The first week of The Healthy Breakfast Club was amazing to say the least.  The sharing, the caring, the bonding, the vulnerability, the support, the totally wonderful feeling is wonderful.  If you have not joined us yet, please do.  We are developing a great core group and we have lots of special things planned for next week (including a very special guest speaker on Tuesday.)

T0day we talked about the “Perfection Expectation” and how it can negatively impact our weight loss/fitness goals.  You know the story and an example of would go like this.  It is Wednesday and you have been making great food choices all week long.  Sometime, in the afternoon you choose to make a choice which was not in your plan.  Therefore, the whole week is ruined  and you wait until the following Monday to start all over again.  Sound familiar?  Been there, done that?  I know I have many, many, many times.

This comes out of an expectation anything less than perfection is unacceptable.  WRONG!  Have you heard of the 80/20 rule?  It says if you make correct decisions 80% of the time, you are always moving in the correct direction; exactly where you want to be going.   With Optifast I lost 150 pounds in 10 months and never ever went off the program.  I had not one bit of food for the entire time, not one bite!  What did I learn about healthy, balanced eating? Nothing.  Looking back I am sure I totally messed up my metabolism, by consuming 400 calories a day for 10 m0nths.  And gaining more than the 150 pounds I lost back again, could not have been too good for me either.

I want to share a definition for “perfect” from the dictionary I like.  “Lacking nothing essential to the whole; compete of its nature or kind.” All of us is whole and complete just the way we are.  Striving consistently for excellence  is a much better choice than the unattainable goal of  reaching for perfection.

Excellence is willing to be wrong.  Perfection is being right.

Excellence is risk.  Perfection is fear.

Excellence is powerful.  Perfection is anger and frustration.

Excellence is spontaneous.  Perfection is control.

Which do you choose?

To Your Health,

Judi

Thanks go to Suzanne for sharing her recipe for the Spinach/Ginger Shake and I have pasted her entire blog post here!

Yes, that is what Oprah called this drink when Dr. Oz prepared it for her on air! ***

Most mornings I throw together one of these super nutritious, refreshing drinks.  I know that I’ve gotten my day off to a great start without a lot of preparation.

Ingredients:

2 or more cups of spinach
1 1/2 cups water
about a square inch of fresh ginger, peeled
1 Tablespoon of Flax Oil
2 level scoops of Aria (powdered supplement of blended soy and whey protein)
1/2 scoop of BerrySplash, mixed berry powdered drink mix with Acai Berry
1 Tablespoon of L-Glutamine Amino Acid
1 scoop of Green Defense, super green foods powder

Directions:

Put spinach and chopped, peeled ginger into the blender.
Pout in the water.
Cover the blender.
Blend on high until the spinach and ginger are liquefied.
Add Flax Oil, Aria, BerrySplash, L-Glutamine, and Green Defense
Blend in 2 or 3 ice cubes…more if you want your drink more frozen

This is a way of getting mega nutrients into your body to support you when you are going through stressful times such as having Alzheimer’s in the Family with a parent or other loved one with the disease. I won’t go into all the amazing benefits of the ingredients right now. Another time I’ll talk about that.

It’s important to have equipment that makes creating the smoothie effortless.  I use an Osterizer blender. What I have now is their 12-speed blender. This is an amazingly powerful blender. I’ve been doing daily shakes with this one for several years and it is still going strong. I have noticed that the bottom of the glass container where the mechanism is may be leaking….wearing out a bit. Rather than checking into getting a new part….usually a tedious process, I am purchasing a new one….

I’ve chosen the Osterizer 14-speed blender. The 12-speed doesn’t seem to be readily available. I’m confident that this one will be as good…and even better than the 12-speed. I found it online at walmart.com. It came up on Google and the price is incredible…$24.88 and is available with their Site to Store with no shipping.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=3946735

When you compare this blender to various prestige ones on the the web costing hundreds of dollar, I recommend this one. I’ve been very satisfied with the performance and durability. Other typical blenders just don’t handle this type of blending job as well. Having the glass container is a plus also.

*** In case you’re interested in Dr. Oz’s recipe from the Oprah show, here it is:

· 2 cups spinach
· 2 cups cucumber
· 1 head of celery
· 1/2 inch or teaspoon ginger root
· 1 bunch parsley
· 2 apples
· Juice of 1 lime
· Juice of 1/2 lemon

I prefer not to use fresh fruits in my smoothies…. I prefer eating good fruit without pulverizing it!
Some other items I’ve heard of people adding are: kale, beet greens, collards, stevia, bananas, frozen mixed berries.

Another day I’ll share a drink recipe I make with mixed frozen fruit.
s:)

Day 2 and we are having a blast. A comment today by one of the HBC Memberswas how awesome it was to have this call and not feel like she was ‘alone’ on her journey to health. Lots of celebrations shared including passing up ice cream while a husband was eating it to spending an entire day ‘eating consciously.’

Why are we more accountable to others than we are to ourselves? Why is a promise made to someone else more important than a promise made to us? And there are many answers this question including our ability to rationalize, not seeing it hurting anyone else when we break promises to yourself etc. All of this really points to the power of having a coach and the value being coached can add to your life.

Personally, since 1993 I have had at least one or more coaches in my life at all times. From business coaches, to spiritual mentors to weight loss coaches and guess what? THEY WORK! When I was selling real estate it was rewarding to me to share what I had achieved each day with someone and have them tell me what a great job I did!

We all like being recognized and the positive reinforcement we receive helps lead us to our next success and keep us on track.  Having a history of successes behind us strengthens our resolve and commitment to keep moving forward.

I am so proud to be a coach with Team Beachbody!  I love my company and everything it offers is amazing.  Recognizing there is no quick fix or magic pill to acheive long term health and weight management goes against  the tide of quick fix answers you see everywhere.  Take this pill, lose weight without working out, lose weight without changing what you eat; blah, blah, blah.  Been there and tried them all.  In addition, to the damage I have probably done to my body, my metabolism and not to mention the damage to my mind from losing and gaining hundreds of pounds; they do no work for long term health.  And I like that Beachbody comes out and says you have to eat clean and work out regularly to acheive and maintain a weight and fitness level.

If you are looking for a coach to support you in achieving your healthy goals,Team Beachbody offers coaching to you at NO CHARGE!!!!!  If you are a member of The Healthy Breakfast Club, contact the TBB coach who invited you to the club and they will show you how to sign up for coaching with them.  If you do not have a coach and are looking for one, I would like to apply for the job.

To create accountabilty and to have a personal weight loss coach, all you need to do is sign up for WOWY which stands for Working Out With You in the Beachbody on line virtual supergym.  There is no charge to create a WOWY profile and be assigned a coach.  You will be able to schedule workouts, make appointments with virtual work out partners and meet them in the ‘gym.’  Remember the power of commiting to someone else you will be there!    Oh and did I mention BB awards daily prizes to motivate you to work out???  If you are serious about acheiving your weight and fitness goals, take action and sign up for WOWY.  If you are not connected with a coach, go to www.in-homecoach.com and sign up with me.  Let’s take action and take the steps one at a time to create permanent health in our lives.

To Your Health,

Judi

Team Beachbody Diamond Coach