WORRIED ABOUT CHILDHOOD OBESITY?
Many are.  And so here's some interesting findings:

"New research published in this month’s issue of the journal Pediatric strengthens the argument that the best way to reduce childhood obesity isn’t through government programs or “healthy” school lunches but through greater parental involvement in a child’s life — and more specifically a child’s food decisions.
The Australian study examined 165 overweight children and randomly assigned them to one of three programs: an exercise program, a parent-controlled diet program, or a program combining both diet and exercise. After two years, all children experienced weight loss but the report noted that “the greatest effects were achieved through inclusion of a parent-centered diet program, indicating the importance of targeting parents within treatment and the possibility of targeting them exclusively in treating obese prepubertal children.”
This latest research adds to the many other studies supporting the notion that parents are best suited to improving a child’s health...Ohio State University College of Public Health conducted a similar study last year and the results showed that the only way to reduce childhood obesity is if parents employ three rules: less television, dinner with mom and dad, and more sleep. Perhaps most interestingly, the study found that even for children predisposed to obesity (poor children and those with obese mothers), their likelihood of developing weight problems was reduced if their parents followed the three rules. Less television, family dinners, and early bedtimes are activities parents control … for now.
And these studies are not all new. In 2000, a Harvard Medical school study of over 16,000 children found that “eating family dinner was associated with healthful dietary intake patterns, including more fruits and vegetables, less fried food and soda, less saturated and trans fat, lower glycemic load, more fiber and micronutrients from food, and no material differences in red meat or snack foods.”

MORE ON KIDS AND SOCIAL NETWORKING
This topic has come up a number of times here, because of its importance, because of its ubiquity, and because of the obvious issues it raises.  Everyone is online today.  It can't be escaped.  You need to be online and to know how to navigate it, or you'll be left behind in today's marketplace.  Young people would lose touch with friends and perhaps lose face with their peers if they weren't online.  For those of us with Moebius Syndrome, being online is an excellent--and sometimes easier--way for us to communicate with others.  But what are we losing?  Are we losing face-to-face time with actual people?  Are we so busy online that we aren't spending time with our own families?  There's another piece out today that looks at all these issues, and cites recent research on them:

?Are kids spending too much time online? It’s a question posed by parents around the country, as they try to raise thoughtful, intelligent and well-behaved children in today’s busy world.

A new study from the USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future found more and more parents are concerned that increased amounts of time their children spend online, social networking, twittering and instant messaging each other is decreasing their face time with family members and even the very same friends they are communicating with digitally.
According to the study, which queried roughly 2,000 families, more than half of parents now restrict Internet use as a form of punishment. In addition, it seems the amount of time families spend with each other face to face has gone down 25 percent over the past three years.

“They should be encouraging their kids to do other things,” says Robert Myers, a child psychologist. “As far as brain development goes, playing with toys, building things for younger kids, fantasy play are much more important in child development than what you’re going to watch on a screen,” adds Myers.

But other experts in the field disagree. Karen Sternheimer, a sociologist who works on kids issues, says she’s concerned about the flipside of this issue. “It’s the kids who never have been on Facebook, MySpace, who don’t know the logic of social networking. I am more concerned in the long run that they will be left behind in the market place,” insists Sternheimer.

The study also found that parents who are concerned about their kids spending too much time in front of a screen have begun to apply supervisory approaches to the new medium, much like they do with television. The report doesn’t offer any solutions, but researchers who worked on the study agree that parents should set guidelines, and look for ways to spend quality family time together. They say even one family dinner a week can make a difference when it comes to engaging in conversation and promoting verbal skills and the all important “face time.”

"Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind."
-Seneca

KIDS SAY THE DARNDEST THINGS
I just thought this was funny--this comes from a blog written by a parent over on parenting.com:

"Thanks to JD, I’m always laughing! He says the funniest things and usually at random times, which makes them even funnier. Here’s his latest quips:
Mom, I wanna be Chicken Whittle (Little) for Halloween. (He said this at 5:30 A.M. this morning. It’s March.)
Mema (my mom) has squishy elbows. She should get new ones at the doctor.
I don’t like eggies anymore. They are too spicy. (The scrambled eggs I offered him were the same he always eats.)
It’s not Christmas time. It’s Easter time, you know. (Said this randomly while driving to the grocery store.)
(singing) Pink Cadillac, cruising down the stream. (The stream.)
We never hit babies. We always have to be gentle on babies. (Said this at an indoor playground when he noticed a baby trying to crawl. My response: “Um, we never hit anyone, bud.")
Remember when I lost my balloon from the dentist? Maybe we will find it today. (He was talking about a dental appointment from September 2010 and a helium balloon that he let go of. He said this on the way to school today. I don't think we will find it today.)
It’s OK mom, everyone has a steak! (He says this, meaning, “mistake,” whenever I make a whoops. Like, the other day when I forgot to hit “AV” when attempting to play a DVD.)
Can I have a bamba? (His word for banana—even though he can clearly say banana. It's sooooo cute!)
Mom, you smell like a rose. (Says this when my hair is wet after I shampooed.)"

I'll bet all you parents of Moebius children (along with us Moebius parents of a non-Moebius child, come to think of it!!) could regale us all with tales of the great things your child has said.  You might want to write them down, remember them; they're fun. :+)

BEWARE OF A NEW KIND OF DEPRESSION
It's called "Facebook depression"---and I guess you could see how it could, perhaps, happen:
"Add "Facebook depression" to potential harms linked with social media, an influential doctors' group warns, referring to a condition it says may affect troubled teens who obsess over the online site. 
Researchers disagree on whether it's simply an extension of depression some kids feel in other circumstances, or a distinct condition linked with using the online site.
But there are unique aspects of Facebook that can make it a particularly tough social landscape to navigate for kids already dealing with poor self-esteem, said Dr. Gwenn O'Keeffe, a Boston-area pediatrician and lead author of new American Academy of Pediatrics social media guidelines.
With in-your-face friends' tallies, status updates and photos of happy-looking people having great times, Facebook pages can make some kids feel even worse if they think they don't measure up.
It can be more painful than sitting alone in a crowded school cafeteria or other real-life encounters that can make kids feel down, O'Keeffe said, because Facebook provides a skewed view of what's really going on. Online, there's no way to see facial expressions or read body language that provide context.
The guidelines urge pediatricians to encourage parents to talk with their kids about online use and to be aware of Facebook depression, cyberbullying, sexting and other online risks. They were published online Monday in Pediatrics.
 Abby Abolt, 16, a Chicago high school sophomore and frequent Facebook user, says the site has never made her feel depressed, but that she can understand how it might affect some kids.  "If you really didn't have that many friends and weren't really doing much with your life, and saw other peoples' status updates and pictures and what they were doing with friends, I could see how that would make them upset," she said."

It's something to think about, given that more of us in the facial difference/Moebius community than ever are on the internet, and on social-networking sites.  I think the important thing to remember is--what you see on Facebook isn't necessarily always "real."  Sometimes it is.  But sometimes, I suspect, people want to portray their lives and experiences as more wonderful than they really are.  And not all of the folks who "friend" you or whom others have "friended" are truly good friends, in the traditional sense.  We all know that.  People just have to keep what they see online in perspective.  Of course, when you're in your teen years, that's not always the easiest thing to do...

We should also remember that not all online activities for kids is necessarily bad--as another report out today points out:
"While the news media tends to focus on the negatives of this new technology, social networking also has many advantages for kids. In addition to strengthening connections with friends and family, social networking encourages participation in community service activities, collaboration with classmates on group projects, the sharing of musical and artistic achievements, and communication with sports coaches and teammates, and that's just for starters.
"In addition, the online world is beneficial for those kids who don't quite 'fit in' at school -- it can help foster their identity and unique social skills," explains Clarke-Pearson.
So how does it go wrong? "Teens are susceptible to peer pressure and are also naturally impulsive, so they may quickly comment on an inappropriate post without thinking. This can easily snowball and become very hurtful to the person who's targeted," says Clarke-Pearson. Some families have also become so overly digitized that time together at home and during meals is being displaced. Direct interaction with peers is disappearing as well.
"When texting becomes the main mode of communication, it doesn't allow for tone, body language or facial cues," says Clarke-Pearson. But the right parental interaction and involvement can ensure that won't happen. Here's how to help your child use social media and game sites to her advantage:
Get schooled: Immerse yourself in the technology so you know how to create a profile, "friend" your child, and be a part of her online life. She may insist that you don't embarrass her by posting on her wall for her friends to see, for instance, but that's okay. You still get a window into her world.
Model it: If you're constantly on the cell or computer, your kid will want to be, too. Limit your time so you can help your child strike a balance with her own use.
Power down: Insist that family meals are device-free and set reasonable bedtimes. "Children and adolescents don't get enough sleep as it is, so staying up half the night on line certainly doesn't help," says Clarke-Pearson."

There's more--read the whole piece.

"The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only
a page." -St. Augustine

CAN AN ALTERNATIVE MED REMEDY LEG PAIN?
I know some of you with Moebius have various aches and pains, especially in the leg area, so I thought you might be interested in this:
"The Remedy: Horse chestnut seed extract.
The Claim: It helps relieve leg pain and other symptoms of venous insufficiency.
The Science: Poor blood flow in the veins of the legs is one of the common problems that develop as we age.  But when the problem becomes severe enough, it can result in a condition called chronic venous insufficiency. People who have the condition can find themselves struggling with a host of bothersome symptoms like leg pain, pruritus (itchiness), hardening of the skin and edema (swelling of tissue under the skin).
Wearing compression socks or stockings, one of the more traditional solutions, can be helpful but also uncomfortable for some people, causing them not to use them. But one alternative remedy, popular in Europe, is to use extracts from the seed of the horse chestnut, a large and leafy tree native to the Balkans and other parts of Europe. The extract contains beta-aescin and other compounds believed to help strengthen blood vessel walls and reduce swelling and redness.
Over the years, numerous studies have examined whether horse chestnut can actually make a difference. Most have found that it works well, but some studies have either suffered from poor design or were financed in part by commercial interests.
But in 2006, scientists with the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth in England sifted through years of studies and selected the best randomized controlled trials for a meta-analysis in the respected Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
“Over all,” they found, “the trials suggested an improvement in the symptoms of leg pain, edema and pruritus with horse chestnut seed extract when taken as capsules over two to 16 weeks.”

Horse chestnut seed extract---man!  You learn something new every day.

LITTLE KIDS AND THE WORLD'S DISASTERS
So some of you reading this are moms and dads, and you have very young children, and you're worried about how they may react when hearing news of earthquakes, tsunamis, disasters, and death.  How do you handle it?  Here's some good examples:
"1. Kids mirror behavior so stay calm
In scary times, kids use our behavior as their model to copy. Remember, it’s not what you say about the news, but how you react that really makes the difference. It’s best to keep your emotions at bay. Security for younger kids is often better conveyed physically (rocking, hugging and touching) than with our words.
2. Be the family news director Monitoring  what your child watches is always a good idea. But especially be aware of television that shows graphic images of tragedy. When in doubt, turn the television off. Studies show that even though kids may not have personally witnessed a tragedy, they can still be traumatized from viewing troubling news images.  A child’s age dictates what they can absorb."

There's a lot more there.  Read the whole thing.  And pay attention to the news---you know, one of the reasons I was able to become a teacher and a writer was because, when I was young, I got interested in history, current events, etc.  And one of the reasons THAT happened was because my family was interested in these things--they read books, they had the news on, they read the papers, they knew what was going on.  What you do influences your children.  Believe it.

"Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain
way to succeed is always to try just one more time."
-Thomas A. Edison

GO FISH
Many are recommending that we all eat more fish to be healthy:

"8 oz. The amount of seafood most of us should eat each week. That’s two four-ounce servings, more than twice what most of us typically manage (3.5 ounces).
12 oz. The weekly amount recommended for women who are pregnant or breast-feeding.
4 oz. The amount of fish in a small can of tuna, which means an ordinary tuna sandwich gets you halfway to your weekly goal.
The benefits
Like red meat and poultry, fish provides the protein essential for maintaining healthy muscles and other tissues. Most of us get more than enough protein. What really makes fish worth eating are its omega-3 fatty acids. New research shows that these healthful fats may help prevent age-related macular degeneration, a disease that impairs vision. But their benefits extend far beyond that.
Heart health. Omega-3 fatty acids, specifically eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), help prevent cardiovascular disease and sudden cardiac death. Penny Kris-Etherton, professor of nutrition at Penn State, says these healthful fats can reduce heart arrhythmia, the leading cause of sudden cardiac death. The effect can take hold mere weeks after a person adds more fish to his diet, she says. Omega-3s may also lower triglycerides and blood pressure and prevent blood clots that can cause stroke.
Child development. Omega-3 fatty acids contribute to fetal growth and brain development in early infancy, says Bethany Thayer, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. When women consume omega-3s — especially DHA — from at least eight ounces of seafood per week, the dietary guidelines say, their babies may have heightened visual and cognitive development."

"We are built to conquer environment, solve problems, achieve goals,
and we find no real satisfaction or happiness in life without
obstacles to conquer and goals to achieve." -Maxwell Maltz

THE VALUE OF SPORTS...FOR THE BRAIN?
It may help the brain focus and process better, faster, says a new study:
"Who can cross a busy road better, a varsity wrestler or a psychology major? That question, which seems to beg for a punch line, actually provided the motivation for an unusual and rather beguiling new experiment in which student athletes were pitted against regular collegians in a test of traffic-dodging skill. The results were revelatory.
For the study, published last week in The Journal of the American College of Sports Medicine, researchers at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign recruited 36 male and female students, ages 18 to 22. Half were varsity athletes at the university, a Division I school, and they represented a wide variety of sports, including cross-country running, baseball, swimming, tennis, wrestling, soccer and gymnastics. Some possessed notable endurance; others, strength and power; and still others, precision and grace.
The rest of the volunteers were healthy young collegians but not athletes, from a variety of academic departments.
All showed up at various times to a specially appointed lab, where a manual treadmill was situated amid three 10-foot-square video screens. One screen stood in front of the treadmill, with the others at either side. Donning goggles that gave the video images on the screens depth and verisimilitude, the students were soon immersed in a busy virtual cityscape.
When the immersive video began, the students found themselves plopped into an alley between buildings. From there, they were instructed to walk toward a busy street and, once they’d arrived, gauge oncoming traffic. The virtual cars whizzed by in both directions at daunting speeds, between 40 and 55 miles per hour.
When it felt safe, the students were to cross the road. They were told to walk, not run, but had a limit of 30 seconds from the time they left the alley. In some attempts, they had no distractions. In others, they listened to music through headphones or, emulating a common campus practice, chatted on a cellphone with a friend. Each volunteer attempted 96 crossings.
Success varied. “Over all, there was an 85 percent completion rate,” in which students made it to the other side of the road without incident, said Laura Chaddock, a graduate student at the university and lead author of the study. Failure meant impact — thankfully virtual.
The student athletes completed more successful crossings than the nonathletes, by a significant margin, a result that might be expected of those in peak physical condition. But what was surprising — and thought-provoking — was that their success was not a result of their being quicker or more athletic. They walked no faster than the other students. They didn’t dash or weave gracefully between cars. What they did do was glance along the street a few more times than the nonathletes, each time gathering slightly more data and processing it more speedily and accurately than the other students.
“They didn’t move faster,” said Art Kramer, the director of the Beckman Institute and a leader in the study of exercise and cognition, who oversaw the research. “But it looks like they thought faster.”

And of course, to me this doesn't mean that one has to play organized basketball or football in order to get the benefit of a focused, processing brain.  But being active, exercising somehow--it's got to help.  And as always, we with Moebius Syndrome very much want to do anything that will help our brains! :+)

MEANWHILE, FOR YOUR CAREER...
Here are a few simple ways to get your career moving if you feel stuck in neutral:
 "Take time for professional development.
Wishing is one thing, action is another. Identify the skills you need to progress in your career. Take classes and seminars accordingly, and read books to expand your expertise. Making yourself more knowledgeable and relevant can open up new opportunities and renew your passion (as well as give others a more favorable impression of your abilities and commitment).
 Associate with hard-workers.
Remember your mother worrying about who you hung out with in high school? The company you keep in the workplace can likewise have a negative influence. Distance yourself from the office slackers.
The bad attitudes and habits that are keeping you back are likely being enabled, tolerated or encouraged by others. Instead, evoke positive peer pressure by surrounding yourself with hard-working colleagues who share your career goals."


Read the whole piece...



Variety's the very spice of life,
That gives it all its flavour." -William Cowper

AN INSPIRATIONAL STORY
We often talk here about overcoming obstacles.  There are plenty of examples in life of those who did just that.  Including from the sports world.  Did you know a young man who was deaf once played in both the NFL and the CFL?

Selected by the Denver Broncos in the eighth round of the 1991 NFL draft, [Kenny] Walker became professional American football's first deaf player since Bonnie Sloan, who had played for the St. Louis Cardinals for one season in 1973. While many teams had overlooked Walker because of his handicap, Broncos' coach Dan Reeves was willing to take a chance on Nebraska's star player. As a defensive linebacker for the Broncos, Walker distinguished himself with his superior vision, strength, and speed. For assistance at meetings, practice, and chalkboard talks, Walker hired an interpreter. He read quarterback Karl Mecklenberg's lips in the huddle, and received defensive calls via signals from fellow linebackers.
Within a few months Coach Reeves was touting Walker as one of the best late-round draft choices the team had made in years. Said Reeves to Tom Farley of the Seattle Times:"Whether it's in the near future or next year, I don't think there is any question [Walker] will end up being a starting defensive end for us." However, Reeves did not follow through on this promise. After playing with the Broncos for two seasons, Walker—who had been named the NFL's Most Inspirational player—was cut from the team in August 1993.
Although the Broncos had suggested that Walker's deafness was a liability, the Canadian Football League was willing to give the talented player a chance. He joined the Calgary Stampeders as a starting linebacker in July 1994, becoming the CFL's first deaf player in history. As a starting linebacker, Walker proved his mettle and once earned the distinction of "defensive player of the week." "[Walker] really wanted to play football, and mentally he had a sense of relief because [Calgary] didn't want him to carry a lot of weight like the Denver Broncos did," Walker's wife, Marti, told Brian Lahm of the Omaha World Herald. Although he enjoyed playing for the Stampeders, Walker told the press that he would take advantage of any future opportunities to come back to the NFL and play in his home country. Such an opportunity did not present itself, however. Walker played with the Stampeders for two seasons, leaving in 1995."



"Nothing is pleasant that is not spiced with variety."
-Francis Bacon

SOME RANDOM THOUGHTS
But I think they make some sense.  First, from a mom who's always living in chaos--but deals with it:

"Most of the time, I am the messy disaster, the daydreamer, the disheveled, self-deprecating deep sigher. I am the one who complains bitterly about twisted car-seat straps and an ungodly tide of dirty laundry that never seems to subside. I'm the one who snickers mirthlessly when a moth flies into the baby's milk and it all has to get poured down the sink.
What I want to know is how other people my age with my responsibilities get by. I want to know how they try and fail, and I want to know exactly how they feel and act and what they say when they're failing.
"This is a f***ing clown show!" is what one friend tells me he says when everything is going wrong. "What's a clown show?" I asked. He wasn't sure, but I think I know from my own experience: It's loud, stuff is spilling on the floor, and you can't all fit into the car.
But you could never fit into the car in the first place -- that was only an illusion. All you can hope for is to accept your flaws and get a reasonable hold on your circumstances....You're never fully prepared. You never really arrive. The best you can do is to keep painting the walls to suit your new circumstances."

And then there's this---supposed you're asked weird questions on a job interview?  It can happen.  Here's the deal--and what maybe you can do in reply:
"...organizations of all sizes and in a variety of industries are posing unusual questions to their interviewees.
"Zappos.com, the online shoe seller known for its relaxed culture and quirky employees, has one of the more interesting applications you're likely to see. According to Christa Foley, a recruiting manager for the company, you might be asked any of the following:
• If you were a superhero, who would you be and why?
• If every time you entered a room your theme song played, what would it be and why?
• On a scale of 1-10, how weird are you? Why did you choose that number?
• What was your best MacGyver moment?
• If you saw someone steal a quarter, would you report it? If not, what dollar amount would you report?
Unusual, right? Aside from the last question, which conceivably factors into your trustworthiness, the others are fun and allow you to be creative. These brain teasers are usually used so that employers can see how your mind works, but they also make you wonder if the employer is taking you seriously or just messing with you.
Sometimes even we can't give you the right answers for truly unorthodox questions. As with brain teasers, these weird questions don't always have a right or wrong answer.
As a rule, you should approach unusual interview questions with the following mindset:
• Is it illegal or unethical? If so, feel free to stand up and walk out. (You don't want to work for that kind of boss, do you?)
• Is there a right or wrong answer?
• What is my answer? Why?
• Why didn't I choose the other options or answer differently?
What matters is that you answer the question and articulate your reasoning. You can't predict how the interviewer will react, so the best you can do is answer confidently. If the interviewer cringes when you say "Star Wars" instead of "Star Trek" and shows you out of the interviewer room, you're not to blame."

Interesting!  I have to admit, I never faced questions like those.
Meanwhile, here's some news for those of you who still have toddler children, with Moebius or no:

"Toddlers are usually switched from rear-facing to forward-facing car seats right after their first birthday — an event many parents may celebrate as a kind of milestone.
But in a new policy statement, the nation’s leading pediatricians’ group says that is a year too soon.
The advice from the American Academy of Pediatrics, issued Monday, is based primarily on a 2007 University of Virginia study finding that children under 2 are 75 percent less likely to suffer severe or fatal injuries in a crash if they are facing the rear.
“A baby’s head is relatively large in proportion to the rest of his body, and the bones of his neck are structurally immature,” said the statement’s lead author, Dr. Dennis R. Durbin, scientific co-director of the Center for Injury Research and Prevention at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “If he’s rear-facing, his entire body is better supported by the shell of the car seat. When he’s forward-facing, his shoulders and trunk may be well restrained, but in a violent crash, his head and neck can fly forward.”


"There is no comparison between that which is lost by not
succeeding and that which is lost by not trying."
-Francis Bacon

GO EASY ON THE EYES
People with Moebius Syndrome especially ought to beware of this:

"If you find yourself looking in the mirror at the end of a long day only to see the bloodshot eyes of a crackhead staring back at you, it may be because you are addicted to something —your digital devices.
A new problem that some eye experts are calling computer vision syndrome (CVS) is sweeping the country; it can affect up to 90 percent of people who spend two or more continuous hours a day with their eyes glued to a screen, whether it's that of a computer, an e-reader, or a smartphone. The symptoms, which can include blurry vision, headaches, dry eyes, or even long-term nearsightedness, may accrue over a period of days or months—but don't wait until you sense something is wrong. Start preventing the problem today.
"Our eyes have evolved for three-dimensional viewing," says New York City-based optometrist Andrea Thau, O.D., of the American Optometric Association, "so we wind up overfocusing as we strain to find a 3-D image on a close-up 2-D screen."
What's more, the eye's natural focal point lies about 20 feet in front of the face. Most people, however, sit less than two feet from their computer screen, forcing a ring of eye muscles to continuously contract in order to redirect focus. If you stare at any sort of digital monitor for hours, those eye muscles can become so overwrought that they can't relax, even after you look away.
The resulting blurred vision, a main CVS symptom, often clears up in as little as a few seconds, but if you hit this hazy point a lot — as in several times a day, most days of the week — then the short-term nearsightedness might become permanent. (It's still up for debate whether or not the problem is reversible. The American Optometric Association warns that it might not be, while the American Academy of Ophthalmology, an M.D. association, considers CVS to be a temporary, day-to-day annoyance that improves as soon as you take some time away from staring at a screen.)"

So be careful out there!


"Don't worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be
worthy of recognition." -Abraham Lincoln

CARING
I am heartened by all the work the far-flung-and-growing-each-day Moebius Syndrome network is doing these days.  Take the story of Elijah, the little boy with Moebius Syndrome growing up in Florida, who it turned out was living in filth, and being neglected, by his parents, being stuck in a hotel room surrounded by filth.

But once this was learned, many people on Facebook sprung into action.  There's been an outpouring of care, concern, and attempts to do something--to seek ways to care for the boy, and even send nice care packages to him.  I'm sure it will be good for him and for others connected to the situation in Florida to know that there are those who care about this.  This is the way that networking on Facebook and other social networking sites can really help.

Let's keep up the good work.

WAYS TO GET MORE VEGGIES IN YOUR DIET
Always a good thing:

"Vegetables are important for a good diet — they can reduce risk of stroke, heart disease and some cancers and can contribute to healthy weight. The people at TOPS (Take Pounds Off Sensibly), a nonprofit, weight-loss support group, came up with a Top 10 list of ways to get more veggies in your diet.
1. Make a “pasta” dish with spaghetti squash instead of noodles.
2. Puree cooked vegetables and add them to stews, gravies, and soups.
3. Add raw spinach leaves and an extra-ripe banana to a fruit smoothie. It may sound strange, but the sweetness of the banana masks the taste of the spinach.
4. Baking? Add shredded carrots to muffins or bread.
5. Instead of cheese and meat, pile your morning omelet with onions, mushrooms, and red and green peppers. Chop vegetables the night before to save time in the morning.
6. Add chopped spinach to meat when preparing meatballs or hamburgers.
7. Try mashed cauliflower instead of mashed potatoes.
8. Add salsa to a breakfast burrito, pile it on a veggie burger, or use it in place of high-fat, creamy vegetable dips.
9. Puree pasta sauce with vegetables such as winter squash or chopped broccoli.
10. Add chopped carrots to casseroles or meatloaf."

THE VALUE OF FRIENDS
Meanwhile, good friends help keep you healthier and living longer:
"...research suggests that good friends may actually be great medicine: Strong social ties may help stave off memory loss as you age; reduce stress; boost immunity; help you lose weight and keep it off; and buffer against depression, among other health benefits. There’s also a strong longevity link, says Carl Latkin, a professor of social and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health: “If you have supportive relationships, you’re going to live longer.”  In fact, a 2010 review of nearly 150 studies that was published in PLoS Medicine found that people with strong social ties had a 50 percent better chance of survival, regardless of age, sex, health status and cause of death, than those with weaker ties. This conclusion was based on information about more than 300,000 individuals who were followed for an average of 7.5 years."

And now, here's some NCAA tourney picks for tomorrow's games, along with Friday's:

Look for #8 seed George Mason to defeat Villanova.  Villanova has struggled badly towards the end of this season.

#12 seed Clemson will upset West Virginia.  Clemson is playing well right now---see their decent run in the ACC Tournament, and their smackdown of UAB last night.

I like #7 Washington to survive and defeat #10 seed Georgia (many see that as a potential upset).  Washington has an excellent guard in Isaiah Thomas and some good bigs inside.

I like #8 Michigan to survive over #9 Tennessee.  Michigan has played well in the last few weeks.

I think #4 seed Texas' talent will allow them to survive vs a good team in #13 Oakland (many have predicted this as an upset; I don't see it).

Look for #11 seed Missouri to upset #6 seed Cincinnati.  Missouri can score, and uses a good pressure, up-tempo style; Cincinnati can struggle to score.

#9 seed Illinois will upset #8 seed UNLV.  Illinois has an excellent guard in McCamey; good guard play is crucial in the college game.

I like #12 seed Richmond to upset #5 seed Vanderbilt.  Richmond plays a solid, deliberate style that gives teams fits.

I think #11 seed VCU will win tonight over USC, and then upset #6 seed Georgetown.  Georgetown lost their mojo towards the end of the season; VCU has good tourney experience.

I like #8 seed Butler to survive and defeat #9 seed Old Dominion (many see this too as a potential upset).  Butler is playing Butler basketball again, and won their conference tournament; and they have a number of players who got seasoned in last year's run to the final game.

I like #12 Utah State to upset #5 Kansas State.  Utah State is experienced and has won a lot of games.

Many pick #13 Belmont to upset #4 seed Wisconsin.  I don't; look for Wisconsin's efficient, defensive-minded, deliberate style to again bear fruit.

#11 Gonzaga will defeat #6 St. John's.  The Johnnies just lost a key player to injury; Gonzaga has lots of tournament experience.

#10 seed Michigan State to upset #7 seed UCLA.  The Bruins are young; the highly-touted-in-the-pre-season Spartans have struggled, but they still have talent and tourney experience, and look for coach Tom Izzo to at least get them past this one.

"It is easier to do a job right than to explain why you

didn't." -Martin Van Buren

DESPERATE FOR A JOB?
Be careful--sometimes a bad job is worse than no job:

"With unemployment still high, job seekers who have been discouraged by a lack of work might be inclined to take the first opportunity they're offered. That will help pay the bills, but it could cause other problems: A new study suggests that some jobs are so demoralizing they're actually worse for mental health than not working at all.
The findings add a new wrinkle to the large body of research showing that being out of work is associated with a greater risk of mental health problems. In the study, which followed more than 7,000 Australians over a seven-year period, unemployed people generally reported feeling calmer, happier, less depressed, and less anxious after finding work, but only if their new jobs were rewarding and manageable.
"Moving from unemployment to a poor-quality job offered no mental health benefit, and in fact was more detrimental to mental health than remaining unemployed," says the lead author of the study, Peter Butterworth, Ph.D., a senior research fellow at the Centre for Mental Health Research at the Australian National University, in Canberra."

The key:  try to find what you really want--and work towards it!

In other news...
Our own Vicki McCarrell, chair of the Moebius Syndrome Board of Directors, has joined the board of the National Organization for Rare Disorders.  Congrats, Vicki!

I'm a big fan of college basketball and the NCAA Tournament.  Here are my picks for the first four games, to be played tonight and Wednesday in Dayton, Ohio:

I like VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH to knock off USC.

Look for Arkansas-Little Rock to edge out UNC-Asheville.

Texas-San Antonio will bump off Alabama State.

And Clemson will defeat UAB.

I'll let you know my upset picks for Thursday and Friday in a day or two.

"Quality means doing it right when no one is looking." -Henry Ford

ADJUSTING TO THE TIME CHANGE
Hmmm, I found this interesting--do you have trouble adjusting to the time change?  Studies show some do:

"Come Sunday morning, we'll have an extra hour of sunlight in the evening. This sounds great, but researchers say that shifting our internal clocks twice a year might affect us adversely -- from more traffic accidents to lower SAT scores.
Daylight-saving time happens at 2 a.m. Sunday.
Losing an hour of sleep might not seem like a big jolt, but studies suggest that most of us don't get enough sleep as it is, so losing even an hour can take its toll.
A study published in February's Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology and Economics found that the biannual time shift caused a 16-point drop in SAT scores among high school students in Indiana.
A Canadian study from the mid-1990s found that traffic accidents increased by 8 percent the day after clocks were pushed forward one hour in the spring.
Accidents decreased by about the same amount when they were pushed back in the fall.
And in 2008, a study by Swedish researchers found that heart attacks decreased by 5 percent the day after the fall transition, presumably because of the extra hour of sleep.
The bad news was that heart attacks increased by 6 percent in the three days after the spring transition.
Andrew Winokur, director of psychopharmacology at the University of Connecticut, said we thrive on consistent patterns.
"When there's a sudden change in that, we as humans can feel it," he said. "I would say it's slightly analogous to jet lag."

THE POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING
As persons with Moebius Syndrome know, your brain is real important.  And what you choose to do with it is important, too--such as using it to think positively, as ABC News reported a few days ago:
"Can a smile a day keep your heart feeling okay? Some researchers say it might. A new study released Monday adds to growing evidence that having a positive attitude can help you live longer. Researchers looked at nearly 3,000 patients who underwent hospital treatment for heart disease and found that those who had the highest expectations of a full recovery had a higher chance of living longer than those who were pessimistic about their chance of recovery.
"Patients differ widely in terms of their psychological reactions to major illnesses such as coronary heart disease," Barefoot and colleagues wrote in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
And many experts say there's good reason to believe that your attitude can shape your outcome.
Dr. Steven E. Nissen, department chair of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, who was not involved in the study, said patients "with a 'positive' attitude may simply be healthier than patients with a negative attitude. In fact, their 'attitude' may reflect their health status."
Study researchers also noted that those who are generally optimistic about their health are more likely to follow treatment recommendations.
"One of those factors might [also] be that cardiovascular providers give better care to patients with a positive outlook-perhaps spending more time with them or being more conscientious," Dr. James Kirkpatrick, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, who was not involved in the study."

Read the whole thing.  And, of course, as I need not remind you all--positive thinking doesn't have to include an actual smile.  A smile from the heart works just as well. :+)

"Most of the happy people I know do some one thing well."
-L. Jay Silvester

NO TIME TO CALL...OR DON'T WANNA
I thought this piece was interesting; I know some of us with Moebius Syndrome get a bit nervous when it comes to making actual telephone calls (including me).  We worry that the person we're calling--especially if we don't know him or her--will not understand us, given that he or she might not be used to how we sound, they won't be used to understanding us.  Turns out, though, we're not alone:

"Phone calls, says 16-year-old Audrey, can be dangerous. Things can get "out of control." Like many teens, and a growing number of adults, she prefers text-messaging, instant messaging, or Facebook as ways to communicate rather than using the phone.
With texting, "you get your main points off; you can really control when you want the conversation to start and end. You say 'Got to go, bye.' "
 Audrey is one of 300 teens, and 150 adults, interviewed by MIT professor Sherry Turkle for her book, "Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other." Audrey’s featured in a chapter appropriately named, "No need to call.”"
"Young people become anxious about such things as 'How will I end a conversation?' and 'What if my friend has had a really hard time and I don't know how to help?' " Turkle said in an interview."In the past, they dealt with such anxieties. Now, texting and messaging provide a way to bypass these anxieties."

It’s not just teens who loathe making a phone call; it’s a growing number of adults who will  "go to great lengths to avoid a telephone conversation," she said. "Adults say that they are so pressed with the amount of messages they have at work that they don't have time for the luxury of  'real time' conversation."

Now of course, this doesn't mean that it's now OK to let your fears conquer you, or to allow yourself never to make another phone call, just because it's hard.  We all can conquer fears like this.  But it is good to know that we are not alone.  Still, we need to try to connect with people, for real...sometimes the phone is best way to do it.


"Begin somewhere; you cannot build a reputation on what you
intend to do." -Liz Smith

SOME RANDOM STUFF
So I'm trying to eat healthier.  Lately I've really been enjoying eating pickle slices.  They're kind of a vegetable; they can't be too bad for you, can they?  Well, the truth is...turns out you don't want to eat too many of them:
"The beauty of pickles is in regard to weight control because they are very tasty and very low in calories. However, they do pack a sky-high sodium count. One large dill pickle, for example, contains a mere 16 calories and zero fat and cholesterol BUT unfortunately will also give you half of your day’s sodium allowance (a whopping 1,181 mg) in just a few bites. According to a recent report form the World Health Organization, there is strong evidence of a link between excessive sodium intake and the development of chronic disease (especially high blood pressure, a major risk factor for heart disease, the leading cause of death in the U.S.). The report recommends that governments around the world institute guidelines to reduce sodium consumption to 2,000 mg per day, or about half of what the typical American consumes."

Kind of the same deal for jalapenos, which I've been enjoying lately too.

On the other hand, I love chicken, and almost never eat it deep-fried anymore, and it is now usually seen to be a real healthy alternative.

Now, back to Moebius Syndrome and related topics:  we often talk here about having to overcome obstacles...but that we can do it.  There is perhaps no better example of overcoming in 20th century American sports history than the story of Pete Gray, who played baseball at the major league level during World War II.  But the story is deeper than that:

"When America went to fight in World War II, many baseball players left the field to take their place in the Armed Services. The absences of players at the top level of the game opened the door for some who might not have otherwise had the opportunity.  One of those is a exceptional athlete who was described as being a fast runner, a proficient fielder and an above average hitter. That description could have been used for many players who have stepped on to the field in Major League Baseball.

Pete Gray, however, was different from the rest. He performed his feats with just one arm.

Gray  lost his arm in truck accident during his youth. He didn't let the injury stop him from playing his favorite game, learning to hit and throw with his left arm.   He found his way onto semi-pro teams in his local area and later joined the Brooklyn Bushwicks. In 1942, he played for Three Rivers of the Canadian-American League and hit .381 in 42 games. 

He moved to Memphis of the Southern Association in 1943 and played centerfield, hitting .289 over the course of the season. In 1944, he put together a season that would get him noticed by Major League scouts. He hit .333 with 5 home runs and stole 68 bases. Baseball writers in the minor league circuit named Gray Player of the Year and the Browns paid $20,000 to Memphis for his contract.  His impact wasn't as great at the Major League level with a higher level of athlete. However, he had moments where he stood out among his peers. He made his debut on April 18, 1945, and collected a hit in 4 at-bats.

On May 20, 1945, he had an incredible performance as the Browns beat the Yankees 10-1 and 5-2 in a doubleheader. Gray had 2 RBI on 3 hits in the first game and scored the winning run in the second game."

Read the whole thing.  It's quite a story.

COMMUNICATION CHAOS?
Hey, be careful with those e-mails or texts you send, in this day of instant communication--one mistake and there could be trouble:

"Faster communications are not necessarily better, especially when a machine is doing the interpreting. It can cause real panic for recipients.  When retirees Paul and Pauline Bjorkholm decided to go on a monthlong trek through Nepal, their daughter and son-in-law were not thrilled at the idea. The thought of the couple in their late 60s hiking through the mountains in a foreign country halfway around the world worried the younger couple."We asked them to keep in touch at tea houses (internet cafés) along the way, thinking it was the best way to ensure they were safe," said their daughter, Jill Easter.
But the very first e-mail from Paul Bjorkholm read: "Help. Visa bad. Can you send money to water? Autopsy not working."  "I freaked out," said Easter. "It took about $150, 16 hours and a number of calls to the U.S. Embassy. I even faxed the next hotel pictures of the two of them so that they could be on the lookout."  What the Bjorkholms meant was that they couldn't use their VISA credit card to pay the water bill and in their haste to send the e-mail, "auto pay" had been changed to "autopsy" by autocorrect.
"Once we figured it out, we could laugh about it. After that, my mom wouldn't let my dad e-mail the rest of the trip," Easter said.
But the Easters and the Bjorkholms are not the only ones who have had messages gone awry in this age of instant communications.  Close to 200,000 text messages were sent every second in 2010, according to the United Nations International Telecommunication Union. Add in more than 107 trillion e-mails in the year and you have a perfect environment for miscommunication.
"It's suddenly so easy to reach so many people and since it's text-based, it's much more permanent. You are on the hook, basically forever, for whatever you text or e-mail," said Eric Waller, co-founder of the website didijustsendthat.com. The site is devoted to message gaffes, whether it's autocorrect mistakes or sending a text to the wrong person.  Waller and his friends cooked up the idea for the website when one of them accidentally sent a text message to the wrong person and it became a source of chaos.
"Texting and e-mail definitely makes it harder to understand nuances and there's potential for lots of problems," he said."

Many of us in the Moebius community very much enjoy making contact with people electronically.  But be careful!

NAPS ARE GOOD FOR YOU
Especially for learning:

"A good night's sleep is crucial to storing knowledge learned earlier in the day — that much was known. Now, a new study finds that getting shut-eye before you learn is important, too.
Volunteers who took a 100-minute nap before launching into an evening memorization task scored an average of 20 percentage points higher on the memory test compared with people who did the memorization without snoozing first.
"It really seems to be the first evidence that we're aware of that indicates a proactive benefit of sleep," study co-author Matthew Walker, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley, told LiveScience.
"It's not simply enough to sleep after learning," Walker said. "It turns out you also need to sleep before learning."

So don't be afraid to take one!!

SAD STORY
And finally, if any of you have not yet seen this horrible story--concerning terrible neglect of a child with Moebius Syndrome---here it is.  It's not fun to read.  But unfortunately it's important to remember sometimes that it's not just all sunshine and daffodils out there.  I hope help is found for this poor child...

REMEMBER TO DREAM BIG
The guy who runs Starbucks' certainly does:
"We've been blessed beyond any of our expectations. None of us could have ever dreamed the company would have gotten to this size and had the impact we have. None of us felt the reach of Starbucks would be this extensive. But once you arrive at this place, your dreams become bigger and your aspirations become bigger."

Don't lose your dreams!  And read the whole thing--there's interesting stuff about Starbucks and coming company innovations in the piece...

DIETING DOESN'T HAVE TO BE HORRIBLE
This piece points out many ways dieting need not stink--for example:
"Watching your waistline doesn't mean you have to become a recluse who spends every spare moment on the elliptical machine. In fact, an all-or-nothing approach is counterproductive. "Many women make changes they'll never be able to stick with — like eating nothing but raw food or vowing to go for a run at 5 a.m. every day — and set themselves up for failure," says Hensrud. "Total deprivation doesn't work."
He advocates skipping extreme regimens in favor of small changes. When he asked a group of overweight study subjects to make several small lifestyle shifts — such as eating breakfast, having as many veggies as they'd like with each meal, and watching TV for only as long as they'd exercised that day — they dropped an average of eight pounds in two weeks. "When you combine a bunch of little strategies, the cumulative effect can be huge, and you won't feel as if you've given up your entire life to be slim."

Going the extreme route is never good.   And dieting, along with working out, can be really good for those with Moebiuis Syndrome--it can help you build up your muscles, and some of us with Moebius tend to have low muscle mass...

"Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think,
every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day,
something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad
for the mind to be always part of unanimity."

LOOKING FOR A JOB?
Then here's something very important to keep in mind:
"...of all the factors that helps determine the odds of getting a job, education remains the biggest single variable in a wide range of prospects for job seekers.  Friday's jobs report pegged the jobless rate for college graduates at 5.0 percent - compared to 17.9 percent for job seekers without a high school degree. For high school grads, the jobless rate stood at 11.9 percent; for those with some college or a two-year degree, the rate was 8.4 percent.  Prospects for unskilled workers in most fields will continue to diminish as employers work relentlessly to increase productivity by investing in technology. On the other hand, in some specialized fields like engineering, employers can't find enough qualified candidates to fill job openings.
The skills shortage has a number of causes - from immigration policies to the U.S. education system, according to Gautam Godhwani, CEO of Simply Hired, an online job search engine. But he said that unless that skills gap is addressed, the jobless rate for low-skilled American workers will remain stubbornly high.
"It's very clear that the U.S. is dramatically far behind in both math in science, which is the underpinning of the next generation of significant number of jobs across all industries as technology permeates all of them," he said. "We have a lot of work as a country to make that up."

Get that degree...education is a key.

AND GET PLENTY OF SLEEP
But too many of us aren't these days, according to the latest data:
"If you're not getting enough sleep and find yourself waking up tired on a daily basis, you're not alone. More than one-third of U.S. adults average less than 7 hours of sleep per night, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  That lack of sleep is causing problems during the daytime, CDC surveys found. In one survey, 38% of people said they'd unintentionally dozed off during the day at least once in the previous month. Even more alarming, 5% said they'd nodded off or had actually fallen asleep while driving.  "If you don't get enough sleep, it definitely impacts your functioning, your memory, response time. It definitely impacts your driving," says Lela McKnight-Eily, PhD, one of the authors of the report and an epidemiologist and clinical psychologist with the CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Heath Promotion.  A second survey confirmed that too little sleep often leads to mental fuzziness. Nearly one-quarter of the people who reported getting less than 7 hours had difficulty concentrating during the day, and nearly one-fifth had trouble remembering things.
Sleeping less than 7 hours can interfere with everyday tasks, "lots of things you do every day and that you take for granted," says Anne Wheaton, a postdoctoral research fellow at the CDC who co-authored the report.  Although sleep needs vary from person to person, most adults require 7 to 9 hours to feel rested, according to National Sleep Foundation guidelines cited by the CDC.
But that sweet spot is harder to come by in this day and age. Between 1985 and 2009, the percentage of people who slept less than seven hours has shot up from 23% to 35%, a striking increase that the researchers say is due in part to workforce changes and new technology—such as the smartphones and laptops that keep us connected at all hours."

The issue of sleep can be an especially difficult one for some with Moebius Syndrome; some are affected by night terrors and other sleep issues.

"You must have been warned against letting the golden hours
slip by. Yes, but some of them are golden only because we
let them slip." -James M. Barrie

TIME FOR A QUICK STORY
There's not much happening in the news today, so let me tell a quick, personal, Moebius-related story.

Recently I went to get my driver's license renewed.  I would finally be getting a Texas driver's license.  Yahoo!  (as a Texan might say it).

But of course, as those with Moebius know, passing the vision test at your local DMV bureau can be a trial.  Especially in my case---I can see out of both eyes; but I can only use one eye at a time.  That makes it really weird and difficult when you have to use those little machines they have you look in at DMVs; those are designed for people who can see out of both eyes.  It's just hard to adjust to, and makes seeing a bit more difficult.

I came prepared, though; I'd been to an eye doctor recently, and we'd gotten a special form used in this state, which certified that I had a full field of vision in both eyes and that, with corrective eyeglasses, my vision was fine.  I thought--hoped--that this would perhaps excuse me from taking the vision test.

But when--finally---I got to the front of the line, the lady handling my application understood my situation, but...still...she wanted me to try to take and pass the vision test.  I she sought to do it this way because otherwise, she'd have to go back, work the phone, and verify that the doctor who'd examined me and signed my form was real, and that I actually was his patient.  More work for her.

Arrgghh.  But, still, this person was very patient, and let me take a little longer than usual to get used to the machine, and to read the lines of text (in this case, they were numbers) that she directed me to read.  I got one of the numbers wrong on the first try, but she let me do it again and work to focus my eyes, and...voila!...I passed.  I had explained to her briefly just what Moebius Syndrome was, and I think that helped in encouraging her to work with me and to show patience.

The moral of the story?  Well, I guess it's that if you take a little time to explain yourself and your situation, there definitely are people who will work with you, who can deal with you having Moebius, and...you can get to where you want to go.  Do be aware, too, that many states allow you to get a doctor to examine you and sign a form, and as long as they certify that your vision is OK, you can avoid these vision tests, which..given the kind of technology they have to use...aren't totally fair for us.  Hang in there.  Work with it.  You'll get there.

ANOTHER GOOD REASON TO EXERCISE
I talk a lot about health-related stuff on this blog because I think it's something we all in the Moebius/facial difference community have in common.  We all want better health.  I always urge exercise.  I try to do it every day.  But remember, you don't have to be an exercise fiend, you don't have to engage in killer workouts daily.  Hey, just doing a little, every day, will help you.  And look how it can help you, from today's NY Times:
"We all know that physical activity is beneficial in countless ways, but even so, Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky, a professor of pediatrics at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, was startled to discover that exercise kept a strain of mice from becoming gray prematurely.   But shiny fur was the least of its benefits. Indeed, in heartening new research published last week in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, exercise reduced or eliminated almost every detrimental effect of aging in mice that had been genetically programmed to grow old at an accelerated pace."

TIPS FOR A HEALTHIER HOME SPACE
I thought this one was interesting--something we don't always think of:
"Expert: Debra Johnson, Training manager, Merry Maids, "the world's largest home cleaning network"
Everyone's always reaching for the fridge and then touching food, but cleaning the door handle is an afterthought for most people. I wipe handles with a multipurpose product every day as part of my after-dinner cleanup."

"Just as iron rusts from disuse, even so does inaction spoil
the intellect." -Leonardo Da Vinci

GO EASY ON YOURSELF
New research, outlined today in an article in the NY Times, suggests that self-compassion is an excellent road towards better health:

"Do you treat yourself as well as you treat your friends and family?
That simple question is the basis for a burgeoning new area of psychological research called self-compassion — how kindly people view themselves. People who find it easy to be supportive and understanding to others, it turns out, often score surprisingly low on self-compassion tests, berating themselves for perceived failures like being overweight or not exercising.
The research suggests that giving ourselves a break and accepting our imperfections may be the first step toward better health. People who score high on tests of self-compassion have less depression and anxiety, and tend to be happier and more optimistic. Preliminary data suggest that self-compassion can even influence how much we eat and may help some people lose weight.
This idea does seem at odds with the advice dispensed by many doctors and self-help books, which suggest that willpower and self-discipline are the keys to better health. But Kristin Neff, a pioneer in the field, says self-compassion is not to be confused with self-indulgence or lower standards.
“I found in my research that the biggest reason people aren’t more self-compassionate is that they are afraid they’ll become self-indulgent,” said Dr. Neff, an associate professor of human development at the University of Texas at Austin. “They believe self-criticism is what keeps them in line. Most people have gotten it wrong because our culture says being hard on yourself is the way to be.”
Imagine your reaction to a child struggling in school or eating too much junk food. Many parents would offer support, like tutoring or making an effort to find healthful foods the child will enjoy. But when adults find themselves in a similar situation — struggling at work, or overeating and gaining weight — many fall into a cycle of self-criticism and negativity. That leaves them feeling even less motivated to change.
“Self-compassion is really conducive to motivation,” Dr. Neff said. “The reason you don’t let your children eat five big tubs of ice cream is because you care about them. With self-compassion, if you care about yourself, you do what’s healthy for you rather than what’s harmful to you.”

Good advice.  Don't beat yourself up!  Be as compassionate towards yourself...as you are towards others.


A gossip is one who talks to you about others; a bore is
one who talks to you about himself; and a brilliant
conversationalist is one who talks to you about yourself." -Lisa Kirk