Here is a great list from ZenHabits.net - if you don’t subscribe, I would recommend it.  This link compiles some of the best archived articles from the website on getting in shape. They run from Motivation, to Weight Loss, to How to Start (or how to get BACK on the Exercise “Wagon”), etc.

I would strongly suggest clicking on the link above - because that’s what I’m going to be doing for the next little while. I sure need some help in the Motivation/Get Back Started department!

This podcast is a recording of the new Thursday Night Fempowerment Lifestyle Training group’s Second Session. These Grrls have agreed to have their first meetings taped and made public, to instruct those of you who are curious about the process.

The second teleconference in each month is not based upon Curriculum. It is based upon what came up for each Bond Grrl during the previous 2 weeks, as a follow on from the first session of the month and the Weekly Update. If you are following along, you have heard Session One (based on the curriculum), then read the Weekly Update (and the Testimonials), and now we are to Session Two. It deals with setting Goals and Steps for accomplishment - because the Thursday group had some issues with respect to how exactly to do just that.

Each member uses her “Bond Grrl Name,” which I have found helps women really be truthful, honest, and forthright in what she discusses with the group.

My Bond Grrls were asked to post their weekly information and questions here in Comments to share their process, but it’s been a wee bit too private for that! So as you can see, most of the information on the Blog is just from Yours Truly. I am sure that you understand. But you can certainly hear their processes during the Teleconferences.

If you have comments or questions, please call my private line at +1 (206) 350-3537, or e-mail me at doubleohsandy [at] yahoo [dot] com. You can also leave a Comment below.

Enjoy… click on the button below to Play. It has about six seconds of silence at the beginning, so just wait a few counts, it will come on.

 

 Fempowerment Lifestyle Training Call 2: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This Coffee Chat podcast is with Minna Yoo, CEO and Founder of LoveBottle.Net.  LoveBottle.net sells reusable glass water bottles with single-hand-opening pop tops that you can write on. The idea is based on the studies of Masaru Emoto (which you can find at www.hado.net), that show that whatever you write on a glass can actually effect the water crystals inside of the glass. So Love Bottles change your water with the energy of the words that you write on them. And when you consider that 70% of your body is water, you get to infuse that energy into your own being. (NOTE: I don’t get any “kickbacks” from any of these interviews—these really are my experts, and I want to share them with you… no strings attached!) Here is MY Love Bottle, the “Rocker” Black and Pink Star model (ain’t she sweet?): 

I hope you enjoy this podcast, and please let me know if there are other experts you might like to hear interviewed on our Coffee Chats.

If you have comments on this episode, call the Listener Comment Voicemail at +1 (206) 350-3537, e-mail sandy [at] beabondgirl [dot] com or leave a comment below.

Click the red button below to listen.

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 Interview with Minna Yoo, LoveBottle.net: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I have received many emails and queries from Bond-Girls-To-Be regarding what fEmpowerment Lifestyle Training “is like.” This podcast is a recording of the first meeting of a new Thursday Night group. These Grrls have agreed to have their first two meetings taped and made public, to instruct those of you who are curious about the process.

Each of these women completed a Fast Start document that discussed her life, the energy she is putting towards her goals (or towards things that she ranks as actually unimportant)… it covers financial issues, relationship issues… the works. She filled it out as completely or as quickly as she found time for. Nothing is ever mandatory. Each woman also completed two items of Curricula. The first discussed how to turn Adversity to Opportunity; the second deals with changing languaging skills by uncovering ”Psycho-Euphoric and Psycho-Phobic” words used in your business or your daily life.

Each member uses her “Bond Grrl Name,” which I have found helps women really be truthful, honest, and forthright in what she discusses with the group.

For the next two weeks, I will be posting here the information that I would normally have in a private, password-encoded file for the group. I have also asked them to post Comments here instead of sharing their process in a private forum, so that any readers who are interested can see what a typical first two weeks entails.

The first meeting of a group is always a little different than the subsequent ones. Each meeting uses a breathing exercise as an opener, then usually discusses the Curriculum for the week, then moves on to the Mastermind sessions for 1-2 of the participants. As the ‘homework’ behind the first meeting includes not only the Fast Start documentation but also 2 items of Curricula, it is always a bit more general and less focussed than the subsequent meetings.

If you have comments or questions, please call my private line at +1 (206) 350-3537, or e-mail me at doubleohsandy [at] yahoo [dot] com. You can also leave a Comment below.

Enjoy… click on the button below to Play. It has a second or two of silence at the beginning, so just wait a few counts, it will come on.

 

 Fempowerment Lifestyle Training Call 1 [56:21m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Today’s entry in San Francisco IdealBite goes like this:

Ever seen da Vinci’s “The Last Supper”?

The Bite

Then you know food can be art. And that’s what the founders of Slow Food International - a nonprofit devoted to bringing back whole foods that are cooked and savored slowly - are all about. If you’re into food prepared the old-fashioned way (and with sustainability in mind), add slow foods to your daily menu for a more vibrant…er, palate.

The Benefits

• Eating becomes art. Getting to know ingredients, producers, and the cultural history behind our foods makes for more soul-satisfying meals.
• An easel way to avoid empty calories. Many additives in processed and fast foods are chemicals that lack nutritional value and sometimes wreak havoc on your health.
• Painting a greener landscape. The slow food movement promotes biodiversity of crops, organic farming, and the preservation of family (not factory) farms.
• An energy-saving Renaissance. Example: The production of a 1-pound box of cereal requires almost seven times as many kilocalories of energy as it provides in nourishment.

OK, you know, it’s the last one that gets me. I keep harping on posts like The Story of Stuff (long, but worth watching), but those are the things that astonish me.

When I posted my comment today on IdealBite, I was reminded of my Podcast 8 about Life-Affirming Rituals, including Saying Grace (start at 25:00 for this portion). As you may remember from that one, a student of mine wound up losing weight, literally just through the act of thanking the “folks” that had gotten the food to her. She used to eat in the car, standing up, junk-food-on-the run. When I suggested she and her husband start saying Grace over everything they ate, they originally balked because they “don’t do that God thing.” I explained that wasn’t what this was about — this was Giving Thanks to the farmers, truckers, plants, animals, etc. that got that food TO them. The actual physical energetic “beingness” that went into what they were putting in their mouth.

Once she started doing that, first, she found it ‘disrespectful’ to eat standing up. And in the car. She and her husband felt weird saying grace over take-out boxes, so they put the food on plates. Which made them stay at the table longer, and the Grace started them talking about something besides Their Hard Days. Ultimately they started cooking.  And she started losing weight.

If you have my book, check out page 127 for a reminder about Mindfulness versus “Guilt-Ridden Scarfing” — and a discussion about “sensory awareness” when eating. It also talks about Living CAMP (check out the “eating a banana” link).  If you don’t have my book, it’s not pretty, but I have a PDF copy of the page for you here as I originally sent it in to my publisher: guilty-pleasures-sidebar-page-127

How’s about starting a quickie Thankfulness Practice, today?  You’re GOING TO EAT IT ANYWAY, my dear, so…why not?

In this podcast I am extremely honored to offer you another full induction from Master Hypnotherapist Susan Bird. The final of three full inductions, this session builds from the clearing and cleansing you did in the first induction, and the growing of your Manifestation Tree from the second induction. In this culmination of the three episode set, you examine, prune, and nurture your Tree and your Lake into the heathiest, best, most energetic manifestation of your Goal to live your Best Life in the Now! 

If you have comments on this episode, please call the Listener Comment Voicemail at +1 (206) 350-3537, e-mail sandy [at] beabondgirl [dot] com or leave a comment below.

Click the red button below to listen.

 

 Hypnotherapy Podcast with Susan Bird (3 of 3): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In Episode 4 we discussed Feng Shui as a method for ordering your life and how your life can be diagnosed as being out of balance using Feng Shui techniques. In this Episode Sandy runs through the mechanics for doing a Feng Shui clearing and energy realignment on your home. These two podcasts expand upon the topic of decluttering that she discussed in her first View From The Bay (ABC) episode last month, and the topic of using Feng Shui as an ordering method for your physical surroundings, to be discussed in View From The Bay (ABC) on May 5th. (The San Francisco Bay Area lead-in show to Oprah.)

Click here for a printable Bagua map (from www.wsfs.com).

I know it’s difficult to “imagine” the bagua square just from my talking about it, so this should help.

If you have comments on this episode, please call the Listener Comment Voicemail at +1 (206) 350-3537, e-mail sandy [at] beabondgirl[dot] com or leave a comment below.

Click the red button below to listen:

 

 010 - Feng Shui and Energy Realignment In Your Home: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this podcast I am extremely honored to offer you another full induction from Master Hypnotherapist Susan Bird. The second of three full inductions, this session expands on the mythological reference of a Woman as a Lake. It builds from the clearing and cleansing you did in the first induction and utilizes your past as a springboard for your future, ultimately giving birth to your Manifestation Tree. 

If you have comments on this episode, please do call the Listener Comment Voicemail at +1 (206) 350-3537, e-mail doubleohsandy [at] yahoo [dot] com or leave a comment below.

Click the red button below to listen.

 

 Hypnotherapy Podcast with Susan Bird (2 of 3) [25:22m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this podcast I am extremely honored to offer you a full induction from Master Hypnotherapist Susan Bird. The first of three full inductions, this session uses the mythological reference of a Woman as a Lake to help you clear and cleanse your life to become fully present and ready to accept your best life going forward.

Hypnotherapist Susan Bird:

If you have comments on this episode, please do call the Listener Comment Voicemail at +1 (206) 350-3537, e-mail doubleohsandy [at] yahoo [dot] com or leave a comment below.

Click the red button below to listen.

 

 Hypnotherapy Podcast with Susan Bird (1 of 3) [34:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This podcast has some tricks to help you save Energy which is really what Earth Day is all about. These include green tips for around the house that are easy to implement. The beginning of the podcast also introduces you to a real fishing family in Sonoma County that are being devastated by the impacts of our current global situation.

The video podcast that I refer to in this podcast is The Story Of Stuff by Annie Leonard. You can go back and find where I blogged about it a few weeks ago, or just click the link here. It’s a bit long, but it definitely explains the whole manufacturing process and Planned Obsolescence — I think this would be great to show kids.

If you have comments on this episode, call the Listener Comment Voicemail at +1 (206) 350-3537, e-mail doubleohsandy [at] yahoo [dot] com or leave a comment below.

Click the red button below to listen.

 

 Episode 9: Earth Day - It Can Be Easy, Bein' Green [1:02:10.625m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This Coffee Chat podcast is with Dr. Monte of Fitness Rocks. I like to call Dr. Monte the Dr. Oz of the Internet. He brings medical information and education to lay people like Dr. Mehmet Oz does on Oprah — but in perhaps even a more amazing way… because he’s doing it for free! Dr. Monte has given up medicine to follow his empassioned path of helping get the word out on the amazing medical research being done every single day in the area of Health & Lifestyle.

 In their practices, doctors have very pretty (or handsome) drug reps appearing at their offices weekly, to sell them the best new pill or potion (and to take them out on expensive golfing trips and luncheons — hey, my dad’s a doctor, this is the truth). Dr. Monte offers the other side to anyone who will listen — perhaps I should call him an “un-drug” rep. As you can imagine, there isn’t someone out there paid by any deep-pocket company to flog exercise, vegetables, and meditation to combat the pharmaceuticals — so I sincerely thank Dr. Monte for taking on this somewhat daunting job with all the passion and energy that this information deserves. You can change your life, and a great first step is listening to Dr. Monte’s podcast!

I hope you enjoy this podcast, and please let me know if there are other experts you might like to hear interviewed on our Coffee Chats.

And since some of you asked… next podcast will be a “regular” one — I promise!

If you have comments on this episode, call the Listener Comment Voicemail at +1 (206) 350-3537, e-mail doubleohsandy [at] yahoo [dot] com or leave a comment below.

Click the red button below to listen.

 

 Interview with Dr. Monte, Fitness Rocks: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We have a show here in San Francisco called View From The Bay.  I love it — it comes on after Oprah, and it’s a great, local, can-do show that gives you all sorts of great little tricks, cooking tips, and the like.  Spencer and Janelle  (I get to call them by their first names because they are in MY living room, right? :-) ) are really super hosts. I love Janelle especially — she will pretty much do anything, and always has a smile on her face.

 I’m a little behind in episodes, but this past weekend, I tried to catch up on VFTB and Oprah. VFTB had an episode on cleaning out your makeup brushes. Their makeup/fashion host, Audrey Mansfield, shows you how to clean your makeup brushes — and to Janelle’s horror, has grabbed a few of Janelle’s makeup brushes, and has Janelle clean them on camera.  Janelle asserts that she cleans them “every week,” but Audrey asserts that everyone should really do this every DAY.

 HELL-OO……I had NO IDEA that I should be cleaning out my makeup brushes.  And I’m a “bacteria fanatic” (I’m constantly throwing my sponges, etc. into the dishwasher, using and washing tons of towels to keep things clean, etc.) — and it NEVER occurred to me to clean my makeup brushes.  As I watched Janelle’s water turn a not-so-pretty shade of brown, I slinked off to the bathroom, sudsed up a bowl, and started cleaning MY brushes.  (As you can see from the clip, they actually have a very easy method that you can use — just put a little shampoo into a bowl and swish them around and spread the brush out with your fingers to get the makeup out). Oh…my…LORD!  Ick ick ick! I turned the water TOTALLY dark brown, started over, brown again…started over…

 Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaugh!!!!  So I’m sharin’ this with you, Bond Grrls — maybe ya’ll all knew this already and it was just me, but if not, CLEAN your MAKEUP brushes!  They are full of dead skin, bacteria, and just i-i-ick.  I have a new routine now — thanks to View From The Bay.

But… I kinda wish I hadn’t known.  GEE, and I was wondering why I get clogged pores?!

I guess I’ve been an ostrich for the past few months, because I just found out about this CD, and in Googling the gal who did the CD, she’s been on Martha Stewart, Oprah, etc.

 So maybe you already know about this, but if NOT, check out the Skinny Songs CD– click here, it will take you right to it!!

The gal who did this was a business woman turning 50, who realized that 25 or so pounds had “crept onto” her body since she turned 30.  So she set out to write some songs (and have them professionally produced) that would motivate her to lose this weight.  They are FUN!

I just ordered this shirt off her site.  It was WAY too expensive, but it made me laugh so hard I couldn’t help it.  As you can see, it’s a black tank, and across the bootyback, it says “Does This Shirt Make My Butt Look Too Small?”  HADTA have it!

This Saturday, I attended the “Health, Etc.” conference where Dr Mehmet Oz was the featured speaker.

(the photos aren’t up yet)

What a fantastic event. I had imagined that Dr Oz would be “just as great” as he is on TV—but he definitely was. In fact, he stayed late to answer questions from the hall, and was just super. I have been to seminars and seen (and met) folks from TV/etc., and often they are not what they “seem” to be on TV. If anything, he seemed NICER than on Oprah.

One of the things that I also did was wait in the (very VERY LONG, but fast moving) line to have my Glucose, Blood Pressure, Cholesterol tested.

My Glucose was 102 non-fasting—which is normal (Less than 140). YAY!
My total cholesterol was 178—which is normal (less than 200). YAY!
My blood pressure was 139/93—which is WAY BAD and ABNORMAL. Yikes!!!!

As in, they said to see my doctor immediately. Then I talked with the doc who was there, who said that this had to be monitored and had to go down “like now,” b/c it was stroke-level (the bottom number is the “baddie” tho they are both bad).

115/75 is good
120-129 on top and 80-89 on the bottom is “pre-hypertension”
130-159 on top and 90-99 is “Stage 1 Hypertension” — the bottom number being the more important and “worse” one.
Then you are basically just about to die if you are over that.

SO ANYWAY, she said that I had to get back on exercising, b/c also my fat percentage was high. This does not surprise me, since after my wedding (oh, now 1.5 years ago!) my James and I have been the foie gras and wine and lolling King and Queen. But this freaked me out bigtime. No more red meat, blah blah, and NOW.

I heard once that it’s when you get a “wake-up call” that you really get serious. I never really thought that was going to apply to me. I know, what a dummy. But I’m definitely still slim, etc.—I didn’t know I had a time bomb ticking away.

So that’s my post for today—after I get the podcasts done that I’m working on on “Inner Game,” I’m going to be doing a few interviews with some doctors about health (Dr. Monte included—YAY!), and also a hypnotherapy induction for free. Hey—and I will use it!

Soli