Busy Month, still on the job search

well it's been a crazy couple months what with getting ready and preforming in Evil Dead, The Musical. I got the part of Good Old Reliable Jake, here's a rehearsal video. A couple notes were off, but are now gold. check it out.


I also have a couple job applications in and have an interview next week with Body Zone, so I'll think positive thoughts on that one. Zack got in trouble with the law last week. Stupid kid stuff. He was hanging out of a moving car - sitting on the window jam and the car got pulled over. He got a ticket for $235 including court costs. hope he learned a lesson. Expensive one...

Steph is still going to dental assistant school and seems to like it. another seven months she'll graduate. Yippee.
Deb is really starting to get busy and her income is gradually starting to reflect that. My online income is approaching 800 per month and that is passive income. Hope that continues for years and hopefully trending up.

Stand-up Rob Britt

Here's a video of my stand-up. This was my first time doing this, and I was selected as the audience favorite. fun time.

An Odd One

This has been a really odd week. I was exhausted after working 10+ hours on Saturday (First time I’ve worked a Saturday in at least five years) and that surprised me. I used to work 7 days a week at the steel mill and never was so tired after a shift. Deb and I then went to visit some friends for dinner and we didn’t get home until around 11. Sorta late, but after that day I was dragging.

Sunday I was supposed to have rehearsal for Dutch Blitzkrieg, and I just couldn’t do it. I hardly wanted to get out of my chair, and couldn’t see any energy available, so I bailed on that. I almost never miss rehearsals. So I go to work Monday and I feel OK. I have a busy day and eat a burger leftover from Sunday’s dinner and around 130 or 2 I start feeling really bad. Doubled over in pain. I think, seriously, that I am having a heart attack. It doesn’t abate. After about fifteen minutes I leave work, without a word to anyone.

I am clutching my gut and feel like I ought to vomit. This is for the whole drive home. I am constantly looking for where I can pull over in case I do have a heart attack. I am seriously feeling very ill. I get home and eventually start to throw up, just a little bit. I do this on and off for hours. I’m figuring that I had food poisoning, although I couldn’t swear to it.

In the back of my mind I am hoping to feel a little better because I have an audition for Catch 22 at 7pm. By six I am feeling a little better. Pain has scaled back a couple notches and I am not heaving anymore. So Deb and I go to auditions. (the show must go on) And they go well. I am cast, but haven’t heard what parts yet. It’s a multi-part show with all the actors taking multiple roles. Deb is also in the cast.

Tuesday I wake up and still have this stomach pain, but it is minor compared to the day before. I decide to take a vacation day and sleep in until almost 11. That is pretty much unheard of for me. Guess my body needed to recuperate. I am also preparing for a paranormal meeting for Tuesday night. getting some evidence together. We have two hunts to reveal and evidence is not falling into place. There is a lot of stuff to go through, and I am not in the mood, but it has to be done.

We have the meeting and it goes well. I actually have people wanting to help with the editing and evidence compilation. That is what I needed to hear. I was feeling overwhelmed with it. I have been doing all of that for the past year with little help. It was wearing on me.

TV Pilot

So newest thing in my life is that we (http://www.DutchBlitzkrieg.com) are going to be getting interviewed and filmed as we are doing our shows next weekend, and for once it's not us filming us.

A company out of Manhattan is interested in doing a bunch of footage for a documentary/pilot of an improv group as they are getting started and doing shows. sort of like a reality show, without the script. The interesting part is that they are planning on shopping this around to various networks and trying to get a deal for a series.

This is still in the rudimentary stages, but wow, pretty cool, I must say. Talk is they want to follow us around individually, work, home,hobbies, etc. we'll see what really happens.

I've never talked about this, but this is the second time I have been through something like this. I made it to the third stage interviews for a show on real estate investing. It was the same sort of thing, follow me around and see how much money I could make following their coaching and mentorship. They ended up going with some other people, but that was also pretty exciting. Some of my film ended up on an infomercial for Robert Allen. (whom I've appeared on stage with, telling stories of investing success)

One Day at a Time

I have heard time and again, it’s easy for you. You have such strong will power. “You know, it don’t come easy” to quote Ringo Starr. Easy is having seconds on those mashed potatoes and going for that slice of peach cobbler. Easy is sleeping in every morning and drinking every night. Easy is saying “why me” and wringing your hands.

It is tough doing what you know you ought to be doing, but it is also infinitely rewarding. I heard from the guys at the steel mill that I was sucking up to the boss by bidding on jobs and taking courses to improve my situation, but when layoffs came around, I had a job and some of those guys were standing in the unemployment line. Taking those classes at night and taking care of two kids as a single father. That didn’t come easy.

Developing your will power doesn’t come easy either. It’s one step at a time and one day at a time. One thing I do admire about folks in AA is that they know challenges and are working to overcome them. One day at a time, not the old show starring Bonnie Franklin, but this is your life, one day at a time.

Taking that first drink is easy, avoiding it is hard. Taking that second drink, shit, you are thinking about that before the first one is even done. Will power is not taking that first drink. That way the second drink doesn’t even come into the picture.

Why am I talking about AA? Because life is all about choices and making the hard choice becomes easier the more you do it. Do you want to lose weight? Choose to eat less and move more. Do you want to have your own successful business? Learn, think and do more. Find people who have done what you want to do, whatever it is, and emulate them. It’s easier walking down a beaten path, than cutting your own path, but cut your own path if there isn’t one to follow.

I really like desserts, but I tell people that I don’t because it’s easier than explaining every time that I am staying in shape. Whatever tools you use to get to the goals you set for yourself are shaped by your desire and your will. Ethical decisions are ones you never have to regret and choosing the right path becomes easier the more you do it. It might never become easy, but it does become easier. Thanks Ringo!

Bush and the Shoe

The thing is that it probably doesn’t even affect Bush. All the crap that he has gone through in the past eight years have him pretty much jaded, I would guess.

How would it affect you? I think the majority of people in this country would probably benefit from having a shoe impact their forehead. I am not advocating podiatric aerial assault here, I am just saying that there are many folks who are sleep-walking through their lives.

How many people around you complain about their jobs, yet do nothing about it? They look forward to complaining for another 20 years. The news is (and this isn’t really news) you can’t count on a lifetime of employment from a single, or even a couple, employers. Gen X and beyond realize this.

Older folks think there isn’t loyalty to companies among youth, but I say why should there be? Truth be told, companies in general don’t much care about their employees beyond getting today’s work done. There are definite exeptions, most notable among privately held smaller companies, but those are not the rule.

The thing is, we need to take care of ourselves. Unless you are working at building multiple streams of income, you are at risk. Work a few hours here and there to build electronic products, do affiliate marketing, network marketing, your own brick and mortar business, a franchise, whatever.

Working at those for a few years, done in the right way, can replace your current income and make you independent of the traditional job you may now hold. Even at that point you may choose to remain with your current employer (if they are still around) but it will be by choice, not because you have to. And that makes all the difference.

Beating Europe at their own game, by golly

I recently read an article that compared fitness and regular use of “active transportation.” What is active transportation, you might ask? I had the same question.

Active transportation means walking, biking or using mass transit. I guess the mass transit is in there because you have to walk to the bus stop or train station. (Unless there has been a change, I am pretty sure that trains and buses aren’t using the Fred Flintstone propulsion method.)

What this all boiled down to was that Europeans burned more calories than the average US citizen – converting to annual pounds lost here’s the score: Europeans 5 to 9 pounds, Americans 2 pounds.

Unfortunately the effect is cumulative, so as time goes by the weight stays with you. If Americans would get more active, we could be losing an additional 3 pounds per year, and perhaps the obesity rate would drop.

What are you doing to contribute to this? One way that you can add exercise to your life without going to extremes is to walk when you would normally ride. Examples: taking stairs instead of the escalator or the elevator, park at the end of the row instead of circling like a vulture looking for that front row space, walking from one end of the strip mall to the other, instead of moving your car a quarter mile.

I realize these aren’t active transportation and don’t have anything to do with your daily commute or driving habits, but they can impact your health by burning a few extra calories a day. Every little bit adds up.

What I read stated that Europeans average 237 miles of walking per year, while Americans averaged 87. Here’s the question, are you competitive? Are you going to let some European walk more than you? I say no. We can walk as well or better (and more) than any other citizen of this planet, by golly! Let’s get out there and do it. I am going to get my 237 miles in before the end of the year, how about you? Let’s see with 14 calendar days left, that’s only 16.9 miles per day. Totally do-able! Well, maybe not. Breaking it down as a realistic goal for next year, that is less than one mile per day. Are you up to the challenge?

Symmetry and Balance - Yin & the Yang

I worked out today and concentrated on my legs. This is something that gets neglected by a certain element of gym rats. I often see guys with huge chest and arms, and they have on sweat pants to cover the toothpicks that are supporting them. This is usually combined with a tank top to show off their well developed arms.

This is the opposite of a pyramid. You need to have a firm strong foundation to any structure and that includes your body. I usually do leg press, squats, leg extensions, leg curls, seated calf raise and standing calf raise. (Calves often get overlooked as well.) Today I found a machine that works the tibialis anterior, which runs parallel to the shin. This is sort of a toe raise exercise - Just one more thing to add into the routine.

Balance doesn’t stop there. You have to think push-pull when you work out. What muscle or muscles are the opposite of what you are working? Think of them as being in pairs; bicep-tricep, back-chest, quads-hams. If you don’t work them evenly, your body will start to ease into the direction of the overworked muscle.

This also applies to the rest of your life. If you spend too much time on the physical, the mental suffers. If you spend too much time on making money, your spiritual side will suffer. Balance in all things.

a video version, of sorts is here

Arnold Schwartzenegger and Me

I ghost wrote a book on weight training a few years ago and I thought I would share a few insights that I got from a professional. Most of these are things that I think about on a regular basis, and some I think about as I watch people do things that are incomprehensible to me.
I try to concentrate on the muscle(s) that I am working. Although this may sound like common sense, it definitely isn’t (at least from my observations.) If you want to get the most out of your time at the gym, you should think about this one. Are you going through the motions, but randomly looking around and thinking about anything but what you are doing? If you are doing bicep curls, think about your bicep muscle as you are doing the curl. Have your grip tight on the handle or around the dumbbell. Squeeze it tight. Think about your muscle working constricting, lifting, moving the steel. Feel the fibers in your arm. Lift to your capacity, not some weight that doesn’t challenge you. If you can do twenty reps, stop and increase the weight. If you can’t do six reps, lighten up. You should be doing between six and 12 reps to gain strength.
If you need to use your body to swing the weight up; it’s too heavy for you. Your lift should be coming from your bicep with your elbow relatively stable. Smooth easy motions two or four count as you raise the weight, two to four count as you lower the weight. (that count can be for any exercise you are doing)
I see people doing strange things with dumbbells all the time. If you don’t know what you are doing, ask someone. If you are too embarrassed to admit you don’t know what you are doing, I would suggest The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding written in part by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
If you don’t want to spend the money on that, shoot me an e-mail, and I will answer any questions you may have. I am not a certified expert, but Deb is, and between us we have over twenty years of experience in the gym and have done tons of research and reading.
On a side note, did anyone read the article on Dr. Jeffrey Life that was distributed by the associated press? I’m not endorsing using testosterone or human growth hormone, but it was an interesting article and I’ve meet Dr. Life a few times through “Body for Life” the Bill Phillips book and associated transformation contests. Dr. Life is a really genuine person and is there to help anyone who approaches him.
Stay healthy and keep balance in your life. Until next time…

Healthy Eating - Diet doesn't have to be a four letter word

Healthy Snacks and Meals

Sometimes it's tough to figure out what to eat. Like, I am standing in front of the fridge and staring at the same things and just can't even start to form a plan of attack.

Planning snacks as well as meals is important when you are trying to eat healthy. If you pick up chips at the store expect that you are going to have some; don't try to fool yourself into the "these are jsut for the kids" line. Why would you want your children to eat them anyway? Healthy eating habits have to start young. So what do you do?

I start with the basics. Eat your way through the produce department. There are lots of strange looking things in there that you have probably never trid. I'm in the same place. There are still things that I just look at, pick up, smell and put back. What are we missing out on? Talk to the produce people, preferably the manager. She can tell you how to prepare, what you have to do, what it compares to. Spagetti squash is much different than regular squash. Granny Smith apples are a completely different taste than golden delicious.

Moving on to more complicated (although still simple choices, I really like fruit in cottage cheese. Simple and pretty well balanced. I buy frozen fruit and that makes it even easier. No chopping or slicing that way. Fresh is better, but in the morning I am usually pretty pressed for time (even though I get up way too early)

If you want a slight change on that one, adding yogurt instead of fruit gives your meal a whole different taste. Deb went into her apple pie recipe, so you can check that out as well. Oatmeal thrown into the mix gives you lots more combinations. If you have a favorite recipe, drop us a line or make a comment. the more healthy options we have, the less likely we are to get off track.

Another time I will get into another line of thought on this, which is meal replacement shakes. After years of trying different brands and adding a plethora of ingredients, we have some killer tasting shakes; you;d hardly know they were healthy.

Until next time…

Aerobic Exercise and Heart Health

I have talked before about burning calories is accomplished through the movement of mass over a given distance, and that means that running or walking two miles gives you the same caloric burn. That is just physics talking, and research has shown it to be true.

However that does not take into account the benefits of higher heart rate that will come with jogging, running or any other activity that raises your beats per minute. Aerobic exercise has been proven to reduce your standing heart rate and that is a good thing. Consistent aerobic exercise has also been proven to have a positive impact on blood pressure. Some folks have actually reduced or eliminated the need for blood pressure medication through exercise and proper nutrition. Proper nutrition for pretty much everybody includes taking vitamin and mineral supplements.

Although there still are many people who won't admit that supplements help your body's overall health, even the American Medical Association has finally come on board. According to an article written in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2002, "people who get enough vitamins may be able to prevent such common chronic illnesses as cancer, heart disease and osteoporosis."

20 years prior to that, they were still of the opinion that people could get all the nutrition they needed from eating healthy. With the depletion of our soils, this is no longer the case. The soils in this country, aided by artificial means, are growing beautiful looking plants, but the plants no longer contain the nutrition they once did. With the depletion of the micronutrients in the soil, there isn't much for the roots to draw up into the plants we eat. Some people think that they can bypass that by eating organic foods, but most of the farms that are growing organic, still have not been able to replenish the soil to the degree it had 50 years ago.

I have said in other articles, and I stand by this firmly, that unless you supplement your diet with quality nutritional supplements, your body cannot function to its highest levels. Quality supplements have both the quantity of ingredients you need, and those ingredients are obsorbed by your body in the digestive processes. Unfortunately many multivitamins don't meet those requirements. I urge you to do research on what you are taking, and don't take the manufacturer's word as gold. Anything you are taking should be independently verified as both containing the ingredients listed on the label and that those ingredients are bio-available.

Cardio

Did about 22 minutes of cardio this morning. This is the fifth day of the early rise gym routine. I have a lot of background with running starting with cross country in high school (about a million years ago) Part of running back then was beating back the dinosaurs with our clubs. It was more like today's biathalon instead of running and shooting, we were running and clubbing. Ok, diverted a bit there. It's my comedic nature...

anyway, I was recently training to run a marathon, when I twisted my ankle wicked bad. I was taking out the trash, so the injury was unrelated to the grueling running schedule, but since I was going back to a full time job, I decided not to get back into that time consuming cycle. A little divergent there, as well, but background helps.
My point is that I was asked how someone could increase their speed in their running routine. I suggested interval training, which is what I am doing now.

This is easier to keep track of on a treadmill. Every third minute, boost your speed up a few notches above your normal pace. When that minute is complete, drop the speed back down. Repeat through your run.
After doing that for a half dozen runs, switch it up. This means that the faster pace is kept for two out of every three minutes. After another half dozen runs you should be able to have the entire run at the new faster pace.

I am not talking about jumping a significant amount. If your normal pace is 5 mph, the increased pace might be 5.2 mph. If you keep the interval training going, after a few months the pace should be up to maybe 5.5 or 5.6 mph. Do only what you feel comfortable with, and always consult your doctor before starting any exercise program.

On another note, I have now lost 5 pounds since starting at the gym 11 days ago. This is a combination of eating better (not eating great, but better - more whole foods) and the exercise. Next week I am going to start the Reset program. The average weight loss on that five day program is 6 pounds. We'll see what kind of numbers I can put up.

Pursuit of Happyness

I recently watched an older Will Smith movie, Pursuit of Happyness, where his character lost mostly everything, but kept taking steps to reach his goals. It really has many life lessons built into it, yet stays entertaining and engrossing. (at least to me it did)

It reminded me that we all have goals and obstacles that we need to overcome to achieve those goals. How large are your goals? What do you hope to accomplish and what do you need to do to get there?

I've talked a few times about having specific steps to reach goals, but the thing is that in the middle of everything, life comes along and throws a wrench into the gears ( or a spanner into the works, for my English readers) then what you do defines you.

Do you shrug your shoulders and say, "Oh, well..." or do you grit your teeth and build a bridge over the barrier?

I have friends in the network marketing business who have taken years to build their business to a level where it supports great lifestyles, and I have some friends who took literally a couple months to get to the same level. What do they have in common? They didn't quit, they had a plan and they stuck to it. Fighting the good fight until you win.

I have to occasionally tell myself not to get discouraged and to know there are curveballs that get thrown at me. As long as I keep going, life gets better. Joining a business, you have to know that with mentors and a plan, with vision and tenacity, with hard work and persistence, you can be where you want to be. The pursuit of happiness will turn into living a life of fullness and happiness.

Vision and Action

How do you see yourself in ten years? Not a rhetorical question. Unless you can picture yourself in ten years and visualize the steps it will take to get there, how are you going to get there?

I truly believe the best way to attain goals is to believe that you have already attained them. What does that mean? It means holding a vision in your head and heart. It means having the feeling of accomplishment even before you start physically doing the things that will make it a reality. Create that new life, that new car, that new ________. Create it in your mind and it will come to be.

Lots of people have seen The Secret and Pass it On and movies of that nature and Create their vision and then are dissapointed that it doesn’t come to pass, but nothing happens unless you take action. Take for example the mastermind group (leadership team) that Deb and I are a part of. Deb and I had to work to become part of that team and we have to continue to work to retain our position on that team. That involved a detailed business plan.

That plan included a vision statement that had to be detailed and specific about where we are in the future. Not where we want to be in the future, but where we are in the future. All details present tense. It also included steps we have taken to get there and details of those steps. Blogging is one of my details; it keeps my path defined and is the stepping stones on that path.

Vision and Action - two huge parts of success.

Many more articles hereleadership

Upline support Open hearts and home

It's really incredible. Heshie and Werner, my mentors in USANA have opened up their minds and their home this weekend. They invited 18 people to a four day boot camp to teach us some of their skills. Heshie is a speaker and motivator and prior president of the national speakers association and owner of the JetNetting Connection. Werner recently became the oldest westerner to climb Mount Everest at age 69!! he did management training for fortune 500 executives and is a totally amazing person. They brought us into their home for the bootcamp and are pouring their experience and knowledge into us. (there is also talk of another camp for leadership)

think about that - a four day camp with two recognized experts - in their home - spending the night there, eating laughing sharing, learning, growing. free. (everyone pitched in for food and such...)
How many people have that support in their organization? I've never heard of anything like it before. would you be interested in having support like that...with a product that is independently rated as the best in north america?

Many companies claim to have the best product and have endorsements of celebrities and doctors, but how many are independently judged as being the best of the best? there can be only one...

contact me if you are willing to work hard to secure a phenomenal financial and healthy future for yourself and your family.

Farmer McGregor and Peter Rabbit

It’s Wednesday and like usual I have lost track of the days. Working at home definitely has its advantages, but time keeping isn’t one of them. If my two younger kids weren’t still going to school I probably would really lose track. For the most part, I don’t care what day it is, but now I am involved in two different plays and I have to keep track for rehearsals. One of them is on the underground railroad and I am a reluctant abolitionist. The other is about Beatrix Potter. I play four different roles in that one; Farmer McGregor, Jeremy Fisher, a tourist and Edwin Moore(the father of nine children.) The best part of the show is that Deb, Steph and Zack are also in it, so it’s a family thing.

The Return

I get the pleasure of driving to the Philadelphia airport today. Deb's flight is coming in around 3pm and the weather doesn't look great. I am so grateful that the precipitation is rain, not snow.
I am looking forward to Deb's return, so I can deal with the traffic and the airport and all the joy that entails. : )

Gratitude

Yeah, more stuff about gratitude. I am looking back at the past year and thinking how happy I have been. I think it's been the best year of my life (and things are only going to get better)

San Francisco Treat

Deb is out in San Francisco to see "The Full Monty" Our friend Chris is one of the stars in the show; he's playing Dave, who I think is the best character in the show. They plan to go to Alcatraz while they are out there, but sadly, I think no Rice a Roni is planned. :( Deb doesn't really like rice much anyway...
She'll be back Monday. I miss her already. I hate sleeping alone, and we are together all the time normally, so it's just so wrong when she's not here.
it's like an empty space in my house and heart.