Managing your stress

Stress hits you when your life is out of balance Even though it's unlikely that any of us can completely eliminate stress from our lives, there are a few simple things you can do to manage the stress in your life and control it once and for all, better managing your life so that you're not overwhelmed by stress. "If your home doesn't give you the peace and sense of focus you need, then you will definitely be stressed. Declutter and organize your personal spaces so that the home you have reflects the life you want."

Be Calm
setting aside 10 to 20 minutes a day to just sit, breathe deeply and relax. "Some call this timeout, some call it 'me time' and others call it meditation," . "What you call this time doesn't matter—what matters is that you schedule a time each day to simply stop, calm down and relax. It'll yield huge results."

Treat Yourself Well

If you're not in good shape, it's a lot easier for situations to bother you. "Eat well, get enough sleep, exercise regularly, have a healthy sex life, laugh a lot, cultivate friendships—all of these things show that you value and take care of yourself," "It's tougher to upset a happy, balanced person. Make yourself that person!"

Have a Plan

A huge aspect of getting—and staying—organized is having a clear vision of the life you want, "Knowing what you're having for dinner, how much money you have to spend, what your commitments are for the next week and where to find things that you need will all reduce the stress in your life," "Making a plan means you care about yourself and your family."

Get rid of Overwhelming feelings

Clutter and lack of organization can be paralyzing, as can stress. When there's too much going on, you just feel overwhelmed. Try sharing the burden of feeling overwhelmed by enlisting the help and support of friends, family or even a trained professional to help you deal with the clutter in your home and the stress in your life.

LAUGH AND be Happy

Step back and get a broad perspective on your life and your problems, Life is for living, when it all gets too much to deal with, you can easily lose the sense of fun and excitement and pleasure that we should all have from our lives. Stress, like clutter, robs us of a sense of peace and calm.

I read this article from www.Oprah.com

Diet advice the best way to drop pounds.

Low Carb (e.g., Atkins)
Advises lots of protein, mostly in the form of meat at every meal, and restricts carbohydrates. Thirty percent of your calories will come from protein, 50 percent from fat, and about 20 percent from carbs, especially good ones like veggies and fruit.

Strawberry Low Fat (e.g., Weight Watchers)
Emphasizes grains, fruits, and vegetables and allows modest servings of meat. Portion control is key. About 50 percent of your calories will come from carbohydrates, 30 percent from fat, and 20 percent from protein.

Zone diet
Balances carbohydrates, fat, and protein, theoretically to stabilize hormones that trigger hunger and weight gain. Thirty percent of the calories you eat will be fat, 40 percent carbohydrates, and 30 percent protein.

Mediterranean diet
Prescribes grains, vegetables, and sources of healthy fats such as olive oil and nuts. About 45 percent of your calories on this plan will come from carbohydrates, 35 percent from fat, and 20 percent from protein.

Ornish diet
Is an extremely low-fat vegetarian diet that recommends forgoing nuts, meat, and fish. Roughly 70 percent of your calories will come from carbohydrates, 20 percent from protein, and 10 percent from fat.

1: Low Carb vs. Low Fat vs. Mediterranean

The details:The women actually lost more pounds on the Mediterranean approach, but the finding wasn't conclusive. As is true in most diet studies, weight loss peaked at around six months, after which dieters began to put pounds back on. All groups saw improvements in cholesterol, insulin, glucose, triglyceride, and blood pressure levels.

2: Low Carb vs. Low Fat vs. Zone vs. Ornish
The details: These dieters also saw their heart disease risk factors—blood pressure, cholesterol, triglyceride levels—plummet at least as much as they did for people on the heart-healthy low-fat and Ornish diets. Again, most of the pounds were shed in the first six months, with many people gaining back some weight. By the end, in fact, many had stopped following their prescribed diets closely.

3:Low Fat vs. Exercise
The details: a group of dieters followed a low-fat plan, while exercisers stuck to their usual eating patterns and worked out at least three days a week for 50 to 60 minutes at a gym. Though the dieters shed more pounds, some of the loss was in the form of calorie-burning muscle (the exercisers kept their muscle mass). As the researchers point out, muscle is key to helping dieters maintain weight loss. The results demonstrate the need to combine exercise and dieting.

And the Winners Are…

Low Carb and Exercise

A low-carb diet consistently produced the greatest weight loss, so this plan—combined with exercise—seems to be a good place to start. "I'm a proponent of that approach if it means you'll eat fewer junky carbs," says Christopher Gardner, PhD, associate professor of medicine at Stanford University and lead author of the study in Match 2 (above). But Gardner says dieters may need to try more than one plan before they find success. "We are all so different—a diet that works for me may not work for you," he says. Although low carb won in terms of average weight loss, each diet had a few adherents who managed to lose 30 to 40 pounds. "What's more important than diet type is how closely you can adhere to it," says Gardner.

The truth is, says Meir Stampfer, MD, of the Harvard School of Public Health and an author of the Match 1 study, "there is more than one way to go for weight loss, so don't get discouraged."

A Prayer from online friend

Heavenly Father, most Gracious and Loving God, I pray to you that you abundantly bless my family and me. I know that you recognize, that a family is more than just a mother, father, sister, brother, husband and wife, but all who believe and trust in you. Father, I send up a prayer request for blessings for not only the person who sent this to me, but for me and all that I have forwarded this message on to. And that the power of joined prayer by those who believe and trust in you is more powerful than anything. I thank you in advance for your blessings.
Father God, deliver the person reading this right now from debt and debt's burdens. Release Your Godly wisdom that I may be a good steward over all that You have given me Father, for I know how wonderful and mighty You are and how if we just obey You and walk In Your word and have the faith of a mustard seed that You will pour out blessings. I thank You now Lord for the recent blessings I have received and for the blessings yet to come because I know You are not done with me yet. In Jesus' name, I pray..