What’s Stopping YOU?

The definition of an excuse is a well-planned lie. It is a growing epidemic and the number one cause of failure, yet we continue to pass it down to our children. Something so minute, so small and yet we do not even realize that we are being held captive by this one word.

Held captive, in bondage, wrapped in chains, chains around our eyes, chains around our mouth, chains around our ears, our neck, our arms, our legs, our feet-chains wrapped around our entire being.

We live like this every second of every day, teaching our children to have reasons instead of results. They need strong examples of leadership and we give them excuses to continue to live a life of failure.

Why? We are all able bodied people with 24 hours in a day. We are all given a chance to do something with our lives, yet here we are…settling for less. We have given up and settled for mediocrity.

We argue and defend our “reasons” instead of propelling ourselves forward to get results. Most of us have been so conditioned to believe our excuses instead of finding the will to find the way to get out of the situation that we’re in.

We live in “Why not”, “If only”, “I wish I would have”, “I wish I could have” land; a land full of diseased thoughts. Here we wallow in hopelessness, despair, apathy, self-pity and self-hate.

Afraid to hope, afraid to dream, afraid to live.

Why do we settle for less in a comfort zone that really is not comfortable?

Have you ever wondered what it is like on the other side? On the other side of mediocrity? Where we choose to step up in faith. We choose to step up and out of our rut.

Where we choose to do something better with our lives. Where we choose success instead of failure. Because we do have a choice!

We can choose to live our life as though we do not have tomorrow. As though tomorrow did not exist. God gave us the ability to change.

We can instill in us that determination that we once possessed as children, that persistence of not giving up until we get what we want, see and feel.

That commitment is going to be what takes us out of where we are right now. It’s going to take us out of this so-called facade of a comfort zone and have us rise up above it to see what life is truly like to live.

To live it to the fullest each and every day instead of giving into doubt, giving up to unbelief, giving in to circumstances. Because we can never buy back yesterday. We can only fully maximize today!

So the question is, are you fully maximizing today?

Are you going to fully maximize tomorrow?

Are you going to rise up out of those circumstances and find a way to make it happen at all costs without giving up?

Are you going to give it your absolute best shot, because your best is good enough?

This is what our children need to see. This is what our communities need to see. A people, a chosen generation to rise up, to rise up and out of apathy, to rise up of no vision.

To step out and go forward and do what many have done before us. Can you imagine giving your children this gift?

My mother gave me this gift when she refused to let drug addiction control her life. Because there is going to be a day that your last breath is taken.

Do you want to look back before that breath is taken and feel fully satisfied that you gave it your best, you gave it your all to live your life the way you wanted to?

My mother passed two months after she made her decision to truly live.

When will you decide to live?

This is Brandi Magill signing off, I hope you all enjoy your weekend!

Food has that kind of POWER!

There is food that will build and nurture your body and then there is food that will tear you down, ruin your heart, give you diabetes and age you rapidly.

That’s the truth whether we want to hear it or not. Food has that kind of POWER!

You may never have the kind of money that Oprah does to be able to buy the services of a personal chef or personal trainer for that matter. You may never be able to afford the latest in plastic surgery and designer skincare.

What you CAN afford however, is to feed yourself and your family as healthfully as possible. It just takes a desire and a “want to” attitude!

Without taking out a second mortgage, here are 7 things we can do NOW to achieve better health tomorrow:

1. First Thirst. Water is cheap, readily available and will boost your health, your absorption of nutrients and give you great skin!
2. Big on Breakfast. Eating breakfast gets your metabolism started, your appetite handled and consequently, helps you to stabilize, maybe even lose weights!
3. Eat in Season. Fresh fruits and veggies can be expensive, but if you buy in season, you’re going to get superior quality and less cash outlay!
4. Watch the Iceberg. There are FAR better lettuces out ther.  Iceberg is nearly a nutritional void.  Let the color GREEN be your guide; the greener the better!
5. Brown Outs. Skip the white rice, white flour and white sugar and go for the whole-wheat flour, brown rice and evaporated cane juice instead.  All of which should be used sparingly!
6. Go Fish. Eat wild fish instead of farm-raised fish to enjoy the benefits of omega 3 fatty acids not found in farm-raised.
7. Better Butter. Use half olive oil and butter whipped together, or better yet use coconut oil to replace both!

Start thinking, I mean really thinking about what you want to accomplish on your next trip to the grocery store. Is it to give your body the nutrients it truly needs to thrive or is it to merely fill that void between your breastbone and hipbones?

It’s your choice!

Brandi

Can You Eat Your Facewash?

A statement I never thought of until this morning after reading this article. Knowing all of the toxins that are being put into our personal care items, I suppose it is true; we should not be putting things on our skin that we would not feel comfortable putting in our mouths, eh?

Until next time,

Brandi

Super Green Smoothies Vs. Urilife The Feast

As people are becoming more and more in tune with what is going on with the food industry, they like myself, are ditching the Red bull and other sugar-filled energy drinks and picking up some real nutrition found in live whole foods.

With more and more research going on, we are finding out how powerful these super foods truly are. Raw foods are crucial to good health. People who were once sick are becoming healthy, people are looking younger, diseases are being cured….and all of this is being done naturally by giving our bodies The Feast God intended us to have.

So what is with this Juicing?

Well, according to the healing diet, it is generally recommended we should be eating roughly 1 pound of raw fruits and veggies per 50 pounds of body weight every day. Juicing is certainly an excellent way to make sure you receive the large quantities of the raw foods you need to survive, and may not otherwise be able to get.

Because many of us have relatively compromised intestines as a result of poor food choices over the many years, our bodies no longer have the ability to absorb all of the nutrients from the fruits and vegetables. Juicing tends to facilitate this absorption.

Cons of Juicing…although there aren’t many, juicing can be expensive, timely, messy not to mention green juicing can taste like crap too.

How to avoid these juicing woes…

I am not into supplementing my diet, but if you are like me and live a busy lifestyle between being a full-time mother of 2, attending my daughters school functions and sporting events, being a wife and tending to my husbands needs, keeping up with a house, leading a team of individuals in business and running a successful business myself, you don’t have time to fiddle with the blender and go to the store for produce every day.

The answer is Urilife’s The Feast.

The Feast is a Power Packed, Nutrient Dense, Live Whole Food Based, Great Tasting Powder Juice Drink Mix that gives me the REAL NUTRITION I’ve been seeking! The Feast and the Feast Super Charged are the only products on the market that provide a synergistically complete, nutritionally balanced combination of natures MOST beneficial live whole foods.

The Feast is a convenient all-in-one live whole food based supplement for today’s active and demanding lifestyles! Feed your body the feast it deserves!The Feast is the one and only live whole food based product on the planet that delivers a full, synergistic spectrum of:

• 30 Antioxidant Rich Fruits & Berries
• 30 Powerful Greens & Vegetables
• 11 Nutrient Dense Seeds, Nuts & Sprouts
• 83+ Active Enzymes & Fulvic Minerals
• 22 Strains of Resilient Living Probiotics

The Feast:

• Does not contain isolated, synthetic or inorganic vitamins and minerals.
• Dried at temperatures below 100°F. Fresh live whole foods to powder concentrate in seconds.
• Non-pasteurized.
• Preservative free.
• More variety, quality and quantity than any other concentrated whole food supplement.
• Nutritious and Delicious!

All of this in ONE power packed, nutrient dense, complete whole food formula for the ultimate in whole food nutrition! Ditch the Sugar and Get some Real Energy only found in Live Whole Foods!

Want a FREE Sample?

Let me know you’re a reader of True optimal Health by emailing me, and I’ll send you a sample!

Cheers!

Brandi

Energy Drinks: Do They Really Give You Wings?

Energy drinks are all the rave these days, pretty much taking over the soft drink market in the caffeine fueled frenzy. The reality is, their advertisements are actually quite disturbing knowing that millions of viewers are thinking that these products have everything to do with health.

Instead of leaving the convenience store with a gut bomb, you grab a Monster can of Adrenaline that promises to redline your performance until you’re partying like a Rockstar. But do energy drinks really give you wings? Or are you more likely to experience a short lived jilt of energy only to come crashing down in a matter of hours?

Even before I started going raw I was never big on these energy drinks. So what’s in this stuff that makes it so special and even more importantly, is it special? The ingredients vary, but there is one constant: caffeine. No matter what any energy drink professes, its secret ingredient is caffeine. Let’s take a closer look at Red Bull’s active ingredients:

Sucrose, Glucose-Like most soft drinks, the number one ingredient is by far sugar! This is where we rack up all the calories. Yes, sugar provides an instant energy rush, but its effects are anything but energizing after only a few minutes.

Sodium Citrate-A food additive or preservative that is usually adds because of its tart flavor. However, it’s also alkaline and inhibits blood clotting.

Taurine-Originally came from bull bile, can you say yuck!!! This is wear Red Bull got its name.

Glucuronolactone-A naturally occurring chemical compound produced by glucose metabolism in the liver.

Caffeine-Now here’s the business. Caffeine is a plant alkaloid found in over 60 species of plants such as guarana, kola nut, mate, tea and of course coffee. Caffeine is now arguably more popular than ever and it’s estimated that 90% of American adults consume it in some form.

Caffeine is not without its downside for sure! Too much can make you jittery, anxious, insomnia, and even paranoid. It increases the production of stomach acid and can lead to an assortment of ailments. It’s also addicting and those who drink caffeine daily will suffer withdrawal symptoms if they can’t get it.

So will they give YOU wings?

There is little doubt that you will gain a burst of energy from these drinks, although it’s unlikely to be sustained energy. Furthermore, the type of rush you get will be followed with a crash that will make you crave more. Because these have very little nutrient value, chances are that consumption of more than a couple will leave you feeling edgy or downright irritable!

Stay tuned…tomorrow we will talk about Super Green Juices and UriLife The Berry Feast, a healthier alternative!

Until then,

Brandi

What is More Important than Eating Right?

Did you know 87% of disease can be linked to thought life and only 13% is traceable to food, genetics and environmental influences?

While I consider myself moderately healthy, after working several years with spinal cord and brain injury patients, I realized how important it was to have a happy heart, a clean mind, right thoughts and then ….eat right.

I bared witness to life changing events, events that left people living by different means. Events that should have ended their lives, but miraculously didn’t. Some of my patients were injured and left paralyzed by car accidents, motorcycle accidents, bicycling, skiing, diving and even mosquito bites.

Yes several of my patients were paralyzed from the neck down due to a mosquito bite! One of my favorite patients whom I became very close with was injured pushing a lawn mower, tripped and fell breaking her spinal cord. Pretty unbelievable, no?

While I was in the midst of tragedy, I had my most treasured laughs. You see all of these people had the heart of lions. They didn’t let their accident take over their emotions. They excepted their new life and embraced it with gratitude. Watching them, empowered me to do the same.

We put a handicap on those who do not walk like us, talk like us, see like us and think like us, yet those who we consider “normal” are the ones crippled by their emotions. They make up 98% of the population whom are taken hostage by themselves and their thoughts!

I made many lasting friendships from Hawaii to Europe. I was invited to move to Kauai with a family as well as flown to Olathe, Kansas to train a family’s new staff. It was a privilege and honor to work amongst such extraordinary human beings.

So the next time you eat right~be sure you are the 2% that is also feeding your mind and soul the nutrition it needs!

God Bless!

Brandi

Health Facilities Flush 250M pounds of Drugs a Year!!!

Back in March to our dismay, the water supply of at least 41 million Americans was in the spot light. An investigation showed the presence of pharmaceuticals or byproducts in our drinking water, including medicines for pain, infection, high cholesterol, asthma, epilepsy, mental illness and heart problems.

Researchers claim that the amount of pharmaceuticals and personal care products released into the environment each year is the same as the amount of pesticides released into the environment each year.

We are talking about 888 million pounds of drugs released into the environment each year.  In a more recent article, health care facilities account for 250 million of that!

Since these people care so much about our food supply, why would they be concerned that each US. man, woman and child is digesting 3lbs of drugs per year. Of course the federal government doesn’t require any testing and hasn’t set safety limits for drugs in water, the utility companies insist our water is safe.

The fact of the matter is, researches do not yet understand the exact risks from decades of persistent exposure to random combinations of low levels of pharmaceuticals.

Remember, we are not only exposed to these contaminants by drinking them. We are also being exposed when we shower, bathe, cook, wash laundry and use eating and drinking utensils washed in the contaminated water.

To read more

Your Friend in Health,

Brandi

How Much Soy is in Your Diet???

As always… all things should be read with a critical eye :~) I found an interesting article about the foods we should watch out for, I had to do a double take on the part about soy.

Did you know soy got its beginning as an INDUSTRIAL WASTE PRODUCT?

Research has shown that just two glasses of soy milk a day for one month are enough to change a woman’s menstrual cycle! And feeding soy to infants is even more devastating. It has been found that infants fed exclusively on soy formula are ingesting FIVE birth control pills worth of estrogen daily!

Yes the things they say are good for us now will probably differ in the morning but I do feel this article is at the very least worth a look.  To read more visit: http://nourishedmagazine.com.au/blog/articles/soy-the-abominable-bean

Happy Monday!

Brandi

What Does a Two Year Old Know About Failure?

“In one success a thousand failures lie forgotten. In one refusal to try a thousand successes prematurely die”

1) Let Nothing Stand in Your Way

If a 2 year old sees a cookie on the counter, do you honestly think that he is going to walk the other way? Of course not, he will locate a chair, push it over to the counter, climb up and get that cookie. If he sees a dog, he is going to walk right up to that dog no matter how big and viscous and he will reach out his hand to pet it.  If your 2 year old is like mine, he will even hug the dog. These aren’t risk-free moves, yet a 2 year old acts with out fear and is oblivious to the consequences of his actions.

2) Do Not Limit Your Determination

There is no limit to their determination. They don’t say”Okay, I’m going to try walking 10 times and if I can’t get it, I’ll just quit.” No, they try until they get it. They may change their approach and try different tactics, but they try until they get what it is they want, no matter how many bumps and bruises it involves.

3) Driven by Desire

Their ability to keep on trying is driven by their desire. Their desire to get what they want is what motivates them to keep trying. They have no hidden agendas, they do not con themselves into thinking they want a carrot when really they want a cookie. They are honest about their desires and that is the driving force for their determination to get it.

4) Do Not Dwell

When they slip and fall or don’t quite reach their objective, they don’t beat themselves up. They don’t take it personally. Sure, they do get upset, but they move on! They don’t dwell on it for weeks, days or even hours, usually they are trying to conquer another objective within a few minutes.

5) Ask For Help

2 year old’s are not above asking for help. If there is something they can’t reach, they tug on your sleeve or grab your hand and point to what they want. It doesn’t offend them or make them feel less of a person because they asked for help. They take the help when offered and ask for help when needed.

6) Learn by Imitation

They learn how to succeed by watching their surroundings. They watch mannerisms by listening to words, emotions, and actions. This is how they learn how to walk and talk by imitating those who are successfully accomplishing what they desire.

7) Gratefulness

When they do get help, they are grateful for it. They show their gratitude with a smile, a hug or maybe even a “tank oo”.

The greatest failure is in the refusal to try. When did we as adults learn to fail?

Forever and Always,

Brandi

I’ve Fallen…

….but I am getting up.

Sorry it’s been a few days guys, we had two deaths in the family last week.  One of which struck close to home, as I found myself having to explain to my seven year old why a man chose to take his life instead of fathering his two children.

Obviously the pain he felt in his heart went deeper than we all knew.

Yet still I ask, WHY?

I am going to take the next two days to get my barrings straight, spend quality time with my children and continue to pray for the two that lost their daddy.

I thank you all for your words of encouragement.

Your friend,

Brandi