How many times have you put off something you wanted for ‘some day’?

Or until next week? Or even just waiting until tomorrow?

If getting healthy is your primary goal, whether that means losing weight or slowing down the progression of a chronic disease, remember …

‘Some day’ is not guaranteed.

This lesson sideswiped me last week. Actually, it rocked me to my core for days.

Back in July I saw a past acquaintance on the news, in a wheelchair. Though I only met her a few times, and though I didn’t know the progression of her disease, I emailed her immediately to offer her my services.

From the outside, she had it all. Brilliant. Highly regarded business acumen. A loving family. Prestige and international acclaim in the business world. Pioneering success. Unlimited wealth.

But I learned that she was very sick with a disease that the medical community describes as “progressive” and “fatal.”

So I reached out and proposed a very simple plan to help her change her diet, to reduce inflammation in her body and to heal her digestive wall, two necessary steps for any one of us to take to reclaim vibrant health.

I proposed moving in, or moving nearby to her home for 30 days, to prepare and cook very specific, healing, restorative meals to help her slow down and reduce the impact of the disease.

We exchanged several emails and talked on the phone, and while she was pondering whether or not to start working with me, I learned that she passed away.

This news shook me. To my core. I was full of such optimism, so much hope.

I am not an Executive Health Coach to simply help you look great, although that’s an awesome perk!

I am an Executive Health Coach to help you live a full, meaningful and very long and healthy life!

But you have to start NOW.

Because even waiting until tomorrow could turn into the next day, and the next could turn into some day.

And as I just painfully learned, someday may not come.

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I hope that this story inspires you to choose you and your health today. If you’ve been circling around and know you’re ready to take action – click here for your complimentary consultation.

When I was diagnosed with Leaky Gut Syndrome, Adrenal Fatigue, Hashimoto’s Hypothyroidism, chronic constipation, acute anxiety, chronic urinary tract infections and more … I wasn’t looking to change the way I ate.

I wasn’t looking to align with any particular dietary style. And I surely wasn’t looking to go against the grain and eat differently from everyone I knew, including all my family and friends.

I was simply looking for a way to feel better.

My body was sick and I needed to find a way to feel good again.

After spending hours in exam rooms, going from doctor to doctor for each different symptom, it made sense to me to look beyond the symptoms I experienced and start looking at why I felt so poorly.

That’s when I discovered that reclaiming my health was really very simple, just basic common sense.

Some foods are very hard for the body to digest and literally cause obstruction within, and some do not.

Some foods generate energy. Some don’t.

Some foods elevate. Some don’t.

Some foods cause blockage. Some don’t.

Beyond family traditions and cultural norms, personal favorites and the latest gastronomic obsession, food is, in it’s most primal sense, fuel to help us be who we want to be, what we most want to create, what we most want to feel and experience and accomplish.

My impetus was never about food, but only about feeling better.

But as I began to feel better, I began to use food as fuel to leverage opportunities and experiences that would have otherwise likely never happened.

That’s when I discovered that self-mastery was the lowest common denominator for me to be my best me.

That when I am aligned with my highest self, when I am crystal clear on what matters most to me, when I own my power and am in the driver’s seat of my life rather than reacting to people, circumstances and events, every choice I make flows from an empowered place. I am self-possessed. Clear.

After that revelation — how could I continue eat foods that do not serve me and my larger goals if I am aligned with my highest self?

Thus began my life long obsession with using food to create vibrant health, increase productivity and live an extraordinary life.

So, think about what you have been fueling your body with lately and ask yourself:

Do your food choices serve you?

Do the foods you eat energize and stimulate your mind and creativity and highest self?

Do others in your life inspire you to be your very best you?

Could you look and feel better for your age?

And lastly, what is your lowest, common-denominator? What is that single thing that pulls you towards being, looking and feeling your very best you?

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Did your answers to any of the above surprise you?

If you’re ready to stop making excuses and start using food to fuel your highest self, let’s have a conversation about how you can get started. Click here to schedule a complimentary consultation.

With the Summer Olympic tryouts this past week, I was reminded when 2008 Olympic all-around champion Nastia Luikin fell flat on her face during her routine in 2012.

From flat on her face, this mighty, blonde powerhouse reached up and grabbed the bar to complete her routine.

Whoah.

Pure awe.

Nastia’s fall and rise were a classic phoenix rising from the ashes story.

I love stories like her’s because they remind me that “it’s never over, until it’s over,” that we get to say how we are going to ‘finish the game,’ that we get to say how ‘it’ all goes.

Olympic athletes are a mighty metaphor for how to live life.

What empowered Nastia to continue in the face of a such a fall? What roused her to get back up to finish her routine, even though she likely new her chance to join the ranks of Summer Olympic athletes was no longer possible?

I suspect what roused her is her training to never quit, to complete what she started.

Whatever it was, she was fierce.

Her fierceness reminds me of my client Marianne who reached out to me for a touch-base, coaching call recently. Marianne is committed to her health and wellness, like a bonified Olympic Athlete no doubt, but she fell off the get-healthy wagon since our working together last year. Busy schedules. Deadlines. Fatigue. She got pulled out, but now candida has taken hold and caused imbalance in her body.

Or maybe even like my former client and ginormously successful business mogul Robert who texted me, “I need accountability, what can we create? I want to lose weight and totally up level my get-healthy game. I’ve fallen off track.”

Here are 6 lessons I learn from Olympic athletes and my clients on an ongoing basis about all the benefits of staying in the game, 5 things you can use to up level your commitment to becoming your healthiest, most vibrant self:

1. Winning isn’t a standalone endgame. Every time you ‘try,’ you flex your get-healthy muscle and you get stronger, more convicted, more resolute in your commitment. So what if you fall off the healthy wagon! Get back on! Begin again.
2. Become an ongoing learner. Olympic athletes and every one of my clients spend an enormous amount of time studying their area of expertise AND what they most want to master by hiring coaches who help them take their career and their health to the next level (like me), listening to or reading books, studying those who have achieved mastery and even create personalized daily rituals to help them stay in the game!
3. Think BIG, bigger than this moment. Olympic athletes go into the competition with BIG dreams. I guide clients to create the ‘classic’ S.M.A.R.T. goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-based), BUT I also guide them to create unreasonable, outrageous, even preposterous goals … goals that thrill and excite them … goals that might seem impossible in the moment. Think about it, would most have thought Gandhi as smart to think he could contest England’s colonization over India initially? Or, Martin Luther King goal’s in challenging social norms that excluded Black Americans from public spaces achievable? Or Gloria Steinem’s efforts to help women gain equal opportunity relevant? Creating unreasonable goals, reaching for the BIG and lofty is as important as creating smart goals!
4. Be congruent. Olympic athletes and my clients create actions to meet their word, especially when they falter. They reach up for the bar and get back in the game. They find mentors, resources, others like them to help them, anything to help them put the rubber on the road, even when they fall. They do what it takes to move the dial forward!
5. Preparation. Preparation is the game changer. Abraham Lincoln seemed to have the same formula as Olympic athletes, and one that I impress upon my clients. Lincoln said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” Preparation take the lead when it’s show time.
6. Never quit. Quiting is no longer an option. You burned the boat. You closed the door. Anything less than completing what you set out to achieve is no longer possible.

I know what it took for Nastia to reach back up for that bar. I know what it took for Marianne and Robert to reach out to me to up level their game.

I too have had to do get back up over and over and over again, with failed launches, missed business opportunities, utter free-falling without a steady paycheck as an entrepreneur and even battling my sugar addiction! I know what it’s like to fall ‘on may face’ repeatedly.

But I can’t begin to tell you how much I’ve grown from flexing my commitment to expanding my message of healing and wellness, from staying in the game of learning and thinking BIG (think crazy BIG), from preparing, preparing and preparing, from burning the boat, while aligning my actions to my word. I can’t begin to tell you the ginormous, life altering results my clients have experienced from getting back in the game.

Your get-healthy game and life will dramatically shift if you keep flexing your get-healthy muscle, especially when you fall, especially when you lose your way … if you keep learning and growing, if you think BIG, bigger than this moment might say is possible, if you take your commitment serious and do what it takes to prepare for success, if you burn the boat, AND if you get congruent with what you say you are going to do, when you say you are going to do it.

Leave a comment: What lesson resonates most for you? Do Olympic athletes inspire you too? What idea do you think we help you best?

You say you drink a lot of water everyday, but you also notice that every time you look over at your water bottle sitting on your desk, it’s empty. And it’s noon.

In between calls, reports and running to your next appointment, you simply didn’t think about drinking water.

Do you think you could be one of the 75% of Americans who is chronically dehydrated today? How about one of the 37% of Americans who eats when they’re full, when it’s really dehydration that causes them to feel hungry?

Dehydration is no joke.

Dehydration causes fuzzy, short-term memory. Dehydration is the #1 reason for daytime fatigue. Even mild dehydration slows down your metabolism. Just a mere 2% drop in body water can trigger cognitive dysfunction.  

Maybe you’ve heard me talk about Dr. Batman, the water expert? Formally known as Dr. F. Batmanghelidj, author of “Your Body’s Many Cries For Water” discovered the curative powers of water when he was a political prisoner in Iran. He says, “You’re not sick, you are thirsty: don’t treat thirst with medications!” 

Research shows that dehydration can cause, asthma, allergies, arthritis, hypertension, depression, headaches, diabetes, obesity, MS and even premature aging.

The healing remedy is water and the awesome new and free app is Waterlogged.

Try as you might, you know you are not drinking enough water, but this app will change your water-drinking game! It provides awesome charts and reminders (this is a $3.99 upgrade and well worth the small investment) to help you track and improve your daily water intake.

Waterlogged helps you:

• Track your water consumption by the hour, day, week, or year, and see at a glance how you’re doing.
• Snap a picture and add your own glasses and water bottles. This feature makes logging your water even faster – it’s kinda’ crazy how easy and effective this app works!
• Get reminders when you need them to build a good water habit – meeting your daily quota is super easy – I have mine reminder set for every hour, and it’s made a HUGE difference = why I am blogging about this fantastic app!

Waterlogged is designed for both iPhone and iPad, has 4.5 rating on iTunes and is ranked as one of the top 3 water apps across the board – I did the research for you! 

Moreover, I LOVE it! After reviewing many apps from the top 5 list, I chose Waterlogged for it’s ranking, reviews and visual cues! After one month of using it, I heartily give you my seal of approval! It’s easy, it’s effective and as the pictures below show it’s very helpful for we visual learners!

The Buddhist monk who my Catholic priest and beloved friend Fr. Ed introduced me to, the monk known as “an apostle of peace and nonviolence,” Thich Nhat Hanh is a renowned Zen master, Vietnamese monk and poet who inspired my Faith through my journey from illness to wellness since our ‘meeting‘ in 1985. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize by Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1967, and is the author of many books, including the best-sellers Peace is Every Step and The Miracle of Mindfulness.

When I was sick, Hahn taught me that to feel my best was a holistic journey, a journey that includes healing the mind, body and Spirit, a journey far beyond just clean eating and personal development. Hahn taught me that if I breathed deeply, that if I learned to pay attention and live in the moment, to practice mindfulness and interbeingness (that we are all one), that my health problems would dissipate. He said, “Go home to yourself (Carol) and breathe in and out deeply. Get in touch with your suffering and ask yourself, “Why am I suffering? Where is it coming from?”

His words were like a balm on my weary Spirit and unhealthy body. I stopped ‘doing,’ and started practicing just being, being with whatever I was experiencing without making it right or wrong, without struggle. His directive made all the difference as I moved through perplexing times with my health.

I offer you 30 quotes and excerpts that encapsulate the quintessence of Thich Nhat Hahn that continue to bring me back to me, but for you really. I own several of his books, but maybe you don’t, and maybe you too could benefit from this beautiful teacher as you move towards greater health and vitality.

Hahn taught me that to restore my health, I had to go home to me, that they were inextricably linked to each other and that mindfulness was my ticket.

Make no mistake health and healing are a holistic journey. When we create health and healing, peace and balance within, we are able to extend health and healing, peace and balance in the world.

The quotes and excerpts from Thich Nhat Hahn:

• Every morning, when we wake up, we have twenty-four brand-new hours to live. What a precious gift! We have the capacity to live in a way that these twenty-four hours will bring peace, joy, and happiness to ourselves and others.

• Smile, breathe and go slowly.

• Be yourself. Life is precious as it is. All the elements for your happiness are already here. There is no need to run, strive, search or struggle. Just Be.

• Understanding and Love are not two separate things, but just one. To develop understanding, you have to practice looking at all living beings with the eyes of compassion. When you understand, you cannot help but love. And when you love, you naturally act in a way that can relieve the suffering of people.

• In our consciousness, there are many negative seeds and also many positive seeds. The practice is to avoid watering the negative seeds, and to identify and water the positive seeds every day.

• Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.

• You are like a candle. Imagine you are sending light out all around you. All your words, thoughts and actions are going in many directions. If you say something kind, your kind words go in many directions, and you yourself go with them. We are transforming and continuing in a different form at every moment.

• Thanks to impermanence, everything is possible.

• We have to walk in a way that we only print peace and serenity on the Earth. Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.

• People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.

• You are what you want to become. Why search anymore? You are a wonderful manifestation. The whole universe has come together to make your existence possible. There is nothing that is not you. The kingdom of God, the Pure Land, nirvana, happiness, and liberation are all you.

• Hatred and fear blind us. We no longer see each other. We only see the faces of monsters, and that gives us the courage to destroy each other.

• Freedom is not given to us by anyone; we have to cultivate it ourselves. It is a daily practice…

• Every path, every street in the world is your walking meditation path.

• If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. Each is present in your body. You are the continuation of each of these people.

• Mindfulness helps you go home to the present. And every time you go there and recognize a condition of happiness that you have, happiness comes.

• Walk and touch peace every moment.

Walk and touch happiness every moment.

Each step brings a fresh breeze.

Each step makes a flower bloom.

Kiss the Earth with your feet.

Bring the Earth your love and happiness.

The Earth will be safe

when we feel safe in ourselves.

• Enlightenment is always there. Small enlightenment will bring great enlightenment. If you breathe in and are aware that you are alive—that you can touch the miracle of being alive—then that is a kind of enlightenment.

• Mindful Consuming

Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I vow to cultivate good health, both physical and mental, for myself, my family, and my society by practicing mindful eating, drinking and consuming. I vow to ingest only items that preserve peace, well-being, and joy in the body, in my consciousness, and in the collective body and consciousness of my family and society. I am determined not to use alcohol or any other intoxicant or to ingest foods or other items that contain toxins, such as certain TV programs, magazines, books, films, and conversations. I am aware that to damage my body or my consciousness with these poisons is to betray my ancestors, my parents, my society, and future generations. I will work to transform violence, fear, anger, and confusion in myself and in society by practicing a diet for myself and for society. I understand that a proper diet is crucial for self transformation and for the transformation of society.

• We have to learn to die in every moment in order to be fully alive.

• My actions are my only true belongings.
  I cannot escape the consequences of my actions.
  My actions are the ground upon which I stand.

• The way we live our daily lives is what most effects the situation of the world. If we can change our daily lives, then we can change our governments and can change the world. Our president and governments are us. They reflect our lifestyle and our way of thinking. The way we hold a cup of tea, pick up the newspaper or even use toilet paper are directly related to peace.

• The buddha called suffering a holy truth, because our suffering has the capacity of showing us the path to liberation. Embrace your suffering and let it reveal to you the way to peace.

• Continue until you see yourself in the cruelest person on Earth, in the child starving, in the political prisoner. practice until you recognize yourself in everyone in the supermarket, on the street corner, in a concentration camp, on  a leaf, in a dewdrop. Meditate until you see yourself in a speck of dust in a distant galaxy. See and listen with the whole of your being. If you are fully present, the rain of Dharma will water the deepest seeds in your store consciousness, and tomorrow, while you are washing the dishes or looking at the blue sky, that seed will spring forth, and love and understanding will appear as a beautiful flower.

• Breathing in I calm my body.  Breathing out I smile. Dwelling in the present moment, I know this is a wonderful moment!

• We should be able to bring the practice of meditation hall into our daily lives. We need to discuss among ourselves how to do it. Do you practice breathing between phone calls? Do you practice smiling while cutting carrots? Do you practice relaxation after hard hours of work? These are practical questions. If you know how to apply meditation to dinner time, leisure time, sleeping time, it will penetrate your daily life, and it will also have a tremendous effect on social concerns.

• When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment; he needs help. That’s the message he is sending.

• Jesus said, “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.

• Each second of life is a miracle.

• Be still and know.

• Be still and know.

To close, I include a short video with Oprah interviewing Thich Nhat Hahn to experience for yourself, this kind and generous teacher.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ9UtuWfs3U

What quote speaks to you? Does 'coming home to yourself' resonate with you, for your get-healthy, healing journey? I'd love to hear how in the comments section below. 

You know the drill. You commit to exercising 5x a week and eliminating carbs from your diet to lose weight. But after a long day at work, you find yourself at happy hour eating pizza and drinking beer. Uh-oh. Oopses.

There is a better way, actually two better ways that work together. One without the other bears little fruit:

1. Drop the excuses, and,
2. Get into action

Excuses, you know, like the one you used when you decided to forgo your new weight-loss plan and go to happy hour instead.

You know, like the excuses that caused you to gain excess weight in the first place.

Excuses, justifications, reasons stop you … more often than you’d like to admit.

You’re too old. You’re too young. You’re not prepared. You’re overly qualified. You’re tired. You busy. You don’t have enough time. You’re not prepared. You’re not self-disciplined. You’re out with your friends. You’re family doesn’t eat like that. You don’t like vegetables. You deserve a treat (5 nights a week). Healthy people eat weird food. There are so many diets, I don’t know what to do …

The number one thing most dieters have in common is their lack of stick-with-it-ness, with 2 out of 5 people quitting within the first seven days!

And you unwittingly got entrenched in ways of doing things like your family, friends and community that may be thwarting you from achieving the results you most want, like losing weight and looking and feeling your best!

At the most fundamental level, you must challenge your ideas and perspectives about health and vitality, wellbeing and weight-loss versus what you learned in life, to get a closer look at the ways excuses get in your way of getting into action and achieving the results you want.

This is where you put the rubber on the road. 

This is where you create congruency between what you do and what you say.

This is where you get into action.

You’ve got no game without action, without getting on the court.

To obliterate the excuses that impede you from creating vibrant health, increased productivity and even living an extraordinary life, take time to answer these questions. Think about each one, even journal your responses out. Journaling makes way for subconscious thoughts to emerge.

1. Why do you pretend you do not know what to do? When I learned that I am 100% responsible for ever detail of my life, my life changed. There is unparalleled freedom in owning our stuff!
2. What is the root of your lack of stick-with-it-ness? We choose, even when we don’t choose. Not choosing is a choice that brings it’s own set of results.
3. Why don’t you do what you know you should be doing? Life happens in the actions you take, and the actions you don’t take. As Yoda said, “You do, and you don’t do. There is no try.”
4. What is it costing you to not achieve your health goal? There is always a cost, a price to be paid. Are you sure your happy with what you are paying for?
5. What is the benefit you are gaining by not really committing? You might be saying benefit? How could I be benefiting from holding unhealthy weight? Think about it, if you weren’t really happy with the results you have, you would change it. Identify the benefits = transformative awesomeness!
6. What do you want your life to be in five years? Visualize your life in five years from now, if you do achieve your health goals, and visualize your life five years from now if you don’t achieve your health goals. Include every detail. Include every ripple effect of every detail. They matter.
7. If you achieved your health goals how would you feel? This is so important. How would you feel?

By challenging your ideas and perspectives you create space for new actions to emerge that you might not have seen before.

If you want to lose weight, then you must give up all your go-to reasons for why you can’t commit right now and commit right now, to choose the actions that help you move the dial forward, even just one small step.

Reminds me of the time I said to my brother Danny, “Will you teach me about finance?” He said sure, “Don’t spend more than you make and save.”

Simple. Easy-peasy. Identify what excuses are working over-time in your life. Choose one action. Do it consistently. Make it a habit. And then choose another. Do it consistently and make it a habit …

I now have one rare spot in my Inner Circle Program. Let's explore whether that spot might be right for you. Email me at carol@carol-egan.com