly Prinn

"You have to make changes in your lifestyle if you want to get healthy.... Shakeology makes it EASY to do that" - Kara Phillips. Kara started drinking Shakeology a while back she has a Beautiful and simple philosophy that supports her increased feelings of health and wellness. ANYONE can adopt a more supportive philosophy for a healthier life to LIVE better. Thank you Kara!

Went without it for a few days....just wanted to see how I felt without it...so here are the results: TIRED....YUKKY....ICKY....feel great now.hehehe! – Christine Gialamas contrasting a NON Shakeology life to a Shakeology life. Try Shakeology friends you’re in the dark without experiencing it if for anything else just to see if it’s a fit for you or not. 30 days to get a full refund. It’s 29 more days than you’ll need. That means you have no risk except the mental barriers in your mind. Get over them they block opportunity

"I've replaced my breakfast every morning with Shakeology so I know I'm saving money every morning. I have great results with Shakeology as well. I lost ten lbs with it so far and it does keep you satisfied for a long time" - Pami Rib!

we are adding the cost of vitamins we now take and wont have to take if we regularly use shakeology. It may end up saving us money. – Brent T. Brent is right! Going by the plenty of feedback I’ve gotten from my Shakeology users who are swapping other supplements Brent will save so much money he will actually come out AHEAD between $300 and $500 each month while drastically increasing his health. It's pretty incredible

"I don't need Shakeology" - EVERYONE who hasn't tried Shakeology making statements in the dark without foundation

This Just in from My buddy Brent - "tried my first day on shakeology this morning. Went almost eight hours with out needing a meal. Normally I go into a carb crave when I go more than four or five hours with out eating. Lots of good stuff in Shakeology. Very balanced. Brain food, cancer fighting, circulation improving, vision enhancing, cholesterol lowering and more. All in one mix."

I am constantly amazed at what people will put in front of their kids. Chicken nuggets? (Watch Food, Inc.) Multi-Grain Cheerios? (More sugar than regular cheerios) Juice boxes which are mostly sugar and dyes? I'll take the Shakeology for my kid, thank you - Carl Daikeler

I am writing to tell you that I went to a girlfriends house out in Lake Tahoe and saw choc. shakeology in the fridge. I asked if I could taste it and so she made me a shake and I have to say that it was truly yummy!!!! She had baby twin girls 7 months ago and has been drinking shakeology and has lost all her weight and then some and feels absolutley terrific. Even her facial blemishes she has had since childhood have magically cleared up. I am sold, so when I get back, lets order me some up. I'm looking forward to all the health benefits that it has to offer. – Traci Placko Larson

My friend Jessica texted me, "I've been drinking Shakeology daily for the past month and I've noticed even on the days I don't have it I can't eat barely as much as I used to. It seems like I get filled up and satisfied much quicker and with a lot less food than I used to. I noticed that on my mini vacation this past weekend"

My friend Letitia just got her first bag of Shakeology in the mail. She raved to me about how already her energy is up, she feels less bloated, her workouts are more invigorating, her pants already feel better and she is IN LOVE with the taste :-) Anyone who feels the cost isnt worth it is loosing their mind on some self torture style diet. That's stupid! Letitia is a genius :) Way to go Letitia!

My friend crystal came out to the shakeology tasting tonight. Just one eighth of a serving of Shakeology and the heart burn she was in the midst of rapidly went away. A few hours later, still gone! 1/8th of shakeology! And the taste of the chocolate shakeology she agreed was BLISS :)

Cherokee Schill says - "I am another pound lighter and feel stronger thanks to P90X and Shakeology. That makes 13 lbs. lost in 40 days"

My friend Lisa Barron Kauppinen told me she lost ten pounds last week. She cut out a lot of cheese and unnecessary fatty food from her nutrition AND she's drinking Shakeology. Way to go Lisa!

“I feel better, look thinner, but most importantly I’m healthier. One of the best things I ever did for myself was start Shakeology. :) I'll talk to you soon.” – Pam Lawbaugh

"Tom, is 9 lbs in 3 weeks post worthy?" – Lilly Prinn. She's talking about shakeology... But of course she is :-) And last week she told me her migraines are gone

My friend and fellow BB coach Stacie Storm Miller is getting ready for her first figure competition in April. Stacie is in her forties! She drinks shakeology and does her BB fitness programs. I'm so proud of her!

“Ever since I started drinking Shakeology I no longer have panic attacks so I no longer need to take Valium anymore!!! Valium causes weight gain because it makes me crave sweet stuff – Elizabeth Karmenzind

Cramps are way easier to deal with, Migraines are GONE, and skin is purging producing the healthiest most beautiful skin ever. – Elizabeth Karmenzind

I have to agree the cost hits u in the face until you look at the money you do spend on food and on junk thats no good for your body. Will be trying Shakeology – Karin Earhart

“I lost 6 without doing anything..I'm feeling great!! I never cared for exercising before and I am even feeling more motivation to do that!! It's awesome :)” – Tina Quardokus

“Hi tom just wanted to say thanks again. after 1 week on shakeology I lost 7 pounds. that's without working out. hopefully I can start that by the end of the week if I heal fast enough. thanks again.” – Jarame Baldwin

"Ok, so, I tried shakeology today with Lizzy. She made it with skim milk and nothing added. She knows how much I am into chocolate, so she decided to let it stand on its own. It really tastes great. I was expecting more along the lines of a slimfast taste only less chalky. I was not expecting it to taste as good as it does :) keeping this in mind, I have a story to share with you... My daughter is 16 and has an aversion to anything remotely healthy for you. I walked out of the kitchen with my shake in hand and before I knew it, she sucked down over half of it and I had to make another...later we were talking about working a plan out for me until I can afford it on my own and Kaytie says "Why you wanna drink nasty health dinks for anyway?" to which I said "That nasty health drink sure didn't seem to bother you when you drank most of it earlier..." Wide-eyed and shocked she turns to me and says "Oh..." – Lilly Prinn

Before I fell asleep tonight the kids were all excited about making Shakes!! Yep, Shakeology is a hit here.. Not sure if they've noticed yet but I haven't heard any complaints about soda and junk food gone from the house. I'm loving it!! – Tina Quardrokus

I am astounded at how good I feel today after 1 workout and 1 4 oz Shake that Daniel Kauppinen and Lisa Barron Kauppinen shared with me last night after fit club I had an amazing time so happy I finally just did it so good to meet u in personn your awesome - Carolyn M Gorsuch

"I think there is something magical in Shakeology. I've been devoted to one shake every day for a few weeks now. Regardless of my circumstances I feel so alive and so full of ideas for my life. And it all seems within reach which is so awesome to think about!" - Andrea Howard

“Since starting Shakeology the number of sugary sweets requested by my kid's as dropped significantly. Elena used to tell me that she had soda cravings. I remember having those as a kid too. With Shakeology our blood sugar has stabilized and those weird cravings have totally ceased.” – Cherokee Schill

Guess what got my son out of bed this morning? not the bribe of mcd's after dropping auntie lilly off, but of a shake!!!! Thats so awesome. Has't been spazzy at all today either. Total calmness and focus. - Lizzy Bellsmith talking about Shakeoilogy.

The differences I saw surprised me. My hair was growing faster, looked healthier, my skin was not as dry as it had been in the past, I had increased energy, I was not as irritable I lost my craving for junk food, and it contributed to my 25 lb weight loss :-) It is a staple of my diet that I cannot go without. It tastes amazing and is good for me. Does it get any better? - Stephanie Stafford Barry on SHAKEOLOGY!

"I can get my daily chores done with ease and still have energy left over for all the other things I enjoy." - Audrey who lost FIFTY POUNDS, has more energy and feels so good. Way to go Audrey

I was telling my friend about shakeology and how I have not had soda or chocolate craving's since being on it. I like the "it really fricken works!" bit. :) That should be the official slogan. - Cherokee Schill

I am loosing weight and love the shake it really fricken works! - Ashlee Rosko tellin me about shakeolog

"A liberated,healthy chocoholic. I like that! :)" - Pam Lawbaugh ... I introduced my friend Pam to shakeology a few weeks ago. I wonder if she's liking this weight loss and getting healthy plan :)

"My hair/nails grow like crazy. I heal faster. I rarely get sick anymore- and if I do- it only last half as long. I have ENERGY all day!! Lowered my cholesterol! Do I look like I'm about to turn 46??" – Angela Gee Bray

"started Shakeology on Sat. and lost 6lbs already...and still working out!!!! Thanks again dude!!" - Dan siltala. He told me he's down 10 pounds since he started a short time ago

I just talked to my friend Catherine Patin over the phone she told me she just started drinking her shakeology yesterday and today, 1 day later, she had so much energy she didn't need to walk with her cane :-) This is why I'm a team beachbody coach!!!! And now she wants to help all her freinds get healthier and feel better. That's a pretty sweet deal right there to pay it forward

"I myself lost 6 pounds the first week too. I feel better, I have more energy and I have not had any cravings since starting shakeology. I was able to pass up the xmas candy clearance isle. A before unheard of feat. :)" - Cherokee Schill dropping weight from fat and getting healthy the EASY way and setting herself up for LONG TERM success :)

I'm psyched! I got on the scale this morning and I lost 6lbs! And its only the 1st week. I have a Shakeology for breakfast or lunch. Tom you're probably sick of hearing me say it but, I can't sing Shakeoloy's praises enough. I was 1 of the worst eaters on the planet but, you got me on the right path. - Pam Lawbaugh

“I did not require a meal/snack for several hours. and bonus MONGO NOT GASSY!” - My friend Laura F. Talking about Shakeology

"My G/F dragged me to one of her meetings.I was impressed with the product and info that was shared.I could see myself seriously replacing my indulgence of mountain dew and chocolate for this product.I googled this product and it is not a scam.I like it!" – Tina Quadrakus

“After about a month of drinking Shakeology I no longer have to administer insulin with my shakeology. This is really amazing” – My Mom. All of you need to realize how powerful this testimonial is from my mom. She is over 60, she is morbidly obese, and she’s been administering insulin for the past 20 years. This is Unheard of. Shakeology made the drastic difference for my mom

“Hi Tom! The Shakeology is delicious! I can't say it enough. I agree 100%. Weight loss is easy and fun now. :)” – Pam Lawbaugh

"Oh. my. god. This is damn good. I think I'm likin this! Another really kool thing is that it didn't have that icky after taste which most meal shakes have. Huge factor." - my friend Kim Folta talking about her first Shakeology experience just this morning

"OH man that's good! I wouldnt have believed it myself if I didnt try it. And I am VERY picky when it comes to chocolate" - My friend Laura who just tried chocolate shakeology for the first time. She just experiended a chocolate "O" and I witnessed it :-)

"You're 100% right Tom. Chocolate "O". I'm gonna like this weight loss plan. :)" - Pam L. talking about Chocolate Shakeology :-)

“I've been in SO MANY MLM and direct sales companies and people from different lines with all the others are SO cut-throat! It's so awesome to be part of a company where people HELP each other no matter WHO's line they're in! Thank you so much! ” – Katie Peavy

"You're 100% right Tom. Chocolate "O". I'm gonna like this weight loss plan. :)" - Pam Lawbaugh

“I've been in SO MANY MLM and direct sales companies and people from different lines with all the others are SO cut-throat! It's so awesome to be part of a company where people HELP each other no matter WHO's line they're in! Thank you so much!” – Katie Peavy

“Hey Tom!! I am lovin' my Shakeology!! I have been on it since the 22nd of Dec, and have lost 5 pounds! I fit in a pair of pants that havent fit me in over 6 months! Cant wait to get exercising tomorrow and ready to lose more and more! Thanks again for your help!!” – Leah Burlington

My friend Jessica came into shakeology with me a couple months ago and now she is at her goal weight!!

“Tom, Oh My.. I just tried, Silk Almond Milk original, with a scoop of Shakeology, and then a full cup of frozen strawberries.. OH MY.. that is delicious!!!!! drinking it through a straw.. but oh my it is soooooo yummy!” – Pamela Holloway Swan

“Hey Tom! I made some of those no bake chocolate/peanut butter Shakeology cookies and they ROCK!! I have about one a day. I am addicted to them...hehe! Having one now....yummy!!” – Leah Burlington

“Dont want to get too excited but I have been on Shakeology for one week and the eczema on my hands that was really bad is starting to go completely away. I am feeling great, maybe only lost a few pounds but I feel lighter. I am sure when I start the workout program it will start to drop off! Cant wait to have my Chocolate O today with banana and peanut butter. Yum!” - Leah Burlington

“Alright! Another person who has had their eczema fade thanks to Shakeology. Shakeology took mine away!” – Drew Weyenberg

“So I started Shakeology about 5 days ago and it looks like I have lost 4 pounds and my tummy feels a bit flatter. I am feeling more energy already and I wake up energetic. This is the most nutritional food replacement out there” – Leah Burlington, Message therapist

"thanks tom. shakeology has given me my energy back. My dad says his love handles disappeared within a week. I love this stuff!" - Jessica Frank

“6 days into Shakeology and feeling GREAT! Tummy is even flattening out as I write this...not that hungry and getting ready to get my ass kicked next monday with my new trainer...hows that for goals?? Getting fit and trim and healthy in 2011! A lot of thanks to Tom!! Hugs!” – Leah Burlington

“I met with Mr. Scale and I am down 4 pounds!!!! The only thing I did differently this week was drink Shakeology..I even worked out less!" – Jennifer Chubb

"Hey Tom! Just got my Skakeology today delivered to my door!! Had my first shake and YUM, loved it! Made it with a half scoop powder, cup bluberries(frozen) 8 oz of fat free milk and some ice. It was so frozen it was like ice cream so had to wait a bit to drink it but it is tasty! This was a nice present to myself for a healthier me! Thank you again" - Leah Burlington

"Several things about doing the P90X workouts have gotten me really exited about them. Not only am I noticing that I am better able to do the workouts each time but I am noticing the long lasting effects as well. The best effect is that I am experiencing better mental clarity and an enhanced ability to focus" - My friend Denise Pearson :-)

“There was such a difference in my energy, mood, and alertness a few days after starting them and I felt the difference a couple of days after not having one - withdrawals? YES! I think so!!! lol!! I want to feel that way EVERY day!!!!!” – Helen Becker talking about Shakeology

“I’ve dropped some weight in the short period of time I’ve been on it already but I feel satiated all day long” – Dr. Bill Morgan orthopedic surgery.

"my coworker is now a coach under me and her blood sugars went down and her cholestrol dropped by 30, she now has her hubbie taken it too....awe the wonders of the shake : )" - My friend and fellow coach christine paying it forward and getting people she loves and cares about HEALTHY in REAL measurable ways with Shakeology :)

"Shakeology is really getting the job done. I'm diabetic and my blood sugars are Absolutely BEAUTIFUL I don't even have to take insulin with it. I'm craving junk food a lot less to and I just feel really good" - Joyce Birkenmeyer. Hey that's my own mom!

Shakeology gave me the digestive health to be able to go off my colitis medications. I am off my medication and don't have a future appointment scheduled with my GI doctor because I'm doing great! - Kristin H. She's from Lincoln Nebraska. I love her story

"Tom I haven't broken a nail since I've been on Shakeology. My hair is also growing faster and my skin looks beautiful I'm getting compliments now! I only wanted this for health reasons these are nice bonuses" - user insisted on anonymity but look through my monstrously growing journal of feedback this is VERY regular feedback from my Shakeology users

“Turbo,P90X,Chalene Extreme have sculpted my body from a flabby, fat, depressed, unhealthy TIGHT size 14 to a toned, healthy, strong, glorious size 6 jean, which BTW is now loose!!!!!!! That’s 8 sizes!!!– Shevaun Williams

“So far this year I have lost 25 and 13 inches and with that, by the end of this year I have people donating to the SPCA for every inch and/or pound I lose! I'm very excited. I just started my own hybrid which is mainly P90x and INSANITY with some Turbo Fire in there. – Meg Johnson

“Check this out: I started at 232 pounds (give or take a couple of 10!) Couldn't figure out WTH was going on! Found out I had Hypothyroidism. I got educated on the disease and the body, became a CPT, bought TurboJam, and became a Beachbody Coach. Although its a constant battle, my mind is at ease knowing that I have all the tools I need! How's THAT for cheering u up? It sure worked for me!;-)” – Karen Williams

“I Had my entire colon removed, inside parts reconstructed (illeal pouch to anal anastomosis - or j-pouch...look it up!) and thru Beachbody, Turbo Jam, P90X , I am probably in the best shape ever. Had my doctor tell me last year I'm probably the healthiest patient he'll see all day!” - Josef Koelbl III

“My legs hurt less, I loose weight, and I feel all around better when I’m drinking Shakeology Tom” – Elizabeth Karmenzind

"Tom, I have only been drinking them for a week and I can tell a difference in my energy levels and I have lost 5 pounds!!!!!!" - Darlene Crutchley

"chocolate Shakeology, banana and fat free plain Chiobani yogurt. MMMmmmmmm!!! 11 pounds and counting!!" - Maria caravati

“After drinking Shakeology I didn't get hungry again until suppertime. I didn't eat any snacks at all” – Pam Lawbaugh

"It was either a weight watchers bar or a Shakeology. Shakeology is so much more satisfying so I went for the Shakeology instead of the weight watchers" - Joyce B.

"I feel much better in the morning after that shake than I normally do after eating a regular meal. The regular meal thing is too heavy to eat at night, and the shake was filling, but not too heavy. Cool!" - Greg Debois

"Hey Tom, having my first Shakeology shake. Delicious!" – Greg Debois

My friend Megan told me shes been loosing a bunch of weight and has more energy so she's lovin her workouts to. Megan is drinking Shakeology

fibromyalgia & Lupus... A fellow coaches mom has both of those working against her. Shakeology has been a godsend for there family. She hasnt worked out in the past twenty years and now she and her son are in there 3rd week of P90X!

My moms friend Jonnie, she's 70 years old and just started drinking shakeology one week ago, is suddenly being asked by all her friends what she's doing to loose weight and look so great! She enthusiastically tells them, "I'm drinking shakeology!". She's 70 years old and still doing what she can to be healthy :-) I'm so proud of her! She says she thinner than ever and feels wonderful

“Since starting on Shakeology, my hot flashes have completely stopped!” – Angela Gee Bray

“Since being on Shakeology I can look back and see that my overall mood IS better. I'm more positive, I have more energy... never fatigued. I no longer get times when I have that "I wish I was elsewhere" kind of feelings where I want to escape out my own skin. I ENJOY being who I am now” – Angela Gee Bray

Russ started drinking Shakeology for lunch 10 days ago. He has lost 6 pounds as of this morning. Way to go Russ!!! - Denise Pearson (Russes Wife who's also loosing weight drinking a tall glass or two of Chocolate Awesomeness every day = shakeology)

“People are already noticing the weight loss and I am already feeling the improvement in my energy, sleep, and GI activity levels” – Kashmir A. Jackson

"By the way, I've got everybody elses shake (Arbon, Isogenix, herbalife, etc) I have ALL of them and SHAKEOLOYG IS THE ONLY STUFF THAT FILLS ME UP, Gives me GREAT energy, and satiates me so I don't eat more. It's an AWESOME product " - Mj Durkins talking aboutshakeolgy and how every other shake kinda sucks. That's many of you, TRY SHAKEOLOGY You may think you already know but you don't know JACK :-) Just sayin

My blood labs came back fabulous last month! I have to take over 30 vitamins a month and everything was always low. This past draw almost everything was spot on and the only change I made was the Shakeology. It is awesome. – Lyndia Horton Wagner

“Hey Tom, My Dad has taken Shakeology for several months now and has sustained good BP readings without his high blood pressure meds!” – Tom Nord

“Wow, this is really good the taste is amazing. I’m already starting to feel better to.” – Candice Joseph

TOSS OUT THE MEDS..... Joe Tostanoski wrote: P90X day 64: great news! The Dr. just called and I am now officially off ALL meds! No more Blood pressure and no more cholesterol! WOO HOO! If I can do it then YOU can do it! And it only took 60 days! Now I just have to simply maintain this life style and keep pushing play! Thanks to my wife and my coach, Troy and everyone who inspires in this challenge! Thanks guys!

Two of my TurboFire users, Stephanie and her husband, (only 3 weeks in) just told me that she and her husband are sleeping better, clothes are too big pants are falling down, fitting in there new clothes much better, feeling much better throughout the day... They can't believe how great they feel after just three weeks :-) I recommend that you should get TurboFire

"My wife does p90x and I can hardly keep up with her! - President Obama talking to our founder carl daikeler! The first family does p90x ;)

Shakeology - It makes ya poop! If my grandfather were still around he'd be first in line for this awesome stuff because he use to always say, "there is nothing that a good sh*t can't take care of" LoL I miss you grandpa

“I feel better than I’ve ever felt before in my life. Not even when I was in my teens I felt this good” – Teri Thomsen

Got my first shipment of Shakeology! oh yeah here we go. Tom Birkenmeyer was right it really is heaven in a glass! – Teri Thomsen

“In just 3 days I'm feeling better, less hungry and more energy along with tasting fabulous! I blend it on aerate with fatfree milk and ice. The chocolate is just great and I'd suggest it to anyone contemplating a healthy change in lifestyle. I'm looking forward to more progress! Absolutely,be my guest! I'm a Diabetic and I drink it for breakfast and lunch then a regular dinner. I've also noticed that I don't NEED to eat so often because of all the nutrients that are in the ingredients. Like I said it's only been three days...and wow! To top it off, I'm 54 years old and a die hard skeptic.”- Penny Tomei

"Team BeachBody has changed my life .... I have lost 20 pounds and close to 10% of bodyfat on P90X, P90X Plus and Shakeology" - Diana MacCargar

My buddy Dan Kauppinen told me he use to pass a kidney stone every day till he started drinking Shakeology and working the P90X home fitness program. Just one week into it most of his chronic joint pains are also gone to. In the first week and a half of Shakeology and P90X he lost 15 pounds AND he’s already gaining some really nice shoulders and arms definition!

My friend Jen called me on my cell phone a few minutes ago to tell me for the first time in her life her Iron Levels in her blood are Normal. She and her doctor are very happy :-) She's attributing that to Shakeology

"Team BeachBody has changed my life .... i have lost 20 pounds and close to 10% of bodyfat on P90X, P90X Plus and Shakeology" - Diana MacCargar

“I went from A1C of 6.5 (diabetic) to 5.6 (not diabetic) due to Shakeology, and my chiropractor went from 6.7 to 5.5 in just one month. She is loving the results! Became a coach after 2 months of such good results and weight loss. Good stuff!” – Gwyn Morasko

“My endocrinologist shook my hand and wrote in my file to stop eating morning oatmeal and just drink Shakeology instead since it is the magic bullet for me! (Oatmeal can be healthy for some people, but not if you battle diabetes or grain allergies! Thank goodness for Shakeology!)” – Gwyn Morasko

“Shakeology helped me get off Diet Mountain Dew. Thank you Shakeology.” – Lisa Kauppinen

“Hardly any cramps for me either ~ I thought it was because I was eating right also ~ no junk, sodas, caffeine etc.” – Paula Woody

“Its only been a month but I hardly cramped this month!” – Denise Forte

"Since I gave up soda and started on shakeology I'm able to fall asleep and wake up at a normal time now" - Lisa Kauppinen

“Got the results from my very first blood test today! The Doc said, "Everything looks great, Excellent in fact!" I'm so thankful I have Shakeology to keep me on track.” – Stephanie Snider Hale

“I am surprised by the fact that I can feel allergies and they make me sleepy but that is all I am getting from them. thank you Shakeology” - Lisa Barron Kauppinen is a very happy Shakeology user. Look her up she is on my friend list :)

"I was on a lot of medication all the time for depression, pain, etc... and I just don't need it now. I didn't need it after about 2 months" - my friend Esther Bush talking about Team Beachbody products and how positively impactful they are

"One week of Shakeology, all the stress felt better and my body started feeling less ill. It's amazing how healthy a silly little shake can really be" - Elizadeth Hetherington

I just returned from a 6 day 42 mile hike crossing 9 thousand vertical feet. Shakeology kept me going better than my co climber's muscle milk and other supplements. I'm the only climber that didn't "bonk" from exhaustion. I'm also the only first timer out on a difficult climb like this one. Shakeology is now field tested and PROVEN to yield the best results and nutrition. - Troy Cantrell

“Found a cure for that morning cigarette craving. After a shakeology my cig craving went away. It’s been four hours since I had my Shakeology and I still don’t want a cigarette!” - Lisa Barron Kauppinen

Ok I am a believer, I feel really good, can see my abs again and my hair probably grew another half inch in 3 days. I woke up thinking I wouldn't want shakelogy for breakfast but in fact I did and I still enjoyed it. Great stuff. Seriously I am excited and think people should consider shakeology as an alternative to rogaine! - Kate Walker

"I'm back in my "skinny high school jeans" Haven't worn these in awhile:) Thanks SHAKEOLOGY" - Tammy Sawyer

“My two & a half year old begs me for "mommy's juice" (aka shakeology) every day” – Lindsey Ann

“my boys beg me and stephen for shakeology every time we have ours.” – Julie Thompson Barnes on Shakeology

“I quit smoking cigarettes and i quit drinking. I thought it would be really hard to quit but for some reason beings that I’m trying to get in better shape and the Shakeology and working out I have no craving to drink or smoke.” – Mitzi Serenity Harrelson

"So proud of myself. Thanks to my sister and Shakeology the weird old bird that everyone knows me as, or the crazy old lady that lives on the hill, has lost 18, yes I said 18 pounds!!!! Whoop,Whoop for Shakeology." - Lisa Bush Dobbs

“I had 4 or 5 STUBBORN pounds a few months ago that would not go off of me! finally lost them with my Shakeology meals. It is true!” – Trisha Hanson

“I was stuck for over a year and my weight was slowly creeping back up. I added one shake a day plus my workouts and the weight is coming back off again =:) I am down 8 pounds in about 4 weeks and feeling great!!!!” – Cindy Smith Hale

“I thought about the cost of the dvds compared with the cost of buying a whole new wardrobe and that's what made me realize it was a no-brainer” – My friend Ann who ordered P90X from me putting it in a way I’ve never heard it before. It’s a brilliant point to be made especially considering most people are really strapped financially

"Hey Tom, I got the shakeology yesterday and tried it out this morning. Wow! You were right about the taste. It's much better than I was even expecting." - My friend Jennifer Hard just got her first bag of Shakeology and loves it. Are you still on the fence? Just do it you'll be glad you did. Call me / write me I'll help you get the most for as little and any freebies available

“I feel SO great!! Energy and just... Everything! I feel alive. :) Yesterday I worked out, worked all night, got home and still had tons of energy! It was great. I am already getting better. Best feeling ever! I feel... Addicted. Haha. I def want more!! :)” – Lindsey Ramey-Radakovich

“I finally got my Shakeology - chocolate. And yes, u were correct all along Tom, it's very good. I make like a frappe` - like Starbucks with crushed ice.” – Patricia Raviolos

If you stop challenging your mind and body you will loose your freedom to varying debilitating problems. So then why must so many let their mind and body rot in the name of Freedom?

"My energy is up, my weight is down and I can't say enough about the hair, skin, and nails. It's Shakeology. It works." - Susan herrold

“Before Shakeology, I was taking 2 meds for HTN. After just a couple of weeks, I began to notice my blood pressure was within normal range.. I thought my digital BP checker needed a new battery, so, I changed 'em.. That confirmed... SHAKEOLOGY really works! Now, I am off from the medicine/s and worry-free because of SHAKEOLOGY!! I never missed a day without taking a glass.” – Amyla Apostol-Tadios

" I've been using Shakeology since before my pregnancy and continue to use it (I'm due in 2 weeks) and unlike most pregnant women, my blood pressure is on the low side of normal. Each time I go in I'm around 100/60 or less. High blood pressure during pregnancy is life-threatening so my doctor couldn't be happier." - Katie Peavy

“My skin has never been more smooth and those little bumps that started growing on my nose for the past ten years are finally starting to heal! The only thing I changed is I’m not drinking SHAKEOLOGY every day” – Trisha Hanson

"I use considerably less make up now because of what SHAKEOLOGY is doing for my skin, even during that one week out of the month" - Jennifer Edwards

“For the first time in 5 years my blood-work is "normal". The only change over the past 5 months has been drinking Shakeology consistently. Also when I'm a bit tired I'll have one and it seems to help "pep" me up too :)” – Rich Taub

“My experience with Shakeology has been great...When I first started drinking it regularly I really wasn't thinking about anything in particular that I needed to improve...I was already in the best shape of my life plus I was eating healthier than ever...taking my vitamins every day etc... Well after about 3 months or so...I realized that I was no longer suffering from MIGRAINES! WOW....the ONLY thing that I had changed was adding Shakeology to my nutrition plan! Since then I have not had one migraine...I know Shakeology is the reason! I love this stuff!” – Cindy Sellers Ward

“I have no scientific proof of course can't claim to be off meds or have b/p or cholesterol down but I did not have a cold or the flu at all this past winter! That just doesn't happen to me. Started Shakeology in the fall! I just know what I know.” – Michelle White

“I liked Shakeology from the first time I tried it. Started with chocolate and moved on to greenberry and love them both. But the body does need time to adjust to any change in diet. Especially if it's not used to healthier foods.” – Michelle White

“I am on day 8 of Shakeology and I haven't had such an energy packed week before in my LIFE!! I LOVE it!! I am coming home from work with ENERGY. I am getting done with a workout with ENERGY, and I can workout longer and harder because of all this ENERGY! I love it!! The motivation and my concentration are through the roof as well!! I LOVE THIS STUFF!!!” - Jen Bontrager

“Gives me more energy and I love the idea of starting my day by putting 70+ healthy vitamins and nutrients in my body. This is the only time it is GOOD to have a chocolate shake for breakfast!” – Doug Dergan

“Shakeology is not only delicious and gluten free (I have Celiac Disease), but I have found that I have more energy, my skin has become smoother and clearer, as well as loosing 4 stubborn lbs. I feel that it is filling in 'blank spaces' with nutrition in my body.” – Trisha Hanson

"the differences I saw surprised me. My hair was growing faster, looked healthier, my skin was not as dry as it had been in the past, I had increased energy, I was not as irritable I lost my craving for junk food, and it contributed to my 25 lb weight loss :-) It is a staple of my diet that I cannot go without. It tastes amazing and is good for me. Does it get any better?" - Stephanie Stafford Barry on SHAKEOLOGY!

“I have had more energy, lost 4 stubborn pounds, smoother skin, and have more energy” – Trisha Hanson Talking about Shakeology

“I had a friend try Shakeology the other day and she asked me "What's in those shakes? I had so much energy"! Well, no stimulants of any kind...just good nutrition and LOTS of it!” - Judy Jarrett Zavislak

;)"2 inches off the waistline in 17 days while drinking SHAKEOLOGY:)" - Tammy Sawyer

“my total inches lost for May was 6.37 overall :) how cool is that....and the total weight loss for May was 6.5 pounds I believe I am okay with that :)” – Jennifer Chubb

“I'm doing great! Almost done with week 2 and can already see changes. I'm really committing myself to the program and keeping the nutrition part up as well” – Brian J.

“I started my nutritional program and it is going very well. I really like the Brazil Butt lift program. When I do it, it really works and I see results” – Carla

"I am down 4 pounds so far on my 2nd Day of the 3 Day Cleanse. I even had to "cheat" a little and had a small steak with my salad last night instead of chicken. I feel great and I am not cranky or starving!!!" - Melissa Hudgens.

"I have Celiac Disease which means that Gluten destroys my digestive system. Shakeology is gluten free, and it has felt really wonderful! DELICIOUS on top of that!!" - Trisha Hanson

"In the last month I have lost those stubborn 4 lbs!! It keeps me full and I have also saved on groceries because I am not eating the same as I did. Another thing is that I feel more energy and my skin is really looking nice!" - Trisha Hanson Talking about SHAKEOLOGY

"Best part about Shakeology for me is the reduced cravings. Plus it tastes great. I have more energy too. No more 3 o'clock coffee for me!!" - Debra L.

"thinks it is an awesome thing when you put your jeans through the dryer and they still too big!" - Rebecca Huffman-Reiter

“I just got done showing Shakeology to my Doctor. He's a Vegan/raw foodist and he flipped when he saw it. Other than the whey, it's everything he already makes on his own. Said it was the absolute best thing I can put in my body. We did a test of my cellular health and I was in the top percentile! yeah, I'm sold.” – Markus Zimmerman

“I may have been without acne for the most part but I never glowed... now at almost 40 I have both clear skin & a healthy glow”- Tabbatha Hartig on SHAKEOLOGY

“Tom, Ever since I started drinking Shakeology I don’t feel bloated anymore and I’m slimming down” – Lynn Baker Kumm

"I really do like the shakeology. I am the most hungry when I wake up and it is actually very filling and gives me a nice boost for the morning. My favorite way to drink it is blended with ice and frozen strawberries." - Kate W

"Life is too short for us to watch our friends die early. That's the TRUTH." – Mike Thompson on his ‘WHY’ for being an Independent Team Beachbody Coach

“My son did a lot of Core Synergistics with me yesterday then said "Hit me with the Results and Recovery Drink, Mom!" So I made him a half serving and he says he isn't sore today. We teach best by example!” – Kaz Akers

At this point in my pregnancy, the baby is sitting so high that he's really pushing on my stomach making it really difficult to eat anything and giving me horrible heartburn when I do eat anything. Shakeology is one of the ONLY foods I can eat right now that not only doesn't give me heartburn, but I can finish it and know I'm giving my baby the right nutrition.

"10 days, 4 lbs, and full of energy too! Keeping my goal in sight and staying focused on what I need to do to get there. Starting every morning with a workout and Shakeology is the first thing on my list :)" - Erica Becker

“Okay - so this part-time Beachbody Coaching thing is paying off nicely. I've been really working it only a few months now and I'm averaging $500/mo. Honestly - I'm a beginner. The next 6 months I'm really going to ramp it up. If you want in - I can help you. Can you use an extra $500/mo???” – Mike Thompson

my kids did the fit kids club video by Shaun T tonight...they loved it so much, they did both 25 minute sessions....ROCK ON!!!!

“Slimfast; What a joke! It's like drinking Nesquik, it's not a meal! It sure doesn't give me the energy I use, so I end up eating more! Shakeology was the perfect meal replacement, and dieting wasn't quite so hard when I had it around” – Elizadeth H. on the Awesomeness of Shakeology

"Tastes like a Rich Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge Sickle" - Debbie Siebers on Shakeology

"My husband saw the Shakeology sample you sold me and drank it. I didn't even get to taste it. He loved it! We are going to place an order for a bag of Shakeology" - Carmen, Des Plaines Illinois talking about Shakeology :-)

"I have to admit that I refused to try Shakeology for so long because I thought it was way too expensive but it's actually save my family a lot of money now that we are all using it! Even my teenager!" - Christina M Sears & Family

“My hubby who six months ago swore up and down that he would never drink Shakeology and called it "crap" just started drinking Shakeology a week ago and is totally hooked and says he feels GREAT! The last two days he drank TWO of them!!..so trust me, if my stubborn hubby got convince (and it aint easy convincing him of anything) then you KNOW Shakeology is GOOOOOOD stuff!!” – Christina M Sears

"If you mix up the Chocolate Shakeology well enough, it tastes better than brownies. Thanks again for showing my mom and I Shakeology!" - Trevor, Kenosha WI

"1 year into our Beachbody business and every aspect of our lives have improved. " -Dan & Cammie Lusk , Fellow Independent Beachbody coaches

"Shakeology hands down. Good bye stomach ulcer" - Jamie from Raleigh, NC

"Ever since I started Shakeology I haven't had any acne breakouts and I've been struggling with that since I was 12" - kara phillips

"A first for me… finishing a workout and feeling like I got some more. Plus all that tension from work today has dissolved entirely" –Kara Phillips

"Beachbody and P90X helped me lose 50+ pounds and get in the best shape of my life." - Chris Sauer

"This morning something told me to try on this pair of jeans I had bought back in February that were 2 sizes smaller than my starting size and guess what...THEY FIT!!!! I didn't even have to suck it in :)" - Jennifer Chub

"So, Tuesday I was doing my Cardio X and my pants were falling down! And today... my pants are huge! I've had to tighten the belt like 4 times!!! YAY! I Love my P90X and Shakeology:-) " - Amy Harper on P90X and Shakeology!

"Tom, I've got a customer that lost 7lb in his first 5 days using Shakeology and another 4lbs this last 2 days so 11lbs in 7 days! That's the only thing he has changed. Still doing P90X, still eating the same things otherwise...he's just replaced one meal a day (usually lunch or dinner) with Shakeology mixed with either just skimmed milk or unsweetened Almond Breeze!" - Jude Voiles, Fellow Team BB coach!

"I honestly could not believe the difference in my energy level. I also could not believe that my sweet cravings were gone...I actually feel the difference if I miss a shake one day; my body craves it. It is delicious and satisfying, I feel full after I drink it..." - Paula, NV

"I use to be addicted to Red Bull but stopped once I was using Shakeology. I feel healthier and I no longer crash and burn. I made a commitment to never go back to Red Bull or those energy drinks." —Joanne, CA

Drinking Shakeology "my cholesterol was cut in half on my last doctors visit this month and the blood pressure medicine that the doctor tried to put me on was thrown away under the direction of my doctor!!". – David, Oklahoma

“MY GF'S DR (YES DOCTOR) said she should try the SHAKEOLOGY and she has DIABETES! SMART DR!” – Stacie Miller (Shakeology user and fellow Beachbody Coach)

"I was so impressed with Shakeology that I became a Beachbody Coach." - Teresa Heaney.

"I feel healthier on the days I drink Shakeology, which has to be every day for me." – Mary Ann Kobes.

"Shakeology is a necessity in my life now. It boosts my energy and my metabolism." – Beth Young.

"I had a few stubborn pounds to lose, and thanks to Shakeology I was able to do that!" – Mindy Kinsella.

"Shakeology is a great way to fight junk food and sweet cravings, increase energy, get regular, and it tastes fabulous!" Dottie Wood.

"HOLY SUPER DELICIOUS, BATMAN!!! I just made my first chocolate-peanut butter Shakeology..... WOW!!! I can't believe this stuff is healthy for you... it seriously tastes like a shake from coldstone!!! :D I’m so excited!!!!!!!!!!" - Colleen McCalip.

"I'm not getting my groceries for free so Shakeology was already paying for itself I just had to sign up for it to begin reaping the health benefits" - Shakeology user Kerry from Idaho who saves $150 + a month in groceries and is 20 times healthier for it. She went on to tell me over the phone that even if she had to put out extra money for it the health benefits are more than worth it

"I have to agree with her! I tried it today for the first time and I was full after just drinking half the glass! Thanks Tom for introducing me to it!!" My Very Long Time friend Lorna on Shakeology. She wouldn't kid me we go wayyyyy back!

“My doctor told me I could do the P90X workouts. So I am thrilled. He also said a lot of his patients have lost weight and improved their physical fitness and health in a dramatic way using P90X. So much so that he investigates the product and purchased it himself.” - Charles Morris

“I thought I really did quite well for DAY 1.. I surprised myself... It’s definitely unlike any other workout program I have ever done...” - Daryl Peterson

“I haven't been able to run in 4.5 years due to an injury, but due to P90X I've overcome that injury by strengthening my foot and stretching it - I never thought this was possible. 20+ years of working out and I'm only 32 - as you can imagine, working out has been an integral part of my life and thanks to P90X it is once again at the forefront of everything I do. Amen!” - Elvis A. P. Sheehan

"I feel good naked. That's how I feel" A very general Shakeology testimonial that keeps pouring in from mostly people I know and some from people I don't know.

“I just posted about how ever since I started drinking Shakeology(6mo ago) I have not been sick once...not even a cold! I have been keeping this info to myself for fear of saying it out loud as that would be bad luck:)” – Pria Elisabeth Orth

Sampled Shakeology this evening to a lady who preferred chocolate over Greenberry and get this... She only had a sample, about 1/4th of a serving, and she went from feeling hungry to feeling totally satisfied. If you have any question about this meal replacement shake actually filling you up... MYTH DEBUNKED :)

"It's not something I ever thought I had a problem with, but just 3 days into drinking my Shakeology I noticed less bloating, less gas, and just more comfortable in general." - Jamie, IL

"I weighed myself this morning. I lost 2 more lbs! It is such a great help seeing the results so soon. It is a great motivator to keep me on my routine. Thank you so much for the encouragement to try this great product. Not to mention it tastes really great!" - Kimberly Skittles on Shakeology

Just one month later Kimberly writes me again…

"Trust me Tom knows what he is talking about I started Shakeology a month ago and I have so much energy. I can work out now and have lost 18 lbs since I started it is fantastic and it tastes great to. Thanks Tom" - Kimberly Skittles

"In January 2009 I was told by my cardiologist that I would need a heart valve replacement at the age of 40. The only consistent change I made was weight loss and maintaining a healthy weight with Shakeology. In December 2009 my cardiologist was blown away with his findings of my heart starting to "repair" itself. I was told that if I keep doing what I am doing, then the replacement will be delayed until I am 50. Keep in mind that the medication that was prescribed to me, I never took." - Chad, NE

On Shakeology “I don't feel like I have to take a nap everyday when I get home from work. With my thyroid disease I have a severe issue with energy. Thank You for helping me improve my life Tom” – My Long Time Dear Friend Tabbatha from Wisconsin :-) I love my friends and family so I introduce them to Shakeology

“Got my sample bundle in the mail today! YUM! Made a chocolate shake

straight up SHAKING it baby with some almond milk! Really good &

choco-lovely! No weird chemical flavors or any aftertaste = deee-lish!

Thanks mucho!” – Barbara Brown

“MY GF'S DR (YES DOCTOR) said she should try the SHAKEOLOGY and she has DIABETES! SMART DR!” – Stacie Miller (Shakeology user and fellow Beachbody Coach)

"I was so impressed with Shakeology that I became a Beachbody Coach." - Teresa Heaney. What she doesn't say here is that she is getting a $30 discount off her monthly Shakeology order! A lot of you are drinking Shakeology already. Consider signing up for the 25% discounts, http://passionfitness.info click the Coach link, and save an extra $360 per year.

"I feel healthier on the days I drink Shakeology, which has to be every day for me." – Mary Ann Kobes. I share her sentiment! Just for kicks and giggles I “experimented” one day by not drinking my Shakeology just to see if I’d notice a difference. I did. It’s just foolish to not feel good every day.

"Shakeology is a necessity in my life now. It boosts my energy and my metabolism." – Beth Young. I know what Beth is talking about. Shakeology not only helps an over weight person loose weight but it also makes it Easier for me to maintain my excellent body composition. It makes my workouts much more invigorating! If you struggle with getting into your workouts try Shakeology it will help get you in the mood :-)

"I had a few stubborn pounds to lose, and thanks to Shakeology I was able to do that!" – Mindy Kinsella. I know hundreds and hundreds of people with the same gripe about those stubborn last few pounds that just won’t come off! Consequently, not coincidentally, they have not joined me in team Beachbody and they are certainly not drinking Shakeology. Quit wasting your time and money and get some Shakeology http://HeavenInAGlass.info

"Shakeology is a great way to fight junk food and sweet cravings, increase energy, get regular, and it tastes fabulous!" Dottie Wood. This is sooooooo true I hear this regularly from my Shakeology users. It is MUCH easier to eat healthy the rest of the day if you have a Shakeology feeding your body from the start of your day. Do you struggle with saying no to junk food? Get on Shakeology http://HeavenInAGlass.info

"HOLY SUPER DELICIOUS, BATMAN!!! i just made my first chocolate-peanutbutter shakeology..... WOW!!! i can't believe this stuff is healthy for you... it seriously tastes like a shake from coldstone!!! :D i'm so excited!!!!!!!!!!" - Colleen McCalip. Sounds like love at first taste to me :-) http://HeavenInAGlass.info Get some and select the Free... shipping for life option

Drinking Shakeology "my cholesterol was cut in half on my last doctors visit this month and the blood pressure medicine that the doctor tried to put me on was thrown away under the direction of my doctor!!". – David, Oklahoma

Christina M Sears

“I cancelled my gym membership about one month into turbo jam! At first I thought I needed the gym membership for the equipment...you know, treadmill and stuff but I actually saw more results in my body after one month on Turbo Jam then I did in 20 years going to the gym! Turbo Jam shrunk inches off my abs that I had believed to be "genetic" and nothing could be done about it! HA...so I wrote a letter to the gym and told them to cancel my membership ASAP! That was last march of 2009 and ever regretting it!!!!”

Connie Alexander

“Hey Tom!!! I did the first Insanity disk last night!! I was able to do all the exercises even with my knee issues. In fact, I have made so much progress with my strength and flexion range of my knee! I can almost bend it all the way! I have been able to do more on my own than what my therapists were able to do for me thanks to these programs!!”

Janie Hamlin

"I couldn't get an hour glass look without the weight lifting."

On Shakeology –

“Addicting! I just tried it for the first time almost a month ago. It really is that little piece of heaven everyday! So Good!”

Jessica Espinoza

Expectant mothers of twins on Yoga Booty Ballet for Pregnancy:

"I tried the yoga booty ballet for pregnancy and I’m in love with it. It is SSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOO wonderful it really helps you connect with your baby or babies in my case and it’s a great little cardio session!"

Tracy Boyd

“Shakeology a thing that you just have to try yourself....IT IS LIKE NO OTHER DRINK on the market! The taste is AWESOMELY DELICIOUS!!!”

Jimmy Nelson

“My dad for the past year or so has been in and out of the hospital for for multiple heart issues so I got him Shakeology. Two weeks after that I got a message from my step mom saying they have both been taking Shakeology, their digestion and regularity is better, they feel better, dad is moving around more, they have more energy. A month into it my dad goes back to the doctor and his doctor takes him off two of his heart medications, his cholesterol is down, he lost thirty pounds, I get to have my dad around longer because of Shakeology.”

ShevaunWilliams

“I feel more energized & lighter when I work out. It satisfies me for 2 – 3 HOURS. After my shake I have to remind myself to eat I am not hungry....it helps to regulate my blood sugar & my craving for sweets & chocolate. I have used metrx, eas, slimfast, ensure, myoplex and other meal replacement shakes and they just do not compare. The satiety is truly amazing!”

“I’m bi-polar/OCD and I use yoga, Pilates & exercise to fight depression. Without it I would be on meds and a mess. Last year I started turbo because I was deeply depressed & fat, my mom was dying & my dad was hospitalized. It was either the hospital for me or take charge of my health, so I took charge. My doc tapered me off the meds & helped me to channel the negative emotional energy into positive exercise. I conquered the OCD by confronting it. Beach Body, exercise & health are my passion.”

Katie Peavy

“I prefer the chocolate blended with milk and frozen berries. Some mornings I like to blend it with brewed coffee (or espresso) and ice. YUM YUM! I'm totally addicted to Shakeology!”

Tina Drake

“Tom, I have been sick since Halloween, I stopped drinking my SHAKEOLOGY like a wk before I got sick, just ran out of OJ so didn't drink it. I just started drinking it again this week, guess what, this week I'm BETTER!!! SHAKEOLOGY ROCKS!!! I'll drink it everyday for the rest of my life!!! Just wanted to share that with you!”

Kathleen Anstrand

“Shakeology, yummy, day 3 of Shakeology religiously & my cough & sniffles are almost gone, my ears are totally unstuffed and I feel 95% better! Great considering Sunday I felt like death warmed over. You know what else I love about the shakeology shakes? I didn't believe it until I’d had it several days in a row, it really does stave off hunger for hours unlike anything else I’ve ever tried, usually if I eat anything loaded w/ vitamins like this, about 2 or 3 hours later, I get super hungry, but 2 or 3 hours after my shakeology, I’m totally not hungry!”

*my friend swears by the Acai juice from GNC, so she talked me into wasting over $20 on a bottle of it, I took 2 ounces a day for a month and felt absolutely nothing.”

Michele Kline

“I had my first Shakeology this morning and it is so yummy!!! I just did it with the choc and skim milk!!!! I placed my order this morning with my coach!!!!”

Emily Simonson Bouma

“I had my first Shakeology this morning!! I don't think I’ve ever tasted something so good for me that tastes so YUMMY!!! IF you think this shake is anything like slimfast or any other weightloss/protein shake you have tried I can tell you you're wrong!! I have never tasted anything like this. It’s really amazing that it's actually good for you. I’m not selling it, have nothing to gain by convincing anyone, other than I know it's good for you and you will benefit from it in so many ways. If you are wondering at all, TRY IT!!”

“P90X Recovery Drink: I notice a marked difference if I don't use the recovery drink. My muscles are practically not sore at all if I use it and it tastes GOOD!”

“I am just amazed by these products. I have watched what I eat for all of my adult life. I’m a boxing coach and nutrition is a big deal to us. But, honestly, between the nutrition and the p90x workouts, I have never felt better in my life!!”

Lora Cummins

“I think Shakeology does greatly reduce menopausal symptoms”

Angela Gee Bray

“In addition to loosing weight, saving a ton of money in groceries, and feeling better Shakeology eliminated my hot flashes! :-) I started Shakeology in July of ‘09 and no hot flashes since! But right now I wouldn’t mind a hot flash or two as it’s only 18 degrees outside…brrr *laugh*”

A few months later Angela adds:

“I haven't been sick either!!! My allergies still make me eye-itchy and sniffly sometimes, but NEVER SICK!! No colds, no flu, no stomach viruses, no sinus infections- nothing!! It's awesome. Still now more hot flashes since before Shakeology and I’m 45 now!”

Karen Marie Powell

“I have noticed huge improvements on my digestive health and even though I used to have just occasional heartburn, I haven't had it as long as I have been using Shakeology every morning for breakfast. I make mine with skim milk and I believe that the milk also helps out.”

Austin Demary

“I'm Type I Diabetic and Shakeology has been great. Never felt better in my life!”

A few months later Austin writes me again… “Just had my check-up with my Doctor and my HbA1c level and Cholesterol levels were the best they have ever been. He actually told me to chill out because I'm pushing myself too hard...not!!! P90X + Shakeology!!! I'm a Type I Diabetic and I have never been this healthy...even before I was diagnosed. Beachbody products are the real deal!!!”

Samantha B

“You just don't know how grateful I am that you introduced me to Shakeology! Feeling good is something so many people take for granted. I haven't felt at 100% in over ten years, so this is the biggest blessing I've had in over a decade. I think that's unbelievable!”

“I thought it was going to taste nasty, like the protein shakes. I stand corrected! It tasted better than I thought it would. I only used water, can imagine how nice it would taste with soy milk. I actually wanted another one right after but gotta wait till tomorrow :P I want it to last till next month when the next comes, so I’ll have to show some restraint!”

Cammie Lusk

“Shakeology brought my body back to life!”

Stricken with Multiple Scleroses 11 years ago at age 28 & a Cancer patient. MS confined her to a wheel chair. Chemotherapy rid her of her cancer but also left her digestive system unable to get the nutrients from food she needed to exercise or even feel good. Shakeology turned her digestive system back on! The hospitals did not! Shakeology saved her life, no hype, no exaggeration. This one success story alone makes so many powerful points regarding the problems that many of us have and use against our selves as reasons to keep from even trying to achieve. The "I don't have what it takes to get in shape" holds no water with any of YOU :) Just sayin ;)

Annette MacDougall

“I know I haven't touched my migraine meds since I started using it!! Shakeology has helped so many people! The Chocolate Shakeology with a few drops of peppermint extract is just like a York Patty! Another is Greenberry Shakeology with Cinnamon and Coconut extract!” – Annette on Shakeology

“I’m 51 years old and proud of it! P90X & Shakeology have changed my life. I have never felt better! I can't say enough good things about how Team Beachbody can help anyone!” – Kaz Akers

Jennifer Chub

“After Just one month of Rocken Body her measurements showed a loss of 11 3/4" overall including 4 1/4" off her waist”

Lorna Walmsley

“I tried Shakeology today for the first time and I was full after just drinking half the glass! Thanks Tom for introducing me to it!!”

Pria Elisabeth Orth

“I just posted about how ever since I started drinking Shakeology (6mo ago) I have not been sick once...not even a cold! I have been keeping this info to myself for fear of saying it out loud as that would be bad luck :)”

Dave Prochaska

“I have not been sick at all since Shakeology in November! Usually get 1 bad cold from the kids in the winter sometime. Everyone else was sick but me :)”

Joyce Birkenmeyer (My Mom!)

“I use to get nauseated every morning and it was terrible. Only a few days into Shakeology I woke up without feeling nauseous for the first time in a long time! I have not had a nauseous morning since then and that was over 6 months ago!”

Amy Harper

“I just could not get the pounds off! P90X and Shakeology has changed that!”

Samantha B – on Shakeology

“For me personally, I am saving well over $200 a month from not having to buy the tons of produce every week. I am new to Shakeology, but I love it and already my friends are wanting to jump on the bandwagon. It seems like a lot of money to pay out for Shakeology at first, but when you're able to cut out your produce if you are already eating healthy, you are going to save a LOT of money! And for the people who are eating junk food and hardly spending any money, even if you have more out of pocket expense, think of it as paying a little to have a few years added on to your life. How priceless is that? It's so true, I really am. If I were to buy all the fresh food I would require on a daily basis, my grocery bill would amount to nearly 400 per month just for me alone. I know this because I have done it. I have had to skimp on nutrients and try to make it up by taking vitamins to save money but I ALWAYS physically felt like crap. Now all I spend on food for myself a week is around $30-$40, and I get everything I need! Add Shakeology in for about another $30 and even with those two combined, I have still cut my grocery bill in half. And I'm not missing out on any foods I love. That is with me buying everything I wanted to eat. (Non-healthy items excluded of course!) Now add in all my Dr. visits for health problems like high cholesterol, blood pressure, heart problems, general sicknesses which I will no longer have to worry about. Co-pays are around $20 a pop. I was having to visit the Dr. at least once a month, so drinking Shakeology is saving me another 240 a year in Dr. visits plus medicines are expensive. It gives me the energy I need to complete a workout, which gives my mood a real boost! So you can even potentially save on mood herbs and medicines like antidepressants. I'm sorry this is such a long post, I'm just so grateful for what good things Shakeology is doing in my life, and if you cut out one day a week of going out to eat, you've pretty much paid for it, even without all the other savings.”

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

I have osteoarthritis in my hips & spine & my mom suffered so many broken bones.. She fell & fractured her pelvis, was unable to walk & died 8 weeks later... both ChaLEAN Extreme & P90X~ have contributed to a 37% bone density increase over the last 18 months!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lift ladies lift!!!!! I’m completely off the Fosamax & all pain meds because of TEAM BEACHBODY!!!!!

I rarely talk about my "stuff" cause it's personal & painful.. but it needed to be told.. We watched her suffer needlessly...every time I have a dexa scan the tech & my doc are so amazed at how my skeletal has improved.. I still have small fractures and always will, but I’m building new bone! I don't need to wear the posture bra anymore!! When I started ChaLEAN Extreme I could only do 12.5 in shoulder presses. Now I’m pushing up 22.5! Every time I want to give up I picture my mom cheering me on! She refused to do strength because it was too hard...if only.... my hips are stronger because I power walk 7-9 miles daily & do squats & lunges.. I will not give up or in! Keep moving it ladies!!! I owe it all to TEAM BEACHBODY!!!!!!!!!!! – Shevaun Williams

Team Beachbody (more specifically ChaLEAN Extreme) changed my life too. I broke my back in 2002 and suffered 7 years of excruciating pain, physical therapy that did nothing, and pain meds that barely took the edge off. I started ChaLEAN Extreme in Feb 2009 (today is May 7th 2010) and within the first week I was pain-free. I got my life back. My physical therapist couldn't believe the difference in my range of motion in just one week. I went from barely able to lean back to being able to do a back-bend. For the first time in 7 years I was able to stand straight up out of bed instead of hobbling for 10 minutes first. – Katie Peavy

Faith Without Action is Dead Meaningless Faith

2011-07-10T05:52:00.000-07:00

I'm so tired of watching the foolishness of Christians blowing up like a balloon saying "god will take care of everything" all the while doing nothing to meet god half way.

"That's what faith is" says a lot of Christians.

Faith is not about disengaging from your own life only to let god take care of everything. When you step god steps. Stand still god is probably going to stand still. Faith is only putting your heart and belief into something that cannot be observed or measured. Faith is of the metaphysical world. You can't see it or measure it but you believe it anyway so it is faith. Do you understand faith now?

High cholesterol is measurable it is not faith. High blood pressure is measurable it is not faith. Diabetes, obesity, the poor behavior that you model is all observable and measurable it is not faith. It's your profound false belief in faith that develops these observable measurable things going on in your body.

God doesn't make fake food. God gave us whole all natural ORGANIC foods so that we can take care and HONOR our temple that our soul occupies in our current experience. Man invented fake food; the junk food that most of you put in your mouths regularly. God did not give us artificial sweeteners and trans fats. Do you think god made artificial sweeteners, preservatives, and trans fats? Man did all of that. Do you think god wants you to put that garbage in your body? Of course not. That's why those of you who consume it regularly have all those health problems.

Your body is your temple. Take care of your temple. Honor your temple and your god by putting good things into your mind, BODY, and spirit. You need to actively grow and nurture all 3 every day. Mind, BODY, as well as spirit. Otherwise your faith is dead meaningless faith.

Our kids are dying now at least partly because of the behaviors Christians are modeling. Modeling obesity, diabetes, clogged arteries and sludge churning blood vessels is not godly. If Jesus were around today he'd get all of his food in the all natural ORGANIC whole food section of the grocery store or he'd grow and harvest his own food with no chemicals or un natural fertilizers. Jesus would not be putting the kind of garbage most Christians seem to be consuming into his mouth. Can you see Jesus eating the kind of food you eat? I didn't think so. Jesus was the greatest leader that ever lived I believe. And he modeled the behavior he wished for you to model as well. So why aren't you modeling it? Why are you trashing and disgracing the temple in which your soul occupies in your current experience with the garbage you put into your mouth? Will you finally at last cut it out and really start honoring your god with your mind, BODY, and soul?

God gave you a potential. We all have a potential and it's always bigger than we realize. The day you decide you've experienced enough, you're old enough, you're mature enough, you're at a place in your life where you've decided you've grown as close toward your potential as you need to and you're just going to let your mind, your body, or your spirit stop growing then you are CHEATING, dishonoring, and disgracing the god of your choosing. The very day you decide to stop taking care of your health is the day you begin cheating god; whom was gracious to give you your potential in the first place.

God didn't arbitrarily give you potential. Gods plan is for you to live up to your potential. There is a very real and divine purpose behind your potential. I don't know what that purpose is but it probably revolves around helping people even if it's just in the form of giving someone hope in the midst of their own struggles. How could you cheat those people you were suppose to give hope to and let your body, or your mind, or your spirit just rot away? Are you really that self-absorbed in your own ego? You inspire and give hope to no one when you do that. That is not what god has planned for you. That's YOUR DECISION you made on your own without god.

Will you finally step with god and give your faith meaning? Will you pull your faith out from the status of "dead faith" and actually do something positive every day to feed your mind, BODY, and spirit? Will you finally do these things and actively begin being part of gods plans for all of us? Will you finally once and for all and for the love of people around you desperate for hope quit being so self absorbed that you can't be bothered to take care of your health and begin scoring some victories everyone can see over your own challenges?

- Tom

10 Reasons Why Women Need To Lose Weight - by Whitney Provost

2011-06-18T09:04:00.000-07:00

10 Reasons Why Women Need to Lift Weights
By Whitney Provost
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Many women believe that the only way to lose weight is to do cardiovascular (aerobic exercise). So they jog or take aerobics classes five times a week. Eventually, though, they notice that while their bodies are a little smaller, there are still a lot of flabby and jiggly bits. Sound familiar? Aerobic exercise is important for good health, but it's only half of the equation. Keep reading for the other half.

For optimal fitness, longevity, and a lean body, weight training is essential. If you avoid pumping iron because you're afraid of getting "bulky," then you're missing out on one of the best fat-burning methods around.

When you're weight training, you shouldn't rely exclusively on the scale to gauge your progress. You can use a body fat tester or a tape measure to track how many inches you're losing. The size of your body will shrink as you shed fat and build muscle, but your weight may not change as dramatically as you expect. Besides, what's more important, the number on the scale or how you look in your skinny jeans?

If you're still not convinced that you need to lift weights, here are 10 reasons why you should reconsider.

    1. Burn more fat. Researchers at Tufts University found that when overweight women lifted heavy weights twice a week, they lost an average of 14.6 pounds of fat and gained 1.4 pounds of muscle. The control group, women who dieted but didn't lift weights, lost only 9.2 pounds of fat and gained no muscle. When you do an intense weight-training program such as ChaLEAN Extreme®, your metabolism stays elevated and you continue to burn fat for several hours afterward. During regular cardio exercise, you stop burning fat shortly after the workout.

    2. Change your body shape. You may think your genes determine how you look. That's not necessarily true. Weight training can slim you down, create new curves, and help avoid the "middle-age spread." Just look at the amazing body transformations of the women who've completed P90X®. Dropping only 3 percent of your body fat could translate into a total loss of 3 inches off your hips and thighs. And no, you won't bulk up—women don't have enough muscle-building hormones to gain a lot of mass like men do. If you keep your diet clean and create a calorie deficit, you'll burn fat.

    3. Boost your metabolism. The less muscle you have, the slower your metabolism will be. As women age, they lose muscle at increasing rates, especially after the age of 40. When you diet without doing resistance training, up to 25 percent of the weight loss may be muscle loss. Weight training while dieting can help you preserve and even rebuild muscle fibers. The more lean mass you have, the higher your metabolism will be and the more calories you'll burn all day long.

    4. Get stronger and more confident. Lifting weights increases functional fitness, which makes everyday tasks such as carrying children, lifting grocery bags, and picking up heavy suitcases much easier. According to the Mayo Clinic, regular weight training can make you 50 percent stronger in 6 months. Being strong is also empowering. Not only does it improve your physical activities, it builds emotional strength by boosting self-esteem and confidence.

    5. Build strong bones. It's been well documented that women need to do weight-bearing exercise to build and maintain bone mass, and prevent osteoporosis. Just as muscles get stronger and bigger with use, so do bones when they're made to bear weight. Stronger bones and increased muscle mass also lead to better flexibility and balance, which is especially important for women as they age.

    6. Fight depression. You've probably heard that cardio and low-impact exercises such as yoga help alleviate depression, and weight lifting has the same effect. The endorphins that are released during aerobic activities are also present during resistance training. Many women find that regular strength training, in conjunction with psychological treatment, helps lessen their depression symptoms substantially.

    7. Improve sports fitness. You don't have to be an athlete to get the sports benefit of weight training. Improved muscle mass and strength will help you in all physical activities, whether it's bicycling with the family, swimming, golfing, or skiing . . . whatever sport you enjoy.

    8. Reduce injuries and arthritis. Weight lifting improves joint stability and builds stronger ligaments and tendons. Training safely and with proper form can help decrease the likelihood of injuries in your daily life. It can also improve physical function in people with arthritis. A study conducted at the University of Wales in Bangor, United Kingdom, found that mildly disabled participants who lifted weights for 12 weeks increased the frequency and intensity at which they could work, with less pain and increased range of movement.

    9. Heart health. More than 480,000 women die from cardiovascular disease each year, making it the number-one killer of women over the age of 25. Most people don't realize that pumping iron can also keep your heart pumping. Lifting weights increases your "good" (HDL) cholesterol and decreases your "bad" (LDL) cholesterol. It also lowers your blood pressure. The Journal of the American Medical Association reports that people who do 30 minutes of weight lifting each week have a 23 percent reduced risk of developing heart disease compared to those who don't lift weights.

    10. Defend against diabetes. In addition to keeping your ticker strong, weight training can improve glucose utilization (the way your body processes sugar) by as much as 23 percent. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 16 weeks of strength training can improve glucose metabolism in a way that is comparable to taking diabetes medication. The more lean mass you have, the more efficient your body is at removing glucose from the blood, which can reduce complications from diabetes or even help prevent type 2 diabetes in the first place.

Faith and Action

2011-06-17T10:45:00.000-07:00

God says to trust in Jesus for all things are possible through him. God also says you step closer to me and I step closer to you. You stand still and I stand still.

"Faith without action serves no real purpose." - Jim Rohn

From my own observation most religious people seem to have a huge mental gap between faith and action. They talk faith but give their faith some weak little meaning with some weak little actions creating weak little results in their lives. And it's not just religious people it's far to many non religious people to.

I'm a non denominational Christian with a very personal direct relationship with god and I do not go to church. Here is what I believe:

God gave us autonomous minds so we can have faith, philosophy, and ACT! You will NOT increase your health, your income, or your spiritual wellness unless YOU ACT.

You are exactly where you are suppose to be at in your life by the decisions you've made and actions you've taken. You're health, income, and spiritual problems will not be solved by faith alone. You must ACT!

Religious people take up the bulk of the obesity epidemic in America. The most common philosophy I hear from religious people who are not doing well is, "god will take care of me". I've got news for you. If all you have is faith and you aren't taking those actionable steps to give your faith any meaning then god is standing still for you giving you enormous opportunity to take those actionable steps and change your life. Take one step closer toward god and god takes one step toward you. Take one step closer toward wealth and wealth takes one step toward you. Take one step closer toward health and health takes one step closer toward you. You get the idea it's very simple stuff!

Point of truth.

If your faith isn't given any meaning with good actions then your faith is just silly and it's folly. Your commitments are only as strong as your actions and your faith without any works is just dead faith.

I'm personally not going to dishonor my god, the earth, the universe, myself, or nature with a folly faith and belief because I understand the consequences of inaction and I understand those consequences are inescapable. I hope you understand this to.

The challenges in your life are not there to keep you from where you want to be. They are not meant to invoke the foolish belief that I see all too often in the religious community of, "faith alone is enough I don't need to act." God gives us challenges to give us OPPORTUNITIES to seek the knowledge to get the things that we want. This is what I personally believe. My belief affects my daily ACTIONS. And my daily actions driven by my faith allows me to literally shape the life of my dreams and to pay it forward for other people.

And get this... It doesn't matter if you are religious or not. If you believe in god or not. These are natural laws of the earth that exist for you to harness and shape your life how ever you want. Most of us don't even seem to scrape the surface of our own personal potential because of our weak little belief systems. We die with more than 90% of our potential completely untapped! Even after all I've accomplished I know that my potential is so much greater than my accomplishments. My goal in life is to see how close I can come to tapping my full potential while I'm here on this planet earth. I hope you have that goal as well. And I hope you realize the only way to move closer to your own human potential is with ACTION fueled by Strong unshakable faith.

Bridge the gap between faith and action. Honor the god of your choosing and see what happens in your life over time. It's exciting!!!

Have faith, DO faith!

-Tom

Poverty to Wealth Empowerment

2011-06-09T08:56:00.000-07:00

With all my HEART, You're broke not because of what happened to you. It's because of you. I know poverty and wealth first hand on a very personal level. Poverty is uncomfortable, degrading, and it's entirely reversible no matter how bad the circumstances.

I figured out how to go from being broke and poverty stricken from a few years ago to some awesome wealth and liberation from "Hard times" in a jerk face economy. It wasn't my Team Beachbody opportunity. My Team Beachbody opportunity was only the vehicle.

The true engine behind change, as well as every other person who changed their life, is in the mind. It doesn't start with the economy. It doesn't start with what happens to you or what's going on around you. It starts in your mind. If change doesn't begin in your mind FIRST then it's not going to occur in your life, period.

Two things happened that changed everything and I've found this to be true for EVERY rags to riches success story. These two things are entirely duplicable by ANYONE especially YOU. 1.) I changed my belief in my self and my personal philosophies that drive my daily rituals for some new daily rituals that were more supportive of my dreams than my old daily rituals were. 2.) I changed how I respond to what happens to me. You shape your life by responding to the good and the bad things that happen to you whether you believe it or not.

If you're broke and poverty stricken I'm telling you this with all my heart to give you hope that drives you to new actions because hope alone is not a strategy or a solution to anything. I'm absolutely certain you can come out of hard ship and THRIVE with a simple change in your belief system.

The popular and truly poisonous belief for most people is they believe the reason they are broke is because of the economy and fallen on hard times. If this is your belief I empathize with your hard ships but it is not the economy. If you're over 18 there is nothing legislating a poverty or a wealth stricken life for you. It's your belief, your personal philosophy, your daily rituals, and how you respond to what happens to you. It's not the fact you might be a single mom getting help from the government because you can't make ends meet and a job that pays you less than the bare minimum to just get by. It's your belief system, your personal philosophies that drive your daily action and how you respond to what happens to you.

This truly offends some people. Welcome to your permanent house guest; poverty. Don't be offended. Feel EMPOWERED. That's what this is about. It's not to offend or make you feel scorn. If it makes you angry that's not all together a bad thing. Many times we don't change something until we are angry enough first so if anger leads to change leads to a better life for you then get angry.

Complacency is another popular poison in our culture. Get mad and don't take it anymore! You are a POWERFUL human being capable of shaping your life any which way you want if only you wouldn't be so damn complacent. This isn't some arbitrary positive affirmation I'm feeding you. I'm saying it because I know with absolute certainty that it's true! It's been validated time and time again by every person working in the same economy as you and I who went from rags to riches often times coming out of devastation greater than yours or mine. It's the same economy. The only difference is YOU.

The economy, politics, being a single parent, on disability, abusive child hood, fallen on hard times etc.... People who mean well fill our heads with this kind of poison as justification to not be doing well. "Oh johnny it's ok you're on hard times right now because of the economy." Or, "Suzie your a single mom on disability there is nothing you could have done to avoid being broke and on assistance". Friends who say these things mean well and I truly do empathize...but... That's how a friend who means well helps a friend to stay broke year after year. It's poisonous. It's pure head trash. Cut it out your friends don't need your help to stay dirt poor head trash is everywhere stop contributing to the epidemic. Try rebelling against that garbage with a greater will to succeed and see what happens. There is nothing less empowering than to tell a person, no matter how bad it is, that they are broke because of environmental variables they have no control over.

And here is why...

All of us NEED difficulties and opportunities, good times and hard times, a bad economy a good economy and so on to give us a wide scope of good and bad things to respond to. We NEED things to happen to us the good and the bad. Most of what happens to us we have no control over. But we control our response to what happens to us 100% of the time. If you're reading this and your broke then BURN this into your mind as deep as you can it's how I got out of poverty it's the same opportunity for you to get out of poverty to... You NEED to change how you respond to what happens to you. You NEED to ESPECIALLY change your response to the bad in your life. Bad and Good events are ALL opportunities to shape your life any which way you'd like. Without the Good and the Bad that happens to you there is no opportunity to change anything that you need to change.

Begin to see difficulties and bad events in your life for what they are. They are all opportunities for you to respond. It's your consistent response to what happens to you that shapes your life. It's your consistent response to what happens to you that keeps you broke OR brings you into wealth OR takes you from wealth to poverty. Are you beginning to see how powerful you can be just by changing how you respond to what happens to you? God I hope so.

You might have it really tough right now. But I promise you there is always going to be someone who had it tougher than you who changed how they respond to what happens to them and came out of it in a big way in the SAME economy that you're in. Whats the only difference if the economy is the same for both the broke person who stays broke and the broke person who discovers personal wealth? It's YOU. Would you rather believe you can totally change everything by changing your mind first or would you rather hear a well intended friend tell you that there is nothing you can do because the economy is bad right now? And if you're the well intended friend trying to help a friend which message would you rather have? The one of empowerment or the one of hopelessness?

Compassion.

The emotion often lost in cyber translation. When I say things like, "its not the economy it's you" it's coming from my heart because I believe it with absolute certainty. It's all 100% compassion and understanding. If you could hear my voice you'd know it.

You see I was there I know it very well. When you come out of poverty and into wealth it's going to be because you changed your daily rituals and how you respond to what happens to you. You changed your mind first and then your life followed! Once you have the validation from the results in your life to prove it works then you're going to be driven by that big heart of yours to pay it forward any which way you can. It's exciting for me to be able to look a broke person over the age of 18 right in the cranium and say to them, "You messed up... But what you don't know yet is you are POWERFUL you can change all of it by changing how you respond to what happens to you and putting some more supportive daily rituals in motion in your life! Others in the same economy you're working in discovered personal wealth. They are no better than you. You can do this."

Heart.

It takes no guts and no heart whatsoever to tell a friend they are broke and in hard times because of the economy and some other things that happened to them that they have no control over. It takes guts, compassion, and a BIG heart to tell a friend, "I feel you... but you're exactly where you're at in your life because of the decisions you've made. Whats exciting about that is if it makes you uncomfortable you have enormous power to change all that."

I want you to know that you're in the same economy, the same political landscape, the same planet, and bound by the same natural laws of the earth as every other person who discovered their own personal wealth, health, liberation, and happiness. The only difference is YOU. If you're uncomfortable where your life is then change your mind first and your life will follow. EVERY time.

Here is your challenge to help you live a healthier, happier, more full filling life. Start the challenge IMMEDIATELY because procrastination is the cornerstone of all poverty and action is the way to living better.

1. Swap out some daily rituals not supportive of living better with some that are more supportive of living better. 2. Change how you respond to what happens to you. 3. If you're telling friends they are where they are at in their lives because of what's happened to them stop doing that and instead let them know they can change everything by changing their daily rituals and how they respond to what happens to them. The latter is empowering for change. The other is poisonous and incapable of empowering anyone for change unless they rebel against you.

I'd love to hear about your success. Write / call me share with me what you've changed and how it's affected your life. Truly I LOVE success stories and I'd love to hear yours. Get started on that right away!

- Tom

Model it and LIVE it

2011-05-08T09:30:00.000-07:00

More than anything I want to partner up with people who are sick and tired of seeing so much suffering that is so preventable and reversible if only more people would step up and be the model of a healthier life style our cultural problems with obesity and childhood type 2 diabetes would begin reversing.

Modeling it and actually LIVING IT is what inspires people to change not talking about it. If you're only talking about it you're still part of the problem. The talk and inaction has gotten so bad that now a days our kids are literally dying from this problem along with adults.

It's inexcusable to continue to be part of the problem. We live in an unsustainable existence when the majority of the population is over weight and modeling a "rot to death" life style that our kids are emulating.

Step up, hate apathy enough to kill it, and be part of the solution. We have infinite powers to end the trend of obesity and diabetes. Stop rotting and grow. Our kids will model our behavior. Don't let it be a behavior of cowardly talking a good game all the while taking no initiative. Lets do this!

Tom

My "Hate apathy enough to kill it" video

Chocolate "O" Dark Chocolate Decadence Shakeology

2011-05-04T09:43:00.000-07:00

This is easily the most DECADENT Dark Chocolate I've ever tasted. The thing that is so incredible to me is that I get to intensely enjoy one or two of these tall glasses of chocolate awesomeness every day which takes care of my sweet tooth and does an enormous amount to help me feel my best every day. Life is wonderful!
Dark Chocolate "O" Decadence Shakeology
1 scoop Chocolate Shakeology (usually for Breakfast)
1/5 cup frozen blueberries OR Strawberries (I go by site I don't actually measure this)
2 ice cubes (place in blender or beaker before water)
10 oz of cold water (You control how chocolaty you want it with the amount of water you add so play with that)
Optional: Shakeology Boost: The Fiber

Or Try 1/2 serving of Shakeology Twice a Day instead of 1 Full Serving once a Day and make Shakeology pay for itself twice! My users save between $200 and $500 a month in groceries while paying only $90 for Shakeology with the 25% discounts. (Ask me how if you're interested)

Blend and Enjoy! (If you'd rather a milk chocolate than a dark chocolate use milk instead of water)

My first thought at first taste was "mmmm VERY Refreshingly Delicious! This is Chocolate "O"!!!. The frozen blueberries OR strawberries and chocolate compliment each other so unbelievable well in a refreshing even invigorating way. As with any Shakeology recipe you can optionally add Shakeology Boost to get even more fiber in your diet and you can optionally add Mills Ground Flaxseed to get more healthy fats in your diet. If you don't already have shakeolgoy, either GreenBerry or Chocolate, you can get it at Heaven In A Glass. Order Home Direct and get free shipping for life plus two free workouts, a recipe calendar, and a shaker cup.

Genuinely Enjoy :)
Tom

Live With Purpose - Part 4 - by Craig Holiday

2011-04-26T10:24:00.000-07:00

Last week I talked about how our struggles are what make us true leaders. And I guess that was one of the things I understood years ago when I started my business. I understood that I had to do what didn't feel good. Because a lot of us in our lives we make poor decisions and we keep making the same decisions and we expect different results. What is the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. You have to change the decisions that you're making. And one of the greatest things I always talk about when I mentor people is that this business is a blessing because we CAN change ourselves.

I'm not asking you to change anybody else's life, just change yours. And model the life you want others to have, and model the overcoming of challenges, and model that change and watch what happens around you.

People will come to you, people will gather around you, people will be drawn to you because you have that attraction - because you are a fighter and you can win the battles you have had in your life. From that you give others the courage to do the same.

What makes your life less than it should be? Fear. Lack of confidence. Not believing in yourself. Maybe your life has been one of abuse, maybe your life has been one where no one has ever believed in you. Well, I can tell you right now, I may not even know who you are but I believe in you. I believe in you because I've seen lives change. I have seen lives change when someone cares enough about somebody to be there for them, to love them when no one else does - to speak truth into their life, to create visions for their life, to create dreams for their life and then to buy into those dreams.

So many of us dwell on our past failures. That causes us to shrink in our life because we look at what we haven't done instead of what we CAN do. That's that voice inside of you that's constantly trying to convince you that you don't deserve anything more than you are. But see, I believe for every single one of us, that accomplishment is already there, that mountain top is already won - we just need to go and claim that in our lives.

We have the potential, we have the gifts, we've been given the ability but for a lot of us - we have to get over the idea that we are average. We say to ourselves, "I've never seen that kind of success, I've never been an impactful person." But if I were sitting across the table from you or sitting in your living room having a conversation with you, you would see that I know what you can become. And all you have to do is embrace that and believe it about yourself. And once you own that about your life, you can give it to someone else. And that is the greatest gift you can ever give to anybody. The greatest gift you can ever give to someone is the gift of believing in them.

You must believe in yourself so that then you can believe in someone else and transform their lives. You have a responsibility to be true to your purpose so that you can lead others to their destiny. Then their purpose in life can be fulfilled because you took the time in their lives to say, I care, I love you, I believe in you. And that's really what our role is in this kind of a business.

Fulfill your purpose in order to be significant in the lives of all the people who are just waiting for you to be the person that leads them to their purpose, their significance. With that kind of attitude, you will never know where your influence will end. I believe in you. Own your destiny.

Someday is today!
Craig
http://craigholiday.net/

Love your work not so much your job

2011-04-25T19:02:00.000-07:00

GregDuBois summed it up beautifully. Greg loves the work he does at his job but not so much the JOB itself. Read what he has to share, "I have to say, I love the work that I do. Essentially I am a paid science guy, investigator, researcher, I help people and companies with environmental problems or issues or help them stay in compliance and in good stead. But I DON'T love my JOB. Having a job means someone else can decide my fate. So I am striving for my financial independence."

Gregs philosophy for emerging at a place down the road to own his destiny is spot on. Most people who love their work don't differentiate between work and job and tragically don't see a problem with that. Loving your work is a blessing because most people do not. Love your work / hate your work it doesn't matter if you don't own your destiny and your income you can loose it all at no fault of your own. That's the problem with ONLY having a job and doing nothing to build your wealth in your spare time.

If you LOVE your job re examine exactly what it is you love and you may make a discovery that could change the course of the rest of your life in a VERY positive way. You may discover that it's the work you love and probably the people you work with you love as well. But the job itself, if you open your eyes, you will discover has never nor will it ever give you more control over your own life, your income, and your destiny. It doesn't matter if you love your work or not. If the job your work is attached to is suddenly gone at no fault of your own what's going to happen to you and your family if you suddenly have no income? What kind of problems will stem from that? How about the stress and toll it takes on your health and wellness?

You can build your wealth in your spare time so that a few years down the road you can keep your job or loose your job and either way you will be fine. Either way you will still be able to provide for your family. Either way your stress will be in check and you can more easily live a good life. There is something very logically wrong and against your own self interest if all you have is a job and nothing else. Putting all your eggs into one basket, a basket you have no control over, leaves you 100% vulnerable to loosing everything. That kind of life style is for the biggest risk takers to ever walk the earth. Isn't it ironic that the bulk of the individuals living the riskiest of all life styles live like that all the while citing their core values of a secure and a steady pay check? That "safety" is a delusion and a dangerous one.

It doesn't matter if you love or hate your job or the work that you do in your job. Either way if you keep your job or want to get rid of your job for the love of yourself take some initiative to start building up your wealth in your spare time if you have not started already. If you have ONLY a job then one day TIME is likely to expose your daily slight error in judgment. You can escape initiative but you cannot escape the consequences of inaction. MILLIONS of Americans feel that right now who are out of a job after doing years of nothing to build their wealth in their spare time while they did have a job. The moral here is if you loose all of your income and benefits it's not because you lost your job, it's because you did nothing in your spare time to build your wealth.

If you're one of the "lucky" ones who has a job start building up your wealth in your spare time TODAY it very well could save you down the road. If you don't have a job start building your wealth anyway there isn't much else out there if you're still looking for a job. Even if you're college educated the odds are not good in the JOB market. Most college graduates are earning drastically less than what they are qualified for. But in the larger scope of things nobody will ever earn what they are worth in a job it's the nature of the unfair beast. Where ever you are, rich or poor, start building your wealth in your spare time and let it be a residual income of some kind so you can essentially emerge in a place a few years from now to spend your time how you want.

Check out what Greg is doing to build his wealth in his spare time:
http://teambeachbody.com/worldtraining

What are you going to do? Are you going to let time expose you or promote you? My advice to you is to take initiative and put time on your side to promote you! Time will pass either way so get involved in your own life and OWN IT.

Tom
p.s. If you loved this article you'll probably love this one to, "Money and False Altruistic Moral Egos"

Let your kids inspire you to DREAM again

2011-04-24T10:47:00.000-07:00

A child of a friend of mine not yet old enough to have a job said this after watching a video I posted today, "he can have his hair long if he wants to, he can even have it pink it is a free country, nobody should tell him to cut his hair except for him." In the video I was talking about freedom being my core values. Years ago I was told to cut my hair short or face permanent lay off without pay so I quit. I didn't quit because I wanted to keep my long hair so much as I wanted to be a free and dignified human being. The length of my hair was irrelevant to my job performance and I wasn't about let some arrogant corporate man involve me in a human domestication program and teach me how to be a good pet at my job :-) My friend Nikki Olson watched my video with her daughter Bryanna when Bryanna said those simple-powerful words reflecting her core values of freedom that almost all of us seem to loose with "maturity".

All of us start out with dreams reflecting our innate core values of freedom which are bestowed upon us by our creator. Oppression is something learned by our environment as we get older and "mature". It's ironic that, "While our Constitution was set up to prevent political dictatorship in doing so we established a society where every ward boss is a dictator, every financier is a dictator, every private employer a dictator, all with the livelihood of the workers at there mercy" - George Bernard Shaw.

As children we dream big dreams but then tragedy slowly creeps in invoking something to take place that is worse than death itself. Most of us if not all of us begin to place our dreams in the "attic" . We begin to trade our dreams for a life of oppression. Most of us never pull them back out of the attic and die before giving our dreams life; making the tragedy irreversible. Some of us will ignite our passions all over again and pull our child hood dreams, along with some new dreams, back out of the attic and begin to take action to give those dreams life.

We should be listening to our kids more often. Maybe not about wisdom quite yet but when it comes to dreams they are far more wise than most adults. If you're a parent or guardian don't teach your kids to put those dreams into the attic to never see life again. Instead teach your kids to gain the wisdom to crystallize their dreams into reality.

"Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true." Leon Suenens 1904 - 1996, Clergyman

I must confess I am not a parent myself but that doesn't stop me from learning from MANY others who are parents. In friends and in the incredible books I read it seems consistent that the children who don't let their dreams die, but rather develop the discipline and the wisdom to crystallize those dreams into reality, do just that and live happier much more fulfilled lives. It's the kids who are taught to put their dreams away and join the "real world" that more often than not grow into very unhappy adults because they traded their dreams for oppression. If you're daily actions are not fueled by your passions then your daily actions are like a cancer that will eventually kill you unless you change. I don't need to be a parent to learn these fundamentals from others who are parents. Encourage your kids to dream but don't stop with encouraging them to dream. Encourage them to develop the discipline and the wisdom to make their dreams come true otherwise those dreams will destroy their sense of self worth which could influence them to do something horrible like join the "real world".

The truly happy person is one who is not afraid to dream dreams and be willing to pay the price to make their dreams come true. THAT'S WHAT YOU SHOULD BE TEACHING YOUR KIDS AND LIVING BY EXAMPLE. Don't you think so? Be the example parents and guardians it's not enough to talk it... Your commitments are only as strong as your actions don't turn your commitments into a joke through inactions in the eyes of your kids because they will see through you and unfortunately most likely model you as they grow. Furthermore, mark my words, your kids will feel sad their mom or dad doesn't have a big enough self image to feel they are worth while to pay the price for their dreams. You must not only preach it to your kids you must also LIVE IT or you will cause immeasurable pain for your kids.

Apathy is at an all time high and so is unhappiness. They correlate. Kill your apathy, pull your dreams back down from the attic, dream big dreams, and be willing to pay the price for your dreams to crystallize into reality. Let that be the wave of positive impact the world so desperately needs. The victories you score over your struggles will give other people hope. It will inspire more people, including our kids, to dream dreams and pay the price for them to come true. To let your struggles win in your life is purely selfish. Don't be selfish...

DREAM BIG AND BE SIGNIFICANT!

Tom - Full time dreamer and Independent Team Beachbody Coach
http://beachbodycoach.com/metalpalace
p.s. The video young Bryanna commented on to inspire this blog :-) (click here)

Become Change

2011-04-22T07:37:00.000-07:00

I know we live in an economy that is incredibly unkind and that the price of gas is way to high. I know we live in a market place that is largely exploiting people struggling just to get by. I know in a market place so dominated by corporations it's all about cut throat and seniority which only exists in pyramids which corporations are; they are pyramid schemes.

Knowing what you know you've got to ask yourself... Are those the perfect reasons for change or are they the perfect reasons not to change and go for the "even keel" which does not exist? Of those two philosophies to live by which side of the fence of people are going to have more than the other side? I know the answer is obvious but I'll say it anyway. It's the side that sees the state of our economy as perfect reasons to CHANGE that has the real shot at winning and having much more than the side who sees the state of our economy as perfect reasons to not change and maybe keep waiting for "someday" that does not exist; that delusion of someday that most people subscribe to.

The change I'm talking about is the change that takes place inside yourself not the things going on around you that you have no control over. You have no control over the economy, the price of gas, corporations etc... If you're waiting for those things to change before you change then you're in your own way of having more. That's how you stay in "fight to survive" mode year after year in a vicious circle of no end unless YOU change first. When you change first everything else changes for you. Most people work against this natural law of the earth that's existed for thousands of years and the only possible outcome of fighting any natural law is you will loose.

If you are waiting for things around you to change first then YOU are your own biggest obstacle. Not the economy, not family drama, not gas prices, not your job or your boss... YOU are your biggest obstacle. Change your philosophy to one that supports you and ONLY THEN will you gain real power to change your life because you will finally be out of your own way. There are enough obstacles in your path without you being one of them so cut it out and change. Get out of your own way.

Score some victories over your struggles and give hope to other people who could use some hope and encouragement to score some victories over their own struggles. We are impact creatures like it or not. CHANGE from the inside, pay the price to crystallize your dreams into reality, tell your story to anyone who will listen, and be part of a wave of change that people all around you so desperately need. Let them know nothing else changed until YOU changed first. You can do it because you are an impact creature. Impact positively. Go out there and do it but first start with YOU because there is no other way you can effectively change your life and positively impact others around you.

-Independent Team Beachbody Coach, Tom
http://beachbodycoach.com/metalpalace

Sour on Milk? 5 Healthy Dairy Substitutes - By Jeanine Natale

2011-04-21T12:19:00.000-07:00

So you've made the decision to go dairy free for health, diet, and/or allergy reasons. Maybe you're trying to avoid lactose. Maybe you just don't like the way the dairy industry tends to treat cows. But here's the rub: You love milk! So what are you going to do? Fear not, it's easy to avoid lactose and still get your fill of milk-like liquids. Soy, rice, coconut, almond, and even hemp "milks" have all found their way into the diets, hearts, and grocers' shelves of health-conscious people everywhere. Some, like coconut and rice milk, have been around for hundreds of years as dietary staples in many cultures around the world.

We're going to take a look at the five most widely available—and very diverse—milk substitutes, but before we start, let's quickly look at what you're leaving behind when you give up dairy. A 1-cup serving of regular skim milk has 90 calories, 125 milligrams of sodium, 8 grams of protein, 30 percent of your recommended daily allowance (RDA) of calcium, 25 percent of your RDA of vitamin D, phosphorus, and riboflavin, and 16 percent of your RDA for vitamin B12. That same cup of skim milk also contains 12 grams of carbohydrates, 11 of which are sugar.

Now let's compare the rest. Keep in mind that these are all vegetarian/vegan-friendly, gluten-free alternatives.

1. Soy Milk. Soy milk is probably the best-known milk alternative in the Western world. It's easy to find it in a variety of flavors and options at just about any market. So how does soy milk stack up nutritionally compared to skim milk? A typical 1-cup serving has about 100 calories—slightly more than skim milk—with 7 grams of protein, 29 milligrams of sodium, 25 percent of your RDA of thiamin, 9 percent of your RDA of riboflavin, 8 percent of your RDA of iron, 15 percent of your RDA of copper, 20 percent of your RDA of manganese, and just about 35 percent of your RDA of calcium.

Despite soy milk's popularity, there is some controversy surrounding it. The trend toward foods that are or contain GMOs (genetically modified organisms) is currently a cause for great concern, and more than 90 percent of all soybeans sold in the U.S. are GMOs, making it pretty difficult to find truly natural, organic soybeans or soybean milk products.

Also, unfermented soy products like soy milk naturally contain what are known as phytoestrogens—chemicals that when introduced to the human body tend to act like estrogen. There are many studies on this subject, but unfortunately most of them tend to contradict each other: Do phytoestrogens cause or prevent cancer? Are there negative side effects to ingesting too much of the stuff if you're male? Should infants be given soy products at all? The best way to deal with the soy debate and its consequences, aside from doing a bunch of research yourself, is simply to remember the age-old adage, "All things in moderation." If you aren't going to be consuming gallons of soy milk per day, you should be just fine.

Bottom Line: You might want to explore other choices before settling for this somewhat controversial and overprocessed milk alternative.

2. Rice milk. If you've ever had the popular Mexican drink horchata, you've had rice milk. The popular commercial brands are enriched with calcium and other nutrients found in dairy milk, but they also (like commercial soy milk) have a variety of additives, sweeteners, and flavorings, many of which can't be considered either organic or natural.

So how does rice milk add up nutritionally? A 1-cup serving has approximately 80 to 90 calories, but they come mostly from sugar, which you probably already get plenty of, and which you're probably trying to avoid if you're trying to consume a healthy diet. If you're a rice milk or horchata fan, great—you can mix it with all kinds of things to make it a fun, refreshing treat. But realistically speaking, rice milk doesn't have much else going for it.

Bottom Line: Although it's relatively popular, I wouldn't settle on rice milk as a truly complete and healthy alternative to regular milk, unless I was mixing it with Shakeology®. Store-bought brands will be more nutritious, but will contain a lot of sugar.

3. Coconut milk. Thai food, anyone? How about a piña colada? If you're a fan of either, chances are, you've had plenty of coconut milk in your lifetime. Now, don't mistake coconut milk for the watery liquid found in the center of the coconut, which is known as coconut water (the stuff you hear sloshing around inside when you shake one). Rather, we're talking about the rich, creamy stuff that's extracted from the white coconut flesh nutmeat itself. Want to do it yourself at home? You're looking at some pretty intensive labor.

Until recently, a cup of coconut milk contained at least 500 calories, most of which was saturated fat, but now low-calorie coconut milk has begun finding its way onto grocers' shelves. A typical 1-cup serving has about 150 calories, most of which is still saturated fat. It has 3 grams of protein, 45 milligrams of sodium, 50 percent of the RDA of vitamin B12, 30 percent of the RDA of vitamin D, and 10 percent of the RDA of calcium and magnesium. If you're a vegan looking to get more vitamin D in your diet, this stuff might help, but keep in mind that you won't be getting any protein from it and you'll be getting a lot of fat.

Bottom Line: Regular coconut milk has traditionally been intended to be used in small amounts, mainly for cooking, not as a milk substitute for drinking a glass at a time. Although it's delicious and has lots of healthful benefits, it's way too rich to have as a drink by itself. And while light coconut milks may not pack the same caloric punch, they're still essentially just fat.

4. Almond milk. This is one I can live with. Nutritionally, a 1-cup serving will have anywhere from 50 to 80 calories, depending on how much water has been added. Although it has minimal protein, it does have 25 percent of the RDA of vitamin D, 50 percent of the RDA of vitamin E, and 150 milligrams of potassium, along with some manganese, selenium, and many other trace elements.

There are a wide variety of fortified store-bought brands that all taste pretty darn good—sweetened, unflavored, or otherwise. Along with the more mainstream commercial brands, it's also easy to find almond milk products that are raw and organic.

Almond milk is a personal favorite and quite versatile too, although keep in mind it's still low in protein. On a side note, it's fun to make from scratch. A 1-pound bag of raw almonds can get a little pricey at around $12.00, but the investment is worth it. Make your own—it's delicious!

5. Hemp milk. Places like Trader Joe's® or Whole Foods Market® are your best bet for hemp milk. There are a couple of different brands, again, all fortified and sweetened to taste more like regular milk. And no, it doesn't get you high. Interestingly though, the U.S. is pretty much the only country in the world that doesn't allow hempseed cultivation, even though there's no drug content in it. All hempseed in the U.S. is from Canada; it's guaranteed to be organic and pesticide-free.

Hemp milk could be a real find. Hempseeds are pretty much considered a superfood, meaning that even in very small amounts, like an ounce or two, they pack a wallop nutritionally. A 1-cup serving of hemp milk has approximately 110 calories and has 24 percent of the RDA of iron, 72 percent of the RDA of magnesium and phosphorus, 35 percent of the RDA of zinc, plus 11 grams of omega-6 fatty acids, 4.5 grams of omega-3 fatty acids, and 16 grams of protein. Wow.

Bottom Line: A milk alternative that's naturally packed with nutrients. Definitely worth checking out.

If or when you decide to go with one or more of these alternatives to milk, also know that you can use them in most recipes just like regular milk. There are literally hundreds of recipes available free online, and dozens of well-informed cookbooks on the market. So experiment a little, and find out which milk substitute works best for you.

My Dads Life Was Saved Share This And Be Significant

2011-04-19T11:47:00.000-07:00

We almost lost my dad a couple years ago. He only has 1/3rd of his lungs left after many years of smoking. He no longer smokes but the damage to his lungs is irreversible. He is now very vulnerable. For example just one bout of pneumonia or a bad bronchitis flare up could kill him. His immune status is of paramount importance to protect him from such things.

Today I took my dad to a routine doctor visit but the feedback from the doctor was anything but routine. My dads doctor today tells my dad, "You're doing much better than you have any right to expect. You're no where near wear I first saw you a year and a half ago. Most people would be dead by now".

I bought my dad Shakeology a year and a half ago and told him he's drinking this from now on. I saved my dads life with Shakeology. He's also able to walk the treadmill a few minutes at a time now which for a guy with only 1/3rd of his lungs left capable of exchanging gases is an amazing feat. It's critical for him to work his lungs out to the best of his ability every day to keep the functionality of what's left of his lungs working optimally. He's also pre diabetic. Shakeology is a meal shake rated at only 24 on the glycemic index and will prevent him from becoming diabetic. Many who were full blown diabetics have literally reversed their diabetes using Shakeology as an effective tool.

On the opposite side of life saving... In the past 5 or 6 months I've known several people to drop dead of a massive heart attack or stroke leaving behind spouses, children, friends, family and other loved ones to grieve. All of whom had the warning signs and did nothing about it. They were shown Shakeology and that it's proven to lower those risk factors and decided to either wait for "someday", which sadly never came for them, or some just giggled about it referring to Shakeology as "one of those silly health shakes". Stubbornness can either kill you or save you. For petes sake develop the wisdom to know the difference if you haven't already.

I've got four messages that's extremely important to me and for you to share...

1.) I'm NOT promising Shakeology is going to save your life or cure anything: I'm not undermining any health care professional you might be working with. Fact is I know thousands of people drinking Shakeology and I'm not aware of a single case where those risk factors for heart attack or stroke hasn't been significantly reduced among many other benefits. Include your doctor and others as part of your over all TEAM in your life to make important decisions and make those decisions CONSCIOUSLY. In other words... It's your life so OWN IT.

2.) Fellow Team Beachbody Coaches: The people you are meant to help are one million times more important than your nay sayers. Do not project a negative experience from a negative person onto someone you're suppose to meet in the future; whos life you will significantly impact and possibly even save. No nay sayer in your life is worth while to keep you from sharing this gift with as many people as you possibly can. You're doing this for those people and NOT your nay sayers, right? Know where your focus is. It's not on your nay sayers it's on the cooperative and nurturing relationships you will build as you meet new people.

3. Anyone NOT drinking Shakeology and sharing it with friends and family: Try it, http://shakeology.com/metalpalace Contact me for the coach discounts. Get this today. And get it not just for yourself but also for everyone you love and care about. In other words Don't be selfish! Point blank the more people who try Shakeology the happier, healthier, and more fulfilled more people will be. And quite honestly the more people will LIVE and treat others with more kindness.

4.) SHARE THIS WITH EVERYONE: Sign up with the Independent Beachbody coach of your choosing. Coaches and non coaches you can share this with everyone. Coaches make sure they know to go to your website and not mine. You need to communicate with your friends and family this is a "belly to belly" relational business. Non coaches sign up, use Shakeology in your own life, share it with everyone else around you it's too important not to.

There are people all around you who will not be around 10 years from now because of how they are health wise. GET INVOLVED IN THEIR LIVES, HELP THEM, AND BE SIGNIFICANT.

Tom

I'm in it to WIN it... And I am WINNING Despite my environment... So can YOU!!!!!

2011-04-17T08:46:00.000-07:00

In august of 2007 I signed up for the Team Beachbody Coach opportunity. Almost all of my friends who have signed up with me waited 2 or 3 years to sign up with me in my Team Beachbody Business. Some of them will sign up 4 years later, 5, and so on... None of them signed up with me my first 8 or 9 months of business. Most coaches will quit before they give this a chance to work. Not me. The majority will and the majority are broke and out of shape year after year because they are not in it to win it.

My friends who sign up with me see me achieve so much just based on what I've shared in facebook the past couple years. Sometimes a friend will call me up just to ask me if I'm still doing that Beachbody "thing" and how it's going for me. Once I tell them I'm still in it YEARS later and business is booming despite the economy some of them sign up. There are other variables involved differing from person to person but largely they were waiting to see if I was in it to win it or not! Can you imagine if I told them I quit? I would STINK to high heaven and every ex coach who has a dream experiences it.

Big moral here..

Coaches who get in for a lil while to "try it out" and then quit if they don't experience enough success quickly enough literally rob themselves of the respect of their friends and miss BIG opportunity to build a big business as time rolls on. Quitting stinks I'm glad I didn't quit my first couple years when I was virtually a failure or I would have missed my freedom. I will never have to worry about money, the economy, time, and all those problems everyone else experiences stemming from time, money, and personal freedom constraints. I lifted myself out of poverty and achieved this. There was no special deal. I paid the price for a couple years. Those couple years were going to pass by anyway so was it worth it? YES!!!!!! Most people do not think so and that's why most people are broke, out of shape, and falling short of the promises they made to themselves and to their families.

Most people in my shoes would have quit the first two months let alone the first two years of little to nothing to show for. I honestly and humbly have to pat myself on the back here. I hope all of you take a moment to pat yourselves on the back to when life rewards you for doing something most people will not do :) And then share it with us and the rest of your support team who nurtures you to grow so we can pat you on the back to! If you don't have friends who nurture you to grow then you definitely need new friends.

If you're actively building a dream remember the moral of this story especially if you haven't made your way over the initial business "hump" yet..... Your friends, family, new friends you make along the way, all who do not make the commitment to come with you yet are just testing you.... Waiting to see if you're in it to win it or not. No one wants to follow a loser so stay in it to win it! Do NOT put yourself in a position to where they are ready but you've already quit. I've been told horror stories of ex Team Beachbody coaches who literally threw up once they realized what they threw away by quitting.

Does being significant in other peoples lives turn you on? Does finding success by being significant fuel your passions?? In my Team Beachbody Business it is not possible to be successful unless you have significance in other peoples lives. If that speaks to your heart write / call me I want you in my business. Take pride in the fact that you find success in this business by becoming significant in other peoples lives. It's a wonderful concept get involved in this business, embrace it, and share it with everyone :-)

Enroll for a coach account: http://beachbodycoach.com/metalpalace and call me:262 344 1733

Tom
Independent Beachbody Diamond Leader

Live with Purpose - by Craig Holiday

2011-04-15T07:23:00.000-07:00

Right now - where we are in our life, most of us don't like where we are. And when we don't like where we are it forces us to grow, because we either live life in the past or we go forward. We never really stay where we are.

And we don't have a choice. That seed is there - but that seed is the dream that needs to be nurtured so it can grow. In that we have to expect struggle. For people to get in business and think everybody's going to jump in and support our business right away... you're going to make all this money in the first 6 months...that's a fallacy. You will be paid in perfect relationship to your servant-hood. The people you serve in your group will be perfect payment for what you deserve in this business.

For many of us we've been in business quite a while and it's about our level of achievement - we ask how come we're not more successful? But if you really sit back and analyze it and are honest with yourself you will see that you are actually right where you should be. That is because you haven't stepped over that line yet of saying I'll do whatever it takes to achieve my goals and help others achieve theirs.

You may know what you've been called to do, but it's not going to come easy and it won't be simple. Everyone who is successful or starting to be successful is only there because that person decided to take the challenge of life on. You may say to yourself, "I've got to live my life, I've got to be a husband, I've got to be a wife, I've got to be a Dad, I've got to clean the house, I've got to have a job." And yet still somewhere deep inside of you, you know that none of those things fulfill your purpose on this earth. That is because jobs don't fulfill purposes.

You have to get beyond to a greater calling of the bigness of your life, of what you've been called to do - and by taking on that that challenge, your victories one by one will propel those around you to overcome. If we live our life with no victories, people around us never win. Because people look at our lives and it's our victories over our struggles that give other people hope.

Whether you go to church or you go to hear motivational speakers or read books, you don't get inspired by someone who tells a story of how they have been successful all their lives. Imagine someone standing on stage and saying, "My family was rich and I never had it tough and I'm doing great." Does that inspire you to be more? Does that give you the motivation to push forward in spite of the day to day issues that come up? But if you listen to someone that almost died, or was abused, or lived in poverty - someone that has been to the lowest point in life, but made a decision with this voice inside saying, "You have a purpose." - Those people are the ones who step up and go out and become significant and those people are the leaders that then inspire greatness in others.

So your victories over your struggles bless the lives of other people. But if we remain dormant and we don't change, we change no one else's lives either. So our bigger calling, our greater purpose is that in overcoming our fears, our doubts, our problems we become the model for others to do the same. Everyone has things they wish were different, but nothing will change in your life until YOU change them. And if you had the DNA (Determined Natural Ambition) there is no choice, the dream is there and it will not be silenced until it comes to fruition. But you have to be willing to pay the price for it. You have to put the work in NOW.

Our life is not a mere destiny that awaits us. It's one that we determine. We're not just going through life and we're going to end up wherever we end up. We can determine our destiny and our lives. But we've got to be willing to change. We've got to be willing to grow. And we've got to be willing to do what doesn't feel good. If you don't feel comfortable going out and meeting people then take your eyes off of yourself and meet people. If you don't feel comfortable because you are innately an introvert, push yourself to just start talking to people. Start converstations, sincerely compliment someone on something. This isn't about you, it's about maybe lifting someone else up who's day isn't going so well. Maybe you will start talking to someone and find out they just moved to town and were feeling down and lonely because they didn't know anyone. When you get outside of yourself, it becomes easier and easier. Because that is what this business is about - it's about meeting people. It's about changing people's lives.

Next week I will talk more about the changes we need to make to fulfill our purpose. For now, I recommend you journal about what is holding you back. What are the excuses you make to keep you from being the person you are meant to be? I want to hear from you! Write on my facebook page if you want to share some of your story with others, or send me a message at info@craigholiday.net. As the song goes, "This is your life, are you who you're meant to be?"

Until we meet again,

Craig
http://craigholiday.net/

Insanity Asylum Fit Rest results Day 1

2011-04-12T15:22:00.000-07:00

I do things every day to give my words some real meaning with my deeds. Today the fed ex man came by with my new Insanity Asylum Fitness program by Team Beachbody so I'm really excited about that! I've already gone through all the material, understand the nutrition, took my measurements, pictures, and fitness test. I'm asking YOU to hold ME accountable to my goals! I'm not only preaching fitness I LIVE it to :-) The fit test handed me my own butt. This was just the fit test! Only do this program if you're already in great shape. Graduate to this program if you're not there yet. Here are my fit test results from insanity asylum:

Agility Heisman: 6

In and Out Ab Progression: 43

Lat Push ups: 21

Mountain Climber Switch Kicks: 63

Agility Shoulder Taps: 3 1/2

X Jumps: 32

Moving Push ups: 2 1/2

Agility Lateral Shuffle: 10 1/2

Agility Bear Crawl: 5 1/2

Tomorrow begins day one of the thirty day program. Speed and Agility! Wish me LOTS of will power friends! If you would like to do this program with me I'd love to have some success buddies: http://beachbodycoach.com/metalpalace click "Shop", browse by Trainer, Shaun T, Insanity Asylum. Do a different program first if you're not already in great shape. Give me a shout if you're going to do this with me let's hold each other accountable!

Tom

Amway nutritionals compared to Shakeology without the science

2011-04-12T07:00:00.000-07:00

I was checking out amways line of nutritionals at the request of a friend and discovered all of them have artificial ingredients while amway touts "best of nature best of science" in their campaign ads. Science maybe but certainly not nature. Put your mind and body on an all nature nutritional plan and see, watch, experience, FEEL how your mind and body turns on in amazing ways for you. It really is something incredible.

Amways nutritionals is under the name brand Nutrilite. I visited their like page on facebook and asked, "Why are there sulfates and other artificial ingredients in the line of nutrilite products? What's the thinking behind that? Thanks"

Four days later their customer service department got back to me with the following:

"Whenever possible we use natural and naturally-sourced ingredients to deliver "the Best of Nature". This includes adding no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives to our products. However, we also formulate to deliver the "Best of Science" which includes delivering nutrients at levels demonstrated by science to offer health benefits. In some instances, it is not possible to deliver scientifically substantiated levels of nutrients using only natural sources in dosage forms that would be acceptable to consumers. NUTRILITE products are based on the best that nature offers while also delivering the best of science that may include the use of synthetically-derived nutrients."

My favorite part is the part I put in bold and underlined. It's my favorite for two reasons:

1. It shows their lack of integrity. If it were acceptable to consumers would they put pig fat in their nutritionals? When beachbody formulated Shakeology they made the hard unpopular decisions to keep it all natural. In fact they have been working for years to come up with an all natural vanilla flavor. The founder of beachbody, Carl Daikelar, literally said this to us, "Either we will find a way to make an all natural vanilla or their just won't be vanilla, period" THAT's INTEGRITY!!!! It was met with a roaring cheer because that kind of honesty and heart is such a refreshing breath of fresh air. People with a dream who are willing to pay the price for that dream don't want to hear a suit catering to popular opinion with a lame cookie cutter line. Amway would have bent over backwards for the wrong consumers and chalked it full of junk.

2. It's simply not true! Amway did not do their homework they took short cuts and put junk in their entire line of nutritionals. Amway is a business opportunity first which means the product fits around the business. With beachbody it's a fitness first deal. The Beachbody businss opportunity didnt even exist til NINE YEARS LATER! The Beachbody business is centered around the life changing products. With shakeology Beachbody did their homework. Beachbody spent TWO YEARS just formulating the flavor to keep it all natural and tasting wonderful. THAT'S DEDICATION!!! And guess what? That kind of dedication is being felt around the country and soon around the world in the tear jerker success stories of Shakeology users.

I appreciate the response from Amway to my question. It's just not a philosophy supportive of optimum health and wellness. It makes me all the more proud to be involved with Team Beachbody. If you are willing to pay the price to achieve your dreams you are going to be a happier, healthier, more fulfilled human being than the person always looking for the shortcuts. The beautiful thing about Shakeology, among other things, is that shakeology doesn't require any discipline. A seven year old boy explained it perfectly to me the other day. He said, "Shakeology tastes like chocolate only it's better than chocolate".... Hello?!?! No discipline required whatsoever to get up every morning and drink a tall glass of chocolate awesomeness. And then the rest of my day is amazing because I just put the best nutrients possible into my body free of any garbage so my body really comes to life for an amazing day every day.

If this turns you on, getting your desert on every day for optimum health with a glass of shakeology every day, turn to your Team Beachbody coach and say to him or her, "I want my glass of chocolate awesomeness every day show me how to get started!" and I'm sure your coach will be more that happy to give you the hook up :-) If you don't have a coach I'll be your coach just let me know.

Be awesome!
Tom
p.s. Ohhhhhhh yeah shakeology is also available in Greenberry for you weird non chocolate lovers :-)

Oprah Winfrey, Latin America, Shakeology BIG things happening...

2011-04-07T12:14:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone! I want to let you know what's going on.

To date The Team Beachbody coaching opportunity has only been available in the united states. In a few weeks we are expanding globally for the first time in the companies history. First stop is south of the border. We are expanding into mexico and latin america. Later this year we hope to expand into canada, then europe, australia etc... That's the first bit of big news I wanted to share with you. The other bit of big news is that Oprah Winfrey just published a TEN PAGE article in her "O" magazine about Shakeology. Shakeology is our core product. Everything Oprah touches turns to gold. If she recommends a book it gos to number one the following week. She has an incredible ability to move LOTS of people toward bettering themselves and that's why I'm excited about this. When you think about the timing of this big endorsement from oprah just before going global for the first time in our history it's like a DREAMY scenario to me. Before these two big factors even became discussion around here I had already gotten into the best shape of my life using these products AND declared my financial independence via the Coaching opportunity. Now we have these two big events taking place to add to what was already an unbelievable opportunity to transform both your health and your financial situation simultaneously.

So that's what's happening right now. Oprah has already officially gotten in our corner with a very flattering ten page article in her magazine and a big untapped market is opening up in just a couple weeks.

Lastly I want to invite you to join me in this coaching opportunity. It's about transforming your health and your wealth and helping others around you do the same with these products. I don't know if it would be for you or not but I want you to at least take a look and see if it turns you on or not. I recorded a video this morning and uploaded it to my youtube channel: http://youtu.be/CCXZ2UGX0hI

If you're into it I want to bring you in while the global market place is still entirely untapped. Be a founder with me and let's do something real significant in the world in which we live that is literally dying of obesity.

Call / write me,

Tom
Look me up on facebook: Tom Birkenmeyer

SHAKEOLOGY AND PREGNANT MOMMIES TO BE!

2011-04-01T10:39:00.000-07:00

PREGNANT MOMMIES TO BE...... FELLOW BEACHBODY COACH SAYS: I've been using Shakeology since before my pregnancy and continue to use it (I'm due in 2 weeks) and unlike most pregnant women, my blood pressure is on the low side of normal. Each time I go in I'm around 100/60 or less. High blood pressure during pregnancy is life-threatening so my doctor couldn't be happier. - Katie Peavy

An update from Katie: I said that back in June and gave birth to a perfectly healthy 7 pound 10 ounce boy at the end of June. I have also used Shakeology to take off all the baby weight. - Katie Peavy

Ask me about Shakeology friends.

Tom
p.s. She lost all the baby weight to! That's a BIG talking point in itself

Two Perfect Reasons For Two Different Sets of Values Cultivating Two Different Lifestyles

2011-03-23T07:13:00.000-07:00

"I don't have the time or the money to follow my dreams". These are two perfect reasons for someone of one set of values to keep their dreams in the attic and maintain the status quo of mediocrity perpetuating an endless cycle of the status quo until time exposes the delusion that things will actually remain the same. Those same two reasons for someone with a different set of values are perfect reasons to pull their dreams out of the attic, ignite them, get off the sidelines and onto the playing field of their own life, and do whatever it takes to crystallize those dreams into reality. Same two reasons, two different people, two different sets of values, two drastically different life styles.

Without putting down anyones values, this is a logistical look at these two broad sets of values dictated by the set up of the universe and earths natural inescapable laws, the first person is going to be in the same status quo of mediocrity a year from now until time exposes the delusion in an "even keel" belief and the second person is not. These two opposing sets of values are using the same exact two reasons as perfect reasons to do or not to do with results of to be or not to be. Opposites in contrast give each other their value. Which side of the fence were you on yesterday? Which side of the fence are you on today and tomorrow? What are your values?

If you have dreams, in the attic or out of the attic, I hope the thought of mediocrity makes you want to throw up. I hope the taste it leaves in your mouth is so foul that you set yourself on fire and let the world watch you burn because you realize your purpose on the earth is bigger than yourself. That purpose is more powerful than any obstacle in your path so you can have the self discipline to NOT make emotional decisions to not do "the thing" on the days that you don't feel like it. If you're living a life of mediocrity and subscribing to the popular delusion of maintaining the status quo I hope the thought of not fulfilling your lifes great purpose designed by your creator makes you draw a line in the sand today so you do have the self discipline to do "the thing" every day even on the days you don't feel like it. I hope your plan includes giving service to many people to give you a purpose driven life bigger than yourself.

Give thanks to your creator for giving you the power to completely transform your life and the lives of people around you. Be grateful that you are a human being designed for greatness and then go out there and fulfill your purpose driven life every day. When your purpose is much bigger than yourself then the more success you experience at crystallizing your own dreams into reality then the more significant you are in the lives of others in helping them achieve theirs.

Tom

6 Spring Cleaning Tips for Your Kitchen By Joe Wilkes

2011-03-22T09:20:00.000-07:00

It's almost springtime, which for a lot of us means it's time to do a deep-clean of our homes—throwing out the old, organizing the new, storing the winter clothes, and getting ready for warmer weather and a fresh start. For others, it's the beginning of another season of denial about how squalid our living conditions have become. Even more than New Year's, spring is a good time to make some new resolutions and create an environment that'll make us want to keep them. Here are some ideas for getting your kitchen into shape.

1. Out with the old. I like to think of my refrigerator as a cabinet of hope. Most times, it's full of fruits and vegetables, purchased in a fit of confidence that I would steam and stir-fry my way to a slimmer me. Then I end up going out to restaurants with friends, and my Sunday produce ends up looking pretty bad by week's end. Yet, unbelievably, I leave it all in my refrigerator with the hope that it'll somehow return to a state of edibility. Similarly, expired dairy products and aging condiment bottles litter my shelves, the result of my misguided optimism that they too will come back in fashion—like my '80s wardrobe will, if I just wait long enough. I'm here to tell you, however, that there's been no grocery miracle in my refrigerator these many years. And now, it's time to give the expired residents of this frosty food hinterland a proper burial.

First thing to do: Get rid of everything that even looks old. Be merciless. If it's past the expiration date, throw it out. If it doesn't have an expiration date, throw it out. Another scourge in my fridge is the many plastic containers filled with leftovers. I don't remember exactly what meal they are left over from, but I can't recall anything that included frizzy mold as an ingredient. Much of the reason the containers languish in the back of the fridge is because I'm avoiding the horror of having to wash out the science experiment they've become. This year, I'm going to throw money at the problem, and throw out the leftovers in their containers without ever lifting the lid. Then, I will treat myself to shiny, new plastic containers as a reward for my new hygienic lifestyle. Additionally, if my plastic cutting boards are beyond bleaching, it's a good annual tradition to replace them.

2. Out with the bad. While I'm gripped in the mania of throwing away all the food that has literally turned to garbage, I'm also going to throw away the food that's metaphorically garbage. All the unhealthy snack foods that lure me away from my healthy eating plan are going to have to go. I'm evicting the half-full bags of tortilla and potato chips from my cupboards. Ben and Jerry's® are moving from the freezer to the dumpster. Any empty-calorie snacks I can steal a spoonful or handful of and pretend they don't count have to hit the road. Once I clear the cupboards and refrigerator, I can go to the store and load up on healthy staples, whose temptations I won't have to resist.

3. In with the new. Now that the refrigerator's clean and the cupboards are bare, it's time to shop. Stock up the larder with delicious, healthy foods from the first two tiers of Michi's Ladder. And make sure to get lots of easy-to-prepare snacks to keep within easy reach when hunger pangs hit. Great snacks include cottage cheese, nonfat yogurt, hummus, salsa, and raisins. Instant oatmeal, whole-grain cereals, and egg whites are good to have on hand for breakfast. And foods like brown rice, dried beans, canned broths, water-packed tuna, and frozen fruits and vegetables are good staples to always keep in supply for mealtime. Of course, you should also try eating plenty of fresh produce, seafood, and lean meats. Just don't be like me and go crazy at the Sunday farmers' market only to have to throw food away at the end of the week. Buy enough perishable items to last a couple of days, then make short trips to the supermarket or farmers' market during the week. Your food will taste better and fresher, and you won't have a CSI episode in the crisper drawer at the end of the week.

4. When life gives you lemons . . . I know I've talked a lot about throwing all your produce away. But some of it can do a little cleaning work for you before it hits the compost bin. Lemons are very acidic, and their juice is naturally antibacterial and antiseptic. You can use lemon juice to bleach countertop stains and shine up metal. And it makes your kitchen smell lemony fresh to boot! Instead of throwing those lemons in the trash, throw one or two in the garbage disposal and grind away. It'll help get rid of food dried onto the blades while filling your kitchen with the smell of lemons. (If the lemons are really old and the rinds have turned hard and leathery, don't try this. The disposal blades might not be able to chop them, and they'll just rattle around in your disposal forever. Trust me, I know.) Another great tip a friend gave me is to cut a bunch of lemons in half and put them in a big microwave-safe bowl filled with water. Then microwave the bowl of lemons on high for a few minutes, until the water steams. Keep the microwave closed. The lemon-juice-infused steam will permeate all the stuff cooked onto the microwave walls from various exploding culinary attempts. The crud will wipe off easily and your microwave will smell great. Best of all, no toxic cleaners will accidentally find their way into your meals!

5. Vinegar—not just for salad. While you're cleaning and staying nontoxic, try using the Michi's Ladder top-tier favorite vinegar to spruce up your kitchen. Diluted with water, white vinegar can be used to clean windows, wash floors, and wipe countertops. It cuts grease and removes stains from cookware, and if you run a pot full of the vinegar and water solution through your coffeemaker, you'll be amazed at the kind of hard-water deposits it removes. It's also good for removing hard-water stains on your glassware. It even cuts soap scum and kills mildew, so you might give good, old-fashioned, cheap white vinegar a try before investing in expensive cleaners that can introduce toxins into your kitchen.

6. Baking soda—not just for baking. Here's a fun fact. Did you know that baking soda mixed with grease makes soap? It's true. It's a great, cheap, nontoxic way to wipe off your stovetop and the surrounding areas that have been spattered by a season's worth of stir-fries. An open box can absorb odors in the refrigerator, and a little sprinkled in your garbage can will do likewise. If you have a grease fire, you can put it out with baking soda. If you have pots with burned-on food, let them soak in baking soda and water overnight. Also, if you have plastic storage containers that are a bit stinky from their previous occupants, try soaking them overnight in baking soda and water. You can make a baking soda paste with water and polish your silver. It's a miracle product—nontoxic and cheap!

Live With Purpose by Craig Holiday

2011-03-11T11:42:00.000-08:00

I believe in every moment that somewhere in our heart and in our soul there is a voice that is either screaming, almost silent, or softly there in the background saying that you ARE significant.

So many of us live this life of fear where we are afraid to confront people. We’re afraid to fail, we are afraid to be significant in other people’s lives because there is pain with that, there is potential for hurt when we open our hearts to another person. But when our purpose rises in us we know we have to change. We need to go through these challenges for a purpose and for a reason. We gain the most in life as servants. We don’t gain the most as takers. We gain the most as givers.

My message this week to you is that – it’s not about you. It’s about those you are going to meet in your business that are dying physically, they are dying emotionally. And the answer isn’t your business it is YOU becoming significant in their lives. Our purpose is known, yet we fear because we feel comfortable where we are. We know what to expect where we are, even if we feel unsatisfied and unhappy.

So deep in your heart you know what your purpose is; you know what you’ve been designed to do; you know the greatness that you have been called to. Yet you stay where you are because it safer. But you begin to realize as you get older that isn’t a choice any more. You know that if you want to be prosperous, if you want to be successful, especially in the network marketing arena, you must embrace the gift you’ve been given in this business of changing lives. You must realize that you need to grow.

You need to go through what it takes for you to be different. That’s why you read the books for personal development, that’s why you’re around the people that make you grow and change, that’s why you watch the lives of significant people in this business and you emulate them, and model after them.

But so many times I remember in my own business, people would come to this 14,000 sq. ft. house I lived in and see these fancy cars I drove and they would think that this was always my life. I would have to sit them down and walk them through the journey of my story. They needed to understand that I started with nothing and worked every single moment I could to turn my business into the amazing success that it was.

Whether this is your first time reading my newsletter and you’re brand new in your business or you are a seasoned leader, you already know if you have that DNA (Determined Natural Ambition) to do something greater with your life. When you sit and look at your life do you really know what your purpose is? My answer for most of you is a resounding yes! And the next part of this newsletter series about purpose is about growing. All of us have this dream inside of us – it’s just a seed right? But we nurture it with struggle. That seed never grows without struggle. It’s not a seed that’s going to germinate without pain and tears. We water the seed of the dreams in our lives with our tears.

Those are the things that get us to grow. So to sit here and think that because of what you’ve gone through in your past that you can’t ever become significant -that you can’t ever touch the lives of people around you – those are lies. For many of us, we’re going to have to make a decision. We realize that pain is what causes us to grow. And we’ve all been through that. What are you going to decide today? Will you decide to fulfill your purpose? Will you let your past hold you back ? Will you continue to believe you can’t be significant in the lives of those people just waiting for you to make a difference? I say fulfill your destiny and take that first step of the journey. I am here to tell you - that you CAN be significant!

Until next time,

Craig

sign up for the newsletter lower right side of the page: http://www.craigholiday.net/

You're Not Full of S**t - By Letitia Burns

2011-03-08T18:11:00.000-08:00

Letitia wrote me something about her Shakeology experience without ever intending for it to end up published to the internet (I got her permission first). The reason I love what she wrote is because it's real, it's raw, it's natural, and it's HIGHLY RELATABLE to almost all of you if not ALL of you especially to anyone who has not tried it. Read on from Letitia:

"I've come to a couple conclusions, 1) your not full of s**t 2) this is something I could totally get behind AND 3) it's silly not to do something with it when I'm totally stoked and want to tell everyone about it anyway.

Ok, so as to conclusion #1 the reason I drug my feet so long on trying the Shakeology was because I figured it was just like any other fad out there. I mean seriously, how could anything be that good. Well let me tell you, for three weeks I used it (almost) religiously, but then as usual life got in the way and last week I hit a major bout of "down in the dumps". Didn't go to the gym, wasn't using the Shakeology, I was just beside myself (Which was really weird since I had just received Hip Hop Abs in the mail but that's another story).

I can't believe what a difference something as simple as not starting my day off with Shakeology made. It wasn't until I started getting daily headaches again that I realized I'd been nearly three weeks without a single one. Now you have to understand, for the last few years I've had AT LEAST one major debilitating migraine every two weeks and sometimes up to as many as three a week. Needless to say, this has been a problem. I actually missed three whole days of work last year because of one migraine. I've talked with my doctor several times about it but every time her answer is the same..."I could give you a prescription for something you take every day to prevent them, or I can give you a prescription for something to take as needed, but I know you won't take either of them so I don't know what else I can do for you". Well, now I do.

I can't believe that Shakeology is actually helping with the headaches I've had all my life!!! And the energy, wow, I wasn't the only one at work that saw the difference. So yeah, I thought you were full of s**t, but I'm woman enough to admit when I'm wrong, which actually leads me to conclusion #2 (and ultimately #3).

I'm a believer, living proof, and I want to tell the world about it. Now I'm just getting started with the fitness programs and I think that might take me a little longer to come around to just because I'm a total gym junkie, but already I can see where they can come in very handy. Tonight I knew I wanted to work out, but once I got home the thought of loading Aleicia into the car and heading to the gym just didn't make me want to get going so I popped Hip Hop Abs Fat Burning Cardio into the DVD player and Aleicia and I got in a good workout as well as a much needed good laugh. All I can say is there is a reason why those workouts are made to be done in the privacy of your own home. At least Aleicia looked cute when she was trying to do it, I just looked stupid, but boy did I work up a sweat. I think we're going to try it again tomorrow. WOW, ok so long story long, I was thinking that it might be time to actually do something with the whole coaching thing. Lets face it, it would give me something of a sense of accountability to keep me working at it even if I'm not totally feeling up to it, because who would want an out of shape coach. And I know me, all I've ever done is work in sales and when I find something I love I tell the whole world about it, so if I have the chance to make a couple bucks off my telling the world, well that's all the better. So when you get back from your cruise, lets talk, and get me moving in the right direction."

- Letitia Burns

If you would like to Try Shakeology, I recommend that you do and that you not wait another day, get in touch with your Team Beachbody Coach and ask her/him to show you the couple ways you can try Shakeology.

Tom
http://beachbodycoach.com/metalpalace

HUGE Opportunities in Lifes Setbacks and Challenges

2011-03-05T18:52:00.000-08:00

Don't discount the setbacks, challenges, negative people, and over all struggles you experience and feel in your life. Every single setback, problem, challenge, temporary failure etc has opportunity! Don't feel so "defeated" just because you've experienced so many setbacks and challenges. Instead make a discovery and become empowered to change everything.

Every setback, challenge, negative person, and over all struggle you experience and feel in your life is going to build up your experience and resilience. There is no such thing as a self made success story who didn't build up some massive experience and resilience in the process of becoming that amazing inspiring success story. They just decided their dream was too big to be denied. Their "why" was bigger than their challenges, setbacks, and over all struggles. If you plan to build a BIG Dream then plan to struggle. But to give you some comfort... The pain of regret can be weighed in pounds while the pains of struggle are weighed in ounces. Embrace the pains of struggles any day over the pains of regrets because struggle is MUCH LESS painful than regret.

Absorb what you're suppose to learn from the experience! Jim Rohn said, and I'm paraphrasing, you don't need less problems you simply need more skill. Friends the opportunity to learn is hugely important! If you are doing your daily personal development in conjunction with your daily practice then you are very much engaged in the back and forth rhythm of LEARNING. The importance of that and being consistent with it cannot be underscored enough. When you experience setbacks and so on pay attention to it there may be a lesson to learn so you can refine yourself to advance your perspective. Personal growth and development, the wise use of your resources, and staying connected to your network of support can do dramatic things to speed up that process of a more desirable result from your daily actions!

Be excited to jump in and fail so you have something to learn from, a means to grow resilience from, and something to grab hold of to pull yourself up and advance your perspective. Only when you quit do you transcend a temporary failure into a permanent one. Otherwise that failure is an important stepping stone toward success! You need to think of them as such. If you can do that then how you respond to what happens to you, both good and bad, will be different and you will have real power to design your life how you've always wanted to live it. No economy or political landscape will stop you. No one in your family or close circle of friends will succeed in pulling you down to sink with them.

Assignment:
This week I want you to write down at least a dozen things that happen to you no matter how small or big that you perceive as a set back or challenge. If you pay attention you will notice HUNDREDS a dozen is nothing. Then I want you to write down what happened, what you've learned from that experience, and what refinement you can make toward a more desirable result. Then share that with someone who nurtures you to grow. Talk about it with someone or a group of someones who want to succeed with you. By ourselves we do not have the answers but together we do have all the answers. Wisdom is found in the council of many if we really team up and fill in each others weaknesses there will be NO STOPPING ANY OF YOU!

Tom
p.s. I'd be real interested to hear about the assignment if anyone takes that up.

Wake up, Step up, and Own your life! You're over 18 aren't you?

2011-03-02T08:07:00.000-08:00

"Either you are in charge of your time or you allow yourself to be the puppet of everyone else’s demands. Someone is always in charge–I recommend it be you." - Darren Hardy

If 100% of your income is tied into your job then you're 100% vulnerable to loosing all of your income. It only takes one unfavorable event to happen at your job that you have no control over and it's all gone. Are you comfortable with that? And when it's gone it's not because your job is gone, it's because YOU did nothing all these years since you turned 18 to work in your spare time on your wealth.

It's funny... The number one reason people give for having ONLY a job is security. Job security is a delusion that most people subscribe to. We even teach our kids not to put all your eggs into one basket. The reasons are obvious! Then why do you, if you have only a job, put all your eggs in one basket of this kind of importance? If you loose all of your income you will feel it in every aspect of your life. Having only a job is the single most riskiest thing you can ever do with your life.

As for me, and the minority of other people, I'm going to keep on betting on myself rather than on an employer who could cancel all my income even if I want to keep it. I'm NOT going to put all my eggs into a basket that I have no control over. I'm NOT going to tie all my income or ANY of my income or ANY of my destiny into any variable I have no control over. Most of you are doing exactly that and most of you are doing it in the delusional name of "security".

I challenge you to look in the mirror and say, "I'm going to bet on YOU from now on. Today I'm drawing a line.", and begin doing a little bit of something every day in your spare time to begin working on something YOU own that can finally give you that security you've been subscribing to a few years down the road. Why wouldn't you do that for yourself? You can't use security for a reason anymore.

The next few years are going to pass by anyway just like the last few did that made you no more secure or closer to your promises all these years later. Do something different to become secure in the next few years. Your job is not going to get you there. Time will take you there if you actually do something every day even if it's just a little bit of something in your spare time. And if you don't the only other option time has is to expose your daily slight error in judgment which you will FEEL as you experience with age. It's inescapable. Time will either promote you or expose you depending on what YOU do with your time. Time does not pause; even keel is a myth.

The aim of my article is not to insult but to wake someone up. To get a thank you from someone expressing how badly they needed to read an article like this. Some people "woke" me up a few years ago and because they were not worried about if they would insult me or not I heard what I needed to hear, I suffered the humility I needed to suffer, and now my life will never be the same as it was a few years ago.

It's your life. Step up and own it! THAT is REAL security :-) YOU were meant for greatness. No single life was ever created arbitrarily. You've just got to believe the truth that you are meant for greatness and then become great a little bit at a time through little daily good actions.

Tom

Team METAL Expands again this morning! \m/\m/

2011-03-01T09:58:00.000-08:00

Welcome Peggy Kirk, Team Beachbody Screen name canurockme37, into our Team Passion Independent Beachbody Coaches organization! How sweet is that? Fellow Metal Heads Uniting under the Banner of Health, Fitness, and METAL!!! \m/\m/

Are you a Metal Head? Do you give a care about your health and fitness? Not going to QUIT when the going gets tough?? Join us :-) Pick a metal screen name! So far we have the following people and their screen names:

Peggy Kirk: canurockme37
Lisa Kauppinen: fit2thrill
Angela Jones: rockerangie
Leah Burlington: ladymetal
Daniel Siltala: metallidad
Antoinette Salazar: metalprincess
Jacqueline Koepfer: fullmetaljackie
Daniel Lenegar lenegarrawks
Melissa Mysinger: highwaytomel
Tom Birkenmeyer: metalpalace

Friend up with one another on facebook! Metal heads Unite \m/\m/ and for the kittehs >^..^<

Tom - Metalpalace

Team METAL!!!

2011-02-23T23:30:00.000-08:00

Our Team Passion has a Team METAL Emerging within and it makes me happy :-) I don't know why this could ever be but I seem to be attracting fellow METAL Heads into this Team Beachbody opportunity. How sweet is that? Fellow Metal Heads Uniting under the Banner of Health, Fitness, and METAL!!! \m/\m/

Are you a Metal Head? Do you give a care about your health and fitness? Join us :-) Pick a metal screen name! So far we have the following people and their screen names:

Lisa Kauppinen: fit2thrill
Angela Jones: rockerangie
Leah Burlington: ladymetal
Daniel Siltala: metallidad
Antoinette Salazar: metalprincess
Jacqueline Koepfer: fullmetaljackie
Daniel Lenegar lenegarrawks
Melissa Mysinger: highwaytomel
Tom Birkenmeyer: metalpalace

Friend up with one another on facebook! Metal heads Unite \m/\m/ and for the kittehs >^..^<

Tom - Metalpalace

6 Foods with Hidden Sugar by Joe Wilkes

2011-02-23T09:27:00.000-08:00

The average American eats approximately 1,500 pounds of food every year. Of that, 160 pounds are primarily sugar. Of course, sugar is delicious, and I know I'm the happier for its existence, but of all the things we consume, it has the least nutritive value. In fact, except for the energy in its calories, there's not much to recommend about sugar. It's a prime source of empty calories, and for those of us who are trying to lose weight, sugar's the first thing we should start trimming from our diets. But here's the problem—despite our best intentions to remove excess sugar from our diet, the food industry has found more and more devious ways of slipping us the sweet stuff. Whether the food industry calls sugar by another name or adds it to foods we never thought would have needed it, our sweet tooth is constantly being bombarded. Fortunately, with stricter labeling laws, we have a fighting chance at cutting back on sugar.

Why does the food industry want to fill us so full of sugar?

It's basically the same as any other industry. For the oil industry to make more money, it needs us to use more of its product by driving more miles. The food industry needs us to use more of its product by eating more calories. The problem is that the American food industry is already producing around 3,900 calories per person per day, which is way more than we need. One solution to this surplus is to sell the food cheaply overseas, which the industry does. The other solution is for Americans to eat more calories. And sugar and its corn sweetener brethren are great calorie delivery systems, as they pack a huge caloric punch, without causing much satiety, or feeling of fullness. Check out Steve Edwards' "Sugar vs. Fat" article for more about why sugar is the world-champion fattener.) Most people would probably stop eating steak after they reached 1,000 calories, because they'd be stuffed, but after you drank 1,000 calories from your Big Gulp cup, there's still room for dinner. The other reason the industry pushes sugar so hard is that it's cheap to produce, and the cheaper the calorie, the larger the profit margin.

Sugar in labels—hiding in plain sight.

One of the best ways to disguise the amount of sugar in a product is something the government already requires—printing the information in grams. Most Americans only have the foggiest idea of how much a gram is, because we're unaccustomed to the metric system. So when we pick up a can of soda that contains 40 grams of sugar, we pretty much shrug our shoulders and pop the top. And that attitude is all right with the soda industry! But what if the label said that it contained over 10 teaspoons of sugar? If you saw someone ladling 10 teaspoons of sugar into their morning coffee, you'd think they were crazy, but that's how much people consume in a typical 12-ounce can. In a 64-ounce fountain drink that you'd get at a movie theater or a convenience store, you get over 53 teaspoons of sugar—almost two cups! Naturally, people would probably think twice if the nutritional information on products was given in measurements that were meaningful to them. But until our heavily food industry-subsidized government decides to change its policy, it's a metric world, we just live in it. But we can take note that four grams equals one teaspoon. So when you check out the label, divide the grams of sugar by four, and that's how many teaspoons you're consuming.

Sugar, by any other name, would taste just as sweet.

Another strategy the sugar pushers use to get us to consume more calories is to rename the offending ingredient. We know to stay away from sugar, but how about molasses, honey, sorghum, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, glucose, fructose, lactose, dextrose, sucrose, galactose, maltose, or concentrated juices like grape or apple? Another path to profit that the food industry has discovered is that instead of harvesting relatively more expensive sugar cane and beets, the industry can produce sweeteners in a laboratory more cheaply and with just as many calories as beet and cane sugar. And with some sweeteners, especially the popular high fructose corn syrup, it is believed that your body will be less likely to reach satiety than with sugar, so you can consume more. Mo' calories, mo' money. Another advantage to these doses of -oses is that, aside from the fact that many people won't guess they're just different forms of sugar, they can be spread out in the ingredient list required by law, so that it won't be as obvious that what you're consuming is pretty much all sugar. When you look at a list of ingredients on a product, the manufacturer is required to list them in order of amount, from highest to lowest. So they can bury a quarter cup of fructose, a quarter cup of sucrose, a quarter cup of dextrose, and a quarter cup of corn syrup in the middle of the list, so you won't be as likely to notice that when you add them all up, the main ingredient in the product is sugar.

Hide and seek. You're it.

So, if you're like me, you may have sworn off soda except for special occasions, and turned the candy bowl into an unsalted-almond bowl. No more sugar, no more problems. Except for this problem—the food industry has cleverly snuck its sugars and corn syrups into products where we never would have thought to look for sugar. It's good for the manufacturer. It jacks up the calorie load, can enhance the product's appearance (high-fructose corn syrup gives hamburger buns their golden glow), and can keep our sugar jones simmering at a low boil, in case we ever decide to go back to the real thing. Here are some types of products whose labels could bear more scrutiny.

1. Spaghetti sauce. A half cup of store-bought sauce can contain as many as three teaspoons of corn syrup or sugar. While some of the naturally occurring sugar in tomatoes and other vegetables will show up on the nutrition label, most of the sugar is added. Look for brands that don't include sugar or its aliases or make your own from fresh or canned tomatoes.

2. Ketchup. Ketchup can be 20 percent sugar or more. Not to mention that you'll get 7 percent of your daily sodium allowance in one tablespoon. Look for low-salt, no-sugar brands, or make your own, using pureed carrots to add flavor and texture to the tomatoes.

3. Reduced-fat cookies. Most brands of cookies now offer a reduced-fat version of their product. Nabisco even offers its own line of low-fat treats, Snackwells. But while you're patting yourself on the back for choosing the low-fat option, check the label. The sneaky food manufacturers did take out the fat, but they replaced it with, you guessed it, sugar. Many times, the reduced-fat cookie is only slightly less caloric than the one you want to eat. And because there's no fat to make you feel full, you'll be tempted to eat more "guilt-free" cookies. And just because there's less fat, it doesn't mean you'll be less fat. Fat doesn't make you fat. Calories make you fat.

4. Low-fat salad dressing. Like the cookies, manufacturers have taken the fat out of the dressing, but they've added extra salt and sugar to make up for it. Check the label to make sure you're not replacing heart-healthy olive oil with diabetes-causing sugar—because that's not really a "healthy choice." Your best bet? Make your own vinaigrettes using a small amount of olive oil, a tasty gourmet vinegar or fresh lemon juice, and some fresh herbs.

5. Bread. Most processed breads, especially white hamburger and hot dog buns, can contain a good bit of sugar or corn syrup. That's what gives them the golden-brown crust. As always, check the ingredient label, and consider getting your bread at a real bakery or a farmers' market—it's the best idea since, well, you know.

6. Fast food. Needless to say, fast food is generally not good for you. But even if you're staying away from the sodas and the shakes, everything from the burgers to the fries to the salads is a potential place to hide sugar. Check out the ingredients carefully at your favorite restaurant. You may be getting more than you bargained for.

10 Reasons to Eat Organically—and Locally - By Steve Edwards

2011-02-23T09:23:00.000-08:00

"Think globally, act locally" isn't just for bumper stickers anymore. This grassroots politics–type slogan has become an important way of thinking about where your next meal should come from. But the implications here are far more than political. Buying local—as well as organic—foods allows you to protect your family by feeding them in the safest way possible. Here are 10 reasons to add "visit the local farmers' market" to the top of your to-do list each week.

1. Local foods are safer. Or at least you can find out if they are. Organic food standards are high, but there are still companies out there attempting to cloud the rules. When you buy locally, it's easier to check out what you're buying, and you won't have to hire Magnum, P.I. to do it. The great thing about local media is that they love to cover this stuff. If for any reason a local farm is mixed up in nefarious activities, there's a good chance your paper has a reporter dreaming of a gig at The New York Times who'll be on the job for you. Even if this isn't the case, you can be inquisitive at the farmers' markets—you'll be surprised how quickly you can get up to date on the local scoop. Farmers who adhere to a strict code of ethics love to talk about others who do, and those who don't.

2. Organic foods are safer. Organic certification standards are the public's assurance that their food and products have been grown and handled according to sustainable procedures, without toxic, synthetic, irradiated, or genetically modified elements, including chemical fertilizers, pesticides, antibiotics, and other additives. At least that's what the law says. But even though many companies still cheat the system, most of them play by the rules. These rules are in place to help both soil longevity and the health and safety of the consumer. Many Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-approved pesticides were registered long before extensive research linked these chemicals to cancer and other diseases. Now, the EPA considers 60 percent of all herbicides, 90 percent of all fungicides, and 30 percent of all insecticides, none of which meet organic criteria, to potentially cause cancer. You can't always be certain you're getting safe food, but eating organic foods stacks the odds in your favor.

3. Organic food tastes better. Many people would be amazed to taste the difference between garden-grown fruits and vegetables (and wild meat) and the offerings you find down at your local mega-grocery-mart. The main reason for this disparity has to do with something called trophic levels, which is determined by where plants and animals fall on the food chain. When food—even natural food—is manufactured, as when plants are grown in poor soil with some added nutrients, or animals are raised using drugs and a non-native diet, their physiological chemistry is altered. This doesn't just change their nutrient content—it changes the way they taste.

4. Organic food is more nutritious—which stands to reason, based on the whole trophic levels thing. When soils are depleted and then fertilized, only certain nutrients are added with fertilizers. This results in the loss of many of the plants' original phytonutrients. While these lost phytonutrients aren't necessarily a major component of any individual plant, they add up in your diet and become a major component of who you are. This lack of phytonutrients in the plants in our diets has a lot to do with many modern-day maladies. With regard to meat, it's basically the same story. Animals that are fed a poor diet are, as you might imagine, less healthy to eat, because they're also missing out on essential nutrients thanks to the trophic level paradigm—just like you are.

5. You won't have to eat genetically modified organisms (GMOs). A GMO is a plant, animal, or microorganism whose genetic sequence has been modified to introduce genes from another species. Because the long-term impact of GMOs on our health isn't known yet, they're forbidden by the Soil Association Standards for Organic Food and Farming. Furthermore, in order to qualify as organic, animals can't be fed GMOs, nor can they be fed antibiotics, added hormones, or other drugs. It is not currently required, however, that GMOs be mentioned on food labels, so it's very likely that anything not certified organic contains some GMO ingredients.

6. Your drinking water will be safer. The EPA estimates that pesticides contaminate groundwater in 38 states, polluting the primary source of drinking water for more than half the country's population. Because organic farmers practice water conservation and don't use toxic chemicals that leach into your groundwater, organic farming leads to less waste intrusion into our aquifers, which helps keep your drinking water healthier.

7. Your kids will be healthier. The toxicity of pesticide residue is determined not only by the chemicals used, but by our body weight in relation to how much we consume. This means that your children are even more at risk than you are. It's estimated that the average child receives four times more exposure than the average adult to at least eight widely used cancer-causing pesticides in food. To try and minimize this risk, buy organic, but also make sure that your family eats a wide variety of foods.

8. To help farmers and farm communities. It's estimated that the U.S. has lost more than 650,000 family farms since 1990. The USDA estimates that half of the U.S. farm production comes from only 1 percent of farms. Organic farming may be one of the few survival tactics left for the family farm and rural communities. The majority of organic farms are still small-scale operations, generally on fewer than 100 acres, and using an average of 70 percent less energy. Small farms use far more sustainable and environmentally friendly practices than large-scale farms do. For example, small farms use manure to fertilize soil, naturally recycling it to keep the land productive.

Industrial farms produce so much manure that it's a human health risk. The overspill of manure has contaminated water wells with E. coli and other pathogens. This brings up another subject: Industrial farms still—though now illegally—feed animals the ground-up remnants of other animals that aren't naturally part of their diet. This has led to pathogens like E. coli getting into our foods in the first place.

Furthermore, farm workers are much safer on small farms. A National Cancer Institute study found that farmers exposed to herbicides had six times more risk of contracting cancer than nonfarmers did. Due to their direct exposure, field workers on conventional farms are the most vulnerable to illness as a result of pesticide use. Organic farms eliminate that risk by eliminating harmful pesticides and other chemical inputs from their practices.

9. For more humane treatment of animals. Factory farms treat animals like commodities. They are usually kept in tightly confined pens or cages and often never move more than a few feet for their entire lives. They are also fed the cheapest foods available, no matter how it affects their—and then our—health. Besides the fact that a host of illnesses have entered our world as a direct result of this practice, it's also just not nice. Animals on organic farms are far likelier to be raised without cruelty. They are also fed a diet much closer to what they would eat naturally, and studies tell us—surprise!—that these animals tend to be significantly healthier than their factory-raised counterparts.

10. To promote a vibrant economy. Organic products only seem more expensive because people base their cost on their sticker price alone. However, retail price represents a mere fraction of their true cost. Market prices for conventionally grown foods don't reflect the costs of federal subsidies to conventional agriculture, the cost of contaminated drinking water, loss of wildlife habitat and soil erosion, or the cost of the disposal and cleanup of hazardous wastes generated by the manufacturing of pesticides. Compared to local farms, there's also transportation—and the pollutants that result from it—to consider. All of this means that essentially, you can pay now or pay later—just remember that you're going to be charged interest, mainly in the form of a socially and ecologically diminished world to live in.

What if you can't find organic food? One of our members, who lives in a rural area, went to her local market and requested healthier options. Now the store owner can't keep them on the shelf. You can, with a little initiative, make a difference. After all, retail stores are in business to serve you. If this doesn't work, hit the Internet. Since "organic" is the current buzzword of the food industry, there will be options. And of course there's always your local farmers' market.

For more information on organic and local produce, check out the Web site for the Organic Trade Association, or type "Community Supported Agriculture" into your favorite search engine.

"The math is just too obvious to miss" - Ron Barnhart

2011-02-16T10:19:00.000-08:00

I've been using Shakeology for about 6 days now. I've got Chocolate and my wife has the Green Berry. I absolutely love it.

Other "meal replacement" shakes that I've tried didn't taste very good and I'd get hungry real quick. Shakeology has a great taste and what really surprised me was how well it fills me up. It actually fills me up more than the breakfast that I used to eat.

I agree with Tom...the math is just too obvious to miss for those who really want to improve their health. Even beyond the money you can save, it would be so easy to make a healthy switch that would easily cover the cost.

For example, how many people are buying 2 or more 20-oz sodas per day (I know I used to about 10 years ago)? Or, how many people go to starbucks once a day? Replace just one unhealthy item like this and all your doing is redirecting dollars you already spend. No additional output required and you replace a health-draining item with a health building item. For me, this is a very easy decision.

Tons of undissolved Vitamins in our sewage - People are peeing their money away

2011-02-15T22:03:00.000-08:00

A friend wrote me with this and it is so fascinating I wanted to share:

"My friends dad works for a sewage treatment plant. With nothing grossing me out too much I asked him one day what the #1 thing he see's after our waste is gone. Expecting to hear jewelry and other valuables that accidentally get flushed. But nope. He said it is undigested vitamins that pass straight through our system without ever absorbing and dissolving. I do realize that some vitamins are better than others but he said it can be measured in tons with the amount of undissolved vitamins he see's. Kind of interesting."

How many of you out there are peeing your money away with Multi vitamins and other supplements. You know where I'm going with this if you know me.. The body actually uses Shakeology. Shakeology uses WHOLE FOOD ingredients. If you take one nutrient out of a food without the others the body has no idea what the heck to do with it so it just gets pee'd back out. You're peeing your money away all the while thinking you're getting valuable nutrients. All of the 70 plus ingredients in Shakeology are WHOLE FOOD ingredients. Don't believe me? Here are just a "few" testimonials sent to me, not downloaded from an infomercial, but actually sent to me from real Shakeology users. These drastic life changing results would not be possible if their bodys were not actually using the nutrients in Shakeology, period! Testimonials: http://teampassion.info/testimonials.html

Tom - Shakeology Enthusiast :)

An American Culture in Denial and no sense of self preservation..

2011-02-13T22:14:00.001-08:00

My friend Tom Rolfson wrote this and I think it's brilliant. My hope is this spreads like wildfire and lights a fire under more people to begin stepping up to own their lives. The biggest reason... We don't have a choice otherwise our way of life is over in only a matter of time. Unless we collectively change our belief system as a culture then we are digging our own graves. Maybe that's the real reason terrorists haven't struck again since 2011. Just a thought.. They took notice and noticed we are doing the job on ourselves for them so they can sit back and watch our "no self preservation" unsustainable culture with our 80% death rate derived from bad choices we make every day:

By Tom Rolfson - Fellow Successful Entreprenuer:

"I've seen far more millionaires and billionaires do GOOD things for their communities and strangers than I have do bad. With 83% of ALL American jobs created by those same people... it's what built our country from the start and has sustained it through hard times. I know right now of one very wealthy home builder who is selling homes BELOW his cost to build them... so he may keep his people employed and keep his company whole for when the real estate market turns around and he will financially thrive again. This happens far more often than most people "in the trenches" ever realize. I've been in a very unique position because of my networking and custom accounting software company to be privy to see this.. hundreds, perhaps thousands of times. Small business owners who often do not cash their own paychecks so they may meet payroll and the bills to keep their company in operation. Once they turn the corner and achieve great success, many say they should pay a higher percentage of taxes... but what those who say that often do not realize is the price these people paid to achieve that success. MOST people will not risk and put forth that effort. The reason such a small % of people have such a great percentage of the wealth is NOT for lack of opportunity, race, religion or age... Col Sanders was in his late 50's or 60's before he became successful, Oprah, Walt Disney, and countless others started with nothing and became billionaires. They weren't bigger, faster, taller, smarter, prettier... they just did what others were not willing to do... put it on the line.

The gluttony that is killing us IS the appetite which is fueled by the attitude of entitlement... which is fueled by the belief that the government will "take care of us" which is fueled by the lie that the government knows best. Since Roosevelt and "The New Deal"... virtually every entitlement or government regulatory agency has failed... yet people still believe that somehow the government has a plan and things will be alright. I AM afraid our dollar will collapse and DO have provisions in place to use Euros. People will FREAK if they see gas at $10-12/gallon and $10 for a loaf of bread. I'm not a survivalist in the old fashioned "hide in a bunker" sense... but I'm more and more concerned there will be bloodshed in our streets as people who are incapable of providing for themselves are left hungry when the government cannot provide for them.

But perhaps worst of all is our food stamp/welfare program... we now have 3rd and even 4 ENTIRE generations of families being raised without contributing a single dollar to it. We've developed a system which gives people an abundance of dollars in unhealthy food, they then (most often unintentionally) eat to the point of obesity and the conditions of heart disease, diabetes, other osteo or ortho problems which then render them "disabled". Once that status is 'achieved'... they are entitled to a lifetime of food, shelter, clothing, healthcare and there is still no accountability for doing further damage to their bodies. How do we stop this? What can be done to break this cycle? It's quite obviously out there and isn't hard to see if you look for it."

King Solomons words in a paraphrase called "the message" from Proverbs

2011-02-13T13:38:00.000-08:00

You lazy fool, look at an ant. Watch it closerly; let it teach you a thing or two. Nobody has to tell it what to do. All summer it stores up food; at harvest it stockpiles provisions. So how long are you going to laze around doing nothing? How long before you get out of bed? A nap here, a nap there, a day off here, a day of there, sit back, take it easy - do you know what comes next? Just this: You can look forward to a dirt-poor life, poverty your permanent houseguest!

Tom - Diamond Leader Independent Beachbody Coach
http://teampassion.info/metalpalace

Only A Life lived for others is worthwhile

2011-02-13T09:04:00.000-08:00

"Do you believe in your mission? Are you confident that you can accomplish great tasks? Do you expect to achieve your goals? These are necessary ingredients to lift your talent from potential to fruition.

I need to say one more thing about mission. It needs to include people. Only a life lived for others is worthwhile. As you fulfill your mission, will others around you say...

"My life is better as a result," or "My life is worse as a result"?

If you think it won't be the former, then the mission may not be worth doing." - An Exerpt from A John C Maxwell book entitled, "Talent is Never Enough" that I whole heartedly agree with!

Tom - Diamond Leader Independent Beachbody Coach
http://teambeachbody.com/metalpalace

For Seriously I Am The BEST Boss I ever did Have Before...

2011-02-11T18:38:00.000-08:00

I let myself wake up whenever the heck I want to every morning. Under my own direction I increased my income over 700% in 2010. I've helped a lot of people change their lives; making my life not only successful but VERY significant and relevant in the lives of others. I let myself choose who I want to work with and DONT want to work with. And when I do something valuable I actually get paid for 100% of that value! I gave myself permission to begin doing these things in August of 2007!

When I had a job years ago I was only paid about 1/3rd of the value I bought to the company. I built someone elses dream who later said thank you by shipping my job off to India. I had to bite my tongue a lot I could not express my true-self without risking disciplinary measure or loosing my job. I was not allowed to choose who I wanted to work with. I had to wake up at the butt crack of Dawn every morning. I was lucky if I saw a 2% annual pay raise.

Why do most of you submit yourselves to that? Most of you only have a job and nothing else in place by your own choice so that you may emerge in a position a couple years from now to have the option of firing your boss. If only having a job is for you that's cool I'm happy for you. But as for me... Yuk!!! If you want out of a go no where build someone elses dream get paid only a fraction of the value you bring to someone elses company then I'm calling on you to get started and get started asap. It's probably going to take a couple years minimum to get there. But that couple years is going to pass anyway JUST LIKE THAT LAST COUPLE YEARS DID THAT GOT YOU WHERE YOU ARE TODAY. Change something I promise you will be somewhere different when the next two years pass by. Put that time on your side working for you instead of against you. Exercise your god given autonomy, change your philosophy that's not served you the way you wanted it to, and CHANGE YOUR LIFE! Get rid of the head trash of self doubt. We've all been there especially me. Guess what! I was good enough and SO ARE YOU :-) If you believe you are good enough to design the masterpiece of your own life then it crystallizes into your new reality and life changes :-)

Make sense? It's a natural law. Change the input and you'll get a different output.

Talk to me about Team beachbody coaching. That's my vehicle. I figured it out. I teach it. It duplicates easily. It works! It's easy to set yourself free in this Team Beachbody coaching opportunity especially if you're not an "amateur golfer learning to play golf from another amateur golfer"

Before you write me Watch this video. Turn everything else off and watch. It will give you rock solid info so we can have that meaningful discussion about your life and where it's going if you do or don't change something: http://teampassion.info/metalpalace

Tom - Diamond Leader Independent Beachbody Coach

Something about Money and false Altruistic Moral Egos..

2011-02-05T14:19:00.000-08:00

Money by itself is stupid in my opinion BUT some of us have got to get over our FALSE altruistic sense of moral value when it comes to money.

- You know in your heart and in your soul that if only you had more money you could afford to put your kids through college.

- You know that if only you had more money you could afford home care for your parents instead of having to put them up in a nursing home, or, taking care of them yourself on top of everything else you've got to do and face the real possibility of clinically exhausting yourself. That's a real scenario for most people between the ages of 35 and 50 years old.

- You know that if only you had enough money then if something were to happen to your job you'll be ok and your family will be ok.

- You know that if only you had enough money , god forbid something happens to you, your family will be taken care of.

- You know that if only you had enough money you could afford to eat healthy organic foods and consequently LIVE better and feel better. If you desire to help others you know you'd be more capable to.

- You know that if only you had enough money you wouldn't feel the unapologetic squeeze of a merciless economy.

- You know that if only you had enough money then you wouldn't have to live in the fear that a paycheck to paycheck life style tends to cultivate.

- You know that if only you had enough money then when an emergency comes up, they are inevitable it's not a question of if but when, you won't have to worry about how you're going to come up with the money.

- You know that if only you had enough money you could buy your freedom and buy back your life to spend your time how YOU want to spend your time and not how someone else demands that you spend your time.

And if you're feeling ambitious in a humanitarian point of view you know that if only you had millions and BILLIONS of dollars then a LOT of kids in the world who are literally starving to death would be fed and given the medical attention they need.   You know that we'd be closer to the discovery of a cure for heart disease and cancer which we so desperately need.

Imagine if you quit being selfish, you went out there and made as much money as you could and that money was instrumental in finally finding a cure for cancer and heart disease!   Can you imagine how much less pain and suffering would result from that? I'm not just talking about the agony of the patients stricken with these diseases but I'm also speaking to the pain and sadness of surrounding loved ones. Most of my grand parents and an uncle, so far, I've lost to cancer. Everyone is affected by this I know all of you are to so I know you know what I'm talking about it's one of the most relatable things I can think of.

One of my life goals is to make a Billion dollars, donate 99.9% of it to leaving the world a better place than I was born into it, and donating the rest of the .1% upon my own death because I can't take it with me. Just imagine if everyone would get over there false sense of altruistic moral ego about money and had desires to make as much of it as possible for the purpose of service toward others. Imagine what kind of a different world we'd live in.

Here is something about money. Money isn't evil. It has no agenda. It has no feelings. People are both good and evil with shades of grey. Money is not the root of evil or good. Money is what you do it. Money has as much to do with fueling evil as does the fork for making a fat person fat. It's the philosophy that the person holds that drives money for good or evil. Likewise it's the philosophy that the person holds that drives the person to use the fork to cultivate good health or bad health.    It's the philosophy that the person holds that drives the person to use a tire iron to fix a tire with it or to commit murder with it.    Money doesn't do anything to people. People do things to people and some people have a very false altruistic moral ego about money.

I'm not going to vilify anyone who reads this and still has no desire to earn more money. In fact I am totally fine with it one way or the other. Mother Theresa was poor and she is among the most selfless people throughout the earths history. But don't equate money to moral value because they really don't have anything to do with each other.

Here is your note of caution...

The thing about having this kind of money is it takes time to build. Years in fact. I like knowing I'm in the 2 - 5 year plan instead of the 15 to 30 year plan (if you only have a job odds are you'll never get there anyway). That time is going to pass by anyway. Since it's going to pass by anyway and you have the benefit of knowing it's going to pass by it's up to you to decide if your dreams are big enough dreams that you won't be denied.

In America nothing stops you from being successful and you don't have to ask for permission to become successful. In fact it's quite the opposite. The tax code in America incentivizes wealth. I'm living proof of that. In 2010 if I did not own my own home based business I would have spent SIXTY THOUSAND DOLLARS PLUS more than I needed to. Dang right this country incentivizes and creates opportunity. No one will tell me otherwise.

Take advantage of the great opportunities in which you and I live and live your life in the service of others.

Tom - Diamond Independent Beachbody Coach

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world" - Anne Frank 1952

After something tears your heart out

2011-02-01T12:08:00.000-08:00

Last time I got real depressed I just buried myself in my team Team Beachbody business. And then it made me well off. What was I sooooo depressed about? One of my best friends abandoned me, No job, couldn't find a job, couldn't afford to eat out with friends or anything else, I was afraid of the future because I didn't own my own life yet, I depended on my parents to survive etc. A few great things about the distraction I chose is that it wasn't arbitrary. I was able to declare my own financial independence from it and "fire my boss" which drastically increased my freedom. I helped change the lives of thousands of peoples which was and is very emotionally gratifying for me. That experience alone taught me that when I invested myself in other worthy people, taking the focus off of me realizing this is bigger than I am and not about me, I began feeling better. TONS better. 2010 was an incredible year for me and it was built on a LOT of depression and over all "hard times".

One thing about life that I wish more of you out there would realize is that you are always in the midst of a struggle, just getting out of one, or you are going to get a phone call tomorrow. And you do not control that. You control your response to what happens to you. Whats going to drive you forward is your dream and then “why” you're doing it. Your “why” is what's going to generate your life NOT what happens to you that you have no control over. Life is never going to suddenly become easy so that YOU can be successful. That's why if YOU are still waiting for things to get easier, to have more money, to have more time etc then YOU are NEVER really going to get started until YOU change your personal philosophy and belief in yourself. Otherwise you're just that same common average person who year after year is still saying, "maybe next year". My response to that kind of average thinking is, How sad. How truly sad for you and the life your creator wanted you to have. Change your philosophy and change your life. Procrastination is the corner stone of ALL poverty. Experience has been my best teacher in this. And yours to if only you will heed the lesson of your life and respond to what happens to you differently than you have in the past. There is no other way to own your own life and begin designing the life of your dreams. Own it!

The other two things I did that was just as important as burying myself in my Team Beachbody biz is I did my P90X workouts every day AND stayed connected to my network of support. The ONLY meaningful advice I have for setting yourself up for long term success in drastically increasing your freedom, your health, and your capacity for helping other people for LIFE is to join the Team Beachbody community, get on Shakeology, get yourself a team Beachbody Program, and get and STAY CONNECTED to others doing the same thing who all want to succeed together. I won't even waste my time, or yours, recommending anything other than Team Beachbody. There are so many gidgets, gadgets, magic pills, potions, and crap being peddled to us that the obesity crisis in our country is not going to end unless Team Beachbody is successful, period. It's hard work, discipline, a new set of philosophies, a life style change. If you don't have the balls, the brass ovaries, the guts, the sheer desire, and an open mind then this isn't for you and neither is designing the life of your dreams unless YOU change first.

We don't need to be counselors to help each other. We are human beings. By nature our creator designed us to interact with each other. Through our compassion coupled with our collective wisdom and resources we can help each other :) If you partner up with the right people, cultivate the right nurturing relationships, surround yourself with positive nurturing relationships that push you to grow closer toward the full development of your human potential then you and your friends will literally carry each other to the next higher level. If you don't have those kind of friends then get new friends.

Tom - Diamond Independent Team Beachbody Coach

P.S. Hundreds and THOUSANDS of people cheering each other on! You cannot loose if you plug into this. Sign up for FREE JOIN us http://beachbodycoach.com/metalpalace click the Join link and sign up for Free. Get plugged in with us and start designing the Masterpiece of your life that each day is a micro cosm of. Start today

When YOU finally "Get It" and you get out of your own way to design the life of your dreams!!

2011-01-31T15:13:00.000-08:00

This is seriously so beautifully put I'm just going to copy and paste it...

"It has taken me until this age (42) to realize that I don't have to live my life according to someone else's prescribed manners. I don't HAVE to work for someone else. I don't HAVE to live by the system. This is HUGE for me. I feel like I'm at the beginning of something so spectacular. Like this lump of clay has been placed in my hands and that clay is my life and my future and I can shape it into anything I want. Anything! I'm literally sitting here crying because the game plan is changing for me. I felt guilty for calling in to work today because the roads were slick. I shouldn't have to feel that way. I don't want my life to be beholden to someone else's rules. I want to call the shots and be confident and happy in doing so. Right now I want to just go walk out in the snow with my dogs and let the snow fall on my face and feel the incredible-ness of being alive and wonderful doors open in front of me.

I know I sound silly, but it was inside of me and I needed to get that out. There are very few people in my life that I feel I can share something like that with. This life is so short, Tom, and I feel like I've wasted SO MUCH of it by my own poor decisions and bad mistakes and following everyone else's rules. But my life isn't over and I want the rest of it to be spent working hard for me and my son and to experience everything my heart can dream up. NOTHING is out of reach for the heart that wants it bad enough.

And I want so much for other people to experience this. You must experience this so often - seeing people's lives change having worked with BB so as long as you have. I want to do that for others.

You know, I've always wondered what I'd want to be when i grow up. I've never really picked a career. But maybe it's because I was meant to be brought to where I am today. I know I love to travel. But every time I start to plan a trip in my head I get those niggling little doubts....can you afford it? can you take the time off from work? Who is going to watch the dogs? Who is going to watch your son? Dad is going to think you're being irresponsible spending way too much time and money doing pleasurable things instead of working your fingers to the bone. Well, why can't I have all of it? Why can't I work hard doing something healthy for me and others which also will allow me to travel when I want, not have to worry about whether my employer will let me have time off, or whether I have enough money? Why can't I take my son with me on my grand adventures and have him experience the world? And there are certainly kennels that will watch my dogs for a week. And if my bills are being paid and I'm happy, then why should my dad be disappointed in me? I never even realized until recently how much I live my life in ways that would not disappoint my dad. Well, you know what?? As long as I'm not doing anything illegal, immoral, or fattening, then he can honk off! :)

Sorry for the diatribe. But, God, it feels good to get these feelings out!"

- anonymous. One of my friends and fellow Team Beachbody Coaches :)

This comes from a dear sweet friend of mind who had a moment of enlightenment and expressed it to me :-) She gave me permission to share. I asked to share because I know 99% of YOU can relate and NEED to have a moment like this so you finally get out of your own way and begin designing the life of your own dreams instead of only someone elses.

Why did my business, my income, & my significance in other peoples lives grow over 700% in 2010 while everyone else struggles?

2011-01-27T09:29:00.000-08:00

Because I'm an Independent Team Beachbody Coach. Why else?!?!

Why is Team Beachbody the most powerful business?

They are the only network marketing company spending over $100 million annually on branding and marketing. P90X is the number one infomercial in the country. Insanity is the number 2 infomercial in the country. They have no sales quota. They are the only company that gives you customers. They are the only company that markets to your customers. They are the only company that gives you leads to build your team. They take care of 100% of all sales transactions. The company sets you up with professional websites including a back office which tracks your business. There is no inventory to purchase. It's low cost to get started (1-time $39.95 start up fee is almost a joke to start a multi million dollar business that YOU own). No risk with a guaranteed 30 day buy back. It's a ground floor business. We are going international in 2011 (Hello!!!! Be an international founder with Beachbody!!!!!!). Every day we have advertising on t.v. and in the newspaper about the Obesity problem in America while $86 BILLION every year is spent on fitness.

The time has come and the destiny is here. How big of a piece do you want? How successful do you want to be? How significant in the lives of other people do you want to be? I know that anyone CAN do this but I'm also smart enough to know most people will sit on the sidelines and watch from the benches.

There is no other industry booming right now especially in this economy. And in this Team Beachbody Business you get an opportunity to be successful AND significant in the lives of other people simultaneously. My enormously growing weekly paychecks and more importantly the intense thank yous from peoples lives I have significance in proves it!

If you're sick and tired of being sick and tired and you've actually got enough heart in your own life to get off the sidelines, off the bench, and onto the playing field write me YOU are someone I'd like to expose this business to.

Tom - Diamond Independent Beachbody Coach

Over 60 and dramatically increasing her health. Sounds like a miracle but it's not

2011-01-21T10:24:00.000-08:00

My mom is over 60, she's morbidly obese, severe type 2 diabetic, and lived a life time of an unhealthy life style. With all that damage she's done to her body from life style choices after about ONLY ONE MONTH of Shakeology For the FIRST TIME in twenty years she no longer needs to administer insulin with a meal and that's 100% because of Shakeology. For the FIRST TIME IN HER LIFE she gave up soft drinks; a major contributor to her condition. Shakeology made it easy to give up soda and junk food. And also for the first time in her life she is loosing weight long term. That's NEVER happened before. Shes setting herself up for long term success. With Shakeology it's easier to eat more nutritious the rest of the day and make a real sustainable life style change. Shes not starving, she always talks about how satiated Shakeology makes her feel, shes always talking about the wonderful taste of Shakeology, and as a Diabetic she literally gloats about having "Beautiful blood sugar levels" even right after a meal! Over 60 Years old and None of that has EVER happened before.

My moms life is being extended, the quality of her life and how good she feels is increasing, she's dramatically increasing her over all health, she's dramatically decreasing her chances of a heart attack or stroke, and she's staving off a very real possibility of suffering an amputation as many diabetics who Don't take control do.

If you want to get healthier and FEEL BETTER I'm calling on YOU to step up and actually do something to set yourself up for LONG TERM success. Watch the "100 Doctors" video at the top of this webpage: http://teampassion.info/100doctors.html and privately write me to tell me what's important to you AFTER shutting everything else off to watch that video. If you want to try Shakeology I can help you DRAMATICALLY improve your health and feel better without being out a dime of your money.

Tom - Diamond Independent TBB Coach
http://PassionForFitness.info

A painful past and good moral character can Make you or Break you

2011-01-19T12:52:00.000-08:00

A painful past and good moral character doesn't mean success for the future. The set up of the universe, in which you and I are guests on, doesn't care if you are a good person with a painful past at no fault of your own. The universe holds no bias in favor of your moral character one way or the other. The great law of the universe says you reap a whirlwind of what you sew. So be careful of what you sew because you will reap a whirl wind in return.

Let the pains of your past fuel an unfettered desire for a fundamental change in your belief system and your personal philosophy to drive you to do the actionable things necessary for a different future from your past. But don't anchor one foot in the past with the other tucked timidly in the future. The worlds greatest self made success stories are born out of the most painful backgrounds. They didn't spend their time whining about what they feel they should have because they are good people. They actually DID THINGS every day driven by an unshakable personal philosophy born out of the pains of there circumstances.

I hear morally good people whine about why they should be better off because they are good people with a painful past they don't deserve. It's simply delusional and naive to think you deserve to be successful because you're a good person so you deserve it. If it were up to me that's the way it would be but it's not up to me it's up to a higher power; the god of your choosing or quite simply the universe. You will have an abundance of the things you want when the universe says you deserve it and it s NOT a moral thing because the universe doesn't have a bias about moral character. This is tremendously empowering because it's the things that you do that you have control over that will determine what you have in the future. It's human to give support and to console one another in times of pain. But never confide in each other saying things are going to be ok once things work themselves out by themselves. That's naive and potential death to a persons self image. What if you do nothing and it gets worse? Instead say something useful like, "everything will work itself out once we make everything ok let's do something".

I'm calling on YOU! Don't just think happy positive thoughts and don't cling to a painful past. Let that painful past drive you to actually DO SOMETHING to give those positive thoughts some tangible meaning. Hanging onto a painful past and finding other stories from other people to match up with is how you stay in your painful circumstances a year from now. I'd like you to walk away from that philosophy and adopt a new philosophy that says, "my future is not going to be like my past and I'm going to actually DO SOMETHING to design the life of my dreams".

Is that new philosophy a better fit for you than perhaps another philosophy you've had?

Tom - Diamond Independent Beachbody Coach
http://TeamPassion.info

A godsend for parents

2011-01-17T20:13:00.000-08:00

I've been getting a TON of feed back from my users with kids. Shakeology has been a godsend for them so I wanted to include one bit of feedback from a parent:

"Ok, so, I tried shakeology today with Lizzy. She made it with skim milk and nothing added. She knows how much I am into chocolate, so she decided to let it stand on its own. It really tastes great. I was expecting more along the lines of a slimfast taste only less chalky. I was not expecting it to taste as good as it does :) keeping this in mind, I have a story to share with you...

My daughter is 16 and has an aversion to anything remotely healthy for you. I walked out of the kitchen with my shake in hand and before I knew it, she sucked down over half of it and I had to make another...later Kaytie says "Why you wanna drink nasty health dinks for anyway?" to which I said "That nasty health drink sure didn't seem to bother you when you drank most of it earlier..." Wide-eyed and shocked she turns to me and says "Oh..."
I thought it was pretty funny."

And here is one more bit of feedback from my friend Cherokee Schill:
"Since starting Shakeology the number of sugary sweets requested by my kid's has dropped significantly. Elena used to tell me that she had soda cravings. I remember having those as a kid too. With Shakeology our blood sugar has stabilized and those weird cravings have totally ceased."

Shakeology - http://shakeology.com/metalpalace

Tom

Design the life of your Dreams

2011-01-02T17:51:00.000-08:00

The purpose of challenges, difficulties, and setbacks is for you to gain the wisdom to design the life of your dreams.

Audio: http://passionforfitness.info/contactme/design_the_life_of_your_dreams.mp3

If you're broke, in poor health, if your relationships suffer, if you're shy, scared, if you don't have enough time to spend with loved ones because you're too busy and too broke, the whole reason why god or nature puts challenges in front of you is to give you the opportunity to gain the wisdom to have more of the things you want and less of the things you don't want. The problem with most of you is your belief system. You actually believe challenges, difficulties, and setbacks are these events that happen that get your way when in reality that is the complete opposite from the truth! If your personal truth says that challenges, difficulties, and setbacks are in the way of where you want to be then that is why you are not only broke, but broke a year from now to. If you're in poor health, if your relationships suffer, if you don't have enough time to spend with loved ones because you're too busy it's because you do not have a belief system that supports having more of the things you want and less of the things you don't want, period! To believe other wise is how you remain in the same undesirable situation a year from now. To put off getting started on change from within yourself, your belief system, is how you remain truly stuck in the same undesirable situation a year from now.

The god of your choosing, or nature, does not want you to be stuck. Life is 10% what happens to you but it's 90% how you respond to what happens to you. Do you know what this means? This means you have enormous power over your life! The power is within YOU! It's not what happens to you, it's YOU! You're belief system and your personal philosophies. If you want to be the designer of your own life then change your belief system. There is no other way. IF you want to remain stuck, sliding backwards in your life, then cling to the same belief system you've always had. If you want to keep chipping away at your own self image until eventually you've entirely given up on your dreams then continue to believe something will happen first before you change. That's classic delusion and a delusional belief system will eventually kill you.

Unfortunately that is by far the most common belief system out there. Most people actually believe they are going to change from within AFTER life happens. This belief system is totally opposite of how the set up of the universe works. The set up of the universe, in which we are guests, says that nothing changes until you change. It doesn't say you change second. NO! The first step is for YOU to change. Most of you out there have this grand plan of saving change within your self for step number two. And you actually think it's going to play out that way, it's just a matter of time. If that's your plan that is how you will stay broke, out of shape, in bad relationships year after year after year until suddenly this self sabotaging self - delusional devastating belief system you have kills you right after you entirely give up on your dreams. Don't foster a belief system in yourself that's contra indicative of the universe the only possible outcome of fighting the set up is, you loose.

If things are rough, if things are bad, whatever those things are, you should be praying for challenges to land right in front of you so you can go to work to gain the wisdom to over come those challenges. That's how you pull yourself out! Without the challenge what is there to pull yourself out of a hole with? Nothing! You've got to understand that without gravity the wright brothers would not have been able to invent flight. Flying would not be possible without gravity. Coming out of poverty, or poor health, or an undesirable situation would not be possible without challenges setbacks and difficulties. Without them there is nothing to grab onto for the purpose of pulling yourself out. Sadly what most of us do is we put our head in the sand hoping the challenges will go away. They don't go away. They don't even remain the same. MORE challenges just keep piling up and then you begin to feel like you're drowning all because of doing nothing to gain the wisdom to over come those challenges.

The god of your choosing, or nature, wants you to have an abundance of wealth, health, nurturing relationships, and all the things you want for a good life. That's why god and nature gives you challenges, setbacks, and difficulties! They are opportunities to get all of those things that you want! Quit looking at them as things that get in the way you're killing yourself doing that! Use them to pull yourself out of your hole so that you can shift your fight from fighting to survive to fighting to THRIVE! It's much more fun to fight to thrive than to fight to survive! You see, once you gain the wisdom to pull yourself out of your hole you're going to be able to handle those same challenges more efficiently from now on. But, even better than that, there are going to be new challenges you're faced with to gain even MORE wisdom, to personally grow even more so that you can have more abundance of wealth, health, nurturing relationships and whatever else that YOU want to live the life of your dreams by YOUR design. This is cool stuff isn't it? Are you excited yet to grab new challenges by the horns to pull yourself up to higher places??? You should be! Are you truly going to look at challenges, difficulties, and set backs differently now? Truly?

Let me give you my own example because I want you to know I'm not talking about something that I'm not already practicing and familiar with myself. You need to know that I'm not someone who has always had it easy. Quote the contrary. I had everything working against me. But that just gave me more opportunity to grab onto to gain all the more wisdom that changed my life forever. I've had my share of difficulties and set backs. In fact I feel badly for anyone who hasn't had the difficulties to gain the wisdom to design the life of their dreams. People with a comfortable enough life tend to lull themselves into enough complacency to do nothing meaningful with their lives and that is unfortunate.

I did everything I was "suppose" to do. I was born, I went to school, I got a job, I was on time, I worked hard building someone elses dream, I worked productively to build someones elses dream, I traded my time for money just like most of you are doing, and my reward for working hard to build someone elses dream was to have my job, which 100% of my income an benefits were attached to JUST LIKE MOST OF YOU, was off shored to India at no fault of my own. I found myself at 30 years old jobless, zero income, zero benefits, nothing! After 12 years of my working adult life I had ZERO income to show for and no JOB. Add to that I was in bad physical shape. I was rotting, just like most of the U.S. population. My belief system wasn't working for me! My belief system was working against me. Just like most of you! My personal philosophies brought me to this place where I was devastated. It wasn't my job abandoning me or the bad economy or politics or any of that junk. It was all me and my devastating personal philosophies and an un supportive belief system.

When most people are abandoned by their job who do they blame for suddenly having zero income and benefits? Most people blame the economy. That's how most people remain broke year after year. And if you are most people you've got to hear this because most people will not change in a meaningful way without feeling uncomfortable enough and even embarrassed enough first. This was certainly true for me. I depended on my parents at 30 years of age to survive. It was uncomfortable for me. It was embarrassing. I felt shame in myself. I don't even know how I was able to get a date being 30 years old depending on mom & dad to get by. It was not a good place for me to be psychologically. At least that's what I thought at the time. But looking back with all this new wisdom I've acquired since then to pull myself out of that mess I know that was exactly the state of mind I needed to be in to create the change within myself that was absolutely NECESSARY to change and design the life of my dreams.

So what did I do in my poor no income sorry state??? I spent $40 to sign up for the Team Beachbody opportunity and then dropped another $200 into it because I felt it was necessary and I was dead serious about not being broke still a year from then. I didn't wanna be broke still a year later I was SICK OF IT! I attended a seminar at a hotel lobby in the Chicago area with a bunch of other people. Everyone was interested in the company and the various opportunities to get healthy a financially independent. But yet those same people, who had the comfy cushion of an income from a job, just couldn't see spending any money on this to better their situation. In fact I've been told I was totally crazy for doing so in my no income situation. I was told I should be waiting til I had more time and money til I got started. Is that stupid? To wait til I have more time and money to start doing something that will give me more time and money? That doesn't make sense that's stupid!

Guess what?

All those people that put it off til they had more time and money are still putting it off and that is NEVER EVER going to change they will continue to be broke year after year after year unless they change on the inside, FIRST. Think about what happened at this seminar for a moment this is real life stuff here this can be applied to any situation not just this seminar. This is a reflection of life and human nature itself!! I was the guy with NO income and NO time because I was attending college full time and a half and my job was off shored to India and I was the guy who signed up. Isn't that backwards? YES! It is backwards. It's a completely backwards way of thinking in comparison to how most people think and that is why I am the guy who not only pulled himself out of a devastating situation but I kept running with my BACKWARDS THINKING and eventually fired my boss and bought a house in cash just a couple years later at age 32! This is something most people do not do in the course of their entire lives! But all those people interested in the opportunity think they are acting in their own self interest by waiting till they have more time and money til they actually start doing something that will give them more time and money. To me, THAT is backwards! And to them, I am backwards! And we both have our own results or LACK OF results to show for such drastically different belief systems. Which perspective of backwards would YOU rather be??? Seriously ask that question to yourself it's worth asking and answering to yourself! Especially if it gets you to FINALLY walk away from how most people think so you can FINALLY design the life of your dreams!

I'm doing really well for myself now all because I started consistently doing the things most people are not willing to do. But guess what? I am still faced with challenges. That doesn't go away. But I adapt to them much more eagerly than I did at first. Broke Tom saw challenges as events that got in my way. The new and improved Healthier and wealthier tom sees challenges as stepping stones to success. Broke Tom avoided challenges like the plague. Heck now a days if I don't feel I have enough challenge in my life then I know it's time to make new goals. I will actually WRITE DOWN AND DATE new goals just to be presented with new bigger challenges. You need to get it out of your head that if you just overcome current challenges that they will somehow stop. Nope! Just the opposite is true. The more wisdom you accumulate for the purpose of overcoming challenges the bigger the future challenges that come your way. Since life is a mix of difficulties and opportunities anyway and there is NOTHING you can do about it because it is the set up of the universe which we did not create, why not learn to embrace difficulties, challenges, and setbacks as the opportunities that they ARE for the purpose of designing the life of your dreams? You will be MUCH happier if you exercise the complete control you have over your response to both difficulties and opportunities. But if you are still with me then by now you must realize that difficulties ARE opportunities only disguised as events that get in the way. It's the WISE and enlightened person who sees a challenge, a difficulty, or a setback as REAL opportunity. How does THAT sit in your belly? It should sit very sweet like in your belly. It should fill your spirit with an eagerness to meet a tough situation and have some fun with it while you design your own good life.

Do you want to improve your situation? Then stop treating challenges, setbacks, and difficulties as events that get in the way and start using them CONSISTENTLY for stepping stones to design the life of your dreams. There is no other way. If you're waiting for your ship to come in before you get started I've news for you. Your ship is NEVER coming. It's already here docked and waiting. The longer you make your ship wait the more it decays making it harder and much more costly to get started. Waiting, I hate to say it, is STUPID! If you're being stupid then quit being stupid and get started it's your life so own it you're the only that can!

It starts with a decision followed by a commitment. Commit consistently enough with enough heart in the game and you WILL succeed. I don't know how long it's going to take you to get there. But that time is going to pass anyway either for you or against you. If you sit on the side lines of your own life and WAIT while watching others then not only is your situation not going to improve but your self image is going to diminish and over enough time THAT will kill you. If you've made the decision and your willing to commit but not sure how to get started let me know. I can recommend the same books and audio that helped me shape my life. If you're interested in the same vehicle I'm using to shape my life after I made the decision and commitment then let me know and I can show you what I am doing so you can decide if what I'm doing is a good fit for you or not. Does that sound fair? Whatever you do, do something! Step closer to your dreams so your dreams step closer to you. Start walking away from how most people think and start that walk today.

I hope the gears in your brain are turning by now. I hope you're beginning to wonder how different the next 5 years of your life could be from the last five years if you just swap out some old philosophies for some new ones and change a few things. I hope you quit waiting for tomorrow to own your own life. And I hope that if you'd like me to show you what I am doing that you ask me today rather than tomorrow.

Your life is a master piece and every day is a micro-cosm of that much larger master piece. Design your own master piece how YOU want it.

Tom
http://PassionForFitness.info

This year I RESOLVE to do something I've NEVER done before...

2011-01-02T08:27:00.001-08:00

My ONLY new years resolution for 2011 is to help others join me in being financially free. I know what it's like to help people get healthy and even pay their bills which is an AWESOME feeling. This year I want the feeling of helping someone become entirely financially free. I resolve!!!

Who is going to resolve and partner up with me? Who's got the GUTS and enough HEART in their own life to invest in other people in an enlightened intelligent self interest kind of way??? This invitation is open to anyone who meets the criteria.

-Tom

"The Danger of Apathy" by my awesome friend Melissa Wedel

2010-12-26T12:47:00.000-08:00

Apathy:
1. Lack of interest or concern, especially regarding matters of general importance or appeal; indifference.
2. Lack of emotion or feeling; impassiveness.

"Science may have found a cure for most evils: but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all--the apathy of human beings." Helen Keller

What is the cause of apathy? It is often frustration and a sense of powerlessness that causes people to withdraw from life.

"The world is a dangerous place to live;" said Albert Einstein, "not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it."

From the movie Seven:
William Somerset: I just don't think I can continue to live in a place that embraces and nurtures apathy as if it was virtue.

David Mills: You're no different. You're no better.
William Somerset: I didn't say I was different or better. I'm not. Hell, I sympathize; I sympathize completely. Apathy is the solution. I mean, it's easier to lose yourself in drugs than it is to cope with life. It's easier to steal what you want than it is to earn it. It's easier to beat a child than it is to raise it. Hell, love costs: it takes effort and work.

This topic has been on my mind in one way or another all year.

We are all guilty of apathy at one time or another in our own lives. We are all human and sometimes we each feel as though we can't do something any more or simply don't care anymore for whatever reason.

While most of us don't use drugs, beat children nor sponge of the system or steal, there are other areas where we are apathetic and should evaluate those situations in our own lives and make changes for our own futures and the futures of those we love.

People who succeed in life are not apathetic on serious life changing topics.

When you face a problem in your own personal life, be honest with yourself about the cause, don't lie or make excuses. That will never make the problem go away, it will only make it bigger.

As parents we are apathetic to the garbage the feed our children in the public school. Have you gone to your child's school to see what they are feeding your children?? I highly recommend you watch Food Inc and start reading about processed foods.

We're apathetic to the idea that our kids are full of useless knowledge that they can recite word for word about movies, gossip column talk and so on while many cannot even label a US map correctly. Have you limited their TV, video game and social time to unsure they are learning the things they need to?

I know someone who knows more about new cars coming out on the market next year than I could remember but he cannot spend any time learning new skills or reading to improve his poor job situation and provide for his family. He has decided that for whatever reason his job situation will never change and he has given up, he doesn't care anymore.

I know cat breeders who know other breeders who are abusing and mistreating the cats in their care and they say and do nothing about it. One in particular has been involved with animal control and is running from a rescue and animal control while still adding cats to her hoarding situation, and guess what, other breeders want the sale so badly and the money in their pockets that they are apathetic to the plight of the helpless cats that land in her care! Our major cat registries are more worried about politics than the abuse and neglect of the cats whom they register. They have developed a tolerance for the abuse, neglect and exploitation of breeding and show cats.

I know people who tell me they can't buy things their children need nor things that will change their health and life but yet they can buy cigarettes and alcohol.

Many hospitals are full of mobidly obese people who cannot even get out of bed and are dependant on a ventilator to breath. These people began the problem themselves but I can tell you that a 500 lb. bedridden person isn't walking to the kitchen nor going to the store to continue to eat and support their problem, apathetic family member and friends are! If you love someone you'll get them help, do not give them what is killling them!

How many of us know people on social security disability who are not disabled? How many of us know people on food stamps and welfare that have cable TV, internet and video games?

This list could go on and on but my point is simple:
As 2010 draws to a close, take some time to look at your life, really evaluate 2010. Ask yourself if you're where you want to be and will you have the determination, character and strength to change your direction in 2011?

We are all responsible for what we do in response to what life deals you. We all suffer and we've all heard many a great speaker say not to wish for less problems, rather wish you were better! Really ponder that statement.

Think for a moment about people you know who seem to have it all and who are happy and then ask yourself if it's because of their mindset, character and determination or because they don't have any problems in life. If you think that it's because they don't have problems in life, you're wrong. They may not have your problems but believe that they do indeed have problems. They lose people they love also, they have set backs and disappointments. They get knocked down but instead of giving up they get back up and try again and move forward!

Apathy will always be part of our society and people we know but as individuals we cannot afford this dangerous practice in our own lives. Stopping apathy in your own life and situation is the beginning of stopping it on a larger scale!

We are each responsible to help ourselves and not give up, make excuses or worst of all just not caring anymore.

Lastly, a public service announcement: The Apathy Anonymous meeting was canceled due to lack of interest.

Face the Facts - 8 Misleading Fitness "Facts"

2010-12-20T09:37:00.001-08:00

8 Misleading Fitness "Facts"
By Steve Edwards
When it comes to our well-being, not much pricks up our ears like the word miracle. But when referring to health and fitness, the word miracle is generally synonymous with the word scam. That is unless finding yourself suddenly motivated to exercise and eat better is something you would consider a miracle. Other than that, miracles don't exist.

At Beachbody®, we're always on the lookout for the next great thing. We analyze every diet, every workout, and every medical breakthrough that promises to reverse the obesity epidemic and make the real world look like, well, the set of The Real World. What we find, without fail, is that the only "miracle" breakthroughs are those that expand on what we already know—that only through exercise and diet will you effectively change your body and your health for good. Let's take a look at eight marketing miracles that fail to do much more considered miraculous than make their creators rich. We'll interpret each one and then let you know how each claim may have a positive effect on your life.

You can get thin with a supplement. One of the most common questions we get is whether or not our programs will work without the supplements. Given how many claims there are about miracle cures involving a pill, this question makes sense. What doesn't make sense is that when we tell people that diet and exercise are the major components of our programs, they often become skeptical. We've been led to believe by advertisers that the reason we're overweight or out of shape is because there's a secret ingredient in some supplement that we've been missing. This, to put it a noninflammatory way, is not how it works. The obesity epidemic is the result of two rather simple numbers: we eat about 5 percent more calories than we once did, and we exercise about 20 percent less.
This in no way means that supplements are worthless. While there are many shady supplement manufacturers in the marketplace, the reason that we have supplements at all is because they can be effective in keeping us healthy. The use of supplements goes back thousands of years. Traditional medicines were the original supplements. There have been many advancements in the modern world, but basically, those same herbs and nutrients that aided people's health once upon a time have the same effects today. But they weren't miracle cures in the old days, and they still aren't. This is the reason we refer to our programs as being supplement-assisted exercises.
Medicine can make you healthy. Medicine can make you not sick, but it can't make you healthy. Along with curing us from diseases and injuries, doctors now inject, alter, and prescribe us into becoming healthier-appearing beings. Cosmetic medical advancements are indeed impressive, but let's not lose sight of the facts. The human body needs exercise and nutrients to run smoothly. There is no way to chemically change this. There are certainly medical alterations that can be done to change our bodies once they've been misused and started to fall apart. And there are drugs and other chemical alterations that can reverse certain conditions. But try as they might, scientists have still yet to come up with a way for us not to need to exercise and eat properly so that we can perform to the best of our abilities. We may be able to increase our natural abilities using medicine, but without the fundamental groundwork that is exercise and what we eat, no amount of medical help will allow us to live long and vibrant lives.
You can get ripped with the right diet. With the "Flat Belly Diet" on the bestseller list and the "Abs Diet" on the cover of Men's Health, it may be hard to believe that no diet alone is going to land you on the cover of a Joe Weider publication. Dieting can help you lose weight and greatly improve your health. But since that isn't what marketers like to spin, it's generally not what they pitch. The only diet that will give you ripped abs is a starvation diet. And that one comes with a lot of undesirable side effects.
Many of these diets, including the two referenced above, are basically very healthy. But if you want your body to look ripped, you need to exercise and diet in combination. A healthy body can look lean but rarely ripped. A muscular body with too much fat won't look ripped, either. Only a healthy and muscular body can allow you to both look ripped and perform well. A starved body will be both lean and ripped in appearance, but this is not due to your body being healthy—rather, it's due to the catabolic state you enter as your body feeds on its muscle for survival.
You can have a six-pack by only working out your abs. Ab work will make your abdominal muscles strong, but you won't be able to see them unless your diet is in line with your exercise expenditure. The easiest and quickest way to see your abs is to work your entire body intensely and eat well. The more muscle you add to your frame—your entire frame—the more your metabolism will increase, the more fat your body will burn at rest, and the sooner your ab muscles will appear. And, of course, the cleaner you eat, the faster you will make this happen.
Six-pack abs—like most things used to gauge fitness—are a function of one's overall health and condition. They won't pop up on their own.¹ But you're also not wasting your time working on them. Your core, which is in part your abs, is the foundation that all of your movements are based on. Having a strong core is the single most important aspect to being physically fit.
One supplement can make up for a bad diet. We love miracles, especially when they don't require much work on our part. That's why we're always looking for a pill we can take that will make up for our bad habits. Supposed muscle-enhancing supplements have been available since Jack LaLanne invented the Universal Gym, but in the last decade, we've also been bombarded with things promising the opposite. Fat blockers, carb blockers, diet pills, cleansing pills, and so on all promise to rid us of something we wished we hadn't eaten in the first place. This, unfortunately, can't be done.
There are many good dietary supplements, but heed the word "dietary." Supplements work along with the other factors of your diet. Nothing can even hint at offsetting a poor diet. In fact, one of the main advantages of supplements is exactly the opposite: they make the biggest difference when you're dieting already. Supplements are, basically, condensed nutrients. When you're exercising and also attempting to lose weight, it becomes difficult to get all of the nutrients that your body requires to recover from exercise. This is the realm of the highly effective supplement. Proper supplementation can allow you to eat fewer calories than you normally could and still allow you to recover from hard workouts, which greatly enhances your results. Beachbody's ActiVit® Multivitamin is a great way to make sure you get the nutrients you need each day to get the most out of your fitness program.
Cardio is the only exercise you need. Cardio isn't even a scientific term for a type of exercise, yet it's still often trumpeted as the be-all and end-all for exercise effectiveness. This, in my experience, is often a cop-out by medical practitioners who feel the need to recommend exercise but don't want to risk being specific. Cardio as a general term means anything affecting the heart. The problem with interpreting the term is that everything you do has an effect on your heart. And although intense exercise works the heart much more than easy aerobic exercise does, it seems that most people define cardio as aerobic, meaning low-level movement. And low-level movement is not the only exercise you need, unless your physical state inhibits you from doing something more intense.
The key to changing your body composition, staying young, and remaining healthy is to do short bouts of high-intensity exercise. If done correctly, this is all the "cardio" you need. It also promotes muscle breakdown and hormonal releases that have a pronounced effect on your health. All "cardio" training is good, including low-level aerobic training. It just should, however, not be the only exercise you do.
You can plug in and get ripped. Remember the old exercise machine that had a strap you placed around your butt that would vibrate like a washing machine? Back in the 60s, this odd contraption filled fitness centers worldwide and, undoubtedly, made someone a lot of money. It also never shed a pound off of anyone. And even though it's used in many gimmick jokes, we just can't stop trying to replicate it. If you ever see an advertisement for something that does all the work for you and claims you'll look better because of it, start searching for the remote. The calories you burn looking for it will exceed any amount you'll burn using the device.
As is the case with most gimmicks, there is a scientific example at their root somewhere. Most of these modern contraptions are some type of electronic muscle stimulation (EMS) device. These machines use electrodes to contract your muscles while you do nothing. They were designed for physical therapy and work well within this application of keeping your muscle tissue from atrophying when you can't work your muscles naturally. So, yes, these machines do build muscle. But they lack the ability to stimulate anything near what you would do naturally. To keep the type of physique you would acquire in a round of P90X® would require you to be plugged in for most of any given 24-hour period. And if you're going to go to this much trouble, you'll save yourself a lot of effort by doing any 30-minute exercise video—shoot, one 10-Minute Trainer® workout will do a lot more for you than a full night on an EMS machine!
A single type of workout will make you fit. Beware of exercise that promises to be "the only workout you'll ever need." Even if one workout did cover all of your energy systems using each workout modality, it still would not be all you need. The reasons are many, but, primarily, it's because your body adapts over time to any exercise regimen. To achieve continued progress, you need to alter what you do from time to time. The more planned out this is the better.
There is a reason that Beachbody designs fitness programs. For best results, you should train your body progressively and periodizationally. That is to say that you need to progressively overload your system as it becomes used to any one thing. Then, you should change the focus of your program to target various energy systems. By doing this, you keep your body stimulated and your progress curve will continually ascend.

There is, actually, a medical procedure that removes the fat from your abdominals to make them visible. It does nothing for the rest of your body, does not help your fitness, and has potentially damaging effects over time.

Sign up for the FREE team beachbody newsletter. It automatically comes with a free account. Go to my page and click the "Join" link, scroll down and click the free membership option: http://beachbodycoach.com/metalpalace

Tom

Over 1 Billion people are STARVING for the first time in history

2010-11-27T12:15:00.000-08:00

There is so much YOU and I can do to help reverse this terrible trend. But first just a few brief statistics so you can begin to appreciate what's happening in the world we live in. Without enough RAGE I know most people simply won't care:

For the first time, the number of chronically hungry people worldwide is greater than 1 billion, according to a recent U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization in June of 2009. This is an 11% increase from just one year prior.

According to the College of Agriculture and Life Science at Cornell University 1 person dies every second of hunger - 4,000 every hour - 100,000 each day - 36 million each year. 1 child dies every 5 seconds as a result of hunger - 700 every hour - 16 000 each day - 6 million each year.

Here is where WE CAN ALL HELP AND WE MUST HELP. Money donations are nice but they are typically only temporary and doesn't address the root of the problem for more long term solutions. We can provide funding for sex education, birth control, agriculture education etc.. These things would give hungry people a lot at long term hunger alleviation but I'm going to focus this article solely on grain, livestock, and how we vote with our daily dollars right here in the USA.

Here it is! This is the one thing that can alleviate hunger for hundreds of millions of men women and children throughout the world and WE MUST DO IT. Are you ready??

Buy Grass fed organic Beef instead of Corn Fed Beef or go organic vegetarian!

A whopping 70% percent of the grains our farmers grow right here in the USA gos toward feeding our livestocks all the while an un precedented terrible 1 BILLION plus people in the world are literally starving to death. Further more; this massive grain fed live stock right here in the USA is arguable the largest contributing factor to our own 80% death rate right here in America. Most of us are sabotaging our own self interest to save a buck all the while over a Billion people starve to death! That's stupid!

You see, cows never were suppose to be eating corn. Mother nature intended for cows to eat Grass. Not grains! I don't personally understand how it all works but when humans eat cows that have been on a grain diet we slowly begin dying from the health problems it causes as we get older. Inflammation, arthritis, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high C-Reactive protein levels, less efficient central nervous system and brain function etc... When humans eat cows that are on an appropriate diet of eating grass then we get our omega 3 Healthy Fats and we live a higher quality of life. Grass fed Organic beef is an anti inflammatory rather than inflammatory. It lessons high blood pressure, cholesterol, promotes better brain health and central nervous system efficiency etc... It's sadly become common place in the USA for people to begin taking medications around ONLY forty years of age! For an increasing number of people ONLY 30 years of age! And inexcusably some of our citizenry don't make it out of child hood without needing medication of some kind as a result of poor diet choices made by the parents or guardians. That's unintentional child abuse but for a different article on a different day.

We are meat eaters which is fine I'm the first in line for the dead meat wagon. The problem is within the overwhelming majority of us who are eating grain fed meat rather than grass fed organic. If you're a meat eater and you regularly eat grain fed meat you will live in more needless anguish than you need to as you grow older and you won't die of natural causes whether you believe it or not. It's just a question of getting yourself informed and then caring enough about the quality of your life and then how you teach your children.

So here is what we have set up currently derived by our daily choices... We (most of us) buy corn fed beef while over 1 BILLION people are starving to death all the while destroying ourselves in the process. This is unintelligent!

I don't mean to sound like I'm dumping on us. My aim with this article is to help YOU become more informed so that WE ACT by shifting our corn fed beef purchases to GRASS FED organic beef purchases. Here is just the tip of the iceberg as to what will happen if enough of US do that... We (if most of us is we) buy GRASS FED BEEF from now on. This will set the stage for hundreds of millions of starving men women and children to get the nourishment they need if they get the 70% of our grains that use to feed our livestock. We, the meat consumers, will live Healthier Happier more fulfilling lives. Health care would become more affordable for more people. Since industry and politics always follow the money they will meet the new demand making Grass Fed Organic Beef cheaper to purchase and farmers will be earning a more reasonable income than they are now. More dreams will come true for a LOT more people.

Just this one thing alone can do so much. It's not a silver bullet but it's the closest thing to a silver bullet along with birth control.

The other option is to go vegetarian, organic. But I'm not going to ask anyone to do that we love our beef! I LOVE beef! Furthermore; GRASS FED BEEF is very good for you. Corn fed beef is not good for you and 70% of our grains CURRENTLY gos toward feeding our livestock while those One BILLION plus people we share the planet with are dying of hunger.

I realize some people still are not going to care. Even if they have the benefit of knowing all this some still won't give a damn and will keep voting for corn fed beef with their daily dollars. To those people I say, every time you spend money on corn fed beef you're creating a demand for grain that could be used to save the lives of starving children in the world all the while sabotaging your own self interest in living a healthy life. That's stupid! And cruel. Kill your apathy along with your unintelligent self interest.

Throughout our history there has always been less needless suffering when more fortunate people help those who are less fortunate. There are many things the fortunate can do but my VERY specific call to action here is to either shift your beef purchases to GRASS FED ORGANIC BEEF or to go organic vegetarian. Don't keep voting with your daily dollars for corn fed beef because it's the stupid thing to do for your own self interest AND over 1 BILLION people could use those grains just to keep from dying of hunger.

Spread the word. It's worth spreading! I don't believe most people are consciously making decisions that sabotage there own self interest while over a billion people starve to death. I believe we the USA just need more education so we can become more powerful to create change the world so desperately needs.

Tom

There is a constant battle being waged in your body and in life itself

2010-11-17T09:27:00.000-08:00

An elderly Cherokee Native American was teaching his grandchildren about life…He said to them, “A fight is going on inside me, it is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One wolf is evil—he is fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, competition, superiority, and ego. The other is good—he is joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too.”They thought about it for a minute, and then one child asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win, Grandfather?” The Elder simply replied, “The one you feed.”

There are countless real life parallels you can draw from this story. What a wise story!! Everyone should know this story and think about it. Let it stimulate the mind and then let it fuel some daily action for you to take more control over your own life!

The parallel that I thought of right away is the battle of sickness vs health going on in our bodies. This battle is on going 24/7 and will never stop until life stops. Our body innately wants us to be healthy in this push shove war fare. We sabotage our own self interest every time we eat badly. The body asks for a banana and we send it a coca cola or a fast food "value" meal or both! When you do that you are feeding the "evil wolf" and that evil wolf WILL get stronger and stronger until it gets YOU! Sickness and disease in our bodies sits there, contained, quietly waiting for health to get weak. As soon as sickness and disease sees a vulnerability in health because of how poorly we feed our bodies then sickness and disease moves in and starts to gain power in our bodies! Case in point: we eat more poorly than ever before in our history and we are more disease riddled than ever before in our history. The only way to win this struggle is to get involved, cooperate with the positive things going on inside our bodies and see if we can't help out in this push shove match. This battle has been going on in our bodies since we were created and it's going to continue! We've got to fight this battle our entire life which is exactly why if your not doing something you can sustain for the rest of your then it doesn't matter how you're helping your own self interest. You can't just sit on the sidelines, cross your fingers, and hope for the best. That's a terrible philosophy to have! You've gotta get off the sidelines and in the game! See where you can cooperate with the positive and see if you can't help out in this struggle. There is no other way! If someone tries to tell you there is another way just take this magic pill and you'll be fine then you've gotta have some backbone and say no! You're wrong! This is fundamental stuff and fundamentals are old! It's existed for thousands of years and will continue to exist so long as there is life on earth. Magic pills don't exist you've gotta reject that whole idea and not be suckered into it!

Eat good, drink your Shakeology, stimulate your mind and body, do these things every day and you can keep sickness and disease controlled and contained into a very small corner. It's either cooperate with the positive things going on in your body or live your life in anguish. There is no other way!

Tom

The ultimate purpose of a job is to... - By Tom Birkenmeyer. Hey that's me!!!

2010-11-15T10:49:00.000-08:00

...give you something to do to pay your bills as you work on your wealth in your spare time as well as your security and a greater sense of purpose in the world.

Jobs truly are a good thing as a temporary means to afford your cost of living while you work as part time as you need to to build up a passive income. That's primarily why I spend my money on MADE IN THE USA whenever possible. It's one way I can make a contribution DAILY that empowers YOU to step up and own your life so that you can be paid what your worth and live a better life. Or maybe for you personally a job is a good thing because that's all you want to do and have no higher ambitions for yourself and for serving others with a product or a service you can provide to them of value. I'm not judging your motives for why you might want a job either temporarily or permanently. That's a personal choice you make that you can either be happy or sad with. However I do know most people hate their jobs. And I also know that most people who love their jobs are one paycheck away from bankruptcy. I also know that some people, whether they are in love with their job or in contempt of their job, have a much higher sense of purpose in their life than to build some elses dream. Some people, whether they love their job or hate their job, want to be paid more than only 1/3rd of the value they bring to their employer. Don't kid yourself if you're an employee then your corporate environment, your employer, and taxes are absorbing the overwhelming majority of the value you bring rather than you absorbing the value for the work that you do. Seem fair? Hardly not. But that's the nature of the beast of being an employee.

Like it or not building up a passive income that you own has become a VERY practical matter. Actually that's not entirely true it's ALWAYS been a very practical thing to do it's just that in the past ten years or so the Economy has underscored how important it is to have a passive income that YOU own.

What do I mean by a passive income? Imagine this... You've worked at your job for X number of years, did everything you were suppose to do and suddenly your job is gone at no fault of your own. Maybe your company downsized, maybe they off shored your job to India, maybe it has nothing to do with the economy who knows... The important thing for you is you tied all of your income and benefits to your job so it's all gone because you had all of your eggs in one basket, the wrong basket! If you did just a little bit of something every day toward building a your own passive income in your spare time during all those years you were employed then you'd still have an income along with your house and everything you own. Odds are after years of doing just a little bit of something every day by this point your passive income would have taken over as your larger income. Cool hey? Can you imagine how much less stress would be created by the loss of your job? Probably very little to none at all.

Another example of what I mean by Passive Income... Imagine you LOVE your job. As a result, if you're like most people, there is nothing driving you to grow closer toward the full development of your human potential. There are no "logs in the fire" to drive you to keep growing as a human being and maybe you lack the wisdom to realize that lifes great adventure is the continuous growth toward the full development of your human potential and the wise use of all your resources. God knows I lacked that specific wisdom for the first 30 years of my life and I suffered for it after my comfortable job was off shored to India. But shortly after I GAINED so much more. I NEEDED to loose my job at no fault of my own or otherwise as I look back I fear I may not have done anything else to grow and contribute more to the world. Thank you god for for throwing a big fat wrench into my original retirement plan. THANK YOU! For a LOT of people contentment is the formula for a rotting mind and body. Are you content in a job that you love? If so, has it stunted your personal growth?

Another example of what I mean by Passive Income... Going back to school for a higher education to better yourself is a popular thing now. This is a good thing so long as the individual couples new knowledge with daily actions. However; what most students are not doing is building up a passive income. Most students today are students that are going back to school at an older age AFTER spending X number of years in the work force but fell on hard economic times which lead to their going back to school. Now imagine this... YEARS before you fell on hard economic times you started to do just a little bit of something every day in your spare time to build up a passive income that you own. Years of doing a little bit of something every day has resulted in HUGE growth in your passive income and YOU own it! Now you have choices when hard economic times hit! You can simply leave the job scheme and begin contributing to the world in your own way and on your own terms FULL TIME, you can go to school and not have to pick up another job to afford school as well as cost of living which is going to free up your spare time to spend with your family and friends, you can do whatever you want to do. But if you're like most people and have done nothing to build a passive income then your options are extremely limited and that's a result of a daily slight error in judgment you have been making up til now compounded over a long period of time.

If you're reading this thinking to yourself, my god I have done nothing all these years to get ahead and now I'm broke, don't beat yourself up. Be upset if you need to make some changes. Being upset doesn't bother me. After all a LOT of people need to be upset first before action comes. I needed it. Apparently I needed to be devastated, upset, and pissed off. My feelings lead to a discovery process which was VERY painful. Through my journey that I became very active in I finally started to openly put good things into my brain, change my philosophies, and shape my life on my terms and how I wanted it shaped. In a sequence of events it went like this... Devasted / hurt feelings --> discovery process ---> putting the blame fully on my own shoulders ---> correcting the errors of the past namely my philosophies because philosophies are behind everything ---> developing and shaping my own life how I wanted it.

See most people have no problem reaching devastation and hurt feelings. We don't even need any help getting there it just happens it's part of lifes great adventure. Some people even embark on a discovery process but where most people fail and prevents them from succeeding is the Blame game. "It's the economy, it's politics, its my friends, its anything but me". You already know that you have very little to no control whatsoever over politics, the economy, whats going on over in Asia etc.. so why then blame those things you have no control over? By doing so you rob yourself of all your power over your own life. That's not an intelligent thing to do. If you think I'm wrong then keep surrendering your power to whatever it is you're blaming and see if your situation is any better a year from now. I've seen it in the lives of everyone who fights that fundamental and ya know what? They are not in the same boat today as they were a year ago, they are in a WORSE boat than they were in a year ago. The even keel belief is a false belief to. Even keel doesn't exist you're either moving up or down the mountain. If you can figure out a way to pause time then perhaps even keel can occur. But then if you pause time you'll just be in the same undesirable situation forever so that wouldn't really serve you either. Time has got to keep moving forward so that you can harness the power of time to work for you. But the caveat to that is if you're not positioning your daily actions for time to work for you then it's going to work against you, always.

The moral of my blog is if you work a job to afford the cost of living while in your spare time you build a passive income by providing continuous value to a lot of peoples lives, helping them live a better life, then you can live your life however you want to live it. Fire your boss, keep your boss, absorb lost wages without even noticing, go to school, stay at home, go on missionary trips to help children in South America, travel, spend more time with family and friends, contribute more to the world you live in, etc... You can do anything with a passive income. But if you do what most people do, which is nothing, then you're options are extremely limited by your daily slight error in judgment. And maybe you want limited options which is fine I'm not telling anyone how to live. But most people don't want limited options. If you're like most people and want more freedom then DON'T DO WHAT MOST PEOPLE DO! Don't think like they think, don't talk like they talk, don't specialize in what they specialize in. Walk away from the 95% of Americans who aren't doing anything to realize their dreams. There is no other way to shape your life how you want. It typically takes years but if you get started TODAY NOT TOMORROW then your day will arrive sooner. But most people won't which makes it EASIER for the 5% to get ahead. After all, if everyone did it then the bar would be set higher making it more difficult to be among the 5% crazy enough to go after their dreams. Next time you see a 95% percentile love them and thank them for making your journey easier. You've just gotta take that journey and get started today.

In all scenarios it's only a two step process to pull yourself out of an undesirable situation, or a future undesirable situation that you haven't woken up to you yet, so you may be better situated in the future. 1. It's YOUR fault. OWN IT. It may not be your fault if your job was off shored to India, or that your hours were cut, or that your job treats you unfairly and without the integrity you deserve, or that you might not even know it yet but one day you will experience a rude awakening from your employer and you have no passive income to make up for the UNPREDICTABLE rude awakening etc.. But it is your fault that you are in a position of Extreme dire vulnerability because you did nothing to build up a passive income that you own so that when the unpredictable would happen you'd be fine. Unpredictables are part of life it's not "IF", it's "WHEN". So be ready for that. No one is stopping you from doing that but YOU. Get out of your own way! In the USA you do not have to ask for permission to be successful. You don't have to get permission from anyone, certainly not your employer, to build up a passive income in your spare time that will eventually DWARF your job income that you OWN. Knowing all of this, it is absolutely your fault if you've tied all of your income and benefits into your job and suddenly your income is ZERO if something happens to that job. It's your life, own it! Til you Own it, your employer owns it.

My call to action to you, if you love or hate your job, is to start doing a little bit of something every day in your spare time to build up a passive income that you own. If you think you have time to put this off because you're comfortable then remember this... Most people spend years building up a passive income before it can replace the income from their job. If you put this off and in the next one or two years something happens to your job then you are 100% responsible for your financial scenario. And odds are the something that happens to your job will be something unpredictable. Even if you're job is secure because you work for the government! What's going to happen to you if need to come up with ten thousand dollars emergency money FAST? But still, the most important part of all of this, is continued personal growth don't stagnate here no matter how comfortable and set you are. Get started and get started today. And here is the best part about building a passive income that you own... The money is something secondary unless you're broke then it becomes a temporary primary need for obvious reasons. If you're providing value to people that helps them live a better life then you're going to feel like your life has real purpose behind it. Making money by itself fills no real purpose. It's what you do with it to fuel more ideas to help MORE people live happier healthier more fulfilling lives. I'm not an Independent Team Beachbody coach because I'm motivated by wealth. Money serves VERY little motivation for me. It's the freedom that it buys me and the larger capacity to do more to help others live better, period. And consequently I have more wealth than I've ever had before in my life thanks to a fundamental change in my philosophies coupled with the Team Beachbody Opportunity.

For me this is TRUTH that I will not subject to popular vote especially considering the masses are broke, unhappy, or just not where they want to be. If you want to be successful don't gauge popular opinion except perhaps in a service or product you plan to add value to peoples lives with. But NEVER subject your truth and your personal philosophies to popular opinion because that is how you will lose.

Some will jump on this fundamental I'm writing about, others won't, but what is your truth? And as you answer what your truth is maybe you need to go into a discovery process before you decide what your truth is. As you realize your truth listen to and pay attention to the feedback from the universe. 95% of the material I write about and speak about are fundamentals. And as Jim Rohn Says, "fundamentals are old". They don't change! Fundamentals have been around for thousands of years and are going to be around for thousands of years. I'm not making this stuff up because you/I can't make up new fundamentals they've been around much longer than you or I have been around for! So knowing what I know about fundamentals, and as you decide what your truth is, I know that fundamentals offend some people. Fundamentals aren't meant to offend, insult, or to fight against. Fundamentals are meant to be worked with and harnessed for our own gains. That's a choice people make at no fault of the fundamental!

What I'm getting at here is this...

I know that people fighting fundamentals are still stuck in their own same undesirable situations a year later. You MUST pay attention to that kind of feedback from the universe if you want to move closer to the full development of your own human potential and shape your life how you'd like it to be. And if you don't want anything in your life to change then you don't have to worry about it. But that's not really true either. Some people subscribe to the idea, "If I just keep rolling along keeping the status quo then my personal status quo will not change either" and that would be a false belief whether you think so or not. If you're not moving closer to the full development of your human potential then your moving away from it. And if you're moving away from it then you're rotting in both mind and body. You're always either going up or down the mountain there is nothing else even if you think there is. If you think there is then that makes you more vulnerable to the process of rotting to death whether you believe it or not. That's a fundamental! Don't lull yourself into a complacency about these things because that's another fundamental that if you fight against you will rot. If you want to rot it's cool with me no judgment here it's your life live it how you want to. I just think you should know in case it might turn on a light bulb for some of you to "set a better sail" this year than last year and arrive at a more favorable destination a year from now. After all, the whole purpose for my writing this blog is to empower some of you step up and own your life. That is a GOOD thing.

Work your JOB to fuel your spare time activity the RIGHT way for a more fulfilling future. That's how you win :-)

Tom

stevepavlina.com personal development

2010-11-13T22:16:00.000-08:00

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/01/how-to-build-a-high-traffic-web-site-or-blog/

6. Let your audience see the real you.

My life and my writing are intricately intertwined, such that it’s impossible to separate the two. When someone reads this web site, they’ll eventually come to know a great deal about me as a person. Usually this creates a skewed and inaccurate impression of who I am today because I change a lot over time — I’m not the same person I was last year — but it’s close enough. Getting to know me makes it easier for people to understand the context of what I write, which means that more value can be transferred in less time.

I’ve told many personal stories on this site, including my most painful and difficult experiences. I don’t do this to be gratuitous but rather because those stories help make a point — that no matter where you find yourself today, you always have the opportunity to grow in some small way, and no matter how small those changes are, they’re going to add up over time to create massive lifelong growth. That’s a lesson we all need to remember.

When I find ways to turn some of my darkest experiences into lessons that might help others in similar situations, it actually transforms those painful memories into joyful ones. They take on new meaning for me, and I can see that there was a positive reason I had to endure such experiences, one that ultimately serves the highest good of all. Oddly, I now find that it was my darkest times that help create the most light for others.

With respect to privacy, I don’t really care much for it. I do respect other people’s right to privacy, so when people tell me personal stories via email, I don’t turn around and re-post them to my blog. But I’m OK with being rather un-private myself. The need for privacy comes from the desire to protect the ego, which is a fear-driven desire, and fear is something I just don’t need in my life. My attitude is that it’s perfectly OK to fail or to be rejected publicly. Trying to appear perfect is nothing but a house of cards that will eventually collapse.

I think allowing people to know the real me makes it possible to build a relationship with my audience that’s based on intimacy and friendship. I dislike seeing people putting me on too much of a pedestal and using labels like “guru” or “overachiever.” Such labels create distance which makes communication harder. They emphasize our differences instead of our similarities. Communication between equals — between friends — is more effective.

More genuine communication means better connections with your audience, which means more repeat traffic and more referral traffic. This isn’t a manipulative game though, and excessive or overly dramatic self-disclosure for the purpose of linkbaiting will only backfire. Your reasons for storytelling must be to benefit your audience. The traffic benefits are a positive side effect.

7. Write what is true for you, and learn to live with the consequences.

If the stuff I’ve written on this site means I’ll never be able to run for a political office, I can live with that. I’m willing to write what is true for me, even if it goes against my social conditioning. Being honest is more important to me than being popular. But the irony is that because bold honesty is so rare among civilized humans, in the long run this may be the best traffic-building strategy of all.

People often warn me not to write things that might alienate a portion of my visitors. But somehow I keep doing the opposite and seeing traffic go up, not down. I don’t treat any subjects as taboo or sacred if they’re relevant to personal growth, and that includes diet and religion. It’s no secret that I’m a vegan ex-Catholic. Do I alienate people when I say that torturing and killing defenseless animals for food is wrong? Perhaps. But truth is truth. I happen to think it’s a bad idea to feed cows cement dust and bovine growth hormone, to pack live chickens into warehouses where the ammonia from their feces is strong enough to burn their skin off, and to feed 70% of our grain to livestock while tens of thousands of people die of hunger each day. I also think it’s a bad idea to pay people to perform these actions on my behalf. It really doesn’t matter to me that 999 people out of 1000 disagree with me. Your disagreement with me doesn’t change what went into producing your burger. It’s still a diseased, tortured, chemical-injected cow, one that was doomed to a very sad life because of a decision you made. And you’re still responsible for your role in that cow’s suffering whether you like it or not.

That last paragraph is a good example of the kind of stuff I write that makes people want to put me in a cage, inject me with hormones, and feed me cement dust. It wouldn’t surprise me terribly if that ends up being my fate.

I write what is true for me, regardless of public opinion. Sometimes I’m in the majority; sometimes I’m not. I’m fully aware that some of my opinions are unpopular, and I’m absolutely fine with that. What I’m not fine with is putting truth to a vote.

I take the time to form my own opinions instead of simply regurgitating what I was taught as a child. And I’m also well aware that there are people spending billions of dollars to make you think that a burger is not a very sad, diseased, tortured, chemical-injected cow. But I’m going to keep writing to help you remain aware of things like that, even though you may hate me for it. That defensiveness eventually leads to doubt, which leads to change and growth, so it’s perfectly fine. I’m good at dealing with defensiveness.

I don’t worry too much about hurting people’s feelings. Hurt feelings are a step in the right direction for many people. If I’m able to offend you so easily, to me that means you already recognize some truth in what I’ve written, but you aren’t ready to face it consciously yet. If you read something from me that provokes an emotional reaction, then a seed has already been planted. In other words, it’s already too late for you.

My goal isn’t to convince anyone of anything in particular. I’m not an animal rights activist, and I don’t have a religion to promote. My goal is to awaken people to living more consciously. This requires raising people’s awareness across all facets of their lives, so they can make the big decisions for themselves. It requires breaking social conditioning and replacing it with conscious awareness and intention. That’s a big job, but someone has to do it. And if I don’t do it, then I have to admit I’m just part of the problem like all the other hibernating bears.

A lot has been written about the importance of transparency in blogging, and truth is the best transparency of all. Truth creates trust, and trust builds traffic. No games, no gimmicks… just plain old brutal honesty. Even the people that say they hate you will still come back, and eventually those people will become your most ardent supporters. Even if they don’t agree with you, they’ll learn they can trust you and that your intentions are honorable, and trust is more important than agreement.

8. Treat your visitors like real human beings.

Even though I’m sitting at my computer writing this, seemingly alone, I know you’re a real human being reading it on the other end. My apologies to sentient androids who may be reading this years after it’s been written. You aren’t just a number in my web stats. Despite the technology involved and the time-space differential between my writing and your reading, there’s still a human-to-human connection between us that transcends time and space. And that connection matters to me. I feel its presence whenever I do my best writing.

While I imagine being on a stage in front of a million people when deciding which topic to write about, once I actually get going, I imagine having a one-on-one conversation with a friend. This means revealing some of myself and being honest, as the last two points already addressed, but it also means genuinely caring about you as a person. And that’s perhaps one of the best kept secrets of my success as a blogger. I actually care about helping you grow. I want you to become more conscious and aware. I want you to experience less fear in your life. And my concern for your well-being isn’t conditional upon you liking me.

I happen to think we have a lot more similarities than differences. Based on what I know about myself, I imagine you’d like your life to be better tomorrow than it was yesterday. I imagine you’d like to be happier, more fulfilled, and more at peace with yourself. I also imagine you’re living below your potential and could use some help overcoming fear and solving certain problems to enable you to tap more of that potential. And finally, I imagine you wouldn’t believe me if I said you can have it all for only $19.95 (as well you shouldn’t).

The reason I work so hard to create original content and then give it away for free is because I want to help as many people as possible. I genuinely care what happens to this beautiful planet and to the people who live here. It’s possible I actually value your life even more than you do. This is the kind of motivation that never wanes. I sometimes lose sight of it when I get caught up in the details, but the connection is always there, waiting for me to tap into it whenever I want. This provides me with a wellspring of creative ideas and an inexhaustible passion for contribution.

I don’t need to play stupid marketing and sales games with you. There’s nothing for you to buy here. Even if I add some products in the future, I’m not going to try to manipulate you into buying something you don’t need with a slew of false promises. I might make more money in the short-term by doing that, but it would sever our genuine connection, create a wall between us, and reduce the level of impact I’m able to have. Ultimately, that approach would lead to failure for me, at least in terms of how I define success. I can’t help you grow if I violate your trust.

I cannot force anyone to grow who doesn’t want to. But there are a lot of people on this planet who are now ready to let go of low-awareness living and start pushing themselves to the next level of human existence. And they need help to get there because it’s a difficult journey, and there are strong forces working against it.

Real human beings helping real human beings is ultimately what traffic growth is all about. That’s precisely what a link or a referral is. If you align yourself with the intention of genuinely helping people because you care, you’ll soon find yourself with an abundance of traffic.

9. Keep money in its proper place.

Money is important. Obviously I have bills to pay. Money pays for my computer, my high-speed internet connection, my house, and my food. I just returned yesterday from a vacation that money paid for. My wife and I had a great time partly because we didn’t have to worry about money at all on the trip. We did everything we wanted to do without being hampered by a lack of funds. And this web site paid for it.

It’s important that I generate some money from my work, but it’s not necessary that I extract every possible dollar. In fact, relative to its traffic levels, I’m seriously under-monetizing this site. But money is only a means to an end, not an end in itself. Making a positive contribution to the world is a lot more important to me than money. Money can be useful in achieving this objective, but human relationships are far more important. The funny thing is that the less I rely on money, the more of it I seem to have.

I’m already making more money than I need to pay my bills, and my income from this site keeps going up each month. If I simply keep doing what I’m doing, I’ll probably end up becoming fairly wealthy. But money is an extremely weak motivator for me. Very little of what I do today has a profit motive behind it except to the extent that money will fuel more important goals. That tends to confuse certain people because some of my decisions align with earning money, but many don’t. While I do consider myself an entrepreneur (at least it’s less isolating than “guru”), I only see money as a tool for enhancing and expanding my contribution.

While many entrepreneurs pursue money for the purpose of becoming wealthy, I chose a different route. I sought to earn money for the purpose of increasing my freedom. I don’t want to get myself stuck in a pattern of working for money, so I’m constantly turning down opportunities to make money that would restrict my freedom. For example, I don’t do any consulting or coaching. Consequently, my calendar contains very few fixed appointments. This doesn’t mean I’m idle. It just means I spend my time doing what I freely choose to do instead of what others would have me do. I require this level of flexibility to do my best work.

By paying close attention to how I earn money and not just how much I earn, I keep money in its proper place. This allows me to stay focused on my purpose without getting wrapped up in less important concerns like building a brand, closing sales, or doing phony marketing.

I dislike it when other people use one-dimensional sales and marketing tactics on me, so I avoid using these techniques on this site. I’ve sort of unplugged myself from the current capitalistic system and set up a side system of my own that I find much more congruent with conscious living. I would love for other people to have the same level of freedom I enjoy each day. I’m sure I’ll continue to improve my approach over time, but it’s working wonderfully so far. Imagine having a business with no products, no inventory, no sales, and no customers, but still generating an abundant positive cashflow.

Since the income generation is largely on autopilot, I can focus my time and energy on creating content instead of on doing marketing or trying to sell something. And being able to devote so much time to content creation without worrying how I’ll pay my bills makes it a lot easier to build high traffic.

Some business models make it very challenging to build traffic. You have to spend a lot of time and energy just on lead generation, and then maybe you try to monetize those leads by selling a product or service. It’s always an uphill struggle.

I give all my best content away for free. Word of mouth does the rest. So my traffic building strategy is more like flowing downstream. It hasn’t been a struggle for me at all. And once you have sufficient traffic, it isn’t that hard to monetize it without becoming an ogre.

We’ve all heard the expression, “Build a better mousetrap, and they’ll come.” And we’ve also heard marketing and sales people say that this is just plain wrong — you have to market and sell that mousetrap effectively too. I say they’re all wrong. My approach is the equivalent of, “Build a better mousetrap and give it away for free, and they’ll come — and they’ll bring friends too.”

10. If you forget the first nine suggestions, just focus on genuinely helping people, and the rest will take care of itself.

One thing that turns me off about typical self-help marketing is that authors and speakers often position themselves as if they’re the opposite of their audience. I’m successful and you’re not. I’m rich and you’re not. I’m fit and you’re not. You need me because something is lacking in your life, I have exactly what you lack, and if you pay me (and make me even richer and you poorer), I’ll show you how you can have it too. And if it doesn’t work for you, it just means you’re even more of an idiot than the people who provided my testimonials.

I’m sure you’ve heard this sort of nonsense many times before.

All of this I’ve-arrived-and-you-haven’t stuff is stupid. It suggests that life is about destinations and that once you’ve arrived, you’re done growing and can just relax and sip fruity drinks for the rest of your life. But there’s more to life than border crossings. If you go from single to married or from non-millionaire to millionaire, that’s fine and dandy. Crossing the border into parenthood was a big one for me. But that’s only one day of my life, and to be honest, I didn’t have much control over it except for a decision made nine-months earlier (and it seemed like a pretty attractive idea at the time). What about all those other days though?

Growing as a human being is something I work on daily. I’m deeply passionate about my own growth, so naturally I want to share this part of the journey with others. If I start marketing myself with the “I’m successful and you’re not approach,” I hope someone will come put me out of my misery, since that would mean I’m done growing and ready to die. I don’t expect to ever be done growing as long as I exist as a human being. There are always new distinctions to be made and new experiences to enjoy. And yes… plenty of mistakes to be made as well.

One of the great benefits of focusing on helping others is that it gets fear out of the way. Without fear you become free to just be yourself. You’re able to take intelligent risks and remain detached from any specific outcome because the journey is more important to you than the specific stops along the way. Personally it’s not the destinations that excite me but rather the unfolding process of discovery. I love the anticipation of wondering what lies around each new bend.

If we are to help each other, we need to be partners in the pursuit of growth, not opponents. So it makes no sense to put up fake walls between us. The ego needs walls to protect it, but if we can get past the fear-based needs of the ego, we’ll make a lot more progress.

There are plenty of things I could do with this site that would make me more money or grow traffic faster in the short-term, but I won’t do them because they’ll just put more distance between us. I’ll be on my side, you’ll be on your side, and we’ll each be slightly afraid of the other. I’ll be worried that maybe you won’t buy what I’m selling, and you’ll be worried about getting ripped off or taken advantage of. We’ll just be drinking yet another round of fear, which is exactly the opposite of what we need to grow.

One of my biggest challenges in life right now is figuring out how to help enough people switch their primary polarization from fear to love. Our emotions are an energy source for us (they drive our actions), and most of the world is still driven by fear energy. Watching TV news is a good example; we can actually feel energized by watching others suffer. Hurting animals is another example; we eat their fear for breakfast. But there’s another fuel for human consciousness, and perhaps the best way to describe it is unconditional love. This isn’t the squishy emotion of romantic love — it’s a sense of connection to everything that exists and a desire to serve the highest good of all. Unconditional love, when it becomes one’s primary fuel, cultivates fearlessness. In this state you still have the biological fight-or-flight response, but you aren’t driven by emotional worries like fear of failure or fear of rejection. You feel perfectly safe regardless of external circumstances. And when you have this feeling of unconditional safety, you’re truly free to be yourself, to embrace new experiences, and to grow at a very fast pace.

Personal growth is not a zero-sum game. If you grow as a human being, it doesn’t harm me. In fact, ultimately if all of us grow as individuals, it’s going to make this whole planet better for everyone. When enough people switch their primary polarization from fear to unconditional love, this planet will become a true paradise. That’s a good thing for all of us, one that’s more important than all the money in the world.

Perhaps you have a less ambitious goal for building web traffic than raising human consciousness and working towards world peace. That doesn’t matter. You can still make helping others your primary focus, and if you do that, you’ll find it relatively easy to build a high-traffic web site. If you align yourself with serving the highest good of all, you’ll receive plenty of help along the way, and best of all, you’ll deserve it.

Do your best to help your visitors out of genuine concern for their well-being, and they’ll help you build your traffic and even generate a nice income from it. It’s as simple as that.

Final thoughts

Building a high-traffic website can be very challenging if you’ve never done it before. These tips really only scratch the surface of what you need to know to succeed. Since writing this article, I found an alternative suggestion for those who find it difficult to build substantial traffic and income online. Please check out Build Your Own Successful Online Business for details.

10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job

2010-11-13T12:52:00.000-08:00

I thought this article was so amazing and so relevant to the daily running thoughts of EVERYONE that I wanted to share this to see if it can help some of you out. Enjoy:

Source - http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/07/10-reasons-you-should-never-get-a-job/

Just for fun I recently asked Erin, “Now that the kids are in summer school, don’t you think it’s about time you went out and got yourself a job? I hate seeing you wallow in unemployment for so long.”

She smiled and said, “Wow. I have been unemployed a really long time. That’s weird… I like it!”

Neither of us have had jobs since the ’90s (my only job was in 1992), so we’ve been self-employed for quite a while. In our household it’s a running joke for one of us to say to the other, “Maybe you should get a job, derelict!”

It’s like the scene in The Three Stooges where Moe tells Curly to get a job, and Curly backs away, saying, “No, please… not that! Anything but that!”

It’s funny that when people reach a certain age, such as after graduating college, they assume it’s time to go out and get a job. But like many things the masses do, just because everyone does it doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. In fact, if you’re reasonably intelligent, getting a job is one of the worst things you can do to support yourself. There are far better ways to make a living than selling yourself into indentured servitude.

Here are some reasons you should do everything in your power to avoid getting a job:

1. Income for dummies.

Getting a job and trading your time for money may seem like a good idea. There’s only one problem with it. It’s stupid! It’s the stupidest way you can possibly generate income! This is truly income for dummies.

Why is getting a job so dumb? Because you only get paid when you’re working. Don’t you see a problem with that, or have you been so thoroughly brainwashed into thinking it’s reasonable and intelligent to only earn income when you’re working? Have you never considered that it might be better to be paid even when you’re not working? Who taught you that you could only earn income while working? Some other brainwashed employee perhaps?

Don’t you think your life would be much easier if you got paid while you were eating, sleeping, and playing with the kids too? Why not get paid 24/7? Get paid whether you work or not. Don’t your plants grow even when you aren’t tending to them? Why not your bank account?

Who cares how many hours you work? Only a handful of people on this entire planet care how much time you spend at the office. Most of us won’t even notice whether you work 6 hours a week or 60. But if you have something of value to provide that matters to us, a number of us will be happy to pull out our wallets and pay you for it. We don’t care about your time — we only care enough to pay for the value we receive. Do you really care how long it took me to write this article? Would you pay me twice as much if it took me 6 hours vs. only 3?

Non-dummies often start out on the traditional income for dummies path. So don’t feel bad if you’re just now realizing you’ve been suckered. Non-dummies eventually realize that trading time for money is indeed extremely dumb and that there must be a better way. And of course there is a better way. The key is to de-couple your value from your time.

Smart people build systems that generate income 24/7, especially passive income. This can include starting a business, building a web site, becoming an investor, or generating royalty income from creative work. The system delivers the ongoing value to people and generates income from it, and once it’s in motion, it runs continuously whether you tend to it or not. From that moment on, the bulk of your time can be invested in increasing your income (by refining your system or spawning new ones) instead of merely maintaining your income.

This web site is an example of such a system. At the time of this writing, it generates about $9000 a month in income for me (update: $40,000 a month as of 10/31/06), and it isn’t my only income stream either. I write each article just once (fixed time investment), and people can extract value from them year after year. The web server delivers the value, and other systems (most of which I didn’t even build and don’t even understand) collect income and deposit it automatically into my bank account. It’s not perfectly passive, but I love writing and would do it for free anyway. But of course it cost me a lot of money to launch this business, right? Um, yeah, $9 is an awful lot these days (to register the domain name). Everything after that was profit.

Sure it takes some upfront time and effort to design and implement your own income-generating systems. But you don’t have to reinvent the wheel — feel free to use existing systems like ad networks and affiliate programs. Once you get going, you won’t have to work so many hours to support yourself. Wouldn’t it be nice to be out having dinner with your spouse, knowing that while you’re eating, you’re earning money? If you want to keep working long hours because you enjoy it, go right ahead. If you want to sit around doing nothing, feel free. As long as your system continues delivering value to others, you’ll keep getting paid whether you’re working or not.

Your local bookstore is filled with books containing workable systems others have already designed, tested, and debugged. Nobody is born knowing how to start a business or generate investment income, but you can easily learn it. How long it takes you to figure it out is irrelevant because the time is going to pass anyway. You might as well emerge at some future point as the owner of income-generating systems as opposed to a lifelong wage slave. This isn’t all or nothing. If your system only generates a few hundred dollars a month, that’s a significant step in the right direction.

2. Limited experience.

You might think it’s important to get a job to gain experience. But that’s like saying you should play golf to get experience playing golf. You gain experience from living, regardless of whether you have a job or not. A job only gives you experience at that job, but you gain ”experience” doing just about anything, so that’s no real benefit at all. Sit around doing nothing for a couple years, and you can call yourself an experienced meditator, philosopher, or politician.

The problem with getting experience from a job is that you usually just repeat the same limited experience over and over. You learn a lot in the beginning and then stagnate. This forces you to miss other experiences that would be much more valuable. And if your limited skill set ever becomes obsolete, then your experience won’t be worth squat. In fact, ask yourself what the experience you’re gaining right now will be worth in 20-30 years. Will your job even exist then?

Consider this. Which experience would you rather gain? The knowledge of how to do a specific job really well — one that you can only monetize by trading your time for money – or the knowledge of how to enjoy financial abundance for the rest of your life without ever needing a job again? Now I don’t know about you, but I’d rather have the latter experience. That seems a lot more useful in the real world, wouldn’t you say?

3. Lifelong domestication.

Getting a job is like enrolling in a human domestication program. You learn how to be a good pet.

Look around you. Really look. What do you see? Are these the surroundings of a free human being? Or are you living in a cage for unconscious animals? Have you fallen in love with the color beige?

How’s your obedience training coming along? Does your master reward your good behavior? Do you get disciplined if you fail to obey your master’s commands?

Is there any spark of free will left inside you? Or has your conditioning made you a pet for life?

Humans are not meant to be raised in cages. You poor thing…

4. Too many mouths to feed.

Employee income is the most heavily taxed there is. In the USA you can expect that about half your salary will go to taxes. The tax system is designed to disguise how much you’re really giving up because some of those taxes are paid by your employer, and some are deducted from your paycheck. But you can bet that from your employer’s perspective, all of those taxes are considered part of your pay, as well as any other compensation you receive such as benefits. Even the rent for the office space you consume is considered, so you must generate that much more value to cover it. You might feel supported by your corporate environment, but keep in mind that you’re the one paying for it.

Another chunk of your income goes to owners and investors. That’s a lot of mouths to feed.

It isn’t hard to understand why employees pay the most in taxes relative to their income. After all, who has more control over the tax system? Business owners and investors or employees?

You only get paid a fraction of the real value you generate. Your real salary may be more than triple what you’re paid, but most of that money you’ll never see. It goes straight into other people’s pockets.

What a generous person you are!

5. Way too risky.

Many employees believe getting a job is the safest and most secure way to support themselves.

Morons.

Social conditioning is amazing. It’s so good it can even make people believe the exact opposite of the truth.

Does putting yourself in a position where someone else can turn off all your income just by saying two words (“You’re fired”) sound like a safe and secure situation to you? Does having only one income stream honestly sound more secure than having 10?

The idea that a job is the most secure way to generate income is just silly. You can’t have security if you don’t have control, and employees have the least control of anyone. If you’re an employee, then your real job title should be professional gambler.

6. Having an evil bovine master.

When you run into an idiot in the entrepreneurial world, you can turn around and head the other way. When you run into an idiot in the corporate world, you have to turn around and say, “Sorry, boss.”

Did you know that the word boss comes from the Dutch word baas, which historically means master? Another meaning of the word boss is “a cow or bovine.” And in many video games, the boss is the evil dude that you have to kill at the end of a level.

So if your boss is really your evil bovine master, then what does that make you? Nothing but a turd in the herd.

Who’s your daddy?

7. Begging for money.

When you want to increase your income, do you have to sit up and beg your master for more money? Does it feel good to be thrown some extra Scooby Snacks now and then?

Or are you free to decide how much you get paid without needing anyone’s permission but your own?

If you have a business and one customer says “no” to you, you simply say “next.”

8. An inbred social life.

Many people treat their jobs as their primary social outlet. They hang out with the same people working in the same field. Such incestuous relations are social dead ends. An exciting day includes deep conversations about the company’s switch from Sparkletts to Arrowhead, the delay of Microsoft’s latest operating system, and the unexpected delivery of more Bic pens. Consider what it would be like to go outside and talk to strangers. Ooooh… scary! Better stay inside where it’s safe.

If one of your co-slaves gets sold to another master, do you lose a friend? If you work in a male-dominated field, does that mean you never get to talk to women above the rank of receptionist? Why not decide for yourself whom to socialize with instead of letting your master decide for you? Believe it or not, there are locations on this planet where free people congregate. Just be wary of those jobless folk — they’re a crazy bunch!

9. Loss of freedom.

It takes a lot of effort to tame a human being into an employee. The first thing you have to do is break the human’s independent will. A good way to do this is to give them a weighty policy manual filled with nonsensical rules and regulations. This leads the new employee to become more obedient, fearing that s/he could be disciplined at any minute for something incomprehensible. Thus, the employee will likely conclude it’s safest to simply obey the master’s commands without question. Stir in some office politics for good measure, and we’ve got a freshly minted mind slave.

As part of their obedience training, employees must be taught how to dress, talk, move, and so on. We can’t very well have employees thinking for themselves, now can we? That would ruin everything.

God forbid you should put a plant on your desk when it’s against the company policy. Oh no, it’s the end of the world! Cindy has a plant on her desk! Summon the enforcers! Send Cindy back for another round of sterility training!

Free human beings think such rules and regulations are silly of course. The only policy they need is: “Be smart. Be nice. Do what you love. Have fun.”

10. Becoming a coward.

Have you noticed that employed people have an almost endless capacity to whine about problems at their companies? But they don’t really want solutions – they just want to vent and make excuses why it’s all someone else’s fault. It’s as if getting a job somehow drains all the free will out of people and turns them into spineless cowards. If you can’t call your boss a jerk now and then without fear of getting fired, you’re no longer free. You’ve become your master’s property.

When you work around cowards all day long, don’t you think it’s going to rub off on you? Of course it will. It’s only a matter of time before you sacrifice the noblest parts of your humanity on the altar of fear: first courage… then honesty… then honor and integrity… and finally your independent will. You sold your humanity for nothing but an illusion. And now your greatest fear is discovering the truth of what you’ve become.

I don’t care how badly you’ve been beaten down. It is never too late to regain your courage. Never!

Still want a job?

If you’re currently a well-conditioned, well-behaved employee, your most likely reaction to the above will be defensiveness. It’s all part of the conditioning. But consider that if the above didn’t have a grain of truth to it, you wouldn’t have an emotional reaction at all. This is only a reminder of what you already know. You can deny your cage all you want, but the cage is still there. Perhaps this all happened so gradually that you never noticed it until now… like a lobster enjoying a nice warm bath.

If any of this makes you mad, that’s a step in the right direction. Anger is a higher level of consciousness than apathy, so it’s a lot better than being numb all the time. Any emotion — even confusion — is better than apathy. If you work through your feelings instead of repressing them, you’ll soon emerge on the doorstep of courage. And when that happens, you’ll have the will to actually do something about your situation and start living like the powerful human being you were meant to be instead of the domesticated pet you’ve been trained to be.

Happily jobless

What’s the alternative to getting a job? The alternative is to remain happily jobless for life and to generate income through other means. Realize that you earn income by providing value — not time – so find a way to provide your best value to others, and charge a fair price for it. One of the simplest and most accessible ways is to start your own business. Whatever work you’d otherwise do via employment, find a way to provide that same value directly to those who will benefit most from it. It takes a bit more time to get going, but your freedom is easily worth the initial investment of time and energy. Then you can buy your own Scooby Snacks for a change.

And of course everything you learn along the way, you can share with others to generate even more value. So even your mistakes can be monetized.

Here are some free resources to help you get started:
The Courage To Live Consciously (article on how to transition to more meaningful work)
Podcast #006 – How to Make Money Without a Job (audio)
Podcast #009 – Kick-start Your Own Business (audio)
Podcast #014 – Embracing Your Passion (audio)
10 Stupid Mistakes Made by the Newly Self-Employed (article)
How to Build a High-Traffic Web Site (or Blog) (article)
How to Make Money From Your Blog (article)

One of the greatest fears you’ll confront is that you may not have any real value to offer others. Maybe being an employee and getting paid by the hour is the best you can do. Maybe you just aren’t worth that much. That line of thinking is all just part of your conditioning. It’s absolute nonsense. As you begin to dump such brainwashing, you’ll soon recognize that you have the ability to provide enormous value to others and that people will gladly pay you for it. There’s only one thing that prevents you from seeing this truth — fear.

All you really need is the courage to be yourself. Your real value is rooted in who you are, not what you do. The only thing you need actually do is express your real self to the world. You’ve been told all sort of lies as to why you can’t do that. But you’ll never know true happiness and fulfillment until you summon the courage to do it anyway.

The next time someone says to you, “Get a job,” I suggest you reply as Curly did: ”No, please… not that! Anything but that!” Then poke him right in the eyes.

You already know deep down that getting a job isn’t what you want. So don’t let anyone try to tell you otherwise. Learn to trust your inner wisdom, even if the whole world says you’re wrong and foolish for doing so. Years from now you’ll look back and realize it was one of the best decisions you ever made.

Final thoughts

While I wouldn’t recommend starting an online business for everyone, for many people it’s one of the best ways to generate income without a job. It has certainly worked disgustingly well for me. If you’re interested in learning more about this option, please check out Build Your Own Successful Online Business for details.

This is how I operate... For those of you who want to know me better :-)

2010-11-09T11:21:00.001-08:00

For business and my personal life I am always sorting people. Sorting allows me to help more people, maximize my time for maximal productive, and create amazing new nurturing relationships in my life that are constantly shaping my life in a very positive way and vice versa.

I live to serve people in my capacity as an Independent Team Beachbody coach. The coolest thing about providing a solution for others is that the solution always allows me to sort out all the excuse makers from people who are being honest and genuinely want to achieve. And then I devote myself to those people who want to achieve! You will be so much more productive with your time if you're sorting rather than convincing and then spending all of your time with achievers and zero percent of your time with excuse makers. Go out there and help people you WILL meet some amazing individuals who will shape your life for the better in profound ways and vice versa :-)

Another way I sort as a Team Beachbody coach is by using third party tools. Once I put the introducing Team Beachbody video or the 100 Doctors video in front of someone it's going to act as a filtering mechanism allowing me to sort the interested from the un interested in a very friendly non intrusive way. I have nothing against anyone who is not interested in Beachbody. It actually removes all pressure on both sides. This is one big reason why I am in so much high demand. A lot of people who talk to me can see themselves doing what I'm doing and would be proud to do exactly what I'm doing to their friends and family. Makes sense doesn't it?

After I sign up a new coach into my organization the sorting continues! I sort coaches who are engaged and immersed in this process from coaches who are not and then spend the bulk of my time with those coaches who are engaged in this. First thing I do with a new coach is have a getting started right conversation so I can help them achieve their own defined goals. I will give that new coach something easy they can do with complete confidence just to get them started. Something small, simple, and then see if they do it! If they do it then I give that coach a little bit more, and a little bit more basically cultivating some personal growth and development as they evolve into a super star :-) It really does happen just like that! If I get a coach with a big mouth but zero action then I know to sort that coach into another category that I do not want to spend a lot of time if any time with. I politely let the coach know that they are in business for them self but not by them self BUT if they disappear then I disappear. You run I run. You walk I walk. It's a cooperative relationship and all sides win in a cooperative relationship.

In life and in business I am sorting the interested from the un interested, the excuses makers from the achievers, the engaged coaches from the unengaged coaches so that I know how to spend my time for maximum productivity which everyone who's immersed in this benefits from :-)

Beautiful concept and time management skill hey? Yes it is, indeed :-) Practice it! This business and this life is so much more of a joy if you're sorting :-)

Tom

Leadership and the little things that hold us prisoner to a JOB and prisoner to an Economy

2010-11-03T20:30:00.000-07:00

I received this from a very enlightened friend with some wonderful perspective on leadership and the little things that hold us prisoner to a JOB:

"You can pass on leadership, but NOT responsibility, they must take the torch from you as in the Olympic races and carry on as you drive down in their leg working the most excited , newest in that group to burn bright. If you step back too soon, it all falls in as they were not ready yet. It is a totally different thought process when we as a whole have been trained to take all the little bonuses the job gives you like car, per diems, extra little things that actually hold you prisoner to the job, then, they start taking them away one by one, this doesn't seem to phase us and still we stay as now we have seniority and it is all about time we invested, seniority, benefits, and vacations..,we need to wake up and see those 401 k plans, all those benefits, retirement and even social security will not be there when we are ready. IF IT IS GOING TO BE , IT IS UP TO ME

Booming = exponential, always moving forward, unstoppable, and , "Healthy, Wealthy, makes a balanced, happy person,"When the economy is bad, people start looking at options as people are never paid for their worth, unless they are in charge of their paycheck and only in your own business can you truly say, "THEY"don't pay my bills so why do I allow them to tell ME this business won't work. Tom, you are there, Fear will make people react to you and your opportunity in drastic ways, always remember, to "Ask a busy person, they will always make the time" and, work with the greedy, not the needy as you can spin your wheels with the ones that confuse activity ( getting ducks in a row rather than just doing it and getting new people in front row) with accomplishment."

Thank you sandy for your perspective! You have an amazing mind!

Tom http://beachbodycoach.com/metalpalace

Eat Red Meat :-) You will LOVE this...

2010-10-25T08:21:00.000-07:00

"Grass-fed beef and other animal foods. As opposed to traditional, grain-fed livestock, meat that comes from animals fed grass also contains anti-inflammatory omega-3s, but in lower concentrations than coldwater fish. Free-range livestock that graze in pastures build up higher levels of omega-3s. Meat from grain-fed animals has virtually no omega-3s and plenty of saturated fat."

Source - http://www.dlife.com/photoGallery/viewGallery.php?albumId=199&photoId=202&ts=1288019004784

The same information can be found in a plethora of great reputable sources. This is exciting news because I LOVE LOVE LOVE a good hamburger or a good rib-eye cut of steak. YUM... I'd still eat more fish and chicken than cow and pig because they have a much higher concentration of healthy fats. ESPECIALLY if you have risk factors for heart attack or stroke. Ya know?

Be a selfless part of the solution for people you care about and put your selfish things away

2010-10-22T11:39:00.000-07:00

You can SELL people, convince and persuade, or you can SHARE with people the things you're doing that's changing your life because you care about them and want them to get healthier, wealthier, and feel better to. That's what coaches who are signing up other coaches regularly are doing, SHARING. Don't get into this Team Beachbody opportunity with me to sell! Get into it because there are people you care about who you want to live happier, healthier, more fulfilling lives. Can you handle that and are you selfless enough to be part of a solution people need? If you're not a conduit can you plug people into something that can change there lives? If you're life isn't already changing for the better then what are YOU doing to achieve? Hopefully you still have dreams that aren't beaten down by the economy so badly that you gave up on them. You can qualify yourself for the Team beachbody opportunity just by asking yourself "Is what I'm doing now going to get me to where I want to be?" If the answer is no then you NEED to change the vehicle. A few years ago I changed the vehicle. Two and a half years later I "fired my boss". A few months after that I bought my first home in CASH, no mortgage. Three years ago I was poverty stricken! Now the most exciting part of my life is watching others grow who I have helped. If now is not the time for you then if you keep doing what you're doing are you ever going to have the time? You've got to change the vehicle my friends. If you're ready to for this... If you're ready to change your life... If you're motivated to help others and not to SELL others... Let me know. You can find my phone number in the info tab of my facebook profile or you can email me.

Change the vehicle nothing changes if you don't change.

Tom