Les Brown And Me

Motivation and inspiration are really good things!

I saw Les Brown in San Diego with my wife in the last couple weeks and he is as inspirational as ever!

Oh, I forgot to mention...

Yesterday I woke up and weighed in at 245 pounds! That means I have released over 31 pounds in 8 weeks doing what I'm doing!

Yes!


Here are some inspirational/motivational quotes:

“Shoot for the moon and if you miss you will still be among the stars.”

“You need to make a commitment, and once you make it, then life will give you some answers.”

“You must remain focused on your journey to greatness.”

“Life takes on meaning when you become motivated, set goals and charge after them in an unstoppable manner.”

“I believe that life is a journey, often difficult and sometimes incredibly cruel, but we are well equipped for it if only we tap into our talents and gifts and allow them to blossom.”

“Honor your commitments with integrity.”

“The only limits to the possibilities in your life tomorrow are the buts you use today.”

“You cannot be wimpy out there on the dream-seeking trail. Dare to break through barriers, to find your own path.”

“If you put yourself in a position where you have to stretch outside your comfort zone, then you are forced to expand your consciousness.”

“If you set goals and go after them with all the determination you can muster, your gifts will take you places that will amaze you.”

“Don't let someone else's opinion of you become your reality.”

All of these quotes are from Les Brown

http://www.lesbrown.com/

Schedule For My Friends Part 1

Yesterday I had lunch with my friend Jerry at a place we've never eaten before - The Greenery in Encinitas, CA. Not only was it a new experience for us, I don't think I have ever been to a vegetarian raw food place before. It was pretty good and since it was organic, too, it was not cheap.

That's one thing I think a lot of people have to get used to - paying for quality nutrition instead of volume of food. What our bodies really need is the quality nutrition to keep us healthy and surprisingly, satisfied.

Jerry mentioned that what a lot of people need is a system for how they eat and get exercise in order to lose weight. Then they can simply follow the system. I agree. I think one problem that people run into is when they get off the system. The key, I think, is to not beat yourself up. Simply acknowledge that you're not perfect and get back on the system. I won't be focusing on exercise yet.

Here's what I've eaten today and later I'll post Part 2.

1st (optional) I woke up around 5:30 and took the dog for a walk.

5:55 Prepared Isalean Shake in blender with water & then added ice cubes for my wife and me.
6:00 Drank shake with Ageless Essentials (AM) and 1 Tart Cherry Extract Dietary Supplement (for gout).

7:10 1 ounce Cleanse For Life with 8+ ounces of water.
8:35 1 ounce Ionix Supreme with 8+ ounces of water.
9:55 1 Isagenix Snack! with 8+ ounces of water.

For lunch I'll probably have some Mediterranean leftovers from Pita's in San Marcos.


Keep walking!

I Shared On MillionCares.com

Recently I've met some great entrepreneurs on the UltimateSuccessTour.com who are not only skilled, but very encouraging people. One of them, Jason Nast, and a partner have created a neat site that has NOTHING to do with making a profit. It's his way of giving back. (If you check him out on Facebook you might figure out what big infomercial he was involved with a few years ago.)

I am asking you to check out his site and send the link to your friends and have them do it with their friends and so on. Really. This is a good thing.

Jason Nast's site is MillionCares.com and if you click on the link or the title of this post you will visit MY entry/mini-story about something good that happened to my sister.

Please share your own story and then tell two friends and have them tell two friends and so on and so on and so on. I promise that they aren't selling anything on the site - not even shampoo.

Baby, Baby Let Me Sleep On It

Ever get one of those emails that the person wants you to forward on and you might if it didn't imply that if you don't send it on that you're not a good person or a good christian or a good American or a good whatever?

Sometimes for good measure the person who sent it to you wants you to not only send it on, but to send it back to them?

I hate those.

During the first part of the email they might claim or imply that they respect people with opposing views, but then the wording can change slightly to imply that their view is the only "right" view (or at least the one expressed in the email).

Years ago I sent a message to a person I love very much (and by the way, in case someone is wondering... I personally believe in God, The Holy Spirit, & Jesus AND I not only say the pledge of allegiance regularly at Toastmasters, I occasionally lead the singing of the Star-Spangled Banner - I'm told I have a good voice) asking her to not send me emails like that. Guess what. She still loves me and I even pray for her sometimes. I assume she prays for me, too.

But, in my request I did not imply once that if she did not do as I say that meant she didn't love me. I simply asked her to (send it on, oops, I mean) stop sending messages with those "catches" in it to me. I have never doubted that she loves me - ever. And she sometimes does some things that I really, really disagree with. I have also never doubted that she loves God or the U.S.A. or our troops.

Who decides what the standard is for loving our troops enough? I mean, maybe you don't love the troops enough if you didn't marry one? (I mean, for goodness sake, there are lots of troops to choose from!) Do you not love the troops enough if you vote for the person who didn't serve in the military? What about if you voted for the person who candid people admit sort of half-assed it through school and the military over the one who actually saw action and got a purple heart? Does THAT mean you love the troops less?

What if you vote for the person who helped a weapon system get built over the one who wanted that weapons system killed? What if that weapons system malfunctioned badly and killed our troups in larger numbers than otherwise would have happened with a more effectively designed system?

I don't know how far back problems with U.S. military weapons go, but even Abraham Lincoln said,

"I can make more generals, but horses cost money."

We can get a chuckle out of it, but what does that type of thinking say about the care we take with equipment versus human beings?

Maybe if we defined "love the troops" to mean something DIFFERENT than agreeing with one side of a political debate we would be able to treat each other with more respect and dignity and yes, love.

Now, there is also the last part of the email that really bothers me. Maybe the person who sent it on to me doesn't think about all these issues, but I do. Maybe he doesn't consider them "issues" and we're just supposed to "follow orders" and send it on. Or maybe we have the "choice" to not follow this order, but we all "know what it means" if we don't submit to this "request".

So, let me think about this a (very) little - if I choose NOT to submit to your surveillance of my assigned task - does that mean that I don't love the troops? You see, by asking me to send this back to you in addition to sending the message on, that's what you are doing. Surveilling me. And it's a real word even if spell-check isn't smart enough to understand that.

I want to believe that this person simply didn't think through the implications of what was contained in this email. I certainly hope so. Like the woman I referred to earlier, I pray for this man sometimes. I'm not perfect, so I didn't say "all" the time.

Now the question is - will he still love me (and by love I mean the old-fashioned "Love thy neighbor" kind of love) if I don't send it on? I hope so.

Why the title of this post? Well, I started out thinking I would be clever and borrow a line from Meatloaf's Paradise By The Dashboard Light because I might say something I might still believe but regret (a little) in the morning like Tom Cruise's protagonist in Jerry Maguire, but only the morning will tell me if I should have slept on it.

Instead I guess I just decided to go for it.

Now I'm wondering if those who agree with me will think I wimped out by not going far enough.

Oh well.

What DID I Eat On Saturday?

This post is to finish up my five day record of what I ate while using Isagenix. I know virtually anyone can do this. What I say is "It doesn't take willpower because I'm rarely, if ever, hungry!"

Saturday was a bit of a test because I was away from home up in L.A. at the Ultimate Success Tour and everyone was eating lunch together. For breakfast I had 4 ounces Isagenix Cleanse For Life and right before I left I had 1 ounce Ionix Supreme. I had 4 Isagenix Snacks! at various times during the day. I took Cleanse For Life with me an packed it in ice.

In the future I definitely want to get one container of Cleanse For Life powder and I'm pretty sure that will be easier on the road. I had two more 4 ounce servings of Cleanse For Life at approximately 5 hour intervals and I had some herbal tea at lunch time with one of the Snacks! and plenty of water throughout the day. When I arrived back at home around 9:30 I had my last 4 ounces of Cleanse For Life and about an hour later I had my last ounce of Ionix Supreme with two Natural Accelerator capsules. My ultimate results were in yesterday's post.

We had a fantastic time at Isagenix Celebration today. Details tomorrow!


Keep walking!

What A Great Day!

This morning I weighed in at 252.2 pounds. Because I started using Isagenix when I was 276.2 pounds, that means that I have lost 24 pounds in 41 days!

Then, in the early afternoon, Steve and Sue Landis picked me up and we proceeded to pick up our new team member, Lisa. All four of us went to the Isagenix Celebration in San Diego and it was truly great. Awesome, even.

I'll share more about my Saturday food leading up to today in a later post. I've got to get to bed because I'll be up before six to get ready for the Monday Isagenix Celebration. Click on the title of this post to get a look at what Celebration is about.


Keep walking!

What Did I Eat On Friday?

Today I started what I expect will be a two-day cleanse.

This morning at 6:30 am I had 4 ounces of Isagenix Cleanse For Life and plenty of cold water. An hour later I had one ounce of Ionix Supreme with water (always). About an hour later I had an Isagenix Snack! and then 1/2 hour later I had a strawberry and four grapes that Trader Joe's was sampling out.

At 11 I had 4 more ounces of Cleanse For Life with plenty of water (getting the idea?!). Around 12:30 or so I had an Isagenix Snack! and about an hour after that I had another ounce of Ionix Supreme with water.

After a nap I had 4 ounces of Cleanse For Life with water at 3:15 pm. A little after 5 I had two(!) Isagenix Snacks! with water and then just water for a while. Just a little while ago after 8 pm I had my final 4 ounces of Isagenix Cleanse For Life with probably 14-16 ounces of water.

Anyone who might be reading this and thinking that the writing is kind of boring should know that I'm in the middle of recounting 5 days of what I have been eating.

Anyone who is a little more curious should know that I haven't been and am not now hungry. I will say that it's an interesting sensation to find your stomach empty, but the nutrition in Isagenix does not leave me hungry except once in a great while.

Tomorrow should be another cleanse day and just so you know, you should not do more than two in a row because then your body will start to lose muscle. Right now I'm losing fat and it feels great.

What Am I Eating Thursday? Part II

Today I ended up having zero Isagenix Snacks! and decided to have some of the leftover chicken from yesterday about 12:15. Along with that I also had more of the organic goodies we got from Chocolatree.

This list includes 3 pieces of onion flat bread which goes very well with the cold chicken, which by the way, had no skin. Also 14 or 15 mini-pieces of the Nori snack which is the equivalent of about 2 1/2 of the big ones. I like the mini-Nori better, though I don't think the company recognizes any difference. Maybe there's more cheddar on the little ones? I finished the granola which means I had 3 1/2 ounces and 4 Chia Crackers. For dessert I had the other half of the brownie and it does taste better after you've had a lot of savory flavor. I finished with about 1 1/2 L.O.V.E cups as my son definitely did not like his and gave me half. Again, the antioxidants must be what people like about the cups, and the fact that they are raw, but it just seems like you could get the antioxidants from blueberries or something instead of paying $3 for one of these.

Several hours later I had my Isagenix Isalean Shake and along with the creaminess the ice cubes made it much cooler and that was really welcome because August heat is finally here in Southern California.

Of course I was drinking water throughout the day. Around 8:30 I had an ounce of Isagenix Cleanse For Life and about an hour later I had around 45 or 50 cherries. Now I'm going to finish up with an ounce of Ionix Supreme. It's important to remember that you always want to drink water with the Ionix Supreme and the Cleanse For Life. If you get it in powder form that's obvious, but we prefer liquid and if you drink it straight always follow with 6 or 8 ounces of water at least. My wife likes to mix hers with water so she doesn't even have to think about that.

I want to reiterate that we all need more water than we are probably used to drinking. We need 1/2 ounce of water for every pound we weigh. And that doesn't even count the problem of drinking coffee or diet soda which have diuretic effects. I don't know exactly, but I would imagine that if you drink 16 ounces of coffee that you have to drink at least 16 ounces of water MORE to make up for it. Many people make the mistake of counting their coffee volume as water and that effect can really take a toll over time.

Take it from someone who has had gout. It is definitely not worth it to NOT get enough water for a long period of time. I suspect that the same is true for alcohol consumption. I am not a drinker so I don't have experience here.

One last thing - twice during the day I also took Natural Accelerator to speed up my metabolism with completely natural ingredients. No ma huang, ephedra or caffeine.

You can lose weight and/or get superior nutrition using all natural ingredients. I'm not the only one, but feel free to contact me on Facebook by clicking on the title of this post.


Keep walking!

What Am I Eating Thursday? Part I

At 7 am I had my Chocolate Isalean Shake and at 8:30 I had Isagenix Cleanse For Life.

I decided it was time for Ionix Supreme at 10:45.

I'll probably have an Isagenix Snack! in about an hour.


Keep walking!

What Am I Eating Wednesday? Part IV

If you're looking closely you probably have noticed that I'm actually posting on Thursday. This is true, but this post is about the rest of what I ate Wednesday.

For those of you who might just be finding BigManWalking for the first time:

No I don't think what I eat is that interesting to the whole blogosphere! :-)

During the next few days and for the previous two days I am recording what I eat to show all of you readers that you can do this, too.

Using what I'm using is not a diet. It's truly a lifestyle. If you happen to not stick to it one day, don't beat yourself up. You didn't blow it. Just move on.

What I have found, though, is that it's not a challenge "sticking to it" and only when I CHOOSE to eat more I don't lose weight as fast.

Of course, one habit that I want to stress is drinking more water and I personally think cold water rocks and room temperature water I drink because it's good for me.

Last night around 7:45 I had my final Isagenix Isalean Shake for the day and this time I had no banana and only 1 1/2 scoops. Because I don't want a recurrence of gout I am looking at what my results will be if I lower the amount of shake ingredients over several days. Tomorrow I will start a cleanse for 2 days and there will be no shakes. I also like to add a little more water when I make the shake in addition to ice cubes. I like the volume. Instead of 8 ounces of water I start with 9 or 10 and then 6 or 7 ice cubes. My guess is that's 13-14 ounces of water total after the blender does its thing. When I add the ice cubes AFTER I blend the shake with the initial water I find that the action of the cubes being blended makes the shake much creamier. I'm pretty sure that's how the Isalean Shake is meant to be prepared.

Because the shake has live enzymes, it's important to drink it within 10 minutes to get the highest nutritional benefit. I'm usually done in under two minutes. I really like the chocolate.

About an hour later I had Isagenix Cleanse For Life and about 12 ounces of water as a chaser. Sometimes I like to have more water. Don't feel that you have to have the exact same amount every time, but do drink enough water with whatever you're taking in.

Around 10:00 I had Ionix Supreme and more water. I decided to stay up late and ended up remembering my wife's advice so I had some Bragg's Apple Cider vinegar in water around midnight. Drinking this much water you will probably find that if you weigh yourself before bed and then again when you wake up, the difference could be 2-3 pounds or more.

It's important to not be bothered by short-term fluctuations of a few pounds in weight. You might not have eliminated everything you've consumed and other times you might be retaining water. If you are exercising enough you could also find that you are putting on muscle, which is denser than fat, so the same volume of flesh weighs more.

Back in a couple hours with What Am I Eating Thursday? Part I.


Keep walking!

What Am I Eating Wednesday? Part III

Earlier today I had an appointment with my pastor (one of the pastors at Solana Beach Presbyterian Church), Josh Kerkhoff, and we talked about our upcoming All Church Retreat and what I'm going to say during services on the 29th. This post isn't really about that conversation, though I always enjoy conversations with Pastor Josh. (I know in Southern California especially, we tend to call people by first names and I'm generally just fine with that, but Josh is an ordained minister of the Word and Sacrament and I actually consider that a pretty big deal. What I have heard is that if you can do what you feel called to do without being ordained, then don't become ordained. I guess that's why I'm not ordained!)

Because I knew that Josh and I would probably talk for an hour and possibly more, and factoring in the drive time, I decided to have an Isagenix IsaSnack! at 1:00 before I left. These little babies are amazing. They are little "discs" I guess you'd say. Marianne and I have not considered getting vanilla because the other flavor is chocolate. I guess once in a great while I might have vanilla for a change of pace, but for now it's all chocolate when it comes to these snacks. Chew it up and you start to salivate and it sort of tastes like brownie batter (though not excessively sweet) and I am absolutely blown away by these little snacks. You can really take the place of another snack that you might have and be truly satisfied with these 35 calories. Make sure to have about 8 ounces of cold water to wash it down after you've savored the flavor. IsaSnacks! are great for that afternoon moment when you might eat too many calories of something that's not that good for you (or even terrible for you!) and you're not hungry 20 minutes later, either.

Our son prefers vanilla flavor in his shakes, so we may have to break down and order the vanilla in September. Does anyone reading this prefer vanilla to chocolate? I guess if you have severe gout sensitivity or you're actually experiencing full-blown gout you might want to stay away from anything chocolate just in case, according to what I've read. But staying away from something like coffee is much more important than staying away from a little natural chocolate.

When I got back from my meeting, my honey started some Trader Joe's Natural Chicken Breast in olive oil with turmeric. I finished cooking it and added some mustard (don't tell her!) and then put the other two pieces in the refrigerator after she left for the Meatloaf concert with her sister and brother-in-law at Humphrey's.

We also received a shipment today from a place we decided to try after she got back from Arizona recently. While she was only in Sedona for a day with her teacher friends during this quick road trip, she decided to eat two meals at ChocolaTree Cafe. It's a vegetarian and vegan restaurant/store and you can check out the store here.

So, along with the chicken breast I had an organic feast for one. I had 4 pieces of onion flat bread, 2 large Nori Nachos, 3 1/2 Chia Crackers, 3 1/2 ounces of Apple Honey Crunchy Granola, 1/2 Chocolate Pecan brownie and 1 Dark Cacao L.O.V.E. Cup.

My favorites are the Chia Crackers, Apple Honey Crunch granola and the onion flat bread. The Chia Crackers and the onion flat bread are savory and I only recommend the onion flat bread if you like onion because some might consider the onion flavor heavy. But, I'm alone tonight so I'm the only one who will be subject to the effects! I would give the Chia Crackers an 8.2 out of 10, the granola a 7.7 and the onion flat bread a 7.6 - unless you don't want your onion flavor that strong.

Though Marianne had a memory of the fantastic flavor of Nori Nachos, she thinks the ones she had in the restaurant were different somehow. I would have to say that these are a 6.5 if you like seaweed, but more like a 3 if you don't. I'm somewhere in the middle and I have learned in the last couple of decades that sometimes we need to eat certain foods simply because it's good for you and not because it tastes good.

If you've never had organic or natural (also read: less sweet) chocolate, you could be disappointed by the "small" level of sweetness in any of the sweet items. If you're ready to improve your diet and give up processed sugar, the granola will have a bigger impact on your taste buds. Both chocolate items are even less sweet than some other natural chocolate products I've had, though to be fair, I can't think of what those are right now. I guess I'd give the brownie a 5.8 and the L.O.V.E. cup a 5. Again, if you're used to typical chocolate and haven't given up processed sugar, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't rate them that high. However, if you are a big DARK chocolate lover and you don't mind the relatively low sweetness, the L.O.V.E. cup might be right up your alley.

L.O.V.E. stands for Live Organic Vegan Euphoria and it's $3.00 for a 1 ounce cup. It's anti-oxidant rich, low glycemic & gluten free with 77% cacao. And they are RAW. If that's your cup of tea (no pun intended), the L.O.V.E. cup is probably worth it to you. I'll admit that Marianne and I kind of got caught up in the moment and the memory of her fun & delicious time in Sedona and the Grand Canyon area. We might try one of the other cup flavors again, but I think we'll have to go without processed sugar or even stevia for a much longer time before we're able to appreciate the subtle sweetness of these, especially given the price. Almost forgot, the L.O.V.E. cups were made by a business right next door - ChocolateSuperFoods.com.

While I drink water about every hour or so, I'm told that the human liver can make use of 4 ounces every 20 minutes and our kidneys can handle just about as much as we want to drink. Time for another drink of water.


Keep walking!

What Am I Eating Wednesday? Part II

I was overdue for Ionix Supreme at 10:00 am and as always, at least 6-8 ounces of cold water with one ounce of Ionix Supreme. My son and I both like to drink it straight and follow with the water. You might be more like my wife, Marianne, who mixes it with the water. She finds it a little "spicy".

As it heats up I like to make sure I'm getting enough water. Did you know that you should have at least one ounce of water for every ounce of weight every day? When I started releasing weight on Isagenix that meant 138 ounces of water each day. That's more than a gallon! Also, it's my understanding that coffee actually takes water OUT of your body. So I would drink more water if you're drinking coffee. This is also true for diet soda. I learned the hard way when I was diagnosed with gout earlier this year.

At 11:15 I had my first ounce of Isagenix Cleanse For Life and this time I had 12 ounces of cold water as a chaser.

It's not yet noon and it continues to get hotter here. Make sure you drink enough water!


Keep walking!