Anyone that knows me, knows I love soup!! Always makes me feel warm and fuzzy 🙂 Here is a great recipe that won’t leave you in the kitchen all day. Quick, easy, and oh so yummy!!

Ingredients:

• 2 x 14.5 oz. cans fire roasted tomatoes
• 1 cup bone broth or water
• 1/4 teaspoon fresh pepper
• 1 teaspoon Sea Salt
• 1/3 cup packed fresh basil
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs
• 1 can full fat coconut milk

Directions:

1. In a large soup pot, stir together the tomatoes, broth or water, pepper, salt, basil, and oil.

2. Place chicken in the pot, covering the chicken as much as possible.

3. Cook on medium heat, covered, for 25 minutes. Stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, remove the chicken from the liquid, and let cool on a plate.

4. Blend soup with a blender. Then, add in coconut milk and stir to combine.

5. Pour the liquid back in the pot and add the cooked chicken. Cook on medium for about 5 more minutes and serve.

6. Enjoy!
Serves 4-6.

Melissa and I were talking yesterday about the idea that our kids will only be the age they are once.

Alyssa (7) and Olivia (3) were collaborating on a dog book. They named it All About Dogs – A Great Guide for Being a Great Dog Owner.

It was so sweet watching them work together. The thought of them only being their current age once could make me cry.

I’ve heard other parents say similar things.

Here’s something I don’t hear as many people talking about that could make my cry just as much:

We all SHOULD be the same age only once.

I think you’ll agree that if you are the same person at age 45 that you were at 25, there are some issues.

Unfortunately, this is the case for many people. While technically they are older, they haven’t grown one bit and are still blaming external circumstances for their problems.

That’s just as sad as kids getting older – Progressing through life but not growing.

Too many of us compare ourselves to others. There are lots of problems with this.

Comparison will rob you of all joy.

It’s an instant put down. I don’t think I’ve ever compared myself to someone else and felt better for it. And of course, I compare myself to the ideal. Most of us don’t compare ourselves to people we’ve done better than. That would come with its own set of problems.

With social media, we are usually comparing the real version of ourselves with someone else’s highlight reel.

There’s only one person I think it’s OK to compare yourself to and that’s YOU!

You can be content and yet still want to improve. Are you better today than you were yesterday? That’s a much better question than asking yourself if you’re better than someone else. We are all running our own race so stay in your own lane.

The leadership team at TBBC is reading a great book called Measure What Matters.

The title really grabbed me as I realize how often we measure or track the wrong things.

Does this scenario sound familiar to you?

You miss a workout or don’t make the best food choices and then beat yourself up for it.

If so, I have something much better for you to track.

Most of us are really good at noticing our problems or how many mistakes we make.

Why don’t you start counting the good things you’re doing? Did you turn down the cake at the office or do a workout even if it wasn’t the world’s best? Then give yourself a pat on the back for it.

Here’s my challenge to you. Don’t count how many times you mess up or don’t do the things you want to. Count the things you do that will move you closer to your goal. See how many you can rack up in one day.

Once you do it for one day, try to beat it the next day.

You see our minds can only focus on one thing at a time.

When we’re focused on our mistakes, challenges, and faults we don’t leave any room for celebrating our wins or focusing on solutions.

Of course there is a time to improve your weak areas but many people waste time and energy beating themselves up.

The reason I know this is because I do it myself.

I couldn’t tell you how much time I’ve lost dwelling on mistakes and failures. In order to become successful in any area we need to have the proper attitude toward failure. At some level, we need to look at it as an experience to learn from. The great thing about being human is we can change.

Just because you may have failed with a program before doesn’t mean you’ll fail this time. It just means you learned one way not to do it.

Success is always the accumulation of little victories over time. So count those because that’s what matters most.

Most of us won’t be able to go years and years without a serious injury.

I’m very fortunate in that I’ve been extremely active over the years and have managed to avoid any serious injuries. And I’ve worked out for 25 years and trained in Muay Thai, BJJ, Judo, and MMA for years.

In addition to that I’ve worked with hundreds of people to help avoid and manage injuries. I figured I’d share my best tips with you. After all, if your injured, especially seriously it’s very difficult to make the progress that you’d like.

OK so here are the tips:

1. Be consistent – This is probably one of the best ways to avoid injury. One of the keys to staying healthy is adapting to things. It’s the people that barely run and then go out and run that hurt themselves. Their muscles, ligaments, etc. aren’t ready for it.

2. Be smart – I know for me, the times I have injured myself it wasn’t a total surprise. Something felt kind of funny but I tried to push through it. Don’t make the mistake I did. If something hurts, especially skeletally, the worst thing to do is “push through it.” That’s a guaranteed injury!

3. High/Low training – Many people get injuries because they are doing too many hard workouts in a row. What happens is the body never has a chance to recover and then is prone to injury. Instead do what many sprinters do an alternate higher intensity workouts with lower intensity ones.


Billy Hofacker – Owner & Transformation Coach at Total Body Boot Camp – BS, CSCS

Successful people are better at saying no. Saying no to things that will NOT lead them in the direction they want to go. Are you on the right path for what you want to accomplish with your life? Watch this quick video about how writing your obituary can help you figure out which paths to choose. 

I had heard of Toastmasters when I was younger but it wasn’t until years later that I read about it in a book by one of my favorite authors Jeffrey Gitomer that I was truly intrigued.

It was over 6 years ago that I joined a local club. After attending my first meeting, I knew it was for me. The public speaking and leadership development in a supportive atmosphere was right up my alley.

Like many things that require a lot of focus and discipline, most people dabble here and there. I knew that if I truly wanted to make great strides in these areas I’d have to be in it for the long haul. So I set out to accomplish the ultimate goal of earning the DTM (Distinguished Toastmaster) designation.

To become a DTM is no easy task. It includes planning, practicing, and delivering over 40 talks as well as many other presentations and countless other leadership tasks.

I made a lot of headway early on and my involvement in Toastmasters helped my career tremendously.

I got side tracked a bit with scheduling issues and a young family but I re-committed this year to reach DTM by the end of the year.

I knew I still had a lot of work ahead of me including 6 speeches.

As I began planning things out I became a little stressed over how much had to get done. Of course this was an arbitrary goal but I put in so much work towards it already. Besides Toastmasters is in the process of changing the course so the deadline is actually real.

As I was going through all the things I’d already done, I realized I misjudged things. I was actually done with all of the main speeches and I was much closer than I had realized.

The ultimate goal was very much in reach and I became certain it would happen. My stress disappeared at once.

It got me thinking that this is how it is for most of us.

Regardless of how far you feel you are from your goal, you’re closer than you think!Most people give up just when they’re about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game one foot from a winning touchdown. – Ross Perot

Billy Hofacker – Owner & Transformation Coach at Total Body Boot Camp – BS, CSCS

Everyone is busy! Instead of ordering in a pizza or stopping at one of those (eww, dare I say it…) fast food joints, try out this recipe. This is one of my go-to weekday meals when we are in a rush. It’s fast, delicious, and the ingredients are almost always available at our house. Let me know how much you enjoy this one 🙂

Ingredients:

• 3 medium sweet potatoes, cut lengthwise into ¼ inch slices
• 1 tsp. olive oil
• 2 cans Tuna (packed in water) (do not drain)
• 2½ cups cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• ⅓ cup packed basil, roughly chopped
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

3. Place sweet potato slices in a mixing bowl and toss with 1 tsp. olive oil.

4. Spread sweet potato slices out evenly on baking sheets, giving each slice a little space.

5. Bake for 20 minutes. Flip to the other side and bake for 10 more minutes until golden brown.

6. Meanwhile, toss the tuna (AND tuna water), cherry tomatoes, garlic, basil, olive oil, lemon juice, and salt and pepper in a large mixing bowl.

7. When sweet potatoes are done, let cool.

8. Top sweet potato slices with tuna mixture, and enjoy!

Serves 4-8. 

I wanted to touch on a very common problem today.

It’s called “Doing nothing.”

There are a variety of reasons for this problem but here are some common ones that I’ve been guilty of myself.

The first is not knowing what to do.

We don’t have a plan so we don’t know how to move forward. We’re just sort of stuck.

The second is overwhelm. I think I struggle from this one the most. There is just so much to do we don’t know where to begin. An action might feel like just a drop in the bucket.

Finally we’re not sure if the reward will be worth it? Is it really worth all the effort to eat healthier and exercise? Or am I going to sacrifice all that and the rewards won’t match my effort.

OK let’s quickly knock these out one at a time.

Not having a plan or knowing what to do – Good news is you don’t have to have the whole thing figured out. Rather than the Ready – Fire – Aim mentality, subscribe to Ready – Fire – Aim.

Many times once you start taking small steps the rest of the plan becomes clearer. Bottom line is it’s OK if you don’t know how to get there as long as you commit to persist until you succeed.

Now let’s address overwhelm. As I mentioned I can struggle with this. It really doesn’t make sense though. Think about it. Since we have so much to do, we don’t do anything?

What if we did that with bathing? What if we thought about all of the showers we had to take for the rest of our lives? Picture all the wash cloths, soap, towels, and everything else that you would need for showers the rest of your life. Think about all the time it will take. Would you let that prevent you from taking a shower today? Of course not but that’s exactly what we do with other things.

As far as the reward not being worth it, that’s a lie we tell ourselves. Compare the difference in results between staying on the coach not eating healthier or exercising Vs. the opposite. Of course the outcome would be better. Sometimes I do think we need to change our expectations of what the rewards are. Even if the reward is just feeling more accomplished by challenging yourself a little more, it’s worth it!

One of the simplest and most effective ways of breaking the procrastination habit it to take a small step, even if it’s so ridiculously small you don’t think it’ll make a difference. It will. Instead of thinking about running for miles how about just lacing those sneakers up?

Billy Hofacker – Owner & Transformation Coach at Total Body Boot Camp – BS, CSCS