Summer's here!

In this month's newsletter, I'll share some relaxation techniques and helpful tips about maximizing relaxation on vacation.

You may be heading out of town for a few days or you may stay home, but I hope you take a few days off during the summer. Of course, everyone in the family wants to do something specific while on holidays, so juggling family responsibilities and vacation can become quite tricky...

This newsletter should help you get ready for a stress-free (or at least a less stressful) vacation.

Scheduling a Stress-Free Vacation

The stressful part of your holidays is often trying to cram too much into too little time but many other causes of stress can also be associated with summer holidays.

I recommend you take a few minutes and reflect on your past holidays to understand what made them stressful. Once you analyze your past experiences, it's often easy to spot your stress triggers. You can then think of alternate ways to deal with the same situation and avoid your stress triggers.

For example, if running out of spending money toward the end of your trip is an issue, you may want to plan ahead and create a system to help you with deal with it. You could split your spending money into envelopes, one for each day of your holiday. Once you empty an envelope, you can't dip into the next one. You can even share your plan with your entire family so they understand how much the family can spend on any given day.

To read more on this subject and get more examples, visit this page:

Healthy Comfort Food

I love barbecuing meat in the summer and you or someone in your family probably enjoys it too. I love the taste of juicy burgers but I recently came across the results of a study that I would like to share with you:

The USA National Institutes of Health followed 545,000 Americans over a 10-year period to see what impact meat had on their life expectancy.

They discovered that those study candidates who died early ate 4 oz or more of meat per day. Those who lived longer ate less than 1 oz of meat per day.

Of course, other factors are always at play, but if reducing your meat intake could add a few more years to your life, wouldn't it seem like a smart idea?

Here are a few tips to help you reduce your red meat consumption:

• Try shrimp stir-fry instead of beef stir-fry.


• Limit your red meat intake to once per day by skipping morning bacon (you can have turkey bacon), having a white meat sandwich (turkey, chicken or even fish!) and having your red meat for dinner only.


• Start using beans as a healthy, vegetarian source of protein instead of meat.

Relaxation on Vacation

Another way to enjoy a less stressful holiday is to live in the moment. For example, if you're stuck on the highway because of an accident or traffic jam, take that time to be grateful for what you have:

• nice weather
• beautiful birds in the sky
• your family being all together
• having enough money to afford taking a holiday
• being lucky enough to be going (wherever you are going)....

Book of the Month

Don't forget to check out my my two book of the month recommendations (one fiction and one non-fiction) right here:

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