Healthy B.P.M.

Monday, Monday the start day of most diets. Yes, I used the “D” word. Most people start a diet on a Monday. Is that supposed to be the official fresh new beginning day? It seems to me that if you’re really serious about healthy eating and losing weight you’d, a) not start a diet because you’ll probably stop it eventually and b) start now. Now there are some exceptions to point b. If it’s a day or two before Thanksgiving or Christmas you might as well wait, unless you’ve got resolves of steel. Or, if you’ve just checked into your cabin on a 7-day cruise you’ll feel like jumping overboard if you don’t partake in some of the goodies.This is the real world and timing is everything. I’m not advocating that you go into a feeding frenzy during vacations and holidays or event your own holidays to prolong your plans. Just be realistic and know your limitations. You know the old saying about cutting off your nose to spite your face? Once that healthy eating plan is well in place there will still be tempting times and occasions when you’ll backslide. Find the balance, indulge moderately and don’t like the backslide expand your backside. Take care and be well.

I’ve been reading books about genes.

It’s fascinating how science and technology have gone so far ahead of the layman. We use gadgets all the time and don’t understand how they work. We walk and talk and breathe with a minimal understanding of how complex our bodies can be.

In the East, we call this life and body and all processes maya. Something that is illusory as death is the only truth. In the West, we dissect life and body and processes and come to conclusions. The East-West syndrome may have disappeared but our understanding of life is minimal.

This vacation I went to my village and I had a lot of time to think and read. And I came to the conclusion that I am too caught up in ridiculous things. My understanding of anything from a gadget to an emotion is not good enough and I have decided to work on knowledge building.

Back to the genes, we have genes that determine a variety of things from tallness to how fat you can be to even how sexed up you may be. Check out the Human Genome Project if you want to know how exactly genes work in your body.

Several studies in rodents have even shown that nutrients and supplements can change the genetics of animals by switching on or off certain genes.

There is so much research going on in this field that the world will be different in a decade or so. Our approach to dealing with problems and diseases will change. The DNA mystery is the most exciting field yet and students of humanities and arts(myself included) have to stay updated on the double helix translation.

I was unable to post anything the past week due to technical difficulties on my part. Thank you for bearing with me.

I want to thank my guest bloggers who did a fantastic job of health blogging and I learnt a great deal from each of those posts by JM, Beth and Marcia.

For anyone suffering from burnout or stress at work or the homefront I fully recommend a full dose of vacation bliss. When you exchange your environment for another one, you are actually repiecing the jigsaw puzzle in your head.

I for one learnt a lot about my own personal health issues. Plus I’ve learnt how to spend more quality time with my children. It’s like I’ve healed

JM, the author of Fiction Scribe and 100 pounds to go describes how difficult facing a mirror can be for someone who is trying to lose weight…..

I was getting dressed to go out yesterday - something I actually do with a bit of pleasure now - and I stood in front of the mirror for a bit to look at myself. My pants are a little loose - just enough for me to notice. The shirt I was wearing was no longer a little too tight.

I thought for a while that I don’t look horribly overweight. I wondered what I would have looked like had I kept on gaining weight, which was easy for me to imagine because I know where my weight goes when I gain.

I didn’t like that track of thinking (more…)

Today my guest blogger is Beth Turnage. Check out her astrological predictions on Astrology Explored! She has done a fantastic piece on how star signs can play a role in one’s health…..

Many of us ignore our bodies. We look at it as a vehicle to get us where we want to go. However, the physical body has its own intelligence and lets us know when something is amiss. The minor aches and pains of daily life are not just annoying. They are signals that
there is some life issue that is being ignored.

Astrology can help you understand what your body is saying to you. Each of us has all the zodiac signs in our chart. Looking at the signs and where they are placed in your chart can help you recognize those issues that are nagging you.

A good understanding of your chart will help you recognize the areas of your life that need attention. You can get a free copy of your chart at www.astrodienst.com, or even better, consult
your local astrologer.

If you are having headaches, the issue you are facing has to do with personal courage. Aries rules the head, so look to where Aries is in your chart to see where you are shy to tread.

If you are having problems with your speech or voice, your body is telling you that you are neglecting the areas of personal wealth and comfort as these are areas covered by Taurus.

Are you working too hard?Are you not eating enough?Are you not paying attention to the bills? Itis important that you readjust your approach to taking care of yourself.

Are you having problems breathing, or with your hands and arms? The Gemini in your chart is telling you that you are not paying enough attention to communication issues. If you have neglected an important communication, or if you are spending too much time at manual activities such as typing, discomfort may manifest in your hands; look where you are avoiding to communicate and attend to that issue.

Are you having problems with your stomach? The stomach is ruled by Cancer, which is ruled by the moon. When you are having problems with your stomach you may be holding things in emotionally. It is time to take a good look at emotional issues that need release.

Are you having problems with your heart? Leo, rules the heart, and the area in life where we need to have others to pay attention to us. Look to where Leo is, and learn to ask for attention in the part of life Leo rules.

Are you having problems with your nerves and intestines? Virgo is the
sign that rules these body parts. You may be having trouble analyzing situations accurately, or you feel you are missing important details. A good hard look at those issues, perhaps with the help of a trusted friend or advisor may help put things into perspective.

Are you having problems with your kidneys or lower back? Ruled by Libra, persistent complaints in these areas displays you are having issues with making decisions and/or providing harmony and balance in your life.

Scorpio rules the procreative organs and life issues surrounding transformation. Problems with the reproduction organs signals an important need to pay attention to life issues that need a serious change in how you handle them.

Are you having problems with your liver and hips? Sagittarius rules these body parts as well as excesses of any kind. If your body is complaining to you through your liver or your hips, it is important to look at the things you do to excess that are harming you.

Capricorn rules the bone, joints and teeth and areas of life for which you need to take responsibility or need to show some sense. Often later in life, an elderly person will suffer a fall and become incapacitated because they refuse to let the responsibility of taking care of them fall to another person. A young person who breaks a bone may not be taking sensible actions and cause an accident. A clear understanding of what you are or are not responsible for is important to achieve.

Aquarius rules the circulatory system, shins and ankles and Aquarians need to
develop a sense of self as a person living in a body, instead of an intellect that is shackled by human flesh. Aquarians can be quite accident prone until they achieve a sense a union of with their physical selves.

Are your feet hurting? Pisces rules the feet and the spiritual and mystical side of life. Problems with the feet may indicate neglect of or a lack of understanding of the spiritual side of life.

The above is not intended as a substitute for medical advice. It is important to consult your physician and follow his or her advice for any condition that requires medical care.

astrology, horoscopes, zodiac, advice

I’m on vacation now….I have this bad habit of carrying around my work with me; so I’ll be posting….:)

I think most of you have forgotten about the contest on 451press…the more comments the more chance of you winning $300…so this is the time you can critique, comment or rant on my blog….I’l l be happy to see you here.

How is the walking challenge going?

Right now I’m sitting in my room as the babies sleep. vacations are now more for the kids than for me. They are excited by every new person they meet. I’m just reading and since I’m in a holiday mood; I’ll be posting more consistently from Monday. What will I do for my vacation?

DESTRESS!

Happy weekend!

I’ve been thinking.

I’m a blogoholic as in I’ve started with my write Poems In My Head blog and just yesterday I thought about doing a blog called Mom the Poet on my twins.

I’ve been reading blogs one after the other and what I noticed was that I’m not too personal when I write. Do you think Healthy B.P.M should be more personal?

What are you looking for in this blog as an audience?

I’ve been writing this blog for a long time now and I’ve learnt a lot of things in the process- like how much writing means to me and what blogging really means. It’s about interaction, networking and marketing….it’s a learning process.

Tell me what you want to read here and I will revamp my approach.

blogging

As a child I was over-protected and that’s the case with most children today. But that wasn’t the case with my parents or grandparents. They could walk endlessly without being in perpetual fear of potential rapists and cannibals.They didn’t have to worry about their friends and it was okay if they went out for a swim in the nearby pool or just hung out with acquaintances.

Parents would chuck their kids out of home.”Don’t sit around me all day!”they would say.Today there is a lot of parental surveillance that is inevitable considering all the news reports we read every day, but which could border on paranoia. Parents constantly check on their kids and their activities. Who knows they could be into drugs, in bad company, kidnapped, murdered…

A lot of this fear could result in kids resorting to more indoor sorts of recreation-T.V,video games,etc(good to a point but like all things in excess these activities can become undesirable). And that could trigger off more and more home-grown obesity.

Would kids be more content with a 1970s childhood? I think so.

If you are a size 4 in Mauritania, then chances are that you will be considered unattractive.

This story goes to prove that beauty is in the eyes of cultural perceptions. There is no golden standard.

In Mauritania girls have to be gavage(as in fattening geese for foie gras). Girls are force fed from a young age. Mauritanian love songs praise fat women, and the health ministry is trying to change all that. Husbands complain that their wives are not fat enough:) and women actually have appetite-inducing pills including cattle steroids as opposed to diet pills.

Things could be changing because of satellite channels. But it’s strange that men’s preferences from voluptuous to size zero dictate women’s own body preferences. A Mauritanian woman would probably keep the pounds to please her husband.

Until he decides to leave her if she doesn’t look like Britney Spears.

Mauritania, fat women, steroids

Mo told me in response to this post that there’s no way there’s an equal amount of prejudice about skinny people as compared to their skinnier counterparts. She quotes Fatfu:

Fat has been thoroughly politicized in a way that other body sizes haven’t, and fat hatred has become woven into every aspect of the culture. There are layers of intolerance and hatred, abusive and hyperbolic rhetoric and increasingly organized discrimination, which is aggravated by a full-blown global hysteria about fat…..

The phrase fat hatred stuck with me. Why does fat hatred exist? It could be because we have an innate sense of what is unhealthy. In school stronger kids always single out the weaker kids. There are always opposites fat against thin, talkative against shy, dominating against reluctant. The positive or more acceptable child will be healthier, confident and have an acceptable body type. The rest of the class consists of the ‘geeks’ and the ‘fatties’ and the ‘punies’ and the ’shorties’.
(more…)

While fat ranters are ranting away, where are the thin rants?

Why are fat people getting all the attention?

What about puny people, short people, excessively tall people?

What’s all this obesity hype?

I loved this passage from Cynthia’s short rant excerpt posted on Big Fat Deal

Why is it that the larger sized people get so much more media attention? Size acceptance websites tend to skew more to the plus than to the petite, and they seem to be very negative (not sure if it’s intentional or not) towards people who are really size zero.

I firmly believe that while there is prejudice against fat people there is an equal amount of prejudice against skinny people. It’s always better to have more than less, especially when it comes to a woman’s body type. And while fatter persons can be glamorized with sympathy excessively skinny people can turn into sacks of bones.

That is not right at all.

health, anorexia, skinny, size zero, prejudice against fat people, fat rant, Joy Nash

I liked this post about how moms juggle work and home:

To juggle, by definition is to hold, catch, carry, or balance precariously; almost drop, then catch and hold again. That described my life. Keeping everything up in the air was exhausting.

To balance is to maintain a state of equilibrium; equal distribution of weight, or amount.

Work-at-home moms have it good with the opportunity to make money and be at home but that has its share of stress factors too. What moms who work at home or in the office have to do is to find harmony in their life instead of try to have it all.

How do you do that? You make a checklist of what you want in your life right now.
(more…)

I read an interesting piece about what Osho had to say about why sitting in a car makes you sick. It’s true, don’t you think? All you do is sit in a car and after a long hour drive you are tired. Even when you are not driving, you are tired. Why is that?

A lot of it has to do with the resistance our body has to movement. If the car sways forward, we hold back. If the car sways to the left, we hold our ground to the right. This kind of continuous resistance makes us tired.

It’s the same thing with living. The more we use our energy to resist change, the more tired we become. If we go with the flow, we can conserve a lot of energy. Think about it the next time you are in the back seat of a vehicle and have a long journey ahead.

Osho, meditation, travel

Eating meat contributes to global warming. Surprised?

1.According to reports from the FAO of the U.N, the livestock sector contributes to greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane. These gases when in excess retain the heat in the atmosphere and cause rise in temperatures.

2.Cow manure and flaulence are an important source of methane gas. Talk about fart pollution!

3.The livestock sector also uses plenty of water and contaminates it too by way of excrement, hormones and other waste.

4.The entire world is opting for unhealthy food choices and so meat production is sky rocketing. Although no one wants to say it, the truth is going vegan is not about being picky or anorexic or diet-fashionable. It’s about going green.

This story is a must-read.

diet, vegetarianism, anorexia, green, pollution, U.N

While fat employees are turning out to be a liability to companies, research shows that they are also a liability to themselves. Apparently statistics show that obese persons are more likely to be injured during work.

According to this study:

The odds of injury in the highest obesity group as compared with the ideal body mass index group were 2.21 (95% confidence interval: 1.34, 3.53), after adjustment for sex, age, education, smoking, physical demands of the job, plant process and location, time since hire, time in the job, and significant interaction terms. Injuries to the leg or knee were especially prevalent among members of this very obese group. Research findings support an association between body mass index and traumatic workplace injuries among manufacturing employees. Workplace safety personnel might consider adding policies or programs that address weight reduction and maintenance as part of ongoing comprehensive workplace safety strategies.

Some interesting observations about why fatter people get injured include:

-Obese people find it harder to fit into protective equipment and clothing. So they don’t use it.

-Increased BMI can poop you out and that could lead to accidents.

Read Hazards:Obese Employees more Likely to be Injured on the Job

obesity, fat employees, BMI, obesity-related accidents and injuries