Have you checked out the latest POM Wonderful contest? Did you submit a work of art? I did. And if you’re interested, I share my slightly embarrassing submission  experience in this post.

POM Wonderful put on one of the best contests I’ve ever had the pleasure to participate in. They left it easy, open and allowed the creativity to flow!

There are some really inventive pieces and I invite you to check them out here. A community prize is being offered to the most popular, so make sure to vote for your favourites.

Lessons learned in the POM Heart Art Contest

Although I had fun with this contest, life (and myself) got in the way a little. POM gave us an entire month but I still managed to barely get my submission, POM Wonderful Angel, in on time.

The embarrassing part of this is that there was another earlier submission very similar to mine. It totally appears as if I copied this other person’s idea. Oy! *blush*

And, it’s about 20 times better than mine so if you like the concept, please vote for berfrancis’ Cupid’s Love Potion.

Here are my lessons from entering this contest so you won’t make the same mistakes:

1. Submit as early as possible, especially when there’s a voting aspect to the contest.
2. Check the other submissions before you submit yours. I did check them when I first contemplated entering the contest but because I left it to the last minute, I neglected to check again. And now I’m SO embarrassed.

Moral of the story? You may be on the same wavelength as another contest participant so get your idea in first!

If you check out the contest entries, I’d love to hear which ones you liked most. And if you’ve had a similar experience, would you share it with us so I don’t feel so silly?

Healthy living is more than just exercise and nutrition. It’s about respect. Respect for your body, mind, soul, other people, animals and planet earth.

Can you tell when someone appreciates something in their life? Of course you can. There are some 50 year-old homes that look almost new while there are houses 20 years younger that look like they should be condemned!

Everything in life, no matter how it was originally built or created, requires a certain amount of time, energy and attention for maintenance. It’s obvious when neglect has been the reigning approach because it looks run down. It’s actually a form of abuse.

If you really feel blessed for something in your life, if you really love it, you’re more motivated to care for it because you want it to remain in your life in the best possible condition for as long as possible.

Engineers in Your Ear are a couple of stand-up guys who try to love the planet earth every day. They love it like apple pie. Check out their 3:35 minute tribute to her:

What do you think of the video and song, Readers? Thumbs up or down?

Caring for our bodies, relationships, material possessions and the land that provides us everything we need to survive are all important to living a healthy lifestyle. Let’s hear how you try to care for our planet earth in the comments below!

We talk a lot about detoxing and cleansing the body here on Live Lighter, and even went so far as to detox TV in January. We’ve also touched on how subconscious beliefs sabotage our efforts to change – that’s why I’m psyched to take Debbie Ford’s 21 day consciousness cleanse!

Ms. Ford talks about waking up one day without our old fears, doubts, unmet needs, limiting beliefs and perceptions that keep us locked in our repetitive, destructive patterns. I don’t know about you, but that sounds great to me!

Debbie has written The 21-Day Consciousness Cleanse: A Breakthrough Program for Connecting with Your Soul’s Deepest Purpose. But what’s it all about?

She says:

“It’s a practical program that promises to alter the quality and direction of your life and support you in not only obtaining your goals for the new year, but, more importantly, creating a new loving and nurturing relationship with yourself and with the power that sources you. This program will enable you to take back your power from the outer world, turn inward and reconnect with your inner guide and your highest self. Instead of being guided this year by your head and what you think you should do, you will be inspired and directed by your heart’s deepest desires.”

But you don’t have to buy the book to participate in what she describes as “a detox diet for the soul”. Check out Oprah.com to access 21 links (1 per day) for excerpts from the book, exercises and even meditations!

Here’s a 1:28 minute video with Debbie sharing some of the testimonials from her program:

Special thanks to Emmanuel Lopez from Motivatorman.com for notifying me of Debbie’s new break-through consciousness cleanse program.

I’m starting the 21-Day Consciousness Cleanse tomorrow! Will you be joining me on this soul journey? In case you missed it, click here when you’re ready.

February is the month of Love; it’s also American Heart Month. Since pomegranates are loaded with healthy antioxidants which may improve heart health, POM Wonderful wants us to create some fabulous heart art for a chance to win awesome prizes!

Pomegranates have been listed by Shape.com as one of the top 15 healthy foods to have in your kitchen at all times. Between the juice and seeds, the antioxidants (including tannins and anthocyanins) have been shown to increase blood flow and reduce levels of harmful cholesterol.

I’m psyched to enter POM Wonderful’s Heart Art Contest!

All we have to do is create an original, heart-themed work of art. According to the contest rules, we’re free to use any medium but our finished pieces must include the POM Wonderful logo. As an option, we may include any POM Wonderful packaging.

To finish entering the contest, we take a pic of our art, sign in or register to their POM community and upload the pic along with a title and description of our masterpiece.

Easy and fun, right? But what’s up for grabs?

The Grand Prize is a POM Wonderful gift basket which includes a Flip Video, $100 American Express gift card, $250 donation to the American Heart Association in the winner’s name, and more!

The Community Prize includes a whack of POM products like a backpack, POM juice, POMx coffee and POMx bars.

Click here to find out how winners will be determined and here for the official contest rules.

Contest ends at the end of the month on February 28th, so we’d better get our creative juices flowing! Ooo… I feel something brewing…

The 2010 TV Detox officially ended on Sunday and now that we’ve had time to catch up on some of our shows, it’s time to reflect on what we’ve learned from during our 31 days of detoxing.

Anything come up for you? Take some time right now to think of at least one revelation from your TV detox.

If you’d like to hear what I jotted down on my list, I vlogged it on YouTube:

If you’re using Internet Explorer, you may see a white box rather than the video. I’m looking into how to fix this but for now, please access the video directly from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQToWL1TtCk.

Special thanks goes to Emmanuel Lopez – Motivatorman for contributing his video production (lighting was poor – my apologies!) and original music score for this video! Please visit http://motivatorman.com/ to learn more about Emmanuel’s varied talents as an award-winning illustrator, motivational specialist and social media consultant.

For all of you readers out there:

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This is it, TV Detoxers! We’re coming to the end and this is the last check-in of The 2010 TV Detox. Let’s review our challenges and successes and gear up for the weekend as we wrap up this new year’s resolution alternative.

Let’s hear how you did this week, TV Detoxers!

For me, if you’ll remember from last video I said my intention was to detox ALL of my TV time. It was… interesting. If you have 1:05 minutes, I vlogged it on YouTube:

If you’re using Internet Explorer, you may see a white box rather than the video. I’m looking into how to fix this but for now, please access the video directly from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uZB_zH-abw.

Special thanks goes to Emmanuel Lopez – Motivatorman for contributing his creative content consultation, video production and original music score for this video! Please visit http://motivatorman.com/ to learn more about Emmanuel’s varied talents as an award-winning illustrator, motivational specialist and social media consultant.

For all of you readers out there:

Read the rest of this entry

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We’re finishing up week 3 of our New Year’s resolution alternative, The 2010 TV Detox. It’s time to look back over the week and assess our results, celebrate our successes and rev up for the final week!

How did you do this week, TV Detoxers? Please leave a comment and share your challenges and successes with the community. Perhaps we can help you out or your challenges may help someone else.

This past week for me was much like my last week’s report. If you have 1:09 minutes, I vlogged it on YouTube:

If you’re using Internet Explorer, you may see a white box rather than the video. I’m looking into how to fix this but for now, please access the video directly from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B275XgxZeek.

Special thanks goes to Emmanuel Lopez – Motivatorman for contributing his video production and creating an original music score for this video! Please visit http://motivatorman.com/ to learn more about Emmanuel’s varied talents as an award-winning illustrator, motivational specialist and social media consultant.

For all of you readers out there:

Read the rest of this entry

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Did yesterday’s post, Is TV Killing You?, renew your intention of detoxing your TV time for the month? We’re just finishing up week 2 of The 2010 TV Detox and it’s time to look back and see how we did!

How was this week for you in your TV detox? Did you adhere to your prescribed limits? How are you feeling about it? Please share your experience in the comments!

As for my challenges and successes this week…

To be absolutely honest, I have mixed feelings when I report to you that I was challenge-free this week! I’m happy that my TV detox has been easy so far and yet I know that we grow from our challenges.

Perhaps I set my limits too low? Or I miscalculated just how much I watched the old boob tube when I was creating my TV detox plan?

As for weekly successes, I’ve had a wonderfully stress-free but highly productive week! Not only in business but in my personal time, too. I was so engaged in my other personally fulfilling activities, I didn’t even miss TV. And if I want, I’m still able to watch 3 TV shows and 2 movies over the weekend!

Whoo Hoo!

Since challenges are so important, if you had any this week, would you kindly share them with us? And your solutions, too! Others can learn from them and if you didn’t find a solution, we might be able to help you. At the very least, let’s celebrate your successes!

If you’ve decided to detox TV with us for the month of January, here’s an easy, 20 minute process to help you use that off button!

It’s the holiday season and hopefully you will find some personal downtime in between celebrations. If you’re time-crunched but still want to feel prepared for your TV detox (8 days and counting), this post is for you.

The following process will be easier if you’re relaxed. Take 5 minutes and do some deep breathing or, if you have more time to spare, take a bath/shower or a walk to get the creative juices flowing.

Also, it may help if you make your plan somewhat flexible. You lay the ground rules but the idea here is not to get caught up in the planning process!

Your 20 Minute TV Detox Plan

TIP: Apparently January is a slow month for TV so if you’re looking for more of a challenge, try including the web, music and/or movies!

Step #1: Determining TV time to detox (10 minutes)

Ask yourself:

1. How many hours do I typically spend watching TV in a week?
2. What shows are my absolute favs? The ones that make me feel good? Choose these shows (if any) to enjoy for the month.
3. How much TV time will I detox a week? Subtract the TV time in answer 2 from TV time in answer 1.

NOTE: If you want to really test yourself or you don’t usually watch a lot of TV, feel free to detox 100% of your TV time!

Step #2: My personally meaningful activities (5-8 minutes)

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Have you ever been impulsive? The emotions surge and we make a snap decision. Sometimes it works out but most times… not so much. This post was inspired by our lovely holiday Bowflex tree and the lessons I reflected on while decorating it.

Now, as much as I appreciate the beauty of our Bowflex tree, I understand that there’s something (maybe a few things) desperately wrong with this picture.

Lesson #1: Try Before You Buy (especially big ticket items)

We’ve had our Bowflex machine for over 2 years now and it’s been used about a dozen times between myself and my hubby.

1st issue: Lack of space. (Hence, a Bowflex tree and not a Christmas tree). This machine is much larger than it looked on The Shopping Channel.

2nd issue: Does not suit our taste or needs. I tried. I really did. I watched the DVD that came with it. I installed and used it’s progress tracking software. Even had a routine but none of it stuck.

Now, the hot Bowflex granny says it worked for her so it may also for you (that’s what I was hoping when we ordered it).  But if our Bowflex taught us just one lesson, it’s to make sure your purchase suits you before investing a chunk of money into it.

By the way, what DID work for me was old-fashioned, accessible (and highly economical) floor work and easy-to-store free weights!

Lesson #2: Beware of Unbelievable Deals

The Home Shopping Network is notorious for it’s remarkable deals. Our Bowflex came with loads of extras, including believable and inspiring testimonials and sharp-talking sales reps.

What really cinched the deal for us was the promise of weight-loss and fit, healthy bodies. The advertising tickled our emotions and desires. We thought that if it worked for these people, it would work for us.

Besides, if we were investing this much money into equipment, surely it would motivate us towards a healthy routine! (We didn’t know at the time that change comes from within, not in `things’ outside ourselves.)

Lesson #3: Respect the Energy of Money

The energy of money is like the energy of food. For health, we want the most nutritious calories because it’s the empty (and less satisfying) calories that adds to our weight and drains us of long-lasting energy.

The same holds true for money. When we exchange our hard-earned money for something we truly value and appreciate, we respect ourselves and the energy of money. When we do this, we invite more quality and money into our lives.

In this case, exercise equipment has fulfilled it’s purpose and added real benefit to our lives when we use it on a regular basis to gain muscle and health. Not as an $1,100 pseudo-Christmas tree.

Moral of the Story

While it’s always recommended to make the most out of every situation (see photo), it’s in our best interest to perform due diligence before purchasing and avoid emotion-based impulses so that we use our resources wisely and consciously.

Have you ever used an impulse buy for something it wasn’t meant to be used for just to appease your guilt for being impulsive? I’d really like to hear your stories so our Bowflex tree doesn’t seem so lame! 

By the way, if you’re in the Toronto area and you think a Bowflex machine will suit you, contact me (stephanie [at] livelighter [dot] ca) and we’ll talk shop.