Yep….

“Not until the pain of the same is greater than the pain of change will you embrace change.”
— Dave Ramsey

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Self-esteem

“Self-esteem is the immune system of the mind and of the spirit.” -Lee Pulos

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Prescription sleep aids tied to increased risk for death, cancer

(CBS News) Millions of Americans are prescribed sleeping pills to help them get a good night’s rest. But according to a new study, the popular pills may significantly raise the risk of dying – even if they’re not taken often.

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The study found people who took 18 sleeping pills or fewer per year had more than 3.5 times higher a risk for death than those who didn’t take any sleeping pills. What’s more, people taking more than 132 sleeping pills per year were at five times higher risk for death and 35 percent higher risk for cancer.

“We are not certain. But it looks like sleeping pills could be as risky as smoking cigarettes,” study author Dr. Daniel F. Kripke, professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, told WebMD.

For the study researchers tracked more than 10,500 people who were prescribed sleeping pills for an average of 2.5 years between 2002 and 2007. Prescribed sleeping pills included Restori, Ambien, Intermezzo, Lunesta, Sonata, barbiturates; and sedative antihistamines. The researchers compared survival among these patients with that of 23,500 people matched for age, sex, lifestyle factors, and underlying health problems who did not take sleeping pills.

One of the study authors said the research has caused him to change his sleeping pill habits. “Since we started trying to qualify the results of this analysis about a year ago, I’ll tell you, my prescription bottle for Ambien has sat on the shelf unopened.”

Read the full story here: CBS News

Conversely, according to WedMD, in most cases, melatonin (a hormone in your body that drops with age) taken in supplementation is safe in low doses for short-term and long-term use. Melatonin is used to treat jet lag or sleep problems like insomnia. Scientists are also looking at other good uses for melatonin, such as treating seasonal affective disorder (SAD), helping control sleep patterns for people who work nights, reducing problems with sleeping after surgery and reducing chronic cluster headaches.

It may be that melatonin when taken as a supplement, can stop or slow the spread of cancer, make the immune system stronger and slow down the aging process.

Read the full article here: WebMD

The melatonin product I use and recommend is Pure Rest , a pharmaceutical grade supplement manufactured by USANA Health Sciences.

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Stick this on the bathroom mirror….

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Advise from Bob

The age old quote that has been attributed to everyone from Lao Tsu to Ben Franklin goes, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” If you want a different outcome, change the actions that are stopping you from achieving your goal.

Here is one of my favorite motivational videos to help you. Lighten up and enjoy!

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Americans seem to know but……

A new report shows that, despite knowing what constitutes a healthy diet, American’s rarely eat a diet consistent with the principles outlined by the new Federal Dietary Guidelines.


FoodPyramid

Recently the USDA Food Guide Pyramid was replaced as the government’s method of portraying a healthy diet.  The graphic interpretation of the new federal dietary guidelines is now called MyPlate, and depicts a plate with quadrants, half of which are fruits and vegetables, and the other quarters being proteins and grains.  The dairy group is portrayed by a glass aside the plate.

New recommendations are simplified and include the following: Balancing Calories – enjoy your food, but eat less, and avoid oversized portions; Foods to Increase – make half your plate fruits and vegetables, make at least half your grains whole grains, and switch to fat-free or low-fat (1%) milk; Foods to Reduce – compare sodium in foods like soup, bread, and frozen meals ― and choose the foods with lower numbers, and drink water instead of sugary drinks.

The recommendations seem simple enough and common sense. However, according to NPD, a leading provider of reliable and comprehensive consumer and retail information there is a vast difference between the new federal dietary guidelines and what typical Americans are actually consuming. NPD’s food and beverage market research finds that for the average consumer, only two percent of their days (about 7 days a year) come close to resembling the USDA’s MyPlate.

Using NPD’s National Eating Trends® (NET®) research, MyPlate days were calculated based on consumers who, on the same day, achieved at least 70 percent of the daily recommended intake for dairy, fruit, grains, proteins and vegetables. It was also discovered that even when consumers did achieve a MyPlate day, they were very likely to have consumed more than three meals to do so.

The analysts noted that there is clearly a need for consumers to change their eating habits, especially in light of the fact that more than 65 percent of adults are classified as overweight or obese.

Ongoing research has shown that consumers are generally aware of what constitutes a healthy diet, but what they know and what they do when it comes to eating are often different.  The take home message, is that everyone should be enjoying their meals but eating less while still adhering to healthy nutritional guidelines.

The NPD Group/National Eating Trends® (NET®); 5 Years Ending Feb 2011


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As you wish….

“Some think life is not so much a place to seek personal happiness and fulfillment, but rather a place to learn lessons and pay dues. And so it is for them.”
- Mike Dooley

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Are diet soft drinks bad for you?

ScienceDaily (Jan. 31, 2012) — A new study finds a potential link between daily consumption of diet soft drinks and the risk of vascular events.

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Individuals who drink diet soft drinks on a daily basis may be at increased risk of suffering vascular events such as stroke, heart attack, and vascular death. This is according to a new study by Hannah Gardener and her colleagues from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and at Columbia University Medical Center. However, in contrast, they found that regular soft drink consumption and a more moderate intake of diet soft drinks do not appear to be linked to a higher risk of vascular events. The research appears online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine published by Springer.

In the current climate of escalating obesity rates, artificially sweetened soft drinks are marketed as healthier alternatives to sugar-sweetened beverages, due to their lack of calories. However, the long-term health consequences of drinking diet soft drinks remain unclear.

Gardener and team examined the relationship between both diet and regular soft drink consumption and risk of stroke, myocardial infarction (or heart attack), and vascular death. Data were analyzed from 2,564 participants in the NIH-funded Northern Manhattan Study, which was designed to determine stroke incidence, risk factors and prognosis in a multi-ethnic urban population. The researchers looked at how often individuals drank soft drinks — diet and regular — and the number of vascular events that occurred over a ten-year period.
They found that those who drank diet soft drinks daily were 43 percent more likely to have suffered a vascular event than those who drank none, after taking into account pre-existing vascular conditions such as metabolic syndrome, diabetes and high blood pressure. Light diet soft drink users, i.e. those who drank between one a month and six a week, and those who chose regular soft drinks were not more likely to suffer vascular events.

Gardener concludes: “Our results suggest a potential association between daily diet soft drink consumption and vascular outcomes. However, the mechanisms by which soft drinks may affect vascular events are unclear. There is a need for further research before any conclusions can be drawn regarding the potential health consequences of diet soft drink consumption.”

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Do you know your purpose?

John Maxwell shares the secret to success.

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Feel happy of yourself!

Here’s todays motivational speech.
Now get out there and accomplish something….and feel happy of yourself!

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