Do you want to do more in less time?
Or perhaps you just want to pamper yourself! Maybe you want to run your home
more efficiently. There's something for everyone in Tiplets
The Balanced Woman
January 2002
Issue 32
Jackie Hale, Editor
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By subscription only! Welcome to another issue of:
"THE BALANCED WOMAN".
Thanks to all of you who have encouraged your friends to subscribe! You are important to
us. So rest assured we will NEVER sell or give away your email addresses to anyone!!
We realize that not all of the email programs available can accommodate our size. So you
can also find this issue of The Balanced Woman at:
http://angelfire.com/sd/BalancedWoman/issue32.html
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IN THIS ISSUE
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=> Welcome
=> Feature Article: "7 Steps to Making Your Resolutions a Reality"
=> Household Hint
=> Web Pick
=> Fashion Tips
=> Parenting Tip
=> Classified Ads
=> Pampering Yourself
=> A Little Laughter
=> Site Updates
=> Recommended Resources
=> Recipe of the Month
=> Help Others without Spending a Dime
=> Subscribe/Un subscribe information
You may have noticed that I took a holiday hiatus! I didn't issue December and January is
a few days late. Sometimes I just have to practice what I preach!
But I think you'll find this issue is jam packed with articles and resources relating to
all the most common New Year's resolutions. So until next month enjoy this one!
jackie
PS Don't forget, our site updates and easy recipe of the month are at the end.
"The Nitty Gritty Tool Kit For Career Transition: A
Practical Guide for the Downsized, Outsourced and Displaced"
You deserve a position that fulfills your practical needs AND provides you with a sense of
accomplishment and joy. "Losing" your job is the first step in finding it!
Chapters include Marketing Yourself into a Job, The Courage to Say No and Salary
Negotiation. Available for $8.95 in e-book format exclusively at http://www.booklocker.com
This interactive workbook is written by Staci Backauskas - career consultant, writer,
minister and creator of the award-winning site http://www.fifthgoddess.com. For more
information and to read excerpts, visit http://www.fifthgoddess.com/career_transition.htm
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Feature Article: 7 Steps to Making Your Resolutions a Reality!
By: Jacqueline McLaughlin Hale
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A new year…new resolutions…resolutions to lose weight, to stop smoking, to get
organized, to pay off debts, to begin to save money, to spend more time with friends and
family…the list goes on and on. But more often than not resolutions are broken.
January first rolls around again and the same resolutions are resolved over and over, year
in and year out. Wouldn’t it be nice if at least some of those resolutions were kept?
But how? What are the secrets? Here they are. Seven steps to making your resolutions a
reality.
1. Do not bite off more than you can chew. In other words, do not resolve to stop smoking,
lose weight and pay off debts. Choose just one and commit to it, whole-heartedly!
2. Develop a plan. You can’t just say you want to lose weight; you’ve got to
have a plan for doing it. How frequently are you going to exercise and for how long? What
are you going to cut out, your morning donut, your afternoon snack, your glass of wine
with dinner---what? How much weight do you want to lose and do you have a realistic time
frame for losing it? Create a blueprint for whatever it is you want to resolve. Plans fail
when people fail to plan.
3. Undertake your plan moderately. Don’t commit to lifting weights for one-hour
everyday. It will quickly hurt too much and you’ll stop doing it. Don’t cut out
all food until dinnertime. You’ll get too hungry and eat too much, too fast.
Start out by lifting weights 5 minutes a day. Begin your running program with 10. Cut out
just one or two fatty foods from your diet. Get used to those changes. Make them habits
and then change some more. Increase your exercise to 15 or 20 minutes. Cut out another
fatty food. Replace potato chips with fruit.
“Slow and Steady” should be your mantra. It’s okay. Live your resolutions
moderately and you’ll be more likely to stick with them. Tackle your resolutions
aggressively and you’ll probably fail.
4. Make one small change per month. It takes 21 days to make or break a habit. So start
small and build. The second month, stick with your first change, which should now be a
habit, and add another. By the end of a year you’ll have 12 positive life changes!
5. Be accepting of mistakes. So you skip a day of exercise. Just start up again tomorrow.
So you ate too much for lunch. Eat lightly at dinner. So you smoked too many cigarettes
today. Go back to your reduction plan tomorrow.
Don’t beat yourself up and call yourself a failure. Doing so will make you feel worse
and will probably lead you to engage more in self-destructive habits. You’re not
perfect. You’re human. Mistakes happen. It’s okay. Don’t give up. Start
again. Every day’s a new day.
6. Get a resolution buddy. Find a friend or a relative who’s ready to commit to a
life change or two and do it together. Review each other’s plans to make sure
they’re reasonable. Check in with one another. Report on your progress. Call your
resolution buddy when you think you’re going to slip. Create a plan to talk daily or
weekly or at whatever interval you think will work for the both of you. Be accountable to
each other and you’ll find yourself more likely to stick to your resolutions.
7. Last but not least, have faith that you CAN do whatever it is you’re setting out
to do. Anything is possible if you remember that mountains are climbed one step at a time.
Take your first step today…
Jacqueline McLaughlin Hale is a CPA and the editor of Between Friends: Resources for
Mothers (http://www.betweenfriends.org)
Between Friends contains household hints, time management tips, articles on organization,
parenting, money management, career, self employment, self improvement and more! Subscribe
to its FREE monthly ezine, The Balanced Woman. Visit today!
Webmasters and publishers may use this article in their ezine or website, as long as the
*entire* article is used, and the *copyright notice* and *resource box* are left in tact,
including this notice
This month's household hint is from one of you! So without further ado, here it is...
This is the most amazing thing and it actually works to fix a sweater that you have
accidentally shrunk with hot water in the washing machine. Fill a pasta pot 3/4 of the way
full of water and add 16 oz. or one medium size bottle of white vinegar. Bring these two
to a boil; they smell terrible. Wet the sweater in any temperature water and then drop the
sweater into the pot. Turn the heat down and simmer for 20 minutes. Dump all the liquid
and the sweater into the sink and let the water drain out. Now cover the sweater with cold
water and you will be amazed to see that it has returned to its regular size.
I really enjoy your site, and thought i would pass on this tip.
Thank-you,
Connie C.
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WEB PICK!
Do you want all the latest consumer information? Do you want to make sure that as a
consumer you're treated fairly? Of course! Who doesn't? So take a look at the Federal
Consumer Information Center. It's jam packed with the latest consumer information and
news! http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/
Parent like you mean business! Stop nagging and fighting with your kids! Get your home
running more smoothly than it has ever run before. Discover a simple, effective and proven
system for putting sanity back into your life with the new ebook THE BUSINESS OF MOM!
Easy Ways to Hide Those Holiday Pounds
by Diana Pemberton-Sikes
Twelve dumplings in gravy...
Eleven pies with filling...
Ten lattes with sprinkles...
Nine lady fingers...
Has the holiday spirit hit your scale like a ton of bricks? Join the club! According to
the National Dietetic Association, the average person puts on between five and eight
pounds during the holiday season. If all those sweets and once-a-year menus have you
facing the New Year a little heavier than expected, here are some sleigh-of-hand(or is it
sleigh-of-closet?) tricks that you can use to help you disguise those unwelcome pounds
until you can burn them off on the ski slopes or while shoveling snow:
1. Stand Up Straight
Shoulders back, chest out, stomach in. You’ll stretch out the load around your
middle, which will make you appear thinner. You’ll also look taller and more
confident, so strive to make this a part of your every day success arsenal. Slouching
isn’t a success posture.
2. Wear Vertical Lines
Opt for clothes that offer vertical lines, like long vests, dusters, and straight skirts.
A long scarf or necklace also works nicely. Avoid horizontal lines, particularly where you
tend to carry your extra weight (like the upper arms, waist, hips, or thighs).
3. Choose Dark Colors
Dark colors make what’s around them appear smaller, light colors make what’s
around them appear bigger. If you’re trying to disguise something, don’t call
attention to it with a light or bright color or accent piece.
4. Go Monochrome
If you want to appear taller and thinner, try dressing head to toe in one color. Not only
will you look pulled together, you’ll create your own vertical line, which is
slenderizing.
Chances are, you can manage most of these handy tricks with what you already have in your
closet. Be creative. You may surprise yourself.
In short, don’t punish yourself for enjoying the holidays. You can still look
great—just keep away from weight enhancing styles until you return to your
pre-holiday size.
Diana Pemberton-Sikes is a wardrobe and image
consultant and editor of "Fashion Savvy", a monthly
online newsletter dedicated to helping women achieve
more success through dress. You can visit her online at http://www.fashionforrealwomen.com
What parent hasn't heard their child say, "Tommy gets to do it, why can't I?".
Like most parents you've probably explained that Tommy's parents have different rules than
you do.
But how often have you said something like, "Tommy does his homework every night
without his mother telling him to." or "Tommy helps his mother clean the
kitchen."
Remember, you set the example. So if you don't want your child comparing your rules to the
rules of other parents, be careful not to compare your child's behavior to the behavior of
another child!
A BETTER LIFE:ITS YOUR FUTURE!
Enjoy Humor, Inspiration, Romance, Fitness, Nutrition & Personal Finance- all aimed at
helping YOU to take control of YOUR future! Subscribe FREE at: http://webmarketingezine.com
BE HAPPY BE HEALTHY LIVE LONG & PROSPER
WEB MARKETING EZINE
Let us help YOU succeed on the Web with Tips, Tools, News & Views on Web Marketing and
E-Commerce, from a street-smart Marketer. Subscribe FREE at: http://webmarketingezine.com
THE HUMAN FACE OF WEB
DON'T BE TAKEN TO THE CLEANERS ONLINE!
Subscribe now to The iCop Rap Sheet. Get regular reports about online scams and unethical
online businesses. They can cost you more in 5 minutes than the "Rap Sheet"
costs for a year! A MUST for "Newbies!" http://www.i-cop.org/RapSheet/ref.cgi?id=jahale
Room by room, clean out all your old “junk”. Purge your home of things you
haven’t worn or used in over a year. Minimizing the clutter around you is a subtle
but important method of “pampering yourself.” Don’t believe me? Try
it---you’ll be glad you did!
Off My Noodle: Thoughts on Feeding a Finicky Family
By Judy Gruen
Hamster Gourmet
Last night at dinner, I tasted a bitter revelation. I had proudly served a nutritional
powerhouse of a meal: lentil soup with spinach, pasta with vegetable marinara, grated
mozzarella, and fresh fruit. Having weaned the kids from apple juice, which I had
previously purchased by the barge, I slaked their thirst with water from our expensive
European water filter, a large hunky thing that takes up all the space under the sink,
leaving almost no room for the dishwasher detergent. Anyway, the thing came with the
house, so I can't complain.
True to form, three of my four offspring ignored the lentil soup and marinara, and instead
drowned their noodles in a sea of ketchup, while stuffing handfuls of cheese in their
mouths. Simultaneously, our hamsters, Ben and Jerry, began running on their wheels,
reminding us that the family that eats together with their rodents doesn't have to listen
to the squeaky wheels, which in this case really need to gather a good shot of WD-40.
And that's when the revelation hit me, harder than a stale biscotti: our rodents ate
better than our children! My kids run for cover when faced with asparagus, but dangle a
bit of raw collard greens in front of the cages, and Ben and Jerry swing through the
rafters to grab it with abandon. Our furry friends feast on salad greens, never asking for
dressing, even on the side! They splurge like vegans in paradise on seeds, nuts, raw
vegetables of every kind. They eat no cookies, chug no Pepsi or Hi-C. I began to worry
that with this healthful a diet, their life expectancy might be long indeed, which meant I
was sentenced to many more years of listening to those &%$*! squeaky wheels.
And my kids? Well, at least I got them off the juice. And while not yet clamoring for cole
slaw or begging for broccoli, perhaps they can learn from their hamster housemates: maybe
if I dangle carrot curls while hanging from the chandelier, they'll go for it.
Judy Gruen, a mother of four, is the author of "Carpool Tunnel Syndrome: Motherhood
as Shuttle Diplomacy," ($12.95, softcover, 224 pages),available through bookstores
nationwide and through Amazon.com. Autographed copies are available directly from Judy,
and shipping is FREE for all "Balanced Woman" readers! It's a great hostess or
holiday gift! Reach Judy at carpooltunnelmom@att.net
(If you have liked what you've read, please forward this newsletter to friends or family
members who you think might enjoy it! It might encourage them to subscribe. Thanks!)
THE WHAT'S FOR DINNER COOKBOOK
More than 250 quick easy dinner ideas. Free chocolate and Sunday breakfast recipes with
every order. Click here to order. http://hop.clickbank.net/hop.cgi?jahale/recipeclub
DIVORCE WELL
"Divorce Strategy for Men and Women" reveals the secrets of men, women, lawyers,
financial tax experts and private investigators! This book a must have for those going
through divorce. http://www.divorcewell.com
The appearance of advertising in The Balanced Woman should not be interpreted as an
endorsement by the editors of the service, product, business, or program being advertised.
We take no responsibility for claims or representations made in any ads. The Balanced
Woman is for informational and entertainment purposes only. The ideas and information
expressed in it have not been approved or authorized by anyone either explicitly or
implicitly. In no event shall Jacqueline McLaughlin Hale be liable for any damages
whatsoever resulting from any action arising in connection with the use of this
information or its publication, including any action for infringement of copyright or
defamation. The opinions expressed by our columnists are not necessarily the position of
The Balanced Woman.
Copyright 1999, 2000, 2001 JA Hale
Editor's Comments: If any of you have any ideas, comments and suggestions on how we can
improve this e-zine please let me know. Just send an email to: jahale95@yahoo.com
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