Sarah’s Blog

… that which you desire the most, for that which you desire the most … right now?

Wow, that’s a powerful question.

I heard it on the radio the other night, driving, and I wasn’t home till well past 10 pm that night, too tired to pick up a pen. Yet this question was so powerful it stayed on my mind till the next morning and I wrote it down.

Not only did I write it on a sheet of paper – well, in my journal really, pieves of paper tend to get lost – I also posted it on a forum I work at and added another place:

I made a SET-board with this question on it. Talk about Power-Question!

What is a SET-board you may ask … well, I can’t really tell you as it’s a trade-marked idea from Jon Benson, explained in detail in his week 34 audio from the M-Power Audio Series; but in essence it’s as many large cards as you need/want each with a power statement or power question (what they are is also explained in the audio series), and you read them every day, much like you would a goal card.

Of course, there aqre tricks to these cards (or Jon Benson would not be Jon Benson, lol); such as color, texture, shapes even … now, he said women react best to certain shapes, men to others. I didn’t find either shape where I went (squares I could have cut to shape), but I did find a package of 24 mini-boards in 6 different colors … shaped like butterflies.

In my mind, I can see these butterflies flutter by me with their power statement/question on them, reading them as they pass me. In reality, I do have to pick them up and touch them, reading them one by one, but they "flutter" on in my mind all day.

Are you willing to give up the thing which you desire the most, for the thing you desire the most … right now?

Or in my case, am I willing to give up on the lean, figure-model body ideal I aim and work for, in order to succumb to what I want  right now … which could be a glass of wine out of planned time, a slice of someone’s birthday cake, a muffin because I’m suddenly hungry and the coffee shop is in front of me, a baked potato at supper time …

NO. No, I do not want to give up on my main goal for any of these fleeting pleasures.

Does that mean I never slip? Of course not, but to use an analogy from the M-Power series, when I get a flat tire on my car, I change it and keep going, I don’[t camp out at the side of the road. Nor does a nutrition-slip make me ditch my plan and goal and "camp out" among all the slip-up temptations.

What is this M-Power Audio Series anyway you might ask.

To me, simply put, it's a mind reboot program. I have unlearned a few old "truths" and had more than one myth debunked; learned a lot of neat tricks to get the mind to help me get past tempting situations, keep me in the gym and working differently when I'm there, and so much more!

Here's my affiliate link to the audios - yes, I do make a few bucks on it if you buy from this link, but hey ... I did find it and tip you off

http://tinyurl.com/M-Power-Series

Jon Benson’s other products are hidden behind the links below: 7 Minute Muscle which I’ve used for close to 2 years now, with just a break here and there to let my muscles and my mind play with something else;

Every Other Day Diet, which is not literally binge one day and starve the next, but a detailed plan (5 in one actually, depending on your level) on how to have the things you enjoy at the best time possible to ensure fat reduction. Over 2 yeears after the first edition, I’m still using this system.

Fit Over 40 … is just plain inspirational, and does away with any excuse like "I’m too old", "I have x-number of kids", "I have a disability" or "I’m sick" … for the last one, look at Pax Beale!

http://tinyurl.com/7MinMuscl

http://tinyurl.com/myEODD  

http://tinyurl.com/Fit-O-40

I do promote Jon’s products more than any other, which doesn’t mean other programs aren’t valid. Many are, and my husband is enrolled in Jeff Anderson’s Combat The Fat challenge edition 2010, after having completed the 2008 challenge – which I did as well – and using this system of training pretty much for the full 2 years in between.

He still follows EODD though which shows you this nutritional program can be used with any training protocol.

I’ve also attempted to use Fabrice Rinaldi’s 1 Rep Fitness, but never made it past week 6 (of 12)

http://tinyurl.com/1-RepFitness

- too tough? No, I just didn’t really have my mind in the program when I did it. I will complete it in 2010 – as one of my fitness goals.

I’ve been too long in doing this!

But the saying goes "better late than never" right? So here goes:

A straight link (no affiliation here) to http://www.ancientelementssoap.com/index08.htm Brian’s old fashioned, home made soaps made with all natural ingredients and beautifully scented. To top it off, they’re really reasonable, so you can treat yourself to an assortment of scents for your every mood.

Seriously, other than telling you that I love relaxing in a lavender-scented bath with my lavender soap, that lank is all I wanted to share with you today!

Brian and his wife gratiously sent me a few bars of their soap a while back, and I am planning on trying out a few of their other scents as well soon.

Enjoy   A good workout will leave you a little sore. Relaxing in a warm shower of bath with some nice scents … totally deserved.

Sarah, CPT (www.trainwithsarah.com)

It seems that revamping my blog has atrackted a hord of spammers with nothing better to do with their time than trying to get their sleezy messages in on my blog.

For your information – serious blog readers: I flag these as spam the minute they come to my attention

For your information – spammers: save it! I will never let you through!

I have posted a similar message before, so please stop wasting my time.

I just got a mailing today. Someone saying that the DST (dailight savings time) added more hours to the day. I had to read that sentence twice. I mean, how can anyone seriously say something like that?

Your place of work expects you in at a set time in the morning (usually, unless you work shifts).

Your break times are fixed by the clock.

You leave work to go home at the same time in the afternoon.

You get home, you have supper, watch TV. As usual.

You then have to go to bed at the same time because you need the same number of hours of sleep in order to get up the next morning.

So where do you get an extra hour in your day? I almost unsubscribed, it was really too stupid coming from someone presumably intelligent. That same someone went on to say how she got in some meditation and walks in the morning; time for reading under the trees with the birds singing in the evening. Could well be, but if you live anywhere north of New York, that’s just not very possible at the moment, not with the mounds and mounds of snow already on the ground, more in the forecast and otherwise bitterly cold temperatures!

Apart from the fact that … who feels like getting up early when it’s still dark outside? It was finally getting to be almost light around 6 am, now it’s going to be pitch dark again! More daylight in the evening is not much better, you need darkness to sleep.

Supposedly, this system was to save on electricity and gaz … I’m still trying to figure that one out. Is it cheaper to drive to work when the clock is set one hour forward? Does the light bulb burn less electricity in the morning than the evening hours? Because the way I see it, whether I have my lights on for an hour more or less in the morning or the evening, the end result is the same.

Dairy cows get upset at their milking time being moved twice a year. Other farm animals are confused at being fed at a different hour. The same goes for young children and babies; as well as our pets. And even adults act a little "jet-lagged" for a good week after this change. To be served something as silly as the mail this morning on top of that … well, I must admit, I "saw red"!

The day and night together consist of 24 hours. It will not get any longer or shorter by moving the clock backwards or forwards. The number of daylight hours and dark night hours, remain the same. The only difference is whether you are closer to the equator or the poles, in order to have different numbers of light/dark hours. Our schedules do not change except during vacations.

The only positive thing about the spring change, is that we get one extra hour of sleep for one night! Then again, we lose it 6 months later, so who cares!

So … "politely" put to this person whom I will not name, but I hope she reads this: "cut the crap, please". This ridiculous twice-yearly ritual is irritating enough as it is without adding insult to injury.

Rant over, and I’ll get off my soap box, at least for the next 6 months as far as this subject is concerned.

Going on with EODD’s plans, this time… hey, it’s calendarial spring soon, even if King Frost isn’t of that opinion yet … I’m going to the Extreme Plan. Training is moving over to a 2-day split program performed 4 days per week, but with cardio for 5-6 mornings per week, and added HIT cardio after the weight training. Want to know more about the cardio idea?

Click-here to download Moving Beyond Cardio .
Or copy and paste this link into your browser .
http://www.bestofallstars.com/thanksmpower.php

Well, if you look in all and any store, that’s what it seems to be! They are all wrapped in red foil, red plastic, red boxes. They have heart shapes or heart designs on the wrappers. All say something about St. Valentine. Does anyone even care who he was? Not many. Some radio stations mention the anecdote, but who really cares?

The commerces care. Not about St Valentine, but about the card-chocolate-roses-diamond sales they make for this one day of the year when people are told to remember that they love someone.

I don’t know about you, but for my part I’d rather not remember ONE day, than remember only one and forget 364 days of the year that I love someone!

Still, this is Chocolate Day. Love chocolates. In a month we’ll have the yellow, bunny-and-chicken chocolates. A month ago, it was the red-and-green fir-tree and pot-bellied-bearded-old-man chocolates. There always seems to be a reason to throw chocolates at people’s nutrition plans!

I got one too this morning! Chocolate that is. In fact, it was a mug with several things in it. A lollipop, three small bags of some sort of candy, 2 heart-shaped pink-wrapped things I suspected were chocolates, and two Hershey’s kisses – one normal and one red. The candy? Trash-can, direct. Never even liked that as a kid. The pink hearts … I tried half of one, the rest of it and the other one … trash. Disgusting taste, some sort of chemical filling inside.

The kisses? The red wrapper contained a wite chocolate kiss with brown swirls. Tasteless and greasy. The silver one, the normal kiss looking one, was a normal kiss. But the taste? Bland, and also left a greasy feeling in my mouth.  Had there been more of both in that mug, they would have followed the candy and the pink hearts to the trash can.

Does that mean I will not have chocolate? Nope. But I’m not at all a fan of commercial chocolate. Not anymore. When I was growing up, chocolate did not leave that greasy film in my mouth. Not that I don’t remember it, it wasn’t there! I guess it comes from the added soy in today’s chocolates, makes them look the same but they are cheaper to make – yet we pay more … ??? Anyway.

If I actually buy chocolate, I’d rather spend my money on a good, Belgian style chocolate from a speciality store, and get just one or two pieces in a nice wrapper, get the good taste of real chocolate and not that greasy taste and feeling.

Better still, I buy dark chocolate, as close to 100% cocoa as I can get. I melt that in coconut milk, add nut butter, bran, raisins, a little orange juice, sometimes some orange peel (grated), crushed nuts; pour it into a mold, leave to cool and set, and cut squares a little under one inch in size. One per day max, usually two per week is all I’ll have.

Or I buy organic cocoa powder and make hot cocoa with stevia and some plant-milk (rice, oat, soy, almond …) which is really nice after an hour of shovelling snow – like I did yesterday.

No links to anything today surprise! Except … to my http://www.trainwithsarah.com on-line training site, and to my http://www.healthylivesforyou e-book

Have a good Chocolate Day!

Sarah

Isn’t it sad, when you get a contract with someone and pay them for the agreed work, and they don’t follow up and give you the service you’ve paid for? In this case, our snow removal. Since the first snowfall this winter, they have come as planned twice, the first two times. Then they forgot us and came the next day because I called. The following snow fall, no one came so I called again and was told that according to contract, they don’t come for less than 5 centimeters – we had 9½, I went out and measured!! And yesterday, with the 45-50 cm we got, no one came until 7 pm and then they did such a messy job it was no help at all. Returning this morning, they cleaned ¾ of the place nicely (although the parking is narrowing towards the street) but left a huge amount in front of the steps … how can anyone go from their car to the stairs or in the opposite direction, without getting their boots filled with snow? It’s impossible. So I called, again! It was normal, they did a quick pass so we could get out and would be back later to finish … ???

No way. The guy considered himself finished when he left here, it was obvious. And as for letting us get out, the car had already left, after we dug it out ourselves since they hadn’t come before 6 am as promised, besides … letting us out? Why then leave the huge amount of snow in front of the accesses to the house? Cop-out answer from the office woman who had no idea what was going on here and didn’t care much either. As for "coming back later" at 3:30 pm there was still no sign of the blower-guy and the steps are still blocked! No, I am not shovelling that by hand, not after paying good money for someone to do it mechanically!

Next year? We get a temporaty shelter for the car, forget about the other half of the parking, and shovel the rest ourselves, at least we know it’ll get done when it needs to be.

Sorry, I just had to get that rant off! I feel ripped off, cheated, and on top of it I get treated on the phone as if I’m being unreasonable when I just ask that they do what we’ve paid them to do. It’s infuriating! I’d love to go to the Better Business Bureau and report them, frankly! Maybe I’ll keep a record of their continued "service" here this winter and send the bureau a report once the spring arrives! Heheh (evil grin)

~ * ~

But OK, back to the business at hand. Fitness. Winter cardio training. Fat loss. Clean eating.

Winter cardio can be a lot of things.

Toboganing is one. Sure, you have to walk back up that hill, right? That’s the intense part of it. Then you get your heart rate back a bit when you slide down. Up again, down, up, down … and you’re having fun at the same time, get lots of fresh air and even sunshine with some luck. All good for you.

Then there is skiing. Cross country will get you a better over all and constant effort body training, but down hill and slalom are good too.

You have ice skating, more sliding fun. Ski-joring if you can find a horse, but your dog will do.

And you have the snow clearing, shovelling it all away by the sweat of your brow.  If I had skis, I think I would try ski-joring with the dogs. One dog, I’m not reckless to the point of doing it with two at a time (too much power and speed). I have no skis (phew, great excuse not to try). So I shovel. The front steps, the lower steps to the gym. The passage along the side of the house to access the fuel line so we get more heat. The entire deck so that 1) we can access the barbeque and still have grilled steaks on New Year’s Eve 2) the dogs don’t drag all the snow in with them when they’ve been outside, and 3) so that there will be less snow that has to melt in the spring – that way we get to enjoy the deck sooner!

Or you decide that no, outside is too cold. Or you have no snow, it’s just cold and grey. Then  you think gym. Or you may have some equipment at home, even something as simple as a jump rope. Plan on 30-50 minutes a day, in one go or two, doesn’t really matter. You just want to move, keep moving, use that body.

And on a not-so-cold-and-miserable day, take a hike! I mean, go for a brisk walk outside. A bike ride will be too cold, unless you’re in a warmer area like Florida, California, or further south. Forget that it’s Christmas Holidays time and you’re "supposed to" put on 10 pounds because "everyone" statistically do. You don’t have to be part of that statistic.

Weights? I’ll get to that tomorrow. Food too. For now, bye J

I have a surprise for you today

Fitness, yes, but check this out …

A neat, 33-page hard-cover book on how to care for 10 house plants and not kill them, unless you try really hard!

It’s easy to read, easy to understand, and the graphics are fun and adds to the easy understanding of what to do and when to do it.

I have never managed to keep a plant for more than one to two months before they died on me. And yet, with a history of "planticide" like mine, I haven’t had one casualty in over a year! Since I received this little gem from Lewis’ father, not only are my plants not dead, they are thriving! And a lot of the tips can also be transposed to a few other plants once you get the hang of these ones.

And not only is this book great, both for yourself and as a gift for someone you appreciate, you even get it signed by the author, how neat is that!? This makes it a totally unique gift, or a treasured book for your own indoor plants. 9,99$ for a perfect extra-gift to put under the tree at Christmas, or to offer with one of these plants any time during the year when you are invited somewhere, instead of a bouquet of cut-offs that will die within a week regardless of what is done to them.

What does this have to do with fitness? Well, think about it, your plants will be healthy and fit, they will look better in your environment, add oxygen to your house, and just think of all the compliments you’ll get when visitors see your lucious plants! A pretty environment also makes you feel better and more cheerful.

And honestly, at $ 9.99 (US) what a great deal!

Merry Christmas!

There were a few glitches in my blogroll links listing, I will restore the missing ones asap!

http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/travel/news/article2864170.ece

Does it make sense to spend money on larger rides, deeper channels, because people get fatter?

Isn’t that just telling them that it’s ok to get huge because someone will accomodate seats and other things for you?

As far as Disney theme parks go – how much healthy food alternative do the visitors even have? Still, if they did have a healthy alternative, would they chose that over a burger, fries and ice cream? Why should they? The rides are getting bigger!

Just a little scare to add to this:

http://win.niddk.nih.gov/statistics/index.htm

I will not allow any spam or obnoxious comments, nor publicities for pharmaceuticals to get posted on this blog.

To those who try (and some keep trying), use your energy elsewhere.

 Thank you.