4 Healthy Eating Ideas for 2011 From My Friend Julia

 
1.   Eat raw foods in place of cooked or processed

What kind of idea is that?  Read about the benefits as well as the cautionary notes of  a raw food diet at this about.com link.

Is there anyone who actually does this and has lived to tell the tale?  Yes.  In addition to thriving vegetarians and vegans, there are now thriving raw foodists or living foodists (as some call themselves). Julia is among them.

There are magazines, institutes and even restaurants dedicated to raw foods.

Want to find out what it's like to go on a raw-food diet? Check out blogger Steve Pavlina's post  30 Days Raw .  In this post, he shares his day by day experience of going completely raw for 30 days.

And finally, you might take a peek at the green smoothie recipes, products and events available at Raw Family, or the miracles being performed daily at Tree of Life.

Here's how I incorporated raw food elements into my diet.  Feel free to follow my lead:

• Breakfast - I have my coffee - can't do without that....but instead of typical breakfast foods such as cereal, or eggs & sausage, I eat 2  ounces of nuts and raisins.

• Mid-morning - I have a cupful of chopped fruit and raw veggies - typically baby carrots, celery & apple, sometimes other veggies thrown in - plum tomatoes, orange and yellow bell peppers, broccoli.

• Lunch - a Mozarella cheese stick (the processed kind) and a power home-made smoothie which I make with yoghurt, soymilk, frozen strawberries, spinach, avocado, banana and an orange.

• Dinner - normal - cooked  - small quantity.

Does that sound impossible?  Confession. I am faithful to this regimen only half of the time.  I eat normally when I go out to restaurants and other people's homes.

If you want to experience the benefits of going raw, start out small and go from there.  Just go raw for one or two meals, once or twice a week.  And do let me know you fare so I can let Julia know.


2. Sugar is nasty, sugar substitutes not nice either


You already know the lowdown on sugar. When it comes to creating a Halloween Fright Fest in your body, refined sugar is a ghoul dressed as an angel.  It looks and tastes so good  (those cookies, those candies, those cakes and those sweets). But it's a health ghoul and will transform you into a ghoul  over time.  With rotting teeth, high blood sugar, insulin resistance, diabetes and autoimmune diseases such as such as arthritis. 


What I didn't know, and I have to thank Julia for, is the scoop on artificial sweeteners.  They aren't terribly good for you either.

Starting with cyclamate (now banned), saccharin and aspartame, artificial sweeteners have been mired in controversy. Natural sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup have been mired in controversy as well.

You can pooh pooh this, of course.  After all, saccharin and aspartame still have the FDA stamp of approval (as this October 2009 article from Time Magazine testifies).  But why take chances. When it's so easy to train your tongue to getting de-addicted to sweetness.   Start with drinking your tea and coffee plain.  And go from from there.

Of course, nowadays there are many more sugar substitutes for you to choose from - natural and artificial. Splenda and Stevia are two of them.

Whole Foods Market has this guide to natural sweeteners on their site which has helpful information.


Pay attention to the sugar in your diet. It is one of the best things you can do for your body. Start today.  Start now.


3. Banish transfats from your diet


Way way before transfats became a hot topic and states began to pass bills to outlaw or regulate their use in restaurants and school cafeterias, Julia alerted me to how bad transfats were for your health.

This information which I was privileged to get from Julia a decade ago has now become public knowledge - we should all be grateful for that.

Transfats unfortunately lurk in some of the commonest everyday foods that we eat and use.

Foods such as margarine -- which I used to think was a healthier alternative to butter. And cooking oil. And potato chips.

If you go raw, you can avoid transfats altogether.  But if not, all you have to do is to start reading food labels to avoid the beast.

If you see the words "hydrogenated" or "partially hydrogenated" on a food label, it's your cue to avoid that food - whether it's a cooking oil, a protein bar, or a bag of potato chips.

Now when it comes to restaurants,  you are on shakier ground.

But fortunately several states have moved to outlawing the use of transfats in restaurants and school cafeterias. You can read how and when California became one of them here.

Why are transfats bad?  In layman terms, because your body does not know what to do with them. You can read the full scoop on why you want to avoid them in this Mayo Clinic article.

4. Drink more tea to give yourself a healthy dose of antioxidants


While there are many ways to glug your antioxidants - coffee, red wine and pomegranate juice among them, Green Tea offers the most benefits for the lowest price with the least harmful effects. 

You can find out more about the health value of antioxidants by reading this article Food Choices The Best Source for Antioxidants published by Mayo Clinic in their Medical Edge newspaper, or by reading this article Go Green Tea published by Whole Foods Market on their blog.

If after reading these articles, you are convinced about the benefits of Green Tea, head to Teavana  or Whole Foods Market to steep yourself in the Tea Movement, or survey the choices available at your local grocery store, which include Liptons Green Tea and Arizona Green Tea, both of which are excellent choices.

Happy New Year to You & Wishing You a Year of Healthy Eating!

Credit for the ideas in this post go to my friend Julia Kaplan.  Julia has done her Masters in Chemistry and  is also a certified nutritionist.  If you need simple advice on improving your diet and nutrition, Julia can help you.

Resume Tips from Fortune 500 Hiring Managers

I am currently reading Brenda Greene's "Get the Interview Every Time".  Brenda has written this book based on surveys conducted with hiring managers and recruiters from 50 Fortune 500 companies.  I was expecting the same-old same-old. But I was pleasantly surprised.  I found valuable nuggets of information in the first few chapters itself. After finishing this post, I plan to get back to Brenda's book for more insights, but here are the first four tips I picked up on:

1. Fortune 500 Company Tip No 1: "Don't wait for a job opening" to apply

You are probably cynical every time you receive one of those auto-notifications which say "We will keep your resume on file for a year".  Don't be. Most of the Fortune 500 companies Brenda surveyed say you should apply for jobs with them, whether they have current job openings or not. When a job opening arises, the first thing the HR department does is access the resumes on file. So you should expand your job search to include companies that don't have any current openings, if you would like to work for them.

Brenda does advise to check the career section of the company's website for their preferred application process. And she also suggests a call to the HR department of the company to find out if they accept unsolicited resumes and to get an idea of how long they keep them on file. Once you get the green signal, you can go ahead and submit your resume and cover letter.

By the way, if you want to see resumes and cover letters that Fortune 500 companies like, Brenda's book is full of them.

2.  Fortune 500 Company Tip No 2:  "Don't Focus on Your Education"

What!!!!!!  Yes, Hiring Managers look for related experience. Related experience trumps education and accomplishments every time. In fact,  Hiring Managers say they often skim the education and accomplishments area of  resumes and hone in on just the related experience.  So whether you came to your job after a boatload of courses, diplomas and degrees, or purely by accident, if you have the skills and the experience, remember that's what counts. Focus on that.

3.  Fortune 500 Company Tip No 3:  The Top 2 reasons resumes go in the "junk pile" rather than the "for consideration pile" are ........

Do you want to hazard a guess?  If you said spelling and grammatical errors, score one point for you - yes that's the number one reason resumes are rejected.  How about the No 2. reason?  Can you think what that might be? Lack of relevant computer skills.  Companies expect all their employees to have basic computer skills. You should know how to use a computer and be comfortable using common computer applications such as Microsoft Word & Microsoft Excel. Over and above that, you should have the computer skills specifically required in your line of work.  If you lack basic computer skills or desired computer skills, you should enroll in classes to plug these gaps -you don't want your lack of computer skills to become an obstacle for you.  I did teach someone the basics of Microsoft Excel recently. If you live close to me, I would be glad to help you.

4. And finally,  Fortune 500 Company Tip No 4:  "What you do for fun counts rarely or never"

By habit, we include our extra-curricular activities in our resumes.  But the hiring managers and recruiters tell Brenda that such information is regarded as sheer noise.  In fact, some of them indicated that resumes with a  heavy dose of  "extra-curricular stuff" were usually light on experience and skills.  So if you do wonderful and daring things in your leisure time  --  Race cars, Slalom off ski slopes, Run, Bike and Swim at Iron Man or play Jazz Guitar at Burning Man, you are not going to score any job points for including that in your resume.  So skip it.

Hope you enjoyed these tips from Brenda's book.  Be sure to check out the rest of her book - there's a link in the opening paragraph.  Happy Job Hunting!!!!

Lower Your Tax & Tax Filing Expense - 4 easy ways I do this each year

1. I use Turbo Tax to file my taxes instead of a tax preparer like H & R Block or Liberty Tax Service or Jackson Hewitt.  I estimate that I have saved $150 per year since 2004 by doing my taxes myself instead of using a tax service.  Indeed, I wish I had learned to do my taxes and switched to Turbo Tax earlier. Since learning how to do my taxes myself, I have taught 5 friends to do their taxes themselves with Turbo Tax and I should be able to teach you as well.  Or I can point you to places where you can learn.  In the meantime, here's the guidance on who should consider using Turbo Tax:

*If you are a salaried person with a fixed income,or indeed anyone with a fixed income and you usually take the standard deduction instead of itemizing (I will explain this in a future post for those who need the information if I get any requests), you should definitely go with e-filing your taxes. If your income falls within $57,000 a year, you may in fact be able to file your taxes for free on the IRS website itself- check out if you are eligible.  If you are not eligible to file for free, you should still definitely go with using Turbo Tax (which I use) or Tax Act.  I use the online version of Turbo Tax, but you can also pick up the boxed software version from Costco or any bookstore like Barnes & Nobles or Borders.  

*If you are a salaried person with stock investments and espp and option sales but with no deductions to itemize, then you should still go with using Turbo Tax.  I fall into this category.  There have been some unusual years when I had to report a Traditional to Roth conversion and when I had to report contributions to an HSA account (which is a tax-sheltered account for medical expenses which can be opened in conjunction with a IRS approved high-deductible HSA health plan), but I was able to input these into Turbo Tax without any heartburn.

*If you itemize, you should still visit the Turbo Tax website and explore the different versions.  There are 5 versions in all - Free, Deluxe, Premier, Home & Business and Business and you can try any of them for free.  You only pay when you actually file.  Isn't that cool?  In fact, I have a friend who runs her own business and uses a tax preparer but models her taxes in Turbo Tax every year before going to the tax preparer, which I thought was pretty smart.

I find it so convenient to use Turbo Tax for several reasons.  For one thing, page by page you are guided by questions so  you do not miss any income, any deductions, any exemptions and any credits. Also, as you enter the information, your tax refund (positive or negative) updates in real time in the top right hand corner. Also, the program advises you on how you might be able to lower your taxes by taking advantage of tax sheltered accounts, lets you know if you are at risk of  incurring the dreaded AMT or Alternative Minimum Tax and tells you where you fall statistically among the nation's tax payers.  You can file both your federal and your state taxes on Turbo Tax.  I understand all the tax preparers now have an online DIY version in the style of Turbo Tax but I have not explored or used them and I would be interested to know how they compare with Turbo Tax.

Moving on to other ways to lower your tax every year following my lead:

2.   I do some tax-loss selling every year.  As I said, some of my savings are in stocks.  Besides investing in mutual funds through tax-sheltered accounts such as a 401K, IRA, HSA and 529 (which I hope you are familiar with and contribute to), I have been investing directly in stocks since late 2003.  No one wants a stock to turn out to be a dud, but when a stock does turn out to be a lemon (and they frequently do) and loses a significant amount of value and has no hope of recovery soon, you can sell the stock and take a loss.  As blue as taking a loss might make you feel, there is a silver lining to this cloud - you are allowed to offset the loss against gains from sales of stock that you made in the year and even against your regular income.  You are allowed to offset up to $3000 a year.  I have taken advantage of this in some years.  If you want to learn more about Tax-Loss Selling,  this Investopedia  link provides you with more information.  Investopedia  is a veritable encyclopedia for investment information.  If you like your information in a fun, entertaining and easy to read way, then you can also check out Motley Fool  on which you can find all kinds of information related to stock investments and individual stocks written in layman's language.

Moving on...

3. I invest in mutual funds only in tax-sheltered accounts.  The reason I do this is because mutual funds have something known as a capital gains distribution.  You can find the definition by clicking on this Investopedia link.  When I was new to mutual funds investing, discovering that you could incur a taxable capital gains distribution even on a fund that had lost value was one of the nasty surprises.  There are all sorts of mutual funds and not all of them will have taxable capital gains distributions, but I decided to make my life simpler by investing in mutual funds only in tax-sheltered accounts such as 401Ks, IRAs, 529s and HSAs.

4. Lastly I try to manage my IRS tax withholding, so that there are no big shocks come tax time. For this you have to learn how to correctly fill the W4 that you submit to your company's payroll manager.  The IRS website offers information on this and has a handy W4 calculator, but the general rule is that the fewer deductions you put on the W4, for instance if you put 0 or 1, then the more tax is withheld from your paycheck. And conversely, the more deductions you put, for instance if you put 6 or 7 or 12, then much less tax is withheld from your paycheck.  It is not a good idea to have less tax withheld from your paycheck than you owe, because you will owe this plus penalties to the IRS when tax time comes around.  If you have too much tax withheld on the other hand, then it amounts to you giving the IRS an interest-free loan - which of course you will get back as a refund at tax-time.  After experiencing the first situation - where I owed a huge chunk of money, I prefer to err in favor of giving the IRS a tax-free loan and getting back a refund, so that's been the way to go for me.

Hope you enjoyed this article - check back for more articles like this - with actionable ideas for your job, money, investments, health and peace of mind

4 decisions I wish I had made earlier

1. The decision to do the Xactly Incent Administrators Course in July of 2010.  It led to a really terrific consulting gig,  gig of all gigs, bringing me into contact with a wonderful entrepreneur at Solution Partners Inc, Los Gatos and taking my skills in Sales Compensation to a whole new level.  It led to me transitioning from a number-crunching Commissions Analyst with Excel and Centive under my belt to a rule-writing  Xactly Incent Implementations Architect. It catapulted me into the world of Salesforce.com and cloud computing. Indeed one of the highlights of my professional year was attending Dreamforce at the Moscone center in December of this year

2. The decision to give up watching TV.  This was a hard one.  I gave up a 6 year addiction to CNBC and Jim Cramer and Fast Money and with the free time that was released, this one-time Deccan Herald contributor and MAA Bozell &  JWT copywriter began to write again. This led to me penning  25 very mediocre short stories over a month - I will share those on this blog at some point, but more importantly it led to the idea and momentum for this blog.

3. The decision to become a believer again.  2010 was transformational for me.  Unlike author Christopher Hitchens who even on his deathbed has not renounced his atheism, I returned to my roots as a Christian this year after decades of pooh poohing God and all those who believed in him.  My conversion was not as dramatic as C. S. Lewis's or Martin Luther's or St. Augustine's - more about those some other time if you are interested -- and happened at a mid-week church service at Cathedral of Faith. I was going through a difficult time both at work and in my personal life at that time - and Pastor Mike Garcia's sermon about Forgiveness spoke to me.  I found myself drawn to continue to attend both the mid-week services and the Sunday services and within a few months the transformation was complete and I came to believe that the only 2 things that were sacred in life was life itself and my relationship with God.  With my spiritual self stirring again, I wanted to become a better person and this then led to me learning how to meditate on the qualities I wanted to develop in myself.  I owe the meditation technique to a book by 2 neuroscientists  called "How God Changes Your Brain".  Meditation has become a daily priority for me and I do it for an hour everyday first thing in the morning.

4. The decision to switch to Vonage for my home phone service.  It may seem crass, but this was also life-changing for me.  Switching to Vonage World from AT& T this year enabled me to rediscover old friends and keep in touch with existing ones through long phone chats between me and friends in the US, India, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, UK, Germany and Poland.  It feels so good to be able to talk for as long as I want for a flat monthly fee that works out to $33.00 per month with taxes.  Thank you Vonage.