You Are What You Eat, Do You Dig Your Grave With Your Tongue? Boost Your Immune System
March 30, 2008
I know that the headline is a oldie, but it really is a goodie and is so very true of most of us, in this age of fast takeaway foods giving us all the foods that we should not be eating if we wish to maintain good health. What you must do is have natural nutrition that will boost your immune system.
Do we eat enough foods that contain antioxidants? or do we really know what antioxidants do for our health? Antioxidants help to protect our systems against the terrible effects that free radical molecules have on our bodies healthy cells, They have been associated with premature aging and a whole spectrum of diseases such as eye problems, cancer and cardiovascular disease, they could also be the cause of a number of auto immune disorders.
You will see that antioxidants are important to our health and lifestyle. The body actually produces antioxidants as a normal part of energy production from the nutrition that we consume daily, however, we are also exposed to the effects of smoking, pollution and chemicals in what we eat and drink, unfortunately these sort of things increase the production of free radicals. What can we do to overcome these effects? the answer is simple, that is to somehow or other increase the level of antioxidants produced in the body, to overcome the extra free radicals being produced. In other words, we have to boost your immune system.
Without getting technical, the best way to do this is by eating lots of plant foods and making sure that your diet is full of these health giving foods. There are many antioxidants available in different fruits, nuts, vegetables, legumes, grains and seeds.
You should also look for color in you plant food intake, red, yellow, orange, green, this will ensure that you have a wide balance of the antioxidants needed by your body.
Some of the antioxidants that are easy to obtain in their natural form are: Vitamin E, this can be found in avocado, nuts, seeds, wholegrain and wheat germ, this can help with cardiovascular problems.
Lycopene, is found in red or pink fruits or vegetables like tomatoes, this helps in preventing cold sores, prostate cancer, and it might even help to prevent skin cancer.
Lutein, is found in green leafy vegetables, broccoli, cabbage lettuce, they help to prvent cararacts, macular degeneration and other eye diseases.
Sulphur Compounds, are found in garlic and onions, broccoli, cabbage and brussel sprouts.
I have mentioned before the huge antioxidant benefits that can be obtained from broccoli if eaten the correct way. Broccoli itself is an abundant source of antioxidants, but if you grow salad sprouts from broccoli seeds and eat them in your salad they contain about thirty times more antioxidants that broccoli eaten in the normal way. That will help your body to receive a Boost to your immune system.
This is by no means the complete list of foods that will help you produce the antioxidants, there are thousands more, but this will give you a good idea of where to start if you wish to improve your health.
Article by Alfred Jones
http://www.SugarsR4U.com
A Vitamin for Boosting your Immune System - Goji Juice.
http://www.RUSweetEnuf.com
The Eight Essential Sugars for Health - Glyconutritionals.
Debt Management ? More Ways to Save on Gas Consumption
March 30, 2008
The price of gas continues to climb, and with continued uncertainty in the Middle East, they will probably continue to do so. In California and elsewhere, prices for some grades of gas have now reached the previously unthinkable three dollars a gallon. Granted, that is lower than the inflation-adjusted prices of early 1981, but that doesn’t make anyone feel better when they’ve just paid nearly $100 to fill the tank of their sport utility vehicle.
In a previous article, we offered some solutions as to how the average consumer can either save on gas prices or use less gas. These tips included using credit cards with cashback rebates, keeping your car tuned and tires inflated, and keeping the car washed and waxed, which reduces drag. Here are a few additional tips which will help ease the strain of filling your tank.
Each of these tips offers a small saving in fuel consumption. When combined with others, they add up and can produce significant savings. If you can increase your fuel consumption by just two miles per gallon, you can save $30-40 on a 1000-mile trip in your SUV. When you’re paying $3.09 per gallon, every penny counts.
©Copyright 2005 by Retro Marketing. Charles Essmeier is the owner of Retro Marketing, a firm devoted to informational Websites, including End-Your-Debt.com, a site devoted to establishing credit, debt consolidation and credit counseling.
Need to Look Your Best in a Hurry? Tips for a Quick and Polished Look!
March 30, 2008
Start with your face: it’s your "canvas."
Have a little extra time the night before an event for which you want to look your best? Super - exfoliate your face with a mask or microdermabrasion (using the right products for your skin type and special needs) and then moisturize your skin thoroughly. Also shape and clean up your eyebrows to complement your face.
On the day of your event, perform steps two through four for healthy skin: cleanse, freshen and moisturize. (Step one is exfoliate, which you’ve done.) Your foundation and makeup apply much more smoothly and evenly over well-hydrated skin so carefully moisturize your face and eye areas.
Since the eye areas don’t produce their own moisture, apply an eye cream; it’s specially formulated for that delicate skin. (Moisturizers for the face tend to have humectants which can puff up the skin around the eyes.)
Foundation: Do you know that foundation is the fifth and "protect" step for healthy skin? Apply your foundation and finish it with powder. The powder will "set" the foundation and help it last longer so there’s less need for touch ups.
Eye primer: An eye primer allows eye color to go on more smoothly and stay in place longer without creasing and smudging.
Eye color: The simplest approach to eye color is to apply a neutral or soft shade (from the upper lashes to the brows) which will enhance or "pop" another color placed over it.
Almost as easy is another technique using two colors. Follow the eye primer with a single color from lash to brow. Then apply a second stronger or darker color over the lids and into the creases to complement the shape of your eyes. If you’re getting ready for an evening event, be more dramatic than for an event during the day.
Eye liner: Line the eyes if it enhances them, staying close to the lash lines.
Mascara: To make your eye lashes appear thicker and longer, start with the wand close to the eyes and then wiggle the wand back and forth as you move it away from your eyes. To really "open" your eyes, use an eyelash curler.
Eyebrows: A simple and natural way to emphasize the eyebrows is to brush them with a matching shade of eye color and then set the color with a gel. The gel will also help emphasize and maintain the shape of your brows.
Cheek color: For your cheek color, either smile and apply blush to the apples of your cheeks or sweep it up along your cheek bones starting two fingers away from your nose and stopping at your temples. Then blend the color gently.
Lip liner, lipstick, lip gloss: If color ‘bleeding’ is a problem, run a lip outliner pencil along the outer edges of your lips. Define your lips with a lip liner, fill in color with a lipstick and polish with gloss.
Your canvas is now a "work of art!"
© Copyright 2005 Charlotte Maddox
You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print as long as the bylines, URL and copyright are included. Please print the article in its entirety, unchanged and send a copy of the publication to charlottemaddox@marykay.com.
Charlotte Maddox is an independent beauty consultant with Mary Kay Inc. Her goals are to share her knowledge and expertise in helping clients develop skin care and beauty routines which suit their preferences and lifestyles and to save valuable time and effort in busy clients’ lives. http://www.marykay.com/charlottemaddox
Resistance to Change
March 30, 2008
All of us are resistant to change, whether it’s in using a different tool, a technique a choice in partners, or lifestyle.
The ones that resist the most have big labels like, orthodox, traditionalist, extremist. They are the defenders of the faith, of the known, and of the accepted.
Some of the rest of us are followers, disciples, and supporters; we are the middleman, the ones that support the orthodox, the traditionalist and the extremist because after all without us what would these people be defending. We are the ones the cast the deciding vote for this group and the next group which are the leaders, the explorers and the visionaries.
All of these people are grouped together on a small planet with intention, it didn’t happen by accident. What we are doing is creating chaos, and what chaos does, is drive us to create order or make sense of what it is we are doing.
In my day job, I am paired up with all of these kinds of people every day in their homes and I may spend as long as two hours in conversation with them.
I always expend a few moments with them in casual talk before I move onto the reason for me being there. It often comes out that I am a writer and teacher. The reaction is always the same; they perk up as if in they are in the presence of someone famous. They will ask me if I have published any books and when I answer yes they are even more excited. Then they ask the more enlightening question, what do I write about? There are usually only two reactions to my answer. A sudden shift to the work at hand and why I am there in the first place, or they bring out their crosses and shove them in my face as a potential victim of a vampire would hold up the cross to the beast.
There are very few that are interested enough to ask me what it is all about, which fits into my own personal policy very nicely of not giving unless asked. I write and I teach because I have a desire to learn about the subject. This is the very small group that I am interested in. It is those that want to learn and are ready to be open to new ideas that would benefit mostly from what I know. But the real benefited, is my self.
Even in this small group, if one looks closely there is still something that each individual hangs onto dearly, even if it is only his or her name.
The root cause for this resistance is fear; it is the ego that fears for its extinction. As a race of physical beings with awareness of self, we have become very comfortable in the illusion of time and space. Because in ignorance we fear that we have very little of either, we move to protect our beliefs and move in slow deliberate steps, that may take a lifetime or several to move us from one step to the next.
I have heard it many times before as I am sure you have. “What if I am wrong,” “what if I have lived my whole life believing something that is wrong?” “I can’t start over now,” it’s too late!
This is an extreme fear that freezes us in time and the fear is unfounded only in that it is born from ignorance or forgetfulness.
The one really big aspect of the notion of “unconditional love,” which is “unconditional freedom,” that I cherish the most is that I know we have this freedom to come back lifetime after lifetime to screw up our lives as many times as we desire until we have found the will to break open the paper chains that we have bound ourselves and move to the next step in our personal spiritual growth. Life does not end at the cross, the cross is a bridge to a new awareness and is only a symbol of limited thought, which all symbols are.
While I was in the kitchen just now making myself a cup of tea, I was reminded that this bid of enlightenment is meaningless, unless I give it some meaning. Spirituality or awareness is practical, you should be able to put a key into it and turn it on to work for you.
Using this knowledge I am reminded that each and every morning when I go into work and have to listen to the boss ramble on, I resist his thoughts and think that he is not living in the real world and assume that what I am experiencing in the field is the real world. I remind myself that his thoughts have merit and I rationalize that what I have been doing is working and I just don’t want to try these things. I know that my productively would increase, I just don’t want it to for various reasons. The biggest reason is fear of success; fear that with success, the lifestyle that I have become accustomed to will change. I will loose my identity and will not be able to relate to this new person that I will become. Ego always fears for its own existence and it does not want to be left behind.
Resistance is simply a slowing process, we all change whether we want to believe or like it. Resistance offers us time to adapt to new things and accept them and some of us move slower than others. Should one become aware of past and future lives, we are given reprieve from the urgency of change and resistance to it because we know that time does not exist and that we never loose our identity.
We will collectively experience everything that is, all probabilities will be explored, and the fear that we now harbour will pass as we become aware of our immortality.
The fact that all these different types of groups live together on the same planet brings chaos or movement to the planet which in turn brings change as we seek to bring order to our lives. Life is change, life cannot exist outside of change, and it is our differences that drive us forward to the next step in our evolution or awareness of that which we are. It is possible for us to be aware of change and move with it without experiencing this fear.
Resistance is something that works for us within the model that each of us has of our world and our relationship to it. Awareness breaks down resistance and moves us forward, and for each of us in our own good time.
Although I resist change myself in my physical life, spiritually I recognize that change is inevitable and I practice consideration for those that both live in the fear of change and for those that move on without me.
I understand that those that I bring into my life represent opportunities for change and I bring them to me deliberately for purpose of change. I also know that I will not always recognize them as such. I know that opportunity always knocks more than once and that I live in choice and freedom that is unconditionally mine by my very nature as a spiritual human being. This is one area that flows easily from me without all the resistance. Symbols of resistance are acknowledgements for me that I can relate to and move past from awareness of their existence, and they do not need to be changed or ignored, but simply noticed as I would notice a turn in my path or a pothole in the road.
Resistance may be a human condition, but it is also spiritual because that is what we are, and it has purpose.
Roy E. Klienwachter is a resident of British Columbia, Canada. A student of NLP, ordained minister, New Age Light Worker and Teacher. Roy has written and published five books on New Age wisdom. Roy’s books are thought provoking and designed to empower you to take responsibility for your life and what you create. His books and articles are written in the simplicity and eloquence of Zen wisdom.
You may not always agree with what he has to say. You will always come away with a new perspective and your thinking will never be the same.
Roy’s style is honest and comes straight from the heart without all the metaphorical mumble jumble and BS.
Visit Roy at: http://www.klienwachter.com
Why Teak Wood is so Popular
March 30, 2008
Why Teak Wood is so Popular
by: Joseph Miller
Why is Teak Wood so Popular?
As the days go by, teak is becoming rarer, harder to acquire and more expensive to own. Regardless, in the face of fierce competition from other types of hard woods like cedar, fir, oak, mahogany and cherry, teak wood remains one of the more popular materials to be used - especially if we’re talking about outdoor furniture. Even as the supply of teak wood dwindles, there must be a reason why teak wood continues to be the preferred staple for outdoor furniture.
The popularity of teak wood has everything to do with its weather-resistant nature and naturally shiny and beautiful color. The gentle and natural yellow-brown color provides an excellent contrast against natural green backgrounds. As mentioned, because the supply of teak is slowing down, the price of teak is quite exorbitant now but people who know wood knows that it’s worth investing in.
Many efforts have been made to find a suitable and adequate substitute for teak wood but many of them do not have the same qualities as teak wood and they always fall short of being as useful and efficient as teak. Let’s admit it, it’s kind of hard to measure up to teak wood.
One will truly appreciate and understand the reason why some furniture experts insist on having teak furniture instead of other cheaper wood-type furniture when they see the extraordinary durability of teak in harsh weather conditions. In some Asian tropical countries, building beams made of teak shines on in near-perfect condition even when the building has aged more than a thousand years. With evidence like that, it’s not at all hard to see why teak is commonly used in the construction, shipbuilding, and outdoor furniture industry. In fact, it has been shown that even when iron was introduced into the shipbuilding industry; it did not replace the high demands for teak wood.
Teak wood is considered superior to other types of hard woods because once it is weathered and seasoned, it takes a lot to crack, split, shrink or alter the shape of teak wood. Teak is definitely far more superior to oak. On top of that, teak wood has great elasticity making it a favorite type of wood to work with among craftsmen. Teak takes on a beautifully polished appearance when finished because it contains natural oils. Despite its superior strength, teak wood is not too heavy, making export of the hardwood popular.
The natural oil in teak wood is extremely aromatic. Some say the smell of teak is somewhat strange but it smells very natural and fragrant to most. In fact, the oil from teak wood is extracted in some cultures and the oil is used for medicinal purposes.
With all the obvious advantages of using teak as opposed to using other types of fancier, more available and cheaper hard woods, it’s not hard to understand why teak wood remains one of the most popular types of hard woods. It’s beauty and durability make it an excellent choice for any outdoor garden or patio.
Read all about teak at: http://www.teaksupplies.com
