When you sit at your desk all day (the way I do), it’s easy to fall into bad eating habits. To aliveate stress and break up boredom, I often snack: chips, crackers, nuts, and candy get consumed pretty regularly (which is one reason why I work out!).

In this guest blog post, Marci Anderson, Registered Dietitian and Certified Personal Trainer, gives tips for healthy snacking when you’re crunched for time. Take it away, Marci!

As a nutrition therapist I get to talk about one of my very favorite subjects A LOT — food. But for most of you, food is the last thing on your mind when you’re slammed and a deadline is fast approaching.

Let me assure you that feeding your body and your brain is an essential component for increasing productivity, enhancing your mood, and improving your health. And after counseling hundreds of people, I’ve discovered one nutrition principle that is either friend or foe — snacking.

Here are the four most common pitfalls busy professionals make when it comes to snacking, as well as four simple solutions to break the bad habit cycle.

Pitfall #1: Going too long without eating.

When work is busy its easy to push eating to the back burner. I recommend eating every 4-5 hours. This becomes much more manageable when your snack is pre-planned and convenient (see next tip).

Pitfall #2: Falling victim to the nearest vending machine or candy jar.

When ravenous hunger strikes and you don’t have a nutritious snack handy, anything (and everything) will do. Before going to sleep at night, pre-plan a snack or two to bring to work with you and keep it easily accessible.

Pitfall #3: Snacking on carbohydrates solo (i.e. candy, crackers, fruit).

No, carbs are not evil. But they are metabolized very quickly, supplying your body with instant energy. If you feel hungry 30 minutes after eating an apple, now you know why. A snack should reflect a mini-meal with carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.

Carbohydrates supply quick energy and are good for the brain, protein supplies longer lasting energy keeping you fuller longer, and fats trigger hormones which elicit feelings of satiety and satisfaction.

Pitfall #4: Munching to procrastinate.

Yes, eating is a very effective way to avoid a project or assignment. But the consequences are often less than desirable. If you need a distraction try a few jumping jacks, push-ups, or lunges. Taking 60 seconds to increase your heart rate will clear your mind and reduce your levels of stress and anxiety.

Here are 4 super simple snacking solutions that are well-balanced, affordable, and tasty.

1. Cottage cheese with fruit. Do not buy fat-free. I go for Hood Cottage Cheese with pineapple.

2. Whole grain crackers with peanut butter or almond butter. I make mini-sandwiches (PB smeared between two crackers) ahead of time and keep them stored in a zip-loc.

3. Yogurt with slivered almonds. Again, I avoid fat-free yogurt. The 6 oz. Activia yogurt is tasty and just the right size.

4. Larabars. If you like convenience food, this is a MUST. These bars are made with dried fruit, nuts, and spices, minimally processed, and filled with healthy fats and fiber. You can find them at Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Costco, and even Amazon.

For more nutritious tips, check out Marci’s blog at http://www.marcird.com/_blog/blog. You can learn more about Marci by visiting her website — she’s based in Massachusetts and helps people find healthy balance through daily exercise and proper nutrition.

Just returned from my annual “unplugged” vacation where I don’t check my email or phone for at least seven or more days.

Not having to check email for 10+ days is quite liberating, to be honest. I was talking with a friend once about how addicted we’ve all become to email. He said, “I brush my teeth, check email. Eat breakfast, check email. Do some work, check email.”

I realized over vacation that all this email checking means you don’t have time to do lots of other things. In fact, I made a list of all the things I used to do before the advent of email and computers. The result? Scary.

While on vacation, I took naps, read books, went kayaking with my son on the Charles River, toured the Adams Family home in Quincy, and outfitted my son for the upcoming school year. We also indulged in our secret pleasure: watching all the episodes of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

In short, it was a fabulous and relaxing vacation — and now I’m ready to get back to work — but maybe not check email 20 hundred times a day.

How long have you gone without checking email? And, how did you overcome the initial anxiety?

Each year at this time, the gym fills up with people crowding the machines, walking the track, and taking aerobic or spin classes. It’s really hard to find a space in the parking lot, too.

It’s as if people wake up on January 1 and say, “Ok, THIS YEAR I’m going to lose weight, exercise more, and eat right.”

By mid-March, all is quiet again as these people drop off the wagon and return to their normal habits.

Instead of making the same tired resolution that gets you nowhere, commit instead to reclaiming your work-life balance.

You can take the first step toward reclaiming your balance by attending my exclusive teleclass, “Avoiding Burnout: Reclaim Your Work-Life Balance,” with master certified coach Sharon Teitelbaum.

In just one hour, Sharon will share strategies you can put to use immediately. How do I know her advice works? I’ve been working with her for the past year to reclaim my own work-life balance.

Last year at this time I was exhausted, burned out, and unhappy. I used to joke that I was so busy I was literally chained to my desk, but it really wasn’t a laughing matter.

Then I found Sharon Teitelbaum and over the ensuing months she helped me step off the treadmill to reclaim my balance, which included working fewer hours. But more important, she helped me define what I really want from my business and from life.

If you’re working too many hours, feeling burned out or exhausted, and have lost your passion for work, then this class is for you. In my opinion, no one is more qualified than Sharon for helping you get your life back.

Space is already filling up (when people hear about the class the typical response is, “OMG! I need this class.”).

Reserve your space today.

Teleclass Details

Day: Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Time: 2:00 to 3:00 PM Eastern; 11:00 AM Pacific

Cost: $39

I opened a Facebook account a few months ago — mostly because I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

I never really got into it, however. I’m too busy, and really, if you want my opinion, Facebook is meant for younger people who seem to live their lives online.

I’ve also worked very hard this last year to get OFF the computer and out into the real world. I’m much better for it, too. I’ve lost weight, I’ve reduced my stress level, and I’ve actually made some real friends.

I also found Facebook very strange. For the uninitiated, Facebook has “feeds.” Any time you do some sort of action, such as adding a friend to your list or updating your profile, Facebook sends out a “feed” to all your friends letting them know you’ve taken this action.

Through Facebook, you can let all your friends know what you’re doing at any given time.

I found myself asking, why would anyone want to know what I’m doing – and why do I want to know what other people are doing? That’s not networking — that’s TMI (too much information).

Facebook recently unveiled its new advertising program. Basically, actions you take outside of Facebook can now be brought into Facebook. For example, if you rent a movie from Blockbuster online, you can let all your Facebook friends know which movie you rented.

You can find a ton of posts about the new program — here are just a few (chosen from my biased perspective):

Jeffrey Eisenberg, of Grokdotcom, has a great post explaining the program’s “opt-out” policy — and why you should be scared. Very scared.

Gigaom lists the companies which have partnered with Facebook.

And MoveOn has “slammed Facebook” for its controversial advertising program, according to a news article at CIO Today. 

Quite frankly, this new program scares me to death. I don’t want people knowing what I’m doing in my offtime, and I certainly don’t want companies trading that level of information about me — in real time.

So I deactivated my account.

According to Michelle Manafy, in her eContent “Edit This” column, my unease, given my age, is par for the course. Young content users, she writes, 

. . . willingly trade privacy for information, a cost too dear for many from previous generations. . . . Today, people increasingly live lives in the public eye — from exposing their seamy underbellies on talk shows or reality TV to letting it all hang out on MySpace or YouTube. Twenty-somethings share it all — and bare it all — online, so without a doubt, they will be willing to ante up a good amount of personal information to keep content freely flowing.

What do you think? Are you a Facebook addict? Do you have a Facebook account? What do you think about their new advertising policy? Does it bother you? Why or why not?

Despite having to sift through 3,000 spam emails and piles of junk direct mail, it’s good to be home.

The one thing I love about vacation is that once you start to relax and enjoy it, you realize how very necessary time off really is.

When I take time off, I purposely do not bring a pen or paper. I don’t let myself write anything, except perhaps my name on charge card receipts — for the entire time.

This forces me to stop thinking about work: if I can’t write about it, I don’t need to think about it.

I’m then able to fully relax — and enjoy blissful hours poolside reading and spending time with my family. More important, I come home feeling re-energized.

(The photograph isn’t the a photo of where I vacationed, but it’s close enough. From my hotel room, I could see the pool, palm trees, and lots of gorgeous blue sky. I had a wonderful vacation. I can’t wait for the next one.)

Today’s Wall Street Journal has an article about how people are finding it harder and harder to take the traditional week or more off in August.

I’m happy to report I am taking a week plus off starting August 17, and I will NOT be checking email or voice mail. In fact, I won’t be near a computer!

I have to admit that I feel somewhat nervous about taking more than a week off — and according to the WSJ article, I’m not the only one who feels this way. Many people find it so hard to take time off, they now do long weekends — with the BlackBerry — instead.

However, work/life balance is something I’ve been working on for the last eight months, and as we all know, downtime is important — especially for copywriters. So I’m taking it, with the intent of coming back totally recharged and ready for action.

On another note, if you need some good vacation reading, do check out The President’s Secret IMs by Danielle Crittenden. She does a superb job of capturing the voices of Bush, Clinton, Condi, et al — all written in IM jargon. Hilarious! I laughed so much, I had tears streaming down my face.

So TTFN — and I’ll catch up with you all later in the month.

My gym is having a special “Body Fat Challenge” promotion for June. Normally, it costs $250 for ten sessions to work with a personal trainer.

For June, you can get four sessions for $99. A trainer will weigh you and take your measurements — and tell you how much body fat you have (ugh!).

Whoever loses the most body fat by the end of June wins.

So I signed up, and in going through the process, (re)learned a few things about marketing:

1. Use the marketing tactics that work best for your business.

To promote the challenge, the gym owners posted flyers all over the gym, in the locker rooms, etc — in other words, where gym patrons would see them.

I suppose they could have used direct mail, but I don’t think it would have been as effective. I usually throw away DM from the gym.

I pay attention to flyers stuck on locker room walls, though.

I don’t think a blog would have worked either.

2. Upsell people with products and services they want at a good price point.

Based on anecdotal evidence, quite a few people want to work with a personal trainer, but the $250 price tag seems to be a deterrent.

But almost everyone can pay $99 — and a lot of people did. (I know because we all stand around in step class comparing notes on our progress.)

3. Have good sales people who can close the deal.

I wasn’t going to sign up for the challenge due to all the typical excuses. But my step instructor, Kim, who is also one of the personal trainers, encouraged me to do it.

Once I bought the four sessions for $99, she said, “If you really want to make this work, you need to sign up with someone to help you with your diet.”

Basically, she upsold me for an additional four sessions at $99 for meal and nutrition planning. Instead of selling food plans, the gym is promoting this new gadget called the Body Bugg. You strap it to your arm and it keeps track of the calories you burn. It’s pretty cool.

I’m now telling everyone how much weight I’ve lost and how easy it’s been — further promoting the challenge, the training, and the Body Bugg.

(I’m also getting my butt kicked in training – I feel like I’m in army boot camp. I love it. I’ve already told Kim I’ll be training with her for the remainder of summer.)

There’s a lot of talk about marketing these days. Interrupt marketing, traditional marketing, new rules of marketing, DM vs. blogs, yada, yada, yada.

This is not say I don’t see any value in blogs and podcasts. I do. But marketers shouldn’t throw traditional marketing methods out the window — especially if they work.

The bottom line for any business is to determine which marketing tactics work best for you and your customers/prospects and — to quote Bob Bly — make the cash registers ring. If flyers on the locker room walls do it, then go for it.

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree?

One thing I’ve been working on for months now is increasing the amount of exercise I get.

I used to be very dedicated about running 4 – 5 times a week. But with two knee surgeries, a bad back, and just plain old too much work, my commitment to exercise waned.

I’ve found, though, that lack of regular exercise makes me very cranky. Sitting at the computer all day is definitely not healthy.

So I’m at the gym these days lifting weights and crunching my abs. As I’ve alredy learned, regular exercise not only keeps me healthy, it makes me feel more energetic, which in turn leads to better work for my clients.

Do you make it a point to exercise? Have you found it makes you a happier, more productive consultant/copywriter?

Last month, I asked the readers of my MarCom Writer newsletter to take a survey. One question I asked my subscribers was to rate the challenges they face on a regular basis.

Over 68% of respondents stated “lack of resources — time, budget, staff” as their number one challenge.

This blew the other responses out of the water by over 50%!

I can’t help with the lack of budget or staff, but I can help with the time issue.

I know, because it’s my issue, too. Like many professionals, I juggle family responsibilities, running a business, two dogs, and volunteer activities. I’ve been on overwhelm for a long time.

That is, until I discovered the book, “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity” by David Allen.

If you’re already a David Allen fan, pat yourself on the back. For those of you who missed the book, read on.

I’ve tried reading other productivity and time management books, especially those geared toward writers. However, their main drawback is that they tell you how to write more.

They don’t tell you how to maintain your sanity when all hell is breaking loose, how to work more productively in fewer hours, or how to integrate your work and personal life.

Allen’s book delivers that secret sauce in spades.

Rather than give simple platitudes for organizing your life, Allen addresses how we process information as knowledge workers.

He understands that we have overflowing email inboxes, desks piled high with paper and unread magazines, stuffed file folders, phones ringing incessantly, and constant interruptions — oh, and the dog is sick, your husband missed his plane and won’t be home tonight, and your child needs schlepping to baseball practice.

I read his book because I saw myself on every page. It also helped that I read it in small doses each day; I started making changes only after I had read it through once.

What I like best about this book is that Allen gives you strategies for keeping track of everything in your life — whether it’s your upcoming family vacation or the budget meeting in two weeks.

His main message is that you must get information out of your head and into a system, where you can track action items.

Suffice to say, his book has changed how I work in the following ways:

1. My office is completely free of junk!

Allen advocates cleaning out your office — from bookshelves to your email inbox. I carted books to the library “Friends” sale, threw away bags of old stuff, and whittled my email inbox from 150+ messages down to 10.

Now that I have a clean office and a desk I can actually see, I’ve experienced newfound energy. I feel excited about my work again and bounce into my office every morning ready to start my day. It’s a wonderful feeling.

2. I can find information.

Allen recommends you buy a label maker and label all your project folders (and whatever else needs labeling). I was dubious, but Jessica Albon, another Allen fan, said, “Do it. You’ll love it.” She is absolutely right.

Before reading Allen’s book, I would constantly “lose” things because I had no real system for dealing with “pending” items.

After reading Allen’s book, I went through exactly how I work and what information I need every day. I now have neatly arranged file drawers with every project, both personal and professional, in labeled file folders, arranged alphabetically.

What a difference! I can’t believe how much time I’ve saved implementing this system.

(And for you Allen fans — I love my 43 files! How did I live without those?)

3. I can now see what needs to be done.

The best part of Allen’s system, however, is that I can see things from the 30,000 foot perspective. This last week, for example, I finally implemented a process I’ve had on my mental “to-do” list for four years.

Since I had my notes and ideas readily at hand (in a nicely labeled file folder which I found in less than a second in my file drawer), I implemented the system in under an hour. The time spent developing it will save me countless hours andd frustration in the future — plus help me grow my business.

If you’re on overwhelm, I highly recommend you read Allen’s book. Take your time and really absorb what he’s telling you. Then, go buy that labeler and some fresh file folders, and start making changes.

His system really works!

If you’re already an Allen fan, post your your comments about how his systems have changed your life!

(For the record, this article is also the main article for the June issue of my newsletter. I’ve also asked my readers to post their thoughts as well.)

My client, Steven Haines, President of Sequent Learning Networks, posted an article on his site last year titled, “Guerilla Product Management: 17 Golden Rules for Achieving Success on the Job.”

I recently found it while doing research for their newsletter I now write. You can find the entire article here, but you’ll have to submit your email address for it.

Although Steven’s advice is geared toward product managers, anyone can read it and learn from it. So, because I don’t make New Year’s resolutions (who wants to give up mocha almond fudge ice-cream in order to lose a few pounds anyway?), I thought I’d post a few of his “golden rules” here — but edited for B2B marcom types who want to write better copy.

Rule 5 — Do research — all the time. The world is your lab. Make time to sit in the call center and listen to how orders and complaints are handled. Watch customers use your products. Read industry publications. Look at one competitor’s Website every week to see what they’re doing. Understanding your market is one of the most important skill sets you can cultivate.

Rule 7 — Get a thick skin. When you get negative feedback on your copy, instead of getting defensive, ask what idea the person is trying to communicate and why the copy isn’t working.

Rule 9 — Show your enthusiasm all day long — for your job and for your products. I live by David Ogilvy’s creed: “There are no boring products, only boring writers.”

Rule 12 — Take a hike. Get out of your office. Go to the gym. Write a poem. Paint a picture. Do yoga. As writers, we need serious downtime in order to recharge. Make the time to unwind, no matter how busy you are.

Rule 17 — Build a community. Whether you work for a company or on your own, build a community of people who support you, challenge you, and feed you new ideas. We like to think writing is done in isolation, but it’s not. Without new ideas — and the people to share them with – writers and marketers are dead meat.

 

Happy New Year, everyone!