Continously challenge your mind and body and live FREE

When I DISCIPLINE/HONOR myself to eat properly, live morally, exercise regularly, grow mentally &; spiritually and not put any drugs or alcohol in my body; I have given myself the freedom to be at MY BEST, perform at my best AND reap all the rewards that go along with it.” - Zig Ziglar

My dad every day for years chose to smoke, eat poorly, and live sedentary. He positioned his daily actions for time to expose his daily error in judgment. He's lost almost all of his freedom now largely because he's on oxygen 24/7 resulting from his daily error in judgment.

If you said anything to him about his lifestyle choices he was always quick to say, "I'll do what I want". But thats not really true. He wants to play golf but he no longer can. He wants to go bowling but he no longer can. Forget extra curricular activities for a moment he just really wants to be able to walk more then 20 feet without having to stop and catch is breath or pull on his oxygen tube. He would also like to deal with lifes daily little stresses more affectively without feeling mentally and physically fatigued. He'd like the freedom to be able to handle emergency situations which he no longer can. He'd like to be able to take a trip somewhere without having to worry about the nearest oxygen facility if his travel unit quits working otherwise he will go through the extreme discomfiture of suffocating. He'd like to be able to hang onto the extra $400 per month he now has to spend on medications and other things he needs just to live, and that's after insurance coverage!! My dad would like to not have to wonder if the next cold he gets will be severe enough to kill him. Since he's been drinking Shakeology, thank god for that, hes not been sick but hes never coming off of oxygen either.

My mom is type 2 diabetic and morbidly obese but loosing weight now for the first time in her life thanks go Shakeology. After years of neglect time is exposing her daily errors in judgment. She has no cartilage left in one of her knees but she is too fat for knee replacement surgery so she's in pain every day instead. Her insulin receptor cells have been so desensitized to insulin that she is nearly dependent on administering shots of insulin or she could die. But, Shakeology has her blood pressure AND blood sugar levels more stable now than they have been in the past twenty years. Though my mom is capable of more physical activity than my dad, she is very easily exhausted. She cannot step off of a shallow street curb unless there is someone or something to hold onto. If she walks up one flight of easy stairs in a house she needs to stop half way to rest while she breaks a sweat and sighs in discomfiture. My mom is not capable of handling emergencies if one arises.

Both of my parents have made decisions every day over the course of years that's severely limited their freedom to do the things they want.  The devil knows that the key to an individual loosing their freedoms is to set a stage for them to chip away at their freedoms slowly enough that they won't pause for a moment, reflect, and make some changes. We've empowered the devil more than ever before with a record 80% death rate as a result of chronic illness due to life style choices.  For the first time in history this death rate has extended into our children and continues to grow; creating a growing consumer demand for casket makers in our nation to make more of the short and wide caskets.

Individuals commonly begin their various heart medications and the chipping away at their freedoms in their early forties. An increasing number are beginning chipping away in their thirties and children now for the first time in our history at the inexcusable mis guidance of their parents/guardians are being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes (the preventable type)and dying as we continue to let our minds and bodies rot. This is just largely seen as a way of life now and accepted as such without exercising the degree of control that has been given to us by our creator; thereby dishonoring our creator along with ourselves and the freedoms that have been given to us.

"Yeah but I wanna live I wanna enjoy myself". No one can tell me that when a person anguishes derived from life style choices that they are living a good life. Literally ROTTING in both mind and body is not enjoyment or living a good FREE life. Is that the kind of "living" some people bring to the table? It also underscores a crippling lack of knowledge in healthy eating. Healthy food, not diet food because diet food is junk and makes a person go insane, is much better in taste and satiety than junk food any day of the week.

We are proud Americans to be living legally free. But what about just... living free? Does it matter if you're legally free to do the things you want if you don't have the health, the vitality, and the breath to do those things anyway?

Most Americans make choices that lead to voiding their own freedoms which is really a form of self tyranny. The number of amputations, for example, as a result of life style choices breaks new records every year. How much less freedom does a person have who looses a limb or more? Is that not self imposed tyranny or what?? You can not live a care free 'do what I want' life and live free at the same time.  A care free 'do what I want' life is really a form of self tyranny.  I realize logically it presents a bit of a conundrum. There needs to be balance just like with anything else. We don't need an outside source imposing tyranny on ourselves because most Americans make daily choices that lead to self tyranny anyway. On the opposite end of the spectrum there are millions, perhaps billions, of people in the world under tyrannical governmental control who would do anything to live free legally so they could live a good life in mind and body. We don't have anything outside of ourselves imposing tyranny so then why are most of us not living a free life????????????? That's a 400 Billion dollar annual question in terms of the cost of obesity on our economy which stands to quadruple in the next ten years if we don't experience a fundamental philosophical change in our country.

Everyone is familiar with the old adage, "freedom isn't free". We should all be grateful for the troops who sacrifice their lives so we can live legally free. "Freedom isn't free" is a philosophy that you should apply to your own personal life to. Be willing, even eager, to pay the price to live free. To have one at the all out expense of another is not balance and is not free.  I'm talking about living free of debilitating problems that keep you from doing the things you want to do and feeling the way you want to feel. If you stop challenging your mind and body you will loose your freedom to varying debilitating problems both neurological and physical. It's inevitable. So then why must so many let their mind and body rot in the name of living "free"? It reminds me of another old adage, "Burning down the barn to kill the rats".  It doesn't make sense!

Here is another thing to consider... Everything we do affects other people to varying degrees. If you smoke or drink yourself to death loved ones will experience broken hearts at no fault of their own. Some people believe they should have the right to drink and drive. Every year there are thousands of hearts broken because mom, dad, a friend, a loved one was the victim of a DUI offense. British Petroleum ignored safety concerns we now know about and now thousands of lives, millions of wildlife, have been negatively impacted at no fault of their own. BP made a careless error in judgment that had a negative domino affect. But BP is easy to blame because they are BIG oil. Anything BIG is an easy target when they mess up.

No single person or entity is perfect. All of us can point fingers very easily but it takes a bigger person to point in the mirror. Every single one of us should point in the mirror when we mess up or contribute to a mess up. If you mess up then admit it to yourself. Without harnessing the power of reflection in an honest way, sometimes painfully honest, then you don't give yourself the opportunity to set yourself FREE to correct the errors of the past so you can become a better version of yourself for tomorrow. This process should never stop til your body is cold. If it stops then you begin to Rot. Living free doesn't just come from challenging your mind and body but it also comes from being accountable and owning your own crap.

Pay the price and live FREE!

Tom
Passion For Fitness