How To: Live Longer (and happier)

The other day while aimlessly browsing the internet I read a news article online about how to add years to your life. 

This is something I have been thinking about a lot because already I can't imagine spending a day apart from my little man, and I want to have AS much time with him as I can. 

I thought it was worth sharing!!

1. Get Married & Make Your Marriage Work: This was really on the list & is a bit of a two for one. "A study by Duke University Medical Center found people with permanent partners or spouses had a decreased risk of premature death during midlife, according to a report in Science Daily. People who never married were more than twice as likely to die early than people in long-term, stable relationships. 

2. Drink Coffee (Especially decaf): One study shows that drinking four cups of coffee a day can lower heart disease by 53%.       

(This is one that I do not partake in. I can not handle the taste of coffee and personally find 4 cups a day to be quite a lot!)

3. Go to the Dentist/ Floss: I think this is pretty self explanatory. Gum disease has been linked to causing heart disease, brain disease, strokes, and diabetes. Research shows the flossing can add another 6 years to how long you live!!

4. Taking Asprin: My dad takes an asprin a day due to not being in the best shape. "Taking two baby aspirin helps protect against prostate cancer, colon cancer, and breast cancer and can even lower your odds by 13 to 15 percent for the two deadliest types of skin cancer: squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma."

5. Get a Healthy Amount of Sleep: Sleeping too much or too little can cause issues for people. Try and get between 6 and 8 1/2 hours a night. 

6. Eat Figs: Apparently figs have a large amount of potassium & get help regulate blood pressure & heart disease. 

(I guess I should go eat a bunch of figs right now, maybe it will help with my blood pressure)

7. Have Friends: Its been linked that having a healthy support network of good friend is just as important as having a good family when it comes to how long you live. 

8. Wear your Seat Belt: DUH!

9. Laugh: "One minute of laughter is equivalent to 40 mins of deep relaxation." 

(Amazing)

10. Eat Nuts: Those who eat Nuts 5 days a week, live on average 2.9 years longer than those who do not. Nuts have also been linked to lowering belly fat, diabetes, heart disease, and cholesterol. 

(5 days of nuts is kind of  a lot for me, personally. )

11. Take more Vacations: Its been linked that those who take more vacations are less likely to suffer from heart disease or heart attacks.

(Well gladly!)

12. Live in the Country: City life is hard on people!

13. Be an Optimist: Those who look at the glass half full tend to reduce their risk of early death by 50% & live approx. 12 years longer than those who are pessimist!! Constant worrying can shorten your life span by up to 16 years!!!

(Wow.)

14. Drink More Water: Those who drink 8 glasses of water a day are more than 50% likely to have heart attacks. 

15. Eat a Healthy Amount of Chocolate: People who eat 4 oz of chocolate a day (think two hershey kisses) have 1/2 the risk of heart disease than those who do not. 

(Perhaps I will have to buy a bag of Hershey Kisses!!)

16.  Get Along With Your Mother: "Harvard Medical School researchers found that 91 per cent of people who weren't close to their mothers developed serious diseases (high blood pressure, alcoholism and heart disease) by midlife"

17. Go to Church: Those who spend time in church tend to have lower blood pressure than those who do not!

18. Sing in the Shower: Singing regularly has been linked to less stress which means longer living!

(I will have to start doing this) 

19. Drink Tea: Those who drank 5 or more cups of tea a day have less risk of heart disease or strokes. However, it states adding milk can eliminate the positive effect's of it so lemon or honey is best.

(Sadly, unless its Chai Tea, I can't stand it, but oh man, I can't wait for a delicious Chai Tea when i'm done being pregnant)

20. Get a Pet: Interactions with pets tend to lower stress levels and reduce risk of heart attack and stroke.

21. Have Children: Those who have their own children, or adopt live longer than those without. Especially women. 

22. Don't Jaywalk: Another duh! haha. 

23. Stand up more: Sitting for 6 or more hours a day can cause shorter lives. This is particularly true for women!! SO make sure if you are sitting, to try and stand up every one in a while and walking around. 

24. Eat Grapefruit: Grapefruit can decrease cholesterol. 

25. Go Shopping

 (Gladly)

26. Do Volunteer Work

27. Live in High Altitudes. 

(Source)

So out of all of these, I partake in about 12 of these. Some of them I do, just not enough of, but note to self, start doing more of these!!

What about you!?

How many of these do you do!?

How To: Make a Tie Blanket

I love giving tie blankets as gifts.

They are super easy, soft and fun to make. 

Also people end up loving them!!

First: Start with two pieces of fleece blanket. 

A good size blanket for an adult is 2 yards of each. 

Second: Cut of edges so both blanket match up better and unsightly edges are gone. 

Third: Cut a 4x4 inch square out of each corner

(this will help the corners tie better and the blanket not to pull)

Fourth: Cut 4 inch by 1 inch strips around the entire blanket. 

Fifth: Begin tying

(Double knots)

That is it!!

Plain and simple :)

Perfect little gift.

How To: Do Your Part To Save Our Earth: Take Two

SO I was watching the discovery channel today for no reason other:

than to completely and utterly terrify myself, there was a show called 2100 on. It discussed what our planet will be like over the next century and let me tell you that it is not pretty. 
Basically the entire west coast is non existent due to huge forest fires and droughts. Las Vegas was a baron wasteland & people become even meaner than they are now. It made me want to cry!!As I mentioned in my post before the idea of 2012 terrifies me, I do not believe that this will be the end of the world.

I don't exactly think anyone will know when the world is going to end or how and the bible affirms this. 

However, I do believe however, day by day we are slow destroying our earth.

Earth, our home, our beloved planet. The only place that we have to live our lives out and exist.

With all of the knowledge that we as humans have, one would think that we would take a more active stance in fixing our home so that we can live safely, and provide a more conducive home for our future children and animals.

With this being said, I thought I would re-share my ideas on how we can all do our part to help save the Earth. 

1) Reducing the Amount of Electricity Used:

 I mentioned this in a previous post on being frugal, and it is probably one of the most common sense ideas that there are. It is very simple to reduce the amount of electricity you use just by turning off lights when your not in the room, turning down the heat or air conditioner when your not home or when your sleeping , and probably one that a lot of people don't consider but unplugging items when your not using them. Ya know those little red, blue or white dots on things when your not using them? That takes energy, and more energy then most  people think. Also that little amount of energy adds up just like pennies and nickles add up. So please, turn off lights, laptops, tvs, turn down your heat/ air conditioner and unplug those items that your not using like cellphones, laptops, stereos etc.

2) Reduce the Amount of Driving You Do:

 Another no brainer I'm sure but still not enough people do it. As societies who are in a sense, spoiled and lazy, we drive for a large majority of our lives. Not only do we drive 500, 200, or 50 miles we also drive 2 miles, 1 mile or even 1/2 a mile. Ya know that gas station down the street  that you drive to, to get milk. Yep that all wasting gas. Or ya know that cafe thats right by your work that you drive to to get lunch. Wasting gas. If we could all just walk a little more, run a little more, ride bikes a little more, or even roller blade a little more we can save so much gas, so much pollution and so much obesity. Yeah it takes a little while longer to walk, but its healthier not only for you, but also our planet if you just take that extra step and walk down the street. What makes me laugh the most are those who drive a mere couple miles to the gym.. Really? Just run there or bike there!!!!

  

3) By a Reusable Water Bottle and a Brita:

Personally, I think one of the worst things that we are doing to our Planet is ruining it with our filth. The fact that a significant majority of the world is obese, over weight, or food/product wasters we add so much garbage to our beautiful world. A huge majority of this trash comes from water bottles. I see this especially in college, but as a society we waste so many water bottles and even worse we only recycle some of what we use. Here are some facts: 
Of the 50 billion plastic water bottles used by Americans in 2006, 38 billion of them were thrown away, unrecycled. The 1.5 million barrels of oil it takes to produce 50 billion bottles could fuel 100,000 cars for a year. And that does not even include the oil used for transportation.

Last year, the average American used 167 water bottles, but only recycled 38.
More than 60 million plastic water bottles are thrown away every day in the United States. This is a growing problem—it takes up to 1,000 years for disposable water bottles to decompose.

So please spend 40 dollars buy a Brita and a plastic or metal reusable water bottle and help do your part. 

4) REDUCE, REUSE, & RECYCLE:

It really is that simple. Reduce the amount of waste you use, the amount of energy you use, the amount of gas you use.  Reuse what you have: that pair of jeans you wore for 5 hours, really don't need to be washed every single time. We wash things so easily and waste so much water its horrible. Or how about when you wash dishes. Try turning off the tap when you scrubbing a dish. Yes, it takes more time, but saving the Earth does take more time. You would be so surprised the amount of water you save by just doing that! Reuse plastic bags that you get from the grocery store. Plastic shopping bags can either be used as garbage bags or reused for more groceries. Did you know that if you bring your own bags to price chopper you get .03 cents taking off your bill for every bag you would use.  Who doesn't love saving money!! Lastly recycle, if you do use water bottles, atleast bring them to be recycled. Many things now a days are able to be made out of plastic bottles, things such as pens, notebooks, and table cloths. 

5) Take a Stance:

Do your part and help educate others on how important it is to save our Earth. We are ruining the most precious thing we have in our lives. Without our Planet we wouldn't be alive and to me that makes it beyond important and irreplaceable. Write to your local congressmen and women, your mayors, your governors, your senators and your president, your king or queen or you prime ministers. Reach out.  Spread the word. Tweet, post a facebook status, BLOG! Am I as one person going to help change the world? You bet I am!!! I am going to do everything I can to help make our home inhabitable for my future children and their future children, and all the little animals that have just as much of a right to be here as me. Am I a huge impact? No, not really but I am one more person who cares, and hopefully this reaches out to all of my lovely 71 followers & hopefully you all blog about this or link back as well. 

I am pledging to do my part to clean up Earth. Will you!? 

So tell me bloggers, which of these do you do, and what do you need to work on more!? 
xoxo.
[photos from: weheartit] 

How To: Not Completly Frustrate Your Cashier.

I have been working in retail since I was about 15, and especially since I began college and needed a part time job to be able to afford to actually go to school. Well while finishing my masters, I have picked up more hours for the obvious reason that going for you masters is outlandishly expensive. In fact it kind of makes me sick to think about how much I pay to be taught and read out of text books.

So, in my time of retail I have become overly frustrated by consumers. 

Yes, I realize my job is easy, and I am not complaining about the work that I do by any means.

I am however, complaining about how people treat other people.

So here is my list of How To: Not Completely Frustrate Your Cashier:

1) Do not cash out while talking on the phone/ answer your phone while being cashed out. 

This is one of the most rude things I have ever encountered. Not only does it make it difficult to ring people out due to not being able to talk to them, find out if they found everything okay, or how their service was. But you don't even get a hi, hello, how are you from them. You literally have to interact with your cashier for couple minutes top. Put down the cell phone for 5 seconds and actually acknowledge that there is another human being in front of you and be respectful.

2) Do not cash out while texting.

Along the same lines as number one. This is super rude and quite impersonal. You can't possibly truly focus on what your cashier is saying while telling your friend how great  your butt looks in the new pants you bought. I could ring you up for 14 things instead of the 10 you bought and you would never know because that text your sending is just so much more important that the 20 seconds it would take to cash out. 

3) Do not throw your money at your cashier. 

This may seem like a no brainer, but I can not tell you how many times a day I get money thrown at me. I'm not talking wind up and literally chucked, but people very carelessly just toss their money, causing it to go all over and at times the change even rolling off the counter and on to the floor. Again, we'll go back to manners. Its polite to wait two seconds and put it in my hand. 

  

4) On that same note, do not put your money on the counter when the cashier is holding their hand out for you. 

We're not holding our hands out for a reason. It is hard to pick up 99 cents of change off the counter. So please just place the money in our hands!

5) Act remotely polite.  

Don't ignore us when we ask you how you found things. Don't look at us like we are crazy. When we ask you to sign up for things, just humor us and let us finish. We have to ask, its not like we enjoy it.

Smile. 

Your shopping!

Hahah, thanks for letting me vent ya'll.

What can you not stand that people do while checking out?

xoxo. 

How To: Do Your Part To Save the Earth

Due to the tragic events of today in Japan and other afflicted coasts:

It motivates me even more to help advocate for the world because I don't think enough people do.

Although the idea of 2012 terrifies me, I do not believe that this will be the end of the world.

I don't exactly think anyone will know when the world is going to end or how.

However, I do believe however, day by day we are slow destroying our earth.

Earth, our home, our beloved planet. The only place that we have to live our lives out and exist.

With all of the knowledge that we as humans have, one would think that we would take a more active stance in fixing our home so that we can live safely, and provide a more conducive home for our future children and animals.

With this being said, I thought I would share my ideas on how we can all do our part to help save the Earth. 

Also before we get to far into this: I want to take a minute to extend my thought and prayers to everyone who was affected by the earthquake/tsunami in Japan and surrounding areas. 

1) Reducing the Amount of Electricity Used:

 I mentioned this in a previous post on being frugal, and it is probably one of the most common sense ideas that there are. It is very simple to reduce the amount of electricity you use just by turning off lights when your not in the room, turning down the heat or air conditioner when your not home or when your sleeping, and probably one that a lot of people don't consider but unplugging items when your not using them. Ya know those little red, blue or white dots on things when your not using them? That takes energy, and more energy then most people think. Also that little amount of energy adds up just like pennies and nickles add up. So please, turn off lights, laptops, tvs, turn down your heat/ air conditioner and unplug those items that your not using like cellphones, laptops, stereos etc.

2) Reduce the Amount of Driving You Do:

 Another no brainer I'm sure but still not enough people do it. As societies who are in a sense, spoiled and lazy, we drive for a large majority of our lives. Not only do we drive 500, 200, or 50 miles we also drive 2 miles, 1 mile or even 1/2 a mile. Ya know that gas station down the street that you drive to, to get milk. Yep that all wasting gas. Or ya know that cafe thats right by your work that you drive to to get lunch. Wasting gas. If we could all just walk a little more, run a little more, ride bikes a little more, or even roller blade a little more we can save so much gas, so much pollution and so much obesity. Yeah it takes a little while longer to walk, but its healthier not only for you, but also our planet if you just take that extra step and walk down the street. What makes me laugh the most are those who drive a mere couple miles to the gym.. Really? Just run there or bike there!!!!

 

3) By a Reusable Water Bottle and a Brita:

Personally, I think one of the worst things that we are doing to our Planet is ruining it with our filth. The fact that a significant majority of the world is obese, over weight, or food/product wasters we add so much garbage to our beautiful world. A huge majority of this trash comes from water bottles. I see this especially in college, but as a society we waste so many water bottles and even worse we only recycle some of what we use. Here are some facts: 
Of the 50 billion plastic water bottles used by Americans in 2006, 38 billion of them were thrown away, unrecycled. The 1.5 million barrels of oil it takes to produce 50 billion bottles could fuel 100,000 cars for a year. And that does not even include the oil used for transportation.

Last year, the average American used 167 water bottles, but only recycled 38.
More than 60 million plastic water bottles are thrown away every day in the United States. This is a growing problem—it takes up to 1,000 years for disposable water bottles to decompose.

So please spend 40 dollars buy a Brita and a plastic or metal reusable water bottle and help do your part. 
 

4) REDUCE, REUSE, & RECYCLE:

It really is that simple. Reduce the amount of waste you use, the amount of energy you use, the amount of gas you use.  Reuse what you have: that pair of jeans you wore for 5 hours, really don't need to be washed every single time. We wash things so easily and waste so much water its horrible. Reuse plastic bags that you get from the grocery store. Plastic shopping bags can either be used as garbage bags or reused for more groceries. Did you know that if you bring your own bags to price chopper you get .03 cents taking off your bill for every bag you would use.  Who doesn't love saving money!! Lastly recycle, if you do use water bottles, atleast bring them to be recycled. Many things now a days are able to be made out of plastic bottles, things such as pens, notebooks, and table cloths. 

5) Take a Stance:

Do your part and help educate others on how important it is to save our Earth. We are ruining the most precious thing we have in our lives. Without our Planet we wouldn't be alive and to me that makes it beyond important and irreplaceable. Write to your local congressmen and women, your mayors, your governors, your senators and your president, your king or queen or you prime ministers. Reach out.  Spread the word. Tweet, post a facebook status, BLOG! Am I as one person going to help change the world? You bet I am!!! I am going to do everything I can to help make our home inhabitable for my future children and their future children, and all the little animals that have just as much of a right to be here as me. Am I a huge impact? No, not really but I am one more person who cares, and hopefully this reaches out to all of my lovely 71 followers & hopefully you all blog about this or link back as well. 

I am pledging to do my part to clean up Earth. Will you!? 

 xoxo.
[photos from: weheartit] 

How To Minimize Time Spent Getting Ready In The Morning

As most of you have probably can tell, 

I love to sleep. Although, I would be completely satisfied if the body only needed 5 hours of sleep to remain functional, since it doesn't, I usually need 7.5- 8 hours of sleep each night, or I can get a bit cranky.  

With this being said, there are many things that I do to minimize the amount of time I spend getting ready in the morning. 

So. I wake up at usually around 6am to be outta the door by 7am. 

Opi Shatter

I also refuse to go to work or internship looking anything less then my best.

So here are my tips to help you reduce the time you spend getting ready.

1) I do as much as possible the night before. 

     This means I pick out my outfits the night before and hang them out. 

    I find that if I hang them in the bathroom while I shower, some of the 

    steam will help make them neater. I iron if need be, paint my nails, 

    make my lunch, and if I am done early at night I shower, but I can 

    never go to bed with wet hair so this doesn't happen often. 

2) I brush my hair in the shower.

      So in my shower, I keep one of those little hair brushes that came 

     with the bigger brush. So toward the end of my shower, once i've

     washed all of the conditioner out of my hair, I brush my hair, while

     it's still soaking wet and the waters still going. Trust me, it is a lot

Mmmm

     easier to brush it here then when you get out. Then after I turn the

     water off, I brush it again, still standing in the shower and this bring

     a ton of water out making it much easier to dry and brush.  

3) I check technology while eating breakfast. 

    I am a firm believer that breakfast is super important. Not only will

    I be less hungry before lunch time, but it will kick start my metabolism

    so I can stay more thin. Since fiance goes to the gym at 6am, I have 

    no one to enjoy breakfast with, so I set a side a few extra minutes to 

    check up on blogger, and let my hair dry while eating delicious cereal.

4) I blow dry my hair a little & then do my make up.
    I have found that blow drying my hair right at the go takes a while, and
    even when I let it air dry first it still can take some time. Therefore, I 
    have found that if I blow dry my hair a little bit first (for a couple minutes)
    and then do my makeup and finish getting ready, when I go back to blow 
    drying my hair it takes half the amount of time. 


5)  I use blow dry lotion.
     I doubt that everyone uses blow dry lotion, but let me tell you, go invest.
     I buy 10 dollar blow dry lotion from Target and have had it for like 3 
     months. Not only does it make my hair feel soft and smell amazing, but
     it really cuts at least a couple minutes off how long it take my hair to dry. 


So will these 5 little tips, I have found that I can get my morning routine down to about an hour. Give or take. This is also when I wear my hair straight, if I have to curl it I wake up a bit earlier. All that I know is that I try to get in as much sleep as I possibly can! Beauty Rest is a must ♥ I would however, love to invest in a car starter!! That would be amazing, would take a lot of time off my routine & would let me get into a warm and toasty car before work!!!

What do you do to cut time off your morning routine?


Today, I had a very busy, long 9 hour work day all at one job. I am quite exhausted and looking very forward to hoping into bed in some toasty pj's.  Not sure when I get to sleep though because the people down stairs are being obnoxiously loud. I am also really craving some caramel turtles right now!! Random!!
Also, as you can probably already tell, I changed my blog up a bit. It is super pink but it makes me smile. Let me know what you think ♥

Hope everyone is having an amazing weekend. 

Tomorrows Line Up: Gym, Laundry, Movie, Work!!

xoxo.

How To Be Frugal.

As a broke Graduate Student, there is a lot of things I do to try and save money..
I thought maybe I would list some of them for you today to try and help anyone else who needs to save money for ridiculous expensive such as college textbooks.

 1. I took defensive driving.
This takes 10% off my car insurance bill every month and only cost me 30 dollars to take. I also get a reduction for being a good student- Meaning as long as I get above a 3.0 I get money taken off of my bill!
Now I currently pay about $50 a month. 


 2. I do not buy bottled water.
Not only is this a huge waste of money, but it is horrible for the environment. Tap water is typically just as good [depending on where you live]. It was worth it for me to just buy a 5 dollar water bottle and bring that everywhere!

3. I buy less expensive makeup.
I am in loooveee with Sephora and MAC and although I love going to splurge there this is not something I can do all the time. E.L.F Cosmetics can usually be found in target or you can visit their site online. Their cosmetics are pretty high quality and really cheap. I got a concealer and a facial whip for one $1 dollar a piece. They also have tweezers, and brushes for really cheap too.


4. I make Lists.

When I need to grocery shop, I find planning out my meals for the week and making lists really helps me cut down the amount of impulse buys I make.

5. I Unplug appliances.
This may seem like a bother but you would be surpised by how much you will save on your electric bill if you just unplug the tv or dvd player when you are not using it!


6. I walk/ride a bike.
Although my bike was recently stolen, if I can avoid driving my car I do. Walking and riding a bike is healthy and saves me money on gas!


7. I do not pay for the gym.
I am training for a 1/2 marathon, so most of the things I do is run. I spent a little extra money and bought a treadmill a couple years back and looking at the cost of gym memberships I would say it did me good. For example the yearly cost to go to the Y is around 500 dollars- my treadmill cost me around 300 dollars... So yeah I save a lot of money by investing at home.


8. I rent my textbooks.
Although for some courses I do have to keep my textbooks for courses that I don't intend on keeping I rent my textbooks from Chegg.com. It is super cheap and you mail the books back for free at the end of the semester. Also if you look up discount codes you can usually get 10% off!!


9. I bring my own bags.
When I chose not to shop at walmart [which I try to do often because I hate that walmart is taking over everything] I found the some stores will actually take off money if you bring your own bags. Its only a few cents but it can add up in the long run!


10. I look for cheap fun activities
Redbox is only a dollar to rent movies and if you put your e-mail down they give you coupons. 
The beach I live near allows students to go in for free.
I go to maitnee movies which are 2 dollars cheaper than regular hour movies.
I look at bowling alleys for days that they have deals.
I go to the library and borrow books instead of always buying them!

So these are just some of the thinks that I do to save money!!
What do you do?
  xoxo.