Contribute to Yummiloo, a Fun, Imaginative Children’s TV Show from Veteran Film/TV Creators Traci Paige Johnson (“Blue’s Clues”) and Caroline Baron

If you’re a parent, you probably get frustrated by the deluge of advertising for unhealthy foods and the dearth of quality TV shows, which promote healthy eating.
It’s time to get excited, you conscious, conscientious, health-oriented parents.
Yummiloo, a fun and healthy-eating promoting TV show from veteran TV and film directors/producers Traci Paige Johnson and Caroline Baron, is in the works.
With your help through Kickstarter, your children, your relatives’ kids or your loved one’s youngsters will be able to watch a food adventure animated TV show that will expose preschoolers to healthy eating through irresistible characters, stories and games.
Pretty cool, right? Help make this awesome children’s TV show show a reality. .
I invite you now to contribute to the KickStarter campaign for Yummiloo before the June 9 deadline.
Now, learn more about Yummiloo below.
YummilooWideImagine if Willy Wonka’s Land of Pure Imagination were filled with healthy food instead of candy. Imagine no more!
Traci Paige Johnson, co-creator of the blockbuster franchise Blue’s Clues and the force behind Super Why, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood and Creative Galaxy has created that land for preschoolers everywhere.
IMeet Yummiloo, a food adventure animated TV show that’s designed to expose preschoolers to healthy eating through irresistible characters, stories and games.
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After working for 10 years to create the Blue’s Clues brand, Traci took time off to raise her three children.
She quickly realized that one of her greatest parenting challenges was to teach her kids how to eat and live healthfully.
Childhood obesity was on the rise as was the flow of ads and marketing tactics targeted at kids by companies selling unhealthy food products.
Recognizing the lack of healthy lifestyle messaging in kids media and that media matters, Traci knew what her next project would be.
Enter Caroline Baron, Oscar nominated feature film producer (“Capote,” “Monsoon Wedding”), visionary changemaker (FilmAid) and mother of two.
The two talented women and concerned parents, Traci and Caroline, joined forces to form yummico, a company dedicated to creating multiplatform entertainment for kids and “delicious media” while educating kids on how to make healthy choices.
First, the talented duo began to address the food crisis facing our children today, creating a game app to meet kids where they are today: on their tablets and screens.
Premiering on the iOS platform in 2013, yummico’s Yummiloo Rainbow Power app used entertaining stories and characters as a vehicle to teach preschoolers healthy eating.
A ‘Featured App’ on Apple for nine straight weeks, the Yummilo Rainbow Power app went on to win numerous awards and garnered over 120,000 downloads.
Based the success of the app, they knew that their next project would be to bring the adorable Yum Yums and their message to television.
The premise is simple. Most of us know how strong an impact media makes on our kids. We also know about how obesity is such a problem. And we know that the pervasive marketing of unhealthy foods has had an adverse effect on obesity prevention.
But wouldn’t creating a TV show that celebrates and informs healthy eating habits — eating whole foods, and foods low in saturated fats and trans-fatty acids — tilt the bar the other way?
Just as Blue’s Clue’s revolutionized children’s educational media by engaging kids in virtual conversation, Yummiloo will teach kids that healthy food can be delicious and fun.
This show — which you can help get off the ground now with your Kickstarter contribution — will flip the script on the current advertising strategies, which have made the junk food industry the unofficial poster children for the obesity crisis.
Instead, Yummiloo will always engage kids first as adventure storytelling – with exciting, delicious food as the ever-present backdrop.
As you may already know, a recent Interim World Health Organization Study on Obesity supports this strategy, suggesting that “new scientific evidence highlights the need for a multifaceted approach to the problem, including a focus on the life-course dimension”…which include “reducing the exposure of children to marketing of unhealthy foods and the appropriate marketing of healthy foods in order to achieve the goals of healthier eating norms and behaviours.”
The WHO study also suggests that getting to kids at a young age is the most effective way to change the paradigm. Indeed, “life-course studies suggest that interventions in early life, when biology is most ‘plastic’ and amenable to change, are likely to have the greatest positive sustained effects on health, particularly because they may influence responses to later challenges.”
Join me in helping to get kids excited about eating real food!
StaffPick
To fund the pilot, a Yummiloo Kickstarter campaign was recently launched. The project was immediately given Kickstarter recognition and made a Kickstarter Staff Pick, designated New and Noteworthy, and after a few days, deemed Popular.
As Kickstarter is an all or nothing model, the goal of $72,000 must be met by the time the campaign ends, Tuesday, June 9th at 8 pm EST.
Please join me and make your contribution now to the important Yummiloo Kickstarter campaign.
Please spread the word!
And join these other sites:
Yummico – http://www.yummico.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/getyummico
Twitter: www.twitter.com/getyummico
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/yummico
Donate now to the Kickstarter campaign here.
Please join me in spreading the word about this valuable upcoming TV show and in contributing to make it hit your TV.
Remember, you need to act before June 9.
Now tell your friends and relatives and post notices on Facebook or Twitter buddies.

7 Ways a Social Media Vacation Can Help You

TwitterJoin the Conversation. Are you taking a Social Media Vacation this holiday season? Post your comment here.
Are you taking a Social Media Vacation this holiday season?
Or are you worried that if you take time away from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram or your blog, people will forget about you or you’ll lose valuable momentum?
Lately, I’ve become a fan of taking becoming deliberately and intentionally “anti-social” on the Internet for a while in order to become more social later on, as I shared recently on this Sugar Shock Blog.
FacebookI contend that occasionally, you may need a Social Media Vacation. To begin, you need time off if youo’re facing family or personal emergencies.
But you don’t need to suffer your Dark Night of the Soul to step back from social media.
You need a Social Media Vacation at least twice a year for a few days at a time, I contend.
It’s simply not healthy to be “on” all the time.
For at least of the holiday season, I believe, you need to turn off your social media mind for a few days or even a couple of weeks for the sake of your health, relationships, and state of mind.
Here are 7 benefits of taking Social Media Vacations:
You can spend precious time with loved ones, who you may not see enough.
When you’re absent from social media, you can become more fully present in your life. For instance, you’ll better enjoy your significant other, children, siblings, nieces and nephews, friends, etc. Plus, you’ll have more fun and be more open to new, exciting experiences.
When you’re not distracted by social media and you’re not overly focused on the kinds of and number of responses you get on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, Instagram or your blog, you can get clearer about your long-term goals.
When you’re inactive on social media, youi “fill yourself up” in a way that food can never do. Like a car, you need to refuel and put healing, rejuvenating “gas” into your tank.
By giving yourself what you need — necessary R & R — you can emerge with more energy, passion, and enthusiasm to share valuable information to your fans through social media.
You also can gain valuable perspective, insights, and ideas by turning off your social media brain.
Social Media Vacations, like regular vacations, are good for your health. For instance, when you take vacations — something most Americans don’t take enough — you’ll gain better focus and relieve stress..
Learn more here about how Social Media Breeaks can help you when your heart is breaking.
New to this Sugar Shock Blog?
Bestseller Beyond Sugar Shock BSBlog founder Connie Bennett is a bestselling author of Beyond Sugar Shock and Sugar Shock, which been praised by such acclaimed health gurus and celebrities as “America’s Favorite Doctor,” Dr. Mehmet Oz; as well as “Tthe Father of Motivation” Dr. Wayne Dyer, Dr. Christiane Northrup, Dr. Daniel Amen, Brian Tracy, Bernie Siegel, Marci Shimoff, John Assaraf, JJ Virgin, and Jimmy Moore. Connie’s sour-to-sweet story kicked into gear in 1998, when after reluctantlyly quitting sugar on doctor’s orders, all 44 of her baffling ailments vanished, including brain fog, heart palpitations, mood swings.
Now, 15 years later, the compassionate, self-mocking Connie is acclaimed as The Sweet Freedom Coach, and she has helped thousands of sugar and carb addicts worldwide discover that Life is Sweeter When Sugar Doesn’t Seduce You™. Connie is also an in-demand motivational speaker, a popular blogger (Sugar Shock Blog), a widely published journalist, a certified life coach, certified health coach, and tapping practitioner (now completing EFT training). Subscribe to this Sugar Shock Blog and like Connie on Facebook..
– See more at: http://www.sugarshockblog.com/#sthash.tvCR8MMx.dpuf.
Join the Conversation. Are you taking a Social Media Vacation this holiday season to become more energized, enthusiastic, and refreshed. Post your comment here.

9 Ways Strategic Social Media Breaks Make You More Social

In today’s world you need to be social even if you’re not naturally gregarious or extroverted.
To spread the word about your book, program, product, or professional expertise, you have to be active in social media in a BIG way, using such tools as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, your blog, Pinterest, etc.
But what if you’re feeling decidedly anti-social, because you’re facing a grueling Dark Night of the Soul?
Should you continue to post regularly on Facebook, Twitter, and your blog when you’re enduring an existential crisis like a terminally ill parent or spouse, the breakup of your long-term marriage, or the death of a cherished loved one?
TwitterWhen you’re shaken up by such a trying situation, I contend, you need to take Strategic Social Media Breaks of varying lengths of time—from a few days to a few weeks.
Something interesting happens when you become deliberately anti-social. Ultimately, after you devote time to yourself and your healing, you ultimately become more social.
In other words, staying away from social media paves the way for you to become active again and to return with vitality, peace of mind, and a better frame of mind.
Gab with the Gurus Large LogoFor my part, I discovered the value and need to take Strategic Social Media Breaks soon afterddiscovering that my mother—who lived on the other side of the country—was terminally ill with stage 4 lung cancer.
Over the next two years, I took several Social Media Breaks—during Mom’s final months when we enjoyed a plethora of plays, operas, and farmer’s markets together, and she taught me how to die with grace and spunk.
Three months before Mom died, I became quite active again on social media when my new new book, Beyond Sugar Shock, was published. But soon afterwards, I needed a longer Social Media Break after Mom passed away and I was grief-stricken and depressed.
Again, I needed more time away from social media when I needed to travel around to find a new, peaceful place to live; and when I needed to Take Back My Power and heal from my mother’s unintentional cancer-driven rage, abuse, betrayal and symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome.
If you’re facing a family crisis, I urge you to step back from social media. Here are nine benefits of staying away from the Web for a few days or weeks.
You can spend precious time with a loved one. (This is especially important if your loved one is very ill.).
You can take ample time to go inward and put your attention on nurturing and nourishing yourself.
Focusing on yourself rather than on posts or tweets allows you to emerge more compassionate and committed to giving valuable information to your fans through social media..
When you’re absent from social media, you can become more fully present in your life.
You can reassess your priorities without getting distracted by social media.
When you shift your focus from serving others to preserving yourself, it’s easier to triumph over your stressful, heart-breaking situations.
When you’re not concerned about the responses you’re getting to a comment, quote or photo you posted on Facebook, your blog or Google+, you have more energy to face your profound pain, which, in turn, will help you move faster away from the dark and into the light.
When you’re not sidetracked by social media, you can gain valuable perspective, insights, and the distance you need to rise above your pain.
A Social Media Break “fills you up” so that you can return with more energy, exuberance, and enthusiasm to serving people.
So how do you know you need a Social Media Break? Youi may benefit from time away from social media if you haven’t regained your mojo, zest, or gusto after your Dark Night of the Soul. In other words:
You often feel anxious, depressed, and devastated after the death of a loved one.
You just don’t have much enthusiasm to share great information with your fans. Rather, you need to focus on healing after your challenging time such as the end of your marriage.
You just don’t feel ready to serve your Facebook fans, Twitter followers, blog readers, etc. Before being so visible ot he world, you need to regain your strength.
Anyhow, now that I’m active again in social media, I invite you to become social with me.
Please subscribe to this Sugar Shock Blog; listen to my Gab with the Gurus Shows on BlogTalkRadio; connect with me on Facebook; and follow me on Twitter.
Share Your Feedback: Have you ever taken a Strategic Social Media Break? Why and for how long? How did being anti-social help you to become more social? Let us know your experiences here.

Best Times to Post on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest & Your Blog [Infographic]

When should you post updates on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn or your blog?
That’s the big question we all want answered so we can get lots of eyeballs to grace our fan pages, read and retweet our tweets, connect with us on LinkedIn, right?
Well, Woo Hoo, now, thanks to Fannit for sharing this infographic, you get answers about when to put your social media feet forward.
Bear in mind, though, that it’s a good idea to check out if these times hold true for your audience.
Post at the right time and bump up your online presence to a high degree; post at the wrong time and you’ll fail to reach your audience. – See more at: http://www.fannit.com/social-media-infographic-when-are-the-best-times-to-post/#sthash.Kf92uPRj.dpuf
Fannit’s Isaac Campbel advises: “Post at the right time and bump up your online presence to a high degree; post at the wrong time and you’ll fail to reach your audience.”
Share this with your friends and fans. And tell us about your experiences with different posting times.
Source: Special thanks to Isaac Campbell of Fannit for the great infographic. And special thanks go to Social Buzz Club founder Laura Rubinstein for letting us know about this.

Sugar Addicts: Get Personal Help During The Sugar Freedom & Forgiveness World Tour

Bring me Into Your Living Room, Community Center, Place of Worship or Business to Discover “Secrets to Fast Forward Beyond Sugar Shock to Get Slimmer, Sexier & Sweeter”
All Stops are by Request Only
Sugar_freedom_finalSugar addicts, let’s connect and let me help you in the flesh—not just virtually through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+ or YouTube.
Bring me into your living room, community center, place of business or worship so you’ll discover “Secrets to Fast Forward Beyond Sugar Shock to Get Slimmer, Sexier & Sweeter.”
Drum roll!
I’m thrilled to announce that, in honor of my 15 years sugar-free (mostly) — or “my 15-year-sugar-free-iversary” — in mid-April, I’m going on the road to personally help, encourage, and inspire thousands of sugar and carb addicts as part of The 2013 Sugar Freedom & Forgiveness World Tour.
You now have this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to book me to speak to intimate groups (10 people and up) in your private home, community center, place of worship or business all across the United States and parts of Europe, including San Francisco, Atlanta, New York, Paris, and Sydney.
Please note that all stops are by request only.
Apply here to be included as part of the 2013 Sugar Freedom & Forgiveness World Tour.
During my talks on the tour, you’ll get:
New (never-shared) secrets to easily let go of your sugar habit.
1 super-simple tactic to get started on your way to being sugar-free, slimmer, sexier and sweeter.
Super-cool tools to help you easily get back on track after you’ve “slipped,” “fallen off the wagon” or “blown your diet.”
A way to avoid the single biggest mistake — and easy-to-avoid error — that most people make when trying to quit or limit sweets.
A fun, interactive Adventurcise (adventurous exercise) so you can identify your biggest block to sugar-free success.
Larger groups (50, 200, etc.) of interested women, parents, or teachers also can book my talk, “Secrets to Fast Forward Beyond Sugar Shock to Get Slimmer, Sexier & Sweeter.”
I’m also available to work privately with health or life coaches, as well as other health professionals, to help them help their clients.
This talk is for you if:
You want to shed excess weight to get slimmer, sexier, and sweeter, as well as happier, positive, and more focused
You feel addicted to sugary foods or processed carbs. (You can relate to alcoholics or drug addicts.)
You want to boost your energy.
(Females) You have horrible female challenges during either your time of month (your period) or life (menopause).
(Males) Your libido isn’t what it used to be.
You have hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), prediabetes, or type 2 diabetes.
You suffer from one or more of the following symptoms: mood swings, severe fatigue, headaches, crying spells, difficulty concentrating, depression, forgetfulness, and lightheadedness.
You’ve read one or both of my books, Sugar Shock or Beyond Sugar Shock, but would like personal guidance to Easily Achieve Sugar Freedom.
You want to look and feel younger, turn heads whereever you go, and out-perform people 15 years younger
The 2013 Sugar Freedom & Forgiveness World Tour kicks off mid-April in the Western part of the United States. Apply here, on this Sugar Shock Blog, to be included in this once-in-a-lifetime event.
Please note:
Limited opportunities are available.
You can choose between: A 45-minute talk, a 3-hour Sugar Freedom Play Camp, a 1-hour Smart-Sugar-Sleuth Supermarket Tour, and half-hour private coaching.
First-come, first-served.
Beyond Sugar Shock notebooks and pens will be provided as my gift. (Until they run out.)
Your advance orders of 10 or more copies of Beyond Sugar Shock will be shipped in advance.
The 2013 Sugar Freedom and Forgiveness World Tour is dedicated to my beloved mother, who recently passed away.
To bring me into your home, community or place of worship to discover “Secrets to Fast Forward Beyond Sugar Shock to Get Slimmer, Sexier & Sweeter,” submit your application now.
If you have any questions, submit them here. (They will not be published unless you agree.)
Connie Bennett is a bestselling author (Beyond Sugar Shock and Sugar Shock), an internationally acclaimed transformational speaker, and a sugar-addict-turned Sugar Freedom Coach, who runs the popular Sugar Freedom Now Course.
Connie’s sour-to-sweet story began in 1998 when she was ambushed by a whopping 44 mysterious ailments, including crippling fatigue, unpredictable mood swings, and scary heart palpitations. On doctor’s orders, Connie reluctantly gave up her cherished candies, cookies and other “culprit carbs,” and much to her delight, ALL of her symptoms disappeared. Quickly, people wanted to know Connie’s secrets, and she’s now known as The Sugar Freedom Coach.
Connie’s new book, Beyond Sugar Shock, has been endorsed by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer and many others. Her first book, Sugar Shock, was praised by Dr. Mehmet Oz.
In mid-April, Connie will embark on The Sugar Freedom & Forgiveness World Tour. It is designed to help sugar addicts around the globe easily release their dangerous habit so they can get slimmer, sexier and sweeter — and have fun at the same time.
The tour — which also is intended to help people discover that Life is Sweeter without Sweets™ — will raise awareness about the harmful dangers of over-eating sweets and refined carbs. (The average person over-indulges in these fast-acting non-foods, whether she or he knows it or not.)
The Sugar Freedom & Forgiveness World Tour is commemorating Connie’s 15-year-sugar-free-iversary (fifteen years of mostly shunning those dangerous sweets). It is dedicated to Connie’s recently deceased mother.
Connie has been featured by hundreds of media outlets, including “CBS News Sunday Morning,” “Oprah & Friends Radio,” “The Howard Stern Show,” TIME magazine, Woman’s World, Women’s Health, Delicious Living, Shape magazine, The Chicago Tribune, and Detroit News.
Connie is a certified life coach (Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching or iPEC), certified health coach (Institute for Integrative Nutrition), and accomplished reporter (with a master’s of science degree in journalism from Northwestern University’s respected Medill School of Journalism). She hosts the popular Gab with the Gurus Show, for which she interviews bestselling authors and experts in a variety of fields, from wellness to relationships to social networking.
Get free gifts at Connie’s website, BeyondSugarShock.com, and connect with Connie on Facebook.