Words to live By

Cut out soda and caffeine. Drinks with caffeine are diuretics – meaning they speed up the rate of urine production. Hence, these drinks do not contribute to your 8 glasses of water/day requirement – they actually take away from it! Furthermore, soda is unhealthy, causes weight gain, is an artificial stimulant, among other reasons. Ditch your soda and go for plain water or fresh fruit juices instead!

Don’t drink alcohol. Like caffeine, alcohol is a diuretic. Not only that, alcohol is repeatedly proven to have negative effects on our body and health – impacting the proper functioning of our brain, liver, lungs, and other major organs. If you drink alcohol regularly, it’s time to cut it out.

Prepare your meals. Lately I’m beginning to appreciate the value of preparing my own meals. When you prepare your meals, you control what goes into them. No more being in a dilemma between eating healthy  and choosing between the sub-optimal food choices. Get some quality kitchen equipment – these will be your best investments ever.

Learn to say no. Don’t feel like you’ve to eat just because you’re out with your friends, or because other people offer you food. Simply say no and say you’re not hungry if you don’t feel like eating.

Bring a water bottle when you go out. That way, you can replenish your fluids whenever you want to. It saves you money as well and you don’t need to subject yourself to poor alternatives like soda, which increases your fluid outtake instead.

               Have A Happy Healthy Day! 

My Sister

 

My Sister just graduated from UNR with her bachelors. She will be moving on to complete her masters in occupational therapy this fall. I am unbelievably proud of her. Watching her over the years work with disabled children, I know this is the correct path for her. She is incredibly kind and compassionate towards them. She has already touched so many lives and I am very excited to see where life will take her.

 As sisters do; we have a close relationship. Despite the fact that there has been times where we didn't talk for months. (usually do to my stubbornness) We get along and understand each other like no one else does. She can be moody, I can be self-centered. She can be bossy, I can be unforgiving. But we also can be loving, generous, thoughtful, and kind. I will miss seeing her in person for the next two years. She will be going to school in another state. She will be close to our grandparents and our older brother so that make us worry less. She will still have people close by her who love her.

 My sister loves her nieces and nephews like crazy! They adore her too :) My sister is just a big kid at heart. Children are drawn to her and trust her. That is part of what will make her so great in the occupational therapy community.

So little sister :D Go out and conquer the world! You have quite and adventure ahead of you. Keep fighting for your dreams! You can do anything and I am SO PROUD of you!

A Purposeful Healthy Life

 Live a life with purpose. Positive health starts from within! Are you living a life of meaning? Are you living in line with your purpose?

Say no to oily food. Reduce your intake of fast food, fries, doughnuts, chips,  and foods that have been deep fried. Not only are they very fattening (1 tablespoon of oil is 120 calories), deep fried food contains acrylamide, a potential cancer-causing chemical. An ordinary bag of chips may contain up to 500 times more of the substance than the top level allowed in drinking water by the World Health Organization (WHO). I personally find that when I consume oily foods, I feel sluggish. There are better alternatives, such as grilled, steamed, stir-fried or even raw food.


Cut out sugary foods. These are your candy bars, your pastries, chocolate, cookies, cakes and jelly donuts. Not only do they not fill you, they trigger you to eat more due to the sugar rush they cause. Go for healthy snacks instead - you’ll be more satisfied and happy.


Go organic. Organic foods are foods produced without “synthetic inputs such as pesticides and chemical fertilizers, do not contain genetically modified organisms, and are not processed using irradiation, industrial solvents, or chemical food additives”. (Wiki) The organic movement is slowly catching on, with more supermarkets, especially in US, offering organic options. Organic food tends to cost more, but hey – would you rather save some money and feed your body with pesticides or pay a few extra dollars for a cleaner, healthier body?


Improve your posture. Good posture improves your breathing and makes you look more smarter and more attractive. 

             Have A Happy Healthy Day!

I Am UNSTOPPABLE

Just say it out loud... "I am unstoppable... Today is MY day, if I can't run I will walk, if I can't walk I will crawl, BUT whatever I do I will keep moving forward because failure is not falling... it is refusing to get back up! I will FIND time for healthy eating because I REFUSE to make time for illness later" 

Try it again, I can't hear you.... Words are a powerful thing!!!!

As I read these words and  I remember all the times I let my self fail because things might have been too hard or uncomfortable. I let myself believe that maybe I wasn't good enough to succeed. I let myself stay in a pattern of just stopping shy of reaching my goal because I was compertable there. I knew what to expect. Breaking through that threshold to success was scary!

Fast forward a few months and I am conquering my fears. My fears of failure, of not living up to others exceptions, of working really hard and failing anyway. I am facing my fears head on and NOT letting them stop me.

Moral of the story? GET OUT OF YOU OWN WAY and enjoy your life!!! You do deserve to be happy!

Have a Happy Healthy day!

Food advice I try to live by

Avoid trigger foods. Trigger foods are the foods that make you go berserk and binge like crazy after you eat them. Everyone’s trigger foods are different, generally trigger foods are candy bars, chocolate, confectionery, chips, cookies, or anything with high level of refined sugar, salt, fat or flour. These foods cause a blood sugar imbalance, hence triggering one to eat more. What are your trigger foods? Identify them and remove them from your diet.

Address emotional eating issues. Emotional eating is eating to fill an emotion, rather than real hunger. Do you eat when you feel stressed out, down or frustrated? Do you reach out for food when you hit a block at work? Chances are, you’re emotional eating. However, emotional eating will never make you feel happy, because you’re trying to fill a void that has nothing to do with food. Food doesn’t give you love or happiness; it’s just food. Why do you reach out for food when you’re down? How can you address it?

Eat small meals. Choose several small meals over a few big meals a day. This balances out your energy distribution throughout the day. In general, eat when you feel hungry, and stop when you’re full. You don’t need to wait until official meal times before you start eating. Listen to your body and what it tells you.

Stop eating when you feel full. Many of us rely on external cues to tell when we’re full, such as whether everyone has finished eating, whether your plate was empty or not. These are irrelevant – you should look at internal cues, such as whether your stomach feels full or not. Don’t feel obligated to eat just because there’s still food at the plate. Personally I like to stop when I feel about 3/4 full – if I eat till I’m totally full, I feel uncomfortable as my digestive system goes into overdrive. Use your gut as your indicator (literally).

Go for brown carbs vs. white carbs. White carbs are refined grains like white rice, pasta, white bread, crackers, noodles, tortillas, wraps, anything with white flour and breading. The nutrients have been removed in the production process, leaving them rich in calories but low in nutrients. They also cause unhealthy spikes in our sugar levels. Go for brown carbs (unrefined complex carbs) instead, like brown rice, whole grain, oats, oatmeal, legumes, nuts. These come with nutrients and vitamins intact. 

               Have A Happy Healthy Day! 

My Journey Thus far.......

Why is it the older I get the more I realize I know very little? This is not necessarily a bad thing. As I mature I am learning something new everyday about myself, my children, my friends, my family, and the world around me.  What is it about being young that makes you think you know everything? I remember feeling invincible. I remember wondering why some adults couldn't or wouldn't take me serious. I had a voice, I had thoughts and I needed to be heard!

Senior year of High school

 Fast forward a few years and I don't need to be heard quite so much. I am pretty comfortable with the woman  I am becoming. I am changing and growing. I certainly don't know everything!

What I do Know:

I am human, thus flawed. I am jealous, self centered, cranky, and rude.
I also try to love to the best of my ability.
I try not to hurt others, although sometimes it does happen.
 I adore my husband, and love the fact that he loves me "warts and all"

 My children are my greatest teachers. They have taught me patience, love, how to play, how to giggle with reckless abandon.

They have taught me to forgive my own parents. Who believe it or not they are just human too! (and did a fabulous job by the way. Just took me a while to figure it out)

I thank you for letting me just be human on my journey thus far...... I will try my best to let you be human too :)

7 Important Reasons to Strength Train

■Improves your ability to do everyday activities: The stronger your muscles, the easier it is to get groceries out of the car, get a package off of the top cabinet shelf, push the lawnmower?..the list goes on and on!

 

■Improves your balance and stability: The stronger and more resilient your muscles, the more balance is sturdier. This will help you with daily activities and decreases the risk of falls or accidents as you age.
 

■Builds muscle strength: Adults lose between five and seven pounds of muscle every decade after age 20. Strength training will help prevent this muscle loss, and rebuild what you may have lost.
 

■Decreases your risk of osteoporosis: Inactivity can lead to a decrease in bone density, leading to brittleness. Studies have shown that consistent strength training can increase bone density and prevent osteoporosis.
 

■Reduces blood pressure: Strength training can be beneficial for the prevention and treatment of high blood pressure by strengthening the heart, allowing it to beat more efficiently.
 

■Increases calorie burn: Strength training increases the body's metabolic rate, causing the body to burn more calories throughout the day. This aids significantly in long term weight loss (and weight maintenance).
 

■Reduces low back pain: Research has shown that strength training can increase low back strength and alleviate low back pain.

 I have to say one of my favorite exercises is strength training. While cardio will physically exhaust me, strength training will leave me with that feeling of being strong and powerful. (I call it the She-ra effect) I am getting very proud of my biceps. Each time I workout my arms they just get stronger. Yes, I would love well defined abs someday, BUT it is my arms I have always wanted to see the muscle definition. I still have a ways to go, but I am far from what I once was!

 

                  Have A Happy Healthy Day!!

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Mothers Day!

 I have been blessed to have two mothers. They each have brought something unique and special to my life. I am incredibly thankful for them both.

The best part of mothers day is celebrating my two children. I love them dearly and they are my life! They give my life purpose and I wouldn't give them up for anything!

So to all the women in my life weather you are a "Mother" to children, pets, plants, or classrooms full of kids. You are Amazing! I am blessed to know you!

Happy Mothers Day!

Working out at home

 I feel blessed that  I can work out at home. Although sometimes that workout has to be after the kids go to bed. It is nice to know That I have a library full of workouts so I don't get bored. Workouts at home can be challenging with my kids. But I make the best of it and don't let them stop me. Most of the time they like to join in!

The best thing I did was get them their own workout DVDs. Here they are trying out Tony Horton's "Tony and the Kids" for the first time. We put in this DVD at lest once a week and the wave and wiggle is there favorite move :)

So get off the coach and just push play!!!

Have a Happy Healthy Day!!

Angry Bird Pizza

In a quest to make a healthier pizza for my family, I found this picture while googling pizza recipes.

I asked on My facebook page for some suggestions on how to make it healthier. There were some great suggestions and that how the cauliflower crusted pizza came about.  I ended up using a whole wheat pizza crust, tomato sauce with spices added, low fat mozzarella cheese, turkey pepperoni, olives,mushrooms and a yellow bell pepper. The funnest part was having the kids help me :)

 They took their job of assembling the pizza very seriously..... with a few olives and pepperonis dissapearing :D

 Anticipation is building........

 They can't wait to make other Angry bird foods. I found some other inspirations below. I am excited to see what else we can make.

Have a Happy Healthy Day!!

Are You putting these things into your Body?

Eat more fruits. Fruits are a plethora of vitamins and minerals. Do you know that oranges offer more health benefits than Vitamin C pills? Taking in synthetic supplements are not the same as consuming the foods direct from nature. Fill your palate with these 10 most nutritious fruits: Watermelon, Apricots, Avocado, Apple, Cantaloupe, Grapefruit, Kiwi, Guava, Papaya, Strawberries.

Eat more vegetables. Like fruits, vegetables are important for the well being of our health. Experts suggest that we should have 5-9 servings of fruits/vegetables, and unfortunately most people don’t even have at least 5 servings! Some of my favorite vegetables include: Kidney beans, black beans, asparagus, long beans, french beans, sprouts,  and carrots. What are your favorite vegetables and how can you include more of them in your diet today?

Pick bright colored foods. Fruits and vegetables with bright colors are usually high in anti-oxidants. Anti-oxidants are good for health because they remove free radicals in our body that damage our cells. So get your fill of fruits/vegetables of different colors: White (Bananas, Mushroom), Yellow (Pineapples, Mango), Orange (Orange, Papaya), Red (Apple, Strawberries, Tomatoes, Watermelon), Green (Guava, Avocados,  Cucumber, Lettuce, Celery), Purple/Blue (Blackberries, Eggplant, Prunes). Here’s a full list under the color wheel.

Cut down on processed food. Processed foods are not good because (1) most nutritional value is lost (2) the preservatives added are bad for our health.  Many processed foods contain a high amount of salt content, which leads to higher blood pressure and heart disease. Processed foods are anything that are not in their raw form. In general, most of the food in supermarket are processed – the more the ingredients on the label (especially the ones ending with ‘ite’ or ‘ate’), the more processed they are. Watch out for those with salt/sugar as the first 5 ingredients and go for natural foods as much as possible.

               Have A Happy Healthy Day! 

Cauliflower Crust Pizza

In a quest to make a healthier pizza for my family a friend suggested this recipe for Cauliflower crusted pizza. I thought it was wonderful and will definitely be making again! It is not like you typical pizza were you can pick it up and eat it. So you will need a fork. But it was totally worth it. The best part is the kids liked it! I had already made them their lunch, but I had them try this one and they liked it. It became their afternoon snack! Easy to make and delicious! If you decide to make this for yourself I would love to hear your results in the comments below.

 Ingredients:

Large head of Cauliflower
2 cups shreeded lowfat Mozzarella cheese
2 egg whites 
2 tsp dried oregeno
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp dried basil
Extra Virgin olive oil
Tomato sauce or pizza sauce
Shredded cheese
your choice of toppings

1. Remove stems and leaves from cauliflower. Chop the florets into small chunks

2. In a pan over medium high heat bring 2 cups of water to boil. Add in cauliflower chunks and cook 10-15 minutes or until tender. Drain.

3. Use a potato masher (or food processor) mash up the cauliflower. Don't over mash (or over pulse) as you want the texture and for it not to be complete puree.

4. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray.

5. In medium bowl, stir together mashed cauliflower, egg whites, and cheese. (save some cheese for pizza topping) Stir in oregano, basil, and garlic powder.  

6. Spread mixture into 9" circle on the baking sheet. Brush olive oil over the top of mixture (optional)


7. Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned.

8.Remove from oven. Add sauce to crust, and topping of choice.


9. Bake at 45 degrees  for 10-15 minutes , or until cheese is melted.


10. Enjoy!

Have A Happy Healthy Day!

Ways to live a healthy life

Drink more water. Most of us actually don’t drink enough water every day. Water is essential for our body to function – Do you know over 60% of our body is made up of water? Water is needed to carry out our body functions, remove waste and carry nutrients and oxygen around our body. Since we lose water every day through urine, bowel movements, perspiration and breathing, we need to replenish our water intake. 
 

Furthermore, drinking more water alone actually aids in losing weight. A Health.com study carried out among overweight/obese people showed that water drinkers lose 4.5 more pounds than a control group. The researchers believe that it’s because drinking more water helps fill your stomach, making you less hungry and less likely to overeat. I agree with that, and I have an added take that your body tries to retain whatever water you take when you don’t take in enough water, leading to increase in weight. Whereas when you regularly drink water, your body knows that it’s going to get its supply of fluids, so it doesn’t try to retain more water. 

The amount of water we need is dependent on various factors such as the humidity, our physical activity, and your weight, but generally we need 2.7-3.7 litres of water intake! Since food intake contributes about 20% of our fluid intake, that means we need to drink about 2.0-3.0 litres of water, or about 8-10 glasses (now you know how the 8 glasses recommendation came about!). One way to tell if you’re hydrated – your urine should be colorless or slightly yellow. If it’s not, you’re not getting enough water! Other signs include: Dry lips, dry mouth and little urination.

 

Get enough sleep. When you don’t rest well, you compensate by eating more. Usually it’s junk food. Get enough rest and you don’t need to snack to stay awake. Also, lack of sleep causes premature aging, and you wouldn’t want that.

Meditate. Meditation quiets your mind and calms your soul.

Exercise. Not just a few times a week, but every day. Movement is life. Research has shown that exercising daily brings tremendous benefits to our health, including increase of life span, lowering of risk of diseases, higher bone density and weight loss. Increase activity in your life. Choose walking over transport for close distances. Climb the stairs instead of taking the lift. Join some aerobics classes. Take up a sport of your liking

Pick exercises you enjoy. When you enjoy the sports, you’ll naturally want to do them. Exercise isn’t about suffering and pushing yourself; it’s about being healthy and having fun at the same time. Adding variation in your exercises will keep them interesting.

 Work out different parts of your body. Don’t just do cardio exercises (such as jogging). Give your full body a proper work out. The easiest way is to engage in sports, since they work out different muscle groups. Popular sports include basketball, football, swimming, tennis, squash, badminton, frisbee, and more.

                                     Have a Happy Healthy Day!

Drinking Recommendations for Walkers and Runners

Water is essential to preforming at your best; staying hydrated is essential to your fitness and you ability to lose weight. Water helps your cells repair themselves and helps keep your joints lubricated. I have been curious about what I need to do as I prepare for My Marathon walk next March. So I ran across another great article from about.com. Enjoy :)

Have a Happy Healthy Day!

 Read full article at About.com

 The International Marathon Medical Director's Association revised guidelines for drinking and fluid intake for walkers and runners at endurance events in May 2006.

What Should You Drink?

For a workout of 30 minutes or more, they recommend drinking sports drink, and not diluting it or alternating sports drink with water. The carbohydrate and electrolytes in the sports drink helps the body absorb water faster, and provides energy for the body. If you dilute the sports drink, you decrease the benefits. In my experience, many walkers are likely to try to ignore this advice in order to take in fewer calories. During a marathon or race, they should drink carbohydrate-containing sports drink for performance. For walking workouts, they could use a low-calorie sports drink to replace salt without adding calories.
However, the IMMDA also recommends that during a marathon, participants drink whichever beverage most appeals to them, relying on their body to know whether they need more sodium or more water. Event directors need to have both water and sports drink available at water stops. I think this is good advice for walkers on long walks as well - have both available to you and drink whichever appeals to you at the moment.

How Much Should You Drink?

There are dangers in drinking either too much or too little. Drink too much and you risk hyponatremia - low blood salt level and fluid overload. Drink too little and become dehydrated. The needs will vary with many factors: the weather, your body's reaction to the exercise demands, sweat rate, etc. Weigh Before and After: Weighing yourself before and after exercise can often help you know whether you are drinking too much or too little. The guidelines say: a weight loss of more than 2% or any weight gain are warning signs that justify immediate medical consultation and indicate that you are drinking too much or too little.

Drink to Thirst

Erase the old advice that you can't rely on thirst. New evidence says that thirst is the best protection for athletes when it comes to drinking the correct amount.

• Drink when you are thirsty.
• Don't drink if you aren't thirsty.
• Don't drink at every water stop at an event just because it is there or your companions are drinking.
• Rely on your thirst unless you discover it is leading you wrong, from weighing yourself before and after a workout.

Drinking Guidelines For Walkers and Slower Runners

No more than 1 cup of water per mile is a good rule-of-thumb for walkers and slower runners - anyone who takes more than 4 hours to complete a 26.2 mile marathon, or a pace of greater than 10 minutes per mile. Your weight determines the range - a half-cup if you weigh 100 pounds and a full cup if you weigh 200 pounds.
The slower you are, the less you should drink. While a fast runner may need 4 liters of fluid for a marathon, a walker or slow runner needs only 2.5 to 3 liters for the entire event.
Thirst may not kick in as fast if you are in extreme heat and not yet acclimated to it, or in cold weather, or if you are over 65.

Calculating Your Fluid Needs

Your needs may change based on the weather, your conditioning, and other factors. IMMDA provides this method of determining your fluid needs: One Hour Test

1. Weigh yourself nude before the walk or run.
2. One Hour Test: Walk or run or alternate walking/running at race pace for one hour, just as you will do during the race. IMMDA recommends one hour to get the sweat rate you will have during the endurance event.
3. Write down how much you are drinking, in ounces, during the 1 hour walk or run.
4. Weigh yourself nude after you finish the 1 hour walk/run. Subtract from starting weight. Convert the difference in body weight to ounces (multiply pounds by 16).
5. To determine hourly sweat rate, add to this value the volume of fluid consumed (from Step 3).
6. To determine how much to drink every 15 minutes, divide the hourly sweat rate by 4. This becomes the guideline for fluid intake every 15 min of a walk/run.
7. Record the weather and conditions on your test day. Do the test again on a day with different weather and conditions, so you can see how your sweat rate reacts to different conditions. 

 Source: Lewis G. Maharam, MD.FACSM (chair),Tamara Hew DPM, Arthur Siegel MD, Marv Adner, MD, Bruce Adams, MD and Pedro Pujol, MD, FACSM. "IMMDA’s Revised Fluid Recommendations for Runners and Walkers." IMMDA. 6 May 2006. Tamara Hew-Butler, DPM, Joseph G. Verbalis, MD,w and Timothy D. Noakes, MBChB, MD, DSc, "Updated Fluid Recommendation: Position Statement From the International Marathon Medical Directors Association (IMMDA)," Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine, 2006;16:283–292)

Swollen Hands after exercise

Today's post is some great information I came across from about.com. I deal with swollen hands on long walks or during intense exercise. I plan to implement some of the suggestions and see what happens. I will let you know how it goes. Marathon training is going well! LaDawn and I are right on track. We just moved up to a goal of 9 miles a week with a long walk of 4 miles once a week. We are seeing improvement in our ability to walk as far as we need to. We don't get as winded and are not as exhausted after our walks! Ya! progress.

                 Have a Happy Healthy Day!


Full Article at about.com
We've all experienced it - your hands swelling when you go on a walk. Sometimes it is worse than other times - puffy, bloated hands. Why? And how to prevent it?
Our correspondent Melanie Jonker questioned several walking-related mailgroups about this problem to get theories on causes and how walkers dealt with the problem. The good news is that no walker or their health care provider found this problem to be serious and it always went away soon after completing the walk. If your hand swelling doesn't subside soon after the walk, you should consider consulting your health provider.

Theories on Causes

Weather:

• Many walkers say long walks in warm weather lead to hand swelling.


• Some walkers reported the problem more often in cool weather.


• Some walkers thought that higher altitude contributed to more swelling.

Electrolyte imbalance: Electrolytes are the salts in your bloodstream, which must be kept in balance to prevent swelling in the tissues (edema). When you sweat, you lose salt. When you eat too much salt, you body has to work to balance it with more fluid. Either way, you may have swelling. Appropriate use of a sports drink that replaces electrolytes, as well as taking in the right volume of fluid (not too much, not too little) are key to maintaining electrolyte balance.
Drinking Guidelines for Distance Walkers Arm Motion (or lack of it): There is some debate on whether certain types of arm motion force more fluid into the hands by "centrifugal force." Walking with your hands constantly below your heart makes it more difficult for the circulatory system to return your blood flow back from your hands.
Racewalking coach Bonnie Stein of Acewalker.com describes "blood pooling." Our leg muscles are working hard during a walk and help return blood from the lower body. Despite this, your feet still swell as much as a full shoe size during a long walk. The arm muscles are smaller and in less use when walking, so they don't help as much in returning blood from the hands. This may lead to the swelling.

 Melanie Jonker received these suggestions to combat swollen hands when walking:

• Remove your rings prior to a walk. Loosen your wristwatch strap and elastic sleeves.
• Carry a walking stick and switch hands while you walk.
• Carry a small object to grip lightly from time to time as you walk: a small foam pad, rubber ball, map, or flashlight.
• Do an occasional arm circle.
• Don't clench your hands, keep them relaxed and slightly open. Every so often, stretch all of your fingers out for a few seconds and then make a fist. Repeat this several times. Or sort of "play the piano or accordion," with your fingers only.
• Racewalking coach Bonnie Stein of Acewalker.com recommends using correct arm motion with your arm bent at almost a 90 degree angle and swinging back and forth from a relaxed shoulder, rather than opening and closing the arm at the elbow.
• Play stick-em-up: rest your hands on top of your head for a few seconds to get them above the level of your heart.
• Whenever you are sweating, take care in balancing your water and salt intake. Drink sports drink after the first hour. When possible, weigh yourself before, during, and after your walk so you can see whether you are drinking too much or too little. Your weight should remain the same. .

Do You Have a Positive Attitude?

Positive attitude helps to cope more easily with the daily affairs of life. It brings optimism into your life, and makes it easier to avoid worry and negative thinking. If you adopt it as a way of life, it will bring constructive changes into your life, and makes them happier, brighter and more successful. With a positive attitude you see the bright side of life, become optimistic and expect the best to happen. It is certainly a state of mind that is well worth developing and strengthening. A positive attitude leads to happiness and success and can change your whole life. If you look at the bright side of life, your whole life becomes filled with light. This light affects not only you and the way you look at the world, but also your whole environment and the people around you. If it is strong enough, it becomes contagious.

Negative attitude says: you cannot achieve success.
Positive attitude says: You can achieve success.

If you have been exhibiting a negative attitude and expecting failure and difficulties, it is now the time to change the way you think. It is time to get rid of negative thoughts and behavior and lead a happy and successful life. Why not start today? If you have tried and failed, it only means that you have not tried enough.

How to develop a positive attitude that will lead you to happiness and success:

- Choose to be happy.

- Look at the bright side of life.

- Choose to be and stay optimistic.

- Find reasons to smile more often.

- Have faith in yourself and in the Power of the Universe.

- Contemplate upon the futility of negative thinking and worries.

- Associate yourself with happy people.

- Read inspiring stories.

- Read inspiring quotes.

- Repeat affirmations that inspire and motivate you.

- Visualize only what you want to happen.

- Learn to master your thoughts.

- Learn concentration and meditation.


Following even only one of the above suggestions, will bring more light into your life!

25 Benefits Of A Positive Attitude

Here is a list of 25 benefits of a positive attitude.

1. You are more motivated to get things done and achieve your goals when you have a positive attitude.
2. You expect positive outcomes and results, and you usually get them.
3. Problems are no longer problems, but become opportunities to learn and grow.
4. You have higher self-esteem. You believe in yourself and what you are capable of.
5. You see opportunities where other people see problems.
6. Your thinking is more creative.
7. You have more inspiration and you rely less on others to help motivate you.
8. You are generally much happier.
9. You have much less stress.
10. Your health is better because you are less stressed.
11. Your immune system is stronger.
12. You will live a longer life.
13. You have more friends. Who wants to hang out with somebody who is negative?
14. You are more influential.
15. People will respect you more.
16. You make a better leader or manager.
17. Your significant other will like being around you more.
18. Achieving success is easier and more fun.
19. You have more perseverance since you expect things will turn out well in the end
20. You have more energy. Negativity can really drain you!
21. You will affect others have a more positive attitude. Attitudes are contagious.
22. You bounce back from setbacks much faster.
23. You enjoy your work more.
24. Your kids will like being around you more.

   25.  You enjoy more success in all areas of life.

                  Have a Happy Healthy Day!