Is Obesity A Virus?

I don't know if I hope this is true or not.

Telegraph | News | Obesity 'can be caught like a cold': "

Obesity 'can be caught like a cold'
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
(Filed: 31/01/2006)

Evidence that obesity could be contagious was published yesterday by American researchers - and washing your hands could be an elementary step to avoiding the virus and becoming overweight."

Though for the day

Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.
James Matthew Barrie 1860-1937, Author of Peter Pan

Just another way of saying what you give out comes back to you.

I have the flu. What a disappointment for a person who teaches good health. Reminds me of the joke - punch line - a health nut is in the hospital dying of nothing.

I am going to put myself on the hot seat. I am promising that my new book on skin care will be online by Feb 15 - this year. It is written more for over 40 skin. Still trying to decide on a title. Any suggestions.

I have done my 15 minute walk everyday. Not today though even if the sun is shining. I can't wait for someone to get home and watch the kids so I can go to bed. What timing - their mother is leaving tomorrow for a week.

until next time - smile even if it hurts.
Sharon

National Guard and the IRS

Saturday was quite a day of contrast. First the awards ceremony for my husband's retirement and then a letter from the IRS. Pride, fear, exasperation.

The awards ceremony first acknowledged a National Guardsman who just returned from Iraq and his father who received a purple heart for his service in Korea. Their speeches brought tears to their eyes and to the eyes of that group of soldiers listening.

As my husband was called forward, my daughter and I walked proudly with him. My daughter was embarrassed by the Hooahs and pictures. Written commendations were read, medals awarded, plaques presented and then the three foot ceremonial saber.

Where am I going to display a saber?

Contrast the informal battle fatigues worn during the day and the formal dress uniform worn last night at the banquet.

Different faces, sizes, colors, sexes, ages. Yet all have the same pride in their uniform - in their service to their country and in their service to their fellow man.

Contrast the tremendous pride I felt in watching these men and women and the momentary clutch of fear when I opened the mail and found a notice from the IRS that my return is being audited.

Now I am very careful with my income tax return and list only what is legal and true. Why then that moment of fear - Because it is the IRS.

IRS - Gestapo - taking everything you own - guilty until proven innocent.

Oh well, another experience to write about.

I was audited about 13 years ago. It was by mail and I just had to copy and send some receipts - no problem and no error on my part.

Perhaps it is because all the audits I have been part of at places I have worked - there was always an obnoxious man who clearly stated that he knew we were stealing and would catch us.

We had an auditor oh 30 years ago at a Sears store I was working at. He was so bad that the manager complained to the head office and that auditor was removed. But not before he had to make an apology in front of all employees to those of us he had been so cruel and threatening to. That store had many problems, but embezzlement was not one of them.

Well, I shall think positive and call the IRS and make my appointment. Then I will crawl up in the attic and find the box with that year's tax information. My daughter will have to take off work when I go for my appointment. They will find my return fully supported by receipts and life will go on.

Seems like once they audit you and find that you are honest, they should just let you be.

Sunday things to do, so until next time - smile
Sharon

Obesity Epidemic

I have a challenge for you.....

The Obesity Epidemic is in all the news. Everyday I get news releases on what some state or country is proposing to do to protect our school children or the general working population.

This quote from Dr Gerald Hass at Harvard Medical School ...That is a hard argument to make in the face of a depressed, obese child whose health is failing, who has no safe place to exercise, and is under siege by adults selling him salt, fat, sugar and a shorter, sadder life. As adults, we have an obligation to do better. This in response to people saying individual and families should be responsible for the health of children rather than government regulations.

1. I don't know of any children under 16 who drive the car to a fast food place, pull out their wallet and buy fat fast food.

2. Yes the government subsidized lunch program should be overhauled. This program continues to use high-fat, high-starch, agricultural surplus food.

3. Have you ever eaten lunch at an elementary school? French fries, bread, canned sweetened fruit, mac and cheese, pizza - this is a healthy diet?

4. Middle schools and high schools absolve themselves of the problem by installing vending machines with colas and chips. In defense of this - the schools claim they need the extra revenue because of lack of funding.

5. Children, like their parents are not getting enough sleep. Not enough sleep - gain weight.

Read the rest of this article at Obesity Epidemic. Then I ask you to come back and take this challenge.

So I challenge you - an adult with a whole lot more control of your time than children have - in 2 months - can you walk a marathon? That works out to 15 minutes a day.

I am starting today. Please join me. Commit to this rather than a hospital stay for stroke. Make a comment telling me that yes you will walk a marathon.

Join the 2-month marathon club today.

until next time - smile
Sharon

Trial and Error Equal Success

I am trying out a new template. Hope it looks good, if not I will just change it again.

Today - Trying New Things
Whole Foods
New Diet Pill

I have 2 quotes for you today.

I AM - the two most powerful words in the world, for whatever we put after them becomes our reality. Susan Howson

So what do we do? Anything - something. So long as we just don't sit there. If we screw it up, start over. Try something else. If we wait until we've satisfied all the uncertainties, it may be too late.

Lee Iacocca
Former Chairman of Chrysler Corporation

Everyday you pronounce your little I ams. I am always late, I am fat, I am stupid, I am never going to get done with this -- and the list goes on and on. You don't even realize that you are doing it.

When are you going to say your big I AM? When are you going to make some small changes that will lead to big pay offs?

I got my hair cut the other day. I thought I would look better with shorter hair. Now I don't know if the hair cut is just bad or if I have had long hair for so many years it looks strange short or what. But I can tell you I was a bit disappointed. My husband refused to even comment. (He is old school and thinks all women should have hair down to there.)

Small change. Did not produce the result I wanted. My hair will grow out. And I can continue to look at different hair styles. But the biggest benefit of this whole experiment was finding out that short hair does not work. It eliminates me having to look at dozens of short hair styles.

That is what change is all about. Trying something new. If it doesn't suit you, just don't do that anymore.

Did you join a gym to lose weight as part of a New Year's Resolution? Are you still going? If not - don't beat yourself up. That is just something that doesn't work for you - no matter the reason. You still want to get in better shape and lose some weight so now it is just a matter of time - trial and error - to find what will work for you.

When you have misplaced something at home or work and you start searching and finally find it - Do you say - It was in the last place I looked. Of course it was, why would you keep looking after you found it.

It is just a matter of searching and persisting in that search to find what will work for you to get in better shape - to get healthier. It may be the second thing you try or even the tenth thing you try. As long as you don't give up, you will find your I AM.

********
Friend of mine at Amazon Herb sent me this link. You really should check it out. The page I selected has a great article on drinking water with a meal.

The World's Healthiest Foods: Feeling Great: Too much water alongside of a meal can raise the stomach pH in some unwanted ways, and we recommend avoiding excessive water intake during a meal. What counts as 'excessive'? The answer....

*********

The State News - www.statenews.com: "1st over-the-counter obesity pill to be considered by FDA"

I don't really endorse diet pills. This one is just a fat blocker. If taken before a fatty meal, it will bind the fats and pass them through your system. This is actually helpful to your liver, however if used for all meals, then you have no fats and that is bad. There are some vitamins that are only absorbed with fats. Fat blockers used in moderation are in my opinion ok - MODERATION - like before a pizza.

*****
Ending with a joke

An elderly gentleman had serious hearing problems for a
number of years.

He went to the doctor and the doctor was able to have him
fitted for a set of hearing aids that allowed the gentleman to
hear 100%. The elderly gentleman went back in a month to
the doctor and the doctor said, "Your hearing is perfect. Your
family must be really pleased that you can hear again."

The gentleman replied, "Oh, I haven't told my family yet. I
just sit around and listen to the conversations. I've changed
my will three times!"

until next time - smile
Sharon
http://www.answersforyourhealth.com

Losing Weight ?

I am constantly losing things. Just because I created a "place" for something to be stored when not in use, does not mean the other 5 people in this house can remember to put something back. Lost

I can be just as lazy as the next person and I can postpone returning something to its proper place because I am busy and I will do it later. Lost

We are ready to walk out the door and someone says --Oh I have to have a _____ you fill in the blank. I guarantee that whatever it is you are going to have to search for it because it is -------Lost.

Losing weight - sorry not happening.

More organization I cry - I am so darn tired of losing things. I hate losing things.

I spend 90% of my time convincing my mind that I don't want to lose things, I want to stop losing things. How about you? Do you want to lose your money? Do you want to lose your job or your house? How about your youth - want to lose that?

If you have a broken down couch that you want to replace, do you say to yourself, I want to lose that couch. No you buy a new couch and get rid of the old one. You give it away, throw it away, whatever, but you joyfully happily give that old thing another place to be.

You are playing a game with friends, do you want to lose? No you want to Win. You are up for a promotion, do you want to lose? No you want to Win.

You get the idea - your mind knows that LOSE is a BAD thing. Good heavens, how are we supposed to lose weight when our mind knows that losing anything is bad and stressful?

All righty then - let us change our vocabulary when speaking to the brain about changing our weight.

Read the rest of the article here.

Answers For Your Health Survival Guide - Losing Weight ?

I expect I will be a little slow in posting next week. Last week I had the oldest granddaughter down with a cold and now today the little one has started to run a high fever.

I would give in and claim sick as well, but who would take care of everyone else.

I had planned to have my book on skin care available this weekend but did not have the time to put in on it so maybe next weekend.

until next time - smile
Sharon

Trouble Sleeping and a Diabetes Drug Warning

You might be interested in my new article. If not - please let me know what you would like to read about.

Answers For Your Health Survival Guide - Trouble Sleeping: "Trouble Sleeping - It might be your Bedroom

If you are tossing and turning and checking the clock to see how many hours you have left to try to sleep before that alarm goes off - Stop.

I know, you want to know how do you Stop trying to sleep and really get to sleep.

In the cold light of day, bleary eyed and grouchy from lack of sleep - take a good hard look at your bedroom. The origin of your trouble sleeping is probably right here.

Is it clean and neat or are there piles of clothes and shoes on the floor, books stacked up on a desk or a sewing machine covered with the latest project? Is there an exercise device staring you in the face?

No - I have no idea where you are going to put this stuff but get it out of your bedroom. Your bedroom is supposed to be a safe calm haven where you rest or engage in sex. Everything you have junked up in your room is a distraction to sleep. It is a reminder of what you didn't get finished today, or last week, or last year. No wonder you have trouble sleeping or feeling romantic.

If the treadmill is covered with clothing, you suffer from failed goals, and you wasted money. Not good thoughts to put you to sleep. And certainly not conducive to a romantic evening or morning."

Hey click on the link to read the whole article. Trouble Sleeping
*********

FDA Warning for 2 Diabetes Drugs: "FDA Warning for 2 Diabetes Drugs

Rare Reports of Worsening Diabetic Eye Complications With Avandia and Avandamet"

Gotta have a joke ---

An elderly gentleman, (mid nineties) very well dressed, hair
well groomed, great looking suit, flower in his lapel smelling
slightly of a good after-shave, presenting a well looked-after
image, walks into an upscale cocktail lounge.

Seated at the bar is an elderly looking lady, (mid eighties).
The gentleman walks over, sits along side of her, orders a
drink, takes a sip, turns to her and says, "So tell me, do I
come here often?"

*****





Imagine What You Could Be

Buy this Laminated Poster at AllPosters.com


Please check out the Poster Store. It is a great place to buy a gift for someone you care about including yourself and it is income for me.

until next time - smile
Sharon
Answers For Your Health

Answers For Your Health Survival Guide - Winter skin care

Answers For Your Health Survival Guide - Winter skin care: "Winter is a wonderful time of the year - holidays, warm fires, crisp air, and for many, fresh fallen snow. But the colder temperature and lower humidity affect the condition of your skin and hair. Lower humidity just goes along with colder temperatures even if you live in a more temperate area without snow."

Check out the 9 tips for better winter skin and a couple of unusual natural products to help.

Just added this joke to the joke pages.

A couple was celebrating their golden wedding anniversary on the beach in Montego Bay Jamaica. Their domestic tranquility had long been the talk of the town,
"What a peaceful and loving couple".

A local newspaper reporter was inquiring as to the secret of their long and happy marriage. "Well, it dates back to our honeymoon in America", explained the man. "We visited the Grand Canyon in Arizona and took a trip down to the bottom of the canyon by horse. We hadn't gone too far when my wife's horse stumbled and she almost fell off. My wife looked down at the horse and quietly said "That's once".

We proceeded a little further and the horse stumbled again, this time causing my wife to drop her water. Once more my wife quietly said "That's twice".

We hadn't gone a half mile when the horse stumbed a third time. My wife quietly removed a revolver from her purse and shot the horse dead.

I shouted at her, "What's wrong with you, Woman! Why did you shoot the poor animal like that? Are you crazy? She looked at me, and quietly said

"That's once", and from that moment on we have lived happily ever after

****
My daughter forwarded this to me - have not tried it.

Cell phone companies are charging us $1.00 or more for 411 information calls when they don't have to. When you need to use the 411 information option,simply dial 1 800 FREE 411 or 1 800 373 3411 without incurring a charge at all except for the minutes required to make the call.

From HSI -
Roslyn Stone is the chairwoman of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Workplace Flu Prevention Group. So you can imagine why she wants all of us to wash our hands. She told CNN that the most effective way to prevent the flu is to wash your hands "as frequently as you can remember to do it." And don't just rinse and run. Ms. Stone calls for 20 seconds of hand washing with soap and hot water.


I am almost caught up. I published another new article on Women's Health about toxic cosmetics - check it out. You can just click on it after you read my article on winter skin.

until next time - smile
Sharon

The Power of Motivation

THE PARROT - The Power of Motivation

A young man named John received a parrot as a gift. The parrot
had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary. Every word
out of the bird's mouth was rude, obnoxious, and laced with
profanity. John tried and tried to change the bird's attitude by
consistently saying only polite words, playing soft music, and
anything else he could think of to "clean up" the bird's vocabulary.

Finally, John was fed up, and he shouted at the parrot. The parrot
shouted back. John shook the parrot, and the Parrot got angrier
and even ruder. John, in desperation, threw up his hands, grabbed
the bird, and put him in the freezer. For a few minutes the parrot
squawked and kicked and screamed. Then suddenly there was
total quiet; not a peep was heard for over a minute.

Fearing that he'd hurt the parrot, John quickly opened the door to
the freezer. The parrot calmly stepped out onto John's outstretched
arm and said "I believe Imay have offended you with my rude
language and actions. I'm sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate
transgressions and I fully intend to do everything I can to correct
my rude and unforgivable behavior".

John was stunned at the change in the bird's attitude. As he was
about to ask the parrot what had made such a dramatic change
in his behavior, the bird continued,

"May I ask what the turkey did?"

********
Most of us are just like that parrot. Until the possibility of great loss looks us in the eye we just keep on doing our daily routine. We wait for the doctor to tell us we have spots on our lungs or we have lost 10% of our bone mass or that the arthritis is irreversible or that the weight has weakened our heart enough to shorten our life span.

We spend money we don't have on credit cards until the debt is beyond our ability to repay. We buy all the goodies we want and when a disaster strikes we are without resources except for friends and family. If you own a washer, dryer, refrigerator,car,TV, DVD player, carpet, computer or any mechanical appliance you know that eventually it will break and are you setting funds aside to repair or replace?

Just for a moment pretend that disaster has struck. What would you do? What do you wish you had done to prevent or lessen the impact? So - do it. Take even baby steps if that is all you can do today. Save $1.00, take a 5 minute walk. It all adds up.

On a sad note - just wanted to pass this news item on to you - just in case.

Health Scare: Contaminated Pet Food Proves Fatal: "The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has launched an investigation into the deaths of dozens of dogs who apparently consumed pet food contaminated with aflatoxin, a substance that can cause lethal liver disease in animals."

Check out the name on your dog food and the symptoms.

I am way way behind so until next time - smile
Sharon

New Year Resolutions and Losing Weight

If you want something new and different, you must do something different today. Same old actions equal the same old results.

Every adult in my house is on a diet and everyone of us has a different diet and exercise (or lack of exercise) program. Making a meal that suits everyone is no longer possible. And the grocery bill has doubled. What's a mother to do?

On top of it all, I still have a 2 year old and a 4 year old to feed. They need calories. If the adults had the energy that the children do - none of us would be over weight.

My main endeavor this week has been getting the little ones back on a schedule. Holidays play he-- with nap times and bed times. Now that school has started again and their mom is back to work, it falls to me to be the bad guy and enforce nap times and bed times and normal meals.

The computer gremlins have been working overtime on my pc. System keeps freezing up and the mouse is dead about half the time. Makes it rather difficult to work. I think it is the new screen saver program I received at Christmas. My husband insists that a screen saver cannot cause the problem. Oh well, I have the screen saver turned off today in order to get this posted.

How are you coming with your New Year Resolutions? Did you make any and already give them up?

Instead of a resolution that you have to keep for an entire year, why not try a variety of resolutions just for a day. If you do not keep to the resolution - no big deal - you just resolve to do it another day.

You can write up a general plan, specifically listing all the things you want to change. Now just pick one for each day and that is the only one you have to work on.

Pretty soon, it will just become a habit that on Monday you walk a mile, on Tuesday you don't eat bread and you do eat broccoli, Wednesday you do a water and apple fast, Thursday you write the checks to pay the bills for next week and get them ready to mail.

You get the idea. As something becomes a habit, you can always add a new resolution for that day.

Most people know that you can do anything or do without anything for an hour - you just want to expand that to a full day. Taken in small doses, you can overcome just about anything.

Smoking is one of those I'll quit tomorrow things. You will not stop smoking until you want to. I have know people that could not move around without an oxygen tank. Yet they would shut off that oxygen supply long enough to have a cigarette.

But, if you know you should quit, try some baby steps. If you always smoke right after you eat, resolve to wait 30 minutes. If you can do that, you will break a habit and when you finally quit for good, you won't even miss that after meal cigarette. If you always have a smoke as soon as you wake up, move the cigarettes to another room before you go to bed. Again, it is a habit not a need.

If you are considering buying an over-the-counter diet pill, you might want to look at the information at Real Age.

No Thrill in Pills - RealAge Tip of the Day: "If your New Year's resolution to lose weight has you eyeing the natural weight loss pills at the drug store, look the other way."

I want to share some gift wishes with you --Twelve Gifts I Wish for You in the New Year

... in this special season and all the year through

Happiness..........Deep down within.
Serenity.......... With each sunrise.
Success..........In each facet of your life.
Family..........Beside you.
Close and caring friends.
Health..........Inside you.
Love..........That never ends.
Special memories..........Of all the yesterdays.
A bright today..........With much to be thankful for.
A path..........That leads to beautiful tomorrows.
Dreams..........That do their best to come true.
Appreciation..........Of all the wonderful things about you.

Check out all the new articles at Answers For Your Health.com

I added new headings as well as new articles.

until next time - smile
Sharono