Goodbye Winter!

Is anyone else ready to say goodbye to this crazy weather?

Now, maybe in my case it's not right to complain. After all, here in Texas, I'm not annoyed by snow or blizzards. No, I'm annoyed that it's 80*F one day and 40*F the next!

SO not good for my plants.

Anyhow, if you live in Texas, we're doing an XFM at Mannatech Corporate (600 S. Royal, Coppell Texas) this upcoming Tuesday, Feb 26th starting at 7 p.m. I'll be there with my backpack and orange hair (there was a mishap going from red to blonde :o)

Comment and let me know if I should expect you!! Remember, just like Tom's shoes for every vitamin pack you get for your family, you're nourishing a child in critical condition for one month.

Do you know what that makes you?

That makes YOU a child saving ROCK STAR!!!

See you there,

Lizi

PS: If you want to participate, but you're not in Texas, on Tuesday the 26th at 7:30pm log onto www.mannatechlive.com and watch the broadcast by the amazingly smart Dr. Steve Nugent. When you're ready to save an orphan's life, go to www.mannamotion.com/teamkratos and click on either the Mannabears (if you have little ones) or Nutriverus (for everyone!). Make sure you get it every month, so you can know every time that box arrives that you PERSONALLY are fighting the deaths of children under six from malnourishment.

On Grief

Hey everyone,

This last week I lost my sweet Grandma, Peggy Lou. Now that's a Southern name if you've ever heard one, right?

In all fairness, she did frequently remark that I was gonna throw her into a conniption fit, called me Sugar and lived off of sweet tea.

Towards the end of her life, she began to show signs of dementia, then Alzheimer's. Sometimes she joked about it, knowing that the wrong thing came out of her mouth. Other times, she was angry or sad that her brain wasn't working the way she wanted it to.

She loved kids. She raised two of her own, my dad and aunt; taught Sunday School; hugged a kid whenever one walked close enough to her.

She was a sweet, if ornery, lady, and I miss her very much.

I promise I'll get back to my usual happy posts. Today, I just needed to share a little about this wonderful woman.

Lizi

Food, Family and Craziness

Hey guys,

This week was nuts! I hope all of you were able to go out there, crush your goals and live your lives with an impact. I've been modifying my diet with more legumes and seeing really awesome results--all post more about that another time! HIIT and low GI foods seem to put my metabolism into some kind of sweet spot.

Who else is excited about Thanksgiving? My favorite Thanksgiving challenge is taking our traditional foods and making them healthier. You're still going to stuff yourself silly, why not make it with healthy things so you can walk afterwards, right? :) Last year, I did a low carb Thanksgiving fest for my dad, who had to change his diet to get on top of his borderline diabetes diagnosis. The food was delicious and we all had a great time. This year, I can't wait to kick it up another notch with a healthy dinner and Minute to Win It games! If we do any really crazy stuff, I'll be sure to share. ;)

I'm staying strong with my resolution to not condemn, criticize or complain. Sometimes it's hard, and often I mess up, but the results of staying positive far outweigh any temporary relief from blabbling about my problems.

I hope all of you have an awesome weekend and an even better Thanksgiving Holiday! Don't be shy to e-mail me those prayer requests.

Thankful,

Lizi

Growth

Today the kids were up very early. They're early risers anyway, usually filling the house with yells and laughter by 7 a.m. This morning, for whatever reason, they were up a little before 6:20 a.m. So, we went through the motions, breakfast, snacks, drinks, supplements, shakes and so forth. Then I got a crazy idea: Why don't we walk to the park? We have an elementary school around the corner with a play ground.

We walked there and the kids climbed up to the highest slide and went down about 60 trillion times while I jogged laps around them for about 25 minutes (with High Knees and Sprints. I do love me some running).

On the way home, I pointed out all the flowers, trees, shrubs and leaves I could and we talked about them. I showed them acorns and oaks, and explained how everything the tiny seed needs to become a tree is right inside. The seed just needs the right conditions to grow. Good dirt, water, fresh air and sunshine. If the seed had all of those requirements, it would grow up to be a huge tree.

My 4 year old looked at all the acorns on the ground and looked back up at me. "Momma, that's a lot of trees!"

I went on to explain that not every seed would get those perfect conditions. Only a few of them would. God would make sure that the strongest seeds with the best potential to be a big ol' tree would grow. That was God's job.

I drew a parallel with the kids about people. How we have thoughts and feelings and God gave us free will, which means we get to choose how we want to grow. I told my girls about how God let us pick the conditions for ourselves to grow into. We could choose to grow into astronauts, or doctors, or gardeners, or secretaries or whatever we want to be.

The kids went on to make knock knock jokes, but our lovely little nature walk got me thinking. I've been on a learning curve lately, reading everything I can about personal finance, investing, real estate options, strength training, dietary recommendations, human psychology, charities, vlogging, marketing and, of course, biblical teachings to supplement my daily Bible readings. I want to grow in the area of finances so that I can have more to give more. I don't like only giving 10%, I want to really change the world, especially for kids in critical  condition.

But it's my choice to grow. That's such a beautiful thing! Likewise, everyone I listen to as I go about my daily life that complains, whines or grumbles about their current circumstances is choosing to complain over changing and growing. Library cards are free--go get a new skill set so you can change your circumstances. It really is that easy. Know where you're going, and then read a book or listen to a CD/MP3 on how to get there. If you want to be a real estate tycoon, learn from Donald Trump or Robert Kiyosaki. If you're drowning in debt, learn from Dave Ramsey or David Bach.

Even if you have no idea where to start, make the decision to start. If you are homeless, you can still get a library card and get access to the internet and go from there. You always have the power to affect your situation, don't ever convince yourself otherwise.

Do you feel helpless? Do you want to change but still don't know how to get started? E-mail me and let me help you! mannateamkratos (at) gmail :)

Lizi

Think.

Here's a little brain food for your day.


Success is good habits repeated daily. Failure is poor habits repeated daily. Monitor your habits closely.

Figure out where you want to be in life. Write down your biggest dream, and then plan backwards to achieve it.

Get your financial house in order. If you don't know how to manage money, it doesn't matter how much of it you make, you'll never come out on top.

Make sweet memories with your friends and family. Journal about them, take pictures, post it on Facebook--have some place you can look over them again, treasure them, savor them. Life is too short not to.

Learn to give, really give, and expect nothing in return.

Before you can become great, you must master the basics.

Guard your thoughts. They're your treasures and will dictate how you act--growing forward or self-sabotaging? 

And of course, my personal favorite and the tagline of our company: Live with an impact.

Blessings,

Lizi

Connecting With Others

I love to talk to people and help people. Often, I come across as very exciting and enthusiastic, because I'm a driven and passionate person. I understand that some people don't like that sort of thing, but even sticklers who prefer an even keel of hidden emotions (I used to act like one, in fact--it's a long story) grudgingly smile at my quirky inner joy.

I think the reason that even people who want to dislike me can come around is because no matter who you are, where you came from, your past circumstances, your current circumstances, I can look past all of those things and listen to you. Really listen. And really care. I can relate to so many different aspects of other people because I've been where so many other people are or are going. I get it, I do.

My vision is to heal a hurting world, one broken heart at a time.

Giving Just Because

I had a goal today: Bless 7 people. That was it. No ulterior motives here. I'm not that kind of person anyway, just ask my husband. Anyway, I had many, many errands to run today and my Granny (my 85 year old American grandmother) had surgery on her femur due to a fall and I wanted to see her too.

My first errand involved the bookstore, where I needed to drop some stuff off and pick some literature up. When I dropped off my old books, the guy behind the counter needed to see my license. I showed it to him and he said, "What do you go by?"

I shrugged. "Elizabeth, Liz, Lizi, Beth, Betty--I've been called many things."

He nodded thoughtfully. "Lizi Ann?"

"That's a first," I said with a smile, walking away to the business section. I found a cool biography for my Grandpa to read while he hung out with my Granny, and a remastered cassette book with like 50 comedians from days gone by for my grandparents to listen to--they don't like the modern smut comedy.

From the loudspeaker, I hear, "Lizi Ann, your order is ready for pick up." I smiled at my new nickname and got my stuff. I walked around some more, browsing, then grabbed what I wanted and checked out.

Right before I touched the bar to push the door open, I remembered that I wanted to bless 7 people. I spun on my heel and walked back over to the bookstore guy who gave me the silly nickname. It's always nerve wracking to put yourself out there, isn't it? I waited until he looked up and then I said, "Hey, I just wanted to let you know I was grabbing this stuff for my grandparents. My grandma just had leg surgery and she isn't eating, so I was getting this stuff to cheer them up. I really appreciated your silly nickname, thank you."

He looked surprised, and said that he always tried to keep stuff light and silly to cheer people up. Now mind you--my husband and I are in there all the time. I'd seen this guy before and he had seen me with my spouse, so this wasn't some kind of weird thing. He knew I was crazy about my spouse. But he cheered me up on a really hard day, and so in turn I wanted to bless him by telling him why that silly little thing meant something to me.

My day continued much like that. I blessed an elderly gentleman outside of Quicktrip with a quarter for the payphone because his phone battery was dead and had him laughing about my kids eating pecans in our backyard and him telling me about growing up in a house with pecan trees. I blessed my Grandpa and Grandma with visits and presents, my Grandma's caretaker I blessed with a prayer, my Grandma's nurse I blessed with some kind words. I lost count by the end of the day, I just started making it my mission to bless everyone I came into contact with.

It was an awesome day, and I highly recommend everyone try to integrate it into their lives. You reach a point where you realize you set out to bless other people, but you really end up being the one who gets blessed the most.

Lizi