ViSalus Tips

Every once in a while, someone asks how to improve their results with the Body By Vi 90-Day Challenge. I've picked up a few tips over the last six months or so and I wanted to put them all together here. Special Thanks to Matthew Brit, a former personal trainer and gym manager from Toronto. He joined ViSalus in 2010 and is one of the top earners in the company, and he frequently does training across Canada.

General Tips

• Early Start Use the ViSalus Vi-Shake within 15 minutes of waking up if you are using it for breakfast. This kick-starts your metabolism for the day.
• Eat Often Eat 5-7 times per day to keep that metabolism working. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are obvious enough - don't skip breakfast! Then, have small snacks between those meals and another one after dinner. It actually slows your progress to starve yourself or skip meals because it causes your body to hoard food for later.
• Healthy Snacks For snacks, keep it small and healthy. Fruits and veggies are best, of course. Beware of granola bars and seemingly-nutritious snacks that can disguise extra colories and sugar.
• Low Sugar On that note, cut out the sugar as much as possible. Juices may contain surprising amounts, so stick with water or skim milk if you can.
• Shake Recipes There are a million recipes for the ViSalus shake mix. Everything from fruit/veggie/dessert flavours to hot and cold beverages. Mix the shake in water, orange juice, skim milk, or almond/soy milk. The only thing to be careful about is how much extra stuff you put into the shake - don't overload it with chocolate or extra ingredients, since that kind of defeats the purpose.
• Lots of Water Drink plenty of water. Constantly keep a water bottle at hand.
• Simple Exercise Naturally, exercise of any kind is useful, even a simple 15 minute walk each day. I was personally able to lose 20 pounds in my first 90 days without any exercise at all 'cause I was busy and lazy. ;)
• Measure Before In the beginning, take your measurements. Weight is the focus for most people. However, you should also be sure to measure your hips, waist (at the belly button), chest (at the biggest point), biceps and thighs. Be real, keep your body relaxed and don't suck in that belly. Since ViSalus is a Health Challenge and not just a weight loss plan, it will automatically help you build lean muscle - and that weighs more than fat. So once every 2-4 weeks, check all of those measurements and don't be disappointed if your bathroom scale isn't ideal. If you go two weeks without seeing positive changes in your weight or measurements, though, be sure to ask someone about it since that ain't right. ;)
• Take a Pic Take pictures of yourself from a few angles when you begin, and then once every 2-4 weeks after that. Pictures can say a lot more than numbers sometimes. Don't hide behind clothes but try to wear something decent in case you ever want to have your before-and-after photos.
• Your Support Finally, your support team is crucial. Any 90-day goal will be more difficult if you're solo. Family and friends can be wonderfully supportive, but don't hold back if people doubt since there are always doubters out there. Enlist friends to join your challenge - and refer 3 friends so you get your shakes for free! Talk to your ViSalus team regularly. Listen to people and read stories on Facebook about other people that have succeeded with ViSalus so that you cna be inspired, too!

90-Day Health Challenge for Nutrition & Weight Loss

• Balance Kit Use one shake per day as a great nutritional supplement. May lose up to 5 pounds and gain muscle during the first 90 day period.
• Shape Kit Use two shakes per day to lose an average of 1-2 pounds per week, which is around 20 pounds for a 90 day period. Replace your breakfast and lunch with the shakes and have a healthy dinner. For even better results, replace breakfast and dinner and have a normal lunch.
• Transformation Kit For maximum results, use this kit. Most of the crazy stories of people losing 30+ pounds in a 90 day period are from people using this kit. It is similar to the Shape Kit, replacing two meals per day with a shake. It also includes various vitamins and pills to enhance your energy, fire up your metabolism and curb your hunger.

90-Day Health Challenge for Physical Fitness & Muscle Building

• Use one shake with a good breakfast like oatmeal.
• Use one shake immediately after your work-out.
• Blake Malen, one of the founders of ViSalus, recently completed a 90-Challenge with the goal of adding 20 pounds of muscle. He describes his work-out regimen in this video.

For more info, you can visit the ViSalus Overview and watch the first few videos. Or, you can go to my site, watch videos there and then click "Join the Challenge" to get specific product info and prices. Our team would love to hear from you so that we can answer any questions and provides samples. Good luck!

ViSalus: My Story

It boils down to two simple things: Health and Money. Seemed like a pretty easy decision to me! At a later time, I'll delve into the financial side of things but for me, that was secondary to the health benefits.

Right up front, I'll admit that the goal for my first 90-Day Challenge was to lose twenty pounds. My wife and I welcomed our first child, our daughter Jade, in September. ( !!! ) Naturally, I put on some "sympathy weight" during this pregnancy. In fact, I actually put on plenty ofweight during the first three months of the pregnancy and Cam didn't gain anything at all. Oops! I usually ate what my wife ate (including those late-night fast food trips) and she had trouble with nausea in the beginning, so it was pretty easy to pick up a few pounds here or there.

Now let me back up a bit... When we first got married three years ago, I thoroughly enjoyed all of my wife's cooking. So much goodness, and she cooked all of my favourites. Giant steaks, creamy mashed potatoes, home-made pizza...yum! We always made sure we had nutritious meals with plenty of veggies but it was the portions that did me in.

After about six months, I hit my top weight ever and we decided it was time for a lifestyle change. There's no big secret to losing weight. You hear it everywhere you go: Eat healthy and exercise, right? Step One: We cut our portions in half, replaced the sugary juices with water, had fruit instead of desserts, and lessened the snacking on chips and other goodies. Step Two: We hit the gym. And by that, I mean that we hit the gym hard an average of three times per week. We usually did an hour-and-a-half session starting with cardio, then focused on strength training for different muscle groups, and finished with extended cardio. And if that wasn't enough, we also did morning or evening walks around the neighbourhood on the non-gym days.

And what do you know - it worked! We put on muscle, cut the fat, improved our overall health and our daily habits. Cam trained me from scratch at the gym since I was entirely inexperienced, while she had been hitting the gym regularly for many years. Simple things like breathing the right way during reps were difficult for me but I eventually figured those things out.

Returning to the present day... I put on my own "baby weight" but this time my wife needed to focus on growing baby. Her pregnancy symptoms prevented her from exercising so hitting the gym together wasn't an option. I really had no desire to hit the gym by myself (ugh!) but I definitely needed to do something. And along came Visalus... *cue inspiring music with stringed instruments*

I experimented with the meal-replacement shakes at first. I used it for breakfast during the weekdays but that was it. I understood that using the shake to replace one meal was just the "healthy maintenance" plan and not intended for weight loss. Eventually, I started using it for both breakfast and lunch each weekday - but again, I ignored it on weekends since I enjoy breakfast food and I always like cooking for my wife. Plus, I still had chips and whatnot for snacks when we watched movies together. I did that for one month, and actually lost five pounds in my first week (which is not uncommon).

Eventually, with support from Cam, I decided to get serious about losing weight. On July 11, I started the recommended 90-Day Challenge just as prescribed. Replace breakfast and lunch with the Vi-Shake. Have a small, healthy snack mid-morning and mid-afternoon. And finally, eat a normal dinner with sensible portions and skip the snacks entirely afterwards. *poof* The pounds started dropping off more quickly. Just as promised, I have averaged the healthy weight-loss pattern of 1-2 pounds per week.

I have to confess that I did eat fast food for lunch still when we were on the go, and there were a few all-you-can-eat Sushi and Dim Sum dinners in there. Surprisingly, that didn't stop me my weekly progress. It was nice to know that I didn't have to be so strict about eating, I just had to be sensible.

More importantly, it was easy to do. Yes, laziness was an important factor to me. As in, I like to be lazy (or "efficient" as I prefer to say). Staying at home is much more attractive to me then busting my butt and sweating buckets at the gym by myself. Throwing shake mix and orange juice into a thermos for lunch gets me out the door faster in the morning before work. And now that our baby has come along, who has time to prep a properly nutritious meal anyway?

And somewhere along the way, we also saved money on our groceries.

So how did it work for me in the end? I did my measurements again on October 10, exactly 90 days after I started. I went dropped from 218 pounds down to 198, which is the lightest I've been since I started dating Cam more than 4 years ago. I also lost 3 inches from my waistline, 2.5 inches from around my chest and 1 inch from my hips. Hey, I even had to go down a notch on my belt. Yep, it worked for me!

In my case, Visalus is delivering on it's promise. ViSalus even surpassed my expectations for the 90 Day Challenge, which actually surprised me and motivated me to tell others about it. That includes you, Dear Reader. Everyone knows that it's important to have good health so hopefully my story can help motivate you to focus on your health once again. Pick the right solution for you: Hitting the gym, walking or bike riding, changing your meal plan at home, whatever you prefer. And if you're interested in Visalus and would like some more info then please be sure to contact me to find out more!

Alphabet Rhyme

A is for Apple
B is for Bear
C is for Cat
D is for Dare

E is for Elephant
F is for Fat
G is for Good
H is for Hat

I is for Ink
J is for Jade
K is for Koala
L is for Laid

M is for Me
N is for Noodle
O is for Otter
P is for Poodle

Q is for Quiet
R is for Roast
S is for Snake
T is for Toast

U is for Umbrella
V is for Vitamin
W is for Walrus
X is for Xylophone

Y is for You
Z is for Zoo

I spontaneously created this poem for my daughter Jade during activity time this morning. You can modify the above version and use the words "Jam" and "Lamb" instead to make it work for anyone. Good luck fitting your own child's name into the poem! ;)

The Challenge

I have three easy questions for you...
1. Do you want to improve your health?
2. Do you want to improve your finances?
3. Do you want to help someone else improve their health or finances?

Do you want to improve your health?
If you answered yes, then you already have a goal in mind. If you answered no, let me ask these additional questions...

1. Do you want to eat more nutritiously?
2. Do you want to lose weight?
3. Do you want to tone your body or add muscle?
4. Do you want to run faster, have more stamina, or do better at a sport?
5. Do you want to lower your blood pressure or improve your cholesterol?

Do you want to improve your finances?
If you answered yes, then you already have a goal in mind. If you answered no, let me ask these additional questions...

1. Do you want to pay off some debt?
2. Do you want to quit worrying about bills?
3. Do you want more emergency money in case your car breaks down or your home is flooded?
4. Do you want to buy a car or a new home?
5. Do you want to have a child or plan for their post-secondary education?
6. Do you want to stay at home with your children instead of working and using daycare?
7. Do you want to retire?

Do you want to help someone else improve their health or finances?
If you answered yes, then you already have someone in mind. If you answered no, then... come on, everybody knows somebody that they can help! ;)

Looking over these three questions, and then the smaller questions, makes it pretty clear that almost everyone is in the same boat. Perfect health and plenty of money aren't blessings that God just rains down on everybody. Even if our initial answer is "I'm healthy and I'm satisfied," we usually discover a slightly different answer if we dig a little deeper. And even if we honestly do have good health and enough money, then we can certainly help someone else with a few of their own goals, right?

There's a million ways that we can help our own situations and help other people. For me, one big part of the solution is ViSalus.  I tried the 90-Day Health Challenge and I dramatically improved my health. My entire family did the same thing. The ViSalus challenge gives the average person an easy way to save money on their grocery bills. And as a promoter, it really opened my eyes to see the opportunity and freedom that comes from working with friends to achieve our goals. It doesn't get any better than that!

So consider this my Challenge to you: Do you want to join me and improve your health, improve your finances and help other people do the same?

Top Ten Movies of 2010

This is my seventh annual Top Ten list. As before, this list only accounts for movies that were officially released in 2010. I saw 70 new releases in all this year - a personal record! (I give full credit to my hot wife, who accompanied me to many of them.) I only considered the movies that I actually saw but there are still 37 movies on my future wish list...

[10] Gunless (Link)
My list begins with a modestly amusing Western. I have liked Westerns ever since my dad introduced my siblings and I to The Man With No Name, and since Westerns show up in theatres so infrequently I try to catch 'em when I can. I also like to support mainstream made-in-Canada films (as opposed to weird art-house stuff) and I rightly assumed that this film would be in a limited number of theatres for a couple of weeks at best, so I went out of my way to see this one. This film stars the quintessential Canadian actor Paul Gross as an American that gets stuck in Canada accidentally, and thus hijinks ensue. A nice, pleasant flick.

[9] Kick-Ass (Link)
I struggled a bit with putting this one into my list because I'm not a fan of excessive gore, and there's plenty of visceral violence to be had here. However, I am a major comic geek and at least one comic movie was sure to make this list. I liked this one better than Iron Man 2 (since I was disappointed with the entire action climax) and Scott Pilgrim (which geeky but piled on the weirdness). So Kick-Ass makes the grade because it aimed high and for all intents and purposes, it hit the mark.

[8] Toy Story 3 (Link)
It was fun to see familiar characters together again, and the darker tone was very welcome. I wasn't a fan of the silly misunderstandings ("Oh, Andy's throwing us away!") but the brand new world of the day care was a lot of fun to explore with old friends.

[7] True Grit (Link)
Wow, two cowboy movies made my list this year! This one has the awards-season cred of the Coen brothers teaming up with Jeff Bridges. Even though it's based on the original book, it still has to follow in the footsteps of John Wayne, and Bridges was completely up to the task. I threw this movie on while my wife was doing other things, and she got sucked into the movie by the whip-smart 14-year old character that tries to hire a gunslinger to get revenge for her father's death. There were a lot of memorable moments and iconic images, but it was the acting of the girl and the grump that earned this position.

[6] The Expendables (Link)
I absolutely love Stallone's comeback in recent years, and I was anticipating this movie ever since I first heard about it. Just straight-up action with plenty of explosions and cool weapons and a reason to use them.

[5] How To Train Your Dragon (Link)
This was a superb animated movie, by far the best in a year with many options. I saw this in IMAX 3D and it was perfect for that format - even if Cam and I were two of the few that were standing in line without children. The sheer imagination and variety of dragons lent a real sense of discovery, to go along with the main theme of the movie.

[4] The Fighter (Link)
This was a very late entry into my Top Ten list, given how late it was released this year. This film argued with my brain and kept clawing it's way up this list entirely on the strength of the superb acting, and Christian Bale completely inhabits the role that keeps coming to my mind. To be frank, I thought that Mark Wahlberg's character felt a little flat but that makes perfect sense within the content of his nutso family, too. Since it's a sports movie based on a true story with lots of Oscar buzz, let's just call it this year's version of The Blind Side and leave it at that.

[3] The Karate Kid (Link)
Presumably, this movie isn't nearly as high in esteem in everyone else's lists but I completely fell for this one. Jaden Smith nails it as a tweenie fish-out-of-water in China, and China itself plays a starring role here. However, the big draw for me was Jackie Chan. This was an ideal role for him just because of the kung fu fun but when he breaks down and cries at one pivotal part in the movie, that just sucked the air right out of me.

[2] Inception (Link)
As a sci-fi geek, the genre had to have one movie represented on this list, and what a movie it was! I love to discuss movies after leaving the theatre to analyze the plot and everyone's opinions, and this gave plenty of food for thought. It was a mind-bending trip with a lot of unique concepts and a well-orchestrated playground of rules within this make-believe world.

[1] The Social Network (Link)
Much to my own surprise, look what made #1 on my list this year! I'm not surprised that I liked this movie, I'm just surprised that I liked it so much, even more than the usual action-oriented blockbusters. Granted, I'm a web developer by trade so this was right up my alley. The bullet-spray staccato of conversation and the he-said-she-said aspects of the lawsuits were fascinating. I researched some of the claims of the movie afterwards but the facts aren't quite as interesting, so I'll prefer to stick with the movie version of events.

Worst Ending Award
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps had an annoying ending that was completely unearned. I got a big kick out of the cameo from the first movie, though.

Non-Twisty Twist Award
This award goes to Salt. The whole movie pivots on whether the protagonist is good or bad but, honestly, a lot of tension was completely missing since some of it was so obvious.

Top Movies on Wish List:
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
Get Low
Babies

My Previous Top 10 Lists:
2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 & 2009

References:
Film Release Dates for 2010
Top Grossing Movies of 2010