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Walking- Walking is a wonderful exercise that you can do virtually everywhere. Be sure you get comfortable walking shoes and that you use good posture to keep your back straight. Begin with a 5-10 minute warm-up and then stretch and continue with your walk. remember to stretch afterwards to reduce soreness. Try to walk for at least 30 min. a day, 3 to 5 days per week.

Swimming- Swimming can be one of the most relaxing exercises for pregnant women. Your risk of injury is very low as well. Swimming takes pressure off your joints with that weightless feeling of being in the pool. You get a good cardio workout while swimming that uses your large muscles. There's also a reduced chance of injury while swimming, still, be careful when walking around the pool to avoid slipping. Some things you can do while in the water are water aerobics, deep-water running and swimming. You can join a water aerobics class or simply swim twenty minutes a day for 3 to 6 days a week. Don't forget to avoid hot tubs and saunas since they can raise your body temperature to high levels that may injure your baby.

Running and jogging- If you have been running or jogging before becoming pregnant, you can safely continue to do so. You will want to use common sense. If you begin to feel tired, slow down. Don't overexert yourself. As you get farther along in your pregnancy, you ought to cut back a little. If you have complications, chances are your caregiver will ask you to stop jogging for the remainder of your pregnancy. Always consult your practitioner first.

Low impact aerobics- Low impact aerobics is okay to remain doing while pregnant. You do not want to do jumps or high kicks. Alter the exercises if you feel like you need to. You can do this by going at half speed. Join a low impact aerobics class at your local gym or you can obtain a workout video and exercise at home. many women are more motivated to exercise if they have joined a class.

Bicycling and spinning- Be careful when bicycling or spinning. You're more susceptible to falls now that your center of gravity is shifting. Steer clear of uneven terrain when you go biking. As your abdomen grows larger, you'll probably have a difficult time reaching the handlebars. You may also find the bicycle seat to become very uncomfortable in your third trimester. Don't overwork yourself. take breaks as needed. If you participate in a spinning class, turn down the tension and slow it down if you feel tired.

pilates- pilates toughens your entire body(particularly your abdominals, pelvic muscles and back which may aid you in labor), teaches you body awareness and helps increase your flexibility. pilates is safe to do when pregnant. There are some gyms that have prenatal pilates classes or you can just obtain prenatal pilates videos to exercise at home. You can take pilates classes, just remember to stay away from movements that compress your neck.

Yoga- The focus of Yoga is techniques to help you relax and breath. These techniques could help you breath correctly as you experience through labor pains. You can participate in Yoga classes throughout your whole pregnancy. However, you will want to avoid poses that involve lying flat on your back or inverted poses. Just like Pilates, your local gym may have prenatal yoga classes or you can find prenatal yoga workout videos to workout at home. Most gyms will have regular yoga classes, which are safe for you to attend.

chris Dunn, father of 8, enjoys writing articles for his pregancy information website.

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# posted by 26146 : 7:15 PM  0 comments

What's really most important when hiring a virtual assistant is doing your due-diligence before you make the hire. Just like anyone else, virtual assistants come with their own personality, life issues, and family situations. Making sure they mesh with what you need are paramount to ensuring smooth sailing after youve finally agreed to work with the VA.

Virtual Houdini - The Virtual Assistant Disappearing Act

Yes, it can happen. Back when you worked in the retro bricks-and-mortar world, how often did someone simply not show up for work? They quit, right? Unfortunately this can happen with virtual assistants as well. Perhaps not as often as in the bricks-and-mortar world but it does happen. Why do virtual assistants quit, disappear, move on? The same reasons they quit, disappear, and move on in the bricks-and-mortar world. Maybe they needed more money. Maybe they became ill and could no longer work. Maybe a better offer came along. Maybe they didnt like the work. You cant entirely avoid the situation itself but there are things you can do to minimize the damage if and when it does. Protecting yourself ahead of time for when it does and realizing that it could happen is your best defense.

Online files. Not only does putting your files (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) online facilitate working virtually, but it also protects you if and when a virtual assistant leaves. Simply change the passwords then shes locked out and you dont lose any files or have to go hunting them down.

Pay withholding. Why not put something in your contract with the virtual assistant that says you reserve the right to withhold pay until work files are returned?

Passwords. As soon as a virtual worker leaves or is let go, remember to change your passwords on everything he or she had access to!

What I Say Versus What I Can Do

Would you hire someone to watch your children just because they say theyre capable of doing so? I didnt think so. Then why would you hire a virtual assistant (or anyone for that matter) without first finding out what they can do and if they can do what they say they can do? I recommend several steps be taken to test a new virtual assistant contractor before contracting with them. These steps are modeled after our own companys interviewing process, which has evolved over the years. Its a lot of work on your part but very worthwhile. If you dont want to take all of these steps then look for a good virtual staffing agency, like Team Double-Click who does all of the work for you.

1) Job posting. In your case you'll either need to make a posting on a job board, such as CareerBuilder, Monster, or Craigs list. Or you can search those boards for virtual assistants looking for work.

2) Typing test. You want to know your new virtual assistant can typeaccurately, right? Send him or her to typingtest and ask for the results back. Look for a high level of accuracy coupled with high speed.

3) Computer skills test. Again, you want to know your virtual assistant can use Word and Excel. Send her to expertratings, ask her to take the free Word and Excel (and any others you want to know about) tests and send you the scores.

4) First interview. Agree on a time and date for the first telephone interview. Then give the potential virtual assistant your number and have her call you. Have your questions ready. Did she show up on time? Did she answer your questions to your satisfaction? Do her skills still fit?

5) work personality. You simply must know if the person you are about to contract is honest, has a high level of integrity, is a team player, and so on. We recommend totaltesting, where you can ask the potential virtual assistant to take such a test. Now this one costs a few bucks. Its up to you whether you want to pay for it or require the virtual assistant to pay for it. Just remember if you ask her to pay for it and you dont hire her shes not going to be a happy camper.

6) Second Interview. The cool thing about Total Testings work personality tests is that they give you another set of questions to ask the candidate during a second interview. Have a friend, spouse, or colleague interview this person the second time. compare notes. How does each of you feel about this person? Will she work out?

7) Contract. If youre ready to contract this person its time to pull out the non-compete, non-disclosure contract we discussed in the last article. Send it to the virtual assistant for review and signing. Be absolutely sure this is signed before putting him or her to work.

8) EIN and W9. We also discussed, in the last article, requiring the contractor to obtain a (free) EIN (employer identification number) to further protect you from possible employer/employee claims later on down the road. Nows the time to ask for this, along with a completed W9 form.

This is the abbreviated version of our process. We throw in a few things like setting up a company email account, and we have a review process, which each virtual assistant goes through. A team of three HR pros discuss each candidate and determine if a contract will be offered. Because were a staffing agency, your screening process will look a little different from ours.

Give Me All You Got

Never send a virtual worker a ton of materials (letterheads, envelopes, brochures, etc.). Its just a safeguard. While it is very rare that someone would leave and not return those materials to you, if they did, how much money would you have tied up in replacing all of those expensive printed materials? Its just better not to do it in the first place. Send a virtual worker slightly more than what they need to perform the task at hand.

The Five Finger discount - Identity Theft/Credit Card Number Theft

One of our clients biggest concerns has always been identity theft and credit card number theft. In all the years weve been staffing virtually, weve never seen this happen. It may be that the work personality profile is weeding out the people who might be tempted and our HR department is further ferreting out those who are less-than-desirable, but the other half of it is the contractor mentality of a virtual assistant as opposed to the employee mentality of anemployee!

You can minimize your risk by not giving out your credit card information to a virtual assistant. If you need to give the virtual assistant a credit card number for ordering products or services on your behalf, get a separate card that is used for nothing but items the virtual assistant orders for you. Its much easier to check over your bill for erroneous charges this way.

Hours availability

When hiring a virtual assistant, not only do you need to make sure their skills and abilities mesh with you and your business, but you must also be sure the virtual assistant has enough time to take care of your needs. Very simply ask the potential virtual assistant how many other clients she has, how many hours per week she is working, and how many hours she has to devote to you. Does it work with what you need? If not, move on.

The rate

I dont know about you, but Ive never bought something without first knowing what it was going to cost. Important questions to ask before contracting a virtual assistant:

1) What is the rate per hour?
2) Are there different rates for different tasks?
3) If so what are they?
4) Do you round to the nearest hour or the nearest minute? To the nearest minute is the most desirable.
5) Is there a start up fee?
6) If so, how much?
7) Is there a termination fee?
8) If so, how much?
9) Is there a minimum usage?
10) If so, how much?
11) Can you work within my budget? In other words, if I can only afford 10 hours per week, what happens when youve reached 10 hours? How is that handled?
12) What are your future plans? How long do you intend to be a virtual assistant? Is this a career for you or a short-term venture for some extra cash?

My philosophy when hiring anyone, virtual assistants included, is to hire slowly and fire quickly. Trust your gut. If you dont feel that a virtual assistant is working out, let her go immediately and dont look back. Your gut is probably right. But do take your time hiring. Go through the paces to determine if he or she is the best fit for YOU; itll minimize the risk that he or she wont work out for you later.

Gayle Buske is the founder, president and CEO of Team Double-ClickSM, the countrys foremost virtual staffing agency. As the head of a virtual staffing agency with over 19,000+ virtual professionals in its pool, Ms. Buske is uniquely qualified to aid clients growth through virtual outsourcing as well as speak to the ins and outs of the industry. Gayle enjoys spending her free time with her husband, business and life partner, Jim, their daughter Madison, practicing yoga, reading, off-roading, hiking, flower gardening, and playing with the familys three dogs and two cats.

Team Double-Click, Inc. provides virtual assistance for small and home-based businesses. Visit Team Double Clicks Web site at http://www.teamdoubleclick.com or phone 888.827.9129. Click to receive your free report, 101 Ways To work With A Virtual Assistant.

# posted by 26146 : 5:33 PM  0 comments

Bathroom faucets are obviously one of the important parts of any bathroom. Without these, there is no sink, shower, or tub. While all bathroom faucets are meant to serve the very basic purpose of carrying water, they now also come in a wide array of shapes and styles. Finding the right design can be difficult, but it's well worth the effort of the search.

Before buying bathroom faucets, there are several things you will want to think about. First and foremost, you will want to consider which type of design is appropriate and what type of design you want. What kind of handle do you want for your faucet? Do you want a bathroom faucet with a large round knob that you can adjust either way for increased hot or cold water, or do you want a pull handle? Even beyond that, do you want one handle, or two (one for each temperature of water)?

A second serious consideration with bathroom faucets is finding a style and a finish that you want. A good style and finish can add a certain respectable elegance to your bathroom, but you want to make sure they don't clash with the rest of the bathroom, otherwise any positive effect will be lost by its seeming completely out of place. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of choices, and whatever style you decide to choose, you will want to make sure to consider if they fit into your bathroom, will function at maximum capacity, and also how easy they are to use. If they look nice that's all good and well, but if they're really hard to use, is it really worth it?

Also, a very important consideration with bathroom faucets is expense. Obviously you may find a bathroom faucet you love, but if it is three times the cost of your budget, then that's not going to work. There are some very basic bathroom faucets, and then there are very elegant, expensive bathroom faucets. Don't overspend--you can find plenty of good functional faucets that are also aesthetically pleasing for a reasonable price.

For more information about improving your bathroom, head to DesignMyOwnBathroom.com Find all you need on bathroom fixtures, repair, lighting, and much more. DesignMyOwnBathroom.com

# posted by 26146 : 11:22 AM  0 comments

For some time now, many a homeowner feels they have installed lighting everywhere they could possibly need it: In the closets, over the bathroom sink, over the stove top, and sometimes even in the oven. There are lights for the fish tank, the garage, and even the children's desks. but there is one area that has been in the dark far too long.

How many times have you found yourself looking for a certain pot or pan, but it seems to hide in the shadows? How many times have you looked for the perfect spice, but missed it due to the label being hard to read? And how many times have you been caught with the last square of toilet paper, so you desperately search the bathroom cabinet while trying to stay seated - and the new roll appears to be hiding from you?

Well, a new innovation that has been on the market for a short while is available to you to solve all of these painful experiences, and more: Under-cabinet halogen lighting. This kit is the answer to not seeing well inside your kitchen and/or bathroom cabinets, fumbling around aimlessly for what you need.

If you are interested in solving your lighting needs by yourself, a low voltage system is the way you will want to go. If you want to go with the higher-voltage, it will require the aide of a specialist to help you get the job done right and safely. Low voltage can be installed by any do-it-your-selfer. Another great bonus to a low-voltage system is that is is operated by a remotely controlled wall-mounted switch which looks as good as the permanent system and can be installed in as little as a day.

To begin, you will need a drill, keyhole saw, screwdriver, a wire stripper, a few connecting wires and the lights (with included transformer). Once you have the kit and necessary tools in place, determine the location for each light so that it won't shine in your eyes while you work. Also remember that halogen lights do produce heat, so installing on to wooden cabinets is fine, but keep the lit bulbs away from paper and plastic items

Once you have determined where to install your lights, remember to remove the lens and trim rings from each light. install with screws to underside of your cabinets. Make a note to align the lights bases so they all face the same direction. next, Drill small holes for the wires and feed them towards the power block inside the cabinet. connect wires to power block. now, connect power block to transformer and run a wire to your 120-volt receptacle.

Once the bases are installed, just snap the lens covers onto reflector rings. next, attach the switch anywhere you choose (keep in mind its wireless) by screwing it into the wall, preferably at a stud. Finally, screw the cover plate to the switch housing and your cabinet lighting dilemma over! Congratulations!

Dan Rockington is a remodeling veteran having rehabbed many homes. Lighting can be a key element for resale and he recommends the experts at Lofings for all your Sacramento lighting needs.

# posted by 26146 : 1:39 AM  0 comments