Creative Strategies for Wellness | Design Communications | Wineitudes

Hayseeds Creative

Enhancing Lives

Category: Business

Triglycerides: Why do they matter?

hayseedscreative's avatar by Leave a comment

Triglycerides are a type of fat in the blood formed by excess calories. When excess calories are eaten, the body stores them as triglycerides for use at a later time. A normal triglyceride level is considered to be below 150 mg/dL while a level above 200 mg/dL is definitely considered high and can increase your risk for heart disease.

For many, a healthy level can be achieved through lifestyle changes like losing weight, being physically active and limiting refined carbohydrates.

Fat sources in heart healthy eating plans often focus on sources of unsaturated fats, such as olive oil, vegetable oil, nuts and seeds, avocados and fatty fish. 

Seafood is especially high in omega-3 essential fatty acids which can help reduce triglyceride levels. Just 2 servings of seafood per week (about 8 ounces total) will provide the recommended amount of omega-3 fatty acids.  High omega-3 fatty acids seafood include salmon, herring, Atlantic and Pacific mackerel, rainbow trout, and sardines. 
Note: Pregnant and nursing women and young children should avoid shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish, which contain high levels of mercury.

If you have a history of elevated triglycerides, your doctor may also recommend high doses of supplemental omega-3 fatty acids. This should only be done under the advice and supervision of a doctor.

While extra calories from any source can be stored as triglycerides, excess calories from sugar and alcohol may have a greater effect on raising triglycerides. 

When choosing carbohydrate-rich foods, focus on whole grains, fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy. Limit refined grains and sources of added sugars, such as desserts, baked goods, sugar-sweetened beverages, and alcohol.

Mediterranean-style eating plans are similarly associated with improved heart health as they include more fruits, vegetables, whole grains and seafood while limiting saturated fat, trans fat, added sugars and alcohol. These diets also include healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats found in oils such as canola and olive oils. 

If your triglyceride level is above 150 mg/dL, discuss lifestyle changes and the potential advantage of supplements with your doctor and registered dietitian nutritionist. An RDN can help develop a healthy eating plan that meets your personal health needs and lifestyle.

It’s National Triglycerides Day

hayseedscreative's avatar by Leave a comment

Today we spotlight one of the key factors to a healthy lifestyle. Do you know about the hidden risks of triglycerides? Most people don’t and don’t know their personal triglyceride levels.

Learn your numbers and take steps to bring them to healthy levels. Include a triglycerides check with your routine physical exam. Visit with your doctor to learn how triglycerides impact a healthy lifestyle.

Clean homes. Clean streams. Clean air. Clean conscience.

hayseedscreative's avatar by Leave a comment

That’s our philosophy on cleaning.

For more than 30 years, my favorite shopping club’s innovative cleaning products have used natural and biodegradable ingredients that clean even more effectively without damaging the environment. None of these cleaners contain chlorine bleach, ammonia, formaldehyde, or other toxic chemicals. As a result, none of them requires a childproof cap.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts they are also the market leader in concentrated formulas. By making their cleaning products as concentrated as possible, they use less plastic packaging, less fuel in shipping, and generate less waste. They believe that adding fillers to cleaning products is a waste of resources and customers’ money.

Larger bottles not only waste plastic, but water is heavy and costly to ship. Packaging and shipping water is an expensive and wasteful endeavor—and completely unnecessary. Almost every household in the developed world has water available at the sink at almost no cost to the customer. These unprecedented, super concentrated formulas are the result of state-of-the-art manufacturing and careful, scientific selection of ingredients.

For years, I’ve been using EcoSense cleaners and I wouldn’t be without them . Each one helps make my house sparkle and smell great.

Here’s a closer look at each one:

Tough & Tender® 12x Super-Concentrated All-Purpose Cleaner

  • Safe for cleaning nearly all surfaces—granite, marble, even natural stone
  • No caustic chemicals, no safety caps required
  • Wipe material is biodegradable—a rarity in the marketplace
  • Replaces other all-purpose cleaners and wipes like Formula 409® and Clorox® Green Works®

Tub & Tile™ 12x Super-Concentrated Bathroom Cleaner

  • No chlorine bleach, toxic chemicals, or harsh fumes
  • Spray on, let sit a few minutes, then scrub and rinse off
  • Replaces Tilex®, Comet®, Scrubbing Bubbles®, Soft Scrub®, and Clorox® Bleach Foamer

No Work® 12x Super-Concentrated Daily Shower Cleaner

  • Simply spray on wet surfaces after every use
  • Keeps showers and tubs clean
  • Replaces Tilex® Daily Shower Cleaner® and Arm & Hammer® Clean Shower®

Clear Power® 12x Super-Concentrated Glass Cleaner

  • Dramatically improved cleaning power with naturally derived, ammonia-free cleaning agents
  • New, fresher fragrance is preferred 4-to-1 over the previous scent
  • Works best with our lint-free Microfiber Glass Cleaning Cloths

Each of these great products offers all the cleaning power I love in a small, more condensed size not found anywhere else. For safer formulas, better value, and unmatched innovation, nothing’s better for my home and family than EcoSense.

The labels make it easy to understand how to use the products, what’s in them, and what makes them the best on the market. All the information I need to know is clearly visible, making it easier than ever to keep my home safe and clean. I just can’t help share this information,especially since it’s National Cleaning week.

Are you as passionate about your cleaning products?

Thinking About the Freedom of a Home Based Business?

hayseedscreative's avatar by Leave a comment

THINK, THEN DO.
The recent demise of several companies that used network marketing (or a facsimile) to sell their products to consumers, led me to reflect on the reasons that these, and many other companies, like them, fail.

Having been associated with a Consumer Direct Marketing business (a successful one) myself for more than 10 years makes me, at least somewhat, qualified to share some of my observations. I became an independent marketing executive with my company after being introduced by my enroller to the 12 success factors that portend a successful company and personal career with that company. My company possessed them all, so I was encouraged.

But in reflecting on the companies that have failed in the past, both long ago and recently, I came to a conclusion that, if there were success factors, there must be failure factors, as well. Some of these are simply reciprocals of the success factors, which would make it easy. As you and I both know, nothing comes easy, so I’m sharing a few of “think out loud” thoughts here. 

First, if the company you are considering is a pyramid business model—where only a few early “fortunates” will prosper—it is, first of all, illegal and finally, destined to fail, just because of the structure. It’s not the shape, because most direct marketing businesses have the “shape” of a pyramid. The downfall of the pyramid model is that the preponderance of compensation is not based on product sales, but on signing up others at a significant fee or large unsold product commitments. Don’t go there.

Another failure factor: a company that offers one or two products (even if size and applications vary). A company with a large variety of products and product categories that embrace duplicated, family spending; budget allocations that are already being made; offer an opportunity to expand your approach market exponentially, and your potential for success, greatly. However, a wide variety of products aren’t enough—the products must be higher in quality or unique in valuable ways and they MUST be competitively priced with their alternatives. Unique, superior, competitively priced products are what make the Consumer Direct Marketing model work.

A start-up company is sometimes a good bet in the technology/software business, but is almost never a good bet when it comes to consumer goods. A company with no history is using YOU to test every idea. Unless you enjoy being a lab rat, avoid this environment.

Another factor to examine is the company’s balance sheet (you will have to source that for yourself since that likely will not be shared).
Next, is the company you are considering partnering with carrying bundles of unexplainable debt? If so, their future may be in doubt, and therefore, so is yours.

So a definite failure factor is unfunded spending in a business, as it is in our personal lives.

I’m happy to say the company I represent has absolutely no debt—as in zero—even in capital investments. So a definite “failure factor” is unfunded spending in a business, as it is in our personal lives.

Now let’s talk about the effort you invest in creating a consumer, it is considerable, particularly if you do a more than adequate job explaining your products and your business. If the association you are considering allows you to continue benefiting from those efforts in the form of continuing residual income, those efforts are (or eventually will be) worth it. But, there are many direct marketing models that provide breakaways, which simply means the money your consumer is still spending, is not enriching you any longer. Call me crazy, but that’s not a good deal, and certainly, qualifies as a failure factor.

So as you choose a business model to represent, use the above-mentioned success factors as a benchmark. For my choice, I was able to avoid all of the failure factors. The fact is that my choice was so sound that the only failure factor I had to overcome was myself!
Yep, I was the only variable. Was I going to try this business or was I going to do this business? In the direct marketing arena, once you have sorted the successes from the failures, it always comes down to that choice…TRY or DO. I am not going to attempt to influence your ultimate choice, but when you have made yours, commit yourself to the do and not the try or don’t make the choice at all.

Stay where you are, it may work out. Really… REALLY?

National American Diabetes Association Alert Day

hayseedscreative's avatar by Leave a comment
Alert Day logo no date

One in three Americans is at risk for developing type 2 diabetes, a serious disease that can lead to complications such as kidney disease, blindness, and amputations. But type 2 diabetes doesn’t have to be permanent–it can be prevented or delayed with healthy lifestyle modifications.

Held the last Tuesday of March each year, American Diabetes Association Alert Day® encourages everyone to take the Type 2 Diabetes Risk Test and participate in workplace-friendly activities that will teach them about reversing the risk for diabetes.

Celebrate your doctor

hayseedscreative's avatar by Leave a comment

It’s National Physicians Week – March 25-31

National Spring cleaning week

hayseedscreative's avatar by Leave a comment

It’s National Spring Cleaning week

After a new, independent study concluded that cleaning your home as little as once a week with national brand cleaners was as dangerous for your lungs as smoking a pack a day for twenty years, some parents are seriously wondering if cleaning the house is worth it at all—and who would blame them?

If adult lungs suffer when we breathe in the dangerous chemicals of national brand cleaning products, what about the developing lungs of children?

Yes, it’s just what you suspected: toxic chemicals are extremely dangerous for your children.

Here is what you need to know about hazardous chemicals and your child’s lungs:

• While toxins threaten everyone’s health, infants and children are especially sensitive to toxins and are very susceptible to air pollution

• Children are more vulnerable to chemicals (pound-by-pound because of their smaller body weight)

• Children’s bodies are less able to detoxify because their organs are not fully developed

If the hazardous chemicals in national brand cleaners are affecting adult respiratory health, imagine what they are doing to children who live in the same home, eat in the same kitchen, bathe in the same bathrooms, walk on the same floors, and breathe the same air! Their little lungs—so pure and clean—should be breathing air that is equally as pure and clean.

Giving up on cleaning all together (as tempting as that may sound some days) is not the answer. Living in filth comes with its own frightening threats to children’s health.

The good news is, it’s possible to provide your little ones with the home environment they deserve—freshly scrubbed, tidy and clean (even disinfected)—without harsh, toxic, organ-damaging chemicals.

EcoSense products are scientifically formulated to get your house sparkling clean without ammonia, chlorine bleach, quaternary disinfectants, or other dangerous chemicals. In fact, these cleaning products are so safe that no child safety caps are required.

These products are so good, they are all I’ve used for the past 15 years! During that time asthma and allergy attacks have been reduced to almost non-existent and this is with reduced medication. I’m healthier and saving money. You too can have a clean home that is also toxin-free! You only need to switch stores and get EcoSense the safer, more effective alternative.

ADVANTAGES OF CLEAN FLOORS

hayseedscreative's avatar by Leave a comment

It goes without saying that clean floors make your home LOOK better, so to beautify your home is a key reason why you clean your floors. Surprisingly, another big reason is to prevent injuries from tripping or slipping.

Other reasons why we are so fussy about having clean floors include: removing stains, dirt, litter and obstructions; removing grit and sand which scratches and wears down the floor’s surface; removing allergens, especially dust; and to make the environment sanitary.

Returning to reasons, aside from beautifying your floors, the correct cleaning methods can remove stains, as well as surface dirt. Proper cleaning actually increases the life of your floors. Cleaning your floors the right way can kill allergens that can cause or exacerbate diseases like asthma.

Regular maintenance can also help you avoid expensive professional cleaning or machine rentals or purchases. Household budgets are sensitive these days, so avoiding these expenses can obviously help.

Different types of wood flooring may require completely different care depending on whether they are waxed, oiled or have a polyurethane coating. It is important to determine the type of finish of a wood floor and always treat it in the proper manner, for instance it is difficult to clear wood floor wax from a floor coated with polyurethane.

Here are some basic floor cleaning tips:

Clear the floor of any furniture that is easy to move.
Sweep or vacuum all loose dirt and debris.
Mop the floor, going along with the grain.
For a polyurethane coated floor, dampen a mop with water and a few drops of dishwashing liquid. Be sure to ring out the mop thoroughly before using it on the floor. Run the mop back and forth, going with the grain of the wood in smooth strokes.
Do not use water for lacquered or shellacked floors, as it can stain the wood and cause buckling.
Buff the floor with a soft cloth to remove any soapy residue. Cloth diapers work well for buffing since they are very soft and absorbent.

Tile and stone flooring is common in kitchens, stairs, and bathrooms. Its cleaning process can be divided into these steps:
Dirt or dust should first be removed with a vacuum cleaner or a broom.
Have a floor cleaning solution or spray bottle for the appropriate floor. If you are cleaning stone floors (marble, granite, travertine, etc.), make sure the cleaning agent states that it is for stones. An acidic tile cleaning solution can be used on ceramic and porcelain floors
After spraying the tile or stone floors in a small area, use a mop to clean and scrub floors.then wipe it with dry cloth.

The company with whom I am associated has recently developed a complete system for cleaning, dusting and polishing your floors easily and efficiently. Another advantage of proper cleaning is that cleaning your floors can burn 200 calories and the results will help you feel psychologically better. So, get to work. Your home will look good and you will feel good.

Better Health Starts at Home

hayseedscreative's avatar by Leave a comment

We are partnered with a company committed to providing the products our customers need for the ultimate in healthy living. We pride ourselves on being part of the Wellness Company. From supplements to foods to home cleaning products, the products you bring into your home do make a difference.

We are pleased to see the scientific community draw unequivocal conclusions about topics we have been using for years. We are confident that as the facts about competitors’ products become more widely known, more consumers than ever will seek out the products that only our partner company can provide.

Full Study: Cleaning at home and at work in relation to lung function decline and airway obstruction

It’s National Cleaning Week!

hayseedscreative's avatar by Leave a comment

National Cleaning Week – Begins on March 24 and ends April 2