Strengths

I've always admired strong women. I think it's because I never viewed myself as strong. An aunt of mine whom I admired always said what she felt and did what she wanted. She was bold, always seemed so certain and didn't care what others thought. Yet as I got to know her better, I discovered her sensitive, vulnerable caring side as well. She was a whole person. We women all have our unique sets of strengths and weaknesses. The VIA Institute on Character practices positive psychology. They encourage people to get to know their own strengths so that they can concentrate on those, build upon them and use them to achieve their goals. The VIA Institute has a free survey to help you determine your strengths. You can find it at this link: http://www.viacharacter.org/www/ My cousin and his wife helped to start a new Christian school for children K-12. She told me that several other parents were involved and each one had his or her own strengths and, therefore, contributions to help make the school a reality. So, it didn't matter what a person couldn't do. But what they could do and did well, combined, made the school a success. What do I think are my strengths? My curiosity, attention to detail plus the ability to recognize patterns and solve problems are four of my strengths. What are yours? How have you used them?

Heartburn Help

I had heartburn for several years. Sometimes I would wake up feeling like I had a heart attack. After reading the book "Your Body's Many Cries For Water" by Dr. F. Batmanghelidj, I started drinking about 48 to 60 ounces of water every day. My heartburn went away and has never returned.

http://www.watercure.com/

Another thing to do if the heartburn is a problem at night is to sleep on your left side. Something about the way the stomach sits in the body or the way it's connected to the esophagus or something makes sleeping on your left side effective for keeping the acid in your stomach. It helped me.

Tips for Sleep Without Heartburn

Pyrethrins in Pet Products Harmful to Pets

Natural and synthetic pyrethrins in pet products are harmful to pets. Many deaths have been reported. Read the following articles to find out more. If you can only read one, I'd recommend the one from the Humane Society.

Pet Products Investigation

Perils of the New Pesticides

"Pyrethroid toxicity targets nerve and muscle cells in pets, according to a study published in The Veterinary Journal in June 2008. The study found that dermal exposure by application to the skin or coat is the most common route of toxic exposure, potentially causing hyperexcitability, tremors, profuse salivation, and seizures. The seizures can result in brain damage or, less frequently, death."

The article below from the Humane Society has some useful information about pyrethroids and other harmful substances in pet flea and tick products and suggests some safer pet products.

What you should know about flea and tick products

Sunny

Look Out for Recession Scams

I'm currently reading a novel by Carl Hiassen called "Stormy Weather". It's quite entertaining, I recommend it. Many of the characters and much of the action in the story are so bizarre but the setting is very real. The story is set in Florida where a major hurricane hits and all the criminals migrate like vermin to feed off of desperate homeowners who have lost much in the storm and are in need of electricity, a roof over their heads and are trying to piece back their lives. A bad guy goes into the storm ravaged area and loots after midnight. A young gang goes around mugging people. A fake roofing company forms taking deposits from homeowners. Yes, maybe they put up a small part of the roof but then promise to return and never do, pocketing the deposit.

Unfortunately, this is really what happens when disaster strikes and con men swoop in to take advantage. With the economic turmoil we are experiencing, we have some people desperate enough to stoop to something immoral or illegal and then we have the cons who are always ready to take advantage of people in hard times. So, take heed from Larry Edelson (see his article below) and be on the alert for scammers who will be relentless in these times.

Recession Scams Are On the Rise
http://www.moneyandmarkets.com/scamalot-the-worst-con-jobs-are-yet-to-come-32596

Here is some advice from CNNMoney.com on avoiding scam artists and where to file a complaint.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/12/pf/saving/scam_artists_willis/index.htm?postversion=2009031210

Sunny

Possible Herpes and HIV Connection

Check this out.

Herpes drug may help control AIDS virus
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080911/hl_nm/aids_herpes_dc_1

Excerpt from the article:
'"If you suppress herpes, HIV also goes down," Margolis said in a telephone interview.'

My notes:
Herpes virus can be suppressed by the drug mentioned in the article, but also by reducing consumption of the protein arginine and counterbalancing it with more lysine (a protein). So, to do this without drugs, one can eliminate or drastically reduce these foods high in arginine from the diet:
- red meat
- gelatin (found in Jello products, capsules (used to hold nutritional supplements or drugs), marshmallows, some candy)
- all nuts (sunflower and pumpkin seeds OK)
- chocolate
- protein bars or powders
- watermelon

Combined with taking 1000 to 1500 mg of lysine each day, this really works to suppress herpes, so maybe it would also work to reduce HIV.

I discovered the concept of suppressing herpes by maintaining a certain balance between lysine and arginine by reading Jean Carper's book, "Food - Your Miracle Medicine", the first edition paperback. I bought her second edition but that section of her book had been eliminated in that edition. I thought it a shame that it was eliminated because it has worked for me for several years now to eliminate herpes outbreaks.

If I start introducing foods high in arginine back into my diet, an outbreak occurs. Sometimes I can get away with a very small amount, but only if this happens maybe once a month. The nuts and chocolate seem to have the most effect, but everything adds up. I take 1000mg (sometimes 1500mg) of lysine each day to help counterbalance the arginine.

If you take a lot of supplements in gelatin capsules (like I do) then you have to give up more of the other foods high in arginine. I even eat red meat a couple of times a week (which I should stop doing) but that makes it so that adding a couple of nuts puts me over the top of my arginine limit. A couple of times I tried taking protein supplements that showed on the label that they contained more lysine than arginine, so I thought I would be OK. However, those protein supplements put me over the arginine limit and I had an outbreak. So, it seems like there is a limit for the consumption of arginine and if you go over that limit, your risk for a herpes outbreak goes way up. You end up having to do a juggling act with your diet to avoid reaching that limit.

And surprisingly watermelon increases arginine levels. Check out this article.

Watermelon serves up medically important amino acid
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2007/070321.htm

And the above watermelon article brings up the point that arginine plays an important role in the body. We can't do without it. Wikipedia has an article that includes a list of benefits of arginine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arginine

So, apparently, the herpes and HIV viruses can't do without arginine either. If we have an overabundance of it do the viruses multiply out of control?

Another something to ponder.

Sunny

Soy, To Eat or Not To Eat

There are people on both sides of this issue of whether or not it is good for a person to eat soy. My opinion is that it's all right if you eat small amounts and not every day of the week, month or year. Here are some reasons I don't like it.

Soy can be genetically modified (GMO) and we don't yet know what that will do to a person to eat GMO foods.

Soy can give you gas. I've read that soy protein is really not digestible and thus gives you flatulence. It certainly did that to me. The protein is much more edible if the soy has been fermented as in miso and tempeh. So, if you want to eat soy, probably eating miso and tempeh are much better for you. Recently, I've eaten a dish containing tempeh and soup with miso and did not experience the flatulence I get from drinking soy milk or eating a protein bar made with soy.

If you have any trouble with estrogen levels that are too high already or if the soy makes them too high, you probably don't want to eat soy. I had uterine fibroids and soy was one of the foods that caused my belly to bloat and the pain from the fibroids to worsen. Eating soy increased my menstrual blood flow. I know a woman who was 57 and still had periods. She loved soy foods and ate them in just about every form soy comes in and ate them several times a day. She was searching for a reason why she still had her period and decided to see if soy had something to do with it. When she stopped eating soy, her periods stopped. Was it the soy or coincidence? Some argue that the phytoestrogens in soy actually mediate a woman's estrogen levels, but that's not true from my own experience. I wanted to change my diet to vegan, all plant based food, but did not have much luck due to soy being the predominant food for vegans.

You do what you think is best for you. If I eat soy, it will be in the form of miso or tempeh. And I will be eating it only now and then, not regularly. If I still had my female organs, I probably would not eat it at all.

Keeping Up With Housekeeping

When I was little, I remember cleaning my bedroom which involved picking things up and putting them away and dusting. I don't remember doing it that often. Either I've blocked those boring memories or my mother thought it was easier to do it herself. Then I learned a little more about housekeeping by working as a cleaning lady during one summer when I was attending college. I would go once a week to two different households and vacuum, dust, mop and clean the bathroom. The woman of the house told me how they wanted things done. Despite those experiences, I was not the best housekeeper of my own homes. And I wouldn't really notice the dirt or mess until someone visited me! I'm terrible about accumulating piles of paper on every surface available. And I dreaded cleaning the bathroom and put it off as long as I could.

Well, now my family resides in a brand new house. I want to be able to have people visit any time and not be embarrassed by the condition of the house. Since the house is bigger than any other I've lived in, I have my work cut out for me.

Well, as luck would have it, I discovered the FlyLady. FLY is an acronym for Finally Loving Yourself. She talks about your house being in CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome) and provides free mentoring on her methodology of cleaning house. I have only been practicing her method for about a month and already I am seeing major improvement! She advises having daily, weekly, monthly and yearly tasks and stick to your routines. She says you can do anything in 15 minutes and you can get a lot done in 15 minutes, so there is no excuse. Our perfectionism prevents us from having a clean house, according to the FlyLady. Often if we think we don't have enough time to do something perfectly, we end up not doing it at all. Also, FlyLady's goal is to make housecleaning fun! Check out the FlyLady at http://www.flylady.net.