A Typical Day Of My Life

Hi folk,

Today, I am going to share with you a typical day of my routine and how I can stay fit and energetic to fully utilize my 10 hours daily. So please stay tuned with me because I am going to share how life can be so simple, yet healthy and enjoyable enough to make us happy and young ultimately.

In the morning, I will usually be up from bed by about 8.00 am and I will have one sachet of bifidobacteria, which is friendly bacteria that provide conductive intestinal environment with healthy microflora for our optimum immune function. I regard friendly bacteria important to defend our immune system better.

I then head straight for my morning walk and exercise in the park near my house and it is usually a brisk walk for about 20 minutes, followed by some breathing and stretching exercises. Sometimes I do some chiqong if I am not rushing for time and by 9.00 am, I would have finished and get back home for take my favorite manuka honey with royal jelly and propolis with a full glass of water before any other food or breakfast. Honey and its supplementary products are great nutrition especially early in the morning when our system is empty and hungry for nutrition and water. The essential of water is not the topic of today, so I will not be elaborating further.

My breakfast is usually some cereal or two pieces of toast. While having breakfast, I would glance through the newspaper and catch up with some financial and global news from CNN and Bloomberg.

By 11.00 am, I would have finished with the news and wash up and start sitting in front of my laptop to write my favorite articles or preparing materials for project work or any other job that comes along. By lunch, which I usually have simple meal like pasta or fried rice or even salad, I will take a break. I like going to driving range to hit some golf balls, if I am not going to the golf course for a golf game, which is normally once or twice a week. I am very passionate about golfing and this helps to keep me going for the day. As I reside between Sydney and Malaysia, my golf game will be either in one of this places. Of course I prefer to play in Sydney, all for the beautiful cool weather except winter. Irrespective of the condition of weather, I must have sunblock on my face, neck, arms and hands before I head off for the game. I also wear my favorite hat for further protection.

If I am not golfing, I would like to visit to drop in to see my mum. My mum is over seventies and I would like to see her as often as possible . Sometimes, we would go for lunch, on other time, I would just have a chat with her. I enjoy bonding and spending time with my loved ones as it leaves me with precious memory, now and future.

I would also like to meet up with friends once a while over lunch or coffee. Meeting friends is the best time to catch up with the latest development, be it the latest trend, family matters, sharing parenting skill or plan for holiday. The list is endless. As we progress to midlife, we value friendship more in particular those friends whom we have built over the years. But before meeting my friends, I would like to do a makeover. I like to at least have lipstick on, makeup for the eyes and protection for the skin. Looking good is important for me because it makes me feel good about myself, more confident, and of course to stay attractive even at this age!

By early evening, I will normally cook for dinner if I don't go for a game of golf. And cooking dinner is simple enough for a small family of mine; me and my husband. I don't cook well and not too passionate about cooking but I make sure I have a dish of meat and plenty of vegetables, which are stir fried. We would take time to enjoy our dinner, chewing and enjoying every bite of it. It is my habit to have a small serving but with plenty of vegetables and greens.

Evening is rather quiet, I will normally watch a movie and continue with some late TV news or live golf tournament on TV before I continue with my desk work. If there is golf tournament to watch, it can stretch for hours and that could be till the end of my evening. I wish to stress that cultivate at least one favorite game is important because that will help us to get away from our work and stress. Playing game with your friends allows you to catch up with friends and games with your family helps to foster better bonding. You may not have a favorite game now but it is never too late to start one. I started playing golf only about five years ago.

If I am not watching golf, posting blog is my favorite during evening when it is most quiet at night and also I would have new articles I wish to share for the day. Depending on how energetic I am for the day, my bed time can be as late as past midnight though I have been trying hard to keep to 11.00pm. At times when I started writing, I would find difficulty to stop at 11.00pm.

Before tiring for the night, a spoonful of raw honey in warm glass of water is my favorite as serves the benefit of; nutrients and enhancing my sleep.

Before I end this post, I wish to share with you some bad habits to avoid in order to maintain a healthy brain.


BRAIN DAMAGING HABITS

1. No Breakfast
If we don't take breakfast, we are going to have a lower blood sugar level which leads to an insufficient supply of nutrients to the brain causing brain degeneration.

2. Overeating
Overeating causes hardening of the brain arteries, leading to a decrease in mental power.

3. Smoking
Smoking causes multiple brain shrinkage and may lead to Alzheimer disease.

4. High Sugar consumption
Too much sugar will interrupt the absorption of proteins and nutrients causing
malnutrition and may interfere with brain development.

5. Air Pollution
Our brain is the largest oxygen consumer in our body. Inhaling polluted air decreases the supply of oxygen to the brain, bringing about a decrease in brain efficiency.

6. Sleep Deprivation
Sleep allows our brain to rest. Long term deprivation from sleep will accelerate the death of brain cells.

7. Head covered while sleeping
Sleeping with the head covered, increases the concentration of carbon dioxide and decrease concentration of oxygen that may lead to brain damaging effects.

8. Working your brain during illness
Working hard or studying with sickness may lead to a decrease in effectiveness of the brain as well as damage the brain.

9. Lacking in stimulating thoughts
Thinking is the best way to train our brain, lacking in brain stimulation thoughts may cause brain shrinkage.

10. Talking Rarely
Intellectual conversations will promote the efficiency of the brain


Have my facts above enlighten you on the best course of habits to care for your precious brain? And if you like my post, your comments are most welcomed.

Next week, I will share more facts on our next precious organ; liver


Staying young and healthy always,

Janice

Managing Stress With Simple Stretching And Breathing Exercises

We encounter stress daily, whether we are at work in the office, site, managing our own business or even working at home. Stress management is therefore important so that we can perform better at work and at the same time maintaining our health.

Here are some simple tips to manage your stress:-

BREATHING EXERCISES

• This is done in your comfortable seated position or in “corpse pose”
• Exhale completely with a sigh to reset diaphragm
• Inhale slowly & deeply through nose. Allow stomach to expand like a balloon
• Hold breath; exhale slowly through nose, squeezing out all the stale air
• Repeat for 5 times or more

This simple breathing exercise allows you to breath in some fresh air, especially if you do it in the park, in standing position, where there are plenty of greens.

UPPER BODY STRETCHES

Standing straight, lift your head up and stretch your neck. Slowly breathe in deeply through your nose, pulling it down deep into your lungs

• Slowly exhale while turning your head to the right and then left. Dip your head and return to looking straight ahead
• Keep breathing with this deep, slow pattern and slowly rotate your head clockwise and then anti-clockwise.
• Take your shoulders back as far as they will go. Lift your left shoulder and relax it down again. Now swap and lift to relax your right shoulder.
• Swing your right arm slowly in a full circular movement to free the shoulder. Swing your left arm in the same way
• Raise and relax both shoulders. Keep breathing slowly
• Repeat 10 or more times, focusing on your breathing

Body stretching exercise helps to flex and relax your shoulder, especially after long hours of concentration on desk work.

NECK

Raise your right hand to reach over your head and behind your left ear, grasping your neck with your fingers. Pull your head gently towards your right shoulder

• Repeat with the other side
• Clasp your hands behind your head, with your elbows flared and your head bowed towards your chest
• Relax in this position for 30 seconds, and slowly push head back until you are looking at the ceiling
• Now, place the palm of your left hand on your forehead, with the bottom of your palm at the bridge of your nose. Hold your right arm across your body so that you can rest your left elbow on your right wrist
• Put against your left palm with your forehead while keeping your right arm locked. Switch hands and repeat.

Our neck supports our head, this simple exercise helps to strengthen our neck for better support.

WAIST

• Stand with your feet a shoulder-width apart, bend to the left, reaching slightly down and out as you can with your left arm. Your right hand remains on your hip. Do 10 times and then repeat with the right side.

• Now, place your hands on your hips and bend them at the elbows so that your forearms are directly in front of your chest. Keeping your hips straight, move from the waist, twisting 10 times to the left and 10 times to the right.
• Then try alternating, pausing in the forward position between each twist.

BOTTOM

Lie on your back, your knees bent with your feet apart, your hands clasped behind your head or placed under your bottom.

• Without arching your back, lift your bottoms off the floor. Squeeze your buttocks with each lift and then release as you come back to the floor.
• Repeat 10 times or more with your feet apart and 10 times with your feet together.

These stretching exercises are effective in relaxing your tensed muscles which accumulated over a period of stress. You do not have to do all these at the same time. Stretch your upper body and neck today and then waist and bottom the next day and repeat the process or you can basically focus on areas you feel more tensed.

I like simple exercise like these with consistency of 20 minutes a day and I find myself getting better-toned muscles. I feel more alert and energized for the day.

Allocate 15 to 20 minutes to do these simple exercises today and you will be amazed how relief you feel!

To your better health,

Janice

Find Time For Yourself

Hi Folk,

The components of staying young include few things, which are fairly simple for us to follow if we are disciplined enough to lead simple but healthy lifestyle. All these months, I have written and covered areas on healthy diet, good skin care, good habits. Today I am going to share with you tips which may not seem to have direct impact on health and beauty but as you read on it actually does affect your well being and thus how you look. Let's move on...

Find Some Time for Yourself

Many of us may know the importance of taking time for ourselves to pamper and nurture ourselves, to keep ourselves away from our hectic life, yet we fail to do so. We often find excuses and say “I don’t have time now, I will do it next week when I finish with something on hand now” and the day actually never came. And I want to relate the story of my good friend's father.

My good friend Jennifer used to advice her dad to slow down and take time for himself, yet he replied and said “yes, I will but I need to complete my project first.” Her father is now in the hospital with stroke, leaving him incapacitated and unable to speak. Isn’t this a sad story? Jennifer’s father has got plenty of time now, sad to say that, but the situation he is in does not allow him to indulge into his favorite hobbies now.

Taking time for yourself simply means doing your favorite; reading or traveling. But it can be as simple as listening to your favorite music, doing some gardening or pamper yourself in a spa or playing a round of your favorite game with friends, which can serve you two folds of purposes; exercise and catching up with buddies.

Look Your Best

With all steps to keep yourself young and healthy through diet and healthy lifestyle, the next step is to look your best with some quick beauty tips.

Why is it important for us to learn these quick beauty makeup tips? because we want to look our best . We want to look and present our very best when we meet our friends, on business or more importantly, meeting loved ones. By looking our best we not only dress appropriately, we also need to makeup effectively to bring out our very best. On a daily basis, we often find ourselves struggling with the quickest way to make up to be our best, so that we will be comfortable and confident enough at work; be it in the office or on site or even meeting clients.


Looking your very best,

Janice

How To Use Honey As Health And Beauty Supplement

Hi Folk,

Today, I am particularly passionate to share with you the great properties of HONEY as natural health supplement to boost our energy, health and beauty.

Most of us know honey has great healing properties. When we are caught with sore throat, we take some honey and it heals like within 12 hours. Even taking honey as health supplement helps boost our energy level. Its natural sugar content and the rich sources of nutrients makes it a great sweetener for coffee and sugar. But exactly how good honey is, let's study closely how it started gaining popularity for the variety of uses ancient people started centuries ago.

HONEY'S NUTRIENTS and HEALING PROPERTIES

Honey's rich nutrients, enzyme and antioxidant content combined with its ability to thwart infections makes it a potent healer. From ancient time, honey has been known for its high nutritional and medicinal value. It is believed to be very beneficial for eyesight, reducing effects of poisoning, stopping hiccups, treating urinary tract disorders, worm infestations, nausea, vomiting, cleansing, healing wounds and many more healing properties.

Honey contain mainly carbohydrates, water, vitamins and minerals, including niacin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid, calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium and zinc.

Honey is also rich in enzymes, antioxidants and other phytonutrients. It also contains flavonoids and phenolic acids which act as antioxidants, scavenging and eliminating free radicals. These antioxidants substances found in honey have been responsible for the wound-healing properties of honey. Due to its wound-healing properties, honey has been used widely as an antiseptic therapeutic agent for treatment of ulcers, burns and wounds for centuries.

HOW HEALING of WOUND WORKS By USING HONEY

Due to its contents of glucose and fructose, which attract water, honey absorbs water from wound, drying it out so that the growth of bacteria and fungi are inhibited. Secondly, an enzyme called glucose oxidase found in raw honey, which if combined with water, produces hydrogen peroxide, a mild antiseptic for medication benefits.

BEAUTY BENEFITS Of HONEY

The vitamins, minerals and amino acids found in honey make it a wonderful beauty aid. It provides great nutritional value to the skin and hair and the effects will be seen if taken over a period of time. In fact if taken for longer period of time, it helps our skin to glow more radiantly, helps to reduce wrinkles, thus making us look younger.

Honey is also an excellent moisturizing agent and natural cleanser and therefore, popularly used in wide skin-cleansing formulations. It increases exfoliation or renewal of the skin cells that makes the skin softer and younger.

Other supplementary products of honey which are royal jelly, propolis have been used in beauty saloon as facial mask that command great prices due to its effective results for a more glowing skin.

OTHER HEALTH BENEFITS Of HONEY

Due to its ready availability of carbohydrates, honey provides instant energy sources if taken prior to exercises which improves performances. It helps in muscles recovery faster if taken after an exercises program.

Honey also increases the growth and activity of good bacteria in the gut. Results from recent studies show that taking honey with dairy products such as yogurt can enhance growth and viability of bifidobacteria.

Other benefits of honey are its anti-inflammatory actions which help in treating a sore throat.

HOW To TAKE HONEY As HEALTH SUPPLEMENT

Honey can be taken as it is in one tea spoon without mixing with water first thing in the morning or anytime in the day as you wish. For me I take Manuka Honey with Royal Jelly and Propolis in the morning before breakfast and drink. It provides me with energy for the whole day with Royal Jelly as a good beauty aid and Propolis as a great antioxidant too. After a short period of time, my complexion improved tremendously with intake of these supplements and this motivated me to continue taking it knowing that it has high antioxidant and healing power too.

If you like this post, please drop me some comments and you will make my day!


To your health and beauty success,

Janice