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?

Instead of forcing people to diet and exercise, Dan Buettner is inspiring people towards healthier lifestyles by changing their environment. The Vitality Project is an incredible concept and very promising for future generations!

Awhile back, we reported how Mr. Buettner was studying the world’s “blue zones”, places like Loma Linda, California, where people on a whole in the community lived similar lifestyles and had unusually long lives. Based on his studies, he wrote and published a book in 2008 called, “The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest.”

One year later, Buettner decided to bring the health benefits he saw in these blue zones to middle America by partnering up with AARP magazine to start the Vitality Project.

Albert Lea, Minnesota, a town of 18,000 residents, signed up for the five month project and with some fairly subtle changes to the environment, they saw amazing results!

Almost 3,500 townsfolk participated. (Source: CBS) They got motivated, made friends, added a few years to their lives and had so much fun that they can’t stop! Read Dan’s article here in AARP magazine for testimonials and a more in-depth view on the project.

Some Results (Source: NewsWeek):

• Participants lost an average of 2.6 pounds.
• Boosted life expectancy by an average of 3.1 years.
• Health-care claims for city & school employees fell for the first time in 10 years – by 32% over 10 months.
• Residents uniformly reported feeling better physically and emotionally.

What were some of the environmental changes?

• New sidewalks linking residential areas with schools and shopping centers.
• They built a recreational path along the lake.
• Dug new plots for community gardens.
• Restaurants made healthy changes to their menus.
• Schools stopped selling candy for fundraisers (instead they sold wreaths).
• Schools banned eating in hallways (to reduce opportunities for kids to snack on junk food).
• Participants selected from more than a dozen heart healthy changes to implement at home, such as trashing their super-sized dinner plates.
• Community worksh0ps were formed to encourage more social engagements with one another.

Dan Buettner may have something here. Rather than try to persuade individual lifestyle changes, he changed the environment in little ways designed to help support and nurture healthier lifestyle habits.

What do you think of the Vitality Project? Would you support (financially, politically and personally) changes to public policy that enhance and encourage healthy living?

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…

Celebrities look great all the time. It’s their job. And they pay good money for coaches to whip them into shape. So tell me, would it be easier to meet your health and fitness goals if you had your very own personal coach by your side throughout the entire day?

Your personal health coach would be there to remind you of healthier choices, push you just enough so you can improve a little each day and kick your butt into high gear when you’re slacking.

That’s why I’m excited about my new M2 personal health coach (given to me as a Christmas gift from my thoughtful, wonderful and beautiful cousin. Thank you, Tina!).

The folks over at MyTrak have designed a health solution that fits on your hip and tracks your movement throughout the day. It’s interactive and customized, so you go online and set up your profile. After a few questions about your current state of health and your goals, you’re ready to rock and roll!

Here is a 2:48 minute video introducing the M2 personal health coach:

I registered and configured my M2 on January 15, so it’s only been about 20 days since my personal health coach has been by my side. I’m aiming for a more intense lifestyle!

Stay tuned for an upcoming M2 review post where I share my experience with it and the MyTrak online community.

What do you think of the M2 so far, Readers? Do you think it’ll help you achieve your health & fitness goals?

Life happens and our good intentions of living a healthy lifestyle often tend to fall to the wayside. What if you could break free from the daily grind, visit a tropical island and instead of the vacation blues, you return home revitalized and armed with a new, healthy routine?

This is what Retreat to Healthy Living in Barbados aims to do. Surrounded by the untouched Caribbean island of Barbados, retreat-goers will embark on a 7-day transformational journey with the assistance of various health & wellness practitioners and the inspiring, 2-time Olympic gold medalist, Catriona Le May Doan.

It’s so easy to get caught up in the demands of life and when we are, it’s hard to break out of our old, destructive patterns. According to the press release:

Those participating in this exclusive women’s health retreat, surrounded by relaxing, pristine Barbados, will be primed for learning new, constructive ways of dealing with stress. Between varied engaging outings, like island tours, experiencing Barbados culture and delighting in scrumptious, healthy cuisine, health practitioners will teach participants how to live a healthy lifestyle and achieve remarkable fitness success.

Women, the nurturers of the world, are especially vulnerable to neglect in the self-care department. Ms. Le May Doan reminds us in the press release, we’re usually too busy taking care of others that we either forget or simply run out of time to take care of ourselves.

As a successful athlete, mother, wife and entrepreneur, Catriona lends a unique perspective to the retreat itinerary. And she’s pumped for this health & wellness retreat!

She says, “…not only do we plan to have a lot of fun in Barbados while we’re there, we’ll also learn how to stay healthy, achieve individual goals and have plenty of energy left over for others!”

A Vacation for Learning, Motivation and FUN!

Read the rest of this entry

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Have you ever looked at movie stars and said, “Sure I could be thin and beautiful, too, if it was my job!” Well, there’s a new website that actually pays overweight Americans to achieve their weight-loss goals!

Recently covered on Time.com, HealthyWage.com launched in October when founder, David Roddenberry, discovered research in the Journal of American Medicine suggesting that small monetary incentives triple the effectiveness of weight loss and smoking cessation programs.

The lure of cash seems to be working: 5,000 people have signed up on HealthyWage.com so far. Click here to see a 2:30 minute news clip.

The website has 4 incentive programs in effect this year:

1. BMI Challenge provides $100 from corporate sponsors to obese Americans (nearly one third of the nation) who lose weight.
2. SuperSizer allows you to “bet” on your ability to lose weight.
3. Top Motivator pays you when you’re friends lose weight.
4. Weekly Weigh-in celebrates your success and commitment each week with product giveaways from sponsors and motivational support.

To qualify for the reward in the BMI (Body Mass Index) Challenge, members are required to weigh-in on the website once a week and have their starting and ending weight verified by a physician. If you achieve a healthy weight (typically 30-80 pounds) by December 30, 2010, you will be rewarded $100 for your spanking new slim figure!

It’s free to enter the BMI Challenge. The final deadline for this 12 month challenge is January 20.

Or, while you’re on the BMI challenge, you can choose to “super-size” your weight-loss efforts. Up your ante from $0 to $300 and increase the stakes to $1,000!

HealthyWage also pays America’s Top Motivator $1 for every pound lost by his or her top 100 motivatees in the BMI Challenge. Motivatees are HealthyWage members who designate a “Motivator” within the website.  Example: 100 motivatees x 200 pounds each = $20,000 prize.

The Top Motivator incentive celebrates the important role that friends and family play in encouraging and facilitating weight loss. The winner will be announced at the end of the BMI Challenge.

Finally, each week HealthyWage challenges members to continue their weight loss journey by sharing tips and reporting their weight loss progress in its supportive online community.  On Tuesday at 10:00 pm ET, HealthyWage reports who lost the most weight for the week. Sponsors may provide coupons or free products rewards for weight loss winners.

HealthyWage is an incredible opportunity for those looking to lose weight this year. The website is unique in that it was created based on encouraging results from published academic weight-loss and motivation research, as well as previously tested weight-loss programs using incentives.

Special Offer for Live Lighter Readers!

HealthyWage has graciously offered to give away 5 free SuperSizer programs to allow YOU (at no cost today) the opportunity to get paid $1000 for losing weight in 2010! The first 5 American readers to leave a comment below will receive this special offer!

So, Readers, would you be more motivated to achieve your health goals this year if someone paid you?

Did you know that the CDC estimates American patients contract over 1 million infections in the hospital every year while being treated for something else? While many health debates rage, the one thing we can all agree on is that no one should get sick visiting a doctor.

As we learned a couple of weeks ago in Swine Flu Truths Revealed, secondary infections grossly overestimate the number of deaths attributed to influenza.

Some people admitted to the hospital end up contracting other infections, from pneumonia to antibiotic-resistant staph (MRSA), while under treatment.

The Not on My Watch Prevention Campaign is about educating patients and healthcare professionals in the prevention of hospital-related infections. This program is led by Kimberly-Clark Health Care, a company who believes that Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs) are completely avoidable with proper prevention habits.

A few facts from the press release:

• According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at any point in time, 1.4 million people worldwide suffer from infections acquired in hospitals. Read the rest of this entry

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Robert F Kennedy Jr. reveals the results from his investigation into vaccines and concludes that vaccines are making the sickest generation in America’s history.

The good news is that this is another respected source spreading the truth about vaccines. Big shout out to reader Dee, for sending us this extremely important 8 minute video (Part 1):

Politicians and government health officials are urging us to get vaccinated as health insurance. So for the past few weeks, we’ve been investigating exactly how healthy it is to get vaccinated for the H1N1 and seasonal flu. We’ve discovered there are HUGE health risks involved.

One of these risks is the development of neurological disorders. Although rare, this particular type of side effect is completely debilitating.

Before choosing vaccination, please consider the unfortunate case of Desiree Jennings, a beautiful 25-year-old cheerleader from Virginia who received a seasonal flu shot in August and 10 days later, developed what medical experts call, dystonia.

Here’s a 2:18 minute news clip from Inside Edition:

Since they’re rolling out the H1N1 vaccination before properly testing them, coupled with the fact that pharmaceutical companies and doctors are legally protected against lawsuits in these cases AND there’s no funding for vaccine injuries, we have to ask ourselves: “Is it worth the risk?”

What do you think, Readers? Will you be trusting your health to Nature or man?

Government health officials and mainstream media are telling us that we need to get vaccinated against H1N1. Should we trust them on blind faith?

According to Dr. Joseph Mercola and Barbara Loe Fisher of the National Vaccination Information Center, there’s very good reason for us to question their insistence.

Please note: both Dr. Mercola and Ms. Fisher are not anti-vaccine, they are pro-public education.

“Don’t let anyone tell you what to do. You need to empower yourself with information, believe that you can understand it, talk to one or more trusted health care professionals before you make your decision about vaccination; but most of all, have the confidence and believe you have the right, the responsibility and the ability to look at this issue, become informed and make wise health care choices for yourself and your children.” Barbara Loe Fisher, Co-Founder of the National Vaccination Information Center.

The following information (brought to my attention by loyal and concerned reader, Dee)  is a summary of important points brought up in a series of interviews between Mercola and Fisher.

They present facts about swine flu, seasonal flu and vaccinations that mainstream media and government health officials have chosen not to share with the public:

The Truth About the Swine Flu Virus

1. H1N1 is NOT causing excessive mortality. The CDC estimates 36,000 flu-related American deaths each year. So far, H1N1 has caused 1000 deaths in the United States.
2. Compare this number also to the 200,000 preventable hospital deaths every year (in the U.S.) due to hospital infections and medical errors.
3. Swine Flu virus appears to be less virulent than some of the influenza strains in the past and, comparing the above numbers, no more lethal than the usual strains every year.
4. The CDC stopped confirming cases on August 30th and are assuming the 400 deaths with flu-like symptoms since then were caused by the H1N1 virus. Unsubstantiated claims! Read the rest of this entry

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