Blog Posts by GALTime.com

By GALTime.com College Coach, Suzanne Shaffer

If you haven't purchased the iPhone for your college-bound teen you might want to consider it. More and more colleges are using iPhones to keep students up-to-date on assignments and college-related announcements. One school, Abilene Christian University, is giving students Iphones when they are accepted. It seems they recognize the value of this handheld technology.

If your college-bound teen, or even you, have an iPhone, here are some great apps to help you navigate the college maze courtesy of My College Guide and one of my own:

CollegeApp-FREE

CollegeApp contains 600 of the most selective colleges in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. Users build a version of their ideal college characteristics using an avatar with rotating body parts that correspond to attributes such as sie, location, cost, Greek life and selectivity. After the selections have been made, a list of colleges appears that match these chosen

By GALTime.com Gardening Guru Jeannie Hanson

I've been training as a "Green Gardener" and learning a lot that makes sense when it comes to smart and sassy garden methods for the 21 st century. (Recently, I had the opportunity to create a flower show garden using these principles, but more about that later!) Here are 4 principles that will help you earn your green thumb.

1. Nurture Your Soil

The natural cycle of organic living things is: start, grow, peak, decay, rot, return to the soil. Like it or not, it's how it goes. In the plant kingdom, this means that leaves and all return to nourish the soil. In our enlightened, modern age, we interrupt this process. We rake the leaves, pick up any rotting stuff, get rid of it in the landfill. THEN, if we're groovy with the soil thing, we bring in bags of organics -- chicken, compost, cow poop -- or we compost our own leaves and then dig them into the soil. No matter which method you choose, the thing I'm trying to emphasize here

By GALTime.com Fitness Expert Andrea Metcalf

The average office worker sits for 6 hours a day. That's 65 days of straight sitting a year! It's no wonder back pain is the number one reason for employees to miss work. Sitting shortens the hip flexors, which attach to the front of the lumbar spine. Continuous hours of sitting makes these muscles believe that this shortened state and where they then hold the body is fine. But when you stand up, those muscles are still pulling the pelvis forward and down. This means the back muscles are trying their best to hold the verterbrae in place. Eventually some muscles get a little tired and go into spasm. Hence your back hurts. The best way to prevent or manage back pain is to stretch, strengthen and supplement.

First stretch out the hip flexors by starting in a staggered stance with back foot turned inward and heel pressed to the ground. By squeezing the backside to press the hips forward, you will release the hip flexors and the

By GALTime.com Contributor Tania Reuben, Pure Natural Diva

It's been a long, cold winter. Are you getting ready to tackle your winter dust bunnies? In just a few minutes, you can mix up your own cleaning solutions with ingredients you likely have in your pantry already.

You'll save a lot of money, reduce your toxin exposure and be kinder to the environment.

ALL PURPOSE CLEANER
This recipe will make 4 - 28 oz bottles.

13 1/4 cups of Water (1 hot)
1/4 Cup of Dr. Bronner's Castile Liquid Soap - I like Citrus for the All Purpose Cleaner.
1/4 Cup of Borax
1/4 Cup of Vinegar
Mix the hot water with the borax until it dissolves. Add the remaining water, vinegar & Castile Soap. Use a funnel to pour the solution into the four bottles.

GRANITE CLEANER
This recipe will make 2 - 28 oz bottles.

6 cups of Water
1/3 cup + 1 tsp of Alcohol denatured or regular
1 Tbs of Castile Soap - I use almond.
20 Drops of Essential Oil - Citrus

by GALTime.com Financial Reporter Erica Sandberg

It's time to get your financial house in order. It's not as hard as you think if you follow these Money Rules to Live By. Everybody needs to get their finances in order.

RULE #1

Have a Positive Attitude. You will get absolutely nowhere if you're mired in depression or negativity about your finances. Know that you can get out of debt. Know that you can make more money. Be really committed to this idea that you can do it!

RULE #2

Make Money. Sound obvious? Well, in a way it is. You've got to have an income. Everybody must. This could mean working now or preparing for it in the future. Getting your degree, getting a certificate. Plan for extra income down the road. It could be supplementary. What's truly important is to be creative.

RULE #3

Commit to Independence and Responsibility. These two go hand in hand. Independence means standing on your own two feet. You've got to do that. You

by GALTime.com Staff

The answer appears to be yes, according to a new study. Vitamins and calcium supplements may reduce your risk of breast cancer.

"It is not an immediate effect. You don't take a vitamin today and your breast cancer risk is reduced tomorrow," said Jaime Matta, Ph.D., professor in the Ponce School of Medicine in Puerto Rico. "However, we did see a long-term effect in terms of breast cancer reduction."

The study included 268 women with breast cancer and 457 healthy women. Women were more likely to have breast cancer if they were older, had a family history of the disease, didn't breastfeed and had a lower DNA repair capacity.

The results: vitamin supplements appeared to reduce breast cancer risk by about 30 percent. Calcium supplements by 40 percent. (Researchers did note note that calcium supplements weren't as protective after applying certain controls, but the link between vitamins and breast cancer reduction remained.)

Researchers say early

By: Dr. Stephanie Moore, Internal Medicine and Cardiology, Massachusetts General Hospital

	Warning Sign #1 HEADACHES. Headaches are very important and should never be ignored. If they're irregular headaches, it could be simple like stress or poor posture or more serious like cancer, infection or sometimes just eye or dental related. But they should never be ignored.
	Warning Sign #2 STOMACH PAINS AND BOWEL CHANGES. Bowels are the cleanser of your body. When they change, something is not right. This could indicate diabetes or cancer, so pay attention to your normal habits
	Warning Sign #3 ABNORMAL WEIGHT LOSS. This is one you would probably recognize without me telling you. But this is a classic sign that something's not right with your body. This could be physical or it can be emotional. And

By GALTime.com Style Expert JenéLuciani

Love her or hate her (I, personally love her), Ramona Singer is definitely one of (if not THE) most talked about Housewives on the popular Bravo show The Real Housewives of New York City. But when she's not hanging with the ladies, she's hard at work on her business endeavors, which include a jewelry line for HSN and a skincare line called Tru Renewal.

I got the scoop on Ramona's fabulous AND affordable estate-inspired jewelry line, which is available on HSN.com.

Tell me how you got inspired to start your line… What inspires the designs?

When setting out to do my first collection for HSN more than a year ago, I really wanted to incorporate my love for estate and art deco. I had some really lovely pieces from [my husband] Mario that I've collected and that was my first inspiration. The designs are all pieces that I would hand down to my daughter, Avery. These pieces are timeless and she isn't going to want a trendy piece of