Image: Michelle Meiklejohn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

When you see blueberries on the box,
do you believe there are really
blueberries inside?

Check the ingredient list
to find out what’s REALLY
in your food.

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Ads and commercials are more prevalent than ever. I remember reading that at some point, commercials will be incorporated right into TV programs. And to some extent they are. I’m guessing that companies must pay big bucks to have a can of Coke or a box of Tide visible in a movie.

I’ve noticed that on the local news and The Weather Channel, the forcast is brought to you by XYZ company. And often there’s a company logo somewhere on the screen.

I’ve gotten used to waiting for a commercial before I view a video online. I don’t like it and I try not to watch it. But, I can’t figure out how to get around it.

Today, I found a new way for companies to advertise. I entered my username and password to login to a site. Then, I had to ”please verify you are human by following the instructions in the below graphic.” Below the instruction was an image with an ad. The captcha code was at the bottom of the image. And to add insult to injury, the captcha code pertained to the ad. But, at least I could read it. Some of the captcha codes are so cryptic, they’re impossible to interpret.

So, what’s next? We’re being bombarded with ads everywhere we look. And maybe we don’t even consciously see every ad. Do you ever wonder why you grab one product off the shelf instead of another? Could it be the subliminal effect of all this advertising?

What have you noticed about advertising today? Leave a comment with the most clever … or the most annoying advertising you’ve seen.

The 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.

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!

The Facts

• Over 28 million Americans have some form of joint-related issue.
• In a recent clinical study, researchers found that chondroitin sulfate interferes with glucosamine absorption. New Advanced Joint Health Complex* is 100% chondroitin free.
• For every pound you gain, you add four additional pounds of pressure on your knees and six additional pounds of pressure on your hips. These additional pounds can put extra strain on your joints.

New Advanced Joint Health Complex* contains a patent-pending, fast-acting form of Boswellia extract that has been shown in a clinical study to improve joint comfort in as few as 5*† days—up to 28% faster than claimed by a leading brand! And now you only have to take two a day.

This scientifically formulated blend also contains the most concentrated form of glucosamine. Glucosamine is clinically proven to:

• Promote mobility*
• Enhance flexibility*
• Improve joint function*
• Support long-term joint health*

†The specific form of Boswellia extract used in New Advanced Joint Health Complex* has been shown in a clinical study to improve joint comfort in as few as 5 days.

Resources to help you learn about new Advanced Joint Health Complex*.

• Bulletin
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Watch the video
• Buy Now

Try new Advanced Joint Health Complex and feel better or your money back.
I take just 2 in the morning and I’m ready for the day.
I highly recommend new Advanced Joint Health Complex.

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

I’m always looking for ways to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. So, I was thrilled to find a website selling glass straws. What a great idea!

And right now, you can get one for free. Just write a short essay 100-200 words or create a short YouTube video and email it to Glass Dharma by Earth Day, April 22, 2012. The first 1,000 entries will receive a free Glass Dharma glass straw.

I just got mine and I love it already. I was concerned that it would be fragile. Maybe it wouldn’t even survive the shipping. But, you can see from the image that it was very well packed in biodegradable paper … no plastic. And the glass straw is thick and heavy. It’s not going to easily break.

Look close at the photo. The glass straw is in front of the brown box.

The straw was in a long, narrow cardboard box. That box fit into the larger, white box. Also included in the box was a coupon for 15% off to “expand your personal straw collection.”

Why would I need more than one? Browsing thru the Glass Dharma catalog, I learned why I would want others.

• One for each family member.

• Great gift idea.

• They come in different diameters.

• Colored dots make glass straws look festive, color code your drinks and keep the straw from rolling.

If you need ideas for your essay, here’s what I wrote …

Ready to enter?
All the details are at: 1000 Free Glass Straws for Earth Day 2012

Have you ever used a glass straw?
Did you enter an essay to get one of 1,000 free glass straws?
Leave a comment with your glass straw experience.

Yesterday was a busy day. I attended a morning conference call and logged into my weekly team meeting webinar in the evening. In between and long into the night, I worked on taxes, feeling pressured by the approaching deadline. There were also assorted calls and emails from family, friends, customers and distributors. I checked the links on my blog and realized one was broken. I’m still working with field support, hoping they can fix the problem.

In the middle of all of this, the phone rang and I answered without looking at caller ID. A pleasant young lady told me she was with the largest travel agency in the country, Specialty Travel. They sold a $2,000 vacation package almost 2 years ago that was never used. It’s a one week trip to Orlando, Florida including the hotel, tickets to Disney World and other attractions, and discounts for food, shopping and entertainment.

It was the grand prize in some contest or drawing that I won. She said the notice was mailed and I probably threw it away, thinking it was junk mail. But, the vacation is real and she’s authorized to reactivate the vacation package. All I need to do is pay $149 for each person.

Now, I don’t believe this for a minute. So, when she asked me to hold on and she’ll verify the vacation package, I was ready to hang up. But, the next person on the phone was a man. He was pleasant, but I busted him. When he asked how I was doing, I told him, “Good enough to make it from the girl who finds leads to the closer.” He told me I was exactly right. I said, “Good bye” and hung up.

Here’s the scam …
I see a couple of possibilities. Maybe they would have awarded me the vacation package for $149 per person, but there would have been add ons that probably cost more than the trip is worth. And the accommodations would probably be inferior or maybe even non-existent.

Or maybe there’s no trip at all. Maybe they just want my credit card information. Then, they can charge the card to the limit and maybe beyond. Or they may sell my credit card info. Then, I’d be dealing with credit card fraud and identity theft.

When I got off the phone, I did a little research online.  The number on my caller ID was 903-122-9053.  A Google search found a number of websites where people have posted information about that number.   No one had anything good to say.  The number may not even be a legitimate number.  Some telemarketer scammers know how to make a fake number appear on your caller ID.

So, what can you do to protect yourself?

• Register your phone numbers with the Federal Trade Commission’s Do Not Call Registry.
This makes it illegal for most telemarketers to call you.  Not all telemarketers run their phone lists thru the FTC’s database, but the legitimate ones do.  It will cut down considerably on the number of calls you get.  And if a telemarketer calls, it’s more likely that it’s a phone scam.

• Never give personal information.
That includes name, address, social security number, bank and credit card information. And don’t tell anyone if you’re home alone.

• Listen to that little voice inside you. Don’t believe the pitch even if you think it’s legitimate. And don’t be fooled with an emotional story about a charity. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

• Look at caller ID before answering the phone.
Don’t answer if you don’t recognize the name and number. I’ve noticed that many telemarketing calls I get don’t identify a person or company.  The caller ID shows a location, very often a city and state. Today’s call was from “Texas Call.”

Resources:

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI): Common Fraud Schemes

Do telemarketers call you?  Have you ever been scammed?
Leave a comment and tell your story.

As caretakers of the earth, we’re responsible for our family and so much more. The choices we make and the things we do, can have far reaching effects. Chemicals we use in our homes. Pesticides that are sprayed on our fruits and vegetables. Hormones and antibiotics that are in our meats and dairy products. They all go somewhere. And they end up in the soil, the rivers, lakes and oceans. We can make a difference by keeping the chemicals out of our environment.

Here’s a site we don’t often get to see. Penguins being penguins.
Keep them safe. Use non-toxic cleaning products.

Frozen Planet airs tonight at 8:00 pm on Discovery Channel.

To switch views, click the “Multiview” button in the gray bar above.
Watch the penguins on land or in the water.
This is live streaming video from SeaWorld San Diego
This video cam is available March and April 2012.

WARNING: Penguin Cam can be addicting!

Do you watch other animal cams? What’s your favorite?
Add a comment with the link and let me know.

Digital Catalog
The products are always safe, always green and always work. Guaranteed.

I’ve been in direct sales for years. I think of it as a personal enrichment program with commissions. One of the things I keep working on is my WHY. Why am I doing this business? The easy answer is “for the money.” But, that’s just the obvious. There’s so much more to it when I dig deeper. I think money was my why when I started. Then, it was the things money can buy.

But now, I’m thinking past the material things. I’m searching for a new why. I’ve watched my customers and distributors improve their health. Maybe my new why has something to do with wellness. I’ve also thought about starting a foundation or partnering with a charity. I’m looking for my purpose in life and a way to make a difference in the world.

As I was researching this online, I ran across a video by Simon Sinek called “How Great leaders Inspire Action.” It explains WHY we all need a passionate why and how businesses like Apple use it.

Do you have a strong WHY?
What are you doing to leave your mark in the world?
Do you have any suggestions?
If you’re willing to share, post your why in a comment.

It’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 …

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.