Archive for February, 2008
5 Easy Weight Loss Tips You Can Use
Posted by: | CommentsAre you tired of struggling with diets? Do you dread stepping on the scale every morning because you know the number you’ll see isn’t one you’ll be proud of? Start melting off those pounds with these five proven weight loss tips now.
1. Drink 6-8oz glasses of water every day. The easiest way to start seeing those pounds melt away is to drink more water. Most people don’t even get half of the recommended amount of water needed every day.
2. Exercise at least 3 times per week. Exercise always seems to be the worst part of weight loss for most people. However, it is the best way to start burning extra calories. If you find it difficult to do this, sign up with a gym and get a trainer.
3. Don’t buy junk food. Stay far, far away from the junk food aisle in the grocery store. It’s easy to say that you’ll only eat one at a time, but when the temptation is there, it’s way too hard to deny yourself. The best thing to do is just not to buy it and bring it home.
4. Chew slowly. Most people don’t chew their food up good enough before swallowing it. The faster you chew and swallow, the longer it takes for you to feel full. By chewing your food slowly, you will feel full faster and therefore, won’t eat as much.
5. Replace sugar with a sweetener. If you drink coffee or any other sugar-sweetened drinks, replace the sugar with a sweetener, like Splenda. You can cut out a huge amount of empty calories just by doing this simple thing.
10 Ways to Improve Your Self Esteem
Posted by: | CommentsPoor self-esteem seems to be a common thread among many people today. Low self-esteem doesn’t change overnight, but there are ways that you can improve your self-esteem, over a period of time. I’m going to show you ten of the easiest ways you can improve your self-esteem, starting now.
1. Don’t judge yourself. When you make a mistake, do you find that you are extremely harsh on yourself? Stop doing this! Everyone makes mistakes. Instead of beating yourself over the head, apply a generous amount of self-love.
2. Smile at yourself. If you have low self-esteem, then you probably find it extremely difficult to look at yourself in a mirror. Practice looking at yourself and smiling at yourself in a mirror every day.
3. Say something nice about yourself. While you’re smiling at yourself in the mirror, say something nice. “You have nice hair!” “Your blue eyes are beautiful!”
4. Use positive affirmations. One of the easiest ways to give yourself a self-esteem booster shot is to use positive affirmations. Write five positive affirmations on sticky notes and stick them in places where you’ll see them often throughout t he day.
5. Do something nice for someone else. There’s no nicer feeling than to know that you just made someone’s day.
6. Acknowledge yourself. When someone compliments you on a job well-done, do you shrug them and their compliments off? Next time, smile and say, “Thank you!” See what a difference it makes when you can truly accept a nice compliment and acknowledge yourself for a job well-done.
7. Hang around positive people. There’s nothing worse on your self-esteem than hanging around a bunch of downers. Surround yourself with positive people and you’ll begin to notice a shift in your attitude.
8. Hire a life coach. Life coaches are great to work with. They can hone in on what you need to work on and help you achieve success quickly.
9. Tell your inner voice to SHUT UP. Do you have a nagging inner voice that snaps at you all day long? Why not just tell it to shut up?! The next time you hear that negative inner voice, literally say aloud, “Shut up!” and see what happens.
10. Be nice to yourself. One of the best ways to combat poor self-esteem is to simply be nice to yourself. Make time to do something special, just for you.
Ways to Make Time For Yourself
Posted by: | CommentsYou work hard every day. You provide for your family and help to meet their emotional needs as well. But at the end of the day, what do you do for YOU?
Making time for yourself has never been something easy for most. It’s easier to just neglect yourself and take care of everyone else. But at the end of the day, you are the one seriously lacking the care you need. Here are some ways you can make time for yourself…
· Turn off the telephone. Look around you the next time you’re in public. I’m willing to bet you’ll see at least 3-5 people talking on cell phones, if not more. Technology has placed a noose around our neck with cell phones. While many think talking on the cell phone while shopping, driving, or running errands is saving time, this couldn’t be further from the truth. In addition, you have the constant nag of everyone being accessible to you at any moment. Whether you’re at home or on the road, why not turn off your phone for a couple of hours?
· Declare a mother’s/father’s day out. Stay at home parents are probably the most neglected people out there. They are at work 24/7 and yet many view their job as being a “luxury” and the easiest one out there. If you’re an at-home parent, tell your spouse that they will be responsible for caring for your children while you have a couple of hours out alone once every couple of weeks.
· Call a Time Out. Parents use Time Outs on their children all the time, but don’t use them on themselves. When you start feeling stressed, call a Time Out and take a 10-minute break: walk around the house three times, paint, call a friend. Do whatever it takes to nurture yourself for a few minutes.
3 Simple Ways to Show Your Teen You Care
Posted by: | CommentsTeenagers go through quite a bit of physical and emotional changes. If you are the parent of a teen, it is crucial that you make sure they know how much you care about them. Many parents fear of pushing their teens away from them if they show interest in their lives. The truth is, teens need to know their parents care.
Here are three ways you can show your teen that you care:
1) Ask about her day. I know your life is busy. You have a career; you’re worried about making ends meet; you’re thinking about how you can better your family. Don’t forget to take the time to stop and ask your teen how her day was. She may not be willing to give you a run-down on all the details, but show your care.
2) Give him choices. It is natural for parents to try to hold the reins tighter as your teen gets older. The only thing this will lead to though, is making him want to pull away from you even more. Instead, give him choices. Letting him make certain decisions will do several things for him: learn how to make good choices, learn from his mistakes, and take pride in himself.
3) Pay her a compliment. Every child, no matter how young or old, needs to hear nice things about themselves. If they don’t get it from home, I can assure you they will search for it somewhere else. Let her know when she’s done a good job. Tell him that you’re proud when he brings home a 4.0 report card. Pay them the compliments they deserve.
Quick Stress Relievers for Moms
Posted by: | CommentsWhat mom doesn’t need some stress relief? Right? Between daily errands, kid stuff, and running a household, you’re a busy person.
Many times moms get so busy taking care of others that they forget to take care of themselves, too. Don’t do this to yourself. The more you neglect yourself, the more stressed you will feel. A good mom is one who takes care of herself first, then she is able to better take care of others.
If you’re finding yourself stressed out from all your mom duties, try these quick stress relievers:
· Go for a walk.
· Meditate for 20 or 30 minutes every day.
· Take your digital camera with you on a nature hike and fill your card with nature photographs.
· Hire a babysitter and go out for a few hours.
· Try your hand at a new hobby: painting, crocheting, knitting, woodworking, etc.
· Write in your journal every morning.
· Don’t take on too many extra responsibilities.
· Delegate simple household tasks out to your children.
· Organize your day with a planner.
· Have a good cry.
· Call a trusted friend to vent to.
· Make a date to go out with friends at least once a month.
· Take a daily multivitamin.
· Take a long bubble bath.
· Rub an aromatherapy cream on your pulse points.
· Take a quick nap.
· Get a foot massage.
· Spend 30 minutes
Set Weight Loss Goals
Posted by: | CommentsWith the holidays gone, it’s time to start the new year off with some weight loss goals. If you’ve been thinking about going on a diet, or feel the need to lose a few more pounds or inches, this is the perfect time to make it happen.
STEP #1: WRITE IT DOWN
What are your weight loss goals? Do you need to lose ten pounds? Do you want to get to the gym three days per week and build your muscle tone? Would you like to start that exercise routine you’ve been thinking about to lose several inches?
Write down your goals. Keep them in a place where you’ll see them often. Better yet, create a mini poster with an inspirational quote or two and your weight loss goals. Then tack your poster to the wall or refrigerator so you will see it often.
STEP #2: BE REALISTIC
The biggest mistake most people make is setting a goal to lose a huge amount of pounds. This can seem overwhelming and even impossible. Rather than doing this, set small goals for yourself. Try losing five pounds first. When you reach that first five, set a second goal to lose five more. Whatever your goal is, make sure it is doable. It’s impossible for anyone to lose 30 pounds in two weeks and still remain healthy.
STEP #3: INCORPORATE REWARDS
This is an important tidbit of advice. Setting your weight loss goals is great, but you must include rewards for yourself as well. Goals create a sense of urgency. Rewards help to motivate you to completion.
How to Motivate Yourself
Posted by: | CommentsDo you make big plans for your life, only to end up disgusted and frustrated because you can never seem to follow through with them? Motivation plays a huge factor in how we live our lives. Lack of motivation leads to stagnation, which in turn creates an unproductive and unfulfilling life.
MAKE A PLAN
The groundwork for motivation is a plan. Without a solid plan of action, you’ll stay stuck doing the same things again and again, even though you get nowhere. Make a list of your goals for 1, 5, and 10 years. Envision where you want to be, what you want to accomplish.
GIVE YOURSELF INCENTIVES
Sometimes it’s necessary to trick your brain by giving yourself incentives. Set benchmarks for your life plan, along with special incentives for reaching each one. When you can see measurable accomplishments, reward yourself with an incentive.
GET EXCITED
If you can’t get excited about your goals, you’ll never become motivated enough to do something about it. Setting goals that are boring and dull will only lead to you quitting early on. When you can truly get excited about what you are doing with your life, you will find this gives you an extra boost of motivation.
BE HAPPY
Depression and lack of self-esteem and confidence plays a huge role in loss of motivation. When you feel like nothing you do is good enough, and you are miserable and unhappy, you are much less likely to become proactive towards reaching your goals. Find your happy place and your motivation level will rise.
Procrastination—Cause and Effect
Posted by: | CommentsIf you are a chronic procrastinator, do you realize that procrastination is due to the simple rule of cause and effect? Allow me to elaborate…
The law of cause and effect basically states this:
“You get what you give. Everything happens for a reason.”
Keeping this idea in mind, you can see how everything you do every day creates a chain of events, all stemming from your actions.
When we look at procrastination, we can easily see how procrastinating can lead to detrimental effects. When you put something off, or procrastinate, there are certain consequences that you will experience.
For example, let’s say that you have been suffering from poor health. Maybe your doctor told you that you are fifty pounds overweight. Because you’ve procrastinated exercising and changing your eating habits, you are suffering from a bad back and knee pain.
One of the things procrastinators are notorious for doing is putting off important tasks that they know should be done. If this describes you, you probably feel overwhelmed by what has to be done. And even though you know the ramifications, you still procrastinate because you fear the enormity of the task at hand.
Another reason why people procrastinate is the fear of failure. If you are a perfectionist by nature, then this probably describes you. Because you are afraid you’ll screw things up, you procrastinate doing something because you don’t want to be a failure.
As you can see from these examples, procrastination is very much intertwined with the law of cause and effect. Instead of continuing to procrastinate, determine where the underlying cause of your procrastination is coming from. When you can pinpoint that core fear, you will be able to combat procrastination once and for all.
6 Tips To Becoming A Friendlier Person
Posted by: | CommentsDo you have trouble making friends? Do you wish you had more friends? In this technology-filled world, it is easy to rely solely on distant contact through the Internet, rather than making “real” friends in the offline world.
If you want to make more friends, the best way to do so is to be a friendlier person. Here are six easy guidelines for you to follow to start making more friends today:
1. Smile. Without even realizing it, you could be walking around with a frown on your face all the time. A frown discourages others from approaching you. It says that you are angry, which is a huge deterrent.
2. Be positive. Nobody likes to be around or talk to someone who is negative all the time. Say nice things about others. Make positive statements about things you like. Overall, stay positive and don’t whine or complain.
3. Don’t be shy. Even if you are shy by nature, practice not being shy. Pretend that you are an outgoing person. If you don’t show others that you are nervous about talking to them, they will never know.
4. Talk. You don’t have to be a chatterbox, but you should at least be able to make small talk. Talk about the weather, things you have in common, or a good book you just finished reading. Making small talk will break the ice.
5. Be confident in yourself. Whether you suffer from low self-esteem or not, you should build your confidence up when around others. Just as they’ll never know that you’re shy, they also won’t know that you aren’t confident unless you show it. Keep your hands out of your pockets and arms unfolded. Be proud and confident of who you are.
6. Tell a funny joke. A little bit of humor goes a long way to making people comfortable around you. Just be careful to keep the humor light in tone and don’t go overboard trying to be funny.
5 Golden Nuggets for Creativity
Posted by: | CommentsAre you creative juices drying up? Do you feel like it’s just too difficult to come up with new ideas? Believe it or not, creativity is not something that only comes and goes with a Muse. Creativity can be generated and conjured simply by becoming active.
Here are three terrific ways to stir up your creativity and generate fresh inspiration today:
1) Spend a day out. If you are always in the office, you probably hardly ever stop to take the time to get out. Make a “play” date with yourself. Visit a local museum or take a trip to an aquarium. Do something totally out of the norm. You’ll feel inspiration stirring soon!
2) Get a hobby. Do you always feel overworked? If you don’t take time for yourself, you’ll constantly be stressed out. A hobby can not only help relax you, but take your mind off work for a while.
3) Go for a walk. Studies have shown that exercise helps to promote creativity. If you’re feeling especially low on ideas, put on your walking shoes and head outside for a 2-0-minute walk. Bring a pocket notebook or camera to capture ideas as they come to you.
4) Listen to classical music. Great classicals can stir your creativity like nothing else can. Go for Beethoven or Bach. Close your eyes for the first few minutes as you allow the musical notes to waft over you.
5) Solve a problem. If your lack of creativity right now is mostly due to a personal problem, there’s only one way around it. Grab a pen and paper and write down the problem. Now brainstorm ways to solve that problem.
