Lawfirm

It's that time of year again where resolutions are flying left and right and the excitement of a New Year and a "new you".  We all want self-improvement and that means different things to everyone.  Always at the top of the list is weight loss and gaining muscle definition.  Working in the fitness industry for 30 years, this is one of my busiest times and although happy for the job security, I am disenchanted about temporary resolutions. I always see a "gung ho" attitude to start and sadly a large percentage of people return to old unhealthy habits after only a few weeks.  Beginning a fitness plan can feel easy, fun and fabulous but it's the continued lifestyle where many struggle. Typically, unrealistic goals have been set and the inability to adhere or be happy with strict healthy food changes and over-committed workouts wins and resolutions fly out the window. The majority want to make changes but expect it to happen tomorrow not taking into consideration...

What works for me may not work for you.  That's awesome!  Why, because we are all different people accepting our strengths and weaknesses.  It is important to grab onto the things we can do, and perform at our best not holding anything back.  Acceptance of who we are and celebrating our strengths is essential for our health and fitness.  I forgo push-ups for example because they will aggravate my neck injury, but put me on a chest press and I am good to go. It could be easy to sulk back into a corner and cry over spilt milk and my loss of certain athletic abilities, but what would that do for me?  Nothing.  Life has given me a great purpose and a strong will to fight for my fitness.  I have good and bad days just like you.  Over several years of training, I have come to really enjoy what I can do through modification of workouts, and creative challenge in program development.  I do what works for me and it's fabulous. It is important to ...

I have been sitting on Xerox Corp. v. United States while I try to take care of meaningful client work. Thank you clients for another year of interesting and rewarding work. I am always honored to be given the opportunity to work with some great companies and individuals. [There may be spoilers in the links below. There are none in the text. Go down those rabbit holes at your peril.] I am irrationally happy to say that saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens this weekend. It made me very happy to re-live being 14 years old, at least for a while. I am also very pleased to say that the reboot did not screw anything up. It has almost exactly the look and feel of the original trilogy, is a bit funnier, and moves at a great pace. Now, if they don't turn Star Trek into the Fast and the Furious, I will continue to be nerdishly happy. I am, however, starting to lose enthusiasm for Batman vs. Superman , which they better not screw up. [Shaking fist at heaven.] That said, I am now about to ...

I am what I eat to a large degree and the whole "eating a sexy beast today" does not apply.  People ask me all the time about my nutrition and exercise programming outside of my working with clients.  I am a walk-the-talk trainer and maintain a fairly disciplined eating program and honestly, I would be a hypocrite if I didn't.  I am passionate about what I do helping people adopt healthy lifestyles and eating right plays the largest percentage in the fitness game. I have maintained a healthy eating plan for several years and it is now a habit as natural as breathing.  I would feel weird if I began pounding down processed crap to feel like crap.   Eating superfoods daily and timing my nutrients is auto-pilot living for me.  I don't have to think about it or journal anymore but simply live it.  It is a process and habits do take time to develop.  All I know is I feel at my best when I eat the right things and combo that with consistent exercise. ...

We all have hard stuff in life, frustrations, and days we just want to keep our heads tucked under the pillow.  The thing about life and the journey is navigating through everything with our best healthy responses, attitudes, and choices.  I am not immune to feeling the tough in life and even in my workouts.  There are days I want a trainer to kick my butt and push me when I struggle with lack of motivation.  Not every day goes as I had planned and nutrition can also take a hit.  Some days, I am just tired, burned and do have to take a step back and  away from the gym.  All that is OK and in my opinion, normal.  This afternoon, I chose to take an Epsom salt bath...there ya go!  Life is not challenge free and success comes from how we handle the discomfort.  Building muscle is an uncomfortable process for example, but I push through to achieve a positive result.   Goals are achieved through planning and working.  I have put in...

It is apparent that I did not succeed in my goal of getting 52 Rulings of the Week into the Blog. Despite, that, I think this has been a pretty productive blog year. This will be my 71st post of the year, with one to follow. That will probably cap 2015. Next year, I hope to pick up the pace somewhat. I'll continue trying to post the Ruling of the Week and court cases. I'll also make an effort at other administrative news. You know what I miss? Posts about animal smuggling . Keep an eye on my Twitter feed for news, mostly in the form or retweets from other bloggers. For now, consider the chutney problem. Headquarters Ruling H259324 (Sep. 3, 2015) involved the tariff classification and NAFTA status of green olive tapenade from Canada. This ruling is from a protest with an application for further review. That means that Customs and Border Protection denied the NAFTA claim made on this merchandise and the importer protested. In what appears to have been an effort to make the produ...

There is a lot on my plate at the moment, but I want to be sure to squeeze this in for you. There goes my lunch-time walk up Michigan Avenue. United States v. Nitek Electronics is an important decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Go read it. The gist is all you will get from me today. The gist is that when the United States commences a penalty action in the United States Court of International Trade, the point of the action is to collect on the same penalty claim Customs and Border Protection asserted in the administrative process. In Nitek, Customs' claim was based on a finding that the importer had acted with gross negligence. When Justice filed the case in the CIT, it asserted that the violation occurred as a result of (un-gross) negligence. Nitek moved to dismiss on the grounds that Customs never made a claim based on negligence and, therefore, that claim was not properly before the Court. T he CIT agreed and dismissed the case . On basically...

To this day I dislike the "skinny" word and believe me, I have had my share of teasing until I discovered how to build curves with resistance training.  I have my Dad's genetics and I am thankful, but it has been a challenge to put on muscle.  I am also constantly hungry and burn up energy like crazy so if I do not eat lots of carbs, I would not feel good and in fact, light headed.  My metabolism seems to work faster than I can fuel it and it can be frustrating.  Some say they can just look at food and gain 5lbs whereas if I look at food, my metabolism says let's burn it up.  I will not workout if I feel hungry and prefer to down a healthy meal before hitting the weights. I just so happen to be one of those people on the other side of the spectrum that works hard to put weight on and fattening up with crap to be "skinny fat" is not what I am looking for. My goal is to pack on lean muscle mass and that is done eating quality healthy carbs, lean proteins, and...