Happy Fourth of July everybody!

As you know The Fourth of July is the holiday that really kicks off summer and is always surrounded by family, friends and "food"! 

The ritual of a family get together and food goes back even before 1776.  This ritual was established because back in the day families worked for food and basic survival. So coming together and sharing a meal was the ultimate communion.

Well today most of us are blessed to have our basics covered.  So I throw out to you a different form of family get together.

Create a ritual of activity with your family. Create an annual bike ride. Create a Fourth of July hike or a softball game.  Something even extreme as a family river trip, a  rock climbing adventure or my favorite, a family surf trip or annual ocean paddle.

I have these huge soft top long boards that are 12 feet long!  Every year I try to get as many family and friends to do a paddle to the pier and back where I live.  It's a long paddle and takes a couple hours. Some paddle ocean kayaks and load them up with family.

The comradery that comes from this is incredible.  The bonding of a family "work out" goes far beyond breaking bread.  I have had families from different areas bike from where they lived to a neutral camping spot. Some families rode seven days.  Once there, the shared experiences and stories of everyone's journeys are moments that last a life time and exceed far beyond a nice meal shared together.

Anyway, just food for thought. 
Gosh, where did that expression come from?  Maybe we should say, just fun for thought?

Anyway, enjoy your fourth and enjoy your time with family and friends.  If you have some cool family adventures of your own share them with us.

All the best in health.

Full entry | posted by Gregory Joujon-Roche in Exercise for Your Spirit
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The Secret Exercise To Change Your Body Forever.

I have been teaching this secret to all my clients for over 15 years, now it’s your turn. The secret is the synergy of change you create when you connect all the elements of fitness together. These elements are the body , mind, spirit  “ Energy “ , and Nutrition.

Here is an incredible exercise that will open up a new perspective and energy for your training. With a new perspective come new results and this will act as the catalyst for success.

Here is what I want you to do right here right now. First of all begin to clear your mind. Put your cell phone on silent, turn the music or TV off, and be in a place where you can concentrate with no interruptions. Ok now remember no judgments here. Simply play along and commit to playing. Here we go. Now I want you to close your eyes and take five deep breaths through your nose and out your mouth. Each breath deeper than the first. Take your time with this and please commit to this , it’s important and the reason why you will succeed this time. By the fifth breath you should be settling down. Feeling more centered and calm .

Now in this state ,keeping your eyes closed and breathing deep, I want you to visualize where you want to be with your body. Really fantasize and see your self in your new shape. Ladies, maybe in a bikini or guys, jeans and a tight tee shirt. Whatever it may be ,this your chance so go for it and have fun with it !

Take you time to drench yourself in that feeling that comes from looking good and feeling good. That feeling of joy and self-empowerment.

It’s a feeling you can tap into at any given time under any circumstance if you commit to it.

Now it’s important not to get caught up on the picture but more important the feeling of joy and self-empowerment. This is the feeling, the energy; I want you to bring in to each workout. Your positive energy will be literally phisicalized on a cellular level every time you workout.

This new found energy will not only transform your body but is life changing.


All the best in health !

Full entry | posted by Gregory Joujon-Roche in Exercise for Your Spirit
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Howdy!!
Hope everyone had a good fourth and summer is kicking in for all!

This is a serious post today, though with a simple solution, that is vital to you immediate health, mental state and over all well being.

This year for a lot of us underneath the American spirit  balloons and celebrations is stress and worry. Our current  economy, housing market, gas prices, world issues. Life is full tilt right now - no getting around it .

I have found  it harder these  days to truly sit and try to keep my mind calm even for a second, let alone take a deep breath. Seems the whole world is holding their collective breath and are not willing to let it go.

Well, here is a simple solution. Physicalize your emotion and create peace now!

Instead of trying to be calm let's physicalize the calm. Here is what you do:

The next time you're exercising I want you to take a specific moment in your training and max out.  If you're lifting weights, safely do the biggest set you can, or as many reps as you can, to failure.  If you're running, I want you to sprint until you can't run anymore.  If you're at home, do as many push-ups as you can. If you're doing yoga, hold that pose until you collapse.

After your max out moment you then have to take a time out!  I want you to catch your breath, literally.  Hold on to your breath and breathe deep, calm down and center.   Your breathing is right there and maxing out puts it in front of you physically.  It becomes out of your hands and more importantly out of your head!

Now that you're breathing deep, really go there and check in, calm down, and re-center.  It's all OK in this moment.

Instead of getting all worked up by stress in our day 'til we are short of breath and full of fight & flight and adrenal burn out, take it from the other side and come from recovery, not fear.  It's a whole different experience and result.  It feels good to breathe, trust me. Sometimes we just forget and convincing yourself mentally is not enough.

You can do these anytime you need to get out of your head, get present and re-set yourself.

All the Best in Health!

Full entry | posted by Gregory Joujon-Roche in Exercise for Your Spirit
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To be fit, you have to own your life.  You have to take personal responsibility for your actions, and work hard at controlling your own destiny.
THIS ISN'T EASY. 
It takes courage and discipline.  But there are ways to make it easier.
One of the best ways to feel as if you own your life is to keep a written record of it.  This record, over time, will help you to stay connected to your life, and when you’re really connected, you’re better able to own it, and control it.
If you don’t keep a record of your life, it becomes harder to stay intimately connected to it, because forgetfulness can rob you of many things that you’ve experienced.  After awhile, it can almost feel as if parts of your life never even happened.

Back in the old days, many people kept track of their daily lives by keeping diaries.  These days, some people keep journals (in books or even online - some blogs are journals), but both of these systems are cumbersome.  Writing is hard work.  Also, many diaries and journals often reveal things we’d rather keep completely private - which is why old-fashioned diaries had locks.

Here’s my recommendation for a much more practical way to create a log of your life:
Keep a calendar. 
Just take a regular kitchen calendar, the kind with a square for each day, and jot down the bare basics of what you did that day.  It’s absurdly easy - takes about thirty seconds - and if you forget it for a few days, or even a week, you can easily backtrack.
Doing this will have an astonishing effect on your memory of your own life – and, ultimately, on your sense of ownership of it.  When you look back at your calendar, you’ll remember a great many things that you would have otherwise forgotten.  All it takes is a tiny cue to trigger most memories.
After all, when you were in school, which type of test did you do better on – multiple choice, or fill-in-the-blanks?  I’m sure you did better on multiple choice.  Everyone does.  It’s easy to be smart when you take a multiple choice test, because seeing the correct answer usually brings back the memory.
The things you’ll write down on your calendar will be the obvious, major things that fill up your life:

• Job activities
• Family activities.
• Interactions with friends.
• Health.
• Travel.
• Moods and feelings.
• Exercise.
• Your weight.
• Your fitness achievements.
• Problems that arise.
• Problems that are solved.

Another benefit of using a calendar: as you start filling it in each day, you’ll quickly devise your own shorthand system, with lots of abbreviating, because there’s not much room in a calendar space.  Besides, you don’t need all the little details just to keep a memory alive.  If you just write something like, “Burned birthday cake,” it will bring back more than enough memories.
Abbreviating things, or coding them, also helps keep your private matters private.  It helps keep memories in your head, where they belong, instead of out there for all the world to see.  You will soon discover that when you put things in black and white, you can get to the truth of your life a lot more often.  For example, you might see that you haven’t been exercising enough, even though you might feel like you have been, or you might see that you’ve only had two fights with your teenage son during the past year, even though he thinks you’ve been fighting all the time.
You will also discover that when you begin to fill out your calendar, patterns will emerge.  As certain events occur again and again, it will, for example, become much more obvious what makes you sick, what makes you worry, what makes you happy, what makes you lose weight, or what makes you skip your exercise.  You’ll become an expert on you.
You won’t always like what you see.  But you’ll always learn from it.

I have a friend who has been doing this for twenty years.  He says that if his house ever caught on fire, his calendars would be the first thing he’d grab, even before his photo albums.  For him, his calendars contain a more intimate and accurate “picture” of his life than any group of photos ever could. 
I think that's a pretty cool situation to be in: a definite, worthwhile accomplishment.

Full entry | posted by Gregory Joujon-Roche in Exercise for Your Spirit , Motivation
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I have been blessed to have supporters in my life and career.
Two influential people have been Deepak Chopra and Tara Guber.  We go back 15 years now - wow life is moving !!
Deepak's daughter Mallika (picture of her with her kids to the left) has become an acclaimed writer and has a new book "100 Questions From My Child". I took the family to support her @ a local park where friends and family got together to talk about her new book, family values, and connecting on a human level with all going on in the world.
It's so powerful to have a collective of people connecting on the basics of love, presence and simply sharing. Just a reminder to me and I want to remind everyone in my community @ one body one life that we are all in this journey together and we all share such similar values no matter where we come from.
In the end we are all one !!
Mallika's book is a children's book and she had this great live music from "fundamental music".  Everyone was dancing and letting loose. Deepak shared with us that when it comes to our kids this is all they need:

• Kisses
• Hugs
• Singing
• Reading stories
• Human touch

Deepak said "kids stop developing emotionally @ the age of six, so it's vital to love love". Doesn't matter about anything else, but these core elements. My wife and I just had a daughter five weeks ago. My son is 3 and a half and I wonder, "gosh am I doing this right ?  Am I being a good parent".
We all do, right?
Anyway after spending the afternoon at this beautiful event put on by Tara Guber with my wife and family, it really reinforced there is no right and wrong when it comes to love.
In Mallika's book she talks about how her father created "the three C's" when they were growing up:

• Complain
• Criticize
• Condemn

Just try to get through your day without ever using any of these three words out loud or as actions - to others or to yourself.
Then, try to create a game of it and share this game with your children or even with your friends. No matter how hard of a day your having, stay in the positive and never judge or blame.
SO SIMPLE; SO POWERFUL.
Try it , share it ......
I have a category in my book and I will add a category in this blog called "Exercise for Your Spirit" and this game needs to be in there.
Thx, Deepak.
If anybody has some great "Exercises for the Spirit" please e-mail them or write a comment and we will post and highlight them.
Check out the Chopra Center for some great programs and Yoga Ed for some amazing inspiration.

We all work together and all support each other from the different planes of wellness we each represent. You get so much more accomplished when you collaborate and share.
Look for more synergy from us in the future,
Remember "One Body, One Life "

Full entry | posted by Gregory Joujon-Roche in Clients , Current Events , Exercise for Your Spirit
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