To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children … to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to give of one's self; to leave the world a bit better … to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived ... this is to have succeeded!

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I always believe in using opportunities to give back to the community. I have chosen to become a personal trainer to help achieve wellness in as many peoples’ lives as possible. The main message that I keep brining is to make small changes in your life and they will become big over a longer period of time. Furthermore don’t focus on one aspect, but on complete wellness, such as strength, cardio training, flexibility, nutrition, recovery and mindset.

Unfortunately there are people who's wellness does not depend on their choices but on medicine to control their illness.

A very dear family member would not have been alive anymore, if they did not find a medicine to control Leukemia and Lymphoma. Those medicines are only available in the last few years through research, which were possible through generous donations from people like me and you.

I am organizing a Train the Trainer event on October 15th at the Saw Mill Club. In the weeks prior, people will be able to make a silent bid at the club, in order to have the chance to be the highest bidder, and train me for an hour. Other trainers have volunteered their time as well, and all proceeds will go to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS).

I’d like to use my mervmail to reach its readers to either make a bid on my silent auction, or to make a direct donation. Furthermore, I would highly appreciate, if the non winning bidders would still make a donation regardless of losing their bid - but of course I leave that up to each individual.

I hope you have enjoyed my free mervmails for the past couple of months. Now I am asking you to make a change in somebody's life, by making a donation to LLS so that they can continue to find a cure, which might save you or somebody you love in the future.

Please make contributions to;   http://wch.lls.llsevent.org/trainthetrainer

Or place a bid by returning this e-mail with your bid!

You have not lived a perfect day, even though you have earned your money, unless you have done something for someone who will never be able to repay you.

Ruth Smeltzer

8 week plan / Week 3

Great effort springs naturally from a great attitude.

Pat Riley

Week 3

Eat some colorful, low-density food at every meal. These are foods that take up a lot of space without a lot of calories. Veggies are the most obvious example. You can eat a salad bowl overflowing with lettuce and veggies and you most likely won't exceed 100 calories. By eating low-density foods like veggies and fruits, you'll keep your portions under control naturally, because they have very few calories for their size. Conversely, high-density foods, like chocolate and butter, are loaded with calories in even the smallest amounts. So beware of salad dressings and other things you add to salads and veggies. Only add enough for flavor; don't fill up on them. When it comes to live foods, the richer the colors, the fresher the products tend to be. Try to eat a variety of colors in your diet. This simple and somewhat random act will help ensure that you're covering your bases, nutrient-wise.
Cheat Days: 1
Weekly focus: Protein at every meal. This becomes even more important as you eat more low-density food, because protein tends to be high-density. Many veggies have a lot of protein, but the quantity you must consume starts to become prohibitive. Try to get some protein—meat, dairy products, nuts, seeds, or legumes—each time you eat, especially when you're working out hard, because you need to repair broken-down muscle tissue. Frequency of protein consumption is even more vital for women, who aren't able to digest as much protein at one time as men are. It's almost impossible to get all your necessary protein at one or two meals, so try to get 10 to 20 grams of protein each time you eat. Reading labels is a simple way to learn how to estimate your protein intake, but if you eat natural foods, most of which don't have labels, you can look at online nutritional information guides to determine the amount of protein each serving contains.

You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you.

Brian Tracy

Give thanks for what you are now, and keep fighting for what you want to be tomorrow.

Fernanda Miramontes-Landeros

5 Healthy Workday Snack Foods

Spending your entire day at the office shouldn’t limit your snack choices. Come to work prepared with healthy snacks, and you’ll improve focus, increase productivity, and avoid packing on pounds. Here are five snack foods to help you stay satisfied.

Walnuts

Health benefits: Walnuts are high in heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants.
Snack tip: Pair a handful of walnuts with a piece of low-fat cheese, your favorite fruit, or a bowl of oatmeal for a fiber-rich morning snack that will help you feel full longer.

Apples

Health benefits: Apples are loaded with pectin, which helps suppress your appetite.
Snack tip: Eating an apple mid-day helps control blood sugar and may aid in weight loss. Have it with a spoonful of nut butter (cashew, peanut, almond) to add muscle-building protein and healthy fat.

Greek Yogurt

Health benefits: Greek yogurt has twice as much protein as regular yogurt. Plus, it contains healthy bacteria, known as probiotics, to keep your digestive tract healthy.
Snack tip: Top 6 to 8 ounces of Greek Yogurt with ¾ cup of berries for a mid-day snack.

Green Tea

Health benefits: Research has shown that green tea helps lower cholesterol and decreases the risk of diabetes and stroke. What’s more, it boosts metabolism to help you burn fat.
Snack tip: Drink two to three cups of green tea throughout the day to reap the benefits. If you’re sensitive to caffeine, don’t drink green tea after 3 p.m.

Beef Jerky

Health benefits: Beef jerky is a great source of protein and comes in a bunch of flavors for variety. Opt for the 96% fat-free jerky when possible.
Snack tip: Eat 1 to 2 servings of jerky with a piece of fruit, such as an apple or pear, for a balanced snack.

Wise men don't need advice. Fools won't take it.

Benjamin Franklin

8 week plan / Week 2

There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.

Nelson Mandela

Week 2

Each week's rules are cumulative, so the "no junk" rule from Week 1 will apply until the end, as will each subsequent week's rule. Remember that this is a learning and conditioning process. It's like you're in a school and the subject is your own body.
Eat small, eat often. Eat four to six small meals a day, and don't eat anything for about 3 hours before you go to sleep. Following these rules will keep your blood sugar levels more static and your energy level will stay consistent. Try to keep each snack or meal balanced. Keep a 30 percent protein, 40 percent carbohydrate, and 30 percent fat scale in mind, though you don't need to worry too much about it. Just realize that you need a bit from each macronutrient group. Eat based on what you'll be doing for the next few hours (if you're working out, eat a little more; sitting at a desk, eat a little less). The 3-hour-before-bed rule is important, especially for fats and carbohydrates. By allowing time for all the carbs you eat to get into your bloodstream, your body will sleep in fat-burning mode, rather than in calorie-storing mode. This is important because undigested carbs in your stomach at night are stored in adipose tissue (fat).
Cheat Days: 2
Weekly focus: Carbs are not the enemy. Your body needs them, just like it needs proteins and fats. The trick is to choose the right carbs. As a society, we eat too much refined sugar. Complex carbs, like whole-grain breads, whole-grain rice, sweet potatoes, and legumes are outstanding foods. Even fruits, which have simple carbohydrates wrapped in fiber, are very good for you and hard to overconsume. While you don't want a diet based on nothing but carbs, making the right carb choices will maximize your body's potential. Try to avoid white rice and flours. Read labels, and try to avoid ones that use the word "enriched," because this means these products have been stripped of their natural nutrients, overprocessed, and then fortified with a few random nutrients

In everything we do, our own thoughts can help us succeed, or they can help us fail. Maintain a positive attitude.

Catherine Pulsifer

Why diets fails

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

There are numerous physiological reasons why dieting fails that all boil down to one fundamental fact: The human brain is programmed for survival and is exquisitely sensitive to any factors that may lead to death.
The brain is attuned to every single metabolic process within our bodies. Metabolism is essentially divided into two functions: breaking down and rebuilding. Our bodies are made up of dynamic tissues that are constantly disposed of and replaced. The breaking-down process clears out the old cellular material and then building supplies are brought in and the rebuilding process begins. Your brain oversees all of this.
Have you ever done any kind of construction in your life? Remolded a bathroom or kitchen, put in a pool, maybe even built a house? And have you had experiences with builders where wished you knew Tony Soprano personally? Imagine that your brain is standing around every day in utter frustration thinking, Where are my building supplies? What am I going to use to repair cells, to make neurotransmitters and hormones; to build bone? Just like you wouldn't live in a house for 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 or more years without maintaining that house, your body needs building supplies for maintenance and the ongoing remodeling.
If you are dieting, your body is using up body fat as energy. Meanwhile, the constant remodeling, rebuilding and replenishing is still going on, despite the shortage of building supplies. At first your brain will signal your adrenals to release stress hormones, adrenaline and cortisol to break down lean muscle mass (bones and muscle). When this cannibalization becomes too extreme your brain will signal your thyroid to slow down to save you from dying during this time of famine. At the same time, your brain -- thinking ahead -- will signal your pancreas to regulate the release of insulin (the nutrition-storing hormone) so that more incoming food will be stored as fat as an insurance policy against the next famine.
Dieting results in priming your body physiologically to be a more efficient fat-storing machine. But as they say on TV, "That's not all!" because here's where the brain jumps in to help even more.
The most definitive study on starvation was conducted in the mid-1940s for the War Department at the University of Minnesota, and the results published in 1950 in a 1,385 page book called "The Biology of Human Starvation." The study was intended to help starvation victims in wartorn Europe.
Forty 20- to 33-year old men ate 1,570 calories a day for six months to lose 2.5 pounds a week or 25 percent of their body weight. When the three-month nutritional rehabilitation began, the men demonstrated all the symptoms of malnutrition such as feeling cold, tired, hungry, having difficulty concentrating, insomnia, thinning hair, dry skin, gastrointestinal problems and a lack of interest in sex. What stunned researchers is that even when given unrestricted amounts of food, the men suffered from what was termed "starvation neurosis": The volunteers were agitated and nervous, withdrawn, impatient, self-critical with distorted body images along with extremely aberrant eating behaviors. These included voracious appetites, gorging, lack of control and distress over eating, cravings and obsession with food, secrecy and defensiveness over food, preoccupation with body image and more.
And these men were starving on real food. If you want to compound the physiological and psychological effects of starvation, eat packaged diet foods. Factory-produced food is not recognized by your body as nutritious. You may shrink down on packaged diet products, but these dead foods are creating "code red emergency time" inside your body and brain, and setting you up for more weight gain.
Can you ever have that beautiful body you're dreaming about? Yes, most definitely. On a healthy diet, within nine months the majority of the volunteers in the Minnesota semi-starvation study regained normal eating and emotional patterns, as well as their previous (ideal) body weight and thyroid function. On a diet of real, whole foods, cravings, binging and all the aberrant behaviors of unnatural hunger can be stopped.
To achieve your optimal body weight you need to stop dieting. Forget instant weight loss results. Those are empty promises made by corporations that want to keep you dieting forever. Instead you need to imagine your optimal health and body weight one year from now -- and the rest of your life. Healing from famine (factory food, dieting) takes time. But while you're achieving your optimal health, you won't be suffering.
Next, stop eating all factory-produced food. Your body needs to receive the biochemicals it is made out of from fresh and natural food sources every day. Eat a balanced diet of real, whole, living food. Real food is anything that could picked, gathered, milked, hunted or fished, that is grown or raised in a clean environment and that has not had any "science-fiction processing" done to it.

Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice.

Anton Chekhov quotes

The 8-Week Transition Plan

It's not that some people have willpower and some don't. It's that some people are ready to change and others are not.

The 8-Week Transition Diet

As I have stated in many mervmails; I don’t believe in diets; they are made to fail! With diets your mind is set on depriving yourself from foods, which is a trap to fail. Your focus should be on a life-style modification. It’s a long time goal and focused on foods you are allowed to eat. This mindset is a positive one and therefore it’s a “recipe” to succeed in your goals! Don’t focus on weight loss; instead focus on loosing body fat. Furthermore, there is never a perfect time to start….there are always excuses why to delay. Be pro-active and decide to make a change and start today!
I've found over the years that a transitional eating plan is one of the easiest ways to change your eating habits for the better. Initially, don’t worry about calories, but instead focus on behavior modification!
It's often said that no nutritional plan works for every individual. While this is true, you may have noticed that all plans target a similar goal: eating more natural whole foods and less junk. That's because there are no secrets to healthy eating. There are strategies that can lead to various performance benefits, but 99 percent of diet is cutting junk and eating real food.
This 8-week transition plan is for those of you who are less detail oriented. Conceptually-based diets like this can be easier to follow, because they focus on providing you with a short list of "no-nos," leaving you with a fairly wide array of foods that you are allowed to eat. Of course, that isn't the attitude you want to have for long-term success. Any diet, no matter how easy it seems, will take some willpower on your part if you want to see results. Your long-range goal should be to eat well, period. If you can accomplish this, your physical transformation will become a natural extension of your lifestyle, instead of something you need to pursue.
As healthy eating becomes a habit, you will find the other intangibles (such as weight loss, increased energy, etc.) falling into place. For many people, the easiest way to accomplish the healthy eating habit is to make a gradual transition from food choices that hinder human performance to ones that help you perform better. By making this transition gradually, you'll find that it isn't as difficult as you expected.

Week 1

No junk. Eliminate junk food from your diet. That's it, just junk. Other than this, you can eat whatever and whenever you like. Now, how hard can that be? Guess this depends on what I mean by "junk." But all I'm concerned with this week is the obvious stuff like potato chips, candy, ice cream, cake, etc. You may be stricter if you'd like, but for Week 1, don't be too hard on yourself. For many of you, this step alone will reap huge benefits.
Cheat Days: 2
Since no one's perfect, you get 2 days to cheat. That's right, 2 days where you can eat anything you want! A trick on these days (and, yes, this means there will be more) is to listen to your body. At first, it'll probably tell you it wants whatever you've been denying it. However, over time, it'll start to crave nutrients you're deficient in. Learn to read your body's subtleties. If you're craving ice cream, you may be short on essential fatty acids. If you crave a hamburger, your diet may lack protein. This way, you can make better food substitutions. It's a way of getting in tune with yourself that will benefit you for your entire lifetime.
Weekly focus: Water. Not swimming in it, though that's good too, but staying hydrated with it. You should drink at least 6 to 8 glasses of water per day. Diet sodas and such are no substitute, because they contain a passel of ingredients that live right at the bottom of the junk heap. Drinking a glass of water when you feel hunger pangs coming on will not only keep you hydrated, but will help stave off your hunger to some degree.
As for other drinks, juices and sugary sodas also (obviously) fall into the junk category. And alcohol should be kept to a minimum. We tend to forget (purposely or not) that alcohol has calories. A lot of them: 7 calories per gram. Mixers can be even worse—not only can they add calories, but sugary calories influence the way alcohol reacts with your body. When you do drink, red wine is the alcohol of choice, with natural beer running second.

If you don't see yourself as a winner, then you cannot perform as a winner.

Zig Ziglar

Why Crunches & Situps Are Bad for Your Back

Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.

John Quincy Adams

There are still a lot of people who spend hours in the gym doing crunches. It has been proven that the two standard ab exercises, crunches and sit-ups, can actually be murder on your low back (when done excessively).

Why? Because they involve spinal flexion (rounding your lower back to allow you to bend forward at the waist). But according to research, that's the exact mechanism that causes a herniated disc in your lower back. After all, most people "throw their back out" bending over to pick something off the ground. Not to mention about people doing them incorrectly and using their hip flexor – when the hip flexor gets overused, it will get tide and puts extra stress on the lumbar spine – or pulling themselves up by tugging on their head which puts extra stress on their neck!

So it makes sense to limit the amount of traditional sit-ups and crunches in your program. Plus, you can't spot reduce the fat from one area, so you are better off spending that exercise time on a better total body exercise or intervals. If you want to flatten your abs, you need to lose body fat.

So to improve your abs, use the following techniques:

1) Take half the time you were spending on abs, and do intervals with that time instead.

2) Spend the rest of your ab training time doing endurance ab exercises, such as planks, side planks, mountain climbers, and variations of these exercises.

3) Keep your abs braced in all exercises so that you work your abs in every movement that you do. Exercises such as squats, dead-lifts or functional training are crucial for strong abs.

4) Crucial is to understand your food intake and having a solid nutritional plan.

For advanced training methods, there will come a time that you will need to do traditional crunching motions. But it is best, for results (i.e. growing your abs) to do these with resistance. Cable crunches are good, and you can get results with a relatively small amount of spinal flexion.

But really, when it comes to having great abs, losing body fat is the most important aspect for most people! Abs are made in the kitchen and not during sit-ups!

I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.

John D. Rockefeller

strength training for woman

There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.

Denis Waitley

I am a true believer in order for woman to lose weight, they have to participate in strength training. In most cases I train my female clients with compound movements (full body movements, e.g. squats with overhead press) and sometimes add instability to it (e.g. Bosu ball) which will involve the core in order to burn additional calories throughout the exercise, as well as strengthening the abdominals. However, throughout my Personal Training career, I get many remarks from female clients or potential clients that they don’t want to get bulky from weight training. They are also afraid  that if they stop weight training, the muscle will just turn into fat. Some also feel that cardio is really the only exercise needed to burn body fat. Well let me tell you, these are all female weight training myths and they are wrong.

Below we will discuss some of the most common female weight training myths out there and let you know the real deal.
Weight Training Makes You Bulky:
This is probably the most common weight training myth shared by women, but sorry, this is not correct. You see females do not produce as much testosterone as men, which is one of the main hormones in increasing muscle mass. Therefore, you cannot make huge muscle gains by adding some weights to your training schedule.
Are there women that do bulk up? Of course there are, and you are probably thinking about professional female body builders. Many of these women are on steroids and other performance drugs to give them their bulked appearance. Not only that, they possess the incredible work ethic it takes to build that much muscle on a female frame. Bulky women only look that way because they want to look that way.
Weight Training Makes You Stiff:
Contrary to popular demand, weight training can actually increase your flexibility. That is if you perform exercises through their complete range of motion. Exercises like dumbbell presses and chin ups stretch muscles at the bottom range of their motion. Therefore, you can increase your stretching capabilities by performing these types of exercises.
If You Stop Training Your Muscle Turns to Fat:
Muscle and fat are two completely different tissue types. The reason people feel this is a logical argument is that when people stop training they usually fall completely off track with their diet and cardio as well. This inactivity leads to a loss in muscle mass. A decrease in activity and an increase in bad food choices leads to fat storage. So in reality, you are not turning muscle into fat, you are decreasing your lean muscle mass while increasing your adipose tissue.
This leads us to our next myth:
Weight Training Turns Fat into Muscle
I have heard this one a number of times, and was one of a few reasons why I stayed away from weight training myself. This is also false based on the principles we just discussed above. A body transforms by gaining muscle through weight training. Fat is lost through a combination of diet and cardiovascular exercise. Once again, fat and muscle are two very different types of tissue and we cannot turn one into the other.
Weight Training Increases Your Chest Size:
I sure some women wanting larger breasts wish this weight training myth were true. Your breast tissue is composed completely of fatty tissue. Therefore, you could never increase your breast size. On the other hand, if your body fat percentage falls below 12%, your will actually decrease your breast size.
Strength Training Allows You to Eat Whatever You Want:
Another one I am sure all of us wish were true. But the same weight formula goes: calories in > calories out = weight gain ; calories in< calories out = weight loss. This is a myth centered around people with extremely high metabolism that it appears they can eat whatever they want without gaining weight. Does muscle help your burn more calories? Yes, but only 30-60 calories per pound of muscle. So if you lost 5 lbs of fat and gained 5 pounds of muscle, you could in theory eat 150-300 extra calories day.
Women Only Need Cardio or Light Weights:
A lot of women believe all they need is some elliptical or treadmill work to stay lean. This is far from the truth. What cardio does is it can actually reduce muscle mass. How?
Well you are working out and burning calories, but your body uses both fat and muscle to fuel your exercise. If you are not participating in a strength-training program, you will not be able to prevent muscle loss over time. The only way to obtain that "toned" look you want is by picking up some weights. And do not shy away from heavier weights. Muscle only builds through resistance. You will not get a toned look lifting 5lbs weights for months on end.
Your body works through progressive resistance. If the resistance is too light, then your muscles have no reason to progress or change.
I hope your have learned something about female weight training myths. Please feel free to contact me in regards to starting a strength training program. There are so many benefits to strength training. Keep in mind to have a solid nutritional program to support your strength training.
To make a long story short, weight training will not turn you into the Hulk, but it can help you get that slim and toned look that you desire.
Where you end up isn't the most important thing. It's the road you take to get there. The road you take is what you'll look back on and call your life.
Tim Wiley

Healthy Eating Tips Continues

Four steps to achievement: Plan purposefully. Prepare prayerfully. Proceed positively. Pursue persistently.

William Arthur Ward

 

Good sources of calcium include:

§  Dairy: Dairy products are rich in calcium in a form that is easily digested and absorbed by the body. Sources include milk, yogurt, and cheese.

§  Vegetables and greens: Many vegetables, especially leafy green ones, are rich sources of calcium. Try turnip greens, mustard greens, collard greens, kale, romaine lettuce, celery, broccoli, fennel, cabbage, summer squash, green beans, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, and crimini mushrooms.

§  Beans: For another rich source of calcium, try black beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, white beans, black-eyed peas, or baked beans.

Healthy eating tip 9: Limit sugar and salt

If you succeed in planning your diet around fiber-rich fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein, and good fats, you may find yourself naturally cutting back on foods that can get in the way of your healthy diet—sugar and salt.

Sugar

Sugar causes energy ups and downs and can add to health and weight problems. Unfortunately, reducing the amount of candy, cakes, and desserts we eat is only part of the solution. Often you may not even be aware of the amount of sugar you’re consuming each day. Large amounts of added sugar can be hidden in foods such as bread, canned soups and vegetables, pasta sauce, margarine, instant mashed potatoes, frozen dinners, fast food, soy sauce, and ketchup. Here are some tips:

§  Avoid sugary drinks. One 12-oz soda has about 10 teaspoons of sugar in it, more than the daily recommended limit! Try sparkling water with lemon or a splash of fruit juice.

§  Eat naturally sweet food such as fruit, peppers, or natural peanut butter to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Remember with each eating tip try to incorporate one suggestion to your life style; I am expecting to receive at least one proposed resolution of each person. You have 10 categories to choose from!

Healthy eating tip 8: Add calcium for strong bones

Calcium is one of the key nutrients that your body needs in order to stay strong and healthy. It is an essential building block for lifelong bone health in both men and women, among many other important functions.

You and your bones will benefit from eating plenty of calcium-rich foods, limiting foods that deplete your body’s calcium stores, and getting your daily dose of magnesium and vitamins D and K—nutrients that help calcium do its job.

Recommended calcium levels are 1000 mg per day, 1200 mg if you are over 50 years old. Take a vitamin D and calcium supplement if you don’t get enough of these nutrients from your diet.

Salt

Most of us consume too much salt in our diets. Eating too much salt can cause high blood pressure and lead to other health problems. Try to limit sodium intake to 1,500 to 2,300 mg per day, the equivalent of one teaspoon of salt.

§  Avoid processed or pre-packaged foods. Processed foods like canned soups or frozen dinners contain hidden sodium that quickly surpasses the recommended limit.

§  Be careful when eating out. Most restaurant and fast food meals are loaded with sodium.

§  Opt for fresh or frozen vegetables instead of canned vegetables.

§  Cut back on salty snacks such as potato chips, nuts, and pretzels.

§  Choose low-salt or reduced-sodium products.

§  Try slowly reducing the salt in your diet to give your taste buds time to adjust.

Healthy eating tip 10:  Plan quick and easy meals ahead 

Healthy eating starts with great planning. You will have won half the healthy diet battle if you have a well-stocked kitchen, a stash of quick and easy recipes, and plenty of healthy snacks.

Plan your meals by the week or even the month

One of the best ways to have a healthy diet is to prepare your own food and eat in regularly. Pick a few healthy recipes that you and your family like and build a meal schedule around them. If you have three or four meals planned per week and eat leftovers on the other nights, you will be much farther ahead than if you are eating out or having frozen dinners most nights.

Shop the perimeter of the grocery store

In general, healthy eating ingredients are found around the outer edges of most grocery stores—fresh fruits and vegetables, fish and poultry, whole grain breads and dairy products. The centers of many grocery stores are filled with overpriced, processed foods that aren’t good for you.

Shop the perimeter of the store for most of your groceries (fresh items), add a few things from the freezer section (frozen fruits and vegetables), and the aisles with spices, oils, and whole grains (like rolled oats, brown rice, whole wheat pasta).

Cook when you can

Try to cook one or both weekend days or on a weekday evening and make extra to freeze or set aside for another night. Cooking ahead saves time and money, and it is gratifying to know that you have a home cooked meal waiting to be eaten.

Challenge yourself to come up with two or three dinners that can be put together without going to the store—utilizing things in your pantry, freezer, and spice rack. A delicious dinner of whole grain pasta with a quick tomato sauce or a quick and easy black bean quesadilla on a whole wheat flour tortilla (among endless other recipes) could act as your go-to meal when you are just too busy to shop or cook.

  

Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul; the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.

Napoleon Hill