Tailoring is one of the best-kept secrets of all time
A good tailor/seamstress is a “must-have” for every woman. It is a necessity rather than a luxury because we are all different shapes and sizes. Designers make their clothes for a specific body type, and if you’re not IT, what do you do? You need someone in your corner to make you look ten pounds thinner instantly, and make your clothes look more expensive and smart. The way you feel and look in tailored garments is ten times better than your feeling in off-the-rack items manufactured for the masses.

Know your Fashion Personality
If you are wearing items of clothing because they look good in the fashion magazines, or because your workplace demands a certain look, you have to make that look YOUR OWN. Think about which fabrics and styles make you the most comfortable and, make you feel confident and attractive. These are the elements which make up your fashion personality, and when you dress outside of that fashion personality, you tend to feel self conscious and find yourself “fixing” your clothing all day.

Step inside your closet and have a look around. What’s in there that really makes you feel fabulous??

• Do you prefer the tailored and streamlined look?
• Are bold colours and innovative details more up your alley?
• Do soft, feminine fabrics and vintage styles excite you?
• Or, is it t breathable fabrics, uncomplicated styles and comfortable fit that charm you?

Whatever your choice, this is your fashion personality. You have to be consistent with it every day to make it your personal style – the style others identify with only you.

Shoes are essential to your style
Many women believe that any old shoe will do, and that is simply not the case. Your shoes complete your “Look”, and speak volumes about you.

• The best choices create an unbroken line from your hemline to your toe.
• The larger the foot, the heavier the shoe should be, and vice versa.
• Strappy sandals with a business skirt/jacket suit sends mixed messages, and so does a pair of lace-up Oxfords with a tailored pant suit.

When you send mixed messages, others have to work too hard to decipher them. When it’s too hard, they turn elsewhere, and you are left wondering what happened. Comfort is important, and there are lots of styles out there for every foot and every foot condition.

Take the guilt out of investing in yourself. Remember that your emotions rule your attitude. Your attitude rules the language which your body speaks to the world. In essence, when you raise your “deserve-level” from that emotional place in your head, you will come to believe that you deserve to look and feel great. Act on that belief by taking the time to learn about what really makes you tick. Last but not least, prepare yourself for rave reviews!

Contact Renee at www.benefitsforwomen.ca
Or call her at 905 839 4478

�Exercise� is the dirty word that often turns the elderly into couch potatoes, and there appear to be plenty out there. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 60 percent of older adults are inactive. Fear of exercise can keep seniors with arthritis and other aches and pains from leading the active lifestyles they may have enjoyed in their younger years. But mention activities such as lively conversation, a good television program, a trip to the senior center and a brisk walk on a nice day, and your elderly loved one is likely to perk right up.

Incorporating movements into those popular senior pastimes, oftentimes with the assistance of a family or professional caregiver or companion, is one way to keep seniors young and vital well into their elderly years, according to Colin Milner, founder of the world�s largest senior fitness association.

�People think you have to exercise for hours to achieve any benefits, but that�s just not true,� said Milner, founder and CEO of the International Council on Active Aging, a Vancouver, B.C., company with 4,000 primarily U.S.-member companies including senior-friendly fitness facilities and senior-care facilities that are committed to wellness. �But to stay independent and enjoy the quality of life that we all want as we age, we need to do some activity. Because if we don�t, our muscles will atrophy and our bodies will deteriorate sooner.

�Seniors� health issues often are not with aging, but rather with disuse,� he added. �The main benefit of activity for people who are aging is actually reversing the impact that disuse has on their bodies. And that can be like a fountain of youth.�

There�s plenty of evidence that seniors do enjoy being active. Recently, Home Instead Senior Care�s 27,000 CAREGivers ranked the activities their senior clients enjoy most. Among the top 10 activities were walking and social functions, such as those at churches and senior centers.

�Even though seniors often have interests in various activities, a little encouragement from a caregiver can be a great motivator for older adults who may be reluctant to get involved,�

�Companionship is just what many seniors need to get up and active again.�

Here are some practical ways that caregivers can recommend that seniors incorporate activity into their lives, according to Milner. �For the true TV couch potatoes who use two remotes, suggest they stand up, move around and walk in place whenever a commercial comes on. That�s a start. Recommend they walk to the store or park in the back of the parking lot, and walk to the corner to drop the mail in the mailbox rather than hand it to the mailman when he comes to the door. Remind them they can read a book on a stationary bicycle or, better yet, organize a book club and talk about what they�ve read on a walk around the neighborhood. There are a lot of basic ways to build activity into the day,� Milner said.

Fitness centers are also a good option, but the kind of facilities that feature blaring music and predominately young bodies working out can be intimidating for seniors, Milner said. That�s why his organization has established an age friendly fitness locator on their Web site at www.icaa.cc where the elderly or a caregiver can click on a state and a city and find a facility that has met strict age-friendly criteria.

Milner said that seniors also could learn about the value of strength training from such a facility. �According to the Centers for Disease Control, only 11 percent of seniors actually do strength training,� Milner said. �And loss of strength is the No. 1 reason why most people get admitted to a skilled nursing facility.� If they can�t go to a facility, seniors can do strength training at home, according to Milner. �Seniors don�t even really need equipment. There are some programs that explain how you can do strength exercises with soup cans,� he said. One place to look for information is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at www.cdc.gov, which has a program called �Growing Stronger Longer� that features information about strength training and other activities for seniors.

Another resource is Home Instead Senior Care, which recently published a CAREGiver Activity Training Guide for its professional CAREGivers across North America. This new training tool is full of leisure, recreation and hobby ideas to help CAREGivers enhance their time with their clients. �This guide features dozens of popular senior activities for all seasons,� > said. �It focuses on the importance of knowing clients� interests and pastimes, how to introduce activities to clients and ways to easily modify them to meet clients� abilities.�

�If you think about it, our bodies were built to move,� Milner said. �Not moving is the unnatural thing. And that�s true at any age.�

10 Signs Your Senior is Becoming a Couch Potato and What to do About It

1. She doesn�t go out anymore. Recommend a doctor�s physical. If she�s healthy, help her reconnect with old friends or make new ones at a senior center or age friendly fitness facility.

2. He�s watching television whenever you call. Plan a regimen of standing and walking exercises during commercials.

3. She�s gaining weight. Suggest daily walks around the neighborhood or at the mall, if the weather is bad.

4. He seems weak. Learn about the benefits of a strength program for seniors. Log on to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Web site at www.cdc.gov and check out �Growing Stronger Longer.�

5. She loses her balance. Ask a doctor to make sure there are no medical conditions or problems with medications that are causing her to fall. Then contact a local age friendly fitness facility (www.icaa.cc) or ask your doctor about exercises that could help.

6. He complains about not sleeping well. Schedule a visit to the doctor to make sure nothing is wrong, then help him develop a plan that incorporates more activities into his day.

7. She says she has no friends. Discuss with her hobbies she once enjoyed and might like to resume. Help her organize coffee or lunch with friends.

8. He seems blue. Call your local senior center, Area Agency on Aging, and church or synagogue to learn what organizations are available in your community from which he might benefit.

9. She�s listless and her mind is foggy. Encourage her to read more and even join a book club.

10. He has problems taking care of his home. Consider hiring a professional caregiver to serve as a companion and provide assistance around the house. See the office locater at www.homeinstead.com to begin your search.

Resource Box

Where you can go for more information about senior fitness and activities:

To learn more about age friendly fitness centers: www.icaa.cc

Where to go for strength training information: www.cdc.gov

For information about senior activities: Contact your local Home Instead Senior Care office at >.

For more about senior exercise: Log on to www.niapublications.org/exercisevideo/index.asp to order the booklet, Exercise: A Guide from the National Institute on Aging

To learn more about Colin Milner and his expert status: www.icaa.cc

This exclusive electronic shopping system is made up of some of Canada’s most innovative and established lenders:

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Only The Mortgage Centre’s Mortgage Market delivers this level of choice every time. And if even there isn’t enough, your Mortgage Specialist can access the products of virtually any lender in Canada!

How many times have you wished to yourself, “if only I had an extra pair of hands?” Statistics show that our immune system is depleted by stress which occurs when we have too much to do and not enough time. Many employees don’t even take all their annual vacation for fear of losing their job. It’s obvious from the long line-ups at drive-thru’s or fast food restaurants that people don’t have time to cook nutritious meals anymore as we’re so time-strapped with 40-hour+ work weeks, chauffeuring the kids back and forth to their activities, helping with their homework and then trying to maintain the daily chores.

Now that we’re almost a quarter way through 2007 be kind to yourself for the remainder of the year. Give yourself some “me” time and make use of outside resources that are available to you. For example, you could hire an organizer to streamline your home or office, or hire a teenager to help with the kids’ homework, use a cleaning service, even if it’s only once a month, or hire a personal/virtual assistant who can help with administrative functions, errands or many of the other things on your never ending “to-do” list. Just imagine having your own personal assistant who can magically make that “to-do” list disappear! This year, allow yourself the opportunity to get that extra help, eliminate your stress, and free up your valuable time to spend on yourself or with family and friends.

TLC Services can help with your time management problems because, “whenever you need a helping hand, to grant your wish is my command”.

The Friends brooch pictured above is available in eight color combinations: gold; silver; gold and silver; black; black and silver; black and gold; hematite; and copper. The wholesale cost to your group is $65 per dozen, including taxes and shipping, and you will realize a profit of $55 per dozen when you sell them for $10 each (and nobody has to bake cookies!).

For further information, please contact Bev by email at jmay2062@rogers.com or by telephone at 905-619-2062.

We are bringing our dreams to life! We’re changing the world by influencing our little corner of it. And it feels good! This is a great reality to experience!

Sometimes, though, it doesn’t feel that way. Sometimes our reality is difficult. We struggle. We doubt ourselves. We don’t feel strong, creative, capable, skilled, or successful. Our energy dwindles, as does our motivation and enthusiasm.

This is very common. We all do it. (You are not alone.) And yet in order to succeed we need to move beyond it.

Here’s how.

Most likely you noticed a difference in how you felt reading the article’s first few paragraphs. After being uplifted by the first two which focus on success, you were likely deflated by the third which dwells on struggle. Know that within your observation lies one of the most important keys to success: You bring to life that on which you focus your attention.

Depending on your focus and where you place your attention you can experience yourself as succeeding or struggling, inspired or tired. You get to choose. With your thoughts, you wield great power to bring to life any reality you wish. So, if your goal is to feel good running a successful business, then give that vision your full attention. Concentrate on that reality and bring your happy, confident and successful self to life!

This simple yet powerful strategy takes self-control and dedication. So, invest the time to keep yourself encouraged and inspired by following these steps:

• Make your vision finely detailed. Let it feel real, like it exists already. Then you’ll believe it’s possible.
• Determine the steps to get there. Make them manageable. Prioritize.
• Re-commit to your vision daily. Remembering your intent will inspire you through challenges.
• Be what you’re becoming. Portray it now. Realize it’s true. You are that good and capable!
• Focus on what is positive, synchronistic and inspiring about people/events.
• Be flexible, open to input, willing to adapt your vision.
• Concentrate on what is within your control.
• Connect with like-minded people. Give and receive support. For example, join a group whose purpose is to encourage each other through this set of principles. (You can begin to discuss these ideas with me through the Benefits For Women forum of this website.)
• Be gentle with yourself when you slip out of positive focus. Ease up! Take a break. Refresh. Then re-focus.
• Celebrate every success, especially small ones. Be excited! You’ll experience more joy and happier memories.

Finally, and recognize the value of this–an integral aspect of maintaining focus (really, there’s no surprise here!) is to take care of your physical needs for adequate rest, daily exercise and proper nutrition. We are our greatest resource. We have a responsibility to value and tend to ourselves accordingly. We all know how listless and cranky we feel and how bleak the world looks without enough rest, for example. Yet knowing we’re physically tired doesn’t change how real the overwhelm feels. So sleep! Exercise! Eat good food! You feel better physically, and simply knowing you are disciplined feels good! Contribute daily to your physical wellbeing. Your energy will power you through your day and give you what you need to apply the above principles to your life.

You bring to life that on which you focus your attention. Remember that truth. Keep yourself motivated and inspired. Dedicate the whole of who you are-you time and energy, your intellect, your emotional intelligence, and your spirit of passion and creativity.

Remember your power: you create the reality you experience. Keep yourself focused on the positive and the possible. After all, you’re a woman, and women are fabulous�we change the world by bringing our dreams to life!