Foods To Eat For Clear Skin

Have you ever heard the popular phrase "You are what You eat"? Whether you like it or not your diet will reflect on your skin. Eat healthy food, and you will look healthy. Eat junk food, you won't be looking good. That is why it is important to know the right foods to eat for clear skin. This article will help you get on the right track of skin care, because it is not all about using creams and products; the most basic skin care begins by eating right. First you should know that a diet for the overall health of the body is the best place to start, and in most cases that is enough for your skin, unless you have a deficiency of some type. But there are certain foods you must eat in order to keep your skin looking healthy, young and radiant. Start by cutting junk food. People who eat junk food gain weight, have a pasty complexion and even bad hair. I know it is hard at first, but you can start little by little, always walking towards your goal. And please, don't get into yo-yo diets. By gaining and losing weight constantly, your skin will stretch, and then remain saggy. Fluids Fluids are essential to our skin diet because they help moisturize the skin. Experts recommend that we should drink 6 to 8 glasses of water throughout the day, but don't fall in the trap of drinking the 8 glasses in the morning, you should rationalize them and drink them in a natural way. Don't replace water for coffee or sodas. Caffeine is a diuretic (tends to increase the discharge of urine). Reduce your intake of coffee or tea to a maximum of 2 per day. Also don't drinking too much water 2-3 hours before going to bed to avoid morning puffiness and skin stretch. Alcohol is bad, avoid it at all costs if possible. Essential Fatty Acids Also called EFAs, they are obtained from food, because our bodies can't produce them. There are two classes of EFAs: Omega 3 and Omega 6. For our skin Omega 3 is the one we need. EFA's should account for a 15% of our calorie intake, and can be found on: * Sardines * Tuna * Salmon * Nuts * Seeds and their oils (ground flaxseeds) * Prawns * Soya beans Reducing the intake of saturated and processed fats is very important if you want the EFAs to work. These fats cancel its effects. Antioxidants Antioxidant nutrients protect us from infection and can prevent us from degenerative diseases such as cancer or heart disease. These nutrients are found in Vitamins A, C, E and some B complex vitamins; and minerals selenium, manganese and zinc. Antioxidants play a key role destroying free radicals (electrochemically unbalanced molecules that are produced within our bodies by chemicals, too much sun exposure and stress). Free radicals damage collagen, and collagen is what keeps our skin elastic. We can find antioxidants in: * Berries * Black grapes * Brazil nuts * Broccoli * Carrots * Cherries * Chestnuts * Hazelnuts * Kale * Raisins * Papaya * Peas * Peppers * Prunes * Spinch * Sweet potatoes * Tomatoes Iron Iron is used for the formation of hemoglobin. A deficiency in iron brings anemia, and this shows up in our bodies by a pale complexion and dark circles under the eyes. Iron is best processed from animal food but can be found also in some vegetables. The best sources of iron are * Red meat * Seafood * Liver * Eggs * Spinach Vitamin A Vitamin A helps in the formation of new cell, this keeps our skin supple and is vital for our eyes and hair. If you are lacking of Vitamin A, your skin will be dry and flaky. It is manufactured by our bodies from beta-carotene and can be found in: * Whole milk * Whole butter * Liver * Oily fish * Eggs * Dark orange vegetables (carrots, sweet potatoes, winter squash) * Dark green vegetables (broccoli, spinach, kale) Vitamin C Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant, essential for the production of collagen (the elastic tissue in our skin that declines with age). Every time you are smoking, under stress or under too much sun exposure, your are draining vitamin C from your body, so it is best to avoid these situations in excess. Vitamin is found in: * Citrus fruits (orange, lemon, grapefruit, lime) * Tomatoes * Potatoes * Papaya * Broccoli * Brussels sprouts * Black currants * Kiwi * Strawberries * Peas * Cauliflower Vitamin E Another antioxidant, Vitamin E has a powerful action against the damage of free radicals. This vitamin helps our skin retain its moisture, and a lack of it brings premature wrinkles, pale skin, acne, easy bruising and slow wound healing. Vitamin E can be found in: * Vegetable oils * Nuts and seeds * Peanut butter * Wheat germ * Whole grains * Avocados * Sweet potatoes Vitamin B complex Keep your skin moist and smooth with Vitamin B complex. It releases energy from food for skin metabolism. This can be found in: * Milk * Oily fish * Poultry * Red meat * Offal * Eggs * Bananas * Soya beans * Whole grain * Wheat germ * Peanut butter * Fortified breakfast cereals Beta-carotene Beta carotene is the plant form of the vitamin A, converted by our bodies. It protects us from the aging effect of the sun and can be found in: * Dark green vegetables (spinach, broccoli, watercress) * Orange fruit and vegetables Selenium Perfect for protection against free radicals and to counter dry skin. Selenium along with vitamin E support the immune system. Found in: * Cereals * Meat * Offal * Seafood * Eggs * Cheese * Brazil nuts * Whole grains * Mushrooms * Beans * Molasses * Wheat germs Zinc Zinc is another mineral vital to the immune system. It manufactures collagen and speeds up healing in our bodies, included skin. A deficiency produces stretch marks, a dull complexion, white spots on fingernails, dandruff and stubborn blemishes. Zinc can be found on: * Seafood * Red meat * Cheese * Brewer's yeast * Whole grains * Mushrooms * Offal * Eggs * Turkey and nuts As you see there are many components in our diets that can help our skin. Instead of making yourself a diet just for skin care, make one that works for the health of your overall body, and then, if you find a deficiency you will know what foods you need to eat to keep your skin clear and good looking. It's all about balancing your diet.

Do you always feel tired?

If you always feel tired then it's no doubt frustrating, however, you can relax safe in the knowledge that you're not the only person suffering from this condition. I have suffered from fatigue for years. Tiredness affects many people in today's modern society in every country in the world and I often hear my mates complaining about being tired. Most people use stimulants to give themselves an energy boost. Many people use energy drinks, caffeinated and sugary drinks as they feeling it gives them a boost. Coffee is by far the most popular stimulant in use at fighting tiredness. As a student my liquid intake consisted mostly of coffee (and a little alcohol of course!). If you are tired in the morning, then a cup of coffee might be enough to motivate you. However, if you are always tired then stimulants are unlikely to work, they can actually cause you to be more tired because you are forcing your body to work harder. If you are tired all of the time then you need to treat the condition rather than the symptom. Coffee is thought to relieve the tiredness symptoms, right? So why would it cause more tiredness? Even if you know that you're tired, a cup of coffee will force your body into working more. Caffeine triggers a type of gland, the adrenal gland, to produce adrenalin. The effects of this release of adrenalin are short lived, they won't last long. They will help you to feel better for a little while. After the effects have worn off you will feel worse than before as your body is even more exhausted. When you feel tired you may feel the need to enjoy another cup of coffee, you see it's a vicious circle! It's easy to get caught up in the coffee drinking cycle, thinking it will make you feel better. Everybody at work does it. You can see the queue forming in the kitchen prior to a long meeting to ensure they get their caffeine fix. However, as a result of your coffee addiction it will make you feel worse, also the coffee can make you irritable and cause you to endure headaches. If you're always tired then coffee won't help you, it only works as a temporary pick me up. Stimulants only mask the symptoms of the tiredness, they do not actually treat the condition at the root of the problem. And so even though the symptoms are being treated, it won't help you. Stimulants will cause you to continue pushing your body too hard, it just can't continue doing what it's doing at the moment and so you will be left suffering from chronic tiredness. If you're always tired then it's important to stop doing whatever you're doing to make yourself tired. You should stop drinking coffee! Of course you should probably try to wean yourself off the coffee rather than quitting cold turkey. If you can't give up coffee completely then you should at least cut down the amount you drink. Try to reduce the amount that you drink every day. Of course few people actually want to do this for one reason or another. Drinking coffee becomes a sociable habit which you partake in with work colleagues, friends and family. If you're not willing to cut down on your coffee intake then you should at least drink your coffee at the same time each day. This really does make a difference, as your body will get used to this. Your body knows when it will be getting its coffee fix, and so adapts and is ready to accept this. This reduces some of the negative effects caused by coffee. Now if you need an extra incentive to cut out your coffee then here goesIf you drink too much coffee then it can actually cause an iron deficiency known as anemia, vitamin deficiencies, or adrenal exhaustion. None of those really sound like a walk in the park now do they?!

How You Can Beat Your Next Binge

When you suffer from Binge Eating Disorder, you are in constant need of different ideas to help you curb a binge. Times get tough and sometimes doing the same thing over and over doesn't work like it used to. I know this from experience. I struggled with Binge Eating Disorder for over eight years. Eight years of my life that was spent thinking about my next binge. Eight years of my life that took away from the person that I really was. Eight years of isolating myself from the people that loved me the most. Eight years that stole my personality away from me. Eight years of being absolutely miserable and hating myself. Eight years way too long to deal with Binge Eating Disorder. I have been fully 100% recovered for close to three years now. Throughout my battle with Binge Eating Disorder, I discovered some tricks that really helped me stay on track. The next time that you are looking to curb a binge, try some of these suggestions. I truly believe that practicing these tricks will help you little by little to curb an upcoming binge and bring you that much closer to living your life binge-free! Say goodbye to Binge Eating Disorder! First of all, as hard as it may be, do not focus on any sort of dieting. I believe that the cycle of dieting, which includes depriving yourself of certain foods will only cause you to binge on those foods, thus perpetuating the binge cycle over and over. Focus on healing yourself and forming a healthy relationship with food. Do not focus on calories, fat, carbohydrates, or any of that right now. When you have established a healthy relationship with food again, then you can begin to think about losing any weight that you gained. If you want to read labels so that you can make healthier choices and be more informed, that is one thing. If you are going to obsess about the labels, I would suggest you not doing this yet. While I was binge eating, I tried to think about how certain foods would nourish me. I knew that healthier foods would benefit me more than eating junk (binge food). I started to implement thinking about the balance of eating whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and protein in every meal. When I focused on getting these items into my daily food intake, there was no room to eat the foods that I used to binge on. When I go out to dinner or if I eat at home, I make sure to eat a dinner salad before my meal. I would much rather get full on spinach lettuce and vegetables, if it meant that it would help curb any hunger that could lead me to binge. While eating out, if I order a regular entrée, I either split it with someone, or only eat half of it. Otherwise, I will order an appetizer since it is a smaller portion. When I use to binge eat, I hardly exercised. Eventually I started to put into practice small things that would provide some kind of exercise for me like parking far away from where I was going instead of trying to find an upfront spot. At least a further walk in a parking lot will count for something! If I was going to a particular store in the mall, I would park at the opposite end of where the store was located. This meant that I had to walk through the whole mall to get to the store of my choice. Again, every little bit helps. I learned this next trick from a forum that I regularly visit online. One of the things that I binged on very regularly was chips. I learned to visualize the ingredients that make up the food that you want. So whenever I wanted chips, I would think about the ingredients that went in to making chips. When I started to think in terms of partially hydrogenated soybean oil, a ton of salt, and potatoes that were probably covered in dirt the appeal was not there for me anymore. Who wants to eat a dirty potato, a bottle of oil, and many handfuls of salt? Not me! Whenever I ate at a restaurant and was full but still had food on my plate in front of me, I would put my napkin over my food so that I didn't have to be reminded that there was still food for me to consume. If this didn't work (because really how hard is it to remove the napkin and eat), I would pour salt, pepper, and anything else that I could find on top of it so that I was guaranteed to be finished eating. Whenever I ate at home and was full, I would douse my food with Windex or some kind of cleaner so that I was sure not to eat anymore of it. Of course, you could throw the food in your trashcan, but it still might be tempting for you to fetch it from inside the trash. I learned to make a list to take to the grocery store and did my best to stick to that list. Another important thing that I learned is to go to the grocery store after eating a meal. If I went on an empty stomach, I would end up buying a ton of junk because everything looked good to me. I never kept the foods that I binged on in the house. Never. It's impossible for me to eat a binge food when I don't have it. When I binged, I did not eat breakfast on a regular basis. Sometimes I would have breakfast and sometimes I wouldn't. When I started eating breakfast every single day, no matter what the day's activities were, it helped jumpstart my day and helped curb my binges because I wasn't ravenous by lunchtime. I always kept healthy snacks in my purse when I wasn't at home. This helped me to continue my regular snacking without having to find food while I was out. The times that I forgot to bring my snacks were the times when I would have a fast food binge or eat foods that did not give me the nourishment I needed. I would get fuller faster when I drank a full glass of water before each meal. This tended to fill me up a lot so that I didn't eat as much. If I had a craving for an unhealthy binge type of food, I would make a healthier version of it at home. For example, if I wanted a bean burrito, instead of going to Taco Bell, I would make black beans and guacamole at home and put it on a whole wheat tortilla with some salsa. At least I was not ignoring my craving only to binge on that food later. Making a healthier version of my craving at home never made me feel deprived and I didn't give myself the option of ordering a bean burrito plus a lot more food from Taco Bell. I learned to never buy a binge food in a big quantity. If I wanted chips, I would buy a small package of single serving chips instead of a whole bag. If you like chocolate, buy the smallest serving that you can find so that it is gone once you eat it and there is no room for going back for more. Finally, something that really helped me curb binges was to create a routine of eating that I could stick to for the majority of the time. This meant that I ate breakfast, sometimes a mid-morning snack, lunch, a mid-afternoon snack, dinner, and sometimes a snack after that. When I ate every few hours instead of just when I felt hungry, my body felt full and I didn't binge as much. The times that I did wait until I felt hungry proved to be disastrous for me. I would end up eating at least double the amount that I would have if I stuck with my regular routine or I would binge. I hope that some of these tricks really prove to be helpful to you and to ending Binge Eating Disorder.

7 Rituals To Improve Your Life and Business

What do Valentine's Day, Christmas, dating, dinner and a movie, marriage and couples have in common? Rituals. A ritual is defined as 'any method of doing something in which the details are always faithfully repeated.' To relate this to your life, rituals include: the time you wake up, how your brush your teeth, the route you take to work - you get the idea. Rituals give life meaning and help us celebrate milestones in our lives. They offer security, stability and routine and a sense of calmness to an otherwise chaotic existence. Rituals date back thousands of years with the ancient Egyptians. Theirs was a culture seeped in traditions. Eating, drinking, bathing, hunting and burying the dead were a succession of rituals. Over centuries, mankind lost the importance of rites. However, many of us in the 21st century are reconsidering traditions and adding them to our lives as we desperately seek meaning during this increasingly shallow and disconnected time. If you want to relax, enjoy your life and feel more connected to others, consider adding rituals to your life. Try these seven secrets: 1. Create a morning ritual to help you wake up refreshed and ready to tackle your day. You might get up a few minutes early to: read, walk your dog, jog, play an instrument, write, do yoga - it doesn't matter, just claim this time as your own. That way you have time for yourself and don't feel resentful if your day is hectic. 2. When you're at work, create a ritual to start your day. This might include: having a coffee at your desk, checking your PDA for appointments, not answering phonecalls for 15 minutes while you read and respond to urgent emails. You might also: set an agenda for the day, plan goals for the week...the list is endless. 3. At work, find ways to meet colleagues and socialize during a lunch hour instead of running a million errands. Also, if you're challenged and need help, you'll have some friends that can work with you. If you work alone, join a network group that is conveniently located near you, cost efficient and helps you build your business. Make it a ritual to attend the meetings and meet new people and create a ritual to record new contacts. 4. Create time saving rituals for work. For example, only check email three times a day, organize your files, file away unused papers as soon as possible; create 'time boundaries' where you can't be interrupted. Close the door, let the message machine take a call, get up and take mini breaks every 90 minutes (for productivity). 5. At the end of a busy week, designate a night as Movie or board game night with friends or family. If being at home doesn't excite you, you could sign up for sports and get out your weekly frustrations. The key is to make time for something special once you complete work; this offers you a buffer to help ease you through a hectic week as you have something to look forward to doing. 6. Create home rituals to ease into your time off. These rituals may include a half hour nap before you start dinner, a walk with your dog, watching your favorite T.V. show, etc. Be sure to add play to your list. Include ways to decompress, times to exercise, time with your partner, friends, family and time alone. 7. Create self-care rituals that put your needs first. If you think this is selfish, consider the rules on airplanes. Parents have access to oxygen masks before their children so they can care for their family in the event of an emergency. You're no good to anyone if you're exhausted, resentful or angry because you don't have time for yourself. For example, get enough rest, make time for things you enjoy such as: walking, yoga, working out at the gym, playing an instrument, biking, reading, writing...whatever makes you happy.

Escape The Pace: 15 Golden Minutes To Relaxation At Work And Home

"On the keyboard of life, always have one finger on the escape key." - Anonymous It's a miserable, cold Tuesday morning and you've slept through your alarm again. You race through the first part of your morning and then hit the highway like an Indy 5oo racecar driver. Your heart pounds, road rage builds and you fantasize about ditching work, returning to bed, and pulling that cozy duvet high over your head. Instead, you go to work, with the full knowledge that overwhelming tasks will undoubtedly inundate you. It's precisely at that moment you dream of cloning yourself like Michael Keaton did in the movie, Multiplicity. The film focuses on a time-stressed man who can't keep up with work and home demands, so he enlists the help of scientists and produces a clone of himself so he can be in two places at once. Everything appears fine until he realized the copy has duplicated itself to achieve more. To make matters worse, the third version is less effective, like a photocopy of a photocopy. Who hasn't dreamt of having an identical twin slide into their life for a day or two? As the world spins faster and faster, the hours in the day seem to shrink. In the early 1980s, a U.S. physician called the phenomena 'time sickness' and used it to describe the belief that time is getting away and we don't have enough of it, and one must move faster to catch up. This preoccupation with time didn't happen overnight; it commenced with the advent of the calendar. Ancient nomadic civilizations used a calendar to determine when to plant and harvest crops, and when to relocate their villages. The ability to measure time was important for the survival of these cultures. Once we discovered how to measure years, months, weeks and days, we were free to slice time into smaller increments such as: hours, minutes and seconds. This measurement of time became important after the Industrial Revolution. The factories that popped up across North America used to monitor an employee's productivity, loyalty and work ethic. It wasn't uncommon for workers to spend more than 12 hours a day in factories. Now fast-forward to the 21st century to where companies sink of float based on the clock. Couriers would never survive if time wasn't a key to the success of their business. Imagine what would happen if they told a major client his important documents for a proposed business deal would arrive sometime in the near future? Consider companies and corporations that push their products into the market before their competitors? Would they survive if they had a laissez-fire attitude? People believe our 'need for speed' is a 21st invention. It's not. Our lives move quickly due to centuries of time focus and a large dash of new technology. Mix these ingredients together and you've got a recipe for disaster. Since technology is fast, we pressure ourselves. Communication is immediate, so we must be too. We fear being labeled as 'techno-snubbers' (people who ignore technology and aren't 'with it.') It's not acceptable to return a phone call a few hours later; we must phone back within the hour. We can't take our vacation and leave our computers at home; we must keep wired so we don't lose that unpredictable client. To catch-up, we stay up late, work overtime, eliminate exercise and skip meals. Our health suffers and our mental state isn't much better. Resentment, road rage and lack of patience for others become our mainstay. If you think you don't suffer from stress or time constraints, consider how many times you've misplaced your keys, blatantly driven five blocks without remembering if you traveled through a red light, or placed your coffee cup on your car's roof before driving to work. We're all guilty, and it stems from sleep deprivation, stress and multi-tasking throughout our days. We're not living in the moment because we're thinking about the next great thing we must accomplish. I know about stress and the need for speed because I'm a recovering "speed-aholic." Years ago, I worked as an advertising consultant for a daily newspaper and was proud of the speed at which I conducted my life. I walked, talked and drove fast. Ironically, I only received one speeding ticket and that was while keeping pace with the other traffic. Another time, I was late for work and placed my purse on top of my vehicle so I could load supplies into my car. In my hasted to race to the office, I drove away with the purse on the roof. I received a call from a woman who found my purse on a busy street. Things went from bad to worse when my husband and I bought a high-end menswear store during a recession. We hired a wonderful employee to help us through Christmas and beyond and on the fourth day of this man's work, he passed away of a heart attack in our store. I went on to work six days a week, manage two small children and do everything to keep the store going. I got sick. For one year, I was severely ill and I knew, like many people, I couldn't make any drastic changes to my life. I didn't have the luxury of quitting my career and scaling back, so I decided to change my attitude about stress. I read dozens of books for the next few years and talked to many people about stress and solutions. Months later, my depression lifted and I felt happy, fairly healthy and energized. Best of all, I discovered a wonderful antidote for speed - slowing down and escaping the pace. "If slowing down and relaxing seems ludicrous, remember that everything in nature needs downtime to rest and rejuvenate. Why should humans be any different?" I have a beautiful peach tree that grows near the back window of my house. In the first week of August, the tree's branches are laden with plump and juicy, yellow and pink fruit that's warm to the touch. This tree doesn't always yield abundant fruit; every second year, it reduces its amount. Like breaks in the rhythm of music, or the poignant lull in conversation, and like the peach tree, we need to pause throughout our day to rest and recharge ourselves. Our greatest innovations and discoveries are made when people slow down and temporarily pause in life. Now imagine how different our lives would be if Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Edison or Albert Einstein had found themselves too busy to record their magnificent findings. Decades ago, peace activist, Mahatma Ghandhi said, "There is more to life than increasing its speed." "When you take 15 minutes to rest, walk or just 'be,' you deal more effectively with stress and challenges. If you approach each moment in a calm state, issues resolve easily and your life feels serene. " Escaping the pace is about putting your needs first and being sure to take a mini holiday every day. When you practice this philosophy for 30 days, you'll automatically make time for mini retreats. The definition of a quick retreat is anything that takes 15-30 minutes. Of course you can have longer retreats that take an hour or a day, but this may be difficult if you lead a busy life. Even in the busiest life, there are small hidden pockets of 'free time.' This time can be used for: • reading • walking, outdoor exercise • working out at the gym or doing yoga • sleeping in late • dancing • playing an instrument • eating something delicious • seeing a movie • visiting friends • going on a weekend excursion • taking a sick day to do a hobby Your time should allow you to slow down, relax and live in the moment. For example, how much time do you waste waiting in the doctor's office? There, you might try reading a novel, listening to music on your MP3 player, watching people or deep breathing. Speed isn't the enemy; it is knowing when one must slow down to put balance in one's life. Some things shouldn't be slow, like the Internet and slow drivers in the fast lane. Balance is about knowing when to travel 110 km/h and when to drive off the freeway for a mini holiday. And, everyone's idea of balance will vary greatly.

The Best Time to Do Anything: What You Need To Know to Operate at Your Best

It's 3:00 in the afternoon and you've still got two hours of work to go...and you crave a nap. Your blood sugar is low, your eyelids, heavy and you're feeling the effects of another late night. How will you get through the next two hours? Before you rush out to Starbucks for that low fat, vanilla cappuccino to boost your energy, you should learn more about body clocks and the best time to get your creative work done. It turns out that everyone has an internal time-keeper called the circadian clock. This natural clock is sensitive to light, moon cycles, stress, meal times and the seasons and it's so ingrained that it's in every cell in our body. And, most of us are more similar than we think when it comes to sleep and wake cycles - we only vary by minutes a day. Although light, stress, meals, temperature and exercise affect our circadian clock, these events only hamper the clock temporarily and then our bodies realign to a basic schedule. Knowing this makes it easier to know the best time to be creative, lift weights, eat a larger meal, exercise and minimize stress. The only people who really have a challenge with their body clocks are shift workers because they're fighting the clock. Their circadian clock is thrown out of phase with the light-dark cycles or sleep-wake cycles. But the same thing can happen every year when the seasons change. Research shows that bedtimes vary but people tend to get up in the morning around the same time year round because their children, pets, or careers demand it. The discrepancy between day length and the daily grind might explain why some people suffer from seasonal affective disorder (SAD). If modern society doesn't pay attention to natural rhythms, it's because we're less sensitive to the seasons than many creatures on the planet. We ignore the seasons and rise when we need to, not when the day naturally begins. Studies show that seasonal affective disorder can be easily remedied by going to bed when the sun goes down or at least rising when the sun does, instead or getting out of bed when it's dark. Just as seasons go in cycles, our bodies go in cycles and have high and low points. If you want to know the best time to write that report, study the circadian basic clock and see how close your body is to following this basic blueprint. Check out our basic circadian clock schedule: 6:45 am - Sharpest blood pressure rise (sleep to waking state) 7:30 am - Melatonin secretion stops (time to get up) 10:30 am - High alertness (great time for important, detailed work) 12:00 noon 2:30 pm - Best coordination (best time for operating heavy machinery, driving) 3:30 pm - Fastest reaction time (driving, work that involves quick response) 5:00 pm - Greatest cardiovascular efficiency and muscle strength (best time to pump iron, run) 6:30 pm - Highest blood pressure (bad time to start an argument, get stressed) 7:00 pm - Highest body temperature 9:00 pm - Melatonin secretion begins (good time to read, relax, and wind down from the day) If you have an important project to get done in a day, you might want to focus on it around 10:30 in the morning. According to the circadian clock, the majority of people are most alert at 10:30 am. This is why answering emails, planning your day and doing less high brain activity should be done first thing in the morning (besides helping you plan your day). By the time you reach 10:30, you can delve into that elaborate assignment because your brain will be at its peak for functioning. By noon, however, hunger sets in and your alertness fades. At 1:00 pm, alertness fades as food is being digested and blood flow from the brain is being used in the digestive process. You may find yourself sleepy around this time. Although it's not mentioned in the chart, the human brain is hard-wired to take a 20-minute nap after lunch. If this is something you can do, you'll find your afternoon productivity level spikes again. If you suffer from the '3 pm slump,' it's often because you didn't get enough sleep the night before. Remedy this with a glass of water and a high protein snack (not coffee or chocolate) and you'll get to the end of your day. Coffee and chocolate may give you a quick 'burst' of energy due to caffeine and sugar, but you'll sink even quicker later in the day. And, you may have trouble sleeping if you consume caffeine late in the afternoon. You can survive the 'slump' by choosing to do lower brain activities such as: returning calls, filing paperwork, anything that doesn't require sharp brain skills. And, if you have to complete a complex project, go slow, pay attention and take a walk to wake up if you're feeling drowsy. Sometimes just a change of scenery ignites your dwindling energy reserves. The next time you're exhausted, or frustrated and you have a project to complete, think about your internal clock, plan your work around the ebbs and 'go with the flow.'

Stress For A Woman: How To Manage It

Every woman has their own method of relieving stress. Some methods are healthier than others. You may have adopted your own method of woman stress relief tips from your mother. You may have adopted it from your culture, such as yoga or Zen. Both of these methods are excellent ways of relieving stress. Yoga is a great way to not only manage stress, but also strengthen and tone your body with its stretching and flexing. With Zen, on the other hand, you quiet your body and meditate, or focus your mind on a single thing. What you meditate on is determined by your own convictions. Stress can also be managed many other ways, such as through deep breathing exercises, taking a short walk or other light exercise, reading a good book, watching a good movie, getting out into nature, or listening to a relaxing CD. Other stress management methods include less well-known modes such as acupuncture and hypnosis. However, these methods need to be administered by a professional and should not be used as a home relief. Less healthy methods of stress relief also include binge eating, drinking, drugs, and smoking. While these stress relief methods do work in the short run, they may cause other damage to your health. When you decide that relieving your stress level is what has to be done, consult your doctor. He or she will be able to determine whether your chosen method will be the best for you, and any adverse effects will then be discussed. Your physician may prescribe medication for you if you are at a risk for other problems. What you do not want to do is nothing at all. Continually high stress levels put people at risk for problems such as heart attack and stroke. There are many other different types of therapy to help you manage your stress. Maintaining a relaxed body and mind can be very easy if you have the tools and knowledge. Everyone has stress in their lives-even the youngest little baby gets stressed out when his needs are not met. Being able to control your stress levels is extremely important to your overall health. The most important thing to remember when trying to reduce stress is that you need time for yourself-free from the stresses of children, spouses, and other family. While you may love these people in your life, they are also usually the cause of most of your stress. Mom stress occurs every day but little attention is given to it. Its just considered part of mothering. But there is help available because moms need stress relief just like everyone else.

Laser Eye Surgery: What You Need To Know About Restoring Vision With Laser

Laser eye surgery is becoming more and more popular, and many different types of people are taking advantage of this new surgery. People who have lost their glasses for that last time. People who have had problems with their contacts. Athletes and those in high-risk jobs who need to see but may not be able to wear glasses or contacts. People who want to simply want to improve their appearance, but do not want the hassle of ordering many different pairs of glasses, or have to worry about contacts. As laser eye surgery becomes more readily available, the demographics become more and more diverse. Whatever your reasons you have no doubt heard about the popularity of cosmetic laser eye surgery. But you may still have questions. Is it a safe procedure? What are the risks? How much will it help your vision? If these questions are keeping you on the fence when it comes to scheduling the surgery, getting these answers will help you finally decide if cosmetic laser eye surgery is for you. WHAT IS LASER EYE SURGERY? There are two common "brands" of laser eye surgery, LASIK and PRK. Both of these laser eye surgeries reshape the cornea with the laser, though they differ in the application. This helps clear up the vision, severely reducing or eliminating the need for glasses or contacts. The PRK procedure removes the upper layer of the cornea by etching it off with the laser. The LASIK surgery cuts a flap in the eye to remove the top layer of the cornea. The end result is the same-the cornea is reshaped and changing the way the eye interprets information. Most of the post-operative symptoms are the same, however, there are some minor differences. IS IT SAFE? While both laser eye surgery procedures are considered low risk and can be done quickly, there are always possible complications when having any surgery performed. Your eyes are very delicate and there is no question about just how much you depend on your eyes. It is important to understand all of the potential risks - including loss of vision - that are possible. As with all surgeries there is a potential risk of infection. It is generally advised to have each eye operated on separately instead of at the same time to reduce the chance of infection in both eyes. Most infections can be cleared with medication, especially if treated right away. Another possible complication with laser eye surgery is an under- or overcorrection of your vision. Under-corrected vision (when the surgery reduces but doesn't eliminate your need for glasses or contacts) can possibly be fixed with further surgery, but overcorrected vision is irreparable. Even with laser eye surgery, it is still possible that you can continue to need corrective lenses, though your eyesight should improve somewhat. Just like every other surgery, each individual will respond differently to a surgery, and results cannot be guaranteed. Make sure you speak with your doctor before your surgery, and contact your doctor immediately with any questions or concerns after surgery.

Six Reasons to Choose a Nudist Vacation

It's that time of year when my loved one and myself set aside an evening to open a bottle of wine and discuss one of the most significant events in the Egger family calendar, to whit, the Great Annual Holiday. As always, the first decision we have to make is whether we choose nude or not. As confirmed nudists, we naturally favour a naturist vacation, or at least a vacation during which we can get naked for part of the time. However it's not an automatic choice and this year there is a particularly tempting selection of textile holidays on offer. There's a Mediterranean cruise that looks appealing, and the Rocky Mountain Rail Adventure takes my eye. Maybe we should support one of the Indian Ocean countries devastated by the Boxing Day Tsunami, or stay at home and redecorate (ugh!) However, we'll probably choose nude, and here's six reasons why. Reason # 1 Getting naked, even for a short time, can help save your life! I'm not being overly dramatic here. It really seems that divesting yourself of tight, restrictive clothing that impedes the natural flow of blood and lymphatic fluid may be a real life-saver. According to researchers, wearing a bra can cause all manner of unpleasantness, including soreness and even breast cancer. The (admittedly preliminary) research suggests that ladies who wear bras for more than twelve hours each day except for bed, are 21 times more likely to get breast cancer than those who wear bras less than twelve hours per day. And listen to this- those who wear bras even in bed are 125 times more likely to get breast cancer than those who don't wear bras at all! In cultures where ladies don't wear bras, the incidence of breast cancer is about the same as it is for men - virtually zero! And it's not only the ladies who are at risk. The same research suggests that testicular cancer in men may be caused by tight briefs. So, divesting yourself of bra and briefs, even for the short period of your vacation, could keep you much healthier. Reason # 2 Less clothes = less luggage = less hassle. Have you ever noticed how when you're packing for a holiday you can never seem to have enough clothes? And how you'll then spend the equivalent of the cost of the vacation on essential garments brought especially for the holiday? Yet, during your stay you find you've ended up with twice the clothes you need? It's spooky isn't it? Don't ask me why it works that way - probably some unexplained Law of Nature - but it happens EVERY TIME. Except on a nudist holiday. It's as if nudist holidays turn natural laws on their head. The scramble to cover every eventuality clothes-wise is replaced by a disdain for apparel bordering on the obsessive. My normal textile two page-packing list is reduced to just four lines, viz: · Suitable clothing for travelling. . Sufficient smart slinky dresses for evening wear. · Shorts/skirt/tee-shirt for any non-nudist (referred to in nude-speak as "textile") excursions. · And, ummm well that's about it really. The immediate effect of this textile trimming is that my luggage, which is normally equal in volume to a medium-sized car, consists of just one small suitcase. (OK, two, if you count the other one which contains life-saving items such as hairdryer, make-up, skin creams, lipsticks, jewellery etc - gosh, a girl has to look her best, even in the buff hasn't she?) Not only does this make for easier carrying and a swifter get-away from the luggage carousel, it also saves on tips. The largesse I would otherwise have to distribute just to transport my baggage train to the hotel would feed a family of five for a month. A spin off from this is that less clothing also means less packing and unpacking, leaving more time for drinking wine and dozing by the pool, which is the whole idea of a holiday in the first place. Well it's mine, anyway Reason # 3 Skin doesn't stain. Our skin is wonderful. Not only is it the largest organ of our body, but it always fits perfectly (OK. Sometimes some of us may have a just a little more than is necessary, but you know what I mean.) Happily, it's also easier to keep clean than fabric. My husband has a particular fondness for crépes - you know, those pancake things with fillings you can buy from roadside kiosks around the Med? He'd eat 'em all day if I let him. Unfortunately he also has a tendency to lose the syrup filling down his front, which has led to more ruined shirts than would fill a steamer trunk. A nudist holiday neatly sidesteps this problem. Whilst maple syrup may not be particularly easy to remove from a naked chest - especially a hirsute male one - it 's a whole lot easier than washing it out of a silk or cotton shirt. Nor does it leave a stain, except for a livid red mark across the torso after the treacle has been scrubbed from the chest hair, but that's the price men pay for being so clumsy. (In the interests of equality, I have to concede that this is not just a male quirk. After a bottle or two I have been known to distribute red wine down my bosom with something approaching gay abandon, rendering any affected clothing null and void in the process. However I insist that this is not clumsiness on my part, but merely the result of my being tired and emotional. So there.) Reason # 4 It makes more sense to be naked on a beach than to wear a bathing costume. Let's face it. A bathing costume serves no useful purpose. It doesn't keep us dry, or warm, and doesn't even help us to swim: studies by the West German Olympic swim team showed that swimsuits actually hamper a swimmer. They're not even healthy. Ticks and sea lice that bite or sting and which find nowhere to hide on a nude body are easily trapped in a bathing suit. So why do we wear 'em To preserve one's modesty? Hardly. These days mens' costumes are brief enough but ladies bathers are positively miniscule, containing less fabric than a small handkerchief. Bikini tops afford less coverage than two postage stamps on a string, and in any case are rarely worn on European beaches. Bikini bottoms just cover the genitals but often leave the bottom exposed. Which also means they don't protect you from the sun's harmful UV rays. Yet according to a survey carried out by the Ladies' Home Journal Americans spend $900,000,000 each year on bathing costumes, although eighty-five percent of all swimsuits purchased never touch the water. Doesn't make a lot of sense does it? Reason 5 Nudist resorts are nice places with nice people Every nudist knows that genuine nudists are very nice people. What makes nudist especially nice remains a mystery. Perhaps nudism attracts the pleasantest individuals in the first place, or maybe the practice of nudism somehow improves people. Who knows? And really, who cares? Let's just enjoy the situation. You can leave an unlocked car at a nudist resort and nothing will be taken. Nudist resorts and beaches tend to be orderly, well behaved places. Even at a nudist holiday city such as Cap d'Agde, containing some 40000 people at the height of the season, there is none of the threatening atmosphere, violence and general loutishness that disfigures other holiday hot-spots. Any sort of crime is almost non-existent, and most large complexes, even Cap d'Agde, need no more than minimal security. You don't get that at Benidorm or Palm Springs! Reason #6 Nudist entrepreneurs need our support. Despite estimates that the world nude travel business is worth some four hundred million USD annually and growing fast, the nudist holiday industry is still a fragile plant that needs encouragement and support. The fine nudist resorts that cater to the nudist holidaymaker today are a far cry from the primitive camps that were available in the not too distant past, and by attracting the new generation of vacationers who demand a certain standard of comfort, are in a large part responsible for the growth of the nude leisure industry. However, quality costs money, and these resorts are businesses, not charities. Unless we continue to support them they'll close, and we'll return to the old clapped out, run down, make-do-and-mend compounds of yesteryear. As the old saying goes, you have to use 'em or lose 'em So, it looks as if we'll choose nude again this year. All we have to do is to decide where. Wait a minute. I've just had a wonderful idea.