Taking Good Health For Granted

I’m having a flu today and I keep on thinking about how I’ve been taking good health for granted.

When I am in good health, I don’t stop to think about what a blessing that is. Instead, I complain about being lazy to exercise. I don’t exercise on those days when I am feeling fit.

Now, that I can’t stop sneezing and I’ve lost my voice, and my lips feel hot and burning because my body is slightly feverish, I wish I could do those exercises that I had been neglecting.

I was this way for about 9 months last year. Each day, I would wake up with a bad sore throat and each evening I would cough uncontrollably. I took all sorts of natural cough remedies, consulted specialists, did chest X-Rays but nothing helped and then over one week, the cough just went away by itself gradually.

How awful it is not to feel whole. To feel sick most of the time. Now, I’m sick but only for a while. When I recover, I must remind myself not to take good health for granted.

I must eat  well, get enough rest and sleep and exercise. If I don’t take care of my own body, who will? Pin It

Eat in Moderation

Have you ever gone on a diet of eating only salad all day? How about a diet of just one of those powdery “nutritious” drinks to be drunk several times a day? How about an all protein diet with no carbohydrates?
Did your diet last very long?

I am sure you will not be able to last very long on those types of extreme diets. You would be depriving yourself not only of the nutrients and energy. Even my young kids who have studied in their Science as well as Moral studies about food know that ….

1. We eat foods with carbohydrates like rice, noodles, pasta and bread in order to have energy
2. We eat foods with protein like meat and fish in order to grow
3. We eat fruits and vegetables for the vitamins to prevent sickness

In other words, we must eat a balanced diet for better health. We should also eat in moderation.



If we eat too only salad every day, we will get bored and we will be deprived of other nutrients our body needs. It will also make us crave for other foods that our body needs.



On the other hand, if we eat a feast everyday, we will be having more than what our bodies need. It will make us put on weight. Being overweight is not a good thing for health.

What we need to do is to eat a balanced diet and to eat everything in moderation. If you are trying to lose weight, then you should cut down everything, eat everything but in moderation instead of cutting down on just one group of food.

It is better to eat healthily all the time then to go on quick fix-it diets. There is no such thing as a quick fix-it diet. They are detrimental to your health.

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Sleep

Exercise is a good idea and a healthy diet is important but sleep, sound quality sleep is absolutely critical for good health. How do we sleep? How do you improve your sleep? How do you get to sleep? How do you fall asleep and stay asleep? How do you "sleep like a baby" in a perfectly relaxed slumber?


I have read many books about sleep and many of them have many remedies that I have tried on and off over the years to try to have better sleep. I will share with you those that worked for me during the times when I was having bad sleep. 





At different points of my life, I have had varying quality of sleep. When I had bad sleep, most likely the cause was...

• bodily discomfort
• thinking - one thought will lead to another and sometimes I find that I have been awake half the night and almost till dawn!
• poor routine

These are the 3 top reasons why I have bad sleep, so I have come to conclude that to have better sleep, one must...

Make yourself as comfortable as possible. 

• Set your room to the best temperature that is most comfortable for you. Not too hot and not too cold. Changes in temperature will wake you up too so try to get the best temperature then make it constant throughout the night. Fans etc with a timer are not a good idea because when the fan turns off, you will feel hot and wake up.
• Get comfortable pillows and bedding
• No noise please. A quiet room is best for aiding sleep.
• No lights. We're supposed to sleep in the night so a dark room is best. No night light is better. 

Go to sleep when you are tired.

• I sleep better when I am tired because I don't get to think. When I start thinking about my day or the 101 things that I have to do the next day or the 101 things that I didn't manage to do, then my trail of thoughts will continue leading from one thing to another, quite often ending in something totally different from what I was originally thinking off. 
• Leave thoughts and planning for the day. If there is something that you wish to remember, then write it down before sleep.
• No afternoon naps. That makes me less tired and more likely to think about my day and the 101 things I didn't do.

Have a good routine

I am a night person, having been "trained" to sleep that way for most of my life. I am no early bird. Since my children started school, I have had to change my routine in order to get up early. I find that routine helps.

• Go to bed at the same time
• Establish a bedtime routine. Do the same things before sleeping
• Don't go to sleep later and get up later during the weekends. It really disrupts your sleep routine.

Take care of yourself

• If you have some bodily discomfort like a rash, or itchy eyes or ears or a sensitive nose. Take care of those areas first, try to resolve those issues. It will improve your sleep.

Don't think too much about how hard it is to sleep and how little sleep you are getting

• This is probably the hardest part but I think it helps not to worry about how bad your sleep is or how little sleep you are getting and how you will be able to catch up with sleep
• Don't watch the clock when you are unable to sleep. That will make you think about how little sleep you are getting! Which will get your thoughts going into full gear and once your thoughts are moving along, very soon you will find that you are thinking of all sorts of things and sleep will then be evasive. 

 Thoughts are my biggest barrier to sleep.

Does reading help?

• For me reading does not help. It makes me even more wide awake because a book quite often catches my attention to read more and more unless the book is boring but why would I want to read a boring book?

Does a hot drink or a hot bath help?

• I guess a hot drink and a hot bath makes you more comfortable and creates a routine which helps overall. However, when you have bad insomnia, you may feel frustrated if a hot drink and a hot bath does not help you fall asleep. For me, these things help to make me more comfortable, relaxed and can be a good bedtime routine but I must go to sleep when I am sleepy so that my thoughts don't get in the way.

Lastly, if all else fails, consult a doctor. Don't take matters in your own hands. I wish everyone reading this a good night's sleep. 

   

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Vegetable Juice Recipes

Yesterday, I shared this vegetable juice recipe:

Vegetable Juice with spinach.
I used:

1. Cucumber
2. Celery
3. Spinach
4. Apple

Vegetable Juice with tomato

Sometimes, I add a tomato to the above vegetable juice recipe to give it an extra tangy taste. So I use...

1. Cucumber
2. Celery
3. Spinach
4. Apple
5. Tomato

Vegetable Juice with broccoli

At other times, I replace the spinach and cucumber with broccoli like this..

1. Broccoli
2. Celery
3. Apple
4. Choy Sum (Chinese Flowering Cabbage)

It is very easy to make your own vegetable juice recipe. You can try any combination you like by adding or replacing vegetables like this. Once, I tried ginger but I didn't like it. I think it should only be used sparingly because the taste of ginger is so strong.

I almost always add only one fruit, that is apple to my vegetable juices. Apple is sweet so I try not to have too much of it. Usually, just one apple to whatever vegetables that I am juicing to give it a sweeter taste. I like celery too. It too has a strong taste but it makes the juice taste more interesting. The Chinese Cabbage has an almost bitter taste but it is dark green and leaf so I like it in my juice but I do not use too much of it.

If you want to know more about Chinese Cabbage and other Asian Vegetables, read this interesting article on the Sydney Morning Herald "Can't tell pak choy from buk choy? Demystifying Asian Greens."

I always peel off the skin of my vegetables and fruits before juicing. Yes, it is a pity because I will lose most of the vitamins that way but I have no choice really. I prefer not to take the risk of taking something with loads of vitamins but laden with wax or pesticides. So I peel the skin, always. 

Happy Juicing!

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Juicing Vegetables

Today I will share one of my vegetable juice recipes in pictures. My vegetable juice recipe is not precise as I will not mention how many stalks or leaves of vegetables I used. I think it depends on the amount you wish to make as well as your personal taste and preference.

Here are the ingredients I used in my Vegetable Juice.

1. Apple

2. Cucumber

3. Spinach

4. Celery

That is my vegetable juice, all done. :)

All the green vegetables you see in the first picture above yields two cups of fresh and pure vegetable juice. I do not mix with any water or ice.

Here is another closer look at my pure green vegetable juice. Does it look healthy or yuckky to you? It tastes quite nice actually, once you get used to the taste. Vegetable juice is an acquired taste just like any other foods or drinks.

Finally, here are the vegetable leftovers from the juicing. A bit of a pity isn't it? All that lovely greens and fibre. Anyway, I couldn't eat that much of vegetables in one sitting. 

Most importantly, I don't just drink my vegetables, I eat them as well. I drink vegetable juices in addition to eating my greens. They are not meant to be a replacement but rather to increase my intake of vegetables especially raw vegetables. 

  

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Best Music to Sleep To

Sleep is essential to us. How to you get good sleep? Will listening to music help? What is the best music to sleep to? I guess it depends from individual to individual and personal preference and of course the choice of music.

For me, it is definitely soft piano background music. No vocals. Vocals distract me. Some prefer to listen to sounds of nature like the falling rain or the sound of river flowing or of ocean waves at the seashore. Those distract me too but there are others who prefer to listen to white noise or sounds like these.

Whatever it is, music helps us to relax and in turn that may help us to go to sleep better. By concentrating on the sounds or music, we free our minds from our thoughts that delay sleep.

This relaxing piano music from YouTube is my personal favorite. It is called First Love by Utada Hikaru. It never fails to relax me. I like to listen to it after a good exercise too. It is very relaxing.




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Is the Neti Pot Safe?

Like anything else to do with self hygiene it is very important to keep your Neti Pot clean so that the Neti Pot does not get contaminated.

It is also very important not to share your Neti Pot with anyone else. It is very personal, just like a toothbrush or a comb. 

Lastly, don't push the spout too far up your nose, keep the water warm (not hot!), get the amount of salt just right (not too much) and don't blow your nose too hard to prevent the water from entering the ear canal.

Most importantly, see a medical doctor if you have any infections and consult your doctor about the use of a Neti Pot before you start using one. Never use anything on your own without medical consultation or advise.

Related posts:

1.  What is a Neti Pot

2.  Types of Neti Pot

3.  How to Use a Neti Pot
4.  How often to Use the Neti Pot

  

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