Jim Garland's Blog

Hello!  And welcome to secret #4.  Have you had water today?    Did you know that drinking 8 glasses of water a day can have a wonderfully positive impact on your health?

The Human Body is made up of 60-70% water
We have all heard it many times– you must drink eight glasses of water a day at a minimum and more if you are exercising.  Yet, how many of us really do this?  It sounds great and we intend to drink water, but the day gets away from us and we forget.  This is something that is very simple and is one small discipline can really improve your health.
Here are the benefits to drinking plenty of water every day:

• After air, water is the next most important element necessary to live.
• It helps flush toxins from the body.
• It aids in digestion.
• It hydrates your body, which can lose up to a pint of water a day from just sedentary activity.
• It is key to weight loss.
• It is essential for proper functioning of your organs, especially the kidneys.
• It is a paramount to help maintain healthy joints and cartiledge

These are just a few of the key benefits to drinking plenty of water.  The question becomes how much water should one consume?  My rule of thumb is eight to ten 16oz glasses per day.  I weigh about 180lbs and work out daily so this formula works for me.  I start each morning with one to two 16oz of water.  This is important, because when you sleep, your body has experienced a 6-8 hour drought.  Continue to drink water throughout the day as a replacement for coffee and soda.
Click here to calculate your daily water consumption needs.
http://www.csgnetwork.com/humanh2owater.html

As you can see, water is essential to life and an important part of any health program.  Here are a few tricks to have water help you control your appetite and get additional nutrients:

1. Buy a water purifier or a bottle that filters the water when you pour it in from the tap.  You can purchase bottled water as well.
2. Drink a 16 oz glass of water 15-20 minutes before each meal.  It will fill your stomach and you will eat less.
3. Drink 1-2 glasses first thing in the morning.  This will rehydrate you after sleep, get your metabolism going, and satiate your hunger so you won’t eat as much first thing in the morning.
4. When consuming alcohol, especially if it is a big celebration, drink a glass of water in between drinks.   Alcohol dehydrates the body and this will help stem some of the morning after effects.
5. Stay away from soda of any kind.  It is void of any nutritional value and dehydrates the body.
6. Drink water throughout the day as a replacement for coffee, soda or other sugary beverages.
7. Try adding a powdered green supplement to a few glasses a day, this way you get the water and the nutrients from the supplement.

Remember, water makes up 70% of your body and is essential to survival.  Use water to hydrate, cleanse the body, keep organs functioning properly, and aid in weight loss.

• So how much water are you going to drink today?
• What results would you like to see?
• What is your current alcohol, soda, juice intake?  How could you improve that?

“The first wealth is health” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Welcome to day three.  Today’s focus will be on your body and energy, key components of exceptional living.  We have focused on your mind and now we will focus on your body

What are you eating?

When it comes to health, what you put into your body has more to do with your overall health more than any other factor.  So I am going to ask you a question.  What have you had to eat in the last 48-hours?  What are all of the things you have put into your body in the way of food, beverages, pills, etc.  I recommend that for one week you keep a journal of all of the things you put into your body.  Some of you will be happy and proud of how you treat your body and others will be amazed at the absolute volume of food and beverages you consume in a day.  After you have done this for a week, check what you have eaten on a web site and total up the calories you have consumed.  If you are an average sized male that exercises daily you should be consuming about 2200 calories per day to maintain your current weight.  Here are some secrets inside secret #3:

Foods to avoid

High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS).  This is a sugar substitute that began its use by food companies because it is cheaper than regular sugar.  You will find this in almost all packaged and processed snack foods and beverages.  This stuff is in drinks, cookies, cakes, (all the stuff we should not eat anyway), and you will also find it in crackers and certain breads.  Completely avoid any foods or beverages that contain this product.
Partially Hydrogenated Oil.  This is made of plant and animal oils that are infused with hydrogen to increase their stability and shelf life.  Think margarine and Crisco.  These oils are in most processed food that you eat.  Any packed snack, cakes, crackers, “nutrition bars” (I use that term loosely).  Some fruit products are also laden with (PHO).  These, like high fructose corn syrup, are terrible for your health and can cause obesity and abnormal cholesterol levels.  Read all packages and stay away from them whenever you can.  Here are two articles to read and provide additional information.  Please check the following links for additional information:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/high-fructose-corn-syrup/AN01588

http://www.drmirkin.com/nutrition/N185.html

Other than the two products I have mentioned above, consuming good foods really comes down to common sense and education.  Here are three rules to live by.

1. If it grows in the ground, you can find it in the produce section, or at a local farmer’s market, you can eat it in quantity and it will be good for you.  Think color.  The more colorful the better — dark green, blue, red, orange and yellow.  Eat raw vegetables and fruit whenever you can.
2. If it is in a fast food restaurant, fried, filled with dairy (processed cheese), or wrapped in cellophane, avoid it.
3. If it has a face, eat it in limited quantities, no more than once a day and try to limit it to 3-4 times per week.  For fish, go with salmon, and have it 2-3 times per week.

Think about and answer the following questions:

• What do you eat every day?
• Are you overweight?
• Do you have the energy you want and need to accomplish your goals?
• What would it take to change your eating habits?

Join me tomorrow for Secret #4 – Drink more water! Did you know that water makes up 70% of the human body?

“The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future
by merely changing his attitude”
– Oprah Winfrey

Welcome to Secret #2!    Here is where you will discover that how you talk to yourself will determine, how you feel about yourself, and what results you can achieve.

What do you say to yourself?

Do you ever talk to yourself out loud?  In secret #1 I explained that you are where you are in your life because of your thinking.  So, if you become what you think about then you have to ask yourself this question again.  What do you say to yourself?  When it is just you talking to you, is it positive?  “Hey way to go on that presentation, or wow my husband really loves it when I tell him he looks great, or I am so proud of my children, I am doing a great job of showing them the right way to act and treat others.”  These inner conversations can make the difference between a long marriage and a divorce, a successful business meeting and a failed one.  You have to make sure that your-self talk is positive and engaging and conducted in a way that makes you feel good, confident and proud.

What is your inner dialogue?

We all have an inner dialogue every day.  From the minute you wake up you are consciously and subconsciously saying things to yourself.  This is true even when you are asleep.  You have to be very careful what you say.  I again can use examples from my own life to illustrate my point.  When you wake in the morning and its 40 degrees and raining, and it’s a Monday morning, some people would automatically groan and roll back over and start the dialogue in their head about how bad this day is going to be.  While others will get up and smile and say, “OK, mother-nature you are not going to control my mood today, I will take all of the liquid sunshine I can get.”  These people will go about their day and not let the weather affect them one bit.  Another example is sitting in traffic.  You have no control over this, yet we spend all kinds of energy getting upset about it.  I used to do this but not anymore.  I immediately call the people I am supposed to meet letting them know I may be late and then I get productive, who can I call and catch up with while I sit here?  What customer can I reconnect with?  What audio book or radio program can I listen to and learn something?  I always try to find a way to be productive.  All of these are examples of your inner dialogue and examples of how we cannot let outside forces like weather or traffic control how we think or control how our day is going to go.

Each day we will build on each new secret, so remember we become what we think about and we have to control our inner dialogue to ensure that it is pumping us up and producing good results at all time

Think about and answer the following questions:

• •    How do you talk to yourself every day?
• •    Does your self talk make you feel good or bad?
• •    How can you apply this information to your life, family, career, business?
• •    What would it take to change your inner dialogue?

Join me tomorrow for Secret #3 – You are what you eat!  How eating habits and patterns can impact your health and your energy levels

“Anything the mind of man can conceive and believe it can achieve”
Napoleon Hill

Welcome to Secret #1! Here is where you will learn that your thoughts control your life.  One of the most important lessons you will discover will be that you will become what you think about.

How have you been taught to think?

This question should get you thinking in itself.  How you think about yourself, the world, your life and your health in general, will determine where you are in life.  You are where you are because of your thoughts.  It is that simple.  It all started when we were kids, and for most of us, how we think today is due mainly to how we were taught or what we observed from our parents.
For me, I learned that as a man, you worked a job from 9-5 and provided for the family.  You did not do chores or help much around the house or with the kids.  You worked for “The Company” and came home.  During your working life you took off two weeks and vacationed at the beach.  You did this until you were 60 or 70 and then you retired and shortly after that you died.
If you were the mom, you cleaned and cooked and took care of the kids.  You lived a little beyond your means and there was never a thought of breaking out of this mold.  Only people that worked a ton of hours and sacrificed time from their families made real money.  You were taught on some level that your family was middle class and normal.  There is some variation of this for all of us.
To me this did not sound like a ton of fun so I changed my thinking.

How do you think about life?

If you are thinking that life is tough and you must claw and scratch your way to having a great life, then believe me that is what you will get.  If you think life is a series of lessons and experiences that guide you to the life you desire then that will be true as well.  Both thoughts may get you to the same place but I would always choose the path of least resistance.  If you have a true self evaluation, you will realize that where you are, probably in some way, is where you have been thinking you deserve to be.  In my book “The Practical Guide to Exceptional Living” I have dedicated an entire chapter on how to think and set goals.  This process has changed my life and how I think.

How do you think about your health?

Did you know that how you think applies to your health as well?  If, while growing up, your family was health conscious, watched what they ate and enjoyed home cooked meals with fresh meats and vegetables, chances are you have probably carried those traditions along with you.  However, if meat and potatoes were a staple in your home, with little variety, you probably do the same today.
Think about your family, parents, cousins, aunts, and uncles etc.  Do you see vibrant health and longevity or do you see obesity and disease?  Whatever you see started in thought and can be changed there as well.  I will show you how to completely change your thinking about health and will tell you a great story about Norman Cousins who reversed cancer in his body with his thoughts.
Always be careful about what you say and think about your health. Our minds can create and destroy disease in our bodies.

How do you picture yourself?

When you close your eyes and think of yourself, do you see the person you want to be?  What to do see as it relates to your body, relationship, how you treat others, your career?  Is it what you desire?  If you do not see the person you want to be, then you need do give yourself an honest evaluation and ask yourself what you would change about yourself.

Think about and answer the following questions:

• How would you like your life to be?
• What have you learned from this secret?
• How can you apply this information to your life, family, career, business?
• What would it take to begin thinking about only the good things in your life?

I’m happy to be working with you to create the life of your dreams.  I look forward to sharing Secret #2:  Your Inner Communication, tomorrow.