Sports Supplements Review - Part 9 of 9

Workout Formula

Workout Formula provides essential vitamins and nutrients, trace minerals, and key amino acids to support active involvement in sports and prolonged physical activity.

Also included:

*The branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) leucine, isoleucine, and valine, which are considered essential amino acids because we couldn't survive without them.
* The amino acid glutamine, believed to play a role in several aspects of human physiology, including muscle and immune function
* Essential minerals, chromium, boron, and zinc
* Inlulin Analog, a complex carbohydrate which helps control blood sugar levels, reduces sugar cravings, and contributes to a consistent energy level, without sugar rushes and crashes
* Cytochrome C Oxidase, supplying a key enzyme in aerobic metabolism
* Ornithine alpha-ketoglutarate (OKG) which stimulates muscle growth and blocks the effects of catabolic hormones

Supporting healthy physical activity with a supplement like Workout Formula contributes to athletic performance, and overall health and well-being.

Sports Supplements Review - Part 8 of 9

Electro Aloe Hydration Crystals

Micronutrients and electrolytes are lost during intense exercise. Consuming a performance sports drink, like Electro Aloe, helps with energy levels and maintaining your electrolyte balance.

Electro Aloe supplies easily-absorbed carbohydrates , essential electrolytes, and trace minerals that are not found in plain water.

One serving of Electro Aloe contains 64% of the USDV for vitamin C, assists in the replenishment of fluids and electrolytes, and provides antioxidants.

Ornithine alpha-ketoglutarate (OKG) stimulates muscle growth and blocks the effects of catabolic hormones that break down muscle tissue.

Inulin Analog is the ultimate complex carbohydrate. It helps control blood sugar levels, reduces sugar cravings, and contributes to a consistent energy level, without sugar rushes and craches.

Add one scoop of Electro Aloe to 12 oz. of water to make one serving. Or dissolve the contents of one can in 2.5 gallons of water and make 27 servings for the team! You'll also enjoy the lemon-lime flavour!

Sports Supplements Review - Part 7 of 9

AG Immune (Take 2 capsules daily with food)

A healthy immune system is fundamental to overall health. AG Immune contains arabinogalactan, astragalus, maitake mushroom, and Ai/E10.

Arabinogalactan (from the Western larch tree): Decreases the generation and absorption of ammonia in the body during exercise, and has been shown to enhance immune cell activity and communication.

Astragalus Root: Strengthens the body's immune system, speeds up metabolism, amd promotes healthy tissue regeneration.

Maitake Mushroom TD-fraction: Stimulates immune system recovery after exercise; has been used traditionally to promote wellness and vitality.

Ai/E10 whey extract: A product of advanced patented technology, Ai/E10 has, since 1993, continued to be the foremost dietary supplement ingredient available to provide support of immune function in people of all ages; it also promotes immune system recovery after exercise (see http://www.aie10.com/ )

To view a power point on Ai/E10, go to: http://www.aie10.com/video/Introduction%20to%20AiE10.wmv (uses Windows media player)

Tomorrow, I will highlight the sports supplement, Workout Formula.

Sports Supplements Review - Part 6 of 9

Oxy-G2 (Take 2 capsules daily with food)

The most common cause of human death worldwide is anaerobic microbes. (ref: Mr. Oxygen)

Disease can't live in oxygen. Anaerobic microorganisms can't live in oxygen. So it stands to reason that we need to increase the oxygen levels in our cells.

Oxy-G2 contains a unique combination of ingredients that may assist in carrying oxygen to the cells.

Organic Germanium plays a key role in cellular oxygenation.

Cytochrome C Oxidase supplies a key enzyme in aerobic metabolism.

Selenium assists with high energy expenditures in athletes with vital support for the body's antioxidant defense system to protect against free radical damage.

The herbs gingko, milk thistle, and echinacea provide multiple benefits for cellular and immune system health.

Oxy-G2 is also rich in beta-carotene, vitamins C and E, and glutathione, powerful antioxidants that assist with detoxification and proper immune function.

Tomorrow I'll give you details on a product that will assist you in boosting your immune system.

Sports Supplements Review - Part 5 of 9

Super Cell Advanced Antioxidant Formula (Take 2 capsules daily with food)

Our bodies are constantly under attack by free radicals, unstable molecules that can damage vital structures such as cell membranes and DNA. Free radicals are created in our bodies as a by-product of metabolism. Chemical pollution, cigarette smoke, radiation, pesticides, and herbicides also add to our free radical burden.

Antioxidants are nature's answer to free radicals, neutralizing their destructive capabilities and protecting our cells and tissues. Some antioxidants are created in the body but many must be derived from our diet.

Super Cell is fortified with citrus bioflavanoids, green tea, grape seed, red wine and a proprietary blend of vegetable concentrates. It is an advanced blend of nutrient, herbal, and whole food antioxidants.

So what can Super Cell specifically do for the athlete in you?

* Ornithine alpha-ketoglutarate (OKG) blocks the effects of catabolic hormones that break down muscle tissue
* Pycnogenol inhibits key triggers of ligament, tendon and muscle inflammation
* Cytochrome C Oxidase supplies a key enzyme in aerobic metabolism
* Magnesium and Calcium asparates combat the effects of ammonia that forms in the body during exercise

Tomorrow, we will focus on Oxy-G, a unique product that may assist in carrying oxygen to the cells...

Sports Supplements Review - Part 4 of 9

Super Omega - Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs)

Contains Omega-3 fish oil (in a balanced 50/50 ratio of EPA and DHA essential fatty acids), which plays a critical role in maintaining the health of almost all body systems, including the heart, brain, eyes, skin, joints, and the immune system.

Super Omega can help reduce exercise-induced bronchospasm in elite athletes, and may reduce inflammation in muscles and joints, for faster recovery time.

This unique blend is fortified with an antioxidant complex consisting of natural tocopherols, a lipid solution vitamin C, and rosemary extract.

Special processing (molecular distillation) ensures almost complete removal of mercury, dioxins, and other contaminants, yielding an exceptionally pure oil that conforms to the strict quality guidelines of the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN).

Tomorrow, we'll talk about Super Cell, an advanced blend of nutrient, herbal, and whole food antioxidants.

Sports Supplements Review - Part 3 of 9

Essential Calcium Take 4 tablets daily with food...1000mg Calcium

Calcium plays an important role in regulating whole body metabolism and physical performance.

Calcium, when combined with other essential minerals (such as Zinc and Magnesium) and Vit B6 may raise testosterone levels in males.

At any age, it is extremely important to start thinking about maintaining healthy bones. It's well understood that strong, healthy bones and teeth go hand in hand with calcium. Essential Calcium is a mineral-rich balanced formula to support bone health.

Essential Calcium supplies 1000mg of calcium, and includes Vit D, an essential vitamin known to enhance absorption of calcium.

Magnesium, zinc, copper, boron, and other minerals are included in this formulation for optimum bone health support.

Tomorrow, we'll talk about Essential Fatty Acids.

Sports Supplements Review - Part 2 of 9

Why is a multi-mineral important for the athlete in you?

PM (Multi-Mineral) Take 3 tablets in the evening, anytime from dinner to bedtime.

Zinc, magnesium, and chromium have been shown to play an important role in regulating the whole body metabolism, as well as in energy needs and performance. They promote increased testosterone in males, and lower lactate concentration.

Pycnogenol increases endurance during exercise, and inhibits key triggers of ligament, tendon, and muscle inflammation.

Read tomorrow's installment on the importance of Calcium.

Sports Supplements Review - Part 1 of 9

So what's in a multi-vitamin that makes it important for the athlete in you?

AM (Multi-vitamin, take 3 every morning, ideally with your protein shake)

Rich in B Vitamins, anti-oxidants, and nutrients that promote efficient energy utilization, healthy blood sugar levels, metabolism, and overall health.

Alpha-ketoglutarate acid - Promotes quicker recovery after exercise by detoxifying ammonia from the tissues of the central nervous system.

Pycnogenol - Inhibits key triggers of ligament, tendon and muscle inflammation.

Vitamins B6 and B12 - Convert carbohydrates to glucose for energy.

Check back tomorrow for Part 2, PM the Multi-Mineral...

Sports Nutrition Kits Now Available at Sinclair Nutrition

I am very excited to announce the new Sports Nutrition packages, available now through Sinclair Nutrition.

Are you an arm-chair athlete? A weekend warrior? Or someone who's regularly found on the courts?

Don't leave your nutrition to chance. I believe in removing the nutritional question mark from your plate!

I now offer 3 Sports Kits, which contain all the supplements you will need to create and maintain optimum health for the athlete in you - combined with a great diet and plenty of water, of course!

The Foundation Sports Kit Only $198
The Advanced Sports Kit Only $235
The Elite Sports Kit Only $280

Add a daily protein shake, and there's no stopping you!

Stay tuned for more information about the fantastic nutrients found in each one of the above kits!

Why Go Vegan?

So far, 9 people are dead, including one British Columbian. With the current recall by Maple Leaf Foods of many varieties, and thousands of packages, of processed meat, produced right here in Canada, the time is ripe to discuss the option of choosing to eat a Vegan Diet.

Listeria is a common but deadly bacterium that in recent years has made headlines as a contaminant of hot dogs, cheese, cole slaw and other food stuffs, causing more than two thousand infections every year and 500 deaths. Though it hits immune-compromised people the hardest, its overall fatality rate is about 20 percent.

Since John Robbins wrote Diet for a New America in 1987, consumers have been exposed to the truth about the meat processing industry. If you think Listeria, or Mad Cow, and your last bout of food poisoning, are caused by mysterious bacterium that you have no control over, you're only partly right. The control is in your hands, based on what you choose to eat.

Maybe it's time you started paying more attention to the massive industry that you trust to provide you with hot dogs and bologna, as well as your Grade A steak. There is a huge consumer movement to bring more awareness to the unsafe, unsanitary, and cruel practices happening every day in the slaughterhouses and factory farms of North America.

Even Paul McCartney once said something like, "if slaughterhouses had glass walls, we'd all be vegetarian."

Don't take my word for it: go do your own research.

http://www.nodowners.org/

http://www.goveg.com/factoryFarming.asp

http://www.animalsuffering.com/animalcruelty.html

http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2000/11/02_listeria.html

And, if you think that the government is taking care of you, and making sure that all of the practices in the meat processing industry are safe, keep researching... you may not like what you discover, and you may just want to go vegan...

September is Arthritis Awareness Month!

Did you know that there are 120 types of arthritis?

Did you know that 600,000 people in BC and the Yukon have arthritis?

Did you know that nutrition, including vitamin supplements, can play a major role in Arthritis Prevention and Arthritis Management?

Consider the following:

Question: Is a Daily Multivitamin Important for Arthritis Patients?

It is common medical advice for all adults today to take a daily multivitamin. But is it important for arthritis patients to take a daily multivitamin?

Answer: Multivitamins Contain Essential Nutrients

Vitamins contain essential nutrients but many also contain other compounds purported to be good for your health. It is important for both arthritis patients and those without arthritis to take a multivitamin. The nutrients included in an essential multivitamin include:

· Folic Acid and other B vitamins (i.e., Thiamine, Riboflavin, Pantothenic Acid, Pyridoxine, Cyanocobalamin) which are important nutrients for the bone marrow and nervous system.
· Vitamin D which is necessary for proper bone formation and strength.
· Vitamin A which is helpful with vision.

Does a Good Diet Reduce the Need for a Multivitamin?

If you have an excellent diet, you may be able to get these essential nutrients without a supplement, but this is often difficult in today’s society.

How to prevent or alleviate the symptoms of arthritic pain.

Keeping the joints "well-oiled" requires a healthy lifestyle which includes proper nutrition, sleep, and exercise. One of the major causes of arthritis and the lessening of synovial fluid is incorrect diet - too much processed foods, alcohol and meat, and very little raw vegetables and fruits. A deficiency of water also causes the lowering of the levels of the synovial fluid.

Incorrect diet, lack of exercise, injuries and auto-immune diseases such as lupus can also lower the levels of this essential fluid. Often corrective exercise, such as swimming, yoga and muscle strengthening exercises, can help keep the joints pain-free. However, a doctor should be consulted before starting any program, as rapid increases in exercise can put additional strain on other systems of the body.

Delaying the Onset of Arthritis with Nutrition

It is now becoming increasingly evident that good nutrition, along with exercise and injury prevention, can help with improved joint health. A balanced diet should begin in childhood, so that the foundation is laid for a good strong skeletal matrix, which includes joints and connective tissues.

The intake of Calcium together with Vitamins C and D can provide essential nutrients to prevent cartilage and bone damage. Proper iron intake may also keep bone marrow healthy.

These and other simple steps can dramatically increase your chances of living a more active life in old age.

Ref: 1) www.about.com: Arthritis, 2) www.mitamins.com/articles/arthritis/index.html

Breakfast of Champions!

In North America, we have a wide array of "breakfast foods" to choose from. Everyone knows that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, as it jump-starts our metabolism after a long night of repairing and rebuilding, and depleting our energy resources.

However, most of us screw this up by eating crap in the morning.

What's crap, you ask? Well, while our bodies work best on high-octane fuel, most of us load up our empty tank with grease and sugar and paper mache.

That is to say, bacon and eggs, pancakes, waffles and syrup, sugary cereals, bagels, muffins, croissants, etc, etc - you get the picture.

For years, I ate those things and suffered stomach aches throughout the morning - it didn't matter which of the offenders I tried. Not one was any better than any other.

Then, thanks to becoming associated with Body Wise, I learned about the protein shake for breakfast and my world (and my stomach aches) changed forever.

My daily breakfast for the last 10 years has been and is now 1/2 banana, 1/2 c. of any other luscious fresh or frozen fruit, 1 c. of filtered water, and 2 scoops of the yummiest vanilla protein powder on the planet, thrown together in the blender! It is totally a breakfast of champions! I feel great afterwards, I'm not hungry for about 2 1/2 hours, and I can go about my morning with energy and vitality, instead of with a stomach ache!

Give it a try! You won't be disappointed, as so many of my nutrition clients will attest! Try a different fruit every week. And, while you're at it, choose fruits that are high in antioxidants, for a double whammy in the healthy department.

According to the USDA, the following fruits are exceptionally high in antioxidants:

Wild blueberries (pick them in your neighborhood this fall)
Cranberries
Blackberries
Prunes
Raspberries
Strawberries
Red delicious apples
Granny Smith apples
Sweet cherries
Black plums

Look for organic varieties at your local farmer's market, and enjoy your Breakfast of Champions!

Joints in Motion

For a long time I've been saying that I need a "strong reason why" to be good. What do I mean by that?

By nature, I would prefer to eat like the rest of North America. To be guided by my taste buds. Did you happen to notice that Starbucks recently started selling donuts? Oh Timmy, what to do about the competition...groan!

For less than $2, you can get a huge, glistening Apple Fritter. While the pasta salad, as creamy and scrumptious as it looks, will cost you $5.95 for about a cup.

Without a "strong reason why", a donut wins hands-down.

But when I have a reason to be good, I can stick with homemade chicken and rice and salad, healthy snacks, lots of water, etc.

For some people, a pending wedding will keep them on the straight and narrow. For others, a recent divorce will put them into high gear to bring their bodies back up to snuff, hoping to re-enter the dating world with a vengeance! For me, the best reason I've come across is an athletic challenge.

Enter Joints in Motion, the Arthritis Society's fundraising project. Check out this link to the Italy Marathon in 2009.

http://www.arthritis.ca/local%20programs/bcyukon/JIM/destinations2009/Italy/default.asp?s=1

Having done the Vancouver 1/2 Marathon in 2006, I feel ready to pound the pavement once again, this time in an exotic location...beautiful, romantic Italy! Time to get training!

Stay tuned for regular updates about fundraising events, including our Gidget Goes Hawaiian pool party fundraiser at MBody Fitness & Wellness Spa, later on this summer...Ciao!

Shopping Tour - Trader Joe's in Bellingham, WA

Today I'd like to introduce you to a fabulous grocery store in Bellingham, WA.

It's called Trader Joe's and they started out in California in the 50's as a small chain of convenience stores. Today, there are more than 280 stores in 23 states. The nearest store to Vancouver, BC is the one in Bellingham, WA, which opened one year ago.

You'll find unconventional and interesting products, as well as everyday basics. They have low prices every day. You'll recognize the staff by their Hawaiian shirts! They offer the best prices on fresh and organic foods (and I mean seriously amazing prices), and they are the home of 2 Buck Chuck (if you don't know what that means, never mind!)...People actually line up when a new store opens.

Go to http://www.traderjoes.com/index.html and see for yourself...

Anyways, I will be leading a convoy to Bellingham during the middle of the week in early June. I have 4 spaces in my car to share gas costs, and we can take as many cars as are willing to join the convoy.

Border wait times are lowest in the middle of the day, mid-week. It's still a crap-shoot these days, with the massive construction on the WA highways, as they prepare for our Olympics. But it's worth the adventure, and we'll be in good company.

Just be warned...once you've shopped for your groceries at Trader Joe's, you may never want to shop anywhere else again. For the record, I am willing to make this a weekly excursion, if there is enough interest. And, of course, once introduced, you may just want to make it a family tradition to go "into town" to do your own shopping on a regular basis!

Breaker, breaker, good buddy - let's put the hammer down - that's a big 10-4!

Or something like that!

Eating to Prepare for Race Day

Almost 60,000 Vancouverites just completed the 10k Sun Run (yes, I was among them). Now, it's marathon season, a mere 26 miles of pavement. Today marks the 37th annual Bank of Montreal Vancouver Marathon!

I send my best wishes to the runners today! Particularly to Thomas Omwenga, last year's winner from Nairobi, Kenya. Thomas's running career earns him enough to support a large extended family back home, where a Canadian dollar goes a very long way. Due to last minute visa problems, some of his toughest competitors will not be joining us today.

Nutrition plays a critical role in athletic performance, but many active people do not eat a diet that helps them do their best on the pavement. Don't make the mistake of thinking that popping a pill (ie. taking your vitamins) instead of planning your meals, is good enough. There is no pill, potion or powder that can enhance your performance like the right foods and fluids.

To have enough energy for Race Day, you need to consume enough energy. Getting adequate calories is one of the keys to a performance-enhancing diet. With too few calories, you will feel tired and weak and be prone to injuries.

Nothwithstanding personal food allergies, you must include high quality components of each of the food groups, grains, fruits, vegetables, dairy products, and protein-rich foods.

Sugars and fats provide extra calories after the needs from the other food groups have been met. Again, only go for high quality components.

Then, after you are confident that you're making the best food and beverage choices, go take your vitamins. This will remove the final nutritional question mark from your plate, and give you some nutritional insurance.

For lots of information on long-distance running, I often go to http://www.copacabanarunners.net/ .

When is Dessert OK? When it's For a Good Cause!

By the turn of the twenty-first century, the USDA recorded sixty-seven pounds of sugar from sugar cane and sugar beets, eighty-six pounds of sugar from corn sweeteners, and one pound of other natural sweeteners such as honey and maple syrup were delivered (per capita) into the American food supply.

That adds up to a total carbohydrate sweetener availability of around 154 pounds per person.
In November 2003, a review in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition examined evidence from multiple studies on high fructose corn syrup. The researchers concluded that large quantities of fructose from a variety of sources, including table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup:

• Induce insulin resistance


• Impair glucose tolerance


• Produce high levels of insulin


• Boost a dangerous type of fat in the blood


• Cause high blood pressure in animals

Given all this, does the indiscriminate practice of eating dessert make sense to you? It doesn't make sense to me.

What does make sense to me is being discriminating when it comes to eating dessert.

Only eat desserts that you love, not any dessert that happens to pass by you.
Eat dessert when it's for an important occasion, not every day.
Eat dessert when it's for a good cause, like the link below will show you...

http://www.makeawishbc.ca/index.php?option=com_mawnews&Itemid=55&id=11&PHPSESSID=ae193ba05c7477e0def03dc431bb2d05
Today is April 20th. May I suggest a challenge to you, dear readers?

Do not eat any dessert for these next 11 days - a dessert fast, if you will.

Then, on May 1st, enjoy your dessert for a good cause. Help the Make A Wish Foundation continue to make wishes come true.

Then, on May 2nd, spend an extra 30 minutes on the elliptical! With a clear conscience!

Ref: http://www.splendaexposed.com/
Ref: http://www.sugar.org/

Take the 90-Day Challenge!

After weeks of teasing, Spring finally arrived yesterday in Vancouver, BC. The high was somewhere between 17 and 20 which, for our American friends, translates to about 65 to 72!

Now while that doesn't compare to Rancho Cucamonga, CA, where I understand it reached about 90 (which, for our Canadian friends, translates to about 30), hey, this is the California of Canada here in the West Coast of BC!

But what does the weather have to do with this blog post, you're asking?

The most important aspect of yesterday's lovely weather was the outfit I got to wear...a wrap skirt, halter top, and sandals. Are you following my drift?

Yes, I finally got to shed the jeans, the boots, and the long-sleeved sweater topped with a vest. I got to feel the warm sun on my bare arms, and my legs got a kiss of sunshine, every time my wrap skirt was touched by the breeze.

While I look forward to this time of year with great anticipation, I am aware of another feeling that used to coincide with it...the dread of exposing a body that was out-of-shape, a body I was embarassed to see in the mirror.

Prior to successfully completing the 90-Day Challenge 3 years ago, the conflict between excitement and dread was with me daily, as winter passed by. This is a familiar and painful refrain from women everywhere.

And I have the antidote for you!

Join the excitement and take the Body Wise 90-Day Transformation Challenge. Let's you and I spend the next 90 days together. With your sincere effort, and my fabulous coaching (shameless self-promotion), I know that you can do something great for yourself.

If you live anywhere in North America and would like to lose at least 20 pounds before the summer is behind you, I challenge you...take the 90-Day Challenge and watch the pounds melt away. This program is effective, affordable, and safe. Eat real food, take your vitamins, move your body, talk to your coach - it's that simple. Maybe not easy, but simple. Follow a path that's been laid out for you. It works! I can attest to that!

How do you get started? Two ways... a) Send me an e-mail to let me know you want to do this, and I'll send you a reply with the entry form attached, or b) send me an e-mail, then go to the link and download the entry form yourself. Follow steps 1, 2, and 3. I will phone you, wherever you are in the US or Canada, and together we'll complete step 4. We'll discuss steps 5 and 6 in 90 days. That's all there is to getting started.

http://www.bodywise.com/corporate/business/elance-challenge.php

Go to Get started today and "click here for an application" ...and you're on your way!

Your summer-ready body awaits you! Remember, I Did It, So Can You! Take your initiative, follow my lead, and have the Summer of 2008 be the year that you put weight, as an issue, behind you. This year, enjoy those shorts and t-shirts with pride!

Liquid Calories...Should You or Shouldn't You?

Today I'd like to talk about the protein shake as a preferred choice for breakfast.

Other beverage options: cow's milk, soy milk, almond milk, rice milk, fresh-squeezed juice, tetra-pak juices, and refrigerated juices.

Clearly there are many beverage choices for the average breakfast-eater (and this is not a post about the benefits of breakfast, although it may sound a bit like one...).

I'm not going to talk about the benefits of or the detrimental effects of drinking coffee or tea here. Nearly 52% of North Americans over the age of 18 drink coffee every day. And in the US alone, there will be approximately 50,000+ coffee shops by the year 2010. Suffice it to say that almost everyone's drinking a cup of coffee or tea in the morning.

Nor am I going to talk about drinking your 8+ glasses of water per day, which you already know I promote.

I'm going to stick with talking about the protein shake as a breakfast choice.

Why do you want to drink a protein shake in the morning?

Well, you've just worked out. You're feeling pretty depleted and hopefully somewhat exhausted - you just gave yourself a really good workout, you're feeling proud of yourself, and you want to reward yourself for a job well done. You hit the shower, scrub up, and start scrounging in the kitchen for something to fill up with.

Increasing your muscle mass, even if you're not trying to be a body-builder, is very important as you age. If you do nothing to preserve your muscle mass, by age 50 you will have lost about 10% of it.

This is the best reason to choose a protein shake, over any of the other beverages on the list. The other beverages have mostly carbs and fat to offer you, which you hear enough about - that there are too many carbs and fats consumed in the average diet.

The following links will take you to two of the many experts that I follow, when making my program recommendations. Working out, without combining that effort with proper nourishment, is basically wasting your time.

Your protein shake offers a tasty, healthy, filling breakfast choice. It replenishes your system with the nutrients it needs to maintain and build lean muscle mass, also referred to as your fat-free mass. Send an e-mail with your mailing address to bsinclaircoaching@hotmail.com and I will mail you a sample packet of the Body Wise protein, either in chocolate or vanilla.

Throw 2 scoops in the blender (that's what's in the packet) with 1/2 c. of your favorite fresh or frozen fruit. Add water, rice milk, or almond milk up to the 1 1/2 c. mark, and you're on your way. Start your day right with a delicious protein shake, compliments of Billie Sinclair!

Or, if your goal is to increase muscle mass in a bigger way, and you're working out with heavy weights, follow Rico's advice and load up your post-workout shake. Enjoy the following links and have a healthy, happy, and youthful day! I look forward to your e-mails!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5yf9FnVwP8

http://burnthefat.com/affiliate_area/liquid_calories.html

Please make a special note of Tom's comments: "After weight training workouts, liquid nutrition may have benefits that outweigh any downside, especially on muscle-gaining programs..."

How to Feel Like a Million Bucks$$$

You know the routine...you tell yourself, "Tomorrow, I'm going to start that exercise program." or "Tomorrow I'm going to start following that eating plan, and getting healthier." Only tomorrow comes, life gets in the way, and tomorrow goes.

That's how to feel like crap - beating yourself up one more time...

Try this on for size:

Tell yourself, "Tomorrow I'm going to get out and run around the block." Then do it.

But, it'll only take me 5 minutes, you say. So what, work out for 5 minutes.

Or, if you're enjoying yourself so much, stay out there for 10 minutes. If you're hating every step, how long can 5 minutes be?

The important thing is, you did it - you said what you were going to do, and you did it! You didn't listen to your rationalizations, your excuses, or your tired body begging you to stay in bed just a few more minutes. You didn't hear the phone ringing, you didn't pay attention to the e-mails calling, and you didn't listen to the TV beckoning you.

You said you were going to go and run around the block, and you did it.

Guess what? When you get in the shower, you're going to feel like a million bucks! I'm telling you!

Now, I tell my clients, how you see success is, you have one good day, and you follow it with another good day, and you follow that one with another good day.

Of course, setbacks will happen to the best of us, but don't let them stop you cold. In the infamous words of Robert Schuller, and his Possibility Thinker's Creed:

"When faced with a mountain, I will not quit! I will keep striving until I climb over, find a pass through, tunnel underneath, or simply stay...and turn the mountain into a miracle..."

Now off you go, and make plans to feel like a million bucks tomorrow!

Who cares how you're doing?

According to http://www.ezinearticles.com/ , having an accountability partner is one of the most powerful ways to keep you focused on a goal.

Who, in your life, cares that you achieve your goals for Body Transformation?

The best way is to find a friend who is as goal minded as you are. You want your friend to be serious about personal growth. Sit down together and form an accountability partnership.

An effective goal setting partnership meets regularly. You probably want to meet once a week and report to each other on your progress toward your goals. During this meeting you let each other know how you did last week and what you plan to commit to the next week. If you are dragging your feet, it is the partner's responsibility to give you a kick in the butt.

As many of you know, I use the precepts of Tom Venuto and his book "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle" to effect body transformations. From the company blog, here is a link to a story of a brother and sister who collectivley lost 98 pounds of Body Fat, using Tom's methods. They used each other as accountability partners.

http://www.burnthefatinnercircle.com/public/department90.cfm

Don't have an accountability partner? Thought you had one but they gave up partway? That's where I come in. One of the most important aspects of my role as your Body Transformation Coach is to be your accountability partner.

Whether we decide that you should check-in with me by telephone, e-mail, or personal visit, you know that I care how you're doing. I care about your wins, as well as your setbacks. When things go well, we celebrate. When you come upon roadblocks, we strategize ways around them together.

How would you like to burn body fat AND win $750? Check out the link below and sign up for the Elance Body Transformation Challenge; get started on the path to Get Your Body Back today. Entries are accepted from anywhere in North America. You can sign up for the Challenge with or without me (just being honest...) but wouldn't it make sense to have an accountability partner with you the whole way?

http://www.bodywise.com/corporate/business/elance-challenge.php

I was a finalist in the last Challenge that Body Wise offered...send me an e-mail at billiesinclair@mybodywise.org and ask me how I lost 20 pounds in 90 days, and put myself on stage as a Body Building contestant at age 49! I Did It! So Can You! Billie

Sloth and Gluttony - Two of the Deadly Sins...

Would it surprise you to know that "humans are programmed to be lazy and eat a lot when the opportunity arises".

Dr. Lorraine Lipscombe, an endocrinologist at Women's College Hospital in Toronto and research fellow at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) says this sloth and gluttony helped early humans save energy while coping with the uncertainty of when they'd have their next meal.

She told attendees at the Women's Health Matters Forum and Expo in Toronto in January 2008 that people today eat too much food and live much too sedentary lives. As the pounds pile on, there's a growing risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Now, how serious is the recent concern about Diabetes? Do you think all this media attention on Daibetes doesn't apply to you? In Ontario, Diabetes was responsible for one-third of heart attacks and strokes, two-thirds of amputations, and half of the patients starting kidney dialysis.

In the US alone, there are 20.8 million children and adults with diabetes - and many of them don't know it. Do you know if you're at risk for having or developing Type 2 Diabetes? Take this simple quiz from The American Diabetes Association http://www.diabetes.org/risk-test.jsp

For the record, men's waists should measure less than 40 inches, and women's less than 35 inches. Obesity is the one risk factor that we can all do something about.

Don't eat out as often. Send me an e-mail and I will forward you a shopping list to take to the store with you. It includes foods for meals and snacks. Eat a higher quantity of healthy, fresh, quality foods - rather than limiting quantities.

Choose an activity that you can commit to doing regularly. Sign up for a local 10K and train with others, or join a fitness class series.

Lose weight slowly, 1-2 pounds a week.

And, of course, hire a coach. The accountability that comes with a weekly visit or phonecall is invaluable for keeping you on track!

Chek out my website at www.billiesinclair.ca for more info. And e-mail anytime! Billie

Nothing feels as good as...

Every once in a while, I read an article that just gets my veins throbbing. And a blog post is usually close behind that experience...

Today on msn.ca, Philadelphia Life & Wellness Coach, Kelly Bliss, was featured in a story, telling you all to abandon your diets. "You can't have good self care if you hate yourself," Kelly espouses. She says that the problem is not the weight, and that the "war on obesity" is not the answer.

So are here my thoughts on the subject, now that I've calmed down...

First of all, I believe in self-love. Neither hate of others nor self-hate can be the precursor for personal growth, self-development, and positive outcomes.

But second of all, being overweight is not pretty, it's not healthy, it's not easy on you, and it doesn't make you feel good about yourself.

It is also not your fault. It is the fault of the food processing industry, and the fast-food establishments, restaurants and convenience stores of the world. They make fortunes when they appeal to a combination of the following five human weaknesses:

1. Time: No one has any time any more. Food manufacturers know that you will buy almost anything that is quick and easy, in your efforts to be more productive with your time.
2. Knowledge Part 1: No one can be an expert on every topic. I don't know how to fix a car. I don't know how to put in a new outlet for my home phone. I don't know how to sew my own clothing. Do you know enough about nutrition and it's effect on the body? How do you learn more? What you don't know is hurting you.
3. Knowledge Part 2: Very few of us know anything about what is going on in the food industry, nor do we realize what's in our food, what decisions the government and food manufacturers are making about our food supply, or who runs what... Is your trust mis-placed? (to learn more, go to http://www.thefutureoffood.com/ )
4. The Yumminess Factor: Everyone likes to eat things that taste good. Since you were born, you've been savouring food you like, and spitting out food you don't like. You might say that your palate runs you, or that you make all of your food decisions based on how things taste. If you knew where some of those yummy flavours were coming from, and what processed food is actually doing to you, you would think twice before allowing taste to exclusively dictate your choice of foods.
5. Frugality: We all want to get the most for our money. Would it surprise you to know that a restaurant's most economical way to get your attention is to increase their portion sizes? That's cheaper for them than hiring more staff, buying better quality ingredients, renovating, increasing their advertising, or moving to a better location. But do you need all that food?

So imagine yourself as a food manufacturer. Take these five areas, on which you have become expert, and manipulate them to your satisfaction.

You, my dear hungry person, are simply a pawn in the chess game of food manufacturers.

You have the choice to put foods on your plate that are fresh, alive, and whole. Or you can choose to place foods there that are packaged, seasoned, genetically modified, controlled, and chemically treated.

Therein lies the mystery of weight gain. Take back your power by manipulating those five areas in your own best interests.

As for exercise, of course the human body is meant to move. Move it often and freely; don't let yourself become sedentary. And don't let being overweight and self-conscious stop you from enjoying the activities of life. Start today to love yourself back to a healthy diet and the longevity you deserve.

And if you need a coach who has been there and done that, one who has completely changed her eating, her activity levels, and her physique, please write to billiesinclair@mybodywise.org.

I just know that you can Get Your Body Back...Billie

Facebook is a Marketing Tool

Hello again, Blog Community...

Today's blog isn't about nutrition, although it is about wellness. The wellness of your business endeavour.

Join me, as I learn more about using Facebook as a Marketing Tool. Here's the link to a very inexpensive course on this topic:

http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?Clk=2306589

"See" you there!

In health and happiness, Billie

Let The Sunshine In

Officially, it's still winter - it's grey outside and, every once in a while, we get a sun-teaser that reminds us that Spring isn't too far away.

Vitamin D, also known as the “sunshine vitamin,” has been associated with so many health benefits that it may well become the “nutrient of the decade.” According to Dr. Mercola, Vitamin D has the potential to prevent diseases that claim nearly 1 million lives throughout the world each year -- including 600,000 cases of breast and colorectal cancers!

Vitamin D has been found to:

1. Strengthen bones
2. Reduce tumor growth
3. Lower the risk of cancer
4. Reduce the risk of multiple sclerosis
5. Lower the risk of diabetes

Throughout most of human history, sunlight was the primary source of vitamin D. But based on how much sun is available and how much time you spend in the sun, you may also need additional sources. Our Vitamin D stores from the summer have long been used up.

Vitamin D can be found in foods (vitamin D is found in oily fish like salmon, mackerel, bluefish, catfish, sardines and tuna) or you can take vitamin D3 supplements. Vitamin D3 is important for the absorption of calcium from the stomach and for the functioning of calcium in the body.

Over the next few months, I will be helping you get acquainted with the supplements that I sell in my nutrition clinic. Body Wise products are manufactured in San Diego, CA to the highest standards. They use pharmaceutical-grade ingredients, and aqueous coatings, to name a few of the many features of this line of supplements.

Vitamin D3 can be found in the PMs, which is the night-time multi-mineral formulation. PMs contain a full 400IU of D3 as Cholecalciferol. Altogether there are 23 various components in PMs, with Vitamin D3 as the first on the list.

Match this with AMs, the multi-vitamin formulation, and you receive 50 select nutrients. This will certainly take the nutritional question mark off your plate!

For less than $1.50 per day, you can get this nutritional insurance, delivered to your door, wherever you live in North America.

For a pdf on the AM PM combo, just send me an e-mail at billiesinclair@mybodywise.org and I'll send you a reply within 24 hours.

And when that sun is shining, get out there and let a little sun onto your bare skin - just don't overdo it and get burnt!

Warning: This is NOT For The Faint of Heart

After reading the book, Diet for a New America, I became a vegetarian for a period of about a year. At the time, my family of 6 complied, and we simply didn't serve any meat products in our home, nor did we consume meat products at the homes of friends or at restaurants.

Not eating meat complicates life, I found. It opened up conversations that I just didn't always have the energy to entertain. I wasn't on a crusade. I had made that decision for personal reasons.

Now I'm a Nutritionist and a blogger. And it's often not as easy to keep my thoughts to myself as it once was.

That brings me to the topic of today's blog. Can you imagine that, in this intelligent, advanced society, we have to have laws in place to assure the humane handling of animals for food production, as well as laws in place to prevent sick and dying animals from being slaughtered along with their healthy counter-parts?

North American consumers don't know what goes on behind the walls of slaughterhouses. Is it an urban myth that Paul McCartney once said that, if slaughterhouses had glass walls, we'd all be vegetarian?

The following video clip isn't easy to watch. If you love a family pet, it is hard to imagine cruel and inhumane treatment of an animal, too sick to walk on its own. Never mind the food supply issue; who are these people that are so callous as to treat animals this way?

Warning: This video contains very graphic images.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/3/4/usda-orders-largest-meat-recall-in-u-s-history.aspx

Once again, I am considering becoming a vegetarian. As I've mentioned in my recent blog on following a Raw Food eating plan, I am investigating what feels right for my heart and soul, and my body. I recommend we all do the same.

March is Nutrition Month

According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, March is Nutrition Month. Check out their website at www.heartandstroke.com for recipes, research, and their kids programming.

The Jump Rope for Heart program is all about helping kids become more active. Check it out!

Did you know that:

Super-sizing an order of small fries adds about 400 calories to your meal? The average adult would have to walk for about one hour and 20 minutes to burn off those extra calories!

Not that I support eating fries, but I know that many of you do it! So I thought I'd share a tidbit that might encourage you to keep those fries orders to a small!

Stay tuned for lots of information on Nutrition this month, in support of the good work of the Heart and Stroke Foundation...

Pesticides in our Produce

With the BC Home and Garden Show just finished, it seems that the season is upon us for a discussion about home gardening.

And as the weather in the Lower Mainland gets milder, the crocuses and narcissus are starting to emerge from the soil.

Let's start with FAB - a marketing term that means Features and Benefits...why should we garden?

Would it surprise you to know that pesticide residues on some fruits and vegetables can exceed safe limits for children?

According to a recent study of 27,000 food samples , most were found to be within the established U.S. legal limits for pesticides on those foods. However, legal limits do not define safety, and residues of some chemicals on some foods would frequently expose a young child to a dose greater than the government's official estimate of the 'safe' daily intake of those pesticides.

The foods found to have the highest levels of pesticide residues were domestic and imported peaches, grapes, apples, pears and spinach; U.S.-grown green beans; and U.S.-grown winter squash, both fresh and frozen.

Of these, peaches and frozen winter squash had the highest residue quantities, about 10-fold higher than the other "high scores", according to the study.

Foods with the lowest levels of pesticide residues were frozen/canned corn, milk, U.S. orange juice, U.S. broccoli, bananas and canned peaches.

Slightly higher, but still within legal limits, were frozen/canned sweet peas, U.S. and imported apple juice, Mexican frozen winter squash, Canadian tomatoes, Brazilian orange juice and U.S. wheat.

U.S.-grown foods were just as likely to contain harmful pesticide residues as foods from other countries. In fact, 11 of the 12 highest residue scores were found on U.S. grown foods, according to the study.

This is a list of fruits and vegetables, rated by pesticide levels :

1. Fresh Peaches
2. Winter Squash
3. Apples
4. Pears
5. Fresh Spinach
6. Green Beans
7. Grapes
8. Celery
9. Lettuce
10. Soybeans
11. Potatoes
12. Tomatoes
13. Carrots
14. Oranges

c 2001 The Vegetarian Site

Your best defense is to buy organic, whenever you can, and to consider a home garden.

This spring, watch for my posts on Gardening 101!

Live healthy and prosper...Billie

February is Heart Month

Research suggests that women may be more sensitive to certain risk factors for heart disease. In particular, obesity, hypertension (high blood pressure) stress, depression and smoking all appear to have a greater impact on women than men.

So what is heart disease?

Heart disease is a broad term that describes various conditions, from high blood pressure to heart attack and stroke.

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the most common occurrence of heart disease, and is the leading cause of heart attack. CAD occurs when plaque, a fatty substance made from cholesterol, calcium and waste, accumulates in the arteries or blood vessels that lead to the heart, narrowing the artery walls. Obstruction of blood flow through the arteries can cause chest pain (known as angina) and, if left undiagnosed, heart attack.

Stay on top of your heart health.

• Make your heart health a priority. See your doctor regularly and ask him or her about your risk factors. Inform your doctor about any family history of heart disease and have your blood pressure and cholesterol checked as part of your annual checkup. If you are feeling unwell insist on testing—don’t shrug it off.

• Exercise regularly. Physical activity reduces bad cholesterol, aids in losing weight and helps prevent high blood pressure. Aerobic activity makes your heart stronger and more efficient.

• Don’t smoke. Smokers are 2 to 6 times more likely to have a heart attack than women who don’t smoke. Smoking also boosts the chance of stroke.

• Pay close attention to your body. Don’t dismiss symptoms like excessive fatigue and chest, neck or shoulder discomfort. Heart attack and discomfort can be indicated by a variety of symptoms including: chest pain, neck and/or shoulder pain, shortness of breath, nausea and stomach upset, clammy hands and skin, dizziness and fatigue.

• Make better food choices. Eat a low fat, high fibre diet rich in fruits and vegetables. Choose olive oil for cooking, eat fatty fish like salmon and mackerel; eat small amounts of nuts and legumes. These are all heart healthy foods, so make them a part of your diet. Avoid trans fats and saturated fats, white flour, and sugars, found in almost all processed foods.

And when you want to remove the nutritional question mark from your plate, invest in quality nutritional supplements, like the ones I recommend from Body Wise in San Diego, CA.

For the month of Feb, I am offering a free CoQ10 with your purchase.

For more information on these and other heart-healthy supplements, contact me at billiesinclair@mybodywise.org

Is It Just Me, or Is Food Getting Sweeter?

If you’ve gotten the impression that more and more sugar is being added to common supermarket foods – you’re right.

A report in the May 6, 2007 London Sunday Times, based on an examination of an industry handbook on food composition, found that food companies have doubled the amount of sugar they add to their more popular products since 1978.

For example, in 1978, Kellogg’s Special K cereal had 9.6 grams of sugar per 100 grams. This has now nearly doubled to 17 grams. Some canned soups have shown a similar increase.

Interestingly, even fruits and vegetables are now sweeter, probably due to market pressures forcing growers to breed hybrids with higher sugar content. Between 1978 and 2002, the sugar in a banana rose from 16.2 grams per 100 grams to 20.9 grams; pears and carrots got sweeter by a similar percentage.

Is it any wonder that obesity and diabetes are becoming worldwide epidemics?

The only rational response to this situation is to bypass the industrial food complex as much as possible.

1) Buy unprocessed foods from farmer’s markets and health food stores, and, if possible, select non-hybrid, heirloom varieties of fruits and vegetables over modern hybrids, which are quickly becoming analogs of sugar beets.

2) Best choice of all: grow as much of your own food as you can.

Thank you, Dr. Weil, for these important points on my favorite subject - food!

The night before you compete in a Body Building show, they hold an Athlete's meeting. All of the athlete's that plan on showing up for the show the next morning must be there to register.

What a sight; buff, tanned, and gorgeous, about 150 athletes showed up for the meeting in November. And one of the most notable features of body builders, each athlete had, in tow, their food cooler! I love body builders!

Anyhow, the couple sitting next to me had elaborate salads, with fancy dressings and toppings. Me, the Natural Nutritionist, could be seen eating green salad right out of the bag, stringless snap peas, and mini-carrots, without dressing.

They asked me how I could stand all those veggies with nothing on them...I replied that I didn't even notice that I was missing anything. I have learned to love the taste of raw veggies, chopped and munched on the spot!

After reading Dr. Weil's words above, you may just want to give it a try.

Take control, people, before the food industry, completely takes control of you!

How I'm Learning About the Raw Food Diet

I have slowly changed my eating habits and lifestyle over the last 10 years. In 1999, when I discovered the supplement company that I now consult for, a whole new world of nutritional understanding opened up to me.

Since then, as many of you know, I have virtually stopped having colds and the flu, I've shed 30 pounds of body fat and, at age 48 competed in my first Body Building contest.

Here we are in 2008, and I am researching a possible new avenue of change for my life...the Raw Food Lifestyle.

From her book and website (www.rawnutrition.com), here is an article by Carol Alt about the process of learning and adopting the Raw Food diet. My diet is already about 50% raw, in the way of salads, fresh fruits and vegetables, and nuts. Now I plan to go a little further and see what else is in store in this, apparently supremely, healthy lifestyle.

Just a reminder about my disclaimer that my messages are not meant to replace the advice of a competent healthcare professional. Please don't undertake major changes to your diet without consulting your doctor.


Getting Raw: Ten Steps to the Raw Food Lifestyle

Maybe you’re the type of person who can make radical changes in their lifestyle overnight. Take my boyfriend. When he met me, he’d never even heard of raw foodists. But he was intrigued, and one day – boom – he made the switch. Four years later, he’s still at it.

But if you’re like me, it’s going to be a more gradual process. You’re going to have to help your body (or at least your taste buds) acclimate from the cooked food you’re used to, to the raw food you were meant to eat. Don’t get me wrong, when I say “acclimate your taste buds,” I don’t mean to imply that a raw food diet isn’t delicious. It is – and I wouldn’t go back to cooked foods if you paid me. But being a Westerner, it’s virtually guaranteed that your body is addicted to sugar and starch. The best way to stop craving those foods is to remove them gradually. Eventually you’ll wonder what you even saw in them!

So here’s your own personal roadmap for going raw, based on my experience and broken down into ten easy steps.

1. Reflect on your diet

Turn off the radio, find a comfortable chair and think about your diet for a moment. What do you eat? Not in your ideal world, not if you had time to eat healthy – in your real life. What did you eat over the past three days? Think about everything: the meals, the snacks, the beverages.

2. Track what you really eat

Recalling gives you an idea of what you eat, but tracking what actually goes into your mouth can be an eye-opening experience. So for the next three days, write down every thing you eat and drink. Write down the time you ate it. Just carry a list and keep it with you at all times. Don’t change your diet – we’re trying to get a realistic picture of what your body runs on. Why? Because any change you want to make in your life depends on awareness of how you do things now. Once you’re aware of what you eat and when, you’ll be better equipped to eat the way you were meant to.

3. Notice what’s already raw

It’s been three days and you have your list. Now take a highlighter and highlight everything on that list that’s raw. Maybe you already eat a lot of raw food. Maybe you love salads, or fresh fruit, or sashimi. Or, you could be like I was and subsist on a diet of nearly 100% cooked foods. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you want to make the change to a raw foods diet.

In addition to the highlighted foods on your list, think about other raw foods that you maybe didn’t eat in the last three days but do enjoy. Add those to your list. This is your starting point, no matter how short or long your list.

4. Find creative substitutes

Here’s where the fun starts. People assume that if they eat raw, they can’t have the things they love. But finding creative substitutes allows you to eat the way you like – without feeling guilty!

If you eat a bowl of yogurt and granola with fruit on top for breakfast, it’s easy to switch to raw. Trade your regular yogurt for raw, unpasteurized yogurt, switch out your cooked granola for raw granola made with dried fruits, nuts and seeds (you can find pre-made raw granola or you can make your own), and top with fresh fruit as usual!

If you’re more partial to a bagel with lox and cream cheese, then go for raw, marinated salmon (called gravlax ) instead of lox, substitute raw Camembert for cream cheese, and pile it all on sprouted Ezekiel bread. The bread isn’t technically raw, but it’s made from sprouted grains and is cooked at low temperatures, so it’s the next best thing.

Start thinking creatively and you can find raw substitutes for just about all your cooked food favorites.

5. Adopt the 2:1 ratio

I don’t expect you to go raw overnight the way my boyfriend did. So follow this easy rule: eat a 2-to-1 ratio of raw to cooked foods. In other words, eat twice as much raw as cooked and you’ll be well on your way to better health and better looks.

I recommend you follow the advice Dr. Brantley gave me when I first started out: make breakfast and lunch your mostly raw meals and dinner your mostly cooked one. Why? Because breakfast truly is the most important meal of the day. You want your healthiest, most nutritious meal first thing in the morning so you can have the energy you need to think and work.

Eating raw for lunch carries that energy on through the rest of the day. Most of us don’t really need that much energy after dinner – our day is winding down. So save your mostly cooked meal for the end of the day.

6. Think about each meal

After you’ve gotten accustomed to eating raw, take that 2-to-1 ratio and apply it to each meal. So every time you eat, aim for two-thirds raw to one-third cooked.

Remember, you don’t have to stick to traditional breakfast foods and traditional dinner foods. I love to have a salad with seared tuna for breakfast. You could have a cooked egg for lunch with a raw broccoli salad, accompanied by some raw cheese and crackers. Dinner can be a baked potato with seared steak. When you follow the 2-to-1 ratio at every meal, you are making sure that at all times, the health-giving, vital foods outnumber the depleted, dead ones.

7. Identify your cheats

A stumbling block for a lot of people in the conversion from cooked to raw is that they don’t want to lose their favorite cooked foods – those foods they feel they can’t live without. My answer often surprises them: Don’t!

Look, we’re not aiming for perfection here. We’re aiming for a mostly raw food diet. So identify which foods will be your “cheats,” and then consciously decide – and this step is crucial – what they are and how often you “need” them. Write them down and write down how often you can eat them. Otherwise, you’ll be making exceptions left and right.

Once you know that it’s okay to cheat every now and then, it makes sticking to your guns much easier. And most people find that they only actually want to eat their favorite cooked foods about once or twice a week. Totally doable.

8. Stress the right meals

In America, we’ve got it all backwards. We eat light for the most important meal of the day, grabbing a muffin or cereal to keep us going until lunch, and heavy for the least important, stuffing ourselves with calories right before we go to bed. It doesn’t make any sense!

Follow this advice instead: “Breakfast like a king, lunch like a queen, dinner like a pauper.” In other words, if you want consistent energy, make breakfast the biggest meal of the day, then lunch, then dinner. Think about it: If you eat a small breakfast – or worse, skip it – you’re giving your body very little fuel when it needs it the most. After all, it hasn’t been fed for over 12 hours! Skimp on breakfast, and you’re more likely to grab whatever’s available once you start to crash.

9. Become a hunter/gatherer

Back in our species’ raw food days, we hunted and gathered our food. We never knew what we’d find on that particular day so our diet was naturally varied. These days, we likely shop in the same supermarket, going down the same aisles, buying the same foods and cooking the same meals.

Get back to your hunter/gatherer roots! There are so many different places to shop for raw foods – in your regular supermarket, yes, but also in natural food supermarkets, small health food stores, farmers’ markets, local farms, produce markets, food co-ops, raw food specialty stores and the biggest treasure trove of all: the internet.

10. Trust your body

As time goes on and you experiment with different foods, the list of raw foods that you particularly like will grow. You won’t like everything – I’m sure you don’t like all cooked foods – but you’ll keep adding new and different foods until your list is quite long.

I’m not saying it’s going to be easy at first. You’ve been eating cooked food your whole life – of course making such a drastic change is going to have its challenges. But once you make the switch, once you allow your healthy, beautiful raw self to bloom, you’ll be so pleased with the results you won’t want to go back.

And then an amazing thing happens. You get back in touch with your body’s real needs and real desires – not the ones it’s been trained to have, not the things it’s addicted to. Your desire for cooked food will most likely just fall away. And when you do eat cooked foods, you’ll notice your body doesn’t actually like them. You’ll actually feel bad after eating them. Congratulations! At this point, you will have crossed the threshold. Your body will now naturally choose what it knows will nourish it. And you’ll never go back!

Let's gradually go raw together...Billie

February 1st is Wear Red Day!

The American Heart Association and the National Lung and Blood Institute have websites dedicated to your healthy heart. On February 1st, people across North America will be wearing red to support these initiatives.

Go to www.goredforwomen.com and http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/hearttruth for information on National Wear Red Day.

Reduce your risk of heart attack by following these tips:

Incorporate Omega-3 fatty acids:

Omega-3 fatty acids support a healthy cardiovascular system by reducing LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, plaque build-up, inflammation and blood clots while increasing HDL (the "good" cholesterol).

Incorporate low glycemic index (GI), high fiber foods into your diet:

Individuals with diabetes and metabolic syndrome have a 400 percent risk of having a heart attack. Low GI, high fiber foods decrease cholesterol and modulate blood sugar levels which help to reduce inflammation, a known risk factor underlying heart disease.

Minimize saturated fat and trans fat:

Avoid saturated fat and trans fat by staying clear of the center aisles at the grocery store where pre-packaged baked goods with long shelf-lives are found. Stay clear of those packages containing partially hydrogenated vegetable oils which often contain significant sources of trans fat. According to the Nurses Health Study, women who consumed 2 grams of trans fat per 1000 calories of food were shown to be at greater risk of developing heart disease.

Incorporate Antioxidant-rich foods and Anti-inflammatory herbs and spices:

Fruits and vegetables, dark chocolate (70% cocoa), and red wine (1 glass for women) all contain heart-healthy antioxidants. Anti-inflammatory herbs like curcumin and ginger have been shown to decrease the release of inflammatory molecules by inhibiting the COX-2 enzyme, which is the same way many anti-inflammatory drugs work.

So with those tips in mind, you can get the additional benefit of a partner in health by joining me in my 90-Day program, Get Your Body Back. Over the next 90 days, we'll incorporate healthy habits in the grocery store, the kitchen, and at the office. Then we'll add physical activity to strengthen your heart muscle (which is your most powerful involuntary muscle).

The coaching relationship then insures that you follow the plan we've designed for you. When you know you're being held accountable for your actions, you tend to do what you said you would!

The Get Your Body Back program helps you improve three important facets of your life, which contributes to heart health, but also overall well-being, as you reduce your excess body fat.

1) What you eat.
2) What you do.
3) Your consistency.

So wear red today and support these important heart-healthy initiatives. And for more information on heart healthy habits and the Get Your Body Back 90-day program, e-mail me at billiesinclair@mybodywise.org Let's get you started on your way towards optimal health!

Disease Prevention

The fabulous Dr. Mercola has been a great influence on my health practice. Here is a review of his recommendations for disease prevention.

What are the underlying causes of most, if not all, disease? I strongly believe it boils down to three basics of equal importance:

Your emotional and mental state
Making poor fuel (food) choices
Lack of physical activity (exercise)

All of my advice essentially falls under one of these three basic necessities for optimal health.

Dr. Mercola believes that you can VIRTUALLY ELIMINATE your risk of cancer and chronic disease, and radically improve your chances of recovering from cancer, if you currently have it, by following these relatively simple risk reduction strategies.

You won’t read or hear much about them because they have not been formally "proven" yet by conservative researchers. However, did you know that 85 percent of therapies currently recommended by conventional medicine have never been formally proven either?!

There are twelve simple strategies that you can easily adopt to improve your health right now, whether you are ill or not.

Here are the twelve strategies and, over the next twelve posts, I will elaborate on each one of them:

1. Reduce or eliminate your processed food, sugar and grain carbohydrate intake

2. Control your fasting insulin and leptin levels.

3. Normalize your ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fats.

4. Get regular exercise.

5. Normalize your vitamin D levels and vitamin A levels.

6. Get regular, good sleep.

7. Eat according to your nutritional type.

8. Reduce your exposure to environmental toxins like pesticides, household chemical cleaners, synthetic air fresheners and air pollution.

9. Limit your exposure to and provide protection for yourself from information carrying radio waves produced by cell phone towers, base stations, phones and WiFi stations.

10. Avoid frying or charbroiling your food.

11. The CDC states that 85 percent of disease is caused by emotions. Have a tool to permanently reprogram the neurological short-circuiting that can activate cancer genes.

12. Eat at least one-third of your food raw.

Stay tuned for a more in-depth look at each of these strategies over the next twelve posts. In the meantime, consider how you can begin to adopt some or all of these strategies into your own life...

Whatever the Mind of Man (and Woman) Can Conceive...

I have written at length about the body systems and why it requires a consistent, no-nonsense plan to achieve your weight loss goals.

Today, we're going to look at body weight and weight success from a different angle - the angle of the mind.

We're going to look at the role of the thoughts we think on our success in achieving the body we desire.

In the early 1900's, James Allen, from As a Man Thinketh, wrote "They themselves are makers of themselves by virtue of the thoughts which they choose and encourage; mind is the master weaver, both of the inner garment of character and the outer garment of circumstance. As they may have hitherto woven in ignorance and pain, they may now weave in enlightenment and happiness."

While "the inner garment of character" would be a very worthwhile topic for a blog, we're going to focus here on "the outer garment of circumstance", the body we are walking around with.

As a Life Skills Coach, I have focused much of my work on helping people get from where they are to where they want to be. And, in my experience with hundreds of participants, most people don't make a connection between their thoughts and where they are at in their lives.

In Step 4 of the Get Your Body Back manual, we look at your "Why"... the strong reason that will propel you to make the changes that you know you'll have to make in your lifestyle and habits, in order to see the changes you want in your body.

Stay with me here and we'll walk through a fairly typical scenario.

Jane is unhappy with the way her body looks. She figures she's gained about 40 pounds in the last ten years. She's not sure how that many pounds crept onto her 5'4" frame but, by the way her clothes fit, and the size she is now buying, there's no escaping the extra body fat that she's carrying around with her.

Depending on how she feels on any given day, Jane may berate herself for over-eating at a recent party, she may blame her weight-gain on her desk job and her lack of mobility, she may struggle with the demands of being a single mom with no time for herself, or she may decide that she's just too tired to care today.

Consider the possibility that, with each of these scenarios, Jane is thinking thoughts, and her thoughts are keeping her stuck.

Now either you're still with me and ready to keep reading, or you think I'm a bit nuts, and you're ready to move onto another blog, where the writer is blessed with a little more sanity.

Let me take you back to a few years ago when I had reached my highest weight - 150 pounds. At 5'1", this was a lot of weight for me to carry around. From time to time, I would think about what had gotten me to this place. I added up the logical reasons:

1. I had recently ended a 5-year relationship, where the fella and I had spent every weekend dancing at the club until our clothes were drenched with sweat.
2. The new boyfriend was fairly well-to-do and we spent at least 3-4 nights a week eating at fancy restaurants (and he didn't dance).
3. I had just given up a job that had allowed me to make my own hours and completely control my own schedule, and I'd stopped going to the gym.
4. I had started full-time school and was sitting at a desk from 9-5, Monday to Friday.
5. Between homework and getting the kids and myself off to school in the morning, I couldn't make it to the gym and still get to class on time.

Obviously, these reasons were clear proof that I was not in control of the circumstances, and I had no power to control the state that my body was in.

But I wasn't happy with my body and dissatisfaction can be one of our greatest motivators.

When I first saw Bill Phillips' book, Body for Life, I was inspired by those before and after shots. I was sure that, if they could do it, so could I. Then I got my before-photos back from the drug store, and I was horrified at what I saw. I collapsed in a crumpled heap, in tears, on the bed.

Some time later, I heard an ad on the radio about a local company that was hosting a Body Transformation Challenge. I went to the info session, signed a monthly contract, and started again. The before pics didn't upset me quite as much that time, I was a little more determined.

But, as life often does, my circumstances changed and I felt that I couldn't afford the monthly fees any longer, so I dropped out of the program. An important thing had happened in that time, though; I'd seen myself lose about 7 pounds of body fat, and I knew I wanted more of that.

Time passed by, the weight had returned. I was in California at a Nutrition conference and the company announced a Body Transformation Challenge. They suggested a program of lifestyle and behaviour change. I liked some of what I heard, and I found myself feeling angry about the rest. But the prize was a share of $40,000...and a chance to be featured on the website and in the company promotional materials.

Armed with the new plan, I headed back to Vancouver. What did I do differently this time around?

I decided what my new weight was going to be. As Linda Proctor (wife of Bob Proctor) would say, I made the decision in advance.

My new weight was to be 125 pounds.

I wasn't thinking about losing weight, I was focused on weighing 125 pounds.

How I was going to accomplish that, I had no idea.

I went through a few of my favorite magazines with scissors, cutting out "125". I placed my cut-outs all around me. On my computer screen, on my fridge; I even wrote it on my hand in ball-point pen.

Most of the time, it felt completely impossible that I would achieve a body weight of 125 pounds. It had been twenty years since I had seen that weight on the scale.

But I kept the number 125 in front of me at all times.

You can probably guess what I weigh today - that's right, 125 pounds. Sure, for the contest, I even weighed-in below 125 but, guess where my weight settled out, after everything was said and done...

Yup, 125 pounds!

So back to James Allen...and, in fact, back to Bob and Linda Proctor, Napolean Hill, U. S. Anderson, Shakespeare, Rhonda Byrne, John Assaraf, Jack Canfield, James Arthur Ray, Joe Vitale, Denis Waitley, Neale Donald Walsch, John Kehoe, Michael Losier, George Winslow Plummer, etc, etc, etc...you get my drift?

"Thinking makes it so" (that's from Shakespeare's Hamlet)...and, "What you think about, you bring about" from another wise source.

Don't ever doubt that your thoughts are creating your reality. When you're ready to see yourself at your desired body weight, you decide what that number will be, and you fix that number in your mind.

Then, and only then, can you and I get to work...

Luv ya...

See you at your ideal weight! Billie

A Goal is Just a Good Idea Until You...

Over 66 percent of adult North Americans are considered overweight or obese by recent studies, so it is not surprising to find that weight loss is one of the most popular New Year's resolutions.

I have been setting goals my whole life.

I'm sure I had a goal in Grade 5 that went something like, "get Johnny to take me to the school dance".

And in Grade 12, "get elected as President of the Student Council".

While my dating and political aspirations have changed over the years, setting goals is still a part of my life.

But a goal is just a good idea until you...

1. Write it down. What exactly are you going to have happen? I am going to weigh 125 pounds. Why is writing it down important? You may have heard this a hundred times or this may be your first introduction to the now famous quote by W. H. Murray...
   "Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself,then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would not otherwise have occured. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favour all manner of unforseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would come his way." What more reason do you need to get that pen and paper?
2. Determine what you are willing to give for the achievement of that goal. In order to weigh 125 pounds, I am going to follow a plan of healthy food choices and regular exercise. If you think that you're going to achieve a new goal, without "doing something different", you're fooling yourself. Whatever you've been doing in the past has gotten you where you are today. There's no way that doing the same old things will get you to a new place or a new result. I highly doubt that you've been following a plan of healthy food choices and regular exercise, so this is an excellent start!
3. Determine "by when" this is all going to come together. It's January now. It will take some time to implement your new strategy. You might come upon some resistance along the way; you might have to re-group and re-strategize a little here and there. By June 30, 2008, I will weigh 125 pounds and I will weigh within 2 pounds of that weight for the rest of the year. Give yourself time to get to your goal weight but, once you're there, hang on to it. If summer means fun and frolicking to you, use the excitement of the coming season to motivate you. Go bathing suit shopping. Decide what you want to look good in. Envision yourself on the cruise ship, looking sexy, healthy and strong. You have 6 months to accomplish this and it's entirely possible. A strong reason why will be crucial to your long term success.
4. Make your plan. This is where it gets specific. No one loses weight with a little effort here and a little effort there. Everything in your life that works does so by a system. Your body is a system and burning body fat requires a plan. Write it out - this is what I will do on a daily basis... If you're not sure what to do, that's where your coach comes in. I will help you devise a strategy, based on energy in and energy out, whereby you will see results on a weekly basis. We start by taking measurements and a body fat reading. We look at your current lifestyle and food choices. And then we go to work, creating a plan that takes into account some of your favorites. We put this together like pieces to a puzzle.
5. Put your goal and your plan together, preferably in a new journal that you'll use just for this purpose. Choose a journal with a colorful cover. Write in it daily. Know where it is at all times. Never leave the house without it. Make a collage with images and words that conjure up happy, excited thoughts about the achievement of your goal. Find pictures of exotic warm locations, sandy beaches, trim figures, beautiful clothing. Use words and phrases of inspiration - whatever inspires you personally.
6. Review your plan frequently. Do you think that CEOs get to review their business plan now and again? Of course not, they are on it every day. They are looking at each action they are taking. Is it leading them towards or away from the goals that they've set for the company? Your body is no different; remember I said it was a system. Repeat your goal and review your plan twice a day, preferably morning (when you first wake up) and evening (just before you go to sleep). Gaze at your collage, feel happy and excited, and imagine that you're looking at your life and your body in those happy circumstances.

This is the strategy I adopted to help me lose over 20 pounds of body fat. As I've said in this blog before, I Did It, So Can You!

For a more personalized look at getting from where you are to where you want to be, send me an e-mail at billiesinclair@mybodywise.org .

Let's make this the year that you achieve the body that you've dreamed of for the past few years!

The Future of Food

Let me introduce you to The Future of Food, an 88 minute film, produced by Deborah Coons Garcia.

Please take a few minutes to view the trailer and consider purchasing the full length film to show to your friends, family, and colleagues (there is no financial benefit for me, if you do that).

Learn about the creation and planting of genetically engineered crops.

The following link is from Dr. Mercola's site. Watch the You tube version and then go to the website: www.thefutureoffood.com

The You Tube short...

http://www.mercola.com/2007/jan/11/the-future-of-food----you-need-to-watch-this-video.htm

It's never too late to start making changes...