Beat the Heat and Stay Cool this Summer

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Summer is fast approaching. As much as we love long, sunny days, the heat can be a bit too much. It makes it harder to sleep and concentrate. Follow our tips to beat the heat and stay cool this summer.

Keeping Your Home Cool

The step to keeping cool is to lower the temperature of your immediate environment. We don’t all possess air conditioning units, but there are some simple alternatives.

How To Keep Your Teeth Looking Their Best

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Once our baby teeth have fallen out, we are left with the teeth that should see us through for the rest of our life. It is so important to take good care of them. Having treatment on your teeth can be costly, so it is worth investing your time to care for them. Here are the best things to do, to keep your teeth looking their best.

Dental Check-Ups

Healthy Living: When Kids Get Sick and You Start to Panic....

When my kids get ill I must admit my initial reaction is to panic. My panic stage is quick to dissipate though when the reasonable side of me rules over the weak one.

Being a healer by profession makes me vulnerable to anxiety secondary to grim complications of every disease known to inflict children. What keeps me sane when the inevitable happens and I am faced with the challenge of healing my own child is this one word- "PRAYER".

Healthy Living: Taking Care of the Windows to Your Soul

          On most work-free mornings at home the first thing I see is the face of my son sleeping sweetly beside me. I kiss him and thank the high heavens for another day. I close my eyes and pray for the day's toils and marvel at how lucky I am to be alive and able to see. I am guilty though of sometimes taking my gift of sight for granted. Today while browsing old photos I realized I shouldn't wait another day to give my eyes the pampering they need. Sharing with you gathered tips on....

Eating Healthy - Your Guide to Buying Right and Cooking Great

Eating healthy is one of the most important steps you can take to a better life. When you’ve got a good-quality diet, your whole outlook improves. There’s nothing more fulfilling than taking charge of what goes into your body. Even so, it can be difficult to ensure you’re eating right. You might not know what to buy or what to cook. Don’t panic - there are lots of ways to get your diet right and to make your cooking more healthy than ever. To help you out, here’s a quick guide to preparing delicious, healthy meals.

Buy quality

What Does Labour Feel Like? Honest Descriptions from Real Women

Many women prefer to bury their heads in the sand when it comes to learning all about what to expect from labour. However, learning about all of the technical aspects of childbirth can be very valuable when it comes to preparing for your baby’s birthday. There’s one question on every mum to be’s lips: what will labour actually feel like? The answer to this question could go on forever. No medical textbook could describe it down to a T. Every woman is different, and every labour is totally unique, so the only way for you to find out is to experience it for yourself. No one can sit you down and tell you exactly what your labour will be like, but learning what other women went through can help you come to terms with the possibilities. Let’s take a look at some honest descriptions from real women:

So, as we’ve established; labour is different for every woman. The pain can range from mild to extreme. Even reactions to the epidural varied. Let’s take a look at some of the different general pain experiences from real women:

• The pain was irritating but not unbearable for me.
• I was in excruciating pain.
• My contractions just felt like muscle spasms - they weren’t that painful.
• The pain was all encompassing.
• I didn’t realise I was in labour - I thought I just needed a bowel movement. The pain wasn’t that bad.
• I thought a train had ran me over.
• I wanted my husband to throw me out of the car when we were going to hospital - that’s how bad it hurt!
• It was close to painless for me, thanks to hypnotherapy and hiring a tens machine! I did a lot of preparation.
• I was induced and had an epidural quite early, so it was pretty easy.
• The epidural didn’t get rid of everything for me. I felt the pain of the contractions and the head crowning.
• My cramps felt like period pains until I had the epidural.
• The epidural saved my life!
• I was still in a lot of pain even after the epidural.

Cramping

A lot of moms report that their contractions felt like menstrual cramps, while some compared them to cramps caused by gas.

• My contractions were like menstrual cramps - on steroids!
• The cramping went from the very top of my stomach, down to my pubic area.
• It was like gas pains, times 1000.
• I had a horrible cramp that started in my back right the way around my stomach.
• I had painful cramping and tightening in my stomach.
• I had strong period like cramps that came and went.
• Mine were like the cramps you get with a bad stomach flu, except they lasted longer.

To put it bluntly, you just aren’t going to know what to expect until it’s happening to you. Some women don’t feel in control of their bodies, while others had to put in a lot of work. Some women even felt calm and empowered! We suggest you learn as much as possible about labour to be prepared...this will make it easier!

Photo Credit: Flickr

Home Sweet Home: Onions and You

 5 Reasons You Gotta Love an Onion

• Onions lessen our risk of developing cancer.
• Onions guard us against infection.
• Onions help increase our bone density.
• Onions prevent heart attacks.
• Onions help regulate our blood sugar level.

I've been incorporating Onions in my meals as a part of My Healthy Living Project

which has inspired me to spend more time in the kitchen. I must admit I am quite a spoiled wife and daughter-in-law. Both the hubby and MIL love cooking and most of the time I do the tasting hehehe. Yet things changed a bit when I became more conscious of what I eat. So these days the kitchen has become my favorite part of the home and I have been requesting the hubby to purchase  undermount drawer slides so he could set up a better cooking area for the family. We all LOVE to eat and oh boy our home sweet home being at the neck of the woods with fresh air and breezy surrounding is very conducive to eating yet we are trying our best to serve healthy meals for us to live, long, happy and fruitful to be able to share our blessings with others.

Want some Onions? When sliced improperly they could hurt our eyes but when consumed in the right amount and cooked just right, Onions spell a lot of difference- like imperfectly perfect marriages :)

Heathy Living: Update on My Healthy Living Project

Five (5) Ways To Stick To Your Healthy Eating Plan

oats and some berries, what I had for breakfast

I've made it to day fifteen! No soda, calorie counting and regular brisk walking. Yey!!! Believe me it is quite a feat! For someone like me who loves flavorful meals and whose appetizer is the love of family and friends it's totally a mind game controlling these urges to binge.

I am proud to say I was able to say NO to offers of those colorful, sweet, cold, temporarily refreshing drinks that come in bottles! I learned through researching on ways to keep a healthy diet that...



1. Acknowledging our little victories helps a lot to boost our determination to stick to our dieting.

2. It pays to "think before you open your mouth"- before you put a spoonful of something looking oh so delectable to chew on and munch, take time to breathe in and breathe out. Is the food okay for your system? Will it contribute to making your body's immunity strong or will it drive your sugar and cholesterol level to the ceiling? If the answer is the latter then don't eat it! Grab the glass of water instead and drown your cravings.

3. However, there are times when you also need to reward yourself with a little bit of the sinful goodies otherwise you might go nuts! But remember to eat them in moderation and to take time to burn those extra calories.

4. Whatever you do, do not give up! 

 People might try their best to sway you to join them instead having the time of their life, drinking beer and soda or feasting on fats and carbohydrate loaded recipes like there is no tomorrow but keep your eye on your goal! Tell them politely that NO, thank you, you are on a diet. That statement would be responded with a lot of chuckles, laughter and ridicule even but just shrug your shoulder and walk away if you must. Not joining them when you can not stop them in this case is ALWAYS the right thing to do.

5. Your goal is not merely to lose weight but to make healthy eating a LIFESTYLE and ultimately to live a long, sickness free life you could use inspiring and helping others.


...now these 5 bullets on sticking on a healthy eating regimen are for me too to keep reading when the urge to GIVE UP and go back to wayward lifestyle becomes too strong...please add your inputs too so we could support each other onwards to GOOD HEALTH!

...our bodies are the temple of the One Above and goodness is spread through us so let's keep these senses working in full swing...

...to see beauty in every living creature...

..and touch so many LIVES for the better....

One of our latest blooms in the garden being kissed by a baby bee

Have a blessed day one and all!

I am using the Google automatically uploaded photos on my smartphone for posting some photos here and the ones posted here have a motion feature which was created auto with the series of four five shots. I love smartphones and Google+! :)

Healthy Living: Two Gifts, Onwards to Fitness

 Yesterday I gave myself something I have been meaning to buy for months now to aid me in my weight loss project- another "pedometer"!

My first pedometer fell off while I was attending a trade fair. The second one I purchased got broken so I gifted myself with a new one! Determined to meet a quota of 10,000 steps a day I am once again all set to walk myself to fitness.

Today on our Christmas party I received a shirt with a very apt message for my goal and I totally LOVE IT!!!

Thank you Clarissa!

Join me, change for the better embracing good health!♡

Healthy Living: Sardines with Tomatoe Overload

I am still hanging on to my healthy eating project :)

For breakfast two days ago I had one of my all-time favorite meals!

"Sardines" with a side dish of grilled "bitter melon" and an overload of tomatoes!

I had a hard time suppressing my craving for more rice and had to constantly remind myself that

anything in excess is bad. 

Drinking fruit juice and eating a slice of fruit helped satiate my huge appetite.

 

Join me on my healthy living project!

...because we must live long enough for the ones we love and be able to share our blessings with 

the less fortunate...