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For those of you who dared to begin 2009 with a New Year’s resolution, why don’t you share with us how you are doing! It is now September and beyond the halfway mark of the New Year. If you have fallen off the bandwagon, please don’t give up on your goals. You owe it to yourself to finish what you started.

First of all, are you still committed to your New Year’s resolution(s)? Do you think you’re worth it? Then dust yourself off and recommit to your goals. I find that discipline is a key factor to making changes in my life and keeping me on the road to success with my New Year’s resolution. The second key is persistency, the sustained effort necessary to induce faith. You know, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen – Hebrews 11:1. So, if faith is substance, then faith is REAL! Think about that for a moment please.

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to lose at least 10 pounds off my weight, preferably 20 pounds. Well, I have already lost 10 pounds and some inches off my waistline and thighs; slow but sure, because once I reach my weight-loss goal, I plan to maintain it with a life-style change. I’m not interested in loosing weight fast anymore- been there and done that. We all know that loosing weight is not very difficult to do; it’s keeping the weight off that is most challenging.

In all honesty, I did fall off the bandwagon in March, but excuses don’t count. I am committed to health and wellness. I want to feel good, look good and more importantly, I want to glorify God in my body, because it belongs to him – 1 Corinthians 6: 19-20.

Moreover, I am reaching my weight-loss goal with discipline. I do simple 12-15 minutes exercise twice a day, morning and evening. I’ve found it more challenging to carve an hour or more time out of my day to exercise. Some experts even say exercising 12-15 minute intervals is healthier on your heart. Personally, I agree. In addition, I do some walking. I also eat four-to-five meals a day, about every three hours that includes approximately 30 grams of fiber intake. I have reduced my total daily calorie intake, and I’m committed to maintaining it. This means that whatever foods I’m currently eating to achieve my New Year’s weight-loss goal, will ultimately become lifestyle for me in order to maintain my successful results. Otherwise, once I achieve my goal and then increase my daily calories, that will inadvertently send mix messages to my body, and I would begin to regain the weight. If you’ve ever lost weight and regained it, then you know exactly what I mean. Our bodies are created to help us survive against starvation. It is true that we are fearfully and wonderfully made – Psalm 139:14.

Finally, I have found this discipline much easier to maintain consistency: I eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner including two snacks. I keep my snacks below 200 calories, and I always begin each meal or snack with a piece of protein first, as this helps reduce blood sugar spikes. No matter what your New Year’s Resolution is, over a period of time, discipline plus consistency are keys to successfully achieving your goals. So, I encourage you to take just a moment right now and share your three-quarter-mark progress with others! I’m sure it will be a blessing to someone. Thanks a million.

To your success!

Vera Powell Health and Wellness, Resolutions, blogging, goal setting, self issues, weight management new year's resolution three quarter mark

Google’s Search Engine Optimization

It all comes down to 6 tips and a checklist of things that you shouldn’t do if you want Google to index your web pages.

If you avoid the following things, it will be easier for Google to index your web pages:

1. Things that you should not do in your web page titles
· Do not use web page titles that have no relation to the content on the page.
· Do not use general web page titles such as “Untitled” or “New Page”.
· Do not use the same title for more than one web page.
· Do not use very long titles that do not help your users.
· Do not stuff unnecessary keywords in your title tag.
2. Things that you should not do in your meta tags
· Do not use meta description tags that have no relation to the web page content.
· Do not use general descriptions such as “My web page” or “About kittens”.
· Do not use only keywords in the description.
· Do not copy the entire content of the web page in the meta description tag.
· Do not use the same description tag on more than one web page.
3. Things that you should not do with your URLs
· Do not use lengthy URLs with unnecessary parameters and session IDs.
· Do not overuse keywords in your URL (kittens-cute-kittens-all-about-  kittens.htm).
· Do not use too many sub directories  (../here/there/down/2/buried/deep/down/content.htm).
· Do not use directory names that have no relation to the web page content.
4. Things that you should not do with your website navigation
· Do not show the same content with different domains or sub-domains.
· Do not mix www. and non-www. versions of your URLs in your internal links.
· Do not use capitalization in your URLs.
· Do not link every page of your website to every other page of your website.
· Do not over-segment your web page content. Users should be able to access any content with a few clicks.
· Do not base your entire navigation on drop-down menus or images.
5. Things that you should not do with broken links
· Do not use broken links on your web page.
· Do not block search engines from indexing your 404 not found pages.
· Do not use non-descriptive 404 not found pages. It’s better to use 404 web pages that help your website visitors to find the correct page on your website.
· Do not use a 404 not found web page design that is not consistent with the rest of your website.
6. Things that you should not do with your web page content
· Do not use text with many spelling and grammar errors on your pages.
· Do not embed text in images because search engines cannot read it.
· Do not write text about varying topics on a single page without paragraphs, sub-headings or layout separation.
· Do not copy content from other web pages that has no extra value to your website visitors.
The tips above won’t help you to get high rankings on Google. They only make sure that Google indexes your web pages correctly. If you want to get top rankings on Google, analyze your web pages with IBP’s Top 10 Optimizer.
IBP’s Top 10 Optimizer will check all elements of your web page and it will tell you in plain English what you have to change so that Google will give you a high ranking for your chosen keyword.
IBP even checks the readability of your web pages and it makes sure that your website gets the best possible rankings on Google and all other major search engines.
To your success…

Vera Powell Indexing, Informational, Optimization, SEO, blogging 6 tips on search engine optimization SEO

STAY AT YOUR POST

Eric was stunned by the certified letter he had received. He had been fired! His record with the company was good, and the reasons given for his dismissal were without substance.
As he related his story to me, Eric explained, “I said to myself, ‘Don’t panic. Think this through. How would God have me respond?’”
After praying and consulting a Christian lawyer, Eric felt that God was leading him to apply the truth of today’s text to his situation. So he stayed at his post and continued to see clients and place orders. To meet his financial needs, he drew on his personal reserves. Company officials were unprepared to deal with someone who kept at his job after being dropped from the payroll. Eight months later, the president offered Eric a new contract with the best terms ever.
Not everyone can or should do what Eric did. But we can learn from his example. We don’t need to be “afraid of sudden terror” (Proverbs 3:25). We don’t need to panic.
When a trial turns our life upside down, we can “stay at our post” by seeking God’s wisdom through prayer, Scripture, and mature Christian counsel. We can resist despair, remain confident that God is at work, and continue doing what is right and good. God will do the rest. – Dennis De Haan

When through life’s darkened maze I go
And troubles overwhelm my soul,
Oh, grant me, Lord, Your grace to know
That You are surely in control. – D. De Haan

A crisis cannot break the one
who relies on God’s strength.

Today’s Bible Reading – Ecclesiastes 8:1-9

1 Who is like a wise man?                   there is a time and judgement,
And who knows the                              though the misery of man
interpretation of a thing? A              increases greatly.
man’s wisdom makes his                   ⁷ For he does not know
face shine, and the sternness           what will happen; so who
of his face is changed.                          can tell him when it will
2 I say, “Keep the king’s                      occur?
commandment for the sake              8 No one has power over
of your oath to God.                             the spirit to retain the spirit,
3 Do not be hasty to go                       and no one has power in the
from his presence. Do not                 day of death. There is no
take your stand for an evil                 release from that war, and
thing, for he does whatever              wickedness will not deliver
pleases him.”                                           those who are given to it.
4 Where the word of a king                9 All this I have seen, and
is, there is power; and who                applied my heart to every
may say to him, “What are                 work that is done under the
you doing?”                                               sun: There is a time in
5 He who keeps his                                 which one man rules over
command will experience                   another to his own hurt.
nothing harmful; and a wise
man’s heart discerns both
time and judgement,
6 Because for every matter

                                             >INSIGHT<
The author of Ecclesiastes, Solomon, had long ago learned that true
wisdom comes only from the Lord (1 Kings 3:3-14). Unfortunately,
Solomon abandoned the wisdom of God for the supposed wisdom of
false gods – and brought disaster to himself and his kingdom. As he
wrote Ecclesiastes, he looked back on his life and acknowledge the
tragic mistakes he had made.

Vera Powell Daily Devotions, job Jobs and daily devotions

In continuing with New Year’s resolutions, “How I quit smoking” testifies to personal experience in the nicotine battle. I think we all would concede that smoking is a serious problem. But who wants to read or talk about that? And since you are still reading, I want to congratulate you. If you are a smoker like I was, and often contemplate the idea of ‘quit smoking,’ then you might also agree that it’s a good thing to read and learn from someone else’s experience. It helps a lot to see what difficulties one went through and how he/she succeeded.

The “how I quit smoking” scenario usually begins with “how it all started.” Most smokers started when they were young, in their twenties and evolved from several cigarettes to a packet or more a day. Almost every ex-smoker that is asked the “How I quit smoking question” will answer something different because of the many alternatives exist to quit smoking from the classical cold turkey method to such methods like hypnosis. “How I quit smoking” is a personal issue for everyone who smokes. But allow me to be honest enough to tell you that anyone can quit smoking. Anyone can break a habit in seven to ten days, once you develop a BURNING DESIRE to quit. Now that could take a little more time.

I have been delivered from smoking for 14 years. Notice I said delivered? Prior to those years, I actually believed I would be a smoker my entire life. Honestly, I thought I loved smoking more than just about anything. Then one day, merely by coincidence, while surfing the TV channels, I heard a preacher by the name of Fred K.C Price say, “…Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your Spirit, which are God’s.” I said, “WOW.” But something inside of me didn’t want to believe that scripture verse was in the Bible. I felt it was too convicting to be true. I wanted to look in the Bible to see for myself. Then he said, go to the book of First Corinthians, chapter 6, verses 19 and 20. And I did. When I confirmed that it was there in the Bible just as he said, it was truly a revelation for me, because even though I had been raised in the church, I had never heard anything so profound like that said about my body and me.

Needless to say, my life began to change. I began to develop a deep desire to quit smoking. Of course, I kept smoking right along as usual, but I also continued reading the Bible, listening to more Christian television out of curiosity to see what else I might hear about me. I also began to listen to Christian radio stations as well, and even started attending church. (Now that’s an interesting story.) Then one day, out of nowhere, I heard a still, audible voice say to me, “This is the day for you to stop smoking.” Then I heard, “If you don’t stop there will be consequences.” Now I know what you may be thinking, but this truly happened, and I have a sound mind today to prove it. That day, I also had two packets of cigarettes in my possession. When I got home from work, I layed down and felt like I wanted to die. I knew I had to obey. That was the most challenging experience I ever had. Every chapter and verse from the Bible I remembered and deposited deep down into my spirit was my only consolation. I knew if I didn’t speak it out of my mouth, I was not going to survive. I could not even compare this to child bearing can you imagine that? Then something occurred to me, that this smoking thing was more than just a habit. Have you ever wondered why it is so very challenging to quit smoking? Before that day, I had never experience one day without smoking in 21 years not one day! So it was a day-by-day revelation of God’s love, grace, mercy and power as I fought the battle to survive. After seven to ten days, as I mentioned before, I was totally set free from smoking. I feel blessed and proud to say I NEVER looked back, and I NEVER had a cigarette craving, or any side effects. I had forgotten that a life without smoking was so awesome and dynamic! I enjoyed food more; I had better nights sleep; and I did not even gain weight. Focus on  replacing  bad habits with good habits.

Reading “How I quit smoking “ success stories can help a lot, but don’t be fooled by those who sell you relaxation tapes, courses or other relaxation treatments. There is other advice that can be found on the Internet, and if you go here http://www.quit-smoking-expert.com you will find more “How I quit smoking “ stories. And if you need more support in your efforts against smoking join some ex-smokers discussion groups or forums. Any person that defeated the smoking habit can answer the “How I quit smoking” question giving you encouraging tips you may need each time you feel like starting to smoke again. Then you may soon be in a position of making the “How I quit smoking” experience a support for others.

Thanks for taking the time to read this blog post. I hope this helps even ONE person.

HAPPY NON-SMOKING, HAPPY NEW YEAR,  AND ENJOY YOUR NEW LIFE!

Vera Powell Health and Wellness, Informational, Resolutions, goal setting How I quit smoking. Really.

ARM AROUND YOUR SHOULDER

     Before Jesus left His disciples and returned to heaven, He promised that he would send them a Helper, the Holy Spirit. The word helper in John 14:16 means, “one called alongside.” He stands beside us to help us. That’s why we who are believers in Christ fight no battles and face no issues alone.
This story in Leadership magazine illustrates the point: “Jackie Robinson was the first black to play major league baseball. Breaking baseball’s color barrier, he faced jeering crowds in every stadium. While playing one day in his home stadium in Brooklyn, he committed an error. The fans began to ridicule him. He stood at second base, humiliated, while the fans jeered. Then, shortstop Pee Wee Reese came over and stood next to him. He put his arm around Jackie Robinson and faced the crowd. The fans grew quiet. Robinson later said that arm around his shoulder saved his career.”
How many times has our Helper, the Holy Spirit, done just that for us? We felt alone, discouraged, a failure, ready to quit, but then we sensed His comforting presence. Or perhaps He gave us the support we needed through a Christian friend.
We can be sure that the Holy Spirit is always standing alongside, ready and able to help. – Dave Egner

Holy Spirit, joy divine,
Cheer this saddened heart of mine;
Bid my many woes depart,
Heal my wounded, bleeding heart. – Reed

If you have the Holy Spirit on the inside,
You can stand any battle on the outside.

Today’s Bible Reading – John 14:15-21

15 If you love Me, keep
My commandments.
16 And I will pray the
Father, and He will give
you another Helper, that
He may abide with you
forever –
17 the Spirit of truth, whom
the world cannot receive,
because it neither sees Him
nor knows Him; but you
know Him, for He dwells
with you and will be in you.
18 I will not leave you
orphans; I will come to you.
19 A little while longer
and the world will see Me
no more, but you will see Me.
Because I live, you will
live also.
20 At that day you will
know that I am in My
Father, and you in Me, and
I in you.
21 He who has My
commandments and keeps
them, it is he who loves Me.
And he who loves Me will
be loved by My Father, and
I will love him and manifest
Myself to him.”

                                                          >INSIGHT<
In this passage, the key word is another (v.16). There are two Greek
words for another. One (heteros) means “another of a different
kind.” The word here, however, means “another of the exact same
kind” (allon). This means that the Helper (the Holy Spirit) will be
exactly like Jesus, offering the same love, concern, help, and care
that Christ Himself offers to His own. It should encourage us to know
that the Holy Spirit is a perfect representation of Christ – and He
dwells within us!

Vera Powell Daily Devotions, career career, discouraged, helper