Tag Archive for: Evansville

Can You Handle the Truth?

Can You Handle the Truth?

A couple years ago I discovered a great book called One Word that will change your life. The book inspired me to create a one word theme for my personal and professional life. My word this year is Truth!

As a chronic people pleaser, I sometimes avoid the truth. It’s not that I outright lie but it’s more I’m not being true to myself or being true to the person God called me to be. You truly cannot serve two masters; it’s either man or God.

When you try to be all things to all people, you start to become someone you are not. And know, you may not like this other person that you become. I’ve withheld truth from my friends and family far too long and realize this serves no one and could actually do harm in certain situations. We withhold truth to avoid hurting someone’s feelings but we must consider the truth may help them to grow.

So this year, it’s the year of truth. I’m speaking the truth in love. Someone close to me recently told me a truth that initially hurt me. She brought to light a character flaw that was causing others to hurt. However painful it was to hear, my love and respect for this person escalated beyond measure. My husband has always had the gift of speaking truth in love (although the delivery may lack gentleness at times).

Whatever method the truth is delivered, it creates an opportunity for growth as we typically grow the most through adversity. I’ve in turn shared my feelings/truth with people that I’ve kept hidden inside for years. Sharing my feelings has allowed me to trust and help others see me for who I really am.

Part of my truth journey is cleaning my house literally and figuratively. I’ve eliminated clutter from my home, office and mind. I’ve unsubscribed, unfriended, opted out of groups, events or services that no longer speak to my truth. When you are in constant response mode to email, texts and Messenger, you are living by other’s agendas and being controlled by their needs. Seeing the balance between serving and being a slave to others is where the balance lies.

I’ve also eliminated exposure to people in my life that aren’t of truth or are in alignment with my goals and mission. I’m protecting my God-time and sacred positive energy. We have to continually fill our cup/mind with messages of hope, positivity, love and abundance. My focus is on making a huge impact in the world. Therefore, I’m not accepting excuses or negativity from myself or others. Saying “no” to people and things that are not in alignment with my purpose means saying “YES!” to freedom (my word in 2016) and truth.

Truth is sincerity of actions and character, not just the absence of a lie. Truth is the self-expression of God. Be true to who God called you to be. He doesn’t call us to play small in this world. I challenge you to find your truth and step out in faith this year.

If this resonates with you and you’re ready to say YES to the things that light you up inside check out our frequently asked questions to see how we can help you. We’d love to chat more about the programs we offer!

2 Simple Ways to Love Your Body

Love Yourself HeartSo often, we get caught up in loving everyone else—our kids, our spouse, our family and friends—that we forget to love ourself.

Take a moment and visualize how that would look—if you loved yourself. How would your outside look? How would your inside look?

What if I told you two simple things you could do to love yourself and change your overall appearance from the inside out? Would you do it?

The two simple changes you will need to make involve eliminating genetically modified foods and increasing your intake of whole, clean foods, such as fruits and vegetables.

Stop eating genetically modified foods because these foods are linked to weight gain, cancer and other health related illnesses. Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are plants or animals that have been altered from the original state of the plant or animal and processed into our food. GMOs are found in everything from canned soups to baby formula! In fact, Brian Stoffel wrote an article that details “10 Foods You’ll Have to Give Up to Avoid Eating GMOs.” This article is alarming to say the least.

According to nongmoproject.org, “In the U.S., GMOs are in as much as 80% of conventional processed food. In the U.S., the government has approved GMOs based on studies conducted by the same corporations that created them and profit from their sale. ” This is a scary statistic and practice by our own government, not to mention a deceptive practice given the fact that companies are not mandated to include GMO’s on product ingredient labels. Furthermore, it is embarrassing that more than 60 other developed countries have either put a complete ban on GMOs or strong restrictions. Personally, I am not feeling the love of my country when it comes to GMOs!

According to greenamerica.org, there are nine GMOs to avoid:

  • Soy
  • Cottonseed
  • Corn
  • Canola Oil
  • U.S. Papaya
  • Alfalfa
  • Sugar Beets
  • Milk
  • Aspartame

Look for the NONGMO Project Verified stamp

To be sure your food and products are free of GMO’s, look for the verified label.

Eat more whole, clean foods and experience the freedom and physical and mental transformation of powerful nutrients, vitamins, minerals, fiber and beneficial fats. Your body was created for whole, clean food, so why not give your body what it needs to thrive! The best way to reduce your risk of disease is to eat healthy, and fruits and vegetables are two key food groups known to contribute to better health. Be mindful, though, of fruits and vegetables that may contain harmful pesticides. According to the environmental working group (EWG), there are vegetables and fruits that you should consider buying only organic.

The Clean 15 (the lowest in pesticides): Avocados, Sweet Corn, Pineapples, Cabbage, Sweet Peas (frozen), Onions, Asparagus, Mangos, Papayas, Kiwis, Eggplant, Grapefruit, Cantaloupe, Cauliflower, and Sweet Potatoes

The Dirty Dozen (Buy these Organic): Apples, Peaches, Nectarines, Strawberries, Grapes, Celery, Spinach, Sweet Bell Peppers, Cucumbers, Cherry Tomatoes, Snap Peas (imported), Potatoes. PLUS Hot Peppers, Kale, and Collard Greens

In closing, I pray you will choose to love yourself by giving up foods containing GMOs. Experience the freedom of health and wellness that whole, clean foods will provide you.

Are You Trapped? Part 1 How to Change a Disease Mindset

I was terrified.  I could hear scratching and digging. I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. Thoughts of , “this is my imagination” were resolved when my cat perked up her ears as well.

I called my husband at work as this unknown creature sounded huge. Something was desperately attempting to find its way out and it was coming from under my kitchen cabinets. I was terrified to open the door for fear of what would be revealed or lunge out at me.  The scratching and digging seemed to go on for hours and it continued over several days.

My husband finally concluded  it was simply a mouse trapped between the kitchen and my office wall. This was  hard for me to bear as I was the one who used to flip mouse traps in my parents home so they wouldn’t be killed.  I love animals and thought this was such a cruel fate for one of God’s creatures.

In a desperate attempt to help it, I found myself tapping on the wall telling it to find the exit…follow the light.  It obviously came in through the crawl space so it had a way out if I could only communicate to it. I was thinking, don’t stay trapped because if you do, you are going to die an early, slow and possibly painful death.

Then I started to think, so many people are “trapped” and they don’t even know it.  They are sick, diagnosed with disease or still trying to figure out their health issues and clinging to hope from the medical community.  They are experiencing pain,  discomfort and possibly a slow painful debilitating life.  They could truly die a premature and painful death.  I know this but hearing people share their misery, but I can’t seem to save them.

They are trapped in a mindset that there is nothing they can do or should do. They are trapped in the mindset that prescriptions and over the counter medications are helping them to “get better”. Or  trapped in belief that if they get sick, someone else will take care of it.

Just like the mouse stuck in the wall, they don’t know where the opening is or how to escape their circumstances. I’m knocking on the walls trying to give them direction but they can’t hear me.

It seems that the language I’m communicating in doesn’t make sense.  All they understand is that when I’m sick:

  1. I’ll depend on doctors to take care of it. Or…
  2. I’ll remain in denial and ignore the signs/ symptoms altogether. Or…
  3. I’ll suppress the symptoms with over the counter medications or prescriptions thinking I’m making things better (while not knowing the damage these “fixes” may incur long term).

Most of sickness and disease is an imbalance in the body.  It is an overabundance of toxins and a deficiency of nutrients. God and nature have a perfect internal mechanism to rid body of toxins through fever, mucous etc. The body is able to heal itself given the appropriate resources.

However, when we suppress the natural detox process we are driving toxins back into our weakest organs. The cold is the beginning of all chronic disease. This is where it all starts and can develop into hay fever then asthma and possibly lead us to cancer from this weakened state.

Symptoms are a perfect message to heed.  Listen to what body is saying.  The body is out of balance if you are experiencing signs and symptoms. If you act now and do not ignore your bodies message, you can prevent long-term detrimental health issues like chronic disease and cancer.

Wondering about simple solutions that can prevent disease? Stay tuned for Trapped Pt 2: Cancer isn’t a Mystery Disease.  To ensure you don’t miss Pt 2 of this series follow me on Facebook.

This Fitness Concept Challenges the Norm

Evansville, Indiana’s Flex151 is a workout facility and training concept that challenges everything I thought I knew about strength training. The training concept is based on a once-a-week, high intensity ~15 minute session. Yes, you read it right, once-a-week.

My workouts were in desperate need of a change as I wasn’t seeing progress. Therefore, I was more than willing to experience a free session that would only take me approximately 15 minutes to complete and weekly!

The challenge in adopting most new programs especially exercise/strength training is the learning curve and time element. That’s why this one was so intriguing. Is anyone not looking for ways to simplify their life or get more results with spending less time these days?

I’ve always been a firm believer in high intensity and/or the interval concept of training. Strength training is a key component to preventive health so finding a good solution was important to me.

My first visit was with Evansville’s Flex151 owners David Hammelman and Shaun Angel. David explained how the program worked from a scientific standpoint. (Don’t worry, unless you want this level of detail, they won’t share this with you.) I appreciated the science and was impressed with their knowledge and research.
But, it wasn’t the fact that they had studied the body and science that I was impressed with, it was their keen understanding of whole food nutrition. They even confirmed my philosophy that whole food is 80% of the strength training success ratio. What they don’t recommend using is the usual powders, enhancers, builders and the thousands of other synthetics that seems to be the trend in strength training and body building.

Shaun did however recommend a book (Body by Science by Doug McGuff, M.D.) that explained and back the science behind that program. Great resource which I will share more on in future blogs.

My session was a great experience as Shaun was knowledgeable but most important to a client, highly motivating. You know if you’ve been training at any level, hearing an encouraging word when you think you are about to give up makes all the difference in success.
The workout room consists of only five machines in a private room. Privacy for most women is important as the gym can be a bit intimidating. Although I’m quite comfortable in a gym alongside the big, burly power lifters, most women are not.

Well, I’m excited to continue my journey to reap the benefits (my priority is to firm and tone my upper leg/thighs) of high-intensity training. This definitely challenges my conventional thought process in strength training but I’m open-minded enough to try. Stay tuned as I share my experience with this new concept in fitness!

P.S. I’ve increased the amount of weight I’m using by over 20% within the first 3 weeks!