WLC 2013 Great Day Lessons learned

This week I felt as though we needed to go and have some fun outside of Parkers Place. However we needed to do something different and relearn some life lessons along the way. So, what do we do? Go rock climbing. Not just any ole rock climbing but scaling 20 and 30 foot walls. Now what’s the point? When they first arrived, some had fears of heights, some had fears of mot being able to accomplish climbing, some were afraid of thinking they were making a fool of themselves. Well, today is the first day in the process of putting those fears to bed and for good. Thank you Adventure Rock for helping us in this process. After our instructor gave us the once go around and some safety tips, I then had a few instructions for them. They were: 1) Before going on the wall, plot a course and then stay true to the course 2) Don’t look down 3) Use your legs not your arms when scaling the rock 4) Even when you want to, don’t quit As each person went I began to notice a few things, 1) They would all get to a point, and with the exception of a few, they would panic and begin to listen to everyone down on the floor and ultimately fail and fall off the rock. 2) They would use their upper body more than their lower body 3) Once a person looked down and saw how high they were, they would panic and come down. I noticed something else, once a person failed to complete the course everyone would come along side that person and stroke them telling them that it was ok and try and make them feel better. They would give them excuses as if it were ok to not make it to the top. There were a few times when a person would get stuck because they were either tired or confused on what they should do next and I noticed how every person would start shouting commands to them which in turn only made them more confused and in the end they would repel off the rock. In the end not everyone made it up the rock but life lessons had been relearned and here they are. Have you ever tried to overcome something, especially when it comes to getting in better shape, and everything you read and everything people are telling you only get you more confused? So confused that you just give up? Have you ever sat down and asked yourself what your real goals were and then plotted a course to achieve those goals? I wrote about that just a few months back, I called it the Business Fitness Plan, please read it. When we fail, don’t we look for people to stroke us to make us feel better? When we fail, don’t we enable others to do the same, on some level, so that we feel better about our own effort? When it comes to overcoming a big obstacle, we must first look at it in its entirety and then break it down to its smalls achievable pieces and then a little at a time begin the climb to get ourselves to the goal we set. We must find that one person who can give you realistic professional advice and only follow that person. Don’t ask a lot of people because each person will give you different advice. We must use our strong points to achieve (our legs) and not our weak points (our arms) because we will never accomplish much and ultimately we will fail. When we feel like we have reached the end of our rope and we just can’t make it anymore. We need to stay calm and remember the plan. Stay focused and block out the rest of the world and what they are telling you and put one foot in front of the other until we reach that ultimate goal… much better health and fitness. When I asked those who had completed the course how they felt, every one of them told me that they at first felt nervous but once they got started and they kept their head up and their eye in the prize, and they made it, they felt great. They felt as though they could finish any other course put in front of them and they were more willing to try the harder ones. I did one final thing for them. I started them on the easiest rock there. Why? Because once they could finish that course and gain confidence in their abilities as a climber going to tackle hard course became a doable challenge and something they looked forward to. The lesson here is, never take on more than you can really do. If you take too much on you may become overwhelmed and within a short time quit. Whereas if you just take a little bit at a time before you know it, you will have just not scaled that wall but much harder ones. What are those rocks in your life that are keeping you from better health? Look at those rocks, plot a course and begin the process of breaking them rocks down.

Legs and Shoulder workout

Please start with a 20 minute cardio warm up. Then everything is done in 3 sets of 20 reps per set. This is strength training. lunges 20 each leg Leg extensions Leg Curls Single Leg squats Calf raises Shoulders: Military press Front Lat raise

Uprite Rows

Shoulder Flies

enjoy your day

Do we need supplements in our lives

So in the end the question still remains, do we all really need supplements and vitamins? Is there a point in our lives those supplements are essential? The answer is maybe. Depending on who you are and how active you are and how old you are will depend on whether or not you should be supplementing your diet with additional vitamins and supplements. As an example women in their 20’s should be supplementing their diet with Folic Acid (vitamin B). This is because they are in their child bearing years and this vitamin plays a very important role in child fetal development. Men in their 20’s, in my own opinion, if they are eating right and abstaining from those things that can have a negative effect on their bodies, all they need to do is eat a proper diet. For both men and women in their 30’s they should be consuming an additional dose of vitamins C and E because those vitamins will help them fight the development of cataracts and macular degeneration. This will set them up for better vision and better muscular tone later on in life. Yes, what we do when we are young will have an effect on what happens to us when we are older. Men and women in their 40’s need to begin to take extra doses of vitamin D and B12. As we get older our body cannot make Vitamin D as regularly as it did when we were younger and by this time in our lives we have screwed up our diet so badly that B12 will help us with absorption and overall energy. Here is the problem however, when we are in our 20’s, especially at age 21, we begin thinking that we are adults and have the RIGHT to consume alcohol. By doing this, even as our bodies are trying to get strong, we are inhibiting them from reaching their full potential. Women are having babies that are premature or way under weight. Men are, well, looking that they are about ready to give birth any minute. Yes, when we are young our bodies are more resilient, however at some point we will pay for the sins we have committed and that happens later in our 40’s and 50’s. In our 60’s and above supplements begin to play an important role in our everyday life because of the minerals and vitamins our body cannot create or needs help supplying for purposes of everyday energy. For an example ATP in our muscles as we get old is depleted and is vital to the consistency and strength or our muscular system. Our body, as we get older, makes less of it, but that doesn’t mean we don’t need it any more, we still need it and as we get older, even more than when we were younger. Protein drinks such as Quadplex and supplements such as BM&C (Bone, muscle and cartilage support) are very important in replacing what the body is no longer making on its own. The problem all starts with our diet and no amount of supplements or vitamins can cover the sins we are causing. Milwaukee has a week where, every year, many people go down to the lake front and consume foods where, well, I wouldn’t think about giving my worst enemy. They are just not bad for you, they can be deadly. The cholesterol alone that a person WILL get from eating those foods WILL clog their arteries and WILL cause heart attacks, strokes and major obesity (oh it’s done that already). There is no doubt about it. We need to start eating right when we are young especially in our 20’s when we are beginning to make life choices and everything we do will have a definite effect on our future health. By doing that our quality of life, in later years, will be so much better and your body will thank us for it.

The process...Consistency

u local my home videos photos local voices add a local voice post my local voice most recent highest rated most viewed top favorites most comments sets Categoriesmembers message board Best of u local Homepage U LOCAL MY HOME VIDEOS PHOTOS LOCAL VOICES MEMBERS GROUPS Welcome, Kevin_Ellis my home my home sign outadvanced Search video photo local voice member message sets .. The process... Consistency 1 hour ago Uploaded By: Kevin_Ellis 1 hour ago Comments: 0 Tags: health .Category: health This by far is the key for consistency. You must become predictable when it comes to your everyday diet when it comes to maintaining your fitness levels. Most people do have an idea of when they will be eating and what they will be eating but here is the catch… the when is where most American get it wrong and this is what needs changing if we are to make any strides in becoming better in condition. Most Americans have a very small breakfast, very little lunch and then a huge dinner and have been doing that for years and you see what that has gotten us… fat. The way it should be is a small breakfast, and good lunch and then a very small dinner. Let’s look at the logic in this. Most people just don’t want to get up in the morning to eat and I can understand that. Most people are usually out of the house by 7am and at the office by 8am to start their day. Some much earlier and some much later, but the idea holds for everyone. At this point in the morning you are getting started and need some nourishment just to get going. So this should be your second biggest meal of the day. Why? Because in a short period of time you will be having lunch. In most cases three to four hours later. Then it is lunch time and this is when you should be eating your biggest meal of the day. Why? Because between this time and when you finally get home there is a longer period of time and you are in the middle of your day and expounding more energy now than in the beginning of the day. Between lunch and the time you get home could be as much as 8 hours, so you need to fuel your body to be able to sustain those many hours. For you guys that don’t believe me… how many times have you felt really tired in the middle of the day or gotten headaches and then realized that you did not eat lunch. If you make this your biggest meal you won’t have that problem anymore. When you get home, dinner should be your smallest meal of the day. Why? Well, most people have they eat go right to their lazy boy chairs and turn on their television or go to their computer and spend hours watching something. Your body is no longer in motion and thus your energy levels are at its lowest point of the day. Fuel consumption should be at its lowest at this point. Switching up the way we eat will make a big difference in your overall ability to maintain our fitness levels. However, making it a routine is like you swimming against the currents, very hard to do. In some cases it may seem impossible but trust me it isn’t. Consistency in what we eat is a very important key to your overall success. Tomorrow I will discuss the work out. .

The Process... Nicotine

Now I am not going to discuss the obvious, but I am going to write about the side effects that Tobacco causes in our body that we really never can overcome without very radical measures. The biggest effect that tobacco has on our bodies, besides cancer which is obvious, is that for those that quit… weight gain. Now, let’s get something out in the open right away… you do not have to smoke those cancer sticks in order to get nicotine in your body. Chewing tobacco and even the nicotine gum are just as bad and have all the same side effects. So for you all that think that this may not pertain to you, you’re wrong. While you are consuming nicotine it does speed up your metabolism and it does get your body to burn more calories. Did you know that every cigarette you smoke, cigars included, burns 200 calories as a minimum? What that means is that 20 cancer sticks equals 4000 calories. Now, imagine smoking more than 1 pack a day, you do the math. Now because your body is burning so much, this energy needs to be replace and in most cases this allows you to eat more than you really should and this is the biggest reason why when a person quits smoking they gain weight. It is not that they are eating more it is that your metabolism is not being as stimulated as it was when you are indulging. Now some may still be confused so let’s look at it in another light. The average workout burns 500 calories at best, trust me I’ve seen how some of you work out, and with that said if you had been smoking throughout that time you were burning an additional 2000 calories (assuming a whole pack of cancer sticks), which means you were burning 2500 calories a day. Now because of the other side effects of those cancer sticks you decided to quit. Now you are losing 2000 kilocalories of energy. So what is the overall effect of that… weight gain even while you are working out. The average person will gain 50 pounds over a short period of time after they stop smoking (less than 1 year). It is not that you ate more it is just that you never reduced your food consumption once you stopped. Ok, so now you stopped smoking and you are thinking to yourself why you stopped smoking. You don’t want to gain weight. Well look at it this way, better stop now and give your body a fighting chance of survival than commit slow suicide. Now here is how I believe you can minimize the damage and get yourself in much better shape in the process. We already know that for those who choose to use nicotine, once they stop they will gain weight and there is now stopping that so how can you slow that process down? It is actually one of the hardest things that you can do because it takes a long time before you begin to see the results of your effort. How long? 5 years as I see it. Your lifestyle changing has to be dramatic and your food consumption has to be minimal. There can be no alternatives or cheat days. You have to become really focused on one thing recovery. At first you will gain weight but once that begins you need to do one thing switch your diet up totally. What do I mean? If you are a meat eater, than you need to minimize your meat consumption and begin to look at alternative ways to get the same nutrients without consuming meat product. If you are a starch person, then reduce your intake and stop eating starches after a specific hour of the day. This is what I am referring to. Then once that is done and under control, then you should intensify your workouts. This formula will give your body time to recover and at the same time get you in much better condition. This is not easy to do, especially in the society we live in today. The best thing for anyone to do is just not start using nicotine at all. This will save you from having to deal with the weight gain when you decided to quit. The next step in the process is a routine.

The process... liquid consumption

u local my home videos photos local voices add a local voice post my local voice most recent highest rated most viewed top favorites most comments sets Categoriesmembers message board Best of u local Homepage U LOCAL MY HOME VIDEOS PHOTOS LOCAL VOICES MEMBERS GROUPS Welcome, Kevin_Ellis my home my home sign outadvanced Search video photo local voice member message sets .. The Process... Liquid Consumption 4 days ago Uploaded By: Kevin_Ellis 4 days ago Comments: 0 Tags: health .Category: health I am a true believer that we consume way too much water. Yes, the purpose of our consumption of water is to flush our system. Yes, we need water just to survive, but we have taken it to higher levels. Mary has been a member at my gym for years now and just recently she and I had a conversation about her weight problem. She tells me that she has really changed her dietary habits and she no longer drinks soda. She tells me that all she drinks now is water morning, noon and night. She is frustrated though, she cannot seem to lose any more weight and she is really about ready to give up. For a period of two weeks after our initial conversation I watch Mary and she was right, she really works out hard while she is in the gym and when I looked at her food journal it looks really good. Then what is the problem? To me it was clear but to many others, they would probably never get it, she consumed too much water. After two weeks I confronted Mary and asked her some questions. Mary why is it that when we go on a 10 minute run you have to have water with you? When we do a 20 minute workout you have to have water with you? Everything you do whether it is for 10 minutes of 30 minutes, you have to have water with you? She looked baffled and her response was, “Am I not suppose to drink water now?” Water wasn’t the problem it was the over consumption of it. I don’t think that Mary would die if she did a workout without taking 12 breaks to get water, so we tried that and just as I thought the weight came off and she actually felt better at the end of each work out. Now here is the problem, we are replacing the fluids in our body quicker than we are using them and well, aren’t we defeating our purpose? I had Mary try something and I want you to try this too. Instead of drinking constantly throughout the work out wait until the end, if you work out is 30 minutes or less, and trust me you will feel better for it. In the end you will be consuming less water but giving your body the liquid it needs. Now onto another matter… soda and alcohol. These things are just plain bad for us. I was listening to a ranger the other day and he was talking about how the shapes of rocks are formed and one of the things he said really has an effect on the formation of rocks is Carbonic Acid. Then he asked us a question which blew my mind, “Where else do we us this acid?” The answer… Soda. Well that is enough for me. If that acid is eroding the earth and the rock formations imagine what it is doing to my body, to your body? And let’s not get on the subject of alcohol. I’ll just say that I see no real good benefit to pickling my liver, ruining my brain cells and destroying my kidneys. My next blog will be on step 5… Smoking and tobacco products. .

The Process

This next series talks about the things that if every person did, would give them much better health. Not just better health but health that will last you a lifetime. Anyone can lose weight, but not many can keep it off for a long period of time. If these 12 steps are taken you will not just lose the weight you may be looking for, but keep it off forever. Today we will discuss step 1 mental preparation: Mental Preparation: Before you start anything and before you begin any new project there must be a vision and a dream and most important a burning desire to see that project to completion. Without any one of those pieces to the puzzle, at best you have a momentary vision that will peter out soon after developed. This should be the same with our health. So many of us try and enter a new point in our lives running solely on emotion and emotion is too unpredictable. We need to, no, we must sit down and calculate the costs of us changing our life. What is that costs? The things we may have to give up. The things we will gain. The things we will begin anew. Once we do that than just like any major project we may do on our jobs, we need to begin to put the puzzle together. What is our first step? Second step? Third Step? In this mental preparation we need to have a clear vision of who we ultimately want to be and yes look like. With that vision clearly imbedded in our minds we need now to begin the process of working our way towards that ultimate goal. There will be many barriers we will run up against while we are going thru this journey and this is when we must stay steadfast and continue to dream about that new reality we will one day have. Your vision and steadfastness is the key. If you lose that, you will lose the ability to strive for your ultimate goal, whatever that may be. When those barriers come (health, finance, time, etc) you will need to have the strength to overcome them and this is where your clear vision and mental focus should shine. This is where most people fail. They think that their emotional state can get them thru the hard times and it just isn’t true. Quite the opposite it can really mentally weaken you and cause you to take backwards steps and jeopardize your health even more than you first thought. So first sit down and think about what your ultimate goal could be. Stand by a mirror and look at yourself and dream about who you may want to become. Speak to your doctor and ask him to define what healthy really means for you. Write down your vision, begin to dream and focus on nothing but the final prize, your health. Tomorrow I will talk about step 2 The Process.