Students Of Success

It is annoying to find that you have a great idea for a site but when you start searching for a domain name to match you find every possible combination has been registered. Don’t worry all is not lost there are still the expired domains to check.

Not everybody reregisters their domain names. For whatever reason, financial or otherwise good domain names come back onto the market. These are expired domains and you can get your hands on them.

The first stage of an expired domain goes through is the registrar hold. This is a period of up to 45 days where the registrar may pay the renewal fee for the domain in the hope that the expired domains owner registers the domain name again. The registrar may wait the full 45 days or decide to let the registry know sooner that the domain fee has not been paid. This means the name goes into the redemption period.

The expired domain is now in the redemption period which lasts for 30 days. The domain is now back in the hands of the registrar as the original owner has not paid the renewal fee. For the original owner of the expired domain to get their domain name back they are likely going to have to pay a hefty fee to the registrar.

The domain is now in pending delete which is the final status. This means that expired domain is back on the market. On the 6th day on pending delete the domain name is now available to everyone.

The expired domain is back on the market. Now is your chance to grab the domain you are after. I will talk about the best way to increase your chances of this in my next article at Name search domain.

Allan is the webmaster at NameSearchDomain.com where you canfind out all about Domain names.

If you are a loan officer, you may be considering purchasing internet mortgage leads. But you may be leery of whom to buy them from and the type of lead you should buy.

There are many internet mortgage lead companies out there, and they sell all kinds of lead types.

Such as, real time, live transfer, recycled, and lets face it, a lot of these companies sell junk.

For this reason alone, it is important to take your time and research the internet mortgage lead companies you are considering investing with.

For starters, read what they propose to loan officers on their web sites, especially what their return policy states.

Once you have read and familiarized yourself with their site, call and speak with someone in their customer service department. Ask about the things you believe are important when it comes to the leads. Such as, how they generate the leads, are they fresh or old and recycled, what is their pricing, and ask about their return policy.

If you are unable to contact anyone in customer service, or you are not getting crystal clear answers to your questions, than move onto the next internet mortgage lead company.

If you are not satisfied with the customer service you are receiving, than you better believe that you will not be satisfied with the leads.

Remember, you work hard for your money, so there should be no reason why you don’t get a return on your investment with the internet mortgage lead company you decide to go with. Best of luck.

Jay Conners has more than fifteen years of experience in the banking and Mortgage Industry, He is the owner of www.jconners.com, a mortgage resource site, he is also the owner of www.callprospect.com, a mortgage lead company.

Parents should begin saving money early for their children’s college education because of the high costs and expectations that parents will pay part of the costs associated with the education. Several stock mutual funds are recommended.

Here’s a question that’s as pleasant to consider as a fraternity hazing: How will you come up with the money to send your child to the campus of his or her choice? If you’re like most Americans, your answer is probably loans–unless you start saving and investing more effectively. According to a recent MONEY poll, fully 87% of U.S. moms and dads expect their kids to go to college. But nearly half of them, 47%, have not yet stashed away any money to cover the costs, which currently run an average of $7,118 a year for tuition, fees, room and board at four-year public schools and $18,184 at private universities, according to the College Board. And at the current growth rate of 5% a year, the cost of a four-year degree is projected to rise to $73,834 (public) and $188,620 (private) for a child born in 1997.

The survey of 1,118 adults with children, conducted by ICR of Media, Pa. (margin of error: plus or minus 2.9 percentage points), also provides a wake-up call for parents who say they are saving for their kids’ college costs. More than half stash their savings in unwise college investments, such as certificates of deposit. And nearly a quarter of parents who are saving are putting away a paltry $500 or less a year for each child.

Yes, your child can lessen your burden by working part time and by pursuing scholarships (see “Strategies That Can Cut Costs 30% or More” on page 126). But financial experts say that the average parent should be prepared to pick up at least a third of total college costs.

If your child is in high school and you haven’t saved enough, check out our advice on page 138 on borrowing for college. If your children are younger, however, the sooner you start to save, the better. For example, Richard and Deborah Winters of Milford, Conn. (pictured at left) began putting away col- lege money for son Kyle, 4, when he was six months old and for daughter Kar- lie, 2, when she was 1 1/2. Oakland registered nurse Iris Winn (pictured on page 139), a late starter, now stashes a whopping $12,000 of her $70,000 annual salary into college savings for her daughter Monique, 15.

But whenever you start your savings regimen, you can maximize your dollars by planning and investing wisely. Later in this article, we suggest investment strategies for families with college-bound children. But before you get to the specific advice, study these basic rules–the dos and don’ts of smart invest- ing for college:

–Do set family goals. You must first figure out how much you need to carve out of today’s spending for tomorrow’s college costs. To do this, you can use the savings calculators included in popular software such as Quicken, online services like MONEY’s college savings calculator (http://www.pathfinder .com/cgi-bin/Money/collsave.cgi) or free worksheets offered by brokerages and mutual fund companies, including Charles Schwab (800-435-4000) and Fidelity (800-544-8888).

“Parents and children should work together to make sure they are focused on the same goal,” says James Pearman of Fee-Only Financial Planning in Roanoke. “That way, you can face tough questions early on–for example, what to do if you are planning to pay for 75% of tuition at an in-state public school and your child wants to go to Harvard.”

–Do start saving early. Every year, as your investment principal grows, so do the earnings on your money. The lesson is simple: Don’t put off investing.

–Do invest in stock mutual funds. According to the MONEY poll, parents saving for college have plowed 53% of their education investments into low-risk–but low-interest–CDs and savings accounts at banks and money-market mutual funds. The parents have invested only 23% of their money in stocks and stock funds. That’s a serious mistake. While stocks carry some risk, they are your best bet for making your money grow over five years or more.
Since 1926, stocks have gained an average of about 11% a year, more than any other type of investment. Moreover, you can’t count on bank account and CD yields to keep pace with tuition hikes.

The safest, easiest and most disciplined way to invest in equities is through mutual funds. Not only do funds offer diversification but many will also waive initial investment minimums if you make automatic deposits every month, typically as little as $50 or $100. To avoid having any money siphoned off in commissions, stick with no-load funds like the ones we name in this article.

–Don’t neglect saving for retirement. Planning for your child’s education should not sidetrack you from making regular contributions to your own 401(k), IRA or similar tax-deferred retirement account. You simply don’t want to miss the chance to make the most of the tax-deferred gains available in such accounts. And retirement assets won’t affect your eligibility for federal need-based college financial aid.

–Don’t invest in esoterica. From time to time, you may encounter sales pitches encouraging you to save for college with investments such as annuities or cash-value life insurance. Both defer taxes on your investment earnings but at the price of costly withdrawal rules. Many deferred annuities, for example, charge penalties of 7% or more if you need to take out money within seven years of making your investment. Tempted to buy zero-coupon Treasury bonds, which recently yielded 6.6%? They can be fine investments–as long as you buy ones that will be redeemed when you need the money. If you have to sell a zero before maturity, you may lose principal if interest rates have risen since you bought it. Prepaid-tuition plans, another way of building up college savings, can make sense if you’re too nervous to invest in stocks (see the box opposite).

–Don’t put your money in your child’s name if you hope to get financial aid. College financial aid formulas generally require a child to contribute 35% of his or her assets toward costs, but parents typically need to put up no more than 5.6% of their savings.

With those basic dos and don’ts at the heart of your investment strategy, here are moves to make, based on your kid’s age:

If your child is 13 or younger, you have enough time to weather any short-term stock market squalls. Investment strategists therefore recommend that you put 75% to 100% of your college savings in stock funds, depending on how much risk you can tolerate, and the rest in such fixed-income investments as bonds and bond mutual funds. You might start your savings program with a fund that holds shares of large and mid-size companies with consistent earnings gains and strong growth potential. Financial planner Michael Zabalaoui at Resource Management in Metairie, La. suggests Oakmark (up an average of 25.13% annually for the three years that ended June 30; 800-625-6275). Pearman recommends Vanguard Index Value (up 25.46%; 800-851-4999). Both funds seek out undervalued equities and bear below-average risk, according to fund ranker Morningstar.

After you have accumulated $5,000 in your starter portfolio, you can move as much as a third of your holdings into small-company and international stock funds, which offer the prospect of juicier returns but also carry greater risk. For funds specializing in shares of small companies, Zabalaoui favors Berger Small Cap Value (up 22.6%; 800-333-1001). Among international funds, he likes Janus Worldwide (up 24.7%; 800-525-8983).

If your child is 14 or older, reduce risk to safeguard savings. Zabalaoui recommends getting at least 50% of your money out of stocks by the end of your child’s freshman year and moving all of your college savings for that child into short-term bonds, fixed income and cash by the end of her sophomore year. To keep risk low, most investment experts prescribe short- and inter- mediate-term bond funds, which will add more pop to your total return than CDs or U.S. Savings Bonds. Pearman likes Vanguard Bond Index Intermediate-Term (up 8.62%; 800-851-4999). The fund shuns high-risk bonds and has an extremely low annual expense ratio of about 0.2% of principal, enabling more savings to go toward your child’s college costs.

Marc Sylvester is expect based in Edison, NJ. He holds expertise in the banking and finance sector and is a conultant to leading business houses.

http://www.imdollar.com/student-loans/
http://www.imdollar.com

Drop shipping, for those who are unfamiliar with it, is a system whereby you promote the products of a particular manufacturer, take orders directly, and the manufacturer/source handles all the inventory and fulfillment functions for you.

In a nutshell, here is the drop-ship system:

==>You generate and accept the order.

==>You take your profits out of the sale price.

==>You forward the order and the wholesale cost to the drop shipper.

==>The source factory ships directly to your customer.

The benefits of this arrangement are probably obvious:

* No inventory cost to you.

* Substantially higher profits to you over what most regular affiliate programs allow.

* The ability to quickly set-up inexpensive, highly targeted, niche or mini-sites to test and promote diverse products.

This process has been around for years and has been responsible for many highly successful mail order dealer relationships in the past. Many of the top catalogers and other direct response marketers, have been using this system to increase profits for decades. If you have ever ordered a high priced item from a mail order catalog and been told that the product was being shipped from the factory… then you have experienced drop shipping first hand.

Drop shipping is, I believe, a virgin un-tapped storehouse of profits for todays internet marketer.

On-line directories exist [http://www.dropshipprofits.com] which reveal essential contact information for drop shippers of over 2,000,000 products and 4,000 brands. Most legitimate drop ship sources will require that you have a state tax reseller number in order to approve you to sell their products and give you the wholesale pricing you are looking for.

Beware of any drop ship source which requires you to pay a fee in order to become a drop-ship dealer… or requires a membership. These are generally organizations which make their money selling “drop ship licenses”… and are, for the most part, scams. Legitimate drop shippers and factory sources never charge you any fees other than the actual wholesale cost & shipping costs of the products you sell.

Another caveat… always make sure that you have a written agreement with the source factory that you own the customer! The factory or drop ship source should agree in writing not to solicit your customers in any form. This is very important to you. Your customer list is one of your most important assets. If the factory you are dealing with balks at this request… use another source who will agree.

Almost every conceivable type of product is available from a drop shipper willing to ship products in single units under your companies name. Pick your interest area… electronics, consumer products, agricultural & industrial products, office equipment & supplies, hobby gear, recreational / sporting goods, clothing, furniture, etc. The list of available products from drop shippers is almost endless.

The products actual source is invisible to the consumer. The seller (you) is able to build a database of customers that he/she owns and controls (by agreement with the manufacturer) and has all the direct marketing advantages that accompany that arrangement… while eliminating the need for maintaining expensive inventory.

This arrangement offers maximum flexibility and cost savings for the seller. If a product does not sell well online you can pull the advertising (web page or mini-site) instantly with very little cost to you outside of the actual time it took to build and test the web marketing effort. Or, since this type of page/mini-site is so inexpensive to maintain and host… you can simply leave the pages online and take whatever orders trickle through… while you move on to the testing and promotion of new drop ship products. A quick marketing test can be done on eBay or other auction site to determine if the product sells… and at what price.

The manufacturer benefits from this relationship by gaining a legion of active marketers promoting their products… at little or no cost (other than those small costs involved with supporting the marketer with online marketing materials like product images, sales materials, etc).

As a marketer you are looking for several key components in developing the drop-ship relationship with a source factory or distributor:

** High Quality Products

** Blanket Product Liability Insurance (if applicable)

** A clear guarantee and return policy

** High Quality Marketing Materials … product images (gifs, jpegs, etc.), selling copy, other suitable web graphics, etc.

** A Customer Service Department that will work with you to develop the best selling situation for you.

If you are a manufacturer seeking to expand distribution (or an inventor with a new product ) you will find the willingness to drop ship in single units will give you a strong competitive edge while you carve out increased market share at little cost.

If you are an online marketer interested in offering high profit products to your niche market (your website visitors) without incurring high front-end development or inventory costs… then drop shipping is for you.

Internet marketers are uniquely positioned to take profitable advantage of the drop ship arrangement and should give this system a serious look.

(c) Copyright 2005 Thom Reece

Thom Reece is CEO of Online Marketing Resource Center [http://www.E-ComProfits.com] and publisher of “Thom Reece’s Web Marketing Strategies & Techniques Newsletter”. You may subscribe free at: http://www.WMSTDirect.com, mailto:thom@e-comprofits.com

Digital noise in photos taken with digital cameras is random pixels scattered all over the photo. It is a similar effect as “grain” in film photography and it degrades the photo quality.

Digital noise usually occurs when you take low light photos (such as night photos or indoor dark scenes) or you use very slow shutter speeds or very high sensitivity modes.

When taking pictures with a digital camera an electronic sensor (also known as a CCD) built from many tiny pixels is used to measure the light for each pixel. The result is a matrix of pixels that represent the photo.

As with any other electronic sensor the CCD is not perfect and includes some noise (also know as white noise to hint on its randomness attribute). In most lighting the light is significantly stronger than the noise. However in extreme scenes where the light is very low or when a high amplification is needed noise levels can become significant and result in pixels in the photos that include more noise data than real photo light data. Those pixels usually appear as random dots or stains on the photo (for example white dots scattered randomly on the photo).

Understanding digital noise in various scenes:

low light (night photos or dark scenes): when the scene is dark the amount of light measured by each pixel of the CCD is low. When the light intensity is very low it can become too close to the level of noise naturally found in the CCD. In such cases some pixels can appear as noise because the noise level measured for them is significantly close or higher than the actual light intensity.

slow shutter speeds: when the shutter is kept open for a long time more noise will be introduced to the photo. A slow shutter speed translates to the CCD integrating more light per pixel. The effect can be easily understood as the CCD “accumulating” light in each pixel and measuring the total light over the shutter period of time. However at the same time the CCD is also “accumulating” noise. For that reason in slow shutter speed photos some pixels will appear as noise because for these pixels the amount of noise integrated is significantly close to or higher than the actual light measured.

high sensitivity modes: high sensitivity in digital photography is implemented by mechanisms that result in amplification. The CCD amplifies the measurements it takes. However there is no way to just amplify the actual photo light that falls on the CCD pixels instead the noise and the actual light are both amplified. The result is that the CCD becomes sensitive not only to light but also to its own noise. When too much amplification is applied some pixels will appear as noise.

While it is impossible to completely prevent digital noise there are a few options that allow you to significantly decrease it. When taking photos in low light scenarios such as night photos there are two main parameters to play with: sensitivity and shutter speed. Raising sensitivity creates more internal noise in the CCD while slowing down the shutter allows for more noise to integrate on the CCD. The amount of noise generated by both parameters is different. It is recommended that you set your camera to manual mode and play with a few different sensitivity/shutter speed pairs to find out the one that generates the least noise.

Some cameras include a built-in feature called “noise reduction”. Noise reduction is implemented by sophisticated software that can identify the noise pixels and remove them. For example the software can identify the noise pixels based on their randomness and usually extreme intensity gap between them and their neighboring pixels. Removing the noise can be implemented by interpolating a replacement pixel value based on its neighboring pixels.

If you do not have a built-in noise reduction feature or it does not work properly you can use a PC based software that removes digital noise. Many photo processing software include a combination of automatic and manual digital noise removal. Some software packages can also use a few photos of the same object to “average” them and thus remove the noise (relying on the fact that digital noise is random and the noise pixels will be different in each photo taken).

To conclude digital noise should be understood by any amateur or professional photographer. However for most photographers digital noise is not a practical problem even in low light scenarios usually digital noise is minimal and can be significantly reduced by simply turning on your camera’s noise reduction feature. For professional photographers who shoot in more extreme conditions digital noise can present a real problem and can be dealt with using a combination of optimizing the camera settings and removing noise with professional software.

Ziv Haparnas is a technology veteran and writes about practical technology and science issues. This article can be reprinted and used as long as the resource box including the backlink is included. You can find more information about photo album printing and photography in general on http://www.printrates.com - a site dedicated to photo printing.

Planning a wedding of any size or budget can have numerous items
that may be quite costly. In addition to planning for the dress
and cake, a bride will want to spend thought considering the
wedding favors for her guests. These small tokens of
appreciation don’t have to be expensive. Frequently, the most
enjoyable part of planning a wedding, is the selection of the
wedding favor. Preparation for right the token at the least
possible cost adds to the fun, allowing the bride a chance to
tap into creative talents.

The practice of providing gifts to the guests of weddings began
with European aristocrats who would endow guests with a fancy
box called a bonboniere, named for the bonbons that it would
protect. A bonboniere was crafted of crystal, porcelain or gold
and could be encrusted with precious stones. Today these gifts
for the guests, are known as wedding favors and is a tradition
that has continued worldwide since the sixteenth century. A
common belief of many cultures worldwide was, that the wedding
couple was the focus of benevolent spirits who brought good
luck. They believed that the same auspicious luck could be
passed on to anything they touched. Betrothed couples would give
small items to others in the village to share same good luck,
that was expected to last a year.

For more than a thousand years, almonds were a common gift given
to the wedding couple, signifying the good wishes on their new
life together. Brides would choose to pass on those same good
wishes to others by preparing a small gift of the almonds,
beautifully wrapped in elegant fabric. The custom in the Middle
East is for the bride to make a gift of five almonds to
represent fertility, longevity, wealth, health and happiness. In
the thirteenth century the trend of coating almonds in sugar
became popular. Today the candy coated nuts are pastel adorned
treats, known as Jordan almonds and remain a staple of many
wedding celebrations. Jordan almonds provide one of the most
common and inexpensive wedding favors when wrapped by delicate
fabric to form small bundles tied with ribbon.

Wedding favors are typically presented to guests at the
reception table, but can be distributed at the end of an
informal gathering of coffee and cake. Brides have learned be
very creative when it comes to selecting wedding favors that
won’t go over budget, and still honor all of her guests. The
trends may vary each year, but the favors a bride selects are
never out of fashion. Recent favorites have included flower
seeds packaged in transparent, frosted envelopes with a small
sentimental card attached with a ribbon commemorating the event.
Decorative candles tied with a delicate ribbon are another great
item to show sentiment and many can be purchased for about one
dollar. Custom designed bookmarks with personalized sentiments
can be cherished by guests for a lifetime. Today’s desktop
publishing software and quality papers greatly reduce the cost
compared to the costs of using a professional printer.

The art of presenting wedding favors, provides unlimited
possibilities for a couple to express gratitude to guests for
being present at the event. Wedding favors serve a dual purpose
of allowing the bride to express herself emotionally or
creatively and can be chosen to provide décor to the reception
table. The selection of inexpensive favors doesn’t have to
compromise quality or elegance. Simple placecards in small
decorative frames or placecard holders will make a lasting gift
selection. Frames and placecard holders can be made with a
variety of materials from ceramic to stainless steel, for about
a dollar each. Decorative candles, soaps and cookies are easily
found in a variety of shapes from cupids to wedding cakes.
Stylish bottle stoppers and bottle openers are available in a
variety of shapes and crafted in frosted glass or stainless
steel.

If a bride is open minded to a wide range of gift items when
shopping, it’s possible to find excellent prices on bulk
purchases, or closeouts from retailers that specialize in
wedding paraphernalia. Avoid having gifts engraved or
personalized, as that will greatly drive the prices up. If it is
desired to personalize an item, consider custom designed labels
for chocolates, coffee or packages of tea assortments. Although
prices for private labeled chocolate bars can be about $2.00
each, a bride or her friends can design and print unique labels
with a home computer. Candy bars can be picked up at the local
grocery for as little as a quarter each or bought in bulk from a
club store.

The presentation of wedding favors is a time honored tradition
and provides the bridegroom couple with an excellent means to
share feelings with those they care about. Wedding favors
continue to be one element of the wedding, where presentation
and imagination have a greater value than the price of the item.

This is a short list of the meanest, fastest and most powerful 3D video cards on the market today. If you own one of them, well - lucky you!

XFX GeForce 7800 GTX

The XFX GeForce 7800 GTX video card comes with a PCI Express interface, 256MB DDR3 video memory and supports a maximum resolution of 2048 X 1536. Though its price is a bit steep, its one of the fastest video cards on the market right now.

Powercolor Radeon X800 GT

A leading manufacturer of video cards, Powercolor has come up with the Powercolor Radeon X800 GT card. It is PCI Express based, runs on 256MB of DDR3 memory and a maximum resolution of 2048 X 1536. Cheaper than many of the cards in this list, but still gives extremely good 3D performance. Great value for money.

BFG GeForce 7800 GTX

Another PCI Express graphics card, the BFG GeForce 7800 GTX runs on 256MB of DDR3 video memory and a maximum resolution of 2048 X 1536. BFG produces quality video cards and the GeForce 7800 GTX is no exception. Its price may scare off the casual user though.

ATI Radeon 9800 Pro

The ATI Radeon 9800 Pro is still one of the hottest selling high-end video cards in the market. The Radeon 9800 Pro graphics processor scores very high on most benchmark tests. With an AGP 8X interface, 128 MB of DDR video memory and a maximum screen resolution of 2048 x 1536, this card is highly recommended.

Connect 3D Radeon X850 XT Platinum

Built on the Radeon X850 XT graphics processor, the Connect 3D Radeon X850 XT Platinum is a PCI Express card that runs on 256MB of DDR3 memory and a maximum resolution of 2048 X 1536. Highly recommended for spectacular 3D performance, and gives the GeForce video cards a run for their money.

Conclusion

Buying a good performance video card will reap many benefits - you’ll be able to play the latest 3D games in full screen glory, as well as edit video and graphics with ease.

However, please take note that having a good video card does not necessarily translate to great video performance. Factors like your CPU, motherboard and system RAM will come into play. For example, having a BFG GeForce 7800 GTX installed in a old AMD Duron or Intel Pentium Celeron system will definitely not give you the desired video performance you seek.

Now go do some research and buy that dream video card!

Gary Hendricks runs a hobby site on building computers. Visit his website at Build-Your-Own-Computers.com for tips and tricks on assembling a PC, as well as buying good computer components.

I grew up as an unathletic kid. My mother was unathletic, so she just assumed I was too. You see, our family has weak ankles and no coordination. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I realized that all this was a lie. I wasn’t unathletic - I just hated team sports. I discovered I actually had a flair for dance, which takes quite a bit of athleticism and coordination. Weak ankles? Of course they’re weak if you don’t do anything to build up their strength. A lot of the physical deficiencies that I thought I’d inherited were really born out of laziness and blind acceptance - those were the real deficiencies. Once I worked on overcoming those, my body got stronger and I started enjoying physical activities.

On the positive side, we don’t have weight problems in our family. As a matter of fact, my dad’s weight is within 10 pounds of what he weighed in high school. Is that due to genetics? Not really. We’re just very moderate in our eating habits. More than once I’ve visited friends whose relatives were on the plus side and found that their meals were also plus sized. What am I trying to say here? Maybe you won’t like this, but I’m trying to pull the security blanket called “blame” out of your grasp. It’s necessary if you ever want to make any changes in your life. You have to let go so your hands are open to receive new ideas, information and attitudes.

It’s a favorite family game to blame genetics for a lot of problems. Weight issues, weak knees, heart disease, fallen arches - if you’ve got it, chances are so does someone else in your family. People often assume that means it - whatever “it” happens to be - is hereditary. And yes, certain conditions are hereditary. Heart disease and obesity do run in families and doctors do find genetic links. But not always. And there are also times when a family’s lifestyle choices can make a genetic condition worse. So before assuming you are destined to suffer from any particular physical affliction just because your father or grandmother did, examine family habits. They’re just as telling as genetics.

One of the easiest habits to dissect is eating habits. Every family has its own approach to food, and it is often handed down from generation to generation. What types of meals run in your family? How big are the portions? Does your family serve up hefty amounts of meat and potatoes? Are comfort foods like macaroni and cheese frequent visitors to the dining table? Are there a lot of chips or homemade cookies available all the time for snacking, and do most meals end with a rich dessert? Then it’s no surprise if many of your family members might have a weight or cholesterol problem. While nothing can match the taste of your mother’s home cooking, you may have inherited some poor eating habits along with the heirloom recipes. Consider creating light versions of those rich recipes, cutting down on those huge portions of mashed potatoes and adding more vegetables to the dinner plate (and to lunch too, for that matter). There are many ways to lean down your menu without completely forsaking family fare.

What other habits run in your family? Do any of your relatives smoke or drink excessively? Do most of them turn into couch potatoes once they get out of school? These are sure setups for health problems later in life. While it’s tough enough to quit a bad habit like smoking (it’s really better to never start at all), it may be even tougher to begin a good habit and stick to it. The effort is worthwhile, however - regular exercise lowers your risk of developing, among other things, heart disease, obesity, diabetes and osteoporosis. If any of these diseases run in your family, it should be a good incentive to get moving. Exercise will enhance your health, no matter what type of genetics you may have been born with.

Perhaps the most insidious family trait is mental attitude. If you come from a family that, as a whole, presents a youthful, positive attitude towards life, you are probably the same way. On the other hand, if the older members of your family seem to age prematurely, or if they let life drag them down, then it’s possible their attitudes are dragging you down, too. A negative mental attitude is one of the hardest habits to break away from - to do so requires a high level of awareness. If you observe your family and yourself for a while you’ll realize that you are all talking yourselves into certain behaviors. Someone who blames his aches and pains on “getting old” is actually giving himself permission to have those aches and pains since it is impossible to stop time. If the same person decides to take up Yoga to deal with, say, morning stiffness or minor back pain, he is taking control of the situation and being an active participant in his wellbeing. When it comes to your health - and many other aspects of life - it’s important to think actively. To think passively is to give up, to find excuses to be less active, less of a participant in life. We all have limitations, of course, but how do we know what our limits are if we don’t test them? And the only way to test them is to first drop your preconceived notions of what is and what isn’t.

All of us carry some sort of baggage left over from the atmosphere we grew up in. That doesn’t mean you should disinherit your family - you no doubt inherited quite a few good qualities and values from them too - but do disinherit the bad habits and negative mental attitudes that may have been handed down through the generations. No matter where you come from, ultimately you create your own destiny. Taking charge of your wellbeing and your life could even rub off on some of your relatives, creating a legacy you can be proud of.

About the Author

Janiss Garza is editor-in-chief of All Spirit Fitness - http://www.allspiritfitness.com. All Spirit Fitness looks at all forms of exercise and health, from weight training to dieting to yoga, from a mind-body-spirit perspective.