General

First my apologies this weekend for posting a group messages. I was looking for a way to communicate with the group, but group messaging is not the way as if you respond, that message also goes to everyone. Some people really did not like this. Finally Tony Williams put us all out of our misery by getting rid of the discussion chain. We will find another way : )

In terms of activity were were up to 175 like and 4 report cards that had been filled out on line. Not sure if participants are having problems filling out the report card on line, but this will be the best way to track our progress as a group.
Up to 175 likes, and 4 report cards that have been filled out on line.

Past Targets: FAMILY DIRECTION
You should have at least one SMARTgoal identified, the one thing that would have the greatest impact on your quality of life if you were to accomplish this over the next 6-12 months. In addition, you should have a draft of a Family Mission statement. Don’t worry if you don’t think this is perfect, you may modify it over time, but you need to start somewhere. If you struggle with were to begin with identifying a purpose, check out the video by Adam Leipzig at http://youtu.be/vVsXO9brK7M. This video has had nearly 2 million views.

Past Targets: MENTAL FITNESS
While there are several posts that have been listed, the one thing that likely helps the most is breath awareness. One technique is called 4-7-8 Breathing. However mindful meditation for as little as 10 minutes a day will likely have a great impact on you life. Stillness.

Current Target: NUTRITIONAL FITNESS
There does seem to be a pattern to the few entries that have been posted: the more greens in the meal, the more energy one seems to have, the more sugar the less energy we seem to have. One helpful product to get those greens in is the Nutribullet.

One nutrient that may be accounting for this “energy” is magnesium. Many nutritional pundits suggest that 70-80% of the population may have less than optimal levels of magnesium which is hard to detect, because it is not really identified by the current laboratory test for magnesium which mainly measures magnesium in the blood, which is not were most of the magnesium in our bodies is located (long sentence). Magnesium is important because it plays a role in the manufacturing of ATP which the cells use for energy. If the cells don’t have enough ATP they can’t function and hence the systems that they are a part of cannot function. So magnesium deficiency can be a great masquerader (depression, heart disease, skin disease, immune disease, etc).

Going forward we would still like to hear about your practices and how they make you feel good or bad. It is helpful to think about “fitness” because it is more than just what you eat that is important. If you think about music, you can play the right note at the wrong time (so when are the best times to eat and not eat). You can also pair notes together and they clash with one other (which foods go together or clash). Finally, you also need to pay attention to spacing and the rest, if its too crowded things get messy. Sometimes less is more. We can eat at the wrong time, have the wrong food combinations, eat too many varieties at once (no other species does this), or the nutritional value could be altered by our methods of food preparation. As you pay attention to this, let us know what is going on when you feel good, and when you feel bad. Don’t worry about grammar, of feel that you cant write, just get it out there, it can be fixed later. We are just looking for patterns and the more people that share their testimony, the clearer the relationships will be.

As a final announcement, Lexi had donated a slightly used Nutribullet which we will raffle off in two weeks. The way to make an entry it to fill out a post card with your name on it and write down what

We are up to 148 likes on the FaceBook Page SMARTplace, and our report card surveys are not where they should be yet. Remember we will be using the report card at www.BetterME.us to track our progress.
As a reminder for last months targets,

1) Mental Fitness: hopefully people are finding the value in the practice of mindfullness and are working this into their daily schedule. To summarize there are two types; body awareness (including thoughts), and object awareness. There have been demonstrated changes in brain structure with practice, and benefits on par (perhaps not better) with other therapies that help with depression, anxiety, and wellness in general. It may be that this helps with focus. If you want to go to the store but stop along the way to chat with every neighbor, you cant get to where you are going. This practice helps to build awareness so that in the moment, you can determine what is appropriate. Given its simplicity, there is a strong recommendation to develop this as a habit; 10 minutes once or twice per day.

2) Family Direction: you should have identified at least one goal to accomplish over the next 6-12 months, and drafted a family mission statement. This can be a draft. To help the group, please consider posting your goal and your mission statement in the family mission target on Facebook. My observations with those who seemed troubled by the many challenges in life is that they seem to have no sense of direction; either who they are or where they are going. The bible states where there there is no vision the people perish. As such is strongly recommended that you achieve an “A” in this subject. With purpose and direction, though challenges are there, you just don’t see them or rather pay attention to them.

Current Targets:

1) Nutritional Fitness: there is one recommendation and that is to watch forks over knives. Please post the people, products, and practices that help you eat better. If you don’t know, you can go to www.BetterME, and download steps 4,5,6 which deal with nutrition. It would also be helpful if you would pay attention to when you get the “itis” vs when you feel alert after eating and describe what you had to eat.

2) Political Fitness: remember that the show begins after the election. Hopefully everyone voted, but if not you can still be engaged. To get an A in this category, you need to be registers and write a letter to one of your legislators.. There is a posting for the website www.openstates.org. This site allows you to be aware of your legislator, and their activity. There is a very nice app for the iphone that allow for tracking. One is called “Open States” and the other is called “Congress” these are free apps by the group “Sunlight Foundation”.

Probably 80% of our health challenges concern what we put in our mouths. We should take a lesson from Daniel (who had a lifestyle that profited him and honored God – good looking, intelligent in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, and had the ability to serve in the Kings court [must be good]), who was able to demonstrate a difference in just 10 days. Usually when we refer to this passage we state that with good eating you can be better in 10 days, but really the passage suggests that you health will decline in just 10 days of not eating heathy foods. The homework assignment for those that have Netflix is to watch Forks Over Knives.

We are now up to 104 likes on the SMARTplace page. This number needs to be matched by the number of report cards that are filled out at www.BetterME.us. If you have trouble completing this please email me. Please do this as this is how we are tracking our effort and can tell whether or not we are improving.

To get the most out of the SMARTplace effort, please commit to trying or posting one entry (or more) each week.
Summaries recommendations for targets mental fitness and family direction have been posted. Feel free to add to the mental fitness and family vision TARGETS if you find things of value. Also try out as many of the recommendations as you can and comment on whether you find it helpful. This is how we whether it represents a universal “truth” vs just helping the person who posted it.
Will be changing to nutritional fitness, so look for the people, products, and, practices that help you improve you eating. You can get some directions by downloading steps 4,5, and 6 from the SMARTsteps program at www.BetterME.us under the about tab.

The second target will be political fitness. To get an A, you must be a registered voter, vote in 90% of the elections, and write a letter to a political official. It is good time for political fitness as an election is right around the corner. It is suggested that you write to your officials early and than them for something that they are doing that you like (because what we focus on tends to grow).

Pastor Kelly endorsed the imagery at night before going to sleep posting. She does find this helpful.