Week 9
This January, our family was fortunate enough to take an amazing two week cruise from Argentina, around Cape Horn to Chile. There were so many memorable moments, that of which I will cherish for a lifetime. I will salt away these terrific times, to be brought up again in a different entry. On another note, I wonder if any of you have ever been in the teeny tiny bathrooms of a bedroom suite on a cruise ship? Everything is super compact and functional. There is a special place for all your toiletries, an oval shower that also functions as a clothes line, even innovative hooks and shelves cramped into this small space. The most practical design though, was the placement of the flushing mechanism for the toilet, which was strategically placed behind the lid. In order to flush the toilet, one would have to close the lid to get at the flush button. This is ingenious, considering that there are more than 10,000 bacteria particles that escape into the air with a single flush!
A concern in the bathroom is particles that hang in the air after flushing the toilet. The particles are called aerosol. Charles Gerba, an environmental microbiologist at the University of Arizona, performed studies on toilet aerosol to examine what occurs when a toilet is flushed. He found that an invisible cloud of water droplets forms and travels six to eight feet, spreading bacteria to countertops, walls, ceiling, floor and any items, such as toothbrushes, in the vicinity. If you flush with the lid up, a polluted plume of bacteria and water vapour erupts out of the flushing toilet bowl. The polluted water particles float for a few hours around your bathroom before they all land. Some of them will land on your tooth brush.(http://healthierprograms.com/?tag=dr-charles-gerba)
Don’t even get me started on toothbrushes! Offering you solid reasons why changing your toothbrush regularly will be stowed away for yet another entry, but let me leave you with this last tidbit of information. Scientists have found more than 10,000,000 bacteria living on a single toothbrush.
OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW!
Have a great weekend!
Friday, March 19, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
Smart Lessons from Simple Stories
Week 8 –
During our morning exercise class, Melissa and I were discussing the benefits of buying organic. I was sharing a recent study with her based on 87,000 tests conducted by the USDA, The Environmental Working Group recently scored food pesticide levels in common produce, from 1 (the lowest pesticide load) to 100 (the highest). Apples scored a scary 93! Melissa mentioned that perhaps it was the pesticides that killed Snow White and not the poison.
So that got me thinking, with all the gimmicks, diet regimes and exercise advice that bombard us in the media, is there any other place we can for healthy advice? Let’s flash back to look at some familiar characters from our younger years. Think for a moment, if Humpty Dumpty came from a free range bird, perhaps he would have survived his fall. Organic eggs from pastured hens can contain as much as ten times more omega-3’s than factory hens. Organic eggs have healthy protein and fat and contain necessary amounts of Vitamins A,D, B12, B2, niacin and folate. Poor Humpty didn’t have a chance!
Now let’s look back at a story with a happy ending. Little Miss Muffet was way ahead (no pun intended) of her time with the whole curds and whey thing! Whey protein is unsurpassed as a source of essential amino acids required in the daily diet. Essential amino acids are the building blocks for healthy muscles, skin, nails and other body tissue (Whey Protein Institute, 2009). You can find out more about the benefits of whey protein from the following reliable source http://www.wheyoflife.org/benefits.cfm
Why are we all so adamant to cut carbs? The Lady and the Tramp had it right while they sat nose to nose, sharing a plate of pasta. Not only are carbohydrates our best energy source, we need that energy source to be able to train hard enough to improve our cardio-vascular and muscular fitness. Not to mention, the pair decided to share the plate of pasta, which is terrific for portion control.
Jack was so smart to plant that magic bean, which later grew into a healthy bean stock. We should all rely more on beans and think of beans as the ultimate meat substitute! They are packed with protein, filled with fiber and antioxidants, and cheaper than almost any staple in the supermarket!
I could go on and on, with Goldilocks choosing the proper portion of oatmeal, to Chicken Little being the strongest and mightiest without being pumped with dangerous hormones, to Hansel and Gretel getting locked away as punishment for eating the entire candy house, but I think you get the picture!
Have a beautiful weekend!
Andie
During our morning exercise class, Melissa and I were discussing the benefits of buying organic. I was sharing a recent study with her based on 87,000 tests conducted by the USDA, The Environmental Working Group recently scored food pesticide levels in common produce, from 1 (the lowest pesticide load) to 100 (the highest). Apples scored a scary 93! Melissa mentioned that perhaps it was the pesticides that killed Snow White and not the poison.
So that got me thinking, with all the gimmicks, diet regimes and exercise advice that bombard us in the media, is there any other place we can for healthy advice? Let’s flash back to look at some familiar characters from our younger years. Think for a moment, if Humpty Dumpty came from a free range bird, perhaps he would have survived his fall. Organic eggs from pastured hens can contain as much as ten times more omega-3’s than factory hens. Organic eggs have healthy protein and fat and contain necessary amounts of Vitamins A,D, B12, B2, niacin and folate. Poor Humpty didn’t have a chance!
Now let’s look back at a story with a happy ending. Little Miss Muffet was way ahead (no pun intended) of her time with the whole curds and whey thing! Whey protein is unsurpassed as a source of essential amino acids required in the daily diet. Essential amino acids are the building blocks for healthy muscles, skin, nails and other body tissue (Whey Protein Institute, 2009). You can find out more about the benefits of whey protein from the following reliable source http://www.wheyoflife.org/benefits.cfm
Why are we all so adamant to cut carbs? The Lady and the Tramp had it right while they sat nose to nose, sharing a plate of pasta. Not only are carbohydrates our best energy source, we need that energy source to be able to train hard enough to improve our cardio-vascular and muscular fitness. Not to mention, the pair decided to share the plate of pasta, which is terrific for portion control.
Jack was so smart to plant that magic bean, which later grew into a healthy bean stock. We should all rely more on beans and think of beans as the ultimate meat substitute! They are packed with protein, filled with fiber and antioxidants, and cheaper than almost any staple in the supermarket!
I could go on and on, with Goldilocks choosing the proper portion of oatmeal, to Chicken Little being the strongest and mightiest without being pumped with dangerous hormones, to Hansel and Gretel getting locked away as punishment for eating the entire candy house, but I think you get the picture!
Have a beautiful weekend!
Andie
Friday, March 5, 2010
Something to ponder
"The key to happiness is NOT getting what you want, but wanting what you get"
"There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something better tomorrow"- Orison Marden
"It is better to have a body in shape than to obsess about the shape of your body".
"There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something better tomorrow"- Orison Marden
"It is better to have a body in shape than to obsess about the shape of your body".
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