Sampson12
Is our society denying laborers corporate ...

An article was recently published by Business Insider titled “Southwest asking corporate employees to work at airports; staffing”. https://www.businessinsider.com/southwest-asking-corporate-employees-to-work-at-airports-staffing-shortages-2021-12?op=1

It seems that the article is implying that operational employees no longer want to work at Southwest Airlines. In a free market society laborers usually don’t want to leave the stability of their workplace unless there is a reason. I don’t know why Southwest Airlines employees are leaving but based on reasons people typically do leave their employment it could be because of things like hostile working conditions, unfair compensation policies, or a threat against their safety.

So we know that something is causing a mass exodus of employees at Southwest Airlines. And it is a big enough issue that people who would otherwise remain in a stable, employed position are willing to disrupt their lives because of it.

From a corporate accountability standpoint, where consumers hold publicly traded shares in the company, this mass exodus should probably trigger some sort of corporate policy reform. There should be corporate accountability for how executives are directly causing employees to leave in mass at a publicly traded company.

But instead, according to the article, corporate executives are instead asking mid-level employees to “volunteer” to work for free. And yes, this DOES sound like a massive overstep of power. We have no way to know that the “volunteers” are not being coerced to “volunteer” out of fear. This fear might be driven from fear of losing their job, fear of not getting a promotion, fear of executive leadership choosing to run the entire company to the ground rather than reform their policies, or other reason.

I am curious though if the CEO “volunteered” to work any of these 8 hour shifts.

So here are some interesting things to consider. Southwest airlines is a publicly traded company and average middle class U.S. citizens do hold some of those shares. I’m sure that employees of Southwest Airlines also own shares of the company’s stock. So according to how our capital markets are supposed to be working, Southwest’s executive leadership should be aligning corporate policy with the best interest of its shareholders. But the shareholders (i.e. employees) are leaving, possibly being censored in the media, and the remaining employees are working for free.

In a world where corporate accountability was paramount, don’t you think the ideal response of a publicly traded company to be:

  • That it changes it’s policies that are making operational laborers uncomfortable?

  • That it changes it’s leadership which is pushing policies that operational laborers are uncomfortable with?

In a society where corporations were held accountable, I believe the results would be dramatically different. Mid-level employees would probably be paid for the work they are performing instead of “volunteering” to work for free over the holidays. Operational laborers would be able to keep the financial stability of the job they have held for however many years. And middle class consumers wouldn’t see the value in their investment decline as the company loses money over unpopular policies.

Is our society denying laborers corporate accountability? Thoughts on the recent Southwest Airlines labor exodus.
financial planning
Sampson12
5 steps to create your 2022 financial plan

Katelyn here! Earlier this month I shared with my followers in my private FB community “the Savvy Boss Club” the December 2021 financial planning calendar. This calendar is based on the same financial planning calendars that I used many times before at large multinational corporations.

This time every year you can expect your finance partners to be busy finalizing the draft version of the 2022 financial plan by using estimated Dec'21 results (because the full-year results won't be available until January when December has officially closed).

Technically though, I had my business unit dialed in and we had our plan mostly done all the way back in September. Which means that I started sending my team their planning templates back in March.

And I did that because if my team had any hope of getting the money they wanted approved by executive leadership in October, I had to start the negotiations back in July.

Keep in mind I was negotiating for a minimum of $400M.

I am very proactive when it comes to planning for a lot of reasons. One reason is because my dad is a real estate developer. I grew up hearing about how in order to make a profit, first you have to invest in all the resources you need. If you don't have the resources you need then you can't make the thing you want to make and you certainly can't sell it.

And those pesky finance folks can get in the way of allocating the right amount of budget to get those materials and build those houses!

I really do have so many stories of my internal battles with finance coworkers and leadership to advocate for my business to get the budget they requested.

But I couldn't advocate for anything if I didn't have my team dialed in working with me to create our financial plan at the right time.

It is critical for the success of your business to have a financial plan for 2022. And that's just in general, not even counting the sky-rocketing inflation, supply chain crisis, labor shortage, and a ridiculous list of current events that are currently taking a toll on people.

So here are five steps you can take today to create your 2022 estimated financial plan:

Step 1: Download your bank statement into csv or excel format.

Everything should always tie back to your bank statement! Now keep in mind that cash flow is not the same as profit and you have to take extra steps to correctly recognize revenue and expenses.

Step 2: Categorize your revenue and expenses in broad categories.

You can do this easily directly in the csv or excel sheet that you downloaded. Just pick a column next to the data and in the same row each transaction add common category.

Step 3: Make adjustments.

Be sure to add to the end of the data any additional revenue or expenses you expect to incur by the end of the year that are not yet reflected in your bank statement. An example would be if you are running Facebook Ads and the ad is running and you are incurring a liability but Facebook hasn’t charged you yet. Add this expense at the bottom of your transactions list with an estimated amount.

Step 4: Total everything up according to the categories in a P&L format.

If you need help with a P&L format comment below “P&L”.

Step 5: Duplicate the totals and use a multiplier for each category.

Take your 2021 estimated results and use that as the base for your 2022 financial plan. Then multiply each category by a growth multiplier. Especially when there is high inflation, you need to include the impact of expected higher expenses in the future.

If you want to see my live training on these 5 steps you can view it here: https://fb.me/e/4mQunQeoc

Comment below “financial plan” for help creating a custom 2022 financial plan today!

5 steps to create your 2022 financial plan
Commercial Real Estate
Sampson12
Is there trouble brewing for commercial real ...

On February 19th, 2021, the federal reserve issued its semiannual “Monetary Policy Report” (1). A report that I am particularly interested in because it mentioned that “commercial real estate prices remain at historically high levels despite high vacancy rates and appear susceptible to sharp declines, particularly if the pace of distressed transactions picks up or, in the longer term, the pandemic leads to permanent changes in demand.”

I’ve been anticipating this sentence since the beginning of the pandemic as the governors of many states shut down the profitability of many commercial buildings. I fear, however, that readers may not be sure what the federal reserve is talking about or why one could interpret it with concern.

So in this article, I will paint a fictional but relatable and realistic scenario of why there might be concern for the commercial real estate market.

Let’s pretend that there is a yoga studio, owned by Sally, operating profitably in January of 2020. The previous year, the business had the following:

Is there trouble brewing for commercial real estate? (part 1)
Financial Health
Sampson12
Don’t make business decisions based on how you ...

During one of my roles at a large multinational corporation, my business partners asked me to look into the tax benefits of donating material. You see, the team had already bought the material (so it was already expensed, aka “written-off” for tax purposes) but they did not need to use it anymore. They wanted to know if there was any reason for them to donate the material as opposed to just throwing it away. Throwing the material away would be easier so they were looking for an incentive to donate the material.

Since I am a business financial planner, I create and analyze financial budgets and forecasts compared to actual results, I reached out to a tax accountant for an answer. Similarly, in a corporate world, a tax accountant would not answer questions from business partners on planning out the financial impact of future business decisions. Those questions would be deferred to me.

When I reached out to a tax accountant I explained the situation and he answered that since the material had already been written-off (or expensed) there was no further tax benefit that could be gained. When something is expensed then the full value of the item is reduced from taxable income, simplified meaning: you don’t pay taxes on it. Then he said something which embodies so much of what we KNOW in corporate finance but that is not well-known to the average person outside of finance:

Please tell your business partners not to make any business decisions based on how they think it will impact taxes.

Why did he say that? The short of it is that taxes are complicated and a good tax accountant can do your taxes well whether you are making billions of dollars in profit or negative profit. Companies who are making BILLIONS of dollars in profit are paying a relatively small amount in taxes and are using the same tax code that you are as a small business owner. That means that the tax savings are in the tax code and are not based on the business decisions you make. You should make business decisions based on what is best for growing and improving your business not based on how you think it might impact taxes.

And it is something your tax accountant should be saying to you. Similarly to what highly paid tax accountants for large corporations say to their business partners.

Don’t make business decisions based on how you THINK they may impact taxes
Tips
Sampson12
Tips on Attracting Airbnb Customers

I was so excited to start working at a large Tech Company in the Bay Area, but I didn’t want to MOVE to the Bay Area. My family and community all lived a few hours away and I had just gotten out of a traumatizing lease in San Francisco. So I decided instead to commute to the Bay Area during the work week and stay at various Airbnbs or hotels. Needless to say I have quite a few thoughts on Airbnbs and hotels in the Bay Area and have picked up some tips based on my background and discussions with Airbnb hosts.

Let me tell you a little more about the kind of Airbnb guest I try to be:

  • Always try to pick up after myself even during the week that I am staying there

  • Mostly keep to myself especially after long workdays

  • Usually ate dinner at my company, at a restaurant, or lived off snack bars, cheese sticks, and pita chips since I didn’t like cooking in other people’s homes

  • Value cleanliness

  • Faith-centered so I try not to break or damage other people’s things and also not to steal

If you are an Airbnb host and you are looking for customers similar to me I have some tips on how to attract customers like me. And just so you know, if you are new to Airbnb I have heard from Airbnb hosts who have had some really tough customers who weren’t clean and did damage some things in the room. Everybody is different and I’m willing to share what I looked for when choosing an Airbnb room.

I want to preface these tips with the understanding that for many people and Airbnb is an alternative to a hotel room. Here are the accommodations I can usually expect from the hotel rooms (*pre-covid) I would consider as an alternative:

Tips on Attracting Airbnb Customers

Health & wellness

Healthy Habits Hack Gut Health with Natural Lemonade

Healthy Habits Hack Gut Health with Natural Lemonade

Having trouble with constipation? I’ll be honest, every once and a while I’ll notice that my gut seems to be forgetting about getting rid of all the food I’ve been eating. It is not a very comfortable feeling.

Even though I take a bunch of nutrition supplements, usually they make me feel bloated and don’t really help with the problem. Then one day I started craving lemonade; lemonade with REAL LEMONS. So because of my cravings and no other reason really I started making my own lemonade with the following ingredients:

Pure filtered water, ice, lemon juice (squeezed from a lemon), sugar.

Perfect! The lemonade satisfied my cravings and gave my morning routine a little bounce. Then I noticed something interesting, after drinking the lemonade consistently (every day) for 5 to 7 days suddenly all of the waste that had accumulated in my gut just left my body. It felt great! I was so shocked. So I was curious and began researching if lemonade may actually help with gut health.

Some natural blogs and natural health experts claim that lemon juice can help with all kinds of ailments and improve digestive health. Other sites set out to disprove this claim. So it looks like it really depends on the health profile of the individual and if you notice a difference or not.

In my opinion, I personally noticed a big difference in gut health when drinking lemon juice from a lemon consistently over a several day period. I think the important thing is to distinguish between natural lemonade from real lemons and drink products marketed as lemonade with other ingredients in them.

Let’s look at the ingredients in Minute Maid lemonade for example. The “healthy” version of minute maid lemonade ingredients looks like this:

PURE FILTERED WATER, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, LEMON JUICE FROM CONCENTRATE, LEMON PULP, NATURAL FLAVORS, SUGAR.

Do you notice the high fructose corn syrup? I don’t think that can be good for gut health! Instead of opting for a version of lemonade with added ingredients I just try drinking lemon juice from a real lemon in whatever form or fashion you enjoy, whether that be with warm water or cold water and a hint of sugar.

Disclaimer

This publication contains the opinions and ideas of its author. It is intended to provide helpful and informative material on the subjects addressed in the publication. It is provided with the understanding that the author and publisher are not engaged in rendering any kind of personal or professional services in this publication. The reader should consult with a competent professional before adopting any of the suggestions in this publication or drawing inferences from it. The author and publisher specifically disclaim all responsibility for any liability, loss, or risk, personal, professional, or otherwise, which is incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of use and application of any of the contents of this publication.

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How I beat uncontrollable food cravings - part 2

How I beat uncontrollable food cravings - part 2

At work in China, I sat next to a woman who was pregnant and seemingly always eating fruit. She liked to “teach” me her understanding of nutrition since I apparently needed the help. One of the first things she told me was to avoid eating rice. Rice is a staple in China and almost always served during meals. I learned, however, that it was not common for people to eat all, if any, rice out of their bowls.

Food was served family style and each person would pick a few pieces of food (like chicken or vegetables) out of the communal bowls and place them on their bowls of rice. They would then eat the food with maybe a few grains of rice with it. At the end of the meal many rice bowls would still be full and individuals would pour the uneaten rice into a food container to save for the next meal. My co-worker also told me to avoid bread and sweets and to try and make the majority of my diet fruits and vegetables.

I enthusiastically tried to cut down my starch intake according to my coworker’s advice and thought it would be easy for me since I had already followed a diet avoiding grains and sweets back in the United States. I soon found that for some reason it was different, harder, for me to try and reduce my intake of starches in China. After a few meals of eating mostly fruits and vegetables I would get seemingly uncontrollable food cravings and end up eating large quantities of food later on. It seemed like the more I tried to eat healthy foods the stronger my food cravings. This was very confusing for me because I followed a similar diet before and didn’t have the same experience, what was different for me in Shanghai compared to the U.S.?

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Ingredients in Meatless Burgers may be Similar to Dog Food

Ingredients in Meatless Burgers may be Similar to Dog Food

I am a big believer that food is “healthy” or “not-healthy” based on whether it was processed, the chemicals it was exposed to, synthetic mutations, and other unnatural exposures as opposed to the base form of the underlying food item. If I grow a bunch of fruits and vegetables in my backyard and make an all veggie meal that sounds pretty healthy. Whereas if I go to a store and buy dog food made from some form of a vegetable that is run through multiple machines, accumulated dust and other chemicals, and packaged in plastic that doesn’t sound as healthy to me.

I recently read an article posted on drovers.com by Greg Henderson titled “@GHGGuru: Fake Meat ‘Not Very Different from Dog Food’”. The article discusses an interview with University of California/Davis professor Frank Mitloehner on the AgriTalk Podcast about how ingredients in the impossible burger and beyond burger are very similar to dog food except for a few additional spices for taste. This is different from the word of mouth opinions I have heard on the health attributes of these meatless burgers.

I have been told by word of mouth from a few people that the impossible burger and the beyond burger are “healthy vegetarian options”. I didn’t try and explain my different opinion on the subject in those instances because it didn’t seem like the right time. I consider healthy vegetarian options to be mainly organic grains, fruits, and vegetables with as minimal processing and chemicals as is available. So why do we have 2 very different opinions? Mainly because we listen to different types of advertising.

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How I beat uncontrollable food cravings - part 1

How I beat uncontrollable food cravings - part 1

I remember an astonishingly bright morning sky leaving the subway terminal in Pudong, China. As opposed to Nanpu by the Bund, here I could see the sun and even a semi-blue sky. In this part of Shanghai the streets were wider and the buildings shorter but it still took about ten minutes to walk past one aggressively wide building equivalent in length to a whole city block in San Francisco. I had another 30-minute walk to my work building even though it was only a few streets away.

Shanghai is FULL of bright lights, STUFF, food, noise, pollution, and people. For a year I traversed the city streets and tried to manage the barrage of information thrown at me from every angle. It wasn’t until years later that I could finally make sense of the changes I underwent mentally and physically and understood the impact that stress and pollutants had on my body. For example, just undergoing a change of any kind can be a stressor and put a strain on your adrenal gland and your adrenal gland uses vitamin C like how a car uses gasoline. I wish I knew then to take vitamin C to help balance out my adrenal gland and calm down my senses, but instead I continued to run on a near empty gas tank.

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Avocado Spinach Wrap Recipe

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Avocado Spinach Wrap Recipe

Prep time: 10 minutes

Serving size: 1 wrap

Ingredients

  • 1 sandwich wrap (flour or corn)*

  • 1/2 cup of organic spinach

  • 1/2 organic avocado diced

  • 1/8 of an organic onion (red, yellow, or sweet)

  • 1 clove of organic garlic

  • 1/2 tsp minced ginger

  • Juice from 1/2 lemon

  • 2 tablespoons of organic olive oil

  • 1 tablespoon of organic balsamic vinegar

Directions

  • Lay the spinach on the sandwich wrap.

  • Lay the avocado on top of the spinach.

  • Cut the onion into thin slices and lay on top of the avocado.

  • Crush the clove of garlic, take off the skin, mince the garlic, and then add to the other ingredients on the wrap.

  • Add the minced ginger.

  • Drizzle the juice from the lemon, the olive oil and the balsamic vinegar on the wrap

  • Roll the wrap around the ingredients and enjoy!

*Check the ingredients and try to avoid synthetic ingredients

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Asparagus, Beet, and Goat Cheese Wrap Recipe

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Asparagus, Beet, and Goat Cheese Wrap Recipe

Prep time: 10 minutes

Serving size: 1 wrap

Ingredients

  • 1 sandwich wrap (flour or corn)*

  • 1/4 cup of organic spinach

  • 9 organic asparagus

  • 1/8 of an organic onion (red, yellow, or sweet)

  • 1/2 organic beet (med size)

  • 1/8 cup goat cheese (sliced)

  • 1 clove of organic garlic

  • 1/2 tsp minced ginger

  • 2 tablespoons of organic olive oil

  • 1 tablespoon of organic balsamic vinegar

Directions

  • Lay the spinach on the sandwich wrap.

  • Break the asparagus at their natural breaking point and lay on top of the spinach.

  • Cut the onion into thin slices and lay on top of the asparagus.

  • Peel and cut the beet into thin slices and lay on top of the onion slices.

  • Slice the goat cheese and lay on top of the beet slices.

  • Crush the clove of garlic, take off the skin, mince the garlic, and then add to the other ingredients on the wrap.

  • Add the minced ginger.

  • Drizzle the olive oil and balsamic vinegar on the wrap

  • Roll the wrap around the ingredients and enjoy!

*Check the ingredients and try to avoid synthetic ingredients

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Bell Pepper Spinach Wrap Recipe

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Bell Pepper Spinach Wrap Recipe

Prep time: 10 minutes

Serving size: 1 wrap

Ingredients

  • 1 sandwich wrap (flour or corn)*

  • 1/4 cup of organic spinach

  • 1/4 of an organic bell pepper (any color of your choice)

  • 1/8 of an organic onion (red, yellow, or sweet)

  • 2 organic mini bella mushrooms

  • 1 clove of organic garlic

  • 2 tablespoons of organic olive oil

  • 1 tablespoon of organic balsamic vinegar

Directions

  • Lay the spinach on the sandwich wrap.

  • Cut the bell pepper, onion, and mushrooms into thin slices and lay on top of the spinach.

  • Crush the clove of garlic, take off the skin, mince the garlic, and then add to the other ingredients on the wrap.

  • Drizzle the olive oil and balsamic vinegar on the wrap

  • Roll the wrap around the ingredients and enjoy!

*Check the ingredients and try to avoid synthetic ingredients

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Kick Start Your Morning

Kick Start Your Morning

Over the years I have made small tweaks to my morning routine and found that these often overlooked habits make the biggest difference in my mood and physical well-being. Let’s look at two examples of almost identical morning routines:

Example 1 – typical morning routine

  1. Wake up

  2. Drink coffee

  3. Shower, change clothes, and get ready for the day

  4. Eat breakfast

  5. Drive to work

  6. Start work

Example 2 – typical morning routine with lifestyle tweaks

  1. Wake up

  2. *eat a piece of fruit

  3. Drink coffee

  4. *Jump rope for 1 min to 10 mins

  5. Shower, change clothes, and get ready for the day

  6. Eat breakfast *with a high quality nutrition supplement

  7. Drive to work

  8. Start work

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Indoor Cardio – Jump Rope

Indoor Cardio – Jump Rope

On the west coast we are seeing a surge in wild fires and smoke covering our skies making it difficult for those of us used to exercising outdoors to get quality cardio exercise. If you are interested in getting a cardio exercise indoors to reduce exposure to poor air quality outside, jump rope is a great option. According to Science Daily (1), jumping rope “can achieve a "burn rate" of up to 1300 calories per hour of vigorous activity, with about 0.1 calories consumed per jump” and “ten minutes of jumping rope can roughly be considered the equivalent of running an eight-minute mile.”

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Protect Your Immunity - Now Selling Nutritional Supplements Made in U.S.A.

Protect Your Immunity - Now Selling Nutritional Supplements Made in U.S.A.

A friend of mine recently sent me an article in IG Living titled “Factors That Can Impact Immunity” by Matthew D. Hansen, DPT, MPT, BSPTS which is relevant to Sampson12’s core philosophy that health and wellness does not have to be hard. Stretching is so critical in our daily lives and simple lifestyle changes can make a large impact on health. Additionally, many people (including myself) turn to nutritional supplements to help with metabolizing important vitamins and nutrients. I am excited to announce that you can buy my favorite nutritional supplements directly at https://sampson12.com/shop-products.

My favorite products are from a company called NeoLife that has been around for about 60 years and has the amazing “made in U.S.A.” label! I am so happy that these products are made in the U.S.A. and I hope this never changes. The company also uses GMO-free ingredients in its products which is another big plus! I am relieved to sell nutritional products that strive for quality and that support U.S.A. manufacturing.

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The Simple Healing Practice of Reflexology

The Simple Healing Practice of Reflexology

This brings me to the subject of reflexology: the simple practice of regularly pressing on tender “reflex points” to remove blockage that is slowing circulation and reducing energy flow in the body as described in the book “Body Reflexology Healing at Your Fingertips” by Mildred Carter1. According to Carter, “The reflex points are energy junctions that relay and reinforce energy along meridian lines of the body, passing energy toward the organs and nervous system.” (20) By pressing on reflex points you may remove the blockage described by Carter as interrupting your nervous system.

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Shout Out to Your Beauty Pantry

Shout Out to Your Beauty Pantry

I would like to thank Your Beauty Pantry for the article on Sampson12’s online fitness program!

At yourbeautypantry.com you can find all kind of helpful tips and tricks for your daily beauty regimen. Check out this article on “Most Effective Skincare Ingredients for Instant Results.” I can spot a few ingredients that I try to use on a daily basis for my beauty routine, what about you?

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Remember to Clean your Cell Phone to Help Prevent Spread of Sickness

Remember to Clean your Cell Phone to Help Prevent Spread of Sickness

We have been watching through various news organizations worldwide information about the spread of a viral infection which may spread by touching your face with your hand after touching the virus. Even if we wash our hands when we come home from the grocery store we may forget to wipe down everything that we touch with our hands then put up to our face.

In one hypothetical scenario, I may go to the grocery store and grab a cart with both hands then text someone with one of my hands or adjust my headphones or glasses while shopping. When we get home, we wash our hands but may forget to wipe down or wash our cell phone, head phones, glasses, scarf, or other object that we put up to our face.

I like to use alcohol-free baby wipes to disinfect objects that I can easily wipe down and I try to be careful and, as frequently as possible, wash all of the clothing I wear outside. Be especially careful if you have to borrow a cell phone, head phones, glasses, or anything else you put up to your face. Try to wipe things down and stay safe!

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Improve your Flexibility and Learn How to do the Splits

Improve your Flexibility and Learn How to do the Splits

Are you a dancer, gymnast, yogi, or just interested in improving your flexibility? Flexibility is important in training, overall athletic performance, and releasing stress build-up from sitting too long in one position. Flexibility may improve with a commitment to stretch your muscles regularly along with your workouts and exercise. Follow along with Sampson12’s video library of stretching and toning exercises designed to improve flexibility including building up to doing the splits.

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Why Organic MCT Oil?

Why Organic MCT Oil?

A few weeks ago I heard from a friend about Dr. Steven Gundry’s book titled “The Plant Paradox” and at some point I learned about adding MCT oil to coffee for health and wellness (see the 3rd paragraph on what is MCT oil on Dr. Gundry’s Site).

I tried this out by adding a small amount of Organic MCT Oil to my regular coffee drink, which includes: coffee, organic sugar, and a small amount of organic heavy whipping cream and I was pleasantly surprised by the seeming after-effect! I feel as though the MCT oil boosted my mental well-being somehow.

The website link also has an interesting Cappuccino recipe to try!

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