10 Easy Stuff You Can Do To Improve Your Health

Got this from one of the Eat Raw Food Today readers. Thanks so much to Stephanie Roundtree.

Health:
1. Drink plenty of water.
2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.
3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants; eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
4. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy.
5. Make time to practice meditation, yoga, and prayer.
6. Play more games.
7. Read more books than you did in 2008.
8. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
9. Sleep for 7 hours.
10. Take a 10-30 minutes walk every day. And while you walk, smile.

Obviously, I love No 3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants

Jasmin
Come join my "Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

Carry baby in a shirt! Multiple ways to use a clothing item!

I promised you that I will show you how to carry a baby inside your shirt, in case of disasters.

A shirt?

Yes, a shirt!

In crisis situations following a natural disaster, contact carrying is more vital than ever. You may not have access to a vehicle, and sometimes, must hold on to a child for hours. Having a carrier will not only make the child feel safe, but it will relieve your hands to carry other essential items. If you ever had to carry a baby for more than 10 mins, you will appreciate a tool that will help you make life easier. Truly, if you have a good carrier, it will save your back, shoulders and arms from pain.

Baby carriers are always handy to learn to use.

Reuse, reduce and recycle.

Jasmin
Come join my "Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

ps please forward this email to your friends who have kids. They may be interested in seeing this video.

pps there's other videos.

Carrying a toddler using a towel



Carrying a toddler using a sweatpants

PUT YOUR T-SHIRT TO GOOD USE! MANY WAYS TO MAKE USE OF IT

I just came across a blog that had a contest getting girls to come out with multiple ways to wear a simple white t-shirt. And the outcome? Awesome!

This is the way it should be. Not opening the closet and moan that there's nothing to wear.

Hope you guys have a good look at it, and maybe you too can come up with creative ways to jazz up your outfits!

Reuse, reduce and recycle

Jasmin
Come join my "Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

ps coming up next, I will show you how to carry a baby inside your shirt, in case of disasters. In crisis situations following a natural disaster, contact carrying is more vital than ever. You may not have access to a vehicle, and sometimes, must hold on to a child for hours. Having a carrier will not only make the child feel safe, but it will relieve your hands to carry other essential items. If you ever had to carry a 25 pound (11kg) toddler for more than 5 mins, you will appreciate a tool that will help you make life easier. Truly, if you have a good carrier, it will save your back, shoulders and arms from pain.

Baby carriers are always handy to learn to use.

But enough of serious stuff, please scroll down to view some really creative pictures of how to wear your white tees in various ways! These pictures were from http://projectmuffstit.blogspot.com/2008/11/contest-tee-up-results.html

MY HUSBAND DIDN'T LOSE ANY WEIGHT DESPITE PURGING FOR AN ENTIRE WEEK!

Most of you by now would have known that my entire family was sick, with an extremely contagious Rotavirus ... including my husband. But despite all the purging, and vomiting, and not eating any solids for days, he never lost any weight! Everyone else in my family who caught the virus did. So what gives?

The culprit? Isotonic drinks!

At that time, my husband was alone at our place while I was at my parent's house taking care of everyone else. It was a mess. While he was unwell, he drank basically nothing and nothing for days except to guzzle down cans and cans of Isotonic drinks. Rotavirus is really a horrid virus. The stomach ache, the purging, the headaches, the vomiting .... home alone ..... who has the strength or energy to go out and buy food, or buy or make healthy fresh raw juice?

So what is in the Isotonic drinks that makes people gain weight or in my husband's case, didn't lose any weight? The answer we realise was sugar, and lots of it.

Isotonic drinks are touted to be good for you, but if you are trying to lose weight, may I suggest you go slow in consuming these sugary stuff. And if you are looking for natural drinks that have the perfect balance of electrolytes for your body, try fresh coconut juice.

There's an interesting article on the Internet about how Isotonic drinks can damage your teeth. Apparently, according to the article, Isotonic drinks can soften the teeth enamel. And brushing your teeth immediately AFTER drinking the Isotonic drink can wear down the teeth. Plus the drink is acidic so it can cause dental erosion, and the sugar in the drinks can cause tooth decay. Wow! triple whammy. Click here to read about it.

AND don't forget, please show this article to your family and friends who insist on guzzling down fizzy canned drinks all day long. You will be helping them in the long run. You know, I had a dorm mate who drank Diet Pepsi all day long. She had cans and cans of those stuff in her cupboard, which she bought cheap at Sam's Warehouse. She was on a heavy side, and could not shake off the weight the entire time we were there at school. You see, even though Diet Pepsi is low calorie, she drank lots of it, and you know, it adds up, calorie after calorie. Come to think of it, I never did see her drink any water at all, not even a sip from the water cooler on our floor.

Can drink ... bad. Clean, fresh water .... good.

Jasmin
"Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

TURN OFF YOUR LIGHTS TO SUPPORT THE EARTH HOUR

WWF Malaysia executive director Datuk Dr Dionysius S.K. Sharma said on March 28, several iconic landmarks in the country such as the Kuala Lumpur Tower, Angkasapuri, Sunway Pyramid and Mid Valley Megamall would join hands with landmarks in 74 other countries to observe Earth Hour and they will switch off non-essential lights for an hour from 8.30pm.

Now, I'd be the first to see how that goes, because, March 28 is a Saturday, and 8.30pm is one of the busiest shopping periods of the week, so, I wonder which lights are going to be turned off.

Having said that, Earth Hour is a wonderful concept that reminds us all we need to be conservative with our electricity use. My granny used to forever remind me to turn off the lights, do not waste water, yada, yada, yada. And you know, I use to somewhat resent her nagging..... but know I seem to do the same with my three year old son *grin*

Here's a few tips for you to save electricity.

1. Change your light bulbs to those that use less power.
2. Turn off the lights if you don't use them
3. Use less electricity and consider cost saving cooking methods such as using a thermal pot. We use a thermal pot to boil food on the fire for a short period of time, and then, transfer the pot to a thermal device to slow cook further without any use of electricity or gas. The heat from the food and the container itself will slowly help the food to continue cooking. It's like crock pot cooking, minus any electricity. If you are up to it, try solar cooking as well. I have a wonderful blog article on how to make this free cooking tool
4. Don't turn on so many tvs in the house, and instead, watch tv together to bond together. I noticed that many houses have multiple tvs. Maybe because tvs have become affordable, or maybe each person got sick of waiting to watch their favourite program, and fighting for the remote. We should go back to the basics. Learn to tolerate each other's habits and learn to give and take and find common tv shows that everyone likes to watch.

There's lots more ways to save electricity. We just need to look.

Please key in this date 8.30pm, March 28 and join us all to save electricity on that hour. Get your friends to join you in doing so. Maybe it can be a fun event. An example of a fun activity is have a barbeque party at the house, turn off all the lights except the ones outside and celebrate Earth Hour. A party is great because everyone is not at their own house, and instead is sharing electricity at a common place, bonding with each other. What could be more fun! Let me tell you, my husband loves parties with his buddies because they all sit around and joke and laugh. It's very therapeutic for the soul.

Jasmin
Come join my "Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

IS YOUR ENVIRONMENT TOO CLEAN FOR YOUR OWN GOOD?

Thank you for all the emails and messages I received about the Rotavirus. As of today, my sister-in-law is not feeling well. My mum and husband are recovering while everyone else has recovered. Mum was surprised to find out that her Chi Kung exercise helped her. You see, she kept having cold sweat, and she found out to her delight that certain Chi Kung movements helped "warm" the body and banish the cold sweat.

You know, I had a lot to think about when I was purging. I mean, what else could I do? I could not read in the bathroom cause the pain was so severe, words from whatever books just seem to swim in my very eyes. And I had spend a lot of time on them toilet seats.

Well, one of the things I wondered was how easily the entire bunch of us got sick and so rapidly as well. Apparently, Rotavirus is a common childhood menace. If it was so common, how come we (my family) didn't have immunity against this virus? Is our environment too "clean" for our own good? Once we are expose to a virus, over the years, should we make a conscious effort to reintroduce our bodies with the virus to make sure we always have antibodies against a certain disease? Why? What? How?

And you know what's the worse thing? When everyone is sick, there's no one to take care of the sick. I mean that, literally. Not. One. Person. What would happen to a whole community if something like the Bubonic Plague were to attack us?

I wish someone will give me a good answer to this, because being sick is no walk in the park, and certainly not fun at all. I just want to avoid all this problems. All I know is, if we were healthy as a horse from the very start, we tend to recover faster. But still, it seems we can't avoid disease now, can't we?

Jasmin
Come join my "Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

ps here are a bunch of photos of my parent's Chi Kung exercise group. The Chi Kung master has been volunteering his time and knowledge for free.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2004674&id=1175245245&ref=mf

I SPENT TOO MUCH MONEY ON BEING SICK!

Just before Chinese New Year, my 2nd child, Baby Ethan caught a virus and had ulcers all over his mouth. The poor kid just could not eat nor drink because every movement was just too painful. After the 3rd day, my husband and I decided to admit him to a private hospital called the Pantai Cheras Medical Center, for drips. It was an agonizing 5 days 3 night adventure at the hospital, and that trip cost my husband and I a lot of money .... BUT WAIT. The story didn't end there.

During the stay at the hospital, I did not realize that I had caught a very contagious virus called the Rotavirus. Right after baby and I had checked out from the hospital, I had severe diarrhea for like 5 days. On day 1, I remembered wondering, how the heck did I get food poisoning from hospital food? Me and the toilet were best friends those few days, and luckily, it was the Chinese New Year holidays, and hubby took over and took care of the kids.

Unfortunately, baby develop symptoms of the virus on the 4th of February. So off he went to the paeditrition who finally diagnosed the problem as the Rotavirus and not food poisoning as I originally thought I had. On his visit to the paed, baby had to be admitted to the hospital once again as he was severely dehydrated. Sigh! So far the damage has already escalated to almost RM5,000.

Within the next 3 days, wham! the virus quickly spread to my entire family. My brother, his wife and their toddler daughter all got it. My mum and dad too. Hubby as well. It was bad, really, really bad. It really reminded me of the SARS episode when the entire world was on a health alert because one Chinese guy on a plane to Hong Kong literally spread a terribly virulent SARS virus like wildfire killing so many people in it's wake. The impact was so quick and sudden. Just like the whole world had not expected the SARS virus to be so damaging so quickly, nobody in my family had time to take stock and react appropriately when we caught the Rotavirus. I am just thankfully that hubby's side of the family did not get sick as well. That would be just catastrophic.

The cost of being sick? ..... Astronomical.

Think about it. There's a lot of hidden cost to being sick. If it wasn't for the holidays, hubby would have had to take off work to take care of the kids for almost a week. And what about the cost of the medicine? What about the time lost to do something productive? What about all that water flushed down the drain. Clean, processed, piped water cost money too. What about the lights turned on at wee hours of the morning as my sister-in-law kept awake trying to encourage her less-than-2-year-old little girl to drink 3 ounces of liquids every hour? That cost money. What about all the washing all of us had to constantly do, especially when the kids' diarrhea spilled over and soiled the bedsheets, the floor and their clothes. During this period, my brother and I bought mountains of diapers as the kids kept soiling the diapers every hour on the hour.

Frankly, being sick is exhausting and so expensive.

This Rotavirus experience was so costly, imagine what a toll a cancer or stroke or something equally heartbreaking would affect a family in terms of financial cost and an emotional cost.

Let's all aim to stay healthy this year by first making a real significant change to our diets. This should be one of the changes we should make to our overall lifestyle to achieve good health. It's a good start, don't you think? Because, let me tell you, even a common thing like a flu do cost us time and money, not to mention, it's a real waste of time getting sick.

Jasmin
Come join my "Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

THE CONFLICT OF SUGAR AND STARCH

Sugar, whether a monosaccharide or disaccharide, is one of the simplest foods to digest. Even water dissolves it. It requires only vitamins and enzymes and spends very little time in the stomach. Starch spends more time in the stomach; but the problem with combining these two food elements begins in the mouth. As we discussed, starch depends on ptyalin in the saliva to start its digestion. But sugar inhibits the secretion of ptyalin. The signals read by the nerve endings and taste buds on the tongue become confused in the presence of sugar. Thus, even though you chew and mechanically break down your bread and pasta, little or no chemical digestion takes place. The bread has to wait until it gets into the small intestine before amylase can complete the process of starch digestion. This is a bad combination for the sugar food as well, since its passage is slowed down by the presence of the starch food. The longer sugar stays in the stomach, the greater the chance fermentation will take place. Fermentation is the breakdown of sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide causes gas and distention and alcohol robs the body of B-vitamins.

Page 47
Food Combining And Digestion
101 Ways To Improve Digestion
by Steve Meyerowitz

ONE SIMPLE TIP TO RID THAT BULGE FOR VALENTINE'S DAY

Here's the simplest tip anyone can do to get rid of or reduce that bulge for Valentine's Day.

Skip dinner!

But if you get hungry, and feel you need some oral satisfaction, you can try eating some fruits. Chew on the fruits slowly. Do remember that eating a piece of fruit that is sweet is not the same as drinking fruit juice.

The other thing to satisfy the cravings is to drink lots of pure, clean water and go to bed early. I find sleep really helps me forget about me wanting to eat, and the bonus is I wake up fresher in the mornings.

If you REALLY must drink something, don't touch that beer in the fridge, and ditto for milk and anything laden with sugar.

There's really about 7 days left to Valentine's Day, so do try this tip. 7 days of skipping dinner is not such a hard goal to achieve.

Good luck to those for want to take up this challenge!

Jasmin
Come join my "Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

GARBAGE ENZYMES CLEANS MY WORLD!

The pulp from the garbage enzyme make really great fertilizers

So, I have talking about garbage enzymes and how it's good for everyone, and believe me, I've got tons more stuff to talk about it in my blog.

The picture you see above is the cucumber enzyme I made about 3 months back. I juiced the cucumber for my mum and the pulp was just dumped into a container with some sugar and water to stew for 3 months. (1 part whatever vegetable 3 part sugar 7 parts water)

It's really, really simple.

I separate the 3 month old pulp from the enzyme

Keep the liquid enzyme for use at home, and sprinkle the pulp on your plants

However, there are a few things to note when making the enzymes.

1) You'll need to open the cover of the enzyme bottle once a day, and when you close it, just give it a good shake to move the mix around.

You see, the whole mixture produce a lot of gas initially, and if we don't open the bottle at least once a day, the gas will compress inside the bottle and eventually explode. This happened to me, and a whole bunch of oats enzyme exploded in my face as I unknowingly opened a week old garbage enzyme I made in an air tight coca-cola bottle! The sound of the explosion was so loud, my husband ran into the kitchen thinking something really bad happened. You should have seen the look on his face! It's funny now, but man, the explosive Coke bottle cover could have severely hurt me as it flew off.

2) Do not use cooked stuff to make your garbage enzyme.

I knew that using cooked meat could really cause a stink, but Quaker Oats? But yes, apparently, it does. Hubby has been telling me to get rid of this oats batch (yes, the very same one that exploded in my face and all over the kitchen) but, you know, I really hate to see things go to waste. Sure, it smells like some funky cheap glue paste a kid would use for his art projects, but the stuff is still good as garden fertilizer, if not as a cleaning liquid.

Now, when I mean, I used cooked oats to make my garbage enzyme, you might think that I cooked some oats and decided not to eat it right? No. The porridge oats you find in supermarkets like Quaker Oats is already cooked. It is usually steamed, dried and packaged all ready for you. This was what I used. I found some old moldy oats in my cupboard and didn't want to throw it away.


Not all enzymes smell funky. I found that nice smelling fruits make nice smelling enzymes. Mandarin oranges are in season and they smell really fruity.






I usually use the garbage enzymes in my dishwasher. I still find it a little strange to wash my plates at the kitchen sink without any sudsy soap and really, that's just a mindset from way back. I found out, a lot of times, the chemicals used to make soap suds or to make whatever cleaning liquid make more bubbles is not good for us and not good for the environment. So for now, I wash whatever by hand with a biodegradable bubbly cleaner.

Really cleans plastic bottles that have a bit of oil stuck on them well.

I also use the enzyme to clean my floor.
I just use a simple, cheap and cheerful rag mop,
a little bit of water mixed with the enzyme.

I use the enzymes to wash my clothes as well.
Works pretty well, and saves me tons of cash!

If you want to read my previous posts on garbage enzymes, just go to this links.
a) http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/2008/09/using-garbage-to-clean-your-plates-yes.html
b) http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/2008/09/more-on-garbage-enzyme.html
c) http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/2008/10/garbage-enzyme-photos-recycling-your.html

Jasmin
Come join my "Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group