5 a day tips

1. A tasty vegetable soup is a real favourite - you can cook up a mix of fresh, frozen, tinned and even dried veg for a meal of a soup - an instant vitamin fix - that can contain three or more portions of your five a day. A handful of frozen peas or half a tin of sweetcorn are both one portion that add great taste and flavour to soups - whether home made or straight out of a can.
2. We try to eat meals together as a family, it means we get to spend more time together and the kids respond to seeing their mum tucking in and enjoying fruit and veg. My kids love to mimic me so I hope I can help teach them some really good habits that will help them for life!
3. Growing fruit and veg is a great way to excite children about food, strawberries and tomatoes are great for growing in small spaces - from hanging baskets to a small garden. We have a small tub outside that we fill with strawberry plants. My youngest Evie loves being able to pick and eat the fruit straight from the plant.
4. A glass of 100% fruit juice (150ml) or smoothie with breakfast is a great way to start the day with one portion of your 5 A DAY - add fruit to your breakfast and you can start the day with two portions!
5. Just cutting up fruit, makes a real difference to how much my children will eat and enjoy! You can also try adding fresh cut apple, raisins and grated carrot on a salad for a little sweetness and great flavour.

Eight Tips for Healthy Meetings

Do you stagger out of meetings moaning how you hate, hate, hate meetings? Do you yearn for anything — earthquake, hurricane, building collapse — to get out of the meeting you’re in? Do meetings have to be so awful?

The bad meetings always stand out in my memory, but actually, I’ve attended many good meetings, as well. They had a few things in common.

1. Agendas. A good meeting has an agenda. It might be a very informal agenda, such as “Today we are all going to share for two minutes each on everything we’ve done this past week.” Or it might be an elaborate, three-level-outline agenda. But a meeting without an agenda is not a meeting, it’s an encounter group.

2. Openness. Unless the meeting needs to be closed (personnel issues, for example), the meeting is not only open to those who are required to be there, but to people who have an interest in the topic and want to sit in. That also means that meetings are held at times that facilitate this openness (for a major violator of this principle, see ALA Council, which does the bulk of its work a day after the conference has ended). This openness not only contributes to cross-pollination; it also makes meetings more broadly accountable.

3. The meeting is the meeting. That sounds either Zen-like or Seuss-like (or a little of each), but let me clarify. I have worked in a number of settings where the announced meeting was really just a showcase, and key decisions took place before or after the meeting among the informal leaders in the organization. A variation on this is the person who hangs around after the meeting and has a special one-on-one meeting with a key decision-maker which alters decisions made at the meeting or makes new decisions on topics that weren’t addressed. Obviously, the cure for this is fairly complex — these problems are symptomatic of a toxic organizational culture — but if you can affect real change at that level, then meetings have a chance of becoming meetings again, and not charades resented for the time they suck from activities that people have some control over.

4. Time management. The push is to get the meeting done so people can leave the meeting and Do Something. Meetings not only have start times, but end times. Meetings do not wander on and on; agenda items have time limits. It is true that good meetings contribute to outcomes, but meetings rarely are the bulk of the outcome, and a meeting should leave people jazzed about the issue at hand, not exhausted and burned-out. (Oh, and don’t you love the admin-type whose power trip includes breathlessly showing up late for every single meeting — often with a dramatic explanation of the Very Important Thing that made her late? Yeah, me neither: if you can, start the meeting on time and don’t let this person get it off course when she arrives. Otherwise, practice your patient half-smile.)

5. Democratic but not anarchic. On the one hand, the meeting is not a lecture; you do not sit there, wishing you were dead, while for an hour someone on high reads notes that should have been sent out by email, or asks “questions” that have predetermined “answers.” People have discussions, and discussions resolve problems or lead to problem resolution strategies. the convener makes a special effort to acknowledge all meeting participants and draw the best out of them. On the other hand, the meeting is not dominated by trolls who filibuster on every topic (often with extreme negativism and pronounced opinions) and drown out meeker voices as they hammer home Their Way of Doing Things. To keep a meeting democratic without becoming anarchic requires some adroit, situation-specific meeting management — some of it thought through in advance, with a strategic awareness of the participants’ behavior styles — but it’s key.

6. Not every issue needs a meeting. (Tangentially, see also my observation earlier that for every action there is an equal and opposite committee.) Sometimes a problem can be at least partially resolved by two folks standing around a cubicle tossing a nerf ball; sometimes it’s too early to meet because you don’t know what the issue is. Sometimes the issue needs slow, protracted online conversation (easier among people who work this way naturally) rather than the artifice of ten people, a room, and an agenda.

7. Not every issue can be resolved in a meeting. I’ve seen meetings where the participants were determined to come to a conclusion right then and there. But a meeting is not always the right venue. Sometimes you need more information. Sometimes it’s too early to make a decision. (Yes, this does have to be balanced with not having a separate meeting-outside-of-the-meeting structure.) Sometimes you need to send out the email that you think you need to read aloud at the meeting because no one’s reading it, and if people aren’t reading it, find out why. Sometimes the issue requires an innovator, or serial conversations — someone interviewing people sequentially. Sometimes the issue is too volatile to discuss in the meeting format; you don’t want people being agreeniks because they feel put on the spot.

8. Food, fun, and familiarity. I tend to like work for work’s sake, so it took me a while to learn that offering a nibbly or two can greatly improve someone’s opinion of a meeting, as can a little fun (sharing something humorous) and recognizing human, non-work-related events, such as birthdays, new babies, household moves, and other events that make us who we are.

But the yummiest nibbly in the world can’t compare to a meeting that engages the right people for the right reasons, starts and ends on time, and leaves you better-equipped to handle the issue the meeting addressed.

10 Tips To Healthy Eating

10 Tips To
Healthy Eating

Experts agree the key to healthy eating is the time-tested advice of balance, variety and moderation. In short, that means eating a wide variety of foods without getting too many calories or too much of any one nutrient. These 10 tips can help you follow that advice while still enjoying the foods you eat.

1. Eat a variety of nutrient-rich foods. You need more than 40 different nutrients for good health, and no single food supplies them all. Your daily food selection should include bread and other whole-grain products; fruits; vegetables; dairy products; and meat, poultry, fish and other protein foods. How much you should eat depends on your calorie needs. Use the Food Guide Pyramid and the Nutrition Facts panel on food labels as handy references.

2. Enjoy plenty of whole grains, fruits and vegetables. Surveys show most Americans don't eat enough of these foods. Do you eat 6-11 servings from the bread, rice, cereal and pasta group, 3 of which should be whole grains? Do you eat 2-4 servings of fruit and 3-5 servings of vegetables? If you don't enjoy some of these at first, give them another chance. Look through cookbooks for tasty ways to prepare unfamiliar foods.

3. Maintain a healthy weight. The weight that's right for you depends on many factors including your sex, height, age and heredity. Excess body fat increases your chances for high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, some types of cancer and other illnesses. But being too thin can increase your risk for osteoporosis, menstrual irregularities and other health problems. If you're constantly losing and regaining weight, a registered dietitian can help you develop sensible eating habits for successful weight management. Regular exercise is also important to maintaining a healthy weight.

4. Eat moderate portions. If you keep portion sizes reasonable, it's easier to eat the foods you want and stay healthy. Did you know the recommended serving of cooked meat is 3 ounces, similar in size to a deck of playing cards? A medium piece of fruit is 1 serving and a cup of pasta equals 2 servings. A pint of ice cream contains 4 servings. Refer to the Food GuidePyramid for information on recommended serving sizes.

5. Eat regular meals. Skipping meals can lead to out-of-control hunger, often resulting in overeating. When you're very hungry, it's also tempting to forget about good nutrition. Snacking between meals can help curb hunger, but don't eat so much that your snack becomes an entire meal.

6. Reduce, don't eliminate certain foods. Most people eat for pleasure as well as nutrition. If your favorite foods are high in fat, salt or sugar, the key is moderating how much of these foods you eat and how often you eat them.

   Identify major sources of these ingredients in your diet and make changes, if necessary. Adults who eat high-fat meats or whole-milk dairy products at every meal are probably eating too much fat. Use the Nutrition Facts panel on the food label to help balance your choices.

   Choosing skim or low-fat dairy products and lean cuts of meat such as flank steak and beef round can reduce fat intake significantly.

   If you love fried chicken, however, you don't have to give it up. Just eat it less often. When dining out, share it with a friend, ask for a take-home bag or a smaller portion.

7. Balance your food choices over time. Not every food has to be "perfect." When eating a food high in fat, salt or sugar, select other foods that are low in these ingredients. If you miss out on any food group one day, make up for it the next. Your food choices over several days should fit together into a healthy pattern.

8. Know your diet pitfalls. To improve your eating habits, you first have to know what's wrong with them. Write down everything you eat for three days. Then check your list according to the rest of these tips. Do you add a lot of butter, creamy sauces or salad dressings? Rather than eliminating these foods, just cut back your portions. Are you getting enough fruits and vegetables? If not, you may be missing out on vital nutrients.

9. Make changes gradually. Just as there are no "superfoods" or easy answers to a healthy diet, don't expect to totally revamp your eating habits overnight. Changing too much, too fast can get in the way of success. Begin to remedy excesses or deficiencies with modest changes that can add up to positive, lifelong eating habits. For instance, if you don't like the taste of skim milk, try low-fat. Eventually you may find you like skim, too.

10. Remember, foods are not good or bad. Select foods based on your total eating patterns, not whether any individual food is "good" or "bad." Don't feel guilty if you love foods such as apple pie, potato chips, candy bars or ice cream. Eat them in moderation, and choose other foods to provide the balance and variety that are vital to good health.

Fitness Health Nutrition Tips

There are times when even the most fitness and health conscious diner succumbs to the temptations of the buffet and calorific sweet meats. But is pigging out occasionally a harmless indulgence or a real health worry? Here are some fitness health nutrition tips to lose weight healthily.

Firstly we need to stay clued in. Knowledge is power. In other words, we have to arm ourselves with the facts about fitness, health and nutrition. For instance we need to know what a healthy diet is and ignore the fads. This way we are more likely to build confidence in our abilities and achieve our fitness goals. Long term weight control is about being realistic, and enjoying healthy eating and exercise habits for life and reaping all the benefits

Nutrition Tips

Descriptions of symptoms Meniere's Disease by patients

Descriptions of symptoms by patients
For persons unfamiliar with Ménière's disease, these descriptions of symptoms make you realize how disruptive the disease can be.
Patient 1
Male, 3 year history of symptoms.

The worst symptom is the vertigo. In short, you feel like you go round and round then you throw up! However, it varies and I have had various manifestations. I can remember on several occasions where I would be sitting at a conference table in a meeting and the room would suddenly shift such that one end seemed "higher" than the other. In some cases I could work through it by squinting or finding something to focus on. In other cases I had to stop. The episodes generally passed within a few minutes. If they didn't generally Meclazine (antivert) would help.

Another manifestation is such that the "spins" would set in. If they were not too bad I could manage to walk to the water fountain to take a pill. Walking was generally difficult and I would use the wall to steady myself. During these times as I would take a step I would be unsure where the floor was. It always seemed quite a bit farther away than I thought.

Severe episodes would have the room start by shifting then begin spinning in a right to left direction. Trying to focus on an object sometimes helped. Generally the only thing to do was to try and sit or lay down in a quiet place and wait for it to pass. Meclazine would seem to help providing I got it down before the vomiting set in.

I found that if I moved my head and held it at certain angles that it would bring on the spins. Generally these subsided as soon as I put my head back in a "normal" position.

Loud noises and "busy" places were very annoying and tended to aggravate an attack.

I found that I might have days where I was experiencing mild vertigo. While annoying I was generally able to work/exist through them. I guess you just get used to it.
Patient 2
Male, Age 31, 8 year history of symptoms.
My perspective of Ménière's is like that of living with a time bomb that has a random number generator on the timer. You never know when its going to blow. As I understand it, the body loses control of the fluid regulation in the inner ear, then all hell breaks loose. I can usually tell when its going to happen, it is preceded by:
1. Fullness in the ear, popping like that you get when coming down from a mountain.
2. As the attack nears, my hearing gets worse.
3. Then my vision becomes like "tunnel vision"
4. I get very tired.
5. At peak, I sweat, throw up, sleep for 12+ hours .
6. The next day I feel as though someone beat me with a 2 by 4.
7. It takes two or three days to feel better.

Patient 3
Male, Age 46, 8 year history of symptoms.

I try and explain vertigo to people by telling them it is as if you drank a lot of alcohol and then rode an amusement park ride called the Tilt a Whirl. It's the closest thing I can use to describe what it feels like. The first time I experienced it, I was getting ready to go to a Denver Broncos game. I walked down the hallway in my house and ran into the walls five times in only a length of ten feet ! Went to the game anyway but I didn't have to drive and I certainly didn't drink. I had no clue what was wrong. I was very nausiated when I got home.

When I move my head from one side and stop in the the normal position, my eyes feel like they keep going to the other side of my head. I can't watch TV or even read a book. One time I decided to try and read a book but keep my head absolutely still. It didn't work.

The illness comes upon me with very little warning. Once, I was driving back from Arkansas with my wife. I felt kind of light headed. I got out of the car and started to the restroom and within three steps I knew it was all over (the vertigo attack started). I had no medicine so I took large doses of Dramamine and slept pretty much the next two days till we arrived at home. I now carry meclazine with me in my wallet. I also coach high school football. This last fall I had to ask another coach to take over for me because I knew I wouldn't be able to stand on the sideline. Sometime it only acts up for a day other times it goes for 5-7 days.
Patient 4
Female, Age 32, 22 year history of symptoms.
Life with Meniere's Disease : Before you judge me on one of my good days, you need to understand what one of my bad days is like.

Tinnitus - imagine having a headache caused by a fire alarm ringing or a bee buzzing in your ear continually for a long period of time. You can't hear anything but that fire alarm or bee - It drowns everything else out.

Vertigo - Now imagine yourself as really drunk or with the flu at the same time as the fire alarm is going off. Now imagine that with these two things, you'd be dumb enough to get on one of the super roller coasters that does loop-de-loops or the amusement park rides that spin in two different directions at the same time. I'm not that dumb, but unfortunately I have no choice in feeling these sensations.

During one of these vertigo attacks that can last from several minutes to several hours if not days. I can't keep food or water down, I can't walk, and in order to get out of bed to go to the bathroom, I have to crawl like a baby on my hands and knees. The movement makes me so ill, if I'm able to crawl back to bed, I'm covered in sweat from exhaustion. Otherwise, I keep a pillow and a blanket at the bottom of a linen closet in the bathroom so that I can pass out lying across the bathroom floor. I end up sleeping for days after one of these attacks, only getting out of bed to go to the bathroom or to get something to drink, if I think I can keep it down. I have to call my family to see what day it is when I wake up. That is, if I can hear.

You see, this disease while playing havoc with your balance and equilibrium, also reeks havoc with your hearing. It wouldn't be so bad if the hearing loss was constant and predictable. But no, one day I can hear conversation fairly OK, and the next I can be virtually deaf, then the next day I can hear again. The hearing loss can fluctuate, but is usually progressive, and many with the disease end up severely hard-of-hearing or deaf.

Even on a daily basis, your mind is so confused by the signals its getting from your ears that your balance sucks. You run into things constantly because you can't balance well enough to avoid walking into things, or your mind is telling you the object is a couple of inches from where it really is. I don't know whether to laugh or cry when someone teases me about being such a klutz. I could make the Keystone Cops look graceful.

I also have days that my coordination just doesn't seem to be together. I'm carrying something, and all of the sudden I drop it because my brain seems confused as to whether my hand is really attached to my body. I sometimes miss a step and fall because of the feeling that my legs are not quite part of me and I have to focus on them to realize they are there. Apparently this happens because the part of your brain that recognizes parts of your body as belonging to you is the parietal brain lobe and it sits right above your ear, so if the nerves around your ear are inflamed, it can press on this part of the brain, or send the wrong signals to it (I'm not quite sure which), and you can lose coordination.

Ironically, the few high frequencies I don't seem to have a hearing loss in can sound extremely loud, unbearably so. When a baby cries, an alarm goes off, or a microphone gives off feedback, I'd be willing to climb up a wall to get away if I thought I could make it. This symptom is called recruitment.

The disease also plays tricks on your vision. For some strange reason, the nerve that goes from your inner ear to your brain also controls some of your eye movement. Your eyes can twitch or bounce constantly, making focusing on objects, much less print, extremely difficult at times. Your eyes tend not to be able to "track" movement at the same speed, giving you double vision, and a bad headache.

You can get confused easily and your memory and concentration aren't reliable. It's what some people with the disease refer to as "brain fog". Many of them originally were afraid that they may have a brain tumor or Alzheimer's because it can sometimes gets so bad. Finally they find either a doctor whose very knowledgeable regarding the symptoms, or they happen to ask someone else with the disease, and find that this too is a symptom of this blasted disease.

Now try to imagine living with this disease never knowing when one of these periods of tinnitus, vertigo, hearing loss, double vision, lack of coordination, recruitment, disequilibrium, or "brain fog" is going to hit, or how bad it will be. At least with being drunk or riding an amusement park ride, you know what's causing it, and you can make the choice not to do it again. With this disease, there's very little warning if any for these attacks, you don't know what's causing it, and there's no cure - only devices, surgeries, and some medications that can somewhat help alleviate the symptoms. And some of the surgeries are so radical, you think they came from a horror movie about a mad doctor. My ENT surgeon won't even perform any more surgery on my left side, since I have the disease in both ears. He's concerned about what would happen if my right side became worse than what my left side is now.

Understandably, anxiety and depression seem to go hand-in-hand with Meniere's for many sufferers. We often ask how much worse can this disease get? For some strange reason, doctors aren't very willing to give out worst case scenarios.

Now decide if you think I'd be able to do the same things you do on as punctual and regular of a schedule. For me, there's no way. I'm being up front about my limitations. I try the best I can at living up to my full potential. Could if you were in my shoes? They think now that Van Gogh suffered from this disease, and he cut off his own ear trying to escape it.

Yet on my not-so-bad days I may look like a totally healthy, able-bodied person. You ask me "why can't you bend down - pick it up - lift it - drive - get a job - walk without a cane" Its because I know these things can either bring on an attack - I couldn't do them on a regular schedule because of the symptoms - or if I did do them, I could put myself and others in jeopardy if I should have an attack. You have to realize that with my friendship, love, dedication, and loyalty comes the fact that I can't decide when I'm going to have a bad day, and the more stress I'm under, the more likely I will have a bad day.

So, please don't judge me unless you've been in my shoes."

Tips for good health

Being healthy is very important in life. It is much more necessary for us, Bloggers. We Bloggers work a lot without much of rest.

Yes friends I have seen many Bloggers working too much and I am no exception myself. I always knew that I need proper rest every day but always overworked. Now that I am a little sick today, I realised that many other Bloggers might be having similar problems too. Let me first tell you it is really not easier to be a Blogger if you already have day jobs or school or university to attend. Well I am a daily Blogger now and it is much harder for me. I always work late night surfing the internet for good contents for you. It have resulted me feeling unhealthy.

Oh I think just telling about myself is no good. Let me tell you what all bad effects blogging can have on your health.

1. Late night working: It retards your health slowly and you will not be able to recognise the effects until a few months. Due to this your metabolism is affected. There might be indigestion problems. This may result in headache, restlessness and drowsy feelings. There are lots of problems.
2. Viewing Computer Screen for long hours: It is very easy to predict the effects. Most common problem is decreasing vision. The eyes are affected the most. The final results might be loss of vision. It also causes headache.
3. Sitting in front of your PC for long hours: It will cause back pain, decrease in bone density and decrease in flexibility.

Well these were only few problems. So is it that you should not blog? No, I am not saying that. I am just saying to be attentive towards your health too. Below are some tips to keep yourself healthy while blogging.

1. Do not work late nights. By late night I mean after 12 midnight. Now a day working up to 12 is a daily routine for many, so I won’t tell you to leave that. If you have to work late night some day then give yourself more rest the other day.
2. Do not view your Computer screen for long time. Rest your eyes every 30 minutes. Keep a wet handkerchief or cloth with you. Wipe your face and eyes when you rest. This will also make you fresh. If you work for 4-5 hours daily then wash your face after your work is finished. You can do some eye exercises in the break time like rolling your eye balls.
3. If you sit for too long then you need to have a good chair. It must not be too comfortable. Keep you back as straight as possible. I advice to do some stretching every one hour.

Some other tips:

1. Do exercises daily for 10-15 minutes. You can do stretching exercises or yoga or skipping or just a walk (Jogging).
2. Do concentration exercises. Take a plain paper and put a black dot on it. Paste the paper on wall. Gaze on the point for some minutes from 2-3 feet distance. It will increase eye sight. Keep your mind cool.
3. If you like listening music then try some soothing music while you rest after work (any work). Do not listen to music for long hours.
4. Sleep at least 6-7 hours daily. If you are not able to do so then try some rest more on weekends. But try to avoid the habit of sleeping less.
5. Eat more fruits if possible. It keeps your metabolism good and gives vitamins and minerals.
6. Have a balanced diet. Try to eat healthy foods.

Ok friends I have only given you simple tips. I know some of you have your own way of keeping yourself healthy. Well I would like to hear those from you. Please tell me what you feel about this article.

Note: Do not feel that this article is for Bloggers only. It is for all those who surf internet too much, Play too much games and watch lots of movies or videos every day on their computer.

Twenty-Three Health Tips For Bloggers

1. Before you drink coffee in the morning, drink a glass of water (keep a steady supply of water at your desk). This will help minimize the negative fidgety-buzz that coffee can give you.

2. Start your day off with a 20 minute walk

3. Walk away from the computer at least once every two hours and take a step outside

4. Keep at least one 10-25 pound dumbell by your desk, and use it at least once a day when you notice that your in the middle of a productivity funk.

5. Eat one small meal every 2-3 hours

6. Start your day off with twenty minutes of Yoga or Pilates. I'm personally a fan of the GAIAM series.

7. If you can't sleep, take a sleeping pill. Sleep is critical to your overall well being. Just make sure not to take sleeping pills more than 3 days in a row.

8. If you feel sluggish, get down on the floor and do some push-ups

9. If your mind feels twitchy, it's probably because you've had too much coffee. Drink some water and get some fresh air.

10. If you feel depressed or sad, immediately find a friend on AIM or in a private forum to talk with. It does wonders.

11. Buy an odometer/speedometer for your bike. Then go for a bike ride around 2pm each day. It'll give you a "second-wind" for the day. Challenge yourself to go a little bit further and a little bit faster each day.

12. If you're in a healthy relationship, have sex at least once every 3 days. I'm dead serious about this. It can be critical to both mental and physical stability.

13. If you're addicted to IMing, porn, RSS reading, movie watching, shoe shopping, music searching or whatever else dominates your time.... TAKE BACK CONTROL OF YOURSELF and YOUR TIME ... addictions of any kind are not healthy - a healthy person has full control over him or herself.

14. Once a quarter, try something new. A hobby, an online project, a daily habit. Trying something new and succeeding at it is both physically stimulating and mentally liberating.

15. Buy a dog. While a puppy may result in mental torture and sleep deprivation for a few months, the benefits are pricless. Dogs lift your spirit and can give you the incentive you need to take a walk. But please don't buy a dog unless you are serious about giving it a walk at least twice a day.

16. Try detoxing your body for a week. When I'm feeling really bad physically, I use two principles: A) Drink nothing but water and B) Eat nothing but fruits, vegetables and nuts

17. Get some sun. Seriously. Half an hour of good skin exposure to the sun can revive the body.

18. Find an excercise partner to help stay motivated. If you can't find an exercise partner, motivate yourself through the habit forming stage with a massively enticing reward (50 inch Samsung LCD with a PS3 anyone)?

19. Minimize your intake of processed breads and carbs. Keep a healthy stash of nuts and fruits (grapes and walnuts are a great snack) to satisfy your snack cravings.

20. Guys, challenge yourself to work on the beer gut everyday for 10 minutes and stick with it. Take that challenge as seriously as you take your latest internet project or fantasy football team. Girls, challenge yourself to work on the cellulite areas. Take that challenge as seriously as you take your latest internet project or the your desire to get your 101st handbag.

21. Don't drink alcohol after 7pm. Not only can it prevent you from sleeping deeply, but it can also result in more carb-based weight gain. Or...you might wake up the next day with a bad headache;-)

22. Challenge yourself to save alcohol and desserts only on the weekends. Your body will feel much more stable during the week if you keep it toxic free.

23. Your mental health demands that you are working on projects that you enjoy and that elicit creativity. If you find yourself bogged down in meaningless, tedious work, start taking the steps to transition into healthy, rewarding work by carving out time each day to pursue your own interests (rather than those of your boss - even if your boss in an alter-ego of yourself;-)