Health Advice for Women

For many of my friends and family, the carefree spending and impulse purchases of the last few years will not be a part of their holiday this year. Many are cutting back on the number of toys they are giving their children and on the number of gifts they give to each other. And they are looking for gifts that have a lasting impact. They are looking for gifts that have special meaning rather than just a high price tag or a fancy gadget.

My favorite gift this year that falls into this category is AeroGrow’s indoor gardening appliances. I found the AeroGarden www.aerogrow.com online this year while looking for a gift to give a friend of mine that is a long-time gardener. When the winter months come around, she always bemoans the fact that she cannot get out into her garden. With the AeroGarden, she doesn’t have to wait for spring to appear, she can garden all year-round right in her own kitchen.

AeroGrow touts its product as “The World’s First Kitchen Garden Appliance”, but I think that makes it sound like something you stick under your kitchen sink. In fact, the AeroGarden sits right on your countertop. You can fill it with herbs, flowers, vegetables or greens. There’s a grow light on the AeroGarden that turns it on and off automatically so you can place the garden anywhere you like, and it will still grow. And it only takes a few minutes to set up, so there’s no impossible set of directions to follow or four hours needed to get this gift up and running.

The best part about the AeroGarden is that it truly is the perfect gift for all the people on my list this year. Amy, who likes to cook, will absolutely love having fresh herbs right on her countertop. Doug, who we all tease about his black thumb, will appreciate how easy it is to set up and grow things. And Kate, my environmentalist friend, will appreciate the fact that this is a long-lasting gift – no waste or pollution to think of, and yields hundreds of dollars of herbs.

The only thing I do not like about this product is that I did not discover it for my grandmother. She lived in an assisted living home, and spent much of her time in her own room. Since flowers are proven to increase happiness and overall emotional wellness, this would have been the perfect gift for her. And the products are so small that they do not take up a lot of space, which is important to the elderly in these situations.

So this year, I plan to give a gift that brings year-round joy to those people on my holiday list. No fancy gadgets, no fancy boxes; just a lovely little AeroGarden that provides for flowers, herbs, vegetables or greens. It’s a gift that will make my friends and family smile everyday and think of me. What more could you ask for?

Not that long ago, the term “going green” conjured up thoughts of radical environmentalists going to extremes to save a forest in the name of “The Movement.” Today, however, “going green” means so much more. As individual awareness has grown regarding how behavior affects greenhouse gas emissions or hurts local water supply, home recycling and home energy efficiency has grown from energy efficient light bulbs to entire energy efficiency home conversions.

As an extension of this personal impact awareness, businesses are giving serious thought to how they can “go green” while continuing to make their businesses more efficient. Beyond in-office recycling and re-using coffee cups, companies are searching for solutions that provide the right combination of savings and benefits for both employer and employee, while enabling employers to give some intangible benefits to employees during tight economic times. One such solution is phone and web conferencing.

Phone and web conferencing by companies such as www.webpresentnow.com allows employees to hold virtual meetings from their own offices. It gives them instant access to co-workers, customers and clients without having to travel, thereby eliminating the environmental impact while lowering company costs.  When you consider that a roundtrip flight from New York to Los Angeles emits 2.46 metric tons of CO2 — the greenhouse gas that goes directly into the most sensitive portion of our atmosphere – you realize how much you can make a difference by simply introducing phone and web conferencing into your company culture. [1]

Phone and web conferencing also allows individuals to reduce personal stress and increase productivity by giving them the option to work from home on one or more days a week. Being able to meet virtually wherever they are means they can still hold impromptu meetings or keep recurring ones with ease. Phone or Web Conferencing enables individuals to use their time more efficiently – scheduling and keeping other appointments becomes easier.  Additionally, telecommuting using phone and web conferencing equates to cost savings on vehicle use — less wear and tear on vehicles. The result of using phone and web conferencing is that employees strengthen the work-life balance and, ultimately, companies are able to hire and retain happier, more productive workers.

Environmentally speaking, encouraging staff to use phone and web conferencing has many benefits. Already 12 million employees and another 16 million self-employed people work at home at least one day a month [1]. Collectively, these home-based workers now save the equivalent of 24% of Gulf oil imports and avoid producing 33 million metric tons greenhouse gases a year [1]. Also, according to a report released in April 2008 by the American Electronics Association, if every U.S. worker telecommuted 1.6 days per week, an estimated 1.35 billion gallons of gasoline could be conserved annually.

The positive results that phone and web conferencing make for the environment and in an employees life is something that any company can feel good about. What’s more, shareholders, clients, employees and investors, will feel confident supporting a company that employs such forward thinking, cost efficient and eco-friendly policies.
[1] American Electronics Association Report- April 2008

About the Author:
Heather Bishara lives in South Riding, VA, is a mother of two boys ages 1 and 4 and works as a business consultant for www.tricalyx.com part-time from home.

Can one person save 86,000 barrels of oil in a day. Yes! If every household in the U.S. replaced just one bottle of 25oz petroleum-based diswashing liquid with a plant-derived product we would save 86,000 barrels of oil. This is enough oil to heat and cool 4,900 U.S. homes for a year.

That’s inspiring to think of how much power we have with our purchases! So here’s my challenge to you. Convince one relative or neighbor to do this and ask them to do the same. Don’t just replace your dishwashing liquid, replace your laundry detergent, shampoo, liquid soap, and household cleaners with a plan-derived product! Think of how much oil we will all save then. We could end the oil crisis with our choice of purchases. To top it off, plant-derived products are much more healthy. It’s all I have in my home, in fact there are no products in my home made with petrochemicals. It’s time to move into the 21st century, get rid of those petroleum based products and help save our world!!

I went online and sent my sister a complete array of personal and household products that are plant-derived versus made with petrochemicals. Go to mothernature.com and the shipping is free.

I remember the day that my soon-to-be husband got his first pager. He was so excited to be considered important enough to be given a company pager because, to him, it meant that he was now the new go-to guy - the guy who could be trusted to fix any problem that came up, day or night. He could hardly contain himself!

I, on the other hand, wanted to throw the pager in toilet after its third day on my sweetie’s hip. He had received no less than 25 pages during the few hours we had spent together during these three days. This left me wondering where the line had been crossed between work and home. It also made me think about how I was going to get my fiancé to become more engaged in his life outside of work when he was so unfairly lured by the demands of the people who support his self esteem and who also pay his bills.

What we needed was a work-life balance plan. I had heard of these before, but had never put one together myself. After going through the process, here’s what I have learned:

1. In order to achieve a work-life balance you first need to figure out what really makes you happy. Is it your family? Your friends? Your career? Something else? Take a moment to write down, in order of importance, what really matters to you most. This will help you establish what it is you really want to spend your time on. If something is not on the list or is rated a low priority, you need to give serious consideration to eliminating this item from your life altogether. By sticking to mid-to-high priority items, you can start building a life that you can be proud of and are excited to actively participate in, not one that you are just going through the motions with.

2. Focus on a few activities. Let’s face it. Most of us are extremely over-programmed. Every minute of our lives is taken up with various activities that, at some point, we thought we wanted to participate in. The reality is that some or even most of these activities are just drains on our time. If you are serious about achieving a happy work-life balance, then you need to figure out which activities you just can’t live without and focus solely on them. You’ll be amazed at how much time, stress, and energy you’ll save by whittling your activity commitment down to just one or two really rewarding ones.

3. Learn how to say no. One of the things that gets us into the most trouble with our work-life balance is our inability to say no. As human beings we have empathy for one another and we really do not want to let anyone down. In the meantime, we are letting ourselves down because every time we accept a new responsibility, we are taking time away from our personal priorities. Saying no is not easy and it can takes lots of practice in order to find a way that makes both you and the person you are saying no to feel comfortable with the outcome. But in doing so, you are freeing yourself and your time to focus on things that matter most to you.

4. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Life can be overwhelming, even when we are organized and have our priorities in line. The fact is that everyone needs help sometimes. By not asking for help we are creating more stress in our lives that can be damaging to our overall health. Stress alone can bring on other health issues. As an example, pre-diabetes can be caused by Insulin Resistance-related obesity which, in turn, may be brought on by stress. Various forms of stress release the steroid cortisol and this process may result in weight gain. And we all know that added weight can bring on additional complications like high cholesterol and heart disease.

So what types of things can you do to relieve some of this stress and avoid potential health risks? Ask a neighbor to watch your kids while you go to dinner with your spouse. Or have a neighborhood kid mow your lawn so that you can spend some quality doing something else that you love. The extra effort is worth it as you keep your life and your relationships on track and keep stress down to a minimum.

5. Always have something to look forward to. We all are a little happier when we have a vacation, fun activity or big family gathering coming up on the calendar. Everybody’s work calendar is booked with various activities so why not your home calendar as well? Planning special events will enhance your life by allowing you to keep those personal relationships with friends and family strong. So turn off your cell phone and make the most of these special occasions. You might find that you have more of a skip in your step at work because of it!

I always loved reading the 5 things people can’t live without, i.e. their favorite painting, late model Lexus, house on the beach, etc. For people that have chronic health issues the five things I can’t live without list usually looks a lot different! I’m allergic to just about everything. So being in an environment that doesn’t make we cough, sneeze, itch, and have headaches is something I treasure! You can take away everything I own, just give me a place to sleep and work that is allergy free. Here’s my list of 5 things I can’t live without, I’d love to hear about your list, so leave a comment!

1. No one touches my hepa filter, good air quality is what I live for. Real Goods has my favorite brand of air purifier, Austin Air’s Health Mate Plus. They are around $550 and I have two.

2. Next would be my hikes in the mountains!

3. All the wonderful organic food I’m able to get in Boulder County. Here’s a few places on-line to find organic foods -Kalyx.com Natural Foods Marketplace and MotherNature.com has a great selection of natural products and they offer free shipping! I’ll let you know as I find more great on-line shops.

4. The dry climate here in Colorado.

5. My three colorful kids. Wake me up when they are out of their teens!

What is life balance? Everyone wants life balance, but finding a life where you balance between giving to your family, working, cooking, cleaning, caring for the kids, grocery shopping, laundry, exercise and the list goes on, is not always easy.

One of my favorite quotes is “people do what they want to do”. Tom Saunders said this to me twenty-some years ago and it’s so true. If you really want to have life balance you will find a way to make it happen.

*Drop the unnecessary or unimportant activities in your life, only do what you love and need to do.

*Make time for people and events that give you joy and ask for help when you need it, it’s amazing how people will jump in and help.

*Spoil yourself from time to time and the life balance starts coming back in view.

I used to spoil myself with jewelry every once in a while and lately it’s been shoes The nice thing about shoes is that once you know your size and the brands you like, you can order them on-line…any time of the day! Try Zappos.com or www.shoes.com, I’m sure you’ll find that perfect shoe.

I wasn’t always good at orchids care, it took trial and error just like one learns most things. But to grow orchids and care for orchids, and let’s be precise I grow Phalaenopsis Orchids, you need to have a bit of a green thumb. I say a bit of a green thumb, because I think anyone that loves flowers can learn the the tricks to have your orchids flower for many months and then flower again later in the year. My children tell me I love my orchids more than them. They give me joy and no lip, can you guess I have teenagers! Your first tip is to buy your Phalaenopsis Orchid, I’ve found this variety blooms the most and is the easiest to get to flower often. Find a place for your orchid that gets strong indirect light, usually your kitchen has good light. This is the best tip and you will need to test a few places. Once you find good light for your orchid, that’s half the battle. The next tip is only water once a week, and when you water her, place her under the sink faucet and get her leaves wet and let the water run over the orchid roots for 30 seconds or so. Let her drain and she’s good for another week. Orchids are part of my indoor gardening which brings balance to my life!