Ageless Energy

It seems like setting and achieving goals is almost like a ‘thing of the past’, or lost art if you will. So many of us no longer even set goals and when we do, we’re not exactly sure how.

Why don’t we set goals?

We don’t set goals because we’re afraid of failure, it’s as simple as that. We don’t want another reason to have to look failure in the face, however if we change our mindset and think of failure as part of success we can better deal with it.

You’ll have a very hard time finding any success let alone on a bigger scale if you’re looking to avoid failure all together.

“The first thing you need to understand is that failure goes hand in hand with success. If you want success embrace failure”.

Setting Goals too low

The number one thing we do incorrectly when setting and achieving goals is setting goals too low. We expect so little of ourselves, we don’t tell anyone about what we’re doing and this fear of not accomplishing goals takes us over.

The biggest issue around setting goals too low is we don’t put in the effort to achieve them. We procrastinate, put off what we plan on doing and don’t put in a 100% effort.  It’s absolutely essential to start setting bigger goals, goals worth going after, being proud of and working toward.

How to properly set and achieve goals

So given that (at least right now) we have a better understanding of what we shouldn’t be doing. That fearing failure and setting goals too low isn’t the way to go about setting and achieving goals, we’re going to do the opposite.

Set a goal so big there is doubt

The very first thing you’re going to do if you really want a head start at setting and achieving goals is to set a goal so big you have a little bit of doubt. Don’t get me wrong here, you should always, always believe in yourself.

However if you read early in this post you’ll know if you set something too easy, a goal that you know you can accomplish you won’t fully indulge and put everything you’ve got into this goal.

And that’s exactly what you need if you want to achieve something substantial. You need to set a goal so big it takes every ounce of effort you’ve got.

Internal Competition

Have you ever said something to a friend or acquaintance, something that you wanted to do or were going to do and their eyes got big and you saw doubt in them? Have you ever said something to someone and they immediately said ‘yeah right, you can’t do that’?

Here’s the issue, most of us haven’t. Most people haven’t said something they were going to do so big there was doubt in others; most people haven’t set a goal so being no one thinks they can accomplish it.

So again that’s exactly what you need. You need to set a goal so big there is doubt when we’re talking about setting and achieving goals.

See here’s what happens, as much as some think we aren’t competitive by nature, we are. Not too long ago we had to compete for food, we had to compete for territory, we had to compete to reproduce, and that competitive edge is still in us.

Have you ever been driving down the highway and when you attempt to pass someone they slowly speed up? I’m sure we all have. Most of the time these people don’t even know they’re naturally speeding up; this is a prime example of a natural competition reflex.

As insignificant as this may seem to you, this is the doubt I’m talking about, this is the doubt we need to push us forward and past whatever goal you set for yourself. Here’s what happens, we set a goal so big, that we have doubt in our own minds which gives us motivation and desire to push forward; then we have doubt in the minds of those around us which is where the real magic happens.

What could sound negative,

It means so much to have long time listeners and actually know about it. Dayna Holloway has been listening on and off to Exploring Mind and Body with her 9 yr old daughter Leah, for quite some time.  They get together for ‘tea time’, drink peppermint tea, listen to the show and talk about life afterwards.

Dayna has a pretty cool story herself with the ways she was raised that we talk about in the interview and I love some of the ideas Dayna shares that she’s doing with her own children to give them an advantage in health and in life.

I really believe children are our future and when I heard Dayna tell me about how she listens to the show with her daughter on a regular basis I was taken back. I thought, how could 9 year old be interested in hearing about health, nutrition, fitness and lifestyle? But Dayna assured me this was a time they enjoyed together as they stayed up a little later to hear the show and then talk about life.

I really can’t explain how touching it is to hear that this show could positively affect a person or family in such a manner. Then I think about the advantage in life Leah has to learn about such real topics at an early age, “she’s got the world by the tail”! That was actually a phrase Dayna’s father told her at a young age.

It was pretty cool to hear Dayna talk about how her father would teach her about life and how to be an ‘achiever’ and move forward in a positive manner herself. That’s a circle of life someone could appreciate. Dayna was taught life lessons by her father, now Dayna takes the time to talk and listen about improving their quality of life with her daughter and I’m sure Leah will do the same. Seems like such a perfect cycle.

I just want to take a moment to say thank you to Dayna for giving me such an inspiration to move on with the show and what I do in general. Hearing from people like Dayna and how this show can influence lives gives me more hope than I could explain. And to know that I have the opportunity to influence our younger generation as well is something extra special.

Thank you so much for coming on the show Dayna, for sharing your story with us about how you were raised and for sharing some cool ideas and tips on how you raise your children, it certainly is my pleasure.

 

I know it’s not easy making decisions, I know most of us usually want someone else to decide, but I don’t think we realize how important making decisions are.

First of all decisions form our destiny; where we work, our financial situation, our family, where we live. Absolutely everything is determined by the decisions we make. When we stop making decisions, if we don’t exercise our decision making muscle than we slowly have more and more difficulty making decisions for ourselves.

There are different ways to make decisions, in fact we make decisions all day when we’re by ourselves. Which email to answer first, who to call on the phone, which personal trainer to hire. These are usually what we think of as simple decisions that we make all the time but when it comes to a group of people we don’t want to be the one to make decisions anymore.

I like to try a couple of different things when it’s time to make a decisions if there’s more than one person. Let’s say you’re trying to decide on a movie, I say, you pick three movies and I’ll pick one of them. That way both of you are making the decision, you both contribute and you both find a little gratification in exercising your decision muscle.

I think many times we don’t want to be at fault if your decision doesn’t work out, but that’s rarely the case. If the movie is bad we rarely are blamed for it, if the restaurant we pick has less than satisfactory food, we’re not exactly blamed for it, we usually tend not to go back instead of point the finger. So if you really think about it, there really is no down side to making a decision.

If fact there’s a sense of empowerment by making decisions, that’s why there’s so many people that have to be the decision maker. If you’re right you feel great that you had something to do with a successful night and if it doesn’t work out there’s always next time and something else to do or another place to go.

And lastly remember that decision making is like a muscle, the more you use it the more comfortable you’ll be doing it and the stronger you’ll get which means the better you’ll get at making decisions.

On this episode of Exploring Mind and Body I had the privilege of interviewing Marney K. Makridakis who is the author of Hop, Skip, Jump. The very first thing that stood you to me about this book is how it Jumps out at you! Seriously, have a look at the cover below. You’ll also notice if you have the opportunity to flip through it, there are so many colors and titles and themes you can’t help but look inside to see at the treasures Marney has to share.

Before we get into more details let me share some more information with you about Marney Makridakis. She is founder of the online community ArtellaLand.com. Her first book, Creating Time: Using Creativity to Reinvent the Clock and Reclaim Your Life, hit #1 on Amazon’s bestseller lists in several categories. She lives in Dallas, Texas. Visit her online at http://www.ArtellaLand.com.

The main reason I wanted to talk to Marney was because she likes to talk about fun, and I’m all about fun. As much as my topics seem to be serious at times, I love to have fun and not only is this book fun but so is Marney.  Personally I think we as a society believe you have to be serious and stern, walk around in a suit with a straight face and go to meetings all the time to be successful.  I don’t think that’s true and I was so happy to hear Marney talk about her perspective of how you can find success while having fun as well.

During our interview Marney goes over how her book is separated into 3 major categories, Hop, Skip, Jump. She also picks one of her favorite ‘exercise’s from each chapter and explains how it can benefit your life.

One of my favorite stories Marney shares in this interview which isn’t directly in Hop, skip, jump, is how she sat down to play with her child. As she sad down she asked her little guy, ‘what do we play’, we looked at her and said ‘we just play mom’.

I think far too many of us take this work much to seriously, especially when it comes to success. We we took ourselves less serious, our job and even our personal life, we’d be able to learn and explore and appreciate so much more that life has to offer. We could capture that children’s imagination that we seem to have lost at an early age.

I hope you get a chance to pick up Hop, skip, jump; if offers 75 different ways to find a different perspective from the conventional, that if you ask me, is played out.

Todays topic is how to get those 6 pack abs because I mean, who doesn’t want them. The issue is how to get them, how to keep them and how to avoid that beer belly or extra weight around your mid section.

So this may go without saying but I have to tell you, if you don’t pay attention to what you’re eating it doesn’t matter how much work you’re putting in at the gym. There’s simply no way around it, if you want to get those six pack abs you need to address nutrition, clean up your diet, avoid highly processed, sugary and fatty foods.

If you’re hitting the gym after work, going for a bike ride or run and then jump in the fast food line on your way home most of your work is negated, which is why it’s a good idea to always have healthy snack foods with you so you’re never hungry and don’t give in to those cravings.

When it comes to actual ab work, you could do thousands of sit ups but again, if you don’t pay attention to the types of food you’re putting in your body, then you’re wasting your time, at least when it comes to six pack abs.

I’m a big fan of high intensity workouts, done the proper way with a coach to get started in need be. This is a great way to burn fat, bump up your metabolism and keep it running hours after a workout. High intensity workouts usually don’t take much time and most of them cover your entire body. So if you’re one of those people that spend an hour on a cardio machine, change up your workouts and try a high intensity workout and watch the results come flooding in.

Speaking of changing up your workout, it’s essential to keep changing up your routine, which is called muscle confusion, this keeps your muscles guessing and changing, trying to adapt which will get you closer to those 6 pack abs.

 

So today I’m talking about airport frustrations because I recently took a trip therefore I used airports and airlines and I’ve got to say, they frustrated me more than anything at this point.

It seems like they are always charging your for something. I remember when you used to get free meals with a plane ticket, which of course wasn’t free, they worked the price of the meal into the ticket.

They used to give you ear phones, a blanket and even friendly service once in awhile. Now it seems like you have to pay extra even for service.

This last time I was sitting on the plane and they let you watch tv for 10mins before they cut it out, in which you had to pay for extra tv. That’s right, no tv, no movies, no anything except an extra bill if you want anything ‘extra’ which used to be free.

It’s hard not to be affected by airport frustrations. I missed a connecting flight because we were late taking off so I was stuck in the airport for 6 hours. Course I had to eat, not first of all they don’t have too many option, I found none which were quality. On top of that they charge you double sometimes triple the price you would pay outside an airport. I don’t understand, it seems like they don’t care what they charge because there are no other options there.

Regardless of the experience in airports it’s hard not to be upset in some way with how things are run. It’s a business, airports are a business, airlines are a business but for the most part they don’t seem to understand we pay for employees salaries, we pay for a business to stay open, we as the consumer should be happy with a service and to be quite honest with you, I don’t see have the majority of people are happy with the way airports or airlines work.

Is there anything that frustrates you about airports that you’d like to share?

Holiday Health Tips is the topic on this episode of Exploring Mind and Body. Today I’m brought on weight loss expert Dr. Lori Semek who is America’s leading expert in weight loss. She was named “Top 16 Health and Fitness Expert” by the Huffington Post, Health Expert of ABC’s show ‘Good Morning Texas’, and best selling author of Fire Up Your Fat Burn.

Holiday Health Tips

The Three Bite Rule:

There is where Dr. Lori explains how we can stop eating our favorite treat of dessert after three bites. All it takes is a little consciousness to know, the food isn’t tasting any better, and after the third bite it’s okay to put down your sugary sweet.

Have nutrients before you arrive at holiday dinner

Dr Lori recommends you take a supplement high in fibre with lots of water before dinner as one of her holiday health tips. In the show she mentions the supplement brand name PGX or Silium which is high in fibre and will give you that full sensation so you don’t overeat.

She also recommends a protein and healthy fat like cheese and avocado before your dinner. Dr. Lori goes into details about why this is significant for holiday health tips in the show.

Hydration

Another important factor for holiday health tips is hydration in this episode. Dr. Lori explains how lemon water can actually reduce cravings. We don’t notice how ofter we’re dehydrated throughout the day with the small amount of water we take in. Everything from weight gain, to craving attacks, to join pain and headaches is talked about in regards to hydration and the importance of it especially over the holidays.

Reduce Snacking

I love this tip by Dr. Lori because I think we’ve all snacked and don’t even know it. She says we should stay an arms length away from the buffet table because often we’re snacking and don’t even know it.

Thank you

Just a short note to say thank you to Dr. Lori for coming on the show and offering these valuable holiday health tips for us. If you’d like to follow Dr. Lori you can do so on facebook and twitter.

The topic on today’s tip is the stress we put on our bodies by highly processed food.

We put an incredible amount of stress on our bodies by eating highly processed foods. I’m talking about everything from breads and pastas to chips and crackers. It would be a good idea to remind ourselves that there is usually toxins in the form of sugar, food coloring, msg, fillers, additives and other preservatives in these foods to make them look good, taste good and keep the on the shelf as long as possible which rarely means they’re healthy for us.

When we consume these highly processed foods that contain a number of toxins we’re putting an enormous amount of stress on our bodies over all, and that’s not even to specify when we have digestion issues, more directly acid reflux or indigestion, headaches, allergies like nasal issues, out of the blue headaches, and even sleep issues.

The list goes on and it really is unlimited because there’s no cut and dry way to determine exactly how detrimental stress is to our overall health.

We could look to anything from the common cold to major dis-eases that all directly link to the stress we put on both our minds and bodies by consuming highly processed foods.

So what’s the answer, look to whole foods, look to food that is the ingredient instead of products that have ingredients. Find local farmers markets and support your own economy, this is a safe way to know where our food is grown, how it’s cared for and the way it’s prepared. Stay to the outside of grocery stores and avoid those boxes and bags that have endless ingredients, ones that we can’t read or pronounce no less.

And finally be sure to take small steps to improve your health. Small is sustainable and if you want to create lasting change instead of the quick fix or crash diet, small and sustainable is the only way to go.

Christmas Pretox to avoid stress is all about preventing stress from building up and avoiding all the toxins we put in our body during the Christmas season.

I love Christmas, I really do. I love everything about Christmas besides all the electronics and expectations about gifts but I love the:

* Advent calendars you get to open up each morning

* Christmas trees

* Music

* The movies

* Lights

* Snow…I love snow on Christmas…about the only time I enjoy snow

* I love the magic of Christmas – everyone in a good mood

I think a lot of people love Christmas as much as I do however, I also think this is the most stressful time of the year. Here are some of the topics I cover in the show that I feel stress us out the most:

* Presents

* Tree

* lights

* Family

* Food

* Finances

* Driving Conditions

* So many things to do, so little time

Family

This is a difficult one, you can look at it from two different angles. You don’t HAVE to spend time with family just because they’re family, do something different.

The other side of the coin, they’re you’re family, apologize, let go of the grudge, it’s Christmas, act like an adult instead of an aged child.

It’s not worth letting family stress you out at this time of year. There’s plenty of ways to reduce stress and avoid family stress

Finances

You don’t have to buy the most expensive electronics, in fact I urge you not to

Please, don’t buy the newest tablet, as much as your 5 yr old child thinks they need a new cell phone they don’t, you’re the adult, act like it. We’re the problem with child obesity, and inactive children, we are. Rise in medication, less social activity.

Make gifts, go to the thrift store, be resourceful, take a holiday and let that be the gift

Food

* Eat before you go out

* Bring something

* Ask what is being served

* Let people know you’re living a healthy lifestyle

* Be the host

* Drink water

Check out some food tips to avoid overindulging at Christmas

Importance of Regular Routines

* Continue to workout, don’t say there isn’t enough time, put yourself first

* Do your best to eat well during the day or the day after the party

* Detox after the holidays, talked about on show # 165 is a related show

* Green smoothie, exercise, sweat, throw away sweets, drop the guilt, hydrate

Immune System

* We eat horrible, putting more stress on our bodies

* Don’t sleep, drink heavily at every Christmas party

* We stop exercise, we stop eating right because new years resolutions are on the way

* And we wonder why our immune system is run down

* I don’t know about you but I want to be healthy and enjoy the holiday season

* Who wants to be curled up in the fetal position

* Take care of your body, no one else will

 

 

Post workout nutrition is a subject that often comes up because it seems like, at least for the most part, people don’t know what to eat after a workout. I wouldn’t say there’s a cut and dry answer, I mean every health and fitness person is going to tell you something different. However, what I can tell you is we need to stop putting so many detrimental toxins in our body that is doing more damage than good.

The issue is, they put a sports figure on a Gatorade bottle and we think that professional athlete uses it, instead of simply getting paid for it. We buy tons of protein supplements that have more toxins and chemicals than anyone could count. We buy products you can’t read or pronounce and we don’t think twice about taking them.

In this show I talk about how one of those bright blue post workout nutrition shakes gave me terrible headaches but I continued to take it until I couldn’t handle them anymore. I’ve been there, I know what it’s like to be an athlete and to be willing to make significant sacrifices to my health for size, speed and strength. But the fact of the matter is, I became a better athlete when I became healthier and started to pay attention to exactly what I was putting in my body.

One of my favorite shows is when Mark Ysseldyk talked about the importance of hydration on a past Exploring Mind and Body. He understood the industry so well, and knows very well there’s a lack for real hydration drinks on the market that he decided to create his own called Honey Maxx.

Post workout nutrition comes in many different forms, one of my favorite ways to get nutrients back into my body is through a number of different whole food, natural choices that don’t come in any type of container that I can’t read our pronounce.  If you’re really concerned about your health, weather it’s performance as an athlete or simply living better you should really consider what you’re putting in your body as your post workout nutrition.

Do you know what you’re putting in your body?