Habits Can Hold You in Limbo

I love reading jokes. They bring a relief from the stresses of everyday living. Sometimes they lead me down a path of reflection. This great joke from Resource a Day did just that.

How much of our daily activities are just habit? And how many of those habits are keeping you from losing weight or even getting your work finished?

Habits cover everything from how we make the bed to what and when we eat or drink.

You can't delete a habit without replacing it with another habit - hopefully a better habit.

I remember reading once that if you want to break a child of throwing their coat on the floor when they come home - you need to meet the child at the door and prevent the dropping of the coat. You lead the child to the place where the coat is to hang and have him/her hang it up. You have to do this everyday for a several days and then suddenly the child is doing it on their own. It is a habit.

So the next time you are considering that second piece of pie - just stop and replace that action with another action. Get up and start cleaning the kitchen or go water the plants. With consistent effort, those second helpings will be a thing of the past and you will be that much closer to your weight goal.

Oh yah - the joke.


The Taxi Driver

A passenger in a taxi leaned over to ask the driver a
question and tapped him on the shoulder. The driver
screamed, lost control of the cab, nearly hit a bus,
drove up over the curb, and stopped just inches from
a large plate glass window.

For a few moments everything was silent in the cab,
and then the still shaking driver said, "I'm sorry but
you scared the daylights out of me."

The frightened passenger, apologized to the driver,
and said he didn't realize a mere tap on the shoulder
could frighten him so much.

The driver replied, "No, no, I'm sorry, it's entirely my fault.
Today is my first day driving a cab. I've been driving a
hearse for the last 23 years.

Contributed by: Dawn Hunt
>Resource A Day for free downloads to make your life easier

The I Think I Can Weight Loss Program

I was reading a book to my grand daughters - The little engine that could. I bet you remember the story.

The little train breaks down and asks all the other big engine in the yard to help. They all turn away except one little engine.

As they start up the mountain the little engine is straining and begins to chant - " I think I can, I think I can, I think I can." Of course it gets to the top and begins to chant "I thought I could".

What has that got to do with weight loss? Everything.

If you start that new program or just return to the one that was working for a while - what is your attitude. Do you feel that it is a waste of time because you never lose weight or if you do you just gain it back? Do you beat yourself up and call yourself names because you have not achieved that perfect body?

"Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I shall have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it, even if I may not have it at the beginning." Mahatma Gandhi

Notice what I think is the most important part of this quote - I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it-

Don't doom your weight loss program by negative thinking before you even deny yourself one bite of pizza.

Make it a simply statement - each day I am doing what I can to return my body to the perfect creation it started out as - one bite at a time, one sip of water at a time, one step at a time.

Cheers to even your smallest baby steps to success.

Sharono

Answers For Your Health Survival Guide - Cancer and Vitamin C

I just put up an article on a recent study of the effect Vitamin C has on Cancer. The results were amazing. This is well worth your time to read and act upon.

Cancer and Vitamin C

Addiction

I have had so many people ask me why and how I got "into" herbs and health. So -

35 years ago I was an alcoholic. I lived like that for about 6 years. I kept my job but not my marriage - he was an alcoholic also. I managed to keep life together for my daughter and I.

One day (hangover as usual) I realized I did not want to live that way anymore. I took back control of my own life. It was not easy giving up the bottle. I fought myself every night and didn't always win but gradually the side saying no did overcome.

During this period I started reading about addiction. I discovered that there is a genetic tie. My father was an alcoholic.

Addiction covers all areas not just alcohol and drugs. I know people who are addicted to housework. You can be addicted to chocolate, sodas, cheese, running, reading - anything in life that takes over is an addiction.

We have kinder words for the healthier addictions like "avid reader" but is that person who reads all night long and does a lousy job at work the next day because they didn't sleep really any better than the more well known addicts. Legal but still evading reality.

I discovered herbs. Gradually I discovered what good health feels like and it felt wonderful.

About the same time, I had to have gall bladder surgery. I had been raised on everything fried and no body in my house liked vegetables so we just didn't have them.

Now I began to study healthy eating, vitamins, minerals in conjunction with the herbs. I started working at out a gym. I was a single mom working 2 jobs to make ends meet. Taking that time to work out was not always convenient.

30 years later I am still studying herbs, vitamins, minerals, addictions and the value of exercise. I now use Reiki and EFT as well. I have a different husband and another daughter. We have had the same bottle of bourbon in the house for 10 years.

I find that I must still fight against addictions. Now I deal with drinking too many sodas and spending too many hours in front of a computer. Like all addictions, one must first acknowledge the addiction and then you must have the desire to eliminate it. The next step is replacing that addiction with more acceptable and healthy activities.

Bad Breath

Oh How Embarrassing!

Do you talk to people with one hand in front of your mouth? Do you make sure there is always a few feet between you and the person you are speaking with? Are you constantly popping mints or chewing gum?

THERE IS A BETTER WAY.

Millions of people suffer embarrassment due to bad breath. The technical name for bad breath is "halitosis." Take a walk down the personal care aisle of any drug or grocery store and you will find product after product all dealing with this condition.

Interesting to note is the fact that dental hygiene was practiced as far back as ancient Greece and Rome. The Greeks used to chew on anise seeds. Anise tastes like licorice. The Romans discovered that chewing on parsley would disguise the smell of alcohol on their breath. They were probably unaware that parsley is high in chlorophyll which turns carbon dioxide into oxygen making it a natural as one of the first breath fresheners. They were just trying to avoid the wrath of a superior officer.

Before toothbrushes, people used twigs - split and frayed at one end - to clean their teeth.

Restaraunts will sometimes put a sprig of parsley on your dinner plate. Don't leave it, when you have finished eating - chew on the parsley. Especially after eating onions and or garlic. They are good for your health but not your breath.

Everyone has an occasional problem with bad breath which is why Americans spend more than $200 million a year on products to freshen the breath. Pills, mouthwash, breath mints, toothpaste and more comprise this industry.

Bad breath that is persistent, consistent and resistant to normal remedies can be symptomatic of a more serious condition. Please see your dentist for a first line check up to eliminate serious physical conditions as the cause of your bad breath.

WHAT IS BAD BREATH?

Bad breath is the side effect of the action taken by certain bacteria that live in the mouth, the tongue and the tonsils. The fact is that we all have these bacteria in our mouth. These bacteria pretty much remain dormant until some action in their environment causes them to change.

Hey for the rest of the article click here.

Carbs are brain food

In the never ending quest for the perfect body sometimes I think people forget about have a good quality functioning brain.

High protein diets are good but only with the addition of some carbs. Carbs are the only thing that feed your brain. Protein may grown those muscles which will increase the metabolism rate which will increase the rate of weight loss but don't you want to be able to think at the same time.

Real Age today put out a paragraph which contained this -

A higher protein diet doesn't have to be carb free to help
you lose weight.

Stop listening to those that claim you must eliminate carbs to lose weight. It is a balancing act.

Your body was created to combine protein and carbs just like vitamins and minerals - you need the combination not the individual.

Eat small portions of a variety of foods. Give your brain the food it needs.

Slideshow - The HSUS Responds to Katrina

For the animal lover in most of us.

This is a slide show of the efforts to rescue the lost pets in the aftermath of Katrina.

A beloved pet. A reason to live for some people. So many studies have been done to prove that having an animal companion adds years to your life. Good years.

Helping Others to Help Yourself

We have a family from New Orleans that we are helping to get set up here in San Antonio. She has already found a job and her husband will be joining her as soon as possible. Our friends are letting them "rent" their duplex rent free for a year.

This weekend we will be going to the storage room to pull out beds and bedding and dishes and pots and pans to get them set up. I knew there was a reason we kept all that stuff.

This quote is so true.

"Realize that true happiness lies within you. Waste no time and effort searching for peace and contentment and joy in the world outside. Remember that there is no happiness in having or in getting, but only in giving. Reach out. Share. Smile. Hug. Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself."

Og Mandino
1923-1996, Author and Speaker

Ok - back to work -

I just finished adding some new articles to my website on Menopause, Diet, Natural Cures for Asthma and an interesting "cure" for Sinusitis. Check it out at
Answers For Your Health

Answers For Your Health Survival Guide - Arthritis Relief

I just finished a series of articles on Arthritis. Go check it out. If you don't need the information, someone you know just might. You are free to share this url.

Arthritis Relief

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Toxins (Dusted Off)

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Toxins (Dusted Off): "The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/toxins/dustoff.asp"

Please share this with every family you know. Our children are precious and irreplaceable. How can we protect them if we don't know.

When do we start labeling every potential health hazard with a skull and cross bones!

We may have to start our own labeling process. A sheet of red dots with a black line? Can someone out there design and package a box of labels with the skull and cross bones that the general public could buy and affix to cleaning products and the dozens of other items found in every home that can kill a child.

How Obese is YOUR State?

Too fat makes too slow a calorie burn. My oldest daughter just returned from testing to see how many calories she burns just to stay alive. Based on that number, a daily calorie limit was suggested for her to lose weight.

She is now insulin resistant and her entire blood sugar system is only a point away from diabetes.
She also found out that at her weight - a half hour of hard exercise will only burn 180 calories.

Makes you want to just not bother with exercise. Here is the vicious cycle. If she will exercise, she will develop more muscle and more muscle will burn more calories and eventually that half hour of exercise will burn 300 calories. If she continues to not exercise - that calorie burn may become even lower.

The diet changes she must make will be for the rest of her life.

Want to know which states are the fattest?


http://my.webmd.com/content/article/110/109662.htm

Part of the problem is what we see on TV. How many times have you finished your evening meal and sat down to watch your favorite show? Commercials - pizza, hamburgers, steak, suddenly you feel hungry again.

How much harder this is for children. TV is their friend and companion. If friend says eat this, that is what they are going to ask for. In a fast food world with harried parents trying to fit 30 hours in every 24 hour day - the kids usually get what they are whining about.

Now maybe you can't get them to eat tofu, but you can feed them apples and bananas. Hey, I won't eat tofu either.

Check out the information in this study of children's TV commercials.

TV Ads for Junk Food: A Link to Kids' Obesity?

Surviving Today

We had our annual Labor Day Party. We had 2 very special guests - children who survived the nightmare of New Orleans.

Their mom did not come - she felt it would have been very inappropriate - her mother is in and out of the hospital with extreme high blood pressure and her husband is in Atlanta still trying to find his daughter.

But she wanted the kids to have a fun day - swimming, bbq, laughing - the normal stuff a 4 and 6 year old should be enjoying.

Our friends, thru their church, took in this family.

Sherry and her husband had a small courier business in New Orleans. They have been wiped out.

Sherry says that Friday night when they went to bed the news was no biggy on the storm. In the morning the news was mandatory evacuation. She went with the children to her mother's house to board up the house and help her mother pack the car. Her husband went to his father's house to board it up. The roads were to be closed at 6pm so they planned to meet and caravan out.

The road closed at 2 and Sherry and her mother made it. Sherry's husband did not. He had to return to their home and ride out the storm. He was on the roof for 3 days before he was rescued. He waded thru the water to the outskirts of New Orleans and hitched a ride to Atlanta. His mental condition is fragile after all the horrors he witnessed. The worst part is not knowing where or how his daughter is. She lives with her mother and they have not been reported anywhere.

The children were beautiful and well behaved. BUT - I never saw them smile. The young man is a great baseball player. The young lady is a good swimmer. They played with the other children but spoke almost not at all. Of course some of that might have been just being shy - after all they did not know any of us except the family they are staying with.

This family will make it. Sherry has already found a job. She is lucky she has her car and a few belongings. Her mother will be fine. Her mother is also staying in a private home. Her husband too will survive and they will eventually be back together. I know the children miss him.

Someday these 2 children and thousands more like them will tell their children about this time in their lives.

Somehow, with this as an example, just losing a little weight or saving a little money does not seem so very big an obstacle.

Perhaps it is human nature for us to deny death unless it stops and spits in our face - hurricane or diabetes from obesity or emphysema from smoking or overwhelming debt from indiscriminate credit card use and the resulting depression and possible suicide.

It is time for all of us to consider who and what we are today and what our tomorrows look like.

I know that all of you have contributed what you could to the relief efforts for all the victims of the hurricane. There are so many more people involved besides just New Orleans. Maybe the TV doesn't hi-light any of those small towns but they were just as devastated and just as needy.