Sunday, February 28, 2021

Tips for Reaching Your Goal

Motivational Wheel of Planning

Maybe you intend to lose thirty pounds. Or perhaps you want to finish writing the next Great American Novel, clean out the garage so you can get the car inside, or chart your family tree. Whatever your goal is, here are a few tips to help you reach it.

Think about your goal as an end product. Then think about the process of achieving that product. Now you can change your thinking from reaching the end result goal to working your way along the process.

Divide the procedural path toward your goal into several smaller subgoals or intermediate endpoints along the path. Create a map that follows your process path and gets you to the final goal. Write it or print it out and post it where you will see it often.

Make a To Do list of tasks along the path to each subgoal from the prior subgoal or from your starting point. Put those items into your daily calendar. Check them off as you do them each day. You are trying to establish these actions as habits.

Think of appropriate rewards. These can be tiny for accomplishing your daily To Do. Maybe sitting quietly and listening to one song by your favorite artist after you have filled one trash bag of discards from the garage. Rewards can also be more substantial for reaching an intermediate goal point. How about downloading a new novel for your e-reader once you have written and edited three more chapters? Rewards should not interfere with your progress. If your goal is weight loss, don’t reward yourself with a candy bar.

Find your motivators and use them. This can be inviting a friend to exercise with you every day on Zoom. It could be attaching your goal to a cause, such as choosing a charity to support as you use your treadmill. It could be posting your progress on Facebook or magneting a snapshot of yourself in a swimsuit to the refrigerator door.

Allow yourself some flexibility. Things happen, situations change, and you may need to adjust your subgoals or even your goal. Remember, some progress is better than none.

How Healthy is Your Breakfast Cereal?

A bowl of multi-colored sweetened cereal with milk and a spoon


An easy way to find the answer to that question is to ignore the advertising and the appealing messages on the front of the box and look at the nutrition label.

First, how much fiber is in a serving of that cereal? Never purchase a cereal with less than 3 grams of fiber per serving. Five or more grams of fiber is even better. Undigestible fiber helps regulate your blood sugar and your feelings of hunger. Dietary fiber is an important aid to preventing many diseases.

Second, check the calories per serving. Healthy types of breakfast cereals serve up less than 120 calories per serving. (While you are at it, look at the serving size. You may need a smaller bowl at breakfast to limit those calories!)

Finally, look at the added sugar. Your serving of cereal should have less than 13 grams of sugar. Don’t even think of sprinkling on more. In addition to weight gain and tooth decay, excess sugar in your diet increases your risk of heart disease and other health issues.


Saturday, February 27, 2021

February 28 is Rare Disease Day

Rare Disease Day 2021 Logo

February is Heart Health Month, but there are other important dates in the month. Feb 28 (or Feb 29, if available) is Rare Disease Day.

Did you know that 1 in 20 people will live with a rare disease at some point in their life? Over 6,000 rare diseases have been identified. Unfortunately, there is no cure for the majority of rare diseases and the causes of many are unknown.

You can learn more about rare diseases in Second Life. At 10am SLT (Pacific time), Gentle Heron will present information about Rare Disease Day at the Research Pavilion on Virtual Ability’s Healthinfo Island. Join us here: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Healthinfo%20Island/135/198/30.

At noon SLT, Community Virtual Library and Conrado F. Asenjo Library at the University of Puerto Rico will share awareness information about rare diseases here: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cookie/184/226/21.

EURODIS (Rare Diseases Europe) is the organization that began Rare Disease Day awareness events in 2008. They are holding a fundraiser all day with DJs and music at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Tainted%20Island/155/209/2004.


Saturday, February 13, 2021

Things to Do - Healthinfo Island Exhibits and Displays for February 2021

Pink heart on a stick
Heart Healthy Month - Keep Your Heart Pink and Healthy!


February is Heart Health Month!

You can teleport to any of the eight displays and exhibits using the SLURLs in this notecard. Click on the poster with the same name as the title of the poster set, and you will get a notecard that contains all the text of the posters plus descriptions of the images.

If you click each poster, you will get a message with additional information and live links.


Central Pavilion of Healthinfo Island
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Healthinfo%20Island/128/126/24


Heart Health Awareness Month
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Healthinfo%20Island/196/156/23


Alcohol and Your Heart
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Healthinfo%20Island/187/181/24



Signs of Heart Disease That You May Not Recognize
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Healthinfo%20Island/172/154/22


Heart Healthy Diet
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Healthinfo%20Island/111/81/24



Surprising Heart Facts (a quiz!)
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Healthinfo%20Island/99/37/26



Things You Didn't Know About Cholesterol
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Healthinfo%20Island/51/27/28



How We Damage Our Hearts
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Healthinfo%20Island/25/24/30



Preventing Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT)
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Healthinfo%20Island/21/62/32