Showing posts with label health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health. Show all posts

Heat It Up Giveaway Blog Hop

The HEAT IT UP Health & Fitness Giveaway Bloghop is finally here.

What is a giveaway bloghop?  In case your not familiar or this is your first time joining us then let me explain.  We have an awesome group of incredible health and fitness bloggers, who have all put together each of their own individual amazing giveaways.

All of us have linked up our blogs together, to make it easy for you as a reader/viewer to easily enter each and every giveaway you would like.  Start with one blog, and just work your way down the list.
An incredibility easy way for you to have many many chances to win some awesome fitness related items to help you get in shape for summer!

HEAT IT UP Health & Fitness Giveaway Bloghop
June 20th - 29th
Hosted by Runaway Bridal Planner
Co-Hosted by Neon Princesses


What can you win on my blog?
YOU HAVE 2 CHANCES TO WIN
2 winners will be selected

PRIZE #1

I know this is the same prize I offered last month, but many people really liked it.  So I have decided to offer it again.  These are my favorite Jillian Michaels workout DVD's.  ONE lucky winner will get their choice of ONE of the below DVD's.


DISCLAIMER: You must be 18 or older to enter.  Winner must have a US shipping address.  If the winner lives outside of the US, they will be sent a $10 Amazon gift card instead.

PRIZE #2

Is a $10 Amazon gift card, so you can use it to buy anything you would like.



NOTE: The first winner selected will receive their choice of prizes.  Whichever prize is left will be offered to the second winner.  So Winner #1 will be posted on my blog and contacted on 6/30 after they have made their selection (they will be given 48 hours) the 2nd winner will then be contacted and posted on the Rafflecopter.

So how can you enter my giveaway?
Well it's easy, just fill out the Rafflecopter form below and Viola it's that easy!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Now that you've entered my giveaway, hop on over to the next blog on the list and check out and enter their giveaway!  Happy bloghopping my friends!!!!


Health and Happiness


Have you ever looked at someone and you didn’t have to speak to them or know anything about them, and you just know they were happy?
Wouldn’t you like to be one of these people and radiate happiness?  Believe it or not, you can!


Why be happy?  Happier people may actually be more inclined to participate in healthier habits and behaviors. Happiness has proven in the medical field to combat several types of illness in relation to the heart, such as high blood pressure, heart attacks and even overweight.
Does that mean if you are happy you will never have these problems?  Of course not, but if the simple act of happiness alone, could help reduce your risks for these things, isn’t it worth it?

Add caption

Parents don’t only pass on their genes to their children.  They also pass on their behaviors.  Will this happen automatically for every parent who is happy?  Not likely, but if you center your life in a fun, relaxing and pleasant environment for your children to be in and see.  There is much greater chance you’ll pass the happiness trait onto them.


Everyone has something if not many things that they would love to change about themselves.  It’s only human to think this way.  Sure with goals, some of those things can be changed if you want those changes.  But not everything can be altered or worked on.  That is when accepting ourselves, accepting our faults become important to our health and happiness.  It is okay to not be perfect and it’s okay if we can’t do everything that our neighbor does.  Embrace your individualism and spend a little time each day finding a reason to love your faults you can’t change. 


Maybe you are one of the lucky ones who have a job you love.  If you fit this, enjoy each day and remember their might be a co-worker who may not love it so much.  It’s important to be aware and be kind to others.  Make sure that along with your great day, you are taking a little time to make others day great too.

If you are at a job you’d rather not be and you feel there are no other options for you.  Remember that you are in complete control of your life.  What job(s) would you rather do?  Once you have that figured out, make a list of what things are keeping you from getting a job as you would love.  Whether its skills, or education, presentation or personality.  Why not start slowly working each day on those things that are keeping you from finding a job of happiness?  It doesn’t always have to cost money; there are many free useful tools online or at your public library that you can use to help yourself.
If you are working on goals to better your life, and get to a place you’d rather be.  You’ll be amazed at how much faster the time will go, and just possibly it may make working the job you don’t love a little better while you are going through the process of finding one you will love.


You don’t have to run a marathon or even a 5k to be healthy or fit.  What we fuel our bodies with alone can drastically change our health and not to mention how we feel.  Start little by little; making changes and watch the changes to your health take effect. 
If you want a more active life, and want to see the benefits of exercise and physical activity you can start implementing that into your daily life as well.  It is important not to jump into something you are not ready for.  Speak to your physician and see what level of activity they recommend you begin with.  It could be as simple as taking the stairs at work, or parking your car on the furthest side of the parking lot for the extra walk in.   If you need more of a support group for this, join a gym or start taking a class lead by a fitness instructor or enlist a friend.  If you don’t feel you have time for anything, look at your life and see where you do have a few extra minutes.  It could be as simple as taking walks on your work breaks or during every TV commercial.  Don’t allow yourself to make excuses.  Imagine how much better you will feel each day, and how that might affect your state of mind and of course happiness levels.


Although it is true, not everyone may have the built in genetics to create happiness for themselves.  It might not be as simple for you to make small changes in life toward making you happier and healthier.  If you feel this is you, you can find help.  Know that you are not alone in this, and others have fought and won this battle too.  Speak to your doctor and let them figure out what drugs or therapy may be needed to assist you in this.

________________________________

Remember it is important to live in the moment.  Don’t dwell on the past or your failures, doing so will only bring you down.  Live each day with the mindset that you are going to do at least one thing that will bring happiness to you.  Take a moment each day to bring happiness to someone else.  (This could be something as simple as a smile or a compliment.)  Spend a little time on these two things each day and one day someone is going to look at you and think to themselves, that person is happy!





Sign-up and join our January Giveaway BlogHop


Due to the great success of the December Giveaway Blog Hop, and requests to do more.  I am hosting a blog hop giveaway coming up January 17th - 30th and I am accepting sign-up's now.  

What is a Blog Hop?  A group of blogs who are all linked together for 1 large giveaway hop.  Blog readers who come to one person's blog on the list, see the name of the others and click and hop on over to the next blog.  It's a really fun way for blogs to come together, offer readers awesome giveaways, lots of more eyeballs on your blog, and a great way for you to find new blog followers.



January Blog Hop sign up now through January 13th, 2014. 
Hosted By: RunawayBridalPlanner
Co-Hosted by: Divasrunforbling.com 


January's hop will focus on New Year's Goals, so the item you pick to use on your blogs giveaway should be something that would help someone keep on track with their goals.  Which means its pretty wide open to what you can offer.   Gift cards are also okay. 

Only giveaway item requirement is that its value is at least $10 or more.

To add your blog and giveaway to this fun blog hop there are a few rules that MUST be followed.  Make sure you can abide by all the rules before you sign up.  I will be sending the linky and information email 1 week prior to the hop starting, so you will have plenty of time to design your post and get it scheduled to go live by the 17th.

BEFORE YOU SIGN UP PLEASE READ THE RULES BELOW, MAKE SURE YOU AGREE WITH ALL OF THEM BEFORE YOU SIGN-UP, THANKS!


MY 10 SIMPLE RULES FOR JOINING UP:

1.  Make a note on your calendar so you don't forget you signed up.

2.  Item for giveaway needs to be valued at $10 or more.

3.  Hop Image will be required to be at the TOP of your giveaway post.  This image helps others participating in the hop know they are in the right place.  Those who sign up will get an email with the image for their giveaway post.

4.  REQUIRED at the bottom of your giveaway post, will be the LINKY that has the link to all the other blogs participating in the hop.  It is a hop, so this is required!  If you do not know how to insert a LINKY, it will be a requirement to link to the Host or Co-Hosts Giveaway Post - The links will be emailed to you 1 week prior to the giveaway start, so you can prepare your post in advance.

5.  You can only have 1 Mandatory way for an entry on your blog, and ONLY up to 10 total possible entries.  (Example: You can ask them to follow your blog as their 1 Mandatory entry then offer them other options to follow you, twitter, facebook, leave a comment etc...)

6.  Your post must go live on Midnight EST by the 16th of January and run through midnight on the last day of the hop.  (Although you are welcome to set it to go live the evening before, if it helps you out.) Everything is up to you on how you design your giveaway and post, but it must be kept family friendly.

*If you are hosting a giveaway in the hop, YES YOU CAN PARTICIPATE in all the other giveaways in the hop, we encourage it*

7.  I will send you a reminder email to post your giveaway, along with the Linky and Image for your post - Add my email (runawaybridalplanner(at)hotmail(dot)com to your contacts, so your reminder emails will not go to junk.

8.   Aside from the Linky and the Image.  The rest of the post and how your do your giveaway is completely up to you.

9.   You will be responsible to ship the item to the winner - all shipping costs are your responsibility.  If you are using a sponsor, you will be required to work with the sponsor to have the item shipped to the winner.

10.  Anyone who is not following the rules, may be deleted from the hop.

**Feel free to Email me with any questions.


If you agree to the terms, we'd love to have you join up with us!  Sign-Up in the Linky below:


WHEN YOU NEED A LITTLE EXTRA HELP TO STAY HEALTHY

Linking today with Jill Conyers blog for Fitness Friday.

I have to share this really cool thing that has helped me stay healthy and illness free for many months and all through cold and flu season.  First, let me give you my mini background so you can see where I am coming from.

For the past several years and especially when I was hitting a 26.2 each weekend or even every other week.  I would get sick (cold, flu, bronchitis, pneumonia, you name it and I would catch it...)  Pretty much every 2 to 3 weeks, some new illness.  If I could make it 4 weeks without catching anything, at the time I would think it was a miracle.
Part of it was because marathon running can break down your immune system and make you more susceptible to things.  The other part was my fabulous (NOT) Epstein Barr virus:(  Even when I would have a month or two off in the summer for races and my mileage was lower, I would still catch any stupid bug if anyone pretty much sneezed in my direction.  And let me tell you, it is so NOT fun to have to pull off a marathon, when you can barely lift your head off the bed!  Trust me, I have done my fair share of them this way!

Last fall I went to a Dr. because my hair seemed to be getting thinner and far too quickly for my liking.  Well because I was running so many 26.2's my body wasn't getting all the nutrients it needed in my food.  So my Dr. recommended I take an over the counter Prenatal Vitamin as well as Biotin as supplements to my diet.  She told me to take Prenatal instead of a multi-vitamin because they have more of the vitamin combo that women who's bodies use up a lot of nutrients need.

Since I started taking them around Mid November last year, I haven't caught a single cold or flu and haven't had so much as a sniffle.  I doubt the Biotin had anything to do with it, but I will say my hair is coming in thicker and my nails are looking fabulous and I think the Biotin has had a bit to do with that part.  But those Prenatal Vitamins (and no I am not pregnant) have been a miracle worker for me!

Nothing fancy either, these are just straight grocery store brand:)

No, I don't believe they are some miracle cure or pill to avoid illness altogether.  But I do believe they have have had A LOT to do with my being able to stay so healthy all through cold and flu season. (I do work a part time job with the public in what I call a germ infested place, the library LOL.  Just so you know I wasn't hanging out in seclusion or in a closet:).
It's true for me the real test is going to be in the coming months as I build my mileage back up.  But I am already a believer of what they have done, even though I doubt my illness free streak will last forever.  I just believe it may help build up my immune system up to avoid so many.

I think eating healthy and eating the right foods is absolutely necessary and the best way to go!  But occasionally in some people like me, its not always enough to make sure you are getting all the vitamins you need.
So I thought I would share my story, just in case any of my fitness and running friends have/are experiencing excessive illnesses.  However, I DO recommend you double check with your doctor before trying anything new, for any illness problems.  And of course prenatal vitamins cannot be taken by men, because of the iron in them:)

On a side note, my ankle has been a little better this week.  But I do have a doctors appointment scheduled, just to be sure nothing is seriously wrong.  However, I am very hopeful that everything will work out, and I will soon be able to work on building that mileage back up, and getting back into finishing my marathon in every state goal.  Especially since I only have 19 more to go:)

So, do you have any cool tricks or things you have come across or taken that have helped you stay healthy and strong?  If so I'd love for you to share!