Remember Your Family - Ellie Alsman - Give Us Hope

REMEMBER YOUR FAMILY!

 

 

 

 

 

 

This beautiful little girl is my niece Ellie, she is an amazing young lady that will not give up.  She has C.F.  Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a complicated genetic disease that causes your body to produce extra-thick, sticky mucus. If you or your loved one is fighting this disease, they may require medicines as part of their treatment routine. Because not all medicines work the same or address the same symptoms, a combination of medications may be needed.

 

While there is no cure for CF, you have treatment options that may help. Your doctor likely will also prescribe additional medicines to Pulmozyme to address other symptoms of cystic fibrosis. These can help to increase moisture in the mucus, prevent and treat infections, and open airways.

 

Normally, mucus in the lungs traps germs, which are then cleared out of the lungs. But in CF, the thick, sticky mucus and the germs it has trapped remain in the lungs, which become infected.
In the pancreas, thick mucus blocks the channels that would normally carry important enzymes to the intestines to digest foods. When this happens, the body can't process or absorb nutrients properly, especially fats. Kids with CF have problems gaining weight, even with a normal diet and a good appetite.

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Are Mondays a curse for you? Or a blessing?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I say the word curse, because it all too often looks like this:

"It doesn't matter that I fell off the wagon the last few days, I will start again on Monday"

You can swap "Monday" for tomorrow, next week, or, as so often happens, in the New Year.

(Speaking of which, just how is that New Year's Resolution working out for you?)

The self defeating rationalizations we make to ourselves, the dream killing, secure in the knowledge that is doesn't really matter that our one cheat meal turned into a four-day sugar bender, because, you can start again on Monday.

Maybe as a trainer we need to have a Monday Morning Check-in, where they report on diligence (or lack there-of) in terms of eating and exercise over the preceding Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Accountability rocks, and it works.

How to mentally prepare yourself for weight loss

 

1.  Write down your weight loss goal.  Ask yourself why you want to lose weight?  Is it because you just can't stand the way you look with your clothes off?  Do you feel tired and lethargic?  Is it health issues and your Dr. says you must lose 30 pounds?  Getting excited about the real weight loss is truly the highest motivation! 

 

2.  Get the experts to help you!  Hire a dietician to put you on the correct food that will allow you to follow a diet without feeling confused.  The reason most people fall off the wagon is because they have not chosen the correct diet plan.  Dieting is a long-term life changing experience.  You don't change your diet just to lose weight, it is also for your future. 

 

3. Write it down.  At the beginning of each week, create a meal plan for your diet that you’ll use as your guide for grocery shopping, cooking, eating out, and avoiding unplanned indulgences. “Having that plan helps you reach for the right foods,” Newgent says. If you know you’ll be meeting friends for dinner at a restaurant, Bauer suggests going online to look at the menu. Plan what you will order to avoid being tempted when you get there. Pick two healthy entrees, she says, so that if the restaurant is out of your first choice, you’re not stuck.

 

4.  Invest in a personal trainer.  I cannot emphasize the importance of a personal trainer on your side.  You will not only feel accountable to that person, but she/he will constantly motivate you to meet your goals and reward you in their own way.  You will have a mapped out training plan that will guide you to meet your goals.  Put every training session on a calendar just like you would a dr. or dentist appointment.  You are less likely to skip it or miss it by writing it down on a calendar. 

 

5.  Prepare to log your food and activities.  Tracking your food and activities only leads to success!  you will be amazed how aware you will become about food and exercise.  You will learn because of the knowledge that is gained during this process.  Patterns and routine will become natural to you.  That is part of disciplining your body, mind and soul. 

 

6.  Setting realistic weight loss goals and timetables.  Your Personal Trainer will help you understand how and why to set realistic goals.  You can't just run a marathon without first walking a mile.  It takes time for your body and mind to adapt to a new lifestyle. 

 

7.  Believe in yourself!  You can do it!  Recognize that weight loss rarely occurs in a straight line, and if you overeat one day, don’t berate yourself — just get back on your program at the very next meal.

 

8. Reward yourself.  When you have met your first weight loss goal, you need to take a moment and give yourself something special.  I am not talking about your favorite bakery.  You are changing your lifestyle, do not go back to old habits.  Maybe you wanted to have a massage or that new purse?

 

9.  Have a team of supporters.  Family, Friends, co-workers, a group that you may want to join.  Anything with a team spirit to support your weight loss goals is much better and you will have accountability to them.  Maybe you and a friend want to lose weight together, try emailing each other weekly with results.  Make a pact with each other to text one another daily to help stay on track.

For The Health of it

Shorter workouts are better than longer workouts.

Can it be true?

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Biomedical Sciences say yes.

In their recent study, those who exercised just 30 minutes a day were able to lose nearly 25 percent more weight than those who performed 60-minute workouts.

Professor Bente Stallknecht summed it up: “We combined data from biomedical studies of the subjects’ bodies with ethnological data on their experiences during the 13-week trial period. This enabled us to explain the background for the surprising fact that 30 minutes of daily exercise is just as beneficial as a full hour of hard fitness training.”

And that’s not all.

When the 60 overweight men who participated in the 13-week study were asked how the workouts affected them, those who exercised the least not only lost more weight, they also reported higher energy levels, motivation, and desire to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

                              Here’s a terrific workout to enjoy while skiing.

No need to ski fast or do tough moguls for this one.

Simply changing leg positions is all that’s needed for an amazing leg workout.

Start out by keeping your knees slightly bent as you ski. After a few hundred feet, bend your legs even more. You’ll lower your body just a few inches below where you started.

Hold your legs in this position for at least 2 to 3 minutes, and then return your legs to the starting position.

The more your legs approach the straight up-and-down position, the less resistance and easier it is; the more you bend your legs and lower your body, the harder it will be.

Do combinations of low resistance with minimal leg bend to high resistance with lots of leg bend for a day on the slopes your legs and body will not soon forget.

 

 

 

 

3 Technologies Changing P&C Insurance Distribution

 

Nathan Golia

Senior editor, Insurance & Technology tells us that:

The P&C industry is incredibly competitive, with companies big and small fighting for market share. Here are some of the technologies they're using to help differentiate their sales processes.

Facebook, Tweet, Google+,inshare, submit etc...
and tags:  Distribution, P&C, Mobile, Underwriting, Agent/Broker, Celent, Progressive, Nationwide

If there's one word that defines the personal lines auto industry right now, it's "competition." The insurance category is among the most-advertised products in the country, with players big and small trying to distinguish themselves from the crowd and draw market share away from one another.

This article clearly defines our roll as agents in the small business world.  We have to work harder and smarter.  The insurance world is changing so rapidly that if you are not willing to change with it and be flexible you will fail. 

I am going to have to get my technology rolling and put my name on the world wide web so that when a consumer sees my site, it stand out and they will send me a request for insurance.

"The mobile traffic to our website is just exploding -- it's up 25% just from August 2012 to March of this year," Jauchius says. "We've had some time now to identify the top customer transactions -- pay your bill, view your ID card, file a claim -- but where we're taking mobile is fully enabling quoting and binding." 

This is just a fact of life.  If your agency is still waiting for a phone call, you are going to be waiting a long time.  Then you will fail.  You need to have the technology that will bring the customer back to you after they have gotten all of their data required to make an intelligent decision. 

"Consumers want to meet with an agent face to face when they buy, but the rest of the time they're going to want to get updates and interact with you digitally," Hanley says. "And before they buy, they want to go get ratings and reviews on agents. We offer that as part of our program, and we've found that you're better off having a 2.5 [out of five] rating than nothing at all. It indicates you're willing to listen to customers."

The Extended Warranty Scam on your used car

When you buy a used car from a dealership, they generally place an extended warranty on your vehicle for 2 years of coverage on a 5 or 6 year loan.  The additional cost to add on that warranty is around $2500 - $3000 dollars for 24 months of coverage.  Now don't get me wrong, I am all about purchasing an extended warranty on my car, but I will not finance an extra $2895 on my 2009 Jeep Wrangler with 52k miles on it.  Do you realize that you just lost $2895 dollars of equity in your vehicle over night.  Cars depreciate fast enough.  I don't need a warranty to do that for me.

I did some checking around, and found a 4 year extended warranty that I can pay on my own for $1500 dollars that covered the exact same items as the other warranty from the dealership.  I called the bank and asked them how much will I save in payments if the $2895 is refunded immediately to the principal of my loan.  she said that will take 7 months off of your loan.  For the fact that your payment will not change, but the full refund will be applied to the principal.

The two companies that I recommend and they both had excellent customer service are:

 AAAuto protection - Highly recommended by CNN and FOX

Direct Buy Auto Warranty-Recommended by Mortor Trend and Cars.com

Why is Home Insurance so expensive on the Texas Gulf Coast?

After consulting with several different insurance companies and underwriters of these companies we have come to a very real answer to the rising costs of home owners insurance.  Even though the consumer does not believe they will ever have a catastrophic claim.  The chance of one having a claim on the Texas Gulf Coast in and around the 4th largest city in the United States is 1000 times higher than the other 3 cities.

Home Insurance Companies, like most all types of property insurance providers purchase re-insurance as a
standard business practice. Re-insurance is an insurance policy with a very large deductible per claim event. How it works is the primary home Insurance Company purchases a re-insurance program with another Insurance Company (called a Re-insurer). The program works something like this – primary Insurance Company pays first $500,000 in claims for a claim event like a Windstorm on a particular date. If the total claims for that primary Insurance Company exceeds $500,000 for that claim event then the Re-insurer will reimburse the primary Insurance Company for those claims over $500,000 up to an agreed upon limit depending on the re-insurance program purchased.

The cost of Re-insurance in the Gulf Coast is going up sharply so the primary Insurance Companies must pass this increased cost on in the form of home insurance rate increases. The Re-insurer also reviews the primary Insurance Company’s operating practices. If the primary Insurance Company is still offering lower windstorm and hail deductibles in the Gulf Coast area the Re-insurer will charge substantially higher rates or may not offer to provide re-insurance for that primary Insurance Company at all.

Basil Housewright tells us  that there are four very distinct choices for Insurance Companies in these matters: 

• Continue what they are doing with modest rate increases and go out of business. 

• Discontinue doing business in the Texas Gulf Coast area. 

• Continue what they are doing and raise the average homeowners premium to between 10% and 20% per year to allow them to pay claims, cover their overhead and make a modest profit. 

• Provide policies comparable to current pricing structures but substantially raise the deductibles for coverage for windstorm, hail, and water damage.

A few home Insurance Companies have recently revised how they handle roof claims, which basically tightened the controls on verification of payment of the entire full deductible amount by the homeowner to repair or replace their roof. Bottom line if we want affordable home insurance with reasonable deductibles a homeowner is going to need to assume the cost of roof repairs and replacements.