Lifestyle Tips
Back to School – Top 10 Tips to Stay Calm, Cool and Collected
Sep 1st
Well, it is “Back to School” time. With sun-kissed vacations a warm memory of the past, along with the change of season and new routines thrust upon us, “Back to School” takes on a very new life of its own. With all of the change coming at us at once, I have always thought that we should change our Gregorian/Civil calendar to one that has the first day of school as the true “New Year”.
Amongst all of these changes, it can be a constant struggle to stay organized and feel like all is under control. But with a few simple tips, it is possible to keep calm, cool, collected and….smiling
1) Get the Kids on Board. Make sure your children (and partners) know what the new routines will be. Get the alarm clocks set and ensure that they understand the school rules, times, and any new courses or classes they are enrolled in. If they know what to expect they will be much more willing to “get with the program”.
2) Meal Plan. Try these easy to implement ideas:
Dinner: For the initial month of September pick a couple of your favourite and easy recipes for dinner meals that are nutrient dense and stick to it. Make things that can be frozen or made ahead of time. Also, those that keep well in the fridge and can be reheated are great options for extending out the dinner meals. Check out the Better Being Recipe section for great ideas.
Breakfast: Opt for a nutrient rich smoothie to jump start everyone’s day. Buy some cups with built in straws and tops so the kids (or YOU) can drink it on the drive in or carry it around the house while getting ready for the day if pressed for time. See the recipe section of this blog for great smoothie ideas.
Lunch: Make the school lunches the night before and have the kids help. If they make their own lunch they are more likely to eat it (or anything else for that matter).
3) Review Children’s School Year . Get the school planner and take the half hour to get it into your own calendar planner or blackberry. That way you will be prepared for key school events and will avoid scrambling for the entire year!
4) Stake a Place. Take the hour or two to organize key items and explain to all in the house why things need to remain (and be put back) into the right location. If the umbrellas are always in the basket in THAT corner, the rainy days will be much easier to deal with. Baskets with taped on headings can save lives (ok , maybe not lives, but definitely sanity!). Also have homework done and set out in ONE place.
5) Checkpoints. Regulate the mornings with timelines (X has to happen by Y) time that are realistic and work for all. Be sure to give the children and slow risers enough time to get ready and prepared. Sometimes that extra 10 minutes of sleep can result in an extra 20 minutes of lateness!
6) Family Calendar. Having everything that relates to key dates on one calendar in the kitchen can help to keep the household all informed.
7) Communicate. Talk to each teacher about what is specific to each child’s term – know when library books come back, any special dates for in classroom events. Also, take the five minutes each night to go through backpacks for school notices so that any special needs for the next day are dealt with at night and not in the morning’s scramble.
Bedtime Booster. Establish a routine for you and the children that is easy to follow. Set out clothes for the following day, get to sleep at the same time and take the time to relax. This will help all to get better sleep which leads to better mornings.
9) Think ahead. Easier said than done! But try to get things done ahead of time so things can flow. For example, set the breakfast table the night before, fill up the car on the way home not on the way TO, buy in bulk for core items and keep the staples stacked.
10) Have FUN. Enjoy what this season truly offers: new beginnings, new routines and a wonderfully refreshing time of the year. No one is perfect so don’t worry if the occasional morning is full of chaos and spilled milk. Try to laugh when wiping it up and just pour another.
Good luck!!
Top 10: Natural Ways to Get Healthier Whiter Teeth
Jun 30th
A nice smile is contagious. Having clean white teeth is a great way to show off the fact that you take good care of yourself. Having white teeth will help give you a more confident smile and make your smile more contagious, If you know of any good teeth whitening tips feel free to share them in the comments below!
- Raw fruits and vegetables are healthy to eat and can also clean your teeth. The extra crunch helps to produce saliva which washes away foods and helps to kill bacteria.
- Vitamin C rich foods (strawberries and lemons) have natural bleaching elements. Mashed up strawberries or lemon peel or orange peel can be placed on teeth for whiter teeth. Be careful to use one time a week as the citric acid can effect tooth enamel. Immediately brush teeth after doing to remove and acid remnants.
- Lay off the red wine, ciggies and coffee as they quickly stain your teeth.
- Cut down on sugars as much as you can. If you do indulge, the make sure afterwards you brush or eat some raw veggies to help clean your mouth.
- Good oral hygiene always starts with the foods you choose to eat. A healthy body is the start of healthy teeth so make wise choices to ensure that your whole being gets the nutrients it needs. Opt for plant based foods and get your daily requirements of carbs, healthy EFA fats (Salba and hemp) and effective proteins.
- Avoid animal protein as much as you can as it is often the cause of bad breath. Animal proteins (versus vegetable proteins like hempseed, Salba or legumes) are highly acidic and require additional digestive acids to be released in your stomach that can result in an acid reflex and an acidic mouth.
- Baking soda is a useful way to keep stain free (great for red wine and coffee leftover reminders). Only use a few times a week as it is abrasive and can r emove enamel if overused.
- A few drops of oregano oil swished around the mouth with warm salt water have medicinal properties and can cut down on bacterial growth.
- You need a good brush so replace every 2 months – that way all of your work brushing is more effective.
- And finally, the no brainer: visit your dentist and get your teeth cleaned professionally at least once a year.
Don’t forget to Smile!
100 Tips to a Better You!
Jun 29th
Here are 100 great tips that I hope will help you promote better being in your life!
After you read this list leave a comment and let us know what you thought of the list.
Have you ever tried any of these tips before? What is your favorite tip?
Enjoy the tips!
- Eat before bed?!? If you have problems falling asleep, eat a handful of walnuts before bed. You are boosting your fiber and essential fatty acids along with the amino acid tryptophan — a natural sleep-inducer.
- A cold and flu trick! Use a pair of cotton socks and a pair of wool socks, soak the cotton socks in cold water, wring them out and then put them on your feet. Put the wool socks on top and then go to bed. This will help get the body fluids draining and moving and decrease congestion or inflammation in the sinuses and head. Who knew hydrotherapy could be done with socks?
- Manage Stress. We all have stress in our lives but identifying that we are stressed is the first step to managing it. Then look for ways to decrease it constructively: deep breathe, have a walk, have some “me time” and eat good food! The world also looks a lot rosier after a good night’s sleep (new mom’s know this one best).
- Build Your Confidence: Identify your abilities and weaknesses together, try to build on them and do the best you can. Don’t worry, nobody around you is perfect so why should you be?
- Make Time for Family and Friends: These relationships, if positive, need to be nurtured. Share life’s joys and sorrows with those close. Invest time and energy in to those who are positive and loving around you.
- Give and Accept Support! Be receptive to help when you need it and put your pride away (superwoman is a fictional character …and who would be caught dead in that outfit?). Know when to ask for help, know when to give it, and most importantly: know when to accept it.
- Be aware of the Money Pit! Financial problems cause stress. Over-spending on our “wants” instead of our “needs” is often the culprit. Ask yourself: what do I really need and why do I need it? “Retail therapy” is expensive and short lived, so opt for something that is a better investment in YOU like a good meal or a brisk walk. Your body and wallet will thank you!
- Volunteer! Being involved in community gives us a sense of purpose and satisfaction that paid work cannot. Sometimes this “reality check” can go a long way in reducing stress and creating happiness.
- Find Strength in Numbers! Sharing a problem with others who have had similar experiences can help you find a solution. Talk it out with friends, family, support groups… or even a cab driver!
- Find a support “blog” on the internet and you will realize that you are definitely not the only one with similar issues.
- Express Yourself! Express your feelings of anger, sadness, joy and fear in constructive ways. Keep a journal of each mood and when sad, angry or fearful reread your “joy journal” for reminders of what happy experiences you have had. What seems terrible today can seem trivial tomorrow.
- Peace: Think about who you are and what makes you really happy. Try to balance what you can and cannot change about yourself. We are often the most critical of ourselves but we all have great skills and attributes and just have to remind ourselves of what they are (keep a journal of them in case you forget!)
- A wholesome thank you! Buy whole foods (whether canned, frozen, or fresh from the farm) and use them in place of processed foods whenever possible. Your body will thank you!
- Don’t be so corny! Try to reduce or eliminate foods and drinks made with corn syrup. Corn syrup is a calorie-dense, nutritionally empty sweetener that studies indicate are worse for the body than sugar! Corn on the cob is great: corn syrup isn’t!
- Green is #1! Try to start each dinner with a mixed green salad. It will help reduce your appetite for higher caloric foods, increase your fibre and water so food can be easily digestible. It will automatically add veggies to your meal and will help flush through everything else to improve bowel movements and a healthier colon.
Inspiring Quotes – Wise Life Lessons
Apr 16th
These are Quotes from Eleanor Roosevelt who was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945 and became an advocate for civil rights. She founded the UN Association of the United States in 1943 to help the UN. She was a delegate to the UN General Assembly from 1945 and 1952 and chaired the committee that drafted and approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
All in all, she was a tough and smart lady. Her wisdom, as expressed decades ago, is still so relevant today!
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You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face…. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
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Life has got to be lived – that’s all there is to it.
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Character building begins in our infancy, and continues until death.
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I think somehow we learn who we really are and then live with that decision.
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Someone once asked me what I regarded as the three most important requirements for happiness. My answer was: “A feeling that you have been honest with yourself and those around you; a feeling that you have done the best you could both in your personal life and in your work; and the ability to love others.”
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Happiness is not a goal, it is a byproduct.
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You always admire what you really don’t understand.
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I’m glad I never feel important, it does complicate life.
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Friendship with oneself is all-important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else.
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No man is defeated without until he has first been defeated within.
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More people are ruined by victory, I imagine, than by defeat.
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In the long run we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.
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The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
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This I know. This I believe with all my heart. If we want a free and peaceful world, if we want to make the deserts bloom and man grow to greater dignity as a human being- we can do it!
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I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.
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Change means the unknown.
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The trouble is that not enough people have come together with the firm determination to live the things which they say they believe.
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Remember always that you have not only the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one.
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Criticism … makes very little dent upon me, unless I think there is some real justification and something should be done.
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No leader can be too far ahead of his followers.
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You can’t move so fast that you try to change [a situation] faster than people can accept it. That doesn’t mean you do nothing, but it means that you do the things that need to be done according to priority.
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No one from the beginning of time has had security.
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I believe that anyone can conquer fear by doing the things he fears to do, provided he keeps doing them until he gets a record of successful experiences behind him.
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What one has to do usually can be done.
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What you don’t do can be a destructive force.
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I could not, at any age, be content to take my place by the fireside and simply look on. Life was meant to be lived. Curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.
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When you have decided what you believe, what you feel must be done, have the courage to stand alone and be counted.
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When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.
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The only man who makes no mistakes is the man who never does anything.
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Do not be afraid of mistakes, providing you do not make the same one twice.
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Every time you meet a situation, though you think at the time it is an impossibility and you go through the torture of the damned, once you have met it and lived through it, you find that forever after you are freer than you were before.
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I believe that anyone can conquer fear by doing the things he fears to do, provided he keeps doing them until he gets a record of successful experiences behind him.
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You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with the best you have to give.
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