Almost there! Cleansing and Fat Burning System Worked!

After only a few short months, I find myself within 2 pounds of reaching my goals. In late 2008 when I started, it seemed like a pipe dream, that I could shed that much weight and do it in such a short time period... I wanted to be back to 190 by my birthday, which is now just ten days away.

Even a month ago, I was skeptical I could reach it, but looking at the progress, it was a steady and progressive reduction in weight, inches and body fat percentage. The Isagenix system, (referred to as the "Accelerated Program") was designed for me by my coach Barbilee Hemmings. I met her almost 3 years ago now at a networking function. I only wish I'd paid more attention then, so I could have had a better last 3 years.

I'm coming off the accelerated program and moving to a 'standard' program next week, and from there, we'll see what happens. Now that I'm in the right weight range, I'll be more in-tune to looking at myself in the mirror, judging how clothing fits and deciding when I've actually reached my goals. the scale isn't moving all that quickly now, especially since I've added weight training back into the mix. Now that I'm adding muscle, my body composition is changing, I'm just not "losing weight" -which is completely fine with me!

I'm feeling great, have more energy and looking forward to playing ball again this year!

Almost crawling....

Miller is doing so well lately - he's finally over a cold he picked up when he last visited a local playgroup. This weekend, we're enjoying a visit from Auntie Jodes. When she heard that my parents weren't coming up this weekend for a visit, she jumped at the chance to hang out with Miller one-on-one (and Carri was happy for the "break" that provided - as a matter of fact, she's out and about in town right now... something that is much easier to do without a 20 pound "assistant" tagging along.)

After we had Shane and Brielle over for dinner two weeks back, Carri has been bugging me to get something smoked on the bbq for her. Last time, we had a AAA Top Sirloin roast that I dry-rubbed and smoked for about 4 hours using a mesquite smoking pellet kit my parents got me for Christmas. This thing was amazing - SOOO tender, wonderful smokey flavour - the meat just melted in our mouth.

Today's challenge is a bit different - Carri couldn't find spare ribs I was wanting to do the other day, so she picked up pork short ribs instead. Beef short ribs are traditionally done on the smoker, but pork short ribs are a different animal. We're going to give it a go and whip up a homemade bbq sauce to accompany them. They've been sitting in the rub for about 2 hours now, I should be getting them into the smoker around 2:00 and we'll see how they turn out. I figure a little beer basting probably will help keep them nice and moist.

I'm going to adapt a technique from the BBQ Pit Boys - if you haven't heard of these guys, just google them, or even better - search youtube for them. They have a recipe for every kind of meat (even soups) you could possibly try to smoke. (For the uninitiated, "smoking" refers to a bbq technique that cooks food "Low 'n Slow" for long periods of time.) We did some pork back ribs the other day that were on the grill for 10 hours, even chicken takes this long. A lot of people assume cooking for that long would dry out the meat, but simply the opposite is true.

Now that I've got the pellet smoker, I can infuse apple wood, hickory, mesquite or even a Jack Daniels flavour into the meats. I can't wait until summer comes and this can be done a little more leisurely outside. For now, I have to just be satisfied running in and out of the house to our snow-surrounded BBQ.

What is Professional Networking?

Today, I had the pleasure of being accepted into a local Sherwood Park BNI Chapter. For those who haven't heard of BNI, it stands for Business Networking International. It is an association that consists of chapters all across the globe; it is an association that allows professionals to get together to help each other's businesses grow by utilizing the power of referrals.

Most businesses talk about "word of mouth" advertising, this just takes it to a whole new level. This group meets for breakfast each week and has a very focused meeting that is designed specifically to know more about each other's businesses. BNI's core philosophy is "Givers Gain."

How this plays out in the real world is evidenced in the operation of a successful chapter. Most businesses can benefit from being a part of a network such as this, and as such attending as a guest is strongly recommended. You can visit a local chapter to see what its all about by finding one near you at www.bni.com. (Our local chapter can be found HERE) -as of today, my membership isn't yet listed, but I should be listed on this page shortly...

The meetings run from 7am until 8:30am and are run with a clock-like precision - we're all busy professionals and without respect for each other's time, not much can be achieved.

I visited the chapter twice, as well as a few other chapters before I decided to submit my application. Unlike most networking groups whose sole membership qualification is the prospective member's ability to clear a cheque, a successful BNI applicant has to pass a background check including references of existing clients, as well as successfully navigate an interview process.

As referrals are an extension of our own reputation, it is IMPERATIVE that only true professionals are admitted as passing a referral on to an untrustworthy individual not only can be frustrating for the person that is searching for a needed product or service, but it can be devastating to the reputation of the person that extended the referral. For this reason, if there are any members that don't respect referrals received by their chapter members, they are immediately removed from the chapter. These folks take their business extremely seriously!

Beyond the commitment to learn about each others' businesses each week, members are expected to meet each other for an in-depth one-hour meeting in which the actual operations of member businesses and information about what makes them special are discussed. In short, by the time a referral is made between chapter members, you can be assured that whoever is benefiting from the product or service in-need will be in excellent hands and treated with the utmost respect.

The in-depth knowledge chapter members have for each other's businesses ensures that by the time a referral is extended, the chances of the professional being recommended being able to provide PRECISELY the needed service are extremely good. It is not uncommon, for example, for multiple types of insurance brokers to be represented within a chapter - each with specialized knowledge and products specifically tailored to dealing with a specific scenario. The best person to talk to if you seek disability coverage, isn't necessarily the same person that would get you the best deal on car insurance, nor are they specifically trained to discuss some of the investment aspects of some life insurance products.

If "Bill" needed some new maple flooring installed, he may ask his brother "Bob" if he knows anyone that can help. "Bob" may have a friend that works as a general contractor and think that may be the perfect person for "Bill" to speak with. If "Bill" decided to ask me the same question, I can look at my professional network to determine who would be the best fit for Bill's needs. In this case, there is Carolee that deals in new home construction, there is Richard who specializes in renovating existing properties, and then there is Blair. Blair is someone that specifically deals in hardwood flooring. While "Bob" may feel that his general contractor buddy is the best person to talk to, I am completely confident that Blair is more knowledgeable in this area - although may not know the requirements for pulling a permit to allow for a new electrical panel to be installed.....

If you are lucky enough to know someone in the BNI world - if they offer to connect you with someone in their network, take the opportunity to meet with the professional involved. They have not only been pre-screened to ensure they are a knowledgeable professional, they are also bound by the BNI Code of Ethics to make sure you are treated fairly.

By all means, do your due diligence as a consumer and make sure there is a fit between what you need and what the professional offers, but rest-assured, you will be treated fairly and with respect!

For more information on BNI and to find out if you could benefit from association with a group of true professionals, please visit a chapter near you. To come out to visit our chapter in Sherwood Park, please email me directly to discuss. If after talking it over, we both feel it would be of benefit to you, let me buy you breakfast and invite you to join us as our guest!

The Joker's Evil Plot Extends Outside of Gotham! Is it a Conspiracy?

Very interesting - last night, Carri and I were over for dinner at Mark & Jeannine's - great meal of buffalo striploins with fresh salad and maybe the world's best potatoes. Anyway, after dinner, we settled in for a few pops and Mark and I got talking. Recently, a colleague and prominent local businessman at the Chamber was promoting the Relay for Life in support of cancer research as he'd just lost a friend to cancer.

The conversation turned to media and if there was manipulation or "social engineering" going on. Its sad, but we see things like this relay, the walks, the marches and all kinds of fund raising going on for cancer treatment - but at the point where treatment is required, prevention is out the door. I'm not suggesting for a second that we don't need better ways to treat cancer, but it would seem ultimately more-effective (long term) if we put more efforts into PREVENTING cancer.

Its not like we don't know the causes... In the 80's, I remember it was almost a punchline that seemingly every day, something new was found to be a cause for cancer. I think that ultimately desensitized the public to the point that if "everything causes" cancer then really what can we do? From there, it just seems to be ignored.

This is a near and dear issue for me as I've had friends and family struggle with cancer over the years (who hasn't?) Some were successful, like my aunt and uncle who over the years both developed and subsequently beat it! Some were not successful - like my best friend in junior high, the kid that sat behind me in Grade 11 French class, my grandfather....

Anyway - when I see the pain in people's faces as they deal with this - whether it is a personal battle against the disease, or trying to support someone going thru it, it really makes me wonder.

I was talking with another business owner at the Chamber on Thursday - she runs a business offering a "chemical free alternative" for cleaning your house. Instead of sprays and harsh chemicals, she shows people how to eliminate the need and use natural products and water. Personally, our business removes the chlorine from the entire home's water supply. We also remove chemicals and allergy triggers from the air we breathe, as well as sanitizing surfaces and protecting them from mold, bacterial and viral infection.

I will argue strongly that chlorine is necessary for the safe delivery of water to a home, but once it is delivered, the chlorine does nothing but harm - people usually think about the effects of drinking it, but that's only a small portion of chlorine absorption. It is absorbed thru the skin directly in the bath and shower (and TEN TIMES more than what you'd get drinking your 8 glasses a day to boot!)

Then there is the most-dangerous form - inhaled chlorine. This is when the chlorine aerosolizes in the shower, bathtub, doing laundry, washing dishes by hand or machine... We also remove the byproducts of disinfection - something that has been even more-strongly linked to cancer than the chlorine itself.

The food we eat is highly-processed. The soils are depleted of nutrients to the extent that today's foods have less than 1/2 the nutrient content of foods grown 50 years ago. We have been spraying with fertilizers, pesticides, selective herbicides (Monsanto is probably the scariest company I've ever heard of!)

The air we breathe has never been more polluted. Whatever side of the "greenhouse gas issue" you sit on, I think we can all agree that global warming/climate change aside, pollution is "BAD" and it affects the air we breathe.

Just two weeks ago, we learned that Cheerios (and subsequently all "O's" style cereals) have trisodium phosphate (TSP) in them - that is a cleaning product used to prep walls for painting - but apparently that's in what the government calls an "allowable range" under their guidelines. (Why we have a "safe limit" for how much industrial solvent is permitted in the food we eat is beyond me.)

This reminds me of the original (hmm - ok, I think it was the second) Batman movie - the one with Michael Keaton as Batman and Jack Nicholson as the Joker. Joker attempted to poison society by adding chemicals to products the public used every day. No single one in particular would do anything noticeable, but when used in combination, they were deadly - I clearly remember the news anchors in the movie who then weren't showering, shaving, wearing make-up, etc. Funny how life imitates art! This is exactly what's going on with the chemicals and poisons the government allows in our daily lives.

This is one of the reasons Carri and I have chosen to live a cleansing lifestyle. We have to submit to some of these pollutants getting into our bodies. I have purified air and water in the home, we cook our own meals from scratch, we don't use any chemical-based cleaning products - everything in our home is "green" in that respect - but I can't purify the air outside, I need to drive in traffic, I eat at networking mixers and social functions and have to stay in hotels with untreated water, etc. Its impossible to completely avoid all this, but cleansing allows us to shed them from our bodies and ensure that perfect nutrients are available for cellular repair and replacement. (It also has led to my losing 35 pounds - so there goes another long-term risk factor!)

So what happens when we live in these toxic environments? All these pollutants link together, react and our bodies eventually shut down! Polluted air, spraying our bodies with chemicals and byproducts, eating nutrient-depleted foods laced with solvents, fertilizers and pesticides - eventually the body just has to give up. I mean really, are we trying to kill ourselves???

That's where the whole topic of "social engineering" came up last night. We started wondering if all these chemicals and poisons are "allowed" for exactly this reason. If we're all living longer, eventually something has to kill us. Are all these environmental poisons "permitted" just so that we will actually succumb to something? Is it governmentally-intended that we all get cancer and die?

In the US, healthcare and "big pharma" are bigger industries than energy! This isn't an accident. There are lobbyists to convince (buy) government support for smoking, drug use, chemicals and steroids in our foods, poisons like fluoride, chlorine and ammonia added to the water supply.

I can't say that I have an answer or am even qualified to comment on it, but it sure sounds like a good question. The evidence certainly does support it. When there are government approved levels for poisons in our food, water and air, then I guess it certainly at least has to be asked!

Talking with my colleague that runs the "anti chemical" company, she shares a common frustration with me. Its easy to see these things are all bad for you, but no-one seems to want to do anything about it. They label the very people trying to help as "radicals" and return to the ostrich position - burying their head in the sand, then weeping and sobbing when they get cancer and start to get sick. THEN they see the light, but unfortunately, for many, its already too late.

The World Health Organization is predicting a 50% increase in cancer rates by 2020. The American Cancer Society tells us that our risk of developing cancer is one in three over a lifetime.

Does this surprise anyone? No - but does anyone want to do anything to avoid being part of these morbid statistics? Maybe - some do. For them, it takes some new knowledge and some lifestyle changes. They are not difficult changes, but they are conscious ones. It requires taking an inventory of your lifestyle and honestly looking at where your risks are.

Is it the air? The water? The food? Do we actually get around to exercising? What products do we use in our homes on a daily basis? A great example is the chemical misting devices that have either a timer or a motion sensor to apply a dose of toxic chemicals on a continual basis - all in the name of "fragrance"! Are you kidding me?!!?!? The company then has the nerve to close their tv ads with "SC Johnson, A FAMILY COMPANY" A very nice sentiment, but SCARY! Its the everyday products like this that scare me the most - chemicals being dosed into the air we breathe under the guise of "home improvement." There are WAY more effective methods of odour elimination as well as better ways to add scents to our home. (If you like the smell of potpourri, how about using it instead of chemicals that smell like it??!?!)

All I ask here is that we, as consumers, open our eyes and start to question things we do and the way we live. We cannot assume that government is there to make sure things in our homes are safe - it just simply doesn't work that way. Like the Joker's evil plot, probably having "one" thing on the hit list in your home or daily use isn't going to be the problem - its the cumulative effect they play on our body. Sooner or later, the fatal straw is added to the camel's back and it breaks. That friends, is how we voluntarily let cancer into our lives.

Cleansing Programs

Wow - well, I never thought I'd be doing something like this, let alone writing about it. I've usually taken a "know it all" position on nutrition. I studied a lot in school, worked in restaurants for 10 years and am nearly addicted to FoodTV -Chef Ramsay just has a way with words....

Anyway, I met Barbilee at a networking function probably 2 years ago when she was talking about nutritional cleansing. I had no real idea what it actually was all about - I just heard about people doing things that reminded me of how Gandhi used to protest and I didn't think that was right for me. What little I knew and WOW - how assumptions can cause problems!

After fluctuating up and down on the "yo yo" (think Oprah) for years, I bumped into Barbilee last summer when she contacted me to order up a reverse osmosis drinking water system for her home. I went over, did the install, we talked a little more about cleansing and I still didn't "get it."

6 months after the install, I got back to her to check on things with the RO system and she emailed me back. I happened to click on the link in her email and watched a video (www.cleanlean.ca) and finally saw what this whole cleansing thing was all about. I called her about it and she told me what all was involved and why it wasn't "fasting" nor was it a "diet." It is a complete nutritional program that is changing my life.

Yes, I have some goals in terms of what I want to lose, and yes, until those are achieved, progress is definitely faster if I watch what I eat and lay off the beer & nachos, but really - that was something I was willing to try since I was absolutely not willing to move to the next-larger size of pants.

I was still skeptical, but when she said there was an unconditional 30 day money-back guarantee, I thought that basically I had nothing to lose but the weight. The decision to start was easy, but with it being the second week of December, I wasn't certain that starting then was a great idea. Turns out there's no time like the present! I am almost done my first cleanse program (as of today, about 3/4 through,) and I'm down 17 pounds already. There is a measurement system they ask you to follow to really see how things are progressing - in all, I'm down 33 inches, and calculating my BMI (Body Mass Index) I'm down 2.4 already -that's a huge change - almost a 10% reduction!!!

I feel better, I've changed notches on my belt, I've had to adjust my watch strap, and my clothes actually fit (kind of loose, truth be told!) We've got a Florida trip coming up the weekend after next and this is going to make me feel a whole lot more comfortable. I should have my goals achieved by my birthday in April, just like I planned. There's been so little sacrifice and so much gained!

I've been a believer in vitamins and supplements for a long time and have taken them religiously even though I've never really felt any different. Granted, I never seem to be as sick as most others, but no different "feel" to life -until now - turns out the answer wasn't just "vitamins" -but a different nutritional approach. I haven't actually used my alarm in the morning in about 2 weeks. I get up, I'm ready to hit the ground running and finally I "feel" the difference. Thanks Barbilee!!!

For more info on the cleansing and nutritional fat burning system I'm using, please see: www.cleanlean.ca

Petition Against the Coalition Government - Keep Your Right to Vote!

I recognize that many of my friends vote differently than I do and that diversity makes this country the best in the world.

We live in a democracy which as Candadians, we have fought around the world to defend democracy and to do an ‘end-around’ the democratic process is an insult to all who gave their lives to protect the process.

You may not agree with the present government but voting against this coalition is the right thing to do as consent will undermine all that our forefathers have worked hard to build: DEMOCRACY.

Approval of this coalition open’s a ‘Pandora’s Box’, makes Canada look like a 3rd world country and most importantly sends a clear message to our youth that their vote DOES NOT count.

(The best thing about Canada is that a democracy gives you the right to agree, sign & forward this petition, or to disagree and post your feelings right here on this blog.)

PETITION:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/CANADIAN/petition.html

If you're on Facebook - please join in the conversation here:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=51804386194#/group.php?gid=51804386194

What Does Democracy mean in Canada?

Wow - I just don't understand what's going on here. This whole "coalition" idea of taking over the country because the other 3 parties agree to disagree with the (just) elected government doesn't make any sense to me.

I keep hearing things like "1 out of 3 Canadians didn't vote for the Conservatives" so they band together. What I don't understand is how they can claim the votes for each of them were simply a vote against Stephen Harper. If the votes were all the same, then why do these 3 parties exist? If a Liberal is an NDP and is also the same as the Bloc Quebecois (a Party whose mandate is simply to break up the nation) then why do they have their own parties???

In the poor, oversees, "corrupt" countries, they rig elections and take over governments by force because they want the power. Ok, so in this case, the Parties are using Separatists instead of machine guns, but the end result is the same. Dion went on record stating the Green Shift was "what was best for Canadians" but "Canadians couldn't understand it." To me, that means that he, as opposed to Canadians, knows what is best for us. Too bad we were so ignorant; couldn't see the light and therefore didn't vote for him (in record numbers.)

Now, he has the opportunity to again take his shot at the PMO and get himself back in - and now they can actually do what is right for Canadians, because apparently we are too stupid to have known better and done the right thing - electing the Libs just weeks ago??? (So really, the best leader for Canada is a leader of a party that couldn't win seats in the last election and a leader that isn't even supported by his own Party???!?)

What about the guise they are doing this under? In the last NDP caucus (teleconference) they mistakenly invited a Conservative to call in and attend - he did. He also recorded it. In the call, Layton said on-record, that this whole coalition thing has been in the works for a long time - he went so far as to state that this was not just thrown together over 3 days to react to the last throne speech.

So this whole plot was cooked up long ago and was their backdoor in, should they actually have lost the last election - which they did, so now they're enacting it?

I just don't get it - how is this a democracy? The "educated politicians" seemingly know better than the lay-electorate and therefore can disregard our "uninformed whims" and take over because they want to, and because they "know best" for us?

This is too much - regardless of what party you back, this is ludicrous. I think this whole idea of a British Parliamentary System, the concept of Governor General representing the Crown, even our Lieutenant Governor provincially is just an outdated joke. We need some major political change.

Just my 2 cents.