April 17, 2010 - Posted by admin - 0 Comments
Ah! The feeling of being young, beautiful, tan and thin! There really is nothing quite like it. Well, maybe if you’re 25. I, however, am 50, and I find a lot more and different things to fulfill me than that; for instance, healthy skin. But I, like probably 95% of the female population am not ready to throw in the towel on my appearance just yet. Maybe I am admitting to being a little too vain, but I will just have to take that chance if it will help you to avoid a very serious and possibly life altering condition. I am talking about being tan.
You see, I grew up in South MS, 1 1/2 hours from the beach. I worked as a lifeguard for one summer, enjoyed all types of outdoor sports and activities, such as swimming, water skiing and softball. I was what you might call an outdoor enthusiast. One problem with that was, however, my strawberry blond hair and fair and often freckled face did not so much excel as well as I did in the arena of the great outdoors. No matter, I was having too much fun to think of the healthy skin then.
Years later came the tanning beds. They were the newest and latest sensation. A person could keep a tan year round. Thankfully, I was too busy raising a family at the time to pay for visits to a tanning salon. I am very glad now that I didn’t have the time because now dermatologists are reporting the link to skin cancers and most frighteningly to melanoma skin cancer to tanning beds. I don’t know about you but I am truly not going to take that risk.
I have had several basal cell carcinomas removed from various spots on my body. My back, my chest, my leg and even the top of my head (ouch!) have all been places that have undergone the dermatologist’s scalpel. Thankfully, I have not been too scarred because they have all been in places that are pretty easily concealed with the right clothing. My thought is; why would anyone put themselves in that kind of jeopardy, when there are such great alternatives to being tanned without the danger? I guess it is like smoking or something like that. It is always the thought that it won’t happen to me. Think again. Melanoma is one of the fastest growing cancers and claims more lives each year.
So what is a person to do? Well, we can all swear an oath to each other that we will all remain our fair, pale selves. But I don’t think that will hardly work. Then the next best thing is the self tanners. I have a wedding coming up in a month. My daughter is going to marry her prince charming. I, the mother of the bride will be all decked out in a beautiful coral gown that is backless. I just think that a little color on that bare back is called for. So I am planning to go the safe, easy and affordable route with self tanner. Here is the self tanner that I have found to be effective.
April 17, 2010 - Posted by admin - 0 Comments
This being my first post on a “spiritual” topic, I wanted to talk about something that is near and dear to my heart. That is to encourage you to have FAITH and not to FEAR! I know that we are living in uncertain times and you might say just down right scary times. But it is times like these that we have to learn to really affirm what or who we believe. I choose to believe God and His holy word. Wasn’t it He who told Joshua in the first chapter of Joshua three times to “Be strong and courageous”? He also said, “Do not be terrified, do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
Now you may think, Alecia, you just don’t understand. You don’t know what I am facing. That is true. But let’s take a look at what Joshua was facing. Here he was, the new leader of this vast multitude. Moses, their strong leader for over 40 years, is now dead. And Joshua is to take over his role as leader. He is about to lead the children of Israel (population 2,000,000+) into the Promised Land, a land of wealth and prosperity (flowing with milk and honey the Bible calls it). But don’t forget that Joshua has seen this land 40 years prior and he knows to take the land, they will have to fight for every square inch of it. He also knows this people he is going to lead can be so frustrating, to say the least!
However, Joshua chooses to believe God, as he did 40 years earlier, when he and Caleb tried to encourage the children of Israel not to fear but to believe God that the land was theirs for the taking. We know the sad turn of events when the majority of them chose to not believe God and so they never got to see their Promised Land. Joshua and Caleb though were a different story. God honored their faith. And I believe God will honor ours as well. I’m not saying that the future is going to be easy. It could even be really hard. We might have to readjust our way of living. But I know that through it all, God will be with us. He will never leave us or forsake us, if we put our trust in Him. We have His word on that. And I for one choose FAITH, not FEAR!
If you are reading this post, my prayer for you today is, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God that passes understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
If you have a comment or a question, I would love the opportunity to chat with you. Leave your comment here or email me.
April 15, 2010 - Posted by admin - 3 Comments
As I told you on my about me page, I am 50 years old. So to think that I had not heard of every “diet” plan out there was, in my way of thinking, preposterous. I was very surprised when I found the John Benson, Every Other Day Diet. I do not consider myself to be a “chronic” dieter. But I am very aware of health and nutrition, and if that happens to keep me thin, well I will just have to carry that burden. Ha! No, really, I am more interested in the health aspect of any food plan.
But you see, the thing is that most of us just are not slim by accident. No, on the contrary, anyone who wants to look good in those jeans has to work at it in one form or the other. So when I stumbled upon The Every Other Day Diet by Jon Benson, I was pretty much shocked that I had not heard of it. Maybe you have, but I simply had not. I am very glad that I did. Jon’s approach in The Every Other Day Diet, EODD for short, is very balanced. He has developed a plan that anyone can do in a SNAPP! His SNAPP approach intrigued me so much because I was trying so hard to figure out what it was before I even downloaded his book.
My version of SNAPP is pretty good, if I have to say so for myself.
S – Sometimes, meaning foods that you eat sometimes.
N – Never, foods that you never eat.
A – Always, foods that you always want to eat.
PP – Personal Preference, foods that are your personal preference.
Well, that was my version of SNAPP. I don’t know if anyone else came up with that same acronym or not but it didn’t match Jon Benson’s in the EODD. I like the simplicity, the not too restrictiveness and his emphasis on the whole person and not just treating us as nothing more than eating machines. For me, life is more than the food we eat. It is so much more. But, alas, food is a great big part of our lives. So we must learn to manage it and not let it manage us. Thanks to Jon Benson’s, EODD, I think anyone who wants to shed a few or a lot of pounds, can do so and not be consumed with his/her “diet”. It is just that easy! Thanks, Jon!
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