Microwave Fitness™ #5- Thigh Toner - High Intensity

Welcome to the newest Microwave Fitness™ blog article. My hope for you is to help you find better ways to use those spare minutes in your busy day to look & feel better.

Here's how it works.

While you are microwaving your lunch, instead of being bored, focus on fitness. Microwave Fitness™ exercises will improve your muscle tone and circulation, improve your energy level, help your concentration, and help you relax from your day's stress. You won't work up a sweat, so you won't need a shower afterwards. You'll just feel better and you'll soon notice you look better too.

Most lunches take from 2 to 7 minutes to heat up. If you have a 2 minute lunch, pick your favorite microwave fitness workout. If you have a 5-7 minute lunch, you can do 2 or 3 workouts! They are quick, fun & easy and each one focuses on a different muscle group.

Thigh Toner
Stand normally, with your feet together.
Make sure you have a little room around you and be careful not to kick your friends and coworkers while you do this exercise!

Put your hands on your waist. If you find you need a little help with your balance, gently rest one hand against a wall or table. Try not to put your weight on the hand, just use it to steady you.
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Stand on your right leg. Bend both knees to do a mini squat, lowering your bottom about 4 inches. Lifting from the heel, raise your left leg out to the side about 6 inches while straightening your right leg. Don't bend your legs. Gently lower your left leg. Repeat 5 times to start. Gradually work your way up to 20.

Stand on your left leg. Bend both knees to do a mini squat, lowering your bottom about 4 inches. Lifting from the heel, raise your right leg out to the side about 6 inches while straightening your left leg. Don't bend your legs. Gently lower your right leg. Repeat 5 times to start. Gradually work your way up to 20.

In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash

What is Money?

When we were young, we used to watch "the rich" in cartoons doing what we would do if we had lots of money: rolling in it, fondling it, tossing it in the air, and playing "keep away" from the hero (who was NOT rich.) It was fun and it was all we could imagine to do with money. Money was a toy, but a very special toy that EVERYONE liked to play with.

When we grew up, money changed a little. For most people, there is a bit of desperation attached to money. No longer just a fun toy, it now becomes something WE NEED.

But what is money, really?

Actual money is little pieces of cheap metal and fabric (no, we only call it paper money, its actually more like a heavy linen fabric.) It can be made of anything, as we just found out. I, personally, think the new paper money looks more like monopoly money than the old money did. But it still gets me to the gas station and through the grocery store.

In fact, you don't even have to touch any money to spend it. Checks, debit cards, and credit cards make shopping so much easier than carrying a thick wad of bills in your pocket. And then there are always gift cards. They act like money, but only at one store.

So why does all this stuff work?

Because money is all about trust.

When I buy that gift card, I can trust the store I bought if from to allow my loved one to purchase something they like at that store.

When I use a debit card, the store is trusting my bank that they will transfer some money from my bank account into the store's bank account. Same thing with a check; it just takes a little longer.

When I use my credit card, the credit card company is trusting me that I will keep making my monthly payments.

If you read the back of your paper money, it says 'In God we trust."

Honesty and trust are the foundations of living in a society where it is so easy to earn money and to spend it.

So I would have to say the answer to the question "What is money" is "Trust."

Small is Beautiful

When it comes to creating wealth, small is beautiful. Although when it comes to owning wealth, a corporate structure gives you much better tax benefits.

So how to combine the best of both worlds?

If you intend to become wealthy, its unlikely that you will achieve that end as the employee of a large corporation or government agency. What you will do in a corporate environment is work at low intensity for your career, say 40 years, in exchange for being paid just enough to keep you from leaving - assuming that what you do provides more benefit to the corporation than what they are paying you. This is assuming no graft, corruption, bribes, or other illegal ways of obtaining money from your working environment. The corporation will try to provide ways of improving your productivity with tools like a desk, telephone, and computer. Sadly, the corporate environment, with rare exception, also provides far too many "force de-multipliers" that sap your productivity. "Active sound damping" is one that has pushed many employees to the edge of homicide by shutting down all reasoning capability in the higher levels of brain functioning.

At the other extreme is the very small, high tech startup. Economically, you can think of a startup as a way to compress your whole working life into a few years. You work as hard as you possibly can for about four year. Trim out the pointy-haired boss, the staff meetings, the constant interruptions by slacker coworkers, mind-numbing "active sound damping," sick time, vacation time, human resources issues, annual performance reviews, and commuting time and we can assume you have maximized productivity. This can be a "force-multiplier" of maybe as much as 30 times. So instead of the $60,000 to $80,000 a year of productivity your corporate employer expects, your actual productivity may be as much as $2million to $3million a year.

Assuming you have, indeed, created a product the customer wants, and can sell it at a price the customer is willing to pay, we begin to see where wealth is created.

But it isn't just magic. Never forget that if you want to make a million dollars, you have to endure a million dollars' worth of pain. The question becomes: Do it the hard way, or the reaaaallly haaard way?

Microwave Fitness™ #6- Derriere Toner

Welcome to the newest Microwave Fitness blog article. My hope for you is to help you find better ways to use those spare minutes in your busy day to look & feel better.

Here's how it works.

While you are microwaving your lunch, instead of being bored, focus on fitness. Microwave Fitness™ exercises will improve your muscle tone and circulation, improve your energy level, help your concentration, and help you relax from your day's stress. You won't work up a sweat, so you won't need a shower afterwards. You'll just feel better and you'll soon notice you look better too.

Most lunches take from 2 to 7 minutes to heat up. If you have a 2 minute lunch, pick your favorite microwave fitness workout. If you have a 5-7 minute lunch, you can do 2 or 3 workouts! They are quick, fun & easy and each one focuses on a different muscle group.

Derriere Toner
Stand normally, with your feet together.
Make sure you have a little room around you and be careful not to kick your friends and coworkers while you do this exercise!

Put your hands on your waist. If you find you need a little help with your balance, gently rest one hand against a wall or table. Try not to put your weight on the hand, just use it to steady you.

Stand on your right leg. Lifting from the heel, raise your left leg straight back about 6 inches. Don't bend your legs. Gently lower your left leg. Repeat 5 times to start. Gradually work your way up to 20.

Stand on your left leg. Lifting from the heel, raise your right leg straight back about 6 inches. Don't bend your legs. Gently lower your right leg. Repeat 5 times to start. Gradually work your way up to 20.

This exercise works the gluteus maximus and erector spinae muscles, important for a trim bottom, but also helps relieve lower back pain caused from sitting at a desk.

August Blog Carnivals

I am privileged to be featured on the following blog carnivals this month.



Weight Management & Fitness Forum has been posted at:
http://weight-master.blogspot.com/2008/08/weight-management-and-fitness-forum.html

Carnival of Ethics, Values, and Personal Finance which is now up at:
http://moneyandvalues.blogspot.com/2008/08/carnival-of-ethics-values-and-personal.html

Mercury Poisoning in Children Causes Autism?

So rages the controversy. And if you believe the reports, there has been a 10 fold increase in autism cases from 1980 to 2004.

Shocking, if it is true.

But since we are talking about the difference between 6 cases and 60 cases, we are still dealing with a VERY SMALL number of children.

But is mercury really the problem, or just a symptom of a deeper, underlying problem.

There was a fascinating study done in 2004 that identified a signature metabolic impairment or "biomarker" in autistic children that manifests as a severe imbalance in the ratio of active to inactive glutathione, the body's most important tool for detoxifying and excreting metals. Glutathione is the "master" antioxidant and it is normally made in every cell of your body. When your body can make enough glutathione, your body can keep in check the potentially destructive process of oxidative stress caused both by normal metabolism and environmental contaminants. A number of studies have shown autistic children showed a significant impairment in every one of five measurements of the body's ability to maintain a healthy glutathione defense. So a level of lead or mercury that would cause no problems in a normal child, can be disastrous for children with this metabolic impairment.
Read the whole article

Is there an answer?

There is a promising patented formulation with compelling clinical results that raise glutathione levels an average of 292%.
Clinical studies

Clinical studies on autistic children are being conducted by Dr Allen.

Click here to learn more about the glutathione accellerator.

Magic or Economics?

Why do you work?

Think deeply on this for a few minutes. Do you work to earn a paycheck? Do you work for personal fulfillment? Do you work because you want to make the world a better place? Do you work because you'd be bored otherwise? Do you work because you hate to be alone?

Now let's flip that around.

Why did your employer hire you?

Because you're cute and he likes having you around? Because you're stupid and easy to intimidate and your boss enjoys the power? Because your employer is rich and has nothing better to do with her money? Because the government told him to hire you?

In economic theory we learn that a free market employer will hire employees to enable that employer to meet customer needs for goods and services at a price the customer is willing to pay. A government employer will hire employees to enforce government mandates, no matter what the cost. So from an economic standpoint, government has no checks & balances, which is why government programs cost so much and produce so little good. While in the free market, customers and employees provide the checks and balances. Which is why American have access to the richest offering of goodies money can buy.

So why do you get paid what you get paid?

For this article, we will ignore the drivers for government programs. Its not a pretty picture and you, as an individual, can't do a lot to change it.

But in a free market job let's be honest. How much work do you really get done at the office each day? What is that work worth to your employer's customers?

Let's take a very simple example, sadly culled from my personal experience.

You are hungry and want to buy lunch. You walk up to a sandwich shop counter and ask for a sandwich. The person behind the counter is rude, not very clean, and extremely slow. When you order the sandwich, you are told you can't have the salami/ham/pastrami combo because they are out of ham & pastrami. You ask if you can substitute roast beef and turkey for the ham & pastrami. The sandwich maker says yes, but she'll have to charge you for 2 extra meats because those aren't part of the sandwich. So the $5 sandwich you want is now a $7 sandwich that you didn't want.

What do you do?

As a free market customer, you will probably walk out of the store and go somewhere else for lunch, a place where you can get the sandwich you want for $5.

But what if I tell you that this sandwich shop is the best place to work because they pay above minimum wage, offer medical coverage, generous vacation benefits, and a 401K plan? Does that make a $5 sandwich worth $7 to you? Or would you rather pack lunch and eat at the office and pocket the savings?

There's no right or wrong answer to this question, just a choice to be made. In a free market, you have the right to make that choice. But when the government passes laws requiring small business to provide benefits they can't afford, the end result is usually a "Going out of business" sign in the window of a formerly successful sandwich shop. Because most people care about their money and how it is spent.

Wealth - Making It Up As We Go

Pie is great stuff! Who doesn't look at a piece of cherry pie, or dream of apple pie a-la-mode, or drool over a fresh, home made berry pie! There's only one problem with pie. The more people who want some, the smaller everyone's slice is! Or the government launches a PSA campaign warning you of the dangers of eating too much pie and encouraging you to eat stale cookies instead, because they are "better for you."

Your normal family budget and government economics works the same way. If Dad wants to buy a monster truck, Mom & the kids have to go without new clothes. Or if the kid gets accepted to a private university, the entire family has to do without to pay for tuition. Or if Mom wants a new dress, Dad can't get the latest electronic gadget. And government programs ultimately bankrupt the nation, because all they can do is raise taxes to fund the new programs, because the only way the government can get money is to take it from YOU, who earn it.

Free markets, on the other hand, actually do something a little magic. They create wealth. Now this is a difficult thing for many people to visualize, because all they know is slices of pie. But what happens in a free market when more people are clamoring for pie? Government would divide the pie into smaller slices. The free market finds a way to make more pies so everyone who wants one can have a piece. And this is the magic of wealth creation. Clever people, with the incentive of doing a little better for themselves and their families, find a way to make more pie. And if the pie is tasty, these clever people become rich! Its as simple as that.

Simple, but not easy. If it were easy, everyone would do it.

What is the trick to creating the magic? Eliminate obstacles, focus only on what is important, and work very, very hard. For a great treatment of how startups work, see How to Make Wealth by Paul Graham.