Month: January 2016


Jan
2016

Acupuncture? Sure!

categories: health
Photo courtesy of http://anthosacupuncture.com/
Photo courtesy of http://anthosacupuncture.com/

I have wanted to try acupuncture for quite a while, ever since I heard it might help with my plantar fasciitis pain. I had inquired around Birmingham, to no avail, and was happy to see a Facebook event pop up on my timeline about a new herbal and acupuncture clinic in town.

Anthos Acupuncture & Herbal Clinic opened a few months ago off Richard Arrington Jr. Boulevard near Vulcan. They had an open house last week to introduce the community to Fotios Sardelis and his practice of traditional Chinese medicine. His focus includes acupuncture, Chinese herbs and tea.

Traditional Chinese medicine has been used for thousands of years to help resolve ailments by restoring balance to our bodies without harmful side effects, unlike many traditional Western medicine treatments. Foti uses a special combination of these medicines to treat ailments such as headaches, weight loss, hypertension, sprain, depression, neck pain, rheumatoid arthritis, and more.

The clinic is very nice and serene, with 2 private rooms for treatments and a kitchen in back with warm Chinese tea at the ready. During the open house, I tried one of the “relaxing” teas and loved it, feeling less stressed than when I had arrived. Foti also took the time to tell me more about traditional Chinese medicine and went through his cabinet of herbs with me, describing the purpose of each.

I’ll be making my first acupuncture appointment soon and hope you will join along for the ride. While I’m not afraid of needles, I don’t necessarily want 20 in me at once so this will be very interesting. I’m more interested to see if a series of treatments will help relieve my plantar fasciitis pain, which I’ve been told it can do.

Anthos Acupuncture & Herbal Clinic can be found at 1901 Richard Arrington Jr. Boulevard South, behind the Law Office of Kathy Long Skipper (go around the back of the building). You can also find his web site here and on Facebook here. Drop by and visit Foti to find out more about his education, his treatments, and some tea.

 

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Jan
2016

Do you Periscope? You should Katch.

categories: #techtuesdays
#TechTuesdays
#TechTuesdays
#TechTuesdays

It’s time again for #TechTuesdays with You Got Rossed!

A friend of mine recently started broadcasting on Periscope. If you don’t know what Periscope is, it’s basically live video streaming wherever you are while you’re doing or watching whatever. Anyone with a Twitter account can Periscope. Think of it as your own personal YouTube channel without a lot of the YouTube fuss. You download the app, you press a button, and viola – you’re live streaming to the world!

The good thing about Periscope is the ability to start sharing with anyone, anywhere, doing anything. The bad thing about Periscope is it doesn’t live on the internet indefinitely for people to watch later. Well, not on its own. When you start a Periscope broadcast you can choose whether to make it accessible after you finish the broadcast or not. If you choose to save it, people can open the app after you’ve finished and still watch your broadcast for up to 24 hours. If you don’t choose to save it, it’s deleted as soon as you’re done broadcasting. Until now…

Katch is a great application that integrates with Twitter to allow you to keep and share your Periscope (or Meerkat) broadcasts as you like. This is extremely beneficial for someone who has missed your ‘scope (as they’re called) and won’t be able to watch it for some time. With the Katch app, you can provide a link to it and they can watch it any time.

You can find out more about Katch at their web site here including learn how to use it and sign up for it.

Happy ‘scoping!

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Jan
2016

What’s Your Word for 2016?

categories: goals

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My friend Jennifer recently wrote a post about her word for 2016. It’s ‘action.’ I love that! It prompted me to think about what word I would want to represent me in 2016. It’s RESULTS! That is what 2016 is going to be all about from finances to entrepreneurship to my day job to my health.

During Javacia’s #GoalDiggers workshop earlier this year, I really thought about what I wanted for this year and put pen to paper. My big, overall goals are to save some mega bucks and pay down my bills, get in much better shape health-wise, kick off my side gigs of technical consulting and social media training, and really expand the platform I was hired for at work. I put numbers with all those things and have created “Momentum Moves” to help me get there and have my accountability partners checking up on me!

So, my word this year will be results and I plan to have an epic blog post at the end of the year with all those results listed, along with the numbers I have projected for myself. What is your works for 2016? How are you going to get there?

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Jan
2016

This is My Year

categories: goals

 

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I’ve had an epic 2015, but 2016 is going to be even better. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had my share of ups and downs, but haven’t we all? I will admit that I don’t have the greatest short or long term memory – my therapist attributes it to stuff in my childhood – so I don’t remember a lot that happened last year (ha! last year!). That is a big reason why I write my blog. Many people’s blogs are for a specific niche or brand and mine is all over the place – on purpose. I do try to write about the same topics when applicable, but a lot of the time it’s my own online diary to help me remember things later.

I remember verbally setting some goals with my husband at the beginning of the year. And I wrote some on the blog in July (as accountability). My biggest setback for a lot of these was fear, but let’s see how I did:

  1. Walk around Vulcan – Due to my fear of heights, I had not been able to walk around Vulcan yet – our city’s most iconic landmark and one of the best views in town. I had gone up there, but was unable to get off the elevator for more than 1 second. Earlier this year, I walked around Vulcan and took pictures to prove it!
  2. Flying – I used to LOVE flying back and forth from Wisconsin to Alabama between my parents. And then, in 2006, I had a rough flight and the fear set in. It’s manifested itself ever since and I’ve been deathly afraid of flying. I have done it when absolutely required (for work), but I mostly drive everywhere, including cross country. I told myself this was the year I was getting back on a plane, voluntarily. And I did! Las Vegas was awesome!
  3. Tattoo – I’ve always wanted one and have gone a few times throughout my life to get one, only to chicken out every single time. I turned 40 this year and I was intent on doing it. And I did! I love it so much.
  4. Fitness – While I didn’t shave a lot of the scale this year, I was a lot more active than I have been and I’m happy about that. I did a few 5ks, did a lot of dancing, some swimming and other workouts. I’m thankful for the amazing circle of friends who are of the same mindset that I can workout with any time I like.
  5. Donate my hair – Chopped off eleven inches in May and so very happy I did!

I just realized that 2015 also marked the 10 year anniversary of my blog. WHAT THE WHAT? I had no idea! Time flies when you’re having fun. So kick off 2016, here are some goals:

  1. Blog more – I blogged 50 times in 2015. I plan to double that in 2016. This is #1! 🙂
  2. Step outside my comfort zone more with fashion – I have fabulously fashionable friends. Sadly, that doesn’t rub off by osmosis or anything, so I’m going to make a concentrated effort to wear more than just black and more than just loose fitting everything. I have a beautiful shape and I’m going to show off these curves!
  3. Grow my side business – I’ve had a lot of fun doing social media presentations for a few groups locally. I plan to brand and promote that business to fuel my passion and make some extra money to pay down bills more, along with freelance technical work. So if you need social media or technical help, I’m your gal!
  4. Pay down bills – I have hella bills. I finished Financial Peace University not too long ago and would like to pay down my bills by at least 20% this year.
  5. Fitness – I plan to try even more new things in 2016 with my fitness including barre, kickboxing, and different types of yoga to find the best fit for me. I am also hoping to win a competition that will provide 7 months with a personal trainer for free. Fingers crossed!

What are your goals this year? How did 2015 treat you? I had an amazing year and this one is going to be even better! Cheers to the best year of our lives!