Beating Hypertension With a Healthy Lifestyle

Have you ever noticed that more often than not, today’s modern workplace finds you rushing through deadlines while stuck in front of your computer? When your lunch break comes along you see yourself finding solace in a comforting hamburger, large soda and fries combo. Munching away seems to bring you a measure of relief, but soon enough you find yourself going back to the rat race – glued to your seat while finishing deadline after deadline.

This scenario is your typical modern workplace lifestyle, which unfortunately is devoid of any exercise, healthy food choices and worse – increased propensity for life-threatening diseases like hypertension.

Fortunately, hypertension is pretty much preventable and, if already afflicted with it, is also curable. All it takes is to nurture a healthier, more vibrant lifestyle. The first step to the right direction is to learn about hypertension, its different facets, and how to effectively combat it. Essentially, hypertension is a disease that can be countered and prevented through a proper lifestyle founded on exercise and the right diet

What is hypertension?

The Seventh Report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (JNC 7) defines high blood pressure, or more popularly known as hypertension, as blood pressure 140/90 or higher.

Complications of hypertension

Leaving hypertension unchecked will cause a whole lot of health problems in the future. Basically, uncontrolled hypertension can cause the force of blood to damage the arterial wall, which in turn can make it easier for cholesterol particles to adhere to them. Over the course of time, plaque can form, which can narrow or block blood flow to different parts of the body.

If unchecked, this can make you more prone to the following complications: coronary artery disease, heart enlargement, heart failure, stroke, kidney disease, metabolic syndrome, among others.

How to beat hypertension

While the effects of hypertension seem scary, you can rest hopeful that some lifestyle changes can make a huge difference and pay dividends for your future well-being and quality of life.

Essentially, what you have to remember is to cut down on the food and activities that are detrimental to you, while at the same time, increase those that should have a positive impact on your health.

Cutting down on unhealthy habits

Reducing some activities can pay huge dividends towards a healthier you. In your diet, be mindful of how much salty food you eat daily. Excessive sodium consumption could lead in many heart-related complications in the future.

Stopping smoking is another good lifestyle modification you could look into. Nicotine can increase your chances of stroke and heart disease since it increases your blood pressure. Similarly, limiting alcohol consumption to not more than two drinks per day is also a big help.

Doing more of this beats hypertension

The goal of lifestyle modification is that your weight. To do so, you must replace your junk food-laden diet with more healthy choices such as fruits, vegetables, whole grain and protein (in the form of fresh meats). Consider the DASH eating plan, which stands for “dietary approaches to stop hypertension,” as your guide towards healthy eating. Thirty minutes of moderate exercise four times a week or 45 minutes of intensive exercise three times a week should do the trick.

More than these tips, it is also very important to learn how to react positively to stress. A touch of yoga or meditation can help form a positive outlook, which can have a considerable effect on your lifestyle.

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Video Marketing for Lawyers: How to Become a Video Editor

It’s simple really. Start with the most expensive and unintuitive software program on the market (Final Cut Pro) and then spend hundreds of hours figuring out what all those little buttons and dials are for.

Video editing can be as simple as pressing the ‘upload to YouTube’ button from your smart phone. On the other hand, you can spend years learning how to use Final Cut Pro to get really good at it. Internet millionaire marketer Frank Kern’s dumbest mistake was to create his own videos. He bought the most expensive equipment, the latest video editing software and then realized he had no idea how to edit anything. He bought all these books to teach him how to do it, and he failed miserably.

There are multiple components to creating great quality video. First you have to get the video off the camera and onto the computer. You have to shape it into a concise piece of content that will compel a viewer to pick up the phone and call you. Sounds easy doesn’t it? I will tell you from experience, it’s not.

Don’t let the marketing gurus tell you otherwise.

Here’s what you need to learn if you want to become a really good video editor. You will learn that it takes a tremendous amount of time to “log and transfer” your videos from your camera to your computer. That means the computer must transcode the video from its native format into one that is understandable by your editing software. There are only a few video cameras on the market where you can actually click and drag the camera’s video footage directly into your editing software. Those are high-end cameras costing many thousands of dollars. The “log and transfer” process takes a huge amount of time and takes up tons of memory on your hard drive. If you spent an hour shooting video, it may take 2 to 3 hours to get all that content onto your computer. Sometimes longer.

Once you have transferred all the footage onto your computer, you must now go through each and every scene to determine which ones you want to keep and which ones you want to trash. You may have 15 minutes worth of content you will need to whittle down into two minutes. The problem with most attorneys is that they love to talk, myself included.

Once you have edited the scenes that you believe are relevant for your topic, the creative side of you must come out. You must create some sort of introductory graphic that shows who you are and what you do; you must create an exit graphic too. You have to obtain royalty-free music that you can use for your intro and exits. You have to insert transitions between each of the scenes. You must color correct each scene and make sure the audio works well. If not, you have to tweak your audio settings.

In most video editing programs whenever you make changes you must then “render” those changes and allow your program to process those changes in order to see it on the screen. This means additional time spent staring at the computer screen, akin to watching paint dry on the wall. You are still not done with the editing process. Once you have reached this point, you must now put your video into processing mode and once again have the entire video rendered. Then you must export it to the correct format so you can upload it to the video sharing sites. When you export it to an.flv flash file, an.mp4 or.mov quicktime file, if you have a 2 to 3 minute video, your computer will typically take anywhere from half an hour to an hour and a half to process that video. If you have an older computer and have not upgraded your hardware, the editing process will take even longer.

Once that phase has been completed, you still are not done. Why not? You will now have a huge video file in the correct format but no video sharing site will accept it. It’s way too big. You must now compress the video file into the correct settings and maintain your high definition, high-quality video all at the same time. Only when you have shrunken and compressed this video file using the correct high-definition settings are you now ready to upload the video online.

So, you want to become a video editor? That’s great. For each two-minute video clip that you create, expect to spend at least 2 to 3 hours per clip to edit. Do you really have time to do all this? You think your family and your kids will appreciate you sitting at your computer for so many hours instead of telling a bedtime story or going out into the yard and having a catch? The choice, as always, is up to you.

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ABCs for the Work at Home Mom – Part 2

Work-at-home moms face many different challenges. From learning to accept help when needed, to building confidence in ourselves, to remembering the reasons why we chose to work from home. Below is the second in the series of tips to help work-at-home moms in the simplest of ways – the ABC’s.N = No – Work at Home Moms need to be able to say “No” when the situation calls for it. Don’t be afraid to stand up for your business or to choose NOT to work with a customer who is more trouble than it’s worth.O = Office – As Work at Home Moms, we usually put ourselves last on the list. However, when we’re in business it’s important to have some room (even a corner) that is set aside strictly for business.P = Priorities – It’s hard to keep your priorities straight when raising a family and building a business. Take some time each week/month to sit down and evaluate your priorities and cut out things in your schedule that don’t fit in.Q = Quiet Time – It may seem impossible to find a time to sit, relax and be quiet when you have so many demands on your time. However, it’s more important than ever that you take a little time for yourself to rejuvenate and renew when you grow weary.R = Respect – Like the golden rule says, it’s important to treat others as we’d like to be treated. This is so true for work at home moms – we must show the utmost in professionalism and treat even the most difficult clients with respect.S = Significant Other – As work at home moms it’s easy to get wrapped up with our business, our kids, ourselves. Don’t forget to take the time to appreciate your husbands!T = Time – As work-home-moms time is the ultimate enemy. :) Learn to prioritize and delegate whenever possible. Take time out for your kids each day – you’ll be glad you did!U = Unique – Your business needs to be unique to stand out from the crowd. Even if your product isn’t unique you can always find a unique way to approach marketing, customer service, etc. Get creative and stand out from the rest!V = Vision – It’s so important to have a clear vision of where you want your business to go. Sit down and make a list of where you’d like to be in 5 years, in 10 years, etc. Without goals you won’t get anywhere.W = Wisdom – It’s important to seek wisdom when running your own business. You won’t always know the answer, so you need to find others that you trust that you can turn to when these things arise.X = eXcitement – Celebrate each success! Keep yourself motivated and excited about your business. Try to share your business with someone new each day. Just telling someone about what you do can bring back that “spark” of excitement about your career!Y = Yes – Yes! You CAN do it! Each of us started with a dream, a vision and the faith that we could make it happen. It takes hard work, determination and a “Yes!” attitude, but it CAN be done!Z = Zoo – Yes, life as a work at home mom really is a zoo, but it’s worth it! Being at home to see your child’s first step, hear their first word – it just doesn’t get better than that.Working from home can be difficult, but it is well worth the effort. By keeping things in perspective we can reduce the stress that we put on ourselves. Remember these ABC’s and you’ll go far in your work-at-home career.

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