Make sure that you and your spouse have individual as well as common goals. Just as you personally can feel lost without knowing what your purpose is or having something worthwhile to pursue in life, so can your relationship suffer without goals to strive toward. Name your goals for how much money you’d like to retire with and vacations you’d like to take together, for example. In making these goals, your imagination is the limit!
First, remember that it’s never too late to start. No matter your age or your fitness level, you can get started now and soon see your work pay off. Remember, though, to check with your doctor before starting an exercise regime if you’re currently experiencing any health conditions such as high blood pressure.
Start off gently. In your first workouts, remember you’re a beginner and don’t overdo it. Start off by warming up and stretching every time you exercise, and gently cool off after each work out as well.
Find what works for you. What really gets you going? Do you like to go for a jog with the dogs and reflect upon your day, or do you prefer competitive games with others such as one-on-one basketball? There are a variety of ways to get exercise, and every woman is different—going to the gym, doing laps in your pool, or working out to DVDs. Discovering the ways you love to get active can be lots of fun.
Studies show that keeping variety in your exercise is the key to keeping your body challenged and keeping you interested in working out. How would you like to eat the same thing for dinner every night? Exercise isn’t very different.
Make sure to have a high-protein snack of about 200 calories before your workout in order to stay energized, and drink water before, during, and after your workout. Taking your multi-vitamin and supplements such as calcium and magnesium will deliver to the body the nutrients it needs for exercise. A healthy diet and exercise go hand in hand.
With the above tips, soon you’ll be enjoying a regular exercise regimen just like I do—as well as the incredible benefits such as increased happiness, more energy, and improved self-esteem.
Tina Turbin
If you’ve been keeping up with me for a while, you’ve probably heard me mention and quote the benefits of a GF multivitamin on the gluten-free diet. After all, it’s common sense health advice. Now there’s scientific evidence that shows that taking a daily multivitamin also increases longevity!
The study in the Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows that with a daily vitamin supplement, telomeres were lengthened by 5.1%. Not just any vitamins were taken, but specifically the powerful antioxidants, Vitamins B12, C, and E. Telomeres are considered to be the anti-aging “key.” Part of the DNA, they’re found in every cell in the body. As cells divide, however, telomeres become shorter, which means that cells are getting “older,” and lengthening telomeres will lead to a longer, healthier life.
You can take B12, C, and E regularly in supplement form, but it’s important to also get these in your diet as well. Food sources of Vitamin B12 include grass-fed beef, salmon, tuna, and milk; vitamin C can be found in produce such as kiwi, strawberry, orange, grapefruit, and red and green bell peppers; and vitamin E can be found in spinach, broccoli, almonds, peanuts, olive oil and kiwi.
Here are the minimum daily values recommended in supplements for keeping telomeres long: 100 mcg of Vitamin B12, 3,000 mg of non-synthetic Vitamin C, and 200 to 400 IU of vitamin E in mixed tocopherols form, the last of which needs to be taken with food because it is a fat-soluble supplement, requiring fat in order to be absorbed.
Now you have no excuse not to take your GF multivitamin every day—not only is it “insurance” to make sure you’re getting all the nutrients you need, but it’s also an effective anti-aging method at minimum cost and maximum convenience!
Tina Turbin
www.GlutenFreeHelp.info
Women often approach me with the question of how I’ve been able to enjoy so much success in my professional life as a children’s author and researcher as well as in my personal life as a mother and wife. I attribute my enriched life to my personal goal setting, a fundamental activity which is the basis of everything I do.
Goal setting is the bridge between your vision of your ideal future and actually living your ideal future. When you set goals right, you are actually taking the first step in turning your vision into a reality, motivating you and allowing you to take the practical steps in your life necessary to achieve your dreams. Goal setting techniques are used by top-level athletes, successful businessmen, and high achievers in all fields, giving them short-term motivation and long-term vision. With goal setting, your dreams are attainable.
Tina Turbin
Get your family to pitch in with chores around the house, especially the kids. Children may not be expert dishwasher loaders and you’ll always be able to do the chores better yourself, but learn to let it go and get them to help you out with some of the things they’ll be able to handle on their own, even if it’s just pairing together and folding socks. Studies show that children who participate in family chores have a higher chance of growing up more successful than other children. It will raise their feels of self-esteem, make them more competent, and it’ll give you some time to do the following energy-boosting tips.
Tina Turbin
I am a proud member of the NABBW ( National Association of Baby Boomer Women). Through this site many women are truly helped and many women are united in ways to helps others. Really no one understands us better than us. Being a woman is a unique and important role in life and society. We should to help one another!
Please enjoy my latest article on NABBW: http://www.nabbw.com/display_marticle.php?marticle_id=158
Tina Turbin
I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a lot of stuff to get done every day, and I can’t afford to not have the energy for it. Mothers, who have one of the most energy-demanding jobs of all, which I know all about from my experience in raising three beautiful children, often ask me about natural ways to increase their get-up-and-go.
Get started on a high-energy lifestyle with changes to your diet. First of all, eat a real breakfast in the morning packed with protein! You may think you’re saving time by skimping on breakfast or you’ll insist that you’re not that hungry in the mornings, but I’m telling you that if you’re missing out on this meal, you’re missing out for the rest of the day on valuable energy.
Another important aspect of diet is increasing your daily intake of protein. Many women don’t get enough of this nutrient. Protein keeps you energized by sustaining your blood sugar level much longer than carbohydrate-packed foods. It also stimulates dopamine production, a neurotransmitter that keeps you more alert, and keeps your energy up by raising your metabolic rate.
Drinking enough water is also an essential way to keep your energy up. Some people often mistake signs of dehydration for fatigue. Your cells need water in order to function at their optimum level, and coffee or diet soda isn’t going to cut it. You should aim for eight glasses of water daily.
With these tips, you should be enjoying higher energy levels in no time as well as quite a few other benefits!
Tina Turbin
What you gain by exercising on your overall well-being include a variety of advantages—increased relaxation and ability to handle stress, better sleep, a more positive mood, and boosted immune function. What’s more, it decreases your chances of developing serious health conditions, such as osteoporosis and cancer, and can lengthen your life span.
Studies show that overweight women are more likely to develop serious health risks such as heart disease, cancers, and stroke. By using up oxygen and causing the body to burn stored fat, exercise can help you maintain a normal weight. If you go for a four-mile walk four times a way, you’ll burn about 1,600 calories—about half a pound a week. After a year, this amounts to a loss of twelve pounds—twenty-four pounds after a year! Studies estimate that for each pound of muscle you add to your body, you will burn an additional thirty-five to fifty calories per day; an extra five pounds of muscle will burn about 175-250 calories a day, or an extra pound of fat every two to three weeks.
Another healthy benefit of regular exercise is stronger bones. Regular, moderate exercise, in particular weight-bearing exercises, increases bone mass, making bones stronger and making you less likely to develop osteoporosis and arthritis and suffer debilitating accidents such as falling as you age.
Finally, exercise can also help women deal with stress better and improve their mood. Studies show that regular exercise reduces the release of stress hormones and it produces chemical changes which affect your mood, reducing symptoms of depression and other psychological disorders. Research suggests that lower stress levels and a happier mood boosts immune function and lengthens the life span significantly.
It’s important for women to understand the benefits of exercise on their overall physical and mental well-being, and it’s easy to get started on implementing a regular exercise routine!
Tina Turbin
How can you adopt the healthy lifestyle you know will help you improve your quality of life and increase your longevity? First of all, surround yourself with health-conscious media and people. Subscribe to blogs on women’s health and diet, get a magazine subscription to your favorite fitness and health magazines, and ask your active friends if you can join them in their daily walks. You will find that the more data you learn and the more you surround yourself with positive examples of healthy women, the easier it will be for you to adopt a healthy lifestyle of your own.
You don’t have to start putting sprouts on everything you eat or hit the gym for hour-long workouts every day. The changes you make should be gradual. Get started with one walk a week if you have to, slowly but surely increasing the frequency and speed of your walks. Start collecting healthy, yummy recipes or substituting certain items in your diet for healthier alternatives. For example, prepare turkey burgers instead of beef patties. In time, you’ll find that your diet will be largely changed for the better.
By following these tips and changing your lifestyle for the better, you can help revert the alarming health statistics for U.S. women and improve the quality of life in the present, as well as in your later years!
Tina Turbin
I am often asked many questions on the radio, in a school, or library about the many aspects of writing, the book itself, the characters etc. I decided to share a Q and A emailed to me which I had with a HS in Albany. My answers are after the numbered questions short and sweet but I share my sincere opinion as an Artist and Author to everyone below these questions-especially aspiring writers.
Teacher: Hi Tina, I hope your trip was enjoyable! We did do a read-aloud with your book and the students had a number of questions in both classes about process as well as choices. I’m giving you their questions as they (as a class) created them.
Period 5:
1. How did the author and the illustrator decide on the illustrations?—especially the expressions on the characters
I envisioned them myself and directed my illustrator to create MY characters. I delevoped all the characters. It was a unique experience.
2. What kind of creature IS Skipper?
You name it. It is not important to a child to be specific about this. Some call him a p-wog, some a frog. Kids NEVER have asked me.
3.Why did you choose a dragon to emerge from a sea shell? (this was troubling for Seniors who wanted an egg
Kids are imaginative. Why are there space ships in the ski, how can a refrigerator talk in a cartoon, who can prove any of that? The writer, in my case is imaginative. The seashell will be told in future stories. Obviously this story CONTINUES……hence, the ending which leaves room for future books.
4.What was the inspiration for the book?
My own life and surrounding of a playful , creative and imaginative life I wish others to have and experience…..fun!
5. What is the significance of the RED sneakers and YELLOW backpack?
None. Simply a decision.
6.What is in the backpack? (we kind of got caught up in the details and not your role as author—sorry)
You will find out in future stories.
7. Why are the parents so accepting of a dragon?
It is a Good story, he is a good dragon…no demons and bad guys.
8. How and why did you choose the illustrator?
Long story but in a nutshell, she is European and in Latvia. Speaks no English and I adored her and decided I really wanted to work with her.
9.How long did it take to finish the book in its entirety?
approx. 2 years- NOT full time
10.What lesson, if any, was the book trying to teach?
I leave that open to the reader.
11.Does the theme have to do with manners?/…………..Why is the dragon so polite? That is his character.
I leave that up to the reader
12.Why doesn’t Danny act like the dragon (I’m not sure what they were asking here—I can ask for clarification)
Can not answer this………..this is sort fo a silly question, sorry.
13.Are you concerned with the logic of Danny shrinking in water? (the discussion was Danny ate soup which is watery and yet he does not shrink from eating liquid—or must the water be salt water?) The explanationis is in the book and in this story.
14.Is there a significance to the pictures—7:10 for dinner clean-up, license plate FL-1, feather on the picture of a boat, grandparent picture in the background . . . ?
No significance at all.
Period 3 Class
1.Same as #4 in 5th period
2. Same as #5
3. Why did you choose imaginary characters (dragon) rather than realistic (hermit crab)?
Boy, …..because I am a wtier / author and as a writer I make my decisions as I choose. I am able to create ideas and imagination and place this on paper for others to envision my words. That Iisan authors job and capability. This is what writing is all about.
4. Was the book meant to be an independent reader or a “read-to” book?
From the Reviews all Lower School ages seem to be reading it as well as being read to.
5.Why is there no real conflict in the book? (we are High School and used to looking for conflict)
Smart point. In many books there are conflicts and especially at the middle, turning point. The turning point is the evolving from a shell.
Keep in mind this is a 32 page children picture book so they may look at the halfway point, or there-about.
6.How long did it take you to write the book? above
7. Is there a significance to choosing (the name) Danny the Dragon? (They know Danny and the Dinosaur) above
8.Was the book written as a stream of consciousness? No.
I tried not to answer their questions, or guess what your response would be. They were inspired from your introduction of your own writing at 16 that they could illustrate and/or write their own best-selling children’s books! Good. Thank you so much for willingness to share. Thank you, Karon
Additional comments to teacher from me- my views: Hi Karon, These answers above are short and sweet. With this many question there is usually a live phone interview. I tried to answer quickly as I just eloped a plane after a 18 day tour. Many of these questions are goood. The spirit of writing, having fun, playing with your reader and in this case young children, is the main purpose. You can break some rules IF your story communicates. Never allow the students to fail in writing by getting so caught up in the “rules’. The questions as to why does he act so nice, like a dinosaur and am I concerned with him shrinking….well, I can say that the magic did not convey to som fo these kids, maybe due to them be HS students? They are looking at a book trying to dissect it as an educational tool, which is terrific but due to the nature of the questions, they may loose sight of the magic of writing if they need a WHY to all points in a book and on its pages, especially a childrens’ picture book. Writing can be much simpler and fun.Working with my illustrator was a magical experience. I am an Author and love to write, my illustrator is an Award Wining illustrator and this particular book is the opening to Adventures. The rest is sure to come. Thank you for your questions and time. I wish all the children in your classes with a true goal to be a writer all the best os success in their endeavor. Those with a goal to be a children’s picture book writer will need perseverance and stamina and I feel anyone with enough perseverance can make it. All the Best, Tina Turbin, Author
