Knowing Where You Are...

Many of my mentors have told me that it's important to get specific of where you are today so you can measure your progress while you advance.  In business I've pretty much been in line with that philosophy.  In my workouts, I haven't.

Some of you know that I've been fighting a disc protrusion for quite some time that I've finally been able to put behind me.  As a result, I've just started to build back my strength and get my workouts in consistently over the past 4-5 weeks.

Last week, I was presented with an opportunity to participate in a metabolic conditioning study and was also subjected to a BOD POD body fat analysis (pictured below).  The BOD POD is also 4 times more accurate then using calipers.

 
You get to wear ultra tight boxer shorts and a swimmer's cap so that the air pressure can accurately read your body composition.  I knew I had some work to do and knew that some of it wasn't related to injury.  The resulting analysis rocked my world.  I had no idea how far out of spec I was.  It just goes to show you that fully understanding where you are at a given time is so critical for focus.  Since receiving my report, I've got a renewed sense of focus and drive to get things where they need to be.  It's only been 3 days, but I've been ultra strict with my diet and ultra strict with my workouts.

I've very excited how my body is responding in a such a short time already.  I can already feel a difference as I target my baseball playing weight with the lean mass I've built at Crossfit.  At this current pace I should be where I want to be in 8 weeks.

So I can't recommend enough to get your baselines done when you're striving for a new goal whether it be financial, health, etc...Yes it may initially be uncomfortable and sometimes embarrassing, but for laser focus, there's nothing like it.

Your Health - The Compound Effect

I'd like to tell you a story.  It's about my dad and how he indirectly influenced me to take responsibility for my long term health.  You see, my dad was a walking billboard of health in the early 1980's.  He was weight training 6 days a week and only had the one real bad habit...smoking.  We urged him to quit and he finally did before the decade was out.  Unfortunately, like many ex-smokers do, they begin to gain weight because their focus turns to another addiction.  FOOD.

My dad spent 18 years in chosen profession working up the Corporate ladder and each time he was promoted he was faced with more responsibility, longer hours, more office politics and ultimately stress.  It finally caught up with him at age 49.  His smoking past, food past and current stress led to his first angioplasty.  That's where an artery is completely or partially blocked and they send a balloon like device into the blockage and inflate it to open up the blood flow.  That procedure was followed by a second one at age 51, and a third one age 52.  A double bypass followed 10 years later.  These occurrences did not just manifest overnight.  It wasn't a mistake.

They began with small choices each day on the day added up over time.  The Compound Effect.

Too many people leave their health to chance and only appreciate how valuable it is once it's gone or if they finally encounter a symptom of degenerative disease.  Did you know the first symptom of a heart attack in 40% of the cases is death?

It doesn't have to be that way.  Modest exercise, optimal cellular nutrition and a healthy low glycemic diet can add years to your life.

How healthy are you? Find out in two minutes with a free Health Assessment Tool:

http://tinyurl.com/7m7tewf

Four Expenses That Keep The Middle Class Struggling

1. Taxes – Most people have a job, they have to work hard, follow instructions from their bosses and superiors and get paid.  They don’t own their time.  These are people who love security or tenure.  They will work hard to climb up the corporate ladder.  The higher they climb the ladder, the higher their pay is.  Sad to say, the higher their pay is, the higher their taxes are.  And it’s not them getting rich, it’s their bosses, it’s their company.  Time will come soon enough, when they will begin to burn out and get tired.  Their body will collapse because of stress and age.  And when they stop working, they will also stop receiving income.

2. Debt – Raising taxes forces people to live with more debt, since more and more of people’s money goes to the Government to fund social programs.  Credit cards will become more essential for daily survival and ultimately people without access to credit will begin to slip below the poverty line.

3.  Inflation – The primary cause of inflation is the Government printing money.  Inflation is caused by the purchasing power of your money going down as more and more dollars flood the existing pool of money, which means prices of many essential products, such as food, fuel and services go up as more dollars chase the same amount of goods.  Inflation is often called “the invisible tax”, which is hardest on the poor, elderly, savers, low income workers and fixed income retirees.

4.  Retirement – How do you take care of an aging population that cannot provide for themselves? The answer to that question may well be more expensive than the current world economic woes.  Today, many families are entering into financial bankruptcy due to retirement and even medical costs.

Clearly, the traditional means of working a 40 year career are not working…The only question that remains is what are you going to do differently?

Week 2 - Stepping It Up and Doing a RESET

The first week always has to the hardest but I'm glad to report I've had no injury set backs.

Changing strategies, in the past I found I'd tweak my back, tweak it again, create more inflammation and then it eventually got the point where I had to shut things down to get it back under control...some days were so bad that I had difficulty putting my own pants on.  So what I did differently was I stopped doing some overhead lifts and got back to doing some hard cardio/resistance training...THE SLED!

Got two sessions in of 800 metres hauling 135 lbs and two good running sessions in training for my 5 K.

I must say I'm feeling pretty good now that the warmer weather is here.

I cut weight the best when I eat 95% clean and can get in 4 workouts per week.

This week I have three scheduled already at Crossfit Division and three more running sessions.

I also have my RESET program coming Wednesday.  That will easily cut about 5 to 7 lbs and kill any left over carbohydrate cravings.

My overall goal is reduce 12 lbs of body fat and build 12 lbs of lean mass by August 13th.  That's usually hard to do simultaneously but if any program can do it, it's Crossfit!

Getting Back into Great Shape - Day 1

So I'm taking on the commitment of getting back into great shape.  

Fighting off a back issue and parenthood has cut down on the training time, so I'm going to have to be very focused if I'm going to hit my August 13th deadline.

My diet is primarily going to be a low glycemic, well balanced diet supported with optimal cellular nutrition from USANA Health Sciences.

My aim is get 8 hours of sleep a night and stop being such a night hawk.  Sometimes I can't turn my brain off and view sleeping as a waste of time.  This needs to improve as healthy sleep habits play a critical role in overall health.

I'll get my strength exercises from Crossfit Division as well as some cardio.

The trick is going to be having the desire and drive to run on days that Tracy is working her 7 to 7's where I can't Crossfit because of Kevin.  I confess I hate running but want to challenge myself, so I've entered myself into a 5 km run on in mid August and my goal is to finish in under 30 minutes.

I'm following a program where I'm going to run for 1 minute, walk for 90 seconds for a total of 20 minutes...

So to recap the weekly goals: 3 Crossfit Workouts, 3 Additional running days...

Wishing you health and prosperity

Greg

Your Financial Education

As I sit here from afar in my home office and look at the world's state of affairs, I'm really troubled by what I see in the world these days.  How people are choosing to deal with their frustrations of their personal finances by holding signs and blaming the 1% for all their troubles makes me realize, where does this attitude come from?

It all gets back to what you are taught about money growing up.  Money always seemed to cause frustration in my house growing up, not because we didn't have enough, but because of where that money was going.  I had a saver in my mom and a free spender in my dad.  They frequently got into arguments about dad's new toy.  My mom taught me the benefits of entrepeneurship while my dad would complain about the rich not paying their fair share of taxes.  Interesting contrast growing up.

Instead of allowing my parent's to influence my financial outlook, I made a commitment 6 years ago to get as much financial education as I could to make my own judgements and reservations.  What I found is money is not the root of all evil, rather that money is a resource for you to use to create the quality of life for yourself and your family that you desire.

There are two types of people in this world: those that work for money and those who have money work for them.  I feel the frustrations of the protesters but blaming your circumstances on other people is not going to help you.  The rules of money have changed and it's up to the individual to educate themselves so they don't make the mistakes of saving money, putting their wealth into RRSP's and other failing financial scenarios.  That's right, I said failing.  The biggest transfer of wealth from the poor and middle class to the rich is underway and what money choices YOU make starting today will determine how prosperous your families future is.

It's time to stop blaming others for your financial shortfalls.  I know what you're saying...WHERE DO I START?

I recommend reading the book "Rich Dad Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki for starters.  That's where I started.  If reading isn't your thing, you could also set aside 13 minutes of your life by watching Secrets of Wealthy at my website www.lifeiswaiting.ca

I wish you a prosperous present and future

Greg