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Fasting for Health

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fastingpic

Have you heard of fasting? I am not talking about what Catholics do for 40 days of Lent but rather Fasting for Health. I first learned a great deal about fasting from leading experts in the Health and Nutrition world.  I would sit in those seminars and absorb as much as I could.  Initially the concepts of fasting were foreign to me but then I would experience it and see it’s benefits played out in my life and the lives of my friends, patients and clients.

I have written about my experiences with Juice Fasting Here and the Daniel Fast Here . I have done many Master Cleanse Fasts  prior to having children and intend to do and write about them in the next year. Some of you who follow me on Facebook saw my FaceBook Live about the Liver Cleanse I have done 6 times you can check it out under my videos here called Do you need to Cleanse ? 

Will Fasting make you Live Longer? 

But the Fasting I want to highlight today could be labeled more intermittent fasting or water fasting.  D Gary Young researched some of the longest living cultures in the world where he found a higher then average percentage of centenarians lived (people 100 years or older).  In these populations diets were deficient of processed foods and sugars. But uniquely many of these longest living cultures had a period of fasting throughout the year. This may have varied based on limited calorie intake to no food for days or weeks for religious reasons or simply limited food supplies due to long winters.

What the Research says about Fasting? 

There are many studies showing the benefits of fasting.  June 2014 Medical News Today article showed fasting 1 day of water only a week long term may reduce the risk of diabetes and heart disease among people at high disease risk. Interestingly I saw this benefit in an older Chiropractic Classmate who practiced this. He was stronger healthier and had more endurance then many of his decade younger classmates.

Cancer and Fasting

The University of Southern California in Los Angeles published in the journal of Cell Stem Cell, found longer periods of fasting 2-4 days may help to reboot the immune system, clearing out old immune cells and regenerating new ones. This study on mice was the first to show fasting could trigger regeneration of an organ or system through stem cell regeneration. These researchers also believe that fasting could protect against the damage caused by chemotherapy.

Now that study was on mice…… but my friend Mike the Miracle Welch took this concept and used it in his own protocols. During his days where he received Chemotherapy he would only have a liquid low calorie diet the Master Cleanse Drink and NingXia Red Juice. He received his Chemo on Tuesdays and Fridays at 6am. He would sustain himself on this liquid only diet until he got his appetite back around 9 or 10 pm at night where he would have a vegetarian salad of snow peas, avocados, romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes and alfalfa sprouts. The results were that he didn’t miss a day of work and had minimal side effects from his chemo treatments. It is possible that Michael’s fasting protocol helped him but we must also tell you that Michael was also very anal with his clean eating, supplements and many other things he researched throughout his cancer treatments. But he wasn’t the only person I would meet that utilized some sort of Fasting throughout their Cancer recovery.

A Cancer Ministry 

Several years ago I met David and Megan Trombly. They have had a Cancer Ministry for more than 15 years. God put a call on their lives when David was diagnosed with a terminal cancer. Much like Mike the Miracle Welch they did extensive research when they were diagnosed. They invested hundreds of thousands into traveling the world and receiving cancer therapies. Their investment and trainings has given them a wealth of knowledge on healing the body. David has fully restored health today.

Part of their healing journey led them to learn about fasting. Each year both Megan and David do a 5-7 day Water Fast to help rejuvenate and cleanse.

I recently spent time with Megan at her home on her 5th day of Water Fasting. We went swimming with our kids, had great conversations, and she even sat at the dinner table while her daughter Grace prepared and served a delicious dinner. She wasn’t hungry or “Hangry” at all.

In This Video she share about how she does her Water Fasting

 

Wellness at Home WATER FASTER PROTOCOL

Water

Gallons of clean filtered water per day. They like to add Young Living’s Vitality oils Grapefruit, Peppermint, or Lemon.

Colonics

This fast includes two 5 Gallon Home Colonics 12 hours apart per day.

See 5 Gallon Colonic Here  (If you purchase one don’t forget to get replacement enema tips)

Cleansing Drink

5 Cleansing Drinks spaced out 3 hours apart.

Organic Apple Cleansing Drink Here is the Recipe:

add to a SHAKER BOTTLE

4 oz of organic apple juice,

1 TBSP Sonne’s 7 (Liquid Bentonite Clay),

1 tsp ICP (Young Living Essential oils)

SHAKE VIGOROUSLY

Take 6 capsules of Activated Charcoal with this drink every time

Drink entire drink immediately and refill shaker bottle with water to drink the residue and get more water in your system.

EXAMPLE SCHEDULE

Here is what a schedule might look like for them

7am Drink

9am Colonic

10 am Drink

1pm Drink

4pm Drink

7pm Drink

9pm Colonic

With gallons of filtered water drank throughout the day

 

Coming off the cleanse

the day after your last day of the cleanse you would eat steamed carrots

Day 1 Post Fast: Steamed Carrots

Day 2 Post Fast: Steamed Carrots and Steamed Broccoli

Day 3 Post Fast: Vegetables based diet without grains or meat (Might I suggest MIRACLE SOUP)

Day 4 – and on Work your way back slowly to a diet that may include healthy grains and clean meats

 

They strategically plan their Fasts for times when they are not overly busy or traveling. They make sure to get plenty of rest and get sunshine. Some chores like cooking are delegated to older children. But for the most part Megan was living her normal pilot’s wife, church going, homeschooling, soccer mom, wellness coaching, and business leader life.

If you would like to set up a Consult with Megan or David email them at WellnessatHomeoils@gmail.com Consult fees range from $177 -$297 depending the type of consult you would like.

 

What do you think?

So you may be thinking right now…. Fasting that is crazy. I totally understand because I thought that initially until I started learning and doing these kinds of cleanses. I felt better, I had more energy, and I looked better. If some of the longest living cultures in the world benefit from fasting, and scientific research shows it’s benefits why not take the next step and research it yourself. Find a qualified Health Practitioner knowledgeable in intermittent fasting, nutrition, and cleansing and work with them to reach your optimal wellness.

For your Total Wellness;

Mary Starr Carter

meandkids

The Total Wellness Doc and Mom

Dr Mary is a retired Chiropractor turned Wellness Writer.  She shares knowledge and experiences she has collected with her readers giving them help and hope for a healthier future. She is wife to an amazing IT genius and mother to 2 incredible children Sarah and Joshua so far.  Dr Starr homeschools which she says is by far the hardest and most rewarding task she has undertaken. She has worked part time for 17 years helping others grow successful wellness home businesses.   She is an aspiring healthy chef and hopes to release her new cookbook out by November 2016.

 

 

How Do You Have The Best Family Vacation Of Your Life?

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FamilypicUtah

If we are friends on Facebook you will see from my personal profile Mary Starr Carter that my family and I have had an amazing summer. We traveled from Florida to Central NY this summer to stay on Oneida Lake in a little town called Constantia. Along this journey we have attended three conferences one we flew too in the state of Utah for. We even made a trek over to Canada to visit Niagara Falls with our Mississippi family.

NiagaraFalls

When we were planning this adventure we knew we wanted quality family time, a restful vacation, and exercise. For 41 years our summers have been filled with work, work, and more work. We realized our kids are growing fast and we want to make lasting quality memories with them.

It took us 41 years to have the best vacation of our lives. Here are some tips to help you have the best vacation of your life.

DECIDE

I am actually an indecisive person. It gets me in trouble and I will tend to put things off. But this year with the help of my decisive husband we DECIDED we were going to spend the SUMMER together.

You could also call this a GOAL. Do you have a goal of what you want to do this summer or next VACATION? Making the decision is the first step here is the next…

PRIORITIZE  

Work together with your family to decide what is most important to you. It may be relaxing on the beach reading books, it may be seeing as many sights as possible, it may be traveling to visit friends, it may be visiting historic places. You have to know what is important to those who are coming and of course with different personalities you might plan a combination of things so everyone gets to enjoy something they love.

For my husband and myself it was family time, exercise, and making memories with our kids.

Here is a picture of Jay on his bike. He biked 372 miles and ran almost 100 miles while we were gone. He loved it!

JayBike

PLAN & PROBLEM SOLVE

Once you decide and prioritize, you are ready to start planning. It’s important you prioritize first because you will need to make decisions based on those priorities. Here is an example:

We had to make a decision and plan when we attended our conferences if we would bring the kids with us or if they would stay home with a sitter… when we went back to our priorities we realized that making memories and being together was a priority even though it would be hard we would bring our kids with us to the conferences.

We made this decision knowing that the level that we could participate at our conferences would suffer but we decided to make that sacrifice because our priority was being with our kids this summer. Does that example help you see why priorities are important to set when planning a vacation?

Problems and challenges will also arise while you are planning, but keep in mind a problem is just a task to accomplish. I learned this from my mentor Dani Johnson and it has helped me a ton.

Here are 5 tips to help you with your vacation.

5Tipsbestvacationever

1. PROBLEM HOW DO I GET THE MONEY

Another problem that commonly comes up is how do we pay for our vacation? This actually stops most people before they even start… I CAN’T AFFORD IT… I DON’T HAVE THE MONEY…

Or others use credit cards to splurge and suffer the consequences later. When I was 22 my girlfriends and I decided we were going on a cruise. I didn’t set up a plan or problem solve how I would get the money. The result was the beginning of credit card use that I would rely on until I got control and learned how to manage and plan for expenses and get out of credit card debt.

So to solve the money problem and to avoid getting into credit card debt here are some ideas for you:

– Get a part time job, lawn or cleaning service, bake goods or make crafts and sell them at shows.

– Re-allocate your monies… instead of doing $600 worth of landscaping this summer use that money towards your vacation and plant a pretty weed garden. Stop buying things that aren’t a necessity.

– Read my friend Claudia Looi’s eBook:

save over $2000 to travel or buy anything you want

1 Simple Way to Save Over $2,000 to Travel or Buy Anything YOU Want

–  Start a Home Business and use the money for your travel. And once you are in a home business you can plan a meeting or two in the locations you travel too and now your mileage and travel can be a tax deduction.

This is a picture of my sister in law and niece visiting Niagara Falls for the first time ever. They used family members’ airline miles, saved and had several garage sales to afford their vacation.

NiagaraFallsWaterfalls

Here are 2 more tips that can help you have the best summer vacation ever!

2. SAY NO

Last summer when we spent 2 and a half weeks in Central NY, we had so much planned including multiple meetings, visits with friends and associates, after we had just spent 3 weeks on the road for work. It was really really really intense. To the point that my husband suffered serious adrenal fatigue that took him months to recover from. It was too much.

So this summer when the invitations to come and speak or even visit friends started coming at me I said NO.  I simply said this summer is about spending as much time with my family as possible… AND THAT IS WHAT WE DID.

This is a picture of my kids having an awesome time with their cousins. They loved spending time with them.

Cousinspic

3. WE SAID YES TO HEALTH

Learning from last year’s mistakes we knew there were some important things we needed for everyone to stay healthy and happy. Good sleep, decent food, and exercise. My husband is training for a triathlon. He gets out almost everyday on vacation to exercise. He bikes 20 – 60 plus miles 3 times or runs 4-13 miles.

I made it a priority to walk or jog 3-4 times a week, in hotels I go to the gym, and I even made it to my favorite Central NY gym Metro Fitness East for some group classes. We did our best to plan out our meals. Shakes have been a staple to help keep us getting all the good nutrition we need especially when your Italian family invites you over for dinner, it’s a picnic food day or you know you will be eating bonfire smores that night.

There were a few nights that we or the kids were still wound up from the day so we would take my favorite sleepy time immune building supplement Immupro. We are also taking our supplement routines daily including Ningxia Red, Mineral Essence, Multigreens, NingXia Nitro and Mindwise plus essential oils and our new pain cream for sore muscles. In 60 days we were away from home and our routines and no one has gotten sick, thrown up, or suffered any terrible hurts that have stopped them from being active. God’s grace on us, combined with our efforts, have kept us healthy so far.

4. LESS IS MORE

This is a picture of the camp we stayed in most of the vacation. It was small, filled with spiders, a dead mouse, and the toilet worked some of the time. But it was also filled with so much love, fun and peace.

Camp

I know everyone is different and some individuals love to pack as many adventures as possible in their vacations and others just want to CHILL. But when I say less is more I mean the following.

Spending more money doesn’t mean more fun. For my kids, I initially wanted to take them to the parks, zoo, etc. but they actually had a ball just staying at our camp. They would roll down the hill, run around barefoot in the grass, and watch the wildlife for their entertainment.

Sarahrollingdownhill

Get the most out of your adventures as a family or couple or single but really taking advantage of all the FREE things there are to do first. What amenities does the hotel or camp place have? Would your family be happy swimming everyday?

And I have to admit even bringing some of our DVDs and watching a kid’s movie some nights or PBS in the mornings helped us stay sane.

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5. IT’S NOT EASY BUT IT’S WORTH IT

A family vacation isn’t always easy. Airports, driving thousands of miles, bathroom stops in the middle of nowhere, and feeding your crew are some of the stressors of travel.   There will be days you just want to cry, where you just want to sleep in your own bed, shower in your own shower, and cook on your own stove. But in the end you will create memories that will last a lifetime.

My kids won’t forget their time at Grandpa’s this year. All the work, planning, and problem solving are so worth it when you see those amazing memories on your Facebook feed. LOL!

Here is a picture of Sarah Grace and Grandpa.

GrandpaSarahWalking

So what are you waiting for? It’s time for you and your family to enjoy life more. Make the decision today about your next VACATION… you need one!

The Spirit of Offense

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David and caleah

I cried when I saw this picture of my new niece and her daddy. A new life in the world is so beautiful but God revealed something more to me when I looked at this picture that broke me.

See recently I have been slightly persecuted by friends, colleagues and even family for my over zealous “selling” of a program that changed my life. “Shut up already”,  “I don’t want to hear about it”,  “it’s not for me”,  “it’s not the only good program out there”. Have you ever been rejected, called names, or even lost friendships over something you believed in strongly? It can hurt and it can shut you down.

Several years ago we had one interaction with a colleague that hurt my husband so badly that he literally quit that “selling” part of his job for many, many years. This person was irritated by what we were “selling” and verbally made it known. My husband was wounded and he allowed pride to take on a SPIRIT OF OFFENSE.

The Spirit of Offense is a tool by Satan to trap and hold you from all that God wants you to do and to be. It stops you from serving others, helping, or selling something you know is proven to change people’s lives.  The words of one person shut him down from helping hundreds and probably thousands of people.

The Definition of Offenses: From the Greek “to put a stumbling block in the way, cause to be caught (or) fall away, be led into sin, offend, anger, shock”.

Offense is like an automatic weapon. Once you pull the trigger, it keeps firing. – Kathy DeGraw

Offense are seeds that once planted are fertilized by ego and pride and grow into some horrific weeds in our lives including fear, doubt, anger, resentment, distrust, and blanket opinions.

The reality is we are not going to stop offenses coming our way but we must know what to do when they do happen:

1. Recognize the seeds that was planted

2. Forgive right away: The harboring of unforgiveness in our lives can cut off our connections to the Holy Spirit and can delay God’s perfect plan for our lives.

3. Search your heart: Seeds of Offense can turn into deep roots that we may not even be conscious of.  Searching your heart for areas of offense, unforgiveness, ego and pride can turn up these deep roots.

4. Turn to God’s Word: Ask God to reveal scripture, verses, or prayers to pray over these hidden GIANTS in your life. Ask Him to uproot these monsters with the Spirit of FORGIVENESS that He gave us and you freely give to others. “Forgive us our debts as we forgive others.”

5. Heal: In some cases you may find complete deliverance and freedom after an act of true forgiveness and other times healing will be a process.

After attending one of those programs I like to sell I found out I had been harboring some deep seeded anger and resentment against some leaders who crookedly embezzled a company I love.  It had been 9 years and I thought I had forgiven them and moved on.  But apparently I hadn’t and during this seminar God ordained an awakening to the fact that I hadn’t forgiven them.

When I truly forgave them this newfound freedom and lightness came over me and I still have it weeks later. Oddly I became more comfortable, outgoing, and self-assured in group settings too. It was really weird and showed me how unforgiveness and the Spirit of Offense can affect so many areas of our life.

Caleah

So back to my original story. See this picture of my brother in law and his beautiful family.  When you watch the video below you will hear all the changes that happened for David after attending that program I “sell” too much. One of which was how God moved his heart from never wanting any more children to seeking God’s plan for his family. When this video was taken, little did we know that his beautiful wife Samantha was already pregnant.

The program is called First Steps to Success and recently my “selling” has caused some backlash to point where I considered backing down and not sharing so much.  I have had a lot of opportunity for the Spirit of Offense to take hold of me…  but I won’t let it.  Because it’s not about me… it’s about the peoples’ lives that will be changed because I share.

No one leaves a First Steps to Success without being changed. They offer a full money back guarantee if you aren’t satisfied. So how about you? Are you ready to experience a change? Are you ready to learn more about things that are holding you back? I feel blessed if you made it to the end of the article and didn’t shut down or walk away from something that could literally transform your life like it did for David. Please consider it. I have 1 ticket left to the next First Steps to success training, and possibly the only ticket if it’s sold out by the time you read this. Give me a call 315-836-2014 ext. 1. Let’s learn and grow together.

God Bless you my friend,
Mary Starr Carter

A message from David

Skin time caleah and david

Caleah is such a blessing to us and we’re doing great (I guess after 4 babies you start to know what to do!).  I attached a picture of her and I have our first skin on skin time last night 🙂 As I had everyone gathered around last night at the house for dinner I was recounting the story of how I was so against another child and Samantha’s longing for one.

Whenever people used to ask me about more children I was adamant that the only way we were having another child is if God himself changed my mind…. funny how God works isn’t it?  So for the past 9 months I have been faithful to give God the glory and now I have an opportunity to explain how much God has done in my life and how he has changed me from the inside out to give me a heart for another little blessing.

Actionable Faith: Do You Have It?

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romans-8-11

Have you ever had God bring a new friendship into your life right when you needed it?

Have you ever followed God’s intuitive nudge to go do something or go somewhere and it ended up being the perfect thing you needed to experience, see or hear?

Or have you ever gotten those perfect words of encouragement just when you needed them?

Here are 3 stories of 3 experiences that have really impacted me and given me direction and tools for my future parenting. I hope they bless you too.

My dear friend and I hadn’t chatted in months but one night out of blue she texted, “Hope you are doing well and God is doing amazing things for you and your family? You are always on my heart and in my prayers.” The next 20 minutes of texting would encourage my soul and remind me of the tools I have as a mom in Christ.

Rebekah is one of the most positive and encouraging people you could meet. She is beautiful on the inside and out. On top of her many responsibilities, a newborn, a 3 year old, a 6 year old, a husband who works long hours and goes to school, she struggles with some painful health challenges. Although she has all that going on, she stays positive. I often think how does she do it? But I am reminded in our text chat how she does it… It is her ACTIONABLE FAITH.

What is Actionable Faith? I don’t know the official definition but here is what I believe it is; Putting your Faith into Action. An example would be when a difficulty comes up you go to the Word and remember who you are in Christ and you ACT and LIVE like that.

I wrote Rebekah how I was struggling with homeschooling she is a year or so ahead of me in the journey and she writes back, “Ahh yes school! It sure is challenging but nothing you can’t handle!

romans-8-11
Her simple reminder helped me realize the POWER I have because Christ is in me. When I try to understand how Rebekah with all these great stressors in her life does it… quite simply she doesn’t but Christ that lives in her DOES. When you take the stress and striving off of your shoulders and trust in the One who made you and is in you and then ACT on that, your life just gets a whole lot easier. And that is how Rebekah can be so positive even on her worst days. ACTIONABLE FAITH.

My next story I hope encourages all you moms who are pouring into your children, Grooming the Next Generation. I got up early one morning to have quiet time before the big First Steps to Success seminar. When I was done it was still the very early hours of morning so I thought I’d catch a few more winks before I got ready for my day. But God gently nudged me saying go downstairs and get in line there is something waiting for you there.

So I trudged off pouting a little bit but went and got my place in line. I sat down next to this pretty younger woman and after a few minutes started a conversation. In the following 30 minutes I would be in tears when I realized what God was showing me.

See those weeks prior to that event my biggest worry was about my children and my adequacy of homeschooling them. This beautiful young woman was 17 years old and for the past 8 years her parents had been Grooming and homeschooling her and her 2 sisters for success in life. See her parents had gotten plugged into First Steps to Success 8 years prior and started studying Grooming the Next Generation for Success. Grooming the Next Generation for Success is based on Biblical Principals and is techniques and tools for raising successful children who mature into successful adults. Again ACTIONABLE FAITH this young woman’s parents took their faith based training and put it into their lives.

As I listened to this mature 17 year old woman share all her wonderful experiences over the past 8 years, her kind nature, her giving spirit, and purity shined through. Her homeschooling was just a piece of her Grooming. Her parents gave their children real life experiences even living and working in a foreign country for a year and taking care of orphans. They got to explore their hobbies and even apprentice with local artisans. I was brought to tears because in those minutes with this young woman God was reassuring me that I was on the right track and had the tools to Groom my children for success too in life.

Here is a link to one of those tools, Grooming the Next Generation for Success. They are a series of trainings that shares grooming techniques to raise up successful kids that mature into successful adults.

grooming the next generation
My last story also comes from one of those God nudges. To make a long story short I wanted to do one thing but God nudged me again to do another… so I did it but with a bad attitude until I realized that my obedience to obey Divinely ordained an amazing new friendship and people into our lives.

Recently I spent the afternoon with my new friend Amanda and her two teenage girls. Right away we were impressed with the two girls. They were polite, respectful, well spoken and loved kids. They engaged in conversations and were the exact opposite of most teenagers I knew. They never even looked at a cell phone, they knew how to have conversations, and their hobbies weren’t video games. And did I mention these girls loved God and weren’t embarrassed to tell you. Wow how can I raise my kids up to be this pleasant? So later that day I asked Amanda and this is what she said.

“I wasn’t raised with these principals of success.” So the first thing Amanda did was work on her. 10 years ago she got her life right with God. She was introduced to Dani Johnson’s Spiritual Equipping Trainings and just started to plug into them day and night. She changed her life and her marriage. Then she got exposed to those same Grooming the Next Generation for success trainings.

She would have the audios playing in the background every day for 1-2 hours. Every week she, her husband, and her 2 girls would sit and watch 15-20 minutes of the training together and talk about it. They literally would have an appointment in their calendar to do this. And then they would practice what they learned. 10 years of practicing and grooming in all the different seasons of their family’s growth and struggles. It wasn’t easy. For the past 10 years she has worked nights as a nurse and would many times have to make sacrifices of sleep and more to invest in her children and marriage, but her sacrifices have paid off and her children are incredible. ACTIONABLE FAITH.

What about you? Are you ready to take your Faith and putting it into the Actions of your life? Maybe this is your nudge to invest into your personal development by getting some Spiritual Equipping training or your Parenting Training with Grooming the Next Generation for Success?

I know I will be following this direction. We only get a short period of time with our kids. Why not get the training to groom them for success? Why not start with changing our lives and taking ACTIONABLE FAITH? I know you can make a change no matter where you are in life or what season you are in. I believe in you. YOU CAN DO THIS.  Remember Romans 8:11.

Truth and Lies About Money

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debt

Last night I interviewed a couple who would like to partner with us in business. This couple reminded me of where Jay and I were just 7 years ago. A few minutes into the conversation we realized they were DESPERATE to make their home business work just like we were years ago. Why? Because they were literally drowning in debt and were robbed of quality time and freedom in their lives. They were slaves to a JOB and working. Like us they felt they had no choice but to do what they were doing all along just becoming more and more DESPERATE to find a way out of the pit of poverty.

On the outside Desperate Diane and David (we will call them) are living the American Dream. Living in a great neighborhood, in a beautiful $200,000 home, their kids are going to the best schools, and David the main earner in the family has a DREAM JOB earning over 6 figures a year. But look a little closer and you will find so much stress, tension and despair. David commutes 2 hours a day and most nights doesn’t get home until after 8 pm. His health has suffered and recently he had a minor car accident because he fell asleep at the wheel coming home from work.

Diane is an amazing wife and mother who cares for their home and family mostly by herself. She works a seasonal job earning an extra $2000 a month. She will work 30 hours a week during the kids’ school time and sleep time. She loves the work but it’s grueling as she sacrifices her sleep and sanity. This is what she said about the extra weekly paycheck she gets during her seasonal job. “Its like a million dollars to us. It gives us room to breathe a little and takes the stress off of our finances and keeps us from using our credit cards for groceries and day to day expenses.” Do you know that feeling?  Do you know what it’s like to have to use your credit card to pay for day to day expenses?

They have $25,000 dollars in credit card debt, plus they have Student Loans, Car Loans, Medical Debt, and a Mortgage. Even though they earn great money they spend everything and then some every month. WHY? Because they are in POVERTY. See Poverty isn’t just for those earning under the Poverty Line. It’s a label for anyone who uses all the money they earn every month.

Is that blowing your brain? Maybe you are thinking how can you call me poor, I earn more than $60,000 a year. I can call you poor if you are spending all the money you earn in a year and then some.

Let me share our story of poverty with you.

This past year our home business parent company gave my husband and I a surprise letter at our company convention to be backstage at a certain time for a HISTORICAL AWARD. We thought simply it was because we had been in the company for 15 plus years and they were awarding us a longevity award. As we took the stage with more than 25 other leaders from our company the MC explained that every member who was on stage was part of an elite group who have earned 1 MILLION DOLLARS or more in the company. My husband and I looked at each other and our hearts sank, we turned a few shades of pale and immediately got sick to our stomachs… WHY???? Because simply we had earned over 1 million dollars and SPENT over 1 million dollars… AGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH! We had no significant savings, do not own a home, don’t own our vehicles yet, and still have over $100,000 in Student Loan Debt.

So what is the difference between Desperate Diane and David and my husband and I… ONE THING. See in 2008 Jay and I became serious about digging out of the Pit of Despair. We got a hold of a Training Program that gave us a plan to get back on track.  We worked that plan really well for 3 years and paid off more than $150,000 in debt before we started to slack again. I can give you a list of excuses why we became lazy again but that is all they are… EXCUSES.

Our household income went significantly up so there seemed to be less stress and our lives got busier when my husband started a new job and we started a family. So again we would spend all we made. We also started investing in some things without wise counsel, which took more than $100,000.

Although it set us back some we still have been able to pay off $280,000 in 6 years and 8 months. WOW, right? Some people would be totally out of debt if they had just stuck to the plan, but sadly we made more debt because we made more money. It’s such a slippery slope you can fall down when you have the paycheck or in our case a commission check that comes every month. It’s dangerous unless you have the skills to handle money correctly.

So during our interview with Desperate Diane and David we told them that most people with that much financial stress in their lives don’t usually find significant success in their own home business right away unless they get their money management and debt under control first. We also have made it a requirement for our new team members and staff to take this Financial Program.

The Programs are:

WAR ON DEBT

War on Debt

DEBT ELIMINATION AND FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE

Debt Elimination & Financial Independence

The greatest feeling in the world is paying off your debt and getting out of bondage. It’s amazing to watch our team members and staff create a new happiness and lightness to their lives. They are happier, healthier, and are way less stressed. THEY ARE BETTER Employees, Business Developers, Parents, Spouses, Friends and People.

When you break free from POVERTY it is a freedom like you and I can’t even imagine.  I have had a little taste of it and I look forward to the day that we are completely free.  My husband and I also look forward to the day that YOU are FREE. I hope you will make the investment in your future happiness by getting

WAR ON DEBT and DEBT ELIMINATION AND FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE

 

God Bless your Success,

Mary Starr Carter
The Total Wellness Doc and Mom

This is Your Year and Mine

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new year

Have you thought about what 2016 will be like?

It’s hours away and a WHOLE NEW YEAR will be HERE. It’s exciting, overwhelming, and sad all at the same time. Exciting to see what the New Year will bring for you and me, overwhelming with all the things that we think we would like to accomplish, and sad that another wonderful Christmas season has gone by.

But this year I think things are going to be really different for you and me because this year we are going to LIVE our LIVES INTENTIONALLY. What do I mean by INTENTIONALLY?

You know how a whole year can go by and you didn’t get the things done that you wanted to. You know this time last year you made a commitment to take 1 day off of work a week but that didn’t really happen. Or you had planned to take your eldest daughter on a mother daughter retreat but that didn’t happen. Or maybe you said this is the year you and your family are going to start doing local missions or community service together but that didn’t happen either. What are the things you wanted to accomplish but didn’t last year?

For me I actually accomplished a few things I wanted to because I started living my life intentionally at about the end of May last year. At the end of May I started to implement something called TIME SECRETS. It’s not really a secret but it is a strategy to really live your LIFE by DESIGN. Its been exciting to see things accomplished or at least progress made on some of my goals and desires.

Many of you who read my newsletters and blogs are in a business of some sort. You, like me, have goals for your 2016 year. Now look back at last year and the time you spent in your business. Were there projects, events, tasks, or people that you spent time with that were not a good investment of your resources? Only you can answer that. Look at the time you spent with a fine tooth comb and see if you see what I saw? See, after 16 years I am finally having a HUGE AHA moment and realizing that I have not been a good steward of my time and resources.

One of the areas I need to change is in some of the projects or people I serve. I like FIXING PEOPLE. I have a gift of seeing people’s potential and developing and giving them a whole system of success. That’s not a problem. It is when I go overboard and OVERPROMISE and OVERDO my giving or simply DO THE WORK FOR THEM….  AGGGHHHH. Do you have this problem too?

For 16 years I have given, fixed, corrected, overdone, and exhausted myself in OVER HELPING. See, God tells us to SERVE others but He doesn’t tell us to ENABLE OTHERS. God also tells us to Prioritize Him, our Marriage, our Children above other things. When we OVERDO for others because it makes us FEEL good we neglect some area of our life. It could be in our marriage, children or our own health.
This year one of my employees, attending www.firststepstosuccess.com, and the program Time Secrets helped me to wake up to my OVERDOING behaviors.

But the best gift of knowledge I got this year in helping my 2016 year be AMAZING came this past week and I want to share it with you. It is from the www.ibloom.co the Life and Business Planner 2016 Virtual Retreat. When you purchase this Planner at http://ibloom.co/planner/ you get this very, very valuable 2 day Virtual Retreat PowerPoints and accompanying audios. There are over 6 hours of content to help you prepare for 2016. I have been listening and re-listening to it for over a week and every time I get another nugget and some AHA’s for my year. It’s an excellent investment. I really hope you will get it and go through the training and prepare your year.

So for me my theme for 2016 is ME… What about you? What will your THEME for 2016 be? Don’t know what that means? Get the Planner and they explain it. For me this is the year of making WISER decisions about where I spend my time, what I do, who I help, how I serve others. I want to make myself a priority so I can be the best in my marriage and with my children. A happy you, a happy life, makes you much better in business.  I hope you will consider doing the same and making YOU a priority in 2016.

We have to remember we are not selfish when we care for OURSELVES and do things for OURSELVES because when you don’t CARE for yourself you end up EMPTY and eventually BROKEN… Make this year will be the YEAR OF YOU… HEALTHY and WHOLE.

I promise to walk you through my journey and I hope you will share with me your stories of caring for yourself too.  LOVE YOU. Make you a priority. God Bless your 2016. I will be praying for your success.

 

Mary Starr Carter
the Total Wellness Doc and Mom