Day 81 Poor pitiful me

It seems we all have excuses why we don't do the things we need to do to succeed. I'm also guilty of this. For the last 5 months I have been dealing with a frozen shoulder that has been causing not only immobility in my primary arm (left) but also extreme pain especially at night. This has pretty much eliminated my exercise which is my personal Achilles heal. I HAVE to exercise or I remain stuck where I am while I loose more and more mobility each day.

So this past weekend I decided that pain or no pain, I wasn't going to let my body continue deteriorating. When life throws limits in your way you can chose to hang on to them as excuses for failure or you can choose to overcome them as temporary hurdles.

For the last 3 days I have gone hiking each afternoon for a minimum of 45 minutes. Where I live in Canada is some of the most beautiful scenic trails although they can be quite challenging due to the rocky terrain. Although my shoulder still hurts like a bugger - my sore legs are now taking over in the uncomfortable ache areas. But the discomfort only reminds me that I am one step closer to my dreams - one step closer to better health - one step closer to better balance - one step closer to the fun me who loves the outdoors.

I choose to step outside my comfort zone, I choose to embrace the discomfort that reminds me I am still alive. I choose to live.

No more poor pitiful me - there is nothing to pity here - only a woman who after 81 days of being stuck finally said - enough is enough. I'm off to go hiking once again this afternoon and the weather couldn't be more beautiful.

Each step I live

Kay Kinder
1,000 days to health and wealth

Day 61 plateau broken

I am now on day 61 of my 1,000 day journey to health and wealth. I have had endless health set backs but I refused to quit. Instead I kept getting up each day looking forward to the achievements I will make through simple personal choices made.

Today I finally broke my 253 plateau - I have been fluctuating between 253 and 254 for the last 3 weeks without being able to break below that. Due to health issues my exercise had to temporarily stop and this also stopped my weight loss.

I have not gained, but I have not lost either. I know from this experience that I can easily maintain without having to give up the things I love simply by keeping portions reasonable & adding vegetables to each meal. Simple small changes that keep me on the path to health without the drastic yo yo weight loss that is actually harmful.

Today I am at 252 - down 8 pounds from my starting point 61 days ago. I also have my new business website up and running and it is already receiving inquiries and traffic although I am not promoting it yet. At this stage I am now creating training materials for my future customers and well on my way towards my financial goals for having the resources for helping others.

So all things considered - today is a great day as I am 1 pound closer to my goal.

Today I am grateful that my daughter is now on the mend and back to school today
Today I am grateful for my partner who encourages me
Today I am grateful for being alive and having one more day to love my family, laugh with friends, achieve personal goals while dreaming of a better tomorrow.

Kay Kinder
1,000 days the health and wealth

Day 54 Sept. 9, 2010 tracking & healing

Today is day 54 of my 1,000 day journey to health and wealth.

As reported yesterday I finally found an app that works for me for not only tracking my food intake each day but it also tracks my activities (including things like typing, laundry, driving, and all the other activities that I do most days). It has been interesting learning what small changes have in my overall results for that day.

My health however is anything but good right now due to the extreme pain associated with this frozen shoulder. Sleeping is nearly impossible as the pain seems to be much worse if I lay down. This is leaving me emotionally raw and exhausted and it seems my major cleaning job on the weekend has really taken a toll on my shoulders. My left arm is all but useless and my right arm aches from over use to compensate for my left. In addition my back seems to be affected by this tightened shoulder muscle too as everything is trying to compensate for the pain and reduced mobility. It is certainly taking it's toll on my spirits.

Today I am working on creating a proposal for selling one of our businesses. It is legal document so it is incredible tedious but it has to be completed before tomorrow as I am meeting with a potential buyer. With the sale of this business it will free up even more of my time (and my partners time) to focus on our new business venture full time.

It is certainly a step in the direction that we want to take (my partner and I) but it seems to be happening so fast that I'm not sure if I am ready for it yet. My issue is my new business venture hasn't reached marketable product stage - it's like leaping off a cliff before you have attached the harness for your hang-glider. My safety net isn't in place yet leaving me feeling insecure about the future.

I know this too is a step that must be completed before I can achieve my financial goals - I'm just tired and thus emotionally wired today.

Today I am grateful for this new potential buyer who could change my plans drastically speeding me towards my future dreams.

Today I am grateful for my heating pad that makes it possible for me to type.

Today I am grateful for being able to work from home today as I am far too tired and sore to be out driving around the city.

Fall is coming and I am so looking forward to some serious outdoor time walking and enjoying the fall colors and scents of the season.

Kay Kinder
1,000 days to health and wealth

Day 53 Sept 8, 2010 Fall cleaning & new app

Today is day 53 of my 1,000 day journey and although it doesn't seem like I am getting anywhere - I am actually making good headway. Results however will take more time to start showing.

My home life was turned upside down this past weekend as I tore my house apart for some serious cleaning. The goal was two fold - to get my house as dust free as possible (my partner is allergic to dust) and to start going through old things to be thrown out making space available so I don't feel so cluttered.

One of the things that slows people down from being successful is clutter. Clutter is distracting, it makes it more difficult to find what you are looking for (which consumes valuable time), and it simply an eye sore. By eliminating clutter I have made my home more welcoming, I have a place for things now, and I am no longer distracted by the piles of unfinished projects that will never get done.

I made good use of my work cleaning system - reapplying it to home cleaning:
Do it (finish it)
Date it (to be done)
Delete it (throw it out)
Delegate it (give it to someone else)
Deliberate (things I am not ready to throw out, kept to one small box for review later)

If I really couldn't decide where to put it - then I threw it out (garbage or charity bag).

It is a slow process cleaning out 50 years of living - but the results have been very rewarding so far. I can breath easier (and so can Dave) and I am finding places for things. My goal is to finish this "life cleaning" of my main floor & second floor by the end of this weekend.

Of course this is only ONE step towards my success - but it is an important one as it will allow me to stay more focused on my goals.

The second success I had was finally finding an app for tracking my weight, food diary, and activities. After spending the last 4 days fussing with apps that did not work I finally found one that DOES WORK.

Live Strong (www.Livestrong.com is the website) has an app that tracks it all and is easy to use from my iphone.

I know tracking my meals, weight & activities is all part of the process and is a vital part of achieving my personal health goals. So with my new app and my cleaner surroundings I feel like I am ready now to take on the challenges facing me.

Every step I make counts - so I am stepping into my healthier life filled with abundance!

Today I am grateful for being able to work even with the limited mobility of my left arm. I was still able to tackle my clutter one armed!

Today I am grateful for my new app which allows me to track my progress with ease from my iphone.

Today I am grateful for this day - another chance to make a difference, another step towards being the best me that I can be, another step towards having more to share with others.

Today is a great day and I am truly blessed!

Kay Kinder
1000 days to health and wealth

Day 49 - lesson learned the hard way

Yesterday I was reading something that reminded me of an important lesson that I seem to have forgotten. The dreaded food diary.

It is a fact that 75% of the people who lose weight and keep it off keep food diaries - the reason why this is such a successful tool is because it makes you consciously aware of everything you eat and in doing so it makes you accountable for everything you eat.

I have been so buried in work and building my millions that I forgot to incorporate this very important tool that can drastically change my chances of success and since I am committed to succeed this tool is not optional - it is a necessity.

So as of yesterday I started keeping a food diary.

Life isn't about making wealth - life is about living, sharing, staying healthy so that I can live longer and do more, the wealth is simply a tool to use to help others while allowing me to live a lifestyle with the freedom to choose what I want to do each day - instead of being forced to work in order to survive.

So once more I am reminded of my priorities - health leads to wealth - wealth without health leads to death... Health first.

On the plane they tell you to put your oxygen mask on FIRST then help whoever is with you second - There is a reason for this - you can't help them if you pass out or die because you put your health second.

Today I give myself permission to put my own health first so that I may serve others as a result of that health.

Hard reminders - but I also knew this wasn't going to be an easy journey. It is a change in learned behavior patterns, it is a change in beliefs (doing what I know is right instead of doing what I usually do which is put myself last on the list of importance).

Today I am grateful for the painful reminders that keep me accountable each day.

Today I am grateful for my health - that I am still able to do things even with this bad shoulder. No migraines today - nothing to slow me down!

Today I am grateful to God who watched over the people in Hatteras NC moving that hurricane so that it only brushed the small towns as a tropical storm - another reminder of how fragile life is and how grateful we must be for each day given to us.

Today I am alive and well and looking forward to the small steps that will lead me to my dreams while never forgetting that today is to be celebrated and enjoyed too.

Kay Kinder
1,000 days to health and wealth

Day 41 Aug 26 Falling behind but not defeated

Well the last two weeks have really be chaotic. My partner Dave decided to build an additional room in our office so I can have a private office and room to hire a new receptionist/dispatch person (part of our company growth plan & giving me room to work on our other projects at the same time). With this new office came a need for furniture and we couldn't find anything that would fit in the space available - so I made the decision to move my home office into my new work office... furniture, files and all.

It was a huge adjustment because it meant turning my home upside down - my home office WAS my open dining/living room... so now I have boxes everywhere with no place to put everything... so we bought a new bookcase for home, moved my old entertainment unit back upstairs from the basement, moved my office furniture to the office and I am now just beginning to go through boxes to reorganize which includes throwing out older stuff that is no longer useful and finding new homes for important things I will not be bringing to work.

At the same time my daughter has asked me to build her boyfriend a baroque style lace ruffle shirt and velvet & brocade coat for his birthday which unfortunately is very labor intensive. I use to own a historical costume business (with over 300 historical costumes in stock) and taught history of costumes at the local college over a decade ago but long since gave up sewing due to problems with my neck. So for the last two weeks between moving, boxing, still working full time and sewing added with the shoulder issues (torn rotator cuff & frozen shoulder) it has been a very rough time for me.

I was also scheduled to take an online course with a very dear friend, but I found trying to pay attention after 8pm near to impossible (I was exhausted and my arm was in really bad shape) - so I still have the recordings of the training and plan on listening to them next week when the worst of the dust settles.

Today's update - the shirt is done, the coat has about 6 hours left of labor (which I should be able to complete tonight if all goes well), the new office is done and my furniture is now functional at the office (even if there are still 6 more boxes to unpack), Dave built me some new book shelves and CD shelves and has started unpacking boxes in my dining room and although there are still 20+ boxes left to unpack at home - my new living room furniture will be arriving early next week and we can finally get the last of the old stuff out once and for all - so there IS light at the end of the tunnel.

So the good news:
weight 254 - (down 6 pounds from my original weight but a very long way to go to my goal)
bank account hasn't changed but the new business is now up and running and our first 3 potential customers have received our information package. I will be doing a follow up with them over the next week.

The post cards I ordered to promote the new business have arrived and I already have a list of 100 potential customers to do my first test market mailing campaign with. I will be doing 10 of these test markets over the next 8 weeks (1,000 in total), modifying the promotional material as needed to see an increase of leads to paying customers. Because this is a very specific niche market each of the 100 mail outs are already pre-qualified leads.

My target - 2 paid customers in the next 4 weeks - 4 more paid customers in the next 8 weeks, 4 more in 12 weeks. Total of 10 paid customers within 3 months.

My work target (beyond my daily job tasks) is to complete module 1 of the 4 month training program that I am selling (yes I am selling something that isn't completed) within the next 4 weeks (sooner if I get the paid customers as that will make module 1 a priority to completion).

To hire an additional staff for the new office space (to free up more of my time to work on the modules and promoting both businesses), to hire another technician (or 2) as I am now booked solid and need additional technicians to handle the work load. To listen to the training materials from Leap without Limits. And to get my home and office in order (meaning no more boxes).

It has been an insanely busy time - but I do have this weekend scheduled OFF to socialize with friends and enjoy some down time at the cottage. Even in the chaos there are still moments of joy, laughter, affection, and playfulness that make all of this worth while.

Today I am grateful for my partner Dave who is really pitching in to make my home less stressful for me
Today I am grateful for my job that allows me the freedom to accomplish so many tasks on the side.
Today I am grateful for my dog who loves me unconditionally even when I am too sore to pet her.

Once more I move forward with purpose - each step taken a conscious one in the direction I choose to go.

Kay Kinder
1000 days to health and wealth

Day 26 Aug. 11, 2010 Falling behind

Today is day 26 of my 1,000 days to health and wealth and I am quite disappointed. Like all journeys some days will see progress other days will see set backs - this week has been a set back for me on my health quest.

For those who didn't know, 4 months ago I tore my left rotator cuff (again) and ended up with a frozen shoulder. Now my left arm is pretty much useless and has been for just over 4 months. The problem is I am left handed so this is really compromising my ability to do many things. The worst of it isn't the restriction of movement, the worst of it is the endless pain that will not allow me to sleep at night. On average I sleep for 15 to 20 minutes before the pain in my arm wakes me up and this gets repeated all night so that by the morning I am averaging maybe 3 to 4 hours sleep spaced out over the entire night.

In other words - after 4 months of this I am absolutely exhausted and the lack of sleep is having a negative effect on my ability to burn calories, not to mention I am so tired I can barely walk my dog to the front yard let alone the dog park. It has reached a point where I am not comfortable driving because I know my concentration is impaired to some extent.

Today my weight is 256 (still 4 pounds under my starting weight, but NOT where I expected to be at this stage).

All that being said, I still know that I can achieve my 1,000 day goal even with this set back. So today I am going to call my doctor to see if there is anything I can do to help with the pain so I can get some much needed sleep and I am going to double up my physio & massage sessions to see if I can't get this shoulder fast tracked to manageable pain levels.

As the crazy song says: "I get knocked down, but I get up again, your never going to keep me down" - this stupid song plays in my head every time I hit a set back and it pumps me up to move forward again.

So today I am grateful for the music that moves me to continue even when I am exhausted.

Today I am grateful for my partner Dave who's patience & efforts with me is so appreciated. I'm sure I can't be much fun to be with right now but he is still here supporting and encouraging me.

Today I am grateful for my job that allows me the flexibility to choose which tasks I want to pursue each day and where I want to work (office, home, cottage, anywhere...).

I still believe that everyday above ground is a good day - even if that day includes discomforts because this too shall pass.

Kay Kinder
1,000 days to health & wealth

Day 20 August 5, 2010 giving back

Today was an especially good day for me, not because I made money or lost weight but because I dedicated today to serving others - giving back for all the times that people helped me along the way.

Today I got to share with my mastermind team what I know about search engine optimization and how to find just the right keywords to build a website that is not only easy to find on the search engines but is specifically written for those markets where people are actually paying online for the services that are being offered. I created a pdf document for my mastermind team and the outline of what was shared will also become a part of my training program for my own online business so once again I benefited even when my goal was just to help others.

Today I also got to enjoy speaking (on Skype for free) with my favorite Englishman from London England Bob Lampard who was looking for ways to monetize his websites. It was especially rewarding for me because he is such a giving soul with a heart of gold and it was great hearing him turn his hurdles into options. All he needed was someone to walk him through some SEO tips before his mind was running ahead with ideas.

Bob is another member of my mastermind team and I count my blessings that he is such a supportive member to myself and the rest of the group. I think he is going to do great things with his writings and can't wait to read his next blog.

Today I also did endless laundry between the emails and phone calls - washing every last piece of laundry from the cottage clean up (linens, beddings, clothes, etc...). Each load required running up and down stairs which pushed me to exercise even more today - although I have to admit I am starting to feel it in my legs. But it is a great feeling seeing everything clean and nicely folded
ready to take back this weekend.

Busy day but a good day filled with endless thoughts, endless moments of thankfulness, and laughter with special friends.

Today I am grateful for Bob Lampard that he let me into his life a bit more growing our friendship in the process.

Today I am grateful for MaryAnn D'ambrosio who allowed me to do some research for her to help grow her business online.

Today I am grateful for a working washing machine - isn't modern technology a blessing - I can't imagine how my granny would have gotten all that done one piece at a time scrubbing her knuckles raw... instead I made light work of a huge mountain.

Life isn't the destination - life is the journey and today I enjoyed each step of the way.

Kay Kinder
1,000 steps to health and wealth

Day 17-18-19 Work, work, work

I just spent the last two days buried in work again once more putting my personal goals on hold. This is my personal hurdle and the one I struggle with the most... making time to make me a priority too. In the past most of my dreams just died a slow painful death because I didn't feel I deserved to live my dreams. I work hard for others to succeed, but I don't give myself permission to succeed on my own. I have literally made people millions of dollars over the last 10 years alone but didn't give myself that success.

Today on Day 19 of my 1,000 day journey I recommit to this dream
981 days to reach 93 pounds weight loss (total loss 100 pounds)
981 days to reach $999,779.00 to earn in my savings account to be used to help others (total savings 1 million dollars).

I still believe I can do this - I still know I can do this. All I need to do is give myself permission to put time aside each day for me. I deserve the right to choose a good life for myself and my children and my sisters and parents... these are the steps I am taking to take that life and live it one day at a time.

Today I am grateful for waking up this morning with the whole day ahead of me waiting for me to choose my steps.

Today I am grateful for the opportunity to give some time to my mastermind team as they have freely given of their time to me.

Today I am grateful for a working computer that allows me to share this journey with others.

Everyday above ground is a great day!!!!

Kay Kinder
1,000 days to health and wealth

Day 15-16 the weekend cleanup

This weekend was devoted to helping my partner Dave clean his cottage getting it ready for next weekend for hosting our company picnic. Everything needed to be done from cleaning mouse dropping out of old dressers from the winter storage to building new stairs going up to the doors. All this plus helping my daughter with a sewing project - it was a very very busy weekend with no time for myself.

No changes in weight or income on the weekend - but that was to be expected. I'm still on track and looking forward to working on my project again.

Today I am thankful for the time I got to spend with my daughter Lila (we have had a rough relationship the last 2 years so this was really appreciated).

Today I am thankful for the time I spent raking and pulling weeds (nothing like hard physical labour to remind you that you are alive)

Today I am thankful for the cool evenings that made sleeping at the cottage a bit better.

Kay Kinder
1,000 days to health and wealth