Sheri’s Rants # 25: Get Used to Being Rude

Openly Rude Joyous Behavior.

The Genesis Transformation community has it’s own outlet for support – a private forum embedded into Genesis itself where folks go and celebrate, whine, cajole, humor, and support each other.  It’s a fun place to hang out.

I came across a post in there where the writer was despairing of attending a dinner party.  What was promised to be served (meat, veggies, fruit) turned out to be someone else’s version of healthy eating (spagetti, meat sauce, bread).  The writer was unhappy to have eaten things that she knows throws her body off track, and wanted to know how to navigate social events since, of course, we DON’T WANT TO BE RUDE.  Especially for something as ridiculous as our personal health and well being.  No.  That’s just socially unacceptable.  You can’t be taking care of yourself in public.  God forbid.

This inspired me to write a list of other things that are rude when it comes to health:

IT IS RUDE TO:

Get up early in the morning and exercise in the living room. Someone, somewhere, is sleeping.

Drive to the gym in the early morning.  Your headlights may flash through someone’s window and they’ll know it’s you, selfishly taking yourself to the gym at the butt crack of dawn.

Go to the gym after work.  There are other people there and you will only get in the way.

Drink copious amounts of water and use the bathroom when others may need it.

Go to a party and not have alcohol.  Someone bought that booze for you to consume.  Don’t leave it lying there.

Drive right by a McDonalds and not stop.  Who do you think YOU are?

Not buy popcorn in a movie theater.  That’s how theaters make their money.

Special order in a restaurant.  Don’t be wasting the chef’s time.  Just pay for what they serve and eat it like everyone else.

Leave cupcakes unattended overnight.  They go stale and someone labored over baking them.

Leave unopened candy lying around.  What will people think?  You’re too good for a Snickers?

Sweat.  That’s gross AND rude.

Go for a walk at lunch while everyone else is pretending to work.

Avoid the cheesecake at a dinner party.  You think you’re someone? Sugar is a food group.

Pass up the hotdogs at the picnic.  You’ll offend the person assigned to making sure you imbibe in all the appropriate picnic foods.  Don’t you dare avoid the potato salad or chips.

Wear cute clothes that show your new figure in any type of an attractive way.  How conceited!

Enjoy a massage.  I’m sure you have work to do or someone to do things for.  This is also very selfish as well.

Go to a buffet and bring the salad and only eat that.  You too good for Aunt Ednas frozen lasagne?  She made that trip to Costco just for YOU.

Smile while working out.

Show up at a BBQ with a veggie tray.  No wonder your biceps are showing.

Be lean and fit in public.  Freak!

Got more?  Let’s hear ‘em!

Health Reform Will Make Americans LESS FAT – Michael Pollan

By Michael Pollan, The New York Times.

LOOK OUT FAST FOOD; WHEN INSURANCE COMPANIES CAN’T DUMP THE SICK, THEY WILL HAVE TO SUPPORT HEALTHY DIETS, OR LOSE MONEY.

To listen to President Obama’s speech on Wednesday night, or to just about anyone else in the health care debate, you would think that the biggest problem with health care in America is the system itself — perverse incentives, inefficiencies, unnecessary tests and procedures, lack of competition, and greed.

No one disputes that the $2.3 trillion we devote to the health care industry is often spent unwisely, but the fact that the United States spends twice as much per person as most European countries on health care can be substantially explained, as a study released last month says, by our being fatter. Even the most efficient health care system that the administration could hope to devise would still confront a rising tide of chronic disease linked to diet.

That’s why our success in bringing health care costs under control ultimately depends on whether Washington can summon the political will to take on and reform a second, even more powerful industry: the food industry.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, three-quarters of health care spending now goes to treat “preventable chronic diseases.” Not all of these diseases are linked to diet — there’s smoking, for instance — but many, if not most, of them are.

We’re spending $147 billion to treat obesity, $116 billion to treat diabetes, and hundreds of billions more to treat cardiovascular disease and the many types of cancer that have been linked to the so-called Western diet. One recent study estimated that 30 percent of the increase in health care spending over the past 20 years could be attributed to the soaring rate of obesity, a condition that now accounts for nearly a tenth of all spending on health care.

The American way of eating has become the elephant in the room in the debate over health care. The president has made a few notable allusions to it, and, by planting her vegetable garden on the South Lawn, Michelle Obama has tried to focus our attention on it. Just last month, Mr. Obama talked about putting a farmers’ market in front of the White House, and building new distribution networks to connect local farmers to public schools so that student lunches might offer more fresh produce and fewer Tater Tots. He’s even floated the idea of taxing soda.

But so far, food system reform has not figured in the national conversation about health care reform. And so the government is poised to go on encouraging America’s fast-food diet with its farm policies even as it takes on added responsibilities for covering the medical costs of that diet. To put it more bluntly, the government is putting itself in the uncomfortable position of subsidizing both the costs of treating Type 2 diabetes and the consumption of high-fructose corn syrup.

Why the disconnect? Probably because reforming the food system is politically even more difficult than reforming the health care system. At least in the health care battle, the administration can count some powerful corporate interests on its side — like the large segment of the Fortune 500 that has concluded the current system is unsustainable.

That is hardly the case when it comes to challenging agribusiness. Cheap food is going to be popular as long as the social and environmental costs of that food are charged to the future. There’s lots of money to be made selling fast food and then treating the diseases that fast food causes. One of the leading products of the American food industry has become patients for the American health care industry.

The market for prescription drugs and medical devices to manage Type 2 diabetes, which the Centers for Disease Control estimates will afflict one in three Americans born after 2000, is one of the brighter spots in the American economy. As things stand, the health care industry finds it more profitable to treat chronic diseases than to prevent them. There’s more money in amputating the limbs of diabetics than in counseling them on diet and exercise.

As for the insurers, you would think preventing chronic diseases would be good business, but, at least under the current rules, it’s much better business simply to keep patients at risk for chronic disease out of your pool of customers, whether through lifetime caps on coverage or rules against pre-existing conditions or by figuring out ways to toss patients overboard when they become ill.

But these rules may well be about to change — and, when it comes to reforming the American diet and food system, that step alone could be a game changer. Even under the weaker versions of health care reform now on offer, health insurers would be required to take everyone at the same rates, provide a standard level of coverage and keep people on their rolls regardless of their health. Terms like “pre-existing conditions” and “underwriting” would vanish from the health insurance rulebook — and, when they do, the relationship between the health insurance industry and the food industry will undergo a sea change.

The moment these new rules take effect, health insurance companies will promptly discover they have a powerful interest in reducing rates of obesity and chronic diseases linked to diet. A patient with Type 2 diabetes incurs additional health care costs of more than $6,600 a year; over a lifetime, that can come to more than $400,000. Insurers will quickly figure out that every case of Type 2 diabetes they can prevent adds $400,000 to their bottom line. Suddenly, every can of soda or Happy Meal or chicken nugget on a school lunch menu will look like a threat to future profits.

When health insurers can no longer evade much of the cost of treating the collateral damage of the American diet, the movement to reform the food system — everything from farm policy to food marketing and school lunches — will acquire a powerful and wealthy ally, something it hasn’t really ever had before.

Agribusiness dominates the agriculture committees of Congress, and has swatted away most efforts at reform. But what happens when the health insurance industry realizes that our system of farm subsidies makes junk food cheap, and fresh produce dear, and thus contributes to obesity and Type 2 diabetes? It will promptly get involved in the fight over the farm bill — which is to say, the industry will begin buying seats on those agriculture committees and demanding that the next bill be written with the interests of the public health more firmly in mind.

In the same way much of the health insurance industry threw its weight behind the campaign against smoking, we can expect it to support, and perhaps even help pay for, public education efforts like New York City’s bold new ad campaign against drinking soda. At the moment, a federal campaign to discourage the consumption of sweetened soft drinks is a political nonstarter, but few things could do more to slow the rise of Type 2 diabetes among adolescents than to reduce their soda consumption, which represents 15 percent of their caloric intake.

That’s why it’s easy to imagine the industry throwing its weight behind a soda tax. School lunch reform would become its cause, too, and in time the industry would come to see that the development of regional food systems, which make fresh produce more available and reduce dependence on heavily processed food from far away, could help prevent chronic disease and reduce their costs.

Recently a team of designers from M.I.T. and Columbia was asked by the foundation of the insurer UnitedHealthcare to develop an innovative systems approach to tackling childhood obesity in America. Their conclusion surprised the designers as much as their sponsor: they determined that promoting the concept of a “foodshed” — a diversified, regional food economy — could be the key to improving the American diet.

All of which suggests that passing a health care reform bill, no matter how ambitious, is only the first step in solving our health care crisis. To keep from bankrupting ourselves, we will then have to get to work on improving our health — which means going to work on the American way of eating.

But even if we get a health care bill that does little more than require insurers to cover everyone on the same basis, it could put us on that course.

For it will force the industry, and the government, to take a good hard look at the elephant in the room and galvanize a movement to slim it down.

© 2008 The New York Times

******SHERI’S TAKE:

We’ve always said that Genesis Transformation is a revolutionary idea – we border on anarchy because we teach people how to live in a way that quickly brings about health and fat loss at a cost far lower than supplements, doctors visits, drugs and surgeries.

Getting healthy vastly improves the quality of your living – and the quality of our culture by setting an example to those around you.  Address the elephant in YOUR living room first, and others will follow suit.  Taking charge of your own health is not only a personal responsibility, but also a political statement.  Do you remember when as a culture we stopped supporting cigarette smoking?  As obesity surpasses cigarette smoking as a primary cause of death and continues to hit us in our pockets, we will, as a culture, stop supporting that as well.

Sheri’s Rants #25: Your Basic Chewing Out.

This morning I took  four dogs on a hike up a rocky winding trail.  For most of the hike, it was dry and steep and hot.  When I started thinking about turning around with the panting dogs, I made a decision to go just a bit further; I wasn’t crunched for time.  We climbed another quarter mile and popped out into a beautiful tranquil pool surrounded by leafy green trees, gentle water falls, and a flowing stream.  The dogs went nuts with joy.  So did I, settling onto a rock made for sitting and soaking up the lushness.  If I had turned around when the going felt rough and challenging, I would never have experienced this peaceful tranquil little shangri-la.  The thought made me giggle.  Isn’t that so much like life?

The Genesis system is a system that, in it’s simplest form, stokes up the metabolism and removes inflammation from the body so that it can return to a state of health and naturally burn stored fat for fuel; as it was designed to do.  The first stage of that process we call ‘Fueling’ – and in fueling your body will do repair work down to a cellular level; including a natural deep detoxification, shedding of inflammation, healing and a profound level of nourishment.  It’s an incredible process in which people feel better very quickly, are able to reduce and frequently let go of a range of medications, change their chemistry as evidenced by blood tests (no, we don’t require blood tests; many clients are under doctor supervision) including lowering of cholesterol, blood pressure, stabilization of blood sugar, etc.  All measurable.

Many folks drop weight in this process as well – in fact, the more overweight the client the more weight they will drop in fueling.  Much of that initial weight loss is water weight from inflammation, and some fat.  Some client’s bodies will drop quite a bit of fat in fueling if they will but have the patience to allow the body to do that.  There are those, as well, who can reach their weight goals in this fueling process (this tends to be a population without a history of dieting).

With all the chemical wonders that occur in the human body in Fueling, folks tend to have a really hard time with their heads. Those with diet histories in particular.  Every cell in their brain screams at them that eating more = fat gain – EVEN WITH EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE THAT IS CONTRARY TO THAT BELIEF.  I can literally talk to someone freaking out about eating and getting fat – and that person has chemical blood test evidence of vastly improved health, a 10 lb drop on the scale, a reduction in medications, and the client’s own admission that they ‘feel incredible’.  YET YET YET that DIET HEAD is so pronounced that they feel the need to whine and bitch every week about eating, about wanting to get to rotation and ‘really drop the weight’.

Guess what?  THIS IS NOT A DIET. It isn’t.  No one ever told you it was.  And dieting didn’t work for you.  That is why you are here.  Sure, your coach can drop your calories and get you on a diet – but guess what?  The outcome will be just like every other diet you have been on.

If you want CHANGE then you have to….CHANGE.  And it occurs in the head.

NO MATTER WHAT THE HELL YOU DO YOUR BODY WILL NOT DROP MORE THAN 1 TO 1.5 LBS/WEEK OF BODYFAT IF YOU ARE A WOMAN AND 1.5-2 LBS IF YOU ARE A MAN.  PERIOD. Anything more than that is physiologically impossible for your liver to process.  IMPOSSIBLE.  Anything more than that is muscular catabolism – which will send you back to a metabolic wasteland quick.  Now, if you want FAST ‘weight loss’ – then that is different.  If your only goal is to get small fast – and see the reduction on the scale fast – then know that you will take years off your life, destroy your metabolism, and look gaunt, older, and greyer in the skin.  You’ve seen this before.  I know you have.  THIS IS NOT WHAT GENESIS TRANSFORMATION IS ABOUT.

I, personally, want you to experience a vibrant level of healthy fit living.  I want you GORGEOUS.  I want your socks knocked off at what you are capable of being and doing.  I want you younger and more vital.  And this system is how you do it, and it works.  If this is what YOU want, then stop the damn whining and learn how to get graceful with it. If this is NOT what you want, there are a plethora of diet industry pills, potions, and diets for you to choose from, happy to take your money,  that will NOT require you to get healthy.  Go for it.  Many of them ‘work’ for fast weight loss.  Weight loss.  Not fat loss.  BIG BIG difference.

Not too long ago, one of Jamie’s client’s called her up and was freaked out that her weight was up 3 lbs.  Jamie discovers from the reluctant client that she’d eaten a cupcake (not journaled…).  Jamie says to this client – ‘Yea, your weight is up and your knees are hurting again because you ate refined wheat and sugar.  They do that.’

Client:  “YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT I CAN’T EVER EAT ANOTHER CUPCAKE OR A PIECE OF BREAD?  That sounds pretty rigid to me.  I don ‘t know if this is worth it!”

Jamie:  “Oh, you can eat all the cupcakes and bread that you want.  Just understand what it will do to you chemically, and that you won’t drop fat.  This is why you weigh daily, so you can see what happens with the inflammation.”

Me, I would have added: “This is chemistry.  It’s not personal.  Eat all the cupcakes you want.  Just don’t call me and bitch when your joints hurt and your weight is up.  If you take a valium you’ll get tired.  If you drink coffee, you speed up.  If you eat sugar and refined wheat, your joints will ache and your weight will go up.  If you eat excess sodium, your weight will go up so fast it will make your head spin.  This is chemistry, not emotions.  Everything – EVERY THING – that goes into your mouth elicits a chemical response from your body.  Some foods will get you healthy, some are fat pills.  You get to choose.”

When you catch yourself whining – “oh, I have to give up cupcakes (or whatever)” – remember that you don’t.  Your food choices got you where you are.  And if you like where you are, and you want more of that, then keep eating those foods.  If you want to change, however, you have to…change. And no level of whining and bitching is going to make cupcakes work for fat loss.  I’d suggest eating those cupcakes until you want your health, lean body and sanity more than the cupcake.  Seriously.  It’s more fun for me that way…

As Courtney says, “put on your big-girl panties and get a grip”.

And remember that in another quarter mile, right around the corner, is the miracle.  Be ready for it.  Don’t give up.

Sheri’s Rants #24 “How Long Does it Take to Shed The Pounds?”

GUEST RANTER: Mary Anne McDowell, Genesis Client

Or are they really saying,“ I want to know if I would want to try that based on how long it took you!”Every time someone has a big weight loss that is the first thing people ask or want to ask. How long does Genesis Transformation take? I say are you asking about the process to be ready and honest with yourself, or the actual fat loss?

I remember watching an Oprah show about weight loss.  That poor woman has dieted her whole life, worked out,  has Bob Green living in her house and she still is just a person who asks of the guests on her show who have lost weight successfully, “How Long Did It Take?”  Her puppy dog eyes long for their success and her own to match.

Somehow it seems so immature a question.  It is so novice, so amateur.  Her true vulnerable colors are showing through.  When it comes to this subject, she is the most  visible yoyo dieter out there. She also has “diet head” in a way that clouds her logical thinking so that the question for her carries with it such emotion that I don’t think she even hears the answer.  I think of her often and for all of the good she does I wish for her peace with this struggle.

How long does GT take?  I asked that question because it was just one of those questions I thought I was supposed to ask any time I began a diet or a program or a class or a diet medication or a workout regime or  …..whatever.  I didn’t get a clear answer.  I figured I would just have to set a realistic goal and find out for myself how it would work for me.

I was always interested in my better health, but not really, just get the weight off fast without much interruption to my lifestyle and no inconvenience.  It didn’t take long to discover that the tried and true methods of Genesis Transformation “worked” much better if I implemented them in my life.  I made them my lifestyle and it was hard to keep up with the time then.  I could give you an answer to how much time it takes but would I only count the days I ate “clean” and got all of my food in?  Would I only count the days I worked out as prescribed and drank all of my water.  Gee, it didn’t take long at all.

So far my best and most successful periods of time are those when I come first in my day, where I am true to myself and what I am wanting to accomplish and when my convictions outweigh everything that “comes up”.  Set little goals to change little things and it is fascinating how everything changing a little over time is so easy.

How can you worry about time when you either know or can find out from a GT coach  what it takes to change a habit, when you know what it takes to love yourself enough to feed your body what it needs, drink what it needs to drink, give yourself all of the sleep your body is craving and think of yourself with enough respect that you would praise your successes and never criticize yourself for making small mistakes.  Just by making a habit of small successes makes things happen while time is passing and you don’t even notice it.

So it hasn’t taken long in my mind.  I haven’t noticed the time pass as much as I have noticed how good I feel.

I took weeks to really get the pantry cleaned out of things that were no longer going to be a part of my every day food intake just because I didn’t want to rush and move something out I might eventually want.  There was no haste to move them out but when they got in the way of the good food I wanted to store and have handy, it was time.  It was a baby step but now the pantry is totally changed over and it is easier to find what is needed for my meals without shoving cans and boxes aside that I wouldn’t be eating anyway.  I just stored the other food so that it would be there when company might want corn syrup or  brownie mix or something.  I gave lots of food away and it was fun.

Mary Anne

I have been at this GT process less than 1% of my life and the improvements to my life and health have reduced my “real age” by more than 20%.  When people say you can change the way you eat and add some exercise to turn back your age and improve your health, it is true.  I knew that, I just couldn’t find a formula that was right and produced real results until Genesis Transformation.  Thank you Team for this added time you gave me back in my life!

Real Food Real Fast: Simple Smoothie Recipes

Smoothies are a fantastic meal for both increasing your calories and getting loads of nutrients into your body quickly, as well as easy meal portability and finally, REAL FAST FOOD.  This is fast food you can really feel good about!

The Genesis recipe section has lots of fun smoothie recipes, and here are a few of our favorite basics.   Here’s some fun clues for smoothies:

1)  Try adding greens – no, not the powdered supplements, but real greens like spinach, leaf lettuce, or chard.  A handful or two in the blender with your fruit will make the color interesting – but will taste delightful, honestly!  It’s a great way to get more greens in your daily diet in a highly digestible format.

2)  When making a smoothie for later, use frozen fruit and or ice cubes.  This will keep it cold if you’re not carrying a cooler.

3)  Water is great liquid for smoothies.  You don’t need dairy in any form in there.  You can try any variety of nut, rice, oat, hemp or non-dairy milk if you like.

4)  Be wary when purchasing smoothies from a vendor or a bottle.  Many smoothie vendors use powdered smoothie mixes loaded with sugar and who-knows-what-all-else.  Ask questions; read labels.

5)  It’s very cost effective to make your own smoothies!  Buy large bags of frozen fruit; freeze fruit when it’s on sale; try different vegetables (small amounts).  Be creative.  Try different recipes and combinations.

6)  Add hempseed (grind a couple tablespoons in a small amount of water and build the smoothie on top of that to blend) or flaxseed for additional fiber and Omega 3 fats.

CHOCO-NANA SMOOTHIE

1.5 tbsp – almond butter

1 each – banana

1 Scoop – Chocolate Protein Powder

Blend with about 1.5 cups pure water or milk, add ice in hot weather.

ORANGE CREAMSICLE

1 medium orange

½ banana

1 scoop vanilla protein powder

Blend with about 1.5 cups water or milk!  Yummy!!

STRAWBERRY BANANA

1 frozen banana

3-4 strawberries

1 scoop vanilla protein powder

1 T almond butter

Blend with 1.5 cups of water or milk and 3-4 ice cubes.

MANGO FANDANGO

.5 cups mango

½ Frozen banana

1 scoop vanilla protein powder

3-4 ice cubes

Blend with 1.5 cups of water or milk.

Response-Able to Me – (by featured client Shelby)

Shelby & Friend

The current economic crunch has affected our country in a critical way and it’s been a tough year for many of us.  My personal journey through this economic climate has lead me to a profound realization.  If I really want to improve my situation, I can work on the one thing over which I have control…….myself.

In Stephen Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, he talks about how our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions.  We can subordinate feelings to values.  We have the initiative and the responsibility to make things happen.

Look at the word responsibility — “response – ability” — the ability to choose your response.  Highly proactive people recognize that responsibility.  They do not blame circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior.  Their behavior is a product of their own conscious choice, based on values, rather than a product of their conditions based on feeling.

Because we are, by nature, proactive, if our lives are a function of conditioning and conditions, it is because we have, by conscious decision or by default, chosen to empower those things to control us.

In making such a choice, we become reactive.  Reactive people are often affected by their physical environment.  If the weather is good, they feel good.  If it isn’t, it affects their attitude and their performance.  Proactive people can carry their own weather with them.  Whether it rains or shines makes no difference to them.  They are value driven; and if their value is to produce good quality work, it isn’t a function of whether the weather is conducive to it or not.

It’s not what happens to us, but our response to what happens to us that hurts us.  Of course, things can hurt us physically or economically and can cause sorrow.  But our character, our basic identity, does not have to be hurt at all.  In fact, our most difficult experiences become the crucibles that forge our character and develop the internal powers, the freedom to handle difficult circumstances in the future and to inspire others to do so as well.

As members of the Genesis Family, players in the “transformation” process, we are faced with the reality of the current circumstance and future projections.  But we must also face the reality that we have the power to choose a positive response to those circumstances and projections.  If we do not, we accept the idea that what’s happening in our environment has to determine us.

As a transforming community we can be proactive.  We do not have to be at the mercy of the environment; let’s take the initiative to accomplish the shared values and purposes of the individuals involved.  Let’s create a proactive culture within the organization!

We are responsible for our own effectiveness, for our own happiness, and ultimately, I would say, for most of our circumstances.

I shudder to think where I would be today if I had not embarked on this program when I did (February 2008).  Lately, I’ve been thinking about how much change and stress I have dealt with this past year and a half.  I consider what kind of a toll it would have taken on my health if I had not been in this program…..I wonder if I would even still be here right now.  I have heard my Genesis coach say; “People usually do this only when the time is right for them”…..I BELIEVE.

Samuel Johnson observed: “The fountain of content must spring up in the mind, and he who hath so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition,  will waste his life in fruitless efforts and multiply the grief he proposes to remove.”

Knowing that we are responsible — “response – able” — is fundamental to effectiveness.  Hang in there; we are all in this

Shelby

together!

Respectfully, Shelby Nash Hunter

“No one can hurt you without your consent.”

Eleanor Roosevelt

In the words of Gandhi, “They cannot take away our self respect if we do not give it to them.”  It is our willing permission, our consent to what happens to us, that hurts us far more than what happens to us in the first place.

Thank you Jamie & Samantha….Two Beautiful Hearts….I love you more than words can say.

EAT MORE, SPEND LESS! – Jamie Lynn

People say that it is too expensive to eat healthy. My response is, “It is too expensive not to.”  Have you compared the cost of high quality food to doctors bills, pharmaceuticals, supplements, and the price of disease?  How about lost work hours do to feeling poorly?

Aside from keeping you fundamentally healthy, eating healthier foods will satisfy you and therefore you will not feel the need to eat again in 15 minutes after you have just finished dinner.  Cheap, packaged and processed foods may fill you up for the moment, but then you’ll be looking in the frig in less than 15 minutes, often times reaching for sugar or salt foods to satisfy your cravings from the insulin ride resulting from all the crap in the packaged foods.

Here are a few suggestions:

• Buy your staple foods in bulk
• Get involved in a food coop or buying club (Azure Standard in the NW part of the country)
• When fruits and veggies go on sale, stock up and freeze
• avoid buying ‘healthy’ packaged/refined foods from the health food store!  just because the label says ‘organic’ does not mean a packaged food is better for you!  There is little difference between an organic potato chip and a conventional one.
• Buy winter storage veggies directly from your local farmers: potatoes, onions, garlic, winter squash
• Store bulk veggies in a cool dark place
• Buy local GRASS FED ORGANIC beef by the ½ or whole and freeze, same with local raised chickens
• stop buying bottled water and invest in a quality water filter and bring your water with you

Yes, organic foods cost more.  Here is a list of the top contaminated foods that MUST be purchased organic:
Apples                        Peaches            potatoes            spinach

Cherries            yams                        bell peppers            strawberries

Grapes            cucumbers            carrots            celery

Less contaminated foods that relatively safe if they are NOT organic:

Avocado            mango            onion                        banana

Pineapple            blueberries            plums                        broccoli

Whenever possible, I personally will purchase organic, it just tastes better. Try doing a taste test, bananas are a great place to

Jamie on a run in MT

start, or apples.    See what you think.

Eating healthy does not have to be expensive, nor does it have to be hard. Yes, it does take some planning ahead, but make it FUN!!  Enjoy getting healthy, enjoy watching your family thrive.

Keeping it About Me – Samantha Gilman

In my Genesis journey I have become very in tune with what my body needs to be balanced and happy. Some of my needs ebb and flow with my life and some are the cornerstones of my wellness. As a busy mother, wife, and coach, my cornerstones are to eat clean, drink my water, practice yoga, exercise, and get enough sleep. These cover the 5 Lifestyle Objectives we talk about in GT and are simple to integrate when things go as planned.

I don’t have to tell you that Life happens off-plan. Life can be unpredictable and that is part of what keeps me stretching and growing as a human. When things don’t go awry I choose to dance with life, not against it. This means not becoming a victim of life’s circumstances and instead being creative in finding ways to get my basic needs met.

I remember whining to my coach that I ‘don’t have enough time’ to prepare food or go to the gym, or that I felt guilty for taking the time to take care of my self. Deep down, I actually thought taking care of me was being selfish! Who taught me that? The reality is that if I don’t take care of myself, who the heck will? I’m a grown-up and I had to learn to be responsible for taking care of myself first and foremost. I learned that I cannot give away what I don’t have. Especially when life is happening – it better be all about me first so that I can help the person next to me.

When my head tells me I ‘don’t have time’, I need to re-evaluate where my time is being spent. I have discovered that often I feel like I ‘don’t have time’ because I’m actually busy worrying and fretting over things out of my control. I’ve figured out that what I ‘don’t have time’ for is not feeling my very best! The one key element that is a constant in my life that cannot be compromised is to eat clean food. Clean eating is what allows me the strength, clarity, and energy to keep up no matter what life presents to me.

The ‘feeling guilty’ piece I have learned to let go of. I am more patient and present with those around me when I feel good. I am grateful that I have learned the discipline it takes to respect and listen to my body. It is now a habit of mine to take care of my self and this in turn results in me having enough to give to my career, clients, and those that I love. I no longer view this as being selfish or warranting any guilt. Why would I when EVERYONE around me receives the benefits of a well taken care of Samantha? When it’s all about me, it’s a win-win for everybody!