No – I don’t mean balance as in standing on one foot balance.  I mean Work/Life balance.  The balance between your job commitments and your life.  Life, yanno, as in the things you LIKE to do, not the stuff you’re paid to do.  How do you find balance between them?

It’s actually very important to take time for yourself every day.  In fact studies have shown that people who find balance between their work and their life sleep better, eat better and enjoy life more.  They have less stress – and having less stress means they live LONGER! 

This past weekend I found some time for my balance.   I took the kids to the park, spent some one-on-one time with my oldest daughter Sierra and I hung out with my BFF (sidekickgirl) at Donnie Wahlberg’s I GOT IT release party.  Here are some pics from the party:

My BFF and I	Donnie Wahlberg	Joey McIntyre (surprise guest)

It’s really important to your well being to take time to do stuff for yourself – so this week I encourage you to do something extra-special for yourself. 

For more great posts, please visit: http://www.momonthrun.net

How Do You Find Balance?

Most Popular Posts

• Bloggy Giveaway Time! (169)
• It’s Give-A-Way Time! (140)
• Waving Isn’t Much Fun By Yourself – Google Wave Giveaway (18)

1) Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional..
2) Forget the health food. I need all the preservatives I can get.
3) When you fall down, you wonder what else you can do while you’re down there.
4) You’re getting old when you get the same sensation from a rocking chair that you once got from a roller coaster.
5) It’s frustrating when you know all the answers but nobody bothers to ask you the questions
6) Time may be a great healer, but it’s a lousy beautician
7) Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes alone.

For more great posts, please visit: http://www.momonthrun.net

Friday Funny: GREAT TRUTHS ABOUT GROWING OLD

Most Popular Posts

• Bloggy Giveaway Time! (169)
• It’s Give-A-Way Time! (140)
• Waving Isn’t Much Fun By Yourself – Google Wave Giveaway (18)

I know, I know… I’m a few days late announcing the winners, I hope you can forgive me!  

I have to admit that I loved all of your responses regarding your favourite exercises to do – I had no idea so many of you like to go hiking!  Our family loves it too, and I really need to strive to have us do it more often.  It’s such a great family activity isn’t it? 

Anyways, back to the task at hand – below are the winners of a Google Wave invite (I’ve sent you all an invite, however Google says “Invitations will not be sent immediately. We have a lot of stamps to lick.”):

#8 – Imran Shahid
#17 – Chelle
#12 – Edward
#18 – Jafer
#4 – Sara

Congratulations to everyone who won (though you’re all winners in my eyes):

For more great posts, please visit: http://www.momonthrun.net

Google Wave Giveaway Winners

Most Popular Posts

• Bloggy Giveaway Time! (169)
• It’s Give-A-Way Time! (140)
• Waving Isn’t Much Fun By Yourself – Google Wave Giveaway (18)

One of the hardest things in life is to find balance – Work/Life Balance.  With our hectic, busy lives, it’s very important to your well being to turn off the noise, sit back and relax.  But how do you relax?  Well, you could try by popping in the new Michael Buble CD “Crazy Love” into your CD player. 

‘Crazy Love’, Michael Bublé’s first CD in two and a half years, features two original songs along with his always original take on 11 standards from various eras. The multi-Grammy winning artist hunkered down in recording studios in LA, Brooklyn , New York and his hometown of Vancouver for the last six months to make his ‘ultimate record about the inevitable roller coaster ride of relationships.’ The first single, ‘Haven’t Met You Yet,’ written by Bublé (with Alan Chang and Amy Foster) is playing on radio now.

Buble’s unique style, combined with his jazz and big band influences, really give these classic love songs a special touch. Bublé has such an amazing voice and a knack to make timeless love songs appeal to all generations.
The songs on Crazy Love will touch anyone who’s in love, ever been in love, or is looking for love. It’s a song that spans the different emotions you feel when you love someone, and it’s simply a great CD that you may find yourself listening to over and over again too!

Here’s a teaser of his song ‘Haven’t Met You Yet’:

Shop: You can purchase Crazy Love on Amazon.com and at other retailers online and nationwide.

5 of my lucky readers will have the chance to win a CD copy of Crazy Love by entering this contest.

To enter:
Leave a comment below telling me how you find balance.  It doesn’t matter what it is – just leave a message telling me what it is before the giveaway closes at 11:59 PM WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2009 to enter!

Extra entries:
Click that Retweet button in the top right corner to tweet about the giveaway and leave me a SEPARATE comment below telling me about it!

For more great posts, please visit: http://www.momonthrun.net

Michael Buble ‘Crazy Love’ CD *Giveaway*

Most Popular Posts

• Bloggy Giveaway Time! (169)
• It’s Give-A-Way Time! (140)
• Waving Isn’t Much Fun By Yourself – Google Wave Giveaway (18)

For more great posts, please visit: http://www.momonthrun.net

Wordless Wednesday: Being a Goof

Other Posts You May Enjoy:

• Wordless Wednesday: Fall Fun (1)

I’ve heard this comment a lot and before I answer this with scientific info, I want to share some personal info:  I used to work in Risk Management for a government agency and from my experience in protecting the welfare of the population I can honestly say this: There is no way in hell the government would be recommending and setting up clinics for the general population if the vaccine wasn’t safe.  Could you imagine the legal implications if the vaccine was NOT safe?

• The companies making H1N1 flu vaccine have been making seasonal flu vaccines for years and have good track records of safety. They are working alongside government bodies that will fund the complicated safety reviews needed for the swine flu vaccine.
• Primarily, the safety trials are looking for side effects such as allergic reactions and something called "oculorespiratory syndrome," which would likely show up within a few days of administration and in relatively small numbers. At this point, at least 200,000 people have received a Canadian form of the vaccine worldwide.

(The information presented here on down is from the CTV News website, which CTV has obtained with the help of infectious disease expert Dr. Neil Rau – I’m presenting it here because I trust it as a reliable source)

What is an adjuvant and why is Canada using one?

An adjuvant is a chemical additive used in some vaccines to ramp up the response the immune system generates to a vaccine. Adjuvants aren’t new in Canada; they’re already used in pneumococcal and meningococcal vaccines, for example.

With an adjuvant, less pure vaccine antigens are needed, so one dose of vaccine can be stretched into four doses. An adjuvant boosts immune response so that recipients are more likely to develop antibodies to the swine flu virus. It also makes the immune response more "durable," so it lasts longer, and it creates a wider response, so that if the swine flu virus "drifts" or changes, this vaccine should still offer some protection.

Adding the adjuvant made the Canadian version of the pandemic vaccine different enough from seasonal flu vaccine in its design that a new licence was required and more clinical trials were needed to assess safety.

GSK says its vaccine contains its own proprietary adjuvant system, called AS03. It is a based on squalene, an organic compound obtained from fish oil and mixed with water and vitamin E that is safe, despite Internet-based rumours to the contrary.

What is Squalene?

The adjuvant used in the swine flu vaccine is made with vitamin E, water and squalene derived from shark liver. Squalene is an organic substance found in all humans; our bodies use it to synthesize sterols – such as cholesterol — and steroids. It is also found in all animals, plants, and a variety of foods, cosmetics, and medicines.

Some websites have linked squalene to the anthrax vaccines to Gulf War Syndrome, but those allegations have been shown to be false. Squalene was never used in the vaccines. And while anti-squalene antibodies were found in some of those with Gulf War Syndrome, they are also found in the blood of people who have never received a vaccine containing squalene.

Over 22 million doses of squalene-containing vaccines have been administered around the world, mostly in adults. "The absence of significant vaccine-related adverse events following this number of doses suggests that squalene in vaccines has no significant risk," says the World Health Organization.

Is there Mercury in the Swine Flu Vaccine?

The flu vaccine contains a small amount of thimerosal. That’s because the vaccine is delivered in multi-dose vials, so needles are inserted into the vial more than once to extract doses. For that reason, all flu vaccine bottles (seasonal and swine flu) contain small amounts of thimerosal as a preservative.

Thimerosal is a mercury-based preservative, but it’s made of the ethylmercury, which is organic, not methylmercury, which has been linked to neurological damage.

The levels of ethylmercury in vaccines are minute and have not been shown to cause harm, says the Public Health Agency of Canada. It’s estimated that there is four times as much mercury in a can of tuna fish than in the thimerosal in the H1N1 flu vaccine.

I Feel the Vaccine is Safe – But the Choice is Yours

Alright – so those are the facts from one of the leading television and news agencies in Canada – I’ve shared the information with you because I trust it.  For me it answers a lot of my questions regarding the safety of the vaccine, but like I said in my previous post – vaccination is a personal choice, I’m just providing you with information so you can make an informed choice.  (In other words – don’t shoot the messenger).

If you would like more information about H1N1, and why you should protect yourself, and your loved ones, please see my post: Protecting Against H1N1 – It’s Not Just About You.

Source:

CTV News

For more great posts, please visit: http://www.momonthrun.net

Unlike the 1918 Spanish Flu Outbreak We Have a Vaccine – But is it "Safe"?

Most Popular Posts

• Bloggy Giveaway Time! (169)
• It’s Give-A-Way Time! (140)
• Waving Isn’t Much Fun By Yourself – Google Wave Giveaway (18)

I’ve been following the conversations of many of my friends on Twitter about the H1N1 Influenza vaccine, and whether or not you should get vaccinated.  While I admit that initially I was in the same boat as them, I’ve now decided to get the vaccine.  My decision was not easy, so I thought I would share (in a two-post series) the information I gathered  to make my decision with you so you can make an informed decision too on this the eve of the release of the vaccine in Canada. 

Symptoms

The symptoms of the HIN1 virus are very similar to those of seasonal flu. Some of them are:

• Fever
• Cough
• Sore Throat
• Body aches
• Headache
• Chills
• Fatigue
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea

How is the H1N1 Swine Flu Virus Different from Seasonal Flu Virus?

They are both influenza A, but seasonal flu and H1N1 are different strains.  The seasonal flu is actually comprised of several different strains of flu. The H1N1 flu strain is a novel one. Most people are not resistant to the swine flu virus and seasonal flu vaccines are not effective to fight swine flu.  The seasonal flu, by definition, is a virus that’s been around before, so you have an ongoing immunity in the community that prevents widespread transmission. With H1N1 there is no immunity – this is a new virus. 

The swine flu is not different from the seasonal flu in terms of its symptoms, but in the strain of the virus causing the flu. It has been determined that the swine flu virus affects people 25 years old and younger, more severely than older people, which is also different from the way the seasonal flu operates. This means that children are more at risk for getting the swine flu, and they will also become more severely ill from it – leaving them more susceptible to other "attackers" (staph infections, pneumonia, etc.).

Why is the H1N1 Swine Flu Virus More Dangerous than the Seasonal Flu Virus?

• This strain is a variant of the one that caused the Spanish Flu: H1N1
• A strong immune response to the H1N1 virus (the kind, for example, that people in their 20s and 30s have) is actually the cause leading to cytokine storms.  Here’s a vivid description of said phenomenon from the description of the 1918 Spanish Flu outbreak: "One of the most striking of the complications was hemorrhage from mucous membranes, especially from the nose, stomach, and intestine. Bleeding from the ears and petechial hemorrhages in the skin also occurred." The majority of deaths were from bacterial pneumonia, a secondary infection caused by influenza, but the virus also killed people directly, causing massive hemorrhages and edema in the lung." .  This means that a healthy immune system is a liability rather than an asset.

How Does My Decision Affect Others?

Vaccinations are generally considered to be the most effective and cost-effective method of preventing infectious diseases.  They are not done to keep YOU from getting a virus, they are done to prevent the spread of a virus.  While YOU may be able to fight off the infection, the people you infect may not be so fortunate.  Because there is no immunity to H1N1, the potential to spread H1N1 swine flu is far greater.  I have one family member currently with a compromised immune system because she is undergoing chemotherapy treatment, and two other family members who have just been diagnosed with cancer and will potentially undergo chemotherapy treatment this flu season.  These family members are at high risk of being unable to fight the H1N1 flu – along with my children.  I would really hate it if one of my family members died because the flu was spread to them unnecessarily.

The Choice Is Yours

The ultimate decision regarding whether you get the H1N1 Swine Flu vaccine is a personal one, however I want you to remember that your choice can impact others as much as it impacts you – this decision is not just about yourself – it’s also about the community you live in and those that live in it (particularly children). 

Stop the Spread and Protect Yourself

With this in mind I also want to share tips on how you can keep yourself healthy, and those around you healthy – whether you get the vaccine or not:

• Good hand hygiene is the best way to prevent the spread of all flu viruses. Wash your hands with soap and water thoroughly and often.
• Keep an alcohol-based hand sanitizer (gel or wipes) handy at work, home and in your car. It needs to be at least 60% alcohol to be effective.
• Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze and throw the tissue out. Cough into your upper sleeve if you don’t have a tissue.
• Avoid large crowds of people where viruses can spread easily. Stay home when you are sick.
• Keep common surfaces and items clean and disinfected.
• Get plenty of rest – your body is better prepared to fight infection if you are well rested.

Sources:

Public Health Agency of Canada
Healthfield Medicare

WikiPedia – Influenza A Virus

WikiPedia – Cytokine storm

CTV News

For more great posts, please visit: http://www.momonthrun.net

Protecting Against H1N1 – It’s Not Just About Yourself

Most Popular Posts

• Bloggy Giveaway Time! (169)
• It’s Give-A-Way Time! (140)
• Waving Isn’t Much Fun By Yourself – Google Wave Giveaway (18)

Recently I was sent a bag of Weight Watchers Pecan Crowns candy (by Whitmans) to review.  Knowing how tempted I am to eat all of my kids Halloween candies, I waited until my kids were digging into their bags to dig into my own bag and try them.  I also have to admit that I was a little hesitant because dude, it’s diet chocolate! Who the hell wants diet chocolate?  Gimme the real thing baby!

I was wrong – they’re awesome!  They taste a lot like Turtle’s, only not as sweet.  Each one is 1 point (53 calories, 3.3g of fat, and 3g fiber).  My mom tried them too – she’s a very picky eater (sorry mom, but you are) and she liked them too!

Halloween can be a time of indulgence for adults, just as much as it is for kids, but now with Weight Watchers Pecan Crowns it doesn’t have to be – leave the Halloween candies for your kids, and have some Weight Watchers Pecan Crowns instead, your waist and taste buds will thank you.

For more great posts, please visit: http://www.momonthrun.net

Guilt Free Candy – Weight Watchers Pecan Crowns (Review)

Most Popular Posts

• Bloggy Giveaway Time! (169)
• It’s Give-A-Way Time! (140)
• Waving Isn’t Much Fun By Yourself – Google Wave Giveaway (18)

My little goblins are anxiously waiting to go trick or treating… Are yours? 

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

For more great posts, please visit: http://www.momonthrun.net

Happy Halloween Folks!

Most Popular Posts

• Bloggy Giveaway Time! (169)
• It’s Give-A-Way Time! (140)
• Waving Isn’t Much Fun By Yourself – Google Wave Giveaway (18)

Q:  Doctor, I’ve heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life. Is this true?
A: Your heart is only good for so many beats, and that’s it don’t waste them on exercise. Everything wears out eventually.  Speeding up your heart will not make you live longer; that’s like saying you can extend the life of your car by driving it faster.  Want to live longer? Take a nap.

Q: Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables?
A: You must grasp logistical efficiencies.  What does a cow eat? Hay and corn. And what are these? Vegetables. So a steak is nothing more than an efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system. Need grain?   Eat chicken.    Beef is also a good source of field grass (green leafy vegetable).    And a pork chop can give you 100% of your recommended daily allowance of vegetable products.

Q:  Should I reduce my alcohol intake?
A:  No, not at all.  Wine is made from fruit.   Brandy is distilled wine that means they take the water out of the fruity bit so you get even more of the goodness that way.   Beer is also made out of grain.  Bottoms    up!

Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio?
A: Well, if you have a body and you have fat, your ratio is one to one.  If you have two bodies, your ratio is two to one, etc.

Q: What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular exercise program?
A:  Can’t think of a single one, sorry.   My philosophy is: No Pain…Good!

Q:   Aren’t fried foods bad for you?
A:   YOU’RE NOT LISTENING!!! …..   Foods are fried these days in vegetable oil.  In fact, they’re permeated in it.  How could getting more vegetables be bad for you?

Q:   Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the middle?
A:   Definitely not!   When you exercise a muscle, it gets bigger. You should only be doing sit-ups if you want a bigger stomach.

Q:   Is chocolate bad for me?
A:  Are you crazy?   HELLO    Cocoa beans! Another vegetable!!!   It’s the best feel-good food around!

Q:  Is swimming good for your figure?
A:   If swimming is good for your figure, explain whales to me.

Q:  Is getting in-shape important for my lifestyle?
A:   Hey!  ‘Round’ is a shape!

Well,   I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions you may have had about food and diets.  Happy Friday folks!

For more great posts, please visit: http://www.momonthrun.net

Friday Funny: Clearing Up Some Health and Fitness Misconceptions

Most Popular Posts

• Bloggy Giveaway Time! (169)
• It’s Give-A-Way Time! (140)
• Waving Isn’t Much Fun By Yourself – Google Wave Giveaway (18)