I have been a green tea advocate for years, ever since I gave up my once addicting and overwhelming Diet coke habit. Searching for a healthier alternative, I discovered green tea and have enjoyed its wonderful taste and amazing health benefits ever since.
Why should you drink green tea every day?
It is loaded with antioxidants, can help reduce the threat of cancer, lowers cholesterol, assists in weight loss, and even fights tooth decay. Cool, huh?
But do you know what's really cool? Turning a successful green tea video (search YouTube for "green tea" and my vid comes up tops out of 45,000) into a cool music video. Please watch and enjoy my newest music video:
Livelife365 is all about eating healthy, losing weight, and motivating yourself to do all that it takes to change your life for the better. All done in a fun and entertaining way. I hope the above videos continue that message and help you become the person you strive to be.
Lastly, I have a new self-help book for sale. Please check it out and tell anyone you know that is looking to change their lives for the better. I'll even toss in 30 of my top videos and 5 original songs. All for only $24.99. Oops, guess again. Special Sale Price now only $19.00. Or you can get just the book for only $14.99! Sweet deal, huh? Check it out and let me know your thoughts...
Aloha from Maui! Please enjoy this helpful and humorous video I created on how to eat a coconut. I picked that baby up yesterday at the local farmer's market. Enjoy!
While researching this post, I encountered so many excellent, usable quotes that I had to stop for a second and further ponder why I desired to write a post about a topic that has already been written about extensively. I mean, the current president of these United States of America, Barrack Obama, practically based his entire candidacy on hope, or better put: on the premise, and promise, of believing in and rediscovering a lost hope. He even penned a best-selling book called “The Audacity of Hope.” One of his heroes, Martin Luther King, Jr., constantly orated about hope:
“If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.”
Men and women throughout history talk of hope, the opposite of despair, which is also a highly quoted subject matter. Hope and despair are forever linked; you can’t think about one without thinking about the other. The great writer, George Bernard Shaw, may have put it best:
“He who has never hoped can never despair.”
And for those who like their hope quotes a bit darker, there’s always that cheery, optimistic philosopher Freidrich Nietzsche:
“Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torments of man.”
Although I prefer a softer, kinder hope, as I mentioned earlier, “Ya can’t talk hope without talking about the bad stuff too.” (One of my quotes. Don’t think it will be enshrined into the quote hall of fame anytime soon). To hear me talk more about hope, and why I feel this is a worthwhile topic, I produced this video:
One of the things that continually amazes me is the hope I witness in others who have no business believing in anything, much less hope. It makes little difference what specific hardship or malady, act of violence or bad luck I am referring to, only that these brave, resilient souls somehow find it within themselves to persevere, to go on and rise above whatever tragedy that has befallen them and do something with their lives. Which, as always, brings me to what I’m all about—what livelife365.com is all about: living life every day in every way and not letting anyone or anything stand in your way.
Which also brings me to this amazing email I received from a loyal follower of livelife365. His name is Pierre and he is a lot like you, me, and millions of other people in this world. He is a human being and he’s made mistakes, embraced vices like smoking (cigarettes and marijuana), overeating, and practicing bad nutritional habits, which means he is not perfect, just like you and me. But like those aforementioned folks who refuse to give up even while facing great odds, Pierre wanted to change his life for the better. He began by researching green tea, because he had heard that drinking green tea was a good way to lose weight. He found my green tea video on YouTube, and then, like many others, stumbled upon my site, and began watching my videos on weight loss, diet and nutrition, and motivation. And, according the Pierre, livelife365 helped him lose 18 pounds in three months and changed his life. I was so thrilled by Pierre’s story that I produced a video about it:
Like I said on the above video, and as I say countless times, there are hundreds of thousands of Pierre’s out there that need to change their lives for the better. All they need is a push in the right direction and some common sense advice on how to do it. I strongly feel livelife365, both this blog and my video site, can offer that push and advice.
At the end of my video about hope, I play a short version of my theme song, called “livelife365.”
Gee, Mike, how did you come up with that name?
Ahem, no one likes a wise guy…
Anyway, that song, along with letters like Pierre’s, epitomizes what livelife365 is all about. The lyrics say it all.
Click the below widget to listen to the complete version of the song, “livelife365.”
In closing, I leave you with a quote from one of the most quoted political figures of the last century, Winston Churchill:
“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
Until next time…
What is
angst and why would anyone want to eat it?
Dictionary.com
defines angst this way:
angst:
Spelled[engk-stuh]
a feeling of dread,
anxiety, oranguish.
Per Merriam-Webster:
angst:
a feeling of anxiety, apprehension, or insecurity
For me,
angst is an emotion, a feeling; and not a very pleasant one. But one that we all encounter every now and
then, and have to deal with.
How do you
deal with your angst?
One way far
too many people deal with anxiety, anguish, apprehension and insecurity is
through emotional eating.
What is
emotional eating?
It is using
something as basic and necessary—like ingesting food for survival—as a crutch
to combat angst, all of those sometimes everyday emotions we must learn to deal
with in a healthy way.
Why not just
ignore your angst?
That’s part
of the problem—angst, or any adversity, when ignored still festers inside us all. In fact, pretending that what’s bugging you
is not really bugging you may lead to having that anxiety present itself in an
unhealthy way—like through an indulgence with food when you are not hungry.
Without eating
we do not live—that’s as basic as breathing, sleeping, and drinking water. And there’s nothing wrong with using food to
celebrate a success, a birthday, anniversary, or any number of wonderful
reasons to take your family, friends, and loved ones out for a night of wining
and dining. We all do it; in fact, it is
quite healthy to do.
But eating
as a celebration should be done only occasionally. Eating to hide or ignore emotional adversity
done oft times daily is another story.
Emotional eating,
or eating ones angst, is not only the wrong approach to what’s ailing you, it
may just kill you.
Overeating,
which leads to being overweight and obesity, is the leading cause of death in
the world. Being overweight leads to:
·Heart
desease
·Diabetes
·Cancer
·Degenerative
joint disease
·Gastrointestinal
distress
·Depression
·Death
What can you
do?
We all have
our share of angst, of distress and anxiety from time to time. The best way to deal with it is to embrace
it, acknowledge it, understand it, and then take action.
If the first
thing you reach for when you feel angst whispering in your ear is a candy bar,
slap that thought out of your head and replace it with:
·A
stick of sugarless gum
·A
handful of healthy almonds, pistachios, walnuts, or peanuts
·A
sugar free hard candy
·A
toothpick
·A
piece of fruit
·A
book
·A
jump rope
Replacing a
bad habit with a good one—in other words, reaching for a jump rope or taking a
walk when I feel anxious, rather than cramming a handful of potato chips into
my mouth—has helped me more times than not.
What else
can you do to help stop eating your angst?
·Take
a walk
·Meditate
·Call
a friend
·Plan
a vacation
·Volunteer
·See
your doctor
·Research
your health options
·Rethink
your lifestyle
·Go
on a healthy diet
·Livelife365
Changing your
life for the better is something most of want to do—who wouldn’t? But taking that first step, understanding
that you are not alone in your struggle, is challenging. The first thing you need to do is to realize
that when you are upset about something and automatically seek refuge in the refrigerator
or cupboard that you must take a moment, suck in a deep breath, and just say
no.
Reach for
help, a friend, another option, an alternative.
And not eat
your angst. Eat to live, to celebrate
occasions and successes, in moderation.
Do all that
you can to try to be the person that you know you want to be, that you deserve
to be, that you will be.
Livelife365
will always be there to help you on your journey to better health, to balancing
your mind, body, and spirit, to living your life to its fullest, every day in
every way.
In honor and in memory of the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil ten years ago, I offer this video. To quote Sir Winston Churchill, when standing up to Nazi Germany as they continuously bombed London night and day:
Those of you who are familiar with me and my healthy lifestyle choices here at livelife365 no doubt opted for D.Yup, Malabar is a spinach-like, leafy veggie that not only tastes delicious (and a bit like asparagus), but is loaded with vitamins and minerals that will help change your life for the better.
A member of the Basellaceae family, Malabar looks and tastes a bit like spinach, but is not—even though it is often referred to as vine spinach, given that it grows vine-like, up to dozens of feet in warm weather climes (like right here in Northern California, where I call home).
As you may have surmised, Malabar thrives in heat, growing mostly in tropical regions of Asia, India, and Indonesia, as well as right here in some North American hot spots.
Besides being a good source of fiber and low in calories, Malabar is also high in antioxidants, vitamins C and A, iron and calcium.
Eat it raw in salads, stir fry it with your favorite Asian wok recipe, or steam or boil the leaves and stems for a tasty side dish.No matter how you serve it up, Malabar is a wonderful addition to your summer vegetable harvest.Just this season I discovered Malabar and love this healthy and delectable vegetable.I think you will too.
It's happening again: Wall Street is slumping, people are panicked, and the economic health of the world is in jeopardy. Sound familiar? This pattern of turbulence is very similar to what occurred only a few years ago. At that time, I wrote an article on how to survive such a drastic and life-changing financial challenge. Those words of wisdom helped me, and many others, through that crisis back in 2008; I feel the tips below are still apropos today. And one more thing:
PRACTICE PATIENCE!
How To Survive an Election-Year Financial Meltdown
I know what some of you are saying, "Why should I listen to what you have to say about the economy? You're a self-help guy, who specializes in healthy lifestyle and personal development, as well as makes funny (goofy) videos and goofy (funny) parody songs."
Why? Because in dire times like these (seen the Business headlines recently?), during the most important presidential election of our lifetime, it takes a commonsense and practical approach to combat all the craziness going on out there.
Q: But, Mike, you write and make videos about diet and nutrition, motivation and how-to, what do you know about finances?
A: As much as the next guy, and more than enough to help you.
TEN THINGS YOU CAN DO TO SURVIVE THE ELECTION YEAR FINANCIAL MELTDOWN
1. DON'T PANIC
Wall Street seems to feed on panic--panic buying and panic selling. While others overreact and sell off their stocks and put their cash in safer investments, you don't need to follow suit. Unless you need the money from those investments right now, standing pat is still the best option. Why? Because stocks eventually ALWAYS come back up--this is a historical fact. And if they don't, then we're all in trouble. This too shall pass.
2. SIT ON IT
Rarely, as a self-help, fitness guru, do I suggest sitting back and doing nothing. But, in this case, go right ahead! Pass the popcorn and park it on the couch. Okay, you still need your daily exercise, but with regards to your money--LEAVE IT ALONE. Sit on it. In fact, the best advice that I hear the most from those that get paid to know this sort of thing is: DO NOT stop contributing to your 401k or IRA. Why? Right now stocks are cheap. When the market goes down, prices go down. The more stock you purchase NOW, at lower prices, the more you will have LATER, when the market stabilizes and goes back up. Think about it.
3. KISS (KEEP IT SIMPLE, SHERLOCK!)
Simplify your life. Cut back, spend less. Analyze what you NEED versus what you WANT. If you dine out 3-4 times a week, cut that in half. Do you really need satellite TV and radio? The recent trend now is stay-at-home vacations--you spend less on gas and airfare, while discovering local attractions you may have been missing, or avoiding, for years.
Bottom line: Simplify your life and save money.
4. TAKE A WALK
How much do you spend a year on that health club membership? Figure out a way to stay in shape at home, and cancel that costly membership. Walking is one of the least expensive, but most effective, ways to stay in shape. Plus, it gets you outside, and is good for the mind and spirit. In times like these, that's a good thing.
If you desire a more strenuous workout, look into purchasing dumbbells, a stationary bike or other equipment; whatever fits your specific needs. The initial investment may smart a little at first, but will more than pay for itself for years and years.
5. INVEST IN YOURSELF
While exercise and keeping fit are vital aspects of personal growth, don't stop there. Continue working on self-improvement and personal development all the time. livelife365.com offers hundreds of self-help videos that can change your life for the better, all free of charge and just a mouse-click away.
6. LISTEN TO YOUR BOSS
There is no place continued growth is more important right now than in the job market. Now is not the time to take your job for granted. Nor is it the time to mess up the job you have. Yes, keep that resume handy and continue networking and sharpening your skills so that you are more marketable. But you also need to keep your boss happy with your work. Work harder. Do the best job you can to make yourself indispensable. Most companies will have cutbacks and layoffs--YOU cannot control this. But you CAN control your effort, productivity, and attitude.
ALWAYS be in the TOP ranked twenty percent of good performers, not the bottom twenty.
Why? GOOD companies seldom layoff GOOD employees.
Be good, listen to your boss!
7. STOP AND SMELL THE FLOWERS
Enjoy yourself. Enjoy each day. Live life 365. This simply means to live your life every day in every way. Yes, times are tough, the economy is a mess, the world is a bigger mess, but you can still find a way to enjoy the little things in life that have nothing to do with the bigger things that are out of your control.
Every Day Every Way
8. GET YOUR HANDS DIRTY
Now is the time to roll up those sleeves and get to work. But you're already working on self and your job; what next? Go outside, dig up the garden. If you don't have a garden, start one. Landscape. Mow the lawn. Do house repairs, spring or fall cleaning. Learn a new (inexpensive) hobby. Do it yourself. Besides saving you a ton of money, DIY is good for the mind, body, and spirit. A sense of self-accomplishment goes a long way. And if you're picking ripe tomatoes off the vine, you're not worrying about Wall Street. Besides, growing your own will save you more money in the long run (and they taste so much better, too!). Can, bottle, preserve, or freeze whatever you can't consume now, and have a winter of homegrown, inexpensive veggies.
9. BALANCE YOURSELF
And your portfolio. The only movement you should be doing with your portfolio is rebalancing it. This simply means you need to take a look at your asset allocations. When there are sharp fluctuations in the stock market, your assets will also shift. But do me a favor, check with your financial consultant before you do anything.
As for you and YOUR balance: you should always be working on managing your Triad of Balance, the harmonic balance between Mind, Body, and Spirit.
10. VOTE FOR CHANGE
Now, more than ever, we need some major changes in Washington. If YOU do not like what is happening in YOUR life due to decisions made by our political leaders, YOU have the power to CHANGE it.
The current financial meltdown we are witnessing needs to be fixed. Fixed fast! We have the choice to keep on making the same mistakes that have led us here.
Or opt for CHANGE.
For the better.
I hope these tips help make dealing with these turbulent times a bit easier. And always remember that YOU have more power than you think to CHANGE your LIFE.
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