Goooooood Morning Everyone! I don’t know about you, but I need a Thermo just to keep up with the way the year is flying by. We’ll hit mid-September one of these days and before we know it the year end parties and functions will be in full swing, followed by Christmas and New Year and …. 2013. WOW!

So in that spirit, I thought I’d just fall right in and tell you about some of the best posts I’ve read this week from around the world. I’m sure you will enjoy it too!

Health & Nutrition Blogs

1.  Until a few months ago, I suffered with severe hair loss. Every time I brushed my hair, I’d have to sit for 10 minutes pulling out all the hair (in handful-clumps). The shower drain would be blocked after washing my hair. Hubby got really irritated, because try as I might, I would simply not get rid of all of the hair and he’d end up pulling out another handful. I eventually cut my hair short – which was a BAD BAD decision. I started improving my diet, but didn’t give it enough time to get to work. Now my hair is no longer falling out, but it’s short and I don’t like short hair on myself.

[Read here what Sara has to say about hair loss and nutrition on HomeRemedies blog.] 

2.  Those of our readers who follow our blog religiously will know that we’re not really into “healthy food”. We love Herbalife because you can still enjoy the foods that you love (in moderation) while following the (very delicious) Herbalife program. That’s why I thoroughly enjoyed Holly Kramer’s review of the “Skinny Chicks Don’t Eat Salads” book.

I especially liked her summary about the eating plan:

The eating plan focuses on 4 concepts, the ABCD’s

Amount: Increase the amount of food while losing weight by eating something every 4 hours.

Balance: Eat balanced meals with protein, high fiber carbohydrates and healthy fats.

Clock: Do not skip means. Be punctuate on your meal times every 4 hours.

Darn it, Get Your Lazy Butt on the Treadmill: Incorporate moderate exercise every day.

[Read Holly's post here]

3.  Beauty spots, rust marks, call them what you like – most of us probably have one or two skin moles. I personally have a love/hate relationship with mine. Once you have established that your moles are harmless clumps of pigmented cells, you can visit Linda’s site and find out how you can use different natural methods (including coriander – my favorite herb!) to remove skin moles.

[Check out Linda's site here]

4.  I’m sure you have read some of Neil’s guest posts right here at Vital Chats. His articles contain a wealth of information about health and fitness that is easily actionable. I personally have  learned a lot about the importance of minerals. We actually need minerals almost more than we need oxygen!

His post last week about the shocking facts about calcium and food labeling shocked me to my core.

[If you are a parent - heck, even if you're not!- go read  this post on calcium and labeling laws]

Beating the Economy

Not sure if you have been following the news much (I don’t usually – it’s mostly bad news and I like to surround myself with happy things!), but I see much appeal for help on Facebook as people are struggling tremendously.

• My friend Jolindy Dreyer  has been running a community upliftment program known as Heavenly Haven.

Jolindysays:

We focus on uplifting the community through skills development, teaching and training, as this is the only way sustainable change will happen.

Heavenly Haven is currently appealing for donations of food, Christmas gifts for the families, money and anything else that you can spare.

[Visit Heavenly Haven's Website]

• Herbalife International is also involved in various international upliftment and rescue projects that everyone can support. 

If you need to improve your own situation to enable yourself  to support worthy causes, you might want to take a look at this video:

 

There were several others, but I don’t have space for all of them today.  If I left you out, please feel free to comment below.

Happy Monday, Everyone!