Break Pal Giveaway!!

So somehow this guy Phil, who created Break Pal with Liz, telepathically connected with my thought patterns about a week ago and caught me on a day when I was freaking out about my my general state of unhealthiness. Phil was smart, because he waited to pounce until the exact moment when I made one of those stupid promises to myself that I would work hard at changing my lifestyle. Then he emails me asking if I want to check out Break Pal and review it. Well, of course I said yes, because I was still in my stupor of thought over my state of physical well being and glowing in the aftermath of my hastily made promise to shape up! Nice work, Phil. Catch a girl when she's delirious with thoughts of a healthier lifestyle. Never mind the fact that I still have to ACT on those thoughts!

Well...it turns out that Break Pal is actually a really good way for me to break into this whole exercise and healthy lifestyle thing. Because Break Pal was designed for busy people who work from their desks and offices and all of the exercises are designed to be executed in small spaces. So I can actually exercise while I blog! I KNOW! What a concept! Okay, I can't actually type while I exercise, but I can take 5 minutes out of my blogging time and do some quick exercises in between posts and emails and such, without even leaving my chair if I don't want to. I try to rotate and do both standing and sitting exercises throughout the day, which has been really good for my circulation, by the way.

The exercises vary and are challenging, but very doable for a fatty like me. Even if you're a fitness guru and work out every day, these are great desk exercises to help you stretch your muscles and stay sharp/focused during the day. There are several types of exercises including punches, blocks, twists, breathing, yoga stretches, standing, walking and even cardio Karaticise. Here's a quick video to get an idea of what Break Pal is all about!



Each video is about 2-5 minutes in length and has step-by-step instructions to help you quickly learn the routine. I have used Break Pal on and off for a week now and am really enjoying the benefits of a clearer mind and better circulation while I sit at the computer. My posture is starting to improve too...less aching lower back! It's gonna take WAY longer than a week for my poor body to see the toning effects that can result from some of these exercises, but I can definitely say that I have found a tool that I can stick with to help me down the path to a healthier lifestyle.

Wanna try it out? You can click here to go to the site and set up a free trial membership. Make sure you download the widget for your desktop, it will remind you every so often to take a break and do some quick exercises. I found it to be very helpful. After the trial is over, Break Pal is only $9.95/month! The site also serves as a useful social networking site where you can make friends with people on the site to compete against and motivate each other as you earn points for the exercises you do.

Thinking it sounds pretty cool? Wanna win a lifetime membership? 3 lucky readers can do just that by leaving a comment on this post! Let me know what you think and I'll add your name to the drawing, which will end on May 8th at 12 midnight MST.

I'll give extra entries to anyone who fans Break Pal's Facebook page! Be sure to let me know so I can keep track of extra entries.

Want even more chances?

• Subcribe to my blog in a reader or by email
• Twitter this contest
• Become a Boymom follower

Leave a separate comment for every extra entry, please!

Good luck to everyone! I gotta go...the Break Pal widget calls! Should I do Ram's Head Punches or Standing Chi Kung? Wow...did I just sound all health-oriented and stuff when I said that?

Florastor Kids Giveaway!!

I was recently invited by Mom Select to try out a new product called Florastor® Kids. I have to tell you, it actually came at a really good time. My kids have both been sick recently and both required antibiotics to kill the bacteria. Because I have had some pretty severe health problems due to overuse of antibiotics, I am very paranoid about the use of antibiotics for my children.

Florastor® Kids is a product that helps restore the good bacteria our childrens' bodies need to help their digestive and intestinal systems function properly. This is especially important when they have a bad stomach or gut bacteria. The active ingredient in Florastor Kids is a freeze-dried form of yeast called Saccharomyces boulardii lyo. It helps promote the growth of good microbiota, while attracting and removing pathogens from the intestines. It has been studied in clinical trials for over 50 years. One of the key differences in a yeast-based probiotic, such as Florastor Kids, vs. a probiotic like acidophilus, is that it can not be killed by antibiotics

You can read the really technical part of the review over at I Am ReviewMom.

I was personally very glad to learn the Florastor Kids cannot be killed by antibiotics. We recieved and began using the product a week after both of my boys were done with their course of antibiotics. Little man always struggles with "gut issues" after the antibiotics. ALWAYS.

I will tell you, Florastor Kids went to work immediately and he has never recovered from a course of antibiotics as quickly as he did with the Florastor Kids. After 2 days of using the powder, which I put in juice for him, his gut attacks disappeared. It was awesome for both of us. Little Man is very vocal and very grumpy when his tummy is rumbling and his booty is busy.

Because Florastor Kids is such an effective tool to deal with diarrhea, we decided to pick some up for our 72 hour emergency kits. It would be great to take along when you travel too.

Florastor Kids is available in a box of 10 powder packets for a suggested price of $12.95 and in a box of 20 powder packets for a suggested price of $21.95. In my opinion it is totally worth the price. Knowing there is a natural remedy available when my kids need help dealing with gut issues puts my mind at ease and the speed with which it worked makes it a worthwhile item to keep in my medicine cabinet.

You can find it at most pharmacies or check out the Florastor website to see who carries it in your area.

And now, for being so diligent and reading the whole post, one of my lucky readers will win a 20-pack of Florastor Kids, along with a plush and a book that you can read to your kids so they know what the powder they are taking does! The book is really cute! Just leave me a comment and I will choose a winner using Random.org. The contest will end on May 1st at 12 midnight MST.

Seriously Funny Video Good for One Huge Laugh!

Okay, I will admit it...I used to love watching Riverdance. I never did get the whole headband thing that Michael Flatley had going though. But the dancing...it was cool. Because I can't do it.

My sister made me watch this video yesterday and I was rolling on the floor laughing. Check it out.

(You'll have to click the link, for some reason the uploader has decided this video can only be viewed on You Tube. Trust me...it's worth the effort to click on the link.)

Click Here to See Stavros Flatley

I Know. I KNOW!! I Have Issues!

By now most of you know I have issues. I struggle with depression, organization, hormones, whatever. My issues revolve around handling life's challenges. So here's the thing. I'm having issues about having issues. I don't want to be a person who has major issues anymore. I don't want to be the person that everyone shakes their head about when I walk away, wondering if I'll ever get it together. I don't want to keep wondering if I'll ever get it together. I want to be free from issues. Issueless, if you will.

I realize that is a lofty goal, especially when I have kind of defined myself by my issues. So I am making a list of ways I might attack the problem of dealing with my issues. Some are practical, some are not. Let me know what you think.

Ways I might deal with my issues:

• Be on the Dr. Phil Show - He's always good for a dose of reality and some free counseling.
• Join an Issues Anonymous Program - 12 steps to an Issue-free life.
• Ask Congress for a grant for the study of how to release my Issues.
• Start blaming Blackie Chan the Ninja Cat for my Issues.
• Pretend like my Issues don't exist and walk through life in denial while treating everyone around me like crap (yeah - we all know of few of these people, right?)
• Buy one of the many miracle cures for Issues from a TV infomercial.
• Watch a gazillion movies, one after another, about people whose lives seriously sucked so I can feel better about my own Issues.
• Rat out a mob boss so I can be put into the Witness Protection Program and gain a new identity - preferably an identity with NO ISSUES!
• Talk to Britney Spears about her Issues, thereby numbing my brain to my own set of ridiculous problems.
• Eat a lot of stuff with Mercury and Aluminum in it so I will get Alzheimers and not remember I ever had Issues in the first place. (Not mocking Alzheimers - I know it is a horrible disease!)
• Go on the Jerry Springer show and throw a chair at someone who I think may be the cause of some of my Issues, then call the audience names and walk off the set.
• Become a politician - they seem to lose all grasp of reality when they get elected anyway, so maybe my Issues will disappear with my rationality and good sense once I hit Washington.
• Become an actress - see explanation for politicians, but substitute Washington for Hollywood.
• Just let them go. Look the Issues in the eye, acknowledge why they exist and then just let them go. Sounds too easy. But I'll keep it on the list.

Boymom Gets a Universal Smackdown

I guess I shouldn't wish bad things on the Universe. Like migraines. Because the Universe strikes back. Like an unholy, evil Sith Lord with a Light Saber made of lightening, the Universe smacked me down hard this week. Forget Luke losing his hand, forget Obi Wan Kenobi falling by the wayside, forget Hans Solo being frozen...NOTHING compared to what happened to me since my last post! NOTHING!

So I mocked the Universe becuase one of my computers got hit by that crappy virus. Big Mistake. Big. The Universe does not like to be mocked. Exactly (well, give or take) 3 minutes after I made that post on April 3rd? My old dinosaur of a desktop was brought to its knees by the same virus! AAUUGGHHH!! How could this happen? I was mortified and completely and utterly devastated! NO TECHNOLOGY, people!! How was I going to function?!?! When the blue screen of death came up on my backup computer? I swear I heard this really evil laugh in the background.

Now...why is all of this so devastating? First of all, like an idiot, I never backed up my hard drives. Second...this was just the beginning. The Universe knew I would be weak and vulnerable with no access to email or blogs and it continued to attack on all fronts. Oh yeah...did I tell you? We had cancelled the cable on April 1st, so no TV to speak of either!

So the week from Hades rolled into the next week with 2 sick kids. One was throwing up in class, the other came home with a wicked case of strep or tonsilllitis or MONO! I KNOW! Mono!! We are still waiting for lab results to know for sure. The poor kid's tonsils were so swollen and infected they were squishing each other and closing off his throat! Scary!

So instead of getting my house clean, which is what I had asked from the Universe in the first place that started all of this, I spent last week running from urgent care to the pediatrician to the lab to the pharmacy and back to urgent care and the pediatrician again! 2 sick kids at home, no TV for them to watch while they were sick, no computers to pay my bills (or pretend to pay my bills while I blog), and no money to pay for computer repairs. And no sleep because of sick kids waking in the middle of the night.

Needless to say, the house did NOT get cleaned like it should have. And the Universe? Well, it backed off a bit and I actually got one computer up and running (even though I had to install Vista instead of XP to get it going-ACK!). I feel connected again! Whoo-hoo! Kids are on the mend, everybody is getting used to not having any TV to speak of (unless you count PBS and a few Spanish religious channels) and I learned a valuable lesson. Actually 3 lessons.

First - always back up your hard drives.
Second - Don't ask the Universe for a clean house without specifying how you want the house to get cleaned.
Third - Never, EVER wish a migraine on the Universe. Unless you want the Universe to pimp slap you. Trust me...I've lived it. You do NOT want a Universal Smackdown.

Learn from me, people.

On a brighter note...tune in tomorrow for a review of our Disney on Ice experience!

Sometimes You Get What You Ask For

My laptop (actually it's my husband's laptop, but I have hijacked it because it is soooooo much faster and more efficient than my raggedy old desktop PC) has taken a serious hit. I got the Blue Screen of Death today. Can't start it, it's stuck in this reboot loop telling me it is doing a physical memory dump. I have never known anything with the word dump to be very positive. I think it needs serious help. I have tried all the tricks the forums and message boards offer. I'm only a novice techie, not a full blown techie. There's only so much I can do to revive this thing! So...I may be absent for a few days while we try to work out the issue. I don't always feel like fighting the painfully slow speed at which my PC functions.

I guess this may be the Universe's way of granting my daily wish for a cleaner house. I don't think I clarified to the Universe that I didn't want to be the one to clean the house. It was just supposed to just happen. I thought the Universe would know that...all powerful, all knowing Universe. Whatever.

Guess I'll go sully my hands now with some dishes and laundry. I hope the Universe gets a massive migraine from all of the economic issues it is dealing with right now. (Pssst...kidding, Universe! I was just kidding! Still friends, right? Universe? )