Five Tips For Cold And Flu Season

Winter season means cold and flu season. There are some things we can do to help lower our chances of getting sick with a cold or the flu.

First, always wash your hands. Wash your kids hands too. Hands are the most common way we pick up germs and spread them. The Centers for Disease Control recommends washing hands for at least 15 to 20 seconds. That’s about as long as it takes to sing “Happy Birthday” two times. Kids should wash hands even longer–throw in an extra chorus or two of Happy Birthday! And remember to use antibacterial gels, soaps and wipes very little–hot water and soap is just fine.

If you are around people that are already sick with the cold or flu, try not to touch your eyes, mouth or nose. Germs are often spread when you touch something that has germs on it, and then touch their eyes, nose or mouth. So try to not touch those areas until you have washed your hands.

Get plenty of sleep. This goes for the kids too. When you are tired, your immune system can not fight as well. You need to be well rested to help your body fight the cold or flu bug.

Eat healthy foods that help the immune system. Get plenty of vitamin c, green tea and healthy whole foods. If you do get sick, be sure to keep yourself hydrated with plenty of fluids.

Talk to your doctor about getting the flu shot. It may not be for everyone, but for many it can help the stay flu-free.

Enjoy a Cup Of Cranberry Ginger Tea

Cranberries are full of antioxidants. What are antioxidants? They are nutrients that are usually found in plant foods. Antioxidants undo the damage caused by oxidation and help keep the body strong. They are believed to be highly important in fighting and or peventing many cancers, and are also beneficial to the cardiovascular system.

Here is a recipe for a very healthy tea drink that is also infused with cranberry.

Boil about four cups of water and remove from heat. Add four teabags of red rooibos tea, white tea or green tea, and about two slices of fresh ginger.

Steep the tea bags in the water for about three minutes to five minutes.

Blend about 1/2 cup of cranberry sauce in a blender and blend until almost smooth.

Remove the teabags and the ginger from the water and discard. Pour in the blended cranberry from the blender, and mix well.

You can enjoy this warm, but I prefer to chill the tea drink for a bit, and then enjoy it in a glass with ice.

Cranberry Muffins With Walnuts

Healthy and delicious…what can be better than a warm muffin full of cranberries and walnuts? The best part of this tasty treat are the wonderful healthy benefits they are chock full of.

You will need:

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup wheat flour
1/4 cup quick-cooking rolled oats
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. ground cinammon
1/4 tsp. salt
1 egg, slightly beaten
3/4 cup fat free milk
1/2 cup sugar
3Tbsp. Canola oil
1/3 cup dried cranberries, chopped
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped

Use non stick spray for the muffin cups, or use paper baking cups.
In a bowl, mix the flours, oats, baking powder cinnamon and salt.
In another bowl, mix egg, milk, sugar and oil.
Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just combined.
Add the cranberries and walnuts.
Spoon into the muffin cups and bake in apreheated oven at 375 derees about 18 minutes or until tops are lightly browned.
Enjoy warm!!

The Healthy Cranberry

Cranberries are ranked as one of the top ten foods high in antioxidants according to the USDA. So the more you can get these tiny tart fruits into your diet, the better. Full of vitamins and known for fighting infections, cranberries are delicious as well as healthy.
Cranberries may not cure a urinary tract infection, but they can help prevent one. Cranberries contain properties that actually helps keep the bacteria that causes infections from sticking to the bladder wall. So the “bad bacteria” is essentially flushed out of your system. Even drinking one glass a day of cranberry juice has been found to help suppress the growth of ulcer-causing bacteria. And there is more good news about cranberries. According to the USDA, it looks as though cranberry phytochemicals are good for the heart. A study showed that people who drank one 8oz. glass of cranberry juice every day significantly reduced LDL, or “bad” cholesterol. And cranberry juice may also help increase the good cholesterol.

So why not get cranberries into as many recipes as possible? You can add them to yogurt, cereal and oatmeal. Bake them in cookies and cakes. Enjoy them in sauces, drinks and jellies. Even though it is a tiny fruit, the cranberry packs a mighty healthy punch!

Exercising For Your Bones

Taking care of our bones, especially as we age, it important to keep them strong and less prone to breaking. Exercise is one thing that we can all do to help keep our bones in their best shape possible. If we do not exercise our bones, they will simply weaken over time.
Weight bearing exercise is the best type of exercise to stimulate bone growth. Bones will become stronger when stresses are placed upon them. Bones will also make more bone when they sense stress or impulses from activity. This is called Wolff’s Law. But only the bones that are stressed will get stronger. That is why jogging will strengthen the bones in your feet, legs and even hips but will do nothing for the bones in your wrist or arm area.
A very good form of weight bearing exercise, especially for women, is weightlifting. A good weight lifting program can strengthen bones throughout your body. Remember, exercise that does not stress bones will not grow them. So it is important to include more exercise than just swimming or walking–which will not do much for strengthening your bones.
And before starting a new exercise regime, it is always good to check with your doctor.

Toast The New Year With A Healthy Mocktail

If you are welcoming the New Year sans the alcohol, why not make a delicious mocktail? It will taste wonderful and look festive and keep your spirits high as you celebrate the New Years.

It is simple to make (and simple to convert back to a traditional cocktail as well) and is healthy as well.
What you’ll need:

1 sugar cube

1 1/2 ounces pomegranate juice

1 ounce currant juice

8 pomegranate seeds

6 ounces sparkling apple cider (use champagne if you prefer)

Place one sugar cube in the bottom of a Champagne glass. Pour in pomegranate and currant juice, add pomegranate seeds, and then the sparkling apple cider.

You can also make a Rumless Mocktail that will delight as you ring in the New Year

Coat a glass with mint leaves. mix 2 teaspoons sugar and 3 tablespoons lime juice. Pour in chilled club soda. Garnish with a slice of lime, and enjoy!

Opening That Bottle of Champagne Safely

Popping the cork on a bottle of champagne at midnight tonight? Keep an eye out for that flying cork–it can be dangerous especially to the eyes. It is estimated that a surprising 1,500 people visit emergency rooms during the holiday season for eye injuries resulting from flying champagne corks.

When a bottle of champagne is opened the wrong way, the cork can go flying at a high speed and cause permanent eye damage in a matter of seconds. Warm bottles of champagne are more likely to have corks go flying when they are popped, so keep your bubbly chilled.

Tips for opening the champagne bottles safely:

Chill the champagne bottle to about 45 degrees farenheit before it is opened.
Hold the cork down with your hand while removing the wire around the cork.
Place a towel over the top of the bottle and grasp the cork. Point the bottle at a 45-degree angle away from you and others, and begin slowly twisting the bottle while holding the cork in place.
When you feel the cork start to break free from the bottle, hold the cork and apply slight downward pressure to the cork as the seal breaks.

Happy and Safe Toasting!

Make Walking Your New Year’s Resolution

Happy New Years!

There is one resolution that probably outweighs just about any other when it comes to your health, except maybe to stop smoking. It is simple enough to do, free, and is so beneficial to your cardiovascular health. What is it? Walking.

Researchers have spent years studying the effects of weight loss on heart health, and have concluded that burning about a 1,000 calories a week through exercise was enough to make a significant decrease in the risk of heart disease in women who are obese.

If you get out and walk several times a week for about half an hour, you can probably burn about 125 to 200 calories. Of course, the exact amount will depend on your size and how hard you work out. And remember, exercise in any form is simply good for your heart. Exercise helps lower blood pressure and increases blood vessel function.

So even if you make no other resolutions this New Year’s Eve, promise yourself that you will get out and walk a few times a week. Aim to burn 1,000 calories a week for you and your heart!

Achieving Mental Health

We can achieve all things in our life whatever we wish. Yes, we can have all things what we want. All those successful people who have achieved success in their life, they all have one thing common in them. That is self-control. Yes…all successful people win their mind first. Then turn the mind in direction easily towards their way.

Achieving a sound mental health isn’t an overnight process. It is a continuous process. It requires a daily self examination. You need to support your mental health process by reading spiritual books. You can also read your favorite books. But those should be supportive for getting mental health. We have spiritual base by nature. We just need to develop it internally. It is a good way to have a sound mental health continuously.
As your internal spiritual base gets strong, you will be calm and all external disturbances will never make you unstable. Because you will have already known how to control mind.

Cucumber

The flesh of cucumbers is primarily composed of water but also contains ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and caffeic acid, both of which help soothe skin irritations and reduce swelling. Cucumbers hard skin is rich in fiber and contains a variety of beneficial minerals including silica, potassium and magnesium. It is high in potassium, magnesium and fiber. It helps blood pressure dropped to healthier levels. cucumber as a provider of a very healthy juice beneficial for its properties as an increases of the flow of urine and as a complement to the effects of celery and carrot juice for rheumatic conditions, while at the same time being a soothing skin lotion.

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