Health Talk Today

Holidays and Events

New Year’s Resolutions Revisited

2012 GlassesThe new year held so much promise. A new beginning … New dreams … New goals. We could start fresh in 2012, so we gave it lots of thought and decided on a New Year’s resolution. Odds are it was one of the top ten New Year’s resolutions.

It’s the end of April and many New Year’s resolutions are long forgotten. How are you doing with yours?

Lose Weight and Get Fit
With all the weight loss products and systems, why can’t we lose weight and keep it off? Athletes know the secret: It’s leucine. Leucine helps you keep muscle while you lose weight. And since your metabolism is in your muscles, you lose the weight and keep it off. Stop the vicious diet cycle. Losing weight can be a Cinch!

Quit Smoking
Smoking is the number one preventable cause of death in the United States. There’s no good reason to smoke and every reason to quit. My Top 10 Reasons to Quit Smoking and links to resources to help you quit.

Learn Something New
Great for brain health. Take a class, learn to dance, volunteer at church or a hospital. These are just a few suggestions. The possibilities are endless.

Eat Healthy
Goodbye pizza, chips and Coke. Hello broccoli, apples and green tea. You don’t have to do it all in one day. I believe that continuing to make little changes adds up to a big difference over time. Make one little change today. I love salad. Make it interesting, add a protein and you have a healthy meal.

Get Out of Debt and Save Money
If you spend more than you earn, you’re heading in the wrong direction. The sooner you balance your spending to your income, the sooner you can start saving for larger purchases, vacation, children’s college and retirement. Make a plan and stick with it. You can Calculate your way back to financial health.

Spend More Time with Family
The number one regret people have is spending too much time working. While you’re at the office or the factory, the children grow up and sometimes spouses grow apart. You wonder where the years went. But, you can never get them back. It took me many years to realize that not everyone works 60-80 hours a week at a job. What If you could work from home, be your own boss and be there for your family?

Travel to New Places
Vacation in a distant land or close to home. There are many places in all price ranges. Even a weekend getaway can be fun and exciting.

Be Less Stressed
Suggestions: Deep breathing, meditation, yoga and Baroque music are all ways to de-stress. You may not be able to change what happens during the day, but you can change your reaction to it.

Volunteer
When you can see past your own life, you see a bigger picture.

Drink Less Alcohol
At a party, make every other drink non-alcoholic. If you have a glassful of sparkling soda with a slice of lemon or lime, you cut your calories and alcohol in half. At home, try drinking out of a smaller glass or have one less drink. Drink slowly and enjoy every sip.

Marilyn Kvasnok

Earth Day 2012

Earth Day 2012 Video
Earth Day History

The first Earth Day was April 22, 1970. Gaylord Nelson, a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, was concerned with the environment after the 1969 massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. Twenty million people celebrated that first year.  Today over 500 million people participate in Earth Day events.

How Can You Celebrate Earth Day?

• There are many Earth Day events planned … or plan your own.

• Learn to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

• Only use non-toxic, green cleaners that are safe for your family, your home and the planet.

How dangerous can chemical cleaners be? Just take a look at these statistics.

• Over 90% of poison exposures happen at home.

• Common chlorine bleach is the #1 household chemical involved in poisoning.

• Organic pollutants, found in many common cleaners and even air fresheners, are found at levels 2 to 5 times higher inside your home than out.

• A person who spends 15 minutes cleaning scale off shower walls could inhale three times the “acute one-hour exposure limit” for glycol ether-containing products set by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.

• Common cleaners give off fumes that can potentially increase the risk of kids developing asthma, the most common chronic childhood disease.

• 1 in 13 school-aged children has asthma. Rates in children under five have increased more than 160% from 1980 – 1994.

• Children are highly vulnerable to chemical toxicants. Pound for pound of body weight, children drink more water, eat more food, and breathe more air than adults. The implication of this is that children will have substantially heavier exposures than adults to any toxicants that are present in water, food, or air.

• If your home is anything like the average U.S. home, you generate more than 20 pounds of household hazardous waste each year (the EPA designates toilet cleaners, tub and tile cleaners, oven cleaners, and bleach as hazardous waste).

Resources:

•To find out what’s lurking on your shelves, go to the National Institutes of Health Library of Medicine Household Products Database. You can search almost any brand of cleaner you use, find out what’s in it, and uncover its links to health effects. Or search by chemical  ingredients (see list below for some examples) and discover what brands contain it. The information may shock you.

Chemical ingredients to look out for:
Sodium hydroxide
Hydrochloric acid
Butyl cellosolve (2-Butoxyethanol)
Formaldehyde
Bleach (sodium hypochlorite)
Ammonia
Sulfamic acid
Petroleum distillates
Sulfuric acid
Lye (potassium hydroxide)
Morpholine

• Watch the Toxic Brew Video.

• I recommend Shaklee’s Get Clean products.

Celebrate Earth Day every day!

Marilyn Kvasnok

Super Bowl Party Tips

Super Bowl XLVIIt’s estimated that 155,000,000,0000 calories will be consumed on Super Bowl Sunday.

Courtyard by Marriott is the official hotel sponsor of the NFL. The results of their Super Bowl Study were not so surprising. If you want your party to be a success, just stick with the basics …

  • 61% of U.S. Super bowl fans want potato chips and dip, the most popular snack at Super Bowl parties.
  • 55% chose pizza.
  • 41% want nachos.
  • 38% are planning sub sandwiches.
  • 37% love barbecue chicken and barbecue ribs.
  • 35% voted for fried finger foods.
  • 32% will be eating burgers.
  • 28% thought vegetables or other (probably healthy) snacks were an option.

Now that adds up to way more than 100%, so I’m guessing no one wants just one snack. So, how do you please your party-going crowd, but still stay sensible? Here are some suggestions …
Super Bowl XLVI

Eat healthy and sensible before and after the party.

  • Don’t go to the party so hungry that you’ll eat everything in site.
  • Eat sensibly the day before and the day after the party. Then, average your calories over the 3 days.
  • Drinking meal replacement shakes the day before and after the party are a smart way to balance out the party food.

Portion control.

  • Use a smaller plate. It’ll look like a plateful with much fewer calories.
  • Eat slowly. Let your brain catch up with your stomach to tell you when you’re full.
  • Snack on fruits and raw veggies. It’ll keep you crunching.
  • Splurge on small portions of the party foods you REALLY love.

Socialize

  • Parties are a great time to catch up with old friends and meet new ones.
  • Move around the room, greeting and chatting.
  • Don’t plant yourself at the buffet table where it’s easy to just keep eating.

What are your favorite party tips? Leave a comment with your favorite tip.

Marilyn Kvasnok

45 Life Lessons and 5 to Grow On

One of my favorite sayings is, “Life’s good … and I’m paying attention.” This is my New Year’s Resolution … Remembering that life IS good and not letting the days just slip by – one after another. Each day is special and I want to pay attention.

Regina Brett is a columnist for my hometown newspaper, The Cleveland Plain Dealer. I recently ran across her article from May 28, 2006 titled Brett’s 45 life lessons and 5 to grow on.” I’m posting it here to share with all my readers. But, I’m also posting it so I can read it often throughout the year.

Regina Brett

Following is Regina Brett’s column written on May 28, 2006 …

To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me.

It is the most-requested column I’ve ever written. My odometer rolls over to 50 this week, so here’s an update:

1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

4. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.

8. It’s OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.

12. It’s OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don’t compare your life to others’. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don’t worry; God never blinks.

16. Life is too short for long pity parties. Get busy living, or get busy dying.

17. You can get through anything if you stay put in today.

18. A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.

19. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Overprepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: “In five years, will this matter?”

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive everyone everything.

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do.

35. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.

36. Growing old beats the alternative – dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood. Make it memorable.

38. Read the Psalms. They cover every human emotion.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.

41. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

42. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.

43. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

44. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

45. The best is yet to come.

46. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

47. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

48. If you don’t ask, you don’t get.

49. Yield.

50. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.

From now on, every time I say “Have a good day” I’m going to mean it. How about you? Leave a comment with your favorite life lesson.

Marilyn Kvasnok

Good Bye to 2011


Post a comment with your favorite and worst moments of 2011.

Marilyn Kvasnok

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