From a client....

Good morning Crossfit Coaches,

 

It's Mirelle from the 6AM crew and I just wanted to take some time out to wish you all a safe and happy holiday!

 

When I started Crossfit this past June I was broken...literally.  I had a jacked up left ankle I could barely flex.  My right knee was a mess and I was on the verge of a stress fracture.  Just getting out of bed was a chore.  I had just completed the San Diego Rock n Roll Marathon, which I was strongly advised not to do.  But I've never been one to listen when someone tells me I can't do something.  After that run, I felt defeated.  I finished it, but knew it would probably would be my last run.

 

Last Saturday I did Team In Training's famous Train Run.  We hopped on a train to Oceanside and ran back to our vehicles parked in Solana Beach...16 miles away.  I did this same run in April, which is where I jacked up my left ankle.  It was the run that started my downward spiral so I felt I needed to do it again. 

 

When I finished the run I felt as good at mile 16 as I did at mile 1.  AND, I ran it...the entire thing...over an hour faster than I did in April.  Granted I was broken in April, but I never thought I would ever be able to run around the block, let alone to do that run again.  It's the BEST xmas present I could have asked for so I wanted to thank all of you for helping me get there. 

 

It means a lot to me to feel this great running again.  Running is pretty much the only stress reliever I had available to me.  Without running my only other option was alcoholism, and I'm not even a big drinker!  I also run for the leukemia society.  For years I've been running in memory or in honor of complete strangers.  This year a friend/co-worker was diagnosed with the disease so I decided I would try for one more marathon...even if I had to walk the damn thing.  For years she's supported me in my efforts.  I couldn't tell her I wasn't going to do one for her.  She's been going through chemo since Sept and I learned yesterday the chemo didn't work.  Her only chance for survival is a bone marrow transplant.  The operation is scheduled a few days before my marathon.  It means everything to me to be able to run this one for her, and it means a lot to her that I am running. 

 

Since all my long runs fall on Saturdays, this Saturday I'll be doing my 18 miler.  I'm one my own for this one as my running group is taking the day off, but I still expect to run it strong.  I'll be running this one for Carmen...my first Crossfit partner.  She's the main reason I didn't quit Crossfit because I really hated it for the first few months.

 

Next Saturday, New Year's Eve, is my 20 miler.  I can't think of a better way of ending this year!  Currently I'm back to where I was when I thought I was fit.  I can't wait to see how much better I can be in 2012.  Thanks again!

 

Oh, and Crossfit has also helped me out in the workplace!  Two days ago I was punched in the arm by some crook, for no reason.  Next thing I knew I was holding the jackass up in the air by the back of his shirt (he was only like 125 pounds) as I "walked" him over to a holding cell.  When I threw him in the cell, I apparently threw him in so hard my partner went flying in with him.  I did feel bad about that. 

 

Anyway, enjoy your holidays and I'll be in the gym Monday morning!

From Conversations with God

This was too good not to post - I receive a daily email and really wanted to share this

On this day of your life, Nuno, I believe God wants you to know...

...that taking better care of yourself is not merely a matter

of good health, it is a measure of spiritual evolution.

Some people take better care of their car than they do

of their body. Most people, in fact, pay little attention

to their body until something goes wrong. Yet why

create that kind of situation?

Look at what you are eating. How much and how

often do you exercise? When was your last check-up?

Are you treating your physical vehicle as if it is Divine?

Good for you if you are. If you aren't...why not?

Love, Your Friend.... 

Update for week ending 12/4

I started sending out a weekly update to my personal training clients.  I figured I wanted to touch base with them on a regular basis outside of the gym and wanted to create more community within the groups that meet with me regularly.  I typically look for things to acknowledge from the past week and pull together some information that I think will be valuable.  I thought I would post and share this on my blog - maybe someone will get something out of it :)

Another week has come and gone - by now you are looking forward to when these come out, right?

I most certainly hope so.  A few people were gone over thanksgiving so it was nice to get everyone back in the groove of things last week. 

Special shout out to Rob & Brandon for doing the workout Jackie last week- i think most of you have done since I love to use it as a benchmark.  

Row 1000, 50 Thrusters with the bar and 30 Pull ups - fun times to be had.  Who's looking forward to re-doing it to see how they do on it?

Updating spreadsheet - Brandon, Bo, Rob, Carolyn, Sarah

If you aren't doing it, let's figure out a way to get on it to stay current - would incentive help?

For some critical thinking please watch the following: 

http://bigthink.com/ideas/16660

I may have mentioned this book in one of our training sessions "Happier" - I finished it in the past 6 months and can honestly say its contributed greatly to my overall happiness and well being and would highly recommend it to all!!!!

Nutrition - 

Have you been keeping up with the habits I emailed previously? Below is the new habit to implement - do it for this week

Habit 5: Eat healthy fats daily - if you don't know what these are, please ask me

And here are the previous habits that I have sent out 

Habit 1:  Eat every 2-3 hours

Habit 2: eat complete, lean protein with each feeding opportunity

Habit 3:  Eat vegetables with each feeding opportunity

Habit 4:  Eat veggies/fruit with any meal.  Eat "other carbs" only after exercise

Last but not least, please welcome Joel to the semi-privates, he'll be joining us twice a week.  Be sure to make him feel welcomed to our groups :)

Thanksgiving

I can't believe its almost Christmas - where did 2011 go?

I have so much to be thankful this year, yet at times I still feel somewhat discontent - why is that?  Here's my 2011 recap with some reflection on what happened...

I have been at Crossfit Invictus coaching for over 2 years now - before I started on this journey it seems like I couldn't hold down a job for any sort of length of time.  I have also been coaching for Crossfit Endurance for about the same amount of time which has allowed me to travel extensively throughout the United States as well as internationally.

This past year along I had the opportunity to go to Australia twice and New Zealand - both trips were absolutely amazing and it really made me appreciate the impact that Crossfit has had on a global level which was really driven home when I competed at the world games in July.

In 2008 I decided to go back to school to get my teaching credential since I wanted to work with kids to have the opportunity to positively impact their lives and futures.  About a year into the program I started coaching too and in 2009 decided to pursue this road that I have been on ever since.  This year I have had the chance to start working with kids too as I have a group that meets every week from Monarch School.  I really like coaching the kids once a week, I have the 7th & 8th graders for about 40 minutes every week and its been amazing to watch their progress and their outlook on health and fitness.

This year I also made a commitment to pay off my debts and have been making a lot of progress in that department - I have paid off close to 10,000 in credit card and old debts that I have slowly been working towards.

I have competed in 2 triathlons this year as well - I did SuperSeal  in March as I was preparing to do an Ironman a few weeks later.  I trained for about 5 months or so to get ready for IM St. George and about 5 weeks prior my body broke down.  I remember someone saying 'training for an IM will age you' and i can now look back and agree - I am not in my 20s anymore and my body does that a little longer to recover and the training for it coupled with training for the CF Games was a bit much.

I risked blowing out my achilles which I aggravated it in my 2 prep races in March - looking back it was one of the best things that could have happened, it forced me to slow down and remember that I am not invincible.  All of it came crashing at once, I got super sick right before my trip out to Australia at the end of March and decided to pull out of the race then to focus on getting and staying healthy so that I could compete at the CF Games.

I am so thankful for my teammate Invictus s on the team - without them we couldn't have done what we did.  We won regionals convincingly, it was an absolute blast, we had the support of our community at the event taking great care of us, superb coaching and we went out and executed flawlessly.  Being at the CF Games in July was absolutely mind-blowing. Getting to compete on the big stage for the 3rd year in a row was such a privilege that I can't even describe it.  I feel super lucky to have had the opportunity to do so and can't thank everyone enough that helped along the process.

Professionally I feel super lucky, aside from being at a great coaching facility I have some fantastic clients that have seen some transformational changes along the way that really make me appreciate what I do and make it all the more rewarding :)  I also had the chance to take the CF kids course in February and a couple of the OPT courses where I learned a ton.

I also started doing more things socially this year too- i joined a flag football league and met some fun people and even started dating this year which has really been huge progress in my life :)

I'm also coming up on another year sober - 4 years at the end of December and I have to honestly say that my life wouldn't be what it is now if it weren't so.  I feel super lucky to have gone through what happened because its paved the road for where I am at now.   It's not all roses though, this year I have also had to start the process of dealing with the implications of my run in with the law in 2005 which could potentially have me deported.  I have an immigration attorney and am hopeful everything will turn out ok, but at times doubt still creeps in.  All in all, I know this is just part of the process and everything will turn out exactly how its supposed to, if it means I have to leave the US, so be it, although I am hoping it isn't so.

With another month in 2011, I look back and can say that this year has been SUPER.  There have been some tough times, but many more great times looking back.  One of the things I always look forward to is attending Hot N Dry - a sober event in September and I got to go back for the 4th year in a row this year.  I get to make my own schedule with work/clients which I feel super lucky to do so, I have gotten to work with kids, I have an endurance team that meets regularly and have trained several athletes that have qualified for Boston Marathon (pinnacle for endurance events)

One thing I started doing earlier this year is writing in my journal on a nightly basis a simple gratitude list - 5 things most of the days that I am thankful for.  If I went back and looked I think what would show up the most is my health - getting the opportunity to work out and train people for a living.  Cooking - I love food and I cook a majority of my own meals which allows me to be creative and put what serves me best into my system.   Friends often shows up on my gratitude list, I feel super lucky to be surrounded by some great individuals.  At times when I have been down, they have picked me up, when I needed someone to talk to they've been there :)

Thank you for being part of my journey - its been a great year so far and looking forward to a great month of December to wrap up 2011....

It's been way too long since I have posted.  I have been thinking about posting, but it's just not the same.
Since the Crossfit Games took place at the end of July I have had a lot of travel, and that is no excuse, but I just haven't been disciplined enough to sit my butt down and share some of my thoughts and things I have been going through - so here it goes.

Our team did really well at the games, we finished 15th overall which is phenomenal considering there are close to 3,000 affiliates worldwide now - definitely not a bad showing, but part of me felt dissapointed with the outcome.   I think everyone on our team had super high expectations, after winning the southern california regionals we thought we had a chance to compete for the title at the Home Depot Center.  We competed hard, but made a couple of mistakes here and there and things just didn't turn out the way we wanted them to - that's the way it goes in competition sometimes.  Losing is not always the easiest thing to cope with, the dissappointment provided a lot of opportunity for what I call character building.

I feel like the experience definitely was beyond what I could have imagined, but I was in a lull for about a week until i let go.  I remember this lesson - it's not necessarily about the outcome of the competition, but doing your best and leaving it all out there.  So what we didn't win, big deal, our fans love us just the same.   It was amazing to have the CF Invictus community AKA Sea of Green cheering for us.

I was gone 3 out of the 4 weekends in August, the first trip was to San Francisco and this was a play/vacation.  I competed in the SF Track & Field Pride Meet where I reconnected with some people I met at the Gay Games last summer.  This was a super fun event, nothing I trained for specifically and just went out and enjoyed myself :)  I also had the opportunity to spend the weekend with my good friend Miguel from college and I always cherish our times together.  We've known each other since my freshman year in college which is now going on 12 years and our friendship has definitely grown and evolved over the years through the good and bad times :)  He's someone I highly respect, trust and always learn from and when we get to hang out we have some of the best conversations ever.

Next weekend I was in Houston coaching a Crossfit Endurance course, and this was the biggest one I've lead.  There were 53 athletes signed up, I had an assistant coach and an intern and the weekend was beyond amazing.  Bayou City Crossfit is a fantastic facility with some great coaches and everything fell into place perfectly and had the most incredible experience where everything clicked!

The next weekend I was in Ventura for another Crossfit Endurance course and I had the opportunity to attend a nutrition seminar with Dr. John Berrardi from Precision Nutrition as well - this was an awesome experience.  Both the course and the seminar, the whole weekend was great!  To top off the weekend I had dinner with one of the best people in the world - my friend Stephen Baldonado, and god knows we've been through some years together from college, NY and now here in California.  Such a great person and our conversations always seem to pick up where they leave off :)

Tired of the travel yet?  I went almost 3 weeks straight without a day off and I didn't get run down at all - i guess this whole eating healthy and working out helps...

I was here for labor day weekend and attended Feeling Good, where I got to reconnect with some people in the program.  The next week I was off to Palm Springs for the annual event I attend - Hot N Dry  This is one of the things I look forward to every year,  for me personally its an experience like no other, hard to describe.  We had a group of 4 that shared a room and we had a fantastic time - everyone got along great, met some new people, got to know some people better - all around a phenomenal weekend!!!  I have already signed up for next year - this is my 4th year in a row that I have attended :)

The following weekend I went to Portland to coach the Crossfit Endurance course there - I had been there in February and Tony had attended the course I coached there, so it was nice to have a familiar face in the crowd as he was hosting at his facility.  Portland is a beautiful city, I stayed close to downtown and went exploring the city on Friday night - walked around for about an hour, went to a meeting, took public transportation back and felt super connected to the city.

That's the end of the travel - 5 out of 6 weekends gone, had some amazing experiences and met lots of people and feeling like I am living life to the fullest.  I am not scheduled to travel till November which is great, give me some sense of calm and getting into a routine and to compliment being here we've launched a 5k training program for 5 weeks :)  I like to stay busy, i find that I am more effective and efficient if I have a lot going on - what I did learn this year is to minimize my distractions and made sure the things that I was busy with were in alignment with my goals and help me get to where I want to be instead of just being busy for the sake of being busy - can you relate?

All in all I was telling a good friend last night that I feel super rejuvenated - once I got past the lull of the games I have been super focused, driven, motivated and inspired to continue to make a difference, positively impact people in the world and empower individuals to pursue their dreams & passions.  I feel like I am one of the luckiest people in the world, living a dream life.  I think that's about all for now, there's a couple of books that I've read in the past few months that have contributed to the overall level of happiness that I have been experiencing but that's going to require another blog post altogether - I will get it done this week :)

Long overdue

This blog is about to get some work done on it
First the picture has been updated - thank you to Lululemon for the pictures, love them!
I will be posting more frequently, I have all sorts of excuses and reasons why I haven't been doing so, but none are really all that meaningful.
Stay tuned....

Conversations with God - book 2

So I must admit that I am a total nerd, i probably read at least a book every month, but usually have at least 2 or 3 books that I am reading at the same time.  I just recently finished the 2nd book in the series of 'Conversations with God'.  I loved the first book so much that I read it twice, back to back, it was the first time I had done that with any book.

I picked up the first book in Australia at the recommendation of a friend and I have to say the books have really resonated with a lot of what I believe in regards to the world, society and who I am and what I want to be.

I've already ordered the 3rd book, but I thought I would share some of the things that stood out to me from the 2nd book.

'Stop trying to figure out what is "best for you (how you can with the most, lose the least, get what you want) and start going with what feels like Who You Are.'

'We are Perfect, just as we are'

'Religion asks you to learn from the experience of others.  Spirituality urges you to seek your own.'

'When you live as a three-par being, you come at last into balance with yourself.  Your concerns include matters of the soul: spiritual identity, life purpose; relationship to God; path of evolution; spiritual growth; ultimate destiny.'

'Devise a new curriculum, and build it around three Core Concepts:  Awareness, Honesty, Responsibility.'

'Need nothing. Desire everything.  Choose what shows up.'

'Be a light unto the world, and hurt it not.  Seek to build, not to destroy.'

I realize a lot of these statements may not make much sense out of context, but if you are reading this, i strongly encourage you to read these books - their purpose/intent is to create awareness and a shift of consciousness from where the world is heading, and this cannot be done until all of society is on board.

Hakuna Frittata – It means no worries for the rest of your days….

It’s our problem free philosophy – Hakuna Frittata….

Here’s a great idea for breakfast for those of you that ‘don’t have time’

First things first – cook some bacon in a pan – however much your little hear desires for this frittata.  I recommend 6 pieces.  Once the bacon is done, put it to the side, this will come in handy in just a little bit.  The next thing you want to do is cut up all the great things you want to put into this yummylicious feast you will have.

For this frittata I suggest 1/2 an onion finely chopped, 2 tomatoes and 1 green pepper – feel free to add a few things here like mushrooms or anything else you think would go well.  You will then take all these veggies and cook them in the bacon grease – YUM!  Get them nice and ready, and once they’re cooked you will want to add the eggs.  For about 4 breakfasts I will add 12 eggs – about 3 eggs per serving more or less.  Make sure you whip the eggs in a separate bowl first though and you will want to chop the bacon too and add it to the pan – make sure you have a pan that you can throw in the oven.

Once you throw the eggs and bacon in with the veggies you wait for it to cook completely – make sure you stir it around, this usually takes 5-7 minutes.  Once cooked, you will take the pan into the oven which you’ve turned to broil earlier and leave it there for about 5 minutes or so until this nice golden brown top over it.

Take it out of the pan and serve – suggested here is some hot sauce for a little added flavor, but not required.  By doing this once a week you will be able to package about 4-5 breakfasts for your upcoming week.  Altogether this takes me about 30 minutes from start to finish and now all my morning meals for the work week are prepared and I don’t have to worry about rushing out of the house, or what I am going to have the morning of.  Plan and prepare for success – breakfast has been said to be the most important meal of the day - http://www.webmd.com/diet/guide/most-important-meal 

What do you typically have for breakfast – have any great recipes to share? 

Update

There's a few things that have been going on in my life the past few months that I am really proud of. First off I have made some huge progress on my debt - awhile back I looked at my finances and realized I was spending way too much $ on eating out and not watching how I allocated my income. I had a friendly reminder that I ought to look at my finances as often as I exercise on a weekly basis - this was great advice, because how can you know what you need to change if you are not aware of your current situation. I started doing so a few months ago and then came up with my plan of attack which a couple of friends helped me out with.

The first thing i was committed to doing is paying off my new triathlon bike - I have been doing tri's since 2006, and it was time to upgrade, I had been training for IM St. George before I hurt my achilles - here she is:

Let's just say this wonderful bike was not cheap by any means, but I was able to get 0% interest rate for 6 months - I paid it off in less than 3 which was amazing.  There were 2 things I did to make this happen - worked a little bit more, opened up my training availability from 15-20 hours per week to 20-25 hours per week and spent less.  I have also been consistently coaching one of the CFE courses on a monthly basis where I travel either here in the US or internationally.

With this kind of an approach I was able to stick to my plan.  Next on my priority is paying off my motorcycle - just in the past month I made a huge dent on doing so and if all goes according to plan I will have it paid off by the middle of next month.  All in all this is setting me up to get to my CCs and have those paid off by the end of 2011 so that I can focus on a few other outstanding debts.

In hindsight my 20's were not the smartest years - I got myself into quite a bit of financial trouble and I have been working hard to clean the messes up that I created.  If all goes according to plan I will be completely debt free by the end of 2012!!!!

Update on my educational program for 2011 -
- Sentence completion once a week - been doing this on a regular basis, an exercise I picked up from the book "Happier" which has brought a lot of awareness to my life
- Take a course on breathing or energy work: haven't found anything yet, but committed to doing so this year
- Read for of Neale Donald Walsch's books - have read 2 already and about 1/2 way done on the 3rd one now
- Blog once/week - been consistently doing this

Professional Development
- Best Coach Ever: created google docs and been keeping up with it - about 90% compliance
- 'Chi Running' very small progress has been made - was on page 58, now on page 62
- 'Influencer' have read some of it - about 2/3 of the way done - was on page 89 and now on page 139/271
- Life Coaching Course:  nothing planned yet
- Read 4 other books:  committed to finishing the one's I have started for now

Best Coach Ever

I created my educational program for this year sometime last month and this is one of the things that I was inspired to do.  I created a simple google docs where I kept track of the things I did out of the regular towards becoming the best coach ever.  I subscribe to a few newsletters, and I always come across interesting articles, but don't always get a chance to read them - so i decided to start organizing them into a format that seemed a little bit more reasonable to keep track.

I liked doing it for June, so I am going to give it another try in July and see what comes out of it - let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.

Crossfit Southern California Regionals 2011

I’ve been super blessed to have had the opportunity to compete at the CF Games the past 2 years and am now going back for a 3^rd.  Before I came to Invictus I competed on the CF SoCal team where we finished 6^th in 2009 and last year I was part of the Invictus team that finished 4^th in the worldwide competition.  

275#s x 45 reps was heavy...

 

Leading up to regionals there were a few uncertainties about who was going to be on the team and what role each athlete was going to have in the workouts.   I think it really played to our favor to be the last weekend that regionals was held because we were able to see what the top competitive times were and see where we stacked up to the rest of the world.  It also brought us closer together as a team which really benefited in our chemistry.

In our training we never did the actual workouts, but we did each of the segments and had a good idea of what we might be capable of doing.  We knew we had the potential to do really well,  but at the end of the day we still have to go out and execute the strategy which is exactly what we did and then some.

I couldn’t be more proud of my teammates – it was amazing to see them in action, during the workouts that I was not performing although I was a little bit anxious and nervous for my teammates I was super confident of their abilities and knew we’d be competitive in each of the workouts.  When we did as well as we did, I wouldn’t say it was surprising or shocking it just felt like we did what we were supposed to do, not in the sense of crushing the workouts, but in the execution of the game plan.

I am a little biased, but I would most definitely say that we have the best coach in the world and we knew exactly what we were supposed to do on game day and that takes all the thinking out of it and just allows us to do what we are supposed to do.

We couldn’t do what we did if it wasn’t for our amazing community – having the Sea of Green there this past weekend gave us additional motivation to do our best, we can’t thank you all enough for your continued support.   As athletes competing everything is pretty well organized for us too, which is beyond what anyone can ask for – from all the meals being prepared, to having an ice bath ready for us post workouts, to hotel arrangements it makes it super easy for us to focus on the competition and not have to worry about all the additional details – thank you to everyone that helped!

Another big reason why we were successful is the support of our acupuncturist extraordinaire – Heidi Fearon.  Having her there for a majority of the weekend was a huge blessing – she was able to work with us each day making sure that we were physically prepared, taped, stretched and mentally dialed in as well. 

All in all, regionals was an amazing experience – it was almost surreal,  I have had to ask myself a few times – did we really just do that?  It was an awesome competition and now that we’ve qualified for the games in July it’s time to take it up a notch and get things dialed in the next 5 weeks or so to do it again and bring it to another level and show the world what we are capable of as a team.

Invictus finishes #1 in Southern California - good times were had!!!

Nutrition & such

With the Crossfit Games right around the corner I am getting super excited about competing at Regionals.   Here in Southern California our regionals is the weekend of June 17th-19th, and at that point all the other regions will have gone already.  In order to qualify for the games in July our team must finish top 3 out of 30, which will be no easy task.


Check out the workouts that we will be doing - http://games.crossfit.com/content/regional-workouts

Leading up to the games I get seriously committed about my nutrition and here are a few things that are a stable in keeping me on top of my game.

If you haven't tried this nut butter, get ready for it to rock your world.  Not only is it amazing, but your body will thank you for it!  "2 tablespoons of NuttZo PF provides 75% of your daily value of Omega 3 ALAs.  No sugar or hydrogenated oils added.  Most importantly, the taste is amazing and it will have you coming back for more."

I have found this to be the best recovery drink out there.  I have used it almost religiously for all my competitions for the past year an half - from 5k races, to 1/2 marathons, triathlons, CF Games, Gay Games, you name it - I always rely on Genr8 post workout to fuel my body.  I especially like the Tropical Flavor and will typically always have a tub of it available.  I like that I don't feel bloated when I drink it and it's sugar free :)

 

With the level of training that I have been doing for the past 6 months or so I have found that I have also been eating lots more, so one thing I looked for awhile back was a good source of protein which is what I found in Stronger, Faster, Healthier.  I found it to mix really well with most things and have been using the natural flavor for awhile now.  I find that I ended up eating somewhere between 3-5 meals per day and on the most part I eat only real foods, but in a pinch for time and convenience I lean on SFH whey protein which I think is the best out in the market.  Their fish oil is pretty amazing as well, all the flavors!!!




Speaking of fish oil, that is one thing that I must have in the house at all times.  At Invictus we carry Barlean's which I really like.  After using the Kirkland brand that I got from Costco I decided to try this since it had a higher EPA/DHA - which means I would have to take less of it,  doesn't that sound ideal?  I started using the liquid form and before I knew it the fish burps went away - you know what I am talking about?  If you are getting them, it's probably because you are taking a low grade fish oil that's coated with a bunch of stuff that is unknown - switch to a high grade fish oil like Barlean's, SFH or maybe even Carlson's which I also really like. 

The last recommendation I have is what my accupuncturist extraordinaire Heidi Fearon recommended to me awhile ago.  It's a calcium/magnesium supplement, which she has found at times athletes are deficient.   These are two major minerals that can help keep the body running at its best!  "You experience the tensing (calcium) and relaxing (magnesium) interaction of these two elements each time your heart beats, when you feel your pulse, and every time you breathe."  I found this to be a nice supplement to keep me healthy.  I have taken the natural flavor and am now on the raspberry flavor which I think has a nice zest to it.

All in all there's not one thing that I would say keeps me healthy, its always a combination of things, but these are top of my list.  What have you found that works really well for you?