ineedhelpnow.ca

Yes, spring is here, and summer can’t be far behind! Time to get that body in shape (something you started January 1st…) and show it off on the beach! What? You haven’t kept with that promise? Well, there’s still time – and ineedhelpnow.ca has just the stuff for you! From weight training programs to aerobic exercise, you’ll find what’s right for you and your schedule. And check out this ad taken from a 1924 National Geographic Magazine – proof that exercising to music was not invented by some fuzzy-haired, weird-dressing disco duck of the 70′s!

So go ahead, get that record… errr, CD on and move! Get in shape and stay in shape!

Go visit ineedhelpnow.ca and see for yourself.  Still the inviting website where you can take your time to discover great products and services that we found for you.  Go ahead!  Chheck us out!  You might find what you have been looking for.

ineedhelpnow.ca has changed its look, not its purpose or its commitment.  We remain dedicated to offering only high quality products and services we believe offer real benefits.  We’ve done the search for you!  Can’t find it?  Ask us!  We will help you.

You’ve made a new resolution for 2011 – or is it the same you made for 2010?  If your resolution for 2011 is I WILL LOSE WEIGHT or I WILL GET IN SHAPE, chances are, it is the same resolution as last year……

This time around, you’re serious about that gym membership.  You’ll watch what you eat.  It is all very good in January.  But if you want to stick with your resolution, you have to guard yourself from becoming bored with a routine.  You have to make sure you will still WANT to reach your goal in a month or two.  Before making the excuses, look at your options.  At ineedhelpnow.ca, we have some for you.

First things first, you have to want to lose that weight, or get back in shape, for the good reasons – or, as I put it, for one good reason: yourself. Don’t do it to impress someone, don’t do it because everybody is doing it. That’s the sure-fire way to lose all motivation before winter is even over. Do it for yourself. Then set realistic goals for yourself.

Let’s say you decided, on January first, you would go to the gym every day.  By January third, you already figured 5 days a week would be fine.  Don’t feel bad about that, and don’t think you’re already on the path of quitting. That first goal was unrealistic. You should consider your amount of exercise on a weekly basis, rather than on a daily basis.  You must allow for some down time for body rest and tissue (muscle) repair.  One way to keep track of your exercise is to keep a log or journal.  It’s a great way to stay focused and inspired.

Then comes February.  And you’re already down to 3 days a week at the gym.  Getting bored?  Not enough time?  That is excuse number one you know!  Again, don’t feel bad about that. Some resolution-takers have already quit altogether! Don’t focus on the number of times you go to the gym. Focus on the amount of exercise you do in a week or a month. Better to go three times a week and get a good workout, than going 5-6 times a week and sitting on a bench because you can’t mustard the energy!

I know how hard it is to stay active.  My favorite activity is running.  I love it!  But I keep it exciting by not running every day.  I mix cycling and stair climbing in my exercise week.  And though I truly love running, and believe I could never get bored with it, I am always pleased to feel different muscles being sollicited when I do another activity.  It makes me feel good.  And it truly keeps my running fun!  Boredom is your worst enemy and excuses are plentiful.  You have to find things you love to do, and mix it up.

A gym is a good place to get a workout, but it is not the only place. If by now you’ve realized it’s not your cup of tea,  don’t quit the gym entirely just because you can’t stand to go three times a week. Maybe you can stand it once a week, and mix that with physical activity you can only do outside the gym, like skating or rollerblading, swimming or a fast walk or jog in the park. I recently heard of a supervised ice climbing activity not too far from where I live; sounds fun, it should be quite a workout! Find activities in your area that sound fun; even if you try it just once, you get that workout anyway!

Also, find activities you can do in your home.  If you have limited space, you might want to try something like Pilates, or Yoga, both of which can bring valuable benefits to your exercise program.  Give yourself the gift of a beautiful mat or extremely comfortable clothes.  It will make your workouts more enjoyable.

Don’t worry if you don’t see results right away – it takes time.  Remember that you are building muscles, and muscle tissues are heavier than fat!   At first, you could be building muscles faster than you are losing weight!  Don’t give up, don’t get discouraged.  These muscles will soon play their part in your weight loss.  By being stronger you will move more, faster, and for a longer period of time. And your heart and lungs will be happy too!

You decided to be healthy,  and you will get there!  Just don’t give up!

ineedhelpnow.ca has a few suggestions to help you move……   check our website for more.

Christmas is about family and friends and all those we love.  Christmas is about giving.

This blog is about our website, ineedhelpnow.ca, but I would like to step away from this a little bit, just for a moment, because, though we have plenty of gift ideas for you to give to the ones you love, or to yourself (you are allowed to do that too!), during this merry holiday season, well, Christmas is not merry for everyone…..

According to the United Nation’s  Human Rights Council, 6 million children die of hunger-related illness before their fifth birthday.  What does 6 million look like?  I went searching….

Out of 226 countries in our world with verified population counts, less than half have a total population over 6 million people. Let’s pick one out of the more than one hundred with 6 million or less.  For the sake of argument,  let’s pick Finland.   Now let us all decide together that we cannot do anything for Finland anymore.  So no more food or drinkable water.  No sanitation of any sort.  No education.  No care what so ever.  Nothing.   Just like we do now for millions of children spread out all over the world.  So away goes Finland…..  We would never let a thing like that happen!  Goodness no!  Such an up and going country, modern and everything!  Nice people. Interesting food.  Oh! We would find a million (maybe 6 million) reasons not to abandon them to starvation.

But yet we abandon life year after year.  We let hopes of great people die.  We let laughter, happiness and dreams fall victim to hunger, malnutrition, despair and sadness. Many, many tears….

Most of these children have no idea what Christmas is and that’s OK.  We do!  We’re the ones with the five dollars that can make a difference!

Christmas is almost here. Please give to those who need a Christmas more than we do.

ineedhelpnow.ca is dedicated to providing quality products for all of us in need of self-help.  That is all good for you and me and everyone we know and love. At ineedhelpnow.ca we do what we do only because we care.  We care about our family, our friends, and we care about you.  The 6 million children who could die before they can even learn to read, we care about them too!  We cannot help them without you.  We wish we could!

We can help you!  You need help dealing with a teenager?  Going through a difficult divorce?  Your lovely baby will not sleep?  Too fat?  Too skinny? Too shy?  Too scared?  We can help you!  Too hungry?  Really?

Help us feed the children.  ineedhelpnow.ca supports and promotes the mission of UNICEF.  By clicking on the link below you will be directed to UNICEF.UK.  You can purchase products directly on this site or you can  make a donation. We are also providing links to UNICEF in Canada and everywhere else.  Give!

Christmas is almost here.  Please give to those  you might very well love if they could only live long enough for you to meet them!  Don’t let hope die!

www.unicef.ca

www.unicef.org

From HCG Diets to Shake Weights: Fitness Trends in Review.

Remember the dog lovers’ dating guide we presented in an earlier blog?  Here is more to help sniff out Mister Right!  Again, we found something interesting, fun, and unusual for singles (with or without a dog), and all dog lovers!  Insightful information for women, and maybe an unsuspected revelation for men!

How to understand men through their dogs

The author, Wendy Diamond, is  Editorial Director of Animal Fair. In this book, she shares her own insights, amusing experiences, and extensive research on the subject. Using 32 different breeds of male as examples, she explores the link between human and canine, and the personality traits they share.  Have you noticed how owners and their dogs can sometimes look alike in some ways?  As we do with people, we tend to associate with dogs that are a little bit like us.  Here, Wendy Diamond takes this common observation we have all made one step further.  What does the breed a man chooses tell us about him?  After reading this book, women will never look at a dog owner quite the same way!  Men should read it, if only to know what women think!

Go to out Help Your Relationships page to find more products and great gift ideas!

I am not the only one to think that the Holiday Season is not quite complete without the yearly dose of A Christmas Story!  In fact, ineedhelpnow.ca was sent on a mission to find everything and anything associated with A Christmas Story.  We search the internet every day looking for great products that we offer on our website, but we will also answer requests for searches (your personal shopper?), just like this one.  That is what we do!  I must say that this search was really fun.  It was so much fun, we found so many unusual products, I thought we could share some of the findings here (by the way, you can order any of these products from right here on this page if you like).

Let’s start with the beginning: The books.

The movie was inspired by these two semi-autobiographical books by Jean Shepherd.

Jean Shepherd was born in Chicago in 1921.  He began his career in radio in Cincinnati in 1948.  He moved to New York city in 1956, where he became popular for his stories.  His shows contained, among other things, humorous anecdotes and general commentaries about the human condition, observations about life in New York, accounts of vacations in Maine and travels throughout the world.  Though he touched television early in his career with TV shows which did not last long, it is in 1971 that he really took on writing for television and cinema. On many of the Public TV shows he wrote, directed and edited entire shows.  He also wrote and narrated many works, the most famous being the feature film A Christmas Story, which is now considered a holiday classic. In the film, Shepherd provides the voice of the adult Ralph Parker. Did you know that he also has a cameo role playing a man in line at the department store waiting for Santa Claus? Much to Ralphie’s chagrin, he points out to him that the end of the line is much further away.  Jean Shepherd died in 1999.

On our Season’s Greetings page, you can find a book that combines the stories that inspired the movie, taken from the two books above:

And then there was The movie.

The movie is set in Hammond, Indiana, where writer Jean Shepherd grew up.  The story takes place around 1940… There are references throughout the film that viewers enjoy linking to particular years, and if one connects a reference to a particular year, the movie can be dated as being as early as 1935 or as late as 1947….  Some interesting facts: Though the principal filming site is Cleveland Ohio, the school scenes were shot at Victoria School in St. Catharines, Ontario. (The school has since been converted to a women’s shelter). The “…only I didn’t say fudge” scene was filmed at the foot of Cherry Street in Toronto.  The Chinese restaurant is also a Toronto address!

A Christmas Story was released a week before Thanksgiving 1983 to moderate success, earning about $2 million in its first weekend.  It was suggested that the film had only modest success because holiday themed films were not popular at the time.  The film first aired on television on HBO during the mid-eighties and quickly attracted a growing following. Turner Broadcasting, now a part of TimeWarner, has maintained ownership of the broadcast rights, and since the mid-1990s, airing the movie increasingly on TBS, TNT and TCM. By 1995, it was aired on those networks a combined six times over December 24-25-26, and in 1996, it was aired eight times over those three days.  Due to the increasing popularity of the film, in 1997 TNT began airing a 24-hour marathon dubbed “24 Hours of A Christmas Story,” consisting of the film shown twelve consecutive times beginning at 7 or 8 p.m. on Christmas Eve and ending Christmas Day.  In 2002, an estimated 38.4 million people tuned into the marathon at one point or another.  TBS reported 45.4 million viewers in 2005, and 45.5 million in 2006.  In 2007, new all-time ratings records were set, with the highest single showing (8 p.m. Christmas Eve) drawing 4.4 million viewers. Viewership increased again in 2008, with 8 p.m. Christmas Eve drawing 4.5 million viewers, and 10 p.m. drawing 4.3 million, and 54.4 million total.

No doubt, there are many fans out there.  We set out to help one of them…..

In addition to the books and the movie, take a look at some of the fun products we found for him (just click on any of them if you would like any of these for yourself):

Games…..

Fun figurines …..

Yes!  The lamp!

Ornaments! A puzzle! Boxer shorts! And even a Lionel train set!

And there’s more out there!

It was fun searching for our Christmas-Story-crazy friend!  We have a great time with all of our searches, all year long, but I must say that helping find the perfect Christmas gift is special…..  It is not possible to place everything that we find during these searches on our website.  We do the search for you, and offer our findings to you, personally.  But I promise to our blog readers that all the great findings I will share here (no worry, I will never mention names)!  So give us a try.  Who knows?  You could very well be helping many.

If you want ineedhelpnow.ca to do a search for you, simply go to our Still Searching page.  If you don’t see what you need on our website, we will help you find it.  That’s what we do!

It all started in the 90′s with the groundbreaking The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  Immensely popular, the book, recordings, workshops, and seminars changed the way millions of people like you and me manage their lives.

I discovered The Seven Habits when it first came out.  Actually, I discovered it through my husband who had been sent to a time management/effectiveness workshop by his employer.  I am not implying that my husband had a time management problem….. It was not a corrective measure!  It was new, it was a revelation!  It was THE workshop to attend for managers of any level.  My husband came back from his workshop with a new “I will conquer my Daily Planner” attitude……and the book.

Covey’s  “abundance mindset” concept, and “upward spiral” model, for example, are powerful self-growth and self-improvement tools.  If you opt for the belief that there are enough resources and success to share with others, you can move from destructive insecurities to celebrating the success of others, rather than be threatened by it.  This mindset is useful in the workplace, no doubt, but it truly applies to all areas in our lives.  You would be surprised!

Covey presents an approach to being effective in attaining goals by aligning oneself to what he calls “true north” principles of a character ethic that he presents as universal and timeless, proven principles of fairness, integrity, honesty, and human dignity.  This will never get old; it will always hold true.

I have found the following description of the book’s content.  This will give you a good idea of the true value of your gift.  Or you might decide this is the perfect gift for yourself!

Each chapter is dedicated to one of the habits, which are represented by the following imperatives:

The First Three Habits surround moving from dependence to independence (i.e. self mastery)

• Habit 1: Be Proactive

Synopsis: Take initiative in life by realizing your decisions (and how they align with life’s principles) are the primary determining factor for effectiveness in your life. Taking responsibility for your choices and the subsequent consequences that follow.

• Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind

Synopsis: Self-discover and clarify your deeply important character values and life goals. Envisioning the ideal characteristics for each of your various roles and relationships in life.

• Habit 3: Put First Things First

Synopsis: Planning, prioritizing, and executing your week’s tasks based on importance rather than urgency. Evaluating if your efforts exemplify your desired character values, propel you towards goals, and enrich the roles and relationships elaborated in Habit 2.

The Next Three are to do with Interdependence (i.e. working with others)

• Habit 4: Think Win-Win or No Deal

Synopsis: Genuinely striving for mutually beneficial solutions or agreements in your relationships. Valuing and respecting people by understanding a “win” for all is ultimately a better long-term resolution than if only one person in the situation had gotten their way.

• Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, then to be Understood

Synopsis: Using empathetic listening to be genuinely influenced by a person, which compels them to reciprocate the listening, take an open mind to being influenced by you, which creates an atmosphere of caring, respect, and positive problem solving.

• Habit 6: Synergize

Synopsis: Combining the strengths of people through positive teamwork, so as to achieve goals no one person could have done alone. How to yield the most prolific performance out of a group of people through encouraging meaningful contribution, and modeling inspirational and supportive leadership.

The Last habit relates to self-rejuvenation;

• Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

Synopsis: The balancing and renewal of your resources, energy, and health to create a sustainable long-term effective lifestyle.

Also available are The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, of Highly Effective Families, of Happy Kids, and many personal workbooks, planners, etc.  Go to ineedhelpnow.ca and visit our Help Your Mind page.  You can also click on the box below and discover other great gift ideas.

ineedhelpnow.ca is happy to offer the highly acclaimed Franklin Covey products.

Dominique for ineedhelpnow.ca

You know someone who takes the bus, the train, the subway?  ineedhelpnow.ca has found two great eBooks to keep them entertained during their commute!  Are you looking for a great way to escape during your own commute?

The Mystery Collection offers more than 100 tales of crime, suspense, and detective fiction, including the complete collection of Sherlock Holmes!

The Science Fiction Collection also offers more than 100 works, including some classic tales by Jules Verne and H. G. Wells!

What really got us excited when we found these eBooks, other than the fact that it is available for iPhone or iPad, is the fact that each collection has many, many tales.  It is simply perfect!  The way we see it, for under $15.00, your gift can last an entire commuting year!

You can find these, and other great books, eBooks, and gift ideas in our special Season’s Greetings section of ineedhelpnow.ca.  We’ve done the search for you!  Check out all the great, high quality, products we offer throughout our site.

This book is realy for everyone who would like to add a little more to their yoga routine. I have a few triathlete friends I would love to give this book to. You might have some too! You will find this great Yoga guide on ineedhelpnow.ca. Simply go to our Help Your Soul page.
  And it’s on sale!

Though I sometimes give advice to my triathlete husband concerning his training (he does not always take it…. then he tells me that he should have….. anyways, that is another story…..),  I am certainly not a triathlon trainer!  But I can recognize a good thing when I see it.  That’s what ineedhelpnow.ca is all about!  Often, I listen to my husband and triathlete friends talk about new swimming, cycling or running programs (some are very good! you can look some up on our Help Your Body page); I have never heard one word about yoga.  They stretch quite a lot, which I know is essential, and will help relax their beat-up bodies, but no mention of yoga, which also heals the mind and the soul.  When you race, any kind of race (including the rat race), there is more than the body that gets beat-up! 

Anthony Carillo discovered the benefits of Yoga after his first Hawaii Ironman.  He first introduced Yoga to his program, prior to a run or after a swim.  As he puts it: “ I enjoyed how it made my body feel. I was beating my body up in training but healing my body in yoga.” (Q & A with Anthony on Prevention.com)

The routines developped by Anthony include strenght training, breathing techniques…..  In this book you will find 25 popular yoga asanas.  By introducing light to moderate dumbbells, you will obtain a superior upper body workout (when performed in conjunction with the rhythmic flow of yoge breath, of course).  The poses are clearly illustrated.  Even if you have never practiced yoga before, you will find it easy to adopt the proper poses (there are 125 pictures!).

You will want to introduce Iron Yoga to your training for the physical benefits the combination of yoga and weight trainning provides (toning, lean muscles increase, increased flexibility, and more), but it is the calming, healing, stress reducing benefits that will get you hooked!

Not a triathlete? Not an athlete at all?  Yoga is for everyone!  If this appears like a little too much for you, or if you would first like to be introduced to a more easy-going yoga guide, visit ineedhelpnow.ca/Help-Your-Soul for more high quality yoga options (books, DVDs, equipment, even the right music!).   We’ve done the search for you!