For me this statement is really not an option… I HAVE TO eat!
Okay… I admit, I’m a serial entrepreneur…I have been for over 14 years.
One thing that I occasionally suffer from and did just last week, was a huge drop in blood sugar from not eating. There are times when I’m way busy with whatever I’m doing, and too much time goes by and BAM… I start to feel weird and get cranky…ask my friends and family! Does this ring true for you too? Here are 5 tips that might help. I’ve started to do these in my life and find they really are a benefit.:
TIP #1: Drink your water, preferably alkaline. Even if you are simply working behind a desk all day, your body still uses water. So don’t wait until you get that thirsty feeling in your mouth. By that point you are already dehydrated, which can impair your physical and mental functioning.
TIP #2: Avoid sugar and simple carbohydrates. Incorporate more proteins and complex carbohydrates into your diet, such as products made with whole-wheat flour, brown rice, etc. They won’t trigger blood sugar highs and lows, putting you more on an even keel.
TIP #3: Eat small meals. Have six small meals over the course of the day instead of three large ones. When you eat a big meal in one sitting, it overwhelms your body, causing it to work harder to digest the food. As a result, the digestive process diverts blood away from your brain and your extremities and uses it in the digestive track. With smaller meals, your body doesn’t have to work as hard.
TIP #4: Take walking breaks. Walking gets your blood circulating, helps you breathe better, and stimulates your brain due to the increased blood flow. Take a five or ten minute walk during the day.
TIP #5: Meditate. Meditation is great for rejuvenating your body. Each time you meditate, you’ll feel like you just took a six-hour nap. By meditating for fifteen to twenty minutes twice a day, you’re keeping your body continually energized. If you do run into the afternoon slump, meditating for a quick five minutes can immediately re-energize you.
Certain words that we use on a daily basis have associations to them. Did you feel uncomfortable when I used the word “selfish” as a positive expression in the title of this blog? Exploring non-traditional ways of using words that have judgments attached to them may give us insight as to how we can create a richer human experience.
For me, this quote from Mother Theresa describes how being selfish might be the best course of action…
“People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may just never be enough; Give the world the best you have anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it’s all between you and God; It was never between you and them anyway.”
- Mother Teresa
When we limit ourselves to conforming to society’s value systems, or ways of thinking of things, we miss the opportunity for awareness and self-care.
It’s 10:00 Monday night. You have a giant presentation in morning and you’ve been working all day long to get the Powerpoint just right. As you finish up slide number 38 you congratulate yourself…they’re gonna love it. For some strange reason, your keyboard stops responding. You press the SAVE key, once, twice and then it hits you…your computer is locked up. You are going to have to reboot. A cold chill creeps up your leg…when was the last time that you saved your work….OH NO…you realize that you NEVER SAVED your work. The entire presentation is going down the toilet. NOOOOOOOOOOO!
Feeling a bit of stress are you? Are your nickers in a twist? Well there Ms. Entrepreneur, what are you going to do now? How are you going to fix this mess? More importantly, how are you going to save from the stress of burning the candle at both ends? The problem is not technology, it’s one of perspective.
First of all, cut yourself some slack. This kind of stuff is going to happen from time to time. If it’s just now and then, have a glass of wine, and get ready for an all-nighter. “But wait” you say, this kind of stress happens all the time! If it isn’t cashflow, it’s grumpy customers, slow sales, tough competition, you name it…your LIFE IS STRESS.
So when is some stress too much stress?
When it’s 4AM and your dog looks at you thinking “Can I PLEASE go outside?”
When out of the corner of your left eye you see a blinding light and you realize its the sun coming up.
When the nervous tic in your eye starts to sync up with the YouTube video you’re watching.
You turn the Redline can over for the ninth time, hoping for just one more hit of caffeine.
When you just keep reading the same paragraph over and over again.
If you are a stress train wreck, here are some suggestions on how to unwind and enjoy the Entrepreneur ride:
Stop what you’re doing, get up and go for walk
Take a five minute mediation break
Call a friend, your Mom, and get outside yourself
Take the damn dog out for a walk
Go make yourself a milkshake
Put on a record and dance in your underwear
Go soak in a hot tub
Break the pattern, celebrate yourself, find some balance. You can do it, and you deserve it.
The idea of having a family game night is nothing new. Families have been playing together since they could place stones in holes. However, modern families are competing with video games, web surfing and of course the television. Board games are no match for a virtual character traveling through time and space, collecting gold coins. It may take some convincing to bring your kids on board, especially the older ones. After time, you may find yours, like mine, actually look forward to a designated family time and you’ll no longer feel jealousy, or guilt as you walk down the game aisle of your department store. As a matter of fact my kids took me to Target last Mom’s day to buy me 2 new games to add to our collection!
Why start a family game night?
Family time of course.
Game play teaches sportsmanship and good healthy competition.
Playing together promotes communication.
Family game night is inexpensive. Traditional parlor games are free!
(see below for suggestions)
Family game night creates life long memories!
Heck – it’s just good old fashioned fun!
GETTING STARTED
Set a consistent day and time. You’ll need to schedule 1 – 1 1/2 hours. If every week is difficult, try twice a month to start;mark it on your calendar and make it a priority.
If you don’t already have games in a closet somewhere, purchase a few to get started, and then gradually add to the collection. We like many games and have a fun collection. Our favorites…Scattergories, Monopoly, Abundance and our newest favorite since Mom’s day…Cranium Whoonu Game. Great game for kids 8 and up and a really fun way to get to know each other better.
Select games that everyone will enjoy. Often this is difficult if there is a large age difference between your children. Parents or older siblings canteam up with little ones or you can create a variation of a more challenging game.
Kids or no kids, schedule a game night, invite your friends and have some FUN!
Are you a passionate Entrepreneur? Do you find yourself dragging on a regular basis as you get up too early and go to bed too late, frantically trying to get “everything done?” If so, don’t feel alone. Self-torture by sleep deprivation is a very common problem!
So what happens when you don’t get enough sleep? Plenty of bad stuff. Some of your organs stop functioning, you may become pre-diabetic, you function at an impaired level, and much much more. With all this being well documented in the medical journals, why are we so inclined to cheat ourselves of nature’s gift of sleep? The answer may lie in our shameful ignorance of the magical machine we live in.
Friends, your body is a temple! It is more sophisticated by a factor of 10, than anything that we can build. It’s also the only body that you have, so why not take care of it? In addition to good nutrition, the proper amount of sleep is ESSENTIAL to your body’s health and longevity. Six (6) hours is the absolute minimum requirement for a normal adult. Less than that can wreck havoc with the body’s immune system, bringing the opposite of productivity…sickness!
So what do do?
• Give yourself a bed time, and stick to it.
• Let your family and friends know your bedtime and give them “don’t call after” time
• Learn about ways to make sleep productive…yes you can actually solve problems while you snooze
• Recognize that one way to measure success is to plan your business so that you can actually stop working from time to time. Sleeping enough could lead to other big banana steps like paying yourself a salary, working out at the gym, and God Forbid, a vacation every now and then!
Remember that no one can take your healthy night of sleep away from you. Only you can give it away!
I shared this video tonight with my 21 year old daughter she and was shocked. She said, “I new they did this but to actually see it is very impactful.”
The media sets the bar so high for teens and young adults and distorts reality. How is it affecting their wellness, both mentally and physically? Even if one teen see this video, begins to understand what is real and what isn’t, and then decides to not buy into the hype, it was worth the time to pay it forward…will you?
The acceptable and the unacceptable are both acceptable – Lao Tzu
A wise and prosperous farmer lived in northern China. He had the respect of all his neighbors because of the way he lived his life and the way he conducted his affairs. Following a violent storm in the area, he went out to his field and discovered that his best horse, a magnificent stallion, had been terrified by the storm and had broken free from the corral. The fine creature was nowhere to be found. The farmer’s neighbor’s heard about the loss and came by that evening to express their sympathy, saying, “What bad luck.” His neighbors were surprised when the farmer merely responded, “Who knows what is good luck and what is bad luck?”
The next day his stallion returned, bringing with him a herd of wild horses, all equally as strong and fast. Again, neighbors rushed over, but this time in a festive mood, saying, “What good luck!” A second time the old farmer responded, Who’s knows what is good luck and what is bad luck?”
A few days later the farmer’s only son was riding one of the wild horses. The mare threw him high into the air and when he landed, his leg was broken in several places. The kind neighbors came by to check on the young man, and said to the father, What bad luck?”
Later in the week, the army came through the village to inform the villagers that a border war was taking place. They conscripted all of the young men in the village into the army. Because the farmer’s son had a broken leg, the army left him behind, saying the he was an invalid. Again the neighbor came by, saying, “What good luck.” But once more, the farmer responded, “ Who knows what is good luck and what is bad luck?”
For me this story is instructive in two ways. First, it is a reminder that life is often a series of events oscillating between the ups and downs, between peaks and valleys, between easy times and hard times, between ecstasy and pain. When we truly realize that the flow of life, we can be more patient with the down times, and like Lao Tzu, come to the place where we can say “the acceptable and the unacceptable are both acceptable.” Second, this story powerfully teaches us that we should not be hasty in making judgments about what is good and what is bad. Often what initially appears as an enormous burden in our lives proves to be a significant blessing.
It’s the first day of school, I walk out to the kitchen this morning to make my son’s lunch and the counter is a moving black wave. I’m not going to Sugarcoat this…I HATE ANTS!! Tis the season for the little critters to swarm and conquer, but I am wanting to be as eco friendly as possible and as much as I hate ants I dislike using products like Raid to get rid of them. Taking Jim Simcoe’s class at Quattro’s August college has me thinking more and more about ways I can be more environmental conscious…so to the internet I decide to go to learn alternative ways to deal with these lil critters. Here are my findings…I’m leaning towards the wet solutions.
Step 1 – Do Some Sleuthing
One thing that will help you get rid of ants is to figure out why the ants are coming in. What are they after? Maybe they are seeking out crumbs next to the trashcan or water dripping from a faucet. Cleaning these areas is a good first step towards ridding yourself of these tiny creatures.
Step 2 – Dry Solutions
Block the invasion at the source. Trace the ant line back to where they come into your home, and set any of the following items below there, which ants will not cross. Many of these herbs listed below are easy to find and inexpensive to purchase. A lot goes a long way. I figure what the heck… I’ll mix them all together and I’ll have a powerful anti-ant cocktail !
Mint (Spearmint)
Cayenne Pepper
Chili Powder
Coffee Grounds
Bay Leaves
Black Pepper
Cucumber Slices
Baby Powder
Step 3 – Wet Solutions (Sprays and Such)
You can mix a 50/50 solution of apple cider vinegar and water in a spray bottle and douse ant-infected areas
You can also make a solution of water and citrus rinds (Like orange, lemon, lime, etc.) and put that in a spray bottle.
Peppermint oil can also be effective. If the infestation is small, sprinkle a few drops in the area.
Step 4 Go to the Source
If you’ve really got a vendetta, you can go straight to the source of the problem. The best recommendation is to pour boiling water into the anthill.
One solution that I read is to put grits on the ant hill. I think the theory is that the ants will eat the grits and that they will then swell up. Poof!
I will head to Whole Foods today and pick up a few of these items like peppermint oil and keep you posted. If you have any other eco friendly tips to get rid of ants I’m all ears!
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