Single Moms

CYCLING FOR A CURE

Single Moms are waging a war on the primary killers brought on by our sedentary lifestyle. Diabetes, heart disease and obesity can all be mitigated an/or eliminated simply by adding cycling or walking to your lifestyle. The CDC’s current recommendations for adults is 2 hours and 30 minutes (150 minutes) of moderate-intensity aerobic activity every week. That equates to a approximately a 15 minute bike ride 2 times a day five days a week. And it has been reported that the majority of car rides are less than 8 minutes from home. So if you need to go to the grocery store because you forgot an ingredient consider riding your bike. A trip to your local coffee spot or even to work (if it’s nearby) would provide you with the minimum amount of exercise for a healthy aerobic lifestyle.

The CDC also recommends muscle-strength activities on 2 or more days a week that work all major muscle groups (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, and arms). This can be accomplished by lifting weights, working with resistence bands, isometric training ie. doing exercises that use  your body weight for resistence such as push ups and sit ups, heavy gardening or yoga.

INSPIRATION WITH PURPOSE

Women on Bikes SoCal sees the key to increasing fem riders will be to empower female instructors to help close the bicycling gender gap. To do this the organization will be selecting 12 women to receive scholarships for the program and in return donate 25 hours of bike safety training back to their community. The target date for this first female only LCI program is June 2012. The hope is that “Let’s Double the Number of Women & Girls Riding Bikes” will double the number of women and girls actively riding bikes in Southern California by 2017.

DONATE AND/OR APPLY

If you are interested in supporting this scholarship effort you may make a contribution here . Or if you would like to submit yourself as a candidate for the progam applications will be available on the WomensonBikesSoCal.org website starting February 15, 2012

I look forward to seeing you on the street!

xoxo

kerri

YOUR NEW YEARS COMMITMENT

Making the commitment to follow through on your 2012 health and fitness goals will take setting realistic expectations for yourself. Ask yourself these two questions: “In your ideal world, how much time would you dedicate to your exercise program in a week?” Then ask yourself, “How much time do you think you will have for exercising this week?”  The ability to contrast your ideal world with your real world will allow you to recognize any potential conflicts and allow you to set a realistic fitness plan you can stick to.

BE A PROACTIVE PESSIMIST

Recognizing your potential obstacles and creating a plan of action to overcome them is called proactive pessimism. In a recent study 256 women who were interested in becoming more active were put to the test. Half the women were told very little about healthy lifestyle the other half were asked to journal daily about the following questions:

1. What is your most important exercise goal?
2. What would be the most positive outcomes of meeting this goal?
3. What is the biggest obstacle to this goal?

Then they answered these three questions about the obstacle:

1. When and where is the obstacle most likely to occur?
2. What can I do to prevent the obstacle from occurring?
3. What specific thing will I do to help get back to my exercise goal when this obstacle happens?

Completing this exercise doubled the average amount of time participants spent exercising each week from 46 minutes to 103 minutes. The change started the very first week and lasted all the way through the 4-month follow up.

Finally, challenge yourself with a bit of healthy guilt. Research shows that anticipating how much you’ll regret skipping a workout can motivate you above and beyond imagining your positive outcomes. Ask yourself, “How will I feel tomorrow about the decision I made today?”

FIND YOUR STICKTUITIVENESS

When it comes to New Years Resolutions 2012 honor your motivation, be open to your motivation as well as your countermotivations. Setting realistic goals for yourself allows you the best chance of sticking to them and achieving success.

Being a single mother becomes more difficult when you are still fresh out from the trauma of having your partner leave you. Add some pregnancy depression to it and it is all chaos. You must never forget that what is gone is history but your unborn child is your future and you must try and stay happy. Obviously, it is easier said than done but try techniques, like ordering party supplies and favors online and inviting friends over, spending time with your parents, attending classes, meditation etc and you will find it easier.

If you are a single mother, in complete confusion as to how you are going to pull it alone, read the following tips and try to inculcate them in your routine –

• Support – Every mother, whether single or not, needs support during pregnancy and also in the post pregnancy period. You have to know who your support system is. It might be your mother, a friend or even a doula. Let your friends help you and don’t feel embarrassed when they try to get you as comfortable as possible. After all, what is family for! The advantage of having your near and dear ones around you in this crucial period is that they know you very well and would be able to give you the right encouragement and support.

 You can also go for a professional support system. Doulas are trained in labor support and make life much easier for single moms. Not only can you hire a doula during the delivery, but a post delivery doula is also available to help you with the baby. This is beneficial because if you are a single mom, you won’t have anyone to take care of you after delivery and a doula is just what you need.

• Don’t Mourn But Rejoice – If your husband/boyfriend left you, it was their choice. Don’t harbor any bitter feelings about the break up and try to move on. Remember to be appreciative of yourself and all that you have with you, like your friends and family. Only have those people around who are truly happy for you so as to have positive energy around yourself.

If you are finding it hard to get over the negativity, meditate or seek professional help. You can even rope in your friends to help you out with this. Nothing like a huge session with your best friend in the dead of the night about how undeserving your boyfriend was! Don’t feel sorry for yourself. A child is a blessing and you must make sure that you feel your best while delivering it because it makes a lot of difference.

Finally, stay happy and don’t fret. If you have loads of support, pregnancy is just a tiny thing.

Sophie Rodrigues is a beauty expert and a work-at-home single mother who had been blessed with a daughter two years back. She is writing an acne book for adults, which is due for release next year.

Ashley Karr a research psychologist, wellness coach and owner of www.ashleywellnesscoaching.com told me that many of her patients wonder how December got hijacked by stress, family obligation and credit card debt. “At what point did the magic, warmth, and joy fade into worries about the cost of airplane rides and not being able to fit into your skinny jeans.”  She agrees, single moms need a mental health vacation after the holidays. Karr encourages her clients to go to the place your heart desires.

WARM WEATHER GETAWAYS

Florida is always the perfect icy winter getaway and LaPlaya Beach & Golf Resort on the Gulf Coast in Naples is offering a Frostbite Relief Package for single moms and kids. Room rates start as low as $409 per night and January 1 through April. 30, 2011 they are also include a $50 Per night Resort Credit, Deluxe Room Accommodations and Complimentary Resort Fee.

The Four Seasons Resort in Scottsdale is a family friendly Sonoran Desert oasis. It’s complimentary “Kids for All Seasons” program, allows single moms the golden opportunity to relax at the spa while the kids are busy day and night with loads of resort activities ranging from a luxurious movie theatre to stargazing to bean bag toss, or chocolate tasting in the pastry  kitchen. This Experience More package offers a $100 resort credit with every two paid consecutive nights.

NO BRAINER SUNNY HOLIDAY

The Veranda in Turks & Caicos’ is an all inclusive check your brain at the door destination. They are prepared to cater to you and your offspring’s every whim. The resort includes round-trip airport transfers, all meals and beverages, afternoon tea, concierge and personal butler service, in-room chef, pre-arrival provisioning of groceries, and more. Kids Town offers activities and off property excursions designed to be interactive, educational, eco-friendly and fun. From now until March 8, the resort is offering $200 Air Credit Per Booking for guests booking in the Garden View One Bedroom room category or larger.

SUNNY SIDE SOUTH OF THE BORDER

The Los Suenos Marriott Ocean & Golf Resort on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica is super kid friendly and now offering an Escape! Family Eco-Cation package which allows mom to relax while the kids participate in activities such as Mini Golf on the kid-friendly mini-golf course on-property, Puppet Making, volcanic rock hunt and painting.  The property also features eco-hiking rainforest trekking, white water rafting, surfing, ziplining, volcano hiking, and nature watching.Escape! Family Eco-Cation includes, Deluxe accommodations, Breakfast for single mom and her children at La Vista Restaurant, Daily tours and a Tonka Bean Tree will be planted in your name as you help us continue their efforts to reinstate the scarlet macaw into its habitat, Minimum two-night stay is required. VALID THROUGH: November 8, 2012 PROMOTIONAL CODE: ARN, RATES: From $234 – $321 per night

Finally, no matter how you choose to spend your post-holiday getaway, “don’t tell anyone except your closest friends that you are going,” suggests Karr. “This vacation is for you, and you don’t want naysayers to spoil it for you. Don’t take your computer or any other electronic device. Plan on taking an electronic holiday, as well. It is too easy to let other people, their thoughts, and their trials and tribulations creep into your few days of peace and rest.”

Happy (Post) Holidays.

Xoxo

Kerri

Recently NaturalNews.com wrote an article about the dangers of fried foods. I think we all know that deep frying is an unhealthy way to prepare foods and certainly not the best for us to eat. But many may be unaware of the litany of health dangers. So here are a few facts to consider before you head out to your favorite fast food joint in 2012.

YOU AND YOUR FRENCH FRY

The key to fried food is the breading. The danger is the breading sucks up nearly every drop of oil. So in essence eating fried chicken is like drinking a glass full of oil. Consuming vegetable or canola oil increases your low-density or “bad” cholesterol. The buildup from these saturated fats, cholesterol and trans fats in your arteries can cause hard deposits aka plaque to form eventually restricting your blood flow. This can cause a heart attack or stroke especially if a piece of the plaque breaks away. The closer your fat is to your heart the more dangerous. For men fat is stored in their belly’s. For Single moms it’s in their hips and thighs.

THE LIST

• Fried foods clog arteries and lead to strokes and Alzeimer’s.

• Clogged veins and arteries cause heart attacks and aneurysms.

• Canola oil is one of the top 3 GMO products (genetically modified to contain pesticides) in U.S. and is used by almost all restaurants and for nearly all fried products you find in stores.

• Canola oil (rapeseed oil) is synthetic and deprives cells of oxygen, causing emphysema and respiratory distress, eventually leading to cancer.

• Soy and soy by-products are almost all GMO.

• Corn oil and corn by-products (breading on almost everything) are also GMO and contain pesticide

• Most fried foods contain MSG (toxic salts) to enhance “dead food” flavor

• Taking antacids makes things worse – prevents natural enzyme production by the body. It also adds bad calcium which is armor (protection) for parasites/infection.

• Most meats are from animals, fowl and “farm raised” fish that are loaded with hormones and antibiotics.

• Fried means inflammatory foods which create problems with joints.

• Arterial plaque increases blood pressure.

• Potatoes and most bread (buns/pizza crust/pitas/tortillas, etc.) soak up the canola oil and turn to sugar in the stomach.

• Modified, processed and fried foods don’t break down in body properly; remaining in kidneys, liver, intestines, prostate and colon for extended periods of time, if not forever.

• Gluten (mutant food glue): Used for pizza crust, fried seafood, pre-prepped Chinese, corn dogs, crackers, pastries, cakes, and the list is a mile long.

• Sugar and carbs feed infection; makes you want more of the same; feeding the vicious cycle.

• Empty calories are totally void of nutrients, so the body keeps searching for anything of nutritional value. Feeling “full” wears off sooner.

THE RESOLUTION

The great news is that you can unclog your arteries without surgery or drugs. If you’ve been binging on fried foods during the holiday season make one of your New Years resolutions to detoxify your blood and refortify organs. Take organic B vitamins, dandelion root and milk thistle.

Happy New Years!

xoxo

Kerri

Wednesday, December 21 at 12:30pm/pst THE NATURAL HEALING AND NATURAL REMEDIES SHOW welcomes Milkalicious founder and owner Jennifer Ritchie.

A full-time working mom and wife,  through her own experiences in first time motherhood, Jennifer saw the need for a more personalized approach to educating and supporting new moms about breastfeeding, as well as incorporating it in their return to the workplace.

MILKALICIOUS WAS BORN

Milkalicious is a brick and mortar outlet located in South Orange County, California offering one-on-one Lactation appointments to breastfeeding mothers in the privacy of their own home or in-store. Milkalicious also offers classes, free workshops, and has a retail area where you can find everything from BPA free bottles to stylish nursing bras. Milkalicious retail location is open 6 days a week, and the on-line store is open 24 hours a day.

Owner Jennifer Ritchie works tirelessly to increase our National long-term breastfeeding rates by offering breastfeeding support to new mothers via one-on-one appointments, skype, blogs, and magazine columns. Jennifer is a Internationally Board Certified Lactation Consultant and is currently the President of the Orange County Breastfeeding Coalition. She is married and has two children ages 1 and 4. (and yes, she is still breastfeeding). Jennifer Ritchie’s enthusiastic and friendly manner sets the tone for the customer experience at Milkalicious and the model for empowering moms of the 21st century.

Says Ritchie, “Milkalicious gives a new mother a venue to be heard; and gives the newborn baby the best chance at a long and healthy life.”

For more information about Milkalicious call Tel: (949) 831-MILK or visit their website http://www.milkalicious.com/

Pediatricians frequently recommend that single parent moms vaccinate their children against viruses like measles, but what they might not be telling you is that vaccines, which contain the live virus actually may make your child more susceptible to other infections such as hemophilus B influenza meningitis, meningococcal meningitis, persistent measles infection, influenza infection and even chickenpox.  This has been strongly suggested by a number of studies. Not only can your children be more susceptible, but severe complications and even death would be more common as well.

MORE KIDS MORE INFECTIONS

This risk is especially prevalent in families with a number of other children in the household or in children in day care centers. With a prolonged suppressed immune system, exposure to other sick children would put this child at a high risk of contracting the infection.

MORE VIRUSES MEANS MORE VIRUS

Furthermore, it’s vital that healthy living single moms understand that vaccines may only cover only a few strains of a virus or bacteria that naturally have a great number of strains (some have over a hundred strains, thus the strain not included in the vaccine can become the dominant disease causing strain. This occurs with meningiococcal and pneumococcal vaccines in particular.

VIRUS COMPLICATORS

When vaccines are combined with mercury, which is also an immune suppressing substance, the result is the potential for your child to contract a virus is compounded. Fluoridated drinking water also interferes with a child’s immune system, as do many insecticides and herbicides used around the home.

Further omega-6 oils powerfully induce inflammation and immune suppression when consumed in large amounts. Those eating a Western diet are consuming 50-fold higher amounts of this type of oil (called linoleic acid) than needed for health. These oils include corn, safflower, sunflower, canola, peanut and soybean oils. So, we see that the average child is exposed to a number of substances in their food and environment that can also alter immunity, making them not only more susceptible to natural infection, but also to vaccine complications.

In essence, by overvaccinating our children, public health officials are weakening their immune system, making them more susceptible to a number of infections and less able to combat the infections. For more ways to protect your children READ THIS

Being a flirty girl has always been my style; it’s certainly come in handy during my last 10 years as a single mom looking for the perfect new significant other.

My friends have often joked that I should teach “Flirting 101” at the Learning Annex. I’ve always felt that flirting was my secret weapon—the perfect je ne sais quoi that separated me from the herd. I came up with the top five infallible flirty secrets that will assure that you leave a social event or party with a first date.

To get my flawless flirting tips like my Facebook page and follow the simple instructions. Just click here to get started!

Rather than find a good home for the dogs or decide that after 5 months of hotel residence it was time to find a more permanent living situation, Mr. L opted to bring his oversized pups to live with him in his 500 square foot room. And mind you he cannot leave the dogs alone in the room for fear they will do the finery’s of the hotel what they did to the ex-assistants pillows. He also felt that it was time to move our relationship to the next level and thought we should spend more time together…at his hotel location.

It wasn’t bad enough that I felt like a regular hotel hooker as I had to pass by the front desk every few days with my bags for the last few months, now I was sharing a single queen size bed with a 6’4″ man and two supersized poodles. Who, by the way, he’d decided to spay just days before so both were adorned with the plastic cone heads that dogs wear to prevent them from chewing their stitches. Doesn’t get more romantic than that now does it?!

But wait. After sharing a “home-cooked meal” aka in-room microwaved fish and vegetables via candlelight aka dimming the overheads, Mr. L decided to get amorous. I’m not sure how all this business was going to work as the dogs were intent on participating in the bed romp. Mr. L was persistent but ultimately the dogs and their cones won the majority of the mattress top territory and we humans were relegated to an office chair next to the desk. Very sexy? NOT! Coitus interruptus is an understatement.

I lied. I told Mr. L that I had to get home. With a sigh of relief and skulking out the back door of the hotel so I didn’t have to look into the eyes of the front desk staff yet again, I found my car in the parking lot and drove home like a bat outta hell to revel in my California King ~ solo.

Read more dating dramas of the single mama.

1. 1.     Foundation: Mature single moms should completely avoid the use of heavy cream foundation as it is heavy and may probably sit in the fine lines. For mature skin, luminous or liquid sheer foundation works well. Use the concealer that is silicone-based for spot treatment. Rub it on dark spots, under-eye circles and pigmentations for best results.

Tip: Use the primer that keeps the foundation luminous and fill in the fine lines. It will also fill the imperfections and minimize the appearances of pores.

1. 2.     Eye-makeup: For mature single moms heavy eyeliner and smoky-eye look is not recommended. The simple reason being that with aging the collagen weakens around the eye that causes lid droop and dark circles under –eye. Also, the eye shadow should not be very dark. It should just touch the crease. Avoid the shimmers as they highlight the fine lines. The temporary lashes are one of the best ways to enhance the beauty of your eyes and add to the charm. An expert made a special mention that most women walk-in to apply the non-permanent eye lashes as they make them look younger without ton of eye makeup.

Tip: Thinly line your eye and give a little kick at the end to make the lid appear going up in place of down. And for the inner part of the lids prefer matte shadows like light pink, peach or cream.

1. 3.     Lips: Red lips are ageless and timeless. Red gloss makes the girls between 20s and 30s look gorgeous whereas red lipsticks make the women in 40s look awesome.

Tip: Matte lip color must be avoided as they make the dips look dry and show lines. It makes the women look older.

1. 4.     Glitter nail paint: If you are not a teenager then the glitter nail paints must be completely avoided. It is too festive look for a mature single moms to carry. Nail paints that are pearlized would be better for all ages.

Tip: When the hands starts aging then dark purple and red must be completely avoided. It is best to stick to classic French, marshmallow or neutral ink color.

1. 5.     Sunscreen: Many experts strongly feels that as far as possible we should make efforts to protect the skin from the harmful effects of UV rays. Too much exposure to sun means the loss of collagen that result in wrinkles. Also, sun exposure leads to sun freckles and age spots.

Tip: Prefer the foundation that has sunscreen as its element. Try out the Bare Escentuals and Jane Iredale foundation products.

With these 5 makeup tips, you are sure to look like your prime is back. Beauty is a very subjective thing and how you interpret it is how you portray yourself. So, make sure you do not follow trends blindly and look your best all the time.

Some sunscreens can contribute to skin cancers find out more. click here.

Laura Rodrigues is a beauty expert who began writing for publications in her community in 2005. She insists that beauty sleep is very much important for optimum skin health. If you are becoming an insomniac and natural ways to induce sleep fail to help, visiting http://www.vprdc.com/ is sure to be of great help.