Thanksgiving was a very special holiday for me when I was a kid - it was the only Holiday that would bring the large majority of my family together - Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and all the cousins spending the long weekend together - great food - lots of laughs - and a whole lot of love going around. Back then I never gave it much thought but now as an adult as I look out into the big world and see so many people faced with tragedies, hardship, and adversity.

Come Thursday there will be more than enough food and drink on my table - my house will be warm, comfortable and safe - I will be surrounded by a beautiful, loving wife and our four healthy, energetic, charismatic and charming kids - I will have the right to say whatever I please - I can walk out to my backyard and play with my kids and then eat the last few raspberries off my raspberry bush - I can choose to sit on the couch and watch any of the 1000 channels on the boob tube - I can take my dog to the beach or any number of parks that are within 10 miles of where I live - I can pick up the phone or get on my computer to text, call or email my brother in Fiji, my mom and relatives in Ohio, my Dad in Arizona, my Pop in Florida or my buddy in Germany

I could go on and on but I think you get the picture - we have so much to be THANKFUL for - we are truly blessed and I pray today for those who are less fortunate than so many of us who live with so much abundance - I pray that they at least have something to eat and have someone to share their love with - Wishing all of you a safe, healthy, happy, and peaceful Thanksgiving. God Bless.

Several years ago I was training under the watchful eye of my mentor in San Jose - California. Interestingly enough he was very knowledgeable about my life and my choices - both in the past and present - although our conversations were very brief and infrequent he had a way of saying exactly what I needed to hear when I needed to hear it. On this one particular day as I was up on the roof of his Dojo working out he walked up onto the rooftop deck telling me to stop what I was doing waving me over to join him for a minute - I walked over and stood next to him alongside a small table - As I approached I noticed he was holding a piece of chalk and he had started writing something on the table - once he finished he tapped on the table as if to say - read it!

“Must be very careful! Food can be vitamin and mineral or food can be poison!”

I looked up at him and he continued by adding: “When you have control over your mind you can decide what to eat and what not to eat - when you lose control of your mind the body decides what you eat with cravings”

What I found to be totally ironic then - which I find absolutely normal now was the fact that I had been naively thinking that there was nothing wrong with consuming extremely large amounts of sugar at that time in my life and he knew it - This was when the term ‘Fat-Free’ had taken the country by storm reassuring consumers including me that devouring boxes of Snackwell cookies and quarts of ‘Fat-Free’ frozen yogurt among other sugary treats wouldn’t compromise my physique or my health - Man was I wrong - What I thankfully came to realize was I was a total sugar junky and I needed to break the habit - I call it a habit because I believe sugar to be an addictive substance and a powerful one at that - It took me quite a while to get my consumption down to a minimum which was no easy task. (To Learn more about the ill effects of sugar I highly recommend the book ‘Sugar Blues’ by William Dufty)

Sugar is only one of the many poisons my teacher was referring to - we all need to be very careful of the plethora of chemicals and other additives that many of the food companies are using in the growing/raising/manufacturing process of many of their products - binders, fillers, dyes, preservatives, hormones, pesticides, and nitrates to name a few. Isn’t it time we take control of our lives, learn how to prevent deadly diseases like heart disease and cancer before it’s too late? Food is one of the most precious gifts that Mother Nature blesses us with - let’s not take that for granted - I always try to eat as close to nature as nature intended - be careful if what your eating comes in a bag, box or a can - chances are you’ll find one or more of those additives that will eventually compromise your well being.

We truly are what we eat so, Think before you put it in your mouth - do your research and due diligence finding out where your food is coming from and what methods do they use in producing it - support your local farmers and try to eat organic - it’s well worth - Here’s to your Health.

What a great word - persistent - I often reflect back to the days of my youth when my life revolved around sports - If it weren’t for being forced to attend school I would have happily spent all day, every day playing just about any sport I could find. To say I loved competing is an enormous understatement - most of my fondest memories are related in some way to my athletic career - I remember being part of many brutal battles on both the football field and the basketball court - No matter where I played the competition was often fierce and there were many times when I came face to face with many exceptional athletic warriors - Although there were many times when I would be opposing athletes with superior talent, that was never my main concern - I found a different breed of athlete to be much more of a challenge and nemesis than the best player, talent wise - It was the ‘persistent’ pest that would give me fits - the kid that would never quit - the one that kept coming full speed play, after play, after play - Those were the athletes that pushed me to my limit and those were the type of athletes I wanted on my team.

I think that having a ‘never give up’ approach to life results in success more often than not - Being persistent requires discipline and the right attitude - it all starts with how you approach each day - Are you the type that wakes up dreading the day you’re about to face or are you the type that jumps out of bed ready to take on whatever life has to throw at you? Keep in mind that you were designed to have full control over your thoughts and actions - that is the gift that we are all born with - Free will - If you feel like you have lost some or all of the control in your life I suggest trying to “Live the Seven” - The ChiForce program will help you regain that control enabling you to live the life you imagine for yourself. The simple act of changing the way you think about things can start to turn negatives into positives and you will find it much easier to maintain the ‘persistence’ you’ll need to accomplish all that you set out to do. The mind is a very powerful tool - put it to good use.