I never thought I would be spending both my Saturday and Sunday afternoons watching the PGA Championship, but last weekend after my other social events we watched the end of the tournament. In case you aren’t a golf fanatic—it was a total upset!
(If golf isn’t really of interest to you, please keep reading, because this blog is not about golf. It’s about aging (which we are all doing), winning (which we all want to do in some fashion) and being open-minded to new approaches.)
So, here’s the background:
Phil Michelson, age 50, won the PGA Championship last weekend. Golf championships are usually four-day events, and this particular tournament was played on the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, SC. I’ve been to Kiawah and the only thing I remember is alligators. They are everywhere. And as I was watching TV on Saturday, play had to stop while a young alligator sauntered across one of the greens! Besides alligators, it is known for being one of the most difficult golf courses in the U.S.
Add in the fact that 50-year-old golfers rarely—if ever—win golf tournaments (it’s usually the twenty-somethings and thirty-somethings that are winning). Younger golfers typically are in better shape, have more stamina, and are better scoring golfers.
And while I don’t personally think 50 is old, there is NO WAY that 50-year-old Phil Michelson was predicted to win. But, by the end of day 3 (Saturday), he was ahead by a few strokes.
How did he win?
Let me share with you what Phil looks like now (on the left) and what he used to look like a few years ago (on the right). The change is remarkable.
(Image Left) Phil on Sunday May 23, 2021 (Image Right) Phil pictured a few years
For most of his career, Phil was pudgy. Plus, he was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis in 2010, which was a devastating blow to his career. I remember hearing about his diagnosis and thinking, “Well, that’s a painful disease and probably a career-limiting event.”
Fast forward to Sunday, May 23, 2021, when he rocked the golf world. Just google “Phil Michelson Diet” and you’ll find out one of the secrets to his win. In fact, his win was so remarkable, that you can read about it in multiple places; golf.com, foxnews.com or forbes.com to name a few.
The secret to his success?
Deep daily meditation (to help quiet the distracting noise when he is golfing)
Intermittent fasting (he fasts every week for 36 hours and occasionally has done a 6 day fast (drinking only a special coffee blend plus water) to “give his body a rest and the ability to reset”
Being mindful about what he eats and drinks (no more diet sodas) and eating less
And of course, as with any professional athlete, he has multiple coaches and practices daily.
But more than anything, Phil showed me—and the rest of the world—that you could turn back the hands of time by being willing to change your habits. You could conquer a devastating auto-immune condition by changing your diet. You could actually give up ALL food for short periods of time to allow your system to rest. My anecdotal research has shown that intermittent fasting can help with many conditions (pre-diabetes, weight loss and more). And of course, as an elite athlete, the discipline of practicing, utilizing coaches to improve your performance and—more than anything—having a winning mental mindset can change your destiny.
So maybe you’re not a golfer. But you probably have a few extra pounds and some aches and pains. And there is probably some part of your life in which you want to improve your performance.
Maybe it’s time to hit the reset button. Maybe it’s time to get a coach. Maybe it’s time to evaluate your diet. Perhaps it’s time to find a way to improve your concentration and focus.
Phil Mickelson’s “special coffee blend” ingredients
350-450 grams of coffee (Ethiopian beans)
2-3 tbsp. MCT or XCT oil
Large scoop flavorless collagen protein powder
Dash of Himalayan pink sea salt
Small glass of almond milk
200 mg. L-Theanine
1 tbsp. Manuka honey
1 tsp cinnamon
No surprise that Phil has already launched this coffee as a product line, Coffee For Wellness!
So, whether you decide to try meditation, hire a coach to help your performance or start intermittent fasting, I hope you know that age doesn’t matter! At any age, we can have a winning attitude!
Enjoy and stay healthy!
Karen
Let me start by saying that I do not consider myself an “outdoorsy” person. I’ve never been camping and have no desire to do so. A weeklong visit to New York City, with visits to museums, plays, restaurants is my cup of tea.
But with all the travel restrictions due to COVID, we were hard pressed to figure out a vacation destination that would give us a break from the rat race of work, working from home, etc.
Solution: Fly to Las Vegas, rent a car and spend seven solid days driving and visiting national parks in Utah.
Now this may sound like a normal occurrence for many people, but I didn’t even know that there were five national parks in Utah, nor would I have recognized their names.
But that is how we spent the last week.
We stayed in folksy, rustic hotels. Signs like this did stir a bit of nervousness in me … but I survived.
We wore our exercise clothes and running shoes every day and ended each day covered in red dust and sweat.
We biked and hiked through Zion National Park. We spent hours hiking our way up Scout’s Lookout Trail with dozens of switchbacks along two mountains.
In Bryce Canyon National Park, we hiked down the Queen’s Garden Trail where we got to see the hoodoos up close.
As we were hiking back up, we witnessed a medical emergency being handled when a large, male hiker had a hypoglycemic episode. We all applauded when the EMTs had him strapped in and were able to transport him back up to the waiting ambulance.
By the way, it was the only national park that you could enter for free and there were nearly zero other people.
In Canyonlands National Park, we explored the Mesa Arch. It reminded me of a scaled down Grand Canyon, so taking a few minutes to sit on the edge of a cliff and take it all in, was a perfect pause moment.
In Arches National Park, we were amazed by the beauty of all the arches and rows of “fins.” It, by far, was the most beautiful national park we visited. It was so fantastic that we went back a second day late in afternoon (when most people were gone) and went exploring and arch hunting! Thank goodness for the cairns (small stacks of big flat rocks that the park rangers put out to mark the path, which can be hard to follow on just sandstone rock/cliffs). Sometimes it felt like we were on an Amazing Race hunt … we had no idea where we were headed, we just kept our eyes out for cairns to guide us.
Being the city girl that I am, my biggest worry was: because of the heat, we had to drink a lot of water. A LOT of water. Well, what goes in, must come out. Coincidentally, my dear friend, Eileen Benjamin, entrepreneur and owner of SKORZIE.com (a website for discounted ladies golf and tennis attire), gifted me a P-style device, to assist me in the wild. Ladies, if you take long walks, hikes or play golf…….this is a life saver!
P-styles come in all colors!
This was the first vacation I have been on where I did not get bored. Every day was a new field trip into the wild….and I found myself jonesing for a new trail or canyon to explore.
If you’re looking for a vacation destination this summer or fall, when it is cooler, and want a change of pace – a national park is a destination that I highly recommend.
Karen
Los Alamitos, CA (May 2021)– With Memorial Day just around the corner and social restrictions opening up, shoppers are getting ready to relax and reunite. What better way to do that than by encouraging them to try something new, juicy and delicious at their next backyard BBQ or picnic-in-the park?
Enter, trendy tropicals! With 42% of shoppers saying they are more likely to buy unique produce to make summer gatherings more fun1, and 2 in 5 looking to tropical fruits to brighten their summer2, the time is ripe to inspire with summer’s most enticing options, like Frieda’s Honey & Snow Dragons™, lychees, and Rambas™rambutan.
“I’m excited to be making up for lost time with my grandkids, and whether we’re lounging by the poolside, or picnicking in the backyard, you can be sure I’m always introducing them to new fruits,” says Allen DeMo, director of grower relations and business development at Frieda’s Specialty Produce. “…and this year I’m excited to introduce them to lychees and rambutan, by far the freshest and juiciest, I’ve ever seen!”
Exotic Tropicals are perfect for savory or sweet salads, fruit-forward mains, and even charred fruits, with a flourish. Encourage shoppers to serve these up in imaginative cocktails, such as this wildly popular rambutan & grapefruit aperol spritz, or simply thread lychees through skewers, roast over a flame, and drizzle with honey and lime juice, for a tropical twist on s’mores!
Make it easy for shoppers to discover new tropical favorites by merchandising them with what they already know- Honey Dragons™ next to pineapples and Rambas™rambutan in the berry patch. Or cross merchandise coveted lychees with specialty cheeses and meats to help shoppers create a simple and delicious charcuterie board.
Call your Frieda’s account manager today to pre-book summer’s must-have tropicals and jumpstart your warm-weather holiday weekend sales.
Source: 1 C+R 1000 Person Study, April 2019 2 C+R 1000 Person Study, May 2020
In past blogs, I have mentioned how my favorite books are biographies. I love people and peoples’ stories, so discovering the details and background on the lives of interesting people is a constant source of fascination and learning for me.
But, I am not an avid sports fan and I don’t follow any teams. And Boxing is the one sport that I am least interested in. The thought of people punching each other (many times in the head) with the objective of knocking them out, seems barbaric and ludicrous to me.
So, with this background, it may surprise you to learn that the latest book I read entitled “Sound and Fury” by Dave Kindred is the story of three-time world championship heavyweight boxer Mohammad Ali (aka Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr.) and newscaster Howard Cosell. Author Dave Kindred knew both Ali and Cosell, so he wrote the book as a compare-and-contrast study of the athlete and the sportscaster, alternating chapters in the book about each person. The two men interacted many times during Ali’s career and formed a special relationship of uncanny understanding.
Muhammad Ali and Howard Cosell in 1992. Photo Credit…Marty Lederhandler/Associated Press
I listen to most books on Audible, and the narrator Dick Hill really enhanced this book, as he had an entertaining way of changing his voice to resemble Mohammad Ali’s deep, almost whisper-style, to the fast-talking, blustery, New York-accented Cosell.
If the name Howard Cosell doesn’t sound familiar (he passed away in 1995 at age 77), he is the guy who conceived of Monday Night Football! In his bright yellow jacket, he turned sports broadcasting into its own genre. An attorney by education, he switched to sports broadcasting as a career after he was asked to host a radio show on Little League in 1953. After a decade in radio, he moved to television. His most famous catchphrase was “I’m just telling it like it is!”
Mohammad Ali (born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr.) was quite a contrast to Cosell. In the book, you realize that Clay was born to be a boxer, as he started throwing punches and using his fancy footwork when he first started walking. He represented the USA at the Olympics, and at age 18 he was awarded the gold medal in light heavyweight boxing at the 1960 Summer Olympics. He then turned professional and changed his name to Mohammad Ali in 1964 (he became Muslim in 1961).
Surprisingly, he was an activist, being one of the few people who came out publicly against the war in Vietnam. At the time he was considered un-American, and was stripped of his boxing titles and his passport was taken away. In hindsight, it seems incredible that he stayed true to his beliefs and persisted. In one chapter of the book, when his case went all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States, you learn the backstory of how the vote of the justices went from a 4-4 tie, to a 0-8 in favor of Ali! It’s such an amazing story.
“Float like a butterfly—sting like a bee” was his mantra. At the time, most fighters let their managers do the talking, but Ali was considered provocative and outlandish and spoke on his own behalf. He was known for “trash-talking” and often did freestyling rhyme schemes and spoken word poetry. On his Wikipedia page, there is reference to two Grammy nominations he received as a spoken-word artist (aka rapper).
Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in the 1980s (which some attribute to boxing-related injuries) but remained active as a public figure globally until his death in 2016 at age 74.
Here is my small world story. In the 1980s, I was flying from Chicago to Los Angeles. As I was sitting in flight, I kept hearing an odd noise. It sounded like a bee was buzzing near my head. When I turned around in my seat, I saw this husky black man, sitting directly behind me, rubbing his fingers together. I smiled at him. I think he may have said, “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.” When we exited the plane, Mohammad Ali and his wife were rushed off to a waiting car, like all dignitaries are. It was a moment I will never forget.
I never realized how both men, with such different backgrounds, had a hand in changing the world of sports. Howard Cosell added an intellectual perspective to an otherwise blow-by-blow, rather mundane broadcast genre. And Mohammad Ali truly believed in world peace, in contrast to his chosen field of brutalist boxing.
Sound and Fury is an incredible story and definitely worth a read or listen.
Karen
LOS ALAMITOS, CA (April 2021) – After a year of distanced gatherings, Mom deserves the works this year! Since many shoppers skipped prepping for a traditional Sunday brunch with the entire family in 2020, give them something a little more festive this spring.
Make your store the crêpes destination this Mother’s Day. Add Frieda’s French-Style Crêpes to your berry case and merchandise the surrounding area with chocolate sauce, drizzles, preserves, nuts, and—of course—flowers! Or, inspire shoppers to take a savory spin and serve brunch-ready crêpes with a simple side of shaved watermelon radish, drizzled with a pink lemon vinaigrette. Tie it all in with a fresh Tikis™ drinking coconut, or a refreshing passion fruit mojito to wash it all down.
“As a (new) mother to a five-month-old, I think I’ve earned a day that’s all about me. I’m pretty excited to spend Mother’s Day being celebrated by my husband and, of course, eating something delicious,” says Alex Jackson Berkley, director of sales at Frieda’s Specialty Produce. “For special occasions like this, I love setting up a crêpe bar, complete with fruits, nuts, whipped cream, and all the fixings! This time I’ve got my eyes on these bright and festive vanilla cream-filled crêpes with blueberry sauce, berries & kumquats.”
This year, it’s all about embracing togetherness. Call your Frieda’s account manager today for easy crêpe and fresh fruit merchandising solutions to make your shoppers’ celebrations all the more meaningful!
