Adaptability in Action

Here's another great essay, written by Denis Waitley. It really is an interesting perspective, if you think about it. How many times do we do the same thing over & over again, expecting a different result? It has been said many times, but this is the definition of insanity. If you want a different result in your life, your workouts, your career or your love life, you need to do something different. Check out the essay & let me know your thoughts.

Rebecca

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In a way, human beings behave like bees. If you place several bees in an open-ended bottle and lay the bottle on its side with the base toward a light source, the bees will repeatedly fly to the bottle bottom toward the light. It never occurs to them to reverse gears and try another direction. This is a combination of genetic programming and learned behavior.

Put a bunch of flies in that bottle and turn the base toward a bright light. Within a few minutes, all the flies will have found their way out. They try all directions—up, down, toward the light, away from the light, often bumping into the glass—but sooner or later they flutter forth into the neck of the bottle and out the opening.

We often allow ourselves to become locked in our present circumstances—even if we are unhappy and really want to be reaching in a new direction. What we’re doing may make us miserable, but at least it’s familiar. One of the most important factors in achieving personal success is the willingness to try things out, to experiment, to test new ground. In fact, this is the only way to learn and progress: trial, error, feedback, knowledge, trial and success. It is a far better thing to try to succeed and fail, than to do nothing and succeed.

This week:

* Try it
* Change it
* Do it

Stop stewing and start doing!

-- Denis Waitley

Insanity- Day 11: Hanging In There!

I have so far stuck with the Insanity workouts, & it is really going well. I am still sore, but the good kind of sore. I seem to be able to keep up better with the DVD's, but there have been a couple of times that I skipped over a few minutes due to the time I had available.

I did Cardio Circuit yesterday, kind of twice. I taught a class in the morning & used many of the Insanity moves on them. Then, later on in the day I did it again on my own, but skipped a few minutes to leave to go to the YMCA with the hubby. Then, I ran/walked on the treadmill for 45 minutes. So, overall calorie burn for the day exceeded 2000 calories. I was hoping for 2500, being motivated by "The Biggest Loser", but didn't quite make it. 2000 calories is good though.

I've been hearing from those that are further on the Insanity journey that the second month gets really hard. I have to say I am up for the challenge, especially if it gets me ripped & fit!
I am determined to get those 6 pack abs by the end of the year!

My food intake has been pretty good, but we had a family reunion over the weekend, then went out to eat with the hubby later that night. Didn't really overdo it at the reunion, but the dinner was probably another story, even though I tried to do good. We went to eat at Ruby Tuesday's. I got the Ruby Mini's without cheese or mayo, because I was in the mood for burgers, but wanted the salad bar too (they have an incredible salad bar! Mmm...). Of course it came with fries, so I had some of those, but was rather pleased with myself for my choices. Then Sunday woke up feeling sick to my stomach & ended up eating toast & crackers & Sprite, which didn't help the weight loss much. Hoping for a better result after this weekend.

Today is Cardio Recovery that I am going to do a little later this afternoon. I also taught yoga this morning, so this is basically going to be an easy day. Tomorrow is a spinning class & Cardio Power & Resistance, so saving up some energy for that!

Until next time,
Rebecca

Success Is Not an Accident by Brian Tracy

Sometimes I find stories or essays that really speak to me & I want to share them with the rest of you. This is one of them. I truly believe that we can accomplish anything we want in our lives, as long as we focus on that & realize that the first step is to think about what we do want, not on what we don't want. This essay by Brian Tracy explains that beautifully.
Rebecca

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Success is not a miracle, nor is it a matter of luck. Everything happens for a reason, good or bad, positive or negative. When you are absolutely clear about what you want, you only need to copy others who have achieved it before you, and you will eventually get the same results that they have.

This is referred to in the Bible as the Law of Sowing and Reaping, which says, “Whatsoever a man soweth, that also shall he reap.”

Sir Isaac Newton called it the third principle of motion. He said, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

For us, the most important expression of this universal law is that, “Thoughts are causes and conditions are effects.”

Put another way, “Thought is creative.” Your thoughts are the primary creative forces in your life. You create your entire world by the way you think. All the people and situations in your life have only the meaning you give them by the way you think about them. And when you change your thinking, you change your life—sometimes in seconds!

The most important principle of personal or business success is simply this: You become what you think about most of the time.

It is not what happens to you, but how you think about what happens to you, that determines how you feel and react. It is not the world outside of you that dictates your circumstances or conditions; it is the world inside you that creates the conditions of your life.

—Brian Tracy

Dr. Oz's "10 Years Younger in 60 Days" Challenge Day 5

On to day 5! How are you feeling so far???

• Do your Everyday Basics!


• Do the Yoga workout.


• Stop the calorie-restricted diet, BUT continue to eat nutrient-rich, calorie-poor healthy foods with ingredients that increase longevity. We'll call this the Age-Buster Food Plan.

If you haven't tried yoga before this challenge, you will begin to feel the differece almost immediately. If you are a little intimidated to try it on your own, look for a class at your gym, a yoga studio nearby, or a parks & rec class.

Dr. Oz's "10 Years Younger in 60 Days" Challenge Day 4

Day 4 already! Here is the doctor's order for today:

• Do your Everyday Basics!
• Do the Age-Buster 20-Minute Workout.
• Continue with the last day of your calorie-restricted diet.

Check out his website at www.DoctorOz.com for this day & others!

Makers of Quorn, the Chicken-Flavored Fungus, Sued for Not Disclosing Dangerous Reactions

I found this through "The Huffington Post". I'm not suggesting that you do or do not eat this product, but just passing along the information so you can make the best decision for you and your family.



Vat-Grown Mold Tastes Like Chicken but Makes Some Violently Ill

WASHINGTON—An Arizona woman has filed a class action lawsuit accusing Quorn Foods of not disclosing on labels the fact that some people have serious allergic reactions to the main ingredient in its Quorn line of meat substitutes. That ingredient happens to be a fungus—mold, actually—discovered in the 1960s in a British dirt sample. The company grows the fungus in vats and processes it into a fibrous, proteinaceous paste. But more than a thousand people have reported to the Center for Science in the Public Interest that they have suffered adverse reactions, including nausea, violent vomiting, uncontrollable diarrhea, and even life-threatening anaphylactic reactions after eating the patties, cutlets, tenders and other products made with Quorn's fungus.



Photo Credit: Stacey Greene
"I was vomiting so hard," said Kathy Cardinale, who ate these Quorn patties.

The nonprofit food safety and nutrition watchdog group is serving as co-counsel in the case. Connecticut State Marshals are serving the company, whose U.S. headquarters are in that state, with the suit today. The case is filed in Superior Court in the Judicial District of Stamford-Norwalk.

Kathy Cardinale, a 43-year-old advertising executive, ate Quorn’s Chik’n Patties on three separate occasions in 2008. Each time, within two hours of eating the product, Cardinale became violently ill. Thinking she had had a stomach virus, Cardinale didn’t realize that she was reacting to the Quorn until the third time she ate one of the patties, after which she vomited seven or eight times within two hours.

"I felt like the soles of my feet were going to come out of my mouth, I was vomiting so hard," said Cardinale. "Once I began to research Quorn online I realized I wasn’t alone and that other people had similar stories. It was unbelievable to me that the company knew this was going on and wasn’t warning consumers about these problems."



Photo Credit: Stacey Greene
Clockwise from upper left: Quorn’s shape-shifting fungus takes the form of "chik’n", "turk’y", or unspecified "grounds."

Quorn Foods, which is British-owned, markets its signature organism as being related to mushrooms, truffles, and morels, since all of those are fungi. While that’s true, it's as misleading as claiming that humans are related to jellyfish since they’re both animals, according to CSPI. Quorn's fungus is named Fusarium venenatum—"venenatum" is Latin for "venomous."

As early as 1977, a study found that some people have adverse reactions to Fusarium venenatum. That unpublished study conducted by Quorn's developer found that 10 percent of 200 test subjects who ate the fungus experienced nausea, vomiting, or other gastrointestinal symptoms, compared with five percent in a control group. The company claims the rate of illness is trivial, though a 2005 telephone survey of consumers in Britain—where the products have been marketed longer and more widely than in the United States—commissioned by CSPI found that almost five percent of Quorn eaters experienced adverse reactions. That was a higher percentage of people than that of those who reported allergies to shellfish, milk, peanuts or other common food allergens. Since 2002, more than 1,400 British and American consumers have filed adverse reaction reports on a website maintained by CSPI, quorncomplaints.org.

"It's almost unheard of for a company to market something as healthy when it actually makes a significant percentage of its customers sick within minutes or hours," said CSPI litigation director Steve Gardner. "It is the company's legal obligation to warn consumers about these serious adverse reactions, and getting the company to meet that obligation is the purpose of this lawsuit."

"Quorn Foods should either find a fungus that doesn’t make people sick, or place prominent warning labels about the vomiting, diarrhea, breathing difficulties, and other symptoms Quorn causes in some consumers," said CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson.

While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not disagree that Quorn products cause sometimes-severe allergic reactions, the agency still considers the Quorn ingredient to be "generally recognized as safe."

"At a time when the public and doctors are deeply concerned about the rise in food allergies, it is deeply distressing that the FDA knowingly permitted a powerful new allergen into the food supply," said Jacobson. "We call on the FDA to revisit its policy."

CSPI's litigation department has, since its founding in 2004, sued a number of leading national food companies and has secured agreements improving food labeling, marketing, or product formulation with Anheuser Busch, Frito-Lay, Kellogg, KFC, Kraft, Sara Lee and other companies. CSPI's litigation activities helped spur the removal of artificial trans fat from restaurant food and helped return millions of dollars to consumers from makers of the dietary supplement Airborne.

Daniel Blinn of the Connecticut firm Consumer Law Group is serving as co-counsel in the case alongside CSPI’s litigation unit.

From the website www.cspinet.org

This is really cool!

Will beat 126,667 times, pump 1,858 gallons of blood, and push that blood nearly 8,533 miles throughout my body!

Created by MyFitnessPal.com

Dr. Oz's "10 Years Younger in 60 Days" Challenge Day 3

On to day 3 of Dr. Oz's "10 Years Younger in 60 Days". Be sure you start with day 1 & realize this is something you can start at any time & at any age. Okay, here is day 3:

• Do your Everyday Basics!
• Do the Yoga workout.
• Continue the calorie-restricted, body-basic diet.

That's it for today. For more information, go to www.DoctorOz.com.