Zappasodi - Immovable heart unstoppable mind : a personal guide to the 6 essential practices for living a healthy and fulfilling life

Copyright 2014 David Zappasodi

All rights reserved.

Author Photo Aaron Dressin Photography

ISBN: 1503212769

ISBN 13: 9781503212763

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014920503

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

North Charleston, South Carolina

This book is for my wife, Cara.
You are my best friend and my greatest teacher,
and I love you with all of my heart.

This book is also for those who are struggling and feel stuck with their health goals.
Lets see what we can do about this

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to offer my deepest gratitude for all the support, guidance and love I have received throughout the process of writing this book. Without the help of some very special people in my life, it certainly wouldnt have been possible.

To my parents, Kathy and David Zappasodi, thank you not only for the gift of this life, but for your unconditional love and support throughout all of it. Anytime Ive needed a helping hand or a listening ear, Ive always known I can turn to you.

To my good friend and editor, Daye Proffit, thank you for approaching me after one of my presentations and inspiring me to write this book. I also thank you for your discerning eye, attention to detail, and valuable guidance throughout the entire editing process. I feel very fortunate that you have come into my life, and that I get to work closely with you.

To Dale and Vanessa Munger, you are amazing examples of generosity and have been such great friends to Cara and me. Thank you for all your love and support; we are blessed to know you.

A heartfelt thanks goes out to Theresa Spinello Aliotta, Carolyn Pole, Tiffany Hall, Tina Fitzgerald, and my brother Brian Zappasodi for reading through the manuscript and giving me helpful feedback and suggestions. Also, a special thanks goes out to Aaron Dressin for your incredible photography and beautiful spirit.

To my Mother-In-Law, Diane Beall, thank you for always being there for me and Cara, and for being so involved coming to my presentations, reading through the material, and giving me your thoughts on various aspects of it. You have been very helpful in the process of this book coming together, and I am very grateful to have you in my life.

To my teacher, Mitra Bishop-Roshi, thank you for your compassionate wisdom and for being such a shining example of all the practices described in this book. Youve helped me to have a greater faith that there is, indeed, more to who we are than there appears to be.

Lastly, to my wife, Cara, I could write a whole book on all the love and support youve given me over the years. Weve had great times and challenging times, and weve grown stronger and more connected through all of it. I am so grateful and honored to be on this journey with you.

INVITATION

Hello my friend,

I want to begin this book by letting you know that I have a vision, and that you are a part of it. Thats right you! You see, you and I are intimately connected. In this wide and expansive universe, you and I are both right here next to each other, living on a tiny ball of land and water that is flying through a vast ocean of empty space, and we are sharing in this human experience together. Yet despite our connection, we are capable of believing that we are separate from each other. We have brought about all kinds of problems for ourselves, and our planet, because of this belief including our health problems.

The time for believing that we are separate from each other is coming to an end. A new vision is arising a vision that includes not just an elite few, but all of us:

My vision is to cultivate a healthy and fulfilling life, not just for myself but for my whole human family, through an approach that brings abundance, connection, growth, joy, and freedom for the benefit of all.

I am committed to living this vision, because its the most amazing one I can imagine living. Billions of people all over the world are unhealthy and unhappy, they are suffering and they are searching for answers desperately. The abundance of information available doesnt seem to be making a dent in the problem, and neither do the commonly held beliefs that we hold to be true about health. Rather than be modest, I must be honest I truly believe that this book will contribute to improving the health of humanity. It is a movement toward simplicity, toward the essence of what health really is, and it is a book that applies to all of us, regardless of our current conditions.

If you would like to live a more healthy and fulfilling life, I am reaching to you with a helping hand. I am not reaching as someone that wants to fix you, because you dont need to be fixed. I am reaching out my hand as a friend that wants to be more connected with you. I invite you to take it.

INTRODUCTION

Im paying you $60 an hour, and coming to see you three times a week, so you better get me the results I want.

I started my health career as a personal trainer, and this was a very common statement I would hear from my clients. Like many other personal trainers, I felt a great pressure to make sure my clients achieved their goals. They were, after all, investing a lot of money into me, and the knowledge I had about health and wellness, so it seemed to make sense that I would be responsible for their progress.

Ive always done pretty well under pressure, so when I started to feel it coming from my clients, it gave me a sense of determination, and I began to dive deep into educating myself. Of course, educating myself didnt just mean studying; it meant applying what I learned as well. So, for many years I experimented with a multitude of exercise styles and nutrition programs, both on myself and on my clients.

The conclusion? With all the things I tried, I found that regardless of the exercise style or nutrition program I used, a few people got results, but the majority of people didnt. This wasnt exactly surprising, given that the vast majority of people in the U.S. dont reach their health goals, and each year our country is the most unhealthy it has ever been. Still, Ive always expected more from myself, so what all my efforts helped me to realize was that the solution to our health problems was not going to be found in one specific modality. Different people do well with different styles of exercise and nutrition, and because of this, there is no one specific exercise or food that everyone will do well with.

This realization brought me to my next area of focus individualization. For years I dove into various physical assessment protocols that helped me create exercise programs for each persons specific needs. I learned to test peoples metabolism, and give them nutritional recommendations based on their biochemistry. Still, with all the individualization in my program designs, what I found was essentially the same some people got good results, but the majority of people didnt. I slowly realized over time that individualization is not the ultimate solution to our health problems either. There was still something I was missing.

During all these years of study and experimentation, I was also looking for any patterns I could find in the people that were successful with their goals, as well as in those who were not. This eventually got me interested in mindset, and how it influences our progress. For example, one of the things I noticed was that most people were more focused on moving away from what they didnt want, rather than moving toward what they did want. For example, when I asked, Why do you want to lose weight? most people would tell me about how they were tired of feeling gross or unattractive, or sick of seeing themselves in the mirror, or fed up with being uncomfortable or struggling to function in some way. Their answers told me, very clearly, what they