Had any good meal lately?

When was the last time you enjoyed a nice leisurely meal? Do you know that one of the best ways to maintain a healthy weight and a trim figure is to slow down and savor the food you eat? As strange as this idea may seem, it works. Just look at the French! Their regular diet includes multiple course meals with creamy sauces, real butter, desserts, and wine.

On the flip side, consider American eating habits, which more often than not include skipping meals, having fast food on the run, or overindulging at an all-you-can-eat buffet. One might think that staying on the go helps to burn calories, but what it actually does is to create stress, and stress is a big deterrent to maintaining a healthy weight.

Never fear, all is not lost, because any habit that is learned can be unlearned. All you have to do is to slow down at mealtimes, begin to enjoy your food, take better care of yourself, and you can keep a trim, healthy figure without too much fuss or drastic shift.

But that will require some adjustments to your daily schedule. For your first meal of the day, go for something healthy, even if it is just some fruit and/or nuts as you head off to work. Studies show that starting your day with a healthy mix of protein and carbohydrate boosts your metabolism and helps you burn fat throughout the day. And if you have a mid-morning or afternoon snack, keep it light and nibble it a bit at a time if possible. Stretching it out will make it feel like more in the end.

At mealtimes, strive to eat a full, balanced meal that includes foods you like. As your digestive system was designed to break down natural foods, choose foods that aren't loaded with preservatives and chemicals. So that means staying away from prepared fast foods as much as possible. Also, eating more slowly and chewing your food well will help you enjoy the different tastes on your plate and make you more aware when your body is full.

Finally, don't forget to add some exercise to your daily routine. It doesn't have to be something strenuous or lengthy. Studies show that short bursts of activity throughout the day help to maintain an optimum weight. Some suggestions include taking a short walk after lunch, parking further out in the grocery store parking lot, walking to the corner store as opposed to driving, and opting to take the stairs as opposed to the elevator whenever you can. Those extra steps here and there add up, to a trim healthy body and a healthier lifestyle.

Friendships...

I want to share some interesting information I recently read on friendship. But first I'd like you to take a moment to think about your closest friends. Are you the type of person who has one best friend or one who prefers a few close friends? Well, if you answered yes to either of these questions, consider yourself fortunate, because dependable friendships bring some amazing benefits.

It is probably no surprise to you that close friendships are good for us. However, the list of actual medical advantages is quite remarkable. Research shows that our good friendships can help us to reduce our blood pressure, heart rate and cholesterol levels, as well as to lower our stress levels. In other words, solid, dependable friendships help us to live a longer, healthier life.

The nice thing about our friendships is that they are ties we choose to develop, sustain and nurture. When we are young, we seek comfort in our companionship, by befriending dogs, cats, dolls and stuffed animals. As we grow into adolescence and later into adulthood, good friends can become more than just companions. A good friend is there through the good and bad times.

A good friend is someone who loves you in spite of yourself. They laugh with you, cry with you, listen to you when you need an ear, tell you the truth when you don't want to hear it and even keep your secrets. And now, you can add the positive health benefits of friendship to that list!

While this information probably won't make you change how you feel about your friends, it may make you appreciate them even more. And may I remind you, that the benefits of our friendships work both ways.

Have a nice weekend!

Desperate?

Have you ever wanted something desperately, but felt you could never get it? I think that many people probably experience this. We all have dreams and aspirations, but not all of us believe we can realize them. I believe that most dreams are attainable, provided that we are able to set realistic goals and take active steps to make them come true.

I want to share a story about one of my friend's that illustrates this. A young woman I'll call Helen came to me for some advice to find out why she wasn't achieving the thing she most wanted in life, to become a voice-over actress. She was frustrated and angry because her dream wasn't materializing, so I asked her what she was doing to realize this goal. She said she visualized every day but admitted that she had done little else, mostly because she really didn't know what to do.

Visualizing can be very effective, but Helen needed to exert physical and mental energy toward realizing her desired goal. I decided to introduce her to the law of attraction and the idea that every action that is focused on a goal actually helps to bring about that goal. After doing that, we came up with a plan to help her achieve her goal.

Helen's first step was to find out everything she could from the library and Internet about being a voice-over actress. Next, she had to research what kind of training she would need, where and how to get it, and how much it would cost. And finally, she had to figure out how much time she would need to complete a program, think of ways she could support herself during her training, locate ways to fund for her education, and then apply to institutions that specialize in voice-over programs.

As you might have guessed, the next time I heard from Helen, she was on cloud nine. She had been accepted to an acting school that specialized in voice-over and she had even found a job that was flexible with her new school schedule.

Helen says that she will be working in a studio within a year's time, earning a pretty good salary and doing what she'd always dreamed of. And this is all because she was finally able to put energy behind her dream by finding out how to realize it and then set about doing just that.

If there is something you have always wished you could do, I hope that Helen's story will inspire you to go after your own dream.