January 2006

When your dentist tells you to floss, she isn’t just filling a lapse in the conversation.  She knows what’s best for you as well as your choppers. You really and truly should pick out floss, buy floss and use floss.  Daily.

Study after study after study proves that flossing directly prevents gum disease.  Not incredibly concerned about gum disease?  Never gave it a second thought?  A tough sell.  I like that.

Consider this:

1. Gum disease increases the risk of cardiovascular disease.
2. Diabetics with gum disease have a lot more trouble controlling their disease.
3. Pregnant women with gum disease often have low birthweight babies.
4. Gum disease and bad breath go hand in hand.
5. Periodontal Disease (gum disease) leads to tooth loss.  It’s the number one reason people lose their teeth.
6. Any problems inside the mouth mean having to see the dentist more often.

1 - 5 are bad enough, but I can’t live with the thought of number 6.  Call it a phobia, call it irrational….but call me when I’m through flossing!

 Joi

I’m not sure if I’ve owned up to my Survivor obsession on this particular blog or not, so I’ll do so now.  I’m pretty much hooked in a phone off the hook, special snacks all around, no emergencies allowed type way.  As soon as one goes off, we’re planning the special snacks for the next one.

It’s just a lot of good, harmless fun that you can enjoy with your family around you.  Cat, too, if she’s so inclined.  Ours is.

Here’s a link to the new guys and gals.  Interesting group! Meet the New Survivors

It premieres February 2.  I’d better start planning those snacks……

Joi

“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” ~Benjamin Franklin

“(Sleep is) the golden chain that ties health and our bodies together.” ~Thomas Dekker

Increasing the number of hours you sleep each night from 6 to 8 may just do more than erase the circles under your eyes.

Apparently, according to a study at Columbia University, chronic sleep deprivation affects hormone levels which stimulate appetite and cause overeating.  The less sleep you get, the greater your odds are of packing on the pounds.  People who average around 5 hours of sleep each night have a 50% greater risk of obesity than those who sleep between 7 and 9 hours each night.  Those who average just 3 or 4 hours a night have a 73% greater risk.

Shows what I know, I always thought it’d be better to sleep less, thinking that more calories would be burned with the increased activity.  Then again, slumping over coffee and a bagel isn’t really zapping the cals.

Joi

“The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind.”  ~William James

If you’re exercising to lose weight, the key to Shangri-La may lie within just 10 minutes.  Rather than trying to exercise more often, exercise physiologists say we should simply begin exercising for 10 minutes longer.  If our daily exercise is a 30 workout, they point out that by tacking on just 10 more minutes, we could burn between 75 and 100 more calories. 

If (like most of us) you’re short on time, they suggset cranking up the intensity. For those of us who walk, we should pick up the pace and hunt out more hills and steps.

I get kind of frustrated during the winter months, because walking at the mall really doesn’t pose that much of a workout and it’s far too cold for tennis or yard work. A free indoors walking trail with hills and steps…would that be asking too much?

I thought so.

Joi

” Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten but they may start a winning game.” ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Who’d have thought, the average teenager with a credit card spells disaster.  I’d have thought it was a match made in retail heaven.  < /sarcasm >

I must have a lot in common with kids, it’s best for me to avoid them as well - the credit cards, not the kids.

Joi

“Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider.”  ~Harold Bloom

(Great advice whether you’re reading the Newspaper, an article online, a magazine, a motivational book, Dilbert, or a blog post. Okay, maybe not Dilbert.)
May your Monday mistake itself for a Friday,

Joi

Here’s a fabuloso article for you to start your week off with.  It’s actually geared toward salespeople, with advice for increasing sales - but even buyspeople like me can get a lot from it.  I love her “treadmill” idea for multitasking.  I need one of those!  (Only I would read an article on increasing sales and come away motivated to buy.)

Prioritize! It’s a Matter of Urgency

Joi

Did I say Fabuloso?