The Connection Between Health and Wealth

The more I learn about health, the more it reminds me of wealth. In fact, the Bible even puts these two together in III John 2, "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health even as thy soul prospers." These two aspects of our lives can either free us or limit what we re able to accomplish, depending on our stewardship. It's amazing how the same principles for success apply to both health and wealth. Some of us have more experience, knowledge, and understanding in one area than the other, so it's beneficial to look at the similarities between the two in order to improve in both areas.
The first correlation to consider is that both health and wealth can be damaged by simply doing nothing. What happens when you neglect your health or your wealth? Let s say you spend your money with no regard for a budget or your income-level. One day you may wake up and realize that you re deep in debt. Now, let s apply that to health. What happens when you eat with no regard for the effects on your body? One day you may wake up and realize that you re sick and overweight. The good news is that when you purposely begin to do the right things in either area, you'll start to see short-term and long-term benefits. Here are some principles for improvement that apply to both health and wealth.
First, evaluate your current position. Regarding health, evaluate your current eating and exercise habits. What foods make up your diet? Are you exercising regularly? Are you overweight? Regarding wealth, evaluate your current spending habits. Are you spending more than you earn? Where are you spending your money? Are you in debt?
Secondly, develop a plan. In the area of health, set out a plan for stepping out of those bad eating and exercise habits. Some people call this plan a diet, but you could think of it as a health budget. A budget is a plan for purposely limiting some aspects of spending, or in this case eating, so you will have what you need or want for another area. For example, you could "pay yourself first" by eating a large raw-vegetable salad at lunch and dinner before eating any cooked food. This ensures that you re getting the most nutritious aspect of your meal first and limits the space available for less nutritious foods.
In the area of wealth, set out a plan for stepping out of those bad spending habits. Some people call this a budget, but you could think of it as a money diet. Debt is the wealth equivalent of fat. When you find yourself overweight, it basically means you have been ingesting more calories than your body has been able to expend over a period of time. Debt, especially credit card debt, is the result of spending more than you earn over time. To "lose" debt, you must either spend less than you earn, increase your income, or both. To "pay off" your fat, your caloric intake must be less than your body expends, you must increase your activity through exercise, or both.
Once you've evaluated your position and set out your plan, begin to take the steps you've outlined. Don t try to make all the changes overnight, but be consistent and be patient with yourself. For upgrading your health, you might first choose to add more fruits and vegetables and replace those junk-food snacks with fruit. After some success in this area, proceed to your next step, perhaps choosing an exercise activity that you enjoy and determining a timeslot that you can maintain. For your financial situation, you might begin by curbing those impulse spending sprees and refusing to go into debt over an unnecessary purchase. Then, once you've evaluated each category of expenditure for potential money savings, you can proceed to take the steps you've found to reduce spending in those areas.
Next, ride the momentum and continue to step to higher levels. As you re consistent with the changes you've determined to make, you'll find new freedom which will motivate you to continue in your efforts. As your health improves, those tight clothes will loosen up and you'll feel better. As your financial situation improves, you'll begin to feel less financial stress and those debts will begin to disappear. You'll find that you're able to spend money on those smaller clothes you'll need, now that, for example, your entertainment and debt budget categories aren't consuming more than their fair shares of the cash.
Once you begin to gain control of your health and wealth, you should continue to revise your goals to reach higher levels. For your health, you could target new aspects of your eating habits, like sugar consumption, and begin to add weight-lifting to your exercise routine. For your finances, you could begin to set up a contingency fund, start college funds for your children, and build your retirement investments. Take time regularly to manage your health and your wealth. Once you develop good habits and self-control, maintenance will just be a matter of choosing to be a good steward in both areas. There s a saying in the financial world that applies equally to health, "the longer term your perspective, the better your decision will be." Let s begin to exercise discipline now to invest in our future health and wealth.

Is Living Longer Worth It If You’re Not Living Healthy?

People worldwide are living longer but sicker, according to a new report.

While more people are celebrating triple-digit birthdays than ever before, many have to take their insulin shot before enjoying a piece of birthday cake. Older adults are the largest consumer of medications with more than 40 percent of people over age 65 taking five or more prescriptions. While new medical interventions have significantly improved longevity, in some cases Western medicine may be a crutch for living with chronic diseases rather than making lifestyle changes.
According to seven papers published recently by the Lancet, people worldwide are living longer but sicker. Advances in medical science and drastic improvements in sanitation have decreased the amount of premature deaths and allowed people to live into old age—but at what cost?
The report is the first expansive, global look at life expectancy and health threats involving more than 480 researchers in 50 countries. Based on the data they gathered from surveys, censuses, and studies, the greatest global contributors to the health burden are chronic disease, injuries, mental health conditions, and joint and bone diseases. To give perspective, take a look at some of the eye-opening statistics presented in the report:

• In people aged 15-49, diabetes is a bigger killer in Africa than in Western Europe (8.8 deaths vs. 1 death per 100,000).
• Globally, heart disease and stroke remain the top killers.
• Lung cancer moved to the 5^th cause of death globally, while other cancers including those of the stomach, liver, and colon are also in the top 20.

This report begs the question, “Is living longer worth it if you are not living healthy?” Preventative medicine is a growing trend in which diet, exercise, and lifestyle play a major role. Instead of treating medical conditions when they arise, incorporating a healthy lifestyle may decrease your risk of health complications and increase your quality of life as you age.
With about four out of five seniors affected by a chronic condition such as heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes, decreased quality of life is not the only consequence—medical care is extremely costly. In the latest Trendwatch report from the American Hospital Association, Medicare costs are skyrocketing. “People with chronic disease are more likely to be hospitalized than those without, and the resources required for each episode of care are greater. This translates into higher spending overall,” states the report.
Adhering to a healthy lifestyle does not just add years to your life, but adds life to your years. In the end, your health is your choice. Choose wisely.

Is Isagenix Expensive?

The Dalai Lama, when asked what surprised him most about humanity, he said:

“Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health.
And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.”

“So how much does it cost?” When we are out there connecting with people and sharing Isagenix the first question people typically ask is money-related. One of the most important skills we can develop is the ability to communicate the value of these products and empower people to get out of their own way. Below are eight concepts designed to assist you do just that.

Concept #1  People Operate from A Place of Fear

It is crucial that we understand the real issues that lead to the question because a lot of the time “cost” is a surface symptom of deeper-rooted (and often sub-conscious) beliefs.The majority of us have a relationship with money that, putting it kindly, is extremely dysfunctional.

Don’t get me wrong, many people are experiencing financial hardships, but more often than we think, this is not the real issue holding someone back. What we are exposed to at a young age by our parents, the media and our experiences leads to a lack mentality around money and beliefs that do not really serve us. In her amazing book, “The Soul of Money,” Lynne Twist talks about how most of us operate from a place of scarcity. She also shows many examples of extremely wealthy people who no matter how much they accumulated were terrified of losing it all.  People commonly get seduced in to thinking finances are a zero-sum game. For us to be rich others must be poor and this “us vs. them” mentality leads to countless amounts of unnecessary suffering. Lynne exposes these beliefs as a fallacy and shows how prosperity actually flows from the recognition of enough recources for all, gratitude for our blessings and a focus on collaboration and abundance.

These inherent beliefs combined with the amount of fear the news and media bombards us with can be overwhelming. Bad news sells and their is no shortage of it. This past week I have been told 15% of Americans are living in poverty, Europe is about to collapse, the world is ending in 2012, stock market is crashing etc. The real scary part is I don’t even watch the news. I heard all of this second-hand from people the last 7 days.

Why is it so important to understand this?

The point of understanding that many of us operate from a place of fear is realizing that some of us instantly default to saying, “that is too expensive” and say no to an opportunity without even stopping to think what we are rejecting. Literally we can become so caught up in our thoughts and conditioning that we our almost walking around in a trance state and our mind is trained to just say “I can’t afford it.” If we don’t dig a deeper past this default response we are selling the person we are connecting with short.

Concept # 2  It is not a matter of price, it is a matter of value.

When we really think about it, asking the price of something before we understand it does not make much sense. It is the old quality versus quantity debate, you always get what you pay for. Many of the products on the marketplace have poor ingredients and an inferior delivery system leading to very low absorption. In extreme cases, the bottle or packaging costs more than the manufacturing of the actual products. My understanding is if we distributed a canister of Isalean shake though traditional retail centers like a GNC store, it would cost around $135. It is all about value.

For example if someone told me they would sell me their car for $30,000 if I could come up with the money by tomorrow, I would instantly say I did not have that kind of money. However, if I was then told the car was a mint condition Bentley with a blue book value of $350,000 I would have the money within 30 minutes. Plenty of our team members would pay 10 times what is required to get Isagenix products into their bodies. Why? Because they understand the value of them.

Concept # 3  We want to speak about the benefits of Isagenix not the features.

        

         Feature                                      Benefit

It is very easy to start talking about how many meals someone will receive, the purity and potency of our no-compromise ingredients, the science etc. While all of that is wonderful these are features not benefits and is not the real reason someone is interested in Isagenix. Lets do another car analogy. I am not a car guy, pretty much I just want something that is comfortable, looks good and that I enjoy driving. When I buy a car and someone starts asking me about the engine, suspension system etc. they see a blank stare and hear crickets. Why? Because things like an engine are features, not benefits to me. At our essence we are all the same, we just want to feel better. This is going to look different depending on the person. Some may want to have the energy to play with their kids. Others want to lose weight to look their best for a wedding or other event. The point is we want to identify the core need that someone has and paint the picture to assist them to be thinking from a place of possibilities and what their life will look like once they achieve it. We do not do cleanse days for fun or how it tastes, but because the cleanse leads us to our end goal.

Concept # 4  Many people have misconceptions going in on what Nutritional Cleansing and Isagenix actually are.

When I first heard that Isagenix was a cleansing product my mind instantly went to a friend I watched starve herself for days doing a “lemonade” cleanse a few years before. Most common cleanses out there are a single ingredient juice, product or something you can put together at home. This leaves many people not understanding how many meals and products we get in an Isagenix system as their cleansing reference point is very different from Isagenix. If they are matching the price we give them against lemons, maple syrup and cayenne pepper it is not going to make much sense.

Concept # 5  Most people do SAVE money or at a minimum break even on their Isagenix System.

Putting all the information above aside, people DO typically save money on Isagenix. This is not an extra expense, we are just redirecting our grocery budget to Isagenix superfoods that allow us to become radically healthy. Many of us don’t realize how much we are spending on food because it has happening in small amounts daily and not in a lump sum. Very few people really track their expenses and are conscious of how quickly the little things add up. Grocery shopping is a little easier to calculate, but our meals out, pumpkin spiced lattes, energy drinks and snacks we consume are easy to miss. Consider the following:

The member price for our Isalean shake is $39 for 14 servings which breaks down to $2.78 a meal. The Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer survey showed in 2008 that the average American spent $539 a month on groceries and meals out. That is just under $18 a day and $6 a meal and this was 3 years ago. Grocery costs have significantly risen since then. Last night, I made tacos for dinner and as I was chopping up my $1.99 organic Avocado I started to calculate what I had spent putting the meal together. It was around $11. Even if we are being frugal and cooking at home it is almost impossible to put a meal together for under $6.

How our most popular programs break down JUST from a food perspective:

30 Day Program (Associate Cost $268)

• 68 Meals (56 Meals + Replacing 12 meals on our 4 deep cleanse days)
• Under $8.50 a day for 2 meals and all the other products.
• Not counting the value of the supplements, ionix etc, the 30 day breaks down to $4.25 per meal.

Pacesetter Pack (Associate Cost $399)

• 78 Meals (The same 68 plus 10 Meal Replacement Bars)
• 44 Snacks (30 Isadelights and 14 Slimcakes)
• Again this is just a food value perspective and does not include everything else you receive. If someone was going to consume the sample packs personally it would add another 10 meals and 10 snacks.
• Just over $13 a day gets you two meals and two snacks per day

Based on the average American household here are the savings:
Concept # 6  Expensive in Comparison to what?

What are we comparing the price of Isagenix to? Having 10 years shaved off of our life expectancy? Feeling bad about ourselves because we are overweight or having a low quality of life due to medical challenges?  An Indiana University study suggested that our body could be worth as much as $45 million. Do we treat it like the asset that it is? The US spends a per person average of $6700 a year for healthcare. Putting our value and self worth into perspective is of paramount importance.
Sometimes people assume we are expensive in comparison to other programs out there. Here is how our 30 day system stacks up against the most popular ones:
Cost Per Week:
Jenny Craig                $137.65
Nutrisystem                $113.52
Atkins Diet                  $110.52
Weight Watchers       $ 96.64
Zone Diet                    $ 92.84
Ornish Diet                 $ 78.74
South Beach Diet       $ 78.61
Slim Fast                    $ 77.73
HCG                           $ 75.00
Meal Movement         $ 74.25
ISAGENIX                   $ 62.50
Concept # 7  Isagenix has a no questions money back guarantee on the first System.

So to recap, Save money, get radically healthy and if it does not work I can get my money back? Yep (We have a 96% Success rate.)
Concept # 8  You don’t understand, I have no money in my bank account….

Occasionally, someone understands the value, realizes they will save money but cannot pay the initial lump sum. These guys need Isagenix more than anyone else! Sometimes the products being so amazing can get in the way of us talking about the incredible opportunity that we have. This company has created more 6 & 7 figure earners per revenue capita than any predecessor in the history of the industry. A lot of people are struggling with their health, but even more are struggling financially. Name me a business that you can start for $19, eat your overhead and get healthy, save money on your groceries and taxes and have the potential to earn millions of dollars in passive income and leave the business to your children. All while being surrounded by a positive community of like-minded people that want to see you grow and win.
With people that fall into this category, I assist them identify two people that want to cleanse with them and earn their rebate (up to $370) by going consultant before they are even enrolled. Anyone can do this within 48 hours if they make a real decision to make it happen.
In Conclusion…..
Hopefully you are beginning to see that any excuse people give you is just that, an excuse or simple misunderstanding.  Obviously we don’t want to break all of this info down to someone, but hopefully this has given you a different perspective on why people ask the question and how to effectively communicate in a way that will empower them to get started. More important than the words we use is us having the conviction and belief that Isagenix can turn the possibilities they are envisioning for themselves into reality.

Top 5 Best Exercises to Lose Belly Fat

1. The Bicycle Exercise - best for targeting the six pack muscles and the obliques. To do this exercise, get into a supine position with hands at the back of your head. Bring knees to the chest while lifting shoulders off the floor. Slowly bring your right elbow towards your left knee as you straighten your right leg. Switch sides and continue in a pedaling motion. Do 1 to 3 sets with 12 to 16 repetitions.

2. The Captain's Chair Leg Raise - This exercise requires a captain's chair, a rack with padded arms allowing for the legs to hang free that is commonly found in gyms or health clubs. To do this exercise, stand on the chair and grip hand holds. Press back against the pad then raise knees to the chest to contract the abs then lower them back down. Do 1 to 3 sets with 12 to 16 repetitions.

3. Exercise Ball Crunch - For this exercise, an exercise ball is necessary. In this routine, the abdomen does more exerting but will still need the entire body to stabilize it throughout the routine. To do this exercise, lie on the ball with your lower back fully supported. Place hands behind the head. To lift the torso off the ball, contract the abs to pull the bottom of the rib cage towards the hips. Keep ball stable as you curl up, then lower back down to stretch the abs. Do 1 to 3 sets with 12 to 16 repetitions.

4. Vertical Leg Crunch - Performing this exercise is similar to doing a leg crunch except that the legs are straight up, forcing the abs to work and adding intensity to the routine. To do this, lie on the floor with the legs straight up, knees crossed, and place the hands beneath the head for support. Contract abs lifting the shoulders off the floor and keep legs in a fixed position to crunch. Do 1 to 3 sets with 12 to 16 repetitions.

5. Long Arm Crunch - This is a variant of the traditional floor crunch where the arms are held straight behind you, adding a lever to the move and making for a challenging exercise. To do this, lie on the floor or a mat then extend arms straight behind, keeping them clasped and next to the ears. Slowly contract abs and lift shoulders off the floor carefully to keep the arms straight. Do 1 to 3 sets with 12 to 16 repetitions.

The best strategy to weight loss is to observe a healthy diet coupled with exercise of at least an hour a day. Although there is no sure fire way to deal with belly fat, there are a number of activities from which to choose and enjoy. As long as you're having fun, you can lose weight without realizing it. It is important to look for an exercise you enjoy. If the suggested exercises above do not suit your taste, taking a hike, swimming or biking are just as effective in burning fat and toning muscles.

START MAKING FITNESS A PART OF YOUR DAILY ROUTINE!

Science is catching on to something that regular exercisers already know—exercise is really good for you. Recent studies link regular physical activity to longevity, an enhanced immune system and fewer illnesses, reduction of stress and improved mood.

Exercise rules!

If getting started is a challenge, remember that doing something is better than doing nothing. If 20-30 minutes of walking is too much, start with just 10 minutes—or walk around the block after dinner instead of watching television. Then the next week, instead of walking around one block, extend it to two, then three and so on.

If walking sounds too boring, ask a friend to come with you. If that still isn't appealing, find a fun path or neighborhood, or do something you think will be fun, like riding a bike or swimming.

Just do something.

You may have days where you just want to plop down on your sofa and watch TV; but remember this: You’re making an investment in your health when you get out there and go for even just a brisk walk.

Don’t forget…
Stretching helps keep muscles flexible. To help avoid injuries, as well as aches and pains, stretching pre- and post-workout is a great idea.

Power Training for Athletes

You can improve your athletic performance by focusing on your brain every time you train your body.

by Michael Colgan, Ph.D
Questions we get and athletes we see busting their gut in the gym show us that many folk get little bang for their buck. Yet the human body is an exquisitely sensitive instrument—bursting to grow in response to every good bit of stimulation. Here are a few of our basics that transform gym training into an effective training tool.
1. Train the Brain
All movements are neuromuscular. The neural component is primary. It is created by the brain and occurs first. The muscle contractions follow the brain’s instructions.
The neural component of every movement completely controls the speed, force, coordination, rhythm, and balance of the muscular component. Without the response of the brain first, muscles do not contract. If you are serious about athletic training, you will get further, faster, if you focus on your brain every time you train your body.
To illustrate how important the brain is to movement, I will use the case of a depressed young man paralyzed from the waist down by an accident who was referred to our clinic for a strength program to better use his wheelchair. He had been through the usual rehab for a spinal cord injury, and was two years on from the accident, as far recovered as his doctor thought he would get. So we gave him an arm, shoulder, chest, and upper back power program using all the muscles he could still contract. Over months of training he slowly got stronger.
One of my trainers noticed that the guy’s left quadriceps sometimes twitched when he was doing cable pulldowns. I realized that there must be a live nerve there, so I told him to lie in bed at night and think of twitching his quad. After a few weeks he could twitch it on command. Then, with no training, the right quad began to twitch. No real surprise there. Numerous controlled studies show that the brain causes gains of strength and movement in the contralateral muscle when the muscle of one limb is trained (1). To cut the story short, one muscle led to another, and after eighteen months more training he could walk on crutches – smiling.
2. Train the Brain to Power Free Movement
The case illustrates the complexity of what you are trying to do with power training. The bulk of conventional weight training does not improve athletic performance at all because it does not give the brain the right information. We know from some of the world’s best coaches (1,2) and because we have measured the performance of more than 20,000 athletes from Olympians to weekend warriors at the Colgan Institute over the last 30 years.
The brain learns exactly what you teach it. All those weight machines with comfy seats that you see in most gyms, allow only restricted, partial, uni-planar, isolation movements. It matters not a whit that makers try to make the movement a bit more free with oscillating knuckles and whatever. Weight machines were developed to grow muscle size and shape. They develop only restricted, uni-planar, isolated, seated strength, and that is exactly what they teach the brain. If your trainer directs you to use these machines – get another trainer and switch to a decent gym.
Machine training prevents the full flexion, extension, and rotation of the limbs and core that occurs in natural movement. They prevent movement in the way the body is designed to move, the very movement you are trying to achieve. If you use them – stop now. No Olympian I have ever worked with uses weight machines. As you watch the London Olympics this coming week, resolve never to use them again.
Every time you use a weight machine that restricts standing free movement, you are teaching your brain the wrong stuff. You should not be surprised to see that machine training produces only slow, weak, un-coordinated, athletes, useless at the free movements of sport. We do not allow athletes to sit and exercise, or to use any device that restricts free movement.
Remember, you are training your brain to move. Do not do any movement in training unless it forms part of a correct movement that you do for your sport. Even one set of a wrong movement, is teaching the brain to do it wrong. Once a wrong movement is well learned, it takes at least 10,000 reps to learn the right one to override it. Teach your brain to do it right the first time.
Use standing free movement exercises or go home. Aim for whole body movements that train muscle chains. Think pinkie to toes with every effort. Train for explosive concentric contractions, controlled eccentric contractions. Train for whole body coordination, rhythm, and balance every set.
3. Train the Brain for Maximum Power per Pound of Muscle
When you begin a good power program, both strength and speed in any movement increase in about five days. This is a change in the brain, because the muscle does not show changes for about three weeks (4). How strong is this brain component? If you train one arm only, the other arm will gain almost as much strength, although its muscles do not grow larger (5).
By correctly training the brain, you can vastly increase the power of a muscle without increasing its size very much at all. Train for maximum power per pound of muscle, not for muscle mass or for absolute strength. Power is simply the speed at which you can move mass from rest.
It may not look like it, but even Usain Bolt has an instant every stride when his legs turn over where he is stationary and has to accelerate from rest. Training with the power principle yields such a big edge it has been almost kept secret among top athletes. Train always for power, not for strength, never for mass.
I first saw this power in action at a Los Angeles exhibition bout in 1964. Bruce Lee, who was 5’-7’’, and never weighed more than 135 lbs, knocked down a 200 lbs black belt, who had braced himself for it, with a two-inch punch to the gut. I sought out and was fortunate to spend some time with one of Bruce Lee’s teachers, Master William Cheung, and have taught many world champions the same principles since, including two world boxing champions, and some of the strongest and fastest athletes in the world (6).
You can get the principles of this dynamic power training free from colganinstitute.com. Study them with care. Your brain is exact in what it learns, and that sets limits to how you perform thereafter.

SAVE $ How I Love Mondays!

Sign up and Save….what does that mean?
When you sign up as an associate with Isagenix, you will receive the wholesale pricing for an entire year!  This is an enormous savings.  When you compare the retail price and the sign up and save price on any item, the difference is exciting.
Signing up is easy.  You will be signing up as a member of Isagenix and you will receive member pricing.  We call our members “Associates”.  It’s just like signing up with Costco to get the great discounts.  Only it’s waaaaay better.  Our Associates also receive a personalized website that is customizable.  With your website you can place orders and track orders.  It’s also an online STORE!  And, if anyone purchases products from YOUR online store, you will get paid from Isagenix!  Woo Hoo!  When Isagenix pays you for the very first time, you will receive an Isagenix Visa Card with YOUR name on it.  KEEP THIS CARD!  Every time Isagenix wants to give you money, they will put it on this card.  Our paydays are every Monday. Oh how I love Mondays!
If you love your personal results from your own Isagenix program, send your referrals to your OWN website to order.  I’d be happy to help you with this.  You can receive enough money to get your orders paid for or you can earn money in your own business.  You will OWN your own online store after all!  The sky is the limit on earnings.  Take the 30 day challenge, 5K in 5 weeks!
And, this will make you MY PARTNER!  So, let’s work together to make YOUR dreams a reality!