Hi everyone, its Pat here. I’m back for a few more tips on getting a grip on yourself, getting a grip on your life, and therefore, getting a grip on your business. First of all, I wanted to thank so many of you, almost 2,000 of you actually, who not only joined me last week from my Facebook Live, but also were kind enough to share my post last week when I was talking about the recent passing of my best friend, Wanda. I shared some technical tips, personal tips, professional tips about the lessons that I learned. What I want to do today is talk to you about the health and wellness lessons on the journey with her over the past four years, and specifically, over the past year.

What I want to talk about today, in taking that journey forward, because I trust by now you all went out and you’ve made arrangements to get your will in place, your power of attorney, your critical illness insurance, all those things I talked about. Let’s bring it right into reality today, because I had a lot of messages from many of you, thank you so much for reaching out, and beautiful cards and kind thoughts, and the one predominant question was what was the process I was going through for grieving? I will tell you this. I’ve been around the block many, many, many years, and the old Pat would deal with stress, hard times, challenges, and grieving by doing a face plant in a bag of chips or ice cream, or my go-to favorites, right? I’m a stress eater. I’m an emotional eater. I will say, over the past few years, I’ve managed to get a grip on that, and thankfully — really, very thankfully, I’m in good health because of the changes that I did make, and so what I want to share with you today are my five non-negotiables.

I want to talk to you about transforming your health to transform your life, which in turn, will transform your business. I’m going to give you my five non-negotiables. These were really the fallbacks for me, especially over the past month when there was a lot of emotion, a lot of stress, a lot of concern and anxiety, and so on. My go-to, my saving grace has been exercise. First and foremost, it has been exercise. I’m blessed. When I made a move this past summer, when I moved into this apartment building, there is an exercise room downstairs, a full-sized swimming pool, a sauna. I live in a beautiful neighborhood where it’s easy to walk out the door and go for beautiful walks along the river, and so I made a conscious decision this year, in particular, and in the last three months, to make exercise my go-to, as opposed to the emotional eating that I used to do.

Now, of course, you all know this intellectually, but that’s a much wiser choice, and I certainly felt better physically because of those choices, so let me give you my five non-negotiables, the things that I worked on that were my fallback and that were my go-to over this past while, and that I intend to continue with because I choose to live a long and healthy life, and to live a long and healthy life, I want to be happy and I want to be active, and I want to look good and toned, and feel good, and I’m sure you do too.

I get asked the question all the time, “What do you do? What do you do?” I’m 66 years old. I’m one of the few in my circle who is healthy, who has not been hit with any major or critical illness. I take no medication at all. My medication is sunshine and gratitude, but here are my other five daily non-negotiables. Take note, these are simple. Those of you who know me know that I like to keep it simple. These will help you too. My first non-negotiable, which I have learned is really the root cause of great health, whether it’s to avoid headaches, whether it’s to sleep better, keep the joints lubricated, and that very simply is hydration. I hydrate, I hydrate, and usually I have elastic bands on here because I go through four of these, minimum, in a day. I’m already on my fourth one today, and so hydration is absolutely key for me.

I know and understand that many of you have challenges or difficulty with getting the water in, and so as we end this Facebook Live, I’m going to give you an invitation that is going to help you and support you in that challenge; if it’s you I’m talking to.

So hydration is my number one non-negotiable. From morning to night, I’m hydrating, and particularly when I travel, and I travel a lot. Airports, airplanes, meeting rooms, they’re just so dry and unhealthy for you, so hydration is number one.

The number two go-to for me, a daily non-negotiable, is exercise. Now, I’m not telling you anything you don’t know. I know that, but exercise is absolutely essential for me.

Wanda, before Christmas, she was a master as well at looking for any and all ways to stay as healthy as possible, and she found some yoga classes for cancer patients, and I got to go with her. I have become a big fan of yoga, and so what I have done, because I get bored easily and I think some of you do too, exercise has got to be fun for me, it’s got to be easy for me, and it’s got to be effective for me.

There are all kinds of exercises I incorporate. Some days I’ll just pull up a YouTube video in my living room and do yoga right here, particularly before and after travel so that I stay flexible and feeling good.

I just met with Jeff Boris, actually, last Saturday, because I’m part of an IsaBody four-month challenge right now. I’m one month in and I wanted to go see Jeff to get weighed, measured, and photos done, and bless his heart, he knows I get bored, so he worked out a whole new exercise program for me for the month. That really gets me excited again, and so I’m doing all kinds of things. I’m getting my bicycle ready to get out because I do believe it’s spring, and so there’s all kinds of options. Find something that works for you. Find something that’s fun.

The part two to that, that makes it fun, is to have an accountability buddy. That’s my secret sauce. Have an accountability buddy. My friend, Marg, reached out yesterday. She texted me and said, “Hey, I’m in the area. Do you have time to go down to your pool and sauna, if I were to come by at the end of the day?” Well the answer is yes, and so to have somebody with you, it just makes it more fun. So find an accountability buddy and someone who will hold your feet to the fire, someone who is also focused on results and who is committed. That’s a key word, committed, and consistency is key.

So number one is hydration. Number two is exercise. My number three non-negotiable is nutrition. I’ve learned in my journey, in particular with Isagenix and with Jeff Boris as my coach, that nutrition is the number one answer. Now listen, I worked for Weight Watchers for eight years. I thought I knew about nutrition. Well, I didn’t, actually. What I did learn there, really well, was about group support, and that’s why I talk about accountability all the time, but nutrition is absolutely key, and you really want to get a grip on things like menu planning, cooking, nutritional value of the food that you’re taking in, and having regular, healthy meals, most especially, starting your day with breakfast. So nutrition is the third non-negotiable, daily practice or success habit of mine.

The fourth one, this is so critically important, is sleep. Sleep is really like a magic pill. Now, I have some tips around that, and again, I’m going to share at the end of this Facebook Live where you can come and join me for an opportunity, but sleep is so critically important, and again, it’s a non-negotiable. I’m in bed at 10pm and then I’m up by sixish, depending if I’m on the road or if I’m home, or what my schedule is, but 80/20, that’s the way I live my life. That’s the average, so I get between eight and nine hours of sleep a night, and that recharges my body. It’s like I put my phone on the charger for the night and then I go to bed and charge myself for the night. So sleep is the number four non-negotiable daily success habit.

The fifth one I put in two parts. The fifth one is meditation. This is a practice I’ve started in the last two years and I used the free app called Headspace, and that’s the one that I do at noon. I do a quick five to ten-minute meditation with that, and in the evening, to end my day, the very last thing is that I listen to the Oprah and Deepak Chopra meditation series. There’s a free one right now. It’s called something like How to Get Rid of the Weight, and it’s not weight-weight, but the heaviness of life. It’s a very powerful meditation and, between you and me, Deepak puts me to sleep anyway, so there you go.

Those are my five non-negotiables. There’s hydration, sleep, nutrition, exercise, meditation / again, the last thing I do every day is my gratitude journal. I’ve been keeping one for 22 years, since Oprah introduced it. It’s my gratitude journal, so even in the midst of chaos, in the midst of heartache, which I’ve just been through, celebrations, there are always at least five things for which we can be grateful. Five things, and going to bed with a grateful heart and a grateful mind, it’s a beautiful way to live, and it actually does contribute to good health, so those are my five non-negotiables. I like to keep it simple. I like to keep it fun.

Here’s what I would love to extend to you. I’ve created a private Facebook group. Sunday is April 1^st. I’m discounting the weekend because I know it’s a write-off for many people. Sugar will reign supreme everywhere, and I say go at it, people, go at it; 80/20, right? I’m talking about Monday, and Monday is a great time to start any challenge, so I’ve opened this Facebook private group. It’s called Health and Wellness: The Three-Month Challenge, and I’m going to lead it. In that private Facebook group, over the next three months, and for those of you who want to join me, seriously committed – don’t say yes if you’re not serious. I don’t want a large group in there. I want a committed, fun, loyal group in there.

If you’re interested and you want me to add you to the group, just put yes in the comments, and we’ll come back later and we’ll pull your name and we’ll add you, and I think we have to be friends first, so make sure we’re friends. Put yes in the comments if you’d like to join the three-month challenge starting April 1^st. I will be bringing in special guests. We’re going to do Facebook Lives right in that Facebook group. I’m going to give you my best tips, recommendations, and tactics for menu planning, for getting the water in every day, for the techniques or the tactics I follow for a good night’s sleep, how I manage nutrition on the road, how I manage exercise on the road, how I manage it in everyday life. I’m going to cover all of those things. It’ll be a very active group. I would love to have you. Tell your friends, because here’s what I know for sure. Health is our wealth, and so when you get better, then your life gets better, and when your life gets, better business gets better.

The majority of you who follow me are business owners, so if you want your business to get better, it starts with you. All meaningful and lasting change starts from within, and it starts with the way we think, and we need to move our thoughts into action, and it all comes down to goals, action, accountability, results, and celebration. That’s what the Facebook challenge with me is going to be about. Just put yes in the comments. Please hit share as well. It’s a great time. Spring is a beautiful time to get this body, get this mind, get everything into shape as we head on into summer. Looking good and feeling good. All right. Those are my best tips today. Thanks for being here. Hit the share button and I’ll watch for all the yeses in the comments. Bye everyone, see you next time.