This weekend, my boys and I undertook the taks of building raised bed vegetable garden.  It’s a good task for us, since we don’t have lots of space for gardening. Building A Raised Bed Vegetable Garden We’ve tried planting a garden several times over the years, but to be honest, we haven’t given it the [...] Read the full article

With the New Year well underway, those who have implemented resolutions are hard at it.  I observed this firsthand the other day, when some came along and offered me a few pieces of chocolate cake.  They explained that one of their resolutions for the year was to lose weight, and dieting was hard enough.  She [...] Read the full article

I sat down a few days ago to write my goals for a healthy 2010, and to be quite honest, I just couldn’t get into it.  The events of the week following Christmas certainly brought my life’s priorities into focus, so the act of writing fitness goals seemed much less important.  Watching your child suffer [...] Read the full article

As the end of 2009 rapidly approaches, it’s time to look back and examine my progress over the course of the year. I’m not exactly looking forward to this-but here goes. 1. Perform 12 unassisted pull ups (overhand grip, shoulder width) My best effort for the year was 9. For whatever reason, I stalled out [...] Read the full article

With the holidays upon us, those of us who are looking for ways of dealing with the temptation of overindulgence are likely cringing at the largess before us.  But, take hope — some recent findings about the human capacity for dealing with temptation should give us hope. My Experience In Dealing With Temptation During some [...] Read the full article

The other day, I ran across an ancient proverb.  It read: Good habits result from resisting temptation There’s a great deal of truth in this, I believe.  We’re all human, and each of us faces temptation every day.  It comes at us in the form of food, shopping, credit/debt, envy, jealousy, alcohol – and that’s [...] Read the full article

There’s a mountain of evidence to support the idea that we need to believe in ourselves to achieve our goals.  It’s true,too.  We should approach our goals with a positive attitude and belief in success.  But being an optimist can be a double-edged sword. The Downside Of Being An Optimist Researchers in Japan studied the [...] Read the full article

When faced with a challenge, how do you handle it?  Do you believe you can overcome roadblocks, or do you doubt yourself? From childhood, each of us builds experience, which we know to be the greatest teacher.  As children and young adults, that experience *hopefully* keeps us safe and out of trouble.  But that experience [...] Read the full article