Students Of Success

Just like humans pets can suffer from diabetes mellitus too. By a simple blood test, called fructosamine, thay can be diagnosed, and then under the care of your veterinary surgeon, often treated succesfully.

Fructosamines are stable complexes of carbohydrates and proteins that are produced by an irreversible, nonenzymatic glycosylation of serum proteins. Fructosamine (glycated serum protein) measurements are useful in diagnosing and monitoring diabetes mellitus in both cats and dogs. The test is highly sensitive and can be used to distinguish non-diabetic transiently hyperglycaemic cats from diabetics with chronic hyperglycaemia. A single measurement of fructosamine indicates the average glucose concentration over the previous 1-3 weeks and its assay can therefore be used to assist in the diagnosis of diabetes mellitus as well as monitoring the effectiveness of insulin therapy in diabetic patients. Fructosamine values are not influenced by acute fluctuations in blood glucose making them more useful than single glucose measurements taken from stressed or anorexic patients, or animals on glucose containing IV fluids. In some cases however they can be used in conjunction with serial glucose curves to assess the short and long term response to insulin administration.

Please contact your veterinary surgeon for further details or if you have any concerns about your pets.

Further information on fructosamine can be found at:
http://www.ctdslab.co.uk

About the Author

Nick graduated from Edinburgh Veterinary School in 1980 with an Honours degree in Pathological Sciences and in 1982 as a Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery. In 2003 Nick became a diplomate of the Royal college of Pathologists in veterinary clinical pathology.

I was in the depths of a major depression. As a third year salesperson with a good company, I was doing well, and was on my way to becoming the top salesperson in the nation for that company. But business had slowed down a little, and I didn’t have my usual number of proposals out for consideration. So, I wasn’t as busy as usual. As my activity slowed, I began to worry. My doubts increased to the point where I had thought myself into a real depression, stuck on the question of “What’s the use of trying?” The more negative my thoughts became, the less energy I had. My lack of energy led to fewer and fewer sales calls, which of course, led to less activity. And that led to more depressing thoughts. I was caught in a powerful downward spiral.

It was then that I caught a glimpse of what a professional sales manager is like.

Ned was my boss — a sales manager of the highest caliber. He could see the symptoms of my sour state spilling over into everything I was doing. So Ned intervened. He arranged to have lunch with me, and listened patiently as I rambled on and on about my problems, my doubts, and my lack of activity. Finally, after I had dumped all my depression and negative thoughts on him, he looked me straight in the eye and said, with all the authority and resolve of someone who is absolutely sure of what they are saying, “Kahle, that’s enough.”

I was stunned. I was expecting empathy, an understanding shoulder to cry on. Instead, I got a simple, straightforward mandate. Ned knew me well enough to cut through all the fluff and come right to the heart of the matter. He said, “That’s enough. That’s enough feeling sorry for yourself. That’s enough thinking all these negative thoughts. That’s enough sitting back and not working as hard as you’re used to. Stop it. You’re better than all this. Stop it right now, today, and get your ….. back to work.”

He saw my situation clearly. And he provided me the direction I needed. That conversation turned me around. I left my depression and negativity at that lunch table, and started back into my job with a renewed sense of the possible. A year later I was the number one salesperson in the nation for that company.

What made the difference in my performance was the skillful intervention of an astute and professional sales manager. He made the difference in my job performance, and that made a difference in my standing with that company. And that made a difference in my career. And that lead me to my current practice. It’s entirely possible that I would not be doing what I do now, speaking and consulting with sales forces around the world, if it weren’t for his timely intervention.

All of us have become what we are, at least in part, due to the impact other people have had on us. A professional sales manager is gifted with a rare and precious opportunity — the opportunity to play a pivotal role in the lives of his/her charges. I so value the role that Ned played in my career, that the last paragraph on the “Acknowledgment” page of my first book reads, “Finally, I must make special, post-humus acknowledgement of the contribution made by Ned Shaheen, the best manager I ever worked for. It was Ned who, years ago, urged me to ‘write the book…’”

So what does this have to do with being a “Professional Sales Manager?” During my 30 + years of sales experience and 16 years of experience as a sales consultant and sales trainer, I’ve encountered many sales managers. Some of have been good, many mediocre. But Ned was the best sales manager I ever met. He serves as a model for me. We can learn a number of lessons from him.

First, Ned knew the difference between the job of a salesperson and that of a sales manager. He had been a great salesperson — like many sales managers around the world — and had been promoted to sales manager. Yet he knew the jobs of sales manager and salesperson are completely different. A salesperson is responsible for building accounts and making sales. A sales manager, while ultimately responsible for the same results, understands that his/her job is to achieve those means through other people. A sales manager builds people, who in turn build the business. Salespeople focus on selling; sales managers focus on building salespeople.

As a sales person, I could comfortably take Ned into any account, secure in the knowledge that he wouldn’t try to take over the presentation or usurp my relationship with the customer. I knew Ned was more concerned with me than he was about any one sale.

Ned knew that a salesperson was essentially a loaner, an individual who did most of his/her most important work by themselves, while a sales manager was a coach, whose only success derived from the success of his team. A sales manager’s best work is always done, not with the customers, but with the people he/she supervises.

Ultimately, a sales manager is measured by the results achieved by his people. Sales, gross profits, market share, key product selling, — all these typical measurements of sales performance are also one of the rulers by which a sales manager is measured.

So, an excellent sales manager, like a great soccer coach, is ultimately measured by his numbers. It doesn’t matter how empathetic he is, nor how his players respect or like him, if year after year he produces a losing team. So it is with a sales manager. Ultimately, an excellent sales manager produces excellent numbers for his company.

In the five years that I worked for Ned, my own territory grew by $1 million a year, and the branch for which he was responsible grew from about $6 million to about $30 million.

Ned was excellent at one of the key competencies of the professional sales manager — he had an eye for talent. He knew how to hire good people. After all, he hired me! Over the years, I watched him take his time, allowing a sales territory to go vacant for months, if necessary, while he waited for the right person to bubble up through his pipeline. Only one of his hires didn’t work out — which gave him an incredible winning percentage.

A professional sales manager understands the importance of making the right hire, is always recruiting in order to keep the pipeline of prospective salespeople full, and spares no expense to make sure the person he hires meets all the necessary criteria. When I was hired, I went through four interviews, and a full 10-hour day of tests with an industrial psychologist.

With all the time he took to make sure he was hiring the right person, Ned confided in me one day that, “It is more important to fire well then it is to hire well.” He went on to explain that hiring sales people is an extremely difficult task, and that even the best sales managers fail at it frequently. Therefore, it was important to recognize your mistake quickly, and act decisively to fix it.

A professional sales manager, then, understands that when it is clear that a salesperson is not right for the job, he acts quickly, kindly, and decisively to terminate the individual, allowing both the individual and the company an opportunity to find a better match. Acting quickly to terminate a salesperson who isn’t working out is both good business as well as good ethics. To allow a mediocre situation to fester to the detriment of the company, the salesperson, and the customers is to persist in a dishonesty.

Understanding that he works only through his sales people, and that he has the opportunity to make a great impact on his people, a professional sales manager makes it his business to know his people. Ned spent days with me in the field, talking not only about business, but also working at understanding the person I was as well. He’d arrange to meet me for breakfast or lunch regularly, even if he weren’t spending the day with me. He wanted to get to know my wife as well, and paid close attention to her opinions. Several times over the five years we went to dinner as a foursome.

I could never stop in the office without being expected to sit in his office and talk about things. And, of course, there was the annual pig roast at his house, where all his salespeople and their families were invited to spend a fun day while the pig roasted over the spit. I was always a person to Ned, never just a “salesperson.”

Because he took the time to get to know me, he was equipped with the knowledge of exactly how to best manage me. And he always saw the potential in me, and was ready to correct me when necessary. In the first year of my employment, I was earning the reputation among the inside customer support and purchasing people of being difficult and demanding. I was a hot-shot superstar who didn’t take their feelings into consideration, and came into the office and dumped work on them. Ned let me know that my ways needed to change. At first, I didn’t pay much attention. My numbers were too good for anybody to be concerned. So Ned let me know a second time that I was going to have to change. The situation was so acute, that the operations manager was lobbying to get me fired! Guided by his firm hand, I swallowed my pride, adopted a more humble attitude, and bought all the customer service reps a six pack of premium beer as a gift. My stock inside the company spring up dramatically, my ways corrected, and my future assured.

A professional sales manager guides and corrects his charges in order to help them achieve their potential.

Ned never stopped learning. He would often tell me about seminars he’d attended, books he’d read, or ideas he’d picked up by talking with other people. He knew that he never “knew it all.” So it is with every professional sales manager. A real professional never stops learning. He understands that the world is changing rapidly, continually demanding new skills, new ideas, and new competencies from him. At the same time, his salespeople and their customers are changing also. So, he understands that he has a challenge to continuously grow and improve, to learn more and become btter at his job. Sales management isn’t just a job, it’s a challenge of a lifetime of improvement.

One more observation. Understanding that a professional sales manager is only successful when his charges are successful, an excellent sales manager supports, encourages and gives his sales people the credit.

It was the fourth year of my tenure, and Ned was lobbying for me to be awarded the “Salesperson of the year” award. It was given not only for sales performance, but for more subjective things - supporting the company’s objectives and ethics, getting along with other people in the company, etc. The award was a great honor, and extremely difficult to win. Each sales manager nominated their favorite salesperson, and lobbied for one of their charges with the company’s executives, who made the final choice.

The annual awards banquet was held at an exclusive country club, where the men wore tuxedos and the women formal evening gowns. When dinner was done, the speeches were finished and the lesser awards announced, it came time for the big one, the one I wanted.

The climate was tense and expectant. The entire room silent as the time approached for the announcement. Then, as the company president announced my name, it was Ned who thrust his fist in the air and shouted “YES!”

The photograph that hangs on my bedroom wall shows me shaking hands with the president and accepting the award. Look carefully and you’ll see Ned standing proudly in the background.

There is a song that I find particularly moving. Perhaps you know the words made popular by Bette Midler. It goes like this,
“It must have been lonely there in my shadow…
Without the sun upon your face
I was the one with all the glory
You were the one with all the strength.

I can fly higher than an eagle
Because you are the wind beneath my wings.”
Want to excel as a sales manger? Want to be a true professional? Look at your job as a unique opportunity to impact others, to select, correct, support and encourage your salespeople, to achieve your company’s objectives by become a positive force in their lives. It’s not a job, it’s a mission. Be the wind beneath their wings.

And perhaps, one day, fifteen years from now, someone will write about you.

About Dave Kahle, The Growth Coach®:
Dave Kahle is a consultant and trainer who helps his clients increase their sales and improve their sales productivity. He speaks from real world experience, having been the number one salesperson in the country for two companies in two distinct industries. Dave has trained thousands of salespeople to be more successful in the Information Age economy. He’s the author of over 500 articles, a monthly ezine, and four books. His latest is 10 Secrets of Time Management for Salespeople. He has a gift for creating powerful training events that get audiences thinking differently about sales.

His “Thinking About Sales” Ezine features content-filled motivating articles, practical tips for immediate improvements, useful resources and helpful tips to help increase sales. Join for NOTHING on-line at http://www.davekahle.com/mailinglist.htm

You can reach Dave at:
The DaCo Corporation
3736 West River Drive
Comstock Park, MI 49321
Phone: 800-331-1287 / 616-451-9377
Fax: 616-451-9412
info@davekahle.com
http://www.davekahle.com

Hoje, estava assistindo no Discovery Channel, um capítulo de uma série que mostra como que o universo evoluirá, como que está a nossa galáxia, buracos negros etc.

Realmente, quando podemos ver o tamanho do Universo, como no Atlas do Universo, onde há 14 bilhões de anos luz observável a partir da terra. mais de 2000 mil bilhões de bilhões de estrelas em mais de 10 bilhões de galáxias. Muita coisa, né?

Quando observamos somente 250 anos luz ao redor de nossa estrela, vemos o quanto que deveríamos estar nos esforçando para chegar lá.

O nosso lado mesquinho
Infelizmente a humanidade é muito mesquinha procurando defender alguns palmos de terra no nosso pequeno e frágil planeta.

Avaliando no contexto universal, a humanidade não é menos que um pequeno grão de areia em uma praia. Totalmente insignificante, mas dentro dessa insignificância, pessoas e nações, ficam procurando até se aniquilar.

A nossa biosfera é muito frágil, como os cientistas tem demonstrado, mas devido a objetivos totalmente financeiros, os grandes empresários estão pouco preocupados com isso, simplesmente viram as costas, talvez, porque tais catástrofes, não serão problema no seu tempo de vida.

As maiores descobertas
Hoje sabemos que o mundo não é uma pizza e que o sol não gira ao redor da terra, somente devido ao empenho de poucas pessoas e atualmente pequenos grupos de cientistas.

Hoje, conhecemos muito mais de nosso universo, estamos utilizando novos materiais, novos medicamentos e outras grandes tecnologias, somente devido ao conhecimento desses pequenos grupos, muitas vezes, praticamente sem financiamento. Porque?

A humanidade sempre se moveu, somente para resolver o problema imediato ou de futuro MUITO próximo. Se não houver algum resultado imediato para aumentar o poder, dinheiro ou prestígio, os poderosos, aqueles que poderiam realmente fazer diferença, não tem interesse.

E a fome mundial?
Já ouvi pessoas que dizem que o dinheiro gasto com a pesquisa espacial, poderia resolver o problema da fome no mundo… eu já faço a pergunta… Será?!?! Resumindo, a fome mundial tem outros motivos, como o falta do controle de natividade, distribuição de renda, falta de instrução e principalmente, a falta de interesse dos governantes e igreja.

A pesquisa em Terraformação, com certeza, criará novos métodos para controlar o solo e o crescimento de fontes de alimento, já que ambientes como o de Marte e Vênus, em muitas vezes, são semelhantes aos existentes no Planeta Terra.

A unificação
Se o mundo se move-se para a unificação dos esforços não comerciais da conquista do espaço, teremos grandes resultados inclusive para a parte comercial, já que tal empreendimento precisará de novos materiais e fontes energéticas.

Todos os esforços o desenvolvimento rápido e objetivo da conquista do espaço, dará um verdadeiro retorno para a humanidade atual e principalmente a futura.

A NASA, quando tinha fundos praticamente sem fim, mudou o mundo que vivemos hoje, mas infelizmente os governantes se baseiam, somente no que acontece agora, em vez de mostrar o que foi conquistado para o uso imediato.

O que ganhamos para uso imediato?
Devido a distância, pequeno espaço, custo elevado do transporte e a vida dos seres humanos, a NASA desenvolveu e melhorou muitas tecnologias que hoje usamos no dia-a-dia, como:
- Equipamentos de monitoramente de vida das UTIs
- Pilhas e baterias dos celulares
- Métodos de transmissão de rádio
- Ferramentas diversas
- Diversos polímeros que vão do Nylon ao que usamos hoje
- Uso de células de combustível de hidrogênio, que logo vão ser de uso comum
- Computação e informática
- Inteligência artificial
- Outras coisas que não faço idéia, mas dá para ver o quanto o mundo mudou depois da ida do homem a lua.

O que poderíamos ganhar para uso imediato?
Penso que teríamos facilmente:
- novas formas de produção e uso de energia solar, com células de hidrogênio e outras
- Equipamentos menores e com menor consumo de energia
- Novos materiais, para o revestimento e uso em veículos, aviões e até nas nossas casas
- Formas de armazenagem e transporte de alimentos
- Computadores mais rápidos e menores
- Transporte mais rápidos e baratos
- Telecomunicação rápida e mais segura
- Técnicas e novas formas de medicina à distância

Porque não fazemos isso?
Devido ao nosso umbiguismo, egoísmo e imediatismo, esquecemos que na maioria das vezes, vamos ao trabalho somente para poder criar um melhor espaço e mundo para nossos filhos. Imagine um mundo melhor que poderíamos dar se realmente poderíamos expandir as fronteiras para fora do nosso mundo?

As pessoas estão mais preocupadas em comer, pagar o seu aluguel, tomar a cervejinha no final do dia ou final de semana e esquecem do que estamos fazendo, terá impacto no futuro para nossos filhos, netos e todos nossos descendentes. Será que não vale a pena?

Muitos pensam que o investimento na tecnologia espacial não poderá mudar suas vidas de imediato.

E as guerras?
O medo de perder a vida nos mata de medo. Por isso, que o Senado Americano aprovou Bilhões de dólares só para a Guerra do Iraque, sendo que o que foi gasto até hoje com todos os programas da NASA, não chegam ao que foi gasto na 1a Guerra do Golfo. Talvez, se somar todos os programas do mundo, não chegará ao que está sendo gasto na Guerra do Iraque.

Imagine a humanidade sendo dizimada, aniquilada por um asteróide? Ninguém pensa nisso, sabe porque? Porque não é um problema imediato, não está ai na nossa frente e nem talvez estará para nossos filhos. Será?!?!?

Se hoje fosse descoberto que algum asteróide venha colidir com o nosso planeta, a única coisa que poderemos fazer, será rezar que consigamos sobreviver, mas uma coisa é certa, o mundo que conhecemos deixará de existir. Não teremos energia elétrica, com isso, vão acabar as fábricas, comunicações e tudo mais…

Devido a tamanha e possível catástrofe, porque a Humanidade não investe 1% do PIB mundial na conquista do espaço?

Uma sociedade espacial é viável?
Como leitor de ficção científica, bem como fã de séries como Star Trek, é totalmente possível a existência de uma sociedade espacial. A profissão hoje existente nos navios, poderá ser aplicada da mesma forma as naves espaciais ou também a forma que hoje existe nas aeronaves.

As colônias espaciais, poderão gerar novos meios comerciais e novas linhas comerciais e de transporte entre as novas colônias, que poderão ser os oásis de vida numa futura catástrofe no nosso planeta.

Issac Isimov e Arthur C. Clack, mostra que a existência de colônias espaciais e até em outros mundos é viável, sem muito segredo e da mesma forma, que nossos antepassados se adaptaram ao novo mundo, com certeza isso acontecerá nas novas colônias.

A série de livros Perry Rhodan, mostra que é também viável uma sociedade espacial militar e comercial, onde ambos podem andar juntos no crescimento e na colonização de planetas na nossa galáxia e até em outras.

O que poderemos fazer?
Poderemos nos unir para criar um programa local, nacional e quem sabe mundial?

1% do PIB é muito dinheiro, mas muito menos que os militares gastam na pesquisa e desenvolvimento de armas de destruição em massa.

Vamos movimentar o mundo para que possamos salvar a humanidade, bem como semear o espaço com a nossa espécie.

About the Author

Analista de Sistemas, especialista de projetos para Internet desde 1993, projetista e mantenedor de diversos sites no Brasil, como os sites da FAMEM e Porto do Itaqui.

Of all the natural medicines, none is more divisive than homeopathy. Many chemists, biologists and physicians are quick to dismiss this 200 year-old system of natural healing as nothing but absolute quackery and in many countries around the world, just calling yourself a homeopath can result in imprisonment. But millions of lay people and thousands of educated, competent health care professionals from all walks of life believe completely in the healing power of this controversial system of natural healing.

Homeopathy is so popular in Europe that over 30% of the family practitioners in France prescribe homeopathic remedies and more than 40% of England’s doctors regularly refer patients to homeopaths. Here in the U.S., homeopathy is enjoying something of a renaissance, as well. Though homeopathy is considerably less well-known here, a growing number of Americans are turning to homeopathy for help with everything from AIDS to the common cold.

Based on the use of extremely dilute preparations known as “remedies”, homeopathy grew from the meticulous research of an 18th century German physician named Samuel Hahnemann. At the height of his career, Dr. Hahnemann was the personal physician to the German royal family and the author of one of the most respected chemistry texts of the time. But despite his personal and professional successes, Dr. Hahnemann grew increasingly dissatisfied with medicine. He suspected that the accepted therapies of bloodletting, mercury overdoses and other popular treatments were, in fact, doing more harm than good. He soon abandoned his orthodox medical career to devote himself full-time to the studies that would eventually give us the branch of natural healing that Dr. Hahnemann coined “homeopathy”.

Unlike his mainstream contemporaries, who experimented only on sick people and laboratory animals, Dr. Hahnemann gave his experimental remedies to healthy adults to study their reactions under real-life conditions. Dr. Hahnemann noticed that healthy people receiving extremely small amounts of certain medications exhibited many of the same symptoms the medications were supposed to eliminate. He called his discovery the “Law of Similars” and it is this law upon which the rest of homeopathy is built. Even modern mainstream practices like immunization and radiation owe their widespread acceptance to this first law of homeopathy.

His discovery of the Law of Similars was the fuse that ignited the rest of Dr. Hahnemann’s research. This research, the results of which were compiled into exhaustive volumes he called “provings”, has been continually updated by other homeopaths ever since.

I’m getting a bit tired of all the iPod coverage in the press recently, including my own iPod versus PDA article recently.

This has just been tempered with excellent technology news for the Pocket PC video playback freaks among us.

If you’ve spent most of your waking life waiting for videos to finish transcoding into a suitable Pocket PC format, read on.

ATI has introduced GPU-acclerated video transcoding in its latest video card for digital media hounds. This translates into a way, way shorter duration as the GPU actively assists in tasks like this.

I once told someone a couple of years ago that pigs would fly before such technology came to fruition.

Consider this article a public apology. Hope you’re reading.

Jason Cross reported on the ExtremeTech site that their new Radeon X1800 XT video card can quite possibly make ATI the king of the video encoder mountain.

You’ll remember that I referenced the Pocket TV application in a recent article as a Pocket PC answer, of sorts, to the ever increasingly ubiquitous video iPod in their WalMart-like pervasiveness.

As it turns out, you’ll have to spend some time doing the dreaded video encoding dance with this app.

There are a number of Pocket PC encoders for optimal playback in Pocket TV.

If you’re looking to encode with a smaller size and bitrate, the Radeon X1800 is your answer to Pocket PC transcoding hell.

Of course, prepare to give your financial pound of flesh when it hits the market on November 5th, 2005 for $549 USD ($648 CDN) for the 512 MB version.

I’m not really looking forward to paying the hideous GST and PST inflicted on we Torontonians, either.

Still, it may be worth your while if time is of the essence.

The Extreme Tech author conducted some encoding tests on a video clip of The Rock.

The clip, said to be brutal enough to make any CPU cry uncle, is used as a common benchmark.

The 5 minute DVD clip, at DVD resolution, was clocked at 2 minutes 17 seconds using DivX.

In the ATI Avivo Transcode app, the same clip took 24 seconds.

Both test were run on an Athlon 64 X2 4800+ with 1 GB RAM.

He discovered a general 5 to 1 super boost over CPU transcoding speed.

Not bad at all if you’re on a quest to encode all three Harry Potter movies into an optimal format for your Pocket PC SD card in one evening.

Nevertheless, video iPod users are probably covering their grins right now.

Damian Julien is a Pocket PC gaming authority and long time general gaming hobbyist and reviewer.

He is an IT specialist by trade and has posted numerous articles on Pocket PC emulators, gaming and trends in the industry.

http://www.pdagameguide.com/

Gay people find it very hard to meet up with each other as many
people keep it a secret about what their sexual orientation is,
this is to save themselves from harassment or prejudice.
Although in this day and age they really do have nothing to
worry about.

Many gay people find that the internet is a great resource for
finding gay partners. The internet allows you to be who you want
to be without prejudice so you can openly admit to being gay and
not suffer any of the repercussions. A lot of internet dating
sites have hundreds of gay members and they organise what is
called ‘meets’.

Meets are events that gay people can go to and find other gays.
It is simply a get together for both men and women who are
interested in finding either a short or long term partner. These
meets make it so much easier for gay people to find someone as
no one is worried what anyone thinks of them as they are all the
same!

Meets are fantastic events, any company that holds them is
making a great effort to show that it doesn’t matter who you are
you are still entitled to be with someone and not be alone, and
that it should not matter what your sexual preference is. While
dating sites are the most typical sites to offer this service
you can find specialist websites that specialise in this sort of
thing.

Gay meets are there for all gays, lesbians included. It is
simply like a large party where no one is or should be afraid to
be themselves. To find your nearest gay meet or party just
simply log onto online gay club, gay personals, lesbian dating
at www.onlinegayclub.com and start searching, you never know
what you could find.

What follows is a back-to-basics approach to achieve a good level of fitness and health using simple, easy to follow steps anyone can implement.

Diet
Not All Diets Work For All People. Diets don’t work for all people and there are some very good reasons for this. It’s very much like anything else - what works for one person may not necessarily work for someone else.

Basically there are two underlying, causative factors for excessive weight gain.

• External, and
• Internal

Let’s look at the background for each one:

External factors

External factors include lack of exercise, eating the ‘wrong’ food types and or too much food.

Other factors can include lack of time for the preparation of healthy, nourishing and non-processed meals.

A severe injury which prevents a person from being able to maintain an active life style which included a high amount of physical activity, may well gain weight without changing their food intake, simply because they are still eating the amount of food they ate when their life style was much more active.

Internal factors

On the other hand, there are internal factors related to health problems that can lead to excessive weight gain. Problems with an individual’s metabolic rate, and similar disorders can cause a sudden rise in weight.

Mental and emotional problems can often lead to a decrease in metabolic rate and an increase in food intake - substituting food for emotional fulfillment.

Organic diseases such as diabetes and other organ pathologies may lead to an increase in weight.

As you can start to appreciate there are lots of different causes for why one may be gaining weight. When considering the different possible causes of weight gain, is it little wonder that there are so many different diets? They all claim to work and most of them do work for some, but not others. The problem is how do you know which one will work for you and which one will not?

A diet regime for a person who has recently been injured and is gaining weight due to lack of physical activity is going to need a different diet approach to an other individual who is suffering from an organic disease and is unable to utilise the nutrients efficiently.

The saying there’s horses for courses is quite true and it is important to realise that just going on a diet and adding a strict exercise regime will often not provide the results you may have expected.

There are some basic considerations for each of the two basic causes. Lets look at these separately in an attempt to create some basic rules, which you may wish to follow.

External Factors Leading To Excessive Weight Gain

Generally speaking there are some overriding factors that may play significant roles in excessive weight gain:

Excessive food intake - irrespective of the quality of food, you can eat too much and too much of anything will lead to an imbalance in your body’s health. Nutrients your body receives, but cannot use will be converted to fat and held in reserve for later.

Eating the main meal of the day at the end of the day will have a similar effect for many people. Remember that after the sun goes down, the body is starting to prepare for rest, not activity and digesting food is activity. A large, heavy meal may take several hours to digest and our body’s normal physiological functions are interrupted when we eat a large meal and go to bed soon after.

Many people do not have a substantial breakfast and few have a healthy lunch, so dinner is the first time in the day that many individuals and families actually have the time to sit down and eat a full meal.

Lack of exercise: These days most people live a very hectic life style allowing little or no time for a regular exercise regime. This is combined with sedentary work often involving sitting in front of a computer all day or at an office desk. This does ultimately not provide any form of exercise and uses little physical energy and therefore, little of the stored energy from last night’s dinner is converted to energy and used by the body.

There is another factor. Our bodies are basically lazy. That is if they don’t need to do the work, they won’t. So, if you are in a regular pattern of eating a large meal at night and little during the day, even though you may at some point in time during the day feel hungry, your body will not start to break down the fat into sugars and thus energy, but will just wait until you have another meal and use the available sugars from the meal to provide you with energy.

You may have noticed that from around mid-afternoon onward you start to feel tired and lethargic. However, about 30 minutes after you eat dinner you suddenly experience a surge in energy.

The tiredness is because you have used up your free energy and your body ‘knows’ that it will be fed in a couple of hours, so it will not invest more energy into breaking down fat stores to access the energy stores in the fat.

Internal Factors Leading To Excessive Weight Gain

Generally speaking there are some overriding factors that may play significant roles in excessive weight gain:

Emotional factors - can affect your digestion to a great extent. If you have ever had a major event in your life that made you extremely angry, you may not have been able to eat, or if you did you felt nauseous and experience a ‘lump’ in your stomach, some people will even vomit. This illustrates how sensitive your digestive system can be to emotional stress.

If the stress is of a chronic nature and has become part of your life, the digestive tract will react adversely. For example it may be over active and as a result you feel you are constantly hungry and this could lead to you over eating.

Similarly, if you do not sleep well and therefore feel tired during the day, you may find that eating snacks very frequently during the day will give you that energy boost to keep you going, but the result of this frequent intake of food can lead to obesity depending upon what you eat.

Depression is another emotional factor that in some people leads to over eating and it is not necessarily the quality or quantity of food eaten, but the fact that the emotional state of the person is depressed and thus the physiological processes such as metabolism may also be depressed. This too can lead to obesity, as the body just converts the nutrients from food into fat, leaving you lethargic and quickly hungry again.

Organ pathologies - There are several underlying health problems that can result in excessive weight gain, for example Hypothyroidism (under active thyroid gland), which is quite common in the community, is just one of the diseases that may lead to obesity. Hypothyroid sufferers find it extraordinarily difficult to loose weight irrespective of food quality/quantity and exercise.

Similarly, hormonal imbalances/disorders can lead to deposition of adipose tissue, for example menopause, may in some instances lead to weight gain.

Where there are pathologies, it is necessary to treat the underlying cause not just try to loose weight by what ever means necessary. That is it is important to look at the whole of the person, their life style, diet, exercise regime, health of their body, etc.

Just going on a diet to loose excess weight is not the answer to weight loss if you wish to loose weight permanently. It is a total revamping of the individuals lifestyle and everything that goes with it.

It is my opinion, that a balance of all foods combined with a regular exercise regime and a adequate level of hydration are the corner stones to successfully getting control of one’s weight.

Foods to eat

I am not going to give you yet another diet and name it after myself or some such silly thing. The following is basic naturopathic advice without any extreme elements or ‘fad’ components.

Breakfast. Firstly, start eating some breakfast. It does not need to be time consuming in preparation nor does it have to be a 3 course meal. However, you should have some fibre, fruit some fruit juice. For example a mixture of 3 different types of nuts mixed with rolled oats and some oat flakes together with some pieces of fruit, say apple, banana, pear, peach, or any other fruit you’d like. Mix all these ingredients together and add a generous helping of natural yogurt. You may add some honey to sweeten the muesli to your taste. The aim is to include in the order of 15 different foods in this meal. That will provide you with a healthy, non-processed, nutritious meal that will give your body a great start to the day.

Lunch-time. Again, keep it simple. A mixed salad (include as many vegetables as you can) with or without some cold cuts of meat, fish or chicken, or tofu and soy or what ever you like. Just make sure it’s unprocessed and fresh.

If you have to attend a business lunch, just order a big salad as the main dish. Or go for a vegetarian meal. Most Restaurants these days are very aware of and cater to vegetarians and provide a good selection of vegetarian meals.

Fish is another must have (okay, vegetarians may not wish to include fish in their diet), because they contain fatty acids such as Omega 3, 6 and some also contain Omega 9 as well as many other nutrients.

Dinner. This should really be the smallest meal of the day and also the simplest. Again, keep it simple and unprocessed. Use vegetables, fish, rice and similarly light, easy to digest foods. Make a stir fry (using virgin Olive oil) for example, or a rice dish, salad, or omelet containing a variety of vegetables.

It’s also not a crime to eat a healthy muesli at night, especially on hot, humid nights when a hot meal is not really desired.

Snacks - well, you’re allowed to have the odd snack, just don’t make it not a chocolate bar. Instead, you could eat a handful of nuts, not salted, not roasted, but just plain unsalted healthy, fresh nuts. Alternatively you could eat fresh fruits and raw vegetables such as Apples, Carrots, etc. as snacks.

Last, but by no means least, you need to consume at least 2 litres of Water and or fresh fruit juices each and every day.

Did you know, that often when you are feeling hungry during the day, the body is actually asking for water, not food? This can be a bit confusing, but by the time you recognise that you are actually thirsty, you are already dehydrated. One of the first signals of ‘I need to drink some water’ is a feeling of hunger. So rather than responding to this impulse of ‘I need food’, drink a glass of juice or water and see if the ‘hunger pangs’ persist.

Exercise

Well, let me say that none of us need to become athletes just to stay fit or loose some weight. The idea of exercise is not to become Arnold Schwarzenegger or Rambo. Exercise is going for a 20-30 minute walk, using the stairs when possible as opposed to taking an elevator.

Exercise does not have to be and should not be a ‘pain’ to do, rather it should be physical activity you enjoy doing and this activity should make your body work on a physical level. Over time you will build up your strength and your level of fitness.

For example: Swimming especially in the ocean is a very healthy activity and does exercise your body. Walking, not necessarily along roads, but along the sand on the beach or through uneven grounds such as on a walk through the bush is great exercise. But if you are living in the suburbs and are not near a National Park or the beach, than walking along the road is better than not doing anything. Riding a push bike is another good form of exercise especially for the cardiovascular system.

But you can also turn work around the house into exercise. Washing the car for example can be a form of exercise, polishing it would add to this. Mowing the lawn is another form of exercise and the list goes on.

I’ll just ad a word of warning here - whenever you do exercise, be aware of your posture, especially when using household chores as intended exercise. Vacuuming for example, keep your back as straight as possible, bend the knees and take a small step rather than reach as far as you can. Change hands every now and again to give one arm a rest while the other is doing the work, than change back again and so on.

Lastly, don’t rush into exercise, work up to increasing levels of fitness using little steps. Each week or two, make the walk a little longer, or try and do the same distance a little quicker, swim a little longer or further, take your bike out and time yourself over a few kilometres, than 2 weeks later, see if you can decrease the time it took by a minute or so on a regular basis.

Take baby steps, don’t try to go too far too soon, or you may end up injuring yourself. Take it step-by-step and you’ll not only enjoy your newfound fitness, but will have fun achieving it.

Hints: Time your exercise to be either in the cool of the morning or early evening. Going for a walk at lunch-time in a city is not healthy. The pollution you breath in will end up doing you more harm than the benefits you get from the exercise. What ever you do, do not go jogging along major traffic roads, especially not during the day and definitely not during the hottest part of the day.

I see people running along major roads in Sydney during summer in the middle of the day. They look like they are about to have a heart attack and are actually a lot closer to that than they think. They are gasping for breath and breathing in highly concentrated pollution and very little (if any) fresh air… Think what that does to your Lungs and the load of hazardous chemicals that are absorbed into your blood stream - sit under a shady tree and eat a healthy lunch - you’ll get much more from that.

Danny Siegenthaler is a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine and together with his wife Susan, a medical herbalist and Aromatherapist, they have created Natural Skin Care Products by Wildcrafted Herbal Products to share their 40 years of combined expertise with you.

Join our Natural Skin Care Newsletter – it’s fun, free and Informative and you receive a free eBook on natural skin care.
© Wildcrafted Herbal Products 2006

You probably are aware that being overweight has a negative impact on your blood pressure, and that high blood pressure can lead to stroke and heart attack and even death. Losing weight is the obvious answer, but how much weight do you have to lose to make a difference in your heart health?

The answer is “a lot less than you might think”: it appears that losing even small amounts of weight can help reduce your risk of high blood pressure—as long as you keep the weight off.

Analysis of a recent long-term study (Arch Intern Med. 2005; 165:1298-1303) focused on over 1200 overweight adults (that is, their Body Mass Index was 25 or over). They were otherwise “disease-free”: none of those subjects had been diagnosed with hypertension (high blood pressure), diabetes, cancer, or cardiovascular disease.

The study participants were grouped by age, 30-49 and 50-65, then subgroups were created of those participants who A) lost weight over the initial four years of the study, and B) those who did not lose weight or even gained weight.

After that initial four years, those who lost weight were again broken down into subgroups of C) those who maintained the weight loss (or lost more weight) and D) those who gained the weight back.

At the eight-year mark and thereafter, up to 48 years after the beginning of the study, all of the subjects were monitored for hypertension.

As you might expect, people who started out overweight and who did not lose any weight had the highest rates of hypertension. Also, the older group (ages 50-65) tended to have higher rates of high blood pressure than the younger group (ages 30-49), no matter whether they lost weight or not.

But when the scientists compared the rates of hypertension between those who lost weight and kept it off, as compared to those who gained it back or stayed the same, they found that those in the younger group who lost 6.8kg (about 15 pounds) and kept it off reduced their risk of high blood pressure by 21%. The older group reduced their risk by 29%!

Most significant, however, is that losing even a small amount of weight—as little as 1.8kg (about 4 pounds!)—had a similar effect on the rate of hypertension. The younger group who lost less weight still reduced their risk of high blood pressure by 22% and the older group reduced their risk by 26%.

Making improvements in your health doesn’t have to mean making drastic changes in your life—this study is proof that even small, sustained changes can have a dramatic impact.

A practicing, board-certified Internist in northern Virginia, Tim’s love of food preparation began as a teenager working in the restaurant business. Starting as a dishwasher, by age twenty-two he opened his own restaurant: a small country-French café. After three years as chef-owner, Dr. Harlan decided to return to school. He’d originally intended to pursue a degree in hotel and restaurant management, but events led him toward medicine and the decision to become a physician. In medical school, Dr. Harlan wrote _It’s Heartly Fare_, a book best characterized as a food manual for patients with cardiovascular disease. His latest book, _Hand on Heart_, is a healthy cookbook.

Dr. Gourmet has been an on-air consultant to the TV Food Network show “Cooking Thin” as well as a host on the DIY network show, “AskDIY”. In 2002 “The Dr. Gourmet Show” won an Emmy award.

Dr. Gourmet is a natural outgrowth of Dr. Harlan’s interest in good food and good health: “Eating well and eating healthy are the same thing,” he says.

Most people advocate the case of credit cards, quoting the benefits and convenience that arises from them. However, there is another group/line-of-thought that strongly opposes credit cards. The reason being ‘Excessive Credit Card Debt’, which is one of the most serious problems faced by the credit card holders and credit card industry. However, you can’t pull the shutters on the credit card industry just because of a few irresponsible people (or even if it’s more than few). That is not a solution for beating excessive credit card debt. Moreover, you can’t overlook the benefits associated with the credit cards.

The issue of excessive credit card debt can be looked at from 2 angles. First is addressing of the excessive credit card debt problem at the industry level and second is the addressing of the excessive credit card debt problem at the individual’s level i.e. at the credit card holder level. The first method involves increasing awareness of the excessive credit card debt problem to the masses. This is more or less being done currently too. However, there should also be an effort to tackle this problem of excessive credit card debt at an even deeper level. This means trying to devise a mechanism to nip the problem (of excessive credit card debt) in the bud. This mechanism should actually be a part of the overall system. A lot of thought needs to go into devising such a mechanism. Case studies should be taken up, statistics gathered and a proper forum formed (with representatives from the credit card holders and from the credit card suppliers). As of now, the credit card suppliers just seem to be engaged in coming out with new products and getting customers enrolled to those products. There is little attention paid towards addressing the problem of excessive credit card debt in the real sense. Something like attending mandatory seminars on the root causes of excessive credit card debt could be made part of the credit card application process.

Another way of dealing with the problem of excessive credit card debt could be: developing a system for calculation of applicable credit card limit at the individual level i.e. no standard/product-based credit limits. Then there could be mechanisms for proactively warning the users about excessive credit card debt (based on their credit card usage) or even imposition of early restrictions on noticing the first signs that lead to excessive credit card debt.

At the individual’s level, the treatment of the problem of excessive credit card debt would include following of best practices (on credit card usage and avoidance of excessive credit card debt) by the individuals themselves. A checklist or a set of questions could be provided to individuals for recognising the first signs of excessive credit card debt.

So, the problem of excessive credit card debt can surely be dealt with by putting together some serious thinking at a broader level together with discipline at the individual’s level.

What was started as an online store, has turned into a growing collection of internet resources on subjects ranging from Network Marketing, Investing, Health, Travel and Credit Cards. Visit http://www.mjesales.com for our store or http://www.mjesales.com/articles.htm for more articles. For instant access to over 20 free ebooks, visit our free ebook page now! This article may be reproduced only in its entirety.

Markets go up and markets go down. It shouldn’t matter much, but many new market timers find that their own personal mood fluctuates with the markets, moving from extreme euphoria as the markets soar to new heights to deep despair when the markets plunge to new lows.

Why do market trends have such power over emotions?

They don’t need to, but many new timers have difficulty cultivating an objective mind set. They allow fear and greed to influence their trading decisions.

They tend to follow the masses, and when they go with the crowd, they soon find that market trends not only influence their moods but their account balance as well.

Following The Crowd

There’s a strong tendency to follow the crowd. There is a feeling of safety in numbers. When you see a steady upward trend, you feel secure. Everyone is buying. They are all doing the same thing.

When other people offer confirmation of your decisions, you feel safe and assured.

In a bull market, it isn’t so bad to follow the crowd. When it’s a strong bull market, the crowd is often right, and it makes sense to follow them.

However, when the market turns around, feelings of safety and security can turn quickly into fear and panic. Why? One reason reason is that many new market timers don’t have the ability or financial resources to sell short, and take advantage of a bear market. But there’s a psychological issue as well.

It is difficult to know how to handle falling stock market prices. For example, humans tend to be risk averse. When one is going long and the markets suddenly turn, it’s hard to accept losses, and sell off a losing position before more damage is done.

Denial and avoidance set in. At that point, a trader with a losing position panics, hopes that things will turn around, and waits for events that are unlikely to happen.

Usually the price continues to fall, heavy losses are incurred, and as expected, disappointment and despair set in.

Emotions And Decision Making

It’s crucial for your success as a market timer to stay calm and objective. Don’t let your emotions interfere with your decision-making.

How do you stay detached and relaxed? First, it’s important to accept the fact that you’ll likely see small losses as a timer and that you should expect to see the markets turn against you. Small losses are an unavoidable part of dealing with the stock market. The trick is, keeping them small.

Follow a trading strategy that is well tested such as those at Fibtimer. And stick with the plan.

Don’t allow your moods to fluctuate with the ups and downs of the markets. By trading in a disciplined, methodical manner, you can cultivate an objective, logical mind set that isn’t overly influenced by market moods.

Armed with the right mind set, a disciplined trading approach, and a well tested trading strategy, you will be able to realize over time, the profits of successful market timers.