Kaizen is a Japanese philosophy that focuses on continuous improvement throughout all aspects of life. Kaizen strategy calls for never-ending efforts for constant improvement and is a key principle for all true martial artists.



The Best Always Get Better!
by Kyoshi Steve LaVallee

Hang around any successful achiever and you will soon realize why they are so successful. They always strive to get better...

Study the best in sports or athletic competition, study the best in business and in leadership...you'll quickly see that they are always striving to get better.

Anyone that has made it to the top of their field or chosen endeavor, is likely to be highly ambitious and driven for success and achievement.

They are not likely to be satisfied with being second best or accepting mediocrity in their life.

Last month's Super Bowl Champions, the Pittsburgh Steelers won the game in the final minutes of play. They never gave up and they never stopped trying to win. All season long they worked hard on improving their offense and their defense.

UFC World Champion George St. Pierre recently defended his World Championship. In the process he had to overcome a lot of negative pressure and comments from his opponent, BJ Penn. BJ is known as the prodigy because of his natural talent and outstanding ground game.

GSP is known for his athleticism, his work ethic and his strategic approach to the fighting game. He is also known for being very respectful and is, in my humble opinion, one of the best representatives of MMA.

Everytime GSP enters the octagon...he gets better and better!

One of your goals should be to get better everyday.

Goals we set are goals we get...take action everyday to make yourself smarter...to improve your overall health & fitness...to improve all the relationships in your life.

If you want to be the best, and I am assuming you do, strive to improve yourself everyday in everyway. Every class, become a better student of the Martial Arts...everyday, become a better student of life.

"Everyday in everyway...I get better & better,
everyday in everyway... I get stronger & stronger,
everyday in everyway, I get smarter & smarter,
everyday in everyway...I get richer & richer!"

"Always Be One Step Ahead of Your Child"
by Denny Strecker

I have found that parenting ideas swing back and forth just like a pendulum. Our parents raised us with a firm hand, and the idea that children where meant to be seen - not heard. Today's generation has swung to the polar opposite with Time Outs and Compromising. Somewhere in between these two extremes lies a happy child.

Believe me, in 14 years of working with families, I have seen both extremes.

I watched a parent drop off their child for one of our school events called Movie Night. This is when we rent a movie and watch it with all of the children while the parents get to go out for dinner or some "adult" time. The child insisted the parents do not leave, AND THEY DIDN'T! The parent sat and begged the child to "let them go to dinner."

On the other end of the scale, a parent carried a whistle in his pocket and when he blew it, the children had 15 seconds to get to him "or else". Needless to say this is a rebellion situation in the making - but we will leave that for another story.

Thinking ahead of your child is not difficult - once you learn the skill and use it regularly. Until the age of 12 years old, children are present minded. Simply put, that means what ever is in front of them, or whatever it is they are doing, is the only thing they are thinking about.

Once you understand this concept, you can use it to your advantage. What I teach parents in my seminars is to walk through an entire conversation before you have it with your child. Think of their probable response and come up with an answer to each, and then think of their possible responses, and come up with answers to those as well.

Now you have an arsenal of responses at the ready and your child will be thinking on the run. You should not have any trouble guiding them to the conclusion you want. Let's use Movie Night as our example.

Parents want to go out for an evening and they know Movie Night is next Friday. The mistake is to ask the child if they WANT to go to Movie Night. In this instance, you are flipping a coin. If the child says "yes", then everything is all right. If the child says "no", you know have to debate, discuss or argue your way to get them to go.

In this case, the parents should not care what the child "wants". They know their child has fun at Movie Nights because they talk about it all the time. They know that they need some time together to keep their relationship healthy and strong. They know that my staff and I take great care of the children and serve as role models so the more time their child spends with us, the better.

I have parents complete this exercise in my seminars all the time, and after a couple of practice runs, it really begins to hit home with them.

Good luck with this month's tip.

A Breakfast That Wakes You Up

Dragging through your morning? Then try adding these breakfast favorites to your a.m. menu: yogurt and eggs.

This little diet tweak could help you forget you even have a snooze button, thanks to the extra dose of tyrosine -- a building block for two important wake-up- your-brain chemicals.



Do You Feel Good? Tyrosine helps make the wake-up brain chemicals dopamine and norepinephrine. "Studies show that people tend to think more quickly and feel more motivated and energetic when their brains are producing large amounts of these chemicals," writes Selene Yeager in the book "New Foods for Healing."

In addition to eggs and yogurt, other food sources of tyrosine include almonds, chicken, avocados, bananas, and sesame seeds. Did you know? Starting your day with eggs can help you feel full longer, too.

In a study, people on a low-calorie weight loss plan who ate two scrambled eggs and unbuttered toast (with jelly!) for breakfast lost 65 percent more weight than dieters who had a bagel with cream cheese for their morning meal. How do eggs help? They may simply keep people feeling satisfied longer than carbs do -- and eating less later on.

Two More for the Road
Yeager recommends two more energy sources to help keep you sharp in the a.m.:

Orange juice -- The vitamin C in orange juice has been shown to help beat fatigue. Vitamin C can also help you stay slim. Here's how.

This antioxidant helps fight the cellular damage that comes with these problems. So help your body help you by packing in more oranges, papayas, bell peppers, and other C-rich fruits and veggies. It's the new way to eat skinny. Ever see a rusty pipe? That same process -- called oxidation -- goes on in your insides, but in this case, it damages cells, not metal. Conditions like obesity, heart disease, and diabetes accelerate the process, "rusting" cells throughout your body, including those lining your blood vessels. And the thicker you are around the middle, the more "rusty" you're likely to be. The best solution for reducing this damage is to lose weight -- especially around your middle. But losing belly bulge is easier said than done. Now researchers have discovered that hourglass- shaped people have higher blood levels of vitamin C than apple-shaped people. They aren't sure why, but they're investigating some likely theories. One is that men and women who have a low waist-to-hip ratio may eat lots of vitamin C-rich fruits and veggies and take vitamins. A second possibility is that those shaped like an hourglass are healthier and not as likely as their apple-shaped peers to be obese or have ailments like heart disease and diabetes that "rust" tissues and gobble up vitamin C.

Megadosing on vitamin C won't make you slim, but eating a low-fat, high fiber diet that includes lots of C- rich produce may not only help protect your body from excessive cell damage, but also give you a good shot at getting -- and keeping -- a svelte figure.

This month we will be holding our
March Belt Exams on a
SPECIAL split schedule;

Children: Lil Dragons & Goshin Juniors will test on
Friday 20 MARCH 2009

Adult Martial Arts & Jiu Jitsu will test on
Saturday *** 28 MARCH 2009

Please review the testing schedule, exam roster, and upcoming events to see how it may affect you by visiting our website @ http://www.americanblackbelt.org/student.html

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