While aerobic machines like treadmills and ellipticals surely have their place, lack of access to one doesn’t mean one can’t train effectively. Besides old standbys like jogging, swimming, walking uphill or in loose sand, and bike riding, there’s always the good old jump rope. For a couple of bucks, you can have access to one of the best aerobic/anaerobic workouts going. You don’t have to get as good as this guy to get a great workout, but he certainly is impressive to watch. And if you’re the competitive type, well, now you have a goal
A number of individuals have been promoting twice-daily eating of salmon as a way to make one’s skin appear more youthful. As far as I can tell, the advice initially appeared in a book by Dr Nicholas Perricone, and has been mentioned by a number of other health and fitness experts since then. Supposedly the healthy fats in salmon tend to tighten the skin and eliminate puffiness. A number of celebrities swear by the effectiveness of the tactic. The recommended period of eating salmon two times a day ranges from three days to one month. Wow, I dunno. I like salmon, and eat it once or twice a week, but I don’t think I could eat it twice a day for a month - or even for a week.
Anyway, the type of salmon that’s recommended is wild Alaskan salmon. If the salmon you find at the store isn’t labeled as either wild or Alaskan, it’s probably farm-raised. Farm raised salmon doesn’t have the same nutritional makeup as the wild fish, and whether you’re eating salmon to improve the looks of your skin, because it has Omega-3 fats, or just because you like it, I recommend you always avoid the farm-raised stuff. Which is what the salmon in your supermarket’s fish case is, unless it specifically says otherwise.
The problems with farm-raised salmon are myriad, and are similar to the problems that exist at all high-volume livestock raising operations, such as with cattle, pigs and chickens, today. The fish are crowded into pens, causing them to swim in their own poop, which causes diseases to spread, and that means antibiotics on a routine basis. Farmed salmon actually get more antibiotics on a per-pound basis than any other type of livestock! Also, the fish don’t get wild salmon’s natural diet, but are fed pellets. Therefore they don’t develop the traditional pinkish flesh - so they’re fed synthetic chemicals to give them that color. And because of the crowded conditions, sea lice are a large problem, not only for the farmed fish, but because the occasional farm fish will escape and bring some sea lice with it to possibly infest wild salmon living in the general area. Finally, farmed fish have been shown to have significantly higher levels of cancer-causing substances like dioxins and PCB’s than wild.
So if you decide to start eating salmon on a regular basis (and I recommend you do) go for wild Alaskan. It’s more expensive, but well worth the cost. To save money, you can buy the canned version (check the label to make sure it’s wild Alaskan, as there are a number of varieties that come in cans. Buy the 15 oz. can and it’s cheaper than canned tuna. I’d recommend rinsing it before eating to reduce the sodium content, but otherwise you have a really healthy source of protein and Omega-3 fatty acids.
After Katrina, FEMA gave the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) a couple hundred million dollars to provide “Mississippi Cottages” as replacements for the infamous FEMA trailers. From what I can tell, the Mississippi Cottages are single-wide mobile homes prettied up a little to resemble a cottage. Just recently it’s come out that testing of the air in the cottages has revealed that a high level of formaldehyde is present there too. While it’s not as high as that in the trailers, it does exceed the amount of formaldehyde that the EPA calls dangerous.
Unfortunately, the level of formaldehyde in these cottages probably isn’t much higher than what you would find if you tested any conventional newly constructed home. Since these cottages are only around 700 sq. ft., a typical new home would probably allow the formaldehyde to dissipate a little more due to the larger volume of air. But the same amount would probably be outgassed into the air by the large amounts of plywood and particleboard used in cabinetry and in furniture these days.
Plywood, particleboard and medium density fibreboard (MDF) are made from sheets or pieces of wood glued together with urea formaldehyde glue. Other coutries have set limits on the amount of formaldehyde that can be emitted from these and other products, but the US has no such laws. So unless a newer house is specifically built as “non-toxic” or perhaps “green” (the latter sometimes only focusing on energy efficiency, which can make the problem worse by not allowing the gasses to dissipate), chance are there is an unhealthy amount of formaldehyde lingering in the air.
Over the course of years (how many is up for debate) the formaldehyde will completely dissipate, so older houses that have not seen recent renovation don’t have the problem. The solution? Use only solid wood or one of the newer (more expensive) forms of plywood, particleboard etc. that use non-toxic glues for all interior cabinetry and furniture. The exterior plywood used to build actual houses uses less formaldehyde than the interior versions and is probably ok unless you’re already sick from prior exposure.
For years, health and fitness experts have been telling us that we should be drinking more water. That we shouldn’t be waiting until we’re thirsty, because by then we’re already dehydrated - so we should be sipping water all day long, regardless of thirst. Stuff like this always seems to go in cycles, so predictably, lately we’ve had some individuals saying that drinking water in excess of that required to quench our thirsts is a waste of time. As with all these things, the truth probably falls somewhere in the middle. We probably should try to drink somewhat more water than our thirst requires, but avoid becoming anal about it. What’s anal? Well, your definition may vary, but mine is when people go out for a casual stroll (not a brisk walk) in sixty-five degrees Fahrenheit for a half hour and take a water bottle along. Because they’re ‘exercising’ and you always have to drink water when exercising, right? Anyway, I’ve posted an article at The Health and Fitness Guide site about 6 legitimate reasons you might wanna drink water, and why you should just say no to water in little plastic bottles.
Hypnosis can be effective at helping one to lose weight. It seems to work especially well with people who’ve tried a number of different types of diets and haven’t succeeded. However, there are also people for whom hypnosis for weight loss has been a failure. Similar to using hypnosis for smoking, I guess. Some people attend a hypnotherapy class for smoking cessation and say they feel nothing different afterwards, while others are finally able to kick the habit after many failed attempts. Just goes to show that while we’re all built basically the same, we’re all wildly different. Anyway, there’s a new article up on the Health and Fitness Guide about using hypnosis for weight loss. Check it out!
This is pretty hard to believe even after you see it - but I guess the Guiness Book of World Records would have made sure he didn’t have any wires attached to his feet!
You probably heard or saw the coverage a few months ago about how honeybees are mysteriously dying off in such large numbers. Since there hasn’t been much, if any talk about it in the mainstream media lately, you could be excused for thinking that the bees are on the comeback trail. However, you’d be wrong. Unfortunately, the problem continues.
If somehow you missed the original stories about the problem, which has been named colony collapse disorder (CCD), you might be wondering why we care. Less bees, fewer stings, right? Well, maybe, but the honeybee does more than poke us with that stinger. A quote from no less than Albert Einstein might explain the gravity of the situation “”If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.”
There have been a number of reasons postulated for the decline, but no firm conclusions. People have theorized that it could be cell phone radiation, genetically modified crops, pesticides, Varroa mites, and the feeding of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) to the bees, among other things. Additionally, the practice of beekeepers trucking their bees thousands of miles around the country to pollinate crops has been implicated by some as a source of stress that could eventually result in this problem.
Note that all these possible reasons, with the exception of the mites, are things that have been introduced by man. It’s beginning to look like our incessant need to mess around with the natural world is finally coming back to bite us. I’m not sure what it will take before we can step back and realize that things like large-scale industrial livestock production, genetically modified crops, excessive use of HFCS, all kinds of radiation bouncing around, and so many of the other things we do without ever thinking about the ramifications are messing up the balance of our environment. Add global warming to the mix and it doesn’t look good. Since we can’t seem to do something as simple as pass a law to stop routine feeding of antibiotics to livestock, even after we’ve seen the advent of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections such as MRSA, I’m not real hopeful that we’ll get our act together in time to make a difference.
