Let Me Google That For You

Let Me Google That For You
www.lmgtfy.com

This is for all those people that find it more convenient to bother you with their question rather than Google it for themselves.

Go to www.lmgtfy.com. Type your question (ex: when is Christmas 2011?). Click Google search, then click the button with the link below, copy and send the link to your friend. When your friend clicks on the link, Google will type the question for them and open the link.
Try it.


Marsha Marsiglio
www.thesoftwarecoach.com
239-431-5456

A Salad a Day Keeps the Doctor Away!

Hey to the best women's network in Southwest Florida!

Have you ever tried to lose weight for a specific event? Perhaps it was a friend's wedding or a high school reunion? Do you remember the focus and the passion you applied to this project? Nothing was going to keep you from looking good on that specific day! You sailed through business lunches, family gatherings, and special occasions because you had a razor sharp focus on that one day!

What happens when you have attained that goal? Do you slip right back into old habits and gain everything back and then more? Is it hard to find your motivation in the fast pace of everyday living?

I'm here today to tell you that living healthy every day should be our focus. Isn't every day of our lives a gift to be appreciated? We may not be perfect every day, but a positive attitude towards honoring our bodies and only putting good things in them should be our goal, not for one day or a single event, but everyday for the rest of our lives!

I read something yesterday that said that if a person would replace one meal a day with a nice, healthy salad, he or she could possibly lose 30 pounds in one years time. Imagine if that person ditched the soda habit and tried to be a little more careful of sweets!

Now when I say eat one salad a day as a meal, it doesn't mean that you can load up the salad with so much stuff that you may as well have had a Quarter-Pounder!
Remember to load up on the lower carb veggies of the lettuces, celery, cucumbers, peppers, mushrooms, etc.

Put a little oil and vinegar on your salad and when I say a little oil, be careful. One tablespoon of oil is about 120 calories. I bought a little non-aerosol oil mister/sprayer. It is soooo cool. I never, ever buy the aerosol cans of cooking spray anymore. I have one with canola oil, one with olive oil and I mist my salad with it and then use my vinegar mister/sprayer and it coats my salad very well and it tastes good and saves me calories and money to boot! I picked up my oil misters in the cooking dept at Sears but I have seen them everywhere for about 10 bucks.

So, there is our goal for the week, a salad a day! That, along with the extra work-out we are trying to sneak in and kicking the soda habit, we will be well on our way to optimal health!

So, whether you are a work at home mom or training women in business this week, I hope you will remember that every single day is special and make the choices that reflect that!

Lynda Waldron, Health Coach
LDWaldron@yahoo.com
takecontrolnow.tsfl.com
239-691-7960

Are we eating enough vegetables?

Hi Everyone!

For the past few weeks we had discussed sneaking in a few extra servings of vegetables and one extra work-out per week. How has that been going? For me, I hit a bump in the road this week as I came down with a yukky summer cold. It definitely side-lined my work-outs but I have been eating extra veggies, so it hasn't been a total loss!

I've read that depending on our calorie needs we should eat anywhere from 9-11 servings of vegetables a day! That's not that crazy if you think about the serving size of a lot of veggies is 1/2 cup. A big salad at lunch and a stir-fry with dinner and toss in a piece of fruit somewhere during the day and you will hit your target. If you notice, that doesn't leave a lot of room for junk-food!

One thing my family is trying is that we found a great Farmer's Market. It is a bit of a drive, but we have three other families in on this and we are all going to take turns and drive out there and buy the boxes of veggies, then come home and split them four ways. It turns out to be a lot of vegetables! And so much cheaper and fresher than the grocery stores. Try and google, fresh produce or food co-ops in your general area. I know here where I live there is a farmer who will deliver a huge box of seasonal vegetables to your door for about 25 bucks. Just think, if you split that with a few like-minded people, that can be a great way to have fresh vegetables all year around.

One of my goodies this week was I got about 5 lbs of yellow crook-neck squash, they were sooooo superior to anything I have gotten at the grocery store lately! I scrubbed and sliced them up and sauteed them in a pan with a teeny bit of olive oil, onions and garlic, added in some of my farm-fresh tomatoes, then a little salt and oregano and what a tasty side dish it turned out to be! I think the only way it could have been better is if I'd had some green peppers to go in there! Hopefully next week!

I've read of the moms who grate veggies up and hide it in food so that their kids will eat it. I thought everyone did this! My spaghetti sauce has always had so many grated veggies in it, it is almost a veggie sauce. Slice apples up really, really thin and put on a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. Google “veggies for veggie haters” and there is a good article on WebMD about this.

Let's face it, in the world we live in, it is so much easier to grab junk food, and all the super yummy things at restaurants makes eating plain, simple food a challenge. But in the long run, it is worth the effort to feed our bodies nourishing, real food. Your hair, skin and waist-line will thank you!


So, whether you are out training women in business this week, business networking in Southwest Florida or are a 'stay-at-home' mom. I wish you the 'veggie' best!

Lynda Waldron, Health Coach
takecontrolnow.tsfl.com
LDWaldron@yahoo.com

Free Online Backup Services

Backing up the data on your computer is very important, especially if you run a business and keep all your information on one hard drive (like most of people do). Most of us never had (and probably will never have) any problems with their hard drives, that’s why we just don’t see the point in backing up all our data.
Nowadays, there are a lot of companies that offer secure, redundant file backup and sharing services via an easy to use web interface or specialized utility. Two, five or even more gigabytes of space are provided to you for free by almost every service, with the possibility to get a lot of additional space for a small monthly fee. And with the Internet connection speeds getting faster and cheaper, there’s just no excuse left not to use them.

Here are a few services to try:

mozy
dropbox
box.net
Google Docs

Marsha Marsiglio
www.thesoftwarecoach.com
239-431-5456

Clean Up Your Weight-Loss Environment!

Hi to the best women's networking group in town!

How are you all doing? So far, I've been hitting the new gym fairly consistently and adding a few extra veggies in, so I'm feeling pretty positive.

I was thinking about how our environment can affect our weight-loss. I was reading in the book Dr.A's Habits of Health by Dr. Wayne S. Anderson, about how our environment can help or hurt our weight-loss efforts. In his book he outlines a few thing to consider and here they are.

Warning Signs at home:

Table decorations of candy or nuts

Candy dishes

Candy or sugary snacks in desk drawers, glove compartments, etc.

Do you have a 'hiding place' for goodies?

Cupboards full of cake mixes, sugary cereals or soft drinks.

Chips, soda and ice cream in the house at all times?

What to do to help?

Clear them out!

Buy snacks for your family that you don't care for.

Replace with versions that are acceptable. (diet soda for regular)

Replace candy jars with vases of flowers.

Ask your family to eat goodies away from home and not bring them home.

Those are just a few suggestions. One I always implemented was making sure that whatever snacks the kids had on hand was something I didn't like!

Does all this sound a little extreme? This is a battle people! We have to do whatever it takes to protect ourselves from these unhealthy choices!

The obesity epidemic in this country is totally out of control to the point that there are vacation packages geared towards overweight people. You can google 'fat people vacations' and see all the listings. I wouldn't have believed it until I saw a news story about it and googled it myself.

So, remember our goal for the coming week, one extra work-out and one extra serving of vegetables a day, (and no, french-fries don't count). I'll check in next week to see how we all did! I have to go and eat a half a cucumber as I haven't had my extra veggie yet today!

So whether you are a 'stay-at-home mom' or will be training women in business this week or just out business networking in Southwest Florida, I wish you good health!

Lynda Waldron, Health Coach
LDwaldron@yahoo.com
takecontrolnow.tsfl.com

Top 10 Leadership Mistakes to Avoid

Whether at work, at home, or in the community, as women we are all LEADERS. Leadership is the fundamental element in every endeavor. It comes with responsibility and you have to own it in good and bad situations.

Here are the top 10 mistakes that leaders make:

1. Failure to Take Charge on Day 1. When you are assigned to a leadership position, whether it’s a promotion or from outside the organization, you must take charge. Hold a meeting with your direct reports and introduce yourself. Describe your leadership style. Explain how your monthly performance-counseling program will work. In addition, talk about a mentorship program.

2. Failure to Conduct Productive Meetings. Most people walk away from meetings wondering why they were there and why there was a meeting in the first place. You should prepare for a meeting by notifying attendees in advance. Be sure to announce the purpose of the meeting and let each attendee know what they are responsible for discussing. As a rule of thumb, meetings should never exceed one hour.

3. Failure to Realize Perception. Leaders have a tendency to believe they are perceived as “great” and everything is well within the team. It may not be. Awareness of how your team perceives you as a leader is the key to becoming a real “great” leader. Perceptions can be changed given the right tools and the right attitude.

4. Failure to Realize Strengths and Weaknesses Within a Team. Knowing the true strengths and weaknesses within a team allows a leader to place people in the right role. Knowing the intensity levels of the personality traits of each individual is a good first step.

5. Failure to Mentor. A great leader is never content with the level he or she is at. We want to move forward. Professional development is instrumental in developing your direct reports. A good leader includes development in monthly counseling. This is your opportunity to prepare them to take your place as you move to a higher level of leadership.

6. Failure to “Lead from the front.” Leading from the front is essential to every leader. It means setting the example, doing the right things, and taking responsibility for your actions. Leading from the front earns respect, not only from direct reports, but from those you report to as well.

7. Failure to Hold Accountability. Great leaders hold accountability. The pitfall is that leaders tend to hold their direct reports accountable, but then it stops there. Hold yourself accountable, hold your peers accountable, and make sure your peers hold you accountable.

8. Failure to Act in Fairness. Here is a difficult one. All of your team members may have a different idea of what fair is in every situation. When you have to make a call (and you will), on a situation take time to understand what happened. Get perspectives from your team members about the situation. Don’t act out of anger. Take your time. The most important thing to remember is that the final decision is yours. Do what is best for your organization first and what is best for your team second. Every team in your organization has the same vision and mission.

9. Failure to Make Good and Timely Decisions. The decision making process is one of the most important attributes of a leader. Their decisions have to be good and timely. Decisions are the measuring stick of a leader. You must know how to reach a decision before you make one. Start with a quick analysis. Involve your direct reports and peers. Let them have ownership in it. Next, create three courses of action and choose the best one.

10. Failure to Be Dependable. Great leaders are always on time, but that is just a start. Great leaders are always the first ones there and the last ones to leave.

As leaders, we are being watched all the time even when we don't realize it.  Being diligentnt and focusing on constant self improvement is key to being the best leader possible.  I'm looking forward to seeing you next week at the Naples meeting. Until then, make it a fantastic day!

Using the Google Adwords Keyword Tool to drive people to your Blog!

Anytime you go into Google and type in a word or phrase in the search box, Google takes note. Google considers that a keyword or keyphrase.

The Adwords Keyword Tool tracks each of those words and phrases. It’s obviously beneficial to use those keywords and phrases that are frequently searched for within your blog. Having great content that meets the needs of the reader is not enough if people are unable to find your blog.

Not only is it necessary to optimize your website for keywords, it is important to optimize your blog as well. Optimizing your blog allows your target audience to locate you with greater ease because of the increase in your search engine ranking.

Your first task is obviously finding out which keywords and phrases you should be optimizing your blog with through the Adwords Keyword Tool.

There are a few beneficial ways to utilize this tool.

Firstly, it can aid in giving you a few good ideas as to what words and phrases would be beneficial to include in your blog. Once you enter a word or phrase into the adword search, you will want to pay close attention to those phrases and words with the least amount of competition.

Secondly, this tool has the ability to analyze your content and report back on the findings. Again, you can wisely choose the words with the most potential to driving your target clients to your blog.

There is no need to cram your blog with nothing but the keywords. Generally speaking if you make certain to include your keywords in your first and last paragraph it will aid in your Google search engine ranking. Additionally it is wise to use your keywords in your title as well.

If you take the time to write the blog, then take the time to search Google’s Adwords Keyword Tool and get your blog noticed.

Betty Walker, the Wise Web Lady

bettywalker@wiseweblady.com
(239) 645-4212 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (239) 645-4212 end_of_the_skype_highlighting

For a free Internet Starter Kit please visit our site at:

http://www.wiseweblady.com