Tuesday Tips & Tricks - New Years Hangover Helper

(OK, I know it is Wednesday, but the holidays are busy and I didn't want you to miss out on this tip!)


photo by: itspaulkelly via flickr


Plan on ringing in the New Year with a bit of bubbly? This little trick always seems to help my husband and me avoid a big-time hangover on New Years Day (or any excessive celebration)!

*** Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV! Just a regular woman who is sharing what works for her and promises no cure for you or yours! Do not take this for medical advice or sue me if it doesn't work or for any other reason! But, you may thank me if it does!

1. Have a good, hearty meal before your celebrations (i.e. drinking) begin.

2. Drink plenty of water! At least one glass of water for every two glasses of your alcoholic beverage of choice.

3. Around 11pm or at least before going to bed, take a multi-vitamin and two ibuprofen with a tall glass of water.

4. Get at least 6 hours of sleep!

5. Wake up feeling surprisingly un-hungover.

6. Have a happy New Year!!!

Tuesday Tips & Tricks: Fitting in activity

What a busy week! Children home, husband home, shopping and baking to be done! Posts will likely be few and far between this week and next as we all celebrate love, life and family over the holidays.

Today's tip is about helping your kids (and yourself) to keep active during these crazy holidays. My children love to watch videos, and when I'm busy I let them! Our general rule is about an hour a day. If they want more than that they have to earn it. How do my kids earn a video or a little TV? Smile practice, jumping jacks and dancing!

I started requiring this of the kids before a program because they usually want to watch TV when they are tired and grumpy and bored. After the show is over, instead of feeling better, they are usually tired and grumpy and bored. So, to get them feeling good before a video we do:

10 jumping jacks (unless they feel challenged and say, "I bet I can do 20!";
10 Practice smiles (which gets them giggling and happy), and
1 fun song to dance to (we just turn on the radio to something fast).

Laughing, jumping and having fun together gets us all in a better mood! When they 30-minute video is over, the kids are usually in the mood for some good, active play!

If you don't hear from me again until next week, I wish you all a wonderful and happy holiday!

Being the boss

Did you consider, when you were fawning with your amour over the thought of all things baby, that babies grow up into children? And children to teenagers? And that only when they are fully grown peace might be restored, somewhat, in your life once again?

I didn't. I laugh at myself as I write this. I had this fantasy of the perfect little family, with the perfect little baby and little children as if everyday would be Christmas morning. We would be perfect parents and joy would be the resounding characteristic of my home. 



Did you realize that you would actually be responsible for another human, perhaps a few of them, in every single conceivable way? First-time mommies with babies: ALERT! This is the easy part. Enjoy it. It does pass faster than you can imagine. You are responsible for keeping baby cleaned, fed, safe and relatively happy. After this it gets tricky and you will find yourself tested in ways never expected.



Before they talked back



Not only do we have to keep our children clean and fed, which can be enough of a challenge (the cleaning part is a challenge because we have to feed them!), but we also have to teach them everything! How to brush their teeth, put on shoes, wipe their butts, eat with a fork, drink from a cup, say please and thank you, zip zippers, button buttons, be nice with animals and people, speak nicely, etiquette, grammar, handle their emotions, bullies and teachers, wash their hands and so on and so on and so on. And while we're teaching, they dare to develop their own opinions, likes and preferences and discover their independent selves!

We are the bosses of our children, but it's like being the president of a country in constant anarchy! It's hourly mutiny! And when they aren't trying to kill each other they are ganging up against us! Our job is to teach our children to be independent of us, but it actually makes our job harder because they assert their independence whenever they want instead of whenever we want.

Good thing they give amazing hugs, isn't it? 23 hours and 59 minutes of stress and craziness melt away with one sweet hug. And when it doesn't, well, I guess I'll have to heed the wise words of my 5-year-old (her recent response to my request to stop whining), "You wanted to have us, so you're just going to have to deal with it."

America's Most Amazingly Energized Woman

This post is obviously not about me! But it could be about you or someone you know. Centrum®, along with funny-lady Molly Shannon, is hosting a contest to find this very woman and they are inviting all of us to nominate her! 

Through January 3rd, you can visit  LoveFeelingHealthy.com to nominate a woman lives life to the fullest with energy and love and a smile on her face - even during the holiday season! Maybe she's that friend who manages to keep a clean home and fit in a workout, all the while planning and executing fun activities with her children! Or perhaps she's a fellow blogger who seems to do it all and shares and inspires her readers the spirit of her life. How I aspire to be that woman! But, alas, I am not.

If you know this woman, go to the aforementioned site by January 3rd and nominate her (or yourself!) in 300 words or less.

Five finalists will be selected by a panel of judges and the we, the public, get to vote for "America's Most Amazingly Energized Woman!"

The prizes, Xperience Days gift certificates, are awesome! Perhaps she'll even share hers with you for being such a great friend!
 
While you're there you can download a $3 coupon for Centrum® Women’s or Centrum® Men’s to help you achieve better health during the holiday season and check out tips from Molly Shannon herself!

Disclosure Statement: I am a member of One2One Network and this post is part of a member project where I am eligible to win prizing.  I make no claims about Centrum as a product or it's effectiveness.

Sleep and the Gender Gap

Thank you all for wishing my family well. Fortunately, it seemed to be an isolated case! Everyone has been fine since the night of cherries (newcomers, welcome! See previous post for the gory details).

As I mentioned, there was actually a study done that showed that men do indeed sleep through the cries of babies. Research done by Mindlab, at the University of Sussex, determined that a baby's cry doesn't even rank in the top ten of things that wake men from their slumber!

A cricket is more likely to wake a man than his screaming newborn! The participants were random, not necessarily fathers, though it didn't seem to make a difference whether they had children or not. Mothers and non-mothers alike were awakened by the cries of a baby.

If there are any inventors reading this, I would like to commission you to create a device that will convert baby screams to cricket chirps through the baby monitor. Wouldn't that be awesome?! So, baby cries, but Papa hears crickets chirping at his bedside. Mommy feigns sleep and upon waking, Papa hears the child crying. Seeing his sleeping wife, the loving husband goes and quiets his precious child.

The more likely scenario, sadly for us mommies who work around the clock, is that when the chirping sound wakes our husbands and they finally do hear the baby crying, they will simply give us a shake and say, "The baby is crying!" Then, like they do, they will just roll over and fall right back to sleep.