The Future of Food - Josh Tetrick Shares How Plant Food Innovation Can Save Us All (TED Talk)

What would living in a world with a more sustainable, more responsible, more affordable, more healthful, more compassionate, more humane, safer food system look like? What would it feel like?

Check out this TED talk from Josh Tetrick, CEO of Hampton Creek Foods, a food technology company selected by Bill Gates as one of three companies revolutionizing the future of food.  He talks about the broken system and leads us toward a future where plant foods & plant food technology harness the power to rise us up into a food system that works - for everyone.

What are your thoughts on The Future of Food? 

All the best and yummiest to you.

Becoming a Vegan Gladiator & MASSIVE Vegan Proteins/Health & Fitness/Bodybuilding Giveaway!

Here's a quick journey in pictures (and some words) of my vegan bodybuilding & fitness journey over the past two months.  At the end, you get the chance to win part of a $300+ multi-prize package in the coolest giveaway ALC has done.  Get started & finish strong.  Have fun & good luck!

This is what I was planning on running (and eventually ran):

The Gladiator Rock'N Run 6K at Great Park in Irvine, CA.

This is what used for training:

Insanity: The 60-Day Total Body Condition Program.  Six days a week for nine weeks, working out from the comfort of my own home. Thirty to sixty minutes of pure sweat, extreme core & endurance workouts.  Interested in trying it out? Connect with Team Beachbody Coach Jessica Pease Jessup - she'll get you going.

This is what I used for my Vegan Power:

Vega Performance Protein (Chocolate's my favorite!), Pre-Workout Energizer, Recovery Accelerator, Protein Bars (Oh, how my taste buds crave Chocolate Saviseed), VegaOne Bars(Chocolate Almond? Chocolate Cherry? Can I have two faves?), VegaOne Nutritional Shakes,WarriorFood (Vanilla was quite tasty.)

This is what I wore:

                               

After two months of training with Insanity (with a lapse for vacation), the gym, and finally my own-invented RUNSANITY (contact me if you wanna hear more about it), I got into the shape I wanted to be in for the run (picture timeline from left to right to bottom), for me to prove mySelf as a... Vegan Gladiator.

 

And so I ran. Here are some highlights:

 

 

There was rope climbing, burpees with cinderblocks, laps with 40 lb. bags of rice, an ice-cold pool (which I had to submerge myself in), 8 ft. walls & dumpsters to scale, wooden pegs and log bridges to traverse, and, oh yeah, lots and lots of mud. Mud to crawl through, mud to walk through, mud walls to get over.  I'll be posting a video compilation sometime - here's my facebook page if you want to follow along.

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Now that my 2nd Gladiator Run and training journey is over, it's time to start the next. For me - and for you. So Ahimsa Life Coaching, Kiss Me, I'm Vegan! & Vegan Proteins is teaming up to put you in prime position to enhance your health, bodybuilding, and fitness goals with a MASSIVE giveaway, featuring prizes that total over $300 in value.

Here are the prize packages:

Vegan Gladiator Grand Prize - NEW Vega Sport Energizer (new formula, sugar-free! & ONLY available at Vegan Proteins, now on pre-sale exclusive), Vega Energizing Smoothie, Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness book, Vega t-shirt, blender bottle, Vega tote bag, AND a BRAND NEW Training Meal Program by Dani Taylor (Official PlantBuilt.com Online Training Coach & VeganProteins.com Online Personal Training Coach)

Vegan Gladiator-In-Training Runner-Up Prize - 250g tub of Warrior Food (vanilla), 1 lb tub of PlantFusion (cookies 'n creme), VitaMineral Earth, PlantFusion shaker bottle, and PlantFusion t-shirt

Vegan Squire Consolation Prize - Vegan Proteins t-shirt and Vegan Health & Fitness Magazine's Spring 2013 issue

Check out the Vegan Proteins website here.  This giveaway is special because it features a product and a service which are brand spankin' new. Excited to get people boosted with the new energizer and on-track with training meal plans with Dani.

Meet Giacomo. He's running the show at Vegan Proteins (with Dani, co-founder and Giacomo's trainer extraordinaire) and has the body to prove it:

 

And here's how you enter! - it's simple and fun. Check out the Rafflecopter widget below. Earn yourSelf more entries into the raffle giveaway by following directions for each task.  NOTE: if you utilize a method to grab an extra entry, please make sure you've actually done it or it will be considered ineligible if chosen as the winning entry.

Good luck to all you Gladiators of Compassion (and so much more)!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

All the best and yummiest to you.

Lumosity: Having Fun While Training Your Brain

My brother-in law, Jon Wolf, of YouTime Coaching, introduced me to Lumosity several months ago. I grew very interested in the platform yet, after dabbling in a few days of free trial, faded away from the website.  As I began taking on more projects & undertakings, for coaching, for Reiki, for acting, for fitness, and more, I remembered Lumosity and thought, "Maybe now is the time to try it out... see if it can help me enhance my brain/mental function." And so I jumped back in with a year's trial. Well, it's only been one month of training so far, and I'm already feeling, experiencing, and seeing the differences. 

Lumosity, the #1 brain training program online, is built around the process known as neuroplasticity.  Here is more on the subject:

"Over the last few decades, neuroscientists have discovered that adults' brains are constantly changing - growing new neurons and connections - in a process of neuroplasticity. Lumosity takes advantage of the brain's innate neuroplasticity to help shape it into a more effective, powerful organ... Lumosity targets core cognitive processes... memory, attention, and other abilities that are critical in the real world."

Through playing games such as Eagle Eye, Pinball Recall, Familiar Faces, Speed Match, Word Sort, and Disconnection, these different cognitive processes are tested and, with consistency & time, grow stronger.  

Practical benefits used in everyday life that you will receive from training are: remembering people's names and faces (and connecting the two), remembering directions, increasing your peripheral vision intake, multitasking more effectively, thinking faster, becoming a better logical decision maker, developing your vocabulary, deepening your focus and attention span, and a whole lot more.

When I first started, my BPI (read below, right) was 1230; it's now increased to 1474.  Here's a look at my progress over the past month and current status:

It's been a blast playing the game and experiencing the fun and benefits of Lumosity simultaneously.  I look forward to spending a few minutes engaging mySelf in the scheduled training for the day - plus some extra games if I'm in the mood.  It has benefited me in numerous ways, especially pertaining to how I structure my time & schedule, my focus throughout the day, and more impressive memory recall. It is also very helpful to have a better grasp at meeting new people - and remember them by the end of the day/night (or even just a few minutes after introduction!).

Check out their blog for interesting articles on the science behind neuroplasticity and enjoy some puzzles they provide: 
http://blog.lumosity.com/.  They offer very reasonable memberships for getting involved - I recommend the year or two year plan, if you can do it.  There's also a Friends & Family plan that provides the best price for the greatest number of people (we're talking $20-25/person a year).  This is the definition of "tremendous value."

It took my focus and dedication for active & fun growth to get up to the 98th percentile in my age group (and better in others!).  Will you join me? Can you work your way to a BPI of 1500+ and the 99th percentile? I look forward to developing our brains together. (Please keep me posted on your progress and growth!)


All the best and yummiest to you.