CalebJennings.com

Day on, day off? What does that mean exactly? Allow me to explain…

I’ve been experimenting with cleanses, detox protocols, eating habits and supplementation for the past 2 years. I have done the Master Cleanse (lemon juice, Grade B maple syrup, cayenne pepper and water) numerous times for anywhere from 3 days, all the way to 22 days. Just Master Cleanse lemonade. No food. At all. Crazy.

Honestly, I get bored after drinking the same thing for 10 days. I love the Master Cleanse drink, but I wanted to mix things up a bit, so I decided to try something new when I returned from my last trip to Vancouver. I went a little overboard in Canada and had one amazing meal after another, which was way more than I’m used to eating, but it was TOTALLY worth every bite!

I got back from Vancouver on June 16th, and I felt so bloated, uncomfortable, and just plain fat. I had gained a few pounds up there from all the Matcha Lattes my friends bought me in addition to some of the most delicious meals I’ve ever had. I had to do something. Since I haven’t been able to work out as hard as I normally do from an injury, I’ve taken that as an opportunity to focus on diet and eating habits. A gift in disguise

I felt like I ate WAY too much and just needed to not eat for a few days to give my body time to process everything. That’s when the idea struck me to try something new! I came up with the idea to alternate between drinking only the Master Cleanse lemonade one whole day and eating multiple, small, Paleo meals the next (I’m sure I’m not the first, but it felt like it at the time).

I started losing weight right away! A lot of it was probably water weight, and bloating from slight allergens like soy, wheat, dairy, and corn…all things my body does very well without.

As I write this, it has been 10 days of doing this “alternating cleanse/eating style” and I feel EXTRAORDINARY! I was 170lbs. when I got off the plane, and tonight I weighed in at 155lbs. 15 pounds in 10 days ain’t bad for experimenting

The weight loss isn’t even the best part…you want to know what the best part is?

Doing this for the past 10 days has taught me to be so much more focused and disciplined.

I feel like my body has time to fully digest and assimilate all the nutrients from the food I ate the previous day, and on cleanse days I have more energy and time to focus on productive tasks or learning. I also mix in some super food smoothies and coconut kefir on the liquid days to see how I feel. Oh yeah, can’t forget my Vanilla Shilajit Super Food Latte I wake up to each morning of the liquid days

I feel great, my body loves me, getting into even better shape, getting more done, and I’m having fun trying something new. Life rocks!

I’m implementing Yoga into my routine each morning starting tomorrow, and going to continue on this day on day off thing until my body tells me otherwise. I’m also getting the benefits of Caloric Restriction, which I’m still investigating. Anything involving health, nutrition, and well being has my full attention as I am VERY passionate about those areas. I’m on a path towards what my friend and I call “Super Human Shape”. It’s very challenging, but we are learning so much, and having fun while doing it. I believe leading by example is the best way to lead, and if we want to teach others about living healthier lives, it feels best to teach from experience. We must be the change we want to see in others and the world. I’ll round out this post with this great story about Ghandi:

Be The Change You Want To See In This World – Mahatma Gandhi

During 1930’s, a young boy had become obsessed with eating sugar. His mother was very upset with this. But no matter how much she scolded him and tried to break his habit, he continued to satisfy his sweet tooth. Totally frustrated, she decided to take her son to see his idol – Mahatma Gandhi; perhaps her son would listen to him.

She walked miles, for hours under scorching sun to finally reach Gandhi’s ashram. There, she shared with Gandhi her predicament. -
“Bapu, my son eats too much sugar. It is not good for his health. Would you please advise him to stop eating it?”

Gandhi listened to the woman carefully, thought for a while and replied,
“Please come back after two weeks. I will talk to your son.”

The woman looked perplexed and wondered why had he not asked the boy to stop eating sugar right away. She took the boy by the hand and went home.

Two weeks later they revisited Gandhi. Gandhi looked directly at the boy and said,
“Boy, you should stop eating sugar. It is not good for your health.”

The boy nodded and promised he would not continue this habit any longer. The boy’s mother was puzzled. She turned to Gandhi and asked,
“Bapu, Why didn’t you tell him that two weeks ago when I brought him here to see you?”

Gandhi smiled,
“Mother, two weeks ago I was eating a lot of sugar myself.”

I posted this Note on Facebook a while back to see the kind of response it would get.

I was pleasantly surprised at the number and quality of questions that were posted!

Now, why limit this just to Facebook? Here is the original note I posted for you to think about and submit your questions. I have answered all of the original ones and will be posting them as individual posts on here since there is a lot of content that came from this exercise.

Ask away, and your question may be answered next!

Have you ever attended a Meetup group, or networking event?
How about a conference in your industry?
Maybe a Personal Development Seminar along the way?
When attending these events, do you ever get nervous or feel uncomfortable surrounded by a bunch of strangers?
How about being surrounded by strangers, and wanting to get to know them, but you’re not quite sure how to approach people or what to say?
Maybe, you are going to an event for a specific purpose such as getting new clients, finding business partners, or meeting someone special…

I have been getting a lot of calls, emails, and Facebook messages from friends of mine asking how to network with other people at public events, private conferences, and even nights out on the town. Since I attend many events around the country for business, personal growth, and sometimes just plain fun…I’ve become very comfortable in these situations and have made countless new friends, explored potential business synergies, and have had quite a few romantic adventures throughout

From this influx of inquiries, it inspired me to ask you this question:

“If you could learn 3 things about networking with people, what would they be and why?”

The meat of this post is a simple, yet often overlooked strategy that can help you relax at networking events, parties, and anywhere else you are surrounded by strangers and you feel like you HAVE to meet them all…

The secret is…You DON’T have to meet them all!

A friend of mine who is a top producer in one of the largest network marketing businesses invited me to a private party the other night that he was throwing in a penthouse suite of the Venetian hotel here in Vegas. He is a savvy businessman, brilliant entrepreneur, and is a genuine person from my experience with him. The party was for other top earners in his business, as well as a few people making their way to the top. Now understand that I am not involved in network marketing, his company, or anything. I simply went to visit a friend, with the open mindset that there are some other interesting people that will be there.

Upon arriving, I got to catch up with him for a few minutes, wish his beautiful wife a wonderful happy birthday, and then he was off to tend his other guests, as the gracious host he is (he knows how to get some great people together in a room and keep them all happy!).

Right before he left our conversation, he introduced me to another friend of his and said we should chat…so we did

Here is where I got the title of this post from. I met a few other people there over the course of a few hours, but I REALLY got to know this one person. Hence, “Quality Over Quantity”

I’ve had the same question asked of me in so many different ways, but it generally boils down to this, “Caleb, when I go to an event, how do I get to know every person in the room?” and I reply the same way every time…”You just can’t!” You can sure meet a lot of people, but there is an interesting thing that happens that has to do with focus. The power of focus is something I could (and probably will) write 10 or more posts about, but for the sake of brevity, I’ll give you the classic “Magnifying Glass and the Sun” analogy:

The sun is out every day, and humans walk around in it for hours on end. It can give us a tan or it can seriously burn us if we’re not careful. Now, take a magnifying glass and aim the sun through it at a piece of paper. In seconds you can burn holes in the paper. Why? Focus. The magnifying glass captures the intense and wide spread energy of the sun to a single focused point of condensed energy directed at the piece of paper. Now, back to the power of focus at events…

When you go to an event with 20 or more people, the odds of you getting to know more than a few people really well are slim. When you focus on connecting with just one person, the odds of you making a new friend, romantic partner, or business partner are raised dramatically! When you are focused on just one person for an extended period of time, and the conversation goes well with interesting things shared and laughs to be had, a relationship begins to build. Here are a few key things that happen in the relationship building process (there are many more, which I’ll elaborate on in future posts):

• Rapport
• Trust
• Entertainment
• Interest
• Intrigue
• Curiosity
• Opportunity

Also, please bear in mind that our human brains form impressions about others in milliseconds…I can’t find the original article to cite, but one I read a few months ago mentioned that our brains make 17-19 initial judgments about another person in .02 seconds of looking at them.

So now, knowing some of these key factors in relationship building, how do you think you can build each of those things to a high enough level to form a relationship that will extend beyond the walls of that room? The answer is focus (and follow up, but that’s another post). The act of focusing your attention on another person isn’t just a neat trick, or a great strategy to make business deals…it truly is a gift. Without going into an all out geeky ramble about how much of a miracle it is that we even have the ability to focus our attention, I’ll just say this: focusing your full attention on another person for more than a few minutes will make that person happy for hours after, if not days, and leave a positive anchor associated with you in their mind.

Our time is precious! I believe that our time is our most valuable asset, and we choose how we spend it each day. We can make money, lose money, and then make some more…but when it comes to our time, once we spend it, it’s gone. For you to be spending your valuable time reading the words I’m writing is a gift. You could be doing a million other things right now, but you are choosing to focus on me, and for that I am grateful

So, the next time you are at a networking event or other place where there a lot of people and you feel a bit stressed or anxious about meeting a bunch of them, just breathe and focus. Set your intention to get to know one person very well in the time you have together, and if there is a specific reason you came to the event such as meeting prospective business partners, keep in mind who and what you are looking for when engaging in conversation. And please, please, please…don’t be that shady person who is just after an end result and could care less about the other person. By truly caring about and focusing on the people you meet, you’ll find that opportunities you never dreamed possible will start to pop up with many different people.

Be real. Be raw. Be YOU.

I wanted to take a few minutes before I head to the gym to share a type of workout I have been experimenting with…and getting AMAZING results.

I call it “The Whole Body Intuitive Workout”.

I’m not a big fan of structured and repetitive workout plans, as they are limiting not only in excitement and variety, but also in range of motion, dexterity and flexibility. Exercise should be fun! I started playing with this after I was frustrated with following a typical “3 sets, 8-12 reps” kind of workout routine. I got bored, wasn’t getting the results I wanted, and felt like another “sheep in the herd” lol.

Please note: many people get great results from following structured workout plans, and I’m not saying they’re all bad, I’m just saying they weren’t for me at the time and this is what I’m playing around with that’s getting me the results I’m personally looking for in a surprisingly short amount of time.

Now, let’s dive into what this is all about…

What is a “Whole Body Intuitive Workout”?

It’s exactly what it sounds like It’s a workout that gets your heart rate elevated, hits most or all of your muscle groups, and is determined solely by how YOU feel throughout it.

Intuition is powerful, and those of us who believe in following our intuition in certain realms such as business, relationships, or new encounters with people will jump on this and start seeing results within a short period of time (1 week for me to see a noticeable result). Anyone who is not familiar with intuition, I highly suggest you look into it. Google is your friend

Being in tune with your body is essential to overall health, awareness, and prevention of negative health issues. Plus, it’s a really cool feeling to have knowing where you are in relation to the rest of the world around you. Navigating reality in physical terms is drastically improved.

Growing up, I tried using weight machines without proper training and technique, which resulted in a few injuries. Not fun. I have been in Martial Arts from a very young age, studied gymnastics, and am active in sports such as Le Parkour and snowboarding. All sports requiring a serious amount of body awareness, intuition, focus, and commitment. If you don’t train in any realm such as these or similar, not to worry…you can always start! Even cooler, is that you can play around with the Whole Body Intuitive Workout regardless of being involved in any other activities.

By now you might be asking, “Ok, so how do I do this Intuitive Workout?”…Let’s get started!

You’ll need a place to workout. It doesn’t have to be a big fancy gym, but they do help. Your living room floor can work just fine. I’ll share with you what has been working well for me, and I highly suggest you play with this as much as you want to customize it to your body type, physical goals, and availability of equipment. Not having a gym, weights, or equipment is NOT an excuse, so don’t even try it. I’ve worked out in a closet before to prove this point to a friend.

What do you want in terms of your physical fitness?

This is the first question you need to answer before getting started! By knowing what you want, you have a greater advantage over the majority of the people around you (this principle goes for many other areas of life too, but that’s another blog post).

Once you have identified what you want in DETAIL, as specific as possible, you can start learning some basic exercises to get started with. If you want 6-pack abs, look up different ab exercises. If you want larger pecs, look up pectoral exercises. Remember, we have the most powerful repository of knowledge on the planet at our fingertips…use it!

I’ll give you the basic flexible format I use, and then some of the various exercises I interchange throughout the week.

• Light Stretching. Just get loosened up, nothing deep yet.
• Get moving, elevate heart rate. A quick jog or jumping jacks work great.
• Alternate working muscle groups. Example: Arms, then legs. Back, then Chest.
• Do as many reps as you can, at the weight you feel is doable, but challenging.
• Do as many sets as you feel like, paying attention to how you feel.
• Think of exercises, then do whichever ones pop out at you first. This is Intuitive.
• Explore “extra curricular activities” away from your usual workout location. Hike, bike, etc.
• Stretch to cool down after workout.

Ok…so there is the basic outline, now onto some actual exercises I use that you can try and see if they work for you.

• Jogging/Running
• Jumping Jacks
• Yoga (Stretching)
• Pull-Ups
• Push-Ups
• Jumping Squats
• Handstands
• Free weight bicep curls
• Dips
• Bench Press
• Leg Press
• Rows
• Tricep Extensions
• Rope Climbing
• Ab crunches
• Hanging Ab Raises
• Backflips, Handsprings, Free Running (Le Parkour)

There are a lot more exercises out there than I listed here, but half the fun is finding new ones to try out on your own! These are just some ideas to get you started. A great way to learn is by asking someone you see with the results you want and ask them, “How did you get those washboard abs?” or whatever it is that you admire and desire for yourself. I really enjoy natural bodyweight exercises over machines, but that’s a personal thing. Try them all out and FEEL what works best for you! Oh yeah, the last ones I listed like backflips, handsprings, and Le Parkour are for advanced people who have some previous training on the essential basics of doing those things. Please don’t go out in your yard and attempt a backflip by yourself. You’re smarter than that The reason I mention them is because they are an integral part of my own workouts, and are excellent “full body” exercises. One backflip engages almost every muscle group. Plus, they are fun to do! Start with Bridges and Backbends and see how they feel, then go from there if you choose.

That covers the “Whole Body” part of the workout, and now for a quick bit on the “Intuitive” side…

Following your intuition is described in many different ways, one of the most well known being “gut feeling” or “trusting your gut”. For the sake of working out, I’ll describe it as being aware of how your body feels from moment to moment, exercise to exercise and “Flowing” through your workout. There is some pain involved in getting fit, but there is a difference between “the burn” and “painful”. It’s different for everyone, so push yourself and learn your own boundaries. If something hurts, don’t do it!

As a society, we have a tendency to feel we must complete things the whole way through or we fail. Not true in this case. I have been in the middle of a benchpress set, my shoulder felt a little “off” and I stopped right then and there. My friend asked, “What? You’re not going to finish?” and I replied, “Nope. I’m good for now.” LISTEN to your body. It knows what is good and what’s not to a certain degree. If something feels really good, keep doing it pushing farther each time. For example, I love pull-ups and push-ups. They feel really good to my body, so I tend to do a lot of them whenever I can.

As for how long your workout should last, go with how you feel. I can get in a full body hardcore workout in 20 minutes, and sometimes I’m at the gym for 3 hours…it’s up to you.

I’ve gotta get to the gym now myself, and I’m excited to mix things up and try some new exercises I learned about today

Remember… have fun, know your outcome, push yourself, ignore other peoples opinion of how you do what you do, and pay attention to how you feel. If you like variety, mix things up. If you like structure and routine, identify what will help you achieve your fitness goals and make a plan of action to implement. Either way you go about it, I commend you on making the effort! Play around with it, and you’ll start seeing and feeling results after a couple committed weeks. Go forth and rock on!

If you have questions, comments, or feedback that will be valuable to others, or to yourself, please leave a comment below. I will answer them as soon as I can, and if you have anything to add to what I’ve written here that will be valuable to others as well as positive, please do so in a respectful way. Be cool.

Habits are powerful…VERY powerful. Now, I’m not the particular type to be very routine, organized, or repetitive by nature since I’m very spontaneous – but I still have habits. When I became logically aware of habits, habit formation, and habit deletion, I started to recognize habit patterns within my own life. We all have habits, some big and obvious, and others very subtle and sometimes even unconscious unless pointed out by someone else.

The Dictionary.com definition of a habit is this:

“A recurrent, often unconscious pattern of behavior that is acquired through frequent repetition.

An established disposition of the mind or character.”

Now, something essential I’d like to point out in that first definition – “Unconscious Pattern of Behavior”

Why did I point that out? Very simple. Our brains are lazy. Without getting super Neurologically technical, “our brain is fundamentally a lazy piece of meat.” (excerpt from Iconoclast by Gregory Berns)

Our brains like to conserve energy, and habit formation aids in that evolutionary function of survival. The less energy we expend, the more we conserve, the longer we live – a program of our Reptilian brain that served us quite well back in the times of early humans. Nowadays, with the evolution of biology and the advancement of technology, we have great potential when it comes to choosing how we do what we do, and when we do it. Here is a quick breakdown of basic patterns involved in changing habits:

Initial awareness of habit pattern ->

Choice of pattern change, deletion, or formation ->

Implementation of previous choice ->

In time from consistent repetition, habit is changed, deleted, or formed. Roughly a 28-30 day process.

There are a ton of books that go very deep into the specific processes of the above formula that I have personally observed in my own life, one author of which is Tony Schwartz. I have to recognize and thank Eben Pagan for originally seeding the thought and awareness of the power of habits in my mind from my time working with him and studying his material (which I highly recommend).

Here is a video from Eben’s presentation at the Engage Today event in 2009:

Now think about that for a minute…let what he said sink in…

The inspiration for writing this post came from my personal experimentation with habits and a recent Facebook Status Update I had posted that went like this:

“By taking control of one key aspect of your life – no matter how big or small – you build the confidence and momentum to change the other aspects. Momentum is powerful! Choose 1 habit to change, get rid of, or create in your life and be amazed by your own results So what’s it going to be for you?”

To share with you my own personal experience recently in changing, deleting, and creating habits, I’m going to be straight up about some things that used to be embarrassing for me to share.

In that past few months, I have been successful in completely changing my eating habits, my physical exercise habits, and the most annoying one of all – biting my nails!

I have been eating 99% Paleo Style (which I’ll get into in another post), which has resulted in me burning off 9lbs. of fat in 2 weeks. I have formed the habit of regular gym exercise which has resulted in me gaining 6lbs. of muscle in less than a month. And finally, I have conquered the annoying, painful, and unsightly habit of nail biting…something I struggled with at a very young age, and only recently resurfaced as a nervous habit for reasons I’m still exploring.

You might be asking now, “Well how did you do all that?” and I’m going to share with you my exact process and approach to changing one of my habits.

The nail biting thing was a very subtle habit that seemed to just “appear” one day when a friend noticed me doing it. I had no conscious recognition of a physical action I was taking until it was pointed out to me! Kinda creepy to realize that, but let’s move on. From my friend helping me become AWARE of what I was doing, I made the conscious choice to stop. I didn’t like it, my fingers hurt, and having chewed up nails isn’t that attractive. Sounds easy right? Wrong. Even though I made the conscious choice to stop, I really didn’t, and then got caught in the loop of mentally beating myself up whenever I did notice I was doing it, which as Eben said in the video, reinforces the neural pathways of the brain associated with that action. Not cool.

From there, I figured out that I needed some intervention. If I couldn’t catch myself doing it, other people could. So I asked a few of my close friends that I spend a lot of time with to point it out to me when I was with them. Support from friends and family is a huge help in conquering habits. From the continued “pointing out” of when I was doing it, I started to see patterns where I chewed my nails a lot, and others where I didn’t. What was the difference? For me, it was mainly stress and slight anxiety. When I was relaxing, reading, hiking, doing fun activities, or even eating out, I never once bit my nails. On the contrary, during the last product launch I worked on, my fingers were bloody and sore. Aha! Now I was getting somewhere

From there, I was so fed up and frustrated (those emotions can be great motivators if channeled correctly) I searched online, found a resource for an all natural nail biting deterrent (that tastes absolutely horrific), and bought some. I received it in the mail, applied it immediately, and went about my day. I also posted a handwritten goal on my wall to delete that habit.

To break it down:

• I became AWARE of the habit
• I made the conscious choice to change the habit (delete it)
• I asked for support from friends and family
• I implemented a physical solution (deterrent)
• I put a visual reminder where I would see it often
• And, over the course of about a month, I deleted the habit!

The feeling of realizing you have conquered a habit that was originally unconscious is one of the most rewarding pleasures we have in life, yet so few actually get to enjoy it on a regular basis, or even realize that they can.

A little side note to add extra leverage in your own habit changing, choose something that once changed, deleted, or formed, will help you in the other areas. For example, if getting into great shape is a goal of yours, focus on creating the habit of building muscle at the gym. Building muscle in turn burns fat, which then helps you lose weight in addition to getting stronger. On an even higher level, the one habit of building muscle will affect your entire life! You will burn fat, increase strength, build your immune system, become more attractive, build more self esteem and confidence, and the list goes on. It’s a High Leverage Habit.

What is one habit you can tackle this month that will help change your life? Remember, habits come in many varieties, even though the ones I have written about here are physical ones. I recommend creating new positive habits over changing or deleting others in the beginning, depending on the situation. Once you’ve changed one habit, you’ll be so motivated and excited from the momentum of those initial results, that you’ll want to change another as soon as possible!

Make it fun, do the work, and don’t skimp on improving your life

After many mental and emotional struggles about “opening the doors” to my blog, I figured, “Why not?!” Why wait until things are perfect and every little detail is in place? That’s not congruent with my understanding and belief in “Speed of Implementation”.

So here I am. Just Doing It. You’re reading this right now and that means that I have been successful in opening the doors to what is going to be an amazing creative outlet for myself, and a treasure trove of interesting topics, honest opinions, and source of both knowledge and resources for you in key areas of your life. If you know me well personally, you can see how crazy this might get but it will be so much fun!

I love providing value to as many people as I can. Simple as that. Whether a friend is having troubles in their relationship, someone is trying to increase their conversions on a sales page, or a new acquaintance tentatively asks a question on a topic most don’t discuss when first meeting (like quantum physics, metaphysics, etc.)…I love to jump right in, if feedback or guidance is requested or accepted when I offer.

That’s what you’ll find in here. Value. Sometimes plain and simple, and at other times in depth and complex. You’ll find my own adventures, experiences, experiments, and thought processes laid out on this screen to view, enjoy, and learn from Here’s where I insert one of my favorite quotes to emphasize what my blog is about:

“I am a complex figure with a mind that welcomes complexity in order to simplify it for others.” -Michel Thomas, The Master Teacher

In closing this post, the first of many to come…Welcome to my blog! May your journeys throughout raise awareness, inspiration, excitement, and adventure. I believe each of us has the innate passion and drive to learn, and I hope to help spark yours, or fuel the fire already burning and propelling you forward on your experience that is life…