Work At Home Musings

When I was in High School in the 1970s, our school decided to take a vote about having a smoking area on the school grounds. I voted yes. Why? I was not a smoker and I hated smoking. I just wanted everyone to stop smoking in the bathrooms. The smoking area was established in a courtyard outside the cafeteria. Some of the hard core smokers would smoke there every day. Then there were the football players who decided that buying discount cigars and smoking them would be cool. The smoking area did solve the bathroom smoke problem as well.

Today, knowing what I do about the effects of smoking, I wonder if I would have voted the same. Probably. It saved me from a lot of second hand smoke. Oh, and by the way, the smoking area does not exist anymore. I guess they have gone back to smoking in the bathrooms!

I have been taking a treadmill class at my local gym and I really enjoy it. The problem is, it is only one day a week. I am not motivated right now to go to the gym extra days. I think it is due to the cold weather. Hopefully, my new exercise plan will help me focus and get me into shape before the summer!

How many diets have you been on? I don’t think I can count the number. I have done everything from read xenadrine rfa x reviews to buying the latest fad diet book. According to the Surgeon General, diets fail because:

* Diets deprive us. Many diets involve eliminating certain foods or even whole food groups. This is not only unhealthy but also unrealistic for the long term.

* Diets are temporary. Once they have reached their goal, most people go back to “normal” eating, so the weight comes back.

* Diets often don’t fit into normal life. Weighing and measuring food may help you lose weight, but aren’t practical as long-term strategies for most people.

* Diets can be expensive. Buying special foods can rack up a big bill quickly.

* Diets can actually lower your metabolism. When you drastically cut back on calories, your metabolism tends to slow down. You burn fewer calories and the diet becomes less effective.

* Diet is only half of the equation. Lifetime weight management is not just about what you eat. It requires physical activity as well. Experts recommend 60-90 minutes a day most days of the week.

It seems I need a lifestyle change, not a diet!

I can’t stress enough in these hard economic times about looking at all your options. Sometimes the best thing to do is to decide to enter a new career field and an online university is a good choice for busy moms and dads. Online universities offer flexibility that other universities do not.

Western Governors University (WGU) is one university that offers an online degree. WGU currently serves over 17,000 in 50 states and was founded by 19 governors of U.S. States. WGU is fully accreddidated. Because it is a non-profit university, it is also affordable.

WGU offers an online business degree as well as degrees in teaching, RN to BSN, information technology and other health professions. MSNBC recently reviewed WGU:

I was finally able to have my son’s 7th birthday party combined with my daughter’s 16th! After all the good food, I am definitely on the lookout for diets that work and work quickly! Our menu consisted of baked ziti and chicken parm provided by my husband’s parents, salmon, green beans and potatoes catered by our friend Scott, and a yummy chocolate layer cake and blueberry cheesecake made by another friend.

Here are some quick pics:

My three children are the joy of my life. Unfortunately, having babies also takes a toll on your body. Many women find, years after giving birth, that they are faced with using incontinence products and while today there are many good products available, it can still be embarrassing to use these products. A recently saw a news article, in which the doctor explain that while incontinence may be common, it should never be treated as normal. Here is that short clip:

I am glad that neither I, nor my husband, has had to use disability insurance for an injury. We have a friend right now who is trying to claim social security disability for injuries that happened at the workplace. His injuries are real. Unfortunately, there are too many people who like to claim fake workplace injuries in order to collect disability insurance or social security. These people make it difficult for the honest people who need to collect.

We could solve 99% of the problems in the world, if everyone was just honest!

In what profession can you not do your job and still make over $100,000? It seems that a New York City teacher has not been teaching for more than two years and is still collecting a salary:

A Queens teacher who collects a $100,000 salary for doing nothing spends time in a Department of Education “rubber room” working on his law practice and managing 12 real-estate properties worth an estimated $7.8 million, The Post found.

Alan Rosenfeld hasn’t set foot in a classroom for nearly a decade since he was accused in 2001 of making lewd comments to junior-high girls and “staring at their butts,” yet the department still pays him handsomely for sitting on his own butt seven hours a day.

Because Rosenfeld is protected by a Union contract, he can’t be fired, receives his full pay and benefits and can do as he pleases. If you don’t think the system needs reform, think again.

My daughter, who is a sophomore in high school, will never suffer from adult cystic acne. She has the clearest skin that I have ever seen on a teenager. Maybe that is why one of her possible career paths is model. That, plus that fact that she is five foot, nine inches tall. Unfortunately, modeling takes a lot of time and she I am not sure she is willing to give up her activities to be constantly modeling. She does have two other choices on her career list: physical therapist or athletic trainer and photographer. She loves photography and she is really involved in sports so both choices could be good for her.

And then there is always modeling…

Often, during an economic downturn, certain products see a dip in sales. I was certain that products such as organic foods, ephedra diet pills and weight loss products might be among them. Not so. Since America is so overweight, dieting and natural food products are still doing well.

David Browne , an analyst with Chicago-based research firm Mintel Group International, says that organic food sales declined less than 1 percent in 2009. “This is good news for the organic food and drink market, as this group may begin to buy more once recession-related fears begin to fade,” said Browne. Packaged organic food sales such as salads and fruit increased 24 percent from 2007 to 2009. Personally, I do shop for some organic foods. I always buy organic milk and I try and buy some of the other organic food as well. Unfortunately, the prices of organic food is higher and sometimes I have to stay within a food budget.