Simple Way To Boost Your Energy

In two weeks many of us will resolve to make significant changes in our lives.  Though we are always admonished to keep the resolutions within reason, we still sometimes bite off more than we can chew.  If your resolution(s) includes healthier living, the following article will help to simplify your efforts and help to make your resolution a reality in your life.  Happy Holidays Everyone :)

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Paula_Antonini

Now that the holiday season is over, you may just now be feeling the effects of how stressful that wonderful (and sometimes frightful) time can be. Awkward family relationships, getting everything just right for everyone else, pressures of finances, all can play a part. So far, the whole 21st century has turned out to be pretty stressful, with all the craziness that's gone on, so the world around you isn't helping. Of course, just the struggles of daily life, like getting the kids to do their homework and keeping the snow swept away can provide their own stress.

Alongside all that, as a professional business person, developer of people and busy mom or dad, it's key to have enough energy to lead a business, manage a household and family, and have some left for taking care of yourself - your health and your personal relationships. After 40 years in sales and sales management, as well as having been a corporate executive with some well-known companies, I am very aware of how frazzled you might be -- at least occasionally.

One of the simplest ways to have the energy you need (and give it to your family) is to be sure to eat right - ensuring all the right nutrients are in the meals you prepare and consume. That can often be a challenge for two reasons:

-knowing what's 'right' is tough with all the confusing information available it's tough to 'prepare' everything when you and your family are constantly on the go, so perhaps a good many meals are prepared by someone else - and while you know that's not the best approach, until you are confident you know what's 'right,' it seems to make more sense.

Good news! There IS a way...

You know the value of focus in your business. By taking that same approach, having a single focus on just one meal a day - arguably the most important one - you can make a significant difference in your energy level for the entire day.

You probably figured out I'm referring to breakfast. What's it look like for you? A diet soft drink and a banana? A sausage-biscuit and cup of coffee? Let's take a minute to see how you can easily upgrade that very important meal to increase energy (and consequently, performance, such as your kids' grades! and your business results!).

To provide energy that will last through to midday, a breakfast should include some protein and low glycemic carbohydrates such as whole grains and fruits/veggies, for sustainable energy.

A simple example of that is a bowl of oatmeal (not instant) with sliced almonds and a banana. To make it even simpler, cook the oatmeal in the slo-cooker the night before, and it's ready when you wake up, so no extra time is involved before a busy day! The almonds provide protein and heart-healthy fat, the oats provide protein and whole grains/complex carbs and the fruit kicks in some fiber, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. Just add a teaspoon of maple syrup and cinnamon (a wonderful anti-inflammatory!) and you are there!

So the next time you shop for breakfast items, put some old-fashioned oats in your cart and start those cold mornings with a warm bowl of big energy! If you're up for a hearty alternative to oats, try this Quinoa (pronounced 'kee-nwah') Breakfast Pudding recipe:

Quinoa is a mild yet flavorful, gluten-free seed that is a complete protein. Of South American origin, it is delicious as a hot cereal, in salads, side dishes, and when served like rice. Related to buckwheat and amaranth, quinoa is a round seed the size of a sesame seed. Increasingly popular because it is high in complete protein, quinoa has a quick cooking time and mild flavor.

INGREDIENTS
1 cup Organic Quinoa, rinsed and drained
2 cups water
1/8 teaspoon Sea Salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup pure maple syrup or agave
2 cups almond milk (I use almond milk, but any such 'milk' works fine)
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 teaspoon pure vanilla
1/2 cup pecans or almonds, chopped

Place the quinoa, water, sea salt and cinnamon in a medium saucepan. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce the flame and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the almond milk and maple syrup. Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes. Turn off the flame and mix in the berries and vanilla. Cover and let sit for 15 minutes to thicken. Place in serving bowls and garnish with the chopped nuts.

For more information about eating for energy and to sign up for the Simply Nutrition FREE newsletter, go to http://www.simplynutrition.org. When you sign up for the newsletter, you will receive a special FREE report that will get your New Year - New You plans off to the right start! As a Holistic Health Counselor, Paula Antonini is a 40-year veteran of Direct Sales and a graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Email her at paula.antonini@gmail.com for more information or to get 2011 started on the right foot nutritionally. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Paula_Antonini

HAPPY - Have A Positive Perception of Yourself

This Video Will Make You Smile

5 Pointers on Keeping a Positive Attitude
By Nan McAdam

I have learned over the years that perception plays a major part in our relationships with others and ourselves.  It plays an intricate role in our careers, the flow of money into our lives, and our enjoyment of our lives.  Maintaining a positive attitude is crucial to the colors we paint the perceptions of our lives.

Have you ever had a goal or dream that moved you so much you could hardly sleep at night?  We start out so excited and motivated by our great idea.  But, we allow ourselves to begin to focus on the negative aspects of them.  Before long, we have relegated our exciting idea to the should have, could have and would have part of our brain.  At that point, our idea is officially dead.

If we don't cultivate our positive attitudes about our idea, we will begin the process of talking ourselves out of it.  We start out with little things, such as doubt that we can even accomplish it.

For instance, when we charge into the world of being an entrepreneur starting our own business, we can start some stinking thinking, such as, it takes too long to make money doing this.  There isn't a quick money fix like there is when we start a traditional job.  Sometimes, we even slide into flawed thinking of telling ourselves that people like us just don't make it big!

Here are a few pointers on how to keep ourselves positive so we can reap the rewards of success in our lives:

BE KIND AND ENCOURAGING TO OURSELVES

Instead of picking out our own faults and hammering ourselves about them, choose to focus on our attributes.  Think kindly of ourselves.  I believe that we are harder on ourselves than on anyone else.  We should be as kind to ourselves as we are to our partners, friends, or even our pets.  Words of encouragement to ourselves is very beneficial for all our endeavors.  If we learn to love ourselves more and are kinder to ourselves we can accomplish unbelievable things.

PLUG INTO DAILY MOTIVATION

The average person drives 12,000 to 25,000 miles per year, which works out to 500 to 1,000 hours per year.  we  can plug in a motivational CD into our car every time we get behind the wheel.  Think how much more motivated and positive we would be!  We could be rolling around in our classroom on wheels.  Learning new things while we keep our positive attitude going.

KEEP LEARNING OUR CRAFT

Knowing more keeps us feeling better about what we are doing.  We can attend seminars and online training sessions in our field of endeavor.  Learn from the experts.  Write to those experts; ask questions, read their books and articles.  Listen to people with proven track records in the areas we are striving to succeed.

HANG OUT WITH THE RIGHT PEOPLE

Did you realize that your income will be the average of the 4-5 people you associate with on a regular basis?  Instead of hanging out with the negative complainers and gossipers, we could choose to hang out with the people that are succeeding and are practicing success habits.

CLARITY AND VISUALIZATION

Clearly defined goals are a must.  We have to have a clear mental picture of what we want our lives to look like.  It is difficult to achieve something if we don't know what it is or what it will look like when it is achieved.

The best time to reach our subconscious minds is to implant our visualized images of our goals first thing in the morning before getting out of bed.  Or, right before falling asleep at night.  Our subconscious minds are more open to programming at those times.  The subconscious mind is activated by affirmations and pictures we feed it in the present tense.

Picture in your mind the situations working out the way you want.  See yourself succeeding.  Some people use vision boards or journals as a good visualization tool.  I know people who keep their vision boards on the ceiling in their bedrooms so they can feast their eyes on the dreams when they first open their eyes!  I keep ours on the bathroom wall across from the toilet.  Be creative!

Keep in mind, all our dreams and goals are unique to each of us.  It is up to each of us to keep striving for them.  After all, when it is all said and done, it is about our own individual successes.  No one can make it happen for us.  We should keep feeding our own personal positive attitude muscle.  Like all muscles, they only get strong when we keep using them.  Let's get out there and exercise them!

Nan has been studying self improvement for over 20 years. She has been involved with two start up companies, from ground zero to profitability. Responsible for hiring and training their sales forces, and ongoing development of sales strategies as the businesses matured. Nan is the author of the popular 7 Day Goal Setting Course, http://www.goalsettingsecrets4u.com. For more articles read Nan's blog: http://www.selfimprovementinformation.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nan_McAdam

Give Smiles For the Holiday

We spend most of our time rushing here and there to complete various personal and business related tasks.  Counting time with family sometimes as a rare luxury.

During this season of love and light, Let's slow down and share joy, create lasting memories and honor family traditions.  The legacy of strong families is one that CANNOT be lost.  Strong families build strong neighborhoods. Strong neighborhoods make strong cities...

A wonderful project this holiday would be to create a unique holiday greeting for family and friends. Elf Yourself These greetings always bring smiles to the recipient. The grandkids can show their grandparents some new computer skills while working together to create a unique holiday greeting.  The youngsters are always able to help me with computer functionality :)

I hope that Peace and Love are the guests that come to your home and never leave :)
My Gift To You :)

You Can Do Anything - Check out On-line "How-to" Videos

I had a conversation with a friend last week.  She was telling me that she would love to decorate cakes but didn't really have time in her busy schedule to attend formal classes.  I suggested that she go on-line and find a "how-to" video on cake decorating.  This tool would allow her to watch the video on her schedule and also help her to determine if cake decorating was really something she wanted to commit time to.

How-to videos can be found on just about any subject on the planet.  With the holidays approaching, How-to videos can help a non-cook get rave reviews on the meals THEY prepare, being able to watch videos during the entire process.  Bake a Turkey. From appetizers to dessert, name it and you can find a video for it.

Want to decorate your home like a professional...there's a video.
Build a Color Pallette for Your Home

Want to get over your fear of public speaking...there's a video.
10 Public Speaking Tips

Want to learn how to take care of a house plant...there's a video.
How to Care for Houseplants

Did I mention that these videos are free?  We LOVE free!  You will find below just some of the sites that offer How-to Videos.  Happy viewing and learning.

You Tube
How Cast How-to Videos
Monkey See How-to Videos
Video Jug How-to Videos

For the New Blogger - Search Engine Optimization

I am a new blogger.  It's not only easy to do, but it's a lot of fun.  Presently, I am attempting to increase traffic to my blog. In researching search engine optimization I found the following article by Sean R. Mize.  It was helpful to me so I'd like to share it with you.  

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sean_R_Mize

I am writing this article for those people who are considered newbies in the field of SEO writing. You see, I was once in your shoes. Back then, I was very desperate to find in-depth information as to how I can do the process right. Good thing there were people who were more than happy to help me learn the whole process. Now, it's payback time. Let me share with you the things I've learned in 5 years of writing my SEO articles. These are the following:

Work together with SEO experts. One of the most important things that I've learned is that the requirements of major search engines (particularly Google) can change any minute and they do not make announcements about these changes. It will really help if you maintain an open communication with other SEO experts. Join them regularly on SEO blogs and forums. In here, they usually share what they've tried and what worked when they're pulling their page ranking. I am sure you'll benefit from knowing what they know.

Explore new topics. Both search engines and online users do not care about old topics. Why would they waste their time on something that they already know, anyway? If you want to capture their attention, you better give them something fresh. I suggest that you explore new topics related to your niche. Its better if you're the first and the only one writing about these specific topics as it will surely lead to instant recognition.

Learn different white hat SEO techniques. Contrary to popular beliefs, writing SEO articles isn't all about stuffing your content with a lot of keywords. Optimizing your articles means using several different approved SEO techniques to make them more valuable to the eyes of search engines. Research these techniques and make sure that you use them the next time you plan to write new articles.

Produce 100% unique content. If you think that there's a possibility that you can get away with copying other's work, you better think again. Google and other search engines are now using more sophisticated technology that can easily determine if your articles were copied from other online resources. If you don't want to get slapped with complaints and if you don't want to put your ebusiness in jeopardy, you better make sure that each article you use is 100% unique.

Offer useful, in-depth information. Search engines will surely appreciate it if you do your part in giving online users great learning experience. Exert more effort and put in more time when doing research and when writing your articles. Ensure that they're exceptionally informative. Your readers should walk away with "AHA" look on their faces. If you do this, your articles will become more popular in the online arena and you will surely not have a hard time securing better rankings from Google.

By the way, do you want to learn more about using articles like this to drive traffic to your website and increase online conversions? If so, I suggest you check this out: article marketing traffic. Do you want to learn how to build a big online subscriber list fast? Click here: Secrets of List Building

Microsoft's Xbox 360 Kinect - A Gift for the Entire Family

Xbox 360
Kinect

I confess...I don't get enough exercise.  I think I worked out for a total of 5 minutes last week. Tell the truth, shame the devil. But, at 52 years old, I am changing my attitude about moving my body.  Exercise sounds so hard, moving is a more fluid concept.

I saw a brief demonstration of Microsoft's new Kinect system for the Xbox 360.  I was immediately impressed.  It's FUNtionality takes the boredom out of the normal workout and gets you in motion. Kinect's technology uses full body motion capture, making joysticks obsolete.

The Kinect also uses voice recognition and will respond to voice commands to, for example, change viewing channels. One less remote control device, Whoo Hooo!!! One less thing to lose. :)

Kinect is also, a wonderful tool for bringing the family together.  Kids will surely want to challenge their parents, giving everyone involved a chance to relax, laugh, and create precious memories. During these challenging economic times, families are trimming their budgets and searching for ways to be entertained at home. Kinect would be a perfect addition to your home's entertainment system.

Kinect is so much more than a gaming system.  It's the new world of entertainment technology. Please click the following links for information on the excitingly new Xbox 360 - Kinect.

Xbox Kinect - Get Started

Best Buy Kinect Video

I have been told if you want something, ask for it, so I'd like both the Xbox and Kinect.  Santa, I sure hope I'm on the nice list, even though sometimes I was a little naughty. ;)
Great news for current Xbox 360 owners.  Kinect is compatible to all versions of Xbox.

Taco Bell XXL Chalupa - From Fast Food to Delicious Casserole

I admit it. I am a junk food LOVER. Yes, I try to make good food choices most of the time, but sometimes I succumb to my cravings.  So, "Food Police" I understand your concerns, but every now and then... Hey, I added fiber by the including brown rice and beans in the recipe. I'm just saying, no need to leave a comment about the fat and sodium content.  That's not what this is about. Believe me, I will balance this post with a healthy recipe.  Stay Tuned.

I recently tried the new Taco Bell XXL Chalupa and found it to be surprisingly tasty. Considering myself to be a boot-legged Food Network Chef, I came up with a recipe for a mexican casserole, using the Chalupa as the base. I kept the recipe simple, using items normally found in your pantry, it also took very little time to prepare, which is helpful for the busy Mom.  Prepare it, put it in the oven and help the kids with their homework.

My Mom, whom I use as my taste-tester, gave the dish two thumbs up, so I know that my recipe is good enough to share with You. I really think that this will be a hit with the kids. Served with a salad and you've got a pleasing meal.


Hey, Taco Bell, can we get a chicken version of the XXL? I know some people that don't eat beef that would love this dish. 

 XXL Chalupa Casserole

1 bag of Brown boil-in-bag rice

3 XXL Chalupas, no lettuce (unless you like warm lettuce)
   For the non-beef eater the Grilled Chicken Enchilada can be used instead of the Chalupa

1 can refried beans (or black beans, drained)

1 small can chopped green chilis (heat intensity is your choice)

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp cumin

1 C salsa (heat intensity is your choice)

1 1/2 C shredded Mexican Cheese

Preheat over 350 degrees.

Prepare rice according to directions on package.  Drain.  In a large bowl, combine rice, beans, chilis, chili powder and cumin. Mix well.

Spray casserole dish with cooking spray.  Place Chalupas in dish side-by-side.  Spread rice/bean mixture over Chalupas.  Pour salsa evenly over rice/beans.  Sprinkle cheese over salsa. (see photos below)

Bake for 35 minutes or until well heated.  

Makes 4-6 servings. Enjoy.