Tutorial – How to create content on Toluna

Ooh! This should be fun! 🙂

Toluna

The Toluna community offers our members a chance to create their own content and get feedback from our millions of members. Our content creation platform allows our members to create Polls, Topics, Thumb Its and Battles by clicking on the content type you would like to create.

You can earn 100, 500 or 1000 points for each piece of content you create.

Once you have mastered how to create content, click here to learn how you can earn points for your creations.

To create content, simply follow one of these 2 steps:

• Simply click on the button on the top right corner of the page… or
• On the homepage, click in the “Ask something” section to open the create widget and start creating 

What is the definition of each content type?

A Poll is a single question with multiple options.

• Do you think global warming is a short term threat…

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If I Am Being Honest

I has been 5 months since I have really taken the time to inventory things in my like. Let me begin by mentioning that I am a child of God, a supportive wife, a substitute teacher, and cashier. I also attend college online at Western Governors, and manage two Good Morning Girl’s Bible study groups. I’ve been slacking in almost every area that IS NOT work. Now, I am going to share with you my list of excuses but in honor of full-disclosure since I was going to start this post by saying, “Now this isn’t a list of excuses,” If I am going to be honest, it IS a list of excuses for myself. First, “I’ve been busy.” Yes, this is the truth but I find time to sit on Facebook, watch numerous episodes of a stupid TV show I have watched 1,000+ times on Netflix. Secondly, maybe I was wrong about this being my calling. It’s been hard. I doesn’t come as easy as I thought. If I am this busy, maybe I’ve taken on too much. Nope. I am getting tired of thinking that I just can’t do all of this. Honestly, I can’t do it all on my own. What was on of the first things I mentioned above about myself? “I am a child of God.” Yet, here I sit feeling overwhelmed by things of this world, and being unsure about WHERE to start to feel that I’ve got a good grasp on everything. Honestly, I don’t. The miraculous thing is that I don’t need too! This last week, God has been asking, “Natalie, when are you going to learn that I’ve got your back. I have your very existence under my control. You do not have to do it all on your own. Give me the reigns, and you will have all the energy you need and more.” Honestly, what I should have been saying these last several months is that, God I don’t have this. I need your strength to do what you are asking of me. He hasn’t heard from be because I am busy trying to do everything on my own, and failing. I get frustrated and dig in even more. I am so sad to admit that God has not been my priority these past several months. I have been working like crazy trying to make the almighty dollar to pay bills. We always have enough, and I don’t need to stress. My Good Morning Girl’s groups haven’t been getting the proper time they deserve from me because like time in my day with God, it just hasn’t been a big enough priority for me. The thing about this is, He is the only one with the power to help me. Yet, he has not heard from me. This is my confession. This past week has been a much better experience for me. I’ve been reading a wonderful Joyce Meyer book that is helping me understand the importance of knowing God as intimately as possible. I have learned so much. I feel much closer to God, and much more in control of my own feelings and attitude.  I slipped up today at work when I dealt with some difficult customers but I choose to try to work past it. It took a bit, but eventually God helped me get past it. He is good. He’s got me covered, and I do not have to worry. My relationship with him has GOT to be the most important thing–and I am tired of it not being the most important thing. Everything in this world is temporary, but God is forever. He needs to be number 1. My husband is second, and them my career and school follow. Honestly, I am super ready to continue to make this change. I love the me that I have seen this week. Trusting in God, is the best choice anyone can make. Tomorrow is another busy day with 24 hours to do everything on my list. I am not worried though–God will give me the strength to get everything done and serve him as best I can.

Have a Blessed Week!

❤ Natale

It has almost been a year since I have written a piece for this blog. Honestly, it wasn’t even on my mind at all. Occasionally, I would see the link in my Instagram profile, and I would think I really should go check in on my blog. I didn’t care. I didn’t want to look back to the reminders of the areas in my life where I had miserably, publicly, and completely, failed. Now a year older, there are some things that I feel I need to address…and this is painful to share but I’ve got to get it out there. I was wrong. I was completely wrong in so many areas about my spiritual walk, and health & fitness. I held this believe that it is all a mental battle. And yes, this is true to some degree. Motivation is something that is mental. Motivation takes Discipline. If one does not have discipline, than they will not have motivation. These are two pieces of a puzzle, and they need to be used together in order to function. Everyone has it in there somewhere to be disciplined. There isn’t a person out there that can’t be disciplined in an area if they desire it. I learned that on a spiritual note, these two puzzle pieces are directly related to our humanly flesh. Our flesh desires “worldly” satisfaction while we need to be seeking out “Godly” satisfaction. My now husband, (we got married August 12, 2014) has never understood why it is so hard for me to make a change in my life. When I start to fret over something, there he is, always assuring me, “God’s got this! You’ll be alright, you’ve got this!” He is the one person that I share my mental battles with other than God, and I really should be sharing more of my, to coin Joyce Meyer’s term, “mental strongholds” with God than I do. While I know God will provide me the strength to overcome my mental battles, and do all I am required to do in a day if I simply ask–it is hard to do so. Steve takes time in his evenings to slow down for a moment. This isn’t something he has naturally just learned to do–he disciplined himself to learn to wind down. He has disciplined himself in the way of relaxing and letting things go. I desire this for myself. I have to work against my “flesh” and learn to relax. If I cannot do this on my own–God never said we must do this alone. As he shares in the book of Exodus chapter 14, verse 14, “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still”(Exodus NIV, 14:14). We need to be disciplined in trusting that God has everything under control. That he has given us the strength that we need to accomplish our goals. The clincher, and most important thing to realize is, we can only hear God when we get quiet. This is the only way we will be able to hear his voice. In the event where he does not grant our request, we need to be disciplined in understanding that he has something else in store for us! We live in a world where so much of what we have is instantly handed to us. God doesn’t work that way. He works on his time! And changes we might desire to make that he is still backing might take more time to occur. All these areas where we fail, and the areas that are weakest, THIS IS WHERE WE ARE FIGHTING WITH OUR FLESH. Your spirit says “no” but your worldly flesh says, “yes.” The majority of the Bible is devoted to telling us how much we are going to fight with our flesh! He never once says in the Bible that we have to go it alone, and that it will be easy. He has promised us that it will be worth it.

In conclusion, as Christians we are called to be disciplined, and often times patient. This can try us by means of being a damper on our motivation. When the flesh says give up, PLEASE, do NOT give up. God isn’t done yet! Be disciplined. Learn to slow down, and listen for God’s voice.

Thank you,
Natalie

Switching Gears

Hey everyone!
Lately one thing has become completely obvious…this blog has 2 purposes, and it is serving two but only focusing on 1…which is the weight-loss. God is calling me to put my faith out there and bring others to see His love for us! I am not as educated in His word as I need to be and that is going to be the purpose of these next few months of this blog–getting with God and learning his word! (DAILY!) This has been a struggle but you know what? I am tired of it being a struggle! The struggle with finding time to get with God and learn his word is going to stop being something that prevents me from actually doing it. I can find time. I just need to plan better, is all it is. I am writing this as the first step; day #1 starts now! This blog is switching gears and is fueled by faith now 🙂

God Bless,
Natalie 🙂

Making Changes??

So I realized today where I have been making mistakes, and an inordinate amount of them at that. I have a health/fitness board on Pinterest and I have been working on a Joyce Meyer study that has been extremely beneficial to my spiritual walk to say the least.The last part I mentioned is doing me a world of good, but the first part has just been a waste of my valuable time. Yes, I get some FANTASTIC ideas which is the purpose of my collecting said ideas, but I am failing to apply what I am learning. I am not applying these workouts I find, and I am not changing my attempts to eat lots of junk. It is hard, it is VERY hard, and I cannot promise that I will not “slip up” and that is not the problem. I am trying to change too many habits at once. I am not disciplined enough to make all the changes I desire to make but I can be if I start by taking smaller steps and making them stick. I am learning that I am as disciplined as I want to be, but only as disciplined as I am God-lead to be. I am starting to think that the things I desire to change need to be broken down into smaller steps that I can willing impart. God provides the strength to do all that we are required to do in our walk with Him. I am relying on my desire to do things faster, and not as thoroughly as God would like me to be. He is asking me to slow down, not speed up. Starting today, I am going to be focusing on Exercising daily, and focusing on my Joyce Meyer studies. I am on the second go round of Joyce’s Power Thoughts study, and have begun reading a study called The Confident Woman also by Joyce Meyer. These are the keys I need to be focusing on right at this moment, and the other things will fall into place. 🙂 I’m blessed and need to be patient. God is working on something truly great for me, even if I cannot see it. He is at work and it will be great!

God Bless,

Nat 🙂 

Changes, Changes, Changes…

Today is June 17th, and things are going very well. I am nearly 70 days away from saying “I do” to the best man, and my best friend!(I love you Stephen!) So you all ask, whats up Nat? Well, let me tell you.

God is great, and He has been at work in my life doing amazing things that I never could have imagined! I have the summer off and have been enjoying it immensely which is very uncharacteristic of how I used to see myself. I love school, and bettering myself academically. It wasn’t until recently that I realized how very little I value taking time to better myself spiritually and health-wise.

When I discovered that continuing school over the summer was not a possibility I sunk into a funk, and could not come out of it. I was sad, mad and discontent with how the next few months would go. In reality, I had good health, a good family and an even greater God. All my eyes could see was what I did not have. I learned that my mindset has not been correct in regards to a lot of things. God decided that He needed me free this summer because He had work in me to do that if I continued to go to school during the summer my mind would have been closed to Him (which breaks my heart to admit but, it is 100% the truth) because I would not have been listening as I should have. God said that it was time we talked, and I have been listening.

I began a Joyce Meyer study called Power Thoughts. It has opened my eyes to my walk with Christ, my mental and physical health, and a variety of things that I may not have even learned yet! Needless to say I started making immediate changes in my attitude at work, and most significantly with myself. Things have gotten even better! I am developing a more intimate relationship with God, and with myself. I had lost all my confidence and I am starting to get it back. I am not a fool, and I know there will be ups and downs but I am preparing myself to persevere and meet my goals. God has been after me to complete this study for the better part of a year but like with everything else that is good for me, and something I need to do. I had a variety of excuses in my bag and God eliminated the biggest offender saying that it was time I listened to Him! Every chapter I read, every scripture that is presented is timed for exactly what is going on in my life at that time. You tell me God doesn’t know what is going on? He definitely does! I have been given ample proof that He does!

A prayer has been answered as Steve and I start at a Gym this week! And we are actively making diet changes and preparing ourselves for marriage as best as we can! I am officially seven pounds away from my second goal and going strong. We have cut out fast food (again, its a process) and red meat and are incorporating healthier choices into our kitchen. I have been praying for these changes for a long time and now that I am listening to God’s voice I am seeing a lot more positive things occur!

My point, our walk with God is extremely important!
Walk with Him, all will work out as intended.

Stay Strong,Live Fit.
-Natalie 🙂

10 pound triumph!

Here I am, and this is why 10 lbs is a good first goal to set for yourself! I reached my first goal of loosing 10 lbs and feel great! I am sharing this progress pic just to show you all why! Check out how my body has changed! I feel great!

What is Beauty?

Hello all!

I have a difficult–but super important thing to talk to you all about. This topic is about loving yourself (as well as the skin that you are in). Why is this important you might be asking? The answer is simple: you will not be able to conquer any personal goals if you do not respect and love yourself. All too often I find myself thinking terrible things about myself, and being very self-deprecating. It hurts more coming from someone else but if it is known deep inside that what other people may say is NOT true it will be much easier to let it bounce off your back. I’ll be honest, my coach Ashley posted something this week about how important it is on a journey to better yourself you have to already love the person that you are and the body that you are in. I found myself thinking that she was completely crazy–that it couldn’t really matter that much. It wasn’t until this evening that I realized what this truly meant–at least to me and feel free to make your own decisions about what this means personally to you. Actually that is my challenge to YOU. What does it mean to you to love yourself and the skin that you are in?

Here is my belief…I do not hate my body. Sometimes I don’t like how my muffin top looks in those jeans, or the way my hair looks. I admire my body! It is truly amazing what it does for me without me knowing! Think about it. When was the last time you had to think, don’t forget to breathe? I know, now that I mentioned it you find your breathing labored but that’s just because I made you think about it. Our bodies are amazing but still fragile and we need to do our part to aide them in anyway we can! Thinking negatively about our bodies and our minds just hurts you and allows you to make excuses for yourself. The last almost two weeks I have been pushing my body to run which I used to hate but my body had completely surprised me with how much it loves the endurance and getting stronger! I love running now! I used to have dancers legs and the last two years my legs have been stumps. While I was doing yoga today a certain pose caused me to grab my thigh and it was then I realized–they have been gaining made muscle and leaning out! I know this has only been possible because I changed my outlook about myself. How you feel about yourself directly affects the kind of progress you will have. If you want a change, love yourself through the change and celebrate the little things! I completed 30 sit ups today! I was so proud I shared it on Facebook! Truly, I have been working on telling myself (even when the weight I want to see fall off isn’t coming off like I want it too) that I am beautiful. I might be a work in progress but my body is beautiful and capable of so much! I personally believe that many people have the misconception of believing that if you don’t like everything about your body that you hate it. I may have bad days but I definitely do not hate my body! It’s getting stronger everyday! (Thank you Nike +!)

To finish up, I want to say that I have a LOT to work on personally but I know I am beautiful even if some days I really don’t feel it. STOP saying hurtful things about your body and the bodies of others around you. Be beautiful by believing it! 🙂

Stay Strong, Live Fit.
Natalie

Hello 2014–nice to see you :)

Hey everyone! I know…long time no updates. My life has taken a few unexpected turns! My man finally asked me to be his wife! So excited! He proposed on Christmas! Good change! Here is the not-so good change…my fitness journey kind of hit a wall during the holidays. I allowed myself to listen to the nay-Sayers that surround me. I had lost 6 lbs and put it all back on in the period of December. Sad face. But here comes the plot-twist, Yesterday came along, and I had been noticing that I felt like I was loosing a little weight…wasn’t really trying to but something told me to get out my scale–just to check. Good news! I lost all that I had gained back except for .8 of a pound. Talk about exciting news! I was so proud that I told all my coworkers that would listen! So I decided to kick this plan into gear again! Upon reflection I realized all that had changed was I have been eating 2 small meals a day and one bigger meal when I am the hungriest (I recommend doing this, it works for me but everyone will have different thresholds when it comes to hunger). The other BIG thing, this is something that will not come as a shock to you…we have basically almost completely cut out Fastfood. That has made a difference in everything! Stephen is also loosing weight! It’s a great thing to see! I am where I was when I lost my focus last time…I am almost ready to loose a pant size…but not quite yet. I believe exercise will also be a big part of this journey but, only one part of it. The hardest part is eating healthy. If you don’t eat healthy all the working out you do will not be enough. It will just hinder your weight loss program (and let’s face it–who wants that?) which is all ready a difficult process and way to live. You can look online for lots of healthy meals! It does nor have to be something big or made in the oven or on the stove. My go-to food has been Turkey sandwiches! And lots of them! I love them. I even allow mayonnaise, but only one serving! I can say, it feels good to be in control! And when it comes to how healthy you want to be–you are in complete control where decisions about taking care of yourself are concerned. Don’t. Stop. Trying. I am starting a clean eating program in my Fitness Group with several other ladies! If you are interested in any information about the program or in general about anything I wrote about today, let me know in the comments! I would love the feedback!
Don’t Give Up!
-Natalie

Lazy and Eating Badly

Okay, I am going to be completely honest with you all…I did day #2 today of Hip Hop Abs today. I have been trying to seriously start this program for almost a month now and can’t seem to get my butt ready to be serious about getting healthier. I know it’s what I want and what I need but I am having SERIOUS motivational issues most recently. How do I get out of thus funk? Honestly I have no idea. I am going to talk to my coach Ashley tomorrow after my finals are done and this semester of school is over. I need my fitness pals again. This laziness has gotten way out of hand. Tomorrow I will post what my peeps suggest and I will learn to hold myself accountable. Please pray for me, and don’t stop believing that you can do this! We will do this together!
Stay Strong, Live Fit.
Natalie