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What is your preferred piece of fitness equipment? Whether you work out at a gym, at home or outdoors…everyone has a favorite and preferred way to get that heartrate up. Mine…I love my trust old Gazelle Elite. It’s about five years old now and I put it to the test nearly every day. I don’t enjoy the extreme temperatures so when winter and summer are at their worst, I hibernate inside and exercise where it isn’t so extreme. During the spring and autumn; however, I prefer to exercise outside.

What is your favorite form of exercise?

Have you noticed that our society seems to be obsessed with being “busy?” You cannot be too busy, it seems…and people even enjoy topping each other to see who gets the title of “Busiest.” BUSY is the new status symbol that gives people an instant lift of self-esteem. They are SOMEone if they do not have enough hours in the day.

Well…the bad news (you knew there was some) is that this hyper speed will inevitably lead to burn-out. The elevated stress may lead to sleep problems, headaches, digestive problems and even serious health issues over time.

So…time to take stock. Is it possible you are TOO busy for optimal productivity and happiness?

Are you constantly multitasking?
Do you lose items often?
Are you missing important family events?
Are you becoming increasingly short tempered?
Do you use caffeine to fight fatigue often?
Do you get frequent headaches or other physical signs of stress?
Do you skip exercise because you are too busy?
Are you phasing out hobbies you used to enjoy because you don’t have time?

Yes answers to these questions may indicate your life is moving too fast.

Being too busy has to cut somewhere…and this is often found in a key area of your life. Family, health, career, spirituality, home…do you see this evident in your life?

If this seems to fit for you, come back next time and we will begin to explore how to rebalance a life that is TOO busy.

My daughter and her family recently suffered a car accident where their van was totaled and her entire family walked away uninjured. Let me tell you…this is the kind of thing that makes you get down on your knees and tearfully thank God for His mercy. Watching them work their way through the maze of insurance quotes and trying to decide what they were going to do with their totaled van has been quite an experience. In the end, they decided to take a settlement, buy the van back and get it fixed. After a long few weeks, they finally got their van back on Friday and they are now back to a two-car family again.

As I was shopping today, my eye caught a sign informing customers about security cameras that the shopping center was using to record customer activities. Got me to thinking…how do I feel about this? How do you feel about this? Does it seem like a privacy invasion…or a necessarily evil…or both? I admit that the thought of shoplifters raising everybody’s bottom line and creating inflated prices just to help a store recoup losses makes me angry. So…I guess security cameras are something to accept and ignore…as long as you are a law-abiding citizen.

I struggle with insomnia at times and I have to tell you that there is more to the lowly cherry than meets the eye. Get this:

A recent study and found that tart cherries contain melatonin — a hormone that has been found to slow the aging process, and fight insomnia and jet lag. Cherries are also being studied as a potential treatment for cancer, depression and other problems.

The secret lies in the cherry’s skin and pigmentation. This is where antioxidants called anthocyanins exist. A 1999 study found that the antioxidants in tart black cherries are greater than Vitamin E.

When the body doesn’t produce enough Melatonin the results may be insomnia. However, before reaching for a medication or contacting a doctor for a prescription drug, insomnia suffers need to take a closer look at tart cherries.

As melatonin levels in the blood rise, the body begins to feel sleepy. As these levels decline, the body begins to feel re-energized. Melatonin helps the body regulate the body’s rhythmic sleep patterns.

You have three options for consuming tart cherries:

o Fresh Tart Cherries – (13.5 (ng) of Melatonin per gram)
o Tart cherry juice concentrate – (100 ng of Melatonin per gram)
o Tart cherry powder – (137+ ng per gram)

Me? Give me a bowlful of fresh cherries and I am HAPPY!

Source: Dr. Rieter, Melatonin Research

Businesses that give away promotional items to advertise their business name and service are banking on the fact that you are going to appreciate their freebies so much that you will become a customer. Sometimes this works with me and sometimes it doesn’t. It depends on how impressed I am with the freebie and, frankly, what the business or service is. Now…another pen, not so impressive. But…a tote bag with a business name on it or a cooler or a mousepad…I might be more impressed.

What kind of promotional items impress you enough to patronize a business?

Do you ever appreciate the peace of an empty inbox? Or is your inbox always overflowing with stressful messages?

Time to restore some order in our inboxes today!

1. Make a new folder. Name it whatever you like, but this folder will be the place you immediately file all emails that require action from you.
2. Now go through your most recent emails and place as many as 20 emails in this action folder. These are the important emails that require some kind of action from you.
3. Now make another folder. Call this folder a “holding” folder. This is where everything else that is currently in your inbox goes right now. Don’t worry – you’ll get to these…but we’re putting them away where they won’t stress you out for the moment.
4. NOW…promise yourself that you are going to file your emails as they come in. Here are your choices for processing your emails:

Delete them immediately

Deal with them immediately – these are the emails that require a 2 sentence response you can do it less than two minutes.

File them in your action folder

File them in your holding folder

Make a “reading” folder if you get a lot of newsletters. Place your reading emails in this folder and make it a point to get back to them and read them. Then delete them!

Wondering how to control the flood and reduce it?

1. Ruthlessly unsubscribe to emails you don’t read and don’t want.
2. Reduce the number of emails you send (and you’ll get fewer emails back!)
3. Reduce the length of emails you send
4. Make email rules so your emails get directed into the folders you desire. Make junk rules to delete the junk so you don’t even see it.

Oh…and I did promise!  The emails in your holding folder. Start to go through them a few at a time and delete the emails you don’t need. You can also do a mass delete unless you are afraid you might miss something important. Spend five minutes at a time going through these old emails and you’ll probably be through them in less than a week. Then promise yourself…NEVER AGAIN!

Quick question…how old is your pillow? Not sure? Think hard…Here’s a few statistics that may jog your memory a bit.

• After five years of use, ten percent of your pillow’s weight is actually dust mites and dust mite feces.
• Every ten years your mattress weight doubles because of an accumulation of dust mites and dust mite feces.

As you sleep in your snugly beds, you are inhaling these contaminants. People with sensitivities, allergies and asthma can be especially susceptible to health problems because of these frightening conditions.

Did you know that the bedroom is one of the filthiest rooms in your home? Thanks to the dust mite contaminants, bacteria and fungi that are alive and well in your sleeping quarters, you and your health may be suffering.

Watch this short video to learn even more:

Convinced? Ready to invest in allergen pillows? I know I am. My family has members with asthmatic symptoms and environmental allergies, so this is particularly interesting when I consider how these bedroom conditions may be harming the health of my loved ones.

Imagine using these pillows and stopping mold, bacteria, fungi, and dust mites from developing in your pillows. These pillows are designed with a filter that keeps them free of germs, bacteria and allergens so you know you will not be breathing these contaminants as you sleep. Liken this filter to a surgical mask and you begin to understand how these pillows work. Even better – there is a 60 day unconditional return available and a ten year warranty on these pillows.

I tend to gravitate toward home remedies and homemade products. Partly because I am frugal, partly because I like the challenge of making great products myself, and partly because I just think that products we make ourselves out of basic and natural ingredients are superior to chemical-laden commercial products. Acne has never been a big problem for us, but I think acne home remedies would be an excellent option for anyone struggling with skin problems.

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day who lives on a small farmette with her husband and five children. She was telling me that she regularly “cleanses” her children (twice a year) to rid them of possible parasites that they probably encounter as they help with chores around the farm. Now, this is nothing like those colon cleansers that you read and see advertised everywhere I don’t think…but it did give me pause to think. We do not live on a farmette, but any kid who plays in the dirt is likely to come into contact with little beasties that want to set up housekeeping in their innards. Something else to think about!

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