FitSugar

Last Minute Shopping: Food Court Survival Guide

FitSugar — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 09:00:50 -0800

If you're cramming in last minute Christmas shopping, you might just be headed to the mall for a marathon day of shopping.

A long shopping day means you're going to need to refuel. With all the wonderful treats around you don't want to waste precious calories on run-of-the-mill food court fare. I have found a few items that are lower in calories and saturated fat and though may not be the healthiest choices overall, like celeb trainer Valerie Waters says, sometimes you just have to make the better choice.

From Subway:
6" Veggie Delite: 230 calories, 1 g saturated fat
6" Turkey Breast: 280 calories, 1.5 g saturated fat
6" Oven Roasted Chicken Breast: 310 calories, 1.5 g saturated fat

Not into those choices? Then read more.

From McDonald's:
Premium Southwest Salad with Grilled Chicken: 320 calories, 3 g saturated fat
Premium Caesar Salad with Grilled Chicken: 220 calories, 3 g saturated fat
Snack Size Fruit & Walnut Salad: 210 calories, 1.5 g of saturated fat

Opt for no dressing or choose from these two:

Newman's Own Low Fat Balsamic Vinaigrette: 40 calories, 0 g saturated fat
Newman's Own Low Fat Family Recipe Italian Dressing: 60 calories, 0 g saturated fat

From Wendy's:
Chicken Caesar Salad with Grilled Chicken Fillet: 490 calories, 7 g saturated fat
Broccoli and Cheese Potato: 340 calories, 1.5 g saturated fat
Grilled Chicken Go Wrap: 250 calories, 3.5 g saturated fat
Ultimate Chicken Grill: 350 calories, 1.5 g saturated fat
Side of Mandarin Oranges: 80 calories, 0 g saturated fat

From Taco Bell:
Fresco Bean Burrito: 340 calories, 2.5 g saturated fat
Regular Style Ranchero Chicken Soft Taco: 270 calories, 4 g saturated fat
Regular Style Spicy Chicken Soft Taco: 170 calories, 2 g saturated fat
Fresco Burrito Supreme Chicken: 340 calories, 2.5 g saturated fat
Fiesta Taco Salad NO Shell: 460 calories, 8 g saturated fat

From Dunkin' Donuts:
Multigrain bagel w/ reduced fat vegetable cream cheese: 520 calories, 8 g saturated fat
Original Chicken Wrap: 230 calories, 3 g saturated fat
Garden Salad: 180 calories, 3 g saturated fat
Chicken Noodle Soup: 130 calories, 1 g saturated fat

From Sbarro:
Slice of thin-crust cheese pizza: 460 calories, 3.5 g saturated fat

Another great option is to pack your own healthy snacks or sandwiches. You'll know it's low in calories and fat, will save you money, and you won't have to wait in those long lines.

Flickr User pinksherbet

5 Dieting Mistakes to Avoid Over the Holidays

FitSugar — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:00:28 -0800

December is a month rife with temptations for the dieter. I believe maintaining your weight for the month, rather than trying to lose, is a noble goal when you figure that you have less time to exercise and more events to attend. Here are five common mistakes to avoid for the next month.

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Tiger Woods's 'Real Apology to Elin Will Come from My Behavior'

kty — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:22:02 -0800

By Brian Orloff
Tiger Woods publicly apologized Friday morning during a televised press conference, acknowledging that those gathered had supported him and now had cause to be critical of him. "I want to say to each of you simply and directly: I am deeply sorry for my irresponsible, selfish behavior," Woods, 34, said from a simple lectern at the TPC Sawgrass golf course in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. "I know people want to find out how I could be so selfish and so foolish. People want to know how I could have done these things to my wife Elin and to my children. And while I have always tried to be a private person, there are some things I want to say." "Elin and I have started the process of discussing the damage caused by my behavior," he explained, adding, "My real apology will not come in the form of words, but my behavior over time. We have a lot to discuss. What we say to each other will remain between the two of us." During his 15-minute remarks, the golfer explained that he sought in-patient therapy beginning in late December, where he received "guidance for the issues I'm facing." "I had a lot of time to think of what I have done," he said. "My failures have made me look at myself in a way I never wanted to before."

Elin Didn't Attack Me

Sober and contrite in tone, Woods also took time to clear up speculation around his bizarre car accident on Nov. 27. "I have a lot to atone for," he said, "but there's one issue I really want to discuss. Some people have speculated that Elin somehow hurt or attacked me on Thanksgiving night. It angers me that people would fabricate a story like that: Elin never hit me that night or any other night. There has never been [any] domestic violence in our marriage. Ever." Praising his wife's "enormous grace and poise," the embattled athlete said he hoped the media would focus its attention on him and his indiscretions – not his wife or children. "The issue involved here was my repeated irresponsible behavior," he said. "I was unfaithful. I had affairs. I cheated. What I did is not acceptable – and I am the only person to blame. I stopped living by the core values that I was taught to believe in. I knew my actions were wrong, but I convinced myself that normal rules didn’t apply. Instead, I thought only about myself. I ran straight through the boundaries a married couple should live by. I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to. I felt that I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me."
PHOTOS: Can Love Survive Scandal?

A Controlled Statement

Though Elin was noticeably absent, the golfer delivered his remarks in front of a handpicked audience including his mother, Kultida, who was seated in the front row. Reading his prepared statement slowly, and in a tense, measured tone, Woods said he will return to therapy and continue to seek treatment. Before Friday's remarks, some in the golf community criticized Woods's timing. Simultaneously, his professional golf colleagues were competing in this year's WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in Marana, Ariz., a tournament that Woods has won three times. But Woods's reps apparently contacted the PGA commissioner Thursday to inform him that the golfer would be making his statement on Friday, as the scheduling coincided with a break from his sex rehab treatment. "I recognize I have brought this on myself," Woods said toward the end of his remarks. "And I know above all, I am the one who needs to change. I owe it to my family to become a better person."

Explaining that he is in a 45-day program that began around the holidays, Tiger Woods said as part of his public address Friday that his golfing days are on hold and he is returning to therapy on Saturday, to help him deal with what he termed his failures and for being "selfish and foolish." Therapy, he said, helps him keep his life in balance and to see that his family is what's most important to him. "It's hard for me to admit I need help," a somber Woods, 34, standing before a hand-selected group of friends and his mother Kultilda, said at the PGA's TPC Sawgrass headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., "but I do." Stressing, as he did repeatedly throughout his 14-minute speech, that his therapy as well as his marital issues are private matters, Woods admited, "My failures have made me look at myself in a way I never wanted to before." The golfer was reportedly being treated at the Pine Grove Behavioral Health and Addiction clinic in Hattiesburg, Miss. for sexual addiction. "I was unfaithful," Woods said Friday. "I had affairs. I cheated." Accepting full responsibility for his transgressions, he also said that he learned early on that it is not what one accomplishes in life that counts, but what one overcomes.

How to Avoid Another Waco: Keeping the Peace in 10-Year Standoff with Armed Family Compound

Roarman — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:12:53 -0800

TRINIDAD, Texas - It was Christmas Eve 1999, but John Joe Gray wasn't consumed with the holiday spirit. When the car in which he was a passenger was pulled over for speeding by two Texas state troopers near Palestine, in Anderson County, he was packing a loaded handgun in a shoulder holster. He had no permit for it.

One of the troopers ordered Gray out of the car. He either refused or was slow to respond. When the troopers tried to remove him, Gray resisted, was handcuffed and a scuffle ensued. The cops said he bit one of them and tried to grab the other's gun.

"Somehow, his hand got in my mouth," Gray said in a radio interview eight months later. "I bit down and I wouldn't let go. They sprayed me with the pepper spray three times." He was arrested and jailed.

Two weeks later at a bail hearing, Gray promised the judge he would appear at future court hearings if he bonded out of jail. He denied or downplayed the prosecutor's questions about his purported involvement in antigovernment militias and a plot to bomb a Texas interstate highway. "I'm a member of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, king of kings and lord of lords," he said.

John Joe Gray
Judge Jim Parsons granted the lower bail, but with conditions. One was that neither Gray nor anyone in his family keep firearms on their 47-acre rural compound alongside the Trinity River just outside the town of Trinidad in Henderson County, the next county north of Anderson. "I don't want these officers to go out there and have to arrest him at this compound and be confronted by a bunch of firearms," the judge said.

Gray posted bail and went home. Two months later, the father of six with no prior criminal record sent a letter to authorities: If your deputies come onto my property, bring body bags. Gray had perhaps 16 other people, including several grandchildren, living at his modest home and outbuildings at the time. Armed family members, including Gray's wife, Alicia, took turns patrolling the property. That worried authorities - so much so that even when Gray began skipping court appearances, they didn't go arrest him.

"They were pretty well fixed up with weapons," recalls Howard "Slick" Alfred, the Henderson County sheriff at the time. "They had better weapons than we had. There was children in there. He was kind of hiding behind those kids. I didn't want another Waco kind of deal." And it's not as if Gray was a threat to the community, Alfred adds. "He's not hurting anybody over there."

Now approaching 10 years of self-imposed house arrest, Gray, 60, and various family members remain secluded in the verdant countryside outside this town of 1,100 in the undulating terrain of East Texas. The family has no electricity, no phone, no running water, and hasn't had for nearly a decade. Instead, they get by with wood-burning heaters, a generator, kerosene lamps, water drawn from the river - and occasional handouts from friends and sympathizers.

Keith Tarkington lost his two sons, then aged 2 and 4, when his estranged wife Lisa Gray snatched them and took them to her father's compound in early 2000.
Not only has Gray escaped prosecution on a felony charge, he may also have helped a daughter defy a court order giving custody of her two children to her ex-husband. Gray's oldest son avoided a misdemeanor prosecution for hitting and kicking that ex-husband's truck, so fearful are authorities of a confrontation with the Gray clan. Gray also is several years delinquent on property taxes. The county has sued for payment and conceivably could sell his land to recover the money owed - but the sheriff's office finally quit trying to serve court papers on him after three attempts last year.

Gray poses a quandary for authorities: How do you arrest a heavily armed, government-hating religious zealot when trying to do so might cause a bloodbath? And what sort of message does it convey to not apprehend an accused lawbreaker? While tax-dodging, money-laundering "sovereign-citizen" extremists claiming they are subject only to God's laws are imprisoned across the nation, John Joe Gray remains free. He has thwarted four Henderson County sheriffs so far. "I see no reason right at this minute to storm a compound where officers could get killed," says the current sheriff, Ray Nutt. "My position is to sit and wait."

Shades of Gray

Even before his arrest and indictment on charges that included assaulting a trooper, Gray, who was a self-employed carpenter, was known as a fervently religious, far-right militiaman. He hosted gatherings of the Texas Constitutional Militia, an outfit formed on the first anniversary of the conclusion of the 52-day standoff between federal agents and heavily armed members of the Branch Davidian religious sect in Waco 78 miles away, which ended catastrophically in 1993 with 80 men, women and children dying in an inferno. He was involved with the secessionist group, Republic of Texas, which had its own seven-day standoff with Texas Rangers in 1997, after its leader and several followers kidnapped a neighbor couple at gunpoint. Gray left the group, he said at his 2000 bail hearing, because "they was not of God. They did not go of God's ways."

At that hearing, Anderson County District Attorney Doug Lowe asked Gray about documents found in the car he was riding in that included plans to make a bomb and place it on a Dallas interstate, as well as instructions on urban survival, including the use of terrorist bombs and booby traps. It belonged to the car's driver, Gray maintained. Lowe asked about him being arrested on the grounds of the Capitol in Austin for carrying a weapon. Didn't happen, Gray said. And those phone calls threatening an attack on the jail unless he was released? Somebody, Gray claimed, "is trying to set me up."

Signs like this one, along with several that are more threatening, mark the perimeter of John Joe Gray's 47 acres in Henderson County, Tex. Many militia enthusiasts fear that vaccines are part of a murderous government conspiracy.
Gray also was affiliated with the Oregon-based Embassy of Heaven, which describes itself as a group of "peculiar people" who are citizens of heaven obeying the government of God, not secular authorities. The church opposes divorce and remarriage, lawyers and courtrooms. It shuns politics and elections and believes that the United States is a "pervert nation." The church issues business and driver's licenses, passports and license plates to be used instead of those offered by government. They aren't legal, of course, and before his felony arrest, Gray was cited for attempting to use an Embassy of Heaven driver's license and tag. He failed to show up for his court appearance on that, too. At the time of his arrest, neither he nor his wife, Alicia, had valid driver's licenses, his attorney told the judge in his criminal case.

Harold Colvin has been a barber in Trinidad for 51 years, and, before the dust-up with the law, John Joe Gray was one of his customers. He remembers a humorless man who grew increasingly odd. "At one time he was an average Joe Blow," says Colvin, an affable man with a full head of white hair who charges $7 for a haircut. "He had funny ideas. His were mostly religious. He said he wasn't going to pay any taxes … regardless of what the law said."

Gray's former son-in-law, Keith Tarkington, recalls Gray and other family members cutting up their Social Security cards and mailing the pieces to the Social Security Administration, advising that they no longer wanted to be part of the system. (So-called sovereign citizens, radical antigovernment activists, similarly claim to have no obligation to pay taxes or obey federal laws. Famous examples of such "sovereigns" include the Montana Freemen, who had their own 81-day standoff with federal authorities in 1996.) When he holed up on his land, Gray had lots of food stored. He began stockpiling earlier in 1999, Tarkington says, because like many in the militia movement, Gray believed that "Y2K" - the changeover of millennia on Jan. 1, 2000 - would produce cataclysmic events.

Today, Gray continues to stiff Henderson County on property taxes. He has been delinquent since 2004 on taxes on his home and land on Old River Road, which has a market value of $151,690, according to records. As of November 2008, he owed $10,149, according to the tax assessor's office. He also hasn't paid taxes since 1995 on an undeveloped parcel he owns elsewhere in the county, even though the bill is less than $6 a year. He is $176 in arrears, records show. "He's just a different kind of person," says former sheriff Alfred, 76, who retired in 2000. "He's got an entirely different philosophy than most of us."

No Regrets

In recent years, Gray and his family have lived in obscurity. It wasn't always so. In August 2000, Austin, Texas-based radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones told his audience he had received a tip that federal agents were preparing to attack Gray's compound in armored vehicles. Reporters from The New York Times, The Washington Post and other media outlets descended on tiny Trinidad for a confrontation that never came.

That same month, three armed men ventured into a neighboring pasture at dusk and destroyed a surveillance camera and video transmitter that authorities had placed in a horse trailer, before retreating to the Gray property. And later that year, Chuck Norris, martial artist, actor, right-wing Christian book author and fellow Texan, met with Gray at his ranch and offered to get him free legal representation in an attempt to end the standoff. "There's two people that family looks up to: Mel Gibson and Chuck," an intermediary said. But even Norris couldn't resolve the impasse.

"God's word is the sole guide for our family," Alicia Gray said in a press release in 2000. "Our faith in God is strong and unbending … [O]ur resolve is without compromise."

Her husband seconded those thoughts. "The Lord teaches to protect my property and family with every means I can, and that is what I will do," he told an interviewer.

Citing the Waco fiasco, Alfred opted to wait Gray out. "What I hope is, we get a call either from him or somebody close to him, saying he wants to surrender," his chief deputy, Ronny Brownlow, said at the time. "Time is on our side." Brownlow succeeded Alfred as sheriff, and now he, too, has retired.

So Gray is left alone. "I feel like everyone should abide by the same law," says Colvin, his former barber. "I don't like what the law has let him get away with. I could do the same thing. But most of us wouldn't go that far."

Doug Lowe, the district attorney, says he isn't concerned that the hands-off approach will encourage other antigovernment diehards to follow Gray's example. "I don't regret not having a Waco," he says. Authorities have declined to make a martyr of Gray in the eyes of other antigovernment zealots, he notes. "They get more press when police make the siege. Eventually, the law catches up to these people."

Stealing the Children

That approach has embittered Tarkington, who was married to one of Gray's daughters. Lisa Gray left Tarkington after less than four years of marriage and took their sons, aged 2 and 4 at the time, to her father's compound. "When we was dating, I knew he [Gray] was a little bit different," Tarkington, 43, says. "It took him two years to convince my wife she was better off living with him than me."

Tarkington visited the Gray compound in 1999 trying in vain to talk to his wife and see his sons. "Don't you worry about your wife and kids. We'll take care of them," he quotes his former father-in-law as telling him. During one visit in October 1999, John Joe Gray's eldest child, Jonathan, or "Bubba," vandalized his truck, Tarkington says. Jonathan Gray was charged with criminal mischief, a misdemeanor. But the charge was dropped nearly three years later. The reason given by the prosecutor? He couldn't obtain identifying information about Jonathan Gray such as his birth date and driver's license number. The court file, however, includes a document with Jonathan Gray's birth date.

Tarkington filed for divorce and got a court order for custody of the boys. There was one problem. With no proof that his children were living at the Gray compound, he couldn't get the Henderson County Sheriff's Department to serve the document authorizing them to remove the boys from their mother's custody. Since it was a civil matter, they couldn't go on Gray's land. They left the paperwork on a fence post.

Alfred, the former sheriff, says people friendly to law enforcement visited the Gray compound back then, but told authorities that they didn't see the children. "Nobody could ever find out if those kids were there," he says. The current sheriff, Ray Nutt, says he has no information of the whereabouts of Tarkington's boys.

Tarkington spends much of his time nowadays at his parents' home in Gun Barrel City, 16 miles from the Gray family compound, pestering law enforcement agencies to arrest Gray. "A troop of Boy Scouts could do a better job," he says with disgust. "The police have done everything they can to protect John Joe Gray." He and others believe that his ex-wife and sons are now likely living in another state.

Sheriff Nutt says he sympathizes. But he also implies that Tarkington has become obsessed with Gray. "Sometimes his focus is more on Joe Gray than his children," he says. "He wants someone to assault that compound."

'We Are Militia'

Old River Road deteriorates from asphalt to hard sand and rocks as you draw nearer to John Joe Gray's home. Pastures of tall grass behind barbed-wire fences line each side. Cattle graze, and a lone gray horse ambles homeward. A couple of dreary old trailers squat in the grass, and a red barn stands nearby. Gray's property is just ahead. Perhaps 20 goats belonging to him mill about the road, momentarily blocking a car's progress. Jonathan Gray, 37, is on sentry duty, sitting in a pasture near the road, keeping an eye out for any unwelcome visitors one day late in August. It is 100 degrees.

Soon, he comes down the road to investigate why somebody has stopped outside the entrance to the compound. He's wearing a baseball cap, gray T-shirt and jeans. A pistol - in violation of the nearly 10-year-old court order - is strapped to one hip, a knife hugs the other. With his beard and mustache and hazel eyes, he resembles his father. Minutes later, a brother, Timothy, 32, and a young woman appear at the fence to stare at the stranger.

Near the driveway leading to the house hidden beyond a grove of trees, are handmade signs: "We Are Militia And Will Live Free Or You'll Die," reads one. "Militias are the people," Jonathan Gray explains. "Thomas Jefferson said every 75 years the people need to rise up and straighten the government out."

Other signs proclaim: "Disobedience to Tyranny is Obedience to God!" and "Vaccinations Equal Annihilation." Hanging from a tree is a noose and yet another sign: "Solution To Tyranny."

Day after day, month after month, this is where John Joe Gray, his wife and others have hunkered down. Property records show that the two-story, three-bedroom main house contains about 1,300 square feet. There are two tiny residential outbuildings, and a barn with two add-ons.

Jonathan Gray declines to say how many people live on the property. (Sheriff Nutt's estimate is 10 or 11.) Nor will he say if his sister, Lisa, or her children are among those living on the property.

The Law Enforcement Conundrum

Although only John Joe Gray faces an outstanding felony charge, Jonathan Gray says no one in the family ventures off their land. He suggests they might be arrested and charged with aiding and abetting the family patriarch if they did. Some folks in these parts are skeptical - they suspect that John Joe Gray probably sneaks away from time to time. "He can cross the river and be in a different county," Tarkington says.

In fact, it probably would be easy for anybody to leave the compound to buy fuel, clothing or medicines. Sheriff Nutt says that since he took office in January, his deputies have not conducted surveillance on the property.

Not that there is much to entice Gray into Trinidad anyway. The two-block "business district" is all but dead. The bank - gone. Billie's Fried Pies -- closed. Trinidad General Store, John D's T.V., Food Mart - all empty. Not much is left other than the tiny City Hall and adjacent police department, plus Harold Colvin's barber shop, which is nothing more than a modest aluminum shed. If Gray got to craving a meal in a restaurant, the Dairy Queen on the highway would be the only game in town.

All but about 15 of the Grays' 47 acres flood from time to time, says Jonathan Gray between spits of tobacco juice. "We grow what we can." Two donkeys grazing nearby are used to plow what tillable land there is, he says. The family also has plenty of game to shoot - deer, rabbits and squirrels. And from time to time, he says, friends and sympathizers drop off food and other supplies.

If living without central heat and air or a modern home-entertainment system is a hardship, Jonathan Gray - a father of four - isn't admitting it. "Your body can get used to anything," he says. He and his brother Timothy seem surprised when asked what they do for fun. "What do you mean by fun?" Timothy asks. They do play an occasional game of dominos, Jonathan says. "Dad does a lot of listening to the shortwave," he adds.

The family does not miss attending church, or need to do so, Jonathan Gray says. "What is a church but a building? What do they do in church? Pray. That's all we gotta do here, is read the Word. We go by the Bible."

When the visitor asks to speak with John Joe Gray, Timothy Gray walks up the driveway and returns minutes later. His father would not talk, he says, because the Intelligence Report wrote in 2000 that the family members were terrorists. (This is untrue.) He also ordered his sons to say no more. But does John Joe Gray intend to live out his remaining years in isolation here? "For now," Jonathan says cryptically.

So the wait goes on. Sheriff Nutt concedes that perhaps Gray should have been nabbed early on. Alfred, the sheriff when the stalemate began, isn't so sure.

"I was in law enforcement for 42 years, and I always tried to do the right thing," he says. "His case has always been a snag on me. At the time, it just didn't seem the right thing to do because of the [potential] useless waste of life. I don't know if it was the right thing to do. I feel like it was."

Source: http://www.alternet.org/rights/144943/how_to_avoid_another_waco%3A_keepi...

Happy New Year!!!

MireMolnar — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 18:07:20 -0800

From www.nonprofitshoppingmall.com
As I get older it seems that the holidays come faster and faster each year. When you have children it’s almost like there is never a break from holidays. Once the New Year begins I hardly have enough time to breath before it’s time to start planning birthday parties and designing new Halloween costumes. I can’t complain though, I love my job as a mother and I am as close as it gets to being a hip Martha Stewart to the 30 something’s. Although, I prefer to identify myself as June Cleaver with an edge. My point is, it gets more difficult each year to find time for resolutions when there are so many other obligations on the table. Most of us tend to make resolutions that focus on common issues like weight loss, quitting smoking or drinking, and securing our financial futures. Let’s be honest though, how many of us actually stick to these promises? At best we survive on ambition alone for a couple of weeks after New Year’s Eve, but eventually the majority of us become so overwhelmed with daily life that we quickly fall back into old patterns. It is no secret that these common resolutions are notoriously ridden by failure. It’s not always our own fault. So many factors weigh heavily on the success of weight loss, and improving our health, and sometimes we may have to tap our life savings when a failing economy hits us below the belt. After so many years of falling off the resolution wagon myself I decided to change my thinking. Rather than making myself empty promises of fitting into the jeans I loved so much in high school or putting away enough money to finally travel abroad, I chose to set goals that are not only easy to fulfill but also provide eternal enrichment for my soul.
It all began in 2001 when my daughter was only 1 year old. I wasn’t getting any closer to losing that baby weight and my wallet was surely getting thinner as I purchased a thousand diapers a day. I had quit smoking, but a glass of red wine was a bedtime staple. I took a moment to think about the things I missed the most, the things that used to bring me peace but that I could no longer find the time to enjoy. What was it that I could resolve to bring back to my life without killing myself trying to obtain it? After racking my brain for a bit it hit me….READ A BOOK! Yes, that was it. If I could just read everyday even it I only had 10 minutes to do it, I would be so much happier. And what does happiness bring? Well, happiness creates more endorphins in my brain. Endorphins give me energy and ambition. That energy and ambition gives me the strength to be healthy minded. A healthy mind encourages me to take better care of myself. When I take better care of myself I lose weight. Weight loss helps me save money because rather than buying new clothes I can pull out those skinny jeans. I love the way I feel in those jeans so I strut around with pride and confidence and the confidence clears up all the clutter in my head and helps me to get out into the world and share my contagious joy. With all that joy my body feels so great that my desire to smoke or drink is almost non-existent. So you see, a small resolution that is easy to keep can have a profound effect on your entire life. It’s been 9 years since I resolved to simply pick up a book and since then I have read every single day without fail. The moment I finish one book I already have another one right next to me to begin. I have lost 50 pounds and I occasionally have a drink on the weekends. Before I made that change in my life I was a young mother that couldn’t even chase my daughter around the yard without being in pain, now my daughter can’t keep up with me. You wanna know something else that happens when you succeed at your personal goals and feel happiness? You feel a desire to help other people as well, because you have that extra joy to spread around. When you get to that place in your soul where you have the ability to help others it’s sometimes hard to decide where to start, so I have a few suggestions for you. There are thousands of foundations out there to support but I chose a handful to share with you that are near and dear to my heart.

RAINN: The nation’s largest anti-sexual assault organization. One of “America’s 100 Best Charities” -Worth Magazine
RAINN operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline, and publicizes the hotline’s free, confidential services; educates the public about sexual assault; and leads national efforts to prevent sexual assault, improve services to victims and ensure that rapists are brought to justice. In 2007, RAINN expanded its hotline services with the National Sexual Assault Online Hotline, the nation’s first secure web-based hotline that provides live and completely confidential help to victims through an interface as intuitive as instant messaging. RAINN uses its community partnerships to put critical information into the hands of young women and men at concerts, on campus and in communities. Through these efforts, RAINN educates more than 120 million Americans each year about sexual assault. And that is just a small taste of what RAINN does for the world.

Founded by its member charities in 1988, EarthShare is an opportunity for caring employees and workplaces to support hundreds of environmental charities through workplace giving campaigns. A workplace giving campaign is an annual, employer-sponsored program that lets employees contribute a few dollars per paycheck as their charitable donation. Today EarthShare represents 71 national organizations and hundreds of local groups in 19 states. EarthShare’s member charities work hard every day to safeguard your health, our quality of life and the natural resources we depend on. All of these efforts are supported by EarthShare’s mission: To engage individuals and organizations in creating a healthy and sustainable environment. But you don’t have to be an employee to help Earthshare’s efforts. You can help by simply contributing through your everyday online purchases. You can feel good about your decision to give through EarthShare. EarthShare practices financial transparency and earned the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance Accredited Charity ranking.

Do Something believes that you have the power to make a difference. It is their aim to inspire, support and celebrate a generation of doers: people who see the need to do something, believe in their ability to get it done, and then take action. At DoSomething.org they provide the tools and resources for you to convert your ideas and energy into positive action and to be part of a generation of doers. At Do Something they have five guidelines that they live by:

Believe in teenagers. Teenagers can lead today. We don’t require adults.
Trust teenagers. They provide reliable, easy to access information and activation strategies, but teens decide for themselves what to do.
Celebrate teenagers. They think all measurable contributions from teens are valuable.
Respect teenagers. They understand that teenagers have diverse abilities and constraints.
Value teenagers. Their programs and products are free. They’re not after teens’ money; they want their passion, time and creativity.

With guidelines like that it’s hard not to give kudo’s and contributions to such a fantastic organization.

This simple guiding principle is one of the reasons why TakingItGlobal been successful in enabling youth leaders. How this blueprint is achieved differs for everyone, but they all emerge from this process with the same results. Inspiration from a global community of their peers builds self-confidence. Information provided by tools and resources accelerates their transformation into better agents of change. Involvement through opportunities enables their capacity as active citizens.
Their vision: Youth everywhere actively engaged and connected in shaping a more inclusive, peaceful and sustainable world. Their mission: To enable a collaborative learning community which provides youth with access to global opportunities, cross-cultural connections and meaningful participation in decision-making.
If you’ve been on this planet long enough I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “the children are our future” and it couldn’t be more true or relevant than it is today. Let’s face it folks, we have a pretty grim future unless we inspire and nurture our children on a global scale. TakingItGlobal is an excellent resource to help you get started.

Their mission is simple but their impact is profound: To save children’s lives and protect people’s health by increasing access to immunization in poor countries. How do they do this? A few ways is through their innovative partnership, funding and technologies. Launched in 2000, the GAVI Alliance is a global health partnership representing stakeholders in immunization from both private and public sectors: developing world and donor governments, private sector philanthropists such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the financial community, developed and developing country vaccine manufacturers, research and technical institutes, civil society organizations and multilateral organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Bank. By working together, Alliance members achieve objectives, that no single agency or group could achieve:
-Accelerate access to existing underused vaccines; -Strengthen health and immunization systems in countries; -Introduce innovative new immunization technology, including vaccines.
This prevents millions of deaths worldwide and contributes to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal for child health.
You might be asking what you can do to contribute to one or all of these incredible foundations. I have a very simple solution for you that will tie into some of those personal resolutions you have for yourself. It all starts with basic online purchases by using NonProfitShoppingMall as your resource for some of the best retailers in the world. Each and every purchase you make will contribute a percentage of your final sale to the non-profit organization of your choice. For Instance, let’s say you’ve made a promise to yourself to relax more this coming year, or perhaps you’d like to take a trip. There are 2 great retailers out there to help you succeed. Pick up some pajamas from BedHead Pajamas and settle down with that DVD you keep meaning to set aside time for. Or how about purchasing some airline tickets from Expedia.com for that unforgettable trip you’ve always dreamed of. Another great resolution is to boost your ego with a fabulous new wardrobe from Roots.com. Roots has some of the cutest jackets and sweaters for the whole family to keep you warm all winter. One of the most common and difficult resolutions is to be healthier. Whether you want to shed those holiday pounds or have an even bigger health goal at hand, Drugstore.com is the place to purchase all of your nutritional supplements as well as goodies such as a neck & shoulder massager to help you relax. By purchasing from these retailers online you have the ability to help organizations all over the world. This brings me back to my original point….help yourself and you will have the power and the desire to help others. IT REALLY IS THAT SIMPLE. To each and every one of you, I wish you a beautifully enriching new year.

Happy New Year!!!

MireMolnar — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 18:05:28 -0800

As I get older it seems that the holidays come faster and faster each year. When you have children it’s almost like there is never a break from holidays. Once the New Year begins I hardly have enough time to breath before it’s time to start planning birthday parties and designing new Halloween costumes. I can’t complain though, I love my job as a mother and I am as close as it gets to being a hip Martha Stewart to the 30 something’s. Although, I prefer to identify myself as June Cleaver with an edge. My point is, it gets more difficult each year to find time for resolutions when there are so many other obligations on the table. Most of us tend to make resolutions that focus on common issues like weight loss, quitting smoking or drinking, and securing our financial futures. Let’s be honest though, how many of us actually stick to these promises? At best we survive on ambition alone for a couple of weeks after New Year’s Eve, but eventually the majority of us become so overwhelmed with daily life that we quickly fall back into old patterns. It is no secret that these common resolutions are notoriously ridden by failure. It’s not always our own fault. So many factors weigh heavily on the success of weight loss, and improving our health, and sometimes we may have to tap our life savings when a failing economy hits us below the belt. After so many years of falling off the resolution wagon myself I decided to change my thinking. Rather than making myself empty promises of fitting into the jeans I loved so much in high school or putting away enough money to finally travel abroad, I chose to set goals that are not only easy to fulfill but also provide eternal enrichment for my soul.
It all began in 2001 when my daughter was only 1 year old. I wasn’t getting any closer to losing that baby weight and my wallet was surely getting thinner as I purchased a thousand diapers a day. I had quit smoking, but a glass of red wine was a bedtime staple. I took a moment to think about the things I missed the most, the things that used to bring me peace but that I could no longer find the time to enjoy. What was it that I could resolve to bring back to my life without killing myself trying to obtain it? After racking my brain for a bit it hit me….READ A BOOK! Yes, that was it. If I could just read everyday even it I only had 10 minutes to do it, I would be so much happier. And what does happiness bring? Well, happiness creates more endorphins in my brain. Endorphins give me energy and ambition. That energy and ambition gives me the strength to be healthy minded. A healthy mind encourages me to take better care of myself. When I take better care of myself I lose weight. Weight loss helps me save money because rather than buying new clothes I can pull out those skinny jeans. I love the way I feel in those jeans so I strut around with pride and confidence and the confidence clears up all the clutter in my head and helps me to get out into the world and share my contagious joy. With all that joy my body feels so great that my desire to smoke or drink is almost non-existent. So you see, a small resolution that is easy to keep can have a profound effect on your entire life. It’s been 9 years since I resolved to simply pick up a book and since then I have read every single day without fail. The moment I finish one book I already have another one right next to me to begin. I have lost 50 pounds and I occasionally have a drink on the weekends. Before I made that change in my life I was a young mother that couldn’t even chase my daughter around the yard without being in pain, now my daughter can’t keep up with me. You wanna know something else that happens when you succeed at your personal goals and feel happiness? You feel a desire to help other people as well, because you have that extra joy to spread around. When you get to that place in your soul where you have the ability to help others it’s sometimes hard to decide where to start, so I have a few suggestions for you. There are thousands of foundations out there to support but I chose a handful to share with you that are near and dear to my heart.

RAINN: The nation’s largest anti-sexual assault organization. One of “America’s 100 Best Charities” -Worth Magazine
RAINN operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline, and publicizes the hotline’s free, confidential services; educates the public about sexual assault; and leads national efforts to prevent sexual assault, improve services to victims and ensure that rapists are brought to justice. In 2007, RAINN expanded its hotline services with the National Sexual Assault Online Hotline, the nation’s first secure web-based hotline that provides live and completely confidential help to victims through an interface as intuitive as instant messaging. RAINN uses its community partnerships to put critical information into the hands of young women and men at concerts, on campus and in communities. Through these efforts, RAINN educates more than 120 million Americans each year about sexual assault. And that is just a small taste of what RAINN does for the world.

Founded by its member charities in 1988, EarthShare is an opportunity for caring employees and workplaces to support hundreds of environmental charities through workplace giving campaigns. A workplace giving campaign is an annual, employer-sponsored program that lets employees contribute a few dollars per paycheck as their charitable donation. Today EarthShare represents 71 national organizations and hundreds of local groups in 19 states. EarthShare’s member charities work hard every day to safeguard your health, our quality of life and the natural resources we depend on. All of these efforts are supported by EarthShare’s mission: To engage individuals and organizations in creating a healthy and sustainable environment. But you don’t have to be an employee to help Earthshare’s efforts. You can help by simply contributing through your everyday online purchases. You can feel good about your decision to give through EarthShare. EarthShare practices financial transparency and earned the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance Accredited Charity ranking.

Do Something believes that you have the power to make a difference. It is their aim to inspire, support and celebrate a generation of doers: people who see the need to do something, believe in their ability to get it done, and then take action. At DoSomething.org they provide the tools and resources for you to convert your ideas and energy into positive action and to be part of a generation of doers. At Do Something they have five guidelines that they live by:

Believe in teenagers. Teenagers can lead today. We don’t require adults.
Trust teenagers. They provide reliable, easy to access information and activation strategies, but teens decide for themselves what to do.
Celebrate teenagers. They think all measurable contributions from teens are valuable.
Respect teenagers. They understand that teenagers have diverse abilities and constraints.
Value teenagers. Their programs and products are free. They’re not after teens’ money; they want their passion, time and creativity.

Surviving the Holiday

FitSugar — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 10:36:14 -0800

It is no joke that the Holidays are hard on the waist line. There is so much decadent food around in unsuspecting palces. Plus it is a stressful time which makes it even harder to have will power. Especially if you are a stress nibbler. It seems like once you cross that line and eat something you are trying to avoid, it becomes easier to cross the line again. And again. And again.

Well I have a couple of things to say. First, try to not indulge, but if you do make sure to work hard to keep it an isolated incident. Secondly, just work on maintaining your current weight. You might not be loosing any pounds, but at least you won't be gaining any.

Beijing Farm Tour

beijingtours — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:19:24 -0800

Tour Code: BJ-PO-16Tour Name: Beijing Farm Tour to Hancunhe Village and Jinxiu Dadi Agriculture ParkDeparture: dailyDuration: 1 dayPackage includes: Vehicle, Guide, Meal, Admission Fee... Highlights: Hancunhe Village-Jinxiu Dadi Agriculture Park
Beijing Farm TourBeijing-Hancunhe Village-Jinxiu Dadi Agriculture Park Day Trip This trip we will learn something about modern farming in Beijing suburb. Detail ItineraryPick-up from your hotel around 8:00 AM. Drive to Hancunhe village. Visit the Village and vegetable greenhouse. After lunch at farmhouse, on the way back to Beijing. Visit the Jinxiu Dadi Agriculture Park - High tech agriculture, animal husbandry, biological engineering, gardening. Transfer back to your hotel after the whole day tour. ( L )
Low price for more persons.

Brief introduction of Hancunhe Village: Hancunhe village is a medium-sized village with a population of over 2,700. In the 1950s and 60s, all the farmers from Hancunhe village relied on weather and luck. Hancunhe yeomans income was decided by how many work points he got-- and the maximum work points for a days work in the field was valued at just 0.30 yuan, or about 4 US cents. At the same time, no farmer was permitted to switch trades and perform other sorts of work for his own survival. As you might imagine, daily life for the people of this village under such circumstances was tenuous at best.
But a sea change began to take place in their lives in 1978 when the country adopted a reform and open policy. Tillers of the soil in Hancunhe village now had a real opportunity to lay aside their ploughshares for other trades and professions. Many of them seized the day, trying out new walks of life that might be able to reward them in ways unknown to their humble husbandry. Some of the villages plasterers and carpenters began to organize themselves to take work in nearby villages. By 1983, they had begun taking some of the small and medium construction projects in Beijing. With a steady expansion of their business, the Hancunhe construction company became a group in 1994. The development of the villages construction group has greatly boosted the villages economy. The standard of living for farmers these days in Hancunhe is significantly higher than it was in the past. And to the farmers delight, by the end of 1999, all of them had moved into newly built villa-like houses in both traditional Chinese and European architectural style.
In order to diversify the economy, the village authorities have also begun to develop tourism for the town. Because it is close to Beijing, the village markets itself to city dwellers by offering them a one or two day escape from the environs of the big city. Li Kai has a big house and many days of the year, only the couple live in the house. So they enjoy receiving and playing host to holiday-makers from the city. There are over 10 rooms in this house. They rent some of them to the visitors from the city. Travellers can take a rest here or live here. Li provide them with beds and food. The food has typical local flavour. You cant find it in the city. They chat to each other. Li will tell the city people about what life in their village is like, and Li also get to know what is going on in the city.
Beijing tours is a local tour and travel operator in Beijing. We provide Beijing tours, including Beijing Day Tours, Beijing Bus Tours, Beijing City Tour, Beijing Private Tour, Beijing Great Wall Tour, Beijing Forbidden City Tour, Hutong Tour Beijing, Village Tours Beijing, Tiananmen tours Beijing , bus tour Beijing, and package tour Beijing. In addition, China Tour are also available in our service, including Xian tours , Shanghai tours, Guilin tours and so on.We believe Beijing Tours will be an ideal Beijing Tour operator for your Beijing sightseeing. Welcome to Beijing.

How the World's Biggest Corporations, From Starbucks to Wal-Mart to Barnes & Noble, Claim to Be 'Local'

Roarman — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 07:29:31 -0700

HSBC, one of the biggest banks on the planet, has taken to calling itself "the world's local bank." Starbucks is un-branding at least three of its Seattle outlets, the first of which just reopened as "15th Avenue Coffee and Tea." Winn-Dixie, a 500-outlet supermarket chain, recently launched a new ad campaign under the tagline, "Local flavor since 1956." The International Council of Shopping Centers, a global consortium of mall owners and developers, is pouring millions of dollars into television ads urging people to "Shop Local" -- at their nearest mall. Even Wal-Mart is getting in on the act, hanging bright green banners over its produce aisles that simply say, "Local."

Hoping to capitalize on growing public enthusiasm for all things local, some of the world's biggest corporations are brashly laying claim to the word "local."

This new variation on corporate greenwashing -- local washing -- is, like the buy-local movement itself, most advanced in the context of food. Hellmann's, the mayonnaise brand owned by the processed-food giant Unilever, is test-driving a new "Eat Real, Eat Local," initiative in Canada. The ad campaign seems aimed partly at enhancing the brand by simply associating Hellmann's with local food. But it also makes the a claim that Hellmann's is local, because most of its ingredients come from North America.

It's not the only industrial food company muscling in on local. Frito-Lay's new television commercials use farmers as pitchmen to position the company's potato chips as local food, while Foster Farms, one of the largest producers of poultry products in the country, is labeling packages of chicken and turkey "locally grown."

Corporate local-washing is now spreading well beyond food. Barnes & Noble, the world's top seller of books, has launched a video blog site under the banner, "All bookselling is local." The site, which features "local book news" and recommendations from employees of stores in such evocative-sounding locales as Surprise, Arizona, and Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, seems designed to disguise what Barnes & Noble is -- a highly centralized corporation where decisions about what books to stock and feature are made by a handful of buyers -- and to present the chain instead a collection of independent-minded booksellers.

Across the country, scores of shopping malls, chambers of commerce, and economic development agencies are also appropriating the phrase "buy local" to urge consumers to patronize nearby malls and big-box stores. In March, leaders of a new Buy Local campaign in Fresno, California, assembled in front of the Fashion Fair Mall for a kick-off press conference. Flanked by storefronts bearing brand names like Anthropologie and The Cheesecake Factory, officials from the Economic Development Corporation of Fresno County explained that choosing to "buy local" helps the region's economy. For anyone confused by this display, the campaign and its media partners, including Comcast and the McClatchy-owned Fresno Bee, followed the press conference with more than $250,000 worth of radio, TV, and print ads that spelled it out: "Just so you know, buying local means any store in your community: mom-and-pop stores, national chains, big-box stores -- you name it."

The Real Buy Local Movement

In one way, all of this corporate local-washing is good news for local economy advocates: It represents the best empirical evidence yet that the grassroots movement for locally produced goods and independently owned businesses now sweeping the country is having a measurable impact on the choices people make.

"Think of the millions of dollars these big companies spend on research and focus groups. They wouldn't be doing this on a hunch," observed Dan Cullen of the American Booksellers Association (ABA), a trade group which represents some 1,700 independent bookstores and last year launched IndieBound, an initiative that helps locally owned businesses communicate their independence and community roots.

Signs that consumer preferences are trending local abound. Locally grown food has soared in popularity. The U.S. is now home to 4,385 active farmers markets, one out of every three of which was started since 2000. Food co-ops and neighborhood greengrocers are on the rise. Driving is down, while data from several metropolitan regions show that houses located within walking distance of small neighborhood stores have held value better than those isolated in the suburbs where the nearest gallon of milk is a five-mile drive to Target.

A growing number of independent businesses are trumpeting their local ownership and community roots, and reporting a surge in customer traffic as a result. In April, even as Virgin Megastores prepared to shutter is last U.S. record store, independent music stores across the country were mobbed for the second annual Record Store Day. A celebration of local music retailers that features in-store concerts and exclusive releases, the event drew hundreds of thousands of music fans into stores, was one of the top search terms on Google, and triggered a 16-point upswing in album sales, according to Neilson SoundScan.

In city after city, independent businesses are organizing and creating the beginnings of what could become a powerful counterweight to the big business lobbies that have long dominated public policy. Local business alliances -- like Stay Local in New Orleans, the Metro Independent Business Alliance in Minneapolis-St Paul, and Arizona Local First in Phoenix -- have now formed in over 130 cities and collectively count some 30,000 businesses as members. Through grassroots "buy local" and "local first" campaigns, these alliances are calling on people to choose independent businesses and local products more often and making the case that doing so is critical to rebuilding middle-class prosperity, averting environmental collapse, and ensuring that our daily lives are not smothered by corporate uniformity.

Surveys and anecdotal reports from business owners suggest that these initiatives are in fact changing spending patterns. A survey of 1,100 independent retailers conducted in January by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (where I work) found that, amid the worst economic downturn since the Depression, buy-local sentiment is giving local businesses an edge over their chain competitors. While the Commerce Department reported that overall retail sales plunged almost 10 percent over the holidays, the survey found that independent retailers in cities with buy-local campaigns saw sales drop an average of just 3 percent from the previous year. Many respondents attributed this relative good fortune to the fact that more people are deliberately seeking out locally owned businesses.

Corporations Take Note

None of this has slipped the notice of corporate executives and the consumer research firms that advise them. Several of these firms have begun to track the localization trend. In its annual consumer survey, the New York-based branding firm BBMG found that the number of people reporting that it was "very important" to them whether a product was grown or produced locally jumped from 26 to 32 percent in the last year alone. "It's not just a small cadre of consumers anymore," said founding partner Mitch Baranowski.

"Food is one of the biggest gateways, but we're seeing this idea of 'local' spread across other categories and sectors," said Michelle Barry, senior vice president of the Hartman Group. A report published by Hartman last year noted, "There is a belief that you can only be local if you are a small and authentic brand. This isn't necessarily true; big brands can use the notion of local to their advantage as well." Barry explains: "Big companies have to be much more creative in how they articulate local … It's a different way of thinking about local that is not quite as literal."

One way corporations can be "local" too is to stock a token amount of locally grown produce, as Wal-Mart has done in some of its supercenters. The chain's local food offerings are usually limited to a few of the main commodity crops of that particular state -- peaches in Georgia or potatoes in Maine -- and sit amid a sea of industrial food and other goods shipped from the far side of the planet. Yet, this modest gesture has won Wal-Mart glowing coverage in numerous daily newspapers, few of which have asked the salient question: does Wal-Mart, which now captures more than one of every five dollars Americans spend on groceries, create more and better opportunities for local farmers than the grocers it replaces?

Wal-Mart, like other chains, has learned that, with consumers increasingly motivated to support companies they perceive to be acting responsibility, tossing around the word "local" is a far less expensive way to convey civic virtue than the alternatives. "Local is one of the lower-hanging fruits in terms of sustainability," explains Barry. "It's easier for companies to do than to improve how their employees are treated or adopt a specific sustainability practice around their carbon footprint, for example."

Rather than making direct claims using the word "local," some companies are pushing marketing messages that work by association. One example that caught Dan Cullen's eye was a CVS television commercial that begins in a Main Street bookshop, following the owner around as she tends to her customers. The bookshop then transforms into a CVS. The bookshop owner is now the customer. The feel is still very much Main Street. "Suddenly the kind of unique, enjoyable, grassroots bookstore experience morphs into a CVS experience," said Cullen. "There's a Potemkin façade that a lot of chains are trying to put up because consumers now want something other than a cookie-cutter experience."

Redefining Local

Still another corporate strategy is to redefine the term "local" to mean, not locally owned or locally produced, but just nearby. "With the term 'local' being so nebulous, it seems ripe for manipulation," notes Mintel, another consumer research firm that counsels companies on how to "craft marketing messages that appeal to locally conscious consumers" and how to avoid "charges of 'local washing.'" The key, Mintel says, is for companies to decide what they mean by local and to disclose that clearly so as not to be accused of trying to misappropriate the term.

Corporate-oriented buy-local campaigns that define "local" as the nearest Lowe's or Gap store are now being rolled out in cities nationwide. Some represent desperate bids by shopping malls to survive the recession and fend off online competition. Others are the work of chambers of commerce trying to remain relevant. Still others are the half-baked plans of municipal officials casting about for some way to stop the steep drop in sales tax revenue.

Many of these AstroTurf campaigns are modeled directly on grassroots initiatives. "They copy our language and tactics," said Michelle Long, executive director of Sustainable Connections, a seven-year-old coalition of 600 independent businesses in northwest Washington state that runs a very visible, and according to market research, very successful "local first" program. "I get calls from chambers and other groups who say, We want to do what you are doing. It took me a while to realize that what they had in mind was not what we do. Once I realized, I started asking them, what do you mean by 'local'?"

Examples abound. In northern California, the Arcata Chamber of Commerce is producing "Shop Local" ads that look similar to the Humboldt County Independent Business Alliance's "Go Local" ads, except they feature both independents and chains. Spokane's Buy Local program, started by the local chamber, is open to any business in town, including big-box stores. Log-on to the Buy Local web site created by the chamber in Chapel Hill, NC, and you will find Wal-Mart among the listings.

When billboards proclaiming "Buy Local Orlando" first appeared in Orlando, Florida, Julie Norris, a café owner who last year co-founded Ourlando, an initiative to support indie businesses, was excited to see the concept getting such visibility. But she soon realized that the city-funded program, which provides businesses who join with a "Buy Local" decal, seminars at the Disney Entrepreneur Center, and a listing on the web site, was open to any business in Orlando. "We sat down with the city and said, What you guys are doing is a real disservice to the local business movement," she said. When Norris complained publicly, city officials accused Ourlando of being "exclusive" by not allowing chains.

The city did agree to remove from its press materials and web site a reference to a study that found that, for every $100 spent locally, $45 stays in the community. The problem was that the study, conducted by the firm Civic Economics, found that to be true only if the money was spent at a locally owned business. Shop at a chain store, the analysis found, and only $13 of that $100 spent stays in the community.

The Economic Development Corporation (EDC) of Fresno County also appropriated the $45-stays-local statistic when it kicked off its Buy Local campaign at the Fashion Fair Mall. The figure was repeated on a TV news story without any clarification that it did not apply to the types of chains visible in the background. Like the Orlando initiative, the Fresno campaign aims to boost sales tax revenue by deterring online and out-of-town shopping. It goes out of its way in every radio and TV spot to make sure people know that "local" means national chains and big-box stores. "Buy Local" stickers and posters are now visible on malls and chains throughout the Central Valley. "For someone to say you are not local if you are a big box, I say baloney. They invested here," explained Steve Geil, CEO of the EDC.

"I would prefer that the county's resources were not being spent promoting Wal-Mart and Home Depot," said Scott Miller, owner of Gazebo Gardens, a plant nursery founded in 1922. "We have a great history of being involved in community events and donating to local causes. Our plants are grown locally. We believe that our kind of business is more valuable to a community than any big chain."

When the city of Santa Fe decided to launch a campaign to encourage people to shop locally, the Santa Fe Alliance, a coalition of more than 500 locally owned businesses that has been running a buy-local initiative for several years, signed on. At the kick-off in March, the Alliance's director, Vicki Pozzebon, emphasized the economic impact of shopping at a locally owned business versus a chain. "After that, the city asked me not to push the $45 vs. $13, but just say 'local.'" said Pozzebon. The city's message, according to Kate Noble, a city staffer who runs the program, is that shopping at Wal-Mart is fine, as long as it's not walmart.com. Pozzebon said, "It has only diluted our message and confused people."

These sales tax driven campaigns may well be doing more harm to local economies than good, according to Jeff Milchen, co-founder of the American Independent Business Alliance, a national organization that helps communities start and grow local business alliances (and on whose board I serve). "If you encourage people to shop at a big-box store that takes sales away from an independent business, you're just funneling more dollars out of town, because, unlike chains, local businesses buy lots of goods and services, like accounting and printing, from other local businesses."

The irony of trying to solve declining city revenue by trying to get people to shop at the local mall is that the mall itself may be the problem. While many California cities are facing budget cuts and even bankruptcy, Berkeley has managed to post a small increase in revenue. Part of the reason, according to city officials, is that Berkeley has more or less said no to shopping malls and big chain stores and is instead a city of locally owned businesses that primarily serve local residents. That creates a much more stable revenue base. Berkeley hasn't benefited from the temporary boom that a new regional mall might create, but neither has it gone bust.

Will Big Local Triumph?

Can corporations succeed in co-opting "local" -- or at least so muddling the term that it no longer has meaning? The Hartman Group's Barry thinks that's possible. "For many consumers, these things are not being called into question much. They say, Hey, it's my local Wal-Mart or my local Frito-Lay truck. It depends where you are on the continuum and how you define local, which is a term that is really up for grabs."

Milchen is less concerned about what he calls faux-local campaigns in cities where there is already a strong local business organization. "It's more of an educational opportunity than a problem, so long as they respond to it," he said. But in places where local enterprises are not organized, he fears these corporate campaigns may succeed in permanently defining "local" for their own benefit. Michelle Long shares that concern: "That's my fear. People are going to do diluted versions and hold the space so that real campaigns don't get started."

Local-washing has prompted local business advocates to reconsider their language. Many are now using the word "independent" more than "local." Controlling language is critical, said Ronnie Cummins, director of the Organic Consumers Association, who is pushing for tighter regulation of the word organic, as well as rules governing terms like natural, sustainable, and local. "We've been fighting so long without the help of federal regulators that some people have forgotten that tool."

But perhaps local-washing will ultimately make corporations even more suspect and further the case for shifting our economy more in the direction of small-scale, local, and independent. "I think the fact that the chains are trying to play the local card, in a way makes it easier for us," said the ABA's Cullen. "I think people are going to recognize that these aren't authentic and that's going to make the real thing all the more powerful."

Source: http://www.alternet.org/environment/142379/how_the_world%27s_biggest_cor...

Anxiety Disorders

Monique Marie — Wed, 27 May 2009 12:22:26 -0700

Anxiety is a normal response to stress or danger. At times it is helpful because it can help prepare the body for action, and it can improve performance in a range of situations. Anxiety becomes a problem when it is experienced intensely and it persistently interferes with a person's daily life.

Depression and anxiety commonly occur together. Not everybody who is anxious is depressed, but most depressed patients have some symptoms of anxiety.

People have different degrees of background, or 'trait', anxiety. High trait anxiety may stem from inherited behaviour or early relationships in childhood. It is also related to personality.

In addition to this inherent background anxiety, people react differently to everyday situations. Some people become anxious very easily, others never seem to get anxious. The anxiety that people get because of specific experiences is called 'state' anxiety.

An individual with high trait anxiety is particularly vulnerable to experiencing high state anxiety in stressful situations.

Anxiety symptoms are extremely common - everybody experiences them from time to time. Specific anxiety disorders or illnesses are also not as rare as you might think, being present in around 5 per cent of the population at any time.

Anxiety can be experienced in a number of different ways.

Psychological symptoms

Inner tension.

Agitation.

Fear of losing control.

Dread that something catastrophic is going to happen, such as a blackout, seizure, heart attack or death.

Irritability.

Feelings of detachment, as if being trapped in a bubble separate from the world.

Physical symptoms

Racing heart beat (palpitations).

Breathing fast, feeling short of breath or finding it hard to 'get breath'.

Chest tightness.

Dry mouth, butterflies in the stomach, feeling sick.

An urge to pass urine.

Tremor.

Sweating.

Hyperventilation (overbreathing) syndrome

This is a particular combination of symptoms that affects some people. Both patients and doctors can often mistake it for serious medical illnesses, including epilepsy and heart attacks.

An episode of hyperventilation starts when a person begins to breathe rapidly and shallowly. This may be triggered by something obvious that leads to anxiety, but often there is no obvious cause for the change in breathing.

Breathing rapidly and shallowly causes changes to the chemistry of the body, which in turn lead to physical symptoms such as tingling in the fingers and around the mouth (paraesthesia), and light-headedness (and ultimately fainting). This pattern of breathing - without fully breathing out - leads to a feeling of chest tightness.

These symptoms are not medically dangerous, but they tend to be frightening, and this in turn causes an increase in anxiety and the development of a vicious circle.

Hyperventilation can be simply treated by breathing in and out of a paper (not polythene) bag for a short time, which reverses the chemical changes caused by overbreathing. However, in the longer term it is best dealt with by treating the underlying cause of the anxiety and learning how to relax.

What types of anxiety disorders are there?

There are a number of 'types' of anxiety disorders. They tend to overlap considerably and it is not uncommon for people to have features of several of the disorders.

Generalised anxiety disorder

Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) is characterised by anxiety symptoms that are present for much of the time and not restricted to specific situations.

Generalised anxiety often accompanies phobias and is extremely common in people who are depressed. It can also be caused by physical illness, such as an overactive thyroid gland, or result from the emotional response to a serious illness such as a heart attack.

Some 15 per cent of people with GAD have a brother, sister or parent with a similar problem. This may reflect an inherited tendency to the disorder or the effects of the family environment. Two thirds of sufferers are women.

I also suffer from this anxiety disorder, it has gotten better, but I still have a lot of work to do.

Panic disorder

In panic disorder, repeated panic attacks occur unpredictably and often without obvious causes. The attacks consist of severe anxiety with physical and psychological symptoms.

Physical symptoms can include any of the general symptoms of anxiety described above and often the hyperventilation syndrome.

Psychological symptoms typically include dread (particularly of extreme events such as dying), having a seizure, losing control or 'going mad'.

To the sufferer, the attacks feel as if they are going on for a long time, but actually they tend to last only a few minutes, and at their longest they last around an hour. Panic disorder is common in depression, GAD or agoraphobia.

I have panic attacks about once a month, which is better then having them once a week.

Phobic disorders

A phobia is a fear that is out of proportion to the situation that causes it and cannot be explained away. The person typically avoids the feared situation, since this helps to reduce the anxiety.

Some phobias represent heightened normal anxiety towards situations that people are evolutionarily 'prepared' to fear, eg snakes, heights and sharp objects.

In other instances, a phobia may arise by a non-threatening situation being associated with a traumatic experience. Having a car crash in Spain may lead to a phobia of Spain itself, holidays, driving or flying.

Phobias typically occur in specific situations, eg a fear of dentists. People experience 'anticipatory anxiety' when thinking of the situation and so attempt to avoid it. They are common in the general population, but are only severe enough to prove disabling in 2 per cent of people.

Simple phobias are phobias that are specific to objects or situations. Specific phobias include:

animal phobias (eg dogs, snakes, spiders): the start of these phobias is often in childhood, usually before the age of seven years.

blood and injury phobias: the fear of blood tests or the sight of blood that results in fainting.

vertigo: a fear of heights.

agoraphobia: an intense fear of leaving the home, being in crowded spaces, travelling on public transport and being in any place that is difficult to leave. Around 75 per cent of sufferers are women, and it occurs in just under 1 per cent of people. Agoraphobia may follow a life event and be associated with a fear of 'what if it comes back while I am away from home'. It commonly occurs with panic attacks. The person may have a panic attack when outside the home and this reinforces the belief that it is safer to stay inside. Agoraphobia is often associated with depression.

social phobia: a fear of social interaction with others, talking to people, eating, drinking and speaking in public. In contrast to agoraphobia, men and women are affected equally. Many people have a mixture of both agoraphobia and social phobia. Social phobia is also a common symptom of depression.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a relatively rare disorder. While many people (14 per cent of the general population) have minor obsessional symptoms, OCD itself occurs in less than 1 in 1000 people (0.1 per cent). Men and women are equally affected. It frequently comes on in adolescence, but often people do not go to their GP for help for many years.

An increase in obsessional symptoms can occur in depression, though full-blown OCD is still rare. The symptoms are a little different to other anxiety disorders and include:

obsessional thoughts that come repeatedly into the person's mind, despite him or her trying to stop them. They are unpleasant and often abhorrent. The thoughts are clearly recognised by the person as being their own. Trying to stop the thoughts causes other anxiety symptoms.

obsessional thoughts may include a fear of dirt or germs, doubting that something important has been done (such as locking the door, turning the lights off) or unpleasant and graphic images in the mind of harming others or themselves. People who are suffering from OCD tend not to carry out any of the unpleasant thoughts they are having, though they usually fear they will.

compulsive acts (obsessional acts) are repetitive actions based on the obsessional thoughts. A person with obsessional thoughts about dirt may spend long periods cleaning the house and washing their hands. These actions are not pleasurable, but they help to reduce the anxiety associated with the obsessional thoughts.

the compulsive actions often have a 'magical quality', eg a person must check the door is locked exactly seven times, no more or less. If they are unsure how many times they have checked, they may start all over again. In severe cases, sufferers may spend many hours of the day undertaking these acts so that they have no time for anything else.

Evidence from brain scan studies shows altered brain function in people with OCD - some parts of the brain are underactive, others overactive. Inherited factors can play a role in the development of the disorder, but otherwise we have few ideas about what are the biological or psychological causes of OCD.

Stress-related disorders

There are a number of psychological consequences to major stressful events and these often include symptoms of anxiety. There are three types of reactions:

acute stress reaction starts within minutes (if not immediately) of the stressful event. It also tends to resolve rapidly, once the person is able to get out of the stressful situation. Symptoms are mixed, with the person first appearing dazed and disorientated. In addition, other symptoms of anxiety, anger and withdrawal can occur.

adjustment reaction starts within one month of the stressful event, and symptoms tend to resolve within six months. They may include depression, anxiety, irritability and a feeling of being unable to cope. Grief for the loss of a loved one can be seen as a combination of an acute stress reaction in the early stages, followed by an adjustment reaction.

post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) tends to come on weeks, or even months, after a stressful event that was of an exceptionally threatening or catastrophic nature, which would cause distress in almost anyone. It can persist for years. Symptoms include flashbacks (vivid memories of the event), nightmares, avoiding anything associated with the stressful event and being on edge. In addition, sufferers often experience generalised anxiety, panic disorder, depression, guilt (of surviving) and blunting of their emotions.

How are anxiety disorders treated?

Treatments include psychological and drug treatments, and depend to a certain extent on the type of symptoms or disorder the person is suffering from.

A person's full range of symptoms needs to be understood; this enables any underlying disorder that causes the anxiety symptoms to be treated. For example, if the anxiety symptoms are secondary to a depressive illness, the focus of the treatment will be on the depressive illness.

Psychological treatments

Psychological treatments are often tried first. They may include learning about the symptoms and realising that though they are frightening, they are not medically dangerous. Relaxation techniques can also be helpful.

Some disorders may be helped by more specific treatments. People with OCD can be taught 'thought stopping' techniques to prevent obsessional thoughts. Phobias can be treated by a number of techniques including 'graded exposure'. This involves taking small, but increasing, steps to challenge the fear. A person suffering from agoraphobia may start off standing at their open front door, progress to walking to the end of the street, and gradually build up to going to a busy shopping centre.

Medicines

There are a number of drugs available that are specifically anti-anxiety treatments. These include diazepam and lorazepam. These medicines are effective in quickly relieving the symptoms of anxiety. However, the body rapidly becomes used to these drugs and they can be addictive. As a result, they are good for short-term help (two to three weeks), but should not generally be used for longer periods.

Other medicines can help some of the physical symptoms of anxiety, for example propranolol (eg Inderal LA) can slow a fast heart beat and reduce tremor. If these physical symptoms are helping to maintain the anxiety, then medicines can be helpful, but they do not directly treat the anxiety.

Antidepressants are the medicines of choice for treating anxiety disorders. This is fortunate given that many people with depression have anxiety symptoms and many people with anxiety have depression. It means that it is not that important to decide whether a person is suffering from anxiety, depression or both when making a choice of medication.

Some antidepressants are better than others for certain types of anxiety. Selective serotonin reputake inhibitors (SSRIs) such as Prozac (fluoxetine), Seroxat (paroxetine), Lustral (sertraline) and Cipramil (citalopram) appear to be better than other antidepressants for panic disorder and OCD, so they are often chosen for depressed patients who also have these symptoms. A newer antidepressant called Cipralex (escitalopram) is also proving to be beneficial in many patients with anxiety and panic disorders. Other antidepressants such as Gamanil (lofepramine) and Edronax (reboxetine) may be helpful for social phobias, especially with depression - though this is not fully proven.

What should I do if I think I have an anxiety disorder?

Firstly, anxiety symptoms are common and they do not necessarily mean you have an anxiety disorder.

Many of the symptoms of anxiety are extremely frightening. Just realising that they are not medically serious can help greatly.

If you still have concerns, seek help from your GP who can confirm that the symptoms are part of an anxiety disorder (or other mental health problem) rather than a physical illness. This may be straightforward, or it may require physical illnesses to be ruled out by means of various tests.

Above all, everybody needs to be able to relax. This is not always easy, and often people need to be taught how to relax. There are several self-help books that describe relaxation techniques, and audiotapes can be helpful. You will need to work hard at learning these skills, but they will be of benefit for the rest of your life.