Keeping Your Idenity

When identity thieves go through the garbage of potential victims, the only tools they need are a pair of gloves and a flashlight. They wait until it is dark and then start looking for any documents that have not been shredded.

It is important to destroy (tear or shred) all personal information before discarding it. What you throw away can come back to haunt you.

Identity thieves are looking for...

Credit card receipts: Many businesses no longer print the entire credit card number on receipts, but some still do. Check your receipt very carefully. Do not leave it behind if it lists your credit card number.

Financial statements: Any statements that contain your account number and SIN must be shredded.

Preapproved credit card applications: An identity thief can retrieve these applications from your trash, send it in with the address changed, and received the new cards in your name, based on your credit. After receiving your card, he charges items to its maximum and then tosses the card. You are left with the bill.

Cut Clutter

According to Brooks Palmer, author of Clutter Busting, you can't organize until you toss the clutter. Here are some of his tips:

• Toss out anything that is broken, that can't be fixed, or that you won't take to be fixed. According to Palmer, broken things cause disorder in the home. They spread, like a crack in the windshield of a car that eventually spreads across the entire windshield.

• Limit your CDs or MP3 albums to fewer than a hundred. Keep only the music that you will actually listen to now.

• Toss anything that makes you feel that the past is more special than right now. That gives you the feeling that life will never be as good as it once was. I like the following statement: The past is as insignificant as old dishwater.

• If you find yourself defending the object because of how much it cost you, it's clutter.

• If it doesn't fit anymore, physically or psychologically, let it go.
  

Getting Pretty Healthy

In their book, Live a Little: Breaking the Rules Won't Break Your Health, Dr. Susan Love and Alice Domar take on the health police and provide women with more realistic wellness goals. The authors discuss many of the prescribed health "rules" that have very little scientific backing.

I found it refreshing to learn that Dr. Susan Love did not start a fitness program until age 50. She has no regrets regarding this late start; she spent her younger days doing research, working with breast cancer patients, writing books, and raising a family.

Dr. Love designed the following quiz to assess a woman's fitness level:

1. Are you able to walk for one mile in twenty minutes or less?
2. Can you jog a mile without stopping?
3. Can you stand on one foot and maintain your balance for thirty seconds?
4. Sit in a chair. Can you stand up without using your arms?
5. Can you lift and carry two grocery bags--one in each hand?

Anyone who is able to answer yes to every question demonstrates basic levels of cardiovascular fitness, strength, and balance. YOU ARE PRETTY HEALTHY!!

On a personal note...

I was able to answer yes to four of the above questions. I need to work on #2.

Dieting on a Budget

Eating at the appropriate times throughout the day will help us maximize fat burning and keep hunger at bay.

In her book, The Hormone Diet, Dr. Natasha Turner provides a number of easy-to-implement suggestions that can help us stabilize blood sugar balance and boost the hormones that burn fat and control appetite.

• Eat every 4 to 5 hours. It doesn't matter whether you eat 3 meals and a snack or 4 smaller meals.
  

• Eat within 1 hour of rising and never within the 3-hour period before bedtime.

• Stick to eggs or why protein smoothies for breakfast and you will eat less throughout the day. Eat your starchy carbs at lunch, dinner or after your workouts.

• Try cardio first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. If you can manage it, try doing a 30-minute cardio workout first thing in the morning before breakfast. This could help kick-start your metabolism.
  

• Always eat within 45 minutes of finishing your workout.

• Never do your weight training on an empty stomach. You will need energy from your foods to perform optimally.

• Eat the protein on your plate first to help speed the signal to the brain that you are full.

• If you have alcohol or wine, do so after your meal to enhance the hormones involved in appetite control and digestion.
  

All About Yogurt

I get most of my calcium from yogurt. It contains between one-third and two-thirds the amount of lactose found in milk. This makes it easily digested for those of us who have lactose intolerance.

Yogurt goes with everything--consider the following ways to add yogurt to your daily diet.

Fruit Smoothie: Combine 1/2 cup plain yogurt with 1/2 cup diced ripe fruit. Add one or two ice cubes and puree in a blender.

Yogurt Shake: Blend 1/2 cup fruit-flavoured, frozen non-fat yogurt with 1/2 cup low-fat milk until creamy.

Cucumber Dip: Peel, seed, and dice a large cucumber and combine with 1 cup plain yogurt, salt, pepper, and chopped fresh herbs. Serve as a dip for vegetables.

Mild Salsa: Mix 1/2 cup plain yogurt with 1 mashed ripe avocado, 1 diced tomato, and chili powder to taste. Serve as a dip with tortilla chips.

Garnish: Top cold cucumber soup with plain yogurt and minced chives.

Half-Full or Half-Empty?

Positive beliefs come from you. You may not be able to control what happens to you, but you can control how you will respond. You can choose to be optimistic and upbeat and see the glass as half-full. Or, you can be pessimistic and unsure and see the glass as half-empty.

I enjoyed reading these half-full/half-empty perspectives from the website www.businessballs.com.

• The engineer says the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

• The bar fly says it's not about whether the glass is half-full or half-empty, it's about who is paying for the next round.

• The consultant says let's examine the question, prepare a strategy for an answer, and all for a daily rate of ...

• The worrier frets that the remaining half will evaporate by tomorrow.

• The fanatic thinks the glass is completely full, even though it isn't.

• The entrepreneur sees the glass as undervalued by half its potential.

• The computer specialist says that next year the glass capacity will double and will cost half the price.

• The Buddhist says don't worry, remember the glass is already broken.

• The personal coach knows that the glass goes from full to empty depending on the circumstances and reminds the drinker that he/she can always fill the glass when he/she wishes.
  

Sharing Recipes--Anti-aging Smoothie

Ingredients

1 serving vanilla why protein powder
1/2 cup raspberries
1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 cup sliced strawberries
1/4 cup blackberries
1 cup water
1 tbsp ground flaxseed

Procedure

• Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend at high speed until smooth.
• You may use 1 1/2 cups of a frozen four berry mixture instead of adding the four berries separately.

Source: The Hormone Diet by Dr. Natasha Turner