Monthly Archives: December 2017

Juice Plus, Review

Healthy is the new Skinny

2 Comments

I can’t count how many diets I’ve tried in my life. I’ve been successful at some. I remember a shake diet I was on for a month or so. I lost 10 kgs. I also remember how hard it was to drink that shake and how much I craved a burger and fries.

Well guess what, I put those kilos back on and a few more for good measure. The one consistent item from all those diets was as soon as I stopped dieting, the weight came back.

What did I learn from those diets?

  1. that I’ll always have a weight problem.
  2. that I’ll have health issues in retirement
  3. that diets don’t work.
  4. that I don’t have the right genes

Notice a trend, all negative thoughts.

Then we I reached my fifties and Della and I started to think about retirement; I started to have health issues. I already had an episode of cardiomyopathy, I gained a lot of weight, I had high blood pressure, I had joint issues, and I was worried about my memory which was failing; a lot. My Doctor prescribed medication and got me into the local clinic where took a year long course on health and nutrition. For getting us into the clinic, we are forever grateful. We learned about portion control, using smaller plates, serving from the stove to trick yourself into not taking a second portion, exercise, the danger of sugar. All these things helped and started us along our journey to better health.

I retired but Della kept at work for a year or so. One of her co-workers suggested a product that she thought would help. Della was ready but I wasn’t. Our friend mentioned it from time to time and offered to explain further. Not for me, I know better until one day I couldn’t take the joint pain any longer and agreed. We started on the smallest amount of product that I thought we could. I was not interested in the business as I’m not a salesman and didn’t want to pester my family and friends. I’m sure Della felt the same.

I had been walking with a cane but within 4 months the joint pain was substantially gone and so was the cane. That made me think; hey wait a minute; could I be wrong? I was dead wrong and it was only the first of the lessons I was about to learn.

Diets are not the answer. Being Skinny is not the answer. Being healthy should be the goal. As this product began to heal my system; I had more energy, slept longer and deeper, my joint pain subsided, and inflammation began to dissipate.

Health is the new skinny

We increased our product order so that we could take full doses every day. We also became distributors because we knew good nutrition would benefit everyone we know. That has become our why and no longer feel uncomfortable recommending this product. Why should we, people recommend books, restaurants and movies all the time. Why should we feel uncomfortable recommending good nutrition.

We started to attend health seminars. I learned that the shake product in our line is good for knee issues. Well, I had that problem every time I climbed the stairs in our 2 storey home. Again, within the first 4 months my knee pain is substantially gone. This shake product does not taste chalky like the ones I’d tried earlier.

dont focus on the skinny

At these seminars we noticed how happy and healthy the attendees were. Why not, they are entrepreneurs who are helping people improve their health and their finances. As a former Deputy Chief in an Emergency Services department who was missing the sense of service I had experienced in my working life, that was another lesson.  As much as I loved helping my community in Emergency Services, I now experience that same level of satisfaction.

Along the way, we learned about Shred10. Its a program to teach you what your eating that effects your health. You also focus on exercise, getting 7-8 hours of sleep, staying hydrated and eating real, whole foods.

I saw something in a supermarket the other day that really brought it home for me about what we put in our bodies. Some broccoli fell on the floor of the supermarket. It laid on a carpet for at least 5 minutes. I thought about returning it but that didn’t feel right. After all, the 5 second rule had long expired. Eventually an employee picked it up and put it back where it came from. That made it clear to me how much our produce is handled, what could be put on it, where its grown and when did it ripen. This is our answer to eating real food. Our garden grows indoors in our kitchen all winter long. It easily provides fresh greens for both of us.

tower garden dec 2017

— End —

Being skinny wont make you happy

Juice Plus

Go for No changed our perspectives

Leave a comment

I’ve always been a goal oriented career person. But, I’ve always been in the public sector. Della has been in front end customer service.

Now that we’ve started our own health and wellness franchises we’ve had a lot to learn. We experienced a lot of disappointment until we picked up on a couple lessons.

The first lesson was learned listening to the audio book Go for the No by Andrea Waltz and Richard Fenton. An easy listen with the message, don’t set goals based on hearing Yes, set goals based on hearing No. My example is I used to set a goal of making 3 calls a day. They could be phone calls, emails, text messages, what ever you get the idea until I got 3 people to say Yes to my offer. Since my goal was to hear Yes, I experienced disappointment when I heard No. So much so, I often could not make that next call even though I’d not reached my daily goal. Go for the No taught me to set a higher goal of 20 calls where I heard No daily. Along the way, you hear Yes much more often. Regularly even more than the previous goal of 3 Yes’s per day.

Now instead of disappointment when I hear No, it’s almost elation.

img_4279

We’ve heard from many coaches that we should not be involved in the outcome. It was not until I heard Go for the No that I’ve been successful in making that separation. That’s the second lesson we’ve picked up.

Fenton and Waltz have teamed with Ray Higdon to develop a sequel called Go for No for Network Marketers. We like the audio book format so that whether in the car or at home we can listen.

It’s one thing to understand a concept, it’s another to put it into practice. You have to get out and talk to people and hear no many, many times until the lesson is understood and applied.

This is not my chart. I found it on the Internet. When I read it I readily agreed with most of these. They are certainly ways to fail at marketing and recruiting. The third lesson we’ve picked up is don’t prejudge people. It’s not your business to decide if a person can afford or is ready to hear you message. Tell your story, let them decide.

I don’t know who succeeded brilliantly the first time out. Here’s some quotes from those who did not give up.

— End —

Itinerary

What a summer it was

Leave a comment

Of course, were long out of summer now but it’s taken me a while to get back to writing.

It was a wild, wild summer of weather. We drove out to BC through snow storms, rain storms, floods and rock slides. On the drive out we barely missed both rock slides and separate floods by a matter of hours.

When we crossed the Rogers Pass, we were out of the snow but not the rock slides or floods. The following images don’t show the carnage, just how beautiful B.C. is in the spring. And then we arrived at the Williams Lake Stampede Campground for our yearly visit.

I’ve told this story in another blog but here is the short version. Shortly after we arrived at the Campground we were offered the job of Hosts. We snapped up the opportunity. We wanted something to do while we were in Williams Lake visiting relatives. Working at the campground got us outside in the sun, allowed us to meet people from all over the World, improved our health by building an “exercise” program and improved our minds by forcing us to get involved in new activities and thinking through problems.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I reviewed the Campground in a previous post.

I have to say operating the equipment at the Campground was a challenge at first. It’s been while since I had that kind of job; almost 40 years since I worked in a Provincial Park. I made a couple of embarrassing mistakes like installing a mower blade upside down which caused the mower to shake horribly and bending a blade on the Toro that really made the main lawn look odd. Thankfully, easily fixed and grass grows. Oh yeah, and the timer on the irrigation system took some book studying. I now have the confidence that I can work with my hands.

We had a very successful Health Education Presentation by Michelle Ball at the Signal Point Casino. Also Drew Pasay conducted some very valuable training sessions for Distributors in Williams Lake. We organized and advertised the events. It’s difficult to take on new skills but very rewarding when the results improve so many people’s lives.

The big event of the summer was the Williams Lake Stampede which filled the main campground and overflow for nearly a week. We even made tent sites for tourists that discovered the Rodeo while passing through. It’s an event worth seeing and we had extremely few issues with the large crowd.

The Stampede is run by volunteers. Their dedication really made an impact on me. I plan on following up on this in another blog.

The Fire. Williams Lake was evacuated while we were out of Town at a wedding. Glad we missed the evacuation of 11,000 City residents and nearly as many from the immediate area. Were told the lights went on for miles. Amazingly, no injuries.

The City was evacuated except for emergency response personnel and a few hundred residents to keep essential services running. That went on for 3 weeks before we could return.

Over 1.25 million hectares of BC burned. There were hundreds of fires including the 5 that threatened Williams Lake. Homes, businesses and landmarks were destroyed.

It was my second life lesson of the summer to see the determination and kindness displayed during this time.

Fire jumped the Fraser River by jumping first to this island.
Burned Mountain North of the City that threatened for quite a while

Several Children staying in the Campground created a very sweet tribute to first response personnel. Williams Lake Fire Department sent an Engine and crew down to say you’re welcome.

Childrens Tribute to First Facebook capture

350E8DA7-7D04-42EE-A5F8-DF52E9BD661B
Fires across BC and Alberta made for some glorious sunsets.

Much of BC continued to be smoky long after the evacuation was lifted.  We were not considered to be essential personnel so we could not return. The Stampede Grounds was used as a temporary relocation area for livestock and people from the immediate area. Lorraine Smith and her volunteers kept the main functions of the Campground running.

When we returned to our RV we were so thankful that it was safe. We should not have worried because Fire Departments from around BC were being housed at the Stampede Grounds but never having been through something like this we expected the worst. We had experienced a much smaller fire in Saskatchewan summer of 2016 that resulted in black rain and very thick smudge on the RV. Nothing like this in summer 2017.

All our family and friends were successfully evacuated to Prince
George or south to the Kamloops area. Thankfully, everyone remained safe. The wait to return home was hard on everyone.

The campground did take some work to restore. The grass had all turned brown and the buildings needed some looking after. Tourists modified their routes to avoid the smoke and the remaining fires which meant traffic was pretty light for a few weeks. But everything came back and looked beautiful by mid-August.

We’re so grateful that we had chance to meet so many new friends, visit with old friends including those at Della’s school reunion, spend the summer with family, work on our Juice Plus business, recover some long lost skills and continue to improve our health.

IMG_20170903_161734917_HDR.jpg

— End —