Guard Your Hearts

Sometimes in life we choose to let people in closer than what's appropriate for that particular relationship. The problem that arises from this is that not everyone is meant to be in your "inner circle". I have experienced first hand what it's like to let too many people close to my heart, only to end up getting hurt. Taking full responsibility for my own actions, I realize that I have enabled this by my own behaviour to improperly guard my heart. Guarding my heart doesn't mean I have to be cold to people, but it does mean that not everyone gets to know me on a deeper or intimate level, and I don't have to apologize for it. Some of my clients, and maybe you have/are experiencing this, are excited about changing their lifestyles and out of pure, innocent excitement, might share their endeavours with too many people. The problem with this is that misery loves company, and not everyone is going to be on board with your new life. Be careful who you share your heart with, not everyone is going to be on your celebration train, and that's ok. Know who your adversaries are and who your cheerleaders are. Of course you don't just want to hang around people who only appease you and will never challenge you, but don't talk about the treasures you store inside with thieves.

This was on my heart to share with my community of followers and all my clients who are trying hard to lose weight or change their life styles, but are amongst people who are cynical and who would rather bring them down than build them up. This is a writing that I've done, not only for me, but for those of you out there who have struggled behind the scenes, and who are trying to be better.

Judgement

I've laid my cards on the table

You lay down your judgement

A chain link fence around my soul

You can see through the wire

Thinking you know me so well

But you haven't seen behind the scenes

Sitting in my wooden box

Alone and tearing at the seams

You hear my laughs

They masquerade

The false happiness is shown on my face

You don't care to dive right in

You're shallow waders, too egotistical to swim

More complex than what's displayed

It's my own fault I expected your grace

So here I am, I guard my heart

The chain link fence

Becomes a fort

A secret place that no one knows

Except the ones that know my soul

Apologize not

I don't feel guilt

You weren't apart of the house I built

I close the door

You stand outside

Missing the beauty that's inside

As I grow up and realize

I formed my circle from a web of lies

Only I can live my life

Your opinions of me don't survive

Cocooned in life, in love, and grace

I will not let you invade my space

Week 1: Rest and Grow Young Grasshopper

Hey everyone! The 8 week plan to renew your health starts now....or tomorrow. I decided to wait until a Sunday to start up the first week. Not because I think goals should start at the beginning of a week only, but because I know most people like to start something new at the start of their week, and not generally in the middle. There's a lot to be said with starting your week off on the right foot! I have been deciding what the 8 weeks is going to look like for the past several days, and the more research I do, the more I am convinced that the most important thing to address first is sleep.

I truly believe that sleep trumps everything when it comes to true health. It trumps exercise, it trumps a clean diet, and it definetly trumps any weight loss or muscle building aids out there. Without sleep, you will never be able to manage your body composition optimally or live a life of radiant health. Here's just a few of the things that are linked to your health when you don't get adequate, restful sleep:

• obesity
• cardiovascular disease
• diabetes- type 11
• depression
• hormonal imbalances
• Immune function suppression

When we sleep, it is our bodies chance to heal and regenerate itself from the daily demands we put on it, not only on a physiological level, but on an emotional level also. During sleep our bodies have the chance to detoxify, regulate blood sugar, balance hormones, and repair damaged muscle and tissues throughout the body.

Weight Loss and Weight Gain

Hormonally, in terms of weight loss and or/weight gain, sleep is directly related and a huge component. If we are hormonally imbalanced, our systems cannot perform at the level we need it to in order for it to be metabolically stable. Studies have shown that people who get 6 or less hours of sleep per night have:

• decreased glucose and insulin sensitivity, which contributes to type 11 Diabetes.
• increase in the hormone ghrelin, which sends off hunger signals ("I'm hungry").
• decrease in the hormone leptin, which sends off signals of satiation ("I'm full").
• increased cortisol levels, which is one of your stress hormones.
• decreased growth hormone levels (GH), which helps the body grow, repair, and combat body fat.

In short, it would then appear that a lack of sleep makes us sick, fat, hungry, and stressed. Probably not the most conducive environment for a healthy mind or body. So what is this weeks focus? To sleep. And by sleep, I mean sleep well. This week I want you to focus on getting at least 7 hours of sleep per night. This may seem difficult to some people and it will mean strategic planning. Here are some strategies that will help you get to sleep, and that will effect the quality of the sleep you are currently getting:

1. Stop eating 2-3 hours before bed- This will help your body to focus on sleep, not digestion. Eating meals too close to bed time will affect your sleep quality.

2. Turn off all electronics an hour before bed- This means turning off the tv or the computer, putting your phone away, and reading an actual book, not an ipad.

3. Create a bedtime routine- For me, I like to have a bath (usually in the winter), floss and brush my teeth, pack my gym bag for the morning, then read for 20 minutes.

4. Limit caffeine consumption- Try to stop consuming any caffeine after 1-2pm. Because caffeine is a stimulant and has a half life in your body, you want to stop consumption at least 8 hours before your bedtime.

5. Go to sleep by 10pm (unless you are a shift worker)- There are many reasons to go to sleep at the earlier hours of nighttime, but the main one for you to concern yourself with is simply that you need to get 7-8 hours of restful sleep. The reality is that most people get up around 6am, if not earlier, so by having the lights out by 10pm will allow you to get those hours in. If you're a shift worker this is obviously not always attainable. Instead, create a dark and comfortable environment that allows you to get to sleep easier, and bank those crucial hours.

I am convinced that when we get the sleep we need, everything else starts to fall into order because true homeostasis can be met. You have the right to sleep, so give yourself permission to. In a stressed out and over worked society that demands our constant attention, sleep usually falls to the wayside and is seen as a luxury. Sleep is not a luxury, it is a necessity, and your health is the most valuable asset you have. Allow yourself to mentally turn off at the end of each day and sleep long and soundly.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns regarding this topic, or any input you'd like to give to all my readers by leaving your comments!

References

Rachel Leproult & Eve Van Couter, Department of Medicine, Chicago, Ill.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3065172/

Spiegel K, Leproult R, Van Cauter E. Impact of sleep debt on metabolic and endocrine function. Lancet. 1999;354:1435-1439

8 Week Challenge to Renew Your Health: What does true health look like?

I have faced many challenges throughout my life in my journey to finding true health. I have tried countless diets and methods of eating, all in hopes of transforming my body. This whole "body transformation" that most diets focus on though is transforming the outside of your body, but true health starts from the inside out. This is the number one mistake that all diets have, they focus on getting the outside to look a certain way and negate to focus on the root cause of why you got to where you are in the first place. If you want to truly transform your body, it has to start internally. The most important factors for weight loss or optimal body composition need to be addressed first, and that's not necessarily the diet plan you should be following. When I set up my initial consultation with a new client, these are some of the questions I ask and what I'm more interested in changing right off the bat.

1. How well do you sleep? How many restful hours of sleep do you get a night?

2. How would you rate your stress level in your personal life, and how would you rate your stress level in your work life on a scale of 1-10 for each?

3. What is your digestion like?

4. How are your energy levels throughout the day, from waking up to going to sleep?

5. How often do you exercise, and what type of exercise do you predominantly do?

6. What does a typical day of eating look like for you?

Do you notice how only one of those questions ask the client about actual food? Make no mistake, what we eat is essential for optimal health, but there are so many other factors that go into really transforming your body. Because the majority of my clients are seeking weight loss, the most important thing I tell them is this; you have to create an environment that is conducive to weight loss.

In this 8 week challenge, I will be going over different strategies to help you create that environment. Notice the title isn't transform your body, it's renew your health. Your health should be your number one focus, first and foremost. Weight loss will come naturally when you make this your main focus, I can guarantee it. This approach is not exercising more and eating less, we've tried that over and over again, but it's not really working is it? This approach is focused on treating your body with the respect and love it deserves, like giving it nutrient dense food it can thrive off of, or exercising in a way that builds up the body and not abuses it or tears it down repeatedly.

So if you're interested in truly transforming your body in a way that is healthy and sustainable, then get ready for this 8 week start up program to get you on track. I will be posting a different strategy to implement into your life each week. Each week the strategy I post will be your main focus and nothing else. As you progress into the weeks, you will keep your previous strategies and simply add on to them. This is not a magic weight loss diet plan, this is a plan to change your life. It is not a quick fix, you probably won't lose 30lbs in 8 weeks, but you will have more energy, you will sleep better, and you will be on track to achieving your dream body. This is a lifestyle, not a diet plan. If you are serious about your health, you will be serious about changing the things you are doing that are causing your body to hold on to fat, and the things that are making you sick and tired. Keep your eyes open for Week 1 coming very soon!

When Life is Sweet, You Won't Want to Cheat

Friendship improves happiness, and abates misery, by doubling our joys, and dividing our grief. - Joseph Addison

Have you ever noticed that when you are engaging in a conversation with someone, who's attitude is positive and who builds you up, making you leave the conversation uplifted instead of down trodden, that life seems to be easier in the areas where you may have been struggling before? If you've never experienced this, it is imperative that you get around people that will do this.

Good friends and a strong uplifting community are like medicine. Over the past few weeks I have developed a new friendship with someone that is so positive and encouraging. Not only do we have fun in whatever we are doing, but I leave every conversation feeling built up and not torn down. I noticed that over the past few weeks, I have had almost zero cravings for sugar. Coincidence? I think not.

When you go through each day without support from friends who motivate you to stay on track, it makes life extremely hard and we often turn to food for comfort. We were born and rooted in community, and we are relational at our very core. We have come from tribes and small villages thousands of years ago, where we helped one another, but now we have come into a society that glorifies independence. Is independence what we really need to succeed though? On the contrary, when I feel alone, or that I have no one around me I can depend on, old feelings and habits often find their way back, and I start to crave foods that will "comfort" me, taking the place temporarily that should have been filled by the support and love of others.

I don't have many great friends, maybe a handful, but I'm ok with that. The friends I have always support me no matter what. They don't appease me, they speak the truth in love, and they make me want to be the best version of myself that I can be. Depression is something that I have struggled with the better half of my life and I have found that the best medicine to treat it is friendship.

It is very important who you choose to surround yourself with. You are the sum of the company you keep. If you hang around with people that are negative, who are unmotivated, and who see the glass as half empty all the time, you will end up thinking that way too. In order to be successful in any area of your life, you have got to get around people who are successful in their lives too. If you lack happiness, get around happy people, if you lack finances, get around financially stable people. Learn from those around you and be mindful of who you let into your life. Surround yourself with people you want to be like. Billionaires aren't hanging out with people who have no ambition in life to succeed financially, they hang out with other billionaires.

When you start to fill your life with friends and people who motivate you to achieve your goals, life gets so sweet that all the sugar in the world could present itself and it still wouldn't cause you to cheat.

Your Perception Isn't Necessarily The Reality

Working in the health industry, I have talked with hundreds of people about achieving optimal and true health. The reality of the fitness industry is this though: What looks "healthy" or appealing to the eye, isn't always the result of true health. I work at a gym that has some of the most professional, qualified, and advocators of what health is really supposed to be, and for that I am truly blessed, but not all gyms are created equal. There is a massive movement in the figure/bodybuilding world where people diet and train hard to get down to an obscenely low body fat percentage to go pose on a stage, in a bikini or speedo, to be judged on their appearance. The end result for the majority of these people can go one of two ways.

1) They don't place and end up feeling extra inadequate about how they look, which results in an increase in Body Dismorphic Disorder (BDD), eating disorders, rebound weight gain, and/or depression, if they don't already suffer from one of those things already.

Or

2) They place, maybe get their Pro card, and go on to do more shows where they often come to an end, sooner than later (for most), which usually ends up resulting in BDD, an eating disorder, rebound weight gain, and/or depression.

It seems like the fate of these competitors is pretty much the same whether they place or not. Realistically, not too many people go on to be famous fitness models or top winners in world wide federations, and if you are and you're reading this, good job but can I ask you "what do you see when you look in the mirror"? Most Pro card winners don't see the lean, mean fighting machines that they truly are. Most of them see someone lean, but even more so they see all room for improvement they have or the slight imperfections here and there.

I know this mentality all too well, not because I did shows, but because of the results from going through a drug addiction matched by an eating disorder. I didn't see myself for what I truly was, all I saw was imperfections and all I saw was fat, when I was basically a walking skeleton. At 6'1, I was 50lbs lighter than the picture of me to the right. I worked out every morning and every afternoon, and presented myself as a "healthy" individual. But what people didn't know when they saw me was how much damage I was doing internally, both mentally and physically, with drugs and with purging/starving myself.

When you see body builders or figure competitors, don't underestimate the means they have used to get to the place they're at. I'm not saying what they do isn't hard work, believe me, I know the time and dedication that goes into preparing for a show, but that's also my point. To get to a body fat percentage as low as 10% for a female means that more often than not, reproductive functioning ceases, hormones are altered, and metabolic damage occurs, that's factual. Not only does it take a round out of you physically, but mentally you have to be prepared to give up your life for 3, 6, 9 months, or however long you're doing shows or preparing.

This type of lifestyle consumes you and it's a very extreme approach. Extremism in anything indicates an imbalance. When I think of what true health looks like, I think of someone who is vibrant and full of life, who has a lean body composition but not to the point where it's doing metabolic or hormonal damage. I see someone who doesn't take life so seriously, who can laugh, go out with friends, who has energy to play with their kids, who devotes time to others and not to obsessing about food or what they cannot eat, and who has aspirations in life that don't revolve around vanity. There's nothing wrong with wanting to look good, or presenting yourself nicely, and taking care of yourself physically is essential, but if looking a certain way consumes your life and your mind everyday, this is not a sign of true health. This is perfectionism and disordered habitual patterns masquerading as health.

You don't lack willpower, you're just addicted to sugar

"If you don't let yourself eat cookies once a week, you'll go crazy"! This is the statement I overheard a trainer at a gym (not the one I work at) tell a client who was interested in changing the way she eats. As I walked by, I was instantly frustrated and thought to myself, "what the heck are you doing saying something like that"?! I understand what she might have been trying to say or do, but her delivery was devastating. Without even realizing it, she has set this person up for failure before they even started.

I wondered why the statement upset me so much and I realized that it's because I run my practice trying to encourage people, and inspire them, to want to make the right choices. I teach them that they have complete control over the food they eat, and that food, nor their emotions, rule over them. When I heard that statement I couldn't help but think that even if that person had no desire to eat cookies, she probably will now because she was told she would go crazy if she didn't have them once a week.

When people are trying to lose weight, the last thing they need to hear is that they won't be able to go through something hard without failing. Yes, failure is almost always a part of your  journey and isn't necessarily a bad thing,  but to start off telling someone they'll go crazy by doing something that benefits them is poor practice, in my opinion. What this woman needed to hear was, "actually, the greater time you go without eating things like cookies and sweets, the more you'll lose the palate for them, and eventually they'll become undesirable". That's the truth.

If you find yourself eating loads of sugar, or high carb foods that turn into sugar, and can't seem to stop, can I let you in on a little secret? You don't lack will power, that's not your issue. The simple truth is that you're most likely just addicted to sugar. I tell my clients who want to lose weight, that they don't lack will power, and they aren't failures, they're just having a hormone response.

When sugars or high carb foods touch your tongue, there are massive hormonal signals going off. For instance, one hormone secreted when you eat sugar is serotonin, which is best known as the neurotransmitter that makes us feel good. Serotonin is also what most antidepressants alter to improve your mood and reduce levels of anxiety. Serotonin is also made from the essential amino acid tryptophan, and tryptophan needs insulin to help transport serotonin to the brain. And what gives us the greatest insulin spike that would allow for that serotonin to get to our hungry-for-love little brains? You guessed it, sugar.

Also, something very interesting to note, as stated by Dr. Marcelle Pick., OB/GYN NP, is that beta endorphins are also released when we eat sugar, causing a "high" that actually acts as a natural painkiller. So I guess that begs the question, is it that we truly lack will power or can't deal with our emotions, and that's why we turn to sugar, or do we eat sugar because we've simply just been eating sugar already, and chemically it feels good? In terms of disordered eating patterns that have been the result of traumatic life events, yes, we consume food in response to those situations on a subconscious level, but make no mistake, there are also things going on in your internal world when you consume sugar that makes us feel good or that takes the pain away temporarily. Sugar is highly addictive, and it will keep you wanting more on so many different levels.

The problem isn't you, the problem is the food you are choosing eat. You can be the strongest willed person in the world, but if you are eating foods that spike your blood sugar all day, you are still going to gain weight and crave those foods. Try to choose foods that are low on the glycemic index, with numbers 50 or lower, eat a healthy amount of proteins and fats from things like avocados, coconut oil, and raw nuts, and stay away from sugar laden food products. The longer you don't eat sugar, the more you just won't want it. I promise that after you get over your sugar addiction, you will feel 100 times better than you have ever felt before, and not that you'll go crazy if you don't have it.

How to Work With an Injury, Not Against It.

Imagine you are going full tilt in the gym. You have been 100% dedicated to training hard, and even more dedicated to eating clean. Life is good and you feel invincible.....until you're not. You get injured and it completely catches you off guard. You are unable to train as hard as you've been training, and even end up missing a few days of workouts. What are you going to do?

I don't wish ill will on anyone but the truth of the matter is, shit happens. Injuries can be one of our hardest challenges both physically and mentally, and they can either been seen as our demise, or you can take the hits as they come and learn something new that you might have never found if you hadn't been injured. I should know because I have been through injury after injury since I started training from the age of 17. I've fractured my tibia (shin bone) and my foot, sprained my lower back, dislocated my shoulder, tore my hip flexor, quad, and hamstring on the same leg (all in one year), and have had a bulged disc in my spine. What I have learnt from all of these injuries is this; life goes on.

I remember my first injury. I was 19 years old and loved running. I ran everywhere. I would run 3km to the gym, workout for an hour, and finish off with a 12km run. I did this 5 times a week, I was obsessed with running. My mind and my iron will seemed to be able to endure more than my body was capable of enduring though when one day I got off the treadmill and couldn't walk. I thought I just tweaked something, that maybe it would go away after I iced it. I could feel a sharp pain aching through the front of my leg. The next day I got up for my morning run but alas, there was no running to be had. I made an appointment with a physio, my very first physio, and he was a runner. A few tests were done and it had been determined that I had a stress fracture through my tibia. I had no idea what this meant, all I cared about was getting back on the road. Thinking it would be a week or two until I was back at it, I asked what every normal OCD person would ask, "how long until I can run"? His response, "6 months". I remember bursting out into tears right there in his office. He was so good about it too, and because he was a runner, he totally sympathized with me. Nevertheless, I had a choice, give up or push through.

During that 6 months I started weight training. I never really took a liking to it until I had no other choice for means of exercise. Because I was unable to even walk properly for about a month, I literally had no choice but to lift weights. Lifting weights lead to a passion for fitness on multiple levels, which ultimately lead to my career as a personal trainer. That's the Cole's notes  version anyway.

I'd like to say I handled myself better when I encountered other injuries after that, but that would be a lie. For years I would cry, feel sorry for myself for a few days...ok for a week, but then something would switch. I would take some kind of good through the bad I was experiencing and just grab on to that, even if it was something tiny. I still get upset when I get injured, but not to the point where I'm literally crying and depressed for a week. Being injured has also taught me to slow down, and it's taught me to respect my bodies limitations. Injuries most often occur from excessive training or negligence, and they teach you when enough is enough.

Every injury will tell you something about yourself and will give you a sense on how you deal with conflict and how you are going to resolve conflict. What silver linings have you experienced through having an injury? These could be mental or physical, or even spiritual. Take the good out of the bad, it's in there somewhere, you just have to look. If you are injured and you're reading this, don't just take a mental note, write this down: What has this injury taught me about myself or my training? Write down your answer. Every time you're frustrated or want to throw in the towel, read your answer and push through. Injuries will come, but they will also pass. Be smart about recovery and rehabilitation exercises and seek professional help from physiotherapists, athletic therapists, or chiropractors and get yourself back on the road to recovery!

Success Series: Part 3 of 3

Well, we've come to the end of the success series. Here are the last 5 tips to help prepare your body, mind, and spirit to be the most successful version of yourself that you can be. Thanks for giving my articles a read, and for everyone that gave me great advice. It's a beautiful thing when you have people around who will support you, challenge you, and mentor you.

1. Embrace Change

We are an ever evolving society, and if you aren’t willing to evolve along with the times, you will stay stuck in the past as everyone else advances. The one constant we have in life is change, I’ve said that before, and you have to look at change with an open mind and be willing to get out of your comfort zone. Being unwilling to accept and embrace change will only stunt your growth and deter you from success. A sign of true health is being able to adapt to any given situation. If you cannot adapt when something changes, or refuse to step out of your box, you automatically lose by default. 

2. Be Thankful

Learn to develop an attitude of gratitude. When you remain thankful, you don’t take anything for granted. People are turned off by arrogance, or those who exalt themselves. It’s important to live life with a humble posture and to not become prideful. The prideful will fall and the humble will be raised up.

3. Share Information And Data

“One person is generous and yet grows wealthier, but another withholds more than he should and comes to poverty”. If you want to be successful, you have to be willing to share with people. If you keep all the information you have learnt to yourself, what good is it? People can sense sincerity, and if you don’t want to sincerely help people and are only motivated by money, people will sense that and won’t want to contribute to your success. People don’t want to be seen as walking dollar signs, they want to know someone is there to help them.

4. Continually Educate Yourself

There is no greater power than knowledge. To be the best you can be in your specific area, you have to be knowledgeable, and that takes education. You don't necessarily have to go and get a PhD in something, but learn from those in your field of interest that know what you need to know. Successful people are productive people with a passion to learn, and to learn continuously. Spend your time doing things that contribute to your success. Listen to podcasts, read, write, and keep learning. Fill your time with education. There is no maintenance in life, if you aren't learning, you are going backwards. Don't ever think you know it all.

5. Love

“Love never fails”. This is probably the most important key to becoming successful. When we love and value, not only others, but ourselves, we create a safe environment to grow successfully. If you don’t love yourself, you will never put yourself in a place where you can truly flourish because you won’t think you’re worth the effort. You have to believe it to your core that you are worth the effort, and you are worth loving yourself so much that you couldn’t bare to let yourself not succeed. Shout out to my wonderful Grandparents. You got this whole love thing down pat xoxox!

Success Series: Part 2 of 3

Continuing on with the next 5 pieces of advice to becoming and staying successful in work, in relationships, and in life. I have gotten so much inspiration over the past few weeks from the people I'm surrounded with everyday and am so thankful.

 

1. Live Each Day With The Purpose To Be The Best

Chad Smith, Senior Vice President of Catch Engineering, and a personal client of mine said this, “If you want to be successful, be the best at whatever you do. It doesn’t matter what you want to do, you could be a janitor, that doesn’t matter. But if you’re gonna be a janitor, aim to be the best damn janitor there is”. Life seems pretty bleak when there is no purpose. Purpose yourself to do what you love for work. It’s your choice to do whatever you want to do. If you hate your job, work somewhere else, it’s really that simple. You will never want to be the best you can be working at a job that you don’t love because you aren’t working with a purpose, you’re merely working for a paycheck only.

2. Be Willing To Put In Time

One of my favourite quotes was said by Estee Lauder, founder of one of the most widely known women’s skin care line, said “I never dreamed of success, I worked for it”. If you want to slack off in life and never put in any hard work, you don’t deserve to reap the benefits that come from putting in an effort. I’m not saying you have to run yourself to the ground each and every day, but you will have to determine within yourself to put in countless hours at work. One of my clients, as a partner in her firm, mother of 3 small girls, and one of the hardest workers I know says this: “Pick one goal and go after it with everything you have in you. If that means you have to work 80 hours a week to reach that goal, that's what it means. And you have to be willing to sacrifice things along the way, like your time”.

3. Don’t Say No To Opportunities

This is a piece of advice I got from my client who has been with me the longest at my current place of work. He doesn't talk a lot, but when he does, it's worth shutting your mouth to listen. “Never turn down opportunities, but on the same hand you have to build consistency. You don't want to be jumping from one thing to the next, job after job. If I look at someone's CV and they haven't built any amount of tenure, I'll toss it to the side”. You have to be willing to do things that you don't feel like doing, but actually should be doing that contribute to your success, especially in the beginning. Work now to play later.

4. Celebrate With Others When They Succeed

One of the most helpful pieces of advice I’ve received is this; “There’s enough to success to go around, and just because one person is successful doesn’t mean you can’t be successful. There’s enough pieces of the pie to go around for everyone”. When you trample over people to become more successful, you will fall, and you will fall hard sooner or later. This is the big secret, success is not a fight between people, or being better than someone else, it’s about working with people to create something greater than you could create on your own. Team up with people, feed off each others victories, and celebrate in someone elses success.

5. Don’t Neglect Your Health

Thomas C. Corley, author of his #1 bestselling book, Rich Habits – The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals, says “Wealthy people are healthy people”. When people are physically healthy, their productivity levels remain high because they aren’t fighting off sickness or disease. If you are constantly missing work because you’re sick, you are making less money than those who are working. Generally, people who are successful have educated themselves and have learned that physical activity and a diet that's high in nutrients will help them succeed at work and in life, whether they're thinking about that consciously or subconsciously. Eating clean and exercising are your life insurance. Utilize them.

So You Want To Be Successful? Part 1of 3

I am blessed to work with some of Calgary's most successful people, both financially and personally. I train CEO's, Engineers, Lawyers, Partners, and many others. I'm in contact with some of the most brilliant people in the world, I truly believe that. These people are hard workers, entrepreneurs, and high achievers, and I get to pick their brains everyday. I have been working on a list of qualities and advice on the keys to becoming successful from theses brilliant minds. I've gotten a lot of information so I am going to do a 3 part series of success.

1. Have a Vision

“Without a vision, the people perish”. In order to be successful in life, you need to have a clear vision of how you want your life to be. Everyone’s definition of success is different, and each one of us have a special role that we play here on earth, and because we are all very different, it’s important to set out just who you want to be and where you want to go. You can get ideas from others that have gone before you, but ultimately, your life will look different. If you do not have a vision for your life, you will never live up to the person you were created to be. Sit down with a pen and paper and write it down. Post it on your bathroom mirror so you can see it every day and start to work towards making your dreams become your reality. You cannot just simply dream without taking any action and expect to achieve results.

2. Keep Your Life Balanced

Successful people are balanced people. Yes there are very rich, stressed out people who work long hours, but remember, the definition for success isn’t just having a ton of money. To be truly successful means having a life you are proud of at the end of each day. If you spend all your time working and neglect your family or friends, you are not fully successful. Set aside some time each week to do something that is not work related. For me, I call a friend or family member just to chat, even if it’s only for 10 min. Take vacations when you feel burnt out. Buy something nice for yourself after a profitable month.

3. Laugh In The Face Of Adversity

If you think there are never going to be hard times that come your way, you are sadly mistaken. When we are going in the right direction is most often when we come against the greatest adversity. If you are facing a trial in your life, it’s most likely because you’re on the path to something great. When you are doing what you’re meant to be doing in life, it will initially come effortlessly and the chips just kind of fall into place, but there will be people or things that come against you that test your dedication.

4. Get Back Up After You Fall

One of the world’s most famous and successful pop vocalists, Beyonce Knowles, quoted this in her song, “Perfection is a disease of a nation”. Perfectionism has been the thorn in people’s sides for a long time, and the cause of their demise. A perfectionist thinks that they should never fail, but failure is one of our greatest tools to learn from. When we fail, we get the opportunity to get back up, to create strength and determination. Failure doesn’t have to be a bad thing, failure is a learning tool, so accept the fact that you will fail. Be ok with getting knocked down, but don’t be ok with staying knocked down.

5. Surround Yourself With Positive People

Your level of success is determined by the people you surround yourself with. If you surround yourself with people who complain all the time, people who are negative, and people who are unsuccessful in life, it will rub off on you eventually. People’s attitudes are contagious so it’s crucial that you surround yourself with people who have positive and successful attitudes. If you want to be inspired, get around people who are driven, who laugh, who put others first, and who have a strong work ethic. Get around people who motivate you, those people that, when you leave after having a conversation with them, you have a renewed zeal for life, get around those people.

The Seduction of Complacency

Humans are creatures of habit and it's very easy to remain in a state of perpetual complacency. As life goes on, we reach points that feel comfortable, so we stay there instead of venturing outside of our comfy boxes and into something with a greater span.

The definition for complacency is this: a feeling of quiet pleasure or security, often while unaware of some potential danger, defect, or the like; self-satisfaction or smug satisfaction with an existing situation, condition, etc.

Complacency seduces us with quiet pleasure but has great potential to harm us. When we get stuck in life, and there is no change happening, we have no other option but to regress or go backwards. There is no such thing as being in a spot of maintenance when it comes to your life, you are either progressing or regressing, there's no in between.

Muscles grow when there is resistance placed upon them, if there is no resistance placed upon them, over time, not only do they not grow, they become weak. Again I say, there is no such thing as maintenance. People have become complacent with their diets, and they want change, but are not willing to get out of a place of complacency. They (the proverbial "they") would rather talk about changing than actually change, because change means getting uncomfortable for a little while. Here is some helpful advice, change in anything is uncomfortable. If you refuse to accept that, you will have to live with the long term pain that comes from living an unlived life over the short term pain of being uncomfortable in a new situation.

A sign of true health is being able to adapt to any situation. Your body has to adapt to change, or else it will die, and though change doesn't always feel great, I'm 99.9% sure you're not going to die. If you die, I apologize, but that means your body wasn't able to adjust accordingly and you're better off this way. Survival of the fittest. I'm kidding of course.

Joking aside, this concept applies to virtually everything in life. Change isn't a big, bad, scary monster, it's there to help you progress and to get out of a place that is keeping you from achieving your goals. For example, when it comes to your eating, try cutting out sugar for a week and see what changes occur in your body. Because the side effects from consuming sugar are the same as consuming drugs, when you halt consumption your body is going to fight back by going through a with drawl. Any addict knows the hell that's associated from with drawl, but the outcome after you have pushed through the pain is worth every minute. Change what is working against you, and keep what is working for you. I will leave you with one last quote from the band Trooper:

"If you don't like what you got, why don't you change it. If your world is all screwed up rearrange it"

Creating An Environment For Success

If you aren't successful in what you have been trying to achieve, a very likely cause is that  you haven't created an environment that would foster success. Success in anything takes work, it doesn't just fall from the sky onto your lap. You have to  wake up everyday and consciously make the decision to create your own world, and to cultivate a breeding ground for excellence. If you are struggling with proper eating, it's because you are not creating an environment for success. Excellence begets excellence. If you want to eat properly but surround yourself with people that don't care about health, or have a bunch of food in your house that isn't good for you, you have created a toxic environment around you. I'm not saying ditch all your friends who eat chips, but I am saying, get around people who want to better themselves if you want to better yourself.

If you hang out with criminals, you are more than likely going to get into crime. If you want to be successful, surround yourself with successful people, people who are determined and who live lives of excellence. Here are some steps to create an environment for success:

1. Remove anything that inhibits you from achieving your goals. This could be having food in your house that would deter you from eating properly, or people who don't care about your goals and push you to eat the foods you're trying to stay away from. If it doesn't push you towards your goal, it's a roadblock, whatever that looks like to you.

2. Surround yourself with successful people. If you don't know any successful people, search them out. We have the whole world right at our fingertips, success is literally a click away. Listen to podcasts, follow blogs about health, and start creating your own environment where you are consistently listening and getting information from successful people. Some people that I get information from is Dr.Mercola, The Model Health Show, The Art of Charm, Kris and Kathy Vallaton, Rusty Moore, and many others. Listening to these few people cover my physical, emotional, and spiritual success, because they are all successful in what they do.

3. Don't give up when times are tough. I realize that this sounds fairly cliché, but it is truly the secret for success. A good friend of mine told me this quote "Successful people do what unsuccessful people don't want to do". Nothing stays easy, but the challenge is what makes the story and the outcome that much better. Change your mindset about going through trials and turbulence. Look at it from the perspective that you are growing "muscle of resilience".

Start with these three steps. Remove the inhibitors, surround yourself with successful people, and push through turbulence. These are the most crucial steps towards creating your own environment of success. Know who your cheerleaders are, and know your nay-sayers are.

One last quote, "I did not just dream about success, I worked for it".

Omegas 6-9-and-3, aren't all they're cracked up to be.

*This one's for you mom :) There is a lot of buzz around essential fatty acids (EFA's), monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA's), and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA's) right now in the nutrition world. If you don't know much about these terms, let me spare you the boring diagrams of hydrogen and carbon atoms, and let me put it in terms you can fully understand without getting too scientific-y about it. (Scientific-y being the "technical" definition).

The food industry, I'm going to say the proverbial "they" so bare with me, has been talking up all the benefits of PUFA's and MUFA's, and don't get me wrong, there are many benefits, but as they've been glorifying these fatty acids, they've also been downplaying their saturated fat sisters. This article isn't about saturated fats though, that's for another day.

The bottom line about unsaturated fats, though providing many benefits in small doses, are unstable. Have you noticed that your olive oil is liquid at room temperature and your coconut oil is solid? This is because, now here is where I have to get scientific-y, saturated fats have the maximum number of hydrogen atoms attached to every carbon atom in its chain, therefore it is stable. Unsaturated fats however, have gaps in their chains. If it has one gap, it is a monounsaturated fat, and if it has two gaps, it is a polyunsaturated fat. Because of these gaps, they are unstable, thus making them liquid.

Ok, so who cares? Well, everyone should care in my opinion. If something is unstable outside of the body, it is unstable inside of the body. When PUFA's are consumed in high amounts, they are incorporated into the cell membrane making your cells fragile and prone to oxidation, in turn causing inflammation and stress internally. This is seen with the typical American diet composed of high levels of omega-6 compared to lower levels of omega-3's. The optimal diet for your health is to be consuming a 1:1 ratio of omega-6 to omega-3, but in small doses.

It would be wise to stick with more MUFA's, like olive oil, and high grade saturated fats like coconut oil or grass-fed butter, than to be consuming high amounts of PUFA's, which are found in vegetable oils like corn, safflower, and cottonseed. These vegetable oils are usually rancid by the time they hit the grocery store shelf from undergoing extreme processes to extract the oil from them. You would never eat a bowl of cottonseeds, so why are you consuming its oil? Furthermore, when they are heated, the vegetable oil Jekyll turns into Hyde, and the oil goes from an unsaturated fat, to a literally bent out of shape trans fat.

That's right, every time you cook with one of these "healthy" fats, you are ingesting trans fats, which is short for a fat that has undergone a transfiguration, and not in a good way. This is not the fat phoenix rising from the ashes, this is more like the Frankenstein of fats.

What does this all mean?

Start to incorporate more fats in your diet and start to purge your diet from excess PUFA's. Choose high quality fats like coconut oil, grass-fed butter, and extra virgin olive oil (not heated), and start to stay away from oils that include, but are not limited to: canola, grapeseed, cottonseed, safflower, and corn.

If you don't value this number one thing, you will never be successful in your eating.

As a woman, I have gone through many different seasons of self loathing, and if you are a woman reading this, I’m sure you can relate (although I know men struggle too). I have found over the years, that there is a direct correlation with the food I eat at the times I feel less valuable.

When I am overly critical and unaccepting of who I am, I eat poorly. Why? Because if I can’t see my own value, do you think I’m going to make the right decisions in regards to feeding myself? I’m probably not going to spend extra money on high quality food that is full of nutrients, or I will either starve or force feed myself (sometimes both). When the switch flips though, and I take it easy on myself, you know, have a little grace for you who are at this particular moment in time, I more often than not tend to choose the right foods for my body. If you cannot see your worth, it will show in how you feed yourself and what foods you decide to buy.

I don’t think anyone likes being overweight, correct me if I’m wrong. I also know that either obesity, or being unhealthily underweight goes so much deeper than food. Disordered eating patterns, whether starvation or bingeing, are just the manifestations of deeper rooted issues. It’s not what you’re eating, it’s what’s eating you? Your goal for today, to start to make healthier choices with food, is to value yourself. If you value yourself, you will value what you put into yourself, and if you don’t value yourself, how can you give what you don’t have?