Buy Better and Have a Better Life

I need motivation to go on with my life

Laura — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 12:43:50 +0000

Those who have been following this blog for a while probably have noticed my lake of posting. The truth is for the last few weeks (already months) I’ve been very dis-motivated with the course my life is taking. I continue to be happily married, have my wonderful kids but when it comes to work related issues I’ve been quite disappointed.

I’m a full time worker, I work in an office, I have direct contact with my bosses and I must say they don’t treat us, employees, the right way. This is probably an issue in many companies and offices but this has been messing up my mind, my work and therefore my life.

Regarding work motivation mine runs under: “Write this report or you’re fired”.

There are days that I only feel like arriving home, lie down in bed alone and just cry. My back problems haven’t been a great help lately. The pain is worse and the tendinitis and a probable disk hernia have to wait until September to start being treated.

Of course not being happy at work affects my whole family life, I lose my patience quickly when dealing with my kids, I’ve got no motivation to go out, to go through the weekend because I already know I have to go back to work on Monday, it’s like a roller coaster.

Changing jobs is not an option right know, there are many factors involved that do not allow me to do that. Work for myself would be my choice but right now no ideas come up to my mind, especially because it’s difficult to create our own business around here. Many people do it but a few years later they give up because it just doesn’t work, but on the other side I’m also tired of being a whiner.

At work we try to get a smile from a co-worker with a joke or wearing funny t shirts but sometimes that’s not enough. The worse part, all co-workers are also des-motivated.

I’ve got to overcome this I just don’t know how. Any sugestions?

Random Posts

Light Recipe: Tomato, Tuna & Tarragon Salad

Laura — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 21:23:50 +0000

Here is another light and fresh recipe. I use Tuna on a weekly basis with several dishes and I often use salads as a main dish. This time I bring here a recipe from © EatingWell Magazine that is featured on Cooking.com called Tomato, Tuna & Tarragon Salad.

RECIPE INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup diced red onion
1/3 cup light mayonnaise
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
Freshly ground pepper to taste
2 6-ounce cans chunk light tuna in olive oil, drained
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced (about 1 cup)
1/4 cup packed coarsely chopped fresh tarragon leaves
8 cups torn lettuce or mixed greens
1 pound small ripe tomatoes, cut into wedges
1 lemon, cut into 8 wedges

DIRECTIONS
Place onion in a small bowl and cover with cold water. Refrigerate for 20 minutes. Drain.

Whisk mayonnaise, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Add tuna, celery, tarragon and the drained onion; stir to combine. Serve on a bed of lettuce (or mixed greens) with tomato and lemon wedges.

Vegetables are great for our health so ,use and abuse of vegetables on your dishes. Lettuce and almost all green vegetables are excellent to prevent and treat anemia, use them very often.

I hope you like the recipe!

This recipe was supposed to be published a couple of days earlier but cable man left me without Internet for three days.

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Nokia 5320 XpressMusic - The cell that follows our voice

Laura — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 17:45:48 +0000

Look at this beauty.
This is a Nokia 5320 XpressMusic that will make us more lazy than we already are regarding technology. This cellphone has special powers and can be controlled with our voice. Without pressing a button it will follow our spoken orders. Clever don’t you think.

Thanks to the “Say and Play” function, this Nokia 5320 is able to find and play any artist and music. It’s like a pocket jukebox.

Here are the Nokia 5320 XpressMusic features:

Superior audio quality with dedicated audio chip, fast and easy music downloads with HSDPA and USB 2.0, up to 8 GB external memory (microSD card). Music player with Nokia Say and Play application, SMS, MMS, and Xpress Audio messaging, and email share your life easily from camera and gallery to online services, such as Ovi, Flickr and VOX. .
Series 60 user interface with Active Standby 8-way NaviTM with select, two soft keys, send, end, clear and menu key Music keys (rewind, forward, play/pause), My Own key for Say and Play, and N-Gage games
N-Gage is available via download (Games folder) or online at www.ngage.com JavaTM Mobile Information Device Profile 2.1 Macromedia Flash Lite 3.0 Windows Live available via download Flickr Yahoo Go Yahoo Messenger
Email supports POP3, IMP4 and SMTP protocols SMS text messages MMS messaging with pictures up to 300 KB SynchML (local and remote data synchronization
HSDPA category 6 (up to 3.6 Mbits/s) GPRS: Class B, multislot class 32 EGPRS: Multislot class 32 Bluetooth 2.0 connection High-speed USB with micro-USB connector3.5 mm AV connector 2 megapixel camera with integrated LED flash Second camera for video calling, supporting the Common Intermediate Format+ with 384 x 320 pixels Music player supporting MP3, M4A, eAAC+, and WMA music formats

You can buy this beauty at Amazon.com.

Wouldn’t it be great if espresso machines could do the same? Especially in the morning…

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Shopping for your baby

Laura — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 12:37:40 +0000

I don’t have babies at home anymore but I still have my son and daughter’s pushchair stored for appropriate use. When I say appropriate I mean for the right occasion.

Last month, when we were on vacation, we went to the Zoo and it really is a little tiring for a 4 years old, to walk all day to visit the whole zoo. What we thought about a few days before the visit was: why not clean the pushchair we don’t use for about one year and use it to carry her inside the Zoo? And we did it and it was really easy to keep my daughter relaxed and near us during the visit.

Whether you are expecting, have a baby, twins or a child, having something to carry them is essential. Babythings4u is an online store where you can find all type of accessories for your kids including “vehicles” to transport them. From baby pushchairs, strollers, car seats, nursing chairs, furniture, stairgates and much more, at babythings4u.co.uk you can find everything your baby needs.

If you have been invited to a baby shower a pram will be an excellent gift, it you find it too expensive why don’t you share the gift with another friend. The to-be-mom will be thrilled with the gift and for sure it’s something that will be very useful.

There are also available Toys, Swings & Bouncers from well known brands as Fisher-Price or OBaby that are didactic, educational and of very high quality.

As you can see Babythings4u (b4uing1) is the right place to shop for baby products. Take a look and see for yourself.

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Weight Loss: 5 Ways To Stay Motivated

Laura — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:30:02 +0000

Summer = Beach = Diets = Weight Loss = Stay fit and much more of course. But staying fit and healthy it’s not easy and takes time therefore some people lose motivation. I found this useful article that show us “5 Ways To Stay Motivated” to exercise. I hope you find it useful:

Do you remember the day you first joined your gym? Wasn’t it a great feeling, knowing that you had finally taken that first step towards living a healthier life? Making a conscious, positive decision to improve is rewarding, and hopefully we’ve all kept that promise to ourselves. But try as we might, it seems that there’s always a handy excuse to not exercise.

While gym attendance peaks around January, it slacks off every March/April as people forget about their New Year Resolutions. Summer BBQ’s and vacations tend to make people stay away from the gym, and six months later holiday parties and planning to the same thing. Finally, we can all relate to those days when we simply don’t want to work out!

The International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association, a trade association serving the health and fitness club industry, reports that the average health club member in the United States spends only about 90 days at the gym per year.

The goal of this article is to help you STAY MOTIVATED to exercise! It’s not enough to just help you with the ‘how’ of exercise - we want to help you with the ‘why’ too!

So what can you do to stay motivated? Here are five great ideas to help us all keep that inner fire burning…..

1) Find an exercise buddy! When we know that someone else is going to meet us at the gym at a certain time, we will automatically be much more likely to show up ourselves. After all, who wants to abandon their friend? Don’t have a friend at the gym? Invite one along! She will appreciate the invitation, and will be much healthier for it!

2) Get to know people in the gym! Visiting with friends and family while we’re exercising makes the time go by so fast it hardly even seems like we’re doing something good for us. It’s great to get out of the house or office and just have some fun with other people!

3) Talk with your doctor! We all know that exercise is good for us. From helping to prevent cancer to lowering our blood pressure to helping us fit into that swimming suit, exercise is the best thing we can do for ourselves. Even with that knowledge, it’s sometimes encouraging to hear about our progress from our doctor. Here’s a hot motivation tip: ask your gym for a copy of your fitness records (monthly body fat analysis and measurements) and then share that information with your doctor. He or she will be so happy that you’re exercising, and will encourage you to continue!

4) Chart your progress! The CEO of a Fortune 500 company once said “What gets measured gets done”, and that advice is as good for us as it was for that business. Take the time to keep a food journal, an exercise log, or simply write down your fitness goals. Post it where you will see it every single day (on the ‘fridge, in the car, on the mirror, etc.). Life is just so busy these days, a constant visual reminder of our goals may be just the motivational push we need.

5) Give yourself a reward! Sometimes the ‘big picture’ can be too intimidating. For example, if you have 80 pounds to lose it’s tempting to think “It’s too much! I shouldn’t even try.” That’s one of the biggest motivation-killers out there, so combat those discouraging thoughts by rewarding yourself for smaller accomplishments. Treat yourself to a manicure when you lose that first five pounds. Buy a new outfit when you’ve lost ten pounds. Take a mini-vacation when you’re halfway to your goal. Give yourself small rewards for achieving smaller goals, and guess what…..many small steps make up a long journey! Before you know it, you’ll have accomplished your overall goal!

There are many other ways to give yourself the motivation to succeed. Try some of these tips today - the only thing you have to lose is the fat!

About the Author: Tracie Johanson is the founder of Pick Up The Pace, a 30-minute exercise studio for women, focusing on fitness, health and nutrition for maximum weight loss. Please visit http://www.letspickupthepace.com/ for more information.
Article Source:
http://www.freearticles.co.za/fitness/weight-loss/5-ways-to-stay-motivated.html

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Please send me products to review

Laura — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 23:15:46 +0000

One of the disadvantages of being a No-US Resident is that most companies don’t send me products to review. I mean, in the last year I received four requests to review products but, most sites I visit only send samples to US Residents.

I understand this situation, mail costs are not cheap and once there are so many US bloggers it’s easier to ask them.

Advertisers, please be aware that most of my traffic is from US so why don’t you send me overseas some products for me to review. I understand that diet pills are not something I should try because I’m underweight but I can review other products like home cleaning products, clothes, movies, sites, programs, etc. I just need some samples…

I also would appreciate some products to review on my family blog: Laura’s Daily Life.

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Memory can’t be increased but can be improved

Laura — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 22:12:45 +0000

It’s really hard to believe how fast computer memory becomes obsolete. I have my desktop for 2,5 years and when I bought it 512MB of memory was more than enough, now I have difficulty in running some programs. Last year I bought my laptop with 1GB and now I think that I could speed it up with some extra laptop memory.

The good news is that for computers and laptops it’s always possible to get more memory, for us, humans, that work all day and have zillions of things in our head it’s not. All we can do is exercise or take some pills to energize the neurons.

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And the winner is….

Laura — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 23:03:49 +0000

Thanks to all that participated on my 20$ Fandango Voucher Giveaway.

The method to find the winner was the same I used on my other Giveaway. And the Winner is: SHEA. Congratulations SHEA.

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Giveaway: 20$ Fandango Voucher

Junonia for size 14 and up

Laura — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:52:43 +0000

Many people have difficulty in finding clothes for size 14 and up. Junonia is a company that focus on plus size women clothes and allows women in need of extra large clothes the possibility to buy high quality and fashionable clothes.

From Casual wear to active wear, from swim ware to outwear, Junonia has a wide variety of products available, thinking about those women whose size doesn’t allow them to shop it regular shops.

If you are looking for a gift to offer a friend that is a plus size, Click here to purchase a $25, $50, or $100 Junonia gift certificate.

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PlanningWiz3 will help you plan the room you want to decorate…free

Laura — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 12:41:53 +0000

Finally I’m seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. For quite a while I’ve been planning to redecorate my living room but money was always an issue. Now we realize that if we don’t go ahead and start looking for some furniture we never will.

This weekend I searched for an Online 3D living room planner and I ended up finding PlanningWiz3 where I did my living room plan. It’s very easy to use this software and it’s available for all rooms in the house.

First you select the size of the room you want to plan, if you prefer you can select one of the pre-planed rooms available and adjust it to the measures of you own room.

After you have the sized room you start “planning” your room, insert windows and doors than start with furniture. Here you have several categories available depending on the type of room you want. Place the furniture in the places you want, re-size it and try new locations for it.

Than you can choose the type of floor you want, maybe change it if you don’t like the look of it on the room, check the furniture position, insert some rugs, plants, anything you like (light fixtures are not available).

If you want to save your plan you have to sign up for a free account that allows you to save all the plans you want. If you don’t want to open an account at this point you can print the plan or send it to yourself by email, this way you are able to keep a copy of what you planned and even modify it later.

With the plan I did I’m going to the furniture store and ask for a quote on the TV Cabinet I want. I think that when we have a pre-idea of want we really want it’s much easier to find the right furniture.