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How to Grow Black Hair: African American Hair Care Tips

  • Posted on January 11, 2010 at 10:07 am

This article is a must read if you want to grow longer hair, or even stop hair loss. No matter how many products or treatments you have tried, hair growth can be achieved despite years of stunted hair growth, shedding, and hair trauma. Trust me, I am speaking from personal experience. About three years ago, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Unfortunately, one of the side effects of my medications and chemotherapy was hair loss and balding. Devastated by having patches of hair on my head, during recovery, I did what most people do—I bought wigs. At first, the wigs seemed like a perfect solution. But, they were really a cover up. Moreover, my niece would scream when she saw me because she couldn’t recognize me with my “new wig.” So, I begin using hair loss products in hopes to regrow my hair. Unfortunately, this was another unsuccessful venture. Rogaine. DHT Blockers. Minoxidil. All of these products failed to perform what they promised. Further, I spend hundreds of dollars on Minoxidil every month, only to have no hair growth and a sore scalp. Frustrated, I decided that there had to be a method or some natural product available that would grow my hair, stop my shedding, and stop my balding. Believe it or not, I found one. However, there are some things you need to know about hair loss before I tell you what worked for me.

What Causes Hair Loss?

Hair loss, shedding, and balding occurs for several reasons. They may occur because of heredity, diet, lifestyle choices, or prescribed medications. Even your hair care products and styling techniques may be facilitating your hair loss or stunting your hair growth. If you are like me, a combination of these factors may be retarding your hair growth. If your diet is laden with fats, alcohol, sugars, and junk foods, you are actually inhibiting your hair’s ability to grow. If you buy most, if not all, of your hair care products from traditional stores, you are most likely buying a hair-damaging useless product. Most hair care products, including most of those that claim to be “all-natural,” contain synthetic emulsifiers and harsh detergents, such as Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate, Phosphates, and Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. Unfortunately, these products are loaded with toxins and chemicals that actually dry and strip your hair of vital nutrients it needs to grow.

How to Grow Your Hair, Stop Balding, and Stop Hair Loss?

You have to attack hair loss on the inside and the outside. A great hair growth regimen has three necessary components: a healthy eating plan, substantial water intake, and a high quality hair growth and hair care product.

Step One: A Healthy Hair Eating Plan

Your hair is all protein. Thus, you need a protein rich diet, chocked fill of B Vitamins and other hair-strengthening nutrients. Increase your intake of fish. It is full of healthy proteins and essential fatty acids and natural oils your hair needs. In addition, drink a protein supplement or shake everyday. If you follow this plan, not only will your hair grow, but you will also lose weight. That is, of course, if you lay off the junk food. Remember, I warned you too much junk food above.

Step Two: Drink Water

Eight to ten glasses of water is an absolute requirement. Drinking water flushes your body of toxins, chemicals, and impurities that stifle your hair growth and disrupt your hormone and enzyme imbalances. Water also transports the important nutrients your body needs throughout your body. Hate drinking water? Add lemon and Splenda to have a healthy, tasty alternative.

Step Three: Buy a High Quality Hair Growth Product

I suggest you go all-natural. Unnatural hair care products are a no-no for someone who wants long-lasting, healthy hair growth. Find a hair growth product that contains powerful essential oils, natural herbs, and vitamin rich nutrients your hair needs to survive. Look for products with ingredients such as: Aloe Vera, Citrus Fruits, Jojoba, Rosemary, and Sage. Make sure you stray away from all natural products that use natural extracts. Extracts are not as powerful as essentials oils. They are a cheap substitute for the real thing. Although there are several natural hair care products on the market, not all hair growth products are created equal. Make sure you read the fine print. Most “natural” products still contain phosphates, sodium lauryl sulfate, petroleum, mineral oil, and other lab created humectants that ultimately damage your hair. My advice—if you can’t read the ingredients, don’t buy the product. When I was searching for a natural hair growth product, I found one really great buy, Beauty 4 Ashes Super Hair Growth System. Finding this company took me awhile; but Beauty 4 Ashes pretty much gives you everything you need to make your hair grow. Foremost, I checked the ingredient listings and the products contained no artificial ingredients. The system also included hair growth vitamins, a great hair healthy eating plan, and even scalp stimulating hair growth exercise routine. At first, the system may seem a bit pricey, but, boy was I impressed with the results. In 9 months, I went from patches of hair to hair just above my shoulders. Now, I am no product junkie; but I have to tell you that this product is worth the money. It does not cost an arm and leg and it is worth every penny you pay. You can find it easily at www.discoverb4a.com. Also, check for it on Ebay. You may actually find a deal.

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10 Work-Life Balance – 5 Tips On How To Be An Excellent Single Parenting All-Rounder!

  • Posted on January 11, 2010 at 1:06 am

1.  Know What You Want

The first step towards getting what you want, is knowing what you want.  I decided very early on that my business was going to support my time with my daughter and not suck away these valuable years with me at work while she was with carers.

Even in my salaried job (when my daughter was a baby) I was very strict about working 9 – 5pm and not a minute later.  It took a bit of time to un-learn my old work-late habits and for my boss and colleagues to adjust their expectations about what and when I was able to deliver as part of my remit.

When you can get clear in your head about what’s going to work for you and believe it genuinely, then that sincerity will come across in your negotiations and you’re going to get the best results.  Get clear about the benefits of why you want a great work-life balance and get clear of the benefits for the other people who will influence the outcome.

2.  Prioritise Family Time

It’s easy to let minutes turn into hours and hours turn into chunks of time that keep you away from home until way passed the children’s bed times.  It’s a slippery slope.  Practice raising your productivity during the day – don’t stop to chat, don’t ‘facebook’ or ‘youtube’, don’t mess around with your personal emails.  Work at work.  Leave on time.  Get home promptly.  Children thrive on routine and will thank you (when they’re 50!) for being there for them on a regular basis. Remember, work-life balance includes a bit of everything; earning, playing, bonding, studying, health, fitness, dreaming, growing … and sleeping!

3.  Allow An Hour For Home Management Each Evening

When my daughter’s gone to bed it’s my time to check that the laundry’s up-to-date, there’s food prepared for the next day, the kitchen’s cleaned up, the bathroom’s tidy and any school correspondence, play dates or diary-planning is done.

Now this doesn’t take an hour every day, but I allow that time to make sure that I’m on top of my home life.  If I can allocate specific time like this it means that my personal life can be kept separate to my work life, which means I can get home on time and be totally focused on my daughter from 6-8pm every day.

4.  Ask For Support

If you’re working part time or full time, managing a home and caring for and encouraging your children single handedly, I already know that you deserve a sainthood!!

Remember that to balance these things well over time is an art.  It takes a clear head, it takes good health and it takes lots of energy and drive.  Ask for help when you need it – if it’s a babysitter so you can have a night out, a friend to come over and cook one night a week, a family member to drive one of the kids to karate, or a colleague to take on some extra projects at work to keep you from tipping into overwhelm – whatever it is, ask, ask, ask!

Asking for support is not a failing, it’s the practical application of wisdom.  Your children rely on you to be at your best.  True saints practice humility!

5.  Be Open With Your Children

It takes a lot to learn the balance of sharing with and shielding from our children.  Age-appropriate conversations, when you need to have them can be a life saver.  I remember discussing with my then 2-year old that it was really hard for me to be getting up in the middle of the night when she called.  ‘If you’re scared then call.  If you just want someone to be here to lie with you, don’t call.  When you have 2 more sleeps in the day time, mummy is working very hard to get everything done so that I can get home for us to have fun before bath time, story time and bedtime’.  It worked.

What also worked at 5-years old was the conversation about the consequences of me not going to work.  We talked through that the knock-on effects of this would be no money coming into our household, the possibility of changing homes, how we eat and what we wear, stopping holidays, and maybe even changing some of our friendships.

These conversations aren’t about laying huge burdens on our children.  They are about asking them gradually and bit-by-bit to share a greater amount of responsibility for contributing to the smooth running of the household.  Review the distribution of responsibility regularly as your children get older. This is not just about your work-life balance. It’s about your children’s too. And they’ll thank you for it in the end!

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Tips for Women: The 9 Most Important Things Every Woman Must Know & Do

  • Posted on January 8, 2010 at 6:07 pm

I have written hundreds of articles and blog entries, and in my opinion, each one contains extremely important information and helpful tips. However, comparatively, the advice contained within this article is far more important than any other topic I have ever written about! If women understood, believed, and implemented these principles, our very society would change forever; for the influence of a woman touches, impacts, and changes each of our lives. That is how strongly I feel about these 9 important tips below. From little girls to teenagers, young women to grandma’s, daughters and sisters, married or single women, and especially mother’s everywhere – my hope is that you will not only recognize the significance of these principles, but understand the impact you can have on men and people everywhere if and when you implement them.

1) Don’t Become Like Men: Every woman was born with innate qualities and natural abilities that men simply don’t have. Be proud of and nurture these attributes, intuitions, talents, personalities, and desires. Be a woman, and realize you naturally are tender, gentle, nurturing, patient, thoughtful, unselfish, approachable, and loving. Unfortunately, all too often our culture convinces women that somehow being gentle, kind, or motherly is somehow inferior or not viewed as successful. Wrong! Women can still compete, lead, and be successful in the work place and anywhere without foregoing their womanly attributes. More importantly, never forget the positive influence a ‘woman’s touch’ can have on children, men, and society.

2) Are You Pornography: Generally speaking, men struggle much more with this modern slavery and addiction we call pornography. And yet, we continue to try and find solutions to the problem, without addressing the problem. Yes some solutions are good, such as: teaching men to control their thoughts and become more self-disciplined; attacking the porn industry; passing legislation; having pop-up blockers or ‘talks’ with our sons; etc. However, perhaps the solution to the problem is actually teaching our daughters and women everywhere not to dress, act like, and become pornography themselves.  Unfortunately, the reality is that pornography, immodesty, and infidelity will continue to dominate our culture and media – because it makes money. But that is no excuse for any woman to justify immodesty, virtue, and purity simply because the masses are doing it or because it pays well.

3) True Beauty: True beauty is not found in the reflection of a mirror, it comes to those who seek to be honest, happy, and pure. And yet our culture engrains into the minds of women everywhere that to be beautiful, one must load their face with makeup, benefit from plastic surgery, and be as immodest and immoral. The word ‘hot’ has unfortunately replaced the word ‘beautiful’ – and not only do they have completely different definitions, one connotes selfish lustfulness, while the other radiates goodness, purity, unselfishness, and true happiness. With that said, please don’t get me wrong – I feel it is extremely important for every woman to seek to be ‘beautiful.’ They need to do their hair, put makeup on, wear nice clothes, and seek to be attractive; but, ensure in so doing that they are becoming truly ‘beautiful’ – and not just ‘hot.’

4) Is the TV a Babysitter and Influencer: To you mothers – how much time do your children spend in front of the TV? To women everywhere – how much time do you spend in front of the TV? An honest answer to these important questions will reveal much about ours and our children’s character, and who it is being shaped by. Children need mothers, love, and attention – not electronics! Thus, turn off the TV a little more and make time for your children. Lastly, to women everywhere – perhaps one of the greatest solutions to overcoming the self-esteem issues, eating disorders, gossiping habits, comparing and worrying, and unhealthy images of worth and beauty that every woman struggles and deals with would be solved if they turned off the TV and put down the magazines a little more often.

5) Be Yourself … Don’t Be Plastic: Be proud of, content with, and confident in who you are. Women everywhere need to stop picking up the magazines, looking at the advertisements, and watching the TV shows and movies and comparing themselves to these models and actors. Usually, the majority of these models, actors, and women in the magazines and on TV are all fake and plastic anyway. They load their faces with make-up, have countless plastic surgery’s or excess weight removed, stand under perfect lighting, and then the company air brushes the photo/picture anyway to make them look even more beautiful (fake and unnatural). I know it is easier said than done, but happy is the woman who can be proud of and confident in who they are, and not compare themselves to other women – whether it is the woman on the magazine cover or the neighbor down the street.

6) Put Family First & Develop Character: Success in life should not be determined by the amount of education we obtain, the cars we drive, the achievements in our career, the awards won, the house we own, the friends or connections we have, or the clothes we wear. True success should be measured by the attributes we develop, the person we become, and the people we help. Thus, no matter what a woman accomplishes or obtains, it means nothing if she fails in her own person life, in her home, or with her family.

7) Be Educated & Contribute to the World: With everything that has been said, let me be clear about one thing – in all of this important advice to women, in no way am I suggesting that women should be bare foot, changing diapers, cooking meals, doing laundry, confined to the house, and thus ignorant to the world. Quite the contrary! Although family and children should most certainly be the priority, women should and must also be involved, educated, leaders, and contributors to society. Whether a stay at home mother, a teenage daughter, an elderly woman, or a woman in the work force – women have value, brains, skills, ideas, and talents that must be shared to benefit communities, businesses, minds, nations, families and mankind.

8) Demand That Men Treat You Respectfully: Regardless of what our culture and the media portray, and despite the fact that men generally have stopped treating women like women, this does not negate the fact that you are a woman who deserves respect. While men must do better about treating women with respect in their thoughts, words, and actions – women can also do more in demanding this proper respect in an appropriate way. It starts with you personally respecting yourself, your body, your virtues, and your natural – and wonderful – womanly attributes. And then it continues by demanding that men not treat you like a sexual object, but as a woman to be loved and respected.

9) Stop Gossiping, Comparing, & Worrying: Easier said than done, right!  However, this vitally important advice is one of the key ingredients to experiencing happiness as a woman. This is an ability and attribute that is certainly not developed overnight, and it takes effort; but, the moment you can stop gossiping with and about others, comparing yourself to other women, and worrying about things out of your control (or things not needing to be worried about) – it is then you will experience real peace, limited stress, self-worth, and true happiness.

Again, never forget that true beauty in a woman is not found in the reflection of a mirror, it comes only to those who seek to be honest, happy, and pure. Each of the principles described above essentially communicate this same message – that character is far more important than appearance. Should this suggest that women thus need not worry about their appearance? Absolutely not! Women must make an effort to exercise, eat healthy, be educated, be involved, be informed, and be beautiful also. But they should also remember that purity and modesty is far more attractive than excessive make up, immoral actions, and revealing clothing. They should realize that in most cases, surgical procedures to enhance or tuck (or whatever) not only communicate that plastic is more beautiful than purity, but that self-worth is determined by appearance and the opinions of others rather than an inner confidence of who God created us to be. They should also realize that being educated and informed is far more important than wasting time in gossip and celebrity magazines. And perhaps most importantly, women everywhere should never forget the absolute honor, necessity, and beauty of being a mother, wife, daughter, and woman who radiates self-confidence, happiness, and purity!

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Tips on African American Hair Care: Grow your Hair

  • Posted on January 7, 2010 at 7:07 pm

Monitor your hair styling products

Many African Americans resort to applying excessive amounts of heat, such as high kilowatt blow dryers, pressing combs, and flat irons to their hair. Likewise, a significant number of African Americans apply chemicals to their already dry hair, such as texturizers, relaxers, and hair coloring. Nevertheless, these same individuals apply additional chemicals to their hair when they use most over the counter, drugstore, or beauty supply hair care products. These products are usually filled with parabens (cancer-causing agents), sulfates (natural oil stripping detergents), silicones (dangerous chemicals), and alcohols or glycols (hair drying and damaging chemicals). Continued use of these products, although your hair may “feel” soft momentarily or be easier to comb, will only create fried, damaged, and porous hair. Further, you plan your or child’s health at risk when you use these products, not just your hairdo. Solution? Switch to using an all natural shampoo and hair styling products. Both Carol’s Daughter and Beauty 4 Ashes Christian Health & Beauty provide high-quality, all natural ethnic hair care products that are only filled with goodness for your hair type. In fact, in a double blind, three month, placebo-controlled study where 100 African Americans and 50 Biracial individuals participated, those who used Beauty 4 Ashes Christian Health & Beauty’s GodHead shampoo and conditioner and Puritea hair lotion, compared to the control group who used a synthetic based shampoo, conditioner, and moisturizer, experienced increased hair growth and health. 64 of the 75 in the Beauty 4 Ashes Godhead and Puritea group stated their hair was shinier, less split ends, more manageable, less tangled, and stronger. 57 of the 75 enrolled in the Beauty 4 Ashes group also reported hair growth of 2 inches or over. Only 15 of the 75 enrolled in the synthetic group reported increased moisture, shine, and health in their hair. However, 45 of the 75 in the synthetic based group reported scalp itching, dryness, and less manageability in their hair after use of the synthetic shampoo, conditioner, and moisturizer. Such evidence suggests that African American benefits from natural hair care product use instead of cheaper, synthetic based ones. You can find Beauty 4 Ashes products at wwwdiscoverb4acom.

Several reviews rank the products excellent for ethnic hair. But don’t stop here, there is more.

Monitor your hair styling methods

Put down the flat iron. If you must use it, try to only use it immediate after washing your hair. This will give your tresses relief from daily heat.

Allow your hair and scalp to receive oxygen. Do not leave your hair covered on end with a “do-rag.” Just as plants need oxygen to grow; your scalp needs air to thrive.

Stop using brushes. Ethnic hair has a tighter curl pattern and, although strong, can easily snap especially if stress is applied from a brush or comb to a dry head of hair. Instead of brushing your hair, buy a small tooth comb with smooth ridges.

Limit the use of glued in extensions, tight braids, tight cornrows, and hard, gel hairstyles. These only place an excessive amount of stress on the hair. If you do get braids or cornrows, alternate between wearing the hair out and braiding it on a weekly basis

Avoid coloring if possible. Coloring only damages the hair by coating it with hydroxides and alcohols. That alone should say enough.

So there is the scoop. If you can afford it, use Carol’s Daughter or Beauty 4 Ashes on your hair. Yes, they are more pricey, but your hair will thank you.

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Tips to Help Save Your Overweight Child from Obesity

  • Posted on January 7, 2010 at 4:06 am

I received an email from a woman the other day who has two overweight boys who are about to hit puberty. She is obese and wants the three of them to find a way to beat this now before the boys get much older. Having been an obese teen myself, I know the horrors and humiliation a young child feels when they do not fit into the current styles, cannot keep up with the other kids physically, and are the brunt of fat jokes. It is not a fun place to be.

My parents did not know how to help me and I did not know how to ask for help. I wish I had because maybe I would have found ways to break my bad food habits way back then instead of waiting until my late forties.

Helping someone deal with something you have never experienced yourself is hard, or even if you have experienced it, your reaction may not be the best. My father had been chubby around thirteen and was teased for it. He felt the best way to help me was to humiliate me constantly. I guess he felt, better him than someone else. Needless to say that backfired.

As I work with obese adults I hear similar stories of how their parents perpetuated or even caused their obesity. Here are a few of the reasons they give.

Mother had major eating issues she transferred to me

This is common. A mother who is obsessive about her own weight, and I am talking mothers who only have ten to thirty pounds to lose, transfer that food obsession onto their children.

Examples of this would be putting their daughters on strict diets when they are young and still just have that pouchy baby fat. Mothers who obsess over weight very often transfer that to their children, especially to their daughters. They want there girls to have perfect little bodies or rationalize dieting will keep their girls from every having to live through that extra ten pounds they feel keeps them from being perfect.

This tends to backfire and causes many eating disorders. Children rebel and in that rebellion their relationship to food becomes skewed. Don’t make your children afraid of food, instead give them healthy abundant choices and understand that when they go out with their friends, if it is a pizza party, they want to fit in and eat the pizza too.

Parent in an attempt to help the chubby child singled her out for special diets.

Many clients have told me that in an attempt to help them when they were young, their parent had them on strict diets as early as ten years old. Come the holiday when siblings got to eat lots of goodies, theirs came sugar free. No ten year old wants sugar free chocolate. Not only does it taste nasty, it singles the child out making her feel less than.

This behavior by parents is done out of love, but it usually backfires because the moment the child is of age to buy her own goodies, she will take on binging behaviors. Instead of learning to enjoy one or two chocolates, she has learned that to get to eat the good stuff she must do it in private to not get caught. That fear of getting caught will causes her to eat fast and excessively as she is afraid she will not get to do it again soon enough.

This type of behavior also causes shame. Once shame and guilt are associated with food it is hard to recover to eating properly. So many adults use food to almost punish themselves. It is a love/hate relationship. And it is destructive in nature.

Parent(s) were obese and eating was a family affair.

Some children can find their way past this, but others are set off on the wrong direction right from the get go. If you are obese, it is your responsibility as a parent to bring only healthy good food into your children’s lives. You sitting around eating junk food every night or making late night trips to the local KFC is teaching your child bad fat habits that they may never be able to break. No one likes being obese. If you love your children, you are going to have to start making health a family affair. There are no other options.

As an obese person yourself, you have issues about your weight you have to deal with. Life is tough, but being able to put your children’s health over your own food addictions could be the best thing that happened to you. Many people can’t seem to diet for themselves, but if they thought that it would be good for their children the incentive could be stronger.

 

So how do you refocus your overweight child toward healthy eating and normal weight? It takes work, it takes patience, and it takes consistency. Just like anything else you want to teach a child.

Set Family Rules

Don’t make these rules specific to your overweight child. That singles them out and makes them the culprit for change. Instead set them for the family. Take a good look at the eating behaviors of your family and where mindless eating takes place.

- Start a no eating while watching TV rule. Or to make it more realistic to a child, no more eating or drinking in the family room. Now that means you have to abide by the rule yourself.

- Enforce family dinners where everyone sits at the table and uses the time not to stuff their face, but to discuss their day and reconnect. This sounds very Ozzie and Harriet, I know, but letting your kids eat off schedule and whatever they want is setting up disastrous eating habits they will have to break as adults. Thin or heavy, children need to learn how to eat right.

Stop eating at fast food restaurants

This is just a given with the obesity rate of children today. Fast food is destroying them. You as the holder of the purse, get to say when fast food happens. It cannot be every night. Do not think well, Billy is the only one with a weight problem so the rest of us can have our McD’s and he can get the apple slices. It is not fair and will only make him feel deprived. Instead start eating more at home where you control the health, fat, and caloric level of the meal.

Do not bring soda into your house

Soda is not good for children. The fact that Type II Diabetes is no longer considered adult onset, should tell you this much. Each soda has at least 100 calories per 8 oz. That is a lot of sugar. Once in a while as a treat, but never in the home. Getting your children addicted to diet soda is no better. It just sets up a life-long bad habit of drinking garbage. Water is all the rage these days. If you feel you have to buy them something in a bottle, get them expensive fancy water!

Do not bring junk food into your home

Save things like chips and cakes for special occasions. Stop their abuse in your home. Children who have bigger appetites and who like sugar, salts, and fats will hunt down every piece of food they can find. If you don’t have it in the house then they will have to eat the healthy food you do have. And when they do, do not yell at them for eating all your fruit, or having taken the last bit of carrots you wanted for dinner.

Learn the truth about the foods you feed your family

Do you know that a serving of spaghetti is 1 cup? Do you know what a small amount of pasta that is? Did you know that if you check out the calories of bread you can see a range from 50 calories a slice to 150. Check out fresh bread made at a local health store. Many are now made without oil and the calories are much lower. What a way to shave 100 to 200 calories from you child’s lunch without them ever knowing!

Become an active family

Children who are prone to obesity tend to not be overly athletic. Sports is not for everyone, but other things like riding a bike, hiking, and just shooting hoops in the evening can bring a new level of activity to a family. You don’t need expensive bikes to get out together. Sign up for a fun bike race with your kids and then as a family start preparing for it. Kids of all sizes love bikes. Hiking on the weekends to remote places is great fun. Give you children cameras, teach them how to identify animal tracks, make the outdoors a family adventure. Once a child falls in love with nature, they will be outdoors more often than not.

Get rid of all video games except for Wii

Make sure to get the Dancing, Outdoor Adventure, and Fit Board accessories. This new way of interacting with video games is perfect for the lazy child. Just standing up to play rather than leaning back on the couch is a plus. Start family competitions. Everyone is good at something. You skinny daughter might rock at hula hoop, your thin son might be a fast runner, but your heavy child might just be the best boxer in the family. These games are positive reinforcement. Even when a child just competes with himself, he is building confidence that will relate to other areas in his life.

 

Being an overweight or obese boy or girl is a hard place. Children do not understand why they want to eat more, they just do. Don’t blame yourself for this if you have no reason to. Some kids just come with bigger appetites and have food preferences that are not healthy. When I was little, I would want second and third servings. My sister hid her food behind the refrigerator so my parents would think she had eaten. That wasn’t a learned behavior for either of us, we just had different appetites. I have had to learn to live with my bigger appetite and my inability to feel full or satisfied with most food. You child can too, but it can’t be forced on them.

Take a deep breath, forgive yourself for your child’s weight problem, and forgive the child. As a family develop good eating habits that will help your bigger child learn to eat right from the start so when she gets older she will not have to deal with obesity. Being an obese teenager can be devastating.

As you implement these changes, everyone in your family may scream at you. Let them. Good health comes from nutritious food and daily exercise. Even your thinnest child will benefit from these changes and adopt a healthy relationship to food. Remember good eating habits are lifelong. Thin people have bad eating habits as well and as adults tend to suffer the consequences.

Take action now to give your family the gift of health. Who knows it may be the best gift you ever get yourself.

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6 Effective Stress Management Tips – Success Tips From the Personality Development Experts

  • Posted on January 5, 2010 at 11:24 am

Exercise. Amen for endorphins. Believe me; they’ve helped me many days with my perspective. You need to understand that Stress and health are closely linked. It is one of the most effective ways of reducing stress and physical stress in particular. If you have to work out, then go take a brisk walk and gets that blood flowing. It isn’t about working out to lose weight — it’s about being healthy and staying sane. Reducing stress can be more often a more complicated process than it seems to be. Exercise can not only keep individuals healthy but also help them effectively manage physical stress. It really works as a stress buster and gives you stress relief.

Eat the real stuff. Crappy food (fast, processed, and loaded with sugar) doesn’t help your chemical brain and body in reducing stress. It does not help you manage physical stress either. Living food, real food, helps support your mind and body while it’s trying to deal with the million things coming its way. Having healthy eating habits can help a lot in Reducing stress and it gives you stress relief. Stress and health can also be looked at this way. Every time I reach for the chocolate; I’m looking to feel something from it. Don’t get me wrong — if it’s just a little here and there because I enjoy the taste of it, great. But if I’m using it the minute I feel overwhelmed, then that’s when that food is no longer OK to eat. It doesn’t make the problem go away, and then I just feel bad about eating the food to pacify myself. Grab green food instead. Put things in your mouth that are going to support your immune function and keep you level headed. And that is going to help you reduce physical stress.

Notice. Try not to let the stress (physical stress/mental stress) overtake you. Recognize the situations that cause the stress and notice them coming your way. First step towards reducing stress is to be aware that it is coming your way. In that way only you would be able to gain stress relief. Stress and health are very much antagonistic to each other. Hence stress and health need very much to be taken care of. Where there is stress there cannot be health. So it would not only help you deal with the stress better but would also help you in reducing stress and handling stressful situations better. You have a better shot at fending off the full effects of the stress when you can anticipate it.

Get it off your chest. Talk to a friend or partner about the stress. Keeping the stress to yourself increases the level of physical stress you undergo and may not help you in reducing stress. Stress and health cannot be managed effectively in that way then. Sometimes just getting it off your chest can help unload some of the burden and would go a long way in reducing stress and significantly bring it to a lower level. Keep your sense of humour. If you do have the chance to talk about the physical stress that you have been going through, try to see the irony and humour in the wacky bits. Since It is one of the easiest ways of reducing stress and gives a lot of stress relief but still people find it difficult practising it. You check your stress and health to significant extent this way. I think someone is dead in the water once they lose their sense of humour. So staying humorous is one of the most effective ways of reducing stress, physical stress in particular and relieving tension.

Stay grateful. My daughter has large lungs and verbal skills she likes to display. Just when I start to wishfully think about her being quiet, I remind myself to be grateful that she can talk to me at all. Well, Amen that you have the means and the health to even be able to wrestle with the idea of going to work out. Make a habit of saying thank you. You will notice the sunny spots a lot more often, and not just the gray skies and storms. May be you would be able to look into your stress and health better. May be in that way you would be reducing stress and reducing stress in a cheerful way and stay cheerful.

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Holiday Tips to Reduce Stress

  • Posted on January 4, 2010 at 9:25 pm

Holiday tips

In resent Holiday Polls in Americans found that  Christmas holidays are more stressful than enjoyable. I’m sure that those polls are pretty much the same every year at this time !Do we need to stress in this great  holiday season ? By making conscious decisions and setting priorities, you can stay in control this holiday season and keep all the stress behind .

Boss Yourself

At back-to-school night this year, my first-grade daughter’s teacher told us parents that she frequently tells a tattling child to “Boss yourself.” What this means, she explained, is that the child should make sure she is doing the right thing instead of paying so much attention to what the other children are doing. I loved this saying and have been using it at home with my children as well.

Ummm, so what does this have to do with Christmas stress? Well, the same guidelines can apply for Christmas as well. Don’t worry about what other people are getting their kids for Christmas. Don’t worry that the neighbors across the street already have their lights up and you can’t even remember where yours are. Don’t worry that the cookies you are bringing to the cookie exchange are store-bought instead of homemade. You and you family need to decide where you want to spend your time and money this holiday season and don’t worry about what anyone else is doing.

Give Yourself the Gift of Time

Christmas was not meant to be packed into a day. The “Twelve Days of Christmas” is more than just a song, after all. Christmas is a season that goes from December 24-January 6. That gives you 12 more days to get your Christmas cards sent out!

You can also give yourself the gift of time by cutting out activities no one really enjoys. Ask everyone in you family to pick on or two Christmas activities they really enjoy, and then focus on getting those activities done. Let everything else go.

Set a Budget and Stick to It

Extra expenses can certainly make you feel stressed out. Don’t judge the success of your Christmas by the number of packages under the tree. If you have a large family you buy presents for, suggest some ways to help reduce costs for everyone: 

Buy gifts just for the children
Draw names so everyone buys a gift for only one person
Set a limit on the cost of gifts
Give homemade gifts 
Do something together as a family , like a movie with all the siblings
Help others in need instead of you this Christmas

When you do go shopping for gifts, shop early in the Christmas season to avoid the last-minute crowds. Also consider shopping online. Many retailers offer free shipping during the holidays.

Now is the best time to shop online with all the great deals you can get on the web .

Cook Up Some Memories

So many memories involve food! Food plays a very important role in Christmas celebrations, from cookies to candies to Christmas dinners. If you enjoy cooking and baking, you’ll love this part of Christmas. If you don’t…remember our Christmas rule for this year: Boss yourself. Buy goodies, trade with friends, or just decide to be healthy and skip the treats altogether.

Even if you enjoy baking, it can be hard to find time to get it done at Christmas. It’s fun to set aside one day and have a marathon baking day with a friend. You enjoy special time together, and at the end of the day, you split all the goodies. Another option is to have a cookie exchange with a group of friends, where everyone brings a treat and you all share the goodies.

What about Christmas dinner? Growing up in my family, Christmas dinner was basically a repeat of Thanksgiving dinner. This meant that as soon as the presents were opened Christmas morning, it was time to head to the kitchen and start cooking. When I wanted to play with my new toys, I was peeling potatoes instead. To get yourself out of the kitchen this year, 

Start a new tradition and change your menu. A crock pot full of soup, tacos, or lasagna can make a great Christmas meal. You don’t have to eat turkey or ham.
If you do want a more traditional meal, make it a potluck and ask people to bring items.
Order some items from a restaurant or grocery store.

Take Care of Yourself

You know the rules for taking care of yourself – get enough sleep, eat right, exercise, drink plenty of water. It’s just following the rules that is tough. The busier you are, though, the more important it is that you take care of yourself. You won’t be any good to anyone if you get sick.

Whether or not your regularly write in a journal, try keeping a holiday journal. A journal will help you next year remember what you enjoyed and what you didn’t enjoy. You can also use it to reflect on your blessings and your spiritual journey through the Christmas season. By adding to your journal each year, you will create a wonderful keepsake for your family as well as a record to help you make Christmas better each year.

You know one way I was able to make Christmas a fun time this year was to take on a secret online business AND MAKE IT WORK FOR ME while not ever letting anyone in my family know what I was doing and let me tell you, it paid off big time. So for the future to come , just try something new every year so that the Stress that is cause by the holidays does not effect you because you will be on you your way to a big and better you ! Happy Holidays, From me, to you !

Lemmy Moore

For more on how to relieve stress and great ideas , go to my Link at www.mysolution2wealth.com

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Atlanta Anger Management Counselor Reveals Tips For Winning

  • Posted on January 4, 2010 at 4:07 pm

There are many people that suffer from anger management issues. Most of the time we are thinking of the person that acts with aggression and rage as the only person that suufers from anger management issues, but that is not the case.

The family of such an individual suufers from this just as much as the person themselves does. The reason being is because generally when  a person with anger management issues gets angry or becomes enraged they direct that energy and force towards the very people  that they love. Why is this so?

There are several reasons why this is the case and we will try to enlighten you about some of them. The first one is based on the fact that a person that has these emotions engulfed within them feels the necessity to show their love in a manner that makes them feel better about themselves. It is hard to show love for yourself when you are the one that needs to be loved. Therefore, showing love to others is almost out of the question.

People are out of control because they have low self-esteem, suggests Marilyn J. Sorensen, a psychologist in Portland, Ore., who wrote Breaking the Chain of Low Self-Esteem. High taxes, lying politicians, traffic jams and exhausting schedules all are culprits, she says. “The demands are endless and people have no time to themselves or quality time with their families.” Some people feel powerless, she continues. “Many work all their lives and have little to show for it.” Those with no money to invest don’t benefit from the booming stock market; indeed, they “feel even more like they have missed out; they feel further behind and know they can never catch up.”

The Florida academic distinguishes between feeling anger and expressing anger. As bad as expressing anger is proving to be for the society at large, Speilberger’s studies show anger turned inward, which leads to depression, has deeply destructive physical consequences leading to elevated blood pressure and hypertension, heart attack and stroke.

If keeping your cool is so good for you, why do people lose it? Because, for one thing, “the promise of service never equals reality,” notes C. Leslie Charles, who recently wrote, Why Is Everyone so Cranky? and has made it a mission to stamp out anger with her “cranky buster” buttons and T-shirts. “We are overwhelmed, overworked, overscheduled and overspent,” she declares. “We are a nation living on the edge.”

“It’s what we do with our anger or how we express it that matters” Charles says. “There is a healthy way to express anger, such as Candy Lightner did when her daughter was killed by a drunk driver. She started Mothers Against Drunk Driving. We should have a road-rage advocate group.” Instead, people dwell on what they don’t have, Charles says. Our “expectation machine” with its impossible-to-deliver promises insists that life is like sports: “There are winners and losers, and if you are not a winner guess what you are?”

Our crankiness, she writes, is the “natural by-product of our social compulsion to drive the right car, live in the right home in the right area with all the right furnishings, have the right job, send our kids to the right day care or school, wear the right clothes and accessories, belong to the right clubs and go to the right vacation spots.” Believing that having the best means we are the best leads to the anxiety that results from financial instability. “Many of us are so busy trying to create the right life that we’ve turned our existence into a nightmare of debt”

The Violence Institute uses Adlerian psychology, which presumes that people “overcompensate” for feelings of inferiority and inadequacy in childhood. “Not only do we feel inferior and inadequate to cope in childhood, but it turns out we blame ourselves. That will tie you up in knots,” says Messer, “and it will give us preexisting anger in our bloodstream so that all it will take is 2 ounces to spill us over.” The only people to escape this, he notes, “are American citizens with perfect parents.”

The young shooters, like everyone else, have been suppressing anger for years, says Messer. “When they cannot take the pressure any more, all of a sudden, 19 and behold, they turn it outward. What did you think they would do?”

Recent studies show it may not only be the angry child we need to be concerned about, but also coworkers. Take a look at the people in nearby cubicles and remember that while homicides committed during robberies declined during the nineties, killings by coworkers rose dramatically.

Donald Gibson, a professor at the Yale University School of Management, says the recent spate of workplace violence is not surprising. Coauthor of The Experience of Anger at Work: Lessons From the Chronically Angry, Gibson notes that nearly 25 percent of respondents to a 1996 Gallup telephone survey of 1,000 adults indicated that they were “generally at least somewhat angry at work.” Much of that discontent is coming from the East Coast, where 12 percent of the respondents called themselves quite angry, compared with 6 percent in the Midwest, 4 percent in the South and 3 percent in the West.

These are just a few of the problems that are noted in our society as we continue to struggle with anger management .

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Yeast Infection Treatments – Get Permanent Relief With These Easy Tips

  • Posted on January 1, 2010 at 10:20 pm

Great news ladies there’s a totally natural 12hour cure available that’s swift acting and will clear up that nasty yeast infection! If you’ve got any episodes with them, then you are completely aware of how horrible they can be.

It is additionally most favorable to keep away from and that you do not choose any over the counter medications or any prescription treatments. Though several brand new medical treatments do help out, your body responds reasonably well by time tested remedies like herbs and supplements. A variety of prescribed medication are considerably more costly, and do not work as well with your body’s chemistry due to troubles, these ordinary over the counter medications just do not work as well as time tested natural remedies. These types of medications can really be bad for you sometimes. It definitely depends upon your body and its reaction to any kind of drugs. Natural remedies naturally are dissimilar because, they don’t modify the chemical balance the body has.

Natural sorts of treatments have been passed down from mom’s to daughter, for countless years and they are straightforward to make use of. If a individual remedy isn’t reacting well, then there are lots of additional options from which you can select from. All of the natural herbs and cures have a tendency to work much more often. These kinds of remedies have been used for numerous years to assist women. Think about that for a moment. Women used natural remedies long before there were all these new remedies.

To begin with, let’s be clear, yeast infections have to be treated by finding and getting rid of the root-cause, to make the 24-hour cure work as it was designed. You are merely masking a much bigger problem if you put a band aid on it! Let’s eradicate the total dilemma and then you’ll never worry over about coming down with any more infections! It just sounds correct when you concentrate on it.

If you suspect you have a yeast infection, at the outset, you must look for the common signs like redness or sores, irritation during sexual intercourse, burning upon urination, persistent itching, low energy and sometimes menstrual pains. Don’t always believe that it’s a yeast problem since you have a number of or all of the signs. Now and then they’re fake for one infection and true for another.

Having excellent cleanliness is the only way to prevent most yeast infections. You have to shower each day, and please don’t use scented soaps or body washes, and don’t ever wear those used soiled garments! Put your clothes into the soiled hamper once you take them off, and grab a clean outfit. Make sure that washing soap you are using is enough for the load your washing too. This is an issue for many as the undies are only spun around in soiled water and not especially cleaned properly.

Most types of yeast infections are unusually tender, but they are easily handled. Ensure you take care of it. Even if you’ve got a couple of symptoms you essentially ought to go get looked at! Then talk with your nurse specialist as to what your most favorable remedy selections are. Also don’t have any intercourse until you are entirely healed from the infection. It is truly burning and that is not something you will enjoy.

These unpleasant infections can be really uncomfortable, thank goodness nobody can see them or knows you have one, things could be much worse you know! Hopefully this may help out and you’ll be a pleased woman yet once more!

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Illinois Car Accident Lawyer – Preventing Teen Drunk Driving Tips

  • Posted on January 1, 2010 at 10:06 pm

Illinois car accident lawyers see it all the time. Families come into the office seeking revenge for the loss of their family member because of a teen that decided to drink and drive. Illinois injury lawyers will protect the injured, but also would like to avoid this tragic lawsuit in the first place.  

If you are the parent of a teen driver, you have likely given the speech about how they should never drink and drive. Sadly, your one speech is simply not enough to deter your teen from drinking and driving. Your child is at an age where peer pressure is very influential in his/her life, and your words are not as strong as the group of kids cheering your son or daughter on to binge drink.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that your child would never drink and drive. It does not matter how “perfect” your child is or how popular your child is, it only takes that one time.  Just one talk is not going to do the trick. You need to develop a plan that will actually be instilled in their day to day life.  

Tips to help parents instill in their teens the dangers of drunk driving, and to help prevent the opportunity for teens to make that decision.

•    Never allow underage drinking. Some parents think that allowing them to do it at home will prevent them from drinking and driving. This is not only illegal, but will backfire.  

•    Always know exactly where your child is going and when he/she will be home.  

•    Know who your teen’s friends are and how they will be getting to where they are going.  

•    Set curfews and enforce them. Do not go to bed until your teen has walked through that door. When he/she does get home, talk with him/her to make sure there are not any signs of drinking, such as: slurred speech, problems focusing with the eyes, swaying, etc.

•    Don’t let your teen stay overnight with people you do not know.

•    Offer to pick up your teen if he/she ever feels he/she cannot drive.  

•    Nearly 50% of teens who die in car accidents are the passengers. Make sure your teen understands that no matter where he/she is that you will pick him/her up if the driver is drunk.

The most effective tool for preventing teen drunk driving, as well as any teen issue, is the relationship you have with your son or daughter. Start to develop a bond with your child from a very young age. This bond will help when he/she is faced with the pressures of his/her peers.  This is an ongoing process that must start early on in life.  

Illinois accident lawyers never want to have to defend a family that has lost a family member because a teen made that tragic decision to give into the peer pressures of life and get behind the wheel drunk. It is tragic for an Illinois car accident lawyer to have to file a case against a teen because he has made a split second decision that would affect the rest of his life and can end another person’s life.  

Start early and pay attention. Be involved in their lives and make rules that will be enforced.  There is no way to make the decision for them. All you can do as a parent is surround them with love and make them take responsibilities for their actions. This way they understand the consequences of drinking and driving.

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