I'm getting up an hour earlier these days. At first I said I'd never be able to do it: I was already sleep deprived rising at 6 AM how would I ever get up at 5 AM? I'd never be able to get to sleep earlier (this is still true), and a hundred other reasons why it wouldn't work. And then I tried it, and it does work. I'm still sleep deprived, but that extra hour in morning is a Godsend. I love it.

How do you Present Ideas to Yourself?

So why did it take me so long to "just do it?" Probably way I presented idea to myself. Notice I used words such as "never" and "already" as in "I'm already sleep deprived." I kept telling myself it wouldn't work, that it was a bad idea and until first time I actually tried it, I secretly believed when alarm rang, I'd just turn it off and go back to sleep. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy getting up early. Mornings are my best time of day. I'm most productive in morning so it makes sense to give myself an extra hour.

I Don't Have Time to Exercise

Sometimes a small adjustment in how you run your day can help enormously in freeing up some time for things like exercise. "I don't have time." I hear that a lot, but if asked, "What's your favorite TV show?" most people can list a few -- hours spent sitting and watching. There's nothing wrong with enjoying some TV, but there's also no reason you can't exercise during commercials.

When I was a kid and it was my turn to clean house, I made a game out of it. I loved TV, watching probably six or seven hours a day then, so missing a show to clean was not going to happen. So I'd clean during commercials. Today there are over 20 minutes of commercial time during each hour of show. That's plenty of time for getting things done. As soon as show broke for commercial, I'd jump from my chair and dash to wherever I'd left off. I'd bring in laundry and fold it while I watched. I'd iron in front of TV, I'd bring in piles of miscellaneous debris from other rooms and sort it into piles for where it belonged, then on next commercial I'd go put things away.

I'd move from one room to next, carrying things that belonged there with me, and returning with things that did not. Eventually house was clean, and hadn't missed my programs.

Are you Eating Less Meat Due to Mad Cow Disease?

Not people I've spoken with. Most are saying, "Yipee, beef's on sale!" The food industry has done a great job of convincing us they are providing a safe food supply and we've been lulled into a false sense of security. Nothing could be further from truth.

In July 1988, a ban was introduced in UK which prohibited use of remains of sheep in cattle feed. BSE is thought to have spread to cattle from feed including meat and bone meal made from sheep suffering from a similar brain disease, called scrapie.

Ban Not Properly Enforced

Unfortunately ban was not enforced properly for many years and remained a paper exercise (exactly as it has been in US ever since).

Francis Anthony, a Herefordshire veterinary surgeon, and British Veterinary Association's spokesman on BSE said, "If ban had been enforced properly from start, I have no hesitation in saying categorically that we should be seeing only a few cases today. But that contaminated feed was being given to animals until at least 1995, and possibly a year later."

The false sense of security for us in US came from it being widely reported that practice had been banned. They failed to make it clear that this was a "voluntary ban." Even I falsely believed they had long ago ended this practice until recent news reports that it is still being done. Despite there being a clear connection between feeding rendered animals to animals causing Mad Cow disease, meat and dairy industry continues practice to this day. Why? Corporate greed, plain and simple. It is a cheap source of "protein" and makes cows and other animals fatten faster. A fatter animals weighs more, and they are sold by weight.