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