PREVENTATIVE HEALTH MEASURES FOR ALL OF US

Chicago Tribune
10-26-09

Oct. 25--Eating a Mediterranean diet rich in fruits, vegetables, legumes, olive oil, fish and cereals is associated with a slower rate of cognitive decline in adults 65 years and older.
Journal of the American Medical Association, August

People who live in neighborhoods with access to parks, safe walkways and public transportation and fresh fruits and vegetables are 38 percent less likely to develop diabetes than people who live in more unhealthy neighborhoods.
Archives of Internal Medicine, October

A daily supplement of 700 to 1,000 international units of vitamin D reduces older people's risk of falling by 19 percent.
British Medical Journal, October

For women past menopause, at least seven hours of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity a week during the previous 10 years is associated with a 16 percent reduction in the risk of breast cancer.
BMC Cancer, October

Men who engage in moderate exercise are significantly less likely to receive a diagnosis of prostate cancer. If they do receive a diagnosis, they are less likely to have aggressive disease.
Journal of Urology, September

Women who are obese in middle age are 80 percent less likely to be healthy and free of chronic disease at age 70.
British Medical Journal, September

Mortality rates for people with the lowest fitness scores are double those who are moderately fit and four times that of people with the highest scores.
Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, July

MORE THAN BOOK PUBLISHING

WOW That's the best I can come up with at 5AM. As my previous post mentioned, I spent the last 3 days at a seminar called Book Publishing 2.0 and my head is ready to explode. The sheer volume of freely shared information is mind blowing. If you ever see this program offered - take it! It doesn't matter if you are writing a book or not. If you have a business in today's world, the information and introduction to what is possible in terms of growing your company is worth 10X the cost of admission. I think they are planning another presentation in Utah in January. Beginning with the use of personality profiling to hyper focus your writing or marketing efforts and on to the incredible cyber world of today, this program is revolutionary. Revolutionary? Yes, the presenters spend no time selling their wares and all of their time (30+ hours) giving information, providing serious learning and practical application opportunities.

I must give a big "shout out" to the best personal coach in the land, Dawnie, for signing me up - thanks - the best weekend of info ever!

Who knew that geeks could be so much fun?

If you were at the event, post a comment.

OLD LAWN MOWER

I am spending this weekend at a seminar called Book Publishing 2.0 and it is an incredible presentation full of outstanding content from some very successful and knowledgeable people. The main speaker, Mike Drew and his team have helped 60 authors put their books on the best sellers lists - amazing! I am learning about the promotion and marketing skills required to accomplish this feat.

In addition to the course content, I met a young man who has a very unique, Calgary based business, recycling lawnmowers. some of you may know that I got tired of pulling the chord over and over, filling with gas and all that other stuff and bought a push mower this summer. I'm not kidding, it's easier to push than the power mower. The starter spring broke on the old one and the young fellow that I met will take it, fix it and sell it, thus keeping it out of the landfill where I was going to take it this week. In case you interested in contacting him, here's his website, Jack S. Nice young kid getting a great education in free enterprise and business management - be nice to him, we may be working for him some day.

retirement rocks!

retirement rocks!

LIFESTYLE RELATIONSHIP FINANCES

By

Heather Compton &

Dennis Blas

ISBN 978-0-9812573-0-3

Available at www.retirementrocks.ca $24.95

I’ve been looking forward to this book for several months and the wait was worth it. First of all, yes the book deals with the financial aspects of how much is enough, designing a lifestyle to suit your financial abilities, taking care of the legalities, tax savings, investments, expenses, planning, pensions and money management issues. And yes, this is done in a way that is professional, understandable, engaging and sensitive. If I stopped at that point, I would say the authors gave great value for the investment of $24.95 and that I would have felt much more knowledgeable and prepared to look at my financial future.

What pleased me most about this book is that the writers decided to offer so much more than financial advice and looked at some of the most important issues about retirement and the most challenging for many. We have all laughed at the story of the stay-at-home wife who lives in fear as the clock strikes down to retirement and HE is going to be around the house all day. We have also seen people who retired to a recliner and reruns of I Love Lucy and died 2 years later from boredom. More and more, we are hearing from relationship professionals about late life marriage breakdowns. Rarely would a top flight retirement planning book take on these issues as part of the process of a successful last phase of our lives, and it is high time that someone did. Thankfully, retirement rocks! has done just exactly that.

The authors place primary importance on our lifestyle and relationships by placing these sections first in their book and it makes such good sense. It is easy to see that Heather and Dennis have worked hard and successfully at their own relationship and we are the better for it. They share their personal experience and have called upon many other examples to provide us with a full range of thought provoking and soul searching methods to make sure we have the most important parts of our lives in place before the frying pan of retirement hits us on the head. The two sections on Lifestyle and Relationships make this a book that is valuable and useful to people everywhere and not just in Canada where the financial advice applies most specifically. Some equally smart American accountant/advisor could easily lift the first two parts and add U.S. focussed financial material and turn this into an international best seller – yes, it’s that good. This book is full of sensible, practical advice for being proactive about creating a retirement that rocks for you and me.

Buy this book for the financial planning but

read it for the glimpse at a life worth living.

www.retirementrocks.ca

Robert J. Bannon

Book reviewer

LOVE

At a recent family wedding, I was asked to add a few words prior to the dinner and offered these:

LOVE

Love is a friendship that has caught fire.

It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving.

It is loyalty through good and bad.

It settles for less than perfection

and makes allowances for human weakness.

Love is content with the present.

It hopes for the future and it doesn't brood over the past.

It's the day-in, day-out chronicle of irritations, problems,

compromises, small disappointments, big victories

and working toward common goals.

If you have love in your life,

it can make up for a great many things you lack.

If you don't have it, no matter what else there is,

it is not enough, so search for it, ask God for it and share it!

EIGHT WORDS DEFINED

Eight Words with two Meanings


1. THINGY (thing-ee) n..
Female....... Any part under a car's hood.
Male..... The strap fastener on a woman's bra.

2. VULNERABLE (vul-ne-ra-bel) adj.
Female.... Fully opening up one's self emotionally to another.
Male..... Playing football without a cup.

3. COMMUNICATION (ko-myoo-ni-kay-shon) n .
Female.... The open sharing of thoughts and feelings with one's partner.
Male... Leaving a note before taking off on a fishing trip with the boys..

4. COMMITMENT (ko- mit-ment) n.
Female.... A desire to get married and raise a family.!
Male...... Trying not to hit on other women while out with this one.

5. ENTERTAINMENT (en-ter-tayn-ment) n.
Female.... A good movie, concert, play or book.
Male...... Anything that can be done while drinking beer.

6. FLATULENCE (flach-u-lens) n.
Female..... An embarrassing byproduct of indigestion.
Male....... A source of entertainment, self-expression, male bonding.

7 MAKING LOVE (may-king luv) n.
Female...... The greatest expression of intimacy a couple can achieve.
Male.. Call it whatever you want, just as long as we do it.

8. REMOTE CONTROL (ri-moht kon-trohl) n.
Female.... A device for changing from one TV channel to another.
Male... A device for scanning through all 375 channels every 5 minutes.

AND
He said . I don't know why you wear a bra; you've got nothing to put in it.
She said . . You wear pants don't you?

He said . . .... Shall we try swapping positions tonight?
She said... That's a good idea - you stand by the ironing board while I sit on the sofa and fart!

He said .... What have you been doing with all the grocery money I gave you?
She said .....Turn sideways and look in the mirror!


He said . . Why is it difficult to find men who are sensitive, caring and good- looking?
She said ..... . . They already have boyfriends.

He said .. Why are married women heavier than single women?
She said . . Single women come home, see what's in the fridge and go to bed. Married women come home, see what's in bed and go to the fridge.

SEND THIS TO A SMART WOMAN WHO NEEDS A LAUGH AND TO
THE GUYS YOU THINK CAN HANDLE IT

TECH-NAUSEA

Tech-nausea
n. 1. a feeling of sickness in the stomach characterized by an urge to vomit brought on by overexposure to technobabble
2. strong aversion; disgust with all things technical

as in: "I can't understand this, I don't want to understand this, I'm sick of reading crap I don't understand, I've had enough, get me the hell out of here! click"

I lost my new cellphone and spent time yesterday retracing my steps to find it, to no avail and so had to go to the phone dealer and suspend the service. While there, I inquired about new products, plans, etc. The girl was a terrible representative who asked no questions about my purpose for a phone, how I would use it, etc. Rather, she showed me several and said, "These are popular." I didn't want popular. I wanted someone to show me a product that would be suitable and useful for my needs. Her questions were based on technology not customer needs.
I was trying to create a cloaked affiliate link and couldn't figure out the code to use so went to a website that is very useful in showing how to do this sort of thing but couldn't find the information and when I found something close - technobabble! People trying to outdo each other with terms that no one outside the "club" can understand.
Now I have to figure out what kind of phone, calling plan, Blackberry, not Blackberry, term, how much, etc. and decide what to do in the next couple of days. I need to get back on line and get the links correct as well as finish a website that is in development and the weather is just plain crappy - too cold to golf.
No wonder I shut the whole darn thing down and went home and planted flowers.
I had a case of recurring TECH-NAUSEA.