March 2007

No, you didn’t just stumble onto a pharmacy’s website - it’s still Self Help Daily. And this isn’t a Paid Review or even an affiliate plug (and, believe me, since this IS my fulltime job, I love affiliate plugs!) This is just me wanting to tell you about something that could be very, very good for you.

 I want you to think for a minute about how important your eyes are to you.  Whether you’re in your teens, have teens, or can barely even remember what teens are - you need to pay more attention to your eyes and to their care. 

Does the thought of losing your eyesight scare you as much as it does me?  It’s my second biggest health care (right behind Alzheimer’s, which I believe would be hell on earth).  Fortunately, I don’t have any signs of either - or reasons to believe I ever will - but count me amongst the people who actively pursue preventive treatments and measures. 

Preventive measures for your eyes include:

1. Eating Carrots.  They’re a great source of antioxidants that your eyes need.  Steam them, eat them raw, shred them into tossed and pasta salads - up your carrot intake.
2. Wearing the right prescription glasses or contacts.  If you have contacts or glasses, wear them.  Every time you have to squint, you’re hurting your eyesight. 
3. Have your eyes checked often.  Am I starting to sound like an infomercial or something? - That’s how it seems on this end!  But, it’s the truth - you should see an optometrist regularly to catch any changes as soon as possible.  Sometimes the changes are subtle and you don’t realize them until there’s a chart in front of you and you can’t, for the life of you tell if it’s an F or an E.  (I actually once told my doctor, I’m not sure if it’s an E or an F.  He said, “Wow. It’s actually a Z.”  I wowed him right back. So to speak.)
4. Get Proper Nutrition.  Recent studies show that having a healthy diet is vital for eye health. 
5. Take Bausch & Lomb’s new Ocuvite vitamins.  Lutein is important to help prevent age-related eye diseases - the leading cause of blindness.  Lutein is found in dark leafy vegetables but most of us simply don’t eat enough of them to benefit the way we should.  That’s why Bausch & Lomb developed Ocuvite vitamin and mineral supplements.  They contain Lutein as well as Omega-3, which optimizes the body’s absorption of Lutein.  They also contain other powerful antioxidants that eye doctors believe are essential to eye health.

Ocuvite can be found in the vitamin aisle of most stores.  You can click HERE to read more about the vitamins.

You know how it is with Pet Peeves, sometimes you just have to give them a public scolding.  Call them out on the floor in front of everyone, hoping it’ll make them completely disappear.  You know it isn’t likely, but can’t help feeling that if one person says something against ridiculousness it’ll lead to another one saying something against  ridiculousness…which will lead to another, etc.

With enough someones, we could surely surround the culprit(s) and squeeze the ridiculous out of them. Below are some of my Pet Peeves that have been acting up lately - they range from mildly annoying to wildly annoying.  See if any have your number, too.

• Spam - whether it’s on blogs, in the mail, or in e-mails, why in the whole world can’t something be done about it?
• Restaurants cutting back on portions and quality but not reflecting it in the price.  If you’re going to downsize the meal, downsize the price along with it.
• Celebs, like Sienna Miller, Cameron Diaz, Paris Hilton, Drew Barrymore, and (of course) Britney - doing drugs in public and even bragging about it.  Unless something changed when I wasn’t looking, they’re still illegal.  I know there are certain elements to the law that I don’t fully understand - you know all the can’ts and cans designed to protect the people who are getting away with things - but, come on.  If celebs keep rubbing their addictions in the public’s face, if singers keep singing about it….does anyone know how much worse the drug problem could actually get?  Baseball players are raked over the coals, but good, for steroids - The public points a finger in their face and yells at them about setting a bad example for kids.  More kids are watching celebs than baseball players.  If everyone boycotted the products, music, and movies these celebs endorsed, they’d get the idea.
• The MySpace generation’s obsession with photographing themselves doing everything from sitting on toilets, brushing their teeth, changing their clothes, sitting half dressed on war memorials….  Shouldn’t they, at some point, start feeling a little ridiculous?
• …and the one that’s messing with my mind the most?  These directories and little websites that contact other websites/blogs to exchange links.  I don’t mind (and even encourage) good link exchanging.  I WANT to hear from website and blog publishers who want to exchange fair links.  In fact, I can’t remember ever turning away a fair link exchange on any of my blogs or websites.  However, if someone expects me to link to them on my front page, or on a link’s page - I expect the same courtesy.  There are countless sites contacting people about exchanging links - but they hide your link on a secret page - not accessible by their visitors.  The last one that approached me about this sort of thing was for my cat blog (Cat Pause).  She wanted me to link to her, and in return she’d add my link to a hidden page.  That’s like saying,  “Hey, my back itches and your back itches - scratch mine and then I’ll draw a picture of me scratching yours.  How’s that sound?!”  Then, having the audacity to get indignant when your answer is, “Not so great.” 

 Now to balance out the Kharma in the post, some Pet Perks:

• I love that American Idol is doing something to give back to society. In a program titled, “Idol Gives Back,” AI and its sponsors are looking to improve the lives of children in Africa as well as the US.  Click HERE to read more about it and to see what we can all do to help.
• The successes of Jennifer Hudson, Carrie Underwood, and Chris Brown. They’re breaths of fresh air in an industry that could use a lot more. 
• Nice weather is finally here and Gorgeous weather is just around the corner!  Doesn’t it just make you feel better - from head to toe?  I spend just about the entire day outside yesterday.  My youngest daughter and I walked at the park - something we’d sorely missed, then I came home and worked in the yard for a few hours.  My cats and dog loved every minute of it.  They weren’t a lot of help, but they were more than enough company and entertainment.  I was picking up sticks at one point and had that “I’m being watched” feeling - I looked up and one of my cats, Alexa, was on top of the garage looking down at me.  I’m not sure who had a better time - me or them.  In fact, when I dragged myself in, one of my babies, Svenn came to the front door (picture above) wondering why the party had ended so soon.  Gotta confess, I went back out and we walked around the yard a few more times.
• Starbucks.  I could never air out Kharma without mentioning Starbucks.

Well, now, if that doesn’t call for a Chai Tea Latte, I don’t know what does.

“The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature.”  ~Anne Frank

If you’ll notice, at the top I’ve added Articles to the navigational bar.  I’m working of adding quality self help articles and information in our article database.  I’m weeding through literally hundreds of articles and plucking out those that are just “okay.”  Okay doesn’t cut it - only exceptional articles will be used here! 

Weeding takes time, so there’s only a grand total of one article right now - but it’s a great one.  And it covers such a timely topic:  Better Communication.

Check back tomorrow for more articles.  I should be able to get at least 5 up by tomorrow afternoon.

  Okay, I’ve got a really, really fun site I want you to check out.  But, there’s a catch - I don’t want you to just go, take a look around, then glide the arrow toward the X.  No good will come from that!  I want you to look around, sign up, and take part in what could become the coolest thing to happen to you in a while.  It takes, literally, only a few minutes to sign up.  It took me just 3 minutes, and that was with three “coffee breaks” - hey, it was early…I needed the brain jolts.

At the very least, you’ll meet some great new people and make some positive changes in your health. You’ll learn new exercises and workouts, along with tips on losing weight, gaining weight, or maintaining your weight - wherever your needs lie.

That’s just the least that could happen.  The most is simple:  This website has the potential to change your life. 

When you sign up, you choose your username and password.  You also give your e-mail and location.  If you live in the USA, when you choose your state you’re presented with the names of the cities that already have members onboard.  I couldn’t help but smile when I saw that my little hometown of Madisonville (Kentucky) was represented.  I toasted it with a sip of coffee. I was the first from Owensboro - so I entered in the name and the Boro was in the house! Yep, toasted that too. 

You also enter in your preference - how you want the website to speak to you in terms of weight and measurement.  I selected pounds and miles because I’d be as lost as Judas any other way.

Gimme20.com is more than a web site, it’s more of a Fitness and Health Community.  They provide very innovative tools and endless information for achieving your fitness goals.  Even more important, in my opinion, is the support that can be gained from the community of likeminded individuals.

When I was looking around the site - saving some great exercises along the way! - I thought how PERFECT something like this would be for people who are struggling with addictions. They could provide support for one another and ban together - keeping each other strong and motivated.

That’s what Gimme 20 will do for all of us with Health and Fitness on our minds.
It’s beautiful in its simplicity: You can either build a customized workout, or select one of the many workouts submitted by others - by others I don’t mean the freaky freaks on LOST, I mean our peers as well as professionals.  After you’ve chosen your workout, Gimme20.com will allow you to record all your workouts results!

Get this, they promise to even send us workout reminders if we need a kick in the pants.

I honestly just can’t tell you how impressed I am with this program, which by the way is entirely free, of course.  There’s also so much to Gimme20.com that it’s hard to convey everything inside of one post.  I know I’ll wrap this up and think, “Oh! I should have told them about that…or this.”   It’s difficult to put into words because there’s never been anything quite like this community.  It’s like Blogger meets Weight Watcher’s - ultra cool, cost free, and fun like Blogger but with the potential for a new body like Weight Watcher’s.  You even set up your own fitness blog to track your progress and share your workouts with others.

It’s something you need to see for yourself, so take about 10 minutes and go have a look around.  Your health is worth so much more than that.

* I have to put this little disclaimer here in keeping with web etiquette. The above was a Sponsored Post.  What that means is that I was paid to REVIEW Gimme 20- not to like, dislike, love, or hate the program.  It’s like someone gives you money and says, “Tell me what you think.”  Whether your thoughts are positive or negative - they just want to know what you think.

In this case, Gimme 20, I’ll just channel The Partridge Family - “I think I Love You….”