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Kidney March 2013


Kidney March 2013As many of you know my daughter Taylor has Kidney disease and it has been a bit of a struggle over the last year and a half since her initial diagnosis. We are of course coping and very thankful that we are living now, in a time when I can donate a kidney to my daughter as opposed to 50 years ago when this would have been impossible.

Even though we believe we have a way to help Taylor, many people are not nearly as fortunate as us. In Canada alone 100,000 people are waiting for a Kidney transplant and the line just gets bigger and bigger.

Often when faced with issues like this we can all feel powerless, not knowing what to do and how we can make a difference. But my wife and I have found a way and that is by taking part in Kidney March 2013.

What is the Kidney March?

During the weekend of September 6-8 Michelle and I will be taking part in the annual Kidney March. The Kidney March is a 100 kilometer walk over three days where we get an opportunity to do a couple of things.

First we get to raise money for a cause that is near and dear to our family and that is Kidney research, of all the major diseases that researchers are trying to cure, Kidney Disease is one with the best chance of being cured in the next few years.

Secondly we will be raising awareness of Kidney Disease. Thousands, actually millions of people suffer from Kidney disease but sadly most people don’t realize it until it is too late and they need to go on dialysis as this is a very silent disease with almost no symptoms until it is too late.

How Can You Help?

Kidney March 2013

Kidney March 2013

I have never been any kind of fundraiser in the past but I am super passionate about raising the money and awareness for Kidney Disease and this is a passion that I hope you will help me to share.

I am asking for two things. Please please please donate anything that you can. Be it $5 or $500 any amount will add up to make a huge difference, also I ask that you share this message with your friends and coworkers. If nothing else they can get a simple blood test, a creatinine test that can show if there is a heavy load on the Kidneys and how well they are working.

Thanks so much. You can visit my information page for the Kidney March now and if you have any questions or comments please let me know in the comments below.

Thanks, Bill.

Kidney March 2013, 5.0 out of 5 based on 1 rating

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Weight Loss Exercise

Creating some 21 day habits



Experts say that it takes 21 days to create a habit. I do not even know if this is true but the one thing that I do know is that if you do something, anything for 21 days it becomes ingrained inside you.

Let’s take that idea and run with it here shall we? Today we are as we are, if I decide that I am going to become more positive (this would make my wife and coworkers crazy) then I would think in my head as much as I could all day everyday about my successes in the past and the things that are going well. This would change me from being pretty positive to excited as I would feel that there is nothing that I can not do.

Building Great 21 Day Habits

Creating some 21 day habitsAt the same time if someone wanted to become healthy and they started to jog everyday as a runner would they would be sore the second day, sore the third day, stronger the fourth day, and very powerful by the fifth day. The habit is being formed, by the 21st day this person would be areal runner putting in mile after mile a week. Often runners have trouble taking days off even when they know they have to because that cadence of exercise reminds them of who they are, the habit has already been formed.

There are really only three steps in creating new habits that will become ingrained within 21 days, and really probably more like 10 days, and these are the following:

1. Decide on the Change – This means that you are making the very concious decision that whatever you are doing starting now will be different than before. This may be big like deciding you will exercise daily, eating better, or giving up alcohol, or this could be something smaller like deciding to start the day with a glass of water, or giving up some inane TV show.

2. Make the change often – To ingrain a change you have to conciously make that change as many times as possible. Usually if it is gaining something this is easier but if it is losing something than it will be more difficult. For instance every single time you want a cigarette but decide against it you will be giving something up, but if everytime you want to go for a walk you just get up and walk around the building you work in then you will be making an easy concious decision that you are looking forward to.

3. Understand that this is YOU now – The final step is the acceptance that you have changed. I do not consider myself a smoker anymore because it has been 15 years or so. I also don’t feel lazy becasue I have proven enough times that I know it is not true.

You should make your habit like SMART goals as well to help you to be able to get them right. If you wanted to lose weight this 21 days to a habit is even a shorter time but it works the same way. If you decide to eat only fruit instead of candy then you struggle for about three days and then it is over and three weeks later you have some chocolate and it starts burning in your stomach and the sugar rush gives you a headache, the habit was formed already.

My Experience in Building Lasting Habits

Years ago when I quit smoking I just imagined myself as a non smoker and then I just quit, I had been unsuccessful at cutting back so I decided that cold turkey was my best chance. After a couple of days for struggles I was OK and I continued my working out then one day weeks later I realized that the habit was now that I looked at myself as being in good shape and that I was flushing those bad toxins of smoking, I had turned the corner.

So now it is up to you. What do you want to do now? Do you have any bad habits to reverse? Or some Good habits you would like to incorporate into your daily life? As I said earlier, the change is the tough part and as you go along creating habits is a 21 day process so three weeks from today you can make a difference in yourself that you can be proud of.

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Weight Loss Exercise

Coping With Workplace Stress



Stress, stress, everywhere you look, including workplace stress. But nowhere more than at the workplace. Workplace stress causes hours and hours of lost productivity for companies, while for the employees the stress can cause ill health or the loss of their job. What are the causes of stress in your workplace and what can be done about it?

Coping With Workplace Stress

Coping With Workplace Stress

Coping With Workplace Stress

There are several issues that cause workplace stress. One of the top stressors is your workload. If there is too much work for you to handle, it’s going to cause stress. Is this a temporary problem such as a looming deadline for a big project? Temporary extra work is easier to fix if you organize yourself. Plan out your project and create lists to follow to best make use of your time. If you can outsource any of the more menial work consider doing that to reduce your load.

Another big stressor is constant interruptions. These interruptions can come in the form of phone calls, meetings, coworkers showing up at your desk, sudden priority emails, or any number of other things. Minimize the distractions as best you can; answer priority emails quickly with as few words as possible or send them on to someone else who should be handling it, turn off your phone or have an assistant hold your calls, and keep meetings short and to the point or ask if the issue can be handled by email. Sometimes it works to keep your phone ear piece on so when a coworker comes by to chat, they’ll keep on going because they think you’re on the phone. If that doesn’t stop them, let them know that you’re occupied with a task at hand but can quickly answer one question.

Conflicts and Workplace Stress

Conflicts with coworkers is another cause of work stress. Your best bet is to try to avoid any unpleasantness by avoiding the employees that give you problems as best you can. If you must work with them, try using email to communicate and stick to the assignment at hand. You can also try to adjust your attitude by finding at least one thing that’s likeable about the other person. You can still enjoy your job without having to love everybody there.

Fear of job loss can certainly cause stress. Communicate with your company to find out just how founded your fears are. Layoff rumors and business downturn stories may be untrue and unfounded. If you find the rumors are true, then you can formulate a plan and take action. Taking action reduces stress.

Sometimes the stress is from not knowing what is expected of you in your job or not knowing how to do your job. Again, communicate your concerns and ask for guidance and/or proper job training.

How to Relieve Workplace Stress

Communicating your needs with management can go a long way in relieving stress, but there additional ways. Exercise in the off hours and even stretching at your desk is known to help alleviate stress. Try a quick walk outdoors at lunchtime. Nature plus fresh air are good stress relievers.

Playing relaxing music with headphones will relax you and keep the stressors at bay. So will closing your eyes and concentrating on slowing down your breathing. Take a brief vacation in your mind to anywhere that makes you happy.

Change your perspective and attitude. Look at the problem from a distance, as if you were looking at someone else’s problem. This can help you come up with solutions. When you start replaying a conflict over and over, tell your thoughts to “Stop!”

Sometimes you just need a vacation to unwind and refresh your batteries. If you can’t get away, plan on taking some evening-only vacations and plan something fun for those evenings.

Workplace stress is a very real problem that’s not going away. Learn what causes you stress at work and find appropriate ways to deal with it from the above suggestions.

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