'Anti-Cleanse' step 2!

ANTI-CLEANSE: Step 2: The Great Experiment

Action!

It’s this simple to begin the ANTI-CLEANSE. Define your goals, begin defining action steps, and GO!

All of you have probably noticed the many similarities between your action steps, if not identical action steps, to reaching so many of your very diverse goals. That’s great! It shows us how simple we believe it is too attain optimal health. Now notice I did not say easy, I said simple. Each of you will still have to do the work everyday, and will need to remain conscious of your actions daily, so that through the process you can determine if your actions are appropriate. Somedays a specific action might be exactly what your body needs while other days it might be highly inappropriate. Our bodies are an incredibly dynamic and non-linear system of systems. Expect change. The change needed might be drastic or so very slight. I say this because I don’t want any of you to worry about sticking to your actions when, and if, they do not produce the result you desire. Too often I see people doing the same thing, the same actions, over and over, and they are shocked that it hasn’t produced the result they are seeking. Do not be ideological in your pursuit. Be experimental. If it works, do it again. If not, try another action that is specific to the desired result. Do what works for you, not what is “supposed” to work. Expect that your actions may be different from day to day to achieve the same result and that your successful actions very well may be strikingly different from your friends and neighbors.

TMD will be posting many articles to help better inform your decision making through this process so don’t feel like you are all on your own now. We are here to help, but you must do it. We are here to make each of you more aware of your own feedback and offer potential solutions. BUT only You know what’s best and only You can do it!

Focus on what you want. Listen to your body every step of the way. And allow yourself to change your actions with your changing body… Cheers to the greatest experiment of all. Life!

Visit The Movement Dallas to find out more about training, nutrition and lifestyle modification! See YOU there!

A Better 2010

Just a word to wish everyone a safe and happy new year!

There are so many exciting things to look forward to in 2010, and as it approaches just know that YOU will be better than you were/are. As my mentors Frankie Faires and Craig Keaton say, 'you really have no choice, you were built for it!'. With that, here's to being human and a fresh beginning!

Peace -

Living Without Force

“By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try. The world is beyond the winning.
Lao Tzu”

This can be applied to all aspects of our daily lives, but I want to focus on the ever-continuing pursuit of health and fitness. Being that these are extremely relative terms I want to explain a way to cultivate more of the two for each individual. Our society has taught many different ways or ideas regarding how we are to go about achieving these, whether it’s fad dieting, fad fitness or a combination of both. There is always a new gimmick on the market proposing to be the panacea to reaching your goals. While some of these things may or may not help, it’s important to realize that these things should be a lifelong journey that is continuously woven into our daily lives without force. We are taught from a young age to ‘try’ harder and we will be ‘better’. We are taught to force many things, overriding what our bodies are telling us in the name of health and fitness dogma. What happens is merely temporary, if that. As Dr. Dyer states “force creates a counterforce which goes on until there’s an all out battle”, which is true if you think about it. I see it often in my industry whether it’s in the form of injury or yo-yo dieting. Often times those who step out on that journey end up with much resentment and hostility and truly give up.
I am here to help promote a new philosophy or trend... a realization that it doesn’t have to be hard. We must first learn to cooperate with ourselves in order to succeed, and not compete. Start with baby steps, not to force, and to take the path of least resistance. Take action, big or small, knowing that you are on the way to creating the healthy life you want. As my business partner Craig Keaton says, “weight loss and performance are by-products of health and not the other way around.” Think about that for a second. It makes sense that when we strive for health and do not try to force weight loss etc, those things that we want are naturally going to occur.

Steps to create the healthy mind/body that you have always wanted –

-Eat ‘clean’ foods!
Wherever you are in the spectrum, start. Simply focus on taking small steps. Maybe that’s buying one more piece of organic fruit next time you’re at the store, or researching meat’s that are locally produced and grass-fed. Or it could be something as simple as reading this blog!

-Drink ‘clean’ water!
I would like to do a whole post on water, but you can start now by simply adding more filtered water to your diet. Or bodies are majority water, so it makes sense to get the best you can find. I prefer not to contribute to landfills with bottles but if that is your best alternative I recommend choosing reverse osmosis or artesian (fiji, evian etc). Spring water is always a decent alternative as well.

- Move your body

-Learn to relax
Take time to de-stress. Meditate, read a book, or go for a walk. It’s amazing how these simple things can improve our physiology.

For more tips on how you can become as healthy as possible please email me at brian@themovementdallas.com and visit www.themovementdallas.com.

Simplify

Happy Friday peeps!

One thing that has consistently been on my mind recently is the desire to simplify my current lifestlye. In an age where we are taught 'more is better' we have lost site of what truly matters. In my opinion the best way to get back in touch with what is important is to get rid of the things in your life that truly don't add value or make you or others better. My mentors Frankie Faires and Craig Keaton at The Movement Dallas say 'better is better' and 'better is more', which rings true in my mind. We should strive for quality in all things we do and quantity ends up merely a by-product. Allow this new mentality to take hold and experience it for yourself.

Here is a great (zen habits) article to help you simplify.

Enjoy!

Your Life, Simplified

Simplicity is lovely.

“Our life is frittered away by detail … simplify, simplify.” - Henry David Thoreau

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

A lot of people seem to connect with my message of simplicity, and yearn to find a simpler life in this world of ever-increasing complexity, of overwhelming technology.

We want to take the good things in our lives, the benefits of technology, but simplify things, get rid of the complexities.

And while I’ve written dozens of articles on simplifying (and an entire book on it), I’d like to offer a simple method.

Something you can do today, without being overwhelmed.

A 12-step method, perhaps, simplified into just 6 steps.

1. Write down your top priorities. We all have a long list of things we want to do, to try, to learn, to accomplish. Just pick 4-5. You can do that right now — make a short list of the things that are most important to you. My list: spending time with my family, writing, reading and running. These are the things you’ll build your life around, for now. You can always change this list later, as your priorities change.

2. Reduce one commitment. What is something you do every day or week that’s not on your short list? Is there any way you can get out of it? Make a phone call or send an email right now that will get you out of that commitment. It might mean disappointing one or many people — but you are going to create the simple life you want, not the complicated life others demand of you. By reducing this one commitment, you are simplifying your life, creating more time and space for the important stuff. Make the choice to put your priorities first, to find the time for them, by reducing your commitments.

3. Simplify your to-do list. Same concept, but at a smaller level — what’s on your to-do list that doesn’t need to be there? Something you’ve been dreading that you don’t absolutely have to do? Can you tell someone you’re just too busy to work on this? Can you give it to someone else, or automate it? See if you can pare your to-do list to just the most important things. Alternatively, just pick 1-3 things to do each day, and don’t worry about the rest.

4. Set aside some disconnected time. If you’re connected all the time, this step is essential. Don’t skip it! Pick one hour to be disconnected — no Internet, no email, no IM, no phones. You can use your computer, but just for desktop computing, like writing in a word processor or text file, or working in Photoshop, or what have you. Use this time to really focus, to pour yourself into important tasks that you love to do. Or you can use this disconnected time to relax.

5. Create your perfect day. You’ve blocked aside some disconnected time, but let’s take that a step further: what would your ideal day look like? What would you do when you woke up, what would your work day look like (hint: it doesn’t have to be the work you’re doing now, but it could be), would you have time for exercise or sports or taking a walk or relaxing or reading or doing a hobby, would you have time for loved ones, time to clean or do errands, time for checking email, etc.? List the things you’d do, ideally, then simplify to the most important ones. Then lay them out in a schedule. You don’t have to stick to this schedule exactly, but knowing what’s ideal gives you something to work toward. In some cases, you can simply start living this day, tomorrow, but in others you’ll have to make gradual changes to allow this ideal day to happen. The key: taking control and responsibility for making the perfect day a reality.

6. Declutter. You want a nice, decluttered, serene space to surround you in your new simplified life. So you’re going to create it. Two ways to go here: if you don’t have much time, just do 10-15 minutes for now, and continue to do small increments until you get to where you’d like to be. Here’s how. Second method is if you have an entire day or weekend — set aside a big block of time and just overhaul your workspace or one or two rooms in your home. Here’s a good method.

Next Steps
Once you get to this stage, things should be a bit more simplified. But you’re probably interested in going beyond that. Here’s what you can do next — but please, please, don’t try to do these all at once. Pick one at a time, and do it slowly, over time. Simplifying isn’t a race — it’s a life.

• Declutter some more. Read.
• Letting go of wanting to buy more. Read.
• Reducing more commitments. Read.
• Transitioning to doing only work you love. Read.
• Creating time for solitude, quiet and relaxation. Read.
• Slowing down in everything you do. Read.
• Being present more often. Read.
• Single-tasking. Read.

And most importantly: enjoy the process! The important thing isn’t a destination — a perfect, simple life — but the journey along the way.

Manifest plainness,
Embrace simplicity,
Reduce selfishness,
Have few desires.
- Lao-tzu