Exercise is good for you. Staying active is good for you. Staying stationary for long periods of time is bad for you. OK, we get it. Get up and move. However, it might be a bit more complicated than that. Epidemiologist Steven Blair, a professor of public health at the University of South Carolina, has spent 40 years investigating physical activity and health in adults. Even if you adhere to the federal health officials recommended 30 minutes of physical activity a day, you’re still spending 8 hours sleeping, 8-10 hours sitting at a desk, and another hour or so sitting at a kitchen table, watching TV, or reading in a chair. Basically, we’re sitting for most of our lives. This, Blair speculates, can lead to serious health risks, and possible death. Blair headed a study at the University of South Carolina where he reported on adult men and their risk of dying from heart disease. Of those who reported 23 hours a week of stationary activity (which is the minimum amount for those who work at a desk all day), even those who regularly exercised had a 64% greater risk of heart disease than those who reported only 11 hours a week of stationary activity. These new facts are just starting to get attention from and researched by scientists. Blair’s studies are finding that people who sit more have less desirable levels of cholesterol, blood sugar, triglycerides and even waist size, which increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease and a number of health problems. Basically, our bodies are simply shutting down. Dr. Tony Yancey, a professor in the health services department and co-director of the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Equity at the University of California, Los Angeles, along with Dr. Blair, offers us the following tips to staying active throughout the work day.

• Take a 10-minute activity break at a scheduled time every day
• Park farther away from the places where you work, shop, play, study and worship
• Take the stairs instead of the elevator
• Put printers a short walking distance away from your work or study space instead of right next to it
• Replace desk chairs with stability balls — or use a standing desk to get rid of the chair entirely — to burn more calories while working.
• Fidget, stand up and stretch at intervals during meetings

Although having a job is considered "lucky" nowadays, working too hard and not incorporating enough work life balance may not just be effecting your sleep and social life; it may also be effecting your health. People who work an average of 11 or more hours per day have a 67% higher risk of suffering a heart attack or dying from heart disease than people who work a standard 7 to8-hour day, according to a new study in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Those who work between 10-11 hours per day have a 45%t higher risk. Work schedules may be an overlooked and underutilized early warning sign for heart disease, the researchers say. Routinely burning the candle at both ends may not increase heart risk by itself, but it may be an indicator of an unhealthy lifestyle in general, according to experts who weren't involved in the research. The study didn't show a cause-and-effect relationship between long hours and heart attacks, they point out, and the apparent link could be due to a number of complicated health factors, including stress, lack of exercise, and eating high-calorie takeout rather than healthy home-cooked meals. "Somebody who works hard may eat fast food and not be very active, so it may not be the long hours that give them heart disease," says Stephen Kopecky, M.D., a cardiologist and professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minnesota. "It's eating fast food and being inactive." What's more, the type of work, and how much you enjoy it, may make a big difference, Kopecky says. While sitting behind a desk for 11 hours may be unhealthy, farmers are notorious for working 12 or even 14 long, hard hours a day -- and they tend to live longer than average, he says. Source: Health.com article through CNN.com

If you have decided to go back to college – good for you! Continuing your education is extremely important in this day and age. However, with the added night classes, 9-5 job you already have, along with the full-time gig you have as a parent, how are you ever supposed to find a work-life balance? The number one golden rule for keeping a work life balance is simple: TIME MANAGEMENT. The following is a list of tips from our career center to help break down time management into simple tasks:

1. Don’t cram – this is first on the list because it is the hardest to accomplish. If you received a long-term assignment, start it the day it was assigned and work on it for a half hour whenever you can.
2. Manage stress – understand what triggers your stress, then do everything you can to alleviate that cause. If that doesn’t work, make time to work out or participate in other “unwinding” techniques after you know you will be encountering a stress trigger.
3. Communicate with managers – let managers know when you have finals, or need to study for a midterm before the time actually comes up. Professors give itineraries on the first day of class for a reason… to manage your time wisely!
4. Take assignments with you – take advantage of things you can do on the go and utilize all time that comes available to you. Read while taking public transit, or jot down notes while on your lunch break. Every little bit helps.
5. Use one calendar - looking in multiple places to find your work schedule, internship hours, and homework is daunting. Use one huge calendar to manage your time and workspace effectively.

If you're feeling overworked and finding it more challenging than ever to juggle the demands of your job and the rest of your life, you're not alone. "A lot of people are having a more difficult time finding balance in their lives because there have been cutbacks or layoffs where they work. They're afraid it may happen to them, so they're putting in more hours," says psychologist Robert Brooks, PhD, co-author of The Power of Resilience: Achieving Balance, Confidence, and Personal Strength in Your Life. "But even if you don't have much control over the hours you have to work, you can ask yourself: In what other ways am I bringing greater enjoyment into my life?" Brooks says. "Focus your time and attention on things you can control." Here are five ways to bring a little more balance to your daily routine:

1. Build downtime into your schedule
2. Drop activities that are draining or tap into your stored energy
3. Rethink and reorganize your errands
4. Exercise
5. Remember that a little relaxation goes a long way

Although you were fortunate to keep your job during the recession, I’m sure the amount of work you had increased. In fact, a survey by CareerBuilder found that 50% of those employed had an increase in the workload, as well as 25% employees said they had not taken a personal/sick day in the past couple years. What is this increase in work doing to us? Not only is it decreasing our productivity, increasing our time away from families, and inducing stress in already overworked employees, it is also resulting in mental and physical illnesses. The 9-5 job (or more accurately, the 8-7 job) has taken over the average adult’s life. Here are some more stats from the CareerBuilder survey:

• 24 % of workers reported that when they're at home or out socially; they're still thinking about work
• 19 % often dream about work
• 16 % stated that most of their conversations tend to focus on work
• 22 % of workers reported they don't have time to pursue personal interests because they're always working
• 12 % said the amount of time spent on work is causing friction with their family
• 9 % are more concerned about approval from their boss than their family

1. Set aside personal time. The same way that workers schedule business meetings and events, they need to schedule personal and family time. It is critical for workers to stick to that schedule with family and friends.
2. Delegate work. When possible, workers need to delegate some of their work-related tasks and responsibilities. Many workers believe they are the only one who can do it, when the truth is they can get help from fellow employees and subordinates.
3. Decompress. When they get home, they should let the emails and text messages wait until they return to the office. Make home a sanctuary. If necessary, turn the electronic devices off.
4. Prioritize work tasks. Workers usually know which assignments can wait until they get back in the office. If the proper focus is put on the highest priority tasks, less home time may turn into work time.
5. Communicate. If necessary, workers can talk to their managers about the situation. Managers want to get the work done, but not at the expense of losing valuable workers to health-related issues. Most are willing to listen and work on solutions.
6. Change careers. If a worker is in a situation where the workload cannot be decreased, and it is impacting their life, they may have to look for another job outside the company. For some situations, this may be the only solution.

The number one way for a mother to experience authentic happiness and personal fulfillment is to remember that we too are important. We must take time for our well being so we can experience our own happiness, not just living vicariously through the happiness of our husband and children. Now don’t get me wrong, being happy when our kids are happy is a great way to feel genuine, authentic happiness ourselves. However, it’s not the same feeling as when we do something for ourselves that makes us feel good. The key to personal happiness is to ensure that our own happiness index remains elevated throughout the days. How to accomplish this? The quickest, most effective way is to set a goal for yourself and then work towards it. Believe it or not, we experience tremendous amounts of good feelings when we are working on achieving something. Choose something that has meaning for you, develop a plan, and begin chipping away at it little by little. It doesn’t matter at all what your goal is. As long as it’s something you are excited about pursuing it will do the trick. Here are some choices for how to keep your mind and body healthy and happy:

• begin a workout program at the gym
• start writing a novel
• take a class at a community center or the local college
• tackle that project you’ve never gotten around to doing
• plant and then maintain a garden
• start a hobby
• join a club
• participate in an on-going team sport
• paint
• sculpt
• learn how to cook
• blog
• make appointments to spend time with particular family members or friends
• explore your family genealogy

Proving to children that money is not readily available from mom and dad’s pocket can be quite a challenging adventure. With the age steadily dropping for kids with cell phones, iPod and other electronic toys that cost a lot of money, the age in which parents teach their kids the value of a dollar has decreased as well. How to do it? The typical “money doesn’t grow on trees” line is time honored, but not very productive. Use these tips when trying to teach your children the value of money:

1. Earlier is Better – Teaching children about the value of money has short-term and long-term applications to it. In the short term, children can start developing savings habits, learn how to shop smartly and begin to understand the general idea of investing. Long term advantages include helping your children avoid debt and planning for a healthy financial future.
2. Learning Money Origins – Explaining to your children that money comes from working might be difficult for them to understand at first. This is where the original idea of an allowance came from. Telling them they can only spend what they’ve earned and then showing them that through an allowance can really drive the point home about where money comes from.
3. Allowances – There has always been debate on whether an allowance should be in exchange for chores around the house. Some experts argue children will learn more about personal responsibility if they are not paid to do chores around the house. Others feel it teaches them valuable lessons about working and earning. A good balance would be to give them allowance on the non-everyday chores they do, like helping you weed the garden or wash the car.
4. Savings – Explaining that they need to save their money and not get every Barbie they see might not quite be understood the first…second… third… or fourth time you say it. But incorporating a piggy bank and telling them they should save pennies, nickels and dimes starts the savings process. Giving them the opportunity to decorate the jar adds a fun aspect to the saving. Tell them to think of a goal they are saving their money for and include a visual chart of their savings and how close they are to the goal.

Too much bad stress can cause medical and social problems.

1. Experts Say eating Pumpkin
Eating pumpkin can help the body shed Stress. Pumpkins contains magnesium which is a natural stress reliever for the body.
2. Slow Down on The Caffeine
Studies show that caffeine in your coffee can add to your stress. Try drinking decaf in the morning and see if it helps. Switch to an herbal tea. There are several natural teas that you can choose from that are very tasty and good for you. Some of the natural teas can help you control stress levels.
3. Take 10
Take a breather,The most important thing for stress relief is to give yourself a moment to back up and take a deep breath. Take 10 they say.. You might not be able to get away for long, Almost everyone can give up 10 to 30 minutes a day to replenish them self. Taking a Deep Breath is very good for you.
4. Work Out
Experts say 10 minutes a day is all we need to help us live longer and relief tensions of our day. It can be hard to find the time, but it is well worth it and if you make the effort you will be pleased in more ways than one. The stress goes down and so does the numbers on your scale.
5. Go Outside
Eat your lunch out of doors, it clears your mind and the fresh air will relieve the stress.The sun shine is very good for body and soul.. Take a walk on your lunch break
6. Treat Yourself
Treat Your self to a facial or a massage it will refresh you beyond believe. We all get caught up in the long hard seemingly thankless days and the weeks that never end with no sign of relief. Most people forget to take a breather and relax. It is important to our health to step back and take a moment to collect your thoughts. People have learned the hard way, that if they don't take a break they burn out. They also run the risk of heart ache and mental and physical break down
7. Apply Pressure
Apply pressure to the fleshy skin between your thumb and fore finger for about 30 seconds.This has been proven to be helpful in relieving stress.
8. Laughter
Laughter is definitely a stress reliever and good for your over all Health.
9. Express Your Self
Write your feelings down,Talk to a Friend or expert getting it out will help you gain prospective.
10. Get Rid of Negativity

Take a hard look at the circle of friends or environment you're around

Sometimes balancing work and life gets too overwhelming and you just have that urge to scream into a pillow. Unfortunately, for those of us with children, that isn’t quite possible. Figuring out a successful work life balance can be a challenge. Dealing with children especially can be a hard challenge in those wee hours in between coming home from work and going to sleep. Children are the greatest blessing one can ask for, but between after school practices, picking them up from school, cooking dinner, helping with homework and inter-children fights, the stress can get overwhelming, especially for single working parents. This list is a survival list of sorts of tips to help maintain that work life balance while being able to have fun with your kids.

1. Don’t get caught up in the little things: If your toddler wants to wear his underwear on his head every day, let him do it. Things that aren’t hurting anyone and aren’t breaking any school rules are fine.
2. Be honest and upfront with your child about going to day care: Read books about it together (there are countless children’s stories involving day care), joke about it, and make it a game! Make your children excited about going to day care during the day.
3. Be open to new ideas: This includes things your children offer, even if they seem outrageous. Opening yourself to ideas can be a fun experience.
4. Don’t panic when your child cries when you leave: When you leave children at a day care, you are earning their trust when you tell them “I’ll be back later”. Children have a hard time understanding that concept when they hear it, but when you continue to say it and continue to show up in the afternoon, your children will not only learn to trust you, but will cry less when you leave.
5. Accept help: If a parent, neighbor, sibling, or other parent offers to watch the kids, take the chance! Having a few hours by yourself can help you unwind and distress from the hectic work days.
6. Keep duplicates of “vital stuff”: This includes everything from extra bottles to extra blankets. Keep extras of things in your trunk and in a drawer at the office.
7. Get organized: While this is easier said than done, planning a menu for the week or packing the diaper bag the night before will really help your work life balance.
8. Abandon the idea of a “perfect home”: no home I’ve ever been in with children is 100% clean, has nothing but healthy food and have children who never get their clothes dirty.
9. Don’t be afraid to occasionally order in or pick up dinner: the occasional take out is not going to harm your children.
10. Create a neighborhood parent babysitting co-op: one Friday or Saturday every month, offer to have the neighbor’s children over for a sleepover. The next weekend, they return the favor and so on and so forth.