Are you actively expressing gratitude every day? You should be. Expressing gratitude is one of the most powerful acts you can do to support your personal growth. There are always even minor things around and in your life that you can start to feel grateful about. The act of focusing on what you are thankful for places those things to a high value in your mind. And what you think about greatly affects your life.

Is your gratitude as potent as it can be? We know that thoughts are powerful, but what is even more powerful? Thought that has emotion added and focused thoughts are far more powerful than plain thought. This is why we tend to see more of what we fervently dislike in our lives, because there are strong emotions attached to the thoughts.

So how do we add emotion and focus to thoughts about gratitude? Write down your thoughts, in a gratitude journal, to engage more of your senses. Your mind is using many more brain cells with the act of writing, thus more of your brain is engaged.

First, Your emotions will greatly increase when there is more brain involvement. And your brain will better be able to link multiple related positive thoughts to your gratitude statements enhancing positive emotional feelings. The number and strength of the neural connections in your brain actually increase with the added activity with writing. The more attention given to anything, the more it will affect your life. The addition of positive emotions will supercharge your gratitude.

Second, your mental focus is enhanced as it takes more of your mind to do the writing. Your mind is pumping out thoughts all the time, how would it know that you want specific thoughts to be more important than all that chatter? You add this importance by giving the thoughts more attention. Writing down what you are grateful for and allowing your related emotions to develop clearly moves other thoughts out of your awareness. You can truly only think one thought at a time. The act of writing helps keep you from bouncing from thought to thought. Gratitude thinking is the kind of thought you want to spend your time with, it is positive and uplifting.

Start a gratitude journal. It can be anything from a fancy hardbound journal to a simple spiral notebook, all you need is blank space to write. With a physical journal it is easier to set up a routine to use it, and it is easy to review when you want a little boost or motivation. You can establish a time of the day to pick up your gratitude journal and express your thoughts and feelings. This helps create a good habit that you will follow over time.

John Halderman

More on Gratitude, Effective Personal development Blog

by Randy Wood

Learning is one of the biggest stumbling blocks we have with eating and diabetes.

By learning when you should eat, how much you need to eat and what to eat, you can take excellent care of yourself. When making food choices, choose wisely so that you can lose unnecessary weight, lower you risk of diabetes complications and even feel good from day to day.

Our goal with diabetes is to keep our blood glucose levels at healthy levels and to prevent damage to our body caused by those unhealthy levels of glucose, cholesterol and blood pressures. This can be maintained with good eating and physical activity habits along with proper medications if prescribed by your health care professional.

When taking diabetes medications, it is best to follow schedules for physical activity, meals and snacks. Some medications allow for flexible schedules while others do not. Discuss your diet and medication routines with your doctor.

The risk of developing heart disease is two times that in people who have diabetes than in people who do not. High cholesterol levels raise that risk. Lowering the amounts of saturated fats and cholesterol and maintaining optimal body weight can help lower cholesterol levels in the blood and reduce your risk of heart disease. Eating and Diabetes definitely go hand in hand here.

With you doctors help and with monitoring results:

• Determine how many times you need to eat per day
• Determine how many snacks you can eat per day
• Determine your physical activity levels required to maintain

Remember that conditions can change as time goes by, never stop monitoring and never stop working with your health care professionals. Keep up with your diet and diabetes plans and follow them with care.

It is your life and you should make it as comfortable and as productive as you can. You can always take medications, but there is no substitute for self care.

by Randy Wood
www.diabetes-and-me.com | Randy Wood promotes Article Marketing

Tips from Diabetes And Me… Always Move - Keep It Physical

Are you trying to be successful at something, or with several areas in your life? This is a characteristic normal for us human creatures, to feel good about our abilities and accomplishments. We seem to be continuously striving for something more to feel good about. We so often think that we are not doing or being what we want.

When actually, it’s not a matter of finding out ‘how’ to have success in your life, but rather how and where to
direct your success. The problem is not, not being a success. The thing is you actually already are very successful every day, but maybe not at what you would like.

You are successfully living your life, your body is functioning and you are thinking about something every day, all day. Now if you weren’t having any thoughts at all, I would be concerned. And since you are thinking about something, you are receiving the fulfillment of those thought requests without fail.

The universe doesn’t fail itself, and since you are a part of it you will not be failed either. Just as a plant seed always gets what it requests, so do you. So then why don’t you get everything you think you want? You want it so you must be requesting it right.

Well, again you actually are getting everything that you are requesting. I know it seems like I’m taking you in a circle here but think about this for a moment, how do you know what a tulip has requested from the universe? Well, the tulip would not be a tulip if it had requested something else. The way to tell what has been requested is by the evidence that is present.

Now, a tulip can’t request anything else, it is programmed into the bulb exactly what it is to request from the all providing source. But you and I are a little different, we have two different aspects. One, like the tulip, your physical self, has been programmed much the same way through your DNA and this is just as automatic as with the flower. You don’t need to think to keep your body running as it was designed, including all your uniqueness.

Then, the other aspect you have is your mental capacity to reason, think and choose. Sure some other creatures have a little of this aspect but nothing like we do. A cat can decide to seek out a warm sunny spot to lay in, but it can’t learn a new trade or change the way it perceives things like you can. This second mental ability is one where you decide what is in the seed - your seed. You have the ability to design what the seed will request from the universe, let’s call it your ‘creative seed’.

Now this part is important to understand, just like the tulip seed and your physical body, your ‘creative seed’ is always activated with the universe. This means the universe is constantly reading your request within your ‘creative seed’, thus it is always responding in kind. Here is the scary part, your thoughts, all of them, are the ‘creative seed’ which is a continuous active request link to the intelligent universe. So everything you are thinking is your ‘creative seed’ whether you are or are not consciously aware of it.

This is why it is so critically important to make it your main objective all day every day to discover what you are thinking and adjust it to be congruent with that which best serves what you want in your life. When you may say that you want something, but all the while your inner thoughts are pointed elsewhere and your behavior is reinforcing something else, your ‘want’ doesn’t hold much weight in the request seen by the universe. Your predominant thoughts and actions are so strong; the universe can’t hear what you really want.

You are right now completely successful at what you have invested your thoughts and energies to, even if you are not totally aware of them. Your experience in life has a direct correlation to what you think about and feel strongly about most of the time. There is an exact relationship to the percentage of time you allot to any thoughts and your life experience.

So if you want to be successful at something other than what you are successful at today, you will need to devote a higher percentage of your thoughts, feelings and energies in ways that are more in alignment with these desires. Just occasional lip service will not do.

All of your thoughts combined are what is included inside of your ’seed’ that the universe works to fulfil for you. So ask yourself, “How much of the volume or space in the seed is taken up with what I deeply want and how much of it is what I don’t want, don’t like, put up with or just complain about?” You are constantly creating this seed, and from this you are completely successful based on what’s in it.

To change this, you will need to take command of your everyday thinking, choose to have more of your thoughts, feelings and actions be congruent with your deep desires. Using your valuable thought time to complain, ridicule, doubt, worry, feel angry, resent someone, and many other negative type thoughts, just steal time you can be filling your ’seed’ with what you really want. Plus, you will just get more in your life to complain, resent, worry about and all the rest - is that what you really want?

Some people have actually kept track, in time, of their thoughts all day long in order to discover what percentage of time they devote to certain ideas. With this you can discover what undesirable thinking you want to replace with the aligned thinking you want.

Take command of your thinking now by aligning more of your thoughts with your deepest desires, you will see your feelings and actions follow suit, then your life experience will too. Choose what you are successful at by redirecting the same tools and power you now use to get what you now have.
John Halderman

You’ve done this, I’m sure, but do you do it often enough? It’s always nice to do something that results in a person feeling good, in fact usually you feel good as well don’t you.

Now, you don’t actually make anyone feel anything, which is up to him or her, but you can contribute to how they feel by doing something they appreciate or enjoy. One of our deepest human desires is to feel good so everyone is open to any assistance with doing this. And I’m sure you are aware of how it is so easy for people to focus on the negative, everyone can use some assistance placing their attention on what makes them happy.

What does it take to assist someone to feel happy? First you want to discover what they would appreciate, which requires a bit of attention to the other person. Do you take the time to notice what others would appreciate or enjoy? It really doesn’t take much effort, but rather some attention. With our busy lives it can take some purposeful effort to notice what others would like and do something about it but it’s worth it.

What you do for others comes back to you in some way, so there is some secondary motivation behind your kindness to others. It doesn’t hurt to remember that you get more of what you think about in your life.

What can you do to help someone feel better and feel good about it yourself as well? Can you make a positive comment, praise or compliment? Who can you do this for? The people close to you as well as peopl  you just have casual contact with. You never know up front how even something small can lift a person’s day. Or how a small compliment can boost someone’s self esteem. The thing to remember, no one receives too much of what leads to happiness, so you can ‘t over do it.

Make it a part of your daily life to be aware of other people and what you can do to entice their happiness. Start out with the intention to help just one person to feel happy. And don’t forget how you will be increasing the time you are happy as well, as just thinking about it increases your happiness.

John Halderman
There’s more about life and happiness at
http://effectivepersonaldevelopmentblog.com

by Randy Wood

Diabetics strive daily to live a life of normalcy. For many it is a very difficult and troubled road. For all, diabetes is most definitely a lifestyle altering disease.

There is consistent and ongoing research through doctors, clinics, researchers and special facilities diligently searching for cures to diabetes and ways to control and prevent the disease.

Lifestyle Center of America, a residential health center provides workshops through a revolutionary program that includes a preventive plant based diet, easy to follow physical activity program and other lifestyle choices to help overcome the effects that diabetes and other chronic diseases impose on our lives.

I have had the privilege of reading and actually using their cook book, “The 30-Day Diabetes Miracle Cook Book” created by Bonnie House, Diana Fleming, Ph.D., LDN, Linda Brinegar, Linda Kennedy, and Ian Blake Newman.

The research and work that has gone into this cook book along with its ease of use and information provided makes this book exceptionally valuable to those living with or touched by diabetes.

The 30-Day Diabetes Miracle Cookbook is very easy to follow and use and is loaded with information so that diabetics know what to eat, why to eat it, how to prepare it, how to cook it and so much more.

The menus provided are an excellent guide for your day to day meal plan needs. You can follow the suggested plan or change it up based on your desires and tastes. They have even put together the list of equipment you need in your kitchen to prepare your meals. They have provided complete nutrition details to aid in optimizing your food intake to your needs. They have developed so many delicious and tasteful recipes covering every aspect of our normal eating habits from breakfast, lunch and dinner to deserts. The ingredients used in cooking are explained in detail and are easy for most people to get. And it tastes good!

As most people today are consuming so much fast food and easy to grab meals, living a fast and hurried lifestyle, it’s no wonder we are at the degraded levels of health that we are. Diets and lifestyle changes do not come that easy to most. The 30-Day Diabetes Miracle Cookbook can help make that change in your life much less stressful. All you have to do is choose to do it.

According to new studies, eating a low-fat vegan diet may better help manage type 2 diabetes than traditional diets. A vegan diet is plant-based and consists of vegetables, fruits, grains, and legumes. It avoids animal products, such as meat and dairy. Such diets can also help people suffering from diabetes with their fight against other complications that seem to follow, like weight gain and high cholesterol leading to heart problems.

I recommend “The 30-Day Diabetes Miracle Cookbook” and I am using it. I hope you will do the same for your life.

Always Eat Right – Always Be Prepared

By Randy Wood
www.diabetes-and-me.com

For Diet and Diabetes, discover the only cookbook of its kind. The 30-Day Diabetes Miracle Cookbook from the gourmet kitchen at Lifestyle Center of America.
Diet and Diabetes go hand in hand. This is no secret to those touched by diabetes. Discover the real hope of controlling or stopping your diabetes, get your copy today.

Marketing is the key ingredient for establishing and sustaining any business, whether you are operating online or offline. There are many methods that you could adopt to ensure success for businesses you own. One very effective, yet seemingly insignificant method to market your business is blogging.

This is a free and incredibly powerful tool in your marketing solutions arsenal, which should be included in all business plans. This method is highly recommended for those who would like to invest in starting a small business online.

Setting up a blog is completely free and offers you much more control and maneuverability than a free website can offer.

You hear success stories everyday about people who have soared from rags to riches. You wish that you could discover a way to ensure success for businesses you own as easily as it is described in these Cinderella stories.

Marketing through blogging is truly the best business advice you could ever receive. This is a method from which you will be able to get one of the best needed business resources, i.e. your opt-in lists. What you have to do is choose a topic that relates closely to your business and set up a blog for it. You can use multiple blogs for one business allotting one for each aspect you want to promote.

Among the marketing solutions you need for businesses online, blogging is a newly discovered tool. There are many advantages of using a blog for your entrepreneurial ventures;

• Blogs have their own very powerful identity on the web and are ranked in a similar way as websites, without the need for intricate web designs, programming and software knowledge, or expensive web hosting services.
• You are free to be as creative as you want on your blog giving a better scope for you to connect with a greater number of people than any other method available.
• Blogging by itself can be termed as a small business, as it has the capacity to generate wealth by selling ads (Google AdSense), promoting affiliate programs and as a direct platform for selling goods or service you have to offer.

It is easy to see why blogs are touted as such powerful and complete marketing solutions tools for businesses online. They are easy to set up, free of cost, easily indexed and ranked, which means high visibility, as well as being the preferred source of information by a good number on internet surfers.

You can use a blog to advertise, market and sell at the same time or separately without worrying in the least about the design, and other parameters upon which websites are dependent.

It is no secret to those of us living with or touch by diabetes that Diet and Diabetes go hand in hand.

If you are one of the millions living with diabetes, one of the essential elements in self care is a proper diabetic diet plan.

Many doctors, clinics, researchers and specialized facilities spend countless hours researching and creating diet plans for diabetes. Their goal is to strive to produce a healthy diet plan while also creating foods that are tasteful. Since so many live the Diet and Diabetes Lifestyle, we all know that tastless diet plans are quite miserable. Diet and diabetes does not have to be that way.

It is critical while fighting diabetes that one maintain an optimum weight and reduce blood cholesterol. it is also important to reduce saturated fats as much as possible and replace those fats with unsaturated or mono unsaturated fats. In maintaining diet and diabetes, a well maintained diet with nutritional foods helps the body process glucose as it should. This is simply a critical part in diabetes maintenance. Another important factor to remember with your diabetic diet is that you can also help control blood pressure by maintaining healthy lipid levels in your blood.

Many diabetics struggle their entire lives trying to maintain a healthy weight. Sticking to a diet for diabetes is one of the most challenging realities of living with diabetes. What you eat matters a great deal in controlling your diabetes. Eating the proper foods is very important in helping you maintain healthy glucose levels, so a daily balanced diabetic diet routine is essential. Always avoid those foods that make your blood glucose high.

With diet and diabetes, eat sensibly and enjoy.

Always Eat Right – Always Be Prepared

By Randy Wood
www.diabetes-and-me.com

For Diet and Diabetes, discover the only cookbook of its kind. The 30-Day Diabetes Miracle Cookbook from the gourmet kitchen at Lifestyle Center of America.
Diet and Diabetes go hand in hand. This is no secret to those touched by diabetes. Discover the real hope of controlling or stopping your diabetes, get your copy today.

If you are a small business owner, then you know the unique problems that small business owners face everyday. Usually, being a business owner means that you have to do a lot more work than the average person. Even though it is a challenge to run your own business, most owners would say that it’s worth the effort.

There are many challenges for small business proprietors to face. Since most small ventures are also sole proprietorships, there is no one else for the owner to turn to help fix whatever problems the business is facing. Additionally, a small business owner has to make decisions for every aspect of the business, from good business resources, such as what products to order, who to hire and fire, accounting and payroll, the design of the business, business insurance, not to mention the actual day to day running of the business itself. A larger business has someone for each of those tasks, so the workload is spread out over more people.

Also, in a small business, the owner can almost never take a vacation, because the operation needs him or her there practically all the time it is open, and sometimes when it is not.

Whether the business is just beginning or has been established for some time, small business owners are faced with many financial decisions. In taking care of business related financial information, the business owner must make sure that the profits are greater than the expenses. This is much like balancing your household expenses, but on a much greater scale.

The goal is to make sure that the finances of the business are thriving and of course, to avoid bankruptcy. As well, there may be hidden taxes that the owner may not be aware of, so diligent research is required in order to be compliant. The small business owner should seek out solid business advice to help them grow their venture.

Owning a small business is hard. Small business owners probably have one of the hardest jobs that there is. To be a good business owner, it takes a unique kind of person who likes many challenges. It may seem impossible at first, but with hard work and good business practices, the effort will offer great returns.

Nutrient deficiencies appear to increase with age. Some colleagues at the University of Iowa looked at over 400 Iowans 79 and older living independently in rural areas and found that 80 percent reported consuming inadequate amounts of four or more nutrients. When declining energy requirements are not matched by decreased caloric intake then total body fat increases. The Atkins diet leaves your body shy on some important nutrients, such as vitamin B, and also is negative for vitamins A, C and D, anti-oxidants that slow the effects of aging and calcium. Once again the lack of exercise has to enter into the equation also.

Nutritional status may be further compromised by other problems in conjunction with the illness, such as trauma, surgery, infection drug therapy which alter nutrient requirements. This makes recovery even more difficult. Another reason we need to keep our immune system healthy and keep an aged body in good health. Elderly individuals should try to strive for a well balanced diet and stay active. Adequate dietary fiber, as opposed to increased use of laxatives, will maintain regular bowel function and not interfere with the digestion and absorption of nutrients, as occurs with laxative use or abuse.

Some of the factors described above, like changes in the digestive system, as well as health concerns like the increased risk of fragile bones, means that nutritional needs change as you age. Periodic review of your diet is always helpful, particularly if you have specific medical conditions. Taste and smell changes, as well as feelings of loneliness and depression, contribute to decreased appetite, while many elderly people may eat less because of chewing difficulties, fatigue, and social reasons. Furthermore, elderly people often have increased nutritional needs because of disease or injury.

Some people who’ve been dieting all their lives find it difficult to change from a low fat diet to richer fare. Indeed, the sudden addition of fat for weight gain isn’t recommended. After studying 300 older adults from the ages of 65 to 93, Garry has concluded that even the process of aging itself may be retarded through behavioral changes. That may precipitate a change in the dietary lifestyle,” he says. It makes strangers of those we knew best, changes relationships with loved ones in ways that resonates forever. “STOLEN MEMORIES” is the story of how one family coped with its devastating effects, and how others can learn from that experience.

Because of this, they are not getting as much of some nutrients as they need. In our newly designed pyramid, we made the base somewhat narrower to reflect the fact that less food is being taken in but chose foods that are nutrient-dense, that is, contain many more nutrients per gram of food eaten. Add foods from the tip of the Pyramid, that contain many calories and few nutrients (like candy, soda pop and potato chips), only in moderation. Moist, easy-to-chew, colorful and flavorful foods may be appropriate for individuals with difficulty chewing or swallowing or with decreased ability to taste or smell. Topics include the geriatric perspective on: vitamin B12 in the elderly, the role of micronutrients (including thiamin, carotene and vitamin C), nutrition and cognitive function and cardiovascular nutrition.

Unintentional weight loss and malnutrition are common problems in the elderly. Taste and smell changes, as well as feelings of loneliness and depression, contribute to decreased appetite, while many elderly people may eat less because of chewing difficulties, fatigue, and social reasons. If bones decrease in density, then osteoporosis (bone loss) develops over time. Bone degeneration is due not only to calcium deficiency but also partly to genetics. These changes can contribute to decreased food intake, unintentional weight loss and malnutrition. Not everyone experiences all these changes.

Review with your doctor the medications you take on a daily basis that might be causing loss of appetite. Absolutely,consider nutrition supplements, but use them only with a doctor’s approval. She has found that enhancing food flavors will increase the consumption of the foods to which flavors have been added — and the increase in intake is greater for the people who have a greater loss of smell. The loss of calcium through urine could potentially be harmful for bone turnover, with the added risk of osteoporosis. Finally, protein requires vitamin B6 in order to be metabolized and ultimately utilized in the body, which is also slowed down in the elderly.

With all the changes our bodies and minds go through, it’s no wonder we need some high quality liquid vitamin nutrition. Liquid vitamins can energize and help balance your body’s system with daily nutritional supplements!

Chuck Arnone is concerned with our health and fitness and strives for quality information.
http://www.provitaminliquid.com
&
http://www.immune-system-healthy.com

Mark Joyner has just launched a new business building program aimed at marketing that is likely to be very successful.

Why, because Mark Joyner is considered one of the most knowledgeable marketing experts around and he has proven what he says through his own successes. Now this new program may not be for you, part of it might and part may not -depends on your business and more, on you. It is however well worth looking into if your business and you are ready to take another growth step.

Of course you are offered something to buy, but what would you expect - this is business. However, Mark also offers what appears to be a potentially powerful opportunity with no charge for it. A unique opportunity that can help you incorporate some of the integrative marketing methods he teaches is available. Also you can download Mark’s newest book ‘Integration Marketing’ from the site without cost. The book is quite short, but very succinct, as is Mark’s style. The important information is there with out the need to sort through fluff to get at it.

Mark is very clever as a marketer, and this is evident on the website for this new business enhancement program, as you will see. As he tells you a little about the program, on video, you are participating in the very examples he talks about. He tells you about what you are doing as you do it - and you do it, well if you choose. If you are at all interested in enhancing your marketing to better build your business Mark has a lot to offer.

I have followed Mark’s activities for some time now and everything he says about business and marketing has also been validated by others through their own successes with utilizing Mark’s suggestions. He also has a very good track record with his Simpleology program, which helps with focus, organization and specific action geared to assist a person to get more of the right things done to fulfill goals and targets. If the new ‘Integrated Marketing’ program is run in a similar way, it should be highly successful for those who actively participate.

One person who has been very successful utilizing what Mark teaches is Tellman Knudsen, who did so in a relatively short period of time after some insight from Mark. I spoke to Tellman a couple of years ago and I knew then that he was in contact with Mark, getting the kind of information Mark is releasing in his new program now. Here’s Tellman, with his new look, talking about how Mark’s ideas have helped him -

Integrated Marketing, Tellman

What Mark offers is not ‘read only’ information, it is designed for action - because that’s what he wants, for people to use his information and see good results. It’s an action plan, resources and a community to help get things done. Get the full explanation from the horses mouth

John