Owning and working on a farm with animals is an occupation that usually involves many safety hazards. Working with animals and livestock generally involves being subject to bruises, scratches or bites, but can also be downright dangerous. Not only do the animals themselves pose a risk to employee safety, but the work environment itself can be very dangerous. Take a good look around your facilities, if you’ve been conscientious about safety, you’ve got good, solid fences, strong doors and your buildings are well maintained. Your livestock equipment should be set away properly and nothing should be kicking around.

Most farm owners tend to think of safety only with machinery and wouldn’t consider smaller livestock equipment as being a safety risk, but unfortunately accidents can happen because of things not being in their proper place. Having livestock equipment such as brooms, rakes and pitchforks leaning against the wall instead of in a rack is an example of a safety risk. Loose tools and livestock equipment can be trip hazards and sometimes a fall can be just as dangerous as getting kicked by an animal.

There are all sorts of gadgets to help clean up your shed or barn, but even small, creative ways can get tools and accessories out of the working path. For example, if you own a stable, you’ll know that many people just leave their lunge whips leaning against a wall. People can trip on the long accessory, or worse the whip could fall over near a nervous horse and noise can be dangerous. Clean up these pieces of livestock equipment. Attach a section of PVC pipe to a wall and you’ve got a handy holder for those lunge whips.

Find homes for other loose items as well. Use buckets and pails to store smaller items, and build or buy racks for larger things. Go for a walk on your own facilities and sweep your eyes around to try to spot everything that’s on the ground. Chances are, the item could find a better, safer home on a shelf or in a cabinet. Livestock equipment that can tangle, such as halters, chains, ropes or leather straps, should be sorted and hung on hooks. Anything with a blade, tine or sharp edge definitely needs to be secured on a wall or put away on a shelf.

Minimizing risks in an already accident prone occupation is a good way to make sure that when accidents on your farm happen, they didn’t occur because someone was careless or because something wasn’t put away. There’s no reason for livestock equipment to be the cause of someone receiving a bad cut or getting bumped on the head. Once you’ve cleaned up the livestock equipment kicking around, your facility won’t only be safer, it will look better as well and everyone working there will want to help pitch in to keep that tidy look all the time.

There are lots and lots of people who will not eat factory farmed meat, but I am one of the only people I know who will not eat farmed fish. It all goes back to one time when I was a kid. We went to one of those fish farms meant for private fishers. Basically, there are two kinds of fish farming out there. There is the fish farm industry which produces most of the processed seafood that you eat in your daily life. Fish sticks, fish and chips, and even the baked salmon you order at your local seafood chain probably come from fish farms. These places are supposed to be pretty sterile, but in reality they are massively crowded. The fish are stuffed into small pond of water, crawling around on top of each other amidst heavy pollution. How do I know? Because I visited the second kind of fish farm as a kid.

Your typical aquaculture farm isn’t accessible to the community, but many of these fish farms supply salmon, catfish, trout and other freshwater creatures to farm fishing lakes. Basically, these are places where dads who don’t know how to fish can take their kids to catch their own fish. At this kind of fish farm, the lakes are literally jumping with them. The one we went to had hundreds upon hundreds of catfish, all bounding for the bait in a feeding frenzy. There is no challenge to catching something at a fish farm. There’s no sport to it at all. You drop a worm in the water and three fish bite for it. They are probably just committing suicide to get away from the crowded conditions.

The water was murky, the fish was disgusting and the whole experience at that fish farm was so unpleasant that I never wanted to eat fish again. A few years later I would eat ocean fish, but it was years before I would touched a freshwater fish. To this very day, I won’t eat anything from the sea unless I know that it really is from the sea. Farm raised fish is right out, no matter how clean and sanitary the conditions are supposed to be. I figured that if fish farms are that disgusting when they invite visitors in, the ones that you don’t get to see are probably that much worse. The idea makes me feel queasy and sick to my stomach.

Water is essential for our bodies. It is important that we keep hydrated to keep our bodies healthy. It is recommended that we drink so much water a day to give our bodies exactly what they need. Water helps to clear our skin and to keep it looking great. We need at minimum eight cups of water a day.  Tap water just doesn’t taste that great sometimes. It’s not at the right temperature or taste that we want it at. There are lots of bottled water brands to help solve this problem and to help everyone find a brand that they like.

Some people don’t like the taste of water, since they find it so bland. They know that they need to drink it, but it just doesn’t seem appealing. Aquafina is one of the bottled water brands that eliminate this problem. They have come out with flavored water that only has 5 calories per bottle. Now people can enjoy the great taste of juice with the benefits of healthy water. They are getting the best of both worlds. Aquafina also put out carbonated flavored water to appeal to those who love soda, but still want to be healthy. They have a line of vitamin water too to help keep the world hydrated and healthy. Even if you dread the thought of drinking water, you’ll find one you like if you choose Aquafina.

The choices don’t stop there though. Some of the popular ones are Disani, Evian, Poland Springs and Perrier. Whatever your taste, there are bottled water brands to fit you. They are fun to try out the different tastes of filtering and purifying so you can see which one feels the purest to you.

Instead of picking up a cola to buy, you are better off getting a bottle of flavored water or some other sort of bottled water brands. When you are buying lunch consider saving some unwanted calories from entering your body by washing your meal down with water. Then you can carry around what you didn’t finish at lunch so you can quench your thirst later on in the day. Soda gets flat and tastes unappealing after a while, but water will always be refreshing.

There are so many choices it is tough to see why people still drink soda when it is so bad for them. These new flavors of water with carbonation and vitamins make it seem like the best choice. Just switching from soda to bottled water can save thousands of calories a year and can result in lots of weight loss. There simply is no excuse to not drink water each and every day.

Walk into any running shoe store and the products will practically jump off the wall. Subtlety of design has not been emphasized in the marketing of running shoes. The more bumps, ridges, racing stripes, vents, stitches and colors that gym shoes have, the better. Although not all running shoes have horrible, garish designs, generally the more expensive ones do. If you want to buy the top rated Nike shoes to look like the coolest kid in school, you have to be willing to shell out a good bit of dough. The quality of athletic shoes is not determined by their flash or their price. If you are willing to look a little bit deeper, you will find the shoes that are perfect for you.

Running shoes themselves are a pretty recent development. When I was growing up, gym shoes were gym shoes. There was not all that much variety and the different brands all went through the same trends together. When one shoe company started to add more padding to help people avoid injuries, the other ones all followed suit. The shoes everyone wore back then were probably the ancestors of what people call “cross training shoes”. They were designed to be used in a lot of different sports and activities.

I can still remember the first time I got to wear a pair of actual running shoes. You see, I was an all around jock, but I only owned a couple different pairs of tennis shoes. I had my soccer cleats for playing soccer and football, and my gym shoes for basketball and track. Those running shoes were something different. They were lighter, springier and more flexible than anything I had had the chance to wear before. I felt faster on my feet from the very first time that I put them on. They soon became my very favorite pair of shoes in the world!

I know that things have advanced in some ways since then. First of all, there are far better synthetic materials available.  Giving the companies the ability to make high-tech running shoes which are lighter and more flexible than ever before. Even so, it seems like something has been lost. Everything is so completely geared towards marketing that you can’t help but think that the jogging shoes aren’t nearly as well made as they would be if they weren’t so completely tailored towards looks.

It is amazing to me how things have changed in our society. When I was growing up there was no such thing as bottled drinking water. If you were going to purchase something to drink the largest selection was soda. The main decision was to purchase it in a returnable bottle or can. Now the stores are filled with a variety of bottled drinking water in many flavors.

There are many reasons why people started buying bottled drinking water. Some people do not like the taste of treated city water that comes out of their taps. There have also been many studies that caution people that the drinking water supplies in certain areas may be contaminated. People are also more aware that they should drink more water throughout the day. Some studies indicate that you should consume a minimum of eight glasses a day. In the past when you would see someone drinking this amount of water the assumption was made that they were dieting. Most diets included the eight glasses of water in their regiments long before it became popular with the general public. I do think that people are going a bit over board with the bottled drinking water.

Next time you are out in public notice how many people are carrying bottled drinking water with them. It is everywhere. At the work setting most people carry a bottle of water into meetings with them. They also have a bottle of water on their desks and in their cars. Many people in our office refill their water bottle throughout the day from the large bottled drinking water that we have in the company break room. For some people it seems that the bottle of water is a security blanket.

Walking down a side walk or in the mall the majority of people are carrying a water bottle. When I go for walks around the neighborhood I see other walkers toting a water bottle with them. Recently we had a family gathering and my sister-in-law carried bottled drinking water around with her throughout the day. As they were driving out of the driveway she had to run back to our house to retrieve her bottle. She asked if it was safe to refill it from our tap water. I explained that we had safe drinking water so she filled her bottle for the ride home, which is only a fifteen minute drive. I told my husband that I feel that our society is addicted to carrying around water bottles. It makes me wonder how many forms of bacteria are growing in the bottles that people keep refilling.

It is amazing to me how much weather can affect some people. I live in Minnesota. Our weather is a topic of conversation daily. In the winter we have severe snow storms and sub-zero temperatures. The road conditions and bitter cold is life threatening. Often times the weather portion of the news, is the news for a particular day. In the summer the high temperatures along with the humidity creates heat indexes in the triple digits. Most people are used to our extremes and realize that no matter what you plan or when you plan it you had better have a back up in case of bad weather.

This winter I started a job working with disabled individuals in an apartment complex. The week I started the temperatures reached a day time high of 20 degrees below zero. I went to meet several of the residents that day. When one woman told me to come in I felt like I had just walked back outside. She had two air conditioner units running on high speed. She told me she had been having hot flashes, so she borrowed her neighbor’s air conditioner units out of storage. She said the landlord took hers because she turned it up too high in the fall. The heat was pouring out of the registers because she kept the thermostat set at 80. She said the higher heat made the air conditioner units run more.

We discussed her hot flashes and some natural and herbal remedies that she could try. I explained that her utility bill would be extremely high if she kept running the heat and the air conditioner units on high. She agreed to return the units to storage and to turn the thermostat down.  The next week I went to see her and again it was freezing in the apartment. She had followed through in getting rid of the air conditioner units, but this time she had the windows opened wide to the sub zero temperatures. She was sitting wrapped in a blanket and in her underwear. She said when she got hot she threw off the blanket. She shared that she has always enjoyed wrapping up in a blanket and the only way she could do this is if it was freezing cold in the room.

I have a feeling that I am going to have a very interesting summer with this client. I cannot imagine how she is going to handle the heat and humidity of July and August. She would be a great person to send to the North Pole to do research.

As the daughter of the queen of self help books, I am, then, the princess of pop psychology.  I have read as many if not more self help books as my mom.  Back in the day, we had therapy but we either didn’t have money for it or we didn’t want to deal with the stigma that small town mentalities would inevitably put on one who had to visit the “nuthouse” or get their head “shrunk”.  The next best thing, for first my mom and then, by proxy, for me, was to read the latest self help books.

The first one I recall in relation to my brilliant and avid reader mother was Gail Sheehy’s PASSAGES, a brilliant survey of all of the stages of life and the instrumental changes each person at each stage undergoes.  The last one I remember my mother sharing with me was one of the many self help books I needed, unfortunately, despite my weekly therapy sessions was THE COURAGE TO HEAL.  A fat ass book of a size sufficient to using it as a doorstop and it’s accompanying workbook.

In between the self help books Mom would pass on to me or I would snatch up as soon as she finished reading them, were at least 1,500 of books on love, sexuality, spirituality, religion and the paranormal.  There was the life saving book by Melody Beatty called CODEPENDENT NO MORE; the brilliant compilations by Thomas Moore, such as SOUL MATES and CARE of the SOUL: A GUIDE to CULTIVATING DEPTH and SACREDNESS in EVERYDAY LIFE and Diane Ackerman, with her books A NATURAL HISTORY of the SENSES and A NATURAL HISTORY of LOVE; Shakti Gawain’s LIVING IN THE LIGHT: A GUIDE to PERSONAL and PLANETARY TRANSFORMATION; James Redfield’s THE CELESTINE PROPHECY and THE TENTH INSIGHT; David Viscott’s HOW to LIVE with ANOTHER PERSON; and the stunning imperative read, NECESSARY LOSSES, by Judith Viorst.

There are hundreds more self help books I could list here, but you will have to find for yourself the ones that appeal to and work best for you and your situation.  According to one psychologist, it is better to use self help books in moderation and to do so in conjunction with therapeutic treatment.  And since today we can thank the self help master above for head shrinkers and guardians of nutbags, that we can do.

Many industries in the United States have relatively good safety records, but they are not perfect. Behavioral safety is an approach that has been developed to insure that employees incorporate safe practices naturally into their daily routines. The goal is to improve the statistics further.

An average worker can be employed for 25 years without being involved in any accidents at work. The individual does not suffer any injuries or lose time at work because of the incident. This is a great track record across the board, but it leads to a significant problem about behavioral safety at the work site.

Workers are complacent about safety because it is only an issue when they attend the annual mandatory OSHA meeting the company organizes every year. An employee knows that he can cut a few corners without getting hurt or causing an accident in the workplace.  Since the number of accidents is low, compliance is low as well. Behavioral safety looks to having employees reconsider compliance to OSHA rules and regulations without having to think about the proper procedures overtly.

Employees have enough to think about on the job. Behavioral safety trains the workers to incorporate safe practices into their everyday routines without consciously thinking about it. The actual practices are reviewed and reorganized through the behavioral safety program. The process breaks the proper procedure into small steps and these steps are used to retrain the employees.

Just like any behavior based approach, behavioral safety focuses on the outcome. The outcome driven approach helps employees recognize the benefits of the training while introducing a step-by-step approach to daily procedures. The behavioral safety approach looks to empowering the workers by putting safety procedures into their own hands. They are given the information and they are provided with viable options for completing duties in the safest manner possible.

The general concept behind behavioral safety is cause and effect training. There is a consequence to each action. The consequence is clear and immediate. Feedback is crucial in this kind of process and it is used to reinforce the desired behavior exhibited by the employees.

Once a company determines it’s current safety practices it can compile the information for a behavioral safety organization that will use the information to determine an approach that will benefit the business as well as the employees.  Trainings vary according to the type of industry and the size of the company. The behavioral safety organization follows up on the company’s progress in a few weeks.

If you want to get fit, maybe you should try out a Bowflex strength training workout. Bowflex guarantees that you can have the body you want in six weeks, by working out only twenty minutes a day three times a week. Few companies can make this type of guarantee, not even your gym! The Bowflex workout uses strength training to build muscle that will increase your metabolism, help you to burn more calories and give you more energy. Bowflex will help you reshape your body to lose the fat by gaining more fat burning muscle. Bowflex guarantees it!

Bowflex has many different models from which to choose.  Just go to www.bowflex.com to help you decide which machine is the right one for you. One of the most versatile models, called the Versatrainer, is designed for people with limited mobility or physical ability. It is used by physical rehabilitation centers and hospitals in helping patients to gain strength, as well as provide them with a cardio workout. Through Bowflex, you can also purchase it for home use.

In addition to this model, Bowflex has six other models available, the Motivator, the Sport, the Xtreme, the Xtreme 2, the Ultimate XTLU, and the Ultimate 2, all ranging from least to most expensive respectively. The Bowflex limited warranty ranges from two to twelve years on the machine itself and also includes a no-time-limit warranty on the Bowflex Power Rods. If by chance you wear them out, Bowflex will replace them free of charge.

If after six weeks, you have not met your fitness goal, simply contact Bowflex for a refund certificate, which you return with the Bowflex in it’s original condition in the original packaging. Bowflex will refund your purchase price less shipping and handling. If you want to have the convenience of having a home gym but with only one piece of equipment, then you should give Bowflex a try.

You can check out all the different machines Bowflex offers on their website, www.bowflex.com. Convenient payment plans are also available, with monthly payment plans ranging from $13-$34 per month for up to twelve months. Additional financing information is available on the website. Financing can be applied for directly online and operates basically like a credit card. It couldn’t be any easier to get fit and you don’t need to shell out a ton of money at once. You will feel better and look better in no time!

One of the most challenging issues that parents of autistic children face is the child’s inability to control his behavior. This challenge is not easily overcome because many autistic individuals have major communication deficits that prevent them from communicating why they are having a tantrum or why they are engaging in aggressive actions. A behavior chart is useful in helping caretakers determine the reason for the child’s tantrums and aggressions.

When I worked as an autism therapist, I used a behavior chart known as an ABC outline. This is an extremely valuable tool for determining the causes of behavior and it may be used to determine possible interventions that can be used to redirect the negative actions like tantrums and aggression.

ABC stands for antecedent, behavior and consequence. This behavior chart simply collects data on these three aspects of the child’s target behavior. Once the child demonstrated unwanted actions like tantrums and aggression, the therapist or caregiver collects objective information about the event. After a number of instances, the data on the behavior chart is evaluated and a course of action is determined by the autistic child’s treatment team.

The ABC behavior chart first section involves the antecedent to the child’s behavior. The antecedent is simply what happens immediately before the behavior occurs. This does not involve any subjective interpretation of the behavior. For example, instead of writing, “The child was hungry,” the data collector would write, “The child was waiting for dinner.” This is all that the antecedent involves. The child was waiting for his meal.

The next data that is collected on the behavior chart is the behavior. It is important to remember that this needs to be an action. What did the child do? For example, instead of writing, “The child became angry,” the data collector would write, “The child threw his silverware and cried and screamed.” The action is the behavior and it describes exactly what happened, not the data collector’s interpretation of the child’s emotions.

The final part of the behavior chart includes the consequence of the child’s behavior. The consequence is what happens immediately after the behavior. It is essential to keep this section objective as well. Sometimes a child will engage in a negative behavior in order to get a certain response. For example, a child is in a classroom and his teacher is talking with his parents. He throws books all over the floor and his mother and teacher run over and say, “What’s wrong?”

In the last example, the behavior chart would clue the treatment team in on the child’s negative behavior because it provides clues to the cause. The child wanted attention and the consequence was that he got the teacher’s and the mother’s undivided attention. But, the behavior chart has to be consistent. The attention seeking behavior has to be demonstrated a number of times before any conclusions are made.

A behavior chart is a valuable tool for helping a treatment team to determine which interventions to use when dealing with difficult behavior. The behavior chart may also be used for normal children who have trouble controlling their behavior as well. The chart usually takes weeks or even months to clue caretakers in on the causes of negative behavior, but it is often worth the wait.