Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Motivation to Exercise

Exercise is a do-it-yourself venture. Neither anyone else nor a machine can do it for you. This is why it is important for someone who is into exercise to have the motivation to stick with a routine for better health and fitness, not to mention self-confidence.

This is what those who are not in the best shape should understand. Although it is easy to follow a set of instructions, this is not the case for almost 35% of Americans who are unable to get in shape.

Of course, once we become out of shape, we usually want to change that for a whole lot of reasons. Some reasons are related to physical condition and fitness, while others want to enhance their physique and appearance. It’s important to note that it is never too late to be fit.

In the past 50 to 75 years, physical activity has become the exception rather than the rule, whether at home and on the job. People tend to drive where others once walked. People also tend to flip a switch, and machines do the hauling, lifting, pushing, and pulling for them.

However, people who try to lose weight tend to believe that weight gain is likely to happen if they will not start taking the steps to stop it.

The point is that health experts believe people lose their way, especially when it comes to dieting. These people tend to go back to their old eating habits even after learning to enjoy low-fat eating. In addition, they tend to return to inactive ways even though they enjoy exercising.

But despite the momentum toward weight gain, experts say you can stop it from happening. There are plenty of good reasons to avoid excess pounds, reasons that go beyond vanity or social appearance. There are many reasons for you to keep motivated to exercise and to stay healthy for the span of your life.

Below are ways to stay motivated to lose big for better health, fitness, and self-confidence:

1. Have an Explicit Goal

A statement like, “I want to lose some weight,” is ambiguous and indefinite. It is not enough to motivate you to start exercising right away.

It is important to be precise with your goals. It is better to set a detailed and realistic amount of pounds that you like to lose. Envision yourself what you will look like after reaching your desired weight. This will inspire you to lose weight, in fact; maybe even more than what you have originally planned. The idea is to use that figure to assist you to remain resilient and dedicated.

2. Develop a Strategy

Strength of will does not work alone! If you are to exercise and stay with the routine, your strategy must comprise of both exercise and diet. One or the other will not work.

Start motivating yourself by tossing out the clothes that have bigger sizes. This will put you in a situation where you only have your smaller sizes and you will have to make a choice by staying motivated to exercise or else. Which would you rather?

3. Make Small, Assessable Measures

Practice actions that will suit your lifestyle. This means implementing moves that you and you alone will benefit from and not somebody else.

The idea is to opt for a more positive and attainable goal and not just to shun away from being plump and chubby.

4. Produce Monitoring that has an important effect

It’s a good idea to have somebody to monitor your progress and development. This will inspire you to continue doing what you have started. Having somebody listen to your achievements is definitely a better prize than just achieving your goal alone.

Besides, it’s assuring having an extra hand to support and cheer for you when things start to fall short. It is the idea of hearing somebody believing in you and what you do that is one of the greatest motivations for you to keep exercising more.

5. Construct a Vigorous, Sensible Timeline

What do you plan to achieve in the next year? Suit your objectives to your calendar, and do not look forward to seeing the results in a snap.

The bottom line is that staying motivated to exercise entails a lot of hard work, which is contrary to what most people believe. The main idea is to let people change their lifestyle because it is only through this way that they will absolutely change themselves for the better.

Search Amazon.com for Motivation to Exercise

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Reasons For Making Your Own Beer At Home

Did you know you can make your own beer at home? Whether it’s a family project or a personal hobby, it can be fun and easy. However, many people do not understand why others make their own beer. They wonder why they would want such a big mess and all that clutter that comes from creating their own brew. These are people who think it is just easier to go to the store and get what they want when they want it. Well you know what? This is not about the convenience or the cost of getting beer at the store.

The real reason why a lot of people make their own beer is because it can be fun and exciting. This is something people do as a hobby as well as keep busy. Some people create their own brew because they have never tried it before and would now like to try the experience.

There are many different recipes for making beer that have been handed down through different generations of families. People are using recipes their ancestors have used and seeing if they can do what they did and creating great tasting beer. Many of these recipes are easy to follow and have ingredients that are easy to find. In addition, there are different things people can buy to make their beer-making experience more exciting.

With the right kit and the right beer-making recipe, anyone can try making their own great tasting beer. Even if it is a one time thing, it will be worth seeing if they can create a beer that is just as good as the stuff that is purchased in the store. You can create anything with the supplies that you can find in a store or online.

Buying brewing kits is going to make it easier for a lot of people. You can get everything that you need with this kit, and it will make your beer brewing easier. Finding these kits will make the beer brewing adventure even more fun for someone that has not yet had the opportunity to try making their own beer.

Learning how to make your own beer is easy. Go online and get the facts and tips you will need to get started on making your own beer. Many tips and advice you can use can be found by checking out beer brewing articles online, such as the article you are reading now. You can use this information to get creative and find a new past time in making your own beer.

Search Amazon.com for Beer Making at Home

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Rep Schroder's HB 1296

You can see from this article that a Louisiana House Committee has advanced legislation on this bill. http://www.2theadvocate.com/blogs/politicsblog/93031814.html

Below are details of what has occurred:

From:
Sent: Monday, May 03, 2010 2:32 PM
To:
Subject: Rep Schroder's HB 1296

Below is a letter and reply between Tom Aswell and Rep Schroder concerning Rep Schroder’s HB 1296 which would require taking leave for holiday’s for the next fiscal year. I think you will find it very interesting and I hope you will respond by either calling or emailing Mr. Schroder’s office. The phone number is 985-893-6262 and the email address is schrodej@legis.state.la.us.


I spoke with Mr. Aswell this morning he sent me this link that his letter which was posted on Dead Pelican.com (http://www.thedeadpelican.com/) he also told me it was published in the Jena, Ruston and Eunice newspapers, sorry I don’t have the dates.


Appreciate your time and hope that your will forward this to all you know who are State Employees.


From: Tom Aswell
Sent: Thursday, April 22, 2010 10:35 AM
To:
Subject: Schroder


Mr. Schroder responded to me last night. Here is his response (My reply to his email is below in larger, black type):

From: Schroder, Rep. (Chamber Laptop) [mailto:jschrode@legis.state.la.us]
Sent: Wednesday, April 21, 2010 11:53 PM
To: 'azspeak@cox.net'
Subject: RE: Rep John M. Schroder, Sr.


You have me confused with someone else!

Thanks for the info.


Now, bear in mind, this email was sent from his House chamber laptop and was tagged Rep. Schroder.




That was about as lame a response as I’ve ever seen from anyone. Here is my reply to his email:

I don’t think so; you’re the only Schroder in the House and you’re the only one authoring those civil service bills. And I notice you sent this from the House Chamber laptop. Gee, who else could it possibly be? Oh, and by the way, I did later learn that you don’t make $145 per diem, but $159, effective last Oct. 1. That’s a 9% increase while you were busy eliminating state employees’ 4% merit increases. And the House doesn’t meet on Fridays, either, so you (and every other legislator) owe the state a $5,883 refund for the 37 days you aren’t going to be in session this year but for which you will be paid.

(This shows the elusiveness of Politicians denying what laws they are trying to introduce)


From:
Sent: Thursday, April 22, 2010 9:15 AM
To: Tom Aswell
Subject:

If you are the person that wrote this we (my friends and I), think you are just awesome!!!!





This was written by a state worker to Mr. Schroder, were do I sign this guy up to run for office.


Mr. Schroder:

You have my heartfelt sympathy for failing to get that state police job you so desperately wanted a few years ago. But I fail to see why you would wish to exercise your frustrations by pursuing a vendetta against honest, hard-working state civil service employees. After all, it wasn’t us who rejected your application; that was someone who knew you far better than we. I certainly do not understand why you would:

(a) Wish to have the full legislature assume “full authority to provide for pay increases for persons
in state service.” After all, you don’t know bean dip about the quality of my or any other state
employee’s work. How can you possibly be so arrogant as to assume you are more qualified than my
department head to evaluate my job performance?
(b) Wish to punish state civil service employees by forcing them to use annual and sick leave for legal
holidays. State salary levels for classified employees generally range below that of our
counterparts in the private sector. For example, I make less than $60,000 per year while those
who do similar work in the private sector average between $80,000 and $100,000. You and the
other 143 “hard-working public servants” in the legislature make $16,800 per year in salary; an
annual (un-vouchered) expense allowance of $6,000; a free laptop computer for the Capitol and a
free desk top computer and free high speed internet service and up to three telephones for your
district office; $2,000 to $3,000 per month for salaries of legislative aides who, you may recall,
are unclassified employees (oh, and by the way: legislative aides who are already at the $3,000
salary cap receive an automatic 4% raise for each year of service after reaching $3,000); a
supplemental office allowance of up to $1,500 per month; and legislators who are already in a
public retirement system or whose service in the legislature pre-dates 1997 are eligible to
participate in the state retirement system and get this: they retire at 3.5% of their annual salary
for each year served whereas we pampered, spoiled, lazy, and unappreciative state civil service
employees get 2.5% of our annual salary. Hell, I can see why you wish to bring us in line. Each
member of the legislature (excepting House Speaker, Speaker Pro Tem, Senate President, and
President Pro Tem, who get even more), in addition to the salaries, expenses, computers, office
allowance, phone lines, etc. also makes $145 per day in per diem for legislative sessions. Now I
know that you have just started the even-year, 85-day regular session. But what most people do
not know is that you get that $145 per diem even on weekends and holidays when you are not in
session. That comes to 12 Saturdays, 12 Sundays, and Memorial Day. The Senate doesn’t even
meet on Fridays; that’s another 12 days. So here’s what I would propose if you insist on pushing
HB1296: You and every other House and Senate member refund $145 for each day you don’t meet.
That comes to $380,625 for the house ($3,625 per member and $209,235 for the Senate
($5,365 per member), or a combined total of $589,860 that you are overpaid. (Actually there are
many who feel you are overpaid for every day of the 85-day session, but I’m giving you the
benefit of the doubt.) Can you believe we pay 144 legislators more than $1,780,000 to consider
such weighty measures as Saints license plates, registering antique boats, consideration of
whether or not anyone may seek political office after reaching 70 years of age, allowing the sale
of athletic event tickets for more than face value, and other such drivel?
(c) Wish to terminate 4% pay increases for civil service employees while ignoring pay raises of 4.5
to 4.9 percent for state judges. These raises, unlike civil service increases, are statutorily
automatic. While I’m at it, allow me to let you in on a little secret you obviously have not bothered
to research: Those so-called automatic 4% raises for civil services are anything but automatic.
Not everyone gets them. Moreover, once an employee maxes out all his allocated pay increases for
his pay grade, there are no more raises. Period. The employee only resumes qualifying for
increases if he or she is promoted, which may or may not occur. There have been no cost
of living increases for years.
(d) Wish to terminate the State Civil Service Commission and the Department of State Civil Service
(HB753). Civil Service was created as a means of preventing politicians (like yourself) from
intimidating state employees into campaigning for or being forced to contribute to candidates. In
fact, civil service employees are expressly prohibited from participating in political campaigns on
behalf of any candidate. This is another trade-off we accepted when we began our careers as civil
service employees, but it is a good law. If you succeed in abolishing civil service, you will leave
tens of thousands of state employees exposed to intimidation and to a return to the “deduct box”
spoils system mentality where job security depends upon political allegiance. As recently as 1983,
a newly-elected superintendent of education attempted to clean house at the Department of
Education. Only the Civil Service Department protected those employees whom the new
superintendent wanted to replace with his own hand-picked political allies.

Don’t try to invoke the cost savings argument; in my office, when an employee making approximately $27 per hour (or less) leaves, we are unable to fill his or her position. The only recourse is for our office to retain contract workers to perform their jobs—at $50 per hour. Saving money? I think not. We were forced to sell off our fleet of vehicles that are needed for several of our employees on a daily basis. If they take their own vehicles, they are paid a maximum of $99, no matter the distance traveled. Again, the only recourse is to lease a vehicle from Enterprise
Car Rental at $35 per day. At 20 days per month, that’s $700 per month. The last time I leased a vehicle, my lease payments were $325 per month.

By now, you have obviously (or maybe not; I think you may be a few croutons short of a salad) figured out that I am a state civil service employee. But if you think you can threaten me with my job, think again; I am preparing to retire and I really don’t care if it’s today, next week, or next month. I am a firm believer in representative government but I abhor political rhetoric and grandstanding—especially from someone taking his marching orders from Booby Jihad or anyone else.

If civil service is abolished as you—excuse me, as the governor—wishes it to be, some 60,000 civil service employees and their families will be free to campaign and to make political contributions on behalf of political candidates. I’m reasonably certain many of them will remember the legislators who tried to put them into the unemployment lines. People do, after all, vote with their wallets. By the time the next election rolls around, I will be long retired, so you may rest assured I will personally campaign for your opponent in return for the way you have wantonly painted every public employee with the same broad brush and to heartlessly ignore the effect your actions will have on thousands of dedicated, if disgruntled (you expect us to be gruntled?) employees and their families.

All because you didn’t get your state police job. How pitiful, petty, and childish.

Tom Aswell
107 North College West
Denham Springs, Louisiana 70726
225-324-9432

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

The Laws of Attraction Help in Personal Development

The Laws of Attraction can be very crucial when trying to understand your personality and its development. Success and failure are just parts of life and should be taken in the same spirit.

The ideal thing is to take all your failures and turn them into life lessons. Use these incidents to understand your limitations and what you did wrong so you do not repeat them in the future. This is how you pave the way for success.

Also, deal with your failures as and when they occur. Keeping them locked inside you and dragging them along wherever you go will only complicate your present and future.

What you think is what you are. This is one of the most important laws of attraction. If you are always surrounded by negativity, pessimistic thoughts it will only hamper your growth and personal development.

Below are some things you should consider and seek out if you are working towards a positive personality:

Learn you accept yourself the way you are. You may have shortcomings and limitations, but so does everybody else. If you can’t love yourself, how will you love and accept other people? This is one reason relationships do not work out and why others have trouble starting or building relationships. No matter how many things are going wrong around you, learn to take control. The moment you start self-pity is the moment you have already lost half the battle.

Even if you are surrounded by people with a lot of negativity, don’t let that get to you. Try and make those people see the brighter side of life if possible. Moreover, learn to step away as and when they start getting to you.

No matter how screwed up things are, tomorrow will be a new day and a new beginning. Stop mulling over your failures and try fixing things the best you can.

It’s important to set goals for yourself, but make sure they are realistic goals. Also reward yourself as and when you achieve desired results.

Learn to have self-confidence. If you are sure about what you want go ahead and go for it. Don’t let anything put you down or stand in your way.

Developing your personality means discovering your weaknesses and working on them. Learning from your failures and making sure you don’t make the same mistakes over and over is crucial.

Finally, learn to be good to yourself and do things that make you happy. If you are good to others then you would attract the same kind of behavior and people. Learn to be positive and happy and everything will start looking up.

Search Amazon.com for Laws of Attraction

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Benefits of Boxing Training for Fitness

You can improve your health and get physically fit by getting into a boxing training fitness program. Experts say this is the best way to get a stronger body and gain confidence. Boxing workouts can also help to get you in your best fighting form.

Many see positive results from boxing training programs. You can build stronger and more defined arms and legs, and these programs can also help you gain a sense of inner strength and emotional balance.

Boxing training programs got across to the mainstream of physical fitness training a few years back. Some of the benefits of these boxing training workouts include cardiovascular and the toning of the muscles. Tae-Bo workout videos have also popularized these boxing and kickboxing exercises.

Cardio boxing training and innovative variations of sparring jabs, power punches, defense, and fitness have all blends of aerobics exercises. You learn the proper execution of the punch and kick combinations for a more intensive workout that can help you become stronger and more confident.

The combinations you perform on the blocks, jabs, and kicks are executed to an imagined opponent. You may see classes where participants throw punches and kicks on the air. You will also find training camps that have quality equipment such as punching bags, and you may also have the option of getting a partner that has padded hands.

You may also enjoy additional benefits aside from the physical aspects of boxing trainings. Cardio kick boxing workouts allow you to burn 350 to 500 calories in just one hour. These workouts also help in maintaining the heart rate at a 75 percent to 85 percent regular beat. This has been proven to be good and is the recommended range if you are exercising or training.

Moreover, these boxing training programs help improve your speed, resistance, and strength. Flexibility and the reflexes of the muscles are also enhanced. In addition, repetitive motion on arms by sparring and jogging while you punch helps your arms and legs gain strength and power.

These workouts also enable your joint movements to build very efficient fitness results, and the movements require you to develop balance and coordination that enables your body to be stable and maintain good form.

The physical benefits you gain from boxing and kickboxing are just a few of the many benefits that they can provide. You will also be able to learn more about defense mechanism skills which you may use in case of unwanted instances. You will also feel the satisfaction when you punch or kick, and you will develop relaxation and self-motivation.

Another benefit is feeling a sigh of relief as well as the feeling of being released from stress. It feels good having cleansed all the stress that has built up inside, not to mention getting rid of any anger that is inside of you. Once these things are released, you may feel lightness into your body and peace of mind as well.

Many aerobic and fitness experts recommend boxing training for beginners as this allows one to work out at a desired pace and body condition. Boxing classes also let you to push yourself to the limit as long as you are safe and well conditioned.

Positive results await you with boxing training. You will enjoy a physically fit body and will get and stay in better shape. You have the option of working out and exercising at your preferred level and skill. This will allow you to enjoy the fun of these boxing training programs.

Search Amazon.com for Boxing Training