Weight Watchers recipes and Success Stories: May 21

Showing posts with label May 21. Show all posts

Getting Rid Of Distractions

This book to the right is important. You will know that by then end of this post.

One of the big things related to planning your day and getting motivated to do things is getting rid of all of those distractions in your head. On a daily basis we apparently think about the same 98% of things that we thought about the day before.

Getting Rid Of Distractions We are living distracted and the worst thing about it is that we are always finding more and more things on the internet to distract us from our goals instead of of simplifying our lives.

I fall into this distraction trap as badly as anyone. I am looking for a new digital camera and must have spent 20 hours researching forums, websites, reviews on Amazon and more.

And again, earlier this month I was looking for a new pair of headphones to listen to movies with and went through the same process. I spent 10 hours deciding what headphones to buy and in the end I spent $23 on ebay for a pair of headphones. All this work is not at all worth the time that we spend.

The main help for many of our distractions is lists.

David Allen of Getting Things Done fame says that your mind will not let go of distractions and ideas and thoughts until you put them somewhere that your mind will trust.

One thing that I do in some parts of my life is to have lists. For this and other blogs I will have a list of post ideas and for around the house I do the same. Some parts of my mind are not always clear though. I do not have all the processes in place.

A process is as important as a list. If you were to move you would have 20 or 30 things that you would have to do between now and the moving day. If you have this process down then it stops your mind of thinking up distractions that may or may not be important for your move.

So in weight loss or health improvement you have a new and important tool here in this post.

First, find all of the things that you think about to do with your new lifestyle and write them down, you can expand on them now or later but the sooner you flesh out ideas of food, exercise, ideas of better fast food, taking up old or new activities the sooner that you can let your mind move on to newer and previously unknown ideas. I use a simple $5 notebook from the grocery store and I am sure this kind of simplicity would work well for you too.

Secondly, go through this list every day to add new items or delete items that were not important in the end. If you accept that you can write things down and realize that the list is not set in stone and items can be deleted later then you will not overthink if something should go on the list or not.

In times when I am overwhelmed with distractions I grab this book and read the notes that I have made in the past and not implemented and I also write down everything that is on my mind. To me this is a great way to stay organized and to not get distracted by some of those things that do not matter as much as my mind sometimes thinks that they are.

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Health benefits of Beer

I would like to start this post just by saying that I know that there are many horrors of alcohol abuse and not just benefits of beer and that there are many reasons why drinking alcohol may lead to an early exit.

But at the same time I just bottled my fourth batch of home made beer, Barons Beer actually, and thought that it would be fun to come up with a great big list of why beer is good for you.

Benefits of beer for all of us

Cancer preventer – A compound found only in hops, which are used to make beer, have been discovered as benefits of beer to prevent cancer.

Of course we all know that hops are an ingredient in beer and therefore Xanthohumol has high hopes of making beer a new anti cancer drug.

Xanthohumol flavinoids have been tested and its use is hoped to be a preventative treatment against prostate and colon cancer and even may be a form of hormone therapy for women.

Getting your vitamins – A friend of mine used to say there is a pork chop in every glass of beer but recent studies show that there is vitamin B6 in beer increases the level of vitamin B6 in a beer drinkers blood which has been shown to decrease the level of homocysteine which increase the chances of heart disease.

Reducing chance of heart disease – another of the benefits of beer is that alcohol drinkers had higher levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, often called the “good” cholesterol, which is a protective form of blood fat.

The alcohol drinkers also had lower levels of fibrinogen, a protein that promotes blood clots, as well as elevated levels of other molecules (platelets) that prevent the clotting and stickiness of blood cells.

Reduction in Kidney stones – A Finnish-U.S. study of beer-drinking, middle-aged men was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology in 1999.

The report stated that an increase in beer consumption may reduce the risk of developing kidney stones. Results showed that there was a 40 percent lower risk of kidney stones in beer drinkers, but the researchers were stumped as to whether the benefits of beer results were due to water, alcohol or hops.

Defying the bad of X-Rays – Beer helps reduce chromosomal damage from radiation exposure thanks to beta-pseudouridine.

According to a study by the Japanese researchers from the National Institute of Radiological Sciences, and the Tokyo University of Science Blood samples were taken from test subjects before and after they had drunk about 630ml of beer.

Apparently, when the samples were exposed to X-rays and other types of radiation, after the subjects had drank the beer their samples showed at least 30% fewer aberrations in the blood cells.

Memory Booster – A Swedish team has shown that mice fed with moderate amounts of alcohol grew new nerve cells in the brain.

The full implications of the Karolinska Institute research – which appears in the International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology – are unclear on the benefits of beer, but Stefan Brene told the BBC:

“We believe that the increased production of new nerve cells during moderate alcohol consumption can be important for the development of alcohol addiction and other long-term effects of alcohol on the brain.”

Slow the Aging Process – In a study published in the March issue of International Immunopharmacology, scientists at Austria’s Innsbruck Medical University found that hops, a key ingredient in beer, affect the production of neopterin, a telltale sign of inflammation, and levels of the amino acid tryptophan (low levels are associated with more inflammation.)

Keeps you Awake – Although there is no caffeine in Beer, beer was found to reduce neopterin production and suppress degradation of tryptophan, according to a study. (Tryptophan is also commonly cited as the reason people feel tired after gorging on Thanksgiving turkey.)

This suppression might be connected with the calming effect of beer,” the researchers note, “since its normalizing effect on the tryptophan balance improves the availability of the ‘happiness hormone’ serotonin.” And who wouldn’t want happiness to be more available?

OK and now a few more benefits of beer from me

Relaxation – This is a good one for almost anyone that has sat on a patio on a spring or summer afternoon. The relaxation and relief of stress is famous for those having a beer even if the conversation always seems to turn to those office politics that get everyone riled up.

Reduces inhibitions – As we all know there are times we wish that we had gotten up and said something, either to those at work or a pretty girl at a bar and for this the alcohol in beer is a very good lubricant to the mind and mouth and will help in those situations where shyness gets the better of us.

Excuse for bad behavior – although there is no link to bad behavior and beer, many people have been known to say or do bad and ridiculous things and in the case where someone had consumed to much beer before this well there is a good excuse just waiting to be used.

So the next time someone looks down their nose at you for the stories that you tell about the night before and the beer that you drank. Come back here and point out that you were just doing the healthy thing there are benefits of beer and having a couple of beers is great.

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7 Ways to Stay More Organized at Home and Work

Do you have a problem staying organized and focused? This is an issue for many people today, at home and on the job.

Adopt the following 7 practices, tips and strategies, and you will find yourself clutter free and focused, organized and more productive.

Let Technology Help You

There are several applications and pieces of software that can keep you organized at home and on the job.

The following apps are some of the most popular for organizing work, handling travel plans, freeing you from text message overwhelm and helping you in other important aspects of your personal and business lives.

GroupMe
Track My Life
Dropbox
CamCard
Expensify
Tripit
Hshtags
MailTime
HabitList
IFTTT
Toodledo
Cold Turkey
ProcrasterApp
CoSchedule
Venmo

List Your Big 3 Every Day

Write down your top 3 tasks for the day. Accomplish or complete these first, before you do anything else.

You will find your productivity soar, and your organizational skills improve.

Do One Thing At a Time

Do you remember a few years back, when multitasking was all the rage. As it turns out, you get more accomplished when you focus on one task at a time.

The human brain works better when it is devoted to one train of thought. Research backs up this belief, showing that multitaskers suffer higher levels of stress and anxiety, and more disorganization as well.

Handle Things Once

Deal with your mail as soon as you take it from your mailbox. Don’t take it inside, lay it down on your desk or counter, intending to deal with it later.

Do the same thing with every physical and virtual object or piece of information you have to deal with. Handle everything one time, and you cut down on the time spent trying to organize your life.

Simplify

Do you really need another purse or pair of shoes? How many sports jerseys are enough?

Do you have too many televisions, smartphones, tablets and computers? How many coffee cups can you drink out of at one time? Take some time to simplify your life. Organization is easier when you have fewer things to deal with.

Learn to Say No

Sometimes organization simply means saying no. The more times you agree to help someone out with a task or chore the more you are putting on your plate.

Just like the last tip, simplifying, learning to say no means fewer obligations and simpler organization.

Clean Your Workstation

Relatively recent research about clutter reveals a simple way to organize your life. Did you know that everything in your field of vision is being processed by your eyes and mind?

You may be consciously writing a report or listening to a conference call. At the same time, your brain is trying to handle any and all visual data that your eyes are processing.

Clear your workstation of everything but the essentials you need to do your job and you will find your ability to stay organized and focused improving.

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