Well, here is the New Year and the plans for change. How are yours working out? Let's list the most popular and sometimes not so popular (list important) changes.

1. "Let's lose weight" - Each pound of weight consists of 3500 calories. To lose one pound, you must cut 3500 calories. The average individual of 200 pounds eats roughly 2800-3000 calories a day with no exercise or major activity in their lifestyle. In order to lose two pounds a month, they would need to cut out roughly 250 calories eaten each day for a month. Hint: This requires a notebook, calorie counter and a little time input. Combine that with:

2. "Let's exercise" - No gym membership needed - walk around the neighborhood. Meet your neighbors - if you haven't been active in a while, a check-up with your doctor is a good idea and starting very slow with any major change in your activity area. Let's not shock your body with a major change. Start slow and work up.

3. "Let's eat healthier" - Our world today has changed radically from our grandparent's days. Most nutritionist will tell you to walk the perimeter of the grocery store to eat like they did back then - vegetables, fruits, meat and dairy. The fewer preservatives and chemicals added to your foods, the fewer going into your body for it to have to deal with. My father used to have the saying "If I can't pronounce it, I don't need to eat it." Start with small changes - maybe one a week or one every two weeks. Think where that would put you in a year and you will be comfortable with them by then.

4. "Let's get out of debt" - First make a list of all your debts and the percentage of interest you are paying. There are two theories on how to go from there, some feel pay off the smallest debt first, others say go for the largest percentage rate. The major thing is don't change any extra on these cards - pay cash. List all expenditures for month and plan how to pay for them and when. Declare war on the debt and make a plan of attack for your team versus the enemy.

5. "I'm not going into debt for Christmas like this next year" - Try making a list of all the people you buy for when X amount of dollars allotted. Two ways to accomplish your goal is to keep eyes and ears open for something within that price range during the year and get it for them. Second is to put X dollars back each month to shop with in December. Whatever the total dollar figure is - it needs to be divided by 11 months - not 12. You need the full amount by December. That gives you the full month to shop and you can take advantage of the sales from Thanksgiving forward.

6. "I wish I had more time to spend with _______, she/he has really aged since last Christmas" or "the kids are really growing up, before you know it, they'll be gone." As much as my kids never liked it, we had the rule that at least 5 nights a week, we ate supper together at home. Several of our friends did the same thing with their children. It makes a difference, use paper plates, do fast food - use a slow cooker. It doesn't have to be elaborate - soup and sandwiches, breakfast supper, whatever. Relax and enjoy your family. Try to spend some time with the older members of your family also; invite them to supper. Your children will enjoy listening to some of the antics of their grandparents, etc. during their youth. Have the older ones get out some of their photos. It's nice to know the stories (and names) of the people in those photos.

You can incorporate all 6 of these together fairly easily. Eat healthy while counting calories and exercising. Eat supper with your family and loved ones, then go for a walk around the block. We played the game "Color" while we took a walk. Call out "blue" and see who spots something blue first - it makes you look a little closer at what you see everyday.

As our world constantly changes, decide what YOU want, what you feel is important. Don't look back next year and wish you had done that, be able to say you're proud of the things that you achieved.

These are only my opinions. Concerning any health-related activities, it is always important to check with your physician. Sometimes the best medicine available that we can offer is the feeling you receive from doing the right thing. What's the right thing for your and your family?

One of my Dad's favorite sayings was "I can't change the world, I can only change me." Recently, I heard a version of that - "I can't change people's attitudes - I can't make them do a thing - I can change my attitude about how I feel about it - but I refuse to lower my standards to make it OK." None of these 6 things requires lowering your standards, but it may require changing your attitude, or as my father said - change you. Good luck with your goals.

Occasionally we are asked how long we've been here. Gary worked for Skillerns Drug on Main Street from 1975-1980. In August 1980 we purchased the pharmacy from Mr. Muegge. The pharmacy was located in the back corner of the "Gibson Discount Center" until we moved to our current location in 1986. We have just celebrated 22 years in this location.

_________________________________________________

1.) Get your prescription bottle from your old pharmacy
2.) Give us a call at (972) 264-0268
3.) Tell either Gary or one of our technicians:
          Your name
          Your phone number
          Your old pharmacy name and their phone number
          The prescription number or numbers
          Your doctor's name (and their phone number is great, too)
4.) Any insurance information
5.) We'll handle the rest

You can also just bring in your prescription bottle in to us.